COMMENTARIUS IN CANTICA CANTICORUM

• 1851

1851A1545 1. Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth (Cant. I, 1): here it is not the incitements of foulness, but the mysteries of chastity, that are celebrated; where the matter is handled spiritually, and by a certain contemplation of the affections, concerning the marriage and the joining of Christ and the Church, of the uncreated Spirit and the created, of flesh and spirit. Let us therefore circumcise our heart: let us seek nothing base, nothing bodily; and everything earthly is base. Let us therefore set down in these heavenly utterances nothing earthly, nothing carnal, nothing worldly, nothing bodily, nothing light and changeable: for the words of the Lord are chaste words; that in them the spotless and modest sincerity of the heavenly mysteries may 1546 shine forth by a spiritual interpretation. Let us not mingle earthly things with divine by some adulterous notion, nor violate that inviolable mystery of prophetic vision or of the everlasting oracle by an estimate drawn from our own nature: for whether it be of kisses or of such things, the whole of it is seemly, whatever is offered to religion; so that we blush at 1852Ano service that avails toward the worship and the observance of Christ: as in that dance of David before the ark; for that dancing was no companion of delights and of wantonness, but that each man should lift up an unsluggish body, and not let his limbs lie sluggish on the ground, or grow numb with slow steps. For this mastery we did not find out, but received; thus has heavenly doctrine established the order of the mystic song. 1547

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy breasts are good above wine, and the odor of thine ointments above all spices. Thy name is an ointment emptied out (Ibid.). [Vulg. osculo oris sui, "with the kiss of his mouth," singular and without ab; meliora sunt ubera tua vino, "better than wine"; fraglantia unguentis optimis, "fragrant with the best ointments"; oleum effusum nomen tuum, "oil poured out"] This whole passage of delights rings of play, stirs up applause, provokes love. Therefore, she says, the maidens have loved thee and have drawn thee; let us run behind the odor of thine ointments. The king has brought me into his tabernacle (Ibid., 3). [Vulg. trahe me post te; curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum, "draw me after thee: we will run," an imperative; and introduxit me rex in cellaria sua, "into his storerooms"] She began from kisses that she might arrive at the tabernacle; and she, impatient of the Lord's labor and of exercised virtue, 1853Ais driven to open the bars with her hand, to go out into the field, to abide in the villages; yet at the beginning she runs behind the odor of the ointment, and when she has come into the tabernacle she will exchange the ointment for the villages. See, then, where she comes out.

If she is a wall, he says, let us build upon her towers of silver (Cant. VIII, 9). [Vulg. propugnacula argentea, "bulwarks of silver"] She who was playing with kisses now raises up towers, so that, turreted with the precious pinnacles of the saints, she may not only frustrate the assaults of enemies, but may also build safe bulwarks of good merits. Even in these temporal marriages the bride is applauded before she is commanded, lest harsh commands give offense before love, warmed by caresses, has grown into her. The heifer learns to love the sound of a certain clapping, that she may not refuse the yoke upon her neck; and so she is first accustomed to the word 1548 of playfulness before the lash of discipline. But when she has put her neck 1853Bunder the yoke, the rein also constrains her, and the goad presses, and her yokemates draw, and the yoke-fellow invites. So too our Virgin ought first to hammer with holy love; to marvel at the golden supports of the heavenly couch, and in the very porch 1854Aof the wedding to behold the doorposts crowned with garlands of leafage, and to drink in the delights of the choir sounding within; lest, made afraid, she withdraw herself from the Lord's yoke before, being called, she bow to it. For we must know certain degrees of advancement, and their order — what ought to come first and what after: for to know what thou shouldst do, and not to know the order of doing it, is not of perfect knowledge; for things done back to front most often give offense. And so, since there are as many opinions as there are men, if anything in our discourse has been cleared, let all read it; if anything is boiled down, let the riper approve it; if anything is modest, let it cling to their breasts and paint their cheeks; if anything is flowery, let the flowering age not disapprove it. We ought to have stirred up the love of the bride; for it is written: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (Deut. VI, 5): 1854Bwe ought to have adorned the bride's hair at the wedding with certain curling-irons of prayer; for it is written: Clap with the hand, and strike with the foot (Ezech. XXI, 14): we ought to have strewn the everlasting bridal chambers with roses.

1853B1547

Life is to be sought before doctrine; for a good life has grace even without doctrine, while doctrine without life has not wholeness. For wisdom does not fall into an ill-willing soul (Sap. I, 4): [Vulg. non introibit sapientia, "will not enter in"] and therefore he says: The wicked shall seek me, and shall not find (Prov. I, 28): [Vulg. tunc invocabunt me et non exaudiam; mane consurgent et non invenient me, "then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear"] because the eye of the mind is blinded by wickedness, and, with iniquity darkening it, it cannot find the deep mysteries. First, therefore, the soldiery of life must be exercised, 1853Cand morals corrected. When we have set these things toward their due course, so that there may be correction of offense and the grace of purity, then let us come to the pursuits of taking in knowledge, in their own order and way. First, then, come the moral matters, second the mystical: in the former is life, in the latter knowledge; so that, if thou seek perfection, there be neither life without knowledge nor knowledge without life, but each bear witness with the other. Following this arrangement, Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, in which he set forth the moral topic more richly, the natural in Ecclesiastes, the mystical in the Song of Songs: although, if thou examine diligently, thou wouldst find very many mystical things in Proverbs too, and in the Song the sweetness of moral matters. For surely this is mystical: Wisdom has built herself a house, and has set seven columns beneath it; she has slain her victims, 1853D etc. (Pov. IX, 1). [Vulg. excidit columnas septem; immolavit victimas suas, "hewed out seven columns; sacrificed her victims"] For in the Song that shines as mystical which is moral, wherein the sweetness of endearments and the affection of a lover is expressed.

(Vers. 1, 2.) Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; since thy breasts are best above wine, and the odor of thine ointments above all spices. [Vulg. meliora sunt ubera tua vino; the plate has printed the same lemma with bona, "good," above] Set before thee, then, a Virgin betrothed a long while, and burning with a just love, who has come to know many glorious works of her beloved by the assertion of approved witnesses; often put off, her desires held in suspense, bearing delays no longer, who would have done all things so that she might deret the bridegroom: 1854Bwho at length, having obtained her vows, troubled with joy at the unforeseen coming of the bridegroom, does not seek the first beginnings of greeting, nor the exchanges of words, but at once demands what she had desired. So then also the holy Church, betrothed in the first beginnings of the world in paradise, prefigured in the flood, announced through the Law, called through the prophets, when she had long awaited the redemption of men, the beauty of the Gospel, the coming of her beloved, impatient of delay, rushes into kisses, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; and, delighted with the kisses, 1854Cshe adds: since thy breasts are best above wine.

And to speak more morally, I understand for myself that flesh which had been steeped in Adam with the serpent's venom, which was withering with the stench of crimes, which went forth among the daughters of Sion with neck held high and with beckonings of the eyes, trailing her tunics in the going of her feet and playing with her own feet, with ringlets of hair and composed countenances and headbands, and in every affected comeliness the more unseemly; and yet that same flesh, taught by very many 1548 oracles that he would come who, when the serpent's enticements had been shut out, would pour in the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that all flesh might see the salvation of God, that all flesh might come to God — that it had withered with longing: but fearing lest, as impatient, as wanton, as luxurious, as querulous, it should displease as it had been before, 1854Dalthough it was shaken by an expectation, longer than it could now bear, of the Lord's delaying coming: yet not murmuring nor transgressing, but lifting up pure hands in every place, without wrath and dispute, in adorned habit with modesty and sobriety, adorning herself not with plaited hair or gold or pearls or costly raiment, but with those things that befit the grace of chastity and of good conversation, praying and saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; since thy breasts are best above wine. Now the flesh wished to cleave to Christ, now she hastened to be wedded; 1855Athat she might be one spirit, and that she might become the flesh of Christ who before was a harlot's. Let him kiss me, she says: the Word of God kisses us when the spirit of knowledge illumines our understanding.

Therefore it is either the Church, held in suspense through many seasons by the Lord's coming long since promised to her through the prophets, or the soul which, raising herself from the body, luxury and delights and carnal pleasures being renounced, stripped also of the anxiety of worldly vanities, has this long while yearned for the inpouring of the divine presence into her and for the grace of the saving Word: that she is worn away because he comes late, and is afflicted; and therefore, as one wounded with charity, since she cannot bear his delays, turning to the Father, that she asks God to send her the Word, and declares the cause why she is so impatient, saying: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

She does not seek one kiss, but many kisses, that she may be able to fulfil her desire; for she who loves is 1855Bnot content with the scantness of a single kiss, but demands very many, claims more, and has been wont thus to commend herself the more to her beloved. And so she in the Gospel was thus approved: Because she has not ceased, says the Lord, to kiss my feet; and therefore many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much (Luc. VII, 46, 47). [Vulg. remittuntur ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum, a present "are forgiven"] So this soul also desires many kisses of the Word, that she may be enlightened with the light of divine knowledge; for this is the kiss of the Word, namely the light of sacred knowledge. For God the Word kisses us when the Spirit of divine knowledge illumines our heart and the very governing part of man; and the soul, endowed with this pledge of nuptial charity, glad and exulting, says: I opened my mouth and drew forth the spirit (Psal. CXVIII, 131). [Vulg. adtraxi spiritum, "drew in the spirit"] For a kiss is that whereby lovers cleave to one another 1855Cand, as it were, take possession of the sweetness of an inward grace. Through this kiss the soul cleaves to the Word of God, in that the spirit of the one kissing is poured over into her: just as they also who kiss one another are not content with a foretaste of the lips, but seem to pour their own spirit into one another. 1549

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Wilt thou fit this to Christ? Nothing is more welcome. Wilt thou fit it to thy own soul? Nothing is more delightful. Let him kiss me: he sees thee to be clean from every sin, since offenses are of the earth; therefore he judges thee worthy of the heavenly sacraments, and therefore invites thee to the heavenly banquet, that he may kiss thee with the kisses of his mouth. Yet, because of what follows, thy soul, or the human condition, or the Church, has seen herself cleansed from all sins, worthy to be able to approach 1855Dthe altar of God. For what is the altar but the form of the body of Christ? She has seen the wondrous sacraments, and says: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; that is, let Christ fix a kiss upon me. Why? Because:

Thy breasts are better above wine, [Vulg. meliora sunt ubera tua vino, "better than wine"; the plate has printed the same lemma with bona and with optima above] that is, thy senses are better, thy sacraments are better above wine — above that wine which, though it has sweetness, 1856Athough it has gladness, though it has grace, yet in it the gladness is worldly, while in thee the delight is spiritual. Even then, therefore, Solomon was introducing the marriage either of Christ and the Church, or of spirit and flesh and soul. And as though despising all her own delights and pleasures, desiring cupieos to cleave to the heavenly commandments, she says: since the precepts of thy testaments are best above every appetite of the flesh and every pleasure of the world; for she remembered that she had thus fallen before, in Eve, while she set the pleasure of the body before the heavenly commandments. And so, showing that she loves not only the appearance of the Word and a certain countenance, but all his inward parts, she adds to the grace of the kisses: Because thy breasts are good, she says, above wine, and the odor of thine ointments above all spices. She asked for a kiss; God the Word poured himself wholly into her, and bared his breasts to her, that is, his doctrines and the disciplines of his inward wisdom, and was fragrant with the sweet odor of his ointments: 1856Band, taken captive by these, she says that the delight of divine knowledge is more abundant than the gladness of every bodily pleasure.

Thy name is an ointment emptied out, or oil poured forth; that is: this world was wholly stinking with the unclean impurities of divers crimes; now everywhere the sweetness of modesty breathes, the ointment of faith, the flower of integrity. There breathes also in the Word the odor of grace and the remission of sins, which, being poured out over the whole world, has filled all things as with an ointment emptied out, because through all men the heavy filth of vices has been wiped away. This ointment was emptied out above the Jews, and was gathered up for those acting: emptied out in Judaea, and it gave forth its scent in all lands. With this ointment Mary was anointed, and the Virgin conceived, the Virgin bore the good odor, the Son of God: this ointment was poured out upon 1856Cthe waters, and sanctified the waters: with this ointment the three young men were anointed, and the flame bedewed them with moisture; with this ointment Daniel was anointed, and he softened the mouths of the lions and stroked down their wildness. This ointment flows daily, and never fails. Take thy vessel, O virgin, and draw near, that thou mayest be able to be filled with this ointment: take the ointment valued at three hundred pence, but given freely, not sold, that all might have it freely. O virgin, be anointed; be not made sorrowful as Judas was, because this ointment is poured out, but bury Christ together with thee: shut thy vessel indeed, lest the ointment flow away: shut it with the key of integrity, with modesty in speaking, with abstinence from boasting; she who has this ointment receives Christ: Thy name is an ointment emptied out. 1856D

(Vers. 2.) Therefore the maidens have loved thee. Who are these maidens, but the souls of individual men, who have laid aside the old age of this body, being renewed through the Holy Spirit? Thy name is an ointment poured forth, than the power of which utterance nothing can be more excellent. For just as ointment shut up in some vessel holds in its own odor — which odor, so long as it is confined within the narrows of that vessel, keeps its force, even though it 1857Acannot reach many — but when the ointment has been poured out of the vessel in which it was shut, it is said to be spread far and wide: so also the name of Christ, before his coming, was shut up in the people of Israel, as it were in some vessel of the minds of the Jews: for God is known in Judaea, in Israel his name is great. (Psal. LXXV, I). This name, therefore, which the vessels of the Jews, confined within their own narrows, contained. A great name indeed even then, when it clung within the narrows of the weak and the few, but it had not yet poured out its greatness through the hearts of the nations and unto the ends of the whole world: 1550 but after he shone forth by his coming through the whole world, he stretched out that divine name of his through the whole creation, not filled up by any addition — for fulness knows no increase — but filling the empty places, that his name might be wonderful in 1857Ball the earth. The pouring forth of this name, therefore, signifies a certain abounding overflow of graces and a plenty of heavenly goods; for whatever is poured out overflows out of abundance. Therefore the maidens have loved thee. Good, she says, is prudence, but sweet is mercy; for the first few attain, while the second reaches to all: for the sake of this thy indulgence, she says, the souls renewed in spirit love thee.

(Vers. 3.) Draw us after thee; we will run in the odor of thine ointments. [Vulg. trahe me post te, "draw me," singular; the exposition that follows turns on the plural "us"] The holy soul, having now kissed the Word of God, takes no measure and is not satisfied, saying: Sweet art thou, O Lord, and in thy delightfulness teach me thy justifications (Psal. CXVIII, 12). Having kissed the Word of God, she desires him above all beauty, loves him above all gladness, delights in him above all 1857Cspices, longs to see him often, to gaze on him frequently, longs to be drawn that she may be able to follow: Thy name, she says, is an ointment emptied out; therefore we maidens love thee; therefore we strive, but we cannot lay hold: draw us, that we may be able to run; that from the odor of thine ointments we may receive strength to follow. She hastens also to see the inward mysteries, the very rest of the Word, the very dwelling-place of that highest good, and his light and brightness in that fatherly bosom and retreat; she hastens to hear his discourses, and when she has heard she receives him above all sweetness.

Let the prophet teach thee who has tasted, and says: How sweet are thy words to my throat, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth (Psal. CXVIII, 103)! [Vulg. quam dulcia faucibus meis eloquia tua, super mel ori meo, without "and the honeycomb"] For what else does the soul desire 1857Dthat has once tasted the sweetness of the Word, that has once seen his brightness? Moses, set on the mountain for forty days receiving the Law, sought no food for the body: Elijah, hastening to that rest, prayed that his soul might be taken from him: Peter, himself also beholding on the mountain the glory of the Lord's resurrection, was unwilling to come down, saying: Lord, it is good for us to be here (Matth. XVII, 4). How great, then, is that glory of the divine substance, how great the gifts of the Word, upon which the angels also desire to look!

The soul, therefore, that sees that, does not seek this body, and understands that there ought to be 1858Athe least possible familiarity with it; she renounces the world, leads herself away from the bonds of the flesh, and strips herself of all the entanglements of these pleasures. And so Stephen was seeing Jesus, and did not dread to be stoned; nay, when he was being stoned, he prayed not for himself but for those by whom he was being destroyed. Paul too, caught up as far as the third heaven, did not know whether he was with the body or without the body; caught up, I say, into paradise, he no longer felt the use of his own body, and, hearing the words of God, blushed at how he should come down to the infirmities of the body. And so, knowing what he had seen in paradise, or what he had heard, he cried out, saying: Why do you still, as though living out of this world, make decrees? Touch not, handle not, taste not, which things are all unto corruption by the very use (Coloss. II, 20 et 21). [Vulg. ne tetigeritis neque gustaveritis neque contrectaveritis, quae sunt omnia in interitu ipso usu; the three prohibitions stand in a different order, and "unto destruction"] For he wished us to be in the figure of this world, not in possession and use, 1858Bso that we might so use this world as though we used it not, as those passing by, not as those who settle; walking as in the image of the age, not in covetousness, that by a most swift reckoning we may pass beyond the very image of this world. And so he himself, walking by faith, not by sight, was a pilgrim away from the body and present with God: and when he was upon the earth, he had his conversation not in earthly but in heavenly things. Therefore let our soul, which wishes to draw near to God, lift herself up from the body, let her always cleave to that highest good, to that good which is divine, which is always, and which was from the beginning, and which was with God (I Joan. I), that is, the Word of God: this is that divine thing, in which we live, and are, and are moved (Act. XVII, 28). [Vulg. in ipso enim vivimus et movemur et sumus, "live and are moved and are," the last two members in the other order]

We will run in the odor of thine ointments. This 1858Codor is breathed by the soul that begins to open to Christ, that she may first receive the odor of the Lord's burial, and may believe that his flesh saw no corruption, nor withered with any odor of death, but rose again, embalmed with the odor of that eternal and ever-flourishing flower. For how could he wither even in the flesh, whose name is 1551 an ointment emptied out? He emptied himself that he might breathe upon thee; this ointment always was, but it was with the Father, it was in the Father, and gave forth its scent only to angels and archangels, as within the vessel of heaven. The Father opened his mouth, saying: Behold, I have set thee for a covenant of my race, for a light of the nations, that thou mayest be for salvation unto the utmost part of the earth (Esai. XLIX, 6). [Vulg. dedi te in lucem gentium, ut sis salus mea usque ad extremum terrae, without the covenant clause and with "my salvation"] The Son came down, all things were filled with the new odor of the Word, the heart of the Father uttered forth a good Word, the Son was fragrant, the Holy 1858DSpirit breathed out, and poured himself abroad through the hearts of all: for the charity of God has been poured abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. V, 5). The Son of God himself at first held in his own odor within the body as within a vessel, awaiting the time, as he says: The Lord gives me the tongue of learning, that I may know when it behoves me to speak a word. [Vulg. Isa. 50:4 Dominus dedit mihi linguam eruditam, ut sciam sustentare eum qui lassus est verbo, "to sustain him that is weary with a word"] The hour came, he opened his mouth, the ointment went forth, when virtue was going out from him. And therefore she hastens to the Word, and asks to be drawn, lest perchance she be left behind; because the Word of God runs, and is not bound. And so he exults as a giant to run 1859Athe way (Psal. XVIII, 6). [Vulg. exultavit ut gigans ad currendam viam, a past "he exulted"] And because his going forth is from the highest heaven, and his meeting even unto the highest thereof (Ibid., 7), seeing herself unequal to so great a swiftness, she says: Draw us.

Good is the soul that asks not for herself alone, but for all: Draw, I say, us; for we have the desire of following, which the grace of thine ointments breathes into us: but because we cannot match thy courses, Draw us; that, propped by thy help, we may be able to press upon thy footsteps. For if thou shalt draw, we too shall run, and shall catch the spiritual breezes of swiftness. For the burden is laid down for those to whom thy hand is a prop: and thine oil is poured in, by which he was healed who had been wounded by robbers.

But lest what she says seem to thee shameless — Draw us — hear him who says: Come to me, all you that 1859Blabor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matth. XI, 28). Thou seest that he draws us willingly, lest we be left behind as we follow: but let him who wishes to be drawn run that he may lay hold, and let him run forgetting the things behind and reaching after the things that are before; for thus will he be able to lay hold of Christ; whence the Apostle also says: So run that you may lay hold. She too wishes to come to the prize, who desires to lay hold. Prudently, therefore, she asks that she may be drawn attrabatur, because not all are able to follow. And so, when Peter said: Whither goest thou? the Word of God answered: Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow hereafter (Joan. XIII, 36; Matth. XIV, 30). He had committed to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and yet judged him unequal to himself in following. This soul, however, he did not put off, because she was not presuming, but asking. And so, 1859C

(Vers. 3.) He has brought me into his chamber. [Vulg. introduxit me rex in cellaria sua, "into his storerooms," plural] Blessed is the soul that enters the inner chambers of the Word; for she, rising up out of the body, becomes more remote from all things, and searches and seeks after that which is above her very self, that divine thing, whether by any means she may attain it: and when she has been able to grasp it, having passed beyond the things that are intelligible, she is confirmed in it and is fed upon it. Such was Paul, who knew that he had been caught up into paradise, but did not know whether outside the body or in the body. For his soul had risen up out of the body, and had led and lifted itself away from the inward parts and the bonds of the flesh; and, made a stranger to himself, he held within himself the unspeakable words which he heard and could not publish abroad, having marked that it is not lawful for a man to utter them. The good soul, therefore, despises the visible 1859Dand the sensible, and does not settle in them, nor tarry and sit down in the beholding of them: but she ascends to those things that are eternal and invisible and full of wonders, raising herself with the pure perception of a devout mind. For indeed, being zealous for perfection, she reaches toward that good of the Godhead alone, and thinks that nothing else is to be sought, because she holds what is highest.

The king has brought me into his chamber. The kiss is simple, but the secret of the chamber is full of business; for in this place she testifies that she wishes to know the mysteries more fully, that she may enter the inner shrines of the heavenly mysteries, 1860Aand that the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ may be opened to her: and that she may be able to do this, perhaps she says that which was said above: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. This signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit coming upon her, as the Angel said to Mary: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee (Luc. I, 35). But when the king brought her into his chamber, the time of the passion declares it, the piercing of the side, the shedding of blood, the ointment of the burial, the mystery 1552 of the resurrection; so that she received the kiss as a betrothed, but into the chamber of Christ the Church was brought in, no longer as merely betrothed, but also as wedded: nor did she only enter the bridal chamber, but also obtained the keys of the lawful union. And therefore, set as it were in the bridal chamber, she says: A binding of the drop is my brother to me; between 1860Bthe midst of my breasts he rests (Vers. 12). [Vulg. fasciculus murrae dilectus meus mihi, inter ubera mea commorabitur, "a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me… he shall abide"]

But if we seek the chamber, he himself teaches us who says: but thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and, the door being shut, pray to thy Father in secret (Matth. VI, 6). The chamber of the Church is the body of Christ. The king brought her into all the inward mysteries, gave her the keys that she might open for herself the treasures of knowledge, might spread open the doors of the sacraments that were closed before, might know the grace of him who rested, the sleep of him who died, the power of him who rose again. In that chamber the bride finds the justices of the Lord Jesus. What are those justices? Surely the sacraments of baptism, as we read: for when John said to him as he came to baptism, I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? Jesus answered: Suffer it now, for so it becomes us to fulfil all 1860Cjustice (Matth. III, 15). In that chamber she learns the justifications of the Lord, she has come to know the counsel of God, than which nothing can be more sublime; for this is the divine thing, in which remission of sins is made.

She seeks to learn from the Lord those things which men could not teach unless God had taught them first: and after the apostles had learned them from Christ, the Church says: The king has brought me into his chamber, that is, into that secret place in which are all the treasures of his knowledge and understanding. And therefore it is said to thee: When thou prayest, enter into thy chamber (Matth. VI, 6). [Vulg. cum orabis, a future "when thou shalt pray"] which signifies the secret place of mind and soul. Into this chamber of justices the bride asked to be led, when she had run out after the odor of the ointment, which flows always and never fails. 1860D

The king has brought me into his chamber. The Greek has "into his storehouse" and "into his cellar": where are the good libations, where are the good odors, sweet honeys, where are the divers fruits, where are the varied dishes, that thy meal may be seasoned with very many dishes. And so, having been brought into that secret place of the divine bridegroom:

Let us exult, she says, and be glad in thee; let us love thy breasts above wine; [Vulg. exultabimus et laetabimur in te, memores uberum tuorum super vinum, a future "we will exult" and "mindful of thy breasts"] for she exults not in riches and in treasures of gold and silver, not in the fruits of possessions, not in powers, not in banquets, but in God alone, saying to him: Let us love 1861Athy breasts above wine. Yet she so drank that she was not swallowed up by the wine, but drew the gladness of the heart from his grace, and did not stagger with the drunkenness of the body. And so, drinking this wine, she opened her eyes and saw the straight way, and left the crooked ways, saying: Equity has loved thee, [Vulg. recti diligunt te, "the upright love thee"] that is: winding journeys do not follow thee, but the path of justice alone can come to thee; for he who loves justice does not turn himself away from Christ. For how should an innocent conscience fear the judge of justice and the rewarder of merits? Yet the same soul, knowing herself darkened by the fellowship of the body, says to other souls, or to other heavenly powers set beside the sacred mystery: Do not look upon me, since I have been darkened, because the sun has not looked upon me.

(Vers. 4.) I am dusky and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. 1861B[Vulg. nigra sum sed formosa, "I am black but beautiful," and decoloravit me sol, "the sun has discolored me," where the plate prints the negative "the sun has not looked upon me"] Set before thee the Lord Jesus reclining at the banquet, and John leaning himself upon his breast, and the others marvelling that a servant should lean upon his Lord, that that sinful flesh should recline upon the temple of the Word, that that soul, bound in by the chains of the flesh, should search out the court of the divine fulness. To these others, therefore, as they marvelled, the soul of John answered: I am dusky and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem; dusky through fault, comely through grace. The flesh says it too, I am dusky and comely; dusky with the dust of the world, which she gathered in her striving, comely with the spiritual eye, wherewith she wiped away the dust and squalor of this world: dusky through vice, but comely now through the washing, which cleanses away every offense: I am dusky because I have sinned, comely because Christ now loves me; for her whom he had banished in Eve, he takes back in 1861Cthe virgin, he receives from Mary.

The Synagogue says it too, whose mysteries very many think to be expressed in this place; who, when she saw herself cast off on account of the impiety of the whole people, yet consoled herself, 1553 because she saw Christ himself out of her own people, and not him only, but Peter, John, and James cleaving to Christ, and because she had the oracles entrusted to her. And therefore she said: I am dusky and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem: dusky through unbelief, comely through the law: dusky through the fall, comely because the sun has loved me, and I was made the first congregation of God. Do not flee from me because I am dusky; I am dusky for this reason, that the sun of justice has forsaken me, who before was wont to give me light. I have lost the color of my countenance, the keenness of my eyes has been dulled, wherewith before I looked upon the sun: 1861DI walk in darkness, I who know not the day of Christ. Yet do not despise me, since he who forsook me can look upon me again. He is wont to have mercy again, to gather the scattered, to seek out the forsaken, to collect the destitute. All ye tribes of Israel, come together, look upon me as I was comely before my offenses; do not look upon me, since I have been darkened; that is, do not look at this alone, that I have been darkened: the sun has not looked upon me, and therefore I have been darkened. But the sun shines upon the just and the unjust, upon the just for grace, upon the unjust for 1862Amercy; giving to the one the reward of their merits, forgiving the others their sins. And upon the nations he did not shine before; now he shines, now he rises upon them who once rose upon me; he who has forgiven them will forgive me also. Do not judge, because I have been darkened, that the sun has utterly forsaken me and no longer looks upon me, nor seeks me out in my sickness. He has hidden himself from me because I have not kept his commandments: he will be reconciled when he shall have seen the repentance of my offenses. The sun has not seen me, because I did not receive him when he came, I did not open the windows that the light of life might come in: when I shall have opened them, he will enlighten my eyes, who came that he might enlighten the whole world, and that even those who do not see may see.

Or the Church of the nations says: Do not look upon me, since I am dusky, because the sun has not regarded me; in that the sun of justice long judged the congregation of the nations, bound as it were with the winter's frosts and the ice 1862Bof gentile error, unworthy to be surveyed by the serene light of his countenance. Did not the harshness of a wintry season seem to thee to be there, when God was known in Judaea only? But now the fulness of the summer light shines out, when Christ is all things and in all. Is not the earth the Lord's, and the fulness thereof (Psalm. XXIII, 1)? And truly the whole round world is in the Church, because there is not Jew only or Greek, not Barbarian or Scythian, not slave or free: but we are all one in Christ (Coloss. III, 11). [Vulg. sed omnia et in omnibus Christus, "but Christ is all and in all"] The sun shines upon all, the day gives light to all. I am black, and comely. She has put "black" first, that she might increase the comeliness: she did not say, I am black comely, lest what is black should be thought comely: but she says, I am black by the former sin, but comely 1862Cby the confession of sin, and by zeal for amendment, and by love of virtue. Although therefore And is a syllable which, as the grammarians call it, is conjunctive, yet it has a distinguishing force, whereby confusion is distinguished and separated; as, if thou shouldst say that Ambrose Bassus is within, one man is thought of; but if thou assert that Ambrose and Bassus are within, two are certainly understood.

As the tabernacles of Cedar, as the skins of Solomon; for tents are made from the hides of dead animals. Therefore she who said this was dead to sin and living to God: and let us too, then, die to sin, that we may live to God. Filled with the spirit, with the delight and sweetness of gladness, we shall be spiritual hides, lacking bodily infirmity, and keeping in the whole bosom of the mind the grace of the divine mysteries poured into us. 1862DBut that the tabernacles of Cedar, or the skins of Solomon, mean this body is clear from many passages: yet understand it also from this, that when Adam and Eve laid aside the image of the heavenly man which they bore before, and put on the image of the earthly man, they are said to have been clothed with tunics of skin; for the fault they had committed had made them bodily out of spiritual.

Nor is that absurd to understand, that the bride says she has been made like skins scorched by the burnings of the sun; in that, though she was set in the harshness of tribulations, 1863Ashe yet mortified her body, that it might not be able to feel that harshness: for as the skin of a tabernacle does not feel the burning of the sun, in that it is the skin of a dead animal, so she, being dead to sin, could not feel the burning of sin: either because she was not broken by necessities, or because we are a body 1554 of affliction, and ought always to carry about the death of the Lord Jesus in our body.

(Vers. 5.) The sons of my mother have fought against me; that is, the passions of the body have assailed me, the enticements of the flesh have discolored me: therefore the sun of justice has not shone again upon me, because, widowed of my defense, I could not keep my devotion and my full observance; for this is what is meant by I have not kept my own vineyard, because I brought forth thorns and not the grape, that is, doing sins instead of fruits. And when she speaks of the Word, 1863Bthe splendor of the Word shining upon her, she turns to him and says:

(Vers. 6.) Where dost thou feed, where dost thou abide at midday? [Vulg. ubi pascas, ubi cubes in meridie, subjunctive and "where thou liest down"] Rightly she says, where dost thou feed, because the Word of God is royal: where dost thou abide, because he is moral: at midday, because he is mystical: since indeed at midday Joseph, set at the banquet with his brothers, was revealing the mysteries of the times to come. But David also says: Reveal thy life to the Lord and hope in him, and he himself will do it, and will lead forth thy justice as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday (Psalm. XXXVI, 5). [Vulg. revela Domino viam tuam, "reveal thy way to the Lord"] And Paul himself asserted that a light shone about him at midday, when he was turned from persecution to grace.

She complains, therefore, that she has been forsaken, that she has been left destitute, poor out of rich; for she abounded in the gift 1863Cof graces, but she began to be in want when the abundance of the divine presence was denied her. And therefore she asks even to be held as a hireling, she who before claimed for herself the grace of a more precious union.

They have set me as a keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept (Vers. 5). Some think that this is said of those who bind the Synagogue to the precepts of the law, that she may keep the law and guard her own vineyard, which she could not keep. And so she was keeping it that she might make grapes, but she made thorns. What, then, the vineyard is, David comes to testify to us, saying: Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt, and hast cast out the nations, and hast planted it (Psalm. LXXIX, 9). The apostles too may be the sons of her mother, who truly assailed the Synagogue, saying: Behold, we turn to the nations: and they began to sow the word 1863Dof God among the peoples. The prophets too may be understood, who, by warning and denouncing that the Synagogue should keep her own vineyard, accomplished nothing; for she made the thorns of wickedness, who ought to have brought forth the rich fruits of virtue: and therefore she confesses that she could not keep her own people, and deservedly seeks too late to hold him whom, while she held him, she lost: far unlike her who says: I have found him whom my soul loves; I held him, and I will not let him go (Cant. III, 4). [Vulg. tenui eum, nec dimittam, "I held him, nor will I let him go"] And so that one invites the bridegroom into her garden; this one, asking where he feeds, says to him: 1864A

Tell me, whom my soul has loved. [Vulg. indica mihi quem diligit anima mea, "show me, whom my soul loves," in the present; the gloss that follows turns on the past tense] Why dost thou say whom my soul has loved, and not "whom she loves"? Why hast thou let go him whom thou didst hold? Thou didst love him by the faith of the fathers, thou hast lost him by unbelief: thou didst hold him by the bonds of charity, thou hast lost him by the long rope of faithlessness. Therefore thou knowest not where he feeds, where he abides; for if thou didst know, thou wouldst not seek. For thou sayest: Where dost thou feed, where dost thou abide at midday? Thou knowest that the midday is the Church which holds Christ, and thou seekest him in the nights. Say to me, she says, O Christ, answer me at least for this cause, that thou wast dear to me before and beloved; therefore, though I have lost the privilege of so great a charity, yet, as one who art merciful, answer me, Where dost thou feed, where dost thou abide? Thou hast forsaken me, thou hast gone away to the nations, thou hast withdrawn far from me, and hast been made nearer to those from whom thou wast far. But thou hast been made near, because they have believed in thy blood. Thou hast withdrawn from me, because I did not receive the cross 1864Bas the redemption of the world, but as the condemnation damnanationem of a guilty man. But they who received it as the author of salvation are at midday; for them thou shinest, for them thou blazest out, for them thy grace is warm as the noonday. To me thou wast the morning, when as yet I believed, but I did not believe fully, because I have not been found at midday, like Joseph with his brothers, who held the midday: for them thou hast been made noonday, who are fed in thy riches and hope in thee. Therefore, as David said: Thou shalt lead forth their justice as the light, and their judgment as the noonday (Psalm. XXXVI, 6). [Vulg. educet quasi lumen iustitiam tuam, et iudicium tuum tamquam meridiem, "he will lead forth thy justice… and thy judgment"]

Thou seekest, then, as a stranger, thou who wast a neighbor; as a poor woman, thou who wast rich: thou wishest to follow, thou who didst go before; and would that thou mightest at least follow those whom thou oughtest to have gone before! Thou desirest to be a hireling, thou who 1864Cbefore didst gather hirelings; and so this is the voice of a hireling, saying: Lest 1555 perchance I become one wrapped about, beside the flocks of thy companions. [Vulg. ne vagari incipiam post greges sodalium tuorum, "lest I begin to wander after the flocks"] Thou who before didst receive proselytes out of the nations, now thou thyself among the peoples wishest to be received in the place of proselytes, and to be gathered as a stranger. The Word of God answered the longing soul:

(Vers. 7.) Unless thou know thyself, O comely one among women. [Vulg. si ignoras te, o pulcherrima inter mulieres, egredere, "if thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth"] Know thyself, O man: it is said to thy soul, unless thou hast known thyself comely among women. Know thyself, O soul, that thou art not of earth, not of clay, because God breathed into thee and made thee into a living soul. Thou art a magnificent work, formed by the inbreathing of God: Attend to thyself, as the Law says, that is, to thy soul: let not the things of the world and of the age hold thee, let not earthly things 1864Ddelay thee. Hasten with thy whole intention to him by whose inbreathing thou standest: A great thing, he says, is man, and precious is a merciful man: but to find a faithful man is a labor (Prov. XX, 6). [Vulg. multi homines misericordes vocantur; virum autem fidelem quis inveniet?, "many men are called merciful; but who shall find a faithful man?"] Learn, O man, wherein thou art great and precious. The earth shows thee to be vile, but virtue makes thee glorious, faith makes thee rare, the image makes thee precious. For where is anything so precious as the image of God? which ought first to pour faith into thee, so that some likeness of its author may shine again in thy heart; lest he who questions thy mind should not recognize the author. Or is anything so precious as humility; 1865Athat, looking upon the nature of body and of soul, by the one thou shouldst subject thyself, by the other recognize thyself. The enticement of the flesh, prone to vice, urges mercy; because what thou hast bestowed upon another, thou payest to thyself: whatever proceeds from thee runs back into thee, and whatever thou shalt do, thou payest to thyself: and whatever profit thou shalt bring, it profits thee. Let the vigor of the living soul, the perception of reason and the mind capable of understanding and of judgment, so that it may be seen a worthy house for so great a dweller, not lose the privilege of its own nature. Unless thou know thyself, O comely one among women. Thou who complainest that thou hast been forsaken: unless thou know thyself, unless thou repent of thy fall, unless thou approve the intention of thy devotion, unless thy faith and sincerity be increased, thy complaint will profit nothing. Or thus: unless thou know thyself, that thou art comely; unless thou keep the beauty of thy nature, and the enticements of the body do not sink thee down, 1865Bnor hindrances hold thee back, the nobility of a better creature will avail thee nothing.

Know thyself, therefore, and the comeliness of thy nature; and go forth as one stripped of the bonds of the feet, and thrust out with bare footprint, that thou mayest not feel the coverings of the flesh: let not bodily chains entangle the footstep of thy mind, that thy foot may appear shapely. For such are they who are chosen by the Lord to announce the kingdom of heaven, of whom it is said: How shapely are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace (Esai. LII, 7). Such was Moses, to whom it is said: Loose the shoe of thy feet (Exod. III, 5); [Vulg. Exod. 3:5 solve calciamentum de pedibus tuis, "from thy feet"] so that he who was to go forth to call the people to the kingdom of God should first cast off the hides of the flesh and walk with bare spirit and with the footstep of the mind; this, then, is what he says: Go thou forth in the sandals of the flocks, and feed 1865Cthy kids in the tabernacles of the shepherds. [Vulg. egredere et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce hedos tuos iuxta tabernacula pastorum, "go after the footsteps of the flocks… beside the tabernacles"]

By the flocks we understand a kingdom, in that it belongs to power to preside over flocks. And every man presides over himself by a certain royal power, if he restrains in himself the excesses of the body and reduces his flesh to servitude; and therefore it is said: The kingdom of God is within you. Whence beautifully he says to the soul: Go forth, that is, go forth from servitude, go forth from the command and dominion of the flesh, and go forth not in the flesh but in the spirit, go forth to the governance of power. And therefore he added: Feed thy kids, that is, rule those things that are on thy left hand; for if they are not ruled, they easily slip away. Restrain the wantonness, the playfulness of thy body and its unreasoning excess, tame its light motions: feed them not in bodily tabernacles, but in the tabernacles of the shepherds who know how to rule a flock; for the tabernacles of Israel are lovely, like groves overshadowing a river, in which the soul, set as it were 1865Din battle array, exercises a good soldiery and searches out the assaults of the enemy.

