COMMENTARIA IN CANTICUM CANTICORUM

who work in me shall not sin, and who make me plain shall have life everlasting (Eccli. XXIV).

1001To the most reverend Father in Christ, the venerable Lord Henry Spichernagell, abbot of St Pantaleon and 1002most deserving principal president of the holy Union of Barsfeld, and also to the very reverend and most ample 1003ALords Henry Libler, John Munch, Paul Vrechen, Henry Goermann and Gabel Scaffenius, most worthy abbots of the monasteries of the order of Saint Benedict of the same observance at Saint Martin, Brawiler, Tuitium, Gladbach and Graffscafft, his lords and prelates to be revered.

Your very reverend and most ample Lordships will wonder, and not without cause, why this commentator on the Canticles of Canticles of Solomon has lain so long under a bushel, and only now for the first time looks upon the light: to which, in all likelihood, I [answer] with that Jew Mordecai pressing his beloved Esther, and who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for this, that this Wolbero might be made ready at such a time? Wherefore I did not judge it enough for one soul alone, if such an author, 1003Bwritten, should only lie hidden in the house of St Pantaleon, unless, given over to the anvil, he should come forth into the light, opportune upon some new occasion, to profit the use and the spiritual taste of very many.

And what, you will say, is this occasion? It is now the third year since, at the time of the annual chapter celebrated in the monastery of Saint Pantaleon on the Kalends of September, sacred to blessed Aegidius the abbot, your consecrated heads too were newly adorned with the pontifical infula. By no words or writings am I able to comprehend how much joy grew from this for your dearest confreres, and with how great gladness I too was filled by it, in my own name as much as in the public one, and how heartily I desired to congratulate you, after I had understood that from our most holy lord 1003CUrban VIII this episcopal authority had been superadded to your very reverend Lordships, and that pontifical mitres had been placed upon your heads in solemn order by the reverend lord bishop of Cyrene. For why should I not congratulate your Lordships on a glory so holy, so honourable and so new? a glory, I say, with which, beyond all ambition, as I am persuaded, you have been gifted and endowed by the sole merit of your most illustrious virtues (inasmuch as you are numbered among the chief pillars of our sacred Union of Bursfeld, and establish it by unswervingly supporting it)?

What was I to do? Filial love 1003Ddemanded that I go down to acclaim this new honour of the reverend lord my prelate; gratitude required that I go likewise to meet [you], to venerate the tiaras of your very reverend Lordships; the examples of others provoked [me]. But I did not wish to appear empty in the sight of the highest priests, nor was there even a gift at hand that I might offer. When suddenly, God so inspiring, I remembered this commentator Wolbero, your co-abbot, and was delighted; and because very many of the religious, enticed heretofore antebac by the reading of his most sweet interpretations, grieved exceedingly with me that commentaries so pious and profound lay hidden among the other furniture of our library, and that such a treasure was not communicated to more, I set about it with confidence, to testify my 1004Areadiness toward your very reverend Lordships and my zeal to deserve well, which I had long had among my wishes; and I not only reviewed the Commentaries of our Wolbero, but also, reviewed, arranged them into a better order, and I began to move every stone that, so arranged and renewed, and to be inscribed with the names of your very reverend Lordships, they might be put under the type. For the rest, since, as Solomon himself attests, of making many books there is no end, and so new things are wont to smile upon the wits of this age more than old ones, there was perhaps something I feared: lest either the antiquity of this commentator, or, more truly, the smallness of my own person, from which the book, not a little renewed, might not go forth, should be an obstacle, whereby it should pass less happily into the hands of many. 1004BBut, animated by the authority of your very reverend Lordships, I thought that I should easily be freed from a like fear, nay, from the detraction of all the Zoiluses, who are not wont to be wanting to good endeavours: both because into the Lord's storehouse and barn not always the hundredfold or sixtyfold, but more often the thirtyfold fruit is brought in; and because, to be protected by your Aaronic horns, it returns from its prelate at the same time, the course of the year having run, as that in which your abbatial almuces were changed into pontifical mitres.

Wherefore, most reverend lord president, my most revered prelate, receive thou this work, such as it is, of thy least client, superadded to my pastoral cares and hitherto drawn out protacta by the various incursions of soldiers standing in the way; and because, according to the saying 1004Cof the Wise Man: A man who loveth wisdom maketh his father glad (Prov. XXIX): gladden thy spirit, through this endeavour of mine, in the wisdom and spiritual canticle of this book, and refresh thy infirm and aged limbs, weakened by many labours endured for the monastery and our Union of Bursfeld, but not yet broken. Receive you also, venerable prelates, this small token of my regard toward you, Wolbero your co-abbot, humbly dedicated by me to your very reverend Lordships; and let him be a sharer in your new honour, who stood forth as the eminent narrator of the ancestral, and equally monastic, religion. That the same, under you as prelates, may grow and be propagated in the begun increase of spiritual discipline, 1004DI will unceasingly entreat God, best, greatest, and our most holy lawgiver Benedict, and the patrons of the same order. May he also deign, by his most patient kindness, to keep your very reverend and most ample Lordships, with all committed to them, surviving and unharmed for as very long and as very happily as may be. So he cherishes and prays, from the pastorate of Laugel, on the very [day] of blessed Aegidius the abbot, in the year 1629.

Of your very reverend and most ample Lordships the humble servant and brother, Henry ERSMERS of Grave, a Pantaleonite, of the order of St Benedict.

1005AThat thou mayest outlast the times of the Pylian, most learned writer, And that thy fame may be known in every place, To commit this excellent work to the press has seemed Fitting to many, and not without praise of thee. Go forth then secure, Wolbero; it befits not That the so pious writings of thy genius lie hid. Whom the sweet love of composing canticles now touches, 1006ALo, he has Wolbero, under whose leading he may compose. Not such canticles did the Dircaean bard play, When at the touch of the lyre the boar leapt up. Wolbero, thou deservest; he sings a chaste life, He tells the mystic words of the Bridegroom with the bride. Go now, whoever thou art that lovest the nuptials of the soul and of Christ: Whom thou mayest win to thyself, lo, the paranymph is here.

The Commentaries of the venerable lord abbot Wolbero, although they were composed and inscribed by the author himself for devout virgins consecrated to God, who once so requested, and he wished them to lie hidden with the nuns alone, and not to come forth into the common light unless, corrected by someone, they had turned out a finished and masculine work: I would not have thee persuaded, kind reader, that thou hast obtained this very thing by my labour. For this is the virtue of those who truly think humbly of themselves: to do or to write things great and splendid, and nonetheless to think meanly and moderately of themselves and of what is theirs. In this kind of virtue our abbot Wolbero shines forth in no common way. in whose commentaries, most ancient indeed, but gathered by the assiduous study of nine years, I am so far from having met with anything shapeless, or womanish, or wanting a more correcting file (although in the dedication addressed to his religious sisters, and in other prefaces of this work, he seems to hint at this very thing), that this little work ought deservedly to seem conceived by a divine rather than a human spirit, and traced by the pen. Wherefore I would not have it hidden from thee, whoever thou art that shalt be the reader of this work, that I have added or mixed little of my own into these Commentaries, save where ambiguity of sense, looseness of periods and disjunction of verses had seemed to want some such thing. These perhaps were the things that might have offended a delicate reader in the ancient Wolbero. Since these have been sufficiently relieved by my labour and effort, [and] through I know not what carelessness or haste of printer or corrector some errors have crept in here and there, which it is permitted to see corrected at the end of this book, take this labour of mine, such as it is, in good part; and while thou enjoyest it, receive it to thy profit, and receive kindly this perpetual monument of this author. Farewell.

1005BTo his most beloved sisters on the Island of the Rhine, serving as soldiers to God and to blessed Mary, WOLBERO, a sinner.

While I was often treating with myself, and frequently turning over with a doubtful mind, what sweet thing, what pleasant, what useful thing I might sing to the inward ears of your holy charity, O most holy sisters, by whose sweetness and incitement your mind would be raised to a greater love of the heavenly life, there suddenly occurred to my mind that singable epithalamium of the bridegroom and the bride, which for its excellence is called the Canticle of Canticles. This kind of song, indeed, greatly befits the dignity of your profession, because this surpasses the order of all professions, as that surpasses every kind of canticles.

1006BFor there are three kinds of professions: one of the married, another of widows, the third of virgins. Now we read that there is a canticle of praise, a canticle of gladness, a new canticle. Let us assign therefore, as by certain steps, the canticle of praise to the married, the canticle of gladness to widows, the new canticle to virgins, which no man can say, save they who follow the Lamb whithersoever he shall go (Apoc. XIV) [Vulg. Apoc. 14:3 nemo poterat dicere canticum, nisi illa centum quadraginta quatuor millia, "no man could say the canticle but those hundred forty-four thousand"; Hi sequuntur Agnum is 14:4]. For the canticle of praise the married sing, who have received some beginning of religion and of good conversation, but have not yet escaped the tribulation of the flesh; while the canticle of gladness widows sing, who have attained something higher, excelling in greater religion, and, having now experienced the tribulation of the flesh, are set free from it, and therefore can 1007Asing both praise and gladness. But virgins sing the new canticle, who hold the highest step, never having experienced the aforesaid tribulation of the flesh, and therefore able to sing both praise, and gladness, and a newness singular and unutterable to the rest.

But great heed must be taken, in those who are called virgins, of which part they are; for the Lord divided this profession into two parts, that is, into wise and foolish virgins (Matth. XXV); because this new canticle they cannot say, save those who are of the part of the wise: and the wise are those who are virgins both in body and in mind; but the foolish, those who, although they are virgins in body, yet live corrupted in mind. Such, assuredly, cannot sing 1007Bthe new canticle, nor even the canticle of the last profession; who do not even attain to its merit, because they have no oil in the vessel; nay rather, for this negligence of theirs, they do not enter the bridegroom's chamber.

Wherefore your charity, you who are virgins in body, ought greatly to take heed and be solicitous that you be so in mind also; because virginity of the flesh confers nothing on you, if you have already married in mind. If, then, you hold the right rule of the virginal profession, you sing a singular canticle, and, so to speak, not simply a canticle, as married women and widows do, but the Canticle of Canticles, which it is possible to sing only for those who are before the throne of God without spot, because they have not defiled their garments (Apoc. XIV) [Vulg. Apoc. 14:5 sine macula enim sunt ante thronum Dei; the clause qui non inquinaverunt vestimenta sua is Apoc. 3:4], that is, their 1007Cbodies.

Authorities for these three professions are indeed found in Holy Scripture, because conjugal chastity is proclaimed in Elizabeth, widowly holiness in Anna, virginal perfection in the blessed Mother of God, Mary. And the merit of each the Lord himself shows in the Gospel, where the seed is said to have fallen into good ground and to have made fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold (Luc. VIII) [Vulg. Luc. 8:8 fecit fructum centuplum, "made fruit a hundredfold", with no thirty or sixty; these stand in Matt. 13:8 and Mark 4:20].

For the thirtyfold fruit is that of the married living chastely, whom the reckoning of the fingers shows by this number, the forefinger being laid over the thumb; it indicates the weight of the tribulation and depression of the widows themselves, destitute of the support and consolation of a man. 1007DBut the hundredfold number, which is put for perfection, shows the perfection of holy virgins; which, carried over from the left hand to the right, the tip of the forefinger being joined to the tip of the thumb, expresses the crown of virginity.

Weigh therefore the excellence of this profession, whose reward is the hundredfold fruit, whose merit is to say the new canticle, to whose dignity, by reason of the special divine conjunction of grace, these Canticles of Canticles which we intend to sing to you according to our small measure are most fitting. Not even with you, whichever of you are truly virgins, can I, I say not sing these canticles, but not even whisper them, I who differ far 1008Afrom your holiness; but as someone who can convey the knowledge of some art by word only, but cannot express it in act, so I too, although I cannot sing these things with you, my fault standing in the way, will nevertheless try with God's help to say something from which you may in some measure know the excellence and singular dignity of these Canticles. Therefore, as the gentile poet says: I will serve as a whetstone, which knows how to render iron sharp, itself without share in cutting: (HORAT., Ars poet., 304.) and since it is not permitted to sing, let it at least be permitted to give counsel for singing. For holy Moses also, with whom God spoke face to face, heard and did the counsel of Jethro his kinsman, a gentile man, although he himself was full 1008Bof wisdom and holiness, while the other stood very far distant from him in gentilehood and in the quality of his life. But since God has given to will this, may he give also to be able. I know indeed that it will be unworthy in the eyes of many, who receive only the writings of the ancients, And admire nothing save what Libitina has hallowed. (HOR., Ep. II, I, 49.) that after the sayings of the elders, which charity has confirmed, I have shamelessly laid bare my own follies as well; but your love will excuse me before them, whose desire alone I have set myself to satisfy. And if they reproach the speech as too simple for the majesty of the cause, let them remember that in the construction of the tabernacle not only gold and silver, byssus 1008Cand purple, but also goats' hair were offered, (Exod. XXV), and the two small mites of the widow were more praised by the Lord than the immense gifts of the rich (Luc. XXI). And if they cavil at the arrangement of the words, let them nevertheless venerate the cause of the matter, and let both the dignity of the matter and the obedient charity of devout supplication excuse the thinness of the speech or composition. For we have in the Church very many books composed by metrical art, on the Gospels and the deeds of the saints, in a humble style and simple speech, which nevertheless, on account of the dignity of their matter, have already obtained authority. Whence Arator, when about to write the Acts of the Apostles, says: In fasting speech indeed, but deeds that are rich Have we written, and a drop flows with the weight of the sea. 1008DLet no one therefore despise our simplicity, because discourse with the simple is ours (Prov. III); nay rather, let him indulge us sinners the more, in that it pleased [us] more to write something, however simply, who in empty leisure, torpor, since we even wish this work to go forth nowhere, but to lie hidden only with the holy sisters alone to whom it has been sent; unless perhaps it shall please someone, out of a regard of kindness, to take this up for correcting, and out of a shapeless and soft composition to work out some beautiful and masculine work.

Receive therefore this work of my littleness, in which it has not irked me to labour for the sake of your 1009Alove, for your profit indeed, but for my own perpetual monument; so that when you look upon these things 1010Aand read them, you may be mindful of me, and, whether I am living or dead, entreat our common God for me.

• 1009

1009ATo the venerable and inwardly lovable lord WOLBERO, abbot of Saint Pantaleon, brother, called abbot of the monastery of GERODHEN: [may you,] led not only into the cellar but also into the chamber of the bridegroom, be inebriated with consummate charity from the plenty of the house of God, and with the torrent of the pleasure of him be given to drink for ever (Psal. XXXV).

For you write, and with a humility familiar to all and to those who use the wisdom of the spirit, you admonish by asking and 1009Bask by admonishing, that I should certify you in writing concerning your work on the Canticles of Canticles, considered with more diligence, every courting of your good will being wholly put away, what nevertheless it may seem to me, namely whether I think it should be brought forth into the light, or understand that it should be hidden and laid aside; because you would trust no one better than me, in that both kinship binds [me] to good will and the wisdom of correction would not deny a verdict. And indeed, as every man of understanding recognizes that all judgments are contained in nothing but these two, prudence and good will, so, since I reflect not without grief that good will is surely present and prudence absent, following him who prayed, saying: That I may know what is wanting to me (Psal. XXXVIII), not 1009Cbeing sufficient to bear the burden that you lay on me, I not undeservedly shrink from it.

But since this is the excuse even of all who are torpid in leisure, and your charity, trusting me and hoping that this can be done by me, admonishes me to do it, not as a judge, but as a friend of the bridegroom by desire: while I hear the voice 1010Aof him ministering his doctrine to your heart in the liberty of the spirit, at the voice of the bridegroom using you as an organ I rejoice together in charity rejoicing with the truth, and I judge that this work is not to be abolished, nay, to the glory of God, for it is glory to reveal the word (Tob. XII), and for the profit of the Church of God and the instruction of those for whom it is written, it is by all means to be made manifest. Truly both catholic in faith, and, for morals 1010Bto be instructed, most apt, every Christian disposing himself to live well in the house of God will judge it.

I have learned that you took it somewhat ill that I did not at once send back the codex, finished; but some things were an impediment: first, because no thing can be at once hurried and examined, which I learned from you also, since you pressed on almost into the new year; wherefore what was written with diligence [should], as it is read, not be judged with negligence. To this was added that our brothers, against your will indeed, but with me willing and rejoicing over it, eagerly snatched it and read it sedulously and diligently, and by the study of reading made it commendable; yet so that they withdrew from me, even unwilling, some of the reading of 1010Cit. But now, read through, and not without diligence, I send it back, to be communicated to all of you in Christ for reading; it remains that you not deny a share in the fruit to him whom you judged fit to share the labour. Farewell.

• 1009

1009DIn Holy Scripture many canticles are spoken of, which, differing by a diverse kind of causes, have been sung now generally, now specially, according to place and time; place, because either in the fatherland or in a foreign land; time, because either in peace or in captivity. For there is spoken of the Canticle of Moses, the Canticle of Anna, the Canticle of Habacuc the prophet, or others of this kind; but all these are simply canticles. Here, however, they are called Canticles of Canticles, because they surpass all kinds of canticles by the majesty of mystical understanding.

And the other canticles, indeed, have a cause why they were 1010Dsung, as Moses sang the canticle of praise for the victory celebrated, when Pharaoh was drowned with his chariots and horsemen in the Red Sea. Anna too sang a canticle to the Lord for fruitfulness bestowed, the reproach of barrenness being taken away. Ezechias too sang a canticle for health restored to him. Therefore the several canticles were, for each one, a thanksgiving for a benefit conferred on him by God. But this canticle represents the harmony of that highest and perfect charity, by which, all the cares curi of worldly things being lulled to sleep, every faithful soul 1011Ais joined to her Creator as a bride to the bridegroom with the ineffable sweetness of love; in whose embraces she dwells with such sweetness of peace and quiet that there is nothing she desires besides him, nothing she would set before so magnificent a grace; because certainly there is nothing that resists the spirit which, the war of the flesh trodden down, with the flesh subjugated to it, keeps sabbath in Christ in the same happy concord. For a great part, and a Sabbath to be desired, that is, rest, is when the flesh does not lust against the spirit, but, the tumult of the vices being stilled, the mind enjoys such sweetness of inward tranquillity that, desiring nothing else than the Lord, it wills and is able to say the Canticle of Canticles, that is, to have true and perfect charity. For charity towers above all the virtues, as the Canticle of Canticles 1011Bgoes beyond all canticles. But ascents are to be disposed in the heart, so that, as by certain steps, one may arrive at singing the Canticles of Canticles; that just as he who enters the holy place still has need of many things to be able to enter the Holy of holies; and he who celebrates Sabbaths needs far higher things to be able to arrive at the Sabbaths of sabbaths: so he who sings canticles ought ever to advance to greater things, to be able to sing the Canticles of Canticles.

For seven canticles are found in the divine page, the causes of whose singing mystically indicate to us, as by certain steps, the progresses of the soul, which are ruled through the grace of the sevenfold Spirit. 1011CFor we must go out of the Egypt of this world and cross the Red Sea through baptism, or through the tears of penitence, that, the attendant of the vices being drowned, we may first sing the canticle with Moses: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously honoured; the horse and the rider he hath thrown forth into the sea (Exod. XV) [Vulg. magnificatus est … dejecit, "is magnified … hath cast down"]. Then, the tumult of worldly business being left behind, the spiritual solitude is to be walked through until we find the well which the fathers dug, by whose doctrines and examples being informed in the manner of living rightly, we may sing together the second canticle, which the children of Israel sang for the well they had found. Let it ascend, they sang together, the well which the princes dug, and the leaders of the multitude prepared, in the giver of the law and with their staves (Num. XXI). And when we have come to the neighbourhood of the land of promise, 1011Dpreparing ourselves to possess that blessed land, and inviting with us the spiritual and the carnal, let us sing with Moses the third canticle: Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words from my mouth (Deut. XXXII) [Vulg. Audite, caeli, quae loquor: audiat terra verba oris mei, "Hear, O heavens, the things I speak: let the earth hear the words of my mouth"]. But that we may inhabit this land spiritually, the enemies of the soul must be fought down, against whom we must war with our whole intention, that, these being put to flight, we may sing together the fourth canticle with Debbora: The remnants of the people are saved, the Lord hath fought among the mighty (Jud. V). The enemies then being overcome, let us sing to the Lord the fifth canticle with David, for our escape and deliverance, that canticle namely which David sang when he was delivered from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and said: The Lord is my rock 1012Aand my strength and my saviour (II Reg. XXII), and the rest. After, namely, the motions of spiritual adversities having been repressed and all the cares of worldly things set aside, we shall at last have been placed in the longed-for quiet of mind, we must rise and hasten with the progresses of the soul to merit the embraces of that heavenly Bridegroom; the canticle of which intention we shall sing in the sixth place with Isaias: I will sing to the beloved the canticle of my cousin, of his vineyard (Isai. V). When, namely, by the progress of this angelic conversation, we shall have flown up to such a height on the wings of holy contemplation that, dwelling now in the embraces of the Bridegroom himself, we can say with the Apostle: But our conversation is in heaven (Philip. III). Then at last we shall sing the seventh canticle, 1012Bwhich is called not only a canticle but the Canticle of Canticles, when, resting from every worldly work, we shall have begun to keep sabbath with the bridegroom himself in continual quiet.

Now three things are to be considered in this book: the matter, the intention, the final cause. The matter is the espousals of Christ and the Church, or of each faithful soul, which consist in true and perfect love of him; which love, namely, is shown by the mortification of the vices and the delight of the virtues and the observance of his commandments. The intention is to exhort those who read and hear so to study to be united to Christ through charity that they may be worthy to be called by the name of bride. The final cause is thence to attain the highest good, which is God, of which good it is written: That which neither 1012Ceye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor into the heart of man have those things ascended which God hath prepared for them that love him (I Cor. II).

It is to be heeded, namely, that in this book nothing is to be understood carnally according to the letter, but the whole is to be referred to the spiritual sense, because the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth (I Cor. III). For because God, speaking by himself to the human heart, could not be grasped, he mercifully moves and recalls it through enigmas, and through known things secretly insinuates to it the love of unknown things, so that, since it had to be addressed allegorically, through the exterior things which it knew it might understand the interior things, which it ought to love and keep. For here words as it were of bodily love are set down, where kisses, breasts, cheeks, thighs are named; that the soul, shaken out of its torpor 1012Dby accustomed speech, may grow warm again, and through the words of the love which is below may be stirred to the love which is above. In which the sacred description is not to be made void nor despised, but the mercy of God is to be considered, and in this the ampler, because, to kindle us to the embraces of sacred love, he inclines himself even to the words of our infirmity. But whence he humbles himself in speech, thence he exalts us in understanding, because from the speech of this love we learn how we should serve in the love of the Godhead. Greatly, or skilfully, must we look to it, lest, when we hear exterior things, we remain in those exterior things by our perceiving, and the machine which is set to lift should itself rather press down and weigh down. We ought therefore in the exterior words to seek whatever is within, and, speaking of the body, to become outside the body; 1013Awe ought to the nuptials of the bridegroom and bride with the understanding of charity (to come with the wedding garment, lest, if we lack it, into the outer darkness (Matth. XXII) ) we be driven back into the blindness of ignorance.

It is to be known besides that Solomon put forth three books, the first of Proverbs, the second Ecclesiastes, the third the Canticles of Canticles, which are placed, each under each, beneath the three parts of philosophy, namely Physics, Ethics, Logic, that is, natural, moral, rational science. For in Ecclesiastes he disputes of the natural state of things; in Proverbs he discourses of the honesty of morals; in the Canticles of Canticles he sings of the rational disposition of divine mysteries. For by these three modes, as by certain steps, the progress of the mind is led, that is, by naturality, 1013Bmorality, rationality. Naturality is the visible variation of things created in order; morality, the informing of an honest life; rationality, the desirable attainment of spiritual and divine knowledge.

Indeed, from the consideration of naturality, while it is heeded of how great beauty, of how great utility, how becomingly, how rationally, and how orderly the created things have been disposed, how unchangeably it keeps its appointed turns in place and time, it can be sufficiently weighed of what kind and how great, how much more beautiful, how much more sublime, how much more powerful, and therefore how justly to be worshipped, how worthily to be adored, is God, the founder of this creature. Whence the Apostle: The invisible things, he says, of him from the creation of the world through the things which are made, being understood, are clearly seen, his eternal power also and divinity, 1013Cso that they are inexcusable (Rom. I). Therefore man will not be able to be excused, because by consideration of this kind he is led to the knowledge of the Creator, and to the faith which believes to be true the things which God promises to the just, threatens to the unjust; and from this he is pricked, first by fear, afterwards by love.

For first by fear he rises to the honesty of morality, until, by the progress of conversation, morality itself is taken up through charity, which casteth out fear (I Joan. IV). For since man is more excellent than every earthly creature, and the creature itself is, as we have said, of such great beauty, surely he will be able to weigh how much more beautiful he will be, if through the comeliness of mortality he cleaves to his Creator. For to the image 1013Dand likeness of God man was made (Gen. II), who is compounded of two substances, that is, of soul and body: he has the likeness of God in this, that he lives and among the other creatures is called very good, raised up originally by the very bearing of his body for receiving heavenly things and trampling earthly ones. But because, just as God himself neither grows with growing creatures nor decreases, although he yet is in all; so neither is the soul diminished when the members are diminished, nor increased when they are increased, and yet it is in all.

But he has the image of God from the better portion, namely the soul, which thrives in wit, reason, understanding, in which the image of God is indeed shown, by which he is conformed to him through the honesty of morality, so that, as he bore the image of the earthly by loving earthly things, he may bear 1014Aalso the image of the heavenly (I Cor. XV), by ardently seeking out and exercising heavenly things. For it is not to be thought childishly that God, who is incorporeal and incomprehensible, can be comprehended by any bodily lineaments, so that he should have an image to which man was made; but his image is the reason implanted in the human mind, by which man himself differs from irrational things, and by which he discerns the just from the unjust, the honest from the dishonest, the useful from the useless, by which finally he represses the bestial motions of the mind, lest they corrupt the integrity of the mind; and if, some frailty impelling, they have corrupted it, he may reform it anew, the same reason leading, through the study of holy morality.

