COMMENTATIO IN CANTICA CANTICORUM EX BERNARDO CONTEXTA

407The following exposition on the first two chapters of the Song of Songs, from the Dunes manuscript, was published by us in the earlier edition, and appended to Bernard's Sermons on the Song of Songs as a genuine offspring of his, which William, abbot of Saint-Thierry, is said to have designated in Book I of his Life, chapter 12, in these words: « And so at that time he discoursed to me on the Song of Songs, so far as that time of my infirmity permitted me, in a moral sense only, the mysteries of that Scripture being set aside, because so I wished, and so I had asked of him: and each day, whatever I heard upon this, lest it escape me, I bound down in writing, so far as God granted me and memory helped. » By which words it then seemed to us that this very exposition was being indicated. But, the matter having been more carefully weighed, we judge it to be nothing other than a brief compendium of the first 51 sermons of Bernard on the Song of Songs, put together by some studious and pious man. But the one which William designates seems to be that which was published under his name in Volume IV of the Cistercian Library: where these words of the Preface are to be noted: « But we do not attempt those deeper mysteries which are contained in it, concerning Christ and the Church; but restraining ourselves within ourselves . . . we touch only upon some moral sense. » Which words rightly agree with the passage set forth above from the Life of Bernard, when William says that he had asked of Bernard an exposition on the Song of Songs « in a moral sense only, the mysteries of that Scripture being set aside. » This reasoning moved us to place the following exposition among the Collectanea made from Bernard's works, and indeed after the two earlier books of William, to which it is appended under the name of Saint Bernard in the Dunes manuscript: and if anyone should wish to attribute the following commentary also to this William, we shall not resist; especially since its style comes close enough to William's style.

407C263 1. There are three states of the love of God in the Christian soul. The first, sensual or animal; the second, rational; the third, spiritual or intellectual. Of which the Lord in the Gospel: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength (Matth. XXII, 37). The first is signified in the heart, that is, in the little portion of weak flesh, on account of the devout affection toward the humanity of the Savior: the second, in the soul, by which that first love is now animated and quickened, when it now searches out with humble devotion the mysteries of faith and the power of the sacraments: the third, in all thy strength; because in this degree, however far you have advanced, you will be able to say, 408CAnd I said, Now have I begun (Psal. LXXVI, 12). The first so delights in the contemplation and sweetness of the humanity of Christ, that Christ rightly says to them: It is expedient for you that I go away (Joan. XVI, 7). The second now has a burning heart, but his eyes are still held, when Christ speaks to him, but on the way, and opens the Scriptures to him (Luc. XXIV, 15-32). The third now says with all confidence, And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer (II Cor. V, 16): which the first can by no means say, and the second scarcely can. For what the apostles experienced in the bodily presence of the Lord, this these men experience in a certain devout imagining of their mind, out of the most sweet memory of the humanity of Christ, 409Aand of his manner of life and his works, and of his passion and resurrection and ascension, and of the good things conferred upon us through these — putting on that affection of love with which Peter, loving tenderly and, as a man, loving the man who was God, urged upon him as he foretold the course of his passion: Far be it from thee, Lord; be merciful to thyself; this shall not be (Matth. XVI, 22). But the third degree is wholly beyond man, above man; wholly in God, loving God for God's sake, the just for the sake of the just, and the good for the sake of the good; not because it is good for us, but because it is good in itself: so affected by God and by good and by justice, that it would rather not be at all than be good and just apart from God. This is love strong as death (Cant. VIII, 6): this is the power that clothes the Apostles from on high (Luc. XXIV, 49). For the holy soul, made 409Bone spirit with God, can no more endure to turn aside even a little from justice, than justice itself can endure to cease to be justice.

But the rational state, set between this highest one and that lower one, rules and illumines the lower; yet the higher, sometimes reaching toward it with the hand of devout desire, at once flees back to itself, and, like David, strikes its own heart, because it presumed to lay a hand upon the Lord's Christ. For if a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned (Hebr. XII, 20); and when a voice comes over the firmament that hangs above the head of the living creatures, they stand, and do not go forward, and lower the wings of their endeavors. For rational discipline does nothing there, where the whole consists of the experience of love and understanding and affection. For this state is, as it were, a kind of 409Cfirmament of heaven, in which God dwells, and is not propped up by lower reason: yet it nevertheless sometimes creates for itself reasons of its own kind, by which, returning in a manner from the hiding-place of God's face to those lower companions of its own, it restrains them with the light of the supernal brightness. But as it is said in the Apocalypse, There was silence in heaven for about half an hour (Apoc. VIII, 1); so too, gladdening them with a certain momentary consolation, it seems to say to them, Run, that you may obtain (I Cor. IX, 24). But only day unto day uttereth this word. But these reasons are not wrapped up in the perplexities of those who reason, 264 but, arising from pure and simple truth, are pure and simple, joyful from the oil of God's gladness, honeyed from the honey of heaven; not puffing up 409Dtheir finder with knowledge, but building him up with charity; very easy to the poor in spirit, incomprehensible to those who are wise in lofty things; so effective, that what was said seems said of them, The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (I Cor. II, 10); so solid in themselves and needing nothing external, that what was said may be understood of them, The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves (Psal. XVIII, 10). But all these three loves, or states of love, often run together and cooperate with one another, and, with a certain mutual and friendly generosity, give to and receive from one another the things in which each abounds: for the highest often takes delight and pleasure in the delights of the lower, and the lower is sometimes flooded and moved by the joy of the higher, the middle one running alternately between the two, and rejoicing with each. 410A

But it is pleasing to contemplate yet more subtly the riches in which both abound. The first is against temptations; the second, against heresies; the third sings, In peace in the selfsame will I sleep and take my rest (Psal. IV, 9). In the first, the remission of sins and the cleansing of vices; in the second, the exercise of virtues; in the third, the perfection of virtues, and the cleaving to or enjoyment of the highest good. In the first, the use of the sacraments; in the second, of the mysteries; in the third, the reality of the sacraments or mysteries. The first is humble in Mary the sinner, fervent in Peter, devout and sweet in John. The second sleeps from worldly things, watches in spiritual things, faints when his soul fails for the salvation of God, seeing and not seeing through, and fainting with love and desire to see through. The third hears unspeakable words, silence, 410Bnamely that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding (Philipp. IV, 7). The first, driving his sheep, that is, the weak affections of sensuality, to the inner parts of the desert, that is, to the inner recesses of contemplation, and beholding the bush that burned and was not consumed, that is, the mysteries of the Lord's incarnation, and wishing to draw nearer through understanding, hears from the Lord: Come not nigh hither, but loose the shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground (Exod. III, 1-5). The second ascends the mountain, and hears from the Lord, But stand thou here with me, and I will teach thee the laws and the commandments which thou shalt set before the children of Israel (Deut. V, 31): and he sees the pattern of the eternal tabernacle which God made and not man, and hears from the Lord, See that thou make all things according to the 410Cpattern which was shown thee in the mount (Exod. XXV, 40). The third is buried by the Lord on the mountain, that is, is hidden in the hiding-place of his face, and no man, that is, no human wisdom, has known his sepulchre unto this day (Deut. XXXIV, 6). The first hears from men, and it is said to him daily, Where is thy God? the second remembers, and pours out his soul within himself; the third passes over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God (Psal. XLI, 4, 5). The first serves faith, the second hope, the third charity: and as faith begets us to God, hope nourishes, charity consummates; so the first state dedicates to God the human affection in us; the second puts off the old man with his deeds, and puts on the new man 410Dwho according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth (Ephes. IV, 22, 24); the third consummates, and conforms to God both by purity of mind and by holiness of life. For whether prophecies, or tongues, or faith, or hope and all the other gifts shall cease: but charity never faileth (I Cor. XIII, 8). But now and then that higher state, 265 as though repaying its tutors and guardians and agents, sometimes pours into them a certain divine affection, or more than human, so that in a wondrous and unknown manner they often marvel that they are caught up above themselves; and it leads and nurtures them to this, that that prayer of the Lord may be fulfilled in them: Father, I will that, as I and thou are one, so they also may be one in us (Joan. XVII, 11-21).

411AAccording to these three states, in the Song of Songs now the maidens, now the companions, now the bridegroom and the bride speak, each in its own manner. The bride, then, of the bridegroom: Let him kiss me, she says, with the kiss of his mouth (Cant. I, 1). But there are tongues of Angels, and there are also tongues of men. By the tongue of men, then, that is, in the manner customary to men, namely as it were by certain parables, the Holy Spirit manifests his secrets to men, whose weakness could not otherwise understand them. Whence the Lord too spoke in parables. Nay rather, God himself was for this reason made man for all, that those who had not known how to conceive God might, through him whom they knew, namely man, being little by little taught by him to conceive and understand God, raise up the rational understanding of the mind. 411BFor this reason he not only spoke to men in parables, but his whole manner of life on earth was, as it were, a kind of notable parable to them, so that through his visible things his invisible things might be beheld when understood. For in every carnal affection nothing is wont to be sweeter, nothing more desirable, than the joining of a bride to a bridegroom; but in the spiritual, of the created spirit to the uncreated. For there, of two there is made one flesh; but here, of two there is made one spirit. Whence, a likeness being drawn from carnal things to spiritual, from human to divine, here are described the bridegroom and the bride, Christ and the Church or any holy soul, which, having now to some extent experienced the first two degrees of love, now pants for the third, and longs to pour her whole self above 411Cherself into the love and sweetness of the bridegroom, and now desiring the embrace of his love and the kiss of his acquaintance: Let him kiss me, she says, with the kiss of his mouth. The kiss is a sign of peace. And if our sins, as Scripture says, separate between us and God, when we make satisfaction for them that we may be reconciled, we seek, as it were, the kiss of peace.