Unless thou know thyself, O comely one among women. What is it to know oneself, but that each man should know that he was made to the image and likeness of God, capable of reason, who ought to till his own earth like a good husbandman with a certain plough and sickle of wisdom, so that either hard things may be split or luxuriant things cut back, and who ought to govern the inward portion of himself by the command of the mind? 1866AWhence also it is written in the Law: Attend to thyself, lest a hidden word be made in thy heart (Deut. XV, 9). [Vulg. Deut. 15:9 cave ne forte subrepat tibi impia cogitatio, "beware lest perchance an impious thought creep upon thee"] Attend to thyself, he says: he certainly does not say 1556 to thy money, not to thy possessions, not to the strength of the body, but to thy spirit and to thy mind, whence all counsels, deeds, and thoughts flow. Attend to thyself, therefore, there, where thou knowest thyself to be the stronger. Know thyself: which the men of the nations assign to Pythian Apollo, as though he were the author of this maxim; whereas they carry over to their own what has been usurped from ours, and Moses, who wrote the book of Deuteronomy, was far earlier than the philosophers who invented these things.

Whence Solomon also, following the divine oracle, wrote in the Song of Songs: Unless thou know thyself, thou comely one among women [Vulg. Si ignoras te, o pulcherrima inter mulieres, "If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women"]; that is, unless thou know thyself to be mortal 1866Band rational, and quickly confess thy sins, quickly tell thy iniquities that thou mayest be justified — unless thou be converted, and be the first to accuse thy own faults, the day of death comes and there is now no remedy of conversion; thou art forestalled while thou art thinking of it. Kindle thy torch before the bridegroom's door be shut against thee, for he is not wont to wait long for the negligent. Unless thou know thyself, he says, thou comely one among women; and say thou: I am swarthy and comely [Vulg. Cant. 1:4 Nigra sum, sed formosa, "I am black, but beautiful"]: I am swarthy, because I have sinned, comely, because I am loved, because I am of the stock of Abraham, a chosen stock, beloved of God. The grace of the fathers will profit thee nothing: For God is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham (Matth. III, 9). And elsewhere in the Gospel thou hast read that the devil bound a daughter of Abraham with the chains of his own wickedness, whom the Lord loosed on the sabbath day. Unless therefore thou know thyself, it will profit thee nothing 1866C. Even if thou say, I am a daughter of Abraham — thou who believest not, who correctest not thine error: Abraham indeed is saved, but nobility of stock will not help thee, unless faith have saved thee. Let not the promise given to the fathers deceive thee; I accept not the person of a man, I accept not the prerogative of stock, unless I have seen a nobility of manners answering to the stock, so that there be an election of a just stock.

But if thou know thyself, and know that thou art liable to sin, thou must go out among the heels of the flocks. Go out therefore with bare foot, and feed thy kids in the tents of the shepherds. He who is without sin feeds lambs, feeds sheep; but she who is liable to sin, let her feed the kids which are on the left; for she cannot be at the right hand of the good shepherd. Let her rather follow him who says to Peter: Come behind me, Satan (Marc. VIII, 33) [Vulg. Vade retro me, Satana, "Go behind me"]. By following, Peter deserved to be set at the right hand; and therefore 1866Dit is said to him: Feed my little lambs (Joan. XXI, 16) [Vulg. agnos, "lambs" — without the diminutive]. But hear whither she is to go out: To the tents, he says, of the shepherds, that is, to the nations, to the dispersion. And therefore he said: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered (Zach. XIII, 7) [Vulg. Zach. Percute pastorem, et dispergentur oves, "Strike thou the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered"]; that the whole round of the earth might be filled with the flock of Christ — signifying that the Synagogue would then be safe, when she too shall have joined herself to this dispersion which has filled this world; for the tents of the shepherds are the kingdoms of the earth. 1867A

(Vers. 8.) To my mare among the chariots of Pharaoh have I likened thee, my neighbor [Vulg. Equitatui meo in curribus Pharaonis assimilavi te, amica mea, "To my cavalry… my friend"]. In that the likeness of the Church seems here to be compared to the running of swift horses, the richness of her grace is reckoned. Do not therefore understand one mare of the rich king, but a word put absolutely for the cavalry, as we have often said — of what sort that sheep of his is, put for the flock of sheep. Pharaoh therefore, as a most powerful and most wealthy king, had powerful horses; whence Scripture also says: The chariots of Pharaoh (Exod. XIV, 9), as being a most powerful kind for the use of wars and a support in fighting: and indeed with these chariots Pharaoh easily overtook the fleeing Hebrews. As therefore horses yoked together easily draw the chariot, and patiently take up the yoke, and bear it with grace, and by the taking up of that yoke grow gentle: so also the congregation of the nations, 1867Buntamed in its heathen manners, once vaunted itself. But when it took up the yoke of him who says: Take my yoke upon you, for it is light; and my burden, for it is sweet (Matth. XI, 29 et 30) [Vulg. jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve, "my yoke is sweet and my burden light" — the two epithets exchanged]; and the bride of Christ began to be exalted by the concord and gentleness of the peoples, and to be carried about the whole world, then, like a chariot caught up above the world by swift horses, she went up to the bridegroom.

For Christ has his own horses, of whom the prophet says: Thou hast sent thy horses into the sea, troubling many waters (Habac. III) [Vulg. Hab. 3:15 Viam fecisti in mari equis tuis, in luto aquarum multarum, "Thou madest a way in the sea for thy horses"]; in that the apostles, by preaching the Gospel, stirred up the peoples of the nations, who are moved like many waters and are roused into billows of waters, so that, rising up from the earthly ceremonies of idols, they might believe in Christ. And above he says: Thou hast mounted 1867Cupon thy horses, thy cavalry is health [Vulg. Hab. 3:8 quadrigae tuae salvatio, "thy chariots are salvation"]. O marvellous duo decajugum of good horses, for whom the bits are of peace, 1557 the reins are of charity: bound fast among themselves by the bonds of concord, and subjected to the yoke of faith, carrying in upon four wheels the mystery of the Gospel to the bounds of the whole world, bearing the good charioteer, the Word of God: by whose whip the enticements of the world were put to flight, the prince of this world driven out, the course of the just fulfilled. O great contest of rational horses! O mystery to be wondered at! A wheel ran within a wheel, and was not hindered: the New Testament within the Old Testament, it ran within that through which it was announced. Into four parts the wheels went, and they turned not backward; because the spirit of life was in them, which ran into the four parts 1867Dof the whole world: and it ran without stumbling, because the good life of the horses squared with it. The horses therefore ran, because he who had mounted the horses was not sleeping.

The charioteer of our souls, therefore, is Jesus; who wills that we too should mount our own horses, that is, our bodies, and always be watchful, lest it be said of us: They have slumbered who mounted horses (Psalm. LXXV, 7). This sea must be crossed briskly; it is scarcely crossed even by the watchful. But if any man shall have slept, he will not be able to cross, but is drowned, like the Egyptian, whose soul and body alike perished. For the horse and the rider he cast 1868Ainto the sea (Exod. XV, 1) [Vulg. dejecit, "cast down"], who did not follow the law, but per sequebantur.

To my mare among the chariots of Pharaoh have I likened thee. The labour of virtue seeks victory, so that she cannot be compared to that mare which is Solomon's, swift for running, apt for bearing young; since the fruitfulness of the soul is desired and sought. This mare therefore is precious, and the chariots of Pharaoh are swift. But in this place we have undertaken to speak of the soul, of this mare who is reckoned like to this soul, that is, of prophetic or apostolic virtue: that she be numbered in the flock of those who by the fruitfulness of their preaching have filled the spaces of the whole round of the earth. And although set in the body, yet they felt no losses of their spiritual course. And therefore she is praised, that, the heavenly precept enlightening her, 1868Bshe is now shapely, now beautiful, who bears in her countenance the grace of chastity, and lifts up the necklaces of her neck, in which are the marks of patience and humility. And on this account, praising his bride, he said:

(Vers. 9.) How shapely are thy cheeks become, as a turtle-dove's, thy neck as necklaces [Vulg. Pulchrae sunt genae tuae sicut turturis; collum tuum sicut monilia, "Beautiful are thy cheeks… thy neck as jewels"]. The countenance is freer where there is the consciousness of charity; and to bear the yoke of Christ is sweet, if thou reckon them to be the ornaments of thy neck, not its burdens. Lift up therefore thine eyes always to thy Lord, and seek God, that thou mayest find him. Raise up thy neck: thou wearest necklaces, not chains: even dumb beasts rejoice in trappings, and seem to themselves rather to be adorned than to be tied. Cheeks as a turtle-dove's: let them bear the marks of modesty; the necklaces of the neck: let them lift up the confidence of freedom; for the yoke of Christ is light, 1868Cand therefore the neck is not pressed down by it, but lifted up.

(Vers. 10, 11.) Likenesses, he says, of gold will we make for thee, out of distinctions of silver, until the king shall be in his reclining [Vulg. Murenulas aureas faciemus tibi, vermiculatas argento. Dum esset rex in accubitu suo, "Golden chains will we make thee, inlaid with silver. While the king was at his couch"]. For out of those who are of the Law and of the prophets, they had before believed but moderately in the glory of the Lord Jesus; and his inheritance, spread abroad through the peoples, the more often it was tried, so much the more was it approved. For the frequent persecutions of the Church have brought forth for us the titles of the just, the victories of martyrdom. And so, like good gold: when the Church makes use of wrath, it feels no losses, but rather its brightness is increased, until Christ come into his kingdom, and lay back his head upon the faith of the Church. He, when he had come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, had not where to lay back his head: but now faith is already fragrant, and therefore 1868Dthe Church says: My spikenard has given its odour; and she says it, awaiting her recompense with confidence. The ointment of grace breathes forth, in which the Virgin brought forth, and the Lord Jesus took up the sacrament of the incarnation.

(Vers. 12, 13.) A binding-together of the drop is my brother to me; in the midst of my breasts he shall remain, or shall dwell [Vulg. Fasciculus myrrhae dilectus meus mihi, inter ubera mea commorabitur, "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he shall abide between my breasts"]. She had indeed said before that her spikenard had given her the odour of the bridegroom, and that through the ointment with which she had anointed him she had received the fragrance of his odour: but now she says: My brother smells to me of the drop, and this not poured abroad nor scattered as it may chance, but 1869Abound together and drawn tight, so namely that the odour of its own sweetness may be rendered denser and stronger. And he, she says, 1558 being such as he is, dwells and abides in the midst of my breasts, and makes his rest and his mansion in the place of my bosom. A binding-together of the drop is my cousin, a cluster of cypress is my brother to me; between the midst of my breasts he shall rest. For the Lord Jesus, taking a body, bound himself with the chains of charity, and joined himself not only to our members and to natural sufferings, but even to the cross; and therefore, like a cluster, he rests in the faith of the Church and in her moral grace.

Spikenard of cypress is my cousin in the vineyards of Engaddi [Vulg. Botrus cypri dilectus meus mihi, in vineis Engaddi, "A cluster of cypress is my beloved to me"]. If we seek the place of a certain region which is in Judaea, that place is so called in which the balsam-sap is produced: if we seek the interpretation, in Latin it signifies temptation. 1869BBut in those vineyards there is a wood which, if one prick it, sends forth ointment; this is the fruit of the wood. If the wood be not cut, it does not so give fragrance and odour; but when it has been pricked by the craftsman's hand, then it distils a tear. So also Christ, crucified upon that wood of temptation, wept over the people, that he might wash away our sins, and out of the bowels of his mercy poured forth ointment, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luc. XXIII, 34) [Vulg. non enim sciunt quid faciunt, "for they know not"]. Then therefore, pricked upon the wood with the lance, there went out from him blood and water, sweeter than any ointment, a victim acceptable to God, pouring out through the whole world the odour of sanctification. And as balsam out of the tree, so virtue went forth out of his body, whence he says: I perceive that virtue has gone out from me 1869C(Luc. VIII, 46) [Vulg. nam ego novi virtutem de me exiisse, "for I know that virtue has gone out from me"]. Thence it is called more expressly opobalsamum, in that by the pricking of the wood the balsam bursts out through the hollow of the puncture.

Jesus therefore, being pricked, poured forth the odour of the remission of sins and of redemption. For he was also drawn tight, when the Word was made man: and he was made poor, when he was rich, that we might be enriched by his want: he was powerful, and offered himself to be despised, so that Herod scorned him and mocked him: he moved the earth, and clung to the wood: he covered heaven with darkness, and crucified the world, and was crucified: he bowed his head, and the Word went forth: he was emptied out, and filled all things: God descended, man ascended: the Word was made flesh, that the flesh might claim for itself the throne of the Word at the right hand of God: he was a wound, and 1869Dointment flowed: he was heard as a beetle, and was acknowledged as God. And Christ answered.

(Vers. 14.) Behold thou art good, my neighbor, behold thou art good: thine eyes are a dove's [Vulg. Ecce tu pulchra es, amica mea, ecce tu pulchra es; oculi tui columbarum, "Behold thou art beautiful, my friend… thine eyes are doves' eyes"]. Because the Church had known the mystery, and was preaching the Lord Jesus crucified for the redemption of the whole world, she deserves to hear: Behold thou art good, thou who callest me good; Behold thou art good, thou who hast seen the comeliness of my glory, and art thyself shapely and comely. But what is it for Christ to say: Thou art good, or Thou art comely, if not that word of the Gospel: Be steadfast, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee (Matth. IX, 22) [Vulg. Matt. 9:22 Confide, filia, fides tua te salvam fecit, "Have confidence, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole"; the clause on forgiveness stands at Matt. 9:2]? Therefore he to whom Christ has forgiven sins 1870Arightly says: Reward thy servant, that I may live and keep thy commandments (Psal. CXVIII, 146) [Vulg. Ps. 118:17 Retribue servo tuo, vivifica me, et custodiam sermones tuos, "quicken me, and I will keep thy words"]. He has nothing in the recompense whereof to despair; because the Lord Jesus came to save the world, not to destroy it. Therefore he is unmindful of injury, mindful of grace, as he himself bears witness in the prophetic book, saying: I am, I am he who blot out thine iniquities, and I will not be mindful of them: but be thou mindful, and let us be judged; tell thou first thine iniquities, that thou mayest be justified (Esai. XLIII, 25 et 26) [Vulg. Ego sum, ego sum ipse qui deleo iniquitates tuas propter me, et peccatorum tuorum non recordabor. Reduc me in memoriam, et judicemur simul: narra si quid habes ut justificeris]. Whosoever therefore tells his iniquities to God is justified: and whosoever is justified fears not the recompense, but demands it: he who fears not the recompense, lives.

(Vers. 15, 16.) Behold, she says, my cousin is well-formed, and indeed beautiful. Our reclining-place is shady, the beams of our houses are cedars, our panelled ceilings 1870Bcypresses [Vulg. Ecce tu pulcher es, dilecte mi, et decorus. Lectulus noster floridus; tigna domorum nostrarum cedrina, laquearia nostra cypressina, "Behold thou art beautiful, my beloved, and comely. Our little bed is flowery"]. The Church praises the comeliness of the bridegroom, whom each one praises the more with silent affection; and the faithful interpreter of the mysteries preaches the more by keeping silence. For she who divulges secret things diminishes the comeliness of Christ; therefore let no one cast his pearls before swine, lest he cause precious ornaments to be trodden down. Not then in the tent of the talkative and the chattering — because by much speaking sin is admitted — but in that of a serious man, who is sparing of address, and not intemperate of speech, and by the sobriety of his words avoids the drunkenness of talkativeness, does Christ lay back his head.

And with reason does she signify a shady reclining-place; because the virtue of the Most High overshadows those who are set in the Church. In this shadow David asked to be protected, lest the sun burn him by day, or the moon by night (Psalm. 1870CCXX, 6). This shadow spiritual grace 1559 ministers to those who flee the parched and summer heats of this age and of the world. Shady therefore is the reclining-place of Christ and of the Church, upon whom that eternal rest of God the Father breathes. In this shadow therefore let us rest, wearied by the heats of our sins: whomsoever lust has scorched, let the cross of the Lord refresh them, upon which he laid himself back, that he might take up our debts. Whomsoever guilt has wearied, let Jesus receive them in his bosom, and cherish them with a soft embrace; whence I dare to say that the flesh of Christ is the reclining-place of the Church.

The beams of our houses are cedars. Under the figure of the cedar the glory of those elders who were just is designated. For the just shall flourish like the palm tree, and like the cedar which is in Lebanon he shall be multiplied (Psalm. XCI, 13) [Vulg. sicut cedrus Libani multiplicabitur, "like the cedar of Lebanon"]; for as the cedar 1870Ddoes not rot, so neither is the glory of the elders corrupted by any old age.

Our panelled ceilings cypresses. This kind of tree never loses its greenness; in winter as in summer it feeds its foliage, nor is it changed with a different colour. This tree alone the wind never despoils of its honour; it alone is never stripped of its old cloak, nor clothed with a new blossom. So too apostolic grace knows no failing, but flourishes by its own age. The soul therefore knows not how to be corrupted, which is vigorous with flourishing members, and always upholds with patient greatness of mind the summits of justice and of the other virtues; 1871Aand therefore it neither flows away nor fails, because there is nothing in it chinked or slack, nothing shifting, nothing slippery, nothing which could be poured out of it by a fault of speech. There follows the Church, or the faithful soul — the soul, I say, because man is nothing so much as soul.

(Vers. 1, 2.) I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys, as a lily in the midst of thorns [Vulg. Sicut lilium inter spinas, "As a lily among thorns"]; for into the whole earth the faith of the believing people has gone out, and Christ has set his feet in a spacious place; and therefore he beautifully says that he is the flower of the field. A flower too was Paul, who said: We are the good odour of Christ unto God (II Cor. II, 15). And truly a flower, who could bring forth new things and old out of the treasure of his own heart. I am the flower of the field. And well is 1871Bthe Church a flower, who announces the fruit, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it was said to Mary: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb (Luc. I, 42).

In another sense also I show thee a flower to be plucked, that one surely who said: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. Very many think this comparison more apt according to the nature of the flower and the use of the shoot set before us; in that lilies require no tending of any yearly use, nor, as in the case of the yield of the other fruits, does the labour of the year come round again in its circuit for anxious husbandmen with regard to the generation of this flower; for whatever the droughts of the field, all that which is nourished into flower is quickened out of itself by a certain generative power, and in itself by a sap always green; so that when 1871Cthou seest the stalk of its grown leaves to have withered, yet the nature of the flower is green; for the greenness is hidden, not lost. But when it has been called forth by the caresses of spring, it takes up again the clothing of the shoot, the foliage of the flower, or the adornments of the lily.

It delights one also to notice this, that lilies are not begotten in the roughnesses of mountains and the uncultivated places of woods, but in the pleasantness of gardens. For there are certain gardens fruitful with divers virtues, according to that which is written: A garden enclosed, etc. (Cant. IV, 12), in that where there is integrity, where chastity, where religion, where the faithful silences of secret things, there is the brightness of angels, there are the violets of confessors, the lilies of virgins, the roses of martyrs. Well is Christ a lily, because where the blood of the martyrs is, there is Christ, who is the flower on high, 1871Dunspotted, harmless, in whom the roughness of thorns gives no offence, but the grace poured about him was shining. For the thorns of the roses are the torments of the martyrs; the unoffended Godhead, which felt no torments, has no thorns.

As a lily in the midst of thorns. Which is of plain evidence, that virtue is beset by the brambles of spiritual wickednesses, whence no man may carry off fruit save he who comes warily. Take wings therefore, O virgin, but wings of the spirit, that thou mayest fly above the vices, if thou desirest to touch Christ, 1872AWho dwelleth on high, and beholdeth lowly things (Psalm. CXII, 5). And his form is like the cedar of Lebanon, which sets its foliage in the clouds, its root in the earth; for his beginning is from heaven, his latter parts on earth, 1560 and they have brought forth fruits nearest to heaven. Search out more diligently so good a flower, to see whether thou mayest find him anywhere in the valley of thy breast; for he is often breathed upon lowly things. He loves to be begotten in gardens, in which Susanna, while she walked, found him: ready rather to die than to be violated.

Otherwise: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys, as a lily in the midst of thorns. Behold another place in which the Lord is wont to abide — nay, not in one, but in many: I, he says, am the flower of the field; because he frequents the open simplicity of a pure mind. 1872BAnd the lily of the valleys; for Christ is the flower of humility, not of luxury, not of pleasures and wantonness, but the flower of simplicity, the flower of humility. A flower keeps its odour even when cut down, and heaps it up when bruised, nor does it lose it when plucked away; so also the Lord Jesus, upon that gibbet of the cross, neither withered when bruised, nor vanished when plucked away, and, cut by that pricking of the lance, he blossomed the more shapely with the sacred colour of the blood poured out, himself not knowing how to die, and breathing out upon the dead the gift of eternal life.

(Vers. 3.) As a lily in the midst of thorns — does not the flower of good odour rise up amid the roughnesses of labours and the contritions of minds? For by a contrite heart God is appeased. This is the desert, O daughters, which leads to the kingdom; this is also the desert which 1872Cflowers as a lily, according to that which is written: Rejoice, thou barren one, and exult, thou desert, and let it flower as a lily (Esai. XXXV, 1) [Vulg. Laetabitur deserta et invia, et exsultabit solitudo, et florebit quasi lilium, "The desert and the pathless land shall be glad… and shall flower like a lily" — indicative, not imperative]. In this desert, O daughters, that good fruitful tree, which makes good fruits, begins to spread abroad the arms of its own deeds, to lift up the crown of its divinity, beside which the trees of our wood may put forth their shoots; because, as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my brother in the midst of the sons; so that the Church, seeing this, and already glad at the success of our faith, may say: In his shadow I have desired and sat down, and his fruit is sweet in my jaws [Vulg. Sicut malus inter ligna silvarum, sic dilectus meus inter filios. Sub umbra illius quem desideraveram sedi, et fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo, "Under the shadow of him whom I had desired I sat, and his fruit was sweet to my throat"].

(Vers. 3, 4.) Note that often in this book of Songs Solomon has plainly expressed that threefold wisdom, namely the moral, the natural, and the mystical, as he had said in the Proverbs; that he might write in threefold fashion 1872Dfor him who should wish to hear his wisdom. He says therefore in the Songs, the bride concerning the bridegroom: Behold thou art beautiful, my cousin, behold thou art beautiful and comely; our reclining-place is shady, the beams of our houses are cedars, our panelled ceilings cypresses (Cant. I, 15 et 16). We can take this of moral things; for where does Christ rest, and the Church, if not in the works of his own people? And indeed where there was unchastity, where pride, where iniquity, there the Lord Jesus says: But the Son of man has not where to lay back his head (Matth. VIII, 20). But what shall we take 1873Aof natural things? In his shadow, she says, I have desired and sat down, and his fruit is sweet in my jaws; for he who steps over earthly things, and to whom worldly things die (since the world is crucified to him, and he to the world), flees and despises all things which are under the sun. Of mystical things also she says: Bring me into the house of wine, set charity in me. For as the vine embraces its own vineyard, so the Lord Jesus, as an eternal vine, embraces his own people with certain arms of charity [Vulg. Cant. 2:4 Introduxit me in cellam vinariam; ordinavit in me caritatem, "He brought me into the wine cellar; he set charity in order in me" — indicative, not imperative].

Consider them one by one: in moral things the flower among thorns is the lily, as he himself says: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys (Sup., v. 1). In moral things therefore he is a flower, as in natural things the sun of justice, who, rising and rising again, gives light, and setting, overshadows. Beware lest he set upon thee, for it is written: Let not the sun go down upon 1873Byour wrath (Ephes. IV, 26). In mystical things he is charity, because Christ is the fullness of the law. And therefore the Church, which loves Christ, is wounded with charity.

Beautifully also is the Church called a lily; for as the lily shines, so also do the works of the saints shine forth. Most beautifully also was it said: The lily of the valleys; because in lowly things grace shines out the more. But this lily is in the midst of thorns, that is, among the Jews and the heretics, that is, among the anxieties of this age, which prick the mind and the spirit of man. We can take it also otherwise: that as the lily stands out among thorns, so the Church of God shines above all assemblies.

It is worth considering also that this lily 1873Cis compassed about with splendour, but that what it has within is red, and this too of good odour; in that the flesh of Christ, hedged about as it were with the moral brightness of the Godhead, had the protection of heavenly grace. And indeed in the latter parts he says: My kinsman is white and red (Cant. V, 10) [Vulg. Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus, "My beloved is white and ruddy"]: white with the brightness 1561 divine, red with the appearance of human colour, which he took up in the sacrament of the incarnation. And deservedly that also which is red smells well, because the flesh of Christ is without sin — which the faithless, in handling, defiled their own hands; the saints, in venerating, were fragrant with the odour of piety.

The Lord Jesus received this odour of his fragrant Church, and says: Behold my neighbor is good. And the Church says to Christ: Behold thou art good, my kinsman, behold thou art good, as an apple among the trees of the wood. 1873DA most beautiful comparison! For what could be said more beautifully or more aptly than that she should compare the bridegroom to an apple tree? For a fruit of this kind has a pleasing odour, so that it surpasses the fragrance of the other fruits. And Christ, fastened to the wood, like an apple hanging on the tree, poured out the good odour of the world's redemption, which wiped away the heavy stench of sin, and poured forth the ointment of a life-giving draught.

As an apple, he says, among the trees of the wood, so is my cousin in the midst of the sons; in that above 1874Athe prophets and apostles he soothed the inmost hearts of men with the sweetness of his words. But not only odour, but also sweet food is in the apple: therefore Christ is sweet food.

In his shadow I have desired, and sat down; for she had received the law, this she followed, this way she ran: resting therefore in the law, she was resting in the shadow of Christ. Good is the shadow which defends us from the sun of iniquity! And to whom is it a doubt that the law of God is the shadow of Christ? What is the law of the feast day, of the new moon, of the sabbaths, if not a shadow of things to come? What days are they according to the law of Moses: That I may see six days, and again the seventh day, and so perpetual ages? What month is there according to the law of Moses, that, knowing the month, I may know the first new moon of the month, and the things truly holy which are to be offered on the new moons? What year is there according to the law of Moses, 1874Bconsisting of those six days of which he says: Six years shall the Hebrew serve, and in the seventh year he shall be set free (Deut. XV, 12) [Vulg. serviet tibi sex annis: in anno septimo dimittes eum liberum, "he shall serve thee six years: in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free"]; so that there be found six years in which a man works the land, but in the seventh year he releases it to the strangers, and to the poor, and to the beasts of the earth? What is the seventh year, in which all debts are remitted to the Hebrews?

In this shadow rested the faith of the Fathers, the holy devotion of the prophets. Say therefore, O religious congregation or holy soul: In his shadow I have desired, and sat down. A shadow is the jubilee year: for who sees its mystical things, so as to know face to face those things which were prescribed by the Law to be fulfilled in the five hundredth year? Shadows are the feast days according to the Law, from the first month, from the tenth day of the month unto the fourteenth, 1874Cand thence unto the twenty-first of the month. What shadow is that celebration between the first and the seventh month, at that nameless season? A shadow is the sanctified liberty on the sabbath. A shadow is the feast day of the new moon of the seventh month, and the memorial of the trumpets, the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of propitiation. Thou seest that the monad and the decad are two feast days. Likewise the fifteenth day, the day of the Tabernacles through eight days: in shadow are all these things. In shadow is the first day so called, and the eighth day so called is in shadow, which things are prescribed for the feasts of tabernacles according to the Law.

Set before me some of those who believe out of the circumcision, learned in the Law, men of careful observance, and now enlightened by the acknowledgment of the Gospel, fattened with spiritual grace: in these the Church speaks, which sees Christ, 1874Dwhich receives the bridegroom, which is fed with his food: In his shadow I have desired, and sat down, and his fruit is sweet in my jaws. What is his sweet fruit, if not the preaching of the Lord's passion? as he himself says: Behold the inheritance of the Lord, sons; the reward, the fruit of the womb (Psal. CXXVI, 3). For what fruit can be sweeter in our jaws than the remission of sins?

And his fruit is sweet to my gutluri. There is a spiritual manna, that is, a rain of spiritual wisdom, which is poured from heaven upon the ingenious and upon those who seek, 1875Aand bedews the minds of the pious, and sweetens their jaws: he therefore who has understood the infusion of divine wisdom is delighted, and seeks no other food, nor lives on bread alone, but on every word of God. He who is more curious asks what that is which is sweeter than honey: the minister of God answers him: This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. What this bread is, hear: The Word, he says, which God ordained. 1562 This ordinance of God therefore, this nourishment, feeds the soul of the wise man, and enlightens and sweetens it, shining with the flash of truth, and soothing as with a certain honeycomb, so by the sweetness of divers virtues and by the word of wisdom. For the honeycombs of honey are good words, as it is written in the Proverbs [Vulg. Prov. 16:24 Favus mellis composita verba, "Well-ordered words are a honeycomb"]. Therefore, when it has tasted the fruit of sweetness, impatient, it hastens on to more perfect things, saying: 1875B

(Vers. 4-7.) Bring me into the house of wine, set love in me, strengthen me with ointments, hedge me about with apples; for I am of wounded love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and strengths of the field, if ye shall rouse and rouse up again love, until she will [Vulg. Cant. 2:4–7 Introduxit me in cellam vinariam, ordinavit in me caritatem. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore langueo… Adjuro vos, filiae Jerusalem, per capreas cervosque camporum, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, quoadusque ipsa velit, "He brought me into the wine cellar… Prop me up with flowers… because I languish with love… I adjure you… by the roes and harts of the fields, that ye stir not up, nor awake the beloved, till she please"]. Rightly does she seek him, rightly does she desire him; because our commander has well disposed all things in this course and journey. First of all he judged that this tent must be strengthened upon the foundation of faith. Then, if any lodging of ours is rough and dry and steep, yet that Commander of ours parts asunder the troubled things, waters the dry, makes fruitful the deserts. If there is anything of bitterness, anything of temptation, anything of weakness, our leader both tempers the bitter things, 1875Cand mitigates the anxious; he loosens hard things and strengthens them into strong.

Wherever the king of the earth wills his army to rest, he appoints no ignoble village, none lacking in supplies, no sandy and bare places of growth: but a city noble in buildings, restored and rich in stores, or a pleasant field, or one green with pastures, or wooded and level places convenient for a standing camp. If therefore the kings of the earth know how to provide advantages for those who follow them, how much more does God, who is good, know how to dispose things profitable for those who love him? And first, if an unknown road must be taken, guides of the ways are chosen, who run before the column; but these commanders reckon this an injury to themselves: God, however, went before, when the Hebrews made their journey; and indeed he spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. And that thou mayest know 1875Dthat he went before, God, he says, went before them: by day indeed in a pillar of cloud, showing them the way; but by night in a pillar of fire, and the pillar of cloud did not fail by day (Exod. XIII, 21 et 22) [Vulg. Exod. 13:21–22 Dominus autem praecedebat eos ad ostendendam viam… Numquam defuit columna nubis per diem, "And the Lord went before them… Never did the pillar of cloud fail by day"]. Following this pillar going before us, which does not fail lest she herself should fail, the Church was refreshed by its shadow; and therefore she says: In his shadow I have desired, and sat down, and his fruit is sweet in my jaws (Sup., v. 3); because she was fed by the Lord, and led into the place of pastures and the water of refreshment. 1876A

Bring me into the house of wine. Out of the supplies made ready, she seeks to go forward to another lodging, in which she may take the grace of the mysteries and the sweetness of gladness. Hence too, advancing on the true way, she says: Order love in me. Good standing camps, where there is the fullness of charity. Charity cannot be without faith; for there are as it were three sureties of the Church: hope, faith, charity; when hope has gone before, when faith has been founded, charity is set in order, the Church is joined.

Strengthen me, she says, with ointments, hedge me about with apples. Thou hast other lodgings, to which the Church succeeds with delight. These lodgings are of the cross of Christ and of the burial, in which the Church is wounded, but with the wound of charity; for it is a wound that Christ received, but it is ointment that he poured out. 1876BIt is an apple that hung; this apple the Church has tasted, and says: And his fruit is sweet in my jaws. And that thou mayest know that the Lord is an apple, thou hast read above: As an apple among the trees of the wood, so is my cousin. We too confess a wound, when we preach Christ crucified, but we are a good odour to God; because the cross of Christ is to the Jews a scandal, to the Greeks foolishness, but to us the power of God and wisdom. With this wound the Church is wounded, when she preaches the death of her Saviour, but this wound is of charity. And indeed he who believes not, denies: he who loves, confesses. The Manichean denies, the Christian confesses; and therefore it is written: More useful are the wounds of a friend than the willing kisses of an enemy (Prov. XXVII, 6) [Vulg. Meliora sunt vulnera diligentis quam fraudulenta oscula odientis, "Better are the wounds of one who loves than the deceitful kisses of one who hates"]. Beautifully therefore the Church says: For wounded with charity 1876Cam I.

Let us bare our members to the good wound, let us bare them to the chosen arrow: this arrow is Christ, who says: He has set me as a chosen arrow (Esai. XLIX, 2); it is good therefore to be wounded with this arrow. This advance is not of a middling lodging; not all can say that they are wounded with love. 1563 The apostles said it, when they were stoned for Christ and preached Christ: Paul said it, when he was beaten thrice with rods, and disputed day and night that Christ was to be adored by the nations: the martyrs say this, who are wounded for Christ; and because they have deserved to be wounded for his name, they love the more. Coming therefore to this lodging, to this advance, that she may offer her sons for Christ, that she may take upon her the wounds 1876Dof charity, the Church, finding as it were the good nourishments of faith, has herself tasted the fruits of piety, and has begun to exhort the rest, saying: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. And the Church added, saying:

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. And these lodgings belong to the Church as she walks upon the royal way; For there are many mansions with my Father (Joan. XIV, 2). The Lord Jesus bears witness: And behold I come, and summon you (Ibid.). Good is the lodging of wisdom, and whether in her left hand or in her right, it is a good lodging; because it is the royal way. And therefore 1877Athe wise messengers say: By the royal way will we go; we will not turn aside to the right hand, nor to the left, until we pass thy borders (Num. XX, 17). This the messengers sent by Moses said to the king of Edom, that is, to the earthly king; because all earthly things, whether on the right or on the left, are evil. An evil lodging is folly, an evil lodging is intemperance; and therefore the Hebrew passes through these lodgings: he does not turn aside to them, but passes through, that he may come to the left hand of wisdom and to her right, and abide in these, where are the riches of simplicity, where glory, where length of life is. For length of life is in her right hand, as Solomon says: and in her left hand riches and glory (Prov. III, 16) [Vulg. Longitudo dierum in dextera ejus, "Length of days is in her right hand"]: in the right hand is life, in the left rest. Would that I might rest upon her left hand, and not seek pillows! For woe to them who 1877Bsew pillows, Ezekiel says (Ezech. XIII, 18) [Vulg. Vae quae consuunt pulvillos sub omni cubito manus, "Woe to them that sew cushions under every elbow"]. These lodgings the good leader prepares for his Church, and by the ways of wisdom he directs her journey. And indeed the wise man praises her ways: Her ways are good ways, and all her paths are in peace (Prov. III, 17) [Vulg. Viae ejus viae pulchrae, et omnes semitae illius pacificae, "Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths peaceable"].

His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. These things the bride speaks concerning Christ, the soul concerning the Word of God: but Christ is the same as the Word of God and wisdom. Blessed therefore is the soul whom wisdom embraces. Great is the hand of wisdom, great her right hand; she embraces the whole soul; for she is wholly fortified who is betrothed to the Word of God. For the fullness of wisdom is to fear God: the soul therefore which fears God fortifies itself with a full defence. Wisdom sends her left hand under her neck, 1877Cand her right hand into her embrace. Both her arms indeed are stretched out unto useful things; yet the several hands of wisdom have their own proper gifts: In the right hand is length of life, in the left hand riches and glory. With good gifts assuredly is her hand endowed on both sides; yet they have herein a variety of their own office, that they comprehend both present and future times; so that the left hand is the rewarder of present things, the right of things to come.

We can know this also from the prophecy of the holy patriarch Israel; for when he had set his right hand upon Ephraim, and his left upon Manasseh, and Joseph had wished to change them out of consideration of their age, so that he might place the father's right hand upon the head of Manasseh the elder son, he would not, and said: I know, son, and this one also shall be for a people, and this one shall be exalted, 1877Dbut the younger brother shall be greater than he (Genes. XLVIII, 19) [Vulg. Scio, fili mi, scio: et iste quidem erit in populos, et multiplicabitur; sed frater ejus minor major erit illo, "I know, my son, I know: and this one indeed shall be for peoples, and shall be multiplied"]. In what greater? In this surely, that he was preferred in the blessing, since those who came after said of Ephraim: God make you as he made Ephraim and Manasseh (Ibid., 20) [Vulg. Faciat tibi Deus sicut Ephraim et sicut Manasse, "God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasses" — singular]: or because his seed is a multitude of nations, which in this world chose labour, believing in the Lord Jesus, that it might have the consolation of things to come. But the seed of Manasseh is the people of forgetfulness, which, having forgotten its own author, has been exalted for a time in this world, and shall pay heavy penalties for the rest; because it denied its own God and Lord. 1878A

We have said this in order to prove that those things are preferable which are to come. And indeed the left hand of wisdom is under the head of the bride, but the right hand is higher, which embraces the whole bride. And so that hand is as it were the prop of present quiet, upon which the soul, leaning, rests. She has where to lay back her head, because the left hand of wisdom is riches and glory. For that season these things soothe, and are in part a solace; and therefore: The Son of man had not where to lay back his 1564 head (Matth. VIII, 20); because, when he was rich, he was made poor (II Cor. VIII, 9) [Vulg. quoniam propter vos egenus factus est, cum esset dives, "because for your sakes he became needy, whereas he was rich"]. Nor did he seek any glory of this world; because he had come, not to succour a portion, but the whole human race, saying: Ye are angry with me because I made a whole man sound on the sabbath (Joan. VII, 23). that is, wholly — not that he might enrich him 1878Bby the bestowal of substance, not with the marks of honours, not that he might heap him up with an increase of worldly glory; for these things have not the fullness of blessedness and of grace: but wholly, that is, so as to embrace the length of eternal life. For the life which is in the right hand of wisdom is not like the common life, but is length of life, so that he who receives life from wisdom may obtain not scantiness of life, but perpetuity and the length of eternity.

A good garment is the eternity of life. And so the bride, upheld by the riches of pomegranates, that is, of divers and innumerable fruits, and chiefly by the odours of faith, of grace, of wisdom and of glory and of eternal life, which are about the left hand and the right hand of the bridegroom, rouses Christ through holy souls by the applause of the congregations that praise him, 1878Csaying:

I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers from the strengths of the field, if ye shall rouse and rouse up again love, until she will. That field which the Lord blessed is not this earthly one, either bristling with woods, or broken with torrents, or useless for vines, or stony with barren gravel, or gaping and dry with drought, or wet with blood, or uncultivated with brambles and thorns; but that field of which the Lord says: And the beauty of the field is with me (Psalm. XLIX, 19). In this field is found that grape which, being pressed, poured out blood and washed the world: in this field is that fig tree under which the saints shall rest, refreshed by the sweetness of spiritual grace: in this field is that fruitful olive tree, flowing with the ointment of the Lord's peace: in this field flower 1878Dthe pomegranates, which cover very many fruits under one defence of faith, and cherish them with a certain embrace of charity.

Since therefore wisdom and honourable brightness are so far perfect, if they have charity (for the fullness of the law (Rom. XIII, 10) is charity), she wills charity to be roused and roused up again: to be roused in the Old Testament, to be roused up again in the New. Charity is God, as we read; charity is Christ (I Joan. IV, 8) [Vulg. Deus caritas est, "God is charity"]. He is roused as a lion, and a lion's whelp; that he may go up out of the seed of Judah (Gen. XLIX, 9) [Vulg. Catulus leonis Juda: ad praedam, fili mi, ascendisti, "Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up"]: he is roused up again as 1879Aone sleeping, as one reclining; because he was raised from the dead not by a human majesty, but by his own and his Father's. Whence Scripture says: Who shall rouse him up? For neither an angel nor an alien Power could rouse him, since he himself was rousing others. Therefore when he here says: If ye shall rouse and rouse up again love, until she will; he speaks of those who can fittingly preach his resurrection, so as to kindle in their hearers the ardour of faith and of devotion: or Christ is roused in those who first come to him, and roused up again in those who, after they have come, have slept. Christ therefore sleeps for the negligent, and is roused in the saints.