By which study, man being morally instructed, the grace of rationality worthily advances him, by which he may receive knowledge of himself 1014Band of God: of himself indeed, by which he will weigh what he is, and whence the gift which he receives, that he is saved not by his own merit but by the grace of God, [and] has been taken up in the liberty of the glory of the sons of God (Rom. VIII): but of God, by which he may understand that nothing is better, nothing more powerful, nothing more sublime than God, whom alone he ought to know, fear, venerate, love and worship with all the virtue of his mind. And this is the wisdom which will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins, because the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be rebuked by iniquity coming upon it (Sap. I).

Therefore the virtue of morality takes up the grace of rationality, because the mind which draws near to God through the honesty of discipline considers the more the subtlety of his knowledge 1014C, according to the voice of James, who exhorts his hearers, saying: Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you (Jacob. IV).

This threefold progress of the soul the Psalmist prays for, saying: Goodness and discipline and knowledge teach me (Psal. CXVIII): for first he puts goodness, then discipline, in the third place knowledge. For God, being naturally good, created man naturally good, since he made him to his own image and likeness, reason being given to him by which he could discern good and evil; but he himself, understanding that he can [do] the one of these, the good, not from himself but from God, asks to be taught goodness, that through the goodness of naturality, by the affection of holy morality, discipline, 1014Dthrough which he may be able to advance to that incomprehensible and divine knowledge of rationality; and, ever demanding the order of this progress with the whole desire of his mind, he cries out: goodness, he says, and discipline and knowledge teach me. As if he said in other words: Since thou, O Lord God, hast created me naturally good; how that very good of nature may not be corrupted by my fault, but propagated by thy grace, teach [me], so that in this way I may will and be able by thy help to live rightly, and, living rightly, to penetrate the secrets of thy mysteries with the citadel of the mind.

To this third part, then, which we have called rationality, this book is subscribed, on account of the excellence of the sacraments which are sung therein in Christ and the Church, or in any whatever, beloved of God, of the mind; which 1015Ais also deservedly inscribed with this name which is the Canticles of Canticles, because, marked as by a certain privilege of spiritual harmony, more perfectly and more sublimely than all canticles, it intones mystical things. For if you consider more subtly, you will understand that almost all the sacraments of Christ and the Church are sung in it. For, to speak by way of example, in the very beginning of the canticle, when it is said in the person of the Church: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, the coming of Christ through the flesh is longed for, as if the Church said in other words: Thou who once spokest to me through the mouths of thy prophets and of the other Fathers, now at length, born according to the flesh, offer thyself in presence, and with thine own mouth hold out to me the decrees of thy commandments. The passion also of Christ and the resurrection it denotes in that place where the beloved 1015Bspeaks: A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts, and presently after, a cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me (Cant. I), where by the myrrh the bitterness of the passion, by the cluster the sweetness of the resurrection is expressed. And elsewhere: Flee, she says, my beloved, and be like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices (Cant. VIII) [Vulg. capreae, hinnuloque cervorum, "to a roe and to a young hart"]; by the roe and the young hart suggesting the power of the Lord ascending into heaven. In the flock of shorn ones coming up from the washing (Cant. IV, VI), the people of the baptized laying down the burdens of sins is understood; in the twin offspring, the twin things of charity; and in the eyes, the teeth, the cheeks, the hair, and the other arrangements of members which are named there, the spiritual adornment and arrangement of holy Church, or of any holy soul, is described. There the depravity of heretics, 1015Cthe sweetness of doctors is denoted; and, to comprehend the whole, whatever in holy Church is done, generally or specially, or is celebrated as done, is sung with most beautiful allusions, so that deservedly this book is called by such a name, which is the Canticles of Canticles, for its excellence.

Our purpose, therefore, in this work is to investigate, as we are able, the rationality of these sacraments; but chiefly, for your edification, holy sisters, to look into morality and to stir up your mind in the love of your bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have divided the whole book into four tomes, on account of the four subdistinctions of the recapitulations of the periochae, 1015Dwhich are marked by this chapter thrice repeated: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the goats, that you stir not up nor make the beloved to awake, till she herself will. [Vulg. Cant. 2:7 filiae Jerusalem, per capreas cervosque camporum, "daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields"]

Of these periochae, then, the first is from where it says: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, up to: I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, the second from where it says: The voice of my beloved; behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills, up to, likewise: I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem. The third, longer, which begins thus: Who is she that goeth up by the desert, up to the third adjuration: I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem. The fourth. Who is she that goeth up from the desert, flowing with delights, up to the end.

The singings of these four parts we have distinguished into four 1016Alittle books: either on account of the evangelical chariot of Aminadab, or the moral one, which consists of the four cardinal virtues, which the bride, troubled, dreaded; or that the mind studious of morality may be admonished that it ought to be squared by the virtues, so that, as by squareness it stands on whatever [face] it uses, so he is neither lifted up by prosperity nor cast down by adversity, but, like a squared stone placed in the building of the Lord, is conformed to the passion of Christ by the mortification of the carnal life, the bearer of his cross, that he may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length, breadth, sublimity and depth (Ephes. III) [Vulg. latitudo, et longitudo, "breadth, and length", the reverse of the order the exposition follows]. The virtue of which comprehension belongs to the perfect alone, who, rooted and founded in charity (ibid.), so cleave to their Creator that by the amplitude of charity they continually sing the Canticle of Canticles; in whom 1016Bthis squareness of charity consists. For charity in the saints is long, because it is not for an hour, but persevering and continual; broad, because it extends even to enemies; high, because it is had for the sake of the hope and reward of eternal life; deep, because it penetrates even the secrets of God; no man, however, hath known the things which are of God, save the Spirit of God (I Cor. II), through whom charity itself is poured forth in the hearts of the saints (Rom. V).

In the head himself also, our true exemplar, the Lord, that is, Christ, the beauty of this squareness shines forth delightfully, figured in the manner of his passion, namely in the form of the cross. For from the top of the cross down to the bottom, the length of his charity is expressed, of whom John says that having loved 1016Chis own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end (Joan. XIII): and the breadth, stretched from the right to the left, is extended to the love of enemies, for whom, supplicating, Father, he says, pardon them, because they know not what they do (Luc. XXIII); the sublimity is regarded in the inscription of the title: for scarcely can the height of his kindness, by which he rules, cherishes and guards us, consider; the depth, through the part fixed in the earth, which sustains the rest, hides the abyss of the judgments of God, because, though God has done and suffered so much for the salvation of men, why he takes up this one, repels that one, is inscrutable and unsearchable.

You therefore, O beloved sisters, crucified to the world with the Lord, learn to comprehend with all 1016Dthe saints the length, breadth, sublimity and depth of charity, so that, led into the chamber of our Lord, your bridegroom, with lighted lamps, that is, good works, you may be able to sing continually before the throne of God that new canticle to be sung by virgins alone, truly the Canticle of Canticles.

But now let us come to the course of the book itself, forewarning this: that if it moves anyone that the discourse is stretched beyond measure, and the speech overflows the mode of explanation, let him know that we have undertaken this work not only for the sake of explaining; but rather with this intention, that thence we might overcome the matter for ourselves, whence we might satisfy, at least by writings, the religious desire of the holy sisters, whom we could not by words.

• 1017

• 1017

2 VERS. 1.-- Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

If the Son of God is the Word of God, of whom John says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 1017Bwith God, and the Word was God (Joan. I), assuredly the same Son of God is also amply understood as the mouth of God, because a word is brought forth by the mouth. Not unfittingly can we take the kiss to be the Holy Spirit, because the peace and charity which are signified by a kiss are given through the Holy Spirit, in whom the remission of sins is made, through whom we are reconciled to God, through whom is given the distribution of gifts by which we are joined to God (Rom. V). But as the substance of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is undivided, so too is their operation undivided; and in the whole Trinity, although there is distinction in the persons, yet the will and the operation are one and the same. The one kissing, then, and the mouth, and the kiss, the three work one thing, that is, charity in the hearts 1017Cof those who share in this kiss; because, as we have said, the operation of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one; and the kiss of the mouth, that is, of the Word, which is the Son, is also the kiss of the one kissing, that is, of the Father, because the Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; and the kiss is the grace and peace and charity of this undivided Trinity. Through the kiss of the mouth of the one kissing, then, that is, through the Holy Spirit, of the Father and of the Son, whose substance is one, one majesty, one virtue, one power, one will, one operation: first indeed is given the remission of sins, by the kiss of peace, the reconciling kiss; then the distribution of gifts, by the kiss of charity, the contemplative kiss.

This kiss, then, of a twofold grace, holy Church universally, or 1017Dany holy soul particularly, seeks in its own order from the Lord her Creator, pondering and considering that the creating Trinity, which is everywhere present through the power of the divinity, is not present through the grace of indwelling, which is not everywhere save through love, through which the indwelling of the divinity is known, and conversely love through the indwelling of the divinity: and therefore she asks that the kiss be held out to her sibipo rrigi, first, as we have said, the reconciling kiss through the remission of sins, so that she may then be able to merit the contemplative kiss through the grace of gifts. But since the proof of love is the showing of the work, assuredly through the showing of the work the grace of the indwelling divinity is recognized; because love working and working loving is the kiss of the mouth of the one kissing, that is, the grace of the Trinity dwelling wholly in the mind 10183, Whence the Lord says in the Gospel: If anyone love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and will make our abode 1018Bwith him (Joan. XIV).

She says, then: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. As if she should say in other words: May my Creator himself, by his grace, so kindle this heart of mine that I may love him, that loving I may please him by working, that pleasing him I may be made worthy of his indwelling.

Or, that we may refer the mystery of his incarnation to the person of the Son alone: the Church longs that she may hear him speaking in his own person, whom until then she had heard through the mouths of the Fathers. For the Word that was to be incarnate first promised the secrets of his precepts or sacraments in the law and the prophets; which, coming afterwards, he himself fulfilled, and sealed as things to be observed unchangeably, as it were by the setting of his hand to them: whence he says through the prophet: Therefore my people shall know 1018Cmy name in that day, because I who spoke, behold, I am here [Vulg. Is 52:6 ego ipse qui loquebar, "I myself who spoke"] (Isa. LII).

That speech indeed, by which he spoke through the law and the prophets as through an instrument, was obscure and indeterminable; but when he himself came and spoke in his own person, it was made determinable and plain; because, the truth being present, the shadow had to cease. But because the preceding speech, whether through an angel, or through a man, or through some other creature, was made in many ways, that is, either by voice, or by sign, or by operation, or by vision, or by the touch of the heart alone; the following one through the very mediator of God and men; the blessed Apostle says that in many ways and in many manners God, speaking of old to the fathers in the prophets, last of all 1018Din these days hath spoken to us in the Son (Hebr I); assuredly, as a craftsman is far better than his instrument, so this last speech, since the Son of God brought it forth himself in his own person, is far worthier and more to be desired than that speech which he used in the Fathers as in instruments. It is last for this reason, because after it nothing could be, nor will be able to be, said or written more firmly or more certainly.

The sweetness of this speech, then, as being the true truth of truth, to be revealed to her understanding, holy Church, burning with the whole ardour of her soul, cries out for: let him kiss me, she says, with the kiss of his mouth. Now a kiss is the sign of peace or of love: and of this truly peaceable Lord Jesus Christ it is written that coming he preached peace to those who were far off and to those 1019Awho were near (Ephes. II). But what peace? That, surely, which dissolves the enmities between God and man, which the holy prophets did indeed announce, but could not give. But he, the Angel of great counsel [Vulg. Is 9:6 Admirabilis, Consiliarius, "Wonderful, Counsellor"] and Prince of peace (Isa. IX), both announced it and gave it. Wherefore holy Church, sighing for his presence, his address and his affability, rightly desires with all her prayers to enjoy to the full his converse, as the kiss of a peaceable mouth sowing and giving true and whole peace, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of thy mouth, [Vulg. Ct 1:1 oris sui, "of his mouth"] as if she should say: May he himself show forth to me in his own person what the holy Fathers 4 of old confirmed by sayings, writings and signs as something to be shown forth.

And why she desires this rather, she adds the cause: for thy breasts are better, she says, than wine, that is, the nourishments 1019Bof evangelical gentleness provide better and more quickly for my salvation than the austerity of the legal sentence, or the swelling and empty loquacity of the philosophers; of which it will be treated more fully under the second verse.

Morally, however, the soul beloved of God, having now attained that noble and incomparable celibacy, and having been brought into the Holy of holies of her bridegroom, her Creator and her Redeemer, secret and inaccessible to the human mind, rejoicing; let him kiss me, she says, with the kiss of his mouth. But whence comes this proclamation, so great, of such a kind, so confidently and sublimely presuming praesumes? surely from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned (I Tim. V). For this is the method of attaining perfection: to know what, in what manner, why, that is, the matter, the intention, the usefulness of working. For it must be 1019Cgreatly considered what thou doest, with what intention, with what fruit. For every action is conceived in the heart, nourished by intention, perfected by faith. For indeed if thou beginnest anything good, the intention of that good itself will be its judge, because if thy eye be single, thy whole body will be lightsome; but if evil, it will be darksome (Luc. XI). Moreover faith either destroys or advances the work itself. For a man either believes or does not believe God, who promises his worshipper those things which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor into the heart of man have they ascended (I Cor. II). For he who is unfaithful acts unfaithfully, and he who is faithful acts faithfully.

For faith can be divided in three ways, so that it is called faith dead, feigned, proved. Dead faith may be called that which, 1019Daccording to the Apostle, is without works (Jac. I), which, insensible, as though having no soul, that is, charity, is quickened or moved to no good work. Feigned faith is that which, not rooted in charity, according to the Lord's word, believeth in time, and in time of temptation falleth away [Vulg. Lc 8:13 ad tempus credunt, "believe for a while"] (Luc. VIII). But proved faith is that which fails under no tribulations, under no adversities, because it is firmly rooted in charity.

Let the faithful and prudent soul, then, be zealous with faith unfeigned to keep charity from a pure heart and a good conscience (I Tim. I), which is the perfection of the interior habit, which habit charity alone produces, that charity which being perfect casteth out fear (I Joan. IV); which these three approve: a pure heart, a good conscience, 1020Afaith unfeigned, which nevertheless proceed from charity itself. For who keepeth his heart with all watchfulness (Prov. IV), that he may have a good conscience, save from charity? And who keeps faith firm and unshaken, save from charity? These three, then, are probative of charity, and true charity itself is effective of them.

These are, in the Gospel, the oil, the vessels, the lamps, adorned with which the virgins, not foolish but wise, await the coming of their Bridegroom, our Lord 5 Jesus Christ, that they may enter with him to the wedding of weddings. For what is the oil, save a good work? And what the vessels, save the consciences, which, namely, carry those same works? And what the lamps, save the fervour and splendour of those same works? For if holy men are fervent in charity, they are splendid in the showing of it; so that to those who see 1020Bthey may be for an example, to those who work, for a light. They carry oil in their vessels with their lamps, then, who cover a good work in a glad and secure conscience, with this intention, that they both may not seek quaerat human praise, and may afford their neighbours an example of working well.

From a heart, then, pure, and a good conscience and faith unfeigned (I Tim. I), let the soul beloved of God set up a ladder for herself, on which she may dispose ascents, by which, from virtue to virtue (Psal. LXXXIII), she may make her way through charity charita em to that highest good which is God, taking her form from her Bridegroom himself, Jesus Christ, who, the Lord high above all nations (Psal. CXII), came humble among the nations, that he might teach us to climb his humility thither whence our first parents had descended through pride. For humility leads 1020Cher through charity to that vision of the Deity, as it were to the third heaven, to which the Apostle asserts that he was caught up, and that he heard ineffable words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak (II Cor. XII).

Let us posit that, as it were, the first heaven is humility, the second charity, the third the sublimity of contemplation. When, then, the mind, lifted up, rises to the virtue of humility as to the first heaven, all the pleasures of the world being now despised and trodden underfoot, through charity, which many waters cannot quench; for love is strong as death (Cant. VIII); it ascends to the second heaven; and when it has advanced so far that it thinks of nothing else, desires nothing else but God, it is lifted up through contemplation to the third heaven, 1020Dwhere, set above itself, and marvelling at the hidden things of the divine wisdom, it says: My secret to myself, my secret to myself (Isa. XXIX). In which secret, now inebriated by the torrent of that ineffable delight, her face washed and her lips purged with desolating coals (Psal. CXIX), she lingers in the longed-for embraces of her Bridegroom, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

But what is this confidence, that she so suddenly seeks the kiss of her Lord's mouth, when, as it were, reason does not permit one to approach, without order and some degree, a thing so eminent and supreme?

Whence it is to be considered that certain lower kisses also went before that one: first indeed the kiss of redemption, then the kiss of reconciliation, and at the summit the kiss of love. And the kiss 1021Aof redemption is as it were the kiss of the Lord's feet; the kiss of reconciliation is as it were the kiss of the hands; but the kiss of love is as it were the kiss of the mouth. For by the feet, with which we are moved from place to place, the humanity of the Saviour is designated, the dispensation of which humanity, namely 6 that he was crowned with thorns, suffered, died, and was buried, and rose again, lay in movement and passage: for Christ, rising from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him (Rom. VI); because through this [man] went out from the captivity of the devil into the liberty of Christ, and according to the prophet there rotted the yoke before the face of the oil (Isa. X). For since in Greek ἔλεος is called in Latin mercy, and it is the nature of God [Dei; read olei, "of oil"] to be borne above all liquids, and the mercy moreover of the Lord is above all 1021Bhis works [Vulg. Ps 144:9 miserationes ejus, "his tender mercies"] (Psal. CXLIV); when God looked upon the world in mercy, the yoke of its captivity rotted computrui at the coming of the Saviour.

Now we kiss the feet of our Redeemer when we embrace the mysteries of his humanity with faith and devotion, and imitate, as far as we can, the footsteps of his humility, patience and obedience. But, the captivity being taken away, did man forthwith merit to be joined to God? For by his own fault, through free will, he had come into the captivity of the devil; because, though he had been created good by nature, he slipped into evil by his own vice. Because, then, he had rebelled against God in will and in deed, and by this had withdrawn far from his grace, he had need of reconciliation.

The ministers of God, our holy Fathers, went before, 1021Cpleading the cause of this reconciliation by preaching, exhorting, teaching and frequently announcing his precepts; and they could indeed free him from error, but could not bestow perfect liberty on him. His Creator himself came after, taking on his mortality, that he might give him his own immortality; and having destroyed the middle wall, dissolving the enmities in his flesh through his blood [Vulg. Eph 2:14 medium parietem maceriae solvens, inimicitias in carne sua, without destructo or per sanguinem] (Ephes. II), he presented him with liberty by the kiss of Redemption, and then presently joined the same man to himself by the kiss of reconciliation: he who, bending himself downward from that height of his divinity, having torn up the old handwriting of sin, wrote on the earth the new testament of this peace and reconciliation through the sacrament of baptism, in which, as though the grace of manumission 1021Dwere given, he restored perfect liberty; and adopting him as a son, whom before he had not even deigned to have as a servant because of the voluntary yoke of sin, he gave him the deed of such an inheritance as neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it ascended into the heart of man (I Cor. II). And this testament or deed holy Church holds now and will hold, or any faithful soul, so that, if she does not cease to know, to have and to love God as her true Father, she may always be secure of such an inheritance.

We hold out a kiss to the hands of the Lord, then, when we observe the covenant or decree of this reconciliation in faith and work, and, consenting even in the way of this life with our adversary, that is, the word of God, we have perpetual 1022Apeace with him, by living justly and piously.

7 But after reconciliation, as though security had been received, man began to draw near to the divinity more freely and more joyfully; and according to what James says: Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you (Jac. IV), the more he drew near to God through zeal for good work, the nearer he made God to himself through contemplation, so that, having set aside all the business of the world and trodden down earthly desires, he says, ascending the mountain with Moses: Lord, show me thy face (Exod. XXXIII); and, cleaving delightedly in the vision of him, he advances so far in the ardour of divine charity that he seeks the kiss of his mouth, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

Not suddenly, therefore, but little by little, and as it were by certain 1022Bsteps, he comes to the ineffable sweetness of that supreme charity, as to the kiss of the Lord's mouth: so that the first step is the redeeming kiss, the second the reconciling kiss, the third the contemplative kiss. For this is also the third heaven, to which the Apostle, asserting that he was caught up, received the grace of a special knowledge from that principal kiss of the Lord's mouth, and came to all the churches throughout the world, preaching the sweetness of that same kiss and exhorting them to the perfection of so great a holiness.

The grace of this threefold kiss that woman in the Gospel prefigured by her dutiful service, when first, falling devoutly at the feet of the Lord, kissing them, watering them with tears, wiping them with her hair, she obtained pardon of her sins, as though the redeeming kiss 1022Chad been given her, when she heard: Thy sins are forgiven thee (Luc. VII). And presently, having received as it were from the hand of the Lord the written tablets of liberty, she is presented with the reconciling kiss, when, reconciled to God through the remission of sins, it is said to her: Go in peace (ibid.). Thereafter, by the progress of a good way of life, she cleaved to the Lord with such ardour of charity, as though by the kiss of his mouth, the contemplative kiss, that she was praised by the proclamation of the Lord himself, saying: Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her (Luc. X).

We can also, not absurdly, take this threefold kiss as faith, hope, charity, so that faith is as it were the kiss of the Lord's feet, hope of his hands, charity of his mouth; for by faith we are saved, by hope we are lifted up, 1022Dby charity we are glorified. By faith we embrace the feet of the Lord, that is, the sacraments of his humanity, which pertains to salvation; by hope we reach the hands of the Lord, by which we are led to hope for the heavenly promises, which pertains to patience; for if we hope for the things we see not, we wait for them through patience (Rom. VIII); but by charity we hold out a kiss as it were to the mouth of the Lord, when we are presented by him with eternal beatitude, which pertains to reward.

8 Let the whole Church, then, say generally, or any holy soul specially: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; with the kiss, she says, of the mouth, not as before of the prophets or of any other teachers whatever, but his; because he himself by his teaching and example has established for me a form of living, through which, by his own help, all the obstacles of this world being repulsed 1023Aand cast away, and perfect liberty now attained, they may cleave to him continually by the kiss of love, until, immortality and incorruption of body and soul having at length been taken on, I may be joined to him unchangeably and inseparably, and may say truly, let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: that what now I see through a glass in a dark manner, then I may see face to face (I Cor. XIII), when God shall be all in all (I Cor. XV). These things, therefore, I desire, this I seek, this I long for with all my prayers. Why?

VERS. 2.-- For thy breasts are better than wine, fragrant with the best ointments.

What are these breasts of thine? The remission of sins, the distribution of gifts. These console me when I weep, these nourish me when I am little and bring me forward into manly strength: 1023Bthese call me, draw me, soothe me; because they cry to me through thy Gospel: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven will draw near [Vulg. Mt 3:2 appropinquavit, "is at hand"] (Matth. III). But the wine of the biting law terrifies me by its authority, turns me away and exasperates me; because it cries: Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and whoever does this or that, let him die the death (Exod. XXI). These breasts of thine, I say, greatly invite me, animate me, and are strengthened, because of the exceeding abundance of thy mercy and the prerogative of thy gifts: but since from one of these lashes [verberum; read uberum, "breasts"] of thine flows the remission of sins, from the other the distribution of gifts, the order is that the remission of sins be given first, then the distribution of gifts. But the greatness of his mercy sometimes makes that which is later, that 1023Cis, the distribution of gifts, and that which is earlier, that is, the remission of sins, run before in certain persons, for this reason, namely, that they may be the more roused and may labour with thy grace which calls them to receive the remission of sins.

Which, for example's sake, may be considered in Cornelius the centurion, in whom the gift of thy grace in kinds of tongues went before; so that, the more animated by it and as it were assured, he might come more readily to receive the sacrament of faith unto the remission of sins. In Paul the apostle also the same gift of thy grace ran before, in the gift of understanding and discernment, to whom, when Ananias had been sent and had come: Saul, he said, brother; the Lord Jesus hath sent me, who appeared to thee in the way by which thou camest, that thou mayest see and be filled 1023Dwith the Holy Spirit (Act. II). Did this seeing of his pertain only to the illumination of his bodily eyes, and not rather to the illumination of the mind, by which he might see and know 9 the truth which he was attacking? Was not this also to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For to this end thou gavest the Holy Spirit to him while not yet baptized, that he might know how to discern between the shadow of the law, which he was defending, and the truth of the Gospel, which he was attacking; and, having left the shadow, might come the more eagerly and fervently, by the help of the same Holy Spirit, to receive the truth, unto the remission of sins. These evangelical breasts of thine, then, which draw to salvation because of their gentleness, are better than those legal institutions which frighten away from salvation because of their austerity.

1024ABut that I may consider something more deeply: what also, O beloved, are these breasts of thine, save the ineffable sweetness and glory of those heavenly secrets of thine, of which the Psalmist says: I shall be satisfied while thy glory shall appear? [Vulg. Ps 16:15 cum, "when"] (Psal. XVI.) Into this wondrous secret chamber of thine, then, after I shall have ascended through contemplation by the gift of thy grace, I shall be able to be torn from thy embraces neither by any blandishments of alluring prosperities nor by any scourges of frightening adversities, for thy breasts are better than wine; better, nay rather incomparable, are that paradise of thy delight and the manifestation of thy glory than the pleasures and passing honours of this world. And of what kind are these breasts of thine? Fragrant with the best ointments.