For according to the three states of love, there are also three kisses of the lover. The first, propitiatory or reconciliatory; the second, meritorious; the third, contemplative. The first to the feet, the second to the hand, the third to the mouth. The first, when, filthy in the dust of penance, by kissing the two feet of the Lord, one receives, with the woman who was a sinner, the pardon of sins. But the two feet of the Lord are 411Dmercy and judgment, with which he walks through the whole world, and walks upon the waves of the sea. With these he continually goes about and walks through spiritual minds, rejoicing as a giant to run the way (Psal. XVIII, 6); if only they be such of whom he may rightly say: And I will dwell in them, and walk in them (II Cor. VI, 16). He kisses these feet who, fitting himself to them, sings mercy and judgment to the Lord. Then one rises to the hand, that a second kiss may be offered to him, when the faithful soul, now walking in newness of life, rises from the humility of the penitent to the hand of the giver, now giving thanks for the reception of the affections and effects of good works, which are signified by the hand. For he does not, in the splendor of his own good deeds, kiss his own hand, which, as Job says, is 412Athe greatest iniquity, and a denial against the most high God (Job XXXI, 27, 28): but he kisses the hand of the giver, to whose grace he ascribes the whole of what he is, with a sweet giving of thanks, which is signified by the kiss. The third is the kiss of contemplation, or the contemplative, by which the bride, now gladdened by the first two, and having gathered confidence, desires to be marked out, and now to be joined to the bridegroom through acquaintance and love, and to be to some extent privy to his secrets. This is the kiss of his mouth, and far unlike the kisses above. Let him kiss me, she says, with the kiss of his mouth. We must see what kind of kiss that is, what kind that mouth of his: what kind the lips of him who imprints it, what kind of him who receives it.

In God, to be and to be wise are not different things: nor does the Father have his being-wise from the Son, lest he seem to have also his being 412Bfrom him, which would be absurd. The Father, therefore, has from himself both being and being-wise; 266 and if it belongs to the Son to have being from the Father, it belongs to him also to have being-wise. The Son, therefore, has from the Father both being and being-wise, and thus they are full subsistences, which the Greeks call hypostases; nor is the one propped up by the other in order to subsist, or to be what it is through the other; but they are, as we have said, either according to the Greeks, full hypostases subsisting through themselves, or according to the Latins, persons or things that sound of themselves, although God is one and a perfect Trinity. But let the names of substance, or subsistence, or person disturb no one, cast a mist over no one — names which are names of our poverty, not expressing the essence of the divinity, but by their own deficiency bearing witness 412Cto its incomprehensibility. For the name of subsistences tries to express the property of the persons, but the name of substance the simplicity and unity of that highest essence. And there is a certain turning from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father: but the first is of the Father to the Son, because the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son; yet first not in time, but by a certain relation, as it were, as the Father is to the Son. But this turning is in a kiss and an embrace. The kiss is the mutual knowledge of each other, the embrace is the mutual love. Whence the Son says in the Gospel: No one knoweth the Father but the Son, and no one knoweth the Son but the Father. The kiss, therefore, of the Father and the Son, and the embrace, is the Holy Spirit proceeding from both, the love of the Father toward the Son, and the love of the Son toward the Father, of whom it is also added: 412DAnd to whomsoever the Son shall will to reveal him (Matth. XI, 27). For that will is the Holy Spirit himself, the will of the Father and the Son, who reveals to us the very unity of the Father and the Son, being one God with the Father and the Son. For it is proper to the Father to reveal the Son, as in the Gospel: It is not, says the Son, flesh and blood that hath revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven (Matth. XVI, 17). It is the Son's due to glorify the Father, as there: I glorify, he says, my Father who is in heaven (Joan. VIII, 49). It is the office of the Holy Spirit to reveal both, as the Apostle says: That which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but to us he hath revealed them by his Holy Spirit (I Cor. II, 9, 10). To whom, therefore, the Son reveals through the Spirit, God is not to be said 413Ato kiss with his mouth, but with the kiss of his mouth. For we do not touch the mouth, but we are touched by the kiss. We are touched by the kiss, when love and knowledge are poured into us. We do not touch the mouth, that is, that mutual understanding: we do not touch the mouth, because, as it was said, No one knoweth the Son but the Father, and no one knoweth the Father but the Son; but we are touched by the kiss, to whomsoever the Son shall will to reveal him. We do not touch the mouth, because neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard. We are touched by the kiss, because God hath revealed it to us by the Holy Spirit: for to whom he reveals, he reveals only through the Holy Spirit. He, then, is the kiss: he himself touches us, when he pours himself into us with a twofold grace, that is, with the knowledge and love of truth. And these are not the very lips of God, but the imprint of the lips; nay, if it is lawful to say so, of the lip: for what in us is twofold 413Bis in God single, for whom to know is the same as to love. But this imprint is stamped, in the holy kiss, upon the two lips of the bride, namely upon the will and the reason; love upon the will, knowledge upon the reason. Which two, however, namely knowledge and love, because, as we have said, in God they are one, are expressed by the beautiful singular of 'mouth,' where it is said: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. Or, let the Son kiss me with that kiss with which he kisses his mouth, that is, the Father, who is for this reason called his mouth, because the Son is the Word of the Father. And in Wisdom: I, he says, came forth from the mouth of the Most High (Eccli. XXIV, 5). Or, let God the Father kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, that is, of his Son or his Word (for the Word proceeds from the mouth, and it is a figurative expression): that is, let him pour into me that speech 413Cby which the Father knows the Son, and the Son the Father. Or, let the Father himself kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; that is, let him send into my heart the Spirit of his Son, that we may love the Son, as he himself loves. But why, Let him kiss; and not, Kiss thou? For a bride and bridegroom in the flesh are wont to anticipate each other with a certain mutual reverence. Whence she too, like Rebecca at the meeting of the new bridegroom, her face veiled as with a certain cloak of modesty (Gen. XXIV, 65), speaks not in the imperative mood, but in the desiderative or optative mood: Would that, she says, at length at last he would kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

There is also another kiss, which, at sundry times and in divers manners speaking of old to the Fathers in the Prophets, he had promised to his Church, 267 and in these last 413Ddays hath spoken to us in his Son (Hebr. I, 1, 2). For what is said, he hath spoken to us in his Son, is itself the kiss. For the joining of the Word and the hearer, of divinity and humanity, is, as it were, a kind of kiss of charity. Foreseeing which in the spirit, Isaiah says, There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root; and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him (Isai. XI, 1-3). These are the seven gifts, or seven graces of the Holy Spirit, which shone forth especially in the Lord Jesus, as the Holy Spirit especially rested upon him. For in fear humility is signified; in godliness, mercy; in knowledge, 414Athe knowledge of earthly things; in fortitude, patience; in counsel, usefulness; in understanding, the joining of the divinity; in wisdom, the moderation of power. Through the five foregoing Christ fitted himself to man in the assumed substance of man: through the last two the person of Christ was ever united to the divinity. For as a good physician he humbly bent down to the sick man, mercifully handled the wounds, provided for the frame he had made and knew, patiently bore with the madman, applied useful remedies to each disease, remaining indivisibly one with the Father, singularly, in the very truth of man, understood God, because no one knoweth the Father but the Son; through that wisdom of the Father which he himself is, reaching mightily from end to end, he disposed all things moderately and sweetly. This joining, therefore, of the divine 414Band human nature is a kind of kiss, of the bridegroom and the bride: desiring which, the Church says, Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. There are also three other kisses, by which the bride is joined to the bridegroom; namely, the kiss of nature, the kiss of doctrine, the kiss of grace: concerning which now, since many things have been said about kisses, it is left to the meditation of the readers.

For thy breasts are better than wine (Cantic. I, 1). It is written: The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor; thine ear hath heard the preparation of their heart (Psal. X, 17). Because, therefore, desire is always wont to go before confidence, the bridegroom answers, and gives confidence to the desiring bride, adding also the cause of her confidence, For, he says, thy breasts are better 414Cthan wine. I seem to myself to see here the trembling Esther, approaching as if fearful to the throne of the King, and scarcely daring to lift up her eyes to the brightness of his countenance; and the King stretching out to her the rod of clemency and saying: What wilt thou, Esther? or what is thy petition (Esther V, 1-3). So too the bridegroom to the bride: Why, he says, dost thou tremble to ask what thou desirest? Thou hast already received many things from me, which ought to give thee confidence to dare greater things. From the receiving of past gifts, the expectation of future ones can be firm. For as to the contemplation which thou desirest, thou hast already received in the active life, by my gift, perfection. For thy breasts are better than wine. The grape, once pressed, pours out its whole at once; so too worldly wisdom, or the carnal 414Dsense of the law: but the breasts of the bride, the more they are pressed, the more they overflow. Thy breasts, from my grace, are better than wine, that is, more effective than the love and wisdom of the world. These make drunk, and those make drunk: but thy breasts far more abundantly unto good, than those unto evil. For the simple and milky Christian and apostolic doctrine dissolves all the arguments of the dialecticians. But by the new wine of the Holy Spirit, with which the Apostles were filled and made drunk, the blessed poor in spirit, the sons of grace, the sons of the New Testament, were so filled, that they embraced the love of God even to the contempt of themselves, that they counted all things as dung, that they might gain Christ. Therefore the breasts of the bride are better than wine. But these breasts of the bride are two: one of compassion, the other of congratulation. From 415Athe breast of compassion is sucked the milk of consolation; from the breast of congratulation is sucked the milk of exhortation. That these breasts may be better than wine, they are fragrant with the best ointments; because the best ointment, that is, of surpassing charity, works efficacy in them. The breasts of the bride, therefore, are anointed, that is, softened by the touch of the bridegroom through the anointing: made fragrant with good example, spread abroad afar as with a good odor, or advanced even unto the odor of the bridegroom through the sacrifice of devout intention and holy desire.