This charity therefore she rouses and rouses up again, until she receive his voice and summon his presence: because, being sought, he not only comes, but even 1879Bcomes leaping. But by now the bridegroom was at hand, so as to prove that which, while we are yet speaking, he says: I am here. He is present, because he is roused by the daughters of Judah, as it were roused up again by the daughters of Jerusalem. The Church hears the sound of his voice, and says:

(Vers. 8.) The voice of my cousin: behold, here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills [Vulg. Vox dilecti mei; ecce iste venit saliens in montibus, transiliens colles, "The voice of my beloved; behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains"]. This book is like a maniple, having many noble persons, as it were a triumphal maniple, and signifying many acts, which we can rather understand than hold expressed. For, as though she had heard the bridegroom coming and collonquentem with certain who were journeying along with him, the bride says: The voice of my cousin. While she speaks with the daughters of Jerusalem, and asks that they stir up and rouse up again the bridegroom, suddenly, perceiving as it were the sound of a voice sent 1879Cfrom afar, she says: The voice of my cousin, announcing him whom before she was seeking to have announced to her. Him whom she desired to be roused by others, believing him now, roused up again by her own prayer, to be coming from the Father, she gladly says: The voice of my cousin. Well did she add, my cousin; that no other women, but she alone, his cousin, might claim his coming for herself. 1565

Behold, she says, he is come [Vulg. Cant 2:8 ecce iste venit, "behold, he cometh"]: still am I seeking him, and he has already come; still am I catching at intercessions that he may come, and he is already near at hand; I long for charity to be roused up in me, I deem myself wounded of charity, and charity herself hastens to me the more. I said, Come; he leaps and leaps over. I ask him to come with grace; he works increases of graces; and while he comes, he carries increases of grace with him, 1879Dand by coming he acquires, because he too is eager to please his own beloved. He leaps upon the high places, that he may ascend to the bride; for the bride's marriage-chamber is the tribunal of Christ. He leaps upon Adam, he leaps over the Synagogue; he leaps upon the Gentiles, he leaps over the Jews.

Let us see him leaping He leaps from heaven into the Virgin, from the womb into the manger, from the Jordan into the cross, from the cross into the tomb, into heaven from the sepulchre. Prove to me, David, that he leaps; prove that he runs. For thou hast said: He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way. His going forth is from the height of heaven, and his meeting even to the height thereof; and there is none that can hide himself from his heat (Psal. XVIII, 6 et 7). And now he leaps, and now he runs, from 1880Athe heart of the Father upon his saints, from the East upon the West, from the North upon the South. This is he who ascends above the sunset, he himself above the heavens of heavens toward the East, he himself ascends above the mountains, he himself above the hills.

Would that I, wretched man, might say it, and that my soul might say: Behold, he is come, and he is come not upon earthly things, not upon the valleys, but he is come Leaping upon the mountains [Vulg. Cant 2:8 saliens in montibus, "leaping in the mountains"]; for God is the God of mountains, not of valleys: where therefore he leaps, he leaps upon mountains. If thou be a mountain, he leaps upon thee; he leaps upon Isaiah, he leaps upon Jeremiah, he leaps upon Peter, John, James. The mountains are round about him (Psalm. CXXIV, 2): if one cannot be a mountain and thou dost not prevail, be at least a hill, that Christ may ascend upon thee; and if he leaps over, that his passing may guard thee. 1880B

We have spoken of Christ and the Church; let us speak of the soul and the Word. The soul of the just man is the bride of the Word. If she should desire, if she should long, if she should pray and pray unceasingly, and pray without any disputing, and stretch herself wholly toward the Word: suddenly she seems to hear the voice of him whom she does not see, and in the fear of her senses she recognizes the odor of his divinity, which those who believe well for the most part experience. Suddenly the nostrils of the soul are filled with spiritual grace, and she feels the breath of his presence breathe upon her, of him whom she seeks, and she says: Behold, this is the very one whom I seek, the very one whom I desire.

Is it not so, that when we ponder something out of the Scriptures and cannot find the explanation of it, while we doubt, while we seek, suddenly he seems to us to ascend, as it were, upon the mountains, that is, upon the loftiest doctrines. 1880CThen, appearing to us as it were upon the hills, he enlightens the mind, that he may pour into our senses what seemed difficult to be found: and so the Word becomes, as it were from absent, present in our hearts. And again, when something is somewhat obscure to us, the Word is as it were withdrawn, and we long for the coming of him as though he were absent; and again he appears, he shows himself to us as though he were present with us in the knowing of those things which we seek.

He leaps, then, often in the heart of each one; he leaps over and goes out and returns: if thou shouldst follow, if thou shouldst seek, if by the welcome disputation of faithful teachers thou shouldst beg that the Word which had gone out and had passed over be raised up again for thee. Like her who sought and found, who said: My brother has passed by, my soul went out at his word (Cant. V, 6) [Vulg. at ille declinaverat atque transierat; anima mea liquefacta est, ut locutus est, "but he had turned aside and passed on; my soul melted when he spoke"]. Therefore even if he leaps upon the mountains, follow; even if 1880Dupon the hills, follow. For there are found on the mountains and on the hills the hunters of the Lord, who track out those who are taken for life; for thus God said through Jeremiah: Behold, I send many fishers and many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill (Jerem. XVI, 16) [Vulg. de omni monte et de omni colle, "from every mountain and from every hill"]. There, then, let the people of God be sought and found in the doctrine, the grace, the discipline of Peter and of Paul; that they be not in the deep valley, where there is weeping, but on the mountains from which Christ enlightens each man. And when we read Peter, Christ enlightens; and when we read Paul, Christ enlightens. Paul healed, Christ enlightened; for when the name of the Lord Jesus had been invoked, he rose again, by whose gift he was made 1881Awhole. Peter raised up a dead woman, Christ enlightened; and therefore he says: Thou dost enlighten wonderfully from the everlasting mountains (Psal. LXXV, 5).

We therefore who cannot be mountains, let us stand 1566 on the mountains or on the hills; so that when the Lord shall have sent his fishers and hunters to hunt those who are upon every mountain, or upon every hill, that is, in the precepts of the law and of the prophets, and who have all their conversation in the knowledge of the New and the Old Testament, they may find us ready and may gather us like good ears of corn, reapers sent at the opportune season; because if anyone shall have been found outside the mountain or the hill, he will not be able to be gathered as a good ear by those who, that we may make mention of another comparison, shall be sent to separate the wheat 1881Bfrom the chaff. The Lord therefore has skilled ministers of very many operations: the same are fishers, the same also are hunters, and reapers. If in the time of harvest, at which these are directed to reap, thou shouldst wait ripe, thou wilt be able to behold him leaping upon the mountains, and thou wilt see the Lord Jesus like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. For he leaps upon the Church, which is the house of bread, in that he strengthens the hearts of the faithful; whence the bride also says of him:

(Vers. 9.) My cousin is like a roe or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bethel; [Vulg. Cant 2:9 similis est dilectus meus capreae hinnuloque cervorum, "my beloved is like a roe and a young hart," with no mountains of Bethel] for he leaps upon the Church, which is the house of God, in that he strengthens the hearts of the faithful. Rightly, like a little roe, because the goat is pastured in high places. She is called dorcas from seeing, 1881Cfor the dorcadion is of keener sight. What is fitter to Christ than this, who saw the Father whom no one has seen, or, if anyone has seen him in Christ, the Son himself revealed him? Rightly like a young hart: the fawn is as it were a son, in whom the force of the paternal nature has grown, so that hidden things do not lie concealed from him, serpents flee, poisons do not harm. Accordingly the serpent, led forth out of his lurking-places, who was being led forth out of the man, said: Why hast thou come before the time to torment us (Matth. VIII, 29). Let us therefore gaze upon this leaping fawn, that we may not be able to fear the serpent.

Behold, he himself stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, peering through the nets. [Vulg. Cant 2:9 prospiciens per cancellos, "looking through the lattices"] He comes, then, and first is behind the wall, that he may loose the enmities of soul and body, the wall being taken away which seemed to bring a hindrance 1881Dto concord. Then he peers through the windows: what the windows are, hear the Prophet saying: The windows are opened from heaven (Esai. XXIV, 18) [Vulg. Isa 24:18 cataractae de excelsis apertae sunt, "the floodgates from on high are opened"]. He signifies therefore the prophets, through whom the Lord looked upon the human race, before he himself came down to the earth. And today too, if any soul seeks him much, she will merit much of mercy; since to him who seeks much, much is owed. If therefore any soul should seek him more earnestly, she hears his voice from afar: and although she seeks him from others, she hears his voice before those very ones from whom she seeks. She sees him coming to her with a leap, that is, hastening and running 1882Aand leaping over those who with feeble heart cannot take in his power; then peering through the riddles of the prophets, by reading them and holding fast their words; for she sees him peering, but as it were through a window, not as though he were yet present. She sees him raised above the nets. What is this? Unless perhaps because those nets are nets to us, they are not nets to him, in that that soul is still within things sensible and worldly, which are wont to catch the mind of man and to wrap it in a certain fold of their own.

Behold, he himself stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, peering through the nets. [Vulg. Cant 2:9 prospiciens per cancellos, "looking through the lattices"] For the Church, or the soul of the just man, had seen him leaping like a fawn upon the mountains, and, first catching sight of him suddenly behind the wall of her house, peering through the windows, 1882Braised above the nets, she exults and rejoices, because she too is loved by the Bridegroom. And he, as though he himself also were wounded by the beauty of charity, when at first he was away from his beloved, was present at her asking for kisses (for he is asked when it is said (Cant. I, 1): Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth ); then did not spurn the prayers and blandishments of the bride as she offered him her breasts; and kindly led her into the inner parts of the house; then, playing as with a wanton love, because he wished to try the senses of her who loved him, going out often that he might be sought by the Bride, returning often that he might be invited to kisses, stood behind the wall, peered through the windows, raised above the nets; that he might neither be wholly absent, nor as it were wholly enter in, and that he himself might call the bride to himself; that the exchanges of coming to one another might become the more welcome, and that they might kindle love 1882Cwith mutual words. 1567

(Vers. 10.) Rise up, he says, come, my neighbor, my well-formed one, my dove; [Vulg. Cant 2:10 surge, propera, amica mea, columba mea, formosa mea, et veni, "arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come"] and thou too, if thou hast a wall well founded, not that middle wall which divides the members of one house, but one built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, so that its framed structure may grow into a temple, and may not sever its inner parts but fortify them. If therefore thou hast in thee the building of God, and thy windows stand ever open toward the East, the Word comes, He stands behind thy wall (Cant. II, 9); for the eyes of the Lord are upon the just (Psal. XXXIII, 16); he peers through thy windows (Cant. II, 9).

What are these windows? We read of the windows of which Jeremiah says: Death has entered through the windows 1882D(Jerem. IX, 21) [Vulg. quia ascendit mors per fenestras nostras, "for death is come up through our windows"], through which avarice entered, lust entered. Thine eye is a window. If thou hast looked upon a woman to lust after her, death has entered through thine eye: if thou hast looked upon a widow's estate, or the treasures of a minor, and hast stirred up thy covetings, Death has entered through the window. As therefore death enters through these, life enters too: if, looking upon the comeliness of a consecrated girl, thou reverencest the Lord Jesus, in that the age of old age has come into her tender years, a life unspotted, and thou thyself offerest thy daughter, that she may be consecrated with the holy veil; if thou lookest upon a minor's estate not like an anxious invader, but guardest it like a diligent parent with religious 1883Aaffection: through these windows Christ peers, that he may call the bride.

Raised above the nets: rightly raised; because he alone is the one whom the nets of sins have not enwrapped. We were all within the nets, nay rather we are still within the nets; because no one is without sin save Jesus alone, whom, knowing no sin, the Father made sin for us; for indeed he delivered him to the snares, delivered him to the nets: sending him not in the sin in which all men were, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, that of sin he might condemn sin in the flesh. The flesh was sin, according to that saying, because it had been condemned by a hereditary curse; sin was the enticement and the handmaid of sin. The Lord Jesus came, and in flesh liable to sin he practiced the warfare of virtue: our members 1883Bhave been made now no longer weapons of lust, but weapons of virtue; for where the incitements of lust were, there now are the dwellings of chastity. Here therefore he came to the snares, but willingly: he came to the nets, but secure. All things were full of nets, crammed with snares; hear him who says: In this way wherein I walked, the proud have hidden a snare for me (Psal. CXLI, 4) [Vulg. Ps 141:4 in via hac qua ambulabam absconderunt laqueum mihi, without superbi, "the proud"]. And in the book of the wisdom of Sirach thou art admonished to know that thou walkest in the midst of snares (Eccli. IX, 20). As many vices, so many nets: as many sins, so many snares.

Already the hereditary bonds held thee; Jesus came to the snares, that he might loose Adam: he came to set free what had perished. We were all held by the nets, no one could rescue another, since he could not rescue himself. Such a one therefore was needful, whom the chains of human generation, liable to offenses, 1883Cwould not hold, whom avarice had not taken, whom guile had not bound. That one alone was Jesus, who, though he had surrounded himself with the bonds of this flesh, was not captured, was not fettered: but bursting them and dissolving them, he called the Church the more to himself, Peering through the snares, raised above the nets; that she too might learn not to be held by chains. In fact he was so far from being far from the chains, that for us he underwent even death, yet not made a slave of death, but free among the dead; for he was free who had the power of loosing death. In fine, let him himself teach thee who says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again (Joan. II, 19) [Vulg. John 2:19 et in tribus diebus excitabo illud, "and in three days I will raise it up"]. Let us hear, then, what he says:

(Vers. 11 - 13). Rise up, come, my neighbor; that is, rise from the dead, rise up from the chains by which thou wast held 1883Dencompassed. Rise up, for I have risen again for thee: loose the bonds of iniquity, for I have already loosed them for thee: come, for already the nets are loosed, the Virgin has borne, a child is born of a virgin, he owes nothing to the inheritance of woman, as the son of a woman he is not held: behold the middle wall of the enclosure now loosed, which divided the concord of the inward affections, and stirred up in diverse directions the dissensions of bodily passions. Come therefore secure; I long to see thy face and to hear thy voice: come, that thou mayest no longer see me through nets, but, beloved, mayest enjoy face to face the countenance of thy lover.

And let these things be run through thus far in the moral sense. But those 1884Amystical things, if we can, let us behold at least in their outermost line. The Bride was sitting within the house, devoted to the Lord, within the wall of the Law and 1568 of the prophets, founded upon a building of spiritual stones, which shut in and walled about the royal house, full of delight and gladness. She marveled at the royal treasures, and gazed upon them anxiously, longing to take to herself the wisdom which might show her these riches. She was in secret, but she was seeking the interpreter of that very secret. The Lord Jesus came, leaping upon the mountains. To us he seemed to come late, but he was hastening. He was leaping, in fine, and leaping over, that he might leap over the bodily and stony doctrines of the Jews. He stood behind the wall of the house which was in the Old Testament, peering through the window of the Law and the caverns of the prophets. 1884B

Not yet were the vestibules of that house open, not yet had the keys of wisdom laid open the barriers of the gates by which the inner parts of the Law were shut; yet from the higher part, that is, the spiritual part, looking forth he calls the Church, that she, rising sublime through the Law and the prophets to the summit of the Gospel, may tread with fearless foot upon the nets and the knots of Jewish interpretation. And therefore she is called Neighbor, that she may cleave to Christ and not seek worldly things: therefore Well-formed, that she may bear the shapely feet of those who preach the Gospel: therefore Dove, that she may seek spiritual things and leave earthly things behind.

Behold, he says, the winter is past, the rain is gone, it has departed to itself, flowers have been seen in the earth, the time of cutting is come. [Vulg. Cant 2:11-12 jam enim hiems transiit; imber abiit, et recessit. Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra; tempus putationis advenit, "for now the winter is past; the rain is gone and departed. The flowers have appeared in our land; the time of pruning is come"] Before the coming of Christ it was winter: Christ came, he made summer. Then all things were destitute of flowers, 1884Cbare of virtues: Christ suffered, and all things began to be made fruitful with the buds of a new grace. The rain of overflowing wantonness is gone, and the clouds risen from foul disgraces are now dispersed in the summer serenity of a pure conscience. Therefore they do not escape whose flight is made in winter; because they do not follow the passion of the Lord, they do not take up their cross, and they follow Christ.

Rain hinders flowers: but now flowers are seen in the earth. Good flowers are the apostles, who poured out the fragrance of their diverse writings and works. The time of cutting is come, when ripe grain is stored in the barns; and he who reaps receives a reward. The voice of the turtledove has been heard, because she has found a nest for herself; for the Church is the house of chastity. The fig tree, which for its unfruitfulness was ordered to be cut down, has now begun to bear fruit. 1884DThe vine carried over out of Egypt, destroyed by the casting down of its walls, is now not assailed by beasts; nor is it unshapely with brambles, but now fragrant with flowers.

Rise up, he says, come, my neighbor, my well-formed one, my dove, my perfect one; neighbor indeed by the desire of faith, well-formed by the comeliness of virtue, dove by spiritual grace; for the wings of the dove covered with silver signify that eternal power, and the flight of the dove declared the presence of the Holy Spirit. Christ therefore calls her to himself that she may come, since she was already coming endowed with spiritual dowries. For behold, he says, the winter is past, the rain is gone, it has departed 1885Ato itself, flowers seen in the earth. See in what manner the holy Church is invited. The winter, he says, has departed to itself, lest, being naked, she dread the winter, a winter not of the season but of infirmity, which strips the fruitful field of the soul of every flower. For there is a winter not of the earthly sun, there is a winter of the mind, when cold glides into the soul, when the warmth of the spirit fades away, when the vigor of sense is loosened, when excessive humour overflows and weighs down the mind, when the inward sight grows dark. And therefore the Lord says: See that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath (Matth. XXIV, 20) [Vulg. Matt 24:20 orate autem ut non fiat fuga vestra in hieme vel sabbato, "but pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath"]; for it is good that the day of judgment or of death should come then, when the kindly temperateness of the soul is in vigor, when the heavenly mystery shines back with serene light, when our heart burns within us. For then Christ is present, as Ammaon and Cleophas testify 1885Bin the Gospel, saying: Was not our heart burning within us in the way, when he had opened the Scriptures in us (Luc. XXIV, 32). And the soul is in vigor when the flower too is seen in the earth. Who is this flower of good fragrance, save he who said: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys (Supra, vers. 1): of whom also it is written in Isaiah: A rod shall go forth from the root of Jesse, and a rod shall ascend from the root, and a flower shall go forth from the rod (Esai. XI, 1) [Vulg. Isa 11:1 et egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet, "and there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root," with no middle member]. The root indeed is the family of the Jews, the rod is Mary, the flower of Mary is Christ: and when he shines forth in our earth, and is fragrant in the field of the soul, or blooms in his own Church, we can neither fear cold nor dread rain, but may await the day of judgment. And therefore the Church, that she might see this flower, was hastening with all zeal, as she herself testifies 1569 1885Cin what follows, saying: In the bed by nights I sought him whom my soul loves (Cant. III, 1) [Vulg. Cant 3:1 in lectulo meo per noctes quaesivi quem diligit anima mea, "in my little bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth"].

The fig tree has put forth its green figs. The comparison of that tree is apt for the Synagogue, because just as that tree, overflowing with flowing leaves, disappoints the hope of its owner by an empty expectation of the yields that were hoped for: so also in the Synagogue, while its teachers, unfruitful in works, glory only in words as in overflowing leaves, the empty shade of the Law prevails; and the hope of a false yield, once awaited, mocks the prayers of the believing people.

There is also in the nature of the tree that whereby thou mayest the more believe that the likeness of the Synagogue is expressed by comparison with it. For indeed, if thou inquire diligently, thou wilt find the habit of this tree's nature distinct from the practice of the rest; 1885Dfor others bear the flower before the fruit, and mark out the apples that are to come by the flower that heralds them: this one alone from the beginning buds forth apples in place of flowers; in the others the flower is shaken off and the apples are born, in this one the apples fall off, that apples may succeed them. Therefore those earlier ones, void of fruit, come forth in the place of the flower: thus, by a certain premature habit of being born, they that know not the order of nature cannot keep the benefit of nature. For indeed where the bud is wont to thrust itself out from the middle of the bark, there each of the tiniest apples of this kind breaks forth: concerning which we read in the Song 1886Aof Songs: The fig tree has put forth its green figs. And so, while the other shoots whiten in the first spring, the fig alone knows not how to grow white with a flower of its own; perhaps because there is for these no riper use in their apples. For when others succeed, which are spat out as though degenerate, and the weak root being dry, they are stripped away, those being renewed whose sap is more serviceable. Yet some very few remain, and do not fall, upon which this yield has smiled, so that they push forth from the middle of two twigs by a short tendril breaking out, whereby, covered by twin defenses, as though in the lap of nature their parent, they grow up by the fostering of a fuller sap. These, called forth by the mildness of a gentler air, and grown to maturity through longer seasons, when they have put off the wild temper of their former sap, are preferred to the rest in appearance and in the grace of ripeness. 1886B

Look now upon the observances and the minds of the Jews, who, as it were the first fruits of the ill-bearing Synagogue, fell after the likeness of what is slipping away, that apples of our kind, destined to abide beyond the age, might succeed them. For indeed the first people of the Synagogue, weak as it were with a dry root of works, could not draw in the richness of natural wisdom. And therefore it fell like useless fruit, that as it were from the same tendrils of a fruitful tree, out of the richness of the ancient religion, the new people of the Church might come forth. Therefore he who was ceased to be, that this one might begin who was not: yet the first out of Israel, whom the branch of a stronger nature had lifted up, under the shadow of the Law and of the cross, colored in the bosom of each by a twin sap, after the pattern of the ripening green fig, surpassed the rest in the grace of most beautiful fruits, to whom 1886Cit is said: You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matth. XIX, 28) [Vulg. Matt 19:28 sedebitis et vos super sedes duodecim, "you also shall sit upon twelve seats"].

The vines in flower have given their fragrance (Sup., v. 5). Well is the Church designated by the vine; for as the vine is wedded to trees, so the body is joined to the soul, and the soul also to the body: as the vine, while it is bound, is raised up, and when cut back is not diminished but increased; so the holy people, while it is bound, is stripped: while it is humbled, it is lifted up: while it is cut back, it is crowned. Nay more, as a tender shoot, cut off from the old tree, is grafted into the offspring of another root: so this holy people, the scars of the old shoot being smoothed away, grows up cherished in that new sign of the cross as in the lap of a devoted parent; and the Holy Spirit, poured into this prison-like body, as though let down into deep 1886Dtrenches of the earth, washes away by the watering of the water of salvation whatever is foul, and raises the bearing of our members into heavenly discipline.

This vine the diligent husbandman is wont to dig, to water, to strive over; and, the mounds of earthy mass being cleared away, he is accustomed now to scorch the works of our body with the sun, now to drench them with rain, and to hem the field close, lest the bud be hurt by brambles, lest the shade of the leaves run riot, and lest the unfruitful boasting of words, by overshadowing the virtues, hinder the ripeness of the natural disposition. 1887A

(Vers. 14.) And come, he says, my dove, in the covering of the rock, beside the outwork; [Vulg. Cant 2:14 columba mea in foraminibus petrae, in caverna maceriae, "my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the wall"] that is, come beside the Gospel: the bulwarks of thy faith are the deeds of Christ; the supports of thy wall 1570 are the words of the Lord; the passion of the Lord's body is thy strength.

Show me thy face, and make thy voice known; for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely. [Vulg. Cant 2:14 sonet vox tua in auribus meis: vox enim tua dulcis, "let thy voice sound in mine ears: for thy voice is sweet"] Sweet is thy voice; for with the mouth confession is made unto salvation: and comely the face; because she who is not ashamed of her author is not confounded at her Redeemer. She shows therefore her face, bearing before her the seal of the cross; and she makes her voice known, taking up the authority of preaching. For by the covering of the body of Christ, whereby he was redeemed from sin, he finds the defense of spiritual grace, so that he may both perceive and speak the things that are for his salvation. Sweet 1887Btherefore is the voice, which spoke in the divine testimonies: Comely the face, which was not confounded in the sight of kings.

Rise up, he says, come, my neighbor; that is, rise up from the delights of the world, rise up from earthly things, and come to me, thou who still labourest and art laden, thou who art anxious for the things that are of the world: come above the world, come to me, for I have overcome the world: come near to me, now beautiful with the comeliness of eternal life, now a dove, that is, gentle and meek, now wholly full of spiritual grace. Rightly therefore she ought no longer to fear the nets, since he calls the soul to himself who could not be caught by the temptations and the nets of the world. For since we men walk in the midst of snares, through the appetite for food we are liable at once to nets and to snares. 1887CHe, set in a body, did not fear the nets, but was raised above the nets, that is, above the temptations of the world and the passions of the body; nay, he made others also to be raised above them.

Rise up, come, my neighbor, fear not the nets, already the winter is past. The passover is come, indulgence is come, the remission of sins is come, temptation has ceased, the rain is gone, the storm and the buffeting are gone. Before the coming of Christ it was winter; after the coming of Christ there are flowers, whence he says: Flowers have been seen in the earth. Where before there were thorns, there now are flowers. The time, he says, of cutting is come. Where before there was desert, there is harvest. The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land: well did the prophet add our, as though marveling, that where before there was shamelessness, there is chastity. The fig tree has put forth its green figs. 1887DShe who as unfruitful was ordered to be cut down has now begun to bring forth fruit. But why dost thou doubt, because he said green figs? He shakes off the earlier ones, that he may bring forth later and better ones: as the fruit of the Synagogue is cast away, but that of the Church is renewed.

And although there is full tranquillity, and the mysteries have grown to their strength, yet again he says: Rise up secure in the covering of the rock, that is, safe by the protection of my passion and by the defense of faith. For they sucked honey out of the rock and oil out of the firm rock. Clothed with this covering, the souls of the pious are no longer naked, and this is their 1888Aoutwork. And therefore to this soul also he says: And come thou, my dove, in the covering of the rock beside the outwork: show me thy face, and make thy voice known. He exhorts her to confidence, that she be not ashamed of the cross of Christ, nor of its seal. He exhorts her to confession; he wills that all snares be removed, that the good fragrance of faith may breathe, that the day may shine, that the shadow of the hostile night may not harm; since he who is beside Christ says: The night is passed, and the day has drawn near (Rom. XXIII, 12). There is also a shadow of worldly things which passes away, and the day of heavenly things is Christ, who shines for his saints.

(Vers. 15.) Take for us the little foxes that destroy the vines, that our vines may flower. [Vulg. Cant 2:15 capite nobis vulpes parvulas quae demoliuntur vineas: nam vinea nostra floruit, "catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines: for our vineyard hath flourished"] Scripture calls him a man who is after the image and likeness 1888Bof God; but the sinner it is wont to call not a man, but either a serpent, or a horse neighing after females, or a little fox, or a beast of burden. Of one of these the Lord says: Go, tell that fox (Luc. XIII, 32), that is, of Herod. And elsewhere, when he perceived that he was being questioned deceitfully, he said: The foxes have dens, and the birds of heaven nests, where they may rest (Matth. VIII, 20) [Vulg. Matt 8:20 vulpes foveas habent, et volucres caeli nidos; Filius autem hominis non habet ubi caput reclinet, "the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head"]; in that they linger deceitfully in certain lurking-places of earthly passions.

Whence Samson too bound foxes to himself two by two, to whose tails he tied torches, and sent them out through the harvests of the Allophyli (Judic. XV): signifying by this figure that wicked and deceitful men, and most of all heretics, have a tongue free for barking, but that their outcomes are hindered, or their beginnings quarrelsome, 1888Cwhile the end of their fraud is assigned to burning. And therefore he sent out three hundred foxes also, in that the faithless do indeed desire to commend themselves by the preaching of the cross, but cannot hold its mystery: they who, by this 1571 preaching made up, and false and feigned, attempt rather to burn up the fruits of others, whereas assuredly the true cross of the Lord does not burn up the merits of others, but makes them fruitful.

And deservedly is it written: Take for us the little foxes that destroy the vines, that our vines may flower. By which it is shown that either the Lord Jesus or the Church commands that the wiles of the deceitful be driven out from his vines, lest they harm the tiny vines, since they cannot harm vines already grown up. For a heretic can tempt the imperfect; he cannot supplant 1888Dthe perfect.

(Vers. 16.) My brother is mine, and I am his. [Vulg. Cant 2:16 dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi, "my beloved to me, and I to him"] This is the voice of a virgin; for to keep the body unspotted from mingling with a man, and, in a body of clay, to bear up the palm of chastity by the guardianship of integrity even to the converse of angels, is a private benefit and a public praise. How rare on earth is he who can say this, how estranged from vices, how set apart from every stain of sin, who has nothing in common with the world, saying: My beloved is mine and I am his, he shall abide in the midst of my breasts. [Vulg. Cant 1:12 inter ubera mea commorabitur, "he shall abide between my breasts" — the second member of the printed lemma follows this verse rather than 2:16] That is to say, let him claim nothing 1889Aof this world for himself, one who has no possession of bodily desires, whom lust does not inflame, avarice does not goad, wantonness does not unman, excess does not discolor, ambition does not lay low, envy does not waste, no care of secular business makes anxious: a true minister of the altar, born for God, not for himself; for Levi, as the interpretation has it, signifies: He himself taken up for me; it signifies: And he himself is mine; it signifies also merely: Taken up; it signifies: And taken up for me.

The very same man is Levi both for me and for God. How the same is a priest both for me and for God. And he is both my advocate and the Lord's intercessor: offering sacrifice for me, and the same man offering himself to the Lord. In fine, elsewhere too by the interpretation of Levi it is said, For me; for indeed if Levi be named by me, Levi is for me: if he offer for me, 1889Bhe is for me: if he intercede for me, he is for me: but if he be called by the Lord, he is said to be mine: that is, tributary to no other, tithe-paying to no other, bountiful to no other out of a possession. He himself is mine, that is, as one abounding in place of all his own goods. From him I seek no tithes, no fruits, no gifts, no offerings; he himself is to me in place of an offering, he himself in place of tribute. Not bountiful to me in his own possession, but he himself is my possession, he himself my fruit, he himself my understanding. Taken up by me, or taken up for me: this cannot be without divine grace. For as a possession cannot be mine unless I have bought it, so he cannot be Levi unless he has been taken up by the Lord; for when he has been taken up, rightly is it said, he himself is mine. In fine, when it had been said to Moses that he should divide the dwelling-places among the people of the Jews tribe by tribe, 1889Cand should distribute a portion to each several tribe, God excepted the Levitical tribe, saying to the sons of Levi: He shall have no portion, nor lot in the midst of his brethren; because the Lord God is their part (Deut. X, 9) [Vulg. Deut 10:9 non habuit Levi partem neque possessionem cum fratribus suis, quia ipse Dominus possessio ejus est]: and elsewhere: I the Lord am their portion (Num. XVIII, 20) [Vulg. Num 18:20 ego pars et hereditas tua in medio filiorum Israel, "I am thy part and inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel"].

An earthly division is denied to these, that they themselves, while they claim no secular portion for themselves, may become the possession of the heavenly one; or that they may know how to possess this only, that is, the obedience of faith and of devotion, being far richer than those who spread out the ample expanses of their possessions. For however far they extend their boundaries, both the land fails and the sea shuts in their mad desires, and they pay tributes greater than their fruits are. But this man, possessing nothing, serves as a soldier to none but God; his portion is above the earth, 1889Dit does not fail with the earth, it is not shut in by the sea. He whose portion is God is possessor of the whole of nature. In place of fields, therefore, he is enough for himself, having a good fruit which can never perish. In place of houses it is enough for him to be the dwelling of the Lord and the temple of God, than which nothing can be more precious. For what is more precious than God? Or what is lacking to this man who can say: Let it not befall me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Galat. VI, 4) [Vulg. Gal 6:14 mihi autem absit gloriari nisi in cruce, "but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross"] ?

The prince of this world cannot claim 1890Afellowship for himself in this man, in whom he finds nothing of his own. And therefore the Lord, who came to teach that God should become our portion, says: For the prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing (Joan. XIV, 30) [Vulg. John 14:30 et in me non habet quidquam, "and in me he hath not any thing"]. And deservedly, willing them to be imitators of himself, he says: Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money (Matth. X, 9). Whence Peter, showing that his portion was in God, not in the world, says: Silver and gold I have not, but what I have, 1572 this I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk (Act. III, 6) [Vulg. Acts 3:6 argentum et aurum non est mihi, "silver and gold I have none"]; that is, this is my portion, my portion is Christ: In the name therefore of Christ Jesus rise up and walk (Ibid). That is, in my portion I am rich, in my portion I am powerful. Deservedly do I look for such fruits of that portion, that health and life may be given; because this is the patrimony of that portion which I have chosen for myself: My beloved is mine, 1890Band I am his.

Who is pastured among the lilies. The lily signifies chastity. The good shepherd therefore knows where he may pasture his flock, what fodder is fit for his sheep. What are our pastures, that is, the pastures of the faithful, save Christ? In whose pastures the Prophet rejoiced that he was set, saying: In a place of pasture, there he has set me (Psal. XXII, 2); for there he pastures and refreshes us. Good pastures are the divine sacraments. There thou pluckest the new flower, which has given the good fragrance of the resurrection: thou pluckest the lily, in which is the splendor of eternity: thou pluckest the rose, that is, the blood of the Lord's body. Good pastures too are the books of the heavenly Scriptures, in which we are fed by daily reading, in which we are restored and refreshed; when we taste the things that are written, 1890Cor more often chew over what we have sipped with the edge of the lips. By these pastures the flock of the Lord is fattened. Good pastures of Christ too are the mountains of the valleys; for in these also Christ pastures like a roe or a young hart, that is, in the splendors of the saints.

(Vers. 17.) Until the day breathe, and the shadows decline. Zacchaeus climbed up into a sycamore tree that he might see Christ: for us too Jesus spread out his hands, that he might overshadow the whole world. How are we not in the shadow, we who are protected by the veil of his cross? How are we not in the shadow, whom the crucified defends from the malice of the world and from the burning of the body? Or do we not know that the Word of God, coming into this world, did not come as the Word. Such as it was in the beginning, such as it was with God: but he emptied 1890Dhimself, taking the form of a servant (Philip. II, 7). He came in a light cloud, and since he was the power of the Most High, he overshadowed Mary; that he might transfigure the body of our lowliness, to be made conformable to the body of his glory. As he therefore changed his form when he was born of the Virgin, so to us also the words of God seem to be transfigured when they are read in the Gospel, when their appearance is seen in the Scriptures as through a mirror; because the whole truth cannot be grasped here, but when that which is perfect shall have come, they shine forth no longer through examination, not through appearance as transfigured, but in whole and expressed truth. 1891A

Let him therefore bend the soul with the yoke of the Word, and rule it with his reins, that by the will of God it may be led away from vices and take in the fragrance of eternal life; for this life is not the perfect life, but this life is in shadow. Therefore, that Christ Jesus might be born a man of the Virgin, the power of the Most High overshadowed her who was to be his mother; because he came down in shadow, beginning from shadow to work the salvation of man, and about to complete it in the brightness of the eternal sun. This life, then, is a shadow. Hasten to the sun, that he may defend thee from the cold of this shadow, and pour over thee the warmth of summer. And therefore he urges that prayer must be made that our flight be not in winter or on the sabbath, not signifying a season and a day, but forbidding us to be cold in merits and to be fasting from good works.

1891B(Vers. 1.) In my bed, in the night I sought him whom my soul loved: I sought him and I found him not. I will rise up therefore, and will seek in the city, in the forum, in the streets, him whom my soul loved. [Vulg. Cant 3:1-2 in lectulo meo per noctes quaesivi quem diligit anima mea… surgam, et circuibo civitatem: per vicos et plateas quaeram, "in my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth… I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek," with no forum] This soul had already received the good pledges of charity; but because we ought always to be anxious, always intent, and because the Word of God leaps forth like a little roe, or like a young hart, let the soul be always watchful, and hold out before her him whom she seeks and whom she longs to hold. Therefore, as though lamenting that he had slipped away from her, In my bed, she says, by nights I sought him whom my soul loved. Let him who seeks well seek in the bed, seek by night: let there be neither a day of rest nor nights of it; let no time be empty of the duty of piety; and even if he has not found at the first, let him persevere in seeking. And therefore she says:

• 1891C

(Vers. 2.) I will rise up therefore, and will seek in the city, in the forum, in the streets. And perhaps she has not yet found him for this reason, that she sought in the forum, where lawsuits are; in the streets, where the markets of things 1573 for sale are; for Christ is not purchased with money. Let holy devotion suffer no time of preaching to pass by empty. If those who study secular teachings indulge very little in sleep, how much more ought those who long to know God not to be hindered by the sleep of the body, save so far as is enough for nature? David washed his bed with tears through the several nocctes, and rose also in the middle of the night that he might confess to the Lord: and dost thou think that the whole night is to be assigned to slumber? Then the more must the Lord be prayed to by thee, then must protection be sought and fault be guarded against, when it seems to have secrecy. 1891DThen most of all, when darkness is round about me and walls cover me, must it be considered that God beholds all hidden things. Say not therefore, wrapped about with darkness: Who sees me? And whom do I fear, hedged in and shut up by walls? Because The face of the Lord is upon them that do evil (Psalm. XXXIII, 17). In fine, if thou seest no witness, dost thou not see thyself? Dost thou not fear the testimony of thine own conscience? Dost thou not know that that gloom of night is not a covering but an incitement of sin? When bodies grow hot with sleep and food, then too the vigor of the mind is loosened by slumber, is dissolved by sleep. Then 1892Athe lust of impure embrace creeps in, then the heart is troubled with the squalor of uncleanness, chastity is not seen, purity is not considered, the glory of modesty is not reckoned.

It was night when Judas betrayed, when Peter denied. At that time therefore especially must the justifications of God be woven over again in the mind, and the exhorting commandments be read again: let those precepts concerning chastity not be absent, so that the mind, occupied with these, may quench the blaze of lust, the burning of the flesh. Hold that in mind: I will wash my bed every night (Psal. VI, 7). For who, given over to debauchery, wrapped up in disgraces, washes his bed every night? He knows not how to weep who commits what must be wept for; and though he himself is a thing to be wept over, he has no tears for his own punishment. But he who chastises his body, and is an anxious governor of himself, and, groaning and 1892Bgrieving over the offense of a former fall, seeks how he may wash it away with the weeping of penitence, this man washes his bed every night. Let us not therefore sleep whole nights through, but let us assign the greatest part of them to reading and to prayers. Hear the voice of the Church seeking Christ even by night: In my bed, she says, by nights I sought him whom my soul loved.

Take it according to the letter, that she sought by night by praying, by beseeching, and also by lamenting with tears. She sought by night; because He made darkness his hiding-place (Psal. XVII, 12), that we might learn to seek him more anxiously. The Church gathered out of the nations therefore sought him in the prophets, and therefore believed. In fine, the Evangelists and Paul set down testimonies of the Lord's coming out of the prophets, whence it is written 1892C: For night unto night showeth knowledge (Psal. XVIII, 3). She sought by night, in persecutions and adversities, in tribulations and hard sorrows. It is night for all for whom there is no perfect security; whence the Lord says: The night will come when no man can work. While I am in this world, I am the light of this world (Joan. IX, 4) [Vulg. John 9:4-5 venit nox, quando nemo potest operari. Quamdiu in mundo sum, lux sum mundi, "the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world"]. Let us not therefore work in darkness; for if our works shine, we do not work in darkness, but in light.