For these ointments are the signs not of any breasts whatever, 1024Bbut of thine, redolent assuredly with such sweetness that by their very odour it becomes known what they are and whose they are. But what are these ointments? Surely those which that most excellent perfumer or spice-maker of thine, the Holy Spirit, has compounded and compounds. And what are the spices of which these ointments are made? Assuredly those which the Apostle, enumerating them in a certain place, calls spiritual fruits: the fruits, he says, of the spirit are: peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faith, mildness, obedience, continence, chastity [Vulg. Gal 5:22–23 caritas, gaudium, pax, patientia, benignitas, bonitas, longanimitas, mansuetudo, fides, modestia, continentia, castitas; no obedientia] (Gal. V).

How good and useful a tree in the garden of the Lord, producing such kinds of fruits, and, rejoicing for its fruitfulness, proclaiming: But I, as a fruitful olive tree 1024Cin the house of the Lord [Vulg. Ps 51:10 in domo Dei, "in the house of God"] (Psal. LI). The cultivator of this tree is assuredly the Holy Spirit, who takes such fruits to himself for compounding the ointments with which the beloved's breasts are fragrant, which are conferred on those who shall have been anointed with these ointments and can say with the Apostle: We are the good odour of Christ unto God in every place [Vulg. 2Cor 2:15 in iis qui salvi fiunt, "in them that are saved"] (II Cor. II); because to such is given the remission of sins and the distribution of graces.

But to the sweetness of ointments of this kind, seasoned from the aforesaid kinds of virtues, no human reason makes progress without the aid of grace; because man, although capable of reason, begins or perfects nothing holy, nothing reasonable, unless that compounder of those same ointments, the Holy Spirit, works it by his interior unction, as John says of him to his hearers: 1024DAnd the unction 10 of him will teach you concerning all things [Vulg. 1Jo 2:27 docet, "teacheth"] (I Joan. II).

Such an unction, assuredly, is the true medicine of the inner man and the strongest antidote against the diseases of the soul, by which it heals the soul wounded by the wound of sin and quickens her, enlightens the mind, rouses her to merit the gifts of divine grace, and lastly pervades her with such vigour of this sweetness that, forgetting the things behind and stretching forth to those before, she raises herself even above herself, saying with the Apostle: But our conversation is in heaven (Philip. III), where, liberty from all misery having been attained, she may be satisfied from the breasts of the consolation of God, [Vulg. Is 66:11 ab ubere consolationis ejus, "from the breast of her consolation"] and may feast from the entrance of his glory (Isa. LXVI).

The breasts of this beloved can also, not unfittingly, be taken as the teaching and the working of our Lord 1025AJesus Christ, by which, in his humanity, he made himself known to the world with the best ointments of the virtues, fragrant now as well: then indeed nourishing the first-fruits of the new faith with the milk of teaching and confirming them by the power of working, but now strengthening the fullness of that same faith as with the solid food of teaching, and forming it by the example of working to the perfection of an honourable life.

These breasts, assuredly, fragrant with the ointment of so great a mercy and grace, are better than wine by far, that is, than the austerity of the royal ceremonies, or of things done: as truth is better than the shadow, the quickening spirit than the killing letter: For the law, as the Apostle says, added nothing to perfection [Vulg. Hbr 7:19 adduxit, "brought"]; but all things happened to them in figure; and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages are come (I Cor. X). Or 1025Bthey are better, or rather incomparable, than wine, that is, than the pleasure of worldly doctrines, which, when they infect their hearers with the ointment of carnal delight, drag them to the death of the soul; and thus, from the opposite side, as much as the soul advances toward thy grace by the consolation of thy breasts, O beloved, so much does she fall away from that grace of thine by the deadly concoction of those others.

Thy name is oil poured out: therefore the young maidens have loved thee.

They who behold me wonder, O beloved, that I praise thee so, that I proclaim so great a grace of thy mercy and sweetness, that I desire thy countenance, thy embraces, with such avidity; and they long to know of what name thou art, or of what dignity, whom I esteem so highly, judge so highly; to whom, lest they excuse themselves on the ground of ignorance, because 1025Cthy name has not been announced to them, I say that thy name is not hidden, is not concealed, but rather manifest, and as it were oil poured out, whose nature is that when it is poured out it spreads the more.

How, then, has thy name been poured out and spread abroad? Not as once thou wast known in Judaea only, and only in Israel great is thy name (Psal. LXXV), but as thou sayest through another prophet 11: From the rising of the sun even to the going down, great is thy name among the nations (Malach. I). The name which is above every name, so that in thy name every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth (Philip. II). And there is no other name under heaven given to men, through 1025Dwhich we must be saved (Act. IV).

And that I may draw them up with me to higher things, that they may understand and know why I so greatly desire thy kiss, why I delight in the sweetness of thy breasts, let them hear something further, and let them weigh why I have said, thy name is oil poured out. For oil is borne above all liquids. What, then, is understood by oil, save charity, which excels all the virtues? For no virtue can be called a virtue, or be one, without charity; because where charity is not, there is no virtue. For if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; and if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have faith so that I could remove mountains, and 1026Ahave not charity, it profiteth me nothing; and if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing [Vulg. 1Cor 13:2–3 ends v. 2 nihil sum and v. 3 nihil mihi prodest; v. 2 omnem fidem] (I Cor. XIII).

Behold of how great virtue, of how great excellence, do you think, charity is, so that without it neither prophecy, nor any knowledge, nor faith, nor almsgiving, nor martyrdom is anything? And what is this charity? Surely thou art it, O beloved, as that beloved one of thine testifies, cleaving to thy holy kiss, and, reclining on thy breast, drinking in the sweetness of thy breasts; he, I say, the heavenly eagle, flying with the wings of holy contemplation into thy very secrets, and directing the keenness of his mind upon thee, the sun of justice. And what does he say? God is charity (I Joan. IV). 1026BThou, then, art called charity and art charity, O beloved, because charity made thee take on flesh and come into this world, and be humbled for human salvation even unto the death of the cross; and for his exceeding charity with which God loved us (Ephes. II). Thee, his Son, he sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, that of sin thou mightest condemn sin (Rom. VIII), made a curse for our sakes, that thou mightest free us from the curse (Gal. II). And how has this name of thine, the name of charity, been poured out and spread abroad? Like the ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, that ran down to the skirt of his garment (Psal. CXXXII). Thou art Aaron, that is, the mountain of strength, in whom, namely in our head, the distinction of this charity abounded specially, with which God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of exultation 1026Cabove thy fellows (Psal. XLIV; Hebr. I), namely of that exultation with which thou didst exult both to have shown ostendi se so great an abundance of thy charity and to have fulfilled the order of our redemption.

The beard of this head were the apostles, or apostolic men, into whom the grace of this ointment flowed down so abundantly that they cleaved to thee, as a beard 12 to the head, firmly, with the ardour of holy charity, even unto death.

That ran down to the skirt of thy garment, which thy faithful have known, from the first age of the world up to this one in which we now are, we upon whom the ends of the ages are come (I Cor. X), who are the skirt, that is, the end, of this garment of thine; in all of whom, namely both the former and the present and the future, the strength of this 1026Dointment, that is, of charity, has laboured and labours labora, and will labour even in the very end of the world under the persecution of Antichrist for thy name. Thy name, then, is oil poured out, because thy charity is poured forth in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Rom. V).

And Therefore the young maidens have loved thee exceedingly. [Vulg. Ct 1:2 dilexerunt te, without nimis] Because, she says, so great is the sweetness of thy breasts, so great the abundance of thy charity, that gentleness rather than harshness is found in thee, rather a cherishing madness [dementia; read clementia, "clemency"] than a striking sentence, therefore the young maidens have loved thee exceedingly.

But who are these young maidens, assuredly faithful souls, removed indeed from the milk of infancy, but not yet having attained the solidity of perfection; therefore 1027Astill weak, and needing to be sustained by divine help; and on that account they have greatly loved thee, O beloved, and love thee, because they attend to this in thee, that they in no way flee from it, but rather by it may at length grow strong more and more to the sublimity of perfection.

Now it is customary in Holy Scripture for the growths of the mind to be designated by the growths of bodies; because, as men advance by nature to greater ages, so the faithful advance by grace to greater virtues of the soul; whence Peter exhorts his hearers to infancy, that is, to innocence of life, saying: As newborn infants, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow unto salvation (I Petr. II). In the Gospel also the Saviour, exhorting his disciples to purity 1027Band simplicity of life: Unless, he says, you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matth. XVIII). And the Apostle: In malice, he says, be children, that in understanding you may be perfect [Vulg. 1Cor 14:20 sensibus autem perfecti estote, "but in understanding be perfect"] (I Cor. V). The Psalmist too, desiring the youth of his soul to be renewed after the example of the eagle, shall be renewed, he says, like the eagle's thy youth (Psal. CII). So that, stripping off the old man with his deeds, he may put on the new (Colos. III), who according to God is created in justice and holiness (Ephes. IV). And in the book of Wisdom gravity of character is expressed by old age of mind, when it is said: Old age is venerable, not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years; for the grey hairs are the understanding of a man, and a spotless life is old age (Sap. IV).

1027CGrowth, then, can be divided in two ways, so that one speaks of natural growth and affectual growth. And natural growth is ascribed to every bodily creature which is moved naturally with vital vegetation according to its own property: 13 but affectual growth is granted in the present life to the rational creature alone, according to the measure of the giving grace, by the help of which grace it is promoted, against the vices of the flesh, by the strength of the spirit, to good things, and from good things to better.

But for the most part in Holy Scripture natural growth is significative of affectual, as the Psalmist: And it shall please, he says, God better than a young calf that bringeth forth horns and hoofs (Psal. LXVIII). For if thou understandest it according to the letter, what care has God 1027Dfor an irrational beast naturally bringing forth horns and hoofs? but if thou considerest the young calf more deeply according to the mystical sense, thou canst take it as the mind newly converted to the Lord, and budding with the flower of good action, which the Apostle calls the new man, saying: Put on the new man, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him that created him (Col. III). Enumerating within the constitutive parts of which man: Put on, he says, as the elect of God, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another (ibid.).

The horns of this young calf, that is, of the new man, can, not absurdly, as I judge, be taken as constancy of mind and fortitude of spirit, or the spirit of fortitude, 1028Aresisting vices and sins and winnowing the adversaries of this new man

Further, as for its hoofs, with which it stirs the earth, nothing prevents thee from taking them as contempt of the world and love of God, by which, casting away all earthly things, it may bring its body into servitude, subjecting it to the spirit, so that it may co-operate and labour together with it by consent in the discipline of good works; so that in the future renewal, as it was a sharer of the labour, so it may become a sharer also of the reward; which is for the new man himself to be presented with a double stole, namely with the felicity of body and of soul.

Or understand the horns and hoofs of this calf as the sublime and special transports of the theoretic life; because, as horns and hoofs proceed indeed from the flesh but go beyond the flesh, so the theoric man, though he is in 1028Bthe flesh, yet transcends carnal affections in mind, saying with the Apostle: For walking in the flesh, we do not walk according to the flesh [Vulg. 2Cor 10:3 militamus, "we war"] (II Cor. X). And again: But our conversation is in heaven (Philip. III); and elsewhere: Whether we be sober, or whether we fall out of our mind, it is to God [Vulg. 2Cor 5:13 sive enim mente excedimus Deo: sive sobrii sumus, vobis, "whether we be transported in mind, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for you"] (II Cor. V).

But this calf, still not yet having horns and hoofs, but bringing them forth, is young, and has not yet advanced to the strength of a bull; because the believing credentes soul of each one, already seizing the rudiments of holy newness, but not yet having attained the perfection of the holy Fathers, is called not adolescens, a youth, but by diminution adolescentula, a young maiden, because on account of her weakness she cannot rise to the sublimity of perfection, but brings forth the first little flowers of good working, 1028Cas far as she is able, until, growing up little by little, she shows the fruits of the virtues now full and ripe.

Let the bride say, then: Therefore the young maidens 14 have loved thee exceedingly, because the minds of believers, still advancing daily in faith through grace, greatly love the sweetness of thy mercy, O beloved, since they can attain it for its sweetness by thy gift: by thy gift, I say, because without thee we can do nothing; and therefore I cry aloud, and invite all who love thee to cry aloud with me: Draw me: after thee we will run, etc.

VERS. 3.-- Draw me: after thee we will run to the odour of thy ointments. The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will exult and rejoice in thee, mindful of thy breasts 1028Dabove wine: the righteous love thee.

But whence comes such a proclamation, or petition, of the believing soul that sighs toward God? Surely from the consideration of her own infirmity, by which she weighs that without the aid of grace she can in no way suffice for herself; because, according to the Apostle, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom. IX). By which sentence free will is not destroyed, but rather it is shown that the help of divine grace is altogether necessary to free will, without which every will to work well will always lie ineffectual. For indeed, from free will anyone has the willing to come to God; not indeed that the willing itself is from himself, since not even to think, which is less than to will, anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, are we sufficient (II Cor. III). 1029AThese are the words of the Apostle, who attributes everything that can be of good, likewise to think, to will and to accomplish according to his good will (Philip. II), to God, not to his own choice. If, then, God, as to these three things, that is, to think good, to will, to accomplish, works in us, he does the first assuredly without us, the second with us, the third through us. For by sending in a good thought he goes before us; by imitating [imitando; read immutando, "changing"] also the evil will, he joins it to himself through voluntary consent; by supplying to the consent the faculty or facility, the inward craftsman becomes known outwardly through our covered [opertum; read apertum, "open"] work. Therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom. IX), when by the free gift of grace working within we have the willing; but we cannot be moved to the course without that same assisting grace; and when we shall be in the course, it will again 1029Bbe of pitying grace that we may be able to arrive.

This drawing, then, which the bride asks for, is not the compulsion of a soul unwilling to follow God, but rather the leading of a willing one, which the Prophet prays for in the Psalm: Lead me, he says, in the path of thy commandments, for I have willed it (Psal. CXVIII): as if he should say in other words: because by the gift of thy grace I have nabeo the will to work well, lead me by the help of the same grace into action, that I may be able to arrive at the promise.

Such a drawing, indeed, is made in four ways, that is, through preaching, through infirmity or adversity, through most evident miracles, through persecution or striking; the kind Father intending this, that he may make 1029Cthem willing 15 and not save them unwilling; so that, while he changes from evil into good, he may transfer the will, not take away the will. For no one is saved unwilling; for what is read in the Gospel: No man cometh to me, unless my Father draw him [Vulg. Jo 6:44 nemo potest venire ad me, nisi Pater, qui misit me, "no man can come to me, unless the Father, who sent me"] (Joan. VI); likewise in another place: Compel them to come in (Luc. XIV), is no obstacle; because assuredly, however many the loving Father, who wills all to be saved (I Tim. II), may seem to draw or compel to salvation, yet he declares none worthy of salvation whom he has not first proved willing.

With this prerogative of divine dignity, indeed, the Maker singularly distinguished the rational creature: that, just as he himself was of his own right, and it was of his own will, not of necessity, that he was good, so also she too might exist in a certain manner of her own right in 1029Dthis respect, so that only by her own will she might either become evil and be justly damned, or remain good and deservedly be saved; not that her own will could suffice her for salvation, but that she would in no way attain it without her own will.

The soul tending toward God, then, desires and prays to be drawn spiritually, not as someone unwilling is drawn, but as a blind or weary man, when he is drawn, is not grieved, but rather gives thanks to the one drawing him, as to one lifting him up and helping him; so she too, giving thanks to God, asks that he who gave the willing may give also the being able, to arrive by his help at that toward which she tends, saying: Draw me after thee: we will run to the odour of thy ointments.

Whether thou pronounce it thus: Draw me after thee, and, making the division there, 1030Abring in we will run to the odour of thy ointments; or thus: draw me, so that thou make the division there, and then add, after thee we will run to the odour of thy ointments, it has the same force of sense, namely that to be drawn by Christ or to run after him is to follow his footsteps by believing and working.

We will run, she says. Who, or of what kind, is this course, as it ought to be? Assuredly not of the body, but of the mind; not a progress of the feet, but of conduct; of which progress, namely, the Psalmist was speaking, when he spoke of the blessed dwelling in the house of the Lord, who in this vale of tears dispose ascents in their hearts. They shall go, he says, from virtue to virtue (Psal. LXXXIII). And what is the fruit of this course or progress? The God of gods shall be seen in Sion (ibid.). For what 1030Bis the reward of this course, save true and eternal beatitude? And what is true and eternal beatitude, save the contemplation of that supreme and eternal and consubstantial Trinity? I will not run alone, then, but with thee, O Lord Jesus, holding my right hand, drawing and leading me, and as it were running with me, we will run.

By what way? Through thyself, assuredly, who hast said: I am the way, the truth and the life (Joan. XIV); for through thee I will run to thee for thy sake. Through thee, who art the way, I will run ready; to thee, who art the truth, I will run secure; for thy sake, who art the life, I will run glad. For I will run ready because I have thee as helper; secure, because I do not doubt of the reward; glad, because I acknowledge 1030Cand believe that to know thee and to have thee is this reward of mine.

16 So then I will run not as at an uncertainty (I Cor. IX), but that I may lay hold. Of inestimable price is the gift, the things which thou hast promised to those who run in the stadium of this life through thee, and to thee, and for thy sake; which, namely, thou criest through thy prophet to be of such a kind that neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it ascended into the heart of man (Isai. LXIV).

We will run, then, she says; but how? In the odour of thy ointments. [Vulg. Ct 1:3 in odorem, "to the odour"] Since the perfumes of the bridegroom's ointments are very many and diverse, and therefore not fragrant in one and the same manner, why is it that she says in the odour in the singular number, then of ointments in the plural, when she could rather have said, in the odours 1030Dof thy ointments? She attends to something, as I think, because she has considered diligently how and by whom those perfumes are spread. For what is that special and singular odour save charity? And every virtue, if it is without charity, is now no virtue, but rather a damnable vice; because all virtues ought to come forth from the root of charity, as the Lord shows in the Gospel, where he has admonished how the virtue of abstinence is to be held, saying: But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee (Matth. VI). What is it to anoint the head, save to cherish the ruling part of the mind in good work through the sweetness of charity? And what to wash the face, save to show forth the habit of the inner 1031Aman, festive and glad from the joy of good works, through the sweetness of charity? Therefore neither abstinence, nor chastity, nor humility, nor obedience, nor any virtue is anything, or can be, without charity; because, although it may put forward the appearance of virtue, unless it proceeds from love of God or of neighbour, it is not only not a virtue, but even a detestable vice before God; and by this, while anyone takes from it human praise only, he deprives [himself] once for all of the reward of the divine gift. But the manifestation of this doubtful virtue will be made at the last judgment, when, according to the voice of Truth, in the night of that judgment, that is, in tribulation, two shall be in one bed, two women grinding together, two in the field, of which two, one being taken to life, the other shall be left to death 1031B(Matth. XXIV; Luc. XVII).

By these names of things, indeed, that is, of the bed, the mill, the field, three kinds of profession are denoted; because there are some who keep sabbath with the beloved in rest of mind, while many are occupied with the labours of the active life, and some cultivate the hearts of their hearers with the word of life; but in each profession an outcome of differing intention often appears. For in one bed, that is, in the rest of the contemplative life, which belongs chiefly to those who, separated from the cares of the world, give themselves to God alone in the pursuit of prayer or of sacred meditation, this twofold intention is sometimes found, while there are some who show this for human favour alone 17 or fear, but others practise it from the love and fear of God alone. So too in the active life either the favour of the world or the love of God compels certain men to labour 1031C; and either the vice of boasting or the love of eternal life leads many to apply themselves to the word of preaching. Whence blessed Augustine, when he was speaking of charity which dealeth not perversely (I Cor. XIII), which is the judge of this twofold intention: « See, he says, how great works pride does, how like it makes them, and as it were equal to charity. Charity feeds the hungry, pride feeds him too; charity that God may be praised, pride that itself may be praised: charity clothes the naked, pride clothes him too; charity fasts, pride fasts too; charity buries the dead, pride buries him too. All the good works which charity wills to do and does, pride drives against them, and as it were leads its horses 1031D; but charity is more interior, it takes away the place of pride ill driven. » And after a little: « Do not, he says, attend to what flowers outside, but which root is within rooted is cupidity: there can be an appearance of good deeds, truly good works there cannot be. Charity is rooted, be secure, nothing evil can come forth. » In every good work, then, the mind of each one ought to burn with the fire of charity, so that, the virtues being kindled from it as it were like spices, it may send forth a most sweet smoke of fragrance. With such a fire of charity the Psalmist was burning when he said: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall flame out (Psal. XVIII). Whence also in the law it is commanded that fire burn continually on the altar (Lev. VI). For what is the altar save our heart, in which we offer to God by intention whatever 1032Agood we do, or in which we immolate ourselves by the mortification of vices and the exercise of virtues. On this altar, then, fire ought to burn continually, because every good work, unless it proceeds from the ardour of charity, has no vigour. In another place also it is commanded that oil be always in the house of the Lord for trimming the lamps (Exod. XXXV; Levit. XXIV). For by oil, which excels all liquids, charity is understood, which stands out above all the virtues. And by the lamps good works are understood, as the Lord says in the Gospel: And burning lamps in our hands [Vulg. Lc 12:35 in manibus vestris, "in your hands"] (Luc. XII). And the house of the Lord, or temple, is the body or the mind of any saint, of which, the one and the other, the Psalmist: Holy is, he says, thy temple, wonderful in equity (Psal. LXIV). And 1032Belsewhere: Holiness becometh thy house (Psal. XCII). The Apostle too, to the believers: The temple, he says, of God is holy, which you are (I Cor. III). And elsewhere: Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? [Vulg. 1Cor 6:19 membra vestra, "your members"] (I Cor. VI.)

In the house of the Lord, then, there ought to be oil for trimming the lamps, because each faithful man who is the house or temple of God ought to have charity as the matter by which he may be kindled to the pursuits of piety.

Fittingly, then, the beloved speaks to her Bridegroom, saying: We will run to the odour of thy ointments; because assuredly anyone labours in vain in the course of good works if he is not at all fragrant with the odour of charity.

But in a course of this kind four things are to be considered, 1032Cnamely the manner, the quality, the intention, the usefulness. 18 Now this course is nothing other than the life of each saint. And the perfect manner of running, that is, of living, ought to be such for each one that there be nothing above, nothing below, but all things be paved with charity in the midst (Cant. III), according to the footsteps of the preceding Fathers, as Scripture commands: pass not beyond, it says, the bounds which thy fathers have set (Prov. XXII), of whom the Psalmist says that the Lord knoweth the way of the just (Psal. I); as if he should say: Since the way of those is known to God and pleases him, who, doing nothing outside discretion, hold their life in the even balance liberamine of justice. For to those who will or do anything above and beyond what is just the Apostle commands not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise 1032Dunto sobriety (Rom. XII). But of those who fall short below or grow lukewarm it is written: Cursed is everyone that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully (Jerem. XLVIII). And those have their pursuits paved with charity in the midst who, like those four living creatures full of eyes before and behind, whose feet, straight feet, with two wings (Ezech. I) of the twofold charity, of God, namely, and of neighbour, are both lifted up and diminish their bodies, that is, their works, so that they neither withdraw from love of neighbour through the contemplative life, nor fall away from the charity of God through the active. On both sides they hold so discreet a manner of living that the perfect rule of justice does not admit whatever may be above or below. Whence a certain wise man of this world says: 1033AThere is a measure in things; there are, in short, fixed bounds, Beyond and short of which the right cannot stand. (HORAT., Satir. I, I, 107.)

Because, then, every weight greater and less displeases God, each one's life is to be weighed with such evenness that he neither collapse under too great a weight, nor appear negligent and slothful under a very slight one.

And the quality of this course, or of the runner, is to be attended to, namely that it be such as the Apostle describes, in all things, he says, let us show ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit, in charity 1033Bunfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet known, as dying and behold we live, as chastised and not killed, as sorrowful always, yet rejoicing [Vulg. 2Cor 6:10 quasi tristes, semper autem gaudentes, "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing"], as needy, yet enriching many, as having nothing and possessing all things (II Cor. VI).

Behold with what motions of the soul this course is expressed, which is accomplished by the labour of both men, that is, of body and of spirit, so that after that course is completed, as in both there was labour and suffering, so in both there may at length be rest and consolation, which is the beatitude of the double stole.

Now the wise men of this world say that there are four 1033Cspecies of quality, 19 of which the first is habit and disposition; which, while they are one species of quality, differ in this, that disposition is a habit easily noble [nobilis; read mobilis, "movable"], but habit a disposition remaining for a very long time. The second species of quality is that which comes about according to power and impotence: according to power, that it can easily be bent naturally into any accident whatever; but according to impotence, that it cannot not [non flecti; read flecti, "be bent"] be bent lightly into anything else whatever. The third species is that which they call passible quality and passion, which two they distinguish within one species thus, saying that passion is that which, having arisen for a time, is easily changed; but passive quality, according to which we are said to be of such a kind, perseveres 1033Dperpetually. This species indeed seems similar to the first, and as it were the same, but it differs in this, that passion is a momentary reception of something; while disposition, which they also call affection, is the enlarged passion of that same accident. Further, habit, since it is perfected by very many things and by a certain order, is called augmented affection; but passible quality is a suddenly inborn and permanent passion. The fourth species they placed in figures and forms, calling figure certain outlines of things, but forms the beauties and comelinesses of those outlines. These species of quality are considered in the course of each one's life according to the diversity of will and purpose, in which is contained the quality of applying the mind in whatever manner to some work

1034AFor through disposition or affection some pass into habit, when some, from occasion or necessity, turn certain good works they have begun into custom by the progress of their way of life, and by a certain delight in the virtues always gain increase, as is said of the saints: They shall go from virtue to virtue (Psal. LXXXIII). Further, according to power and impotence, there is no one who, in this course of a life to be well ordered, does not have the power through the good of the reason granted him, and the grace that assists free will; to which grace he does not have the inability to assent and to labour together. And according to the third species, that is, passion and passible quality, there are many who, when they hear the word concerning the punishment of the wicked and the glory of the good, are pricked for a time 1034Band grow warm with love of good work; but because this charity is not rooted in them, they grow cold in the time of temptation. But there are some who, when once they hear the word of God, are kindled to the practice of good work, and because they are rooted in charity and made firm (Ephes. III), they do not fall away from the love once conceived, but always direct the step of good work even to the end of life. Or we may say it is passion when the mind for an hour as it were suffers through humility, patience, obedience, by struggling against its own will, not another's, but this very rarely. But passible quality, 20 when by a permanent passion of voluntary mortification, through the aforesaid or any other virtues, it is worn down daily, consenting to no pleasures of this world. But according to the fourth species, which they place 1034Cin figures and forms, this quality of life can be considered, which is established according to the example and form of some life, as James admonishes his disciples, saying: Take, brethren, the example of labour and patience through the prophets who spoke to you in the name of the Lord [Vulg. Jac 5:10 exitus mali, laboris, et patientiae, prophetas, qui locuti sunt in nomine Domini, "of suffering evil, of labour and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord"] (Jac. V). And Paul: Be ye followers, he says, of me, as I also am of Christ (Phil. III).