Fragrant with the best ointments (Cantic. I, 2). There are three ointments: of compunction, from the remembrance of sins; of devotion, 268 from the remembrance of benefits; of piety, from the remembrance of the wretched. With the first are anointed the feet of the Lord, with the second the head, 415Bwith the third the whole body. Of the first he says: Mary anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped them with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment (Luc. VII, 37, 38; Joan. XII, 3). Of the second: A woman brought an alabaster box of precious spikenard, and poured it upon the head of him as he reclined (Marc. XIV, 3). Of the third: Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, going away, bought spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus (Marc. XVI, 1). Note the order of advance to the higher things from the lower, as above concerning the state and the kiss of love. In short, Mary Magdalene, who was a sinner, anointed the feet of Jesus. And this ointment is surely no mean one, of which it is written: And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Nor is it a wonder, since even in the heavenly places the fragrance 415Cof such an ointment is perceived, the Truth bearing witness, that there is great joy among the angels of God over one sinner doing penance (Luc. XV, 10). But however precious this ointment may seem, yet compared to that which is called of devotion, and is compounded from the memory of divine benefits, with which the head of the Lord is also anointed, it is esteemed cheap and of no value. In short, of the former it is said, A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psal. L, 19): but of the latter, The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me (Psal. XLIX, 23). But thou dost anoint the head therewith, when thou givest thanks to God for his gifts. Since indeed the head of Christ is God. Therefore the Godhead in Christ is touched, as often as, to his praise, we call to mind his benefits in us: just as not so much the Godhead as the humanity must 415Dbe thought upon, when we remember not his gifts, but our sins. For in the assumption of flesh he is known to have received those two feet for this end, that is, mercy and judgment, that the sinner who had no access to the head, that is, to the Godhead, might come to the feet, that is, to the humanity. For unless that foot, which we called mercy, belonged to the assumed man, the Apostle Paul would not say of it: Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become merciful (Hebr. II, 17). And unless judgment equally belonged to the man, the man who is God would not have said of himself: And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man (Joan. V, 27). And so to these feet of the man who, according to the prophet, is sorrowful and acquainted with infirmity (Isa. LIII, 3), the sinner, 416Ano longer doubting to come, speaks confidently: But now with confidence we come to the throne of his grace. For we have not a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities (Hebr. IV, 15, 16). The sinful woman, therefore, comes to the feet, the just woman to anoint the head.

But the ointment of the head is to be esteemed more precious than that other one which is applied to the feet, by so much as the spices from which the former is compounded are agreed to be more precious than those from which the latter is compounded. For the latter we find easily and without labor (for they are in our own region): since indeed we are all sinners. But the former we obtain with difficulty and from very far off, as being carried away from the paradise of God: for every best gift, and every perfect gift is from above, 416Bcoming down from the Father of lights (Jacob. I, 17). In short, what is more excellent than an ointment of this kind, at the pouring out of which even the Apostles seem to have murmured, saying: To what purpose is this waste? for it might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. But even now too, when perchance someone is seen to be at leisure for God, and to be of such devotion and grace, that he is rightly believed to anoint the head of Christ, persisting continually in holy quiet, and in giving of thanks, and in the delight of divine contemplation; there are not lacking those who call this waste, and complain with a murmur that seems to them just, that one who could have been of profit to many rests to himself: not that they envy holiness, but that they take thought for charity. But charity itself, which is God, 416Cfor the most part spares such a soul, which it sees delighting in spiritual pursuits; especially if it has known it to be such as is still, by faintheartedness or weakness of mind, a woman, and has not yet advanced into the perfect man. Which he who beholds the heart surely discerns better than men, who see only in the face, and judge only according to the face: since, namely, they by no means consider that it is not of the same ease to rest devoutly and to be fruitfully occupied; humbly to be a subject, and usefully to preside; to be ruled without complaint, and to rule without fault; to obey willingly, and to command discreetly; in short, to be good among 269 the good, and to be good among the evil; nay, even to be peaceable among the sons of peace, and to show oneself peaceful to those who hate peace. Knowing, therefore, who they are who truly are not 416Dfit to be entangled in ecclesiastical cares and burdens, on behalf of such a delicate soul, which because of its tenderness he still feels to be less sufficient for the handling of affairs, against those who feel otherwise, and for this reason accuse its quiet as unfruitful, with good zeal indeed, but not according to knowledge, he answers with the very same affection: Why are you troublesome to this woman? (Matth. XXVI, 8-10.) For although, as must be confessed, that to which you attempt to draw her is better, yet the work which she hath wrought upon me is good. Suffer her meanwhile to work the good that she can, while she cannot yet do better: for I know that she is still a woman. But when, by the change of the right hand of the Most High, from a woman she shall have been made a man (which, when it shall be, if indeed it ever shall be, cannot be hidden from me), because at my calling she shall be advanced, 417Aand at my keeping she shall be held: and then even the iniquity of a man will be better than a woman doing good (Eccli. XLII, 14). But I hope for that better thing too: and this good I meanwhile by no means despise, nor do I reckon the pouring out of this ointment a waste, in which both the devotion of the woman is signified, and my burial is foreshown. To this is added, that it spreads its fragrance so widely on every side, that wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told in memory of her.

Let us now come to the third ointment. Now in the mutual comparison of the two set forth above, the later one, without any ambiguity, is recognized to be better than the former, and far more excellent. But it seems a wonder, 417Bwhether any third one can be found which ought by right to be preferred to both, according to which the bride glories that her breasts smell sweet with the best ointments. Otherwise they are not the best, if they do not surpass even the better ones: just as neither are those truly called better which do not surpass the good. Now that second ointment, which anoints the head, has been found to be of such excellence, that scarcely any riches whatever seem able — I do not say to be preferred to it, but even to be compared to it. Perhaps, if we search in the Gospel, we shall find that a figure of this third ointment also has gone before. Mary, it says, Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus (Marc. XVI, 1). Dost thou see, at the very front of the chapter set forth, 417Chow highly even this material ointment is to be esteemed, for the buying of whose spices one or two were not able to suffice? One brought the first ointment, one also the second; but to buy this one, three came together alike, that they might, namely, buy together what each by herself could not, and so coming might anoint Jesus. Not the feet only or the head only, but that coming, it says, they might anoint Jesus; that is, the whole body. But note that Christ, as it were, did not wish any waste of this ointment to be made, since, the body not being found, they carried it back whole, and were bidden to present to the living what they had prepared for the dead. Which they also did, when, the joy of the resurrection being at once announced, they took care to soothe the sorrowful hearts of the disciples, who without doubt were members of Christ, and living members. 417DWhich members surely, unless Christ loved them more than that crucified body, he would not have delivered it up to be crucified for them. It is clear, then, concerning those two, that this last ointment excels them by as much as this body of his, to which it is applied — that is, the Church, which he willed to be anointed all over from them, and for whose redemption he also willed to be delivered up — is agreed to be more lovable to Christ. The breasts of the bride, therefore, are fragrant with ointments not only good and better, but even best; and her two breasts of compassion and congratulation, from piety and consideration of the wretched, abound with the milk of consolation and exhortation. Healed, therefore, by the first ointment, purified by the second, sanctified by the third, she has breasts fragrant with the best ointments. 418A

Or otherwise, that these too may be words of the bride, as if she plainly said: It is indeed presumption that I ask for the kiss of contemplation, but the consciousness of good action gives confidence; for my breasts; mine, because given to me by thee; thine, because filled by thee, and serving thee; are better than wine. Otherwise, that it may be the voice of the companions, that is, of the Angels, exhorting 270 the bride, eager for contemplation, to the labor of action, out of consideration of the progress in her subjects. They say, therefore: Thou shalt not indeed be deprived of the kiss when thou shalt have arrived; but since thou seest the fruit of thy labor, do not fail while thou art delayed: for behold thy breasts, that is, the tenderer doctrine, are better than wine, fragrant with the best ointments. Here we see three things in the breasts of the bride: touch, smell, and taste: touch, in the softness of the anointing; 418Bsmell, in the fragrance of the ointment; taste, in the wine. Touch for those present in word, smell for those absent in example; taste for the bridegroom, by which the good intention of the mind is signified.