It is day for those to whom Christ is present, it is night for those to whom he denies himself. It is no great thing for thee if thou give thanks to the Lord then, when thou art in prosperity and in favorable things: but if thou cleave to Christ then, when a persecutor harries thee, when some storm troubles thee. Hast thou lost a son? In that grief, in that night, in that destitution, remember the Lord thy God; lest, as one not heard, 1892Dthou be ungrateful and transgress in thine affliction. Hast thou been driven into exile? Remember the Lord thy God, lest thou prefer the love of a fatherland forbidden thee before God. Crushed by the power of some rich man, hast thou lost thine own means, dost thou lack the wherewithal to live? Remember the Lord thy God, lest the night of want lead thee away from the affection of devotion. For this is the commandment of the Law, that thou seek the more by night, when thou art the more heard by the Lord, and mayest be able to say: In tribulation I called upon the Lord, and the Lord heard me in a broad place (Psal. CXVII, 5).

But neither does it suffice for grace to seek perfunctorily, 1893Abut that thou press on and bend thyself to the task. In fine, this Church or soul, who sought in the bed, sought by night, did not find at the first; because perhaps she sought in the bed. 1574 But after she rose and went away into the city (see whether it be into that city in which the Lord, about to celebrate the passover, sent his disciples, saying (Matth. XXVI, 18): Go into the city to a certain man ), after she sought, as I have said, in the forum, where oil is sold, which those awaiting the Bridegroom are wont to buy; where right is, where the laws are. For if the law is spiritual, the forum too is assuredly spiritual, where those skilled in the eternal law dispute. Which forum is not tumultuous with lawsuits, but glorious with the tribunals of Christ. Where did she seek, I say? In the forum, and afterward she sought in the streets, out of which were gathered those who were to come together to the banquet of the householder of 1893Bthe Gospel: who, being called, did not think that they should excuse themselves from such a feast. After she sought, I say, in the forum and in the streets, she fell in with those who go about the city, and then at last she was able to find what she was seeking; perhaps because, set in tribulation and fear, she the more finds grace. In fine, she says afterward:

(Vers. 3.) They found me who go about the city; they took away my cloak. [Vulg. Cant. III, 3 Invenerunt me vigiles qui custodiunt civitatem; the taking of the cloak stands at Cant. V, 7] She had a struggle, then: but by what reasoning they did not take away her cloak here, I am at a loss to find out; unless perhaps because there she said that she had asked: Have you seen him whom my soul has loved? She who was speaking Christ, nex was not stripped of her cloak, and she found him whom she was seeking. Learn in what manner Christ is sought: by those, surely, who do not seek him perfunctorily, but hold him fast 1893Cby force, as she does who says: I held him and I will not let him go, who found him with faith and bound him fast with meditation.

If we take them for good guards, they are certainly angels. But he who passed beyond the angels. Found the Word; and therefore there was not much of an interval, when he passed beyond these and found Jesus. How then did they take away her cloak below, unless perhaps because, by the advance of an offense against faith, the Church, while she is stripped bare, is the more loved by the Lord, putting off from herself the old man that she may put on the new, whom sins do not cover but the hidden things of the mind make bright; or because, being about to come to Christ, she laid aside the mantle of worldly wisdom? And he was not stripped of his cloak, after he had begun to be more perfect.

Let us therefore be mindful of the heavenly ordinances of justification; that while we sing them with the hidden voice of the mind, we may be mindful 1893Din the night of the name of the Lord, and may say as it is written: This was made mine, because I sought out thy justifications (Psal. CXVIII, 56); that is, this remembrance was made mine, that I might be mindful even in the night of thy name, not lulled asleep by drunkenness, not loosed into slumber by feasting, not taken up with worldly cares, lest forgetfulness of the reverence owed to thee should creep upon me: but chastening my members by daily meditation, and exercising the intention of the mind; so that by constancy this course may become a solemn one for us, so that we may reverence the Lord Jesus with our whole affection even in the nights.

In my chamber, in the nights I sought him whom 1894Amy soul has loved. [Vulg. In lectulo meo per noctes quaesivi quem diligit anima mea] We can understand it in this way as well. He seeks Christ in his bed who seeks him with tranquillity, with peace. He seeks in the nights, since he was speaking in parables; for He hath set indeed darkness for his covert, and night sheweth knowledge unto night (Psal. XVII, 12). Then, because the things which we say in our heart ought to prick us in our beds.

But even so she did not find him, and therefore she says: I will rise up, that is, I will raise and lift up my intention, that I may seek untiringly, may seek anxiously: I will go into the city. There is also a soul which says: I am a fortified city, I am a besieged city (Esai. XXVII, 3). [Vulg. Isa. XXVII, 3 Ego Dominus qui servo eam] There is a city fortified through Christ; there is that city Jerusalem in heaven, in which the interpreters of the divine law abound, and men skilled in the disciplines, through whom the Word of God is sought. 1894BI will seek, she says, in the forum of that city, in that forum where those learned in the law handle rights, where the oil is sold which the Gospel virgins buy, that their torches may always shine, and that the smoke of iniquity may not put them out. I will seek, she says, in the streets in which the waters overflow, bursting out from those fountains of which Solomon says that one must drink.

They found me, she says, the guards who go about the city. While therefore she seeks Christ, she finds the guards who are in ministry; from these she asks: Have you seen him whom my soul loves? But the soul which seeks God passes even the guards by. For there are mysteries which even the angels long to see, whence Peter says: They were announced, he says, to you by those to whom they preached the gospel, the Holy 1575 Spirit having been sent from heaven, 1894Cupon whom the angels long to look (I Pet. I, 12). [Vulg. per eos qui evangelizaverunt vobis … in quem desiderant angeli prospicere]

(Vers. 4.) How little a while after I had passed beyond them, I found him, I held him, and I did not let him go. [Vulg. Cant. III, 4 Paululum cum pertransissem eos, inveni quem diligit anima mea] Therefore he who has passed beyond the guards has found the Word. John passed beyond them, who found the Word with the Father. There are also many others who seek Christ in leisure and do not find him; and they seek him in persecutions, and they find him. And therefore, as if after temptations — because he is present in the perils of his faithful ones — How little a while, he says, after I had passed beyond them, I found him, and I held him, and I did not let him go. For everyone who seeks, finds; and he who has found ought to cleave to him, lest he be able to lose him.

And since through the Gospel we see the heavenly mysteries figured upon earth, let us come to Magdalene, 1894Dlet us come to the other Mary. Let us consider in what manner they sought Christ in the nights, in the chamber of his body in which he lay dead, when the angel said to them: You seek Jesus who was crucified: he is not here, for he is risen: why then do you seek the living with the dead (Matth. XXVIII, 5 et seq.)? [Vulg. Matth. XXVIII, 6 ends surrexit enim, sicut dixit; Quid quaeritis viventem cum mortuis stands at Luc. XXIV, 5] Why do you seek in the sepulchre him who is already in heaven? Why do you seek in the bonds of burial him who looses the bonds of all men? Not the sepulchre but heaven is his seat; therefore one of them said: I sought him, and I did not find him (Cant. III, 1). Yet while they go to bring word to the apostles, Jesus, having pity on those who sought him, met them, saying: 1895AHail. But they came near, and held his feet, and adored him.

Jesus therefore is held, and is delighted to be held so, because he is held by faith. In short, that woman also delighted him who touched him and was healed of the flow of blood, of whom he said: Someone has touched me; for I feel that power has gone out from me (Luc. VIII, 46). [Vulg. nam ego novi virtutem de me exiisse, "for I know"] Touch him therefore, and hold him by faith, and clasp his feet faithfully; that power may go out from him to heal thy soul. And if he say: Do not touch me; do thou hold him. For I have not yet ascended to my Father, he said (Joan. XX, 17). Once he said: Do not touch me, when he had risen: or perhaps he said it to her who thought that he had been carried off by theft and not raised up again by his own power. In short, in another book thou hast it that to those holding his feet and adoring him he said: Do not 1895Bbe afraid (Matth. XXVIII, 10).

Hold him therefore, thou also, O soul, as Mary too was holding him, and say: I held him, and I will not let him go: to whom both of them were saying, we hold thee. Go to the Father, but do not forsake me, lest I slip again; and with Mary, who does not stray but holds the tree of life, snatch up with thee her who clings to thy feet. I will ascend with thee, do not let me go, lest again the serpent pour out his venom, lest again he be able to bite the woman's heel, that he may supplant Adam. Let thy soul therefore say: I hold thee, and I will bring thee into the house of my mother, and into the secret place of her who conceived me (Cant. III, 4); that I may know thy mysteries, that I may drink in thy sacraments.

I held him, nor will I leave him, until I bring him into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her 1895Cwho conceived me. [Vulg. Cant. III, 4 in cubiculum genitricis meae, "into the chamber of her that bore me"] What is the house of my mother and her chamber, but the inward and hidden part of thy nature? Guard this house, cleanse the inner rooms of this house, so that when the house has been unstained, and defiled by the filth of no adulterous conscience, a spiritual house may rise up, framed together upon the corner stone into a holy priesthood, and the Holy Spirit may dwell in it. She who seeks Christ thus, who thus entreats Christ, is not left by him: nay rather, she is even visited again and again.

Or the house of the mother is perhaps the house in which the discipline of morals shines out: while that secret place is the one in which are the higher mysteries, in which the honey of divine grace gives out its fragrance. Or is not the remission of sins sweeter than all honey? Is not the resurrection of the dead floregratior than every one? Receive then Eve, no 1895Dlonger covered with the leaves of the fig tree, but clothed with the Holy Spirit, and glorious with new grace; because now she is not hidden away as one stripped bare, but comes to meet us as one surrounded with the splendour of a shining garment, because grace clothes her: yet neither was Adam naked at first, when innocence clothed him. And so the daughters of Jerusalem, seeing her clinging to Christ and still ascending with him (for he deigns often to meet those who seek him, and to come down, that he may lift them up), say:

(Vers. 6.) Who is this that ascends from the desert? 1896ABe thou like that soul which stirs up in itself the charity of Christ, at whose ascent the powers of the heavens marvel; that she ascends without stumbling 1576 and ascends out of this world with gladness and delight, like the shoot of a vine, and lifts herself like smoke to the things above, fragrant with the odour of a holy resurrection and with the sweetness of faith, as thou hast it written: Who is this that ascends from the desert, like the shoot of a vine, made odorous with the smoke of incense, with myrrh and frankincense, out of all the powders of the ointment. [Vulg. sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhae et thuris et universi pulveris pigmentarii] Beautifully has he expressed her fineness by the comparison of powder and by the mention of ointment; because in Exodus we read of a fine incense compounded of many things, that this is the prophetic incense which is the prayer of the saints, that it may be directed in the sight of the Lord, as David also says: Let my prayer be directed as incense in 1896Bthy sight (Psalm. CXL, 2).

Who is she that ascends from the desert? This desert appears as a place of earth and untilled, overgrown with the briars and thorns of our offenses. They marvel, plainly, how the soul which before was being left in hell should cleave to the Word of God, and should have ascended like the shoot of a vine, raising herself into the higher regions, like smoke born of fire and seeking the heights, and should moreover be fragrant with good odours. And that odour of holy prayer breathes out a sweetness which is directed as incense in the sight of the Lord (Psal. CXL, 2). And in the Apocalypse we read that The smoke of the incense went up from the prayers of the saints (Apoc. VIII, 4). which are offered as incense through the prayers of his angels, namely upon that golden altar which is before the seat of God. And it is fragrant like the sweet 1896Cointment of holy entreaty; because it is compounded out of the asking for eternal and invisible things, not for bodily ones: yet chiefly it smells of myrrh and frankincense, in that she is dead to sin and lives to God. Whence also in what follows: I will go, he says, for myself to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. There follows:

(Vers. 7.) Behold, sixty mighty men round about her shoot, armed with drawn swords, and trained in the disciplines of war. [Vulg. Cant. III, 7–8 En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt ex fortissimis Israel, "sixty valiant men surround Solomon's bed"] Consider who these strong men are, and trained in the disciplines of war. It belongs to a strong and churchly man not to dissemble when something threatens, but to look out ahead and, as it were, to scout from some watchtower of the mind, and to meet with provident thought the things that are to come; lest afterwards he say: I fell into this because I did not think it could happen. In short, unless adverse things are scouted out, 1896Dthey quickly overtake us. As in war an unforeseen enemy is scarcely withstood, and if he finds men unprepared he easily overwhelms them: so evils unexplored break the mind the more. In these two things, then, lies that excellence of mind: first, that thy mind, exercised in good thoughts, may see with a clean heart what is true and honourable: for Blessed are the clean of heart, because they also shall see God: and that it may judge that alone to be good which is honourable. Then, that it be disturbed by no occupations, that it waver with no covetous desires. 1897A

Nor indeed does anyone do this easily: for what is so difficult as to look down, as from some citadel of wisdom, upon riches and all the other things which seem to most men great and lofty? Then, that thou shouldst confirm thy judgment by settled reason, and despise the things thou hast judged trifling as things that will profit nothing? Then, that if anything adverse should befall, and be thought grievous and bitter, thou shouldst bear it in such a way as to think that nothing has happened contrary to nature, since thou hast read: Naked was I born, naked shall I go out: the things which the Lord gave, the Lord has also taken away (Job. I, 21); [Vulg. Job I, 21 Nudus egressus sum de utero matris meae, et nudus revertar illuc] and he had indeed lost both his sons and his goods: and that in all things thou shouldst keep the character of a wise and just man, as he kept it who said: As it pleased the Lord, so it has been done, blessed be the name of the Lord (Ibid.). And below, Thou hast spoken as one of the foolish women: if we have received good things 1897Bfrom the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear the things that are evil (Ibid., 2) ? [Vulg. Job II, 10 si bona suscepimus de manu Dei, mala quare non suscipiamus?]

The fortitude of the mind, therefore, is no middling thing, nor one set apart from the rest, that it should wage war with the virtues; but it is that which alone defends the ornaments of all the virtues, and guards their judgments, and which contends in inexpiable battle against all vices, unconquered in labours, brave in dangers, more rigid against pleasures, hard against enticements, to which it knows not how to lend an ear, nor (as the saying is) to bid them hail; which neglects money, flees avarice as a kind of stain that unmans virtue; for nothing is so contrary to fortitude as to be overcome by gain. Often, when the enemy has been driven back and the line of the adversaries turned to flight, while the fighter is taken up with the spoils of the slain, he has fallen, a man to be pitied, among the very men 1897Cwhom he laid low: and legions cast down by their own triumphs, while they are busied with the 1577 spoils, have called back upon themselves the enemy who had fled.

Let fortitude therefore drive back and trample down so monstrous a pest, and let it not be tempted by covetous desires, nor broken by fear; because virtue is consistent with itself, so that it pursues all vices bravely, as the poisons of virtue. Let it drive off anger as with certain weapons, since anger takes away counsel, and let it shun it as a sickness. Let it beware also of the appetite for glory, which has often done harm when sought too immoderately, but always when usurped. For to be softened by flattery seems not only not to belong to fortitude, but even to belong to cowardice. Seeing in the spirit the camp of these strong men, Jacob said: These are the camps of God (Gen. XXXII, 2). 1897D

But what are the sixty? We know that the hebdomad belongs to the Old Testament, and the ogdoad to the New — namely when Christ rose again, and the day of the new salvation shone upon all: on which day the brightness of the full and perfect circumcision poured itself into human breasts. Now seven and eight make fifteen. These, then, are the seven and the eight, that is, the fifteen, for which Hosea hired the harlot whom the Lord had commanded him to hire. And so the hebdomad and the eighth signify the consummation of the two Testaments 1898Aand the fullness of faith: while the number fifteen taken four times, which is sixty, signifies the perfection of the Gospel.

But what is the shoot round about which these mighty men are? Nephthalim, he says, a vine let loose, putting forth beauty in its bud. [Vulg. Gen. XLIX, 21 Nephthali, cervus emissus, "a hind let loose"] One branch of the vine is cut away which seems useless, lest the vine run to waste in an empty exultation of branches, and another is pruned back a little and let loose, that it may bear fruit, whose beauty is put forth in its bearing; because while it lifts itself to the things above it embraces the vine, and climbing to the top it clothes the necks of the vines' yoke-poles with a certain necklace of precious shoot. That one too is comely in its bearing, because with full shoots it pours out many fruits. This is comely, but that other is far more beautiful, which signifies the shoot 1898Bclinging to the spiritual vine, of which we are the branch, and we can bear fruit if we remain in the vine; but if not, we are cut off. The holy patriarch Nephthalim was an abounding shoot, whence Moses also says: Nephthalim, the satisfying of those who receive, shall be filled with blessing from the Lord: he shall possess the sea and the south-west wind (Deut. XXXIII, 23); [Vulg. Deut. XXXIII, 23 mare et meridiem possidebit, "shall possess the sea and the south"] explaining what Jacob had said, what a vine let loose is, that is, one stripped of the bonds of death through the grace of faith: in which is signified the people of God, called to the liberty of faith and the richness of grace, spread through the whole world, which clothes the yoke of Christ with good fruit, and encircles the wood of that true vine, that is, the mysteries of the Lord's cross, and does not fear the peril of confessing him: but rather, even when set in persecutions, glories in the name of Christ. 1898C

Now these strong men hold swords in their hands, which they do not refuse for the name of Christ, or by which they distinguish bodily things from spiritual, the shadow from the truth. For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and of the marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart: and there is no creature invisible in his sight, but all things are naked and open to his eyes (Hebr. IV, 12 et 13). For the word of God is a sword twice sharpened. There are also two other swords in the Church, of which it is said: Lord, behold, here are two swords, namely of the churchly power and of the worldly, against which a false mercy fights.

There is a just mercy: but there is also an unjust 1898Dmercy. In short, it is written in the Law concerning a certain man: Thou shalt not have mercy upon him (Deut. XIX, 13). And in the books of Kingdoms thou readest that Saul incurred offense for this reason, that he had mercy on Agag the king of the enemy, whom the divine sentence had forbidden to be kept alive (I Reg. XV, 9). So that if anyone, moved by the pleading of a robber's children and bent by the tears of his wife, should think that he ought to be acquitted, while the desire of robbing still pants within him: will he not hand over the innocent to destruction, who sets free a man who is plotting the destruction of many? Assuredly, if he holds back the sword, looses the chains, 1899Arelaxes the exile; car why does he not take away, by the gentler road that lies open to him, the power of robbing, he who could not wrest away the will? Then, between two men, that is, an accuser and a defendant contending at equal peril of life — the one if he did not prove his case, the other if he were not convicted by the accuser — let not the judge follow that 1578 which belongs to justice; but while he has mercy on the defendant, let him condemn the man who proves the charge: or while he favours the accuser who cannot prove it, let him cast off the guiltless. This therefore cannot be called a just mercy.

In the Church itself, where it is most fitting to show mercy, the form of justice ought to be kept as strictly as possible, lest anyone who has been kept back from the fellowship of communion should, by a brief little tear made ready for the moment, or even by more abundant weeping, wring out through the easiness of the priest 1899Bthe communion which he ought to ask for over a very long time. Does he not, when he indulges one unworthy man, cause very many to be drawn on to the contagion of falling? For easiness of pardon supplies an incentive to offending. This has been said for this reason, that we may know that mercy is to be dispensed to debtors according to the word of God, according to reason: but otherwise let the sword carry out what belongs to it.

(Vers. 9, 10.) King Solomon made himself a bed out of the woods of Lebanon; he made its pillars of silver, its headrest of gold, its ascent of purple, its back strewn with jewels. [Vulg. Cant. III, 9–10 Ferculum fecit sibi rex Salomon, "a litter"; and Vulg. has nothing answering to dorsum ejus gemmis stratum] What is this bed, but the appearance of our body? For in jewels the air is displayed under the appearance of brightness, in gold fire, water in silver, earth by wood; of which four elements the human body consists, in which our soul reclines, 1899Cif it be not without rest upon the roughness of the mountains or upon the dry ground; but, raised on high above the vices, may rest propped upon the wood. Whence David also says: May the Lord bring help to him upon the bed of his sorrow (Psal. XL, 4); for how can there be a bed of sorrow, when that which has no feeling cannot feel sorrow? Now a body of sorrow is like a body of death: Unhappy man that I am! who will free me from the body of that death (Rom. VII, 24)? [Vulg. Rom. VII, 24 de corpore mortis hujus, "of this death"]

And since we have brought in a verse in which we have made mention of the Lord's body, lest perhaps it disturb any reader that the Lord took upon himself a body of sorrow, let him remember that he both sorrowed over the death of Lazarus and wept, and in the passion was wounded, and from the wound blood and water came out, and he breathed out his spirit (Joan. XI, 35). Water for the washing, blood for 1899Ddrink, spirit for the resurrection. For Christ is to us one hope, faith, charity: hope in the resurrection, faith in the washing, charity in the sacrament. Yet as he took upon himself a body of sorrow, so also he turned the couch in infirmity; because he turned it to the advantage of human flesh: for by the passion infirmity was loosed, death by the resurrection. And nevertheless you ought to mourn for the world and to rejoice in the Lord: sorrowful unto penitence, eager unto grace — although the Doctor of the Gentiles has laid it down by a saving precept that we must both weep with them that weep and rejoice with them that rejoice (Rom. XII, 15). 1900A

He strewed the midst with charity, for the daughters of Jerusalem. Who are these daughters? It ought not to be hidden that those seem superior who are generali beforehand, and weaker those who come afterwards. For the birth-throes of this world are compared to the womb of a woman; since those are stronger who were born in the strength of youth, weaker those born in the time of old age. For this world has failed in the multitude of its begetting, like the womb of one giving birth, and like an aging creature it lays down the strength of its youth, as though the vigour of its powers were now withering. These, then, are the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the more tender and weaker souls: to these he shows himself, that his image may shine in their confession, may shine in their love, may shine in their works; and, if it can be done, that his whole form may be expressed in them.

1900BThese daughters of Jerusalem, therefore, seeing the bride ascending and not resisting, and delighted by the odours of her merits, recognizing also that she is the bride of that peaceable Solomon, follow after her with sedulous escort as far as the bed of Solomon: because true rest in Christ is due to her. For the bed of the saints is Christ, in which the hearts of all men, wearied by the battles of the world, find rest. In this bed Isaac rested, and blessed his younger son, saying: The greater shall serve the lesser: reclining in this bed Jacob blessed the twelve patriarchs: reclining in this bed the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue rose from death: lying in this bed the widow's only son, who had died, loosed the bonds of death when called by the voice of Christ. The bride, therefore, having been brought as far as the rest of the bridegroom, they sing the marriage 1900Csong, saying to the daughters of Jerusalem:

(Vers. 11.) Go forth and see upon king Solomon the crown with which his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals. [Vulg. Cant. III, 11 in diademate quo coronavit illum mater sua in die desponsationis illius] They sing the epithalamium, and call the other powers of the heavens, or 1579 the souls, to see the charity which Christ has toward the daughters of Jerusalem. Whence he also deserved to be crowned by his mother as the son of charity, as Paul shows, saying: Because God has rescued us from the power of darkness, and has carried us over into the kingdom of the son of his charity (Coloss. I, 13). [Vulg. Col. I, 13 in regnum filii dilectionis suae, "of the son of his love"] And so the son of charity is himself also charity: not having charity from accidents, but having it by his own substance, like the kingdom of which he says: For this was I born (Joan. XVIII, 17).

And therefore he says, Go forth, that is, go out from the 1900Danxieties and thoughts of the world: go out from bodily straits: go out from the vanities of the world, and see what charity the peaceable king has in the day of his espousals: how glorious he is, because he gave resurrection to bodies, and joined souls to himself. This is the crown of a great contest, this the illustrious gift of Christ's espousals, his blood and his passion. For who could give more, he who did not even spare himself, and laid down his soul unto death for us?

But what is the crown of glory, but the Church which 1901Acrowns Christ her head? What is the delight of the whole earth, but the house of the Christian people, the court of the saints, of whom it is written: Their sound has gone out into all the earth (Psal. XVIII, 5)? Therefore, because the Church is the crown of glory, it is said: Go forth, daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon, in the crown with which his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

It is said to souls that they should go out from the hovels and prisons of the body, that they should go out beyond the thoughts of the body, that they should depart from covetous desires, and from cares, and from the other passions of this flesh and of slippery affection: that they should climb above the world, go out from this world, meet Christ, be present and ready, shining with burning torches. As though the angels of Christ were speaking, they say these things: You 1901Bcannot see his brightness, his glory, unless you go out from the cares of human frailty, O daughters of Jerusalem. As if they said: Why do you seek the living among the dead (Luc. XXIV, 5)? [Vulg. Luc. XXIV, 5 Quid quaeritis viventem cum mortuis?] Christ is not sought within this world, who willed his disciples to be above the world.

What is the crown with which Christ is crowned, but the crown of glory? Joseph had the crown of chastity, Paul of justice, Peter of faith. There are crowns of the several virtues. Christ alone has the crown of glory, with which the Church crowned him. In this crown are all the crowns; because glory is not the portion of one crown, but the reward of all the crowns.

1901C(Vers. 1.) But now the Bridegroom, turned to the praise of the bride, says: How beautiful thou art, my love, how beautiful thou art! thine eyes are as doves, apart from silence. [Vulg. Cant. IV, 1 Oculi tui columbarum, absque eo quod intrinsecus latet] Beautiful in preaching, beautiful in her manner of life. Her eyes also, he says, are as doves. They are the eyes of a man, plainly adorned with spiritual senses, which are keen for seeing the mysteries, and ready for penetrating the secret things of divine Scripture, shining with reasonable milk, in which there is no spotted confusion of guile, but the pure and unstained simplicity of a single-hearted affection. Therefore he afterwards mentioned these doves as washed in milk, in an abundance of waters.

Now as for the rest — the teeth and the cheeks, and the lips of the bride like a scarlet cord — we understand them to be the virtues of the soul and the diversities of teachers: who either supply spiritual 1901Dnourishment to the mind by sedulous dispensation, or, by the preaching of the Lord's cross, bind the hearer as with a certain cord of the Word: or who are modest in their bashfulness and most pleasing in the flower of youth. And though they be called back from the touch by shame, yet let the odour of Christ be fragrant in them: and just as the ointment runs down upon the cheeks, as from the priestly head, so also let the beauty of doctrine shine out in them.

Thine eyes are as doves apart from thy silence; which both sees spiritually, and knows that there is a time for keeping silence and a time for speaking; so that it may bring forth its word 1902Ain season, lest by unseasonableness of speaking it be able to incur sin.

Thine eyes are as doves. Here the simplicity and grace of the dove, that is, of the Church, is revealed. See then the simplicity of the eye: for he who sees a just man and rejoices, himself also wishes to be just: for it is a beautiful thing that a man should be delighted in others by that 1580 which he wishes to keep in himself, if he can: for it is inborn in good men that the modest man should love the chaste, the wise man the prudent, with holy affection, the merciful man the generous, and that they should love their own virtues in others. For very many, indeed, the sight of a just man is an admonition to correction, but for the more perfect it is a joy. For if there is such power in natural things that a living creature, when seen, profits the jaundiced — so that even the body of that creature when dead is said to profit, if it be shown to those who have fallen into 1902Bthis kind of ailment — can we doubt that the sight of a just man heals, whose eyes are as doves, simple and modest? Therefore a cheap and irrational animal has such power that it can heal a man in the tiny moment in which it is seen: will a just man, if only he be looked upon with faith by one who desires to receive benefit from him, confer nothing? How beautiful a thing it is, then, that thou shouldst be seen and do good!

A just man, then, is a good thing. This, in short, is why the apostle Paul went up to Jerusalem, that he might see just men: and he stayed with Peter fifteen days, that he might gain something from living with him (Gal. I, 18). For this reason Paul himself and Barnabas, when they were entering Jerusalem, were magnificently received by 1902Cthe Church, and by the apostles, and by the elders: but when they wished to depart, they were begged not to go away, and, as we read afterwards concerning Paul, he was escorted on his way with tears. Do not the very rays of the eyes seem to pour a certain power into those who faithfully desire to see him?

But just as a just man gladdens the heart of the innocent when he is seen, so the wicked are tormented by the knowledge of the just, because they are reproved even by the silent conduct of the saints. Chastity torments the incontinent, generosity avarice, faith impiety. Of this too let us take a like example from a cheap living creature. For as we have said that a dumb animal profits when it is seen, so we perceive that the wolf does harm, if he has got ahead of anyone in the seeing; for those whom the wolf 1902Dhas seen first are reported to lose their voice. The basilisk also (this is a harmful serpent), if it should see any animal first, is reported to kill it: and it is alleged that a man is slain at once who has been able to be seen beforehand by a serpent of this kind. The serpent itself also is said to die, if it has been forestalled by the sight of a man. Therefore, if there is such power either in the eyes of a serpent or in the eyes of a man, that if the one sees the other first he can kill him: is there no power in the eyes of a just man, who is filled with the grace of virtue — especially since faith works so much that even she who touched the Lord's fringe was healed, and he upon whom the Lord Jesus looked drew at once 1903Afrom his eyes the grace of health (Matth. IX, 22)?

But he who sees a just man ought to know what he sees. He does not see him in the body, not in his clothing, not in his patrimony, not in his face: but he sees within. He does not, I say, see him, unless he has seen his mind, unless he has attended to his speech, unless he has been able to grasp his understanding, has been able to take up wisdom from his discourse. Then therefore will he rejoice, when he has looked upon these things, when he has come to know them. So then let us also, whenever we hear of a just man, hasten to see him, like that woman who heard that the Lord Jesus was reclining at table in the house of the Pharisee, and went in, and poured ointment over his feet (Luc. VII, 37 et 38). Let us be imitators of her, for who would doubt that in that woman there is a figure of the Church? 1903BWherever, then, a just man may sit, wherever he may recline at table, let us hasten to see him. It is a precious thing to see a just man, that thou mayest see him according to the image of God. What is outside profits nothing: what is within heals. Certainly in him who is without we often behold him who is within: so that if we see a poor man, let us honour in the poor man him to whose likeness he was made, of whom he says: You gave me to eat, because what you gave to one of these, you gave to me (Matth. XXV, 35 et 40).

Thy hair is as a flock of shorn ones, which have been revealed from mount Galaad. [Vulg. Cant. IV, 1 Capilli tui sicut greges caprarum quae ascenderunt de monte Galaad] Therefore hair, because the power of all the senses is in the head: for The eyes of the wise man are in his head (Eccl. II). Deep, then, is the prudence of teachers, which can reveal the things that are obscure, 1903Cand open up the heights of the senses.

(Vers. 2.) Thy teeth are as a flock of shorn ones, which have come up from the washing, all of which bring forth twins, and there is not a barren one among them. [Vulg. Cant. IV, 2 omnes gemellis fetibus, et sterilis non est inter eas] What is said in the literal sense of she-goats is to be understood mystically of the flock of the Church. And let these animals not seem cheap to thee; thou seest that this flock feeds on the heights, bold upon the mountain. And so where for others there are precipices, there for the she-goats is no danger: where for others is danger, there is the food of that flock, there the sweeter 1581 fare, there the choicer fruit. They are watched by their shepherds as they hang from the bushy rock, where the inroads of wolves cannot reach; there fruitful trees supply whole fruit. One may see them swollen with abundant milk, anxious with a mother's love over their tender offspring. 1903DTherefore the Holy Spirit chose them, to which he might compare the coming together of the venerable Church.

And that thou mayest hear it mystically: the hair of the Word is the height, and a certain eminence, of just animasum; since the understanding of the wise man is in his head. For it is certain that wisdom lies in the height of human thought. And just as she-goats are shorn, that they may lay aside what is superfluous: so also holy Church has a flock of shorn souls, that is, the virtues of many souls, in which flock thou couldst find nothing without feeling, nothing superfluous; since faith has made them wise, 1904Aand spiritual grace has cleansed them from every stain of superfluous things.

Rightly, therefore, have the souls of the just been revealed, and revealed from mount Galaad, that is, from the passing over of testimony, in that the heavenly testimony passed over from the Synagogue to the Church. And so on this mountain grow the incense-gum, the resin, and the other perfumes which those Ishmaelite traders were carrying, as thou hast it in the first book of the Old Testament (Gen. XXXVII, 25). And so, just as she-goats refreshed with good food and blooming in the warmth of the sun are washed in the river, and rise up out of the river exulting and clean: so the souls of the just come up from the spiritual washing.

These are they who truly bring forth twins, in whom there is no barrenness of virtues, no sterility 1904Bof merits. Well do they bring forth twins, because they double their understandings; whence thou hast it written in Proverbs: And do thou write these things for thyself in threefold fashion, unto counsel and unto knowledge (Prov. XXII, 20). [Vulg. Prov. XXII, 20 Ecce descripsi eam tibi tripliciter, in cogitationibus et scientia] He set a threefold writing before, and added two things, counsel and knowledge. But knowledge is twofold: one of incorporeal things, the other of corporeal; whence also in what follows thou hast: Thy two breasts are as two twin fawns of a roe, which feed among the lilies, until the day break and the shadows retire (Vers. 5).

We have spoken of fruitfulness; let us speak of the teeth. For very many who sail, and those hastening on a journey by land, when they have seen some beautiful place, linger there for the sake of the delight, they feed their eyes and lift up 1904Ctheir mind. Nor is any of this reckoned a delay in their travelling, but a favour. So it is our heart's desire also to consider the most beautiful teeth of just souls; for Scripture has taught that the teeth of the just are most beautiful, speaking indeed according to the letter of the patriarch Judah, but spiritually of Christ: His eyes are merry from wine, and his teeth are as milk (Genes. XLIX, 12). [Vulg. Gen. XLIX, 12 Pulchriores sunt oculi ejus vino, et dentes ejus lacte candidiores] In which it proclaimed not the services of human flesh, but the gifts of divine grace. The example teaches us, therefore, that the teeth are not to be passed over, where we have discoursed of the eyes.

What then are the teeth of just souls, but those which, receiving food shapeless and hard, or often cold, or hot beyond measure, now break it small, now warm it, now temper it, according as the quality of the nourishment has been? They break the hard things small, 1904Dlest the harshness of the letter in the Old Testament and the rigidity of a worldly understanding, if it be not dissolved by the spiritual tooth, should choke the vital parts themselves — the passages of the books of salvation being shut off — and choke a certain gullet of the soul, by a careless voracity. It is fitting, therefore, that thou first divide it, if the food which is taken seems solid to thee, and that thou distinguish it; and that, having softened it, thou pour it without any harm to the soul into all its members by a natural division; so that its whole body may feast upon the vital juice, and that thou take nothing corpse-like, nothing dead, into thy mouth, lest it be said: Their throat is an open sepulchre (Psalm. XIII, 3). But mayest thou drink in the living word, 1905Athat it may be able to work in the inward parts of thy mind. These teeth are whiter than milk; because they are the teeth of the just.

In short, although all our fathers were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, it is nevertheless not written idly: That all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (I Cor. X, 3 et 4); so that a certain greater brightness might come to these teeth of the saints, whom, after the passage of the Red Sea, we shall recognize to have been cleansed by the bitterness of the fountain of myrrh tempered through the grace of the wood (Exodi XV, 25); then by the drink of the twelve fountains, and last by the watering of the rock that poured out a spiritual wave; For the rock was Christ (I Cor. X, 3 et 4). 1582 Therefore they also ate manna (Num. XX, 11), that so often washed they might eat the bread, as it is written, 1905Bof angels (Psalm. LXXVII, 25). Now too in the mysteries of the Gospel thou recognizest that the baptized, though washed in the whole body, are nevertheless afterwards cleansed by spiritual food and drink; for that is the true brightness of the teeth, where the tuneful confession of a mind well aware of itself resounds. That eye is clean which no beam of grave sins has weighed down, which no mote of light defilements has troubled.

Thy teeth are as a flock of shorn ones, which have come up from the washing, all of which bring forth twins, and there is not a barren one among them. This is no ordinary praise: first, by the fitting comparison with shorn ones; for we know that she-goats both feed on the heights without danger, and take their food in safety upon sheer crags, and then, when they are shorn, are unburdened of what is superfluous. To their flock the Church is compared, having in herself many virtues of souls, which through the washing lay aside 1905Ctheir superfluous sins, which bring to Christ mystical faith and moral grace, which speak of the cross of the Lord Jesus. In these the Church is well-formed, whence God the Word says to her: Behold, thou art well-formed, my neighbor: behold, thou art well-formed; thine eyes are as doves. Thou art wholly well-formed, my neighbor, and there is no reproof in thee; [Vulg. Cant. IV, 1 and 7 amica mea … macula non est in te] because guilt has been drowned. Come hither from Lebanon, O bride, come hither from Lebanon, and thou shalt pass through from the beginning of faith; [Vulg. Cant. IV, 8 veni de Libano … coronaberis de capite Amana] in that, renouncing the world, she has passed beyond the age, and has passed over to Christ.

(Vers. 3.) Thy lips are as a scarlet cord. For in scarlet the appearance of fire, and the blood of the Lord's cross, glows red. The lips of the Lord are scarlet, which spoke his own passion. In short, in Exodus scarlet is set in the place of fire (Exod. XXV, 4). For the world does not consist 1905Dof scarlet, but of four elements. But in scarlet the figure of fire is expressed, and unless its heat penetrated heaven and the air, the seas and the lands, all things would be dissolved as though their powers were spent. By the cord, therefore, we recognize the bond of persuasion; by the scarlet, either the ardour of desire which sparkles in the minds of the hearers, or the token of the passion.

(Vers. 4.) Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built in Thalphioth; a thousand shields hang upon it, all the darts of the mighty. For the neck is upright toward God, and fit for the yoke of Christ, and is bent by no bending down to the earth 1906Aof enticements; as the royal tower of Christ is, upon which Nebuchadnezzar cannot lay his yoke. For David, that man mighty of hand, founded that tower, and built it above the heights of the walls; that it might be both for defence and for adornment: for defence, because it foresees the enemy and drives him off: for adornment, because it stands out not only among lowly things, but even among lofty ones. Yet it is so for defence or for adornment only if it has in itself the teachings of the word as certain necklaces of trappings: if it has also the darts of the mighty prophets, which are aimed by certain arms of faith against every height that exalts itself.

Do not, therefore, bring down into the dust of death thy soul, to which the Lord has granted also a natural height and vigour, by which it may rouse itself and rise up. 1906BWhence also what is said of this conjunction of soul and body is opportunely taken, in that in the natural mystery of our life the soul, bound to the body, creeps as it were upon the ground and clings to the pavement, partly on account of this earthly dwelling, partly because this body is of earth. Both the lodging of the region, therefore, and the very matter of our body agree with this judgment. And therefore the Apostle beautifully desires to be freed from the body of this death; because we are shut in a certain prison, and, set in a certain hovel of wantonness, we are wrapped in the darkness of our offenses.

Let us therefore walk according to the will of God, that we may be said to cleave to God. For he who lives according to the appetite of the body is flesh: he who lives according to the precepts of God is spirit. Let not our soul then become flesh, that is, so that we should be called flesh; like those also who perished in 1906Cthe flood, of whom it was said: That they are flesh (Genes. VI, 3). But rather let our flesh, obeying the governance of the soul, become soul, and deserve to be called by this name; as the household of the patriarch Jacob was called, and the holy posterity of his generation; for so it is written: These are the sons of Bala, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter: she bore these to Jacob, seven souls. And in the same place: And all the souls which entered with Jacob into Aeyyptum, which came out of his thighs, besides the wives of his sons, sixty-six (Genes. XLVI, 25 et 26). And at the beginning of Exodus we read: And all the souls from Jacob were seventy-five (Exod. I, 5). [Vulg. Exod. I, 5 septuaginta, seventy] 1583

Therefore those who dwelt with Joseph and came out of Egypt are souls: but they who, 1906Dthough they were angels of God — that is, imitating by the uprightness of their life the grace of the angels ( For they who (Matth. XXII, 30) do not take wives, and they who do not marry, shall be as the angels of God in heaven ) [Vulg. Matth. XXII, 30 neque nubent neque nubentur, sed erunt sicut angeli Dei in caelo] — they, then, who, though they seemed to be angels, were captivated by womanly beauty, these are flesh, as the Lord God said: My spirit shall not remain in men for ever, because they are flesh (Genes. VI, 3). [Vulg. Gen. VI, 3 in homine … quia caro est, in the singular] And rightly are those who have no part in lust compared to angels, for they are not flesh, because they are not in the flesh, but in the spirit: such were those who followed the Apostle as their teacher, to whom he says: But you 1907Aare not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Rom. VIII, 9). But those who are captivated by the bodily lust of women are flesh: and would that they were only flesh, and not neighing horses as well! For, he says, they neighed after the wife of his neighbor (Jerem. V, 8).