That quality, then, by which affection passes into habit, and by which through the grace of God willing and being able are present, and which in good work is not momentary nor of an hour but perpetual, or which takes the form of the preceding Fathers, is to be attended to with the greatest care by everyone who wishes to run well, so that according to it he may become a kind of mirror of honourable conduct and discipline, by which he may gain both the reward of his own labour and the salvation of those who imitate him, and the profit 1034Dof his neighbours.

And the intention of running in this way, that is, of working rightly, will be this: that no desire of vainglory creep into the mind, but that the love of God or the love of eternal life be the cause of labour and watchfulness of this kind.

Now this intention is as it were a certain eye of the mind, of which the Saviour says in the Gospel: If thy eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light: but if it be evil, thy body also will be dark (Matth. VI). And in this same Canticle of canticles the bridegroom speaks to the bride: Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art fair, thine eyes are doves' (Cant. V). Sometimes certain works are done which are interpreted in the bad sense by those who 1035Ado not know from what intention they proceed; just as, on the contrary, certain things are regarded in the good sense which are disapproved by the Inspector on high, because they are brought forth with an evil intention; and these are not only not rewarded, but rather are condemned, just as those things too which are judged worthy of condemnation by the ignorant are rather rewarded by the just judge. Whence the Lord also says of the reprobate through the prophet: This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me (Isa. XXIX). All good things, then, are directed according to this eye of intention, so that they are worthy either of reward or of condemnation: of reward, if they are done for God; of condemnation, if for human favour.

But what the profit of this course or labour is, the Apostle sets forth, saying: The sufferings 1035Bof this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us (Rom. V). And the Lord in the Gospel cries out to those who run in such a way, saying: Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will make you to rest [Vulg. Mt 11:28 reficiam vos, "I will refresh you"] (Matth. XI). The Apostle too, understanding that he had not run in vain, after he declares the course of his labour, saying: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, 21 goes on to promise himself confidently the fruit of that very labour: as for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice which justitiaequam the just judge will render to me against that day (II Tim. IV).

The profit, then, great and inestimable, is the very fruit of eternal life, which in the life to come is bestowed eternally, without any failing, on those who labour for God; 1035Cbut because it is granted to the Church, or to any faithful soul, to foretaste the fruit of this profit in the present life also, it follows, saying: The king hath brought me into his storerooms.

This bringing in has no small dignity, if both the person of the one who brings in and the place and the manner of the bringing in are rightly considered. For it is not just anyone, but a king, and not only a king, but the King of kings, who brings in; nor only into the house, but also into the storerooms; nor as it were abruptly, but this bringing in is done in a fitting manner of reason. For there are many who enter the house of this king, that is, the Church, but very few who can have entrance into the storerooms. Some can keep watch before the doors of these storerooms, they are able to look in, but they do not prevail to go in 1035Dunless he brings them in who hath the key of David, who openeth and no man shutteth; shutteth and no man openeth (Apoc. III).

But it must be considered what these storerooms of so great a king are. All Holy Scripture, which is divided into two Testaments, namely into the law and the Gospel, is the repository, or storehouse, of the riches of this king. And this is divided threefold, that is, into history, allegory and morality. For this King, wise, merciful, and ruling and cherishing with great kindness and with his providence, established such a manner for his riches that there should be in them that which, according to the capacity of diverse understandings, both the strong might seek and the weak might not shun.

For many delight in history, very many 1036Aare fed by allegory, some are instructed by morality. But those whom this king deems worthy of so great a grace of his that he grants them entrance into all these storerooms, so that, namely, from historical knowledge they enter into the allegorical, and from the allegorical into the moral: with what sweetness, thinkest thou, are these fed? with what torrent of the Lord's pleasure are they made drunk? (Psal. XXXV.) To such indeed the Lord promises through the prophet, saying: Behold, I will send you corn, wine and oil, and you shall be filled with them (Joel. II).

Desirable are storerooms of this kind, in which the delights of these kinds are contained, so that bread strengthens the heart of man, wine gladdens the heart of man, oil makes the face cheerful (Psal. CIII). For we receive corn from the Lord when, in the more obscure sayings, 1036Bthe covering of the letter being drawn away, we perceive the inward things through the marrow of the spirit of the law. The Lord supplies us his wine when he inebriates us with the lofty preaching of his Scripture; he bestows his oil on us also when he orders our life with gentle mildness by the plainer precepts.

22 It is pleasing to attend still more fully, and reverently adreverenter, to why the divine storehouses contain these kinds rather than others. For if thou considerest that one grain of wheat which, having died in the earth, brought forth much fruit (Joan. XII), and attendest to the glorious greatness of the numerous harvest springing forth from it, thou wilt see how magnificent the examples of distinguished works that shine out from the historical storehouses, how sweet the marrows of the mysteries 1036Cthat breathe their fragrance from the allegorical storerooms, how useful the teachings of the precepts that shine forth from the moral repositories.

A most beautiful comparison of Christ in the grain of wheat: for in the grain the marrow is covered by the husk: what then is figured by the husk but the flesh of Christ? what by the marrow but his divinity? In the grain, then, the marrow is covered by the husk; in Christ the divinity is hidden by the flesh: the husk and the marrow make one grain, the flesh and the divinity make one person, Christ, God and man. When therefore thou hast looked into all the things that were done concerning this grain of wheat, that is, Christ, God and man: namely, how this grain, descending from the heavenly granary, fell into the earth and died, then, rising again 1036Dand ascending into heaven, being multiplied in the apostles and the other believers, filled the whole world with the corn of faith and justice; how, with the wine of preaching overflowing, he restrained offenders with the severity of correction, and soothed penitents with the oil of charity and mercy; for in this manner he who had fallen among robbers was healed by that Samaritan of the Gospel (Luc. X). When, therefore, thou hast read and understood all these things, some historically, some allegorically, and some morally, now separately, now together, in this same threefold manner, and hast been able by the grace of God to minister the same to others in the same manner, wilt thou not be able, for so great a benefit conferred upon thee, to say gratefully: The king hath brought me into his storerooms.

But what ensigns of the virtues have shone more greatly and more perfectly 1037Athan in this grain, that is, in this Lordly man? Surely, whatever the saints have of the bowels of mercy, whatever of meekness of spirit, whatever of the heaven of uprightness, whatever of the keeping of humility, whatever of the fervour of charity, this they have drawn from that very fountain of mercy, from that very root of meekness, from that very power of justice, that is, from the very mediator of God and men, the Lord God.

More, then, and as it were principally, these three kinds are held in the Lord's storehouses; and whatever breathes forth from the abundance of the Old and New Testament is either wheat, which strengthens and confirms those perfect in faith and in the exercise of the virtues; or it is wine, which either soothes the saints with the sweetness of the heavenly promises, or 23 deters sinners by the severity of the divine judgment; 1037Bor it is oil, which is either poured out in the hearts of the saints through charity, or consoles penitents through mercy. Whence holy Church, or each faithful soul beloved of God, considering in mind such treasures of her bridegroom, her king and her Lord, better than all the precious furniture of all kings and princes, and understanding what mysteries or sacraments are contained in them, can rightly chant with the joyful voice of the soul: the king hath brought me into his storerooms. And such a bringing in is indeed commendable enough from the person and the place; but the manner of this bringing in is this, that it is not done for an hour, but with the right of possessing, and as it were under the drawing up of a dowry, so that, so great a grace 1037Chaving been conferred, there may be the assigning of a spiritual and most holy dowry, whereby the coupling of the divine and the human mind may be confirmed.

This admirable bringing in having therefore been celebrated, there follows the fitting giving of thanks for the gift conferred, which the mind gives to God, joined to him and sharing in the goods designated for her by him, with the motion of both the inner and the outer man, we will exult, saying, and we will rejoice in thee.

Exultation and gladness seem in some manner to differ from each other, so that the description of each is such that gladness is said to be a motion of the soul only, but exultation of body and soul.

The holy soul, then, perceiving in herself the gifts of divine grace, ought to receive and keep them with gladness and exultation, and to exercise in work what she perceives in mind: 1037Dfor because « the proof of love is the showing of work (Gregory); » assuredly the mind joined to God through charity, while it is glad inwardly over the grace of understanding conferred on it, ought also to exult outwardly unto the works of the virtues. Whence also, in the likeness of the children playing in the market place, the apostles cry out to those who would do no good works at their preaching: We have sung to you, and you have not danced (Luc. VII). For they desired their hearers to have the dance of the spirit, in order to show that faith without works is idle (Jac. II).

This religious dance, then, David the king prefigured, playing and leaping before the ark of the Lord, because in the spirit he foresaw from afar that through Christ, who was to be born of his flesh, that sacrifice of the Lord, not made with hands but 1038Aheavenly, was at some time to be established by faith and works. For this most beautiful play of holiness is the wonderful Prophet bore before him in his own prelude, fittingly and becomingly; for so great a grace of honour to come, which was to be administered and confirmed through Christ, his son according to the flesh, he rejoiced and exulted before that typical sacrifice of the Lord. And because he was the ruler and leader of the people of God, by such a deed of his he taught beforehand the rulers of the Churches, who ought to be over those subject to them by word and example, that before the ark of the Lord, which is his Church, they ought to dance with a spiritual dance, namely with a motion of soul and of body; so that, according to the Apostle, they may present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 24 pleasing to God (Rom. XII): being a sacrifice indeed by the mortification of vices, 1038Bbut living by the showing of good works. And this before the ark of the Lord, that they may see their good works and glorify their Father who is in heaven (Matth. V).

Since therefore with the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. X), which is to be moved in soul and body, it is certain that the one cannot be without the other; whence the prophet exhorts: Lift up, he says, your hearts with your hands to God [Vulg. Lam 3:41 Levemus corda nostra … ad Dominum in caelos, "let us lift up our hearts … to the Lord in the heavens"] (Thren. III). For to lift up the hearts with the hands is to believe and to work; for he who believes and does not work lifts up the heart indeed, but does not lift up the hands: but he who works, but does not have faith, lifts up the hands indeed, but does not lift up the heart.

Therefore, for that gracious bringing in of the grace of God into the ineffable subtlety of the divine mysteries, 1038Cthe holy soul and bride of Christ ought to render to God the thanksgiving that is due, by the jubilation of heart and mouth and by the showing of works, which is to take oil with the lamps and to go out to meet the bridegroom, saying: We will exult and we will rejoice in thee, because we bear the gladness of good works in our conscience, and this in thee, when we ascribe every good that we do not to our own strength but to thy grace. But after that bringing in, gloriously celebrated, for which she gives thanks by exulting and rejoicing, she adds the cause of this exultation and gladness, namely the remembrance of the divine breasts, more desirable than wine. For what would that exultation or gladness of the religious mind be, thinking and working things worthy of God, if it had not 1038Dthe remembrance of these breasts, breasts better than wine, that is, sweeter than every pleasure of the world? But of what breasts? Surely either of the two Testaments, of which the whole of Holy Scripture consists, or of the two precepts of charity, on which the whole law dependeth, and the prophets (Matth. XXII). Truly, meditation on the Holy Scriptures begets the remembrance of the divine commandments, according to which the rule of living rightly consists, to whose rightness the life of each is directed: in thy justifications, says the Psalmist, I will meditate; I will not forget thy words (Psal. CXVIII).

For how can anyone be or be called just unless he is mindful of the things which God has commanded, and above all of these breasts, namely the two precepts 1039Aof the charity of God and of neighbour, without which, as the Apostle says, neither kinds of tongues, nor prophecy, nor the knowledge of all mysteries, nor faith, nor almsgiving, nor martyrdom (I Cor. XII), nor any virtue will be able to profit anyone? for whosoever shall keep the whole law, but shall offend in one precept of charity, is become guilty of all [Vulg. Jac 2:10 offendat autem in uno, "but offend in one point", without praecepto charitatis] (Jac. II).

Wherefore the bride of Christ, wishing to show that the whole rightness of her life consists in a remembrance of this kind, goes on, saying: The right love thee; as if she should say: the proof of rightness 25 is love; because if they are right, they love thee; if they do not love, neither are they right. But because they conceive this rightness from the remembrance indeed of thy precepts, but take it up perfectly from the love of thee, let it rightly be said that 1039Bmindful of thy breasts, better than wine, the right love thee.

For this middle little part of the sentence, which is mindful of thy breasts, better than wine, can, not absurdly, be joined, by a subdistinction, to the parts placed on either side of it; so that it may be uttered either in this way: We will exult and we will rejoice in thee; mindful of thy breasts, better than wine. Or in this way: We will exult and we will rejoice in thee: and here, a subdistinction having been made, let there be added after, mindful of thy breasts, better than wine vinnm; the right love thee. For those who have remembrance of the commandments of God, and settle the manner of their life according to them, become right; and none but the right can love, nor are they right unless they love.

Moreover, it delights not a little the eyes of our inner 1039Cman to consider the most beautiful progression of this canticle, from that place where it is said: Draw me after thee, up to this little sentence, the right love thee. For the order of this progression becomes a kind of sequel to the kiss that was asked for.

For here that kindly sevenfold Spirit, as by certain ascents of the heart, intimates the sevenfold graces of his condescension, by which the holy soul, the bride of Christ, may rise little by little, until she advances to the inestimable bridal chamber of her Lord, her bridegroom and king, to be coupled to him with eternal charity. For first she is drawn by the compassion of God; then, as it were moving her foot to the race, she offers the first-fruits of a good intention; and soon, having applied zeal, she merits to be brought into 1039Dthe storerooms of God, and when she has entered, she exults in understanding and rejoices in believing and working.

Further, from this active life she passes to a certain beginning of the contemplative life by meditation and remembrance of the precepts of God, and directing to their line whatever strength is still in her, she attains the perfection of rightness; and so at last, all cares and business set aside, cleaving to God through contemplation, she is so near to him by burning charity that she can say: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

VERSE 4.-- I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the skins of Solomon.

Universally indeed the whole Church, and particularly the individual Churches, and singly also each soul beloved of God, have endured adversities, and it is endured 1040Afrom the contrary side, because the qualities of the good and of the evil have been set against them, who are divided into diverse and contrary pursuits, of which parts the one is called the heavenly city, the other the earthly; the one God's, the other the devil's.

Of these, moreover, 26 two women bore the type: the one free, who was Sara; the other a bondwoman, who was Agar, the mother of Ismael, whose son was Cedar, which is interpreted darkness, to which is likened that blackness which the Church, or each holy soul, says she has according to the judgment of those who live evilly, whereas she, by right consideration, judges this very thing to be not blackness but rather beauty. And what is this blackness? Plainly persecution, which is inflicted on the sons of the bondwoman [filiis ancillae; read a filiis ancillae, "by the sons of the bondwoman"]; which is therefore thought black by the perverse and by those who do not believe the good things 1040Bto come, because it is heavy and troublesome, and because it makes those who suffer it as it were abject and wretched, whereas they rather become glorious, and inwardly, because of the hope of rewards to come, fair and beautiful with spiritual joy; for the sons of that city which is signified by Sara, who was free, are persecuted by the sons of the other city, which is shown by Agar the bondwoman; now indeed by inflicting evils bodily, but now by afflicting the soul spiritually through malice.

Lastly, that play which went on between the son of the free woman and the son of the bondwoman the Apostle calls persecution; as he says: He that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was after the spirit; so also now (Gal. IV): because assuredly the sons of the bondwoman persecute the sons of the free woman, 1040Cnot only by carnal persecution but also by spiritual, by which they try to deprive them of that true liberty with which Christ has made them free (ibid.), that they may not serve sin, as these do who are the sons of the bondwoman. Which persecution is surely as much heavier than every bodily persecution as that spiritual portion is better than the carnal, the soul, namely, than the body.

Whence, indignant at such persecution, that free woman and mother of the free says: Cast out, she says, the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman (Gen. XXI); because surely the servants of sin do not belong to that heavenly inheritance to which the free of justice belong. The Church, then, or any 1040Dholy soul, makes light of persecution of this kind, inasmuch as, being established upon the rock of faith, she is often shaken only by the storms of the persecution persecutionem of outward men, but is not thrown down, having patience and awaiting glory and honour and incorruption unto eternal life.

Let her say, then: I am black but beautiful: black indeed to those who judge of me by reason of temporal affliction, but to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, who know and believe the good things to come, beautiful, because the humbler I am through temporal affliction, the more I am exalted by the greater beauty of the virtues. But how am I judged black? As the tents of Cedar. Cedar was the son of Ismael, of whom the divine voice says: This man, it says, shall be a slave man [Vulg. Gn 16:12 ferus homo, "a wild man"], and the hand of all against him; over against the country of his brethren he shall pitch his tents (Gen. XVI).

1041ABut why did she not say as the tents of Ismael, but of Cedar? Because, namely, Ismael is interpreted the hearing of God; but Cedar darkness, and 27 this name of darkness agrees better with the opinion of those who think light darkness, and darkness light (Isa. V), and, according to the likeness of his father, that is, Ismael, who was a slave and pitched his tents not among his brethren but over against his brethren, they judge the abasement of this world and the labour of true philosophy to be a certain wildness and contrariety.

But how beautiful? as the skins of Solomon; beautiful, she says, as the skins; not of any other very mighty man, but of Solomon. For Solomon, as he was wiser and richer than all the men of his time, so also he had his tents more beautiful and 1041Bmore adorned, of choice and elaborately wrought skins.

Now skins are of dead animals; but what are the skins of dead animals but the virtues and examples of the Fathers who went before? And from the virtues and examples of the holy Fathers who went before, as from skins shining with varied beauty, I, compacted as it were into one skin, the elaborate of my king, namely of the true Solomon, that is, of the peaceable one, our Lord Jesus Christ, making peace by his blood with all things that are in heaven and on earth (Coloss. I); therefore the tent; so that it may worthily be said of me by the grace of God; that is, the tabernacle which God pitched, and not man.

1041CVERSE 5.-- Do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath discoloured me: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they have set me the keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept.

Beautiful am I as that which I am, and I am the comeliness of the skin of the true Solomon, which you, O daughters of Jerusalem, know well, who daily proclaim that same beauty of mine to the praise of God, of whose grace that beauty is.

Wherefore, do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath discoloured me: do not, I say, consider my outward disposition and habit, which I have contracted by the burning of the sun, that is, by the heat of temptation and of worldly affliction, or from the kindling charity of the true sun, of whom it is written: But unto you that fear my name the sun of justice shall arise 1041D(Malach. IV), who has as it were burnt me with so great a fervour of his love, as with an inseparable accident, that neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor the sword can separate me from his charity (Rom. VIII). Such a discolouring, surely, is the great and glorious beauty and adornment of my inner man.

Further. Sometimes a holy man does certain things which those who discern badly interpret in the sinister sense, since they do not know the intention of the one working, which God alone judges. For there are right ways which seem crooked to men [Vulg. Pr 16:25 Est via quae videtur homini recta, "there is a way which seemeth to a man right"] (Prov. XVI); just as, on the contrary, crooked ones which seem right; because they do not heed that eye of intention according to which every work is either 28 set upright or made crooked. Let the faithful soul, then, say 1042Aafter this manner, I am black but beautiful; as if she should say: Black indeed I seem in some act of mine to those who, not having the single eye, take it in the contrary sense, whereas I am rather beautiful because of my single eye, from which my whole body is full of light (Matth. VI). As you too judge, O daughters of Jerusalem, who look upon me with a single and dovelike eye, do not therefore consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath discoloured me: that is, do not think my body, that is, my work, to be dark; because surely what proceeds from the luminous grace of the true sun is wholly full of light, not having any part of darkness.

Further. Any soul whatever, turned to the Lord through penitence, seems indeed, from the 1042Bausterity of penitence, as it were black, because of her sad and mournful habit: but because this sorrow is according to God, and worketh penitence unto salvation that is steadfast (II Cor. VII); and: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matth. V), she is beautiful; having it in hope that, according to the prophet, she may receive from the Lord a crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a mantle of praise for the spirit of grief (Isa. LXI). And as a certain wise man says: The heart that knoweth the bitterness of its own soul, in its joy the stranger shall not intermeddle (Prov. XIV). Let such a one say, then: I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the skins of Solomon; because from the blackness of penitence I seem at first to have belonged to the sons of the bondwoman, whose works are of darkness, 1042Cbut afterwards that very penitence has conferred on me such beauty that I now belong to the sons of the free woman, who, by the mortification of the carnal life, know both how to put together and how to be the tents of the true Solomon Salomanis. Wherefore do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath discoloured me, that is, do not despise my penitence, because that true sun made me take it up, who has pierced and enlightened my heart with the rays of his grace and mercy, so that by repenting I might recover that most general good, namely God himself, whom by sinning I had lost.

The chanting of the present Canticle not unfittingly looks to you, most holy sisters, who are and ought to be brides of Christ, in accordance with the quality of your purpose and order, because you display in your outward 1042Dhabit a guise that is despised indeed, but preserve in the inward habit of the mind one beautiful to God because, as we believe, acceptable. Whence let the whole body of your holy society proclaim with a concordant and sweet harmony of heart and mouth; I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the skins of Solomon: do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath discoloured me. Which is to say in other words more expressly, for we are made a spectacle to this world, and to angels, and to men (I Cor. IV). The sons of this world judge us black and misshapen, as the tents of Cedar, that is, as the gentiles who by the blackness of evils are dead both to God and to the world. But we, seeking neither the favour nor the glory 29 of the world, but carrying oil in vessels of our own (Matth. XXV), that is, the gladness of good 1043Aworks in our consciences, are beautiful and fair in the eyes of our Bridegroom, as the skins of Solomon, that is, as those who, bearing about the mortification of Jesus in our bodies (II Cor. IV), build in our hearts tabernacles beloved of him, of which he can say: I will dwell in them and walk among them (II Cor. VI). Do not therefore consider us that we are brown, in that we do not have the passing and misshapen beauty of this world, because that true sun, who has shone upon us by his grace, has brought this about by the strong fervour of his love, so that, all the pomp of this corruptible life being spurned, we choose rather to please him in act and habit than the world. The sons of my mother have fought against me, they have set me the keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept.

1043BAfter the Church, or any holy soul, has set forth beforehand her outward discolouring and the cause of the discolouring, for all indeed that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution (II Tim. III); she now adds the aggravation of the persecution, that she has suffered it and suffers it not only from strangers but also, which is heavier, from brothers. For those evils which are inflicted by strangers bring less pain, but those torments rage more fiercely which are inflicted by those of whose minds better was presumed.

Now the chanting of this little part seems to demand not a simple sense, because the Synagogue and the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem, the goodness or power of the Creator, can all be called equivocally by the name of Mother. 1043CThe same equivocation, too, embraces under the name of sons the apostles and the successors of the apostles, the Jews, heretics and the adverse powers. The fight of such sons, too, is not uniform, because it is taken both in the good sense and in the bad. And the several parts ought to have their several expositions.

For the primitive Church, which was from the Jews, suffered persecution from those Jews who did not believe; as we read in the Acts of the apostles, that filled with zeal they laid hands on the apostles, and put them in the public prison; and in another place: When they had beaten them, moreover, they charged them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus (Act. V); and in that persecution in which Stephen suffered, it is written that there was raised a great persecution 1043Din the Church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all dispersed through the regions of Samaria [Vulg. Act 8:1 per regiones Judaeae et Samariae, "through the regions of Judea and Samaria"], except the apostles (Act. VIII).

Since therefore both parts, that of the believers, namely, and that of the unbelievers, were sons of the Synagogue by nature or by race, but the unbelieving persecuted the faithful on account of the faith of Jesus Christ, that part of the believers, which was at that time the Church of Christ, could plainly say: The sons of my mother have fought against me, they have set me the keeper in the vineyards, my own vineyard I have not kept 30. As if she should say in other words: When the Lord had commanded, saying: Go ye not into the way of the gentiles, and into the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go ye rather to the lost sheep of Israel (Matth. X), I, desiring to fulfil this precept, preached to the sons of my mother the faith which I received from the Lord and through which they 1044Aought to be saved; but they, making light of my preaching, fought against me by words and deeds, and driving me from their borders, set me the keeper in the vineyards, that is, in the churches of the gentiles, who received the word of faith with joy. And while I was spending on them the diligence of my labour and keeping, I neglected to keep my own vineyard, that is, my own nation, because they despised my keeping and refused to receive the word of salvation: as one of my own said to them, To you indeed it behoved [Vulg. Act 13:46 Vobis oportebat primum, "to you it behoved first"] the word of God to be spoken, but because you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life judicati saeternae, behold, we turn to the gentiles (Act. XIII). For as the same says elsewhere: By their offence, salvation to the gentiles, that they may be emulous of them (Rom. XI): and presently: I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, lest 1044Byou be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part befalls Israel, until the fulness of the gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved fierit (ibid.).