To the three interpretations, the things that follow are to be joined in two ways: Thy name is oil poured out. If they are the words of the bridegroom, it is to be understood that here the bridegroom, having consoled the desire of the bride, after grace was shown, after confidence was given, gave her the kiss. The bride, having received the kiss, and the oil with the kiss, that is, through interior inspiration having to some extent received the knowledge of the bridegroom, and with the knowledge of love, of gladness, cried out saying: Thy name is oil poured out, therefore have the maidens loved thee (Cantic. I, 2). Whether, says the Apostle, 418Cwe be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for you (II Cor. V, 13). Thy name is oil poured out, these are the words of one beside herself unto God: therefore have the maidens loved thee, these are the words of sobriety toward the neighbor. For after she was beside herself unto God, out of the abundance of the oil received from God, she was made sober toward the maidens. For the charity of the bridegroom pressed her. For at the name of the bridegroom, that is, the knowledge of the bridegroom, from him of whose fullness we have all received, so great a pouring out of oil, that is, of charity, was made, that the bride, being full, cried out for herself, Thy name is oil poured out: and pouring back from her own fullness upon the maidens, said, therefore have the maidens loved thee. For the pouring out denotes abundance. This is the pouring out in faith or in hope, but only in the fullness of charity. Or according to the 418Dtwo interpretations above: I said, says the bride, that thy breasts are better than wine, that is, filled by thee, serving thee; but by the grace of God I am what I am: for thy name is oil poured out. But the grace of God in me was not void, therefore have the maidens loved thee. According to the anagogy, the oil and the name, that is, the knowledge and love of God, before it was poured out, and abounded unto all the nations, was infused, not poured out, because God was known only in Judea: but when the pouring out was made from the infusion, the maidens, the Churches of the Gentiles, were made not maidens, but brides, because they loved. For she who through faith is at first a maiden, or a handmaid, begins to be a bride when she begins to love. Because, therefore, thy name is oil poured out, therefore have the maidens loved thee. 419A

According to the moral sense, in the pouring out of the oil, when the infusion is made to us through grace, care must be taken lest the pouring out be made in a disordered way. For something is infused into us that is our own, something that is the neighbor's. That is ours without which we are not saved; the rest are the neighbor's. If we pour out what is our own, we are foolish and empty: if we retain what is another's, we are fraudulent. What is our own is faith, hope, and charity. Faith makes servants, hope hirelings, charity sons. Faith makes a handmaid or an attendant, hope a concubine, charity a bride. Faith says, So it is: hope, Thou shalt have: charity, Give glory to God. Faith is the knowledge of evils or goods; hope, the confidence of avoiding or attaining; and charity, the grace of both, when, secure concerning both, one gives thanks. These, therefore, 419Bsince they are our own, are not to be poured out, that is, lost for the sake of others: but it must be brought about that they work in us what is their own, that is, that we be healed, that we be kept, that we be saved. Let us be healed through the labor of the body, kept through reading and meditation, saved through prayer. Sloth lies in wait for labor; restlessness or idleness for reading; excessive security for prayer. What, therefore, is our own, we sin if we pour it out, as has been said: that is, if we neglect labor because of sloth, reading because of restlessness or idleness, prayer because of excessive security. But not ours, but others', is whatever we have without which we are saved: such as the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the grace of healings, and the rest that 419Ccan be had apart from charity, in which alone we are saved. If we retain these in time, as has been said, we are fraudulent. 271 For when the matter requires that they be poured out, care must be taken lest they be retained either lukewarmly, or timidly, or enviously. Lukewarmly, distrusting the hearers; timidly, if fearing unreasonably; enviously, not loving the brother. In the first a defect of faith, in the second of hope, in the third of charity is detected. But when they are poured out, care must be taken lest they be poured out incautiously, or rashly, or ambitiously. Incautiously, lest one give the holy thing to dogs; rashly, that he who speaks may not exceed the rules of faith; ambitiously, lest he seek the things that are his own, but the things that are of Jesus Christ. Care must also be taken lest they be poured out unseasonably, presumptuously, unfruitfully: unseasonably, before the maturity of soul and 419Dbody; presumptuously, without office; unfruitfully, without grace. In all these, if the pouring out be good, where the infusion of this oil has been made, the oil works its three powers. For oil feeds, shines, and anoints: charity too feeds itself, shines for the neighbor, anoints God.

Draw me after thee, we will run in the odor of thy ointments. The bride, condescending to the maidens from that height in which she had been beside herself unto God, after she poured back upon the maidens that pouring out of oil infused into her, while she labored among them; remembering the kiss and the oil and the bridegroom, and sighing toward him from whom the care of the neighbor drew her against her will, Draw me after thee, she says. For when she is beside herself, it is unto God; when she is sober, it is unto the neighbor. When she is beside herself, it is shown to her how much she is loved by God: when she is sober, she shows 420Ain the care of the neighbor how much she loves God. The charity of truth draws her upward, the truth of charity draws her below. But although this necessity here detains her, yet that sweetness cannot depart from her mind. Therefore draw me, she says, O bridegroom. For there are four things that draw us away from God: the flesh by allurements, the devil by wiles, the world by cares, the neighbor by affection. Drawn from these, or from some of these, against her will away from God, the bride longs and prays to be drawn to God. For one drawing is voluntary, another compulsory: as into prison, compulsory; voluntary, as for the weary or the blind. The bride wishes to be drawn, who prays to be drawn; and that she wishes to be drawn, this is because of blindness, or because of weakness, or because of both. But she was suffering the weariness of the world or of the devil, 420Bbut also the keenness of her mind was disturbed in the care of the neighbor. Against all these she desires to be drawn from them to God, by God, by the power of God. For this drawing is in power. For it is, according to the Apostle, as by the Spirit of the Lord, when we are transformed from glory into glory (II Cor. III, 18). And in the elect soul indeed both drawings take place: first the compulsory, as there, I will hedge up thy ways with thorns (Osee II, 6); then the voluntary, as here, Draw me after thee. Or thus: And because the maidens, by my acting, that they should love not me, but thee, love thee, and no longer need me, draw me after thee; that is, take me out of the body. But the maidens cry out after thee, In the odor of thy ointments we will run; that is, we too will come with thee. 420C

Or draw me, that is, make me spiritual after thee, that is, unto thy imitation, because Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps (I Petr. II, 21). For when the Bridegroom came forth from the virginal chamber, he rejoiced as a giant to run the way through the whole dispensation of his manner of life, laying out and ordering for us, as it were, a certain way of living, by which he might direct us after him both by examples, as by certain footsteps, and draw us by love. Whence he says in the Gospel to Peter and Andrew: Come ye after me (Matth. IV, 19). For if we consider his conception or nativity, the spiritual conception for us is the intention of a devout will. For this takes place in the virgin soul, because it desires to please God alone. But the nativity of the Lord is the beginning of a good work 420Din us, and so of the rest. For the circumcision, which it is not lawful to perform with one's own hands, is the discernment of the masters over the works of the disciples. In which circumcision Jesus receives his name, because the work of the subject obtains the name of virtue or of salvation from the discernment of the master. Further, the Lord's appearing is the manifestation of a work by the nod of God, not of itself. But in the appearing the Virgin Mother is always found both by the Magi and by the Shepherds; because true virtue is always accompanied, both among the wise and among the foolish, by continual modesty. But the purification of forty 272 days is the exercise of a good work even unto the end. The bringing of the child to the temple is, after the end of life, the presentation of a perfected work. But the bringing into the temple is done through two, namely persecutors and pretenders; but with these remaining outside, 421Athe parents, that is, the accomplishers of the good work, bring him into the temple of God. Old Simeon is the ancient of days, almighty God: the child in his arms is the weighing in the hand of God of each work or merit. For the conception ought to be pure, the nativity voluntary, the circumcision discreet, the appearing modest, the purification continual, the oblation holy. He, therefore, who faithfully imitates these and things like these concerning the Lord, runs mightily after him.

Or draw me after thee, that is, by love of thee alone. Turn away my eyes that they may not see vanity. Nor do I wish to be drawn alone, because I and the maidens will run in the odor of thy ointments. There are three things that make one run: namely fear, desire, and love: fear, by fleeing; desire, by seeking; love, by loving 421Bthe neighbor. There are also four things that hinder this running: cold, heat, a laborious way, the excess of the runner. Which are, by another name, distrust, concupiscence, impatience of harshness, excessive confidence: or the torpor of distrust, carnal desires, the harshness of observances, the vehemence of one advancing or perfecting. Against torpor there is needed the loosening ointment of composition, which is compounded from the remembrance of the miracles and testimonies of Christ: against heat, the cooling ointment, from the spices of the manner of life and the admonition of Christ: against the sadness of one laboring, the healing ointment, from the remembrance of the passions and promises of Christ: against the vehemence of those advancing, the 421Cmitigating ointment, from the remembrance of the meekness and mercies of Christ. But all these ointments are useless, if they are not compounded from the oil of the bridegroom. In the odor of these ointments the maidens run, whose course is not hindered. But the bride does not smell all these, but touches them; because she exhibits all these in her very self, but for others, not for herself. For she exhibits the glory of miracles, she exhibits the example of a manner of life, and the lesson of admonition. But she also carries about the stigmata of the passions of Christ; and the meekness and the mercy she both preaches to all, and exhibits.