(Vers. 7.) Thou art wholly well-formed, my neighbor, and there is no reproof in thee. [Vulg. Cant. IV, 7 Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te] But who can reckon any beauty greater than the comeliness of her who is loved by the king, approved by the judge, dedicated to the Lord, consecrated to God. Always a bride, always unwed; so that neither may love have an end, nor modesty a loss. This assuredly is the true beauty, to which nothing is lacking, which alone deserves to hear from the Lord: Thou art wholly well-formed, my neighbor, and there is no reproof in thee.

(Vers. 8.) Come hither from Lebanon, come hither from Lebanon: 1907Bthou shalt pass over and pass through from the beginning of faith, from the head of Sanir and Hermon, from the lairs of lions, from the mountains of leopards. By these tokens it is shown that the perfect and irreproachable beauty of the virgin soul, consecrated at the divine altars, not bent by mortal things amid the encounters and the lairs of spiritual beasts, but intent upon the mysteries of God, has deserved her beloved, whose breasts are full of gladness; for wine gladdens the heart of man.

And the odour, he says, of thy garments is as the odour of Lebanon. Come from Lebanon, O bride, come from Lebanon: thou shalt pass over and pass through from the beginning of faith: thou shalt pass over into the world to do battle, thou shalt pass through to Christ to triumph over the world. Thou hast heard that he has separated thee from the assaults of lions and leopards, that is, of spiritual wickednesses: 1907Cthou hast heard that the beauty of thy virtues pleases him.

Come hither from Lebanon, bride, come hither from Lebanon: thou shalt pass over, and thou shalt pass through, from the beginning of faith, from the head of Sanir, and Hermoniim, from the caves of lions, from the mountains of leopards; [Vulg. Veni de Libano… coronaberis de capite Amana, de vertice Sanir et Hermon, de cubilibus leonum, "come from Lebanon… thou shalt be crowned from the head of Amana"] that is, go forth out of the body, and exne thyself wholly. For thou canst not be present to me unless thou first be a pilgrim away from the body; since they who are in the flesh are pilgrims away from the kingdom of God. Come hither, he says, come hither. Well did he repeat it, because whether present or absent thou oughtest to be present to and to please the Lord thy God: be present when present, be present when absent, even if thou art still in the body; for all are present to me whose faith is with me. He is present to me who has gone out from the world: he is present to me who thinks of me, who gazes on me, who hopes from me, to whom I am the portion: he is present to me who 1907Dhas been absent from himself: he is with me who is not within himself; since he who is in the flesh is not in the spirit: he is with me who goes forth out of his own self: he is beside me who has been outside himself: he is whole to me who for my sake has lost his own soul; and therefore, Come hither, come hither, bride; thou shalt pass over and pass through from the beginning of faith. She passes over and passes beyond the rest who has come through to Christ: she passes over by the merit of faith and by the brightness of works, she who shines like Sanir and Hermon, that is, the way of the lamp: she passes over when the temptations of the world are conquered and the spiritual 1908Awickednesses overcome, seeking the crown of a lawful contest.

(Vers. 9.) Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, bride, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes, and with one hair of thy neck. For these eyes are the eyes of the mind, namely of the inner man, not these eyes which discharge the service of looking. For there is an eye both of the mind and of the flesh, but that eye is blind which does not see the things that are divine, which is puffed up in vain by the mind of the flesh. There is also another eye, the sense of Christ, by which the Church sees Christ, as he himself says to the Bride: Thou hast taken us in heart by one of thine eyes. [Vulg. Vulnerasti cor meum in uno oculorum tuorum, "thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes"] Rightly is Christ seen with one eye, because he is not seen with the eye of the flesh, or because the Church, having two eyes, the moral and the mystical, sees Christ more with the eye of faith; 1908Bfor the mystical eye is the keener, the moral the sweeter.

And perhaps these are the eyes with which Paul saw eternal things, when he began not to see temporal things. In short, he who did not see Christ before he lost his eyes, saw 1584 him after he had lost the sight of his eyes; for he saw who said: Who art thou, Lord (Act. IX, 5)? Certainly he saw Christ, whom he also confessed as Lord. And below, Lord, he says, what wilt thou have me to do? Did he not then see him whose command he was awaiting? With what eyes therefore did Paul begin to see more, save with those which he himself showed us, saying: I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind (I Cor. XIV, 15)? In short, that thou mayest know that he saw while praying: It came to pass, he says, when I was returning to Jerusalem, while I was praying in the 1908Ctemple, I had a dread, I saw him saying to me: Make haste, go out more quickly from Jerusalem; for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me (Act. XXII, 17 et 18). [Vulg. fieri me in stupore… exi velociter ex Jerusalem: quoniam non recipient, "that I was in a trance… go out speedily from Jerusalem"]

These eyes therefore fail for the word of God, and say: When wilt thou comfort me? With these eyes the prophets were called seers, because through revelation they discerned with the mind the things that were hidden. But because the eye of the mind and the eye of the flesh are one eye, and man is then upheld by consolation when the flesh and the mind do not desire diverse things, but desire one thing and seek one thing; therefore they are intent upon him who says: I and the Father are one (Joan. X, 30). These eyes too confess that they are one; because they discharge one and the same desire and office.

(Vers. 10.) Thy breasts are more beautiful than wine, 1908Dand the odor of thine ointments above all spices. And below: The odor of thy garments is as of Lebanon. [Vulg. sicut odor thuris, "as the odor of frankincense"] See what advance thou grantest us, virgin! For thy first odor is above all the spices which were sent to the Saviour's burial, and it breathes out that the motions of the body are dead and that the delights of the members have perished. Thy second odor, as the odor of Lebanon, breathes forth the integrity of the Lord's body, the flower of virginal chastity. Let thy works therefore compose a honeycomb of honey. The odor of the garments also is the odor of our acts. 1909ABring thy hands therefore to thy nostrils, and with unwearied and ever-watchful eagerness of mind search out the odor of thine acts. The odor of thy right hand will soothe thee, and thy members will breathe out the fragrance of the resurrection, thy fingers will sweat myrrh, that is, thy spiritual deeds will breathe out the grace of true faith. Thou takest therefore, virgin, delight from thine inner body, and thou art sweet to thyself, thou art pleasant to thyself, and thou dost not begin to be displeasing to thyself (which often happens to those who sin).

(Vers. 11.) A dropping honeycomb, thy lips, bride. Let thy works therefore compose a honeycomb of honey; for virginity is worthy to be compared to bees, so laborious, so chaste, so continent: the bee feeds on dew, knows no coupling, composes honey. Dew too, for the virgin, is the divine word; because the words of God come down like dew. 1909BThe virgin's modesty is an unviolated nature, the virgin's offspring is the fruit of the lips, without bitterness, fertile in sweetness: the labor is for the common good, the fruit is common. How I would wish thee, daughter, to be an imitator of this little bee, whose food is the flower, whose offspring is gathered with the mouth, composed with the mouth. Do thou imitate her, daughter; let thy words hold out no veil of guile, let them have no wrapping of fraud; that they may both have purity and be full of gravity. Let an eternal posterity of thy merits also be brought forth for thee by thy mouth, and gather not for thyself alone, but for many also for what dost thou know when thy soul shall be required of thee; lest, leaving behind the receptacles of thy granaries heaped up with grain, which will serve neither the use of thy life nor thy merits, thou be snatched away thither, whither thou canst not carry thy treasure. Be rich therefore, 1909Cbut for the poor man, that they who share thy nature may share thy means also.

A dropping honeycomb, thy lips, bride. What the honeycomb is, teach us, Solomon. For thou hast said: Good words are a honeycomb of honey (Prov. XVI, 24). [Vulg. Favus mellis composita verba, "well-ordered words are a honeycomb of honey"] And truly a good honeycomb, which the Church eats, redolent of honey gathered by the spiritual richness of many prophets as of bees. This is the honey of which he says: I have eaten my bread with my honey (Cant. V, 1). [Vulg. comedi favum cum melle meo, "I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey"] The lips of the preacher drop honey, when the limbs of a fallen soul, bruised by hard mischances or downfalls, are revived. Thy lips drop a honeycomb, bride, honey and milk are under thy tongue; [Vulg. Favus distillans labia tua, "thy lips are a dropping honeycomb"] for the mouth of the just distils wisdom: from the mouth of the just proceed the honeys of sweetness and of mercy: in the mouth of the just there is no guile, no deceit, no bitterness 1909Dof sin. The Church hears the words of the just, the people of God hears the words of the wise man, is delighted by the sweetness of the address, is soothed by the pleasantness of moral discourse, saying: How sweet are thy words to my throat, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth (Psalm. CXVIII, 103)! [Vulg. Quam dulcia faucibus meis eloquia tua, super mel ori meo, "how sweet are thy words to my throat, above honey to my mouth" — without et favum] For the honey of bees delights for an hour, but its savor quickly 1585 vanishes, and for the most part corrupt bowels are hurt: but the honeys of moral words, though they sting, do not hurt.

Know however to whom those things are entrusted; for it is written: Say nothing into the ear of a fool; lest at any time 1910Ahe mock thy prudent words (Prov. XXIII, 9). [Vulg. In auribus insipientium ne loquaris, quia despicient doctrinam eloquii tui, "speak not in the ears of fools, for they will despise the instruction of thy speech"] For the fool will vomit out and cast back thy word, who cannot perceive its sweetness. How can the words of God be sweet in thy throat, in which is the bitterness of wickedness? How is there honey and milk under thy tongue, when thy tongue frames guile; so that thou conceivest one thing in thy breast, and puttest forward another in public speech, that thou mayest deceive the unwary? Since Peter the apostle says to thee that thou shouldest lay aside all malice, and cast off the paint of dissimulation, saying: As infants born a while ago, reasonable and without guile, desire ye milk (I Pet. II, 2). [Vulg. sicut modo geniti infantes, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite, "as newborn infants desire the reasonable milk without guile"] For showing us what it is to have honey and milk under the tongue, he teaches that we should know not to curse those who curse, but to render blessing: let us not know how to hate save the way of iniquity, that with a resisting 1910Baffection we may beware of doing what we execrate.

(Vers. 12.) A garden enclosed, my sister, bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. Thy shoots, etc. Because in gardens of this kind the image of God, impressed by the seals, shines back in the wave of the unmixed fountain, nor are the streams, bespattered with mire, disturbed by the wallowing-places of spiritual beasts. Hence that modesty, hedged about by a wall-like spirit, is shut in, lest it lie open to plunder. And so, like a garden inaccessible to thieves, it is redolent of the vine, it breathes the olive, it shines with the rose; that in the vine religion, in the olive peace, in the rose the modesty of consecrated virginity may grow. This is the odor which Jacob the patriarch breathed, when he deserved to hear: Behold the odor of my son, as the odor of a full field (Genes. XXVII, 27). For although the field of the holy patriarch was full of almost all fruits, yet he brought forth crops by a greater 1910Clabor of virtue, this one flowers. Gird thyself therefore, virgin, and if thou wishest such a garden to breathe upon thee, shut it with the prophetic precepts: Set a guard to thy mouth, and a door of enclosure to thy lips (Psal. CXL, 3). [Vulg. Pone, Domine, custodiam ori meo, et ostium circumstantiae labiis meis, "set, O Lord, a guard to my mouth"]

A garden enclosed, my sister, bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed; thy shoots a paradise of pomegranates, with the fruit of the apples of Cyprus. [Vulg. cum pomorum fructibus, cypri cum nardo, "with the fruits of apples, cypress with spikenard"] The Bride is praised in that she is a garden, having in herself the odor of that full field, of which Isaac says: The odor of my son, as the odor of a full field (Genes. XXVII, 27). A good soul therefore breathes out the odors of justice. And perhaps the field is the patriarch, the garden is the soul of some lesser one, as it were a portion of the field: and a garden enclosed, lest it be assailed by beasts: and a fountain sealed, she who by the integrity of the seal 1910Dand by the perseverance of faith has washed away her own sins. For he who has received from the Church; has that which he may refer to the grace of virginity; in that, placed in the paradise of delight, she takes spiritual fruits without labor, so that the souls of the patriarchs confer their own fruits upon her by a certain rustic labor of their own soul, whereby she may be able to take perpetual sweetness: who is rightly called a fountain sealed, in that the image of the invisible God is expressed in her.

A garden enclosed, my sister, bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. All the teachers agree 1911Aupon paradise, and upon the tree of life rooted there and the tree of knowledge, by which one may discern good and evil: and the other trees full of vigor, full of quickening, breathing and rational. From which it is gathered that paradise itself can be seen as earthly, not in any soil, but in our ruling part, by which the soul is animated and quickened with virtues and with the infusion of the Holy Spirit. In short Solomon in the spirit plainly declared that paradise is in man. And because he expresses the mysteries either of the soul and the Word, or of Christ and the Church; therefore he says of the virgin soul or the Church, whom he wished to assign as a chaste virgin to Christ: A paradise enclosed, my sister, bride, a paradise enclosed, a fountain sealed. Paradise in Greek is in Latin called a garden. In short Susanna was in a paradise, and so it is read in Latin: and Adam was in 1911Bparadise, and so we read. Therefore let it not disturb thee that some Latin codices have hortum, others paradisum. There then is the chaste wife, where the virgin also is. Although the virgin, set apart, has her own enclosures and seals, yet both are in paradise; that against the heats of the body and the burning of the flesh she may be cooled by the shades of the virtues.

Therefore paradise is in our ruling part, growing wild with the nurseries of very many opinions, in which God chiefly set the tree of life, that is, the root of piety. For this is the substance of our life, if we render to the Lord our God 1586 the worship due to him. He set also a seed-plot of the knowledge of good and evil; for man alone among the other earthly living creatures has the knowledge of good and evil. There too are other 1911Cdivers nurseries, whose fruits are the virtues. But because the affection of man, capable of knowledge, was known to God, that it would sooner incline to cunning than to the height of prudence; nor could the quality of his own work lie hidden from him, the judge who set fixed bounds in our soul: he willed to cast out cunning from paradise, as the provident author of our salvation, and to pour in the pursuit of life and the discipline of piety. And therefore he commanded man that of every tree which is in paradise he should taste, but that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he should not taste. But because every creature is liable to passion, therefore delight crept into human affections as by a serpent's gliding.

And so not without reason did holy Moses figure delight under the likeness of a serpent; for it is prone 1911Dupon its belly like a serpent, not walking upon feet, nor raised upon any legs: but slippery, as it were, with the winding bend of its whole body. Earth is its food, as it is the serpent's, since it knows no heavenly meat; for it feeds upon bodily things, and is changed into various kinds of desires, and is bent into tortuous windings. It has venom in its teeth, with which every luxurious man disembowels himself, the glutton slays himself, the squanderer destroys himself. How many have wines burst, drunkenness undone, indigestion distended! Now I understand for what cause the Lord God breathed into the face of man; for there are all the senses, there the seat and the enticement of delight, in the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and in the mouth; that he might make our senses stronger 1912Aagainst delight. This then poured cunning into us as the serpent did; for it is not delight, but labor and long meditation with the grace of God, that gives perfect prudence. Yet because the inheritance of the human race is wrapped in the deceits of the serpent, let us in this follow the serpent's cunning, that we cast not our head into dangers, but keep it whole before all else; and our head is Christ. Let this remain unharmed, that the serpent's venoms may not be able to hurt us: for wisdom is good with an inheritance, that is, with faith; since there is an inheritance of those who believe in the Lord.

But if the first man, who spoke with God, set in paradise, could fall so easily, created from virgin earth, which had been formed and created at the word of God in a fresh springing forth, that earth not yet clotted with parricidal 1912Bblood and the blood of the rest, not yet polluted with crimes and disgrace, our flesh not yet condemned by the curse of a liable inheritance: how much more easily afterwards, the road to sinning being slippery, did it bring a greater downfall upon the human race, when the worse succeeded the more tolerable through the turns of generation! For if the magnet stone has such force of nature that it draws iron to itself, and pours itself over into its likeness; so that, when many who wished to make trial have brought several iron rings to that stone, it holds them all in like manner: then if to that ring to which the stone has clung thou bring another ring, and again set one under each in order; although the force of nature from that stone penetrates them all in order, yet it binds the earlier ones with a more vehement bond, the later with a slacker: 1912Chow much more has the condition and nature of the human race fallen from a purer state into a worse, the more wicked the state it has reached! For if nature is diminished through those kinds of things which are not capable of guilt: how much more is its strength blunted through minds and limbs polluted with the stain of crimes! Whence, because when malice prevailed innocence had been abolished, there was none that did goodness, there was not so much as one. The Lord therefore came, to reform the grace of nature, nay rather to increase it; that where sin had superabounded, grace might superabound.

It is clear therefore that God is the author of man, and that there is one God, not many gods, but one who wrought the world, and one world, not many worlds, as the philosophers say. First then he created the world, 1912Dthen the inhabitant of the world, to whom the whole world should be a fatherland: for if today the wise man goes anywhere, everywhere he is a citizen, everywhere he understands what is his own, nowhere does he judge himself a stranger, nowhere a guest: how much more was that first man an inhabitant of the whole world, and, as it is said in Greek, cosmopolites, a fresh 1587 converser with God, an assiduous citizen among the saints! planted about with virtues, set over all living creatures of the land, of the sea, of the air, he counted the whole world his own possession, which the Lord watched over as his own work, nor did he, as a good parent and author, desert it. In short he so cherished the creature he had made, that he redeemed him when disowned, received him back when cast out, raised him up when dead by the passion of his only-begotten Son. God therefore is the author of man, 1913Aand as a good workman he loves his own work, nor does the good father forsake him whom, like a rich householder, he has redeemed at the cost of his own inheritance.

Let us beware therefore lest that woman, that is, the passion of our senses, herself deceived and mocked by delight, make effeminate that man, that is, the νοῦν, and draw him, circumscribed, into her own laws and judgment. Let us flee delight as a serpent, it has many arts and chiefly in man. For other living creatures are caught by greediness for food; man, since he has more senses of the eyes and of the ears, has by so much the greater dangers. And so beware lest the vigor of thy mind, bent by a certain coupling with bodily pleasure, be softened, and be dissolved into all its embraces, and open its fountain, which ought to be closed and hedged about by earnestness of purpose 1913Band by the consideration of reason: For a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. For when the sense of the mind is unstrung, bodily delights pour themselves forth, exceedingly destructive, and flowing on into an appetite full of grave danger; and if the considered guard of a living mind had remained, it would have reined them in.

(Vers. 3, 4.) Thy shoots, he says, are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruit of apples, cypress with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon with all the trees of Lebanon, myrrh and aloes with all the chief ointments. The gifts of the soul are praised which were sent by the Bridegroom, with which she came dowered (and to God the good odors are those of a devout soul), myrrh, aloes, saffron and the rest, with which the grace of the gardens breathes, and the stench of sins is done away. And so, made secure by so great a proclamation, 1913Cshe asks that the north wind, that heavy wind, be still, lest it shake off the flowers: that the south wind blow, that is, that the winter as it were pass by, and that the mildness of a softer breath come as spring. She invites the Bridegroom into her garden, the bridegroom comes down, and delighted by the diversity of its fruits, he rejoices that he has found a stronger food, and has found a sweeter also. For there is as it were a certain bread of the Word and a honey, one discourse more vehement, another persuasive. There is also one faith more fervent, like wine; another clearer, as is the juice of milk. This food Christ feasts upon in us, this cup he drinks, and by the drunkenness of his draught he provokes us to make a passing over from lower things to better and best.

The soul hearing these things drank in the drunkenness of the heavenly mysteries, and as though lulled to sleep by wine, and set as it were in 1913Decstasy or stupor, says: I sleep, and my heart waketh (Cant. V, 2). Then, struck by the light of the Word present, she is roused by the Word. And this is the fourth advance of the soul. For first, impatient of love, and not bearing the Word's delays, she asked that she might merit kisses, and merited to see him whom she desired. Secondly, brought into the king's chamber, while she exchanged mutual speech, she rested in his shadow, and suddenly the Word departed from her in mid-discourse; yet he was not long absent from her as she sought him, but came leaping upon the mountains and skipping over the hills. And not long after, like 1914Aa roe or a young hart of the stags, while he speaks to his beloved, he leapt away and left her. Thirdly, when in her bed and by night, in the city and the market place, in the streets, she did not find him whom she sought, and at length grace by her prayers called back the one who was seeking, so far even that she was called nearer by the bridegroom. Fourthly, she herself, now sleeping, is roused by him, although she was waking in heart; so that at once she heard the voice of him that knocked: but having suffered delay, while she rises (because she could not grasp the swiftness of the Word), while she opens the door, the Word passed by, and she herself went out at his word: and having sought him through wounds, but the wounds of love, at last she scarcely found him, and held him, that she might not afterwards lose him. In sum I have touched upon these things in a compendious discourse, now let us examine them one by one.

(Vers. 15.) A fountain of gardens, a well of living 1914Bwaters, which flow with force from Lebanon. Thou hast these things in Solomon, since his Proverbs are moral, Ecclesiastes natural, in which he as it were despises the vanities of this world: mystical is his Song 1588 of Songs. Thou hast it also in the prophet: Sow for yourselves unto justice, gather the vintage unto the fruit of life, light for yourselves the light of knowledge (Ose. X, 12); [Vulg. Seminate vobis in justitia, et metite in ore misericordiae; innovate vobis novale, "sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy; break up your fallow ground"] for this is the light of knowledge, to have the perfection of charity. And therefore it is said: Fear not (Joan. XII, 15); [Vulg. Noli timere, filia Sion, "fear not, daughter of Sion"] for charity casteth fear out of doors.

But that we may know that Solomon so interpreted these three wells, which Jacob dug, as to refer them to moral and natural and mystical teaching, in each of his books, which he wrote concerning moral and natural or mystical things, he set these wells. 1914CFor in the Proverbs too, when he said that the appearance of worldly enticement must be turned aside, he says: Drink water out of thine own vessels, and out of the fountains of thine own wells, and let the waters overflow for thee out of thine own fountain (Prov. V, 15). [Vulg. Bibe aquam de cisterna tua, et fluenta putei tui, "drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well"] And below: Let the fountain of thy water be thine own, and rejoice with the wife who is from thy youth (Ibid., 18); [Vulg. Sit vena tua benedicta, et laetare cum muliere adolescentiae tuae, "let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth"] in that true wisdom is a remedy for us against the temptations of the world. Moral teaching also, which may wash away with its own watering the image of worldly pleasure smeared with certain harlot's paints, and wipe it off with the stream of its own fountain.

Of natural things too thou hast the same in Ecclesiastes: I made myself pools of waters, to water from them a sprouting wood (Eccles. II, 6). [Vulg. Exstruxi mihi piscinas aquarum, ut irrigarem silvam lignorum germinantium, "I made myself pools of water, to water the wood of sprouting trees"] And let it not move thee that he put pools for a well, since Moses too spoke of a well of breadth; because he is loosed from all anxiety 1914Dand from straits who has passed beyond this world with a devout mind. Not without reason therefore has Ecclesiastes pools, who saw that there is no abundance under the sun: but if any wish to abound, let him abound in Christ.

Of mystical things there remains for us also the well, which we find in the Song of Songs itself, Scripture saying: A fountain of gardens, a well of living water, and coming down with force from Lebanon. For if thou pursue the depth of the mysteries, it seems to thee a well, as though mystical wisdom were set in the deep: but if thou wouldst draw the affluence of charity, which is greater and richer 1915Athan faith and hope, then it is a fountain for thee. For charity overflows, so that thou canst both draw it close at hand, and water with its affluence thy garden, abounding in spiritual fruits. And because he himself is a well of breadth who has charity; therefore he said that where charity is, there a great force comes down from Lebanon.

But lest anything move thee, that he called the same thing both a well and a fountain; let the Gospel also instruct thee, in which it is written: That Jesus came into a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the estate which Jacob gave to Joseph his son (Joan. IV, 5 et 6). And the fountain of Jacob was there: And being wearied, he says, he sat thus upon the well. Whence we recognize there also that this well is referred to mystical teaching, because there that Samaritan woman, that is, a keeper (and a keeper of the heavenly 1915Bprecepts) drew from that well the divine mysteries, knowing that God is a spirit, and is not adored in a place, but in spirit: and that the Messias comes, who is Christ. Having heard these things, that woman, who bears the figure of the Church, knew the sacraments of the Law and believed.

A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and a force coming down from Lebanon. These forces the Church has drawn down from Lebanon, by this force sins are washed away, by this force of the pure fountain of the Holy Spirit the Bride came from Lebanon, and from the beginning of faith she passed over the world, and passed through to the kingdom. To some spiritual grace is a fountain, to others a well, according to our capacity: to some a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, to others a fountain of gardens, which is numbered in the Church's dowry: to others a force coming down from Lebanon, 1915Cand a great force which never fails. For the breasts fail not from the rock, nor the snow from Lebanon, nor the water which is borne by a strong wind to the virgin Jerusalem.

The force came down from Lebanon, when, the apostles and many believers being gathered into one, there was suddenly a sound from heaven, as though a spirit were borne with great violence, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, who granted diversities of tongues (Act. II, 1, 3). A good force, which knows not how to hurt, but knows how to fill. If anyone therefore wishes to merit this force of grace coming upon him from heaven, let him also himself go down with his eyes into the runnings of waters. He who has first poured out this force will merit that one. She went down with her eyes into these channels of waters, she who in the Gospel watered the Lord's feet with tears 1915D(Luc. VII, 38), and therefore by the price of her faith bought health for her soul and for her body, flowing now no longer with blood, but with spiritual grace.

1589. 50. David the prophet therefore went down, and therefore he brought back grace out of sin. He went down into the channels of waters, that is, he filled them, and heaped up the streams of the running waters with his own tears, or filled the empty and void channels with weeping alone. Or, because he shows certain senses of moral utterance, he went down into the channels of waters, he passed over them. And we might say, he transcended 1916Athem, and passed above them: but the force of the utterance is lessened, whereby a greater force of the affluence coming down than of that going up is expressed. See, I pray, what the words have from usage, that the prophetic discourse may not lose its own force, although usage itself has been accustomed, with greater fitness, to serve the sense of the writers.

A well of living waters; for a well, if thou draw nothing from it, is easily corrupted by inert idleness and degenerate mould: but when it is used it grows bright to the sight, sweet to the drinking. So too a heap of riches, sandy in its pile, is comely in use, but in idleness is held useless. Draw off therefore something from this well: For water quencheth a burning fire, and alms resisteth sins (Eccli. III, 33). But standing water quickly breeds worms: let not thy treasure stand, lest thy fire stand. 1916BIt will stand in thee, unless thou turn it away by the works of thy mercy.

(Vers. 16.) Arise, north wind, and come, south wind, breathe upon my garden, and my spices flow forth. [Vulg. Surge, aquilo, et veni, auster; perfla hortum meum, et fluant aromata illius, "arise, north wind… and let the spices thereof flow"] Thou hast heard, bride of Christ, that the beauty of thy virtues pleases him; thou hast heard that he has preferred the spices of thy garments, that is, the good odor of integrity, above all odors. Thou hast heard that thou art a garden enclosed, filled with the produce of sweet fruit-trees. Ask therefore that the Holy Spirit may breathe upon thee, may breathe above thy bed, and may heap up the odor of a devout mind and of spiritual grace. Rouse the Holy Spirit, saying: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind; breathe upon my garden, and let my spices flow forth. Let my kinsman come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his fruit-trees. 1916CThe garden of the Word is the affection of the soul in its spring, and in the fruit-trees is the fruit of virtue. He comes therefore, and whether thou eat or drink, if thou callest upon Christ, he is present, saying: Come, eat my loaves, and drink my wine (Prov. IX, 5). [Vulg. Venite, comedite panem meum, et bibite vinum quod miscui vobis, "come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you"]

Arise, he says, north wind, and come, south wind; breathe upon my garden, and let my spices flow forth. For from all parts of the world the odor of holy religion has grown, with which the limbs of the beloved virgin have been fragrant. Whence the Church also, keeping the loftiness of the heavenly mysteries, casts from herself the heavier storms of the wind, and invites the sweetness of springlike grace; and knowing that her garden cannot displease Christ, she calls her Bridegroom: Arise, he says, north wind, and come, south wind. Very many take these words thus, as though the north wind were cast out and the south wind invited. 1916DBut if they so take it, the icy harshness of unbelief is driven out from the Church, lest our flight be in winter or on the sabbath, and the southern springtime mildness is invited.

Or certainly: Arise, north wind, that is, rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead (Ephes. V, 14). Thou people of the nations, who hast long slept before, awake at last, and Christ shall shine upon thee. Lastly all are invited to the Church, both the people of the Synagogue and that of the Gentiles: but the Synagogue's first, because the apostles from among the Jews believed first 1917Aand through them afterwards the peoples of the nations were gathered. See therefore our sun coming to the south, afterwards wheeling round to the north. Jerusalem, Jerusalem: he came indeed to her, whom he even deigned to call: but this Jerusalem is the earthly one, which slays eccidit the prophets, that is, the Synagogue of the Jews: How often, he says, would I have gathered thy children, as a hen her chickens, and thou wouldest not? Behold your house shall be left desolate (Matth. XXIII, 37 et 38). He wheeled therefore to the nations: and in wheeling the Spirit of God wheeled, and was turned into his own circles, that God might become all in all.

(Vers. 1.) Let my beloved come into my garden, and eat the fruit of his apples. [Vulg. Veniat dilectus meus in hortum suum, "let my beloved come into HIS garden"] Hence Plato framed for himself that garden 1917Bwhich he called in one place the garden of Jove, in another the garden of the mind; for he called Jove both God and mind. Into this, he says, the soul entered, which he names Venus, that she might fill herself with the abundance and riches of the garden, in which, filled with drink, she might lie, with a drink that poured out nectar. This therefore he framed out of the book of the Songs; in that the soul cleaving to God has entered into the garden of the mind, in which there was an abundance 1590 of divers virtues, and the flowers of discourses. And who does not know that out of that paradise, which we read in Genesis to have the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. II, 8), and the other trees, he thought an abundance of virtues was to be transferred, and to be planted in the garden of the mind?

Which garden in the Song of Songs signifies the soul, or the soul herself; for so it is written: 1917CA garden enclosed, bride, my sister, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. And below the soul says: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind; blow through my garden, and let thine ointments flow down, let my brother come down into his garden (Cant. IV, 12 et 13). How much more beautiful is this, that the soul adorned with the flowers of the virtues should be a garden; or should have in herself a sprouting paradise, into which garden she invites the Word of God to come down; that that soul, watered by the shower of the heavenly Word and by his abundance, may bear fruit! But the Word of God is fed with the virtues of the soul, as often as he has found the soul obedient to him and rich: and he plucks her fruits, and is delighted with them. And when the Word of God has come down into her, the ointments of healthful words flow down from her, and the breathings of divers 1917Dgraces glow, redolent far and wide. Whence the Bridegroom says (and the Bridegroom of the soul is God the Word, to whom the soul is joined by a certain lawful covenant of wedlock):

(Vers. 2.) I have entered into my garden, my sister, bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my ointments, I have eaten my bread with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, my neighbors, and drink and be drunken, my brethren. I sleep, and my heart waketh. [Vulg. Veni in hortum meum… messui myrrham meam cum aromatibus meis; comedi favum cum melle meo… Comedite, amici… carissimi, "I came into my garden… I reaped my myrrh with my spices; I ate the honeycomb… eat, friends… dearest ones"] Let us learn what fruits or foods God feasts upon, or in what he is delighted. He is delighted in this, if any 1918Amortify his own sin, blot out his own fault, bury and abolish his iniquities; for myrrh is the burial of the dead, and dead are the sins which cannot have the sweetness of life. And certain wounds of offenses are bathed with the ointments of the divine word, and are healed with the stronger food of the word as with bread, and with sweeter discourse as with honey. And Solomon teaches elsewhere too that words are foods, saying: Good words are honeycombs of honey (Prov. XVI, 24). [Vulg. Favus mellis composita verba, "well-ordered words are a honeycomb of honey"] In that garden therefore there are good words, one that may restrain fault, another that may rebuke iniquity, another that may make insolence die, and as it were bury it, when one who has been rebuked renounces his errors.

There is also a stronger word, which strengthens the heart of man 1918Bwith the more powerful nourishments of the heavenly Scripture. I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. For there is a persuasive word, sweet as honey, and yet in its very sweetness pricking the conscience of the sinner. There is also a word of more fervent spirit, which makes drunken like wine, and gladdens the heart of man. There is finally a milky word, pure and white. These foods of sweet and useful words the Bridegroom bids his neighbors feast upon: Eat, my neighbors, and drink, and be drunken, my brethren. And the neighbors are those who follow him, and are present at his marriage. With which food and drink (for every man drinks (Prov. V, 15) water out of his own vessels, and out of the fountains of his own wells) the soul, filled and made drunken, was sleeping to the world, was waking to God. And therefore, as what follows teaches, God the Word demanded that her door be opened to him, that he might fill her with his entering. 1918C

Hence therefore those Platonic feasters, hence that nectar out of the prophetic wine and honey, hence that sleep was transferred, hence that perpetual life which he said his gods feast upon, because Christ is life. And therefore with the seeds of such words the belly of his soul was filled, and she herself went out at the Word: and the soul which goes out from that servitude, and lifts herself up from the body, follows the Word. Otherwise, that we may go back somewhat to what is above (Sup., cap. 4): A garden enclosed, my sister, bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. By which he signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed with thee, lest it be violated by the works of an evil life, and by the adultery of chastity: lest it be divulged to those to whom it is not fitting, lest it be scattered among the faithless by garrulous talkativeness.

1918DGood therefore ought the guard of thy faith to be, that the undefiled integrity of life and of silence may persevere. Whence the Church also, keeping the loftiness of the heavenly mysteries, casts from herself the heavier storms of the wind, and invites the sweetness of springlike grace. And knowing that her garden cannot displease Christ, she calls the bridegroom himself, saying: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind: blow through my garden, and let my ointments flow (Cant. IV, 10): 1591 let my brother come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his fruit-trees (Cant. V, 1); for she has good and fruitful trees, and her roots 1919Awhich she had dipped in the watering of the sacred fountain, and they have sprouted into good fruits with the bud of a new fecundity; so that they may no longer be cut down by the prophetic axe, but be made fruitful with evangelical richness. In short the Lord, delighted by their fertility, answers:

I have entered into my garden, my sister, bride: I have gathered myrrh with my ointments, I have eaten my bread with my honey: I have drunk my drink with my milk. Why I have said bread and wine, the faithful understand. But this is not doubtful, that he himself eats and drinks in us, as thou hast read in our case, that he said he was in prison (Matth. XXV, 36). Whence the Church also, seeing so great a grace, exhorts her sons, exhorts her neighbors, to run together to the sacraments, saying: Eat, my neighbors, and drink, and be drunken, my 1919Bbrethren. What we should eat, what we should drink, the Holy Spirit has expressed to thee elsewhere through the prophet, saying: Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet; blessed is the man that hopeth in him (Psalm. XXXIII, 9). In that sacrament is Christ, because it is the body of Christ: it is therefore not bodily food, but spiritual. Whence the Apostle also says concerning its type: That our fathers ate spiritual food, and drank spiritual drink (I Cor. X, 3). For the body of God is a spiritual body, the body of Christ is the body of the divine Spirit; because Christ is spirit, as we read: The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord (Thren. IV, 20). [Vulg. Spiritus oris nostri, christus Dominus, "the breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord"] And in Peter's epistle we have: Christ died for us (I Pet. II, 21). [Vulg. Christus passus est pro nobis, "Christ suffered for us"] In short this food strengthens our heart, and this drink gladdens the heart of man, as the prophet recorded 1919C(Psal. CIII, 25).

A garden enclosed, my sister, bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed; let her not easily open her mouth, nor unseal it with common speech; for it is not fitting that thou answer even concerning divine things themselves, unless questioned by the word of God. What hast thou to do with the rest? Speak to Christ alone, converse with Christ alone. For if it is written that women should keep silence in the Church (I Cor. XIV, 34): how much more is it unfitting that a virgin's door lie open, unfitting that a widow's doors lie open! Quickly the plotter against modesty creeps in, quickly he catches up a word which thou wouldst wish to call back. If Eve's door had been closed, neither would Adam have been deceived, nor would she, being questioned, have answered the serpent. Death entered through the window, that is, through Eve's door. Death enters through thy door, if thou speak falsehood, if basely, if 1919Dshamelessly, lastly if thou speak where it is not fitting. Let the doors of thy lips therefore be closed, and let the vestibule of thy voice remain barred, then perhaps to be unbarred, when thou shalt have heard the voice of God, when thou shalt have heard the word of God. Then myrrh shall sweat for thee, then the grace of baptism shall breathe upon thee, that thou mayest die together with Christ from the elements of the world, and rise again with Christ. Why yet, he says, as though living, do ye decree concerning this world? Touch not, handle not, taste not, the things which are unto corruption by the very use (Coloss. II, 20 et seq.). [Vulg. Ne tetigeritis, neque gustaveritis, neque contrectaveritis: quae sunt omnia in interitum ipso usu, "touch not, taste not, handle not: which are all unto destruction by the very use"]

Let my brother come down into his garden, that he may eat 1920Athe fruit of his fruit-trees. What are these fruit-trees? Thou wast made a dry tree in Adam, but now through the grace of Christ thou hast sprouted as a fruit-bearing tree. Gladly did the Lord Jesus receive it, and with heavenly condescension answered his Church: I have come down, he says, into my garden, I have gathered myrrh with my ointments, I have eaten my bread with my honey, and I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Eat, he says, my brethren, and be drunken: I have gathered myrrh with my ointments (Psalm. LXXIX, 9). What is this vintage? Know the vineyard, and ye shall recognize the vintage. A vineyard, he says, thou hast brought out of Egypt, that is, the people of God. Ye are the vineyard, ye are the vintage: as a vineyard ye were planted, as a vintage ye have given fruit. I have gathered myrrh with 1920Bmy ointments, that is, unto the odor which ye have received.

I have eaten my bread with my honey. Thou seest that in this bread there is no bitterness, but that all is sweetness. I have drunk my wine with my milk, dost thou see that such is the gladness, which is polluted by the filth of no sin? For as often as thou drinkest, thou receivest remission of sins, and art made drunken with the spirit. Whence the Apostle also says: Be not drunk with wine . . . . . but be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephes. V, 18). For he who is made drunken with wine staggers and totters: he who is made drunken with the spirit is rooted in Christ, and therefore that drunkenness is excellent which works soberness of mind.

1592. 12. Eat, he says, my friends, and drink, and be drunken. A good drunkenness, which makes a certain ecstasy of the mind toward better and pleasant 1920Cthings, so that our mind, forgetful of its anxieties, may be gladdened with the wine of pleasantness. Good is the drunkenness of the spiritual table; in short, how excellent is the inebriating cup (Psalm. XXII, 5)! [Vulg. calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est, "how excellent is my inebriating chalice"] And elsewhere thou hast: Make drunk her streams, multiply her generations (Psalm. LXIV, 11); [Vulg. multiplica genimina ejus, "multiply her fruits"] in that the drunkenness of the earth, when it has been poured in by a heavenly shower, is wont to raise up seeds and to multiply fruits. And so, when the Word, which came down from heaven like rain, has made drunken with divine preaching the veins of our earth, that is, of the soul and of the mind, the pursuits of divers virtues are aroused, and the fruit of faith and of chaste devotion grows up, and rightly is it said to him: Thou hast visited the earth, and hast made it drunken (Psalm. LXIV, 10). For by the assumption of a body he visited, that he might heal the sick: he made drunken with spiritual grace, that he might soothe the anxious 1920Dwith pleasantness.