Because of this contempt, then, the prophet foretold that this vineyard was to be left without a keeper: And the daughter of Sion, he says, shall be left as a covert in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a city that is laid waste (Isa. I); and these things indeed the primitive Church could say, whose mother was the synagogue, as also of the contrary part, of which she says that the sons of her mother have fought against her.

Further, the universal Church could and can say of the apostles and their successors: The sons of my mother have fought against me, they have set me the keeper 1044Cin the vineyards, my own vineyard I have not kept. For the heavenly Jerusalem is the mother of believers, because of the faith, hope and charity which they have towards her; because, while they hope and believe that they are made partakers of her blessedness, of which the saints who went before have been made partakers, they work and labour through the charity by which they love so great a good, so that they may be able to come to that heavenly fatherland: for the sake of which to live holily and justly, what else is it than to be spiritually begotten from her unto her?

Her sons, too, were the apostolic ones: and apostolic men, who, while for the meriting of this most glorious fatherland they were afflicted with many labours and wearied even unto death, surely, by believing, hoping and loving, were themselves being born unto her, 1044Dand no less were being begotten, as with a mother's affection, by her who was the cause of this labour of theirs.

Such sons, then, fought against the Church when they intended to fight her out of her error, just as even now they daily fight every faithful soul out of vices unto virtue by words and examples. Did not 31 one of them fight in this manner against the churches, when he said to one of them: What will you? shall I come to you with a rod, or in the spirit of meekness? It is absolutely heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not among the gentiles, so that one should have his father's wife (I Cor. IV). See how he first fought against these, whom, after he had beaten them out of this sin by rebuking, he relieves with a consoling letter: Although I made you sorrowful, he says, by 1045Athe letter, I do not repent: though I did repent, seeing that the same letter (though but for a time) made you sorrowful: now I am glad; not because you were made sorrowful, but because you were made sorrowful unto penance: for you were made sorrowful according to God, that you might suffer damage by us in nothing (II Cor. VII). Writing also to another Church: O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth? (Gal. III.) While he fights against her in this manner, he fights her out of unbelief.

But what is it that these sons appoint as keepers in the vineyards those whom they assail in such a manner and fight out of vices, but that they teach and persuade them to keep the buds and fruits of the virtues? But those do not keep their own vineyard, because by the fighting of these men they have advanced to so great a keeping of the virtues that they now 1045Bneglect to keep the errors of their former custom, nay rather, by the grace of God, they drive them further from themselves by the spirit of fortitude. Whence the prophet says in the person of such: I will stand upon my watch (Habac. II): he stands upon his watch who, through the skill of discipline, does not succumb to earthly desires but rises above them, so that, while he seeks the ever-standing eternity, everything that passes away may be beneath him.

In yet another way the Church also cries out over the false brothers who rebel against her, heretics and schismatics, who, as long as they were in the Church and shared in the same sacraments, were thought to be sons of that heavenly Jerusalem which is the mother of the faithful, and to belong to the city of God; but after they were seen to blaspheme against the divinity 1045Cand the humanity of Christ, and to rend the holy unity, they were cast out of the inheritance of the sons, and it was proved that they had not truly been sons, but rather bastards; to such the Apostle says: But if you be without discipline, whereof all sons are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons (Hebr. XII). Of these, too, John says: Because they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us (I Joan. II). And the Lord through the prophet: My sons, he says, are gone out from me, and they are not (Jer. X).

At that time, then, when these sons, not legitimate but bastards, assailed those who were of right sonship by the assertion of a different faith, since heretical 1045Dprinces favoured the assertors of the perverse faith, holy and catholic men, driven from their sees, suffered losses and exiles and many perils, because they preached the right dogma of faith and would not communicate with the heretics.

Since, therefore, both were distinguished with ecclesiastical offices 32 and held the same sacraments, and for this reason were believed to belong to the bosom grem um of one Mother, they were divided by the sole difference of faith, and that society of the wicked persecuted the catholic society; tainted by the heat of whose persecution, this society calls herself black, and says that the sun has discoloured her, the sun for whom she was contending, that he should be said to be equal to the Father in divinity, and of one substance, power and will with him, and in humanity should be believed true 1046Aman, which the contrary party blasphemously said was not so.

The catholic party, then, adds the cause of her discolouring, because, she says, the sons of my mother have fought against me, and since, under the persecution of such sons, not legitimate but bastards, that is, heretics, the party of sound faith was compelled to move to other sees and to leave its own cities, she adds that they have set me the keeper in the vineyards, my own vineyard I have not kept; for many Churches at that time, deprived of their own pastor, were stained by the heretics with perverse dogma; and holy priests, exiled, sowed the word of faith in foreign places, which they were prevented by the necessity of the times from doing in their own.

Otherwise. Since the mother of every creature is the goodness and 1046Bpower of the Creator, for it was of his goodness that he made us when we were not; of his power, because he could do all things that he would (Psal. CXIII); and since in all creation there are two rational ones, the angel and man, because of their sharing in reason, and since both were made by the same goodness and power, they seem to have as it were a certain fellowship of brotherhood, so that they are called sons of the same mother. But because that part of the angels which fell, seeing and envying the human creature rise by the grace of God to that glory from which it had been borne, persecuted it in every way and laboured to destroy it, let man himself say in the person of the weak: The sons of my mother have fought against me, they have set me the keeper in the vineyards, my own vineyard I have not 1046Ckept.

While, he says, these rational spirits, the sons of my mother, fought against me, they compelled my frail mind to love earthly actions and to desert the keeping of my soul. For by vineyards, whose work is under the open sky, the occupations of outward actions also can be designated: for the more the mind is scattered abroad about earthly actions through the outward senses, the more the soul is neglected inwardly in the keeping of itself.

For since the soul is invisible, it is in no way touched by delight in bodily things, except that, cleaving to the body, it has the senses of that same body as certain openings for going out. For sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are as it were certain ways of the mind, by which it may come abroad and desire those things which 1046Dare outside 33 its substance. For through these senses of the body, as through certain windows, the soul looks upon each outward thing, and looking, desires it: hence Jeremias says: Death is come up through your windows, it is entered into your houses [Vulg. Jr 9:21 per fenestras nostras … domos nostras, "through our windows … our houses"] (Jerem. IX). For death comes up through the windows and enters the houses when concupiscence, coming through the senses of the body, enters the dwelling of the mind.

The adverse powers, then, make the mind that is busied with earthly actions careless of itself, while through the slackness of outward works they force it by no means to stand in the keeping of its own soul, so that it can deservedly say: The sons of my mother have fought against me, they have set me the keeper in the vineyards, my own vineyard I have kept [Vulg. Ct 1:5 vineam meam non custodivi, "my own vineyard I have not kept"]. But because in all adversities 1047Aor perils brought upon her, not so much by strangers as by brothers, the Church universal or particular, or any faithful soul, is afflicted with a certain heat of doubt, because many hold the faith in name only, and it is not easy to discern who are truly faithful, she turns to the Lord and her bridegroom, and, begging his help for the grace of discernment of this kind, goes on with a prayer of entreaty, saying: Show me, thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday.

VERSE 6.-- Show me, thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions.

God is said to show in three ways, namely by thing, by understanding, by voice. By thing, indeed, when, the mind being doubtful, 1047Bhe makes manifest by a sign of some power of his what is to be chosen or what is to be held; for in this manner, in order to restrain a seditious people from murmuring, when among the twelve rods which he receives from the several tribes, and commanded to be placed in the tabernacle of the covenant, the rod of Aaron alone, in the tribe of Levi, had blossomed and brought forth fruit (Num. XVII), in presage of the most noble succession to come, from which that singular birth through the Virgin Mary was to be accomplished, he showed by this sign that he had chosen Aaron himself with his offspring for the priesthood, to draw near in a special manner to offer sacrifices to God and to enter into the Holy of holies.

Further, he shows by understanding when, touching the mind of someone 1047Cwith a hidden inspiration, he reveals to his understanding what better thing he should choose to do. Whence, when David the king, the name forewarning, was thinking to build a house for the Lord, it did not displease God, but rather pleased him; because, although he forbade him to do this in his own time, because he was a man of blood (II Reg. XVI), yet he did not disapprove the cause, nay rather judged it worthy of a reward so great, and of reverence, that he promised him that he would raise up a Son who should be exalted by the prerogative of so great 34 peace, innocence and wisdom, as to be fit to accomplish such a work. Moreover, God, wishing to reward this good will of his, which was pleasing to him: Foretelling, he says, I foretell to thee that the Lord will build thee a house (I Reg. VII). So then, that God might show that what 1047Dhe had shown him through the understanding was pleasing to him, he not only did not forbid what he had thought, but also, that that very house might become of great esteem and power in the whole world, he approached it with his grace.

But God shows by voice, now indeed by himself, now through others: by himself indeed, as he spoke to Abraham and Moses and the other prophets; but through others, as when, first through the prophets themselves, then through the apostles and the other believers, to whom he committed his things to be announced to others, he showed what was of his will, what was of their salvation.

Again, according to these ways, God is said to show in four ways, namely sometimes by thing and understanding, sometimes by thing and voice, very often by understanding and voice; but sometimes all at once, both by thing and by understanding 1048Aand by voice. For he shows by thing and understanding when, namely, he foreshows something by the showing of things, and at once foreshows through the understanding to him to whom he shows it. Hence it is that when the diversities and qualities of the kingdoms to come were shown to Daniel through the diverse likenesses of beasts, some things he did not understand except by the teaching of an angel; but some, after the things were seen, he understood at once by himself, as in a certain place, after the likenesses of things were shown to him, he at once adds: And I, he says, understood, and in another place: A word was revealed to Daniel surnamed Balthasar, and a true word, and great strength: and he understood the word (Dan. VIII et X).

But he is said to show by thing and voice when he foretells something 1048Bby a thing and pronounces by voice what it signifies; as when he had given Peter the astonishing catch of fishes, he forthwith opened the cause of this miracle: Fear not, he says, from henceforth thou shalt catch men (Luc. VIII).

Further, he shows by understanding and voice when he gives someone alicu to understand his will, and proves by an open voice that he has understood this by his inspiration. Hence it is that Jacob, when about to go down into Egypt, having understood that it had not been done without the will and disposition of God that Joseph should be promised, God not having been consulted about this, as the Scripture relates: He set out with all his house, and came to the well of the oath, and there, having slain victims to the God of his father, he heard him in a vision saying to him: Jacob, Jacob; who 1048Canswered: Here I am; and he said: Go down into Egypt; fear not, and I will make thee there a great nation (Gen. XXXI). Behold, what 35 he had understood to be of the divine will, the divine voice also attested that it had judged this to him through the understanding.

But he seems to judge all at once, both by thing and by understanding and by voice, when he intimates something by some foregoing sign, by the causation of which sign set beneath him the capable sense of the one seeing weighs through the Spirit of understanding, which the author of that cause confirms also by a voice following after. Lastly, when Isaias, fearing to take up the office of preaching, said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace tacu, because I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath polluted lips (Isa. VI); by a sign given him by God, which he shows, saying: And one of the seraphim flew to me, 1048Dand in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he touched my lips, saying: Behold, I have touched [Vulg. Is 6:7 tetigit os meum … Ecce tetigit hoc labia tua, "touched my mouth … Behold, this hath touched thy lips"] thy lips with this, and thy iniquity shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed, he understood the condescension of the grace calling him; and when the Lord said, whom shall I send, and who shall go for us? he reverently attended to the divine will, and presently, offering himself humbly and dutifully, behold me, he said, send me (Isa. VI). And the Lord, what he had foreshown by the thing and had opened through the understanding, proved also by voice, so as to appoint the prophet to the office of preaching: Go, he says, and thou shalt say to this people: Hear, you that hear me, and do not understand, and see the vision, and do not know (ibid.).

In some one, then, of the ways set down above, the Church, or any soul pleasing to God, asks that there be shown 1049Ato her the grace of the needful discernment, where she can and ought to recognize the well-pleasing dwelling of the divine condescension. Show, she says, me, thou whom my soul loveth. Not at random, she says, not lightly, and as though it should hold but little weight, is this showing of thine to be taken, O Lord; and therefore grant the gift of this grace not to just anyone, but to me, who love thee; because to the perception of this subtlety only the power of contemplative charity avails.

And what wilt thou show? Namely, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday. Who are those whom God feeds, but these whom he himself leads forth and sets out in the green places of the virtues, where they may gather the diverse kinds of holiness, whose wholesomeness may confer health on the soul, drive away diseases, and make a man effective 1049Bunto every good work. But what these kinds are, of such great vigour that they make a man so strong, so fair, so glorious, is clearer than light: namely, humility, patience, obedience, chastity, cleanness of body and soul, incorruption of mind and mortification of the flesh, contempt of the world and the fear of God, and finally the very charity of God and of neighbour, without which the compounding of all these kinds will be of no efficacy. These things are for a judgment to one desiring to know who and of what kind are those whom God feeds, 36 namely, that they are the sheep of that true Shepherd, of whom he himself says: My sheep hear my voice, and I the Lord know them (Joan. X), so that he proves those to be his sheep who hear his voice, and they are sheep for this reason, because they hear, whose such 1049Chearing and being is his knowing; just as, on the contrary, those who do not hear are not sheep either, since they are rather ravening wolves under the clothing of sheep, of whom he says that by their fruits you shall know them (Matth. VII), whose not hearing and not being is his not knowing; if, as he himself says to such: I know you not; depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire (Matth. XXV).

The place, then, where God feeds those whom he feeds is the meadows or green places of the virtues, and also the pastures of spiritual doctrines, where it is found and recognized who are the sheep of the Lord and who are not, because they that are according to the spirit mind the things that are of the spirit; but the sensual perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God (I Cor. II).

Now these pastures in which God feeds whomsoever he feeds are not uniform, because of a twofold 1049Dmanner, namely of living and of teaching, although in each case they are in themselves indeed the same: for the one is called good life, the other good knowledge; yet in the subjects in which they are, and of which they are predicated, they are diverse because of the diverse distributions of graces; because one indeed is predicated humble, another gentle or mild; this one patient, that one obedient; another chaste, and another merciful or generous, or any other thing of this kind that pertains to the manner of living well. But in the other part, which is good knowledge, it is predicated of this subject that he is a good orator or preacher; of that one, that he is a good interpreter or expositor; of another, that he is skilled in the liberal arts, or any other thing that belongs to the manner of teaching well.

1050AThe things predicated particularly also admit of more and less, while on this side one is more patient than another, one more chaste than another, or anything else that can befall an honest life more and less Further, on the other side, one is more learned than another, one more eloquent or more erudite than another; or anything else that can befall a knowing soul also, more and less.

Although, then, in pastures of this kind, in which God feeds what he feeds, not simply but manifoldly, there is the diversity which we have spoken of, and in that very diversity more and less occurs, yet those who are fed, although by reason of the diversity and measure of gifts they are not fed equally, are all nevertheless the sheep of the Lord and are so called; because, as, though star differs from star in glory, yet all the stars 1050Bare contained under one firmament, so there are indeed many differences of the saints, because of the different virtues that are in them, yet all are known to belong to the one kingdom of God, 37. Whence, when the Lord said through the prophet: Behold, I myself will seek my sheep and will visit them, as the shepherd visiteth his flock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered, he adds a little after: in the rivers and in all the habitations of the land and on the mountains of Israel shall be their pastures (Ezech. XXXIV). The rivers come forth from the springs; but the pastures of the land are lowly, those of the mountains are lofty

What then is meant by the rivers but certain deeds and sayings which flow forth from the great Fathers as from springs? 1050CAnd what by the pastures of the land but the lighter teachings of the divine precepts? And what by the pastures of the mountains but the lofty sacraments of the divine mysteries? God has therefore set before his sheep, great and small, weak and strong, pastures befitting both, according to the capacity of both, so that both the small and the weak may have that whereby they may be nourished and strengthened unto eternal life, and the great and strong that whereby they may advance and be filled. In such sheep of his, surely, which he feeds, and in which he feeds, in this manner, God prepares rest for himself, so that by the grace of his indignation [indignationis; read dignationis, "condescension"] he may lie and rest in them, in whom he is then said to lie and rest when he takes delight in their devout acts. Whence through the prophet: Upon whom, he says, shall I rest but upon the humble and the quiet and him that trembleth at 1050Dmy words? [Vulg. Is 66:2 ad quem autem respiciam, nisi ad pauperculum, et contritum spiritu, "to whom shall I look, but to the poor little one and the contrite of spirit"] (Isa. LXVI.) On the contrary, he is said to labour in the minds of the reprobate when he is as it were wearied by their depraved acts. Whence, when the prophet said to certain perverse men: You have made the Lord to labour with your words; and they answered: Wherein have we made him labour; in this he says, that you have said: Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him (Malach. II). The Divinity, then, which is driven away from the hearts of the wicked, exasperated and in a manner wearied by their perverse acts: For the holy Spirit of discipline, as it is written, will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall be rebuked when iniquity cometh in (Sap. I), whose repulsion is their rejection, it assuredly, in the minds of the saints, by whose devout acts 1051Ait is invited and received, sweetly and as it were delightedly lies and may rest. whose reception is their election.

The Church, then, or the holy soul, asks that it be shown her where the Bridegroom feeds and where he lies, and this not at any time whatever, but in the midday. Since in this place midday ought to be taken only according to anagogy, it is pleasing first to consider what, or in what ways, day is said, and how many and what the parts of the day are, so that, these things being known beforehand, we may leave to another's judgment which more ready sense the diverse signification contains.

Now day seems not to be said simply, because of the diverse forms of its signification, so that, because of the community of the name but the diversity of its reason or definition, it holds the force of equivocation.

1051B38 Let us suppose, then, that there are four forms of day, of which the first indeed may be called the natural day, but the following one, established after the form of the former, may not absurdly be named the active day. The third, which consists by the light of reason alone, may not unfittingly be called the intellectual day; further, the last, which never fails and alone lacks time, and stands fixed in its own immutability, may most fittingly be written the eternal day; and the one indeed is the support of human life, the second the pattern for ordering life, the third the mirror for discerning life, and the fourth and last the reward of a life well consummated.

Let us establish that each of these is divided into three parts, namely into morning, midday and evening, excepting only the last, which always was without time, 1051Cand is and will be: for its being and its incomparable beauty is God himself.

And the first indeed, which is the natural, pertains nothing to the present place, except that the other two only, the last indeed, as we have said, being without time, are established after its form.

In the natural day, then, morning is the first rising of the sun, which, increasing little by little as it ascends, makes midday about the middle of the day, which comes about at that place beyond which the sun, not advancing, is fixed as it were at a centre; and thence again, decreasing as it descends, it makes evening about the end of the day, which is the full setting of the sun.

Now after the form of this day is ordered that one which we have called the active, from the beginning of the world up to its end, whose morning was that time before 1051Dthe law in which man used the natural law only; its midday under the law and grace, when he was instructed by both the natural and the written law; further, its evening the time of the last judgment, when he will be judged both for the natural and for the written law, whether unto life or unto death.

For before the law, through the natural law, he had morning, that is, a certain beginning of discernment, with reason as guide, by which he could see and recognize how far he excelled the brute animals, when he could discern good and evil; but above all, to consider and understand that no creature can create itself, but that there is a certain uncreated thing which commanded all things that have been made to be made, and to perceive, from the beauty and usefulness of the creature itself, how much more excellent and glorious that is than all created things, 1052Aand for this reason that he would be inexcusable if he should pay to the creature the honour due to the Creator.

But when that natural law had in some been overwhelmed by the custom of sinning, the written law was given, which should forbid and restrain sinners, from which the merit of each might be established, while either the keeping of it was the cause of reward, or the transgression of it the cause of damnation. But in some 39 that natural law itself so flourished that they had no need of the written law, since they were a law to themselves and showed the work of the law written in their hearts, and, being without the law, did the things that are of the law, their conscience bearing them witness in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men (Num. II). But where to the natural law 1052Bthe written law was added, after the morning there came as it were midday, because those upon whom the sun of justice had now risen, the commandment having been given them, whether of truth or of the new law, were on both sides kindled with so great a fervour of charity towards God that they would rather choose to die than to transgress the honourable law prescribed to them by God.

This one may see in those most fervent zealots of both laws who had the strongest zeal, whether for defending or for binding themselves by oath to the holy law; of whom, for example, one in the old law was Phinees the son of Eleazar, who vindicated the law by slaying those who had become transgressors of the law: Mathathias also and his sons, who defended the law, and the seven brothers, who chose rather to die by keeping the law than to live by transgressing it. What 1052Cthen shall we say of those most glorious and most valiant fighters in the new law, namely the apostles and their followers, in whom there was so great a fervour of divine charity, so great a zeal for rightness, that it did not hesitate for the faith, for justice, for the truth to bear all adversities, to undergo every kind of death, and finally to fall in death itself? Of whom the Apostle says: The saints, he says, had trial of mockeries and stripes, moreover also of bands and prisons, they were stoned, they were put to death by the sword (Hebr. XI). Were not all these, under the law or under grace, in the midday, when they bore so great a heat of temptation in body and heart, the great heats, surely, of that midday burning doubly, because both their mind burned with the fervour of holy charity and their body 1052Dwas afflicted with the heat of much tribulation.

The evening, too, which is the time of the last judgment, ought to decree for such veteran recruits refreshment and rest for the heat of their labour, to whom, by the heavenly king for whose love they have toiled, there will be given the bounty of eternal reward, namely that most general, unfailing and unchangeable good which is the God of gods himself. For this is God's rewarding: to give himself to his elect.

Further, that intellectual day consists not unsuitably of the same parts which we set down above, because in the understanding of each one who flourishes in the splendour and heat of the virtues, the beginning of a good work is as it were a certain morning; midday, the perfecting of the work well begun through the increase 1053Aand progress of holiness; and evening, the best completion, even to the end, of the work well begun and better perfected. This day in each wise man is the understanding itself, in that he judges and discerns the things that are about him 40 whether in thought or in work, because he is in the light and can see what he ought to do or what to avoid; he moreover that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth (Joan. XII; Isa. XXIX, L); because the darkness has blinded his eyes, and therefore his works are works of darkness, who, since he has not this day, that is, understanding, is said to differ little from irrational things, because of certain irrational and as it were bestial motions of depraved acts.

The first beginnings, as it were, of the light of this intellectual day are 1053Bthe first works of uprightness, still small and slight. But when they have grown by assiduity, and the soul has conceived a certain heat from them, that heat little by little taking increase, it blazes up into the whole fullness of divine charity, as into the midday of this day, when a clearer light of understanding is opened, so that now nothing in earthly things pleases it, but it glows wholly in the love of God. Whence the Psalmist, to describe the morning and the midday of this day, says: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire blazes out (Psal. XXXVIII); as if he said openly: Long since, through the desire of good work, my mind grew hot; but because by the meditation of this, of the commandments of God, it is daily led by contemplation from the lowest things to the highest, it no 1053Clonger only grows warm, but burns wholly with the fire of charity in the love of its Creator.

But the evening of such a day is the consummation of good work even to the end of life, nor will the preceding parts be able to confer anything. If this last be lacking, for he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Matth. XXIV). Whence the Psalmist: The lifting up, he says, of my hands, an evening sacrifice (Psal. CXL); as if he said in other words: The beginning or the progress of my works is then a sacrifice to God, if I shall have closed my last day in the pursuit of them. And by the precept of the law the tail of the victim is commanded to be offered in sacrifice. For in the tail is the end of the body. And he sacrifices well who brings the sacrifice of good work through to the end of the action that is due. Hence Joseph is described as having had among the rest of his brothers a tunic reaching 1053Dto the ankles; for a tunic reaching to the ankle is good work reaching to consummation.

The morning of the intellectual day, then, is inchoative virtue; midday, perfective virtue; evening, contemplative virtue. And such a day admits more and less according to the threefold quality of temporal increase in man: for in boyhood the understanding is less, in youth greater, in old age greatest. For what remains over fails in many, as in the decrepit, who sometimes seem to become boys again in sense. Now boyhood, or adolescence, is a kind of morning, as it were the rising of the sun; youth a kind of midday, as it were the sun's highest ascent and its hottest time, just as that age too is of the greatest heat and strength; but old age a kind of 1054Aevening, as it were the sun's descent from the high pole and the failing of its heat, just as in that 41 age also a man fails from the heat of youth.

Whether, then, the understanding be distinguished by the stages of the ages, or be distinguished within the understanding itself by the increases of works, it may not absurdly be called the intellectual day, so that this may be what the Psalmist says: Evening, and morning, and at midday I will tell and declare (Psal. LIV); as if he said: both in boyhood and in youth and in old age, whether of age or of understanding, as in morning, midday, evening, by teaching and by working I will declare the rule of living rightly.

The last form of day, indeed, which we have called the eternal, has of these three parts midday alone. For of itself it has no morning at all, but in those who 1054Bpartake of it, some morning: before the resurrection indeed in the soul alone, when by dying happily they are born to it; but in the resurrection both in soul and in body, when by rising most happily they are born to it again; which happiness of body and soul Holy Scripture calls the double robe, but the blessedness of the soul alone, the single.

That, then, which has some beginning of blessedness, even now in the soul, and then in body and soul together, is in those who partake a kind of morning, as has been said; but in its own nature and property, which unchangeably was, and is, and will be, it never had a morning, because blessedness itself is God, in whose unchangeableness those who have been made unchangeable partake.