The king hath brought me into his storerooms (Cantic. I, 3). The bride, hearing the promise of the maidens, In the odor of the ointments we will run, answered: Rightly will you run, 421Dand you must run. Believe me, who have experienced it, that the king hath brought me into his storerooms, whence he sent me back full and stuffed. The king, I say, hath brought me in, he who directs my steps in truth: he hath brought me into his storerooms, by his own generosity; I did not burst in by my own presumption. For the bridegroom, hearing the vows of the bride as she prayed, Draw me after thee; drawing her away in a manner from the flesh, drew her after him into a certain hidden place of his contemplation, and showed her his secrets. Where, when she had been beside herself unto God, being made sober again toward the neighbor, she returned to the maidens. And when, from the vision and converse of God, bearing as it were two horns of contemplation, namely of reason and of love, she appeared wonderful and terrible, The king, she says, hath brought me into his storerooms. Happy that ruler of souls, 422Awho, for all the things that he desires, and about which he is anxious and doubtful, deserves to be admitted into that secret place, that he may be able to do all things according to that which was shown him in the mount. The king, she says, hath brought me into his storerooms. Since we are about to discourse presently concerning the wine cellar, let us defer the storerooms of the king until that very place. We will exult and rejoice in thee. The maidens, hearing the bride commending the generosity of the bridegroom, like the children of Israel who were not able to ascend the mountain with Moses: Speak thou, they say, to us, and let not the Lord speak to us (Exod. XX, 19). Thou sufficest us meanwhile, We will exult and rejoice in thee; that is, in thy doctrine and imitation. We will exult, when we shall work bodily; and we will rejoice, while we shall fully enjoy spiritual gladness, 422Bmindful of thy breasts (Cant. I, 3), which meanwhile suffice us. For the milk of consolation and exhortation, which we have taken thence, makes us sing, with a certain leaping of the mind, 273 Rejoice, ye just, in the Lord, praise becometh the upright (Psal. XXXII, 1). Whence there follows also:

The upright love thee. There are those who lie prostrate, those who are erect, those who are bent, those who are upright. Those lying prostrate neither fear nor love; the bent fear, but do not love; the upright love. The bride therefore prays for the maidens, that those whom she still sees bent in fear she may see upright in the love of the Bridegroom: as if she said, I see these bent, but make them upright, because the upright love thee. Otherwise: the bride, seeing the maidens applauding her, commending these, fears 422Cfor the others — these exulting, those envying: as if she said, These are upright, therefore they love thee; and if they love me, they love only in thee. For I taught them not to love me, but thee. For the bride, seeing herself weighed down by their goodwill, turned to the Bridegroom, prays for them: The upright love thee. But concerning the envious, what shall we do? Turned to them, and taking care for those who from time to time reproached her about her former manner of life: I am black, she says, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. And note the order of charity. When she treats of the love of the Bridegroom, she wholly, in a manner, melts away in him; when of the maidens, she is affected with a certain compassion, and becomes as it were one of them; when of enemies, with all the zeal of charity she is zealous for them. I am black, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. O daughters of Jerusalem, 422Ddaughters of peace, have peace with me, who have peace with you. This of yours is a reproach, not compassion. I am indeed black from my former manner of life, but comely from pure confession and upright intention. For there are two things that make one black, two that make one comely. Black: an evil manner of life, and a distorted intention; comely: an innocent manner of life, and an upright intention. These are in the soul just as a beautiful color and a good composition of form are in the body. But she who did not have an innocent manner of life, after she has put on confession and directed her intention to the better, confidently says, I am black, but comely; because confession covers her past sins. For confession is the beauty of memory, and upright intention the composition of the will. The first, the 423Atruth of confession covers; the second, the justice of upright intention forms. Whence she says:

As the tents of Cedar, that is, darkness. I am not the tents of Cedar, but as the tents of Cedar; and if I was a tent, or as a tent of Cedar, that is a dwelling of darkness, I was a tent, not a house of abode: for we were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. As the skins of Solomon. For I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me; that is, the faith of Christ covers my past blackness. This is well called the skin of Solomon, because, drawn from the death of Christ, and mortifying us, drawn over the tent of Cedar, that is over a darkened conscience, it makes a worthy dwelling for the true Solomon. For the Mother of the Lord, Mary, could say, 423Bto the daughters of Jerusalem marveling at her: I am black from the nature of Adam, but comely from faith, that is, from the skin of Solomon. Otherwise, to the same daughters, seeing herself despised by some on account of the sobriety by which she had become all things to all, that she might gain all: I am black, she says, by this outward humiliation, but comely with the beauty of intention. For all the glory of the king's daughter is from within. As the tents of Cedar I am black outwardly, but within lovely with a skin not my own, but Solomon's. Otherwise, to the maidens exulting over her, not insulting her: Because, she says, you exult over me and run after me, do not attend to the fact that I am black, that is sober toward you; or I am black in humility and in the pressures of the world, because I am comely in the eyes of the Bridegroom, because the sun hath discolored me. In the skin of the body the color appears. 423CThe intention of the bride is the skin, the action the color. The skin therefore is discolored, when care for one's neighbor darkens the intention toward God by its actions. Do not therefore, she says, consider me that I am brown, because the sun, that is the love of God, hath discolored me (Cantic. I, 3-5), who has blackened me with the occupations of your action. But what is discolored by the sun quickly returns to its natural color; so also I to my proper beauty. But it is the skin that is discolored, not the inner mouth, with which I continually sing to the Bridegroom, My mouth is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret (Psal. CXXXVIII, 15): that is, the inner love of the heart suffers no injury. 274

The sons of my mother have fought against me (Cantic. I, 5). Alas! how great a change! She who a little before 423Drejoiced in that secret of the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, now amid the brawls of men suffers calumnies. Considering these fluctuations of prelates in the spirit, David says, They that go down into the sea of the world in ships, that is into the government of the Churches, doing business in many waters, these have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. He said, and the stormy wind stood, and the waves thereof were lifted up. They mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths, their soul melted away in evils. They were troubled, and were moved like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up. The sons of my mother have fought against me (Psal. CVI, 23-27). It is no wonder if the sun has discolored me, since the battle I suffer is grievous, since even the sons of my mother, the sons of the Church, with their depraved 424Amorals have fought against me. Against whom, when I fought by rebuking, beseeching, chiding, They have set me keeper in their vineyards (Cantic. I, 5): that is, they committed themselves to me to be kept; some through contention and envy, that, as the Apostle says, they might stir up affliction to my tribulations (Philipp. I, 17); others through good will. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel (Isai. V, 7); the vine, Christ; the branch put forth, the converted sinner; the fruit, fruits worthy of penance. While I fight against these, and afterward keep watch to guard them, while like Jacob I am afflicted by heat through the day, and by frost through the night, it is no wonder if the sun has discolored me. But since, set as keeper in the vineyards, I labor in others', my own vineyard I have not kept. Keep it, thou who keepest Israel, for whose sake 424BI have neglected it, for whose sake I have been discolored. And that I may know what I owe to my own vineyard, what to another's: Show me, O thou whom my soul loveth, at noon, that is in the fervor of so great a malice, in which even the sons of my mother have fought against me, where I may lie down attending to myself, where I may feed those committed to me. But what she says is this: Show me where, while I lie down, thou liest down with me, and while I feed, thou feedest with me, that I may do nothing against me, or without thee, but do all things with thee, and thou with me. This therefore is what she prays: that she may know what and when she owes to herself, what and when to others. Otherwise: noon is the fervor of malice, the noonday demon, when the angel of Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light. That I fall not into him, Show me where thou feedest, where thou liest down at noon (Cantic. I, 6). 424COtherwise: There are four days, two good and two evil, of which the Psalm says: Evening, and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare (Psal. LIV, 18). The first day begins from morning, and ends in the evening of night and of eternal death, which is the evil angel. The second begins from the morning of creation, and proceeds into the noon and fervor of perfection, nor are his feet moved from there, which is the good angel. The third begins from the evening of sin, and proceeds into the night of eternal perdition, which are the reprobate. The fourth day is the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, which begins from the evening of the Sabbath, and dawns on the first day of the week; that is, it begins from the evening of our sin, and, a very brief interval of fear as of night being interposed, leads the sons of light to the morning 424Dof hope, and thence to the noon of angelic perfection and of love: nor does he suffer them to be moved thence any more. The bride therefore prays him whom her soul loves, not her flesh — that is, whom she loves spiritually — that he set her in the noon of angelic perfection, so that, freed from all the darkness of ignorance, without any contradiction of doubt she may begin to see whatever is expedient for herself or for the flock: lest, set in uncertainty of rest or of labor, she begin to wander after the flocks of the Bridegroom's companions, that is, of those making themselves equal to him or seeking their own.

After the flocks. For he who departs from the perfection of truth into the byway of error, does not even go with the wandering flocks, but after the flocks; because he is found worse than all these. But it must not be passed over, that the flock of the Lord is fed by its shepherds in three ways: by example, 425Aby word, by prayer. By example, against the concupiscence of the flesh; by word, against the concupiscence of the eyes; by prayer, against the ambition of the world. If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women. The bride was seeking the Bridegroom at noon, that is in the manifest light of truth — namely, lest one thing should meet her instead of another; she was seeking where he would lie down at noon, that is in which affection 275 of noonday perfection, that she might see which affection was to be chosen and when, where the Bridegroom would lie down with her, and she with the Bridegroom. And so the Bridegroom answered: O fairest among women — namely, between Mary and Martha, because I do not wish that thou choose one of these, but that thou hold both, namely the contemplative life and the active; O fairest among women, if thou wouldst know me, be not ignorant of thyself. This is the answer of the Delphic Apollo: 425B« Know thyself. » There are two things that make us ignorant of ourselves: either too much rashness about ourselves, or too much timidity of humiliation. According to these two the Bridegroom answered the bride: either recalling her from rashness to humility, through experience of herself, or from timidity to confidence, from the perception of past gifts. For there are two kinds of ignorance of oneself: either when one esteems more, or when one esteems less of oneself; and there are two things that produce this, presumption and pusillanimity; and two causes of these effects, pride and too little experience of oneself. But experience of oneself makes humility; humility, knowledge of oneself. And so the Bridegroom, restraining the rash one: Too soon, he says, and impatiently dost thou desire the noon of angelic beatitude; because first thou must do much, and labor in the 425Cmorning of virtue. If therefore thou know not thyself, go forth from me, or from the good of thy conscience, and stand not with me, but go after the steps of the flocks and feed thy kids, that is the depraved motions of the flesh, or the lost hearers, who shall be set on the left, beside the tents of the shepherds; that is, having followed the doctrines of reprobate masters, not in the Church, but in the tents of their conventicles teaching depraved things. But what he says, Go forth, he permits, he does not command — which also he does not even seem to permit wholly, but recalls her to labor.