I sleep, and my heart waketh. There is also a working sleep of the saints, according to what is written: I sleep, and my heart waketh. And according as holy Jacob, sleeping, saw the divine mysteries which waking he had not seen; from heaven to the lands the air going before the saints, the Lord looking back, and promising the possession of that land. And so, sleeping in a short sleep, he obtained what afterwards he acquired with great labor, for his inheritance is the sleep of the saints, keeping holiday from all pleasures of the body. 1921Afrom every disturbance of the mind, bringing tranquillity to the mind, placidity to the soul; that, as though loosed from the bond of the body, it may lift itself up and cleave to Christ. This is the sleep of the life of the saints.

The voice of my beloved knocking, open to me, my sister. Even if thou sleep, if only Christ has known the devotion of thy soul, he comes, and knocks at her door, and says: Open to me, my sister. Well sister, because the marriage of the Word and of the soul is spiritual; for souls know not the covenants of wedlock, and the practice of bodily union, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Open, he says, to me, but close to strangers. Close to the age, close to the world. Neither go thou forth outside to those material things, nor, leaving thine own light, seek another's; because material light pours in a dark 1921Bgloom, so that the light of true glory is not seen. Open therefore to me, be not straitened, but enlarge thyself, and I will fill thee. And because, having traversed the world, I have found more of troubles and of offense, and have not easily had where I might rest; therefore do thou open, that in thee the son of man may lay his head, for whom there is no rest save upon the humble and the meek.

Open to me, my sister; arise, my neighbor, my dove, my perfect one. [Vulg. has amica mea and immaculata mea, "my friend… my spotless one," and prints no surge] Neighbor by charity, a dove by simplicity, perfect by virtue. For my head is full of dew; for as the dew of heaven removes the drynesses of the night, so the dew of our Lord Jesus Christ has distilled the moisture of eternal life upon the nightly and worldly darkness. This is the head which knew not how to grow parched by the heat of the world, whence he says: For if they do these things in the moist, 1921Cwhat shall they do in the dry (Luc. XXIII, 31)? [Vulg. in viridi ligno… quid fiet, "in the green wood… what shall be done"] This head therefore bedews others, and for itself abounds. And well does the head of Christ abound; because thy head is Christ, who is always full, and is not drained dry by his own liberalities, nor fails through long-continued largess. Upon this head no iron comes up, which is the instrument of war, the badge of discord. Now look, and see of what sort that dew is, namely, not of common moisture.

But my locks are of the drops of the night. [Vulg. cincinni mei guttis noctium, ablative and with "nights" plural] Do not, my neighbor, take these locks to be locks of bodily hairs: those are not ornaments, but crimes; the pandering of beauty, not the precepts of virtue. The Nazirite has other locks, upon which no iron comes up, which no one cuts away: locks not arranged with the curling-iron or ordered by art, but which shone forth curling with the manifold grace of gleaming virtues. 1921DLearn in the history what manner of locks the Nazirite has, which, so long as Samson kept them untouched, he could never be overcome. He lost his locks, and lost the merit of his virtue (Jud. XVI, 17).

(Vers. 3.) Therefore, when the voice of the Word has been heard, seek not how thou mayest put on the tunic which thou hadst put off by night; for it is shown, and frequently offered through spiritual wickedness, how — how, I say, thou mayest put it on: forget it and know it not; as though the Lord were already standing by, do thou, free of bodily bonds, rise up troubled, 1922Aand prepare the inward mind by prayers while thou risest; that from lowly things thou mayest strive toward the things above, and be zealous to open the doors of thy heart. While 1593 thou stretchest out thy hands to Christ, thy deeds shall breathe a faithful odor.

Open to me, my sister. When thou desirest to meet one of the foremost men, dost thou not first draw near to his house: afterwards thou seekest to be informed and instructed, that thou mayest learn the mind of the master of the house: then, that thou mayest enter his house, thou entreatest that no one cast thee off and shut thee out. Knock thou therefore also at that heavenly palace; knock not with the hand of the body, but with a certain right hand of thy prayer. Not the hand of the body alone knocks; the voice knocks also, for it is written: The voice of my brother knocks at the door. [Vulg. Cant. 5:2 Vox dilecti mei pulsantis, "the voice of my beloved knocking"] We knock also with the finger. In short, 1922BThomas too deserved with his finger to open the door of the resurrection: and Jesus says to thee: Put thy finger hither, and put it into my hands and my side, and be not unbelieving, but faithful (Joan. XX, 27). [Vulg. et vide manus meas, et affer manum tuam, et mitte in latus meum, "and see my hands, and bring thy hand, and put it into my side"] Knock therefore with thy finger, if thou canst not with the whole hand; knock at the door. Christ is the door, who says: By me if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved (Joan. X, 9).

When therefore thou hast knocked at this door, see how thou enterest; lest perchance, even having entered, thou be outside the sight of the king. Many enter palaces, and do not straightway see that king of the earth, but often keep watch, that at some time they may deserve to see him. Nor do they presume upon the opportunity of seeing him, but are presented at his bidding, and pour out a petition; that they may be received with good will, being careful of the first approaches of their speech; 1922Cthat nothing stumble, that nothing give offense: how much more must God be entreated, that our prayer may enter the door of his mercy!

The voice of my brother knocks at the door. Learn thou also, O bride of Christ, to bar thy door in the times of night; lest anyone easily find it lying open. The Bridegroom himself wills it to be shut when he knocks. Our door is our mouth; it ought to be opened to Christ almost alone, nor let it be opened unless the Word of God has first knocked. The voice of my brother knocks at the door. Hear him knocking, hear him desiring to come in.

(Vers. 2.) Open to me, my sister, my bride, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is full of dew, and my hair of the drops of the night. Consider when God the Word most of all knocks at thy door: when 1922Dhis head has been filled with the nightly dew. For he deigns to visit those set in tribulation and temptations; lest anyone perchance succumb, overcome by hardships. His head therefore is filled with dew or with drops, when his body labors. Then therefore must we keep watch, lest, when the Bridegroom has come, he depart shut out. For if thou sleep, and thy heart do not keep watch, he departs before he knocks: if thy heart keep watch, he knocks, and demands that the door be opened to him.

We have therefore a door of our soul; we have also gates, of which it is said: Lift up your gates, ye princes, 1923Aand be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in (Psal. XXIII, 7). There is therefore also a heaven in those in whom are the everlasting gates. If thou wilt raise up these gates of thy faith, the King of glory shall enter in to thee, bearing the triumph of his own passion. For justice has gates, for of these too we read it written, the Lord Jesus saying through his prophet: Open to me the gates of justice (Psal. CXVII, 19). And below the prophet David says: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Sion; for he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates (Psal. CXLVII, 12).

There is therefore a soul which has a door, there is one which has gates. To this door Christ comes, and knocks: he knocks also at the gates. Open therefore to him; he wills to enter, he wills to find the Bride keeping watch. Do not therefore 1923Bmake delays for a good lover: he quickly withdraws; and thou by the sleep of thy body shalt be seen to have shut out him who knocks. For thou dost shut him out when thou art slothful, when lazy, when drowsy. By these bars Christ is shut out: if thou be chaste and sober, beware lest thou be negligent. He does Christ the greater injury who repels him at his coming.

Open to me, my sister, my neighbor: he knocks at the door even when thou sleepest: if only, being roused, thou awake, or, being called, thou open the door of thy breast, he will enter in. But if thou flee the prophetic reading, if thou read not at home, if thou be unwilling to hear in the Church — art thou not like him who winks with averted gaze, that he may not see what he could see, and shuts his eyes lest he look, though the power of seeing is his: or as many in a rage have cast their hands upon their own eyes; so thou too at first turnest away 1923Crather by a winking dissimulation than by an abrupt refusal. For when thou comest to the Church and assertest that thou art 1594 a Christian, thou seemest whole, thou openest the eyes with which thou couldst see: but while thou dissemblest to hear the things that are read, thou closest them lest thou see for thyself, even if to others thou seem to see. Thou castest also certain hands of faithlessness and intemperance upon the eyes of thy soul, and bringest upon thy heart a blindness (which is the graver thing) that is voluntary; so that seeing thou seest not, hearing thou hearest not.

Dost thou think that thou art alone when thou committest fornication, and dost not remember that the eyes of the Lord behold the round earth? Dost thou not hear him who says: Behold, the hour comes that ye be scattered every man to his own, and leave me alone: but I am not alone, for the Father is with me (Joan. XVI, 32). The Father therefore is present, the Son of God also is present, the ministers are present, 1923Dthe Cherubim and Seraphim are present, who say. Holy, holy, holy, the earth is full of thy majesty (Esai. VI). [Vulg. plena est omnis terra gloria ejus, "the whole earth is full of his glory"] For the world is full of virtues, because it is full of wickednesses: the round earth is full of remedies, because it is full of snares.

(Vers. 3.) I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on? [Vulg. Expoliavi me tunica mea: quomodo induar illa?, passive, "how shall I be clothed with it?"] For indeed in this night of the world the garment of bodily life must first be put off by thee; for the Lord put off flesh from himself, that for thee he might triumph over the dominations and powers of this world. How shall I put it on? See, O soul devoted to God, what she says. 1924ASo has she put off the acts of the body and earthly manners, that she knows not how, even if she should wish it, she could put them on again. How shall I put it on? That is: with what shame, with what modesty, with what memory at the last? For the habit of good has lost the use of the old depravity.

The soul, hearing Open to me, having a head full of dew — that is, of worldly temptations — suddenly troubled, and as one about to rise who was bidden to rise, says, while she gave off the scent of aloes and myrrh, the badge of burial: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on: I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? For she fears lest she rise again into temptations, lest she return again into fault and sin, and begin to defile her goings-out and the advances of her virtues with earthly footprints. 1924B

Assuredly in this way also she declares the perfection of her virtue, in that she has deserved so great a charity of Christ; that he comes to her, and knocks at her door, and comes with the Father, and sups with that same soul, and she with him, as John the apostle said in the Apocalypse (Apoc. III, 20). For indeed, when she had heard in the passages above: Be here from Lebanon; [Vulg. Veni de Libano, sponsa, veni de Libano, "Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon"] and when she perceived that she could not be present to Christ in the flesh, but was then present if she were present in the spirit, conforming herself to his will, that she too might be conformed to the image of Christ; now she does not feel the spoils of the flesh, now, as it were a spirit stripping itself of the conjunction of the body, now as one forgetful, and one who, if she wished, could not remember that coupling, she says: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on? For I have put off that garment of skins which Adam and Eve received after 1924Ctheir fault, the tunic of corruption, the tunic of the passions; How shall I put it on? She does not ask to put it on: but so signifies it cast away, that now it could not be a garment for her.

(Vers. 3.) I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? That is: I have washed my footsteps, while I was going out, and lifting myself from the fellowship of the body, from that connection and familiarity of the carnal embrace: how shall I defile them, so as to return into the enclosure of the body and that dark prison of its passions? So do we bury the passions, if we do not loose the cross of this body; if we do not write again, upon the cross of Christ, the bond of sin which has been blotted out; if we do not put on the garment of the old man which we have put off. For it is written in the Canticles: I have put off my tunic, 1924Dhow shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? The members of the body therefore have been mortified: why do its vices sprout up? Therefore the law did not prevail, because it did not mortify the flesh: therefore it passed by like a shadow, because it did not discolor: and therefore it overshadowed us from the sun of justice, because it heaped up crimes.

Sometimes to be naked is a sign of virtue, because it is written: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? What tunic therefore she has put off, and how she has not found in what manner 1925Ato put it on, let us disclose from the Scriptures if we can. For there is a certain bodily tunic, there are certain woven veils of desires; and therefore it is sometimes better to be naked in body than veiled in heart. Whence Paul too admonishes us that it is 1595 much better to be stripped than to be clothed over, saying elsewhere: Stripping yourselves of the old man with his acts, put on the new, who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him who created him. [Vulg. et induentes novum, a participle, "and putting on the new"] Therefore she who has been stripped, and has her feet washed, knows not how she may not be defiled; for by grace she forgets what she had drawn in by nature.

I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? Thou hast learned in the Gospel that to wash the feet is a mystery of faith, a badge of humility, according to what is written: 1925BIf I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, how much more ought you to wash one another's feet (Joan. XIII, 14)! [Vulg. et vos debetis alter alterius lavare pedes, "you also ought to wash one another's feet"] But this pertains to humility. As to the mystery, however, he ought to wash his feet who wishes to have part with Christ: For if I shall not wash, he says, thy feet, thou shalt not have part with me (Ibid. 8). [Vulg. Si non lavero te, "If I wash thee not"] When this is said to Peter, what is judged of us? He therefore who has washed his feet has no need to wash again; and therefore let him beware lest he defile them.

And well does holy Church say: I have washed my feet; she does not say, how shall I wash them again, but how shall I defile them again? As one forgetful of the old stain, forgetful of the contagion, she admonishes how in a bodily ministry we ought to wash away the spiritual trace of our acts. And so, when once thou hast washed thy feet 1925Cwith the watering of the eternal fountain, and hast cleansed them by the sacrament of the mystery, beware again of the filth of bodily desire, lest thy miry acts be defiled with earthly squalor. These are the feet which David washed in the spirit, who teaches thee how thou canst not defile them, saying: Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem (Psal. CXXI, 2). Assuredly understand here the feet not of the body but of the mind; for how should an earthly man have the feet of the body in heaven? Jerusalem, as Paul has taught thee, is in heaven: and the same has taught thee how thou canst stand in heaven, when he says: But our conversation is in heaven (Philip. III, 20). The conversation of manners, the conversation of deeds, the conversation of faith.

I have done judgment and justice, deliver me not 1925Dto them that slander me. Where justice is, there is mercy. Mercy frees from sin. How therefore am I delivered to sinners? Like to this is that in the Canticles: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? I have put off the tunic of the sinner, and the veil of the earthly man; why am I adjudged as though a sinner and an earthly man? I have washed my feet, that no lot of sin might cleave to my footstep; why dost thou give power over me to them that offend?

Jeremiah in his Lamentations says: Thy iniquity hath failed, 1926AO daughter of Sion; he shall no more add to drive thee out: he hath visited thine iniquities, O daughter of Edom, he hath revealed upon thy sins (Thren. IV, 21). [Vulg. Completa est iniquitas tua… discooperuit peccata tua, "Thy iniquity is accomplished… he hath uncovered thy sins"] Dost thou observe that iniquity could not fail without God's visitation, nor the correction be full, save through the grace of the Lord and Savior? But how iniquity fails, hear the Church saying: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? The garment of the old man, therefore, woven through with the vices of error, laid down in the regeneration of the laver, she knows not how she could put on; for by the zeal of correction a forgetfulness of sins had grown up in her. So great is the force of a completed amendment, that she returns to a certain age of spiritual childhood, which knows not the ways of error; even if she wished, she could not admit a crime, because use has grown unaccustomed 1926Bto knowing how to sin.

(Vers. 4.) My brother put his hand in from the lookout, and my belly was troubled over him. I myself rose up to open to my brother. My hands dropped myrrh, my fingers were full of myrrh. [Vulg. Dilectus meus misit manum suam per foramen, et venter meus intremuit ad tactum ejus, "My beloved put his hand through the opening, and my belly trembled at his touch"] First therefore he puts in his hand as though from a lookout, when God is estimated from his works, whence he says: If ye believe not me, believe the works (Joan. X, 38). [Vulg. et si mihi non vultis credere, "and if you will not believe me"] Then love is increased, and, conceived in the innermost bowels, grows up. Thereupon, his seeds having been poured into the intelligible womb in which is the receptacle of the Word, our soul desires to drink in his fullness dwelling bodily; for the womb of women is not troubled, save the wombs of those who have been heavy in the belly. The soul therefore rises to open to the Word of God, but while she spreads herself out and 1926Copens, that she may mortify the works of this world by the reception of the Word, like him who says: We carry about the mortification of the Lord Jesus in our body (II Cor. IV, 19). Therefore, while she opens, the Bridegroom passes by; for he wills always to be sought, and more frequently to be found. And if he shall have found the door shut, he knocks; and if through delay 1596 he has been shut out, he withdraws; but quickly he returns, to him he knocks again, that at least afterwards he may find his Bride prepared.

It can indeed be taken thus also, My brother passed by: as we read that he penetrated the inmost marrow of the beloved, in the manner in which it was said to Mary: And a sword shall pierce through thy own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luc. II, 35). [Vulg. ex multis cordibus, "out of many hearts"] In short, the Bride added that her soul had gone out at his word, which happens when the soul is a pilgrim from 1926Dthe body and is present to God. Hearing these things the Bridegroom sent his operation, the Word, as through a cave, not yet face to face: he sent it as it were a hand, And my belly, she says, was troubled over him. Whosoever so lives can say:

My brother put his hand through the lookout, and my belly was troubled at him: I rose to open to my brother. It is good that at the coming of the Lord the inward parts be troubled. If Mary was troubled at the coming of the angel, how much more are we troubled at the coming 1927Aof Christ! For when the things of God flow in, bodily affection goes into exile, and that habit of the outward man grows out of use. Do thou also be troubled, do thou make haste. Those men are bidden to eat the lamb in haste. Rise, open: Christ is at the door, he knocks at the porches of thy house: if thou shalt open, he will enter in, and will enter in with the Father. Nor only when he has entered does he leave a reward: but even before he enters he sends the reward on ahead. Still the soul is troubled, still she gropes along the walls of her house, still she seeks the door where Christ is, still she looses the bond of the flesh and the enclosure of the body, still Christ knocks outside.

What is our window, but that through which we see the works of Christ, namely the eye of the soul and the gaze of the mind? And therefore, O virgin, let Christ come in through thy window, 1927Blet Christ put in his hand: let the love of the Word come to thee through the window, not the love of the body. If therefore the Word of God puts in his hand through thy window, see how thou preparest thy windows, see how thou oughtest to wipe them clean from every dust of offenses. Let the windows of a virgin have nothing foul, nothing adulterate. Far off be the antimony and the other trifles of an affected comeliness, far off the enticements of an adulterate love. Like to this is the closing of the ears, on which no burdens are to be hung, no wounds to be fixed, but there is one adornment: to hear what profits.

(Vers. 6.) I opened, she says, to my brother; my brother passed by. How he passed by: that is, he penetrated the inward parts of the mind, as it was said to Mary: And a sword shall pierce through thy own soul. For the living Word of God, 1927Clike a sharp sword, penetrating the bars of bodily thoughts, searches out the inward parts of the heart. Set therefore in thy chamber and in the time of night, meditate always upon Christ, and hope for his coming at every moment. If he seems to thee to delay, rise up. He seems to delay when thou sleepest long: he seems to delay when thou art idle from prayer: he seems to delay when thou dost not lift up thy voice in psalms. Dedicate to Christ the firstfruits of thy watchings, offer to Christ the firstfruits of thy acts.

(Vers. 5.) I myself rose up to open to my brother; my hands dropped myrrh, my fingers are full of myrrh upon the hands of the fastening. [Vulg. digiti mei pleni myrrha probatissima, "my fingers full of the choicest myrrh"] Let us consider what this signifies. First, as I have said, God the Word is seen in his own works as through a cave, not fully 1927Dand perfectly: then love is increased and the conception grows, and out of his seeds, which the soul has received in a certain intelligible womb, she desires to see the whole fullness of his divinity dwelling in him bodily, as we read. She rose that she might see that Word of God more closely, and in this very thing her advance is signified, that she rose by vigor and strength; for the presence of the Word drew forth the strength of the soul, as the presence of Mary, when she was heavy with the womb, instructed John set within the womb: so far that he leapt out of the womb and exulted, recognizing the presence of the Lord. 1928A

She rose to open, and her works and deeds were mortified to the world. For such ought the soul to be which is to receive the Word: that she die to the world, and be buried together in Christ; for thus is Christ found, and such a lodging does he seek for himself. Then the very ministries of her operations, that is, the hands and the fingers by which Christ is grasped, are mortified: which fingers we may reckon as the eminent works 1597 of our deeds. And so, as it were out of her own embrace, when she was already stretching out her intelligible hands and fingers to grasp the Word, the devout soul says that it passed by her, yet not that it had as yet passed through. And this advance it has, when the Word of God passes by and passes through the soul, because it is written: And a sword shall pierce through thy own soul, that the thoughts of many 1928Bhearts may be revealed (Luc. II, 35). Hence there is as yet a passing by, not a passing through; as in Mary, in the later things, there is perhaps a passing through, where the Lord Jesus is set as a seal in the midst of her.

In short, straightway there is another advance of the Word passing through, in that the soul went out at his Word; that is, following his Word she went out of the body, lifting herself out of its habitation, and making herself a pilgrim to it, that she might be present to God, and be a fellow-citizen of the saints. For we cannot at once be of the household both of the flesh and of God. Therefore in this place the soul is signified to go out, as I have said, when she withdraws herself from the pleasures of the body. In short, it is written: Go out of Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans (Esai. XLVIII, 20). [Vulg. Egredimini de Babylone, fugite a Chaldaeis, both plural imperatives] Not indeed that the Hebrew should flee the regions of Babylon, but its manners, as he is admonished by the prophetic 1928Caddress: since indeed there are those who are Hebrews in Babylon, and teach by their manners that they have gone out of Babylon. For those too of whom the prophet says that they sat upon the rivers of Babylon (Ps. CXXXVI, 1) sat indeed in the region of Babylon, but were not in its vices and confusion. For how were they in that confusion of vices, who wept, doing penance, because they had fallen away from the ark of devotion and faith, and from the merits of their fathers' virtue? But the soul which goes out at the word seeks the Word; whence she also, while she was seeking, fell in with the guards who go about the city.

(Vers. 7.) The guards who go about the city found me, they struck me, and wounded me, and the guards of the walls took away my cloak from me. Well indeed did she come as a bride with a cloak, with which she might veil 1928Dher head when the bridegroom should meet her; as Rebecca, who, having learned that Isaac was coming to meet her, came down from the camel and covered herself with a cloak: so this soul too sent before her the badges of the nuptial garment, lest perchance she be cast out as not having a wedding garment; or that she might veil her head because of the angels. But they struck her, that she might be the more tested; for souls are exercised by temptations. They took her cloak from her, seeking whether she brought the true beauty of naked virtue, or because one ought to enter that heavenly city without a covering, bringing with him no coverings 1929Aof paint. There are also those who search out whether any soul carries with her the spoils of carnal enticement and bodily concupiscence. She is stripped of her cloak when her conscience is made manifest. But there is one who is well stripped, to whom it is permitted to imitate him who says: For the prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing (Joan. XIV, 30); [Vulg. et in me non habet quidquam, "and in me he hath not anything"] for assuredly he found nothing in him alone who did no sin.

Blessed also is she in whom he finds nothing grievous or manifold, but finds in her the garment of faith and the discipline of wisdom. And so without loss to herself (because even if one should wish it, he cannot take away true wisdom), though the adversary clamor; yet where the true integrity of a harmless conversation shines out, she has passed the guards, and, mingled with the daughters of that heavenly city, seeks the Word; 1929Band by seeking she stirs up his charity within herself, and learns where she may seek the Word. It is not only an injury not to have found him whom thou seekest, but very often to have sought where one ought not is itself a wound: to have sought in the houses of men who falsely take to themselves the name of teachers, to have sought more boldly than modestly. Therefore let us beware, by her example, lest the guards who go about the city find us.

They found me, she says, the guards who go about the city: they struck and wounded me, and the guards of the walls took away my cloak from me. Not in herself, O daughters, but in us is the Church wounded. Let us therefore beware lest our fall become the Church's wound, lest anyone take from us the cloak, that is, the garment of prudence, the badge of patience, by which the ambition of a softer 1929Cgarment is put off: for They who are clothed in softer garments are in the houses of kings (Matth. XI, 8). [Vulg. qui mollibus vestiuntur, "they who are clothed in soft things"] But to us Christ has given the cloak with which he himself clothed his apostles and his own body, which in short he bids thee give, if any man asks thy tunic, that thou leave him the cloak also (Matth. V, 40); that is, that thou hand over the badge of thy philosophy, and clothe him about, as with the garment of thy prudence, 1598 who before was naked.

There therefore, O daughters, let us seek Christ where the Church seeks him, on the mountains of good odor, which by the sublimity of their lofty deeds breathe out the sweet odor of life according to the summits of their merits. She who seeks Christ ought not to be common, ought not to be in the market or in the streets, querulous of voice, slippery of step, easy of approach, cheap of aspect. The Apostle denies thee earthly fellowship, and teaches that beyond the bounds, almost, of nature 1929Dwe must fly up to heaven on spiritual wings. Mind the things that are above, he says, not the things that are upon the earth (Colos. III, 2). But because this was impossible for those shut up in this enclosure, as it were, of the body, and because when bodies are dead the soul is said to fly back to the things above, being bound by a certain law of our nature while we live, therefore he added: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Ibid., 3). If it is hidden with Christ in God, let it not appear to the world, for Christ is dead to the world, and lives to God. See now how Christ loves to be desired, and loves not 1930Aidle talk. That virgin opened her doors to the Word of God: but he passed by, she says, and my soul went out at his word (Vers. 6). [Vulg. Anima mea liquefacta est, ut locutus est, "My soul melted when he spoke"] She went out from the world, she went out from the age, she remained in Christ. I sought him, she says, and I found him not. For Christ loves to be sought long.

The guards of the walls found her. Perhaps there are also other guards, whom we ought rather to understand. For there is a city which does not have the gates of its walls shut, of which it is said: And the gates thereof shall not be shut by day (Apoc. XXI, 25); for night shall be no more in it, the nations shall bring glory and honor into it. That therefore is the city Jerusalem which is in heaven, within which thou art now kept as one perfect and unspotted; for no common thing enters into it. Chastity which is written in the book of life is not common, modesty 1930Bis not common.

If therefore we have found the city, let us enter into it, let us see its light, let us see the walls, let us see the foundations of the walls, let us see also the guards of the walls. But how shall we enter into it? In this city is life, and there is one way which leads to life. The way therefore is Christ; let us therefore follow Christ. But that city is itself in heaven; how then shall we ascend to heaven? The Evangelist teaches, who says: And he led me forth in the spirit into a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven (Apoc. 21, 10). [Vulg. sustulit me in spiritu, "he took me up in the spirit"] Let us therefore ascend in the spirit, because the flesh cannot ascend to it. Let us ascend meanwhile into heaven, that afterwards it may come down from heaven to us: in which the light is like 1930Ca most precious stone, and as of the jasper stone and of crystal it has a wall great and high.

Thou hast learned of the light, thou hast learned of the wall; learn of the gates, learn of the guards. It has, he says, twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, upon which the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel are written above (Ibid., 12). In the gates the names of the patriarchs are contained, in the wall those of the apostles; for the foundations of the city are the apostles, and the corner-stone is Christ, in whom the whole structure rises up. God is without, God is within, God is everywhere: For the city has, he says, the majesty of God (Ibid., 11). [Vulg. habentem claritatem Dei, "having the brightness of God"] Therefore you also, holy virgins, and whosoever of you are just, and bear the unspotted chastity of the soul, are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God. But then shall you possess that nobility of your fatherland, if you seek Christ within the enclosures of that city, having entered 1930Dby faith and by precious acts, made bright by the light of the patriarchs, founded upon the apostles, dwelling among the angels.

How therefore are those guards angels, who take away the cloak of a chaste soul? The cloak of virgins is one thing, that of a girl who haunts the streets another. She who seeks Christ in the market has lost even the cloak she had. For prudence is possessed not in the market, not in the streets, but in the Church. And perhaps, that we may come into favor with them also, and may teach that God is merciful to all — since they too 1931Aat some time find Christ, if only they seek continually — this cloak is the garment of the body. Therefore he who has sought Christ in his chamber, if only he has so sought as he who said: So have I been mindful of thee upon my bed (Ps. LXII, 7); [Vulg. Si memor fui tui, "If I have been mindful of thee"] if he has sought him in the nights, according to what is written: In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places (Ps. CXXXII, 2): if he has sought him in the city, in the market and in the streets, in the city of our God: in the market perhaps 1599 in which that judge of divine right sits, in the streets from which were gathered those who came together to the Lord's supper — he can, while he seeks long, meet with the angels who keep the city of God. Nay more, from the heavenly nature of the guards we can understand the city to be heavenly, and the market a heavenly market of everlasting justice, and the streets not cheap streets, but perhaps those in which 1931Bthat fountain was wont to overflow, of which it is written: Let thy waters overflow from thy fountain, and let thy waters be poured out in thy streets (Prov. V, 16). [Vulg. Deriventur fontes tui foras, et in plateis aquas tuas divide, "Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and divide thy waters in the streets"] He therefore who so seeks Christ comes to the angels.

But if it is by good merits that one comes to the angels, why is he who has come wounded? There is also a good sword, and the wound of that sword is good. The Word of God wounds, but does not ulcerate. There is a wound of good love, there are wounds of charity; and therefore she said: I am of wounded charity (Cant. II, 5). [Vulg. quia amore langueo, "for I languish with love"] She who is perfect is wounded with charity. Good therefore are the wounds of the Word, good are the wounds of the lover: For more useful are the wounds of a friend than the willing kisses of an enemy (Prov. XXVII, 6). [Vulg. Meliora sunt vulnera diligentis quam fraudulenta oscula odientis, "Better are the wounds of one that loves than the deceitful kisses of one that hates"] Of wounded charity is Rebecca, who, leaving her parents, journeyed to her bridegroom. Of wounded charity 1931Cis Rachel, who was jealous of her sister and loved her husband; for she, still barren, envied her sister in that she abounded in sons, because she bore the type of the Church, to whom it is said: Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not (Esai. 54, 1). [Vulg. Lauda, sterilis, quae non paris; decanta laudem, et hinni, quae non pariebas, "Praise, O thou barren that bearest not; sing forth praise and cry out, thou that didst not bear"]

The guards therefore found her and wounded her, and took her cloak from her: that is, they carried off the wrapping of bodily action, that the naked simplicity of the mind might seek Christ; because no one clothed with the garment of philosophy, that is, in the habit of worldly wisdom, can see Christ. And well is the garment of philosophy taken from her, lest anyone despoil her through philosophy. Well is the cloak taken from her who draws near to Christ, that, being about to see God, she may walk with a clean heart: for Blessed are the clean of heart, for 1931Dthey shall see God (Matth. V, 8). In short, when she had cleansed her heart, she found the Word, she saw God. Seek him therefore, O virgin — nay rather, let us all seek him; for the soul has no sex. But perhaps it received a feminine name for this reason, that a more violent heat of the body drives it: while it soothes the onset of the flesh and of its own love by a certain soft and gentle reasoning. Therefore by prayers and supplications we ought to invite God, that he may deign to breathe upon us like a good south wind. And let him breathe upon us the breeze of the heavenly Word: which is wont to stir the fruit-bearing trees not with a heavy wind, but with a light breathing and a soft blast. 1932A

They took away my cloak from me. A good garment is the eternity of life; this cloak of the Bride the guards of the walls wished to take away, of which the first man had been stripped; but the soul devoted to God, by holding fast the long-sought and not letting go her beloved, clothed herself with the precious wrapping of divine charity. Blessed therefore are they who are clothed with such a cloak, and have deserved a garment of this kind by the observance of the law; because they have not been forgetful of the law, but have done the things that were of the law.

(Vers. 8.) I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you announce to him that I languish with love. [Vulg. ut nuntietis ei, "that you tell him"] But what is this languor of the soul? The moral sense makes it needful that we remember the old history, which is of holy Moses, who asked God to show himself to him, and that he might see him face to face. Assuredly 1932Bthe holy seer of the Lord knew that he could not see the invisible God face to face. But holy devotion oversteps measure, and he thought that even this was possible to God, that he should cause that which is incorporeal to be comprehended by bodily eyes. This error is not blameworthy, but rather a pleasing and insatiable desire, in that he longed to hold his Lord as it were with the hand, and to see him with the gaze of the eyes. For he knew that man had been made to the image and likeness of God; for when, chosen by the Lord God to free the people, he was filled with the spirit of wisdom, he had seen that angel, and his face in glory; in short, he was made afraid by his shining light, and saw the bush burning and not burnt up. By sight he took in the brightness, and marvelling at it he drew near; provoked by desire and by grace, that he might more diligently 1932Clook upon that brightness in the bush. And so, if he received so great an ardor and underwent so great a desire when he had seen the angel in the flame of fire out of the bush, that, though seized with dread he dared not look, yet he wished to look: how much more did he desire to see the countenance of the Lord bodily, saying within himself: That countenance full of light, 1600 full of grace, full of virtue, full of divinity — what shall I say it is? I can say or feel no more of God; for when a man has finished, then he begins; and when he has made an end, then shall he be at a loss, as it is written, because the eternal majesty of God is incomprehensible (Eccles. XVIII, 6).

Vain indeed was the effect of his petition, but the affection of the servant was worthy of approval; because, having advanced by devotion beyond his own nature, he estimated from the Lord's angels 1932Dhow much more he might desire of the Lord's countenance, whereby he longed to fill up his desire. He knew that in man himself there would be after death one glory and another brightness: For as star differs from star in brightness, so also is the resurrection of the dead; which, even if it is sown in corruption, yet shall rise in incorruption, shall rise in glory, shall rise in power, shall rise a spiritual body (I Cor. XV, 41-44). He therefore who could know these things rightly presumed to desire to see the countenance of the Lord, since he would see it when the death of the body had been undergone. Such a form assuredly had he taken on, and such did the Lord already approve, that the heavenly minister and executor of the oracle stood no distance from the angels. And therefore, 1933Asince he knew That the angels of the little ones daily see the face of the Father who is in heaven (Matth. XVIII, 10), [Vulg. angeli eorum in caelis semper vident faciem Patris mei, "their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father"] he thought that he could and ought already to see it, as one forgetful of the body and having laid the flesh aside; like him who, being still set in the body, when he was caught up into paradise, said that he knew no further whether he had been caught up to the third heaven in the body or outside the body (II Cor. XII, 3). For the saints, even when they bear a body, are nevertheless not in the flesh but in the spirit; since they who are in carnal desire and conversation cannot please God. But the saints are not in the flesh by their conversation, but in heaven.

From these things therefore let us comprehend the affection of the languishing Bride. She desired to see the countenance of God as one innocent, as it were with a certain countenance of conscience, and she longed to open 1933Bto him the face of her inward mind, and to be more fully known. Impatient love, knocking day and night at harlots' doors, if the desires of possessing are put off longer, itself faints in the waiting while it hopes: in which assuredly there is not an end of love, but an increase. And whatever is desirable, if it does not fall to him who desires it, he faints toward it, and he who desires lays down, as it were, his very soul; yet if a nearer hope rises up, the hope close at hand gives strength; but if there be an absence of the beloved, by that very thing whereby she desires him absent, she who has longed suffers a fainting of her own soul. And so, the further off that is which is desired, the more does he faint who desires it. This therefore is to faint: that every man passes over with all his zeal into that which he loves; he thinks it, he cleaves to it, he sounds it forth, that which he has received to be loved; into it he is poured over by a certain 1933Cfainting of the soul. As if a mother should await the presence of a son, in the way that the wife of Tobias awaited her travelling son; fainting from desire, and set in straits, she seemed as one undone (Tob. X, 3 et seq.). For what else do her words signify but a certain fainting? But the more the affection is wearied, the more abundantly does love grow; and the longer he who desires is absent, the more do the desires of her who waits take fire with a certain greater force of love. The flesh faints, but the desire is nourished and increased.

And so the holy soul knows not how to desire anything other than the Bridegroom, who is Christ Jesus: him she longs for, him she desires, toward him she strains with all her powers, him she cherishes in the bosom of her mind, to him she opens and pours out herself, and this alone she fears, that she might lose him. 1933DAnd so, the greater the desire with which the soul has been roused, longing to cleave to God her Savior, so much the more does she faint. Therefore this fainting works indeed a diminution of frailty, but a taking-on of strength. She longed, she desired, she fainted, she was dissolved in her whole affection, that she might become wholly his whom she desired, as David himself also says: I pour out my prayer in his sight, and I declare my tribulation before him, in the failing of my spirit 1934Afrom me (Ps. CXLI, 3 et 4). For his spirit failed; nay rather, the spirit failed from him who denies himself, that he may cleave to Christ. And so, as one impatient of love, she ran about, and sought everywhere the Word of God, because she was wounded, because she was naked; and she sought the support of someone by whom Christ might be asked to come. See her burning, see her desiring: I adjure you, she says, O daughters of Jerusalem, etc.; then, mingled with the daughters of that heavenly city, she seeks the Word, and by seeking and by contemplating his beauty, she stirs up his charity within herself. 1601

(Vers. 10.) My brother, she says, is white and red, chosen out of thousands. [Vulg. Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus, "My beloved is white and ruddy"] For it is fitting, O virgin, that thou shouldst fully know whom thou lovest, and shouldst acknowledge in him every mystery both of his unbegotten divinity and of the incorporation 1934Bhe assumed. He is therefore white by right, because he is the splendor of the Father: red, because he is the offspring of a virgin. The color of each nature shines and glows red in him. Yet remember that the badges of divinity in him are more ancient than the mysteries of the body; because he did not begin from the Virgin, but he who was came into the Virgin.

My brother is white and red. White with eternal brightness, red with the appearance of human color, which he took on by the mystery of the incarnation. And rightly does that very thing which is red smell sweet; because the flesh of Christ is without sin, which the faithless, handling it, defiled their own hands: while the saints, venerating it, burned with the odor of piety.

Chosen out of thousands. Ten thousands, says Jacob, of Ephraim and thousands of Manasseh; that is, let him have dominion over both the Jews 1934Cand the Gentiles, and out of both peoples acquire for himself the fullness of the Church. And therefore holy Jacob laid his right hand upon Ephraim; because thou readest, the Church saying in the Song of Songs: My brother is white and red, chosen out of ten thousands. [Vet. Lat. — Migne prints this same lemma as ex millibus, "out of thousands," at §§58–59 above, and ex decem millibus here; the plate is inconsistent with itself and is not harmonized] In short, they proclaimed even David — the author of the young Mary, from whose succession Christ was born by the Virgin's childbearing — in ten thousands: but Saul in thousands, though they ought rather to have set the favor of reverence toward the king first.

(Vers. 11.) His head is gold Cephas. [Vulg. aurum optimum, "the finest gold"] Which signifies a steadfast and eminent wisdom. The body of Christ is the Church, and the head of this is as gold, because the wisdom of the saints is precious, that is, men just and prudent. 1934D

His hairs are as fir trees, black as the raven. [Vulg. comae ejus sicut elatae palmarum, nigrae quasi corvus, "his locks as the branches of palm trees, black as a crow"] Of this he said elsewhere, Thy head of hair is as a flock of shorn ones. Therefore a head of hair, because the power of all the senses is in the head: for The eyes of the wise man are in his head (Eccle. II, 14). The deep prudence, therefore, of the teachers, which can reveal the things that are obscure and open the heights of the senses. And disputants of this kind are the hairs of the Church, like the young of the ravens to whom the Lord gives food: as he gave to holy Jacob, and fed him 1935Afrom his youth. These others, and deep ones, the Lord feeds with heavenly mysteries in the richness of doctrine.