1054CFurther, evening neither could nor can be had in any way, whether in itself or in those who partake, because they will stand fixed eternally with him to whose natural eternity they have been joined through grace. But midday it has always had and will have, both in itself and in those who partake: in itself indeed, because of the special excellence of beauty, brightness and rest; but in those who partake, because of the most ardent fervour of divine charity, which in that life is more fervent than that which they can have in this life by so much as it is agreed that that life is far happier than this, and beyond comparison with it. Whence the prophet: The Lord liveth, he says, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem [Vulg. Is 31:9 dixit Dominus, "saith the Lord"] (Isa. XXXVI). It is more to be a furnace than a fire, because a fire can be even small; but in a furnace a vaster flame 1054Dis kindled. Now Sion is called watching, but Jerusalem vision of peace; for our peace we watch for here meanwhile, that there afterward we may see it fully. From the love of the Lord, then, there is fire in Sion, a furnace in Jerusalem, because here we burn to some extent with the flames of his love, where we contemplate something of him, but there we shall burn fully where we shall see fully him whom we love.

This eternal day, then, has midday alone, far brighter and more fervent than the middays of the formal or natural days described above; which midday nevertheless, according to the merits of those who partake, admits more 42 and less, because, though in itself it is one and the same, yet those who partake partake of it unlike. For in the house of the Father there are many mansions 1055A(Joan. XIV), because in the one reward the glory of the elect is diverse, as also the misery of the reprobate, according to the merit of each.

In this place, therefore, neither the midday of the first nor of the last day is to be considered, but of those between them, the middle ones, namely the active and the intellectual, because the intention of each one who lives rightly ought to hang upon the pursuit either of the active or of the contemplative life.

Since therefore many seem to be in the fervour of divine charity, whether existing in the active or in the contemplative life, who do not have the single eye, because they do good things not with a right intention, while they make show of these not for God but for empty glory or for earthly gain, whom it is very difficult to distinguish from those who truly 1055Blove God, the Church, or some holy soul, asks her Bridegroom to show her in some manner of the modes set out above, through the spirit of discretion, who they are who love and follow him not feignedly simultane but truly; in whom he feeds with the sweetness of his commandments, and in whom he lies and rests with the delightful rest of the virtues in the midday, that is, in the fervour of his charity, as he himself says: If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father loves him, and we will come to him and will make our abode with him (ibid.). For he who observes the words of God proves that he loves God; and he who loves God is worthy of God's abode. And why she asks for the gift of this discretion she adds the cause, saying: Lest I begin to wander 1055Cafter the flocks of thy companions.

Some are companions of Christ, some are thought to be; and because they differ in the quality of their life, they are rightly called not a flock but flocks. For those who are are spoken of in one way, those who are thought to be in another: because those who are truly imitate Christ, whether they be prelates teaching and instructing their subjects by word and example, as Christ did his disciples, or whether they be subjects hearing and questioning one another, as it is written of Christ that they found him in the temple hearing and asking them (Luc. II). But those who are only thought to be, but are not, feigning that they follow Christ, are set over others in name alone, and are set over their subjects neither by word nor by example. And the subjects among themselves, as though they were brothers, are joined by a feigned 1055Dcharity, and therefore they are not recognized. Such companions of the bridegroom, then, both are and are thought to be: they are because true, they are thought to be because feigned.

Wherefore she asks for the discretion needful to her, so that, since she had set forth above that even the sons of her mother had fought against her, and it is therefore doubtful who are faithful, who unfaithful, the grace of discretion being given her, she may be able to recognize to whom she ought to join herself, to whose teaching to give credence, from whom to take the form of living rightly, 43 so that [ut; read ne, "lest"] it be necessary for her to go round as a wanderer and perhaps ignorantly to go off into the errors of companions sed alium who are feigned.

To her thus asking, the Lord, as if chiding her why in some temptation she distrusts his help, on whom for her great consolation he had conferred a diverse 1056Agift of his grace, answered: If thou know not thyself, O fairest, among women?

VERSE 7.-- If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and go away after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds.

A little above, where we described the fourfold day, intellectual or active, we set it particularly in some wise man: intellectual indeed because of reason and light among the darkness, that is, rightly dividing virtues and vices; but active because of discretion, bringing forth into works of light the things it has rightly perceived. But now nothing prevents our setting universally also in each man an intellectual day only, because of the liveliness of the reason naturally implanted in him.

1056BLet us suppose, then, after the likeness of the natural day, which, whole, is divided into day and night, two portions of this intellectual day also in universal man, according to privation and habit, that is, knowledge of self and ignorance, of which the former is reckoned for the day, the latter for the night.

For this is a certain habit of the soul, of justice, when out of full knowledge of itself it takes on a certain form of uprightness, affected by which, or disposed to which, it makes such progress through the grace that helps it that such an affection or disposition passes into a habit, and from this the whole man is declared just. And the privation of this habit is injustice, when the soul itself either never admitted any 1056Cform of piety, or, if it had one, lost it, divine grace betaking itself away; or drew to itself the vice of some deformity, whose affection or disposition in like manner passes into a habit contrary to the former, so that, as by participation of justice one is called just, so by participation of injustice he is called unjust: which is according to habit; but according to privation, either that he himself lacks justice, or that injustice is the privation of justice, according to the description of evil, by which it is said that evil is nothing other than the privation of good; and justice is a species of good, as on the contrary injustice is of evil.

But because this species of good is born from that part which is knowledge of self, and the species of evil from that part which is ignorance of self, it must be said what it is to know and not to know oneself.

1056DFor he truly knows himself who weighs with subtle searching how far he excels every visible creature in that he was created after the likeness of God, which likeness is regarded not in the body but in the mind, according to the prerogative of a reason that understands 44 and discerns; how the creature too, serving his use, is subject to him; that his bodily substance is stretched upward as a kind of reminder to the mind, which ought to despise earthly things and raise itself to heavenly ones; that God so washed [diluerit; read dilexerit, "loved"] his nature that he deigned to shed his blood to redeem it; lastly, that he predestined that same nature to so great a glory that he 1057Adecreed to make him at some time partaker of his immortality, unchangeableness and eternity, and therefore made him capable of receiving all uprightness, virtue and discipline; and so from this knowledge of himself, as by the light too of a certain day dici, he is led dicitur to desiring and obtaining justice. As, on the contrary, he is drawn to injustice by a certain blindness of mind, as by the darkness of a certain night, when he neither knows nor can consider in himself all those things set down above, which is to be ignorant of oneself. Knowledge of self, then, is as it were a certain good that disposes to justice, as ignorance of self also is a certain evil that deprives of that same justice. The Bridegroom, then, that is, Christ, chiding his bride, the Church or any holy soul you please, who had complained, who suffered persecution not only from strangers but also from her brothers, and that it was therefore very difficult 1057Bto discern among the companions of the bridegroom who are true, who false, chiding her for faint-heartedness of this kind, and because, as if she were forsaken, she did not show the largess of the grace of God in herself: If thou know not thyself, he says, O fairest among women, go forth; if, he says, thou dost not at all take the consideration of thyself, and knowest not that thou wast made after my likeness, that I made thee capable of reason, so that thou mayest understand what thou oughtest to seek and what to flee, that I redeemed thee with my blood, and among the synagogues of divers doctrines, or the other souls, made thee alone fair without spot and wrinkle, both by the washing of baptism and by the special gift of my sacraments, and also by the distribution of divers graces; that I made thee such in this manner that rightly 1057Cthou oughtest not to be troubled, but rather to be comforted, and to glory in me, since it is made impossible that thou be utterly forsaken, whom I have consecrated to myself by so great a condescension of my grace and mercy; if, he says, thou art ignorant of this and refusest to know it, go forth, that is, go out of doors from my company and from the fellowship of my secret, because every one that is ignorant shall be ignored, and there is no participation of light with darkness (I Cor. XIV; II Cor. VI), and go away after the steps of the flocks; that is, imitate the acts of the peoples who are not one flock, nor one fold, because they have not one shepherd, since, cutting themselves off from the unity of the faith, they follow divers masters of manifold errors. And feed thy kids, that is, nourish and cherish thy carnal and wanton acquaintances, or thy kids, that is, sinners made 1057Drotten by thy word and example, and to be set at the left hand in the judgment; 45 beside the tents of the shepherds, that is, beside the conventicles of erring masters, who have many tents, because they set up divers synagogues on account of the various sects of doctrines, departing from that one tent of mine in which is one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephes. IV), and there is no schism in the catholic unity.

Now this voice of the Bridegroom is not that of one commanding but of one foretelling, because, according to his own voice: No man can serve two masters (Matth. VI), that is, God and the world, nor love God and the world at once; and by the voice of John it is said: for every one that loveth the world, the charity of the Father is not in him (I Joan. II). Wherefore, if to love the world is not to love God, but 1058Ato love God is to be just, surely to love the world is to be unjust. Now two contraries cannot be at one and the same time together in one and the same thing, so that anyone could be at once just and unjust. Again, in one and the same thing, yet at different times, it is possible for two contraries to be, so that now someone doing something good is declared just, but at another time, sinning, unjust. Further, no one can be called definitely at once just and unjust at one and the same time, as we have already said; which is taught from the words of the Gospel, where it is said to certain men: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree evil and its fruit evil (Matth. XII); as if he said: Because you cannot be called definitely both good and evil at once at one and the same time, it is necessary that 1058Bone of these, existing in you, destroy the other, that is, either goodness malice, or malice goodness. This indeed may be said according to the state of the inward man, who is always set either in good or in evil; but if you consider the whole man, who consists of soul and body, this rule of the dialecticians fails, because two contraries can be together at one and the same time in one and the same thing. For good and evil are contraries, but man and sinner are two things. And man indeed, according to substance, is a certain good, for all things that God made were very good (Gen. II); but the sinner is a certain evil, which man himself made. And these two contraries are in one and the same at one and the same time, because this, that 1058Che is man, is good, that he is a sinner, evil.

The Bridegroom, then, addresses the bride more severely, as one wandering and uncertain and less confident, and, showing a certain thing with no mean between, from this one proposition in which he says: If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and go away after the steps of the flocks, he teaches that one of the two must necessarily be chosen, namely, that either, taking up by knowledge of herself the good of justice, she cleave specially to God with contemplative charity, or, falling by ignorance of herself into the evil of injustice, she depart from it, by loving the world, through the privative action. for the evil of injustice deprives man of the good of justice.

46 The Bridegroom, therefore, says to the bride, that is, Christ to each faithful soul, that if she has sunk herself into such blindness of heart that she neither will nor can 1058Drecognize how gracious God has endowed her above others with beauty of mind for considering and understanding the purpose of the divine goodness in her, she is to go forth from the secret place of her mind and go away by the broad and spacious way of erring peoples, where she may nourish carnal motions according to the doctrine of masters who teach contrary things, and who will not have the tabernacle of the Lord, in which are the golden urn having the manna, and the rod of Aaron, and the tables of the testament, because in it are preached and venerated the divinity and humanity of Christ, and the priestly dignity, and the sublimity of the divine commandments.

For heretics or schismatics have many tents, on account of the various doctrines by which they seduce their followers, and they think their assembly 1059Ato be a church, when they are a synagogue of Satan. But there is no place of salvation outside the catholic Church, nor are other churches to be spoken of besides this one, which, although it is divided into many particular churches, yet because of the unity of the faith is one holy universal Church. Whence also in this same Canticle, when the Bridegroom had said that there are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and of young maidens there is no number, he added: One also is my dove, my perfect one, she is the one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her [Vulg. Ct 6:8 Una est columba mea … electa genetrici suae, "one is my dove … chosen to her that bore her"] (Cant. VI). Hence it is that the first Shepherd himself of the same Church, not yet having attained perfect knowledge, when, the glory of the Lord having been seen on the mountain, he said: Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and 1059Bone for Elias (Matth. XVII), was not heard, nor was such counsel of his approved approba um, because neither in the law nor in prophecy was any Church to be set up apart, but that of the New Testament, in which the law and the prophets are summed up, was alone and one throughout the whole world the holy and universal Church to be received and venerated. For the Gospel is nothing other than the law and the prophets announce as future by things and by words; the Gospel represents it as already done. Whence Ezechiel, in the vision of the glory of God: The appearance, he says, of the wheels and the works, as if it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel (Ezech. I). The wheel in the midst of a wheel, namely, is the New Testament within the Old Testament, because what the Old Testament prefigured, this the New Testament 1059Cdisplayed; and the exposition of the Old Testament is the New Testament. For the Old and New Testament are one, and hold themselves a judge, because what that one represents in figure this one represents in truth; and what that one shows as to be done, this one shows as already done, so that they are one tabernacle of God.

47 The Church of God, therefore, neither ought nor can be ignorant of herself, she who is adorned with so great a beauty pulchritudinem of mysteries and sacraments, whose whole praise is the most seemly variety itself of venerable ordinances.

Further, singly, any soul you please ought not to be ignorant of herself, lest, while she does not at all weigh in herself the gifts of her Creator, by flowing away through unlawful things she become estranged from him. But if she considers any good things in herself through his grace, 1059Dshe ought to attend to them gratefully and seemly, and to attend to them with zeal for good action, lest she be rebuked for the buried talent, but rather be presented with the reward of eternal recompense for the talent multiplied. Accordingly you too, O most holy santissimae sisters, who are gathered together in the house of discipline, be not ignorant of yourselves, but rather look diligently about you, and attend to what or of what kind your bridegroom has made you: how he has set you apart from other men like wheat from the chaff, how he has fitted you specially to himself by the beauty of a singular way of life, with how manifold an adornment of virtues he has decked you, when, with pursuits alternating on this side and that, now by chastity, now by continence, now by obedience, now by humility, now by the frequency of prayers and vigils, you make a spectacle delightful to God and his saints.

1060AWhen, then, you behold yourselves such through the grace of God, do not cast your pearl before swine, that they trample it, that is, do not go out from that contemplative and most safe secret chamber of your Bridegroom, and go away after the din of worldly business, where you may fulfil carnal desires according to the doctrine of impious men, from whose tents you ought to flee, lest the earth of worldly conversation swallow you up; but rather, when you have rightly recognized yourselves, strive in every way to render thanks to the divine condescension, whose gift you are, and to advance day by day from good things to better, so that from this present tabernacle you may be able to pass over to that heavenly one, saying with the Psalmist: How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longeth and fainteth for 1060Bthe courts of the Lord (Psal. LXXXIII).

VERSE 9.-- To my company of horsemen, in Pharao's chariots, have I likened thee, my love.

After the Lord has rebuked the Church in general, or specially the soul devoted to him, because in some adversity she doubted of his help, by whose grace she had merited the benefits of many good things, since, proved by adversities, she ought rather to have been stronger, he himself begins to show that she ought to recognize herself, so that the good of the grace of God which she does not know in herself may, by his showing, become manifest to her 48 and from this she may stand more constant in all adversities. He says, then: To my company of horsemen, in Pharao's chariots, have I likened thee, my love.

1060CFirst it must be said what that company of horsemen of the Lord was, and what the chariots of Pharao; then what is the signification of these two opposites, and also what the proportion of the things signifying and the things signified. The company of horsemen of the Lord was that army of the Israelite Israelitci people, once accepted by God, which he led out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a lofty arm, Egypt having been struck with ten plagues; the terrible showing of whose tenth plague, and the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb at evening, was the swift deliverance of that people. For so says Scripture: that when the Lord was about to strike Egypt with this last plague, namely the death of all the first-born, he commands the children of Israel that by their families they should sacrifice a lamb at evening, whose blood they should put upon both posts of the house and upon the lintels 1060Dof the houses in which they ate it, so that, this sign being seen, the smiting angel should pass over, no one in that house being harmed. And when they had done this, and in that night the Lord struck every first-born in the land of Egypt, yet every house being safe which had been sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, all that company of horsemen of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt; and Pharao, when he pursued it with his chariots and his horsemen, was drowned in the Red Sea, that company of horsemen having crossed the same sea with dry foot (Exod. XII-XV).

If we apply the eyes of the mind, it is a most beautiful thing to consider what of mystery is contained in that going out from Egypt, the sacrifice of the evening lamb, the sprinkling of blood on the posts and the lintels of the houses, the pursuit of Pharao and his drowning, 1061Athe deliverance of the people also, and at last the bringing into the land of promise; and how far the likening of all these pertains to the universal Church. At the same time also it is pleasing to begin how the Lord went before that people by a pillar of cloud in the day, in the night by a pillar of fire, and bore before them that rod which by divine command stood forth as the worker of so many signs.

After the likeness, then, of this company of horsemen, which went before in figure, is set in order, or is being set in order, that wonderful company of horsemen of the Lord in which there have served and serve, first indeed the apostles and martyrs, then the priests and the orders of divers professions, then their successors, clothed in the armour of God, that is, with the breastplate of justice, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephes. VI). What then is this company equitus 1061Bof horsemen? Surely the holy universal Church, in which whatever then went before in the thing only is now daily performed in the sacrament and in the thing of the sacrament. For what is the sacrifice of the lamb at evening but the passion of Christ at the end of the ages; the blood of which Lamb is put upon both posts when the sacrament of Christ's passion is both taken by the mouth unto redemption and is gathered with an intent mind unto 49 imitation. To put the blood of the lamb upon the lintels of the houses too is both to direct the intention of the mind, in which we dwell by thought, to the imitation of the Lord's passion, and to fortify with the sign of that passion the front of the body in which we dwell by living.

That ancient company antiquitatus of the Lord, then, freed by the sacrifice 1061Cof the lamb from Egyptian slavery, the Red Sea having been crossed and the enemies drowned, after the law had been given and received in the desert, entered the land of promise. But this new company of horsemen of the Lord, after the passion of Christ, the yoke of diabolical damnation having been shaken off, the enemies of the soul, that is, vices and sins, having been drowned through the washing of baptism, has received through faith and the observance of the Gospel the land of the promised eternal inheritance. This his company of horsemen the Lord goes before, in the day by the pillar of cloud, in the night by the pillar of fire: who shows himself mild and gentle, with the lenity of mercy, to the saints, who are understood by the day; but to sinners, who are taken for the night, he shows himself terrible with the terror of judgment.

1061DTruly wonderful and glorious according to the mystery was the carrying of the rod in that company of horsemen, by which God is recorded to have shown among his people the prodigies and signs of his power. Could not the wood of the Lord's passion, which is the only hope and the sum of our whole salvation, be prefigured fittingly enough by this rod?

Plainly the Church of the Lord, which by his own voice is likened to this company of horsemen, bears this wonderful sign of the cross venerably before her in all the ordinances of her offices, in the doctrines of all sacraments and mysteries, in the uses of all things to be consecrated sacra dandarum; nothing will be able to be ratified or holy in them except what has been confirmed by the foretaste of this sign.

1062AOf this Church, namely, which not unfittingly is also called the company of horsemen of the Lord, the suffering Christ is as it were the standard-bearer, who with this victorious sign of his death goes before her continually, against those chief horsemen and chariots of Pharao, and against all the onsets of his depraved suggestion and the incursions of his wicked contrivance. For this chief Pharao, as we say, who is the head of the wicked and of which head all the wicked are members, is opposed and contrary to that chief leader and author of this company of horsemen, Christ the Lord, who is the head of all the elect and of which head all the elect are members; and therefore these two companies of horsemen, namely of God and of the devil, always fight against each other, as being citizens of two cities contrary to each other.

1062BThe city of God is the congregation of the faithful which stretches from Abel the just to the last elect, who have not here a lasting city, but seek one to come (Hebr. XIII). Further, the city of the devil is the synagogue of the unfaithful, which from Cain the reprobate will be bounded at the 50 last of the reprobate, who, like Cain, who first built a city, seek and love earthly things, but make little of heavenly ones. And they are called cities by that mode of speech in which that which contains is put for that which is contained; not that they are contained in buildings, but because they are local and circumscribed: the one by the receptacle of blessedness, the other of misery; the one and the same thing, whether blessedness or misery, being disposed on both sides with a manifold disparity of retributions, 1062Caccording to the diverse quality of merits.

But this city, which is taken for the present Church Eccelsia, is mingled of good and bad, but it itself is also separated by the certainty of the future sifting, so that two cities are therefore spoken of in this one, because the part of the good belongs to that receptacle of blessedness which is interpreted the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, vision of peace; but the part of the bad to that receptacle of misery which is named Babylon, that is, confusion.

That city indeed which is the congregation of the just is the company of horsemen and the chariots of God, of which it is said: The chariot of God is manifold with ten thousands, thousands of them that rejoice in them (Psal. XLVII); in which chariots are also those of whom it is said to God by the prophet: who mountest upon thy horses; and thy company of horsemen is health 1062D[Vulg. Hab 3:8 qui ascendes super equos tuos, et quadrigae tuae salvatio, "thy chariots are salvation"] (Habac. III). For his horses are the saints, over whom he himself presides, who, the first seal having been opened, that is, the mystery of the incarnation having been revealed, went out on a white horse, that is, in a body shining and immaculate, as being conceived and born of the Virgin not in human wise but by the power of the Holy Spirit; and he was the leader of this his company of horsemen in time, by word and example, being to be its rewarder, after the warfare is completed, without time, with the reward of an unspeakable inedicibilis good and a share in his eternal kingdom. Assuredly the glory of this procession is celebrated in the whole world to the praise of that leader who goes before: how, the same leader sounding the trumpet of the Holy Spirit, these horses, set in the chariot of God, went boldly to meet those armed with depravity and unfaithfulness, so that their sound went forth into all the earth; at the sound of whose 1063Apreaching they run together daily from all the ends of the world, and, coming to the end and joining themselves to this company of horsemen, cry out with the prophet: From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one (Isa. XXIV).

But on the contrary, from the opposite side, that city which is the synagogue of the unfaithful. They are the chariots and the company of horsemen of Pharao, that is, of the devil, under whose chariot are those horses red, black, white and dappled: red indeed with the blood of the saints whom they have slain, black with the deformity of sins, white with feigned faith and working, dappled with the diversity of doctrines and sects; over all of whom presides that one who, the 51 fourth seal having been opened, that is, the Lord's passion being at hand, went out on a pale horse, namely with the sign of persecution or of death, to fight through those who were dead to God against those who lived 1063Bto God, as is also added there, that hell followed him, and power was given him over the four parts of the earth to kill and to slay with the sword, and with famine, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth (Apoc. VI). For hell is rightly compared to his company of horsemen because of the insatiable cruelty which after the Lord's passion raged through the four parts of the world with the four kinds of afflictions named above, namely the sword, famine, death, the beasts of the earth; in whose wretched company of horsemen the first and better known followers of the present leader were: in the passion indeed of that leader who came above on the white horse. Herod and Pilate, and after them many emperors of the Romans, slaying that most holy company of horsemen of the glorious leader by divers kinds of death through all the parts of the world; after whom, last 1063Cof all, the greater Antichrist: against him madness will be stirred, because in him principally will preside that rider of the pale horse, to seduce those who dwell on the earth and even, if it can be, the elect (Matth. XXIV). For of this name [nomine; read homine, "man"] exalting itself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped (II Thessal. II), it is to be known that, as the incarnate Truth in his preaching chose for his company of horsemen the poor, the unlettered and the simple, so on the contrary he, to preach his falsehood, will choose the cunning and the double and those having the wisdom of this world. Whence it is said through Isaias: Woe to the land, the cymbal of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, which sendeth ambassadors by sea, and in vessels of bulrush upon the waters (Isa. XVIII).

1063DThe land, namely, to which woe is said, is principally that damned man who is called the cymbal of wings, because those who through pride fly up into the height of thought sound forth that same perverse man by preaching. Which land is rightly declared to be beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. For Ethiopia nourishes a black people, and this world, because it brings forth every man a sinner, gives birth as it were to a black people, Ethiopia; but the land to which Woe is said is declared to be beyond the rivers of Ethiopia Aethiopia, because that damned man is wicked with such perversity that he surpasses the sins of all sinners. Which sendeth ambassadors by sea, because he scatters his preachers into the ages; of whom it is rightly added in what manner they are sent, when it is said, in vessels of bulrush upon the waters. 1064AFor of bulrush is paper made. For what is designated by bulrush but worldly knowledge? The vessels of bulrush, then, are the hearts corde of worldly doctors. In vessels of bulrush, then, to send ambassadors upon the waters is to put one's preaching in the senses of the carnally wise and to call the peoples who flow down into guilt.

Under what prince, then, and with what cohort this company of horsemen is set in order, Ezechiel 52 the prophet intimates when he says: There is Assur and all his multitude, and round about him his graves (Ezech. XXXII) For what is expressed by the name of Assur, the proud king, but him of whom it is written: And he is king over all the children of pride? (Job XLI.) Where however Assur is, there is all his multitude, because surely the whole body of the reprobate cleaves to its head when, binding itself by his perverse laws, 1064Bit shows itself in his warfare. And round about him his graves: graves cover the corpses of the dead; what then are his graves but the hearts of the perverse, which receive him, dead from the blessedness of eternal life, to be buried in themselves through carnal desires. Round about him, then, are his graves, because those in whose minds he now buries himself through desires, he afterwards joins to himself as a tomb through torments.

But what the fruit of such a company of horsemen is, the same prophet announces a little after, saying: Who go down to hell with their weapons (Ezech. XXXII). The weapons of sinners are the members of the body with which they carry out the evil desires that they conceive in the mind; 1064Cwhence it is said through Paul: Do not yield your members as weapons of iniquity unto sin. To go down to hell with their weapons, then ego, is to endure the torments of eternal judgment with those very members also with which they fulfilled the desires of pleasure.

By the opposition, then, of this Pharaonic company of horsemen, the Lord's: that company of horsemen is recognized, because if he never was good whom the depravity of the wicked did not exercise, deservedly will they be judged to belong to this company of horsemen of the Lord, or to this city of the Lord, who, cleaving constantly to their leader, fight against that company of horsemen opposed to them, or the contrary city, with patience and the spirit of fortitude, adorning themselves throughout with such comeliness of humility, patience, long-suffering and the other virtues that as the bride of their Lord both universally 1064Dthe whole Church and singly any holy soul whatever may fittingly be proclaimed

Of which universal Church, namely, John in the Apocalypse: I saw, he says, the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Apoc. XXI). The Lord, then, says to this his bride that she deservedly ought not to fear this city of the devil, or company of horsemen, which is opposed and contrary to her, because he has likened her to his company of horsemen in Pharao's chariots: so that, as that one of old, freed from Egypt after the sacrifice of the lamb, after the crossing of the Red Sea, after the drowning of the enemies, a hymn of praise having been celebrated for the victory, after the law had been given and kept in the desert, entered the land of promise; so she, to be freed out of the Egypt of this world, 1065Aafter the grace of baptism or of compunction, after the receiving of the body and blood of the Lord, after the mortification of vices and the observance of the divine law. Triumphed over 53 at last the whole company of horsemen of diabolical oppression, with thanksgiving for the largess of so great a gift bestowed on her, she was to enter from the solitude of this life into the inheritance of the eternal promise.