I have likened thee, my love, to my company of horsemen in the chariots of Pharaoh (Cant. I, 8). O my love, though I restrain thee as rash, though I recall thee to labor, yet not on that account less my love. Already thou wouldst sit with me in my kingdom; I should be indignant at the presumption, but I pardon the love. O my love, thou must not now reign, but fight; because I have likened thee to my company of horsemen in the chariots of Pharaoh. 425DThou art set in the midst of the chariots of Pharaoh: not only must thou go forth, but thou hast to lead forth my people out of the land of bondage. Or, that I may raise up the pusillanimous one: Thou shalt not perish, O my love, because in the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened thee to my company of horsemen, that is, I have made thee like to the company of horsemen of the Angels: so that as they have charity, and chastity, and humility, and order, so also thou, set in the midst of the chariots of Pharaoh. For as long as we are here in readiness for battle, and our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the 426Aspiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places, both armies, both the chariot of God and the chariot of Pharaoh, are joined as in war: for as the chariot of Pharaoh, that is of the devil, so also the chariot of God is manifold with ten thousand. It is pleasing to describe more subtly these very chariots both of God and of the devil, and to show more evidently who serve as soldiers of God or of the devil. The chariots of the devil are three, with which he traverses the whole world: luxury, pride, malice. The chariot of luxury has two wheels, gluttony and softness, which the impulse of the flesh draws like an untamed horse; upon which sits love of self in the saddle of pleasure, having want for its bridle, and for its spur, the spur of lust. The chariot of pride has two wheels, presumption of self and rashness: the horse that draws is the appetite of vainglory, upon which sits love 426Bof the world, in the saddle of adulation, having avarice for its bridle, and for its spur, the spur of spite. The chariot of malice has two wheels, feigning and dissembling: the horse that draws is malevolence, upon which sits the relish of evil, in the saddle of fraud, having tergiversation for its bridle, and for its spur, the spur of wrath. Against these three chariots, there are three chariots of God. The chariot of continence has two wheels, prayer and bodily exercise: the horse that draws is devotion, upon which sits the soldier of God, contempt of self, in the saddle of purity; having discipline for its bridle, and for its spur, the spur of the fear of the Lord. The chariot of innocence has two wheels, the humility of him who is unwilling to be over others, and the meekness of him who is willing to be under: these the horse draws, that is love of peace, having contempt of the world for its rider, 276 in the saddle 426Cof benevolence; for its bridle, zeal of truth; for its spur, the spur of the love of God and of neighbor. The chariot of wisdom has two wheels, prudence and simplicity; for its horse, fortitude; for its rider, the love of God; for its saddle, vigilance lest it fall; for its bridle, moderation, that it may govern; for its spur, zeal of justice. Since therefore, my love, thou hast chariots as Pharaoh, and I have likened thee to my company of horsemen in the chariots of Pharaoh, thou must now be busy about victory, not about the reward of victory: for what thou seekest is too much, and too soon. Thou shalt not now see my face, but thou shalt see my back parts. For though thou dost not now receive the noon which thou askest, yet many things meanwhile thou dost receive from me, in which thou art deservedly praised. 426D

For already by my grace thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's; that is, great are both the outer and the inner gifts with which I have enriched thee. For what thou hast received within, the honesty and maturity of thy manner of life shows outwardly, which are the two cheeks of the turtledove, that is of the soul, mourning in the absence of the Bridegroom, and receiving no consolation, and dwelling alone. As in the pallor or ruddiness of the cheeks the quality of the outer man is discerned, so in the honesty and maturity of the manner of life the sincerity of a well-composed mind is shown. And not only this, but also thy neck is as jewels. Purity of soul is commended in thee, as I have said, before men, by the honesty and maturity of thy manner of life; but before God, by the directing of thy intention. For thy intention, which like a neck 427Ajoins the whole body of thy work to the head, Christ, is as a jewel, when it is made manifest to all that it serves God and the neighbor. For this is what the jewel signifies, the ornament of the neck, which outwardly has gold, but inwardly a gem — namely that the intention be affected with the love of God, and the love of neighbor. When the Bridegroom declares this to men, he adorns the bride's neck with a jewel; nay, he makes it to be as jewels. Since I have given thee all these things, says the Bridegroom, I will add yet another ornament: We will make thee chains of gold. So it is plainly, so it is wont to be. When the bride seeks glory in this world, she does not attain it; or if she attains it, it is useless. But when she seeks glory in the Bridegroom alone, even unknowing she incurs glory, and glory that is useful. For as in the ornament of the neck glory 427Boffered itself from example, so in the ornament the gold from word. For glory ought to seek thee, not thou it. If thou seek it, it flees; if thou flee, it comes upon thee; if thou seek it and find it, it is harmful or useless.

We will make thee chains of gold, he says, inlaid with silver (Cantic. I, 6-10). The chains are ornaments of the ears, which are given by the Bridegroom to the bride, when a good hearing is given to his preaching. Inlaid with silver, that is, distinguished with eloquence: because to one is given the word of wisdom, which the gold signifies; to another the word of knowledge (I Cor. XII, 8), which the silver signifies. And so the Bridegroom promises that he will glorify her both within and without. We will make the chains, he says — I and the Father and the Spirit; I furnishing wisdom, the Father efficacy, the Holy Spirit kindness. And we will make them 427Cout of nothing, that is out of no preceding merit; for this is what the word "making" signifies. Whence it is also said there: Let us make man (Gen. I, 26). Or we will make — I and the Angels and my teachers: I by inspiring, the Angels by suggesting, men by teaching. For God sees the intention, the angel the affection, man the deed. For the angel does not see the intention, but sees the affection. Therefore the evil angel does not see the good God, because God is himself both his affection and his will: for he is not affected. But the suggestions of the Angels are their very tongues, of which the Apostle says: If I speak with the tongues of Angels (I Cor. XIII, 1). Now these are certain hidden spiritual signs, unknown to us, by which they speak to one another, and 427Dmake their wills known, not only to one another, but also to certain men leading an angelic life. He therefore understands the tongue of the Angels who understands their suggestions. Their tongue speaks to one who, like Nicholas and Benedict, in dreams, or by certain other hidden modes, whether to the sleeping or to those far absent, suggest what they will. Or we will make thee chains of gold inlaid with silver, that is, a word of grace seasoned with salt. 277

Hearing the kind promise of the Bridegroom, the bride returns joyful to the maidens. For it is a solace of human life to have one to whom thou mayest entrust thy heart, whom thou mayest make a partaker of thy joy, a partaker also of thy sorrow. And so the bride, as often as she receives from the Bridegroom an infusion of oil, is filled up to 428Aoverflowing. And since this must be poured out, with the fullness of charity overflowing she runs back to the maidens, for whom she desires the same as for herself. Happy the friendship and blessed the fellowship, where he who hears at once says: Come. And so, returning to them, While the king was on his couch, she says, my nard gave forth its odor: that is, I thought myself vile and abject in the eyes of the Bridegroom, because when I demanded the noon, I suffered a repulse. But he who judges me is the Lord. For while my king and my Lord was, disposing all things by the arbitration of his judgments according to the good counsel of his will, on his couch, that is in the secret of his judgments, my nard, that is humility from my former manner of life or from the pressures of the world, gave in his sight its odor, that is 428Baccording to the quality of its sweetness. For nard is a lowly and warm and fragrant herb, by which is figured humility, fervent with charity, and acceptable to God through purity of intention. And truly my nard gave forth its odor: for my beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh (Cantic. I, 11, 12); that is, the love of my beloved (which is to me in this world the cause of tribulation and bitterness, over which I groaned to him, when the sons of my mother fought against me) has become to me myrrh, bitter indeed, but seasoning me, lest I rot in the torpor of security and negligence. Now it is to me not a bundle of myrrh, but a little bundle, because it will not last long; or little to me before the love of him; or little before the consideration of my past evils. But let Sion rejoice, and let the daughters of Judah be glad 428Cbecause of thy judgments, O Lord (Psal. XLVII, 12): because however bitter the myrrh may be, however weighty the little bundle, it shall abide between my breasts, between my prosperity and my adversity, between my rejoicing-with-others and my compassion: there it shall abide, nor shall it be moved thence forever. For I will not rejoice save in the Lord, nor be saddened save in the Lord. But whether he console me through prosperity, or exercise me in adversity, from between my breasts, that is from the midst of my heart, he shall not be moved: and whether I must rejoice-with-others in the good things of others, or must have compassion in evils, it is only in the Lord.