(Vers. 12.) His eyes also are as doves. The eyes are men, that is to say, adorned with spiritual senses, who are keen for the seeing of mysteries, and ready for penetrating the secrets of divine Scripture, shining with rational milk, in whom there is no spotted confusion of guile, but the unspotted sincerity of a simple affection. Therefore he made mention of these doves as washed in milk amid an abundance of waters, saying:

His eyes are as doves upon the abundance of waters, washed in milk, of one sitting upon fullness, [Vulg. super rivulos aquarum, quae lacte sunt lotae, et resident juxta fluenta plenissima, "upon the little brooks of waters, which are washed with milk, and sit beside the plentiful streams"] The Lord baptizes in milk, that is, in sincerity. And these are they who are truly baptized in milk, who believe without guile, and bring a pure faith, that they may put on an unspotted 1935Bgrace. Therefore the Bride ascends white to Christ, because she has been baptized in milk; therefore the powers marvel at her, saying: Who is this that comes up made white (Cant. VIII, 7)? [Vulg. Cant. 8:5 Quae est ista quae ascendit de deserto, deliciis affluens, "Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights"] A little while before she was saying, I am black (Cant. I, ): now she is seen made white, and ascends to heaven, and, leaning upon the Word of God, now penetrates the heights.

And not undeservedly is there an abundance of waters there where Christ is, from whom the human mind desires to be filled. These are the waters the stag thirsts for, which, when he has drunk them, he cannot thirst. These waters the Prophet thirsted for when he said: My soul hath thirsted for thee (Psalm. XLI, 3). [Vulg. Ps 41:3 Sitivit anima mea ad Deum fontem vivum, "My soul hath thirsted after God, the living fountain"; the printed wording is that of Ps 62:2] Christ therefore sits upon the abundance of waters, and upon the fullness, and therefore he who baptizes in water says: And we all have received of his fullness (Joan I, 16). Whence the eye of punishments also is not alien to the Church; because 1935Ceven if John was baptizing in Aenon, he was baptizing near Salim, where there was an abundance of waters, and twelve fountains, and seventy palm trees. These fountains the Church has, that is, in the Old Testament the twelve patriarchs, in the New the twelve apostles; and therefore it was said: In the churches bless ye the Lord God from the fountains of Israel (Psalm. LXVII, 27). With these fountains is he first washed over, whosoever attains the most sacred mysteries; for these fountains, flowing out from the eternal fountain, have streamed over the whole world. Where these fountains are, there is the ascent of souls. In short, they have interpreted Salim as "the very one ascending"; for he truly ascends who lays down his own sins. By this word, therefore, 1602 the use of a purifying sanctification is expressed.

(Vers. 13.) His cheeks are as phials of spice, 1935Dbringing forth perfumeries. [Vulg. Genae illius sicut areolae aromatum, consitae a pigmentariis, "his cheeks are as beds of spices set by the perfumers"] Now we understand the cheeks and the rest to be the virtues of the soul, and the diversities of teachers: who either administer spiritual nourishment to the mind by a diligent stewardship, or bind the hearer, by the preaching of the Lord's cross, as it were with a certain line of the Word, or are most pleasing by the modesty of a bashful nature and by the bloom of youth. And even if they are called back from touch by shame, yet let the odor of Christ be fragrant in them: and as upon the cheeks the ointment comes down as it were from the priestly head, so also let the beauty of doctrine shine out in them.

His lips distilling full myrrh. [Vulg. Labia ejus lilia distillantia myrrham primam, "his lips are lilies distilling the first myrrh"] For by 1936Amyrrh is declared the ointment of the passion and the grace of the resurrection, which pours the revived odor of life into the raised-up inward parts of the dead. Let the doors of thy lips therefore be shut, and let the porch of thy voice remain barred, then perhaps to be unbolted when thou hast heard the Word of God. Then shall myrrh sweat forth for thee, then shall the grace of baptism breathe upon thee; that thou mayest die together with the elements of the world, and rise again with Christ.

His lips distilling full myrrh. But we think ourselves idle if we seem to devote ourselves to the word only: and we reckon of more account those who work than those who exercise the pursuit of knowing the truth; for very many say: Behold the man and his works — as though he who devotes himself to the word does not work; whereas 1936Bthis is a work rather than the others. For if justice is a work, if temperance is a work, if fortitude is a work, then assuredly wisdom also is a work; for these four are held to be the principal virtues. For if Christ works according to that which is justice, assuredly he works according to that which is the Word. And he was working when he was in the beginning with the Father. In short, through him all things were made, that thou mayest know that he is the worker of all things, and that our work is Christ Jesus. For indeed, according to that which he is the Word, the Word to those who inquire, the Word is a great work. Whence, when Martha was hastening about the service, but Mary was hearing the word of the Lord, she who was hearing deserved to be set before her who was serving; for when Martha said: Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore 1936Cthat she help me, the Lord answered and said: Martha, Martha, Mary hath chosen a good part, which shall not be taken away from her (Luc. VII, 40-42). [Vulg. Luke 10:42 Maria optimam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea, "Mary hath chosen the best part"] Thus it is determined by the authority of a divine sentence that to know the Word is a greater work than to serve.

But perhaps someone may say that it has been said by the Apostle: That the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power (I Cor. IV, 20). I do not deny that it is written, but I recognize in what speech; namely, that which a puffed-up man has poured out, a speech which cannot profit the hearers, which is without the showing of the Spirit and of power. This speech Paul does not deign to recognize; for he wishes rather to commend the power of speech. In short, the Apostle wished his own speech to be such as came in weakness, that it might make others stronger: in fear 1936Dand trembling, that those who feared might dread nothing but the Lord Jesus; that, trembling, they might keep his peace and tranquillity. Hear then what manner of speech the Apostle had: And my speech, he says, and my preaching were not in the persuasion of the words of human wisdom, but in the showing of the Spirit and of power (II Cor. II, 4); [Vulg. 1 Cor 2:4 non in persuasibilibus humanae sapientiae verbis, "not in the persuasive words of human wisdom"] because faith is established not in the forensic speech of wisdom, but in the showing of the Spirit, but in the power of God.

Therefore in the speech of the saints there is power, but in that forensic and philosophical speech the vanity of the world. And that there is power in the speech of the saints, 1937Alet this prophet also teach thee, who says: The Lord will give the word to them that preach the gospel with much power (Psal. LXVII, 12); that is, that they may be able to preach the Gospel with much power. It is proved therefore that in the preaching of the Gospel there is power, and the preaching of the Gospel is the speech of the saints; so there remains no doubt that in holy speech there is power. And this is the myrrh distilling from the lips of the Bridegroom, namely that by which vices are mortified.

(Vers. 14.) His hands are turned on the lathe, golden, full of hyacinths. See what hands made man, and what a man they made! Him assuredly Whom we have put on according to Christ, despoiling the old man with his acts, and putting on the new who is renewed unto the knowledge according to the image of him who created him: where there is no bondman and free, but all things and 1937BChrist in all (Colloss., III, 9-11). We have put on Christ therefore, as it is said also elsewhere: Ye have put on Christ (Galat. III, 27). We have received the Holy Spirit, who not only forgives our sins; 1603 but even makes us his priests, to forgive sins to others. Therefore the Prophet says: Thou hast fashioned me and hast laid thy hand upon me (Psal. CXXXVIII, 5): [Vulg. Tu formasti me, "Thou hast formed me"] he fashioned by the clay, he laid on his hand by spiritual grace; although very many take this psalm to be spoken in the person of the Savior. Hear that the hand of the Lord is also called Spirit: Job cries out, The divine Spirit who made me (Job. XXXIII, 4). [Vulg. Spiritus Dei fecit me, "The Spirit of God made me"] These therefore are the hands which prepared man, Christ and the Spirit.

Therefore the Lord Jesus is also the author of our body, who first made man unto the image; 1937Cand afterwards fashioned him from clay, and willed to save what he had made, to save what he had molded, that he might make the whole man safe. These are the hands of God turned on the lathe, that is, perfect: golden on account of the wisdom which is Christ, full of hyacinths on account of the Holy Spirit, and the fullness of his graces.

(Vers. 14.) His belly is of ivory, set apart with sapphires. The Apostle says, And if he was crucified out of weakness — behold the belly, that is, the weakness of the flesh — yet he lives out of the power of God (II Cor. XIII, 4); behold the distinction of the sapphire. For the sapphire, in that it bears the appearance of a serene sky, signifies the works which are of the divinity. But Onir, on account of chastity and brightness and perpetuity, signifies that flesh of the Savior, of which the same Apostle says: That although we have known Christ according to 1937Dthe flesh, yet now we know him no more (II Cor. V, 16).

(Vers. 15.) His legs are pillars of marble, founded upon golden bases. They signify that the Apostles are the pillars of the Church, who were founded in holy fear. For as Peter, James, John and Barnabas seemed to be pillars of the Church, so also whosoever has overcome this world becomes a pillar of God, whom he strengthens who says: I have strengthened its pillars (Psal. LXXIV, 4). So too the golden base is fear full of discipline, 1938Abecause it is the beginning of wisdom. In the fear therefore of the wise, apostolic preaching is made firm as a pillar of Christ upon a golden base. Accordingly, to speech and to the apostolic word the tribunal is the fear of the just man, and the golden base full of prudence: but the good image, as a likeness of the truth, is the speech of the saints.

And see that the fear of the saints is as it were a golden base. Read Isaiah: see how many things he set fear under, that he might make fear blameless and good: The Spirit, he says, of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord (Esai. XI, 2); [Vulg. spiritus consilii et fortitudinis, spiritus scientiae et pietatis, "the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of science and of godliness"] how many things did he set fear under, that it might have what it could follow! It is formed by wisdom, it is instructed by understanding, it is directed by counsel, it is made firm by power, it is ruled by knowledge, 1938Bit is adorned by piety. Take these things away from the fear of the Lord, and it is an irrational and unwise fear, one of those: Without, fightings; within, fears (II Cor. VII, 5); with which Paul too would have been afflicted, had he not had the Lord consoling him.

(Vers. 15.) His appearance is as of Lebanon, choice as the cedars. He dwells in the heights, and looks upon lowly things, because his appearance is like the cedar of Lebanon, which sets its foliage among the clouds and its root in the earth; for its beginning is from heaven, and its hinder parts in the earth have brought forth fruits nearest to heaven. This kind of tree never loses its greenness, in winter as in summer it feeds its foliage, nor is it changed with a different color: this tree alone the wind never despoils of its honor: this alone is never stripped of its old covering, nor clothed with a new bloom. So apostolic grace too knows no failing, and 1938Cblossoms with a perpetual comeliness of its own. The soul therefore knows not how to be corrupted, which is vigorous with flourishing members, and always upholds with patient greatness of heart the summits of justice and of the other virtues; and therefore it neither flows away nor fails, because in it there is nothing ruinous or slack, nothing shifting, nothing slippery, nothing which could be poured out of it by a fault of speech.

(Vers. 16.) His throat is most sweet, and he is wholly desire. The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves, to be desired above gold and much precious stone (Psal. XVIII, 10 et 11). [Vulg. Cant 5:16 et totus desiderabilis, "and he is wholly desirable"] What is severe in others, in Christ is sweet, in Christ is pleasant; because he himself is pleasant: In short, taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Psal. XXIII, 9). Sweet are the judgments to him who confesses, because he himself says: I am he, I am he, who blot out 1938Dthine iniquities, and I will not be mindful of them: but be thou mindful, and let us be judged. Tell thine iniquities, that thou mayest be justified (Esai. XLIII, 25 et 26). [Vulg. Ego sum, ego sum ipse qui deleo iniquitates tuas propter me, et peccatorum tuorum non recordabor. Reduc me in memoriam, et judicemur simul: narra si quid habes ut justificeris] Sweet are the judgments to him who does penance, because he himself said: There shall be joy over one sinner doing penance, than over ninety and nine just who need not penance (Luc. XV, 7). If therefore the judgments of the Lord are sweet, let us labor to receive the fruit of his 1604 sweetness. Wilt thou know how sweet the judgments of the Lord are? He who believes in him is not judged (Joan. III, 18). Sweet therefore are the judgments to them that believe: but they who 1939Abelieve not have been condemned not by the judgment of Christ, who came not to judge the world but to save and redeem it; rather they have undergone the judgment of their own impiety, who would not believe unto the remission of sins. For they cannot belong to the benefit of him whom they have refused to acknowledge. Therefore they who have not believed in him are seen to be unworthy of his judgment. For learn what his judgment is, since he himself says: And this is the judgment, whereby the light came into this world (Ibid. 19). Sweet therefore is that which is light, sweet is the judgment which mercy goes before; for so it is written, Mercy and judgment will I sing to thee, O Lord (Psal. C, 1). Sweet also and most pleasant is the throat, whence this mercy goes before and this judgment.

(Vers. 16.) And he is wholly desirable. Shapely in form 1939Babove the sons of men (Psal. XLIV, 3). He was indeed man according to the flesh, but beyond man, according to his divine working. In short, when he touched the leper, he was seen to be man: but beyond man, when he cleansed him. And when he wept for Lazarus dead, he wept as man: but he was above man, when he bade the dead man come forth with his feet bound. He was seen to be man, when he hung upon the cross: but above man, when, the tombs being unbarred, he raised the dead. Nor let the venom of Apollinaris flatter itself, because it is read thus: And in appearance found as a man (Philip. II, 7); [Vulg. et habitu inventus ut homo, "and in habit found as a man"] for Jesus was not denied to be man, since elsewhere Paul himself says of him: The mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. II, 5); but he was confirmed. For it is the usage and custom of Scripture so to signify, as we read also in the Gospel: 1939CAnd we saw his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (Joan. I). As therefore he is called "as the only-begotten," and yet the only-begotten Son of God is not denied; so also he is called man, and the perfection of man in him is not denied.

Since therefore he was in the form of a servant, humbled even unto death, he was nevertheless in the glory of God. What then did servitude harm him? But he is read to have been made a servant, because he is read to have been made of a Virgin, and created in the flesh; for every creature serves, as the prophet says: For all things serve thee. This is the glory of Christ, that he took servitude upon himself in his own body, that he might restore liberty to all: he bore our sins, that he might take away the sin of the world: he was made a servant, sin, a curse, that thou mightest cease to be the servant of sin, and that he might absolve thee 1939Dfrom the curse of the divine sentence. He therefore took upon himself thy curse: for Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree: he was made a curse upon the cross, that thou mightest be blessed in the kingdom of God: he was dishonored and cheapened, and accounted as nothing: he said, I have labored in vain; through whom Paul deserved to say, I have not labored in vain (Philip. II, 16); that he might confer upon his little servants the fruit of good work, and the glory of evangelical preaching, whereby all men might be released from the burden of labor.

(Vers. 17.) Such is my beloved, and my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. So the Church, or the 1940Aholy soul, mingled with the daughters of that heavenly city, seeks the Word, and by seeking stirs up his charity within herself: while they indeed ask and say: Whither is thy beloved gone, O most beautiful of women? Whither has thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee?

(Vers. 1.) My beloved, she says, is gone down into his garden, to the little bed of spice, that he may feed in the gardens, and gather lilies. She recognizes where she should seek the Word: she knows that he tarries among the prayers of the saints, and that he cleaves to them, and she understands that he feeds his Church, or the souls of his just ones, among the lilies. This mystery he showed thee in the Gospel, when on the sabbath he led his disciples through the sown fields. 1940BMoses led the people of the Jews through the desert, Christ leads through the sown fields, Christ leads through the lilies; because through his passion the desert flowers as a lily. Let us follow then, that on the day of that great sabbath, in which is the great rest, we may gather fruits. And fear not that the Pharisees may accuse those who gather from the sown fields: even if they accuse, Christ excuses, and makes the souls which he wills, following him, like to that David who ate the loaves of proposition above the Law, already then conceiving in mind the prophetic sacraments of the new grace.

(Vers. 2.) I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, who feeds among 1605 the lilies. The utterance seems easy and common, but it belongs to few. For rare enough is he who can say: I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. What is it to say, I am thine? For he says it who cleaves to 1940CGod with all his senses, who knows not how to think of anything else; he uses this utterance who can say to the Lord: Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us (Joan. XIV, 8). Does the man greedy of money, of honor, of power use this utterance? For many it is not enough to know God — indeed for very many. So many peoples, so many nations, so many rich men think it poverty to serve the Lord; and he who is above all is to them a small and narrow thing: for them the Son of God, in whom are all things, is not enough. In short, that rich man in the Gospel to whom it was said: If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor (Matth. XIX, 21), [Vulg. vade, vende quae habes, "go, sell what thou hast" — without omnia] judged that God was not sufficient for him. In short, he was also made sorrowful, as though he were bidden to leave what was of more worth, and to choose what was of less. He therefore says, I am thine, who can say: Behold, we have left 1940Dall things, and have followed thee (Ibid., 27).

This is the voice of the apostles, and yet not of all the apostles; for Judas too was an apostle, and reclined among the apostles at the banquet of Christ. He too was saying, I am thine; but with the voice, not with the heart. Satan came and entered into him, and began to say: He is not thine, Jesus, but he is mine. In short, he thinks of the things which are mine, he turns over in his breast the things which are mine: he banquets with thee, and feeds with me: from thee he received bread, from me money: with thee he drinks, and to me he sells thy blood: he is thine as apostle, and mine as hireling. The worldly man cannot say, I am thine; for he has 1941Amany masters. Lust comes and says: Thou art mine; because thou lustest after the things which I am, the things of the body: in the love of that young girl thou hast sold thyself to me: in the embrace of that harlot I have counted out the price for thee. Avarice comes and says: The silver and gold which thou hast is the price of thy servitude: the possession thou holdest is the purchase of thy right, the sale of thy liberty. Luxury comes and says: Thou art mine; the banquet of a single day is the price of thy life: that outlay of feasts is the bidding for thy head, it is the sum of thy contract. And what is worse, thou hast been bought at a dear price, thou art cheaper than thy food: thy table for one day is more precious than the life of thy whole time: among cups I have redeemed thee, among feasts I have acquired thee. Ambition comes and says to thee: Plainly thou art mine. Knowest thou not that I therefore made thee command others, that thou thyself 1941Bmightest serve me? Knowest thou not that I therefore conferred power upon thee, that I might subject thee to my power? Or art thou ignorant that it was said to the Lord Savior himself by the prince of this world, when he had shown him all the kingdoms of the world: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me (Matth. IV, 9)? Before all, then, he himself is made subject who wishes to have others subject. All the vices come, and each says: Thou art mine. He whom so many claim, how cheap a chattel is he! How therefore canst thou, who art of this sort, say to Christ: I am thine? He will answer thee: Not whosoever saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matth. VII, 21): [Vulg. Non omnis qui dicit mihi, "Not every one that saith to me"] not whosoever says to me, I am thine, is mine.

Plainly thou art mine, if conscience does not refute the voice, if thy mind or thy works do not disprove thy speech. 1941CI do not deny him to be mine who does not deny himself, or at any rate if for my sake he denies his very self to himself. I will not have a little servant who serves very many masters. For how is he mine, if he says to me in word: I am thine; and denies it by his works, and by his deeds adjudges and binds himself to the devil? He is not mine whom lust inflames, because chastity is mine: he is not mine whom the care of despoiling lesser men drives about, because bounty is mine: he is not mine whom the breeze of fickleness disquiets, because tranquillity is mine. He is not mine who is drunken with the surfeit of wine, unclean with the filth of ambition, greedy of worldly glory, drunk unto peril, who cannot keep the track of sober moderation. I am peace, I know not how to quarrel: to what end is he mine, concerning whom the devil may come and say, He is mine; for to me he has bowed his neck, 1941DI find more of my own in him: he claims thy name for himself, and my gift. He is not Christ's, therefore, save he who is a stranger to crime: he is not Christ's, save he who can always show himself Christ's little servant.

I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, who feeds among the lilies. She seems to say, among the beloved things of the beloved: My secret to me, my secret to me. For she had understood, in the ecstasy of her love, certain hidden mysteries of the faith, which she judged were not to be published even to the daughters of Jerusalem themselves. It is good to hide the mystery 1606 of the king; for he sins against God who thinks that the mysteries committed 1942Ato him are to be divulged to the unworthy. [Vulg. Tob 12:7 Sacramentum regis abscondere bonum est, "It is good to hide the sacrament of the king"] And so it is a danger not only to speak false things, but even true ones, if a man insinuates them to those to whom he ought not. Which fault is of four parts, either of flattery, or of avarice, or of boasting, or of incautious talkativeness; because while a man wishes to flatter the one to whom he speaks, he pours out the mystery: some too, from zeal for gain, pursue the wage of betrayal, so as to sell by speaking what ought to be covered with silence: others, that they may seem to know more, and may vaunt their own knowledge, open what they ought to conceal: very many, while they speak without judgment, let go a word which they cannot call back. Therefore a serious man is praised, and not an idle one. There was a man hiding his own words, as the apostle Paul, who knew what he should speak to individuals, and when he ought to speak anything. 1942B

(Vers. 3.) Thou art well-pleasing, my sister, shapely as Jerusalem, a wonder as one set in order. [Vulg. Pulchra es, amica mea; suavis, et decora sicut Jerusalem; terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata, "Thou art beautiful, my love; sweet and comely as Jerusalem; terrible as an army set in array"] The truth of love is proved by its perpetuity. And so the Bride is praised by the Bridegroom, because she has sought him so well and so constantly. And therefore she is now not only called sister, but is even named well-pleasing, as being pleasing to him; because she has pleased the Father: and, shapely as Jerusalem, a wonder as one set in order; because she has all the mysteries of the eternal city: and is a wonder to all who see her; because she is full as equity is, and perfect: and, having borrowed her brightness from the light of the Word, while she ever strains toward it, she is even terrible, being advanced by a certain order to the summit of the virtues.

Thou art beautiful, he says, my love, sweet and comely, etc. And truly beautiful is she who strains toward him of whom 1942Cit is said: Shapely in form above the sons of men (Psal. XLIV, 3). Whence let us too strain our mind toward him as much as we can, and be in him. Let us hold in mind that which is beautiful, comely, good; that by his illumination and brightness our soul may become shapely, and our mind clear. For if our eyes, when they are overspread with any dimness, are fed with the greenness of the fields, and by the appearance of a grove or a shady hill drive off all the unevenness of a sickening gaze, and the very pupils and orbs seem to be colored with a certain healthful appearance: how much more does this eye of the mind, when it beholds that highest good, and is engaged in it, and is fed by it, grow bright and shine forth. Beautiful as Jerusalem. [Vulg. decora sicut Jerusalem, "comely as Jerusalem"] This therefore is not the beauty of a perishable body, to perish either by disease or by old age, but a beauty subject to no 1942Dmischances, never to die in the esteem of good deserts; since it is worthy to be compared now not with human things, but with heavenly, whose life she lives on earth. And therefore the Bridegroom says to the Bride, as to one already perfect:

(Vers. 4.) Turn away thine eyes from me, because they have made me fly away. Strain not against me with too great devotion and faith. Thou hast passed beyond the possibility of thy nature and of thine own condition, because to gaze straight upon the inaccessible light is a heavy thing. Turn away, he says, thine eyes from me: for this reason, that she cannot bear the fullness of his divinity, and the splendor of the true light. 1943A

Yet we can also take it thus: Turn away thine eyes from me; even if thou art perfect, there are other souls still to be redeemed by me, others to be propped up. For thou liftest me up by seeing me: but I came down for this, that I might lift up all. Even if I have risen, and have the seat of the Father, yet I will not leave you orphans, destitute as of a father's protection, but by my presence I will strengthen you. Thou hast this written in the Gospel: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world (Matth. XXVIII, 20). Turn away then thine eyes from me, because thou liftest me up. For the more a man strains toward the Lord, so much the more does he lift up the Lord, and is himself lifted up. Whence he too says: I will exalt thee, O Lord, because thou hast upheld me (Psalm. XXIX, 1). For the holy man exalts the Lord, the sinner humbles him. He wishes therefore that she turn away her eyes, lest, 1943Bbeholding her, because she can now follow to higher things, he be lifted up and leave the other souls behind. Therefore in the Gospel also he showed his glory not to all the disciples, but to the more perfect (Matth. XVII, 1). Set before thyself now some teacher who wishes to open an obscure matter to his hearers: how, even if he himself be powerful in speech and knowledge, he yet condescends to the ignorance of those who do not understand, and uses a simple and plainer and more familiar speech, that he may be able to be understood. If therefore there be among the hearers one quicker in sense, who can easily follow, he lifts him up and rouses him. Seeing this, the teacher calls him back, that he may rather allow the teacher to dwell upon lowlier 1607 and plainer things; whereby the rest also may be able to follow.

(Vers. 5-7.) The Bride is praised also because she is faithful, 1943Cbecause she is powerful in word, because she is fruitful with diverse fruits, because she is one dove, having the unity of the Spirit, in which is peace, which makes both one: and because she is not composed of the diverse elements of a distinct and warring nature. For what is so diverse as fire and water, air and earth, out of which the creature of our body consists? But every blessed soul is simple, which imitates him who says: That all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, and that they themselves may be one in us (Joan. XVII, 21); for this is the consummation and the perfection, whence he added also: That they may be one, as we also are one: and I in these, and thou in me, that they may be consummated in one (Ibid., 23). This therefore is the one and perfect dove, which, being simple and spiritual, is not disturbed by the passions of this body, in which 1943Dthere are fightings without, fears within. In short, Scripture teaches us that by this word of unity concord and peace are signified, saying: And the multitude of them that believed had one heart and one soul, and there was no separation at all among them (Act. IV, 32). [Vulg. Multitudinis autem credentium erat cor unum et anima una, without the final clause]

Nor is the soul praised idly for its fruitfulness, not only because it is fruitful in virtues, but also because it has nothing of evil in itself; for that is comely and shapely in which there is nothing of evil. For that is comely which is good; but that which is uncomely, this is evil. Shapely is the fruitfulness of good works, contrary 1944Atherefore to shapeliness is barrenness; since in him who is deprived of shapeliness or comeliness there is every evil: but that which is evil, this is barren and unfruitful. And of this matter what plainer sign is there than the earth? For the earth which is good is fertile and fruitful: but that which is bad is meager and barren; but that which is fertile, this is also comely. For what is more beautiful than a full field, when the crop waves, when the apples redden, or when the garlands of grapes hang down, or the olive, laden with berries, bends over, or when the tops of the mountains and the low places of the valleys are clothed with green herbage?

For God is the author of all good things: and the things which are his are assuredly all good, and there is no evil there; and if our mind abide in him, it knows no evil. The soul therefore which does not abide in God is 1944Bto itself the author of evils, and so it sins: but the soul that sinneth, the same shall die; for being loosed from the golden chains of the virtues, it is borne headlong down the precipice, and slips to lower things. But blessed is the soul which no adverse battles of the body storm. This soul, like a sparrow when the snare is broken, flies away. For the baits of evils are the pleasures of the body: whosoever strains after these entangles his own soul in the snare. But he who abstains from its baits, and comes out of its darkness, his soul shines as the dawn, of which it is said:

(Vers. 9.) Who is this that looks forth as the dawn, beautiful as the moon? [Vulg. Quae est ista quae progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon"] For she looks forth as from a free house, nor does she say: Darkness covers me, and walls surround me, and who knows whether the Most High sees (Eccli. XXIII, 26)? [Vulg. Tenebrae circumdant me, et parietes cooperiunt me, et nemo circumspicit me: quem vereor?, with the verbs the other way about and a different close] But she rather seeks the light 1944Cas in the upper parts of her house, that is, of her body: and, set above the world, she gazes upon divine things and lifts herself to eternal things, that she may stand near to God; now carrying the light of her works round her own orb, as the moon does, over the whole world.

(Vers. 10.) I went down into the garden of the nut tree, to see in the birth of the torrent, and to look whether the vine had flowered, and the pomegranates had budded. [Vulg. Descendi in hortum nucum, ut viderem poma convallium, "I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valleys"] The Word of God is invited, in short, into the garden of the nut tree, in which is the fruit of prophetic reading, and the priestly grace, which is bitter in temptations, hard in labors, fruitful in the inward virtues. Whence Aaron's rod of nut-wood also flowered, not now by its own nature, but by a hidden power. Let him come down therefore into the garden, that he may gather the vintage of faith, take in the odors, find the heavenly fodder, feast upon the sweetness 1944Dof our honey.

For while she is praised by the Bridegroom, modestly shrinking from being praised to her face; then, called back by the love of the Bridegroom, she says: I went down into the garden of the nut tree to see in the birth of the torrent. For where is the Church, save where the priestly rod and grace flowers? There she is frequently, that she may be tried in bitternesses and in temptations. By the nut we understand bitternesses, by the torrent temptations, yet tolerable ones, because it is written: Our soul hath swum through the torrent (Psalm. CXXIII, 5). [Vulg. torrentem pertransivit anima nostra, "our soul hath passed through the torrent"] And so she went down into the place of bitterness, where the vine flowers, 1945Aand the fruit various and manifold in the appearance of pomegranates, which as it were under one covering of the whole body is fortified by faith and charity. 1608

In that bitterness, therefore, the soul did not know itself, For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling is quickly bowed down (Sap. IX). [Vulg. Corpus enim quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, et terrena inhabitatio deprimit sensum multa cogitantem] But it ought always to know itself. Yet Peter was tempted, and Peter too did not know himself; for if he had known himself, he would not have denied his author. But Christ knew him. In short, he knew him, because he also looked back at him; for the Lord knows who are his: and, as a good ruler, by the reins of his mercy he called back his own from the fall: our ruler therefore is Christ. Whence there follows also:

(Vers. 11.) The chariot of Aminadab has set me: [Vulg. Nescivi: anima mea conturbavit me propter quadrigas Aminadab, "I knew not: my soul troubled me because of the four-horse chariots of Aminadab"] in that the soul is joined to the body, and, like a certain 1945Bchariot of raging horses, seeks a charioteer to rule it. For Aminadab was the father of Naason, as we read in Numbers (Num. I, 7), who was prince of the people of Juda, whose figure is referred to Christ, who, the true prince of the people, mounting the soul of the just man as a chariot, guides it as driver with the reins of the Word, lest by the fury of violent horses it be swept headlong and over precipices. For his four horses, as it were, are the four affections: anger, desire, pleasure, fear; and when it has begun to be driven by these in their raging, it in no way knows itself. For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and, like a chariot of irrational animals, sweeps it away unwilling, rushing forward as by a certain onset while cares roll on, until the aforesaid passions of the body grow mild by the power of the Word. 1945C

This is the foresight of the Word as of a good driver: that the mortal body joined to that soul which is not in itself subject to death may not make the driving of it difficult. First therefore let him tame these swift motions of the body, and bridle them with the bond of reason: then let him beware lest, by unequal motion, they entangle themselves like horses; so that either the wicked one discolors the good, or the slow one hinders it, or the turbulent one disquiets it. For the horse of malice snorts, and by tossing itself injures the chariot, and weighs down its yoke-fellow. This the good charioteer soothes, and sends forth into the field of truth, and turns aside from the windings of deceit. Safe is the course to higher things, perilous the descent to lower. Thence, as though well discharged from service, they who have borne the yoke of the Word are led even to the Lord's manger, in which the food is not hay, but the bread which came down from heaven. Of this 1945Dchariot there are wheels, of which the Prophet said: And the spirit of life was in the wheels (Ezech. I, 20); in that the chariot of the soul, smooth and round, rolls on without any stumbling.

The chariot of Aminadab has set me. The soul therefore is a chariot, which bears a good ruler. If the soul is a chariot, it has horses either good or bad. The good horses are the virtues of the soul: the bad horses are the passions of the body. The good ruler therefore restrains and calls back the bad horses, and urges on the good. The good horses are four: prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice: the bad horses are wrathfulness, concupiscence, fear, iniquity. Sometimes the horses themselves disagree among themselves, and either wrathfulness stretches forward, or 1946Afear: and they hinder one another, and slow the course. But indeed the good horses fly, and raise themselves from the earth to higher things, and lift up the soul; especially if they have the sweet yoke and light burden of him who says: Take my yoke upon you; for my yoke is sweet, and my burden light (Matth. XI, 29).

He himself is the ruler, who knows how to govern his own horses, so that the course of all may be even: he slows the swifter ones by prudence, justice admonishes the more sluggish with its own lash; temperance makes them gentler, fortitude makes them harder. He knows how to couple the discordant, lest perchance they shatter his chariot. And so it is possible to see, by an intelligible spectacle, every soul caught up to heaven with the highest striving, the horses hastening to come first to the prize of Christ, upon whose necks the palm may first be laid. 1946BThese are the horses subjected to the yoke of faith, bound fast by the chain of charity, by the reins of justice, by the halters of sobriety.

Beautifully therefore she says: The chariot of Aminadab has set me, that is, the father of the people: but he himself who is the father of the people is likewise the father of Naason, that is, of serpents. Now do thou call to mind who hung upon the cross like a serpent for the salvation of all men, and thou wilt understand that soul to be peaceable whose president is God the Father, and whose driver is Christ; because this name too is written in our books: Father, father, driver of Israel (IV Reg. XI, 12). [Vulg. 4 Kings 2:12 Pater mi, pater mi, currus Israel et auriga ejus, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its charioteer"] This driver therefore says:

(Vers. 12.) Turn, O Sunamite, turn. [Vulg. Revertere, revertere, Sulamitis, "Return, return, O Sulamitess"] Well does he say it as a driver, and as one speaking to a chariot: Turn, O Sunamite, that is, O peaceable one; for the soul which is peaceable turns and corrects itself quickly, even if it has sinned before: and the more does 1609 Christ mount it, 1946Cand deign to rule it — he to whom it is said: Mount upon thy horses, and thy riding is health. And elsewhere: Thou hast sent thy horses of Tharsis (Habac. III, 8). [Vulg. Hab 3:8 qui ascendes super equos tuos, et quadrigae tuae salvatio, "who wilt mount upon thy horses, and thy four-horse chariots are salvation"] These are the horses of Christ. Christ therefore mounts his own horses: the Word of God mounts holy souls. When our soul has become peaceable, so that it is said to it: Turn; turn, O Sunamite, which signifies "peaceable," then it will receive into itself Christ as a seal, that is, the image of God, that it may be unto the image; since As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly, and we must bear the image of the heavenly (I Cor. XV, 48), that is, peace. And that we may know it to be true, thou hast in the same Song of Songs, at the very end, this said to the soul now made perfect, which may the Lord Jesus say to me also: Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm (Cant. VIII, 6); that peace may shine in my heart, and Christ in my works, 1946Dthat wisdom, and justice, and redemption may be formed in me.

(Vers. 1.) How shapely are thy steps made in sandals, O daughter of Aminadab! The measures of thy thighs are like collars, the work of a craftsman. [Vulg. Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui in calceamentis, filia principis! Juncturae femorum tuorum sicut monilia quae fabricata sunt manu artificis, "How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels"] There is no doubt that here too the steps of the Church, or the advance of the soul, are signified. How shapely are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that preach good things (Esai. LII, 7)! [Vulg. Isa 52:7 Quam pulchri super montes pedes annuntiantis et praedicantis pacem, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth and preacheth peace"] Assuredly he calls shapely the advances of evangelical preaching and disputation, as it is said elsewhere: Pass over the rivers (Esai. XLVII, 2), that is, run across the streams and slippery places of this world with a steadfast 1947Agait of the mind. That this is said of the going of the soul, David plainly shows, when he brings forward that his soul had passed over the torrent of iniquities (Psal. CCXIII, 5).

But what does he mean by saying that the steps of the Church are shapely in sandals? We read it said to Moses: Loose the sandal of thy feet (Exodi III, 5): whereby he seems to be admonished not to be held bound by bodily chains. Therefore in the Song of Songs he signifies the shapely loveliness of the soul, which uses the flesh as a sandal, and in that very sandal suffers no hindrance, but excels in the comeliness of its going. Let the soul therefore shoe itself with ecclesiastical grace, that it may pass over the course and passage of this life with comeliness. Which comes about if it does not befoul its own sandal with bodily mud, does not plunge it into the abyss of vices: if it chastise 1947Bits own flesh, lest it delay in the course, and be weighed down with the burden of fat grease. The good sandal of the soul is modesty, the good step is in the track of chastity. But wisdom is the mantle of the soul, whence it is written: Honor her, and she will embrace thee (Prov. IV, 8). [Vulg. Arripe illam, et exaltabit te; glorificaberis ab ea cum eam fueris amplexatus, "Take hold of her, and she shall exalt thee"] Let us use the body therefore as a sandal for the works of a lower virtue: for ministry, not for command: for compliance, not for delight: for obedience, not for dissension; and let us set our footstep in the way of wisdom, lest some force of a torrent shut in our steps.

Therefore it was said to Moses: Loose thy sandal (Exodi III, 5). It was said to Jesus son of Nave also (Josue V, 16). But of Christ it was not said, but rather it is written, the Baptist saying: After me there comes a man, 1947Cwhose sandals I am not worthy to bear (Matth. III, 11); [Vulg. Matt 3:11 qui autem post me venturus est, fortior me est, "he that shall come after me is mightier than I"; post me venit vir is the wording of John 1:30] because they are rightly admonished to loose their sandal who could not be without sin. But he not only did not loose his sandal, but even unlooses the sandals of others; because he not only kept his own body immune from sins, but also gave pardon of the sins of all.

Therefore the Church, in imitation of Christ, is shapely, and in its sandals washed from every fault. And perhaps when it speaks wisdom among the perfect, it is shapely in its upper members: but when men even of a lower rank or of lower teaching follow the Word, do not forget the order of faith, keep the precepts of the priest, it is shapely in its sandals. Very often the clergy has erred, the priest has changed his sentence, 1947Dthe rich have sided with the earthly king of this world, and the people has kept its own faith.

Whence of the Lord Jesus also we can rightly say that even in those things which are bodily the Word has shapely steps, when there is disputing about moral matters. And the apostles are perhaps for this reason sent with bare feet, lest their disputation be overshadowed, but rather shine out. And so the Church is the daughter of Aminadab, that is, of the willing or the well-pleasing one; because a willing or well-pleasing one gathered her, and she is shapely in her sandals. And deservedly it is added:

1948A1610 6. The measures of thy thighs are like collars, the work of the hands of a craftsman; that the ornaments of the Church's posterity might be sung. For by the thigh we recognize the badge of generation, according to that word: Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty (Psal. XLIV, 4): whereby it is signified that the Son of God, when he had emptied himself, girt with the divinity of the Word, and shod with human generation, should come forth from the Virgin to give salvation to all. But "measures" are the precious ornaments which are wont to be hung upon the necks of matrons. So great therefore is the advance of the Church that is signified, that it is compared to the most precious ornaments, and to the collars of those who triumph; for these are the ornaments of warriors. Whence Symmachus also said Epitrachelia, that is, the things which are about the neck. Whether therefore the generation of Christ 1948Bfrom the Virgin, or the propagation of the Church, in appearance indeed as by the hand of a craftsman with adorned collars, but with the spiritual badges of true virtue, has adorned the necks of the faithful. In short, this whole description of the members of the Church is full of comeliness and of praise. For also:

(Vers. 2.) Her navel is as a turned goblet, it is proclaimed, not lacking in the mixture; in that, being turned upon the lathe in every doctrine, in the fullness of knowledge, it does not lack the spiritual draught either. And her belly is not only fattened with the heap of wheat, that is, with the stronger foods of the heavenly mystery, but is also filled as with certain lilies with the sweetness of moral things. Whence she too, as one well deserving, is crowned as a queen with the blood of Christ, as it is written: And the adornment of her head is as purple. [Vulg. Cant 7:5 comae capitis tui sicut purpura regis, "the hairs of thy head as the purple of the king"] The blood of Christ is the purple, which dyes 1948Cthe souls of the saints, resplendent not only in color, but also in power; because it makes them kings, and better kings, to whom it gives an eternal kingdom.

Thy navel is as a turned goblet, never wanting cups. The navel of the soul and the belly of her who ascends to Christ is fine; and therefore she is praised by the voice of the Bridegroom saying: Thy navel is as a turned goblet, not lacking in the mixture; thy belly a heap of fortified wheat among the lilies. [Vulg. Cant 7:2 numquam indigens poculis… venter tuus sicut acervus tritici vallatus liliis; the first form Migne prints in this same paragraph agrees with the Vulgate, the second does not] For it is turned upon the lathe in every doctrine, and the spiritual draught is not lacking in fullness, and in the knowledge of heavenly secrets. The belly of the soul also is mystical, as the navel is; by which belly it takes not only the strong food by which hearts are made firm, but also the sweet and flowery food by which they are delighted.