And not beside the purpose, for stirring up the minds of spiritual warriors, to consider in such a company of horsemen what the proportion or comparison is between the truth and the figure, and then between the fight of each and the cause of the fight, between victor and vanquished. For according to the likeness which we demand between the signifying and the significative there can indeed be some comparison, but according to the dignity of the thing 1065Bnone at all. Now this is the proposition among the things we have set down: as truth stands to the figure, so let the victor stand to the vanquished, so also the cause of the fight to the fight, so that it is as it were the proportion of a hundred to one, namely a hundredfold. For this is the promise of the Lord in the Gospel, that he who shall leave house, or father, or mother, or children, or lands for my name's sake shall receive a hundredfold (Matth. XIX): not that he shall receive the very things which he left multiplied a hundredfold, « but that in comparison and in their own merit they are such as if a hundred were compared with a small number. » (HIERONYM.) Although a hundred is also wont to be taken for perfection, so that, according to what we have said, truth to figure, the cause of the fight to the fight, victor to vanquished, are of such dignity that between the perfection of the better part and the 1065Cimperfection of the other there is no comparison at all. For the fight is the life of man upon earth; the cause of the fight is the eternal and unchangeable life, for which in the present life one must fight and labour with the whole strength of the soul. The vanquished: the devil and his company of horsemen; the victor: he himself, triumpher over the devil and his company of horsemen. The figure is the thing apart from the sacrament, the truth the thing with the sacrament. For that circumcision of the ancient God, and the crossing through the Red Sea, whether the food of manna or the giving of the law, whether the flight and victory of those fighting pugnativum carnally, were the figure of those things which are now done in the sacrament of baptism and of the body and blood of the Lord and in the observance of the Gospel precepts, and of the war also of the Lord's warriors fighting 1065Dspiritually against the enemies of the soul.

Let us compare, then, each company of horsemen of the Lord, the signifying and the signified, that which is according to the spirit, and let us say that the proportion between them is that which is between flesh and spirit, between corruption and incorruption, between temporality and eternity; and the truth is so much greater in proportion than the figure as spirit than flesh, incorruption than corruption, eternity than temporality. But on either side, that is, in figure and in truth, the fight and the cause of the fight, the victor and the vanquished, are far unlike. For in that one, that is, in the figure, there was fighting carnally for a carnal, corruptible and temporal thing; in this one, that is, in the truth, there was fighting 54 spiritually for a spiritual, incorruptible and eternal thing. There the carnal victor 1066Aovercame the carnal vanquished, but here the spiritual overcomes the spiritual; there by strength of body, here by strength of mind.

The proportion, then, of truth to figure, in comparison and in its own merit, can be as it were that of a hundred, to one, that is, a hundredfold: whether because of its perfection, which is signified by a hundred, or because a hundred, carried over from the left hand to the right, expresses the crown of blessedness, which is the strongest reward in this company of horsemen of the Lord's warriors.

The fight and the cause of the fight having been set forth in the contrary intention of this two-formed company of horsemen, it must be considered with what force and fortitude each side is armed, so that from an affection of this kind a place of argument may be taken, if the question arises who is to be assigned to the Lord's army, who to the adversary's. 1066BNow we have said that the fight is the life of each man, as it is written in Job (cap. VII): The warfare of man is his life; but life itself is constituted according to the affection with which the soul is affected, according to which the whole force and fortitude of those who fight consists.

Let us suppose, then, that that force with which the soul is affected in the company of horsemen of the Lord fighting is the love of God: for every one who labours and fights for justice and truth labours and fights for that thing which he loves; but justice and truth is God; therefore he loves God. Further: he who labours and fights for eternal life to be gained, loves, for a thing which he desires to have; but eternal life is God himself; therefore he loves God: and because he loves him he desires to have him, and therefore labours and fights for him.

1066CWherefore, if we ask what it is to love God, we know it from a definition of this kind: To love God is to labour and fight with the whole soul for justice and truth and eternal life to be gained. The definition is equal to the thing which it defines; for it is converted, since to labour and fight with the whole soul for justice and truth and eternal life to be gained is to love God.

Let the place, then, be taken from the definition, so that we may prove him to be in the company of horsemen of the Lord whose soul through grace is affected with such love of God that for justice and truth and eternal life to be gained he does not shrink even from dying. For it is a maximal proposition: to whatever the definition is present, that too is present which is defined. For it is defined, that is, to love God is for justice 1066Dand truth and eternal life to be gained to labour and fight, and there is present also that which has been defined, namely to love God. The love of God and the company of horsemen, then, are joined inseparably. of the Lord, since it is agreed that no one serves as a soldier to God but he who is proved 55 to love him, nor is it agreed that any loves God but he who is proved to serve him as a soldier.

But contrary to this company of horsemen of the Lord is the company of horsemen of the devil, in which that force by which the soul of one serving on this side is affected is envy, which also cleaves inseparably to its subject. For on this contrary side there is always envy, and conversely where envy is, there is this contrary side. Let a place of argument, then, be taken here also from the definition, if it is asked who deservedly is to be reckoned on this side. 1067AFor to envy is to be tormented by another's happiness, and conversely to be tormented by another's happiness is to envy, so that the definition is equal to the thing which it defines. Such an argument, then, is proposed, that it be said that every one who envies does not love his neighbour, because he would not wish another's good to be; but not to love one's neighbour, this is not to love God. And since it is agreed that to love God is to be in his company of horsemen, but not to love one's neighbour, as has been said, is not to love God. To envy, then, is to be on the contrary side, that is, in the company of horsemen of the devil; they are therefore contrary to each other, as the companies of horsemen, so both the affection of that company of horsemen and the cause divine [divina; read diversa, "diverse"]: for the affection on the one side is of love, on the other of envy; the cause for which there is fighting is on the one side eternal life, on the other the transitory.

But neither side can so pass over into the other 1068Athat at one and the same time they could be one and the same together: for it does not follow that he who wastes away with the disease of envy could be in the company of horsemen of the Lord, and that he who is impelled by the love of God should be reckoned in the company of horsemen of the devil; but he who fights for the transitory life wishes also to drag his neighbour with him, for whom he does not desire eternal goods: For by the envy of the devil death entered into the world (Sap. II); but he who fights for eternal life wishes to lead his neighbour with him, for whom, as one who truly loves, he desires eternal goods as for himself, so that he fulfils that which is said: He that heareth, let him say: Come (Apoc. XXII). For he who, hearing and understanding something of the everlasting goods, communicates the same to his neighbour also by teaching and exhorting, shows that he truly loves him whom he invites with himself to understand and to merit those very goods.

106756 FIGURE. 1067[Here Migne prints a diagram across both columns, which the digitization omits. Its labels, from the plate: down both outer sides, JOINED INSEPARABLY; an upper arch, CONTRARY, over ETERNAL LIFE, and a lower arch, CONTRARY, under THE LIFE OF MAN; across the top, LOVE · CAUSE · OF THE FIGHT · ENVY; across the bottom, THE COMPANY OF HORSEMEN OF THE LORD · FIGHT · THE COMPANY OF HORSEMEN OF THE DEVIL; on the left, FROM GOD and CONSENTS THROUGH GRACE, with SPIRIT; on the right, FROM THE DEVIL and CONSENTS THROUGH GUILT, with FLESH; in the centre, PROPORTION over HUNDREDFOLD, crossed by two diagonals, the one lettered THEY FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER BY THE INCONSEQUENT, the other, in two parts, THEY FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER BY and THE INCONSEQUENT.]

1069A57 Thus, then, four contraries are considered, two goods opposed to two evils. That their reason may appear more evidently, let one arrange them in a square figure thus: so that the upper line holds two facing each other, and the lower line likewise has two facing each other; and so in both lines their contrariety appears at first sight, while on both sides are found those which follow one another: on this side the two goods through grace, above that of love, below that of the company of horsemen of the Lord; on that side the two evils, above that of envy, below that of the company of horsemen of the devil. But crosswise they fight against each other on both sides in such a way that they cannot be together.

VERSE 9.-- Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-dove's, thy neck as necklaces.

By a still ampler showing of his grace the bridegroom 1069Bleads the bride to the knowledge of herself, while he now proclaims her beauty, whose fortitude he had proclaimed before, so as to intimate the conjunction of this twin virtue to be such that the one cannot be without the other, since the one is the fortification of life that is to be guarded, the other the ornament of it when guarded: for fortitude of spirit is needed to guard that very integrity of life, beauty to adorn that very integrity with good works. « For chastity is nothing without good work, nor is good work anything without chastity. » (GREGORIUS.)

The virtue of fortitude, then, having been set first, the necessary virtue of beauty is added after, so that it may be shown that no one has done anything bravely in all the pursuits of a dutiful soul if it be established besides that he has not increased beautifully through cleanness 1069Cof mind and body. But this beauty is stretched out with a twin grace, while in general it is described by the one name of beauty, but in particular the beauty of the cheeks is one, that of the neck another; the difference of which is gathered from the quality of the things to which they are compared.

For although in this statement there are two subjects, one predicate, the subjects namely being the cheeks and the neck, and the predicate that they are beautiful, yet in this place the nature of the accident of one predicate cannot be present equally, in one and the same manner, in two subjects: one predicate can indeed, through the grace of God, be present in several subjects, namely so that the cheeks are beautiful and the neck is beautiful, but, as we have said, the beauty of the cheeks is described in one way, 1069Dthe beauty of the neck in another, though beauty is nevertheless predicated of both; and therefore in this place the two subjects indeed admit each other, but not what otherwise is one predicate.

But if we wish to gather the diversities of this beauty, the things whose likeness is brought in must be looked into, namely the turtle-dove and the necklaces, so that they may be discerned from their quality, whether natural or material: for the beauty in the turtle-dove is natural, in the necklaces material.

58 Of the turtle-dove the Physiologi hand down three marks of its nature: one, that it is of such chastity that, having lost its mate, it seeks no other thereafter; another, that instead of song it has a moaning; the third, that, seeking secret 1070Aplaces, it rejoices in a friendly solitude, building its nest there and rearing its young where there is no injury from adversaries, while its refuges can scarcely or never be found. What is expressed by the turtle-dove, which loves chastity, which moans instead of singing, which seeks secret places, but the beauty of chastity, of compunction, of contemplation. For this wonderful beauty of the cheeks is distinguished in a threefold manner of this kind, according to the threefold nature of this animal; and since there is one subject and three predicates, those three both are in the subject and are predicated of the subject, when through the grace of God the cheeks are beautiful both by the virtue of chastity and of compunction and of contemplation. For these several marks of the cheeks have probable signs of their beauty. For 1070Bthe cheeks blooming with the rosy blush of modesty, and with bent head fixing their gaze on the earth, denote the comeliness of chastity; but, moist with a wholesome fountain of tears, they speak the grace of compunction; and pale with the zeal and labour of fastings, vigils and holy meditations, they announce the virtue of contemplation too.

But since, as we set down above, the beauty of the cheeks is one, that of the neck another, we have divided the beauty of the cheeks into three species, namely chastity, compunction and contemplation, so that, these being set as it were as subaltern genera, a further subdivision may be made, and it may be said that chastity is one virginal, another widowly, another conjugal; compunction one reconciliatory, another amatory; contemplation one natural, another intelligible, a third intellectible.

1070CFor virginal chastity is the everlasting integrity of soul and body; but widowly chastity is a devotion of the soul praiseworthy by the comeliness of continence; further, conjugal chastity is a coupling of soul and body commendable by the grace of faith and modesty. But reconciliatory compunction is when someone, visited by heavenly grace, is pricked to sorrow from the remembrance of his sins, and while he is afflicted through the lamentations of penance is reconciled to God whom he had offended: for first the mind is pricked with fear, afterwards with love. Whence the other part may not unfittingly be named amatory compunction, when the mind is kindled with such love towards God that she who before wept lest she be brought back to punishment afterwards begins to weep most bitterly because she is kept back from the kingdom. The grace of which twofold 1070Dcompunction is well described by a figurative narration in the sacred and truthful history, where Axa, the daughter of Caleb, sitting upon an ass, is recorded to have asked of her father the lower watered ground and the upper watered ground (Jud. I). 59

. . . . For Axa sits upon the ass when the soul presides over the irrational motions of its flesh, which, sighing, asks of the Father a watered land, because the grace of tears is to be sought from our Creator with great groaning. From him the soul receives the upper watered ground when it afflicts itself in tears with desire for the heavenly kingdom; but it receives the lower watered ground when, weeping, it is in great dread of the punishments of hell.

But although these are two species of compunction, yet compunction itself is distinguished by four qualities, 1071Abecause the soul of a just man is vehemently afflicted in compunction: either when it remembers its own evils, considering where it was; or, fearing the sentence of the judgments of God and seeking secure things, it ponders where it will be; or when, attending skilfully to the evils of the present life, it considers mourning where it is; or when it contemplates by the good of the heavenly fatherland, which, because it does not yet attain, it beholds lamenting where it is not.

Now of the third species, that is, of contemplation or speculation, the first part is that which is called natural, which is occupied about bodies and the knowledge and cognition of them, which the Greeks call physiology, and which declares the natures and passions of bodies. The second part is the intelligible, which of all the heavenly works of the supernal divinity, and 1071Banything prevails by the sublunar globe with a more blessed mind and a purer substance, and lastly the wonderful disposition of human souls, comprehends by thought and intelligence. Further, the third part is called the intellectible, when the mind is led outside visible things, above itself, to another, invisible thing, which, one and the same through itself, ever abiding in its own divinity, is grasped by no senses ever, but by the mind and the intellect alone: for this is composed, by the searching of true philosophy, for the speculation of God and for the incorporeality and the consideration of the soul; which part the Greeks name theology.

Truly, in these divided parts of the parts it is to be considered that, if they are compared with one another, one is greater in proportion than another according to the more excellent dignity of the altered beauty 1071C. For virginal chastity is greater in proportion than widowly and conjugal chastity, since to them belongs the merit of this profession alone, to say the new canticle, and the Lamb whithersoever he shall go to follow (Apoc. XIV).

Further, that compunction is more excellent which is generated from love than that which is generated from fear, although by the latter one comes to the former, as the son takes precedence of the servant, because to fear is the part of servants, to love, of sons. And that part of contemplation which is called intellectible is incomparable with the two remaining, since the speculation of these is occupied about the creature, but that of the purified mind, lifted beyond the creature by its eye into the Creator himself, although not perfectly, yet as far as shall be possible 1071Dthrough his grace, is held suspended; whereby the holy 60 man is separated like the fat from the flesh, seeks or desires nothing outward, but, thirsting for God with burning desire, cries out with the Psalmist: As the hart longeth for the fountains of waters, so my soul longeth for thee, O God; my soul hath thirsted for the living God, when shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Psal. LXI).

This part the Apostle calls the third heaven, into which he says he was caught up and heard unspeakable things which it is not lawful for a man to speak (II Cor. XII).

Now this threefold species of beauty your holy college possesses, as we believe, as familiar things, most beloved sisters, you whom a blessed solitude has set apart se posuit from all the din of worldly disquiets, so that the further removed you are from the world, 1072Athe more freely you may be able to keep the comeliness of chastity, to seek the grace of compunction, and to stand on the summit of holy contemplation. Indeed your very solitude is a delightful garden of the Lord, where the rose and the lily breathe, the testimony of virginity and of martyrdom; of that martyrdom, namely, which can be without the shedding of blood, and in the mind through the exercises of the virtues; where are the watered grounds of holy contemplation; where the little trees of heavenly contemplation spring up, flower and bear fruit; where all these honest things are so composed that in them are the pleasing, chosen walking-places of the Holy Spirit, who says: I will dwell in them and walk among them; and they shall be to me for a people and I truly to them for God (Lev. XXVI; II Cor. VI) [Vulg. 2 Cor 6:16 et ero illorum Deus, et ipsi erunt mihi populus, "and I will be their God"]. But with very wary circumspection you must take heed lest 1072Byou lose the privilege of so great a good by any worldliness or empty levity, lest that most sweet and most mighty indweller and walker of yours, provoked by you, flee away, saying that he hath not where to lay his head (Luc. IX).

But since we said above that the beauty of the cheeks is one thing and that of the neck another, and have already described the beauty of the cheeks according to our small measure, it remains now also to speak of the beauty of the neck, which is also divided into two, this into preaching and incorporation; and first we must speak of preaching, afterwards of incorporation. In the neck is the throat, and through the throat the voice is expressed; food too, when it has been ground by the teeth, is passed through the throat into the belly; by the neck, therefore, the proclaimed saints are not 1072Cabsurdly understood, in whom is this twin beauty, namely of preaching and of incorporation. The beauty of preaching, then, is considered in the comeliness of the neck, because in the neck is the voice, and through the voice preaching is done; and as the voice is the mark of the mind and the expression of the silent heart, so the preaching of the saints is a thing to be sought by every man, the honest demonstration of the commonwealth. For I here call that the commonwealth which, for its honesty, can and ought to be taken up publicly, in knowledge, will, action, as is every good whose privation is evil.

61 For to be chaste, humble, patient, modest, or whatever else is marked by the name of virtue, is manifestly good; and of this good 1072Dthe negation, that is, not to be chaste, not humble, not patient, not modest, is consequently evil. But since one or the other of these is consequent, that is, to be or not to be, the simple negation of this simple affirmation which proposes to be chaste, or humble, or patient, the negation which says not to be, is followed by the privative affirmation which says to be unchaste, or proud, or impatient. For it is the same to say not to be patient as it is to say impatient, and that evil which is impatience is the privation of that good which is called patience, and in the same way of the rest. There is, then, a certain commonwealth, the array of the virtues; and the ruler and administrator of this commonwealth is that eternal Emperor from whom all good things proceed, and without 1073Awhom nothing can be called good or be good.

This commonwealth, then, the preaching of the saints teaches and shows, and through it the other part, which we called incorporation, is accomplished; because, as through the throat food is passed into the belly, so through the preaching of the saints some sinner, broken from the grossness of his depravity, is incorporated into the Church by conversion.

But since the beauty of the neck is twin, as we have said, namely preaching and incorporation, each is distinguished by subdivision in a threefold manner; because one preaching is done by word, another by example, another by word and example; and of the incorporated, one by conversion, another by satisfaction, another by conversion and satisfaction together.

1073BPreaching is done by word alone, because there are some in the Church who have this by the gift of God, that they are able to edify others by the word of exhortation, but, their infirmity standing in the way, they are not so able to give examples of virtues. It is done also by example alone, because there are very many who do not have the gift of discoursing in the Church, and even if they perceive something, cannot bring it forth openly, yet they shine with such proofs of spiritual works that by wonderful examples of virtues they provoke the minds of those who wonder at them to their imitation; and what those speak with words, these speak with deeds, and these philosophize better by keeping silence than those by declaiming. Of which twin quality of preaching the Apostle says: For to one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge (I Cor XII); because there are some, as we have said, who are wise through the understanding of reason in the word 1073Cof the divine commandments to be observed, but through the slowness of their wit are not eloquent in bringing it forth; and others, again, pour out mightily with an abundance of eloquence the very word which they comprehend, to be sown, of a capacious wit.

Likewise preaching is done in both ways, 62 that is, by word and example, when holy doctors have it also by divine grace, that what they preach with the mouth they show in deeds, and what they teach is to be avoided they also indicate in their own deeds is not to be done; in whose person the Psalmist, speaking to God, when he had first said, and I spoke of thy testimonies before kings, and I was not ashamed, added in what follows: And I lifted up my hands to thy commandments, which I loved, and I was exercised in thy 1073Djustifications (Psal. CXVIII): as if he said openly: The law of thy commandments, which I pronounced by preaching openly and confidently, I proved also by the execution of works, so that my hearers might both hear in my words and see in my deeds the things which they ought to do for their own profit and salvation.

Truly this third predicament of this beauty is necessary for the doctors of the Church, because the preaching of those is frequently despised whose life is known to be alien from the good of their preaching itself. And they sin greatly before the eyes of almighty God who, the grace of preaching having been granted them, acquire no gains of souls because of their silence. Whence in the Old Testament it is commanded that the priest, entering the tabernacle, should have little bells 1074Aset in the hem of his vestments, lest he die nemoriatur (Exod. XXVIII), because it is a great peril for the doctor if he enters the Church of God without the sound of preaching; and the vestments of the priest are the works of justice, as the Psalmist says: Let thy priests be clothed with justice (Psal. CXXXI), to which vestments the little bells cling, so that the very works of the priest also may cry out the way of life together with the sound of the tongue.

The other part of the beauty in the neck, which is incorporation, is done by conversion, because there are some who, converted from heathendom to God, are incorporated into the Church through faith and the grace of baptism, as we read of Cornelius, who, the merits of good works intervening through the grace of God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit running before, was shown worthy to be joined to the body of the Church 1074B(Act. X).

For when, as though an undeserving man, they were being repelled by those who had believed from the circumcision, the Holy Spirit fell upon him as a needful advocate, whose condescension it pleased to show that God willed this man too to be incorporated into his Church through faith and baptism.

Others also are incorporated into the Church through satisfaction, who, while at first indeed they are of the body of the Church through the unity of faith, yet, their faults requiring it, are sometimes cut off from the body of the Church by a peremptory sentence; but, recovering their senses through satisfaction, they are joined again by a reconciling sentence to the body from which they had been cut off. Whence the Apostle too, writing to the Corinthians, commands that he who had perpetrated the crime 1074Cbe delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that 63 he may be saved in the day of the Lord (I Cor. V) [Vulg. 1 Cor 5:5 ut spiritus salvus sit, "that the spirit may be saved"]: and afterwards he orders him, amended through satisfaction, to be incorporated again into the Church, lest he be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow.

Some, again, are incorporated through conversion and satisfaction together, who both receive the faith by believing and, confessing their crimes, are joined to the body of the Church through penance and baptism. Hence it is that Peter, preaching to the slayers of Christ: Repent, he says, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out (Act. III), showing that through the sending before of conversion and satisfaction the remission of sins follows, which is done in the Catholic Church alone, because 1074Dthat very remission is plainly incorporation into the Church. But although in the former modes, which we set down above separately, saying that incorporation is done now through conversion, now through satisfaction, there can in both be both conversion and satisfaction, yet on account of the greater and more evident showing of the one part or the other we have distinguished them. For although any saint is adorned not with one but with many virtues, yet a virtue is predicated of him the more, the greater in proportion it is recognized to be in him. Whence the Apostle too, when he was describing the divisions of graces, said: For to one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith, to another the grace of healings: to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches (II Cor. XII); not that in this he who has had one has any of the other graces 1075Awhatsoever, but because he is said to have that grace the more which is known to be stronger and more abundant in him. And in Cornelius we read of no satisfaction for his past life; but because it was said to him by the angel that his prayers and alms had been heard, and he is therefore bidden to send after Peter, so that, formed unto the faith by his doctrine, he might become a member of the Church through conversion (Act. X). But he who has been converted to the faith, but for some fault is separated from the Church by excommunication, has need of satisfaction in order to merit being received back, although satisfaction itself also can be called a conversion from the former error.

Now since we have distinguished beauty in a twofold manner, and have subdivided those very manners into others, it remains 1075Bnow to say why this beauty is compared to necklaces.

A necklace is a breast ornament of matrons, named from muniendo, because it fortifies their breast, lest any adulterer injure in any way the modesty of their chastity. And the necklace is not any sort whatever, but that which the hand of a careful craftsman laboriously fashions: it is composed of gold and gems in such a way that a somewhat larger gem is set in the middle 64, and other little gems, standing at equal distances from it, encircle it.

And what is expressed by the gold but wisdom, what by the gems but the virtues? The necklace, then, is composed of gold and gems, because out of the understanding of wisdom and the comeliness of the virtues is made a certain spiritual and necessary ornament of the soul, which so 1075Cfortifies the secret places of our breast that the ancient enemy dares not put forth any hand of his malice against it.

And certain openings are made in the crafted ornament itself, in which the gems are to be enclosed. And what are these openings but our outward senses, which are as it were certain instruments of our acts? For the lowering of the eyes and the honest or disciplined composure of the countenance is a most beautiful gem, shining with the virtue of humility; the ear obedient to the precepts of God and of prelates bears the gem of obedience; further, in the nostrils glows the gem of holy discretion; the mouth shows a gem radiant with a threefold virtue, namely of abstinence, of silence, and of speech honestly and usefully uttered 1075Dand the hands conspicuously display a gem sprinkled with a twofold brilliance, that is, of continence and of munificence.

Among these, set in the middle place, the greater and more splendid gem of holy charity shines chiefly in the breast, which so supplies the comeliness of this ornament ornament that nothing of beauty is proved to be had without it: for without sive charity no virtue can either be or be called [a virtue], because on two precepts, namely of God and of the neighbour, dependeth the whole law and the prophets (Matth. XXII).

Beautifully, then, the neck of holy Church, or of the faithful soul, is compared to necklaces consisting of the material of gold and gems, because through the preaching and the unanimity of the saints we ought so to compose our senses out of the 1076Abrightness of wisdom and the holiness of the virtues that we may establish for ourselves a certain ornament of the soul in which that heavenly bridegroom may delight. But because the page of both Testaments is necessary to the preachers of the same Church, from which they may take the order and manner of their preaching, there is added, in the person of the bridegroom himself, or of those through whom, by his inspiration, the scripture of the Church was set forth, of whom some were at the same time at which Solomon spoke these things, some were to be afterwards.