My beloved is to me a cluster of cypress in the vineyards of Engaddi. 428DAbove, her own zeal had made the bride waste away, because his enemies had forgotten the words of the Lord — whether those who insulted her blackness, or the sons of her mother who fought against her, and set her keeper in the vineyards. And when she kept watch over these even to the neglect of her own vineyard, and had almost now despaired of them, and was darkened in care and solicitude for them, she had demanded the noon of the Bridegroom: by whom, being kindly restrained, and again gladdened with a consolation, not such as she wished, but such as was expedient, suddenly, grace working where she did not hope, she found fruit, namely a cluster of cypress in the vineyards of Engaddi; and crying out for joy, A cluster, she says, of cypress hath my beloved become to me. Cyprus is an island of good vineyards, noble for its fertility: Engaddi is interpreted Fountain of the kid. 429ANow Cyprus, abounding in wine, signifies the Church, shaken on every side by the waves of the world, but overflowing with the abundance of graces. The fountain of the kid signifies the fountain of Baptism, into which the kids enter, but come out young lambs, of which in what follows: As a flock of shorn sheep, which came up from the washing, all with twin young. The bride therefore marvels that in the vineyards of the new manner of life she found the fruit of perfection, and a fruit no other than Christ himself. For since in all our acts or endeavors Christ is the cause, our fruit is Christ. This fruit, suddenly found, the bride — conscious of her labor by which she had labored among them — claiming for herself with devout exultation, A cluster, she says, of cypress is my beloved to me in the vineyards of Engaddi. Or otherwise, that we may go back a little 429Bhigher: after the bride merited to be adorned by the Bridegroom, she at once burst into his praise and the preaching of his works, saying, While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its odor: the King reclining, 278 that is humbling himself in the womb of the Virgin, my nard, that is the humility of my Lord, gave forth its odor, when, on account of his exceeding charity by which he loved us, he deigned to be made of a Virgin under the law. Then he deigned to be made not a bundle, but a little bundle of myrrh, when he suffered the bitterness of death, and of the cross, and of the sepulchre, in the space of only three days; and soon the cluster of cypress appeared in the resurrection in the vineyards of Engaddi, when he distributed spiritual goods to the faithful. 429C

There follows: Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair, thy eyes are the eyes of doves. The Bridegroom, seeing the devotion of the bride, and that she gave him a place of abiding between her breasts: Behold, he says — that is, in this thy state, in this thy confession and knowledge of thyself, since whence thou art fair, thence I am not fair and have neither beauty nor comeliness — thou, he says, art fair. And again, Behold, thou art fair: that is, fair in things inward, and fair in things outward; fair in intention, and fair in action. My love. Two things make friendship: mutual consciousness and the same will. Moreover the friendship of the Bridegroom and the bride is made by a certain mutual consciousness and the same will, when the Lord reveals his secret good things to the bride, and the bride makes her evils known 429Dto him by pure and humble confession. Thou art fair, I say, nor do I fear lest thou vanish, because thy eyes are the eyes of doves; that is, they are simple, they are not intent either on thee or on others, save in God. Moreover there are two eyes of the bride, the mystical and the active, or the contemplative and the moral. But it is pleasing to look yet a little more subtly at the eye. That it may be able to see clearly, the eye has these necessary things: a strong and pure ray, which proceeds from the pupil; a pure and clear air, which does not impede its passage; a body into which it may pour itself, a reason to which it may report, a memory which the reason may consult. If any of these be lacking, the sight will not be perfect. So also the love of God, that it may be true, has these necessary things: a pure affection, by which it loves God only for the sake of God, nor anything with God, save in God and for the sake of 430AGod; cleanness of life and of conscience, which does not impede love; discretion of spirit, which does not suffer the purity of the contemplator to err, but teaches him to understand God, and not something else instead of God; a reason which judges concerning discretion; a faith which the reason consults concerning all its judgments, and which, restraining it within its own rules and bounds, does not suffer it to err. And this is the dovelike eye.

Behold, thou art fair, my beloved. The bride, perceiving that in the eyes of the Bridegroom she had somewhat pleased, longs for embraces. Whence also, rising up in praise of his beauty, she provokes him to her embraces. Thou dost proclaim me fair, she says, but, O my beloved, behold, that is in the pleasant showing of thy grace, thou art rather fair, thou from whom is everything fair: fair 430Bin humanity, comely in deity. But if thou art fair and I am fair, if thou art beloved and I am beloved, what remains but the bed? As we said of the little bundle, "bed" is a delicate name. Behold the bed of conscience, not mine nor thine, but ours; mine through confession, thine through grace and illumination. It is flowery, that is, in the purpose of virtues it grows green with the flowers of good thoughts. Nor send me back to domestic care, as when I demanded thy noon, thou didst send me back to the company of horsemen of thy chariots, or didst drive me out to the keeping of the flocks: since now the house of the maidens committed to me is so fortified and adorned by thy grace and my solicitude, that they need fear nothing from whirlwind and rain; meanwhile, while in the bed of a pure conscience I fully enjoy the conjunction 430Cof thy sweetness. How blessed the soul which in this bed is made one spirit with God, fully enjoys the kiss of the understanding of God, by the embrace of his love binds and is bound, and thus in peace sleeps and rests in the selfsame!

The beams of our houses are of cedar. Truly the house is fortified, because thou hast given thy Angels charge over it, that they keep it. The cedar by its shadow drives away serpents. The cedar beams therefore are the Angels protecting the house of God, and by their power driving away the demons, as it were the little thieves of the house; bearing the roof of prayers on the merits of the saints, fastened with the nails of the fear of God: the rafters of cypress, and without the house is fortified with a roof, but within adorned and set in order. For there are in it 430D279 rafters, which, that the house may be everlasting, or its adornment everlasting, are of cypress and well interlaced. When a rafter is interlaced, it opens itself in one place and binds in another, so that the one is grasped by the other — that is, to love and to be loved: where these are, all things are well ordered. For where all both love one another and offer themselves lovable to one another, so great is the conjunction that it deserves rather to be called fraternal unity than a congregation. I am the flower of the field. The Bridegroom, hearing and approving the desire of the bride, defers that he may increase it, restrains that he may exalt. I am the flower of the field, the flower of the world: because as a flower in the field, so from the womb of the Virgin I alone flowered in the world. Not from thee, therefore, but from me is the bed flowery, and I am the lily, namely the example of chastity and purity: not of the proud, 431Abut of the valleys. For proud chastity is not chastity, but the adorned brothel of the devil. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters (Cant. I, 12; II, 2). As if he said that word of Solomon: If thou hast daughters, do not show thy face cheerful toward them (Eccli. VII, 26). Beware therefore of the young women, of whom thou makest thyself secure; but as the lily among thorns, so be thou, O my love, among the daughters. If thou shalt be thus among them, then shalt thou be a love. I am a lily, but thou art as a lily, fair indeed, but tender; thy daughters are thorns: toward whichever of them thou bendest thyself, thou shalt be wounded. Be thou therefore upright in the midst of them, offering thyself to all for an example. The bride, hearing that she was humbled by the Bridegroom, humbles herself also, and exalts him. I am, she says, as a fair lily, but fragile 431Bin the midst of thorns: but thou art the apple tree among the trees of the woods, that is among the Angels, as among the sons. Strong therefore thou art, to sustain the fragile one; fair to sight, to strengthen faith; of good odor, to confirm hope; wholesome to taste, to feed charity.

Again the Bridegroom withdraws from the bride, and hides himself in the secret of his heaven — he who was already thought to be held in the bed of conscience. Returning therefore, as she is wont, to the maidens, and keeping in her heart the tenor of her thought by which she had addressed the Bridegroom, likening him to the apple tree among the trees of the woods: Under the shadow, she says, of him whom I had desired, I sat down, and his fruit was sweet to my throat (Cant. II, 3). The shadow between the deity of Christ and us is his body, under which the bride sits, while modestly and humbly she contemplates the mystery of his Incarnation: 431Cand his fruit is sweet to her throat, because it does not pass into her belly, that is into satiety, as is that word of Job, Nor dost thou suffer me to swallow down my spittle (Job VII, 19). For with the sacrament of the word of God there is scarcely one who can be satiated. We can taste, we cannot be satiated: because the healthier the taste, the stronger the appetite. Sweet therefore, says the bride, is his fruit to my throat, showing me from the sweetness of his example how much I must suffer for his name. Therefore I return to you, therefore I do not desert you. Nay more, the king brought me into the wine cellar, where I learned what the wise of the world know not, namely to be over others in charity. For the Bridegroom has, as it were, three treasuries of his riches: 431Da garden or paradise of pleasure, a cellar, and a house or bedchamber. The garden has things pleasant and things useful: the pleasant remain in the garden; the useful are carried down into the cellar: and from the cellar the king is served therewith in the house or bedchamber. For the garden contains the historical sense; the cellar, the moral; the house, the mystical. The garden contains the histories of the New and Old Testament, of the present and the future age; the cellar, the moral instruction of Christ; the house, the glory of the eternal reward. In the garden, the creation of all things that are; in the cellar, the reconciliation of all men who are saved; in the house, the confirmation and glorification of all the reconciled. The garden is divided into three times; the cellar, into three merits; the house, into three rewards. For the garden has three times, of planting, of maturity, 432Aof gathering. The time of planting is as in Genesis and in the Prophets and the scriptures of the Old Testament, concerning the creation of heaven and earth, and the first beginnings of the world. The time of maturity is when in Christ and the Gospel the maturity of human conduct appeared, so that it is no longer said, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Deut. XIX, 21): but, Whosoever shall strike thee on the right cheek, offer him the left also (Matth. V, 38, 39); and many other things, which, though they are to be understood simply and as it were historically, yet pertain to the maturity of life. The time of gathering is the time of the future age, of which 280 we pronounce simply, and as it were historically: He who has done good things, shall go into life everlasting; but he who evil things, into death everlasting (Matth. XXV, 46; Joan. V, 29). In the garden, the walking 432Bis the overshadowing of examples. But the fruit of the garden is carried down into the cellar. In this garden, as was said above, the bride sat under the apple tree, while she humbly contemplated the historical series of the humanity of Christ; but his fruit would not have been sweet to her throat, unless she had entered the cellar. Whence at once there follows:

The king brought me into the wine cellar (Cant. II, 4). For the fruit of the garden, as was said, is carried down into the cellar: the pleasantness remains in the garden, the usefulness is to be sought elsewhere; if thou wilt find it, enter the cellar. It has three merits, as it were three cells of morality: the disposition toward prelates, which is discipline; the disposition toward equals, which is justice or friendship; the disposition toward subordinates, which is charity. And that we may say it more briefly 432Cand more clearly, it is that one may know how to be under, to be alongside, to be over. The first cell is full of odors; the second, of savors; the third, of grace. For the first profits more by examples; the second, by moral or mystical studies; the third, by the charisms of the Holy Spirit. For this is the wine cellar. In it the friends drink, the most beloved are inebriated. For none before God is higher in rank than that of prelates, who, full of the wisdom of God, and bearing his stead among their subordinates, from the limit of possibility reach mightily to the limit of impossibility, and between these two dispose all things sweetly. These, for their brethren, according to the Apostle, wish to be anathema from Christ (Rom. IX, 3), but from Christ the beatitude, not from Christ the justice. For to us Christ is each, 432Dboth beatitude and justice; but so much the more gloriously do they acquire beatitude, as for beatitude's sake they are unwilling to forsake justice. For these words of the Apostle are of affection, not of effect. For this inebriation, by which the most beloved are inebriated when for the love of God and of the brethren one casts away his inmost things, this is the wine cellar, into which the bride merited to be brought, when she learned to be over others in charity. This cell is beside the house of the king. Often therefore thence she enters the house of the king, and the secret of the bedchamber, serving the Lord the Bridegroom, both by herself and through her subordinates, from the good things committed to her both of the garden and of the cellar. For whether prelate or subordinate, whoever has put on this affection of charity has free access hither. Whence the bride, above, when she desired to be drawn after the Bridegroom, and yet herself to draw the maidens 433Aafter her, saying, We will run after thee to the odor of thy ointments: at once, as she herself declares, the king brought her into these cellars, that thence she might receive wherewith to refresh them, lest they fail in the course; and in order, from the garden to the cellar, from the cellar to the king's bedchamber, he might bring them in; now indeed through the affection of contemplation and of love, but afterward through the effect of beatitude. Moreover the house has one reward of the Lord, save that through this it is divided into three rewards, that we may know, what, how great, in what manner; that is, what God is, body or spirit; how great, created or uncreated; in what manner he is to be found.

He brought me therefore, says the bride, into the wine cellar, that is into the fullness of charity, in which, lest, 433Binebriated with the new wine of the Holy Spirit, I should do anything amiss when I returned to my subordinates, he set charity in order in me (Cant. II, 4). Charity has two things, affection and act. Of the affection: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole mind, and with all thy strength (Matth. XXII, 37); in which all kinds of affection are comprehended. Affection therefore is owed to God principally, secondarily to the neighbor, whom in God we ought to love as ourselves. For ourselves first, because to us is granted the primacy, that first we love ourselves, then our neighbors as ourselves. But to the charity of God there is owed a certain purgatory act, that is one purging us to the vision of God, such as are vigils, fasts, meditations, readings, compunctions: and an act is owed also to the neighbor, such as 433Cthe works of mercy, and the rest that the necessity of the active and social life demands. But the affection of God we ought in all things to prefer to the affection of the neighbor, yet not always the act of God to the act of the neighbor. But even in ourselves we ought often to prefer the act of the charity of the body to the act of the charity of the soul; and the act of the charity of the soul to the act of the charity of God, that is to contemplation. Yet all these things when necessity demands, which has no law. For there is a law of charity, and there is a necessity of charity. The law of charity commands the act of the charity of God to be preferred to the act of the soul, and the act of the soul to the act of the body. The necessity of charity often [commands] all things contrary to these. Hence it is that many say, few understand: Necessity has no law. There proceeds the order 433Dand rule of charity, which commands one to love his own body and another's less than his own and another's soul; but to love his own soul and another's more than his own body or another's: his own soul not more than another's, but another's as his own. This as far as regards the affection of charity. But the act of charity itself is often ordered otherwise. For often, as was said, in the act the body is preferred to the soul, the soul to God. But if thou first succor thy brother, set with thee in the same necessity, of the same merit and usefulness, thou dost abound in charity; if thyself, thou dost not sin. For in that it is said as thyself (Matth. XXII, 39), the primacy is granted to thee: but if thou be of unequal merit, the better is to be succored. And though we ought to love all equally, yet not without cause do we make private prayers 434Afor particular ones: not that we are unwilling to profit all, but because we believe our prayers to profit especially those who commit themselves to us, or because our hearts are the more stirred up. And so in this order the Bridegroom set charity in order in me.

And since the charity of Christ urges us toward you, Stay me up with the flowers of your affections, compass me about with the apples of works, because I languish with love of the absent one. There is a love that is devout, there is a love that is fervent, there is one that languishes. Devout, to obtain pardon of sins; fervent, in the performance of works; languishing, when the soul faints in the salvation of God, that is, in the gaze of contemplation. While the bride, saying these things, was languishing, again she felt the Bridegroom present, and his left hand under her head, but his right hand embracing her. And therefore, taking breath, 434BLo, she says, again the Bridegroom; His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. The bride therefore lays her head that she may rest, not upon the left, but in the left of the Bridegroom, when she is affected by the mysteries of the humanity of Christ: but the right hand of the Bridegroom embraces her, when, her eyes being enlightened, the love and understanding of the Divinity wholly possesses her. In this so devout embrace the bride slept and rested in the selfsame. The Bridegroom also, exulting in the embrace of her charity, adjures the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, inspires in them a certain reverence toward the bride. And he adjures them by the roes and the harts of the fields, when he shows them the agility and alacrity of good works. I adjure you, he says, you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, by the occasions of your necessities, 434Cnor make to awake the bride, by the impulse of your evils, till she herself please; that is, satiated with the contemplation of my grace, from the impulse of the love conceived, she herself of her own accord will return to you. The bride, out of the midst of the sleep of consolation and contemplation hearing the words of the Bridegroom, that is, seeing the affection of his grace — because the maidens neither roused her nor made her to awake, but like roes and harts of the fields exercised themselves in the alacrity of good works, and counted it wrong to disquiet her in the quiet of her contemplation — rising up in praise of the Bridegroom, The voice, she says, of my beloved (Cantic. II, 5-8). This is the voice of my beloved, this is his will, this is his work, this is his power in their conversion, this 434Dis his sweetness in my love. Behold how, charity being set in order, all things are set in order, even sins, and his place is made in peace, and his dwelling in Sion (Psal. LXXV, 3), when the bride rests in the embrace of the Bridegroom, when the Bridegroom cherishes and protects her, when the daughters do not stir her up, nor make her to awake; but rather by their good pursuits make her glad and joyful.

This that woman signified who cried out to Elisha, her husband, his servant, being dead — the bride invoking God the Father through the death of the Son, her husband: Thy servant, she says, my husband, is dead; and behold, the creditor is come to take my two sons to serve him. So also the bride had borne two sons, the one by word, the other by example, whom she had taken from the hand 435Aof the devil. And when, charity being set in order, she was free for herself and for God, and neglected the sons, and preferred the act of God to their act, there arose a famine of the word of God: the little ones asked for bread, and there was none to reach it to them. The creditor, the devil, began to return, and now not as a destroyer, but as a creditor, to demand them back to serve him. But the mother, because she was unwilling to act by the labor of good pursuits and acts, thinking she would accomplish it by prayer alone, began to cry out to God. And what did the divine answer say to her? What hast thou, he says, in thy house, that is, in thy conscience? And she, The Lord liveth, she says, I thy handmaid have not anything in my house, but a little oil in a vessel, that is, of devotion in the mind, wherewith I may be anointed. Note the delights. She needs not to be fed, but desires to be anointed. And he, Go, he says, and borrow vessels not a few, empty ones, that is, the hearts of hearers, and pour 436Aof the oil of devotion, in which thou aboundest, through all those vessels, and when they shall be full, return to me. For thou hast not, as thou sayest, little oil, who in the time of famine dost presume not only to be fed but to be anointed. Hearing these things, the bride set charity in order again; as she had been sent, she poured the oil of the Holy Spirit into the minds of the hearers: but God filled the empty vessels. And when this was done, Go, he says, sell the oil, and free thyself from the creditor; that is, for the pouring out of thy devotion, await the rewards of eternal life. But thou and thy sons, live of the rest (IV Reg. IV, 1-7); because as great as shall be the pouring out of this oil made by thee to others, so great shall be the infusion made by me to thee. But live, he says; not, Be anointed: do you press on that you may live, namely thou and thy sons; I in its own time will provide for the anointing of your delights.