(Vers. 4.) Thine eyes are pools in Hesebon, in the gates 1948Dof the daughter of many, Thy nostrils are as the tower of Lebanon. [Vulg. Cant 7:4 Oculi tui sicut piscinae in Hesebon quae sunt in porta filiae multitudinis. Nasus tuus sicut turris Libani, "Thy eyes like the fishpools in Hesebon which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus"] What are the pools in Hesebon, save an abundance in reasonable thoughts, which is in the gates of the Church, to which the multitude of doctrine is deservedly brought? For the daughter of many is the posterity and the effect of very many doctrines, whose nostrils are the odor of sacrifices, surpassing all flowers.

Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon: exceedingly lofty beyond measure, and therefore it looks forth upon the face of Damascus, smelling out, that is, the gentile people, and its faith, by whose grace it might wipe away the stench of its own faults. The face 1949Atherefore of Damascus is the faith of the Gentiles, overshadowed by no covering, hidden by no clothing, naked and free, more intent upon heaven than upon earth. This the nostrils of the Church watch and look forth upon, gathering what is sweet in it both of the breathings of odors and of grace.

And well is it said, Her nostrils are as the tower of Lebanon; [Vulg. Cant. 7:4 nasus tuus sicut turris Libani, "thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon"] because in the sacrifices there is the sweet odor of the Church, in which sacrifices the remission of sins is a victim of good odor. Take therefore these nostrils, O man, that thou mayest sunder the flowery things from the rank-smelling, and then the Lord will quicken thee. For when he shall have marked what thou askest of him, that he may turn the eyes of thy mind away from vanity, he works together with thy soul, so that, if it is caught by some appearance, or is not bent either by hardness or by weakness, he may bend it with the yoke of the Word, and govern it with his own reins, that by the will of God it may be drawn away from vices, and may take the odor of everlasting 1949Blife.

(Vers. 8.) I will go up into the palm tree, and I will lay hold of its height. [Vulg. Dixi: Ascendam in palmam, et apprehendam fructus ejus, "I said: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof"] Whence know thou that he has gone up even to this soul, and has led her through to the place of the palm, when he also says to her: How beautiful and sweet art thou become, O charity, in thy delights! Thy stature is become like to a palm tree (Cant. VII, 6). [Vulg. Cant. 7:6–7 Quam pulchra es, et quam decora, carissima, in deliciis… Statura tua assimilata est palmae, "How beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest, in delights"] And she herself says: I said, I will go up to the palm tree. But charity itself also is a palm, for it is itself the fulness of victory; for the fulness of the Law is charity. Let us run therefore that we may lay hold, let us run that we may conquer: he who has conquered goes up into the palm, and eats the fruits thereof; he who has conquered runs no longer, but sits, as 1611 it is written: He that shall overcome, I will give to him to sit with me in my seat, as I also have overcome, and have sat with my Father in his seat (Apoc. III, 21). Hence 1949Cthe philosophers set forth in their books those race-course contests of souls, nor yet were they able to come through to the palm; because their souls knew not the sweetness and the height of the Word. I will go up, she says, into the palm by conquering the world; that I may hold the height of the Word, which this soul knew, in whom was the turning of the Word; for thus she says:

(Vers. 10.) I am my brother's, and his turning is upon me. [Vulg. Ego dilecto meo, et ad me conversio ejus, "I to my beloved, and his turning is toward me"] This sense she has repeated a third time, and diversely, in the Song of Songs. At the beginning she says: My brother is mine, and I am his: who feeds among the lilies until the day breathe, and the shadows incline (Cant. II, 16). [Vulg. Cant. 2:16–17 Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi, qui pascitur inter lilia, donec aspiret dies, "My beloved to me, and I to him, who feedeth among the lilies, till the day break"] Then she says: I am my brother's, and my brother is mine, who feeds among the lilies (Cant. VI, 2). At the end she says: I am my brother's, and his turning is upon me. The first belongs to the instruction 1949Dof the soul; and therefore she also set first: My brother is mine; for by his showing himself she took also the affection of cleaving to God. That which follows is according to progress: the third according to perfection? In the first, as in instruction, the soul still sees shadows, not yet stirred by the revelation of the Word drawing near; and therefore the day of the Gospel did not yet shine upon her: in the second, without the confusion of shadows, she gathers holy odors: in the third, being now perfect, she ministers rest to the Word within herself; that he may be turned upon her, and lay back his head and rest; and she invites him to her field, saying: 1950A

(Vers. 11.) Come, my brother, let us go out into the field, let us rest in the strongholds. [Vulg. Veni, dilecte mi, egrediamur in agrum, commoremur in villis, "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages"] Above she was inviting him to the garden; here to a field having not only the grace of flowers, but also wheat and barley, that is, the firm foundation of solid virtues, that he may look upon its fruit. Let us rest, she says, in the strongholds, to which Adam, when he had been cast out of paradise, had been banished: in these he rested, but he tilled the earth.

But for what reason she would have him go out into the field, the understanding of it is plain: that as a good shepherd he may feed his flock, may lift up the weary, may call back the wandering. For although this soul has kept both new things and old, yet there are still, as it were, lambs who must be nourished with the juice of milk. Therefore, as one perfect, she intercedes not for herself, but 1950Bfor others; that he may go out from the bosom of the Father, that he may proceed forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber; that going out he may run his way, that he may win the weak; that he may not linger in that hidden throne of the Father, and in that light, whereto weak horses are not able to climb; but that he may be taken up and brought into the house and the secret place of the Bride. Let him be without for himself, that he may be within for us: let him be in our midst, even though he be not seen by us. Whence she says: Who shall give thee to me, my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother? Finding thee without, I will kiss thee (Cant. VIII, 1). [Vulg. Quis mihi det te fratrem meum sugentem ubera matris meae, ut inveniam te foris, et deosculer te, "Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee"] Good is the soul which is without, that the Word may be within: she outside the body, that the Word may dwell in us.

I will take thee up, she says, and I will bring thee in (Ibid., 2). [Vulg. Cant. 8:2 Apprehendam te, et ducam in domum matris meae, "I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother's house"] Rightly is the Word of God taken up and brought in; because he knocks at the soul, that the door may be opened to him: and unless 1950Che shall have found the door opened to him, he does not enter. But if any man shall have opened the gate, he enters and sups. Thus the Bride takes up the Word, that by taking him up she may be taught. Whence not undeservedly he goes up to her, to the higher dwellings, and she ever receives an advance of virtue.

Come, my brother, let us go out into the field, let us rest in the strongholds, let us rise at daybreak in the vineyards, let us see whether the vine has flowered. [Vulg. Cant. 7:12 Mane surgamus ad vineas; videamus si floruit vinea, "Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vineyard flourish"] Many fields have fruits; but that one is better which abounds both with fruits and with flowers. The field of the Church, then, is fruitful with diverse plenties. Here thou mayest discern the buds of virginity blooming with flower; there, as woods in the plains, widowhood strong in gravity; elsewhere, as the rich produce of the Church, the harvest of wedlock filling the barns of the world, and, as it were with the offspring of a wedded vine, the winepresses of the Lord Jesus overflowing, 1950Din which the fruit of faithful wedlock abounds.

The Bride, having obtained the plenty of her desire, speaks to the Bridegroom: Come, my brother, let us go out into the field, let us rest in the strongholds, let us rise at daybreak to the vineyards. Thou seest how the Bride invites the Word of God, that he may come into the lands and take away the sins of the world. This field was before a desert, squalid with the briars of our offences, bristling with thorns. There was a stronghold in which Adam, bound fast, held the heirs of his posterity in perpetual exile. Thither, then, the Church leads Christ, 1951Athat he may set Adam free. Then, the exiles being loosed, the field of this world began to have fit tillers: and that which was before hungry was made fruitful by the planting 1612 of the eternal vine. Nor yet does she so range abroad, glad with spiritual shoots, but she calls Christ to these vineyards, where there are those who sing psalms and those who pray, where by nights and by days a harmless fruit endures.

(Vers. 12.) There, she says, will I give my breasts, there the mandrakes have given their odor. [Vulg. Cant. 7:12–13 ibi dabo tibi ubera mea. Mandragorae dederunt odorem, "there will I give thee my breasts. The mandrakes have given a smell"] Very many distinguish a certain sex among mandrakes, so that they think there are both males and females, but that the females are of heavy odor. It signifies therefore that the nations, which before stank, since they were the weaker by a certain unmanned feebleness of unbelief, began to bear fruits of good odor after they believed unto the coming of the Lord. We read also that 1951Bholy Rachel received mandrakes from her sister Lia, that she might grant her to sleep that night with holy Jacob. Ruben the firstborn had brought the mandrakes to his mother Lia, who, with bleared eyes, took on the figure of the Synagogue; because she could not see the grace of Christ, the gaze of her feeble mind being dulled. By which it is declared that the fruits which the Synagogue had before received from the firstborn Son of God, she yielded up to the Church. But because, the lying-together of that night having been sought, Lia conceived and bore an heir of her posterity, she fulfilled the mystery; since, when the apostles believed, the remnant of the Jews were made safe through the election of grace, whence the Church says:

(Vers. 13.) New things and old, my brother, have I kept for thee. Who shall give thee to me for a brother, sucking the breasts of my mother? Finding thee without, I will kiss thee, and indeed they shall not 1951Cdespise me. I will take thee up and bring thee into my mother's house, and into the secret place of her that conceived me: there thou shalt teach me. [Vulg. Cant. 7:13–8:2 omnia poma nova et vetera, dilecte mi, servavi tibi… et jam me nemo despiciat. Apprehendam te, et ducam in domum matris meae: ibi me docebis, "all fruits new and old, my beloved, I have kept for thee… and now no man may despise me. I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother's house: there thou shalt teach me"] Having therefore the shaping of the new and the old Scriptures, and not feeling herself contemptible, she holds the Word not only by prayers in the secret of the heart, but also with the voices of a psalm-singing choir she kisses him, as with certain kisses of grace.

New things and old, my brother, have I kept for thee; this is to say, I hold all the commandments of the New and the Old Testament. The Church alone can say this: no other congregation says it, the Synagogue does not say it, holding neither the new things according to the letter, nor the old things according to the spirit. The Manichaean heresy does not say, The old things have I kept for thee, seeing that it does not receive the prophets. Deservedly is she called made white, who shines with the grace of either Testament. 1951D

I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir up and stir up again love, until such time as it shall will. [Vulg. Cant. 8:4 Adjuro vos, filiae Jerusalem, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, donec ipsa velit, "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please"] Still she seeks one that stirs up, and demands that it be stirred up for her by the daughters of Jerusalem, for whose sake, that is, for the sake of faithful souls, she desires that the Bridegroom be provoked to a more abundant love of her. And so those powers speak, which guard the gates of heaven.

(Vers. 5.) Who is she who this one comes up white, leaning upon her brother? [Vulg. Cant. 8:5 Quae est ista quae ascendit de deserto, deliciis affluens, innixa super dilectum suum?, "Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?"] In what manner she who has set 1952Aher head upon the left hand of wisdom, that she might open her hand to the poor for the relieving of the needy; that she might use riches divided or left to her, not riches seized and plundered — riches which, desirous of glory, she acquired even by good works, and did not court by the empty boasting of worldly dignity: for this it is to set one's own head, and a certain ruling part of the senses, above the hand of wisdom. That soul, I say, ascends by whitening merits, out of the desert of this life, as very many hold it to be, unto that ever-flowering place of eternal gladness.

These are the powers which also in the book of Isaiah say: Who is this that comes from Edom, the redness of garments out of Bosor, so shapely in his robe (Esai. LXIII, 1)? [Vulg. Quis est iste, qui venit de Edom, tinctis vestibus de Bosra? iste formosus in stola sua, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? this well-formed one in his robe"] These, I say, are they that marvel that out of this broken and rocky desert any soul is able to ascend 1952Bwithout the ruin of great vices; and therefore they give thanks that she has been found, who has not defiled the garments of natural innocence with the ink of worldly folly, but rather has cleansed them with the whiteness of spiritual wisdom and of grace. The daughters of Jerusalem marvel, the holy souls of the patriarchs and of the prophets and of the just of old, or the heavenly powers, saying: Who is this that comes up made white, leaning upon her brother? That is, with such solemnities the Church shines, and she who before was dark through the day now is splendid in the nights, and gives back her light. The Lord himself also, delighted with so great an offering of them that sing psalms, says:

(Vers. 6.) Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a signet upon thy arm; because charity is strong as death, hard 1613 as hell is thy zeal. 1952CIts wings are wings of fire, and of flames. Much water shall not be able to shut out charity, and the floods shall not overwhelm it. [Vulg. Cant. 8:6–7 quia fortis est ut mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus aemulatio; lampades ejus lampades ignis atque flammarum. Aquae multae non potuerunt exstinguere caritatem, nec flumina obruent illam, "because love is strong as death, jealousy hard as hell; the lamps thereof are lamps of fire and of flames. Many waters could not quench charity, neither shall the floods drown it"] Because the Church has seen so great a devotion, she thinks the peoples now fit, that we may be able to bear his seal in our heart and on our arm. For him the Father, God, has sealed, and he who has received his testimony has set his seal that God is true; and therefore they that work the food which endures unto life everlasting are sealed unto the image and likeness of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. As therefore God is true, do thou also seal truth in thy thought and in thy work; that thy mouth speak not a lie, that thy hands work not the works of men, which are of this deceitful world, but those things which are of God: that they may give bountifully to the poor, may raise up the weak, may honor the dead with the mounds of burial. By these works 1952Dcharity is sought, that no one may be able to be torn away from Christ even by the peril of death; whence he says: Who shall separate us from Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution (Rom. VIII, 35)? [Vulg. Quis ergo nos separabit a caritate Christi?, "Who then shall separate us from the charity of Christ?"] And below: For I am confident that neither death, nor life, nor angels (Ibid.). [Vulg. Rom. 8:38 Certus sum enim, "For I am sure"]

In that same fashion also the zeal of charity is hard, and its wings are wings of fire. It has wings as a dove, for the feathers of the dove are silvered, wherewith he who loves flies forth, saying: Behold, I have gone far off in flight, and I abode in the wilderness (Psal. LIV, 8). But the wings of charity are wings of fire, wherewith it kindles the ardor of love. 1953AWith this heat the Lord made his angels fervent spirits, and his ministers a fire that burns, but does not burn up. We read also of a wing of the temple, upon which the devil, tempting, made the Savior to go up, which was on the pinnacle of the temple (Matth. IV, 3). There are therefore heights of piety, there are pinnacles of charity, which have been wont to kindle the vapor of grace in human breasts; so that much water is not able to quench nor to shut out charity, and no floods of worldly tempests shut it in. We have said that charity shuts out fear; we have not said that it shuts out every disturbance; for indeed to him who loves God there is a deep tranquillity of a mind confirmed.

(Vers. 7.) Many waters, he says, shall not be able 1953Bto shut out charity, and the floods shall not overflow it. Much water is of diverse passions, and the floods of worldly desires stirred up by the motions of the body, which nevertheless cannot overthrow the wall of charity. And therefore one grounded in charity says: Our soul has passed through the torrent (Psal. CXXIII, 5). Could the water of the sea shut out the charity of Moses? And that the series of the psalms may support thee according to the letter: assuredly he who loved God believed the way through the seas to be safe for him; but they who loved not God, being sunk in the waves, endured an end worthy of their sacrilege.

(Vers. 5.) Who is this that comes up, leaning upon her brother? Above they said, Who then is this that looks forth as the daybreak, shapely 1953Cas the moon, choice as the sun? [Vulg. Cant. 6:9 Quae est ista quae progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol?, "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun?"] Here something more was found to be added, in that she had ascended leaning upon the Word of God; for the more perfect recline upon Christ, as John also was reclining on the breast of Christ. So therefore this one also either was leaning upon Christ, or was laying herself back upon him: or assuredly, since we are speaking of a marriage, being now as it were delivered over into the right hand of Christ, she was being led into the chamber for the Bridegroom. And because there is now a bond of charity, the bridegroom caresses her, and says:

Under the apple tree I raised thee up; there thy mother travailed with thee, there she travailed with thee that bore thee. [Vulg. Cant. 8:5 Sub arbore malo suscitavi te; ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genitrix tua, "Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee"] Good is the soul which rests under a fruitful tree, and one especially of good odor. For if Nathanael was good, in whom there was no guile, and was seen under a fig tree, surely good is the soul which under the apple tree was raised up by 1953Dher Bridegroom. For it is more to be raised up than to be seen: and more still to be raised up by the bridegroom. For although Nathanael was seen under the tree, yet his soul was not a bride; because he came secretly to Christ, because he feared the Jews. She was not shapely as the moon, choice as the sun, who was in the shadow; because a bride who weds by day confesses publicly. Therefore this one is under the apple tree, that one under the fig; because this one spread abroad more widely the odor of her confession, while that one had the sweetness of the purity of innocence, and had not the burning of the spirit.

There, he says, thy mother travailed with thee, there she travailed with thee that bore thee; for there we are born, there we are born again. 1954ABut those are travailed with in whom the image of Christ is formed, whence 1614 Paul also says: Little children, whom I travail with, until Christ be formed in you (Galat. IV, 19). [Vulg. Filioli mei, quos iterum parturio, "My little children, of whom I am in labour again"] For he has travailed who receives in the womb the spirit of salvation, and pours it into others. Whence, since Christ was now formed in her, he says:

(Vers. 6.) Set me as a seal in thy heart, as a signet on thy arm. The seal of Christ is on the forehead, the seal is in the heart: on the forehead, that we may always confess; in the heart, that we may always love; the seal on the arm, that we may always work. Let his image therefore shine in our confession, let it shine in our reading, let it shine in our works and deeds; that, if it can be brought to pass, his whole appearance may be expressed in us. Let him be our head, because the head of the man is Christ; let him be 1954Bour eye, that through him we may see the Father; let him be our voice, whereby we may speak to the Father; let him be the right hand, whereby we may offer our sacrifice to God the Father. He also is our seal, which is the badge of charity and of perfection; because the Father, loving, sealed the Son, as we read: Whom the Father, God, hath sealed (Joan. VI, 27). [Vulg. Hunc enim Pater signavit Deus, "For him hath God the Father sealed"] And so Christ is our charity. Good is the charity, when he offered himself to death for those he loved: good is the charity which forgave sin.

And therefore let our soul put on charity, and charity of such a kind as is strong as death; because as death is the end of sins, so also is charity; since he who loves the Lord ceases to sin: for charity thinks no evil, neither rejoices over 1954Ciniquity, but bears all things (I Cor. XIII, 5). For he who seeks not the things that are his own, how shall he seek the things of another? There is also that strong death through the laver, by which every sin is buried and the fault is remitted. Such was the charity which that woman of the Gospel bore, of whom the Lord says: Her many sins are forgiven, because she has loved much (Luc. VII, 47). [Vulg. Remittuntur ei peccata multa, "Many sins are forgiven her"] There is also that strong death of the holy martyrs, which does away former guilt; and therefore is it strong, and charity is not unequal to it, charity which is made equal to the passion of the martyrs, that it may take away the desert of offences.

Zeal also is as hell, since he who has the zeal of God spares not even his own for Christ. And so charity has death, and charity has zeal, and charity has wings of fire. In fine, Christ, loving 1954DMoses, appeared to him in fire. And Jeremiah, having in himself the gift of divine charity, said: And there was a fire flaming in my bones, and I am undone on every side, and I cannot bear it (Jerem. XX, 9). [Vulg. et factus est in corde meo quasi ignis exaestuans, claususque in ossibus meis: et defeci, ferre non sustinens, "and it became in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones: and I fainted, not able to bear it"] Good therefore is charity, having the wings of burning fire, which flits through the breasts and the hearts of the saints, and burns up whatever is material and earthly; but whatever is unmixed it proves, and what it has touched it makes better with its own fire.

This fire the Lord Jesus sent upon the earth, and faith shone out, devotion was kindled, charity was lit up, justice shone again. With this fire he inflamed the hearts of his apostles, as Cleophas testifies, 1955Asaying: Was not our heart burning within us, when he opened the Scriptures (Luc. XXIV, 32)? The wings of fire in the flame, therefore, are the divine Scriptures. In fine, he was opening the Scriptures, and fire was going forth, and was piercing the hearts of them that heard. And they are true wings of fire, because: The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried by the fire (Psalm. XI, 7). When Paul also was taken up by Christ, he saw a light shine round about upon him, and upon those who were with him; he fell from terror, and rose up the more approved. In fine he was made an apostle, who had come as a presecutor. The Holy Spirit also came down, and filled the whole house in which very many were sitting, and there appeared parted tongues as it were of fire. Good wings, wings of charity, truly wings which flitted through the mouths of the apostles: and wings of fire, because they spoke a purified 1955Bspeech.

With these wings Enoch flew forth, caught up to heaven; with these wings Elias flew forth, carried over to the things above by a fiery chariot and by fiery horses. With these wings the Lord God led the people of the fathers by a pillar of fire. These wings the Seraphim had, when it took coals of fire from the altar, and touched the mouth of the prophet, and took away his iniquities, and purged his sins. By the fire of these wings the sons of Levi were purged, and the peoples of the nations were baptized, as John testifies, saying of the Lord Jesus: He shall baptize you in the spirit and in fire (Matth. III, 11). [Vulg. in Spiritu Sancto et igni, "in the Holy Spirit and fire"] Deservedly did David wish his reins and his heart to be burned, because he knew that the fiery wings of charity are not to be feared. Deservedly did the Hebrew children in the burning furnace not feel the burnings of the fire, because the flame of charity 1955Ccooled them. And that we may know more fully 1615 that perfect charity has wings, thou hast heard him saying a while ago: How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings (Matth. XXIII, 27).

Let us take therefore these wings, which as flames direct us to the things above. Let every man strip his soul of its filthier wrappings, and, as gold by fire, let him approve it wiped clean of the mire. For thus the soul is purged, as the best gold. But the beauty of the soul is unmixed virtue and comeliness, a truer knowledge of the things above; that it may see that good upon which all things hang, while itself hangs upon none. By it, therefore, it lives, and receives understanding. For that highest good is the fountain of life, the desire of which is kindled within us, to draw near 1955Dto which and to be mingled with it is a delight: which to him who does not see it is a matter of desire, and to him who sees it is life; and therefore he despises all other things, and by this one alone is soothed and delighted. This is that which supplies all substance; but itself, remaining in itself, gives to others, and takes nothing into itself from others; of which the Prophet says: I said to the Lord: Thou art my God, for thou hast no need of my goods (Psal. XV, 2).

Its wings are wings of fire. All must be proved by fire, whosoever desire to return to paradise; for not idly is it written that, when 1956AAdam and Eve had been cast out of the seat of paradise, God set at the outgoing of paradise a fiery sword that turned about. All must pass through the flames, whether it be John the evangelist, whom the Lord so loved that he said of him to Peter: If I will that he remain, what is that to thee? Follow thou me (Joan. XXI, 22). [Vulg. Sic eum volo manere donec veniam, quid ad te?, "So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee?"] Some have doubted of his death; of his passing through fire we cannot doubt, because he is in paradise, nor is he separated from Christ. Whether it be Peter, who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, who walked upon the sea, he must say: We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment (Psalm. LXV, 12). But for John the fiery sword will quickly turn aside, because there is not found in him iniquity, whom equity loved. If there was in him anything of human vice, divine charity boiled it away: For its wings 1956Bare as wings of fire. He who here shall have had the fire of charity, there will not be able to fear the fire of the sword. To Peter himself, who so often offered his own death for Christ, he says: Pass over, recline. But he says: He has tried us by fire, as he himself has tried silver.

Its wings are wings of fire. Since therefore the power of flying has been given to us, let every man stir up in himself the grace of God, and, forgetting the things behind, seeking after the things before, let him press on toward what is appointed. Far from the honors of the soldiery, far from the heats of the world; lest, as the fables relate, the wax loosed by the heat of the sun, the feather slipping back, fail the lcareos flights. For although the weightiness of their sayings be against it, yet with poetic salt they meant to declare that flights through heaven are safe for the maturity of the prudent; but that youthful levity, liable to the desires of the world, its feathers flowing back, 1956Cand the framework of its merits loosened through the forgettings of truth, slips back to the earth with the greater ruin.

Flight is by no means easy for all; the course of human life is difficult also for the living creatures that are at discord upon the earth. But if the order of our action agree with thee, the prophet will see even in us that one wheel upon the earth, joined to the four living creatures. Ezechiel therefore will see again — for he still sees, and is in vigor, and will be in vigor (Ezech. I, 15 et 16) — he will see, I say, a wheel in the midst of a wheel, gliding upon the earth without stumbling. For the wheel upon the earth is the life of the body, fitted to the virtue of the soul, and formed with a coherent course to the precept of the Gospel. But the wheel in the midst of the wheel is as it were a life within a life, in that the life of the saints 1956Dis not out of tune with itself; but such as it was in the earlier age, such let it be also in that which follows: or that in this life of the body the practice of eternal life be turned round. When these things shall have agreed together, then let the divine voice sound back, then above the likeness of the throne a likeness as the appearance of a man will appear. This man is the Word, because the Word was made flesh (Joan. I, 14): this man is the driver of our living creatures, the ruler of our manners, who, according to the measure of our merits, mounts now for the most part a chariot, now a mountain, now a ship.

Set me as a seal in thy heart, as a signet 1957Aon thy arm, thou who hast kept new things and old for me. Thou art my seal, thou art unto my image and likeness. In thee shines the image of justice, the image of wisdom, the image of virtue. And because the image of God is in thy heart, let it be also in thy works: let the likeness of the Gospel be in thy deeds, that in thy manners thou mayest keep my precepts. The likeness of the Gospel will be in thee, 1616 if to him that strikes thy cheek thou offer the other, if thou love thine enemy, if thou take up thy cross and follow me. Therefore have I carried the cross for thee, lest thou shouldst hesitate to carry it for my sake. The daughters of Jerusalem heard this, that the Lord God was now joining the Church to himself: and because, considering the greatness of the Word, they esteemed themselves unequal to so great a marriage, lest perchance they might not be able to bear the weight of so great a union, they excuse themselves, saying: 1957B

(Vers. 8.) Our sister is a little one, and she has no breasts. [Vulg. Soror nostra parva, "Our sister is little" — without the diminutive] For thus they who wish to put off a marriage are wont to excuse it: that they allege the weakness of unripe age, and assert that she has no breasts, which signify the time of marriageable age. This token is wont to be common to all virgins about to wed: that when the breasts have begun to stand out, then they are judged fit for union. Troubled therefore, because in the zeal of love the Bridegroom urges on the marriage, they say:

What shall we do to our sister, in the day in which he shall speak in her, or, as Symmachus has it, in which he shall speak to her? [Vulg. Cant. 8:8 Quid faciemus sorori nostrae in die quando alloquenda est?, "What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?"] That is: in the solemnity of a betrothal a conference is wont to take place, and a confirmation of the marriage. What then shall we do, they say, being troubled, because the spiritual union presses upon us? They cannot excuse themselves from so great a marriage; for there is no one 1957Cwho does not think the union either of the soul and the spirit, or of Christ and the Church, a blessed thing. But because the fulness of the Word and of the Holy Spirit quivers and flashes, and there is nothing that can be made equal to them, therefore they desire to defer it, that by that postponement either the soul or the Church may be able to be more perfect. They say therefore:

(Vers. 9.) If she is a wall, let us build upon her chambers of silver: and if she is a gate, let us carve upon her boards of cedar. [Vulg. Si murus est, aedificemus super eum propugnacula argentea; si ostium est, compingamus illud tabulis cedrinis, "If she be a wall, let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar"] The soul of a holy man is a wall. The Church too has her walls, who, being now more perfect, says: I am a fortified city (Esai. XXVII, 3). [Vulg. Isa. 27:3 Ego Dominus qui servo eam, "I am the Lord that keep it"; the reading here follows the Greek] This is the wall which has twelve apostolic gates, through which entrance into the Church lies open to the people of the nations. But a wall, although it enclose the circuit of the whole city, is then 1957Dthe better fortified when it has had chambers made ready, in which the defenders of the city may have a safe resource for watching and for guarding. But because this city is rational, and all its hope is in the Word of God, not iron but silver bulwarks are required for it, accustomed to beat back the assaults of the enemy by heavenly sayings rather than by bodily pleasures.

Propped by that defence, shining with that splendor, she is judged the fitter for the union with Christ. And because Christ is the gate, who says: If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved (Joan. 1958AX, 9); the church too is called a gate, because through her the approach to salvation lies open to the peoples. But lest she be corrupted by the moths or worms of the heretics, the daughters of Jerusalem, or the angels, or the souls of the just, say: Let us build upon her boards of cedar, that is, the good odor of a sublime faith. For the odor of this timber is sweet, and neither worm nor moth corrupts it. Therefore the use of this timber is chosen for raising the peaks of roofs, and for shaping the elements of letters, with which the age of boyhood is steeped in the study of liberal learning. This timber, then, is sublime for grace, light for burden, sweet for odor, useful as an instrument of knowledge, apt for the ministry of eternal knowledge. But even as Christ, loving his Bride, was urging her toward the solemnity of the spiritual union, so also the Church, now taken with the comeliness of the Word, was hastening 1958Bto the marriage. And so, impatient of the delays and of the postponement which the daughters of Jerusalem were eager to weave in, she says:

(Vers. 10.) I am a wall, and my breasts are towers. [Vulg. Ego murus, et ubera mea sicut turris, "I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower"] That is: do not doubt whether I am a wall; for they had said: If she is a wall; I, she says, am a wall, and I have not small breasts, but my breasts are as towers. How do you say that I have no breasts? I have senses as towers of wisdom, in which there is abundance, as it is written: And abundance in thy towers (Psalm. CXXI, 7). By these breasts, that is, by her senses, she esteemed herself fit for so great a marriage. But the daughters of Jerusalem could not yet so esteem her, because they did not see the abundance of her senses. And she added: 1958C

(Vers. 11.) I was in his eyes as one finding peace; [Vulg. Cant. 8:10 ex quo facta sum coram eo, quasi pacem reperiens, "since I am become in his presence as one finding peace"] that is: my senses being deliberated upon, since I have found the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and keeps hearts and senses in Christ Jesus. Such, she says, was I in the eyes of the bridegroom, as one who has peace; for it is written: They who rightly seek peace shall rejoice. 1617

(Vers 12.) I, she says, am a fortified city, I am a besieged city (Esai. XXVII, 3). By these walls she is fortified, by these, when besieged, she is defended. And truly the soul is a wall, which is stretched out before the camp. Whence she herself also says in the Song: I am a wall, and my breasts are as towers (Vers. 10). A good wall is that which the Lord has painted, as he himself says: In my hands I have painted thy walls, and thou art always in my sight (Esai. XLIX, 16). [Vulg. Ecce in manibus meis descripsi te; muri tui coram oculis meis semper, "Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes"] Good is the soul which has 1958DGod as its watchman, and is in his hands; as the prophetic soul, which is commended into the hands of God as a spirit (Psal. XXX, 6), and which is in the sight of God: For the eyes of the Lord are upon the just; as he himself also says: I was in his eyes as one finding peace. She has good towers, who has both a word concerning things intelligible and a discipline concerning things moral. The beloved and the beloved one therefore hastening, the spiritual union was celebrated, sought by mutual consent. And so, singing as it were a marriage song, the Spirit exulted in the prophet, saying: 1959A

(Vers. 11.) A vineyard was made for Solomon in Beelamon; he gave his vineyard to those who keep it. [Vulg. Vinea fuit pacifico in ea quae habet populos: tradidit eam custodibus, "The peaceable had a vineyard in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers"] The Spirit therefore cries out: A congregation of peoples has been planted, but founded upon the root of the eternal vine; and it has subjected spiritual hearts, with a meek heart, under the yoke of the Word. And it was planted in a multitude of nations. For that Beelamon is to be understood thus, Symmachus, Aquila, and the other translations have taught in the Greek tongue. The old union, which could not bring forth fruit, was repudiated; the vineyard was given to new and faithful tillers, who could not only make fruit, but also keep it. One sheep therefore went astray, but being called back it filled the spaces of the whole world. Error had led away one sheep, but the grace of the Lord gathered together a multitude of peoples. Man went astray, but in the Church he is now a wall, 1959Band a strong wall. Adam went astray; David is a wall, who did not forget the commandments of God. This vineyard, therefore, being guarded and walled about with a spiritual fortification, gives a thousand fruits to Christ, but two hundred fruits to the keepers; and so the Church says:

(Vers. 12.) My vine is in my sight: a thousand for Solomon, and two hundred for those that keep the fruit. [Vulg. Vinea mea coram me est. Mille tui pacifici, et ducenti his qui custodiunt fructus ejus, "My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof"] The perfection and fulness of Christ is the portion of little ones. Thou hast this mystery in Genesis, where Joseph assigned five portions to Benjamin the younger brother, and single portions to the remaining brethren (Gen. XLIII, 34). To the Lord therefore is offered the portion and the prerogative of the five senses, which he himself whom he loves assuredly assigns to him, as he loved Paul also, to whom he gave the chief place of wisdom for the calling forth of the nations. Let fear depart here from the holy virgins, to whom the Church first assigns so great 1959Cdefences, she who, anxious for the increase of her tender offspring, herself as a wall grows up with breasts abounding after the manner of towers: until, the assault of the hostile siege being broken up, she may win peace for a strong youth by the defence of a mother's strength. Whence the Prophet also says: Let peace be in thy strength, and abundance in thy towers (Psalm. CXXI, 7).

(Vers. 13.) Thou that sittest in the gardens, the friends listening to thy voice, make thy voice known to me. [Vulg. Quae habitas in hortis, amici auscultant; fac me audire vocem tuam, "Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken; make me hear thy voice" — the Vulgate's addressee is feminine, Migne's masculine] And so this soul, having the grace of her own breasts, enters into the gardens, and finding there the Bridegroom sitting and disputing with his friends, says: Thou that sittest in the gardens, make thy voice known to me: to me, she says, not to the friends.

Thou that sittest in the gardens, the friends listening to thy voice, make thy voice known to me. For she was delighted 1959Dthat Christ was sitting in the gardens, and that the friends set in the gardens were listening to his voice: but because those friends were of the heavenly ones, Archangels or Dominations and Thrones (for men had been driven out of paradise on account of disobedience to the heavenly commandments, and therefore the Church could not yet hear his voice, which she desired to hear), therefore she says: Make thy voice known to me. Whence we also, if we wish him to sit within us, let us be gardens enclosed and fortified, let us bear the flowers of the virtues, the sweetness of grace, that we may be able to hear the Lord Jesus disputing 1960Awith the angels. But because it was to come to pass that, when the Church had come through to fulness, she would be tried by various persecutions, therefore, while she was being delighted with the grace of the Word, suddenly she discerns the ambushes of the persecutors: and since she feared more for the Bridegroom than for herself, or because Christ is the more sought after by persecutors in us, therefore she says:

(Vers. 14.) Flee, my brother, and be thou like to a little roe or to the fawn of the harts, upon the mountains of spices. [Vulg. Cant. 8:14 Fuge, dilecte mi, et assimilare capreae hinnuloque cervorum super montes aromatum, "Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe and to the young hart upon the mountains of spices"] He flees on account of the weak, who could not bear the heavier trials. Therefore it is written that we should flee from cities to cities: and if they shall have persecuted us in this city, let us flee into another. On account of the weak, therefore, as we have said, let him flee those who pursue: or let him flee from the lowest things, and pass over to the mountains of spices, 1960Bhe who for martyrdom may be able to bring the odor 1618 of the blessed resurrection. The mountains of spices are the saints. To them Christ flees for refuge; because His foundations are in the holy mountains (Psal. LXXXVI, 1). To them therefore he flees for refuge, who are his stable foundations. In us he flees; in them he abides in a faithful station. A mountain of spices, therefore, is Paul, who can say: We are the good odor of Christ unto God (II Cor. II, 15). A mountain of spices is David, the odor of whose prayer went up to the Lord, and therefore he said: Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight (Psal. CXL, 2).

Symmachus, however, and Aquila have rendered it as that Christ says to the Church: Thou that sittest in the gardens, that is, thou already sittest in the gardens, thou art worthy of the paradise above; and therefore Make thy voice known to me, to which the friends are listening: 1960CI too desire to hear it. The Church began to be in the gardens, after Christ was taken in the gardens.

Flee, my brother, and be made like to a hart or to the fawn of a hart, unto the mountains of spices. For, hated by the serpent snakes, and fleeing of dogs, and an enemy to the serpents that creep upon the ground, he knows not how to dwell save in the sublimity of virtues, knows not how to abide save with such daughters of the Church as can say: For we are the good odor of Christ unto God (II Cor. II, 15). But to some it is the odor of death unto death, in them that perish; to others the odor of life unto life, in those assuredly who with a living faith hope for the odor of the Lord's resurrection. These are the mountains of spices, who received the body of the Lord Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with spices. 1960DFor whosoever have believed that Jesus died, and was buried, and rose again, these have lifted up the lofty summit of true faith with the peaks of the virtues. Where then is Christ sought, namely in the breast of a prudent priest?

Flee, my brother. She exhorts the Bridegroom to flee, because now she herself, earthly as she is, will be able to follow him as he flees. She says that he should be like a little doe which escapes out of the nets; for she herself also wishes to flee, and to fly out above the world. Let us flee therefore into the truest fatherland. There is our fatherland, 1961Aand the Father by whom we were created, where is Jerusalem the city which is the mother of all. But what is that flight? Assuredly not of the feet, which are of the body; for these, wherever they run, run upon the earth, and pass from soil to soil. Nor let us flee by ships or by chariots, or by horses which are bound fast and fall; but let us flee with the mind and with the eyes, or with the inward feet let us accustom our eyes to see the things that are bright and clear, to gaze upon the countenance of continence and of temperance, and upon all the virtues, in which there is nothing rough, nothing dark and crooked: and let a man look upon himself and upon his own conscience, and cleanse that eye, that it may have nothing filthy. For that which is seen ought not to be out of tune with him who sees; since God willed us to be conformed to the image of his Son. 1961B

That good, therefore, is known to us, nor is it far from every one of us: For in him we live, and are present, and are moved; for we are also his offspring (Act. XVII, 28), [Vulg. In ipso enim vivimus, et movemur, et sumus, "For in him we live, and move, and are"] as the Apostle wished to admonish the Gentiles. For it is itself the good which we seek, and the only good; for no one is good, but God alone. This is the eye which beholds that great and true comeliness. None but a sound and strong eye looks upon the sun, nor can any but a good soul 1962Asee the good: let him therefore become good who wishes to see the Lord, and that which is good. Let us be like to this good, and according to it let us work the things that are good. This is the good which is above all working, above all mind and understanding; it is that which always remains, giving to all to live and to be; because Christ is the fountain of the life of all, of whom the prophet says: In his shadow we shall live. For now our life is hidden in Christ: but when Christ our life shall have appeared, then we also shall appear with him in glory. [Vulg. Col. 3:3–4 vita vestra est abscondita cum Christo in Deo. Cum Christus apparuerit, vita vestra, tunc et vos apparebitis cum ipso in gloria, "your life is hid with Christ in God"]

Therefore let us not fear death; since it is the rest of the body, but of the soul either liberty or release. Nor let us dread him who can kill the flesh, but cannot kill the soul; because we do not 1962Bfear him who can take away a garment, we do not fear him who can steal what is ours, but cannot steal us. Let us therefore be souls, if we wish to be Hebrews of those who are the companions of Jacob, that is, his imitators. Let us be souls; but our members are garments: garments indeed are to be kept, that they be not torn, that they grow not old: but far more ought he who uses them to keep and guard himself.