VERSE 10-- We will make thee golden murenulae, vermiculated with silver.

The murenula is a certain kind of ornament, like a little chain woven of gold and picked out with little rods of silver in the manner of little worms; named murenula for 1076Bthis reason, that like the moray it is pliant and flexible, or coiled. For the moray 65, when it is caught, bends and coils itself in different directions. By the golden murenula vermiculated with silver, then, we understand Holy Scripture, whose inner sense, on account of its eminence and dignity, is compared to gold, while the utterance by which that sense is expressed is signified by silver on account of its clearness and brilliance. For Holy Scripture is golden, because it shines with the brightness of wisdom; silver, because it gleams with the clearness of utterance. But because this same Scripture is divided into two, that is, into the Old and the New Testament, it is therefore said in the plural: We will make thee golden murenulae, vermiculated with silver, so that both Testaments may be shown to be both golden with the brightness of the inner sense and 1076Csilver with the lustre of eloquence.

These two Testaments are called murenulae because they can be bent into different modes of exposition, coiled about with many meanings, only so that they sound nothing contrary to the faith. And although, as we have said, they are golden by the valuation of surpassing knowledge, yet, being marked out by the clearness of utterance, they are recorded as vermiculated with silver, because by the brightness of that very knowledge they thunder now humbly, now moderately, now sublimely; and now they unfold history, now allegory, now morality, not simply but manifoldly. Whence it is also said in Ezekiel that as the living creatures went, the wheels also went together, following them, and with those that blew they blew, and with those lifted up they were lifted up together (Ezech. I) [Vulg. Ez 1:21 cum stantibus stabant, "with those that stood they stood"]: because, doubtless, 1076Dthe Holy Scriptures stand or are moved according to the sense of him who searches and understands them; they stand, namely, when they are understood simply according to the letter; but they are moved when they are expounded according to the spiritual sense, whether allegorically or morally, and the more subtly they are considered, the higher they are lifted up together with the sense of him who understands.

Since, therefore, they are bent by the preachers of the Church not uniformly but with a beautiful variety in the modes of diverse senses, now allegorically, as we have said, now morally, and these things are brought forth according to the capacity of the hearers, now humbly, now sublimely, rightly are golden murenulae vermiculated with silver promised to the Church by the voice of the bridegroom, which hang as it were from her neck when they adorn the knowledge and the utterance of the holy 1077Apreachers.

Now it is not without some reason to recapitulate briefly the things above, and to consider how these lower things are continued on to those; above, when the bride had said: I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, she did not recognize that same beauty of the perfect: whence also she complains that so great a heat of temptations affected her that even her brothers fought against him. But the bridegroom reproves this faintheartedness of hers, teaching that she had not rightly attended to the grace of beauty 66 conferred on her, she who had indeed said that she was beautiful, but had not perfectly recognized the quantity and quality of that beauty; wherefore it could happen that when she began to disagree she would go out from the fellowship of her bridegroom and follow the various errors of the world. Whence the bridegroom, 1077Bwith his accustomed kindness bringing her back to herself, strengthens her by enumerating the parts of the beauty granted her, so that she, recognizing herself, may perfectly acknowledge how and how greatly she is beautiful, and from this may cleave more ardently to the bridegroom sponsio.

Now that beauty, that we may so define it, is the habit of a well-constituted mind, whose parts are fortitude, beauty, the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, which the bridegroom himself has already enumerated: fortitude, indeed, in the place where he said: To my company of horsemen in the chariots of Pharaoh have I likened thee, my love: beauty, not uniform but as we distinguished above, when he says: Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-dove's, thy neck as necklaces: and the knowledge of the Scriptures where he says: We will make 1077Cthee golden murenulae, vermiculated with silver.

Now in a maximal and principal proposition, what is in the parts must necessarily be in the whole: taking, then, an argument from the parts, he proves that she is truly beautiful, because if the species of beauty, that is, fortitude, beauty, the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, are the habit of a well-constituted mind, the genus, which is beauty, must necessarily be the same; and accordingly, since she has said that she is beautiful, she ought not to fear adversities, she whom the grace of the bridegroom has made such. But if she does not recognize that she is such through grace, she will not belong to the fellowship of the bridegroom, since the cause of ignorance brings this about, that, going out of doors through sloth and negligence, she is compelled to stray from the companionship of the bridegroom. And it is a topic 1077Dfrom the efficient cause it may be proved: that every one who has not understood the good of the grace conferred on him is, through ignorance, negligent of that very good in himself, and the negligent is not near to God: the bride therefore, not knowing herself, withdraws from the fellowship of the bridegroom and of necessity seeks outward things. Brought back, then, to herself, she shows by what she adds how she has recognized herself and profitably attended to the grace granted her, saying: While the king was at his reclining, my nard gave forth its odour.

VERSE 11.-- While the king was at his reclining, my nard gave forth its odour.

The reclining of the king is the dispensation of all the temporal actions of Christ, because he deigned to humble himself from that ineffable sublimity of his divinity, and for human salvation to incline himself to the 67 infirmity of 1078Ahumanity: first indeed by being born into the womb of the Virgin, then by dying upon the cross, by lying in the sepulchre and by descending to the lower regions; afterwards, raising himself from that very inclining of his, by rising again and by ascending to the heavens.

In the time of this dispensation the Church, growing up chiefly unto the increase of the virtues, was also taught by the precept and example of Christ to share in his sufferings through patience, when she had advanced into so great a charity towards him that she did not prefer even life itself to his love, saying: While the king was at his reclining, my nard gave forth its odour.

Nard is an aromatic shrub, with a heavy, thick, short, black and brittle root, and a small and dense leaf, whose tops spread out into ears; and therefore the makers of perfumes 1078Bcelebrate the spikes and the leaves of the nard for their twofold endowment. Whence it is related in the Gospel that a woman brought, for the anointing of the Lord, an ointment of precious spikenard (Joan. XII).

And what is signified by the nard but the virtue of good work? And the root of good work is charity; because, as from the root is born all the virtue and vigour of plants, so from charity alone is generated the virtue of every good work.

Now it has been said that in the root of the nard there are diverse qualities of nature, which we can refer to the manifold virtues of charity. For charity is grace [gratia; read gravis, "heavy"], because it outweighs all virtues; which the Apostle calls the more excellent way, saying: Yet I show unto you a more excellent way (I Cor. XII). 1078CAnd it is thick, as being of a livelier sap according to the inner vigour of the mind, which gives to the other virtues the effect of holiness, since without it every virtue remains as it were dry and arid: whose fatness the Psalmist considering, who declared that he watched unto God with thirsting desire: As with marrow, he says, and fatness let my soul be filled (Psal. LXII). It is short, because it is written of it that an abbreviated and consummated word shall the Lord make upon the earth (Rom. IX) [Vulg. Rom 9:28 verbum enim consummans, et abbrevians … verbum breviatum faciet Dominus super terram, "a word finishing and cutting short … a shortened word shall the Lord make upon the earth"]; the consummated and abbreviated word is charity, because in it consists the perfection of all the virtues, and this one saying is the conclusion of this holy universe: This word of charity is consummated, because love is the fulness of the law (Rom. XIIII), of which 1078Dthe Psalmist says: I have seen an end of all consummation (Psal. CXVIII), not an end which makes that which is, not to be, but which makes that which is not, to be, and brings it to perfection: it is abbreviated, because the precepts of the whole law are renewed in this one: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself; on these two precepts dependeth the whole law and the prophets (Matth. XXI). How short a word, consisting of three syllables and seven letters, but containing the whole fulness of holiness: for God is charity (I Joan. IV) 68, who is triune in the distinction of persons, one in the equality of majesty, and sevenfold is the grace of the Holy Spirit, through whom charity itself is poured forth into the hearts of the saints. If, then, God is charity, and nothing of good cannot [esse non potest; read esse potest, "nothing good can be without God"] be without 1079AGod, he who is convicted of not having charity, which is God, is without doubt concluded not to be good.

The root of the nard is also said to be black, because charity, which is, as we have said, the root of all virtues, willingly bears for God and for the salvation of the brethren the blackness of all persecutions and adversities, because, as it is written: Charity is patient (I Cor. XIII). And it is brittle on account of the exceeding tenderness of brotherly compassion, because it is compelled through the bowels of mercy to be troubled with the troubled, to be weak with the weak, to weep with those who weep, to grieve with those who grieve, to be sad with the sad; for it is written: Charity is patient, is kind (ibid.): for charity abounds in such sweetness of kindness that it thinks every need of its neighbour its own, it is of a small 1079Band dense leaf because charity always shows humility, while it abounds in a copious density of all the virtues. It spreads out into ears, because the holy mind, growing up with the increase of divine love, is lifted up into heavenly things by the keenness and subtlety of understanding.

These seven natural things, then, in the root of the nard can, not absurdly, be taken as these praises which we have set down of the charity proceeding from the sevenfold grace; because, as from the little root of the nard, with the adding of leaves and spikes, is made the confection of a most precious ointment, so from charity, which is the root of all good things, and from the diverse and most choice species of the virtues, the Holy Spirit being the craftsman, is made the confection of holiness; with which holy Church, or any holy soul whatever, as it were anointed, sends forth from herself a most sweet 1079Codour by the repute and fame of good action; of which odour the Apostle says that we are the good odour of Christ unto God in every place (II Cor. II), and a certain wise man: A good fame, he says, attacks the bones [Vulg. Prov 15:30 fama bona impinguat ossa, "a good name maketh the bones fat"]: because every virtue of the soul is enervated unless it is filled with the fatness of a compound of this kind.

Such an odour, then, the Church, or the holy soul, says that she gives from this pistic nard, that is, faithful, wherein that King and bridegroom and bridegroom heavenly may be delighted at his reclining, that is, in that unutterable secret of the Father's bosom. For this is his reclining: to be in the bosom of the Father through the same essence and through the same power of divinity; his reclining is also, as we set down above, to incline himself to the nature of human infirmity through the wonderful order of the consummated 1079Ddispensation. His reclining is also to dwell in the thought of the holy mind, through the most bountiful condescension of his manifold grace.

The odour of this precious pistic nard 69 that woman of the Gospel who is written to have anointed the Lord showed forth in deed and in sacrament: in deed according to the history, in sacrament according to tropology; because to anoint the feet of the Lord was to consider the loftiness of his divinity by the uplifting of the mind, albeit through a glass and in a dark manner. To anoint the head and the feet of the Lord, therefore, is to believe and to preach his divinity and his humanity; whence also of the power of that same anointing with which Mary anointed the Lord it is written that the house was filled with the odour of the ointment (Joan. XII). For the house 1080Ais the Church, which is filled with the odour of this anointing, because she believes and confesses Christ God and man, and by the rightness of this faith and confession is spread through the whole breadth of the world. Through this house, that is, the whole body of the Church, John the Evangelist sprinkles the sweetness of this odour from the head and from the feet of the Lord: from the head indeed when he says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: and from the feet when he says: The Word was made flesh and dwelt in us (Joan. I).

The anointing of the head and feet of the Lord can also be understood in this way: that he who follows the footsteps of Christ through the pursuit of the active life should lie prostrate at his feet by living well, and so, advancing from day to day to better things, 1080Bthrough the virtue of the contemplative life should raise himself up, as it were, to the head of Christ, by cleaving to God continually. The anointing of the feet, then, is the operative virtue; further, the anointing of the head is the contemplative virtue. For the offering of good action and the exercise of holy meditation is of a most sweet odour, in which that heavenly King and Bridegroom delights at his reclining, waiting for and desiring those fragrant with such an odour, to place them with himself in the eternal reclining-place of that reclining of his own.

But that holy Church, or the faithful soul, may be able to come to that eternal reclining of his, in this reclining of his temporal dispensation, in which he willed to recline for her salvation by being born and by dying, by following the examples of his humility, patience and obedience, let her prepare for him in her mind a reclining redolent 1080Cwith the odour of the virtues, so that afterwards he may lead her, as bridegroom the bride, the immaculate the immaculate, into the bridal chamber, or reclining, of his kingdom; so that, as he now rests in her temporally through the diversity of graces, so she hereafter may rest in him eternally through everlasting glory. Whence by what follows the same bride shows that this is the sentence fixed beforehand by the merciful Bridegroom, that he who shares in his sufferings through patience shall also partake of his eternal kingdom through consolation.

VERSE 12.-- A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts.

70 By the myrrh, namely, is expressed the bitterness of the passion, by the cluster the sweetness of the resurrection. While, 1080Dshe says, my bridegroom and my king, under whose rule it is mine both to will and to be able the good, had reclined in the passion of the cross and, made obedient unto death, was already laid in the sepulchre, I, who before complained that I was black because not only strangers but my brothers also fought against me, as if compounded as a certain most precious nard out of his most ardent charity, and also out of the example of his humility, patience and obedience, have sprinkled the odour of good repute through the whole world, ready to succumb for his love not by one death only, but by a thousand kinds of deaths; so that to me my beloved is not myrrh alone, but a bundle of myrrh, since for the one kind of death which he underwent for me, I desire to gather a bundle of many and diverse deaths.

1081AWhat is this bundle? Perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brethren; labour and hardships, many watchings, hunger and thirst, many fastings, cold and nakedness: mockings and stripes, chains and prisons, stoning, being sawn asunder, lastly slaughter by the sword (II Cor. XI; Hebr. XI). Behold the bundle of myrrh. But since martyrdom is twofold, one in the body, the other in the mind, let us divide this bundle and suppose one to be the bundle of myrrh, that is, of bodily suffering, and another the bundle of mental myrrh; and the bundle of bodily suffering we have enumerated above; further, the bundle of mental myrrh, that is, of suffering, is virginity of the flesh, renunciation of the world and of all 1081Bworldly pleasure, or the labour of manifold continence. The cause of this twin bundle is my beloved to me, says the Church, or the holy soul, because for it, for his name and love, I have put the shoulders of mind and body under the bearing of this bundle: of the mind indeed by the mortification of vices, and of the body by the endurance of diverse sufferings. Why this? Because the beloved himself also, through himself too, was made to me a bundle of myrrh, when, taking upon himself for me in his own body scourges, spittings, blows, mockings, the draught of gall, the cross, the piercings of the hands, feet and side, and lastly death itself, he gathered as it were a bundle of manifold sufferings; and a bundle, my beloved to me, being made such, shall abide between my breasts, because all these signs of his passion I daily 1081Crecall in mind, and while I have the memory of them, I too gather more ardently for love of him the bundle of my own sufferings.

In the situation of the body the breast is placed between the breasts set on either side, and therefore by the commemoration of the bundle of myrrh between the breasts we rightly 71 understand that memory of the Lord's passion which ought to be in the breast.

Or let us suppose the breasts to be the two Testaments, namely the Old and the New, and consider that in these too the beloved abides by the commemoration of his passion, the former Testament foretelling that very passion as to come, the following one presenting it as already done. Between my breasts, she says, he shall abide, because in the two 1081DTestaments, set before me for the knowledge of him and for my salvation, I gather the bundle of his myrrh: foreshown in the Old Testament through figures, and in the New shown forth to the whole world through the saving sap of eternal redemption. For the sap of myrrh is said to heal many infirmities, and the sap of this myrrh of the Lord has driven out every sickness of the soul, and has established the medicine of perpetual health in the whole world.

Or he shall abide between my breasts, that is, between the two peoples established in my body out of the Jews and the Gentiles, who receive this bundle of the Lord's myrrh by faith, follow it by their manners, and make it in the sacrament by the daily commemoration of him, recall it in mind, and with the mouth take their own perpetual.

1082AOr between my breasts, that is, between the two thieves, between whom my beloved, hanging, composes the bundle of his passion; who prefigured the same two peoples, one believing, the other crucifying; one chosen, the other reprobate. And they were my breasts, the former on account of the natural and the written law, the latter on account of the natural alone, both thus having the nourishment of reason, so that they are inexcusable. And the latter indeed, through my beloved abiding in the midst and holding out the bundle of his myrrh, took on over and above a new law enlightening the natural; but the former, by the hidden but just judgment of God, after the law was given, lost even the natural, on account of unbelief.

Whence also to the beloved himself, hanging on the cross, it offered myrrhed 1082Bwine, the bitterness of which was poured over upon itself, when it said: His blood be upon us and upon our sons (Matth. XXVII).

VERSE 13.-- A cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.

And because it willed [voluit; read noluit, "was unwilling"] to take up the healing of this, it went without the sweetness of the cluster, and therefore it neither died together with the beloved to sin, nor rose together with him to justice. But to me, who in the other people, coming to the faith, receive, venerate and adore the sacraments of the passion, he has been made a cluster of Cyprus, because when he himself rose from death, he quickened me too with the hope and sweetness of the resurrection to come.

For he is the cluster carried from the land abiding with milk and honey, by the two spies signifying those very 1082Cpeoples; who, begotten of Mary his mother, flowing with the sweetness and fatness of the Holy Spirit, 72 was hung upon the cross for the salvation of both peoples. But as it is the custom of those who carry that one goes before and the other follows, so the former people was that of the Jews, known to God through the observance of the law, and the following people that of the Christians, taken up through the religion of the new law. And as he who goes before does not see that which he carries, and puts it behind him by a certain turning away of the back, while he who follows always has it before his face, always guards it with his gaze, and enjoys a certain nearness of body: so the Jewish people, carrying Christ in the law, does not understand him, but as it were turning away despises him. But the Christian people understands him, carries him on the forehead 1082Dand in the mind, and guards him by worshipping and by obeying his commandments.

That people abhors and despises this cluster hanging on the cross on account of the curse of the law; this people receives the saving testament of his blood, pressed out in the winepress of the cross, drinking with spiritual sweetness the unique remedy of body and soul; and in hope, the desirable and incomparable joy to come after the general resurrection of the same twin substance, namely of body and soul.

In this people, then, for I am this people, the bride of God, the Church of God, a cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me, because he who was a bundle of myrrh in the bitterness of the passion will be a cluster in the sweetness of the resurrection; and he for whose sake I have gathered a bundle of many sufferings, 1083Aboth in body and in mind, will be to me a cluster in the eternal refreshment of the soul and in the most sweet recompense of this labour.

Whence he is rightly called a cluster of Cyprus. For Cyprus is interpreted sadness or mourning; he is called, then, the cluster of Cyprus, because he himself is the true and sweet consolation of all my mourning and sadness; and as the cluster of Cyprus surpasses the clusters of all lands in size, so my beloved, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation (II Cor. I), surpasses in his dignity and grace all things that are in heaven and earth.

But where has the beloved been made a cluster of Cyprus? In the vineyards of Engaddi. Engaldi is said to be a very large village in Judaea, beside the Dead Sea, where there are vineyards, not indeed of wine but of balsam, little trees which are therefore 1083Bcalled vineyards, because they are propped up in the manner of vineyards. And from balsam basalmo mixed with the liquor of the olive the chrism is made, by which certain greater institutions of ecclesiastical consecrations are performed; for in it the laver of baptism is consecrated, and the priestly, its own imperial, dignity is confirmed. A certain special holiness is assigned to churches, or altars, and to sacramental vessels. And typically, in the anointing with a liquor of this kind are signified the gifts of spiritual charisms, by which the hearts of the faithful are made fit by the grace of the Holy Spirit for the divine ministries.

And Engaddi is interpreted the fountain of the kid. 73 And who is the fountain of the kid but baptism, or the grace of tears? 1083CNow the kids are the sinners who are to be placed on the left, and all the just are to be set on the right. The vineyards of Engaddi, then, that is, of the fountain of the kid, are the spiritual gifts which are granted only to those who have been washed from the filth of sins by holy baptism, or through the tears of penance: for the fountain of the kid is baptism, by which sinners, that is, kids, are washed and become just, that is, sheep of Christ; or, if after baptism they have fallen into sin, they are restored to their former state through the grace of tears, as through a second baptism.

A cluster, she says, of Cyprus is my beloved to me in the vineyards of Engaddi, because he is indeed to me the food and drink of consolation and salvation in those who through the grace of baptism have been made worthy to receive the knowledge of the divine sacraments 1083Dand the abundance of spiritual gifts; or who through the fountain of tears merit the absolution of sins, and, dead to sins, rise again to the life of eternal salvation, so that if, according to the Apostle, they are made planted together in the likeness of the death of Christ, they may become likewise also of his resurrection (Rom. VI).

The order of these four predicaments is certainly to be noted, namely the odour of the nard, the bundle of myrrh, the cluster of Cyprus, the vineyard of Engaddi. For in the same order in which they follow one another here in the series of the words, they are related as fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ: when before the passion he was anointed by Mary with precious spikenard, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment (Joan. XII): and in the passion he was given myrrhed wine to drink (Marc. XV), and after the passion, anointed with myrrh and other kinds of spices, 1084Ahe was laid in the sepulchre (Joan. XIX); whence, rising again after three days (Marc. XVI), he offered to believers the sweetness of the spiritual cluster in the principal joy of the resurrection: into whom, a little afterwards, he poured the grace of the Holy Spirit, which has all virtue, like balsam in the vineyards of Engaddi, giving to it power, through water and the spirit (Joan. XX) or the imposition of the hand, to give remission of sins and to make of kids the sheep of Christ.

But the things which in this manner, according to the history, went before in themselves in the head can also be shown in figure in his members, according to morality, in like order: so that, the odour of the virtues going before, the mortification of vices should consequently follow; because the affliction of the body and the contempt of worldly glory are the instruments 1084Bof this mortification. Are not hunger, thirst, nakedness, watching and continual prayers the instruments or the matter of this mortification? (Rom. VIII.) Now it is a principal and maximal proposition that where the instrument is lacking the cause of the instrument also is lacking; and where the matter is not, that also which is made from the matter is not; and that therefore it is consequent that where virtues are lacking, vices rule; because upon the steadfastness of the virtues going before there follows the fall of the vices. 74 Whence the Apostle, describing two things adverse to one another, namely the flesh and the spirit, first says: Walk in the spirit, and then, and you shall not fulfil the desires of the flesh (Gal. V), to show that the flesh is subjected by the strength of the spirit, and that unless virtue goes before, vice cannot give way.

1084CIn this order, then, in imitation of the head, that is, of Christ, his members, that is, the saints, offer first nard, then myrrh, because they ought first to have the works of holiness, by whose virtue the works of the flesh may be mortified. But because the same Apostle says: If by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live (Rom. VIII), in a fitting order, doubtless, spiritual resurrection follows spiritual mortification, so that those who have died together with Christ by dying to sins may rise again together with him by living. to justice, saying with the same Apostle: If we die together, we shall also live together (II Tim. II). For as there is a twin death, namely of the soul and of the body, so there is also a twin resurrection of each, so that those who now through justification rise from the death of the soul, in the resurrection to come 1084Dmay rise through incorruption from the death of body and soul. Whence John says in the Apocalypse: Blessed is the saint that hath part in the first resurrection, in these the second death hath not power (Apoc. XX) [Vulg. Apoc 20:6 Beatus, et sanctus, qui habet partem, "blessed and holy is he that hath part"]. This resurrection indeed is signified by the name of the cluster, so that, because for a time they have suffered a certain bitterness by spiritually mortifying the flesh, afterwards they may perceive eternally the ineffable sweetness of joy, here indeed by resting spiritually from the corruption of the mind, but there both from the corruption of the mind and from that of the body.

Truly this order also pleased the disposing grace as fitting and seemly: that, with the nard of holy repute being fragrant, and by the myrrh of inmost mortification, those already existing there as a living victim, and through the cluster hotrum spiritually 1085Ainebriating, gladdened by the newness of the soul rising from the death of sin, made superior to the flesh through the spirit, it should show worthy of the coming of the Holy Spirit, through the balsams of diverse graces which Engaddi spiritually brought forth, that is, the fountain of the kid, namely the baptism of the twofold laver, both of washing and of compunction, by which the kids, that is, sinners, are washed and are made sheep of Christ.

Therefore, after the bridegroom rebuked the bride for her ignorance of herself, on account of which she would have received a deserved repulse from the fellowship of the bridegroom, the bride, by his wholesome chiding, at length recognizing herself, she who before had distrusted that she could persevere by herself, now with full faith learned not to fail in tribulations, even unto death, for his love; and the bridegroom, congratulating her on such 1085Bprogress of hers and now judging her fair, flatters her with a proclamation of praises of this kind, so that by this she may be provoked to greater works of virtues.

75 VERSE 14.-- Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art fair, thine eyes are doves'.

Because, he says, considering thyself at first, thou didst call thyself black and dusky on account of the various heats of temptations, and, being still of little faith, didst cry out for my help, which nevertheless he had not said to thee; but afterwards, recognizing thyself as I showed thee, thou didst advance in such strength of spirit that thou didst not hesitate to offer me not only the myrrh of the passion but a bundle of myrrh: behold, I declare to thee that so fair art thou, and because fair, therefore my love; and conversely, because my love, therefore fair; and not 1085Conce fair, but again fair: for repetition is confirmation, because thou art so perfectly fair that thou pleasest me with a doubled beauty, namely of faith and of working, or of soul and of body.

Now in a beautiful order, between two predicates of beauty set on either side, one subject is constructed in the middle place, because the middle itself takes its being from the two; so that if one and of the two, doubly, of the beauty disposed on both sides, is lacking, namely, so that there be faith without works, or works without faith; or chastity of body without chastity of mind, or of mind without chastity of body, no soul is joined to God by the bond of spiritual friendship.

For since it is written: Faith, if it have not works, 1085Ddead in itself (Jacob. II), and since again that soul is called foolish by the Lord which carries lamps without oil, being about to go forth to meet the bridegroom (Matth. XXV), it is manifest that these parts of beauty, doubled on both sides, are constitutive of this most holy friendship. For it is not of small estimation before the judgment of almighty God to be perfected by so great a grace of God that he deigns him worthy of his friendship; and to be named, for the special gift of the virtues, the friend of God is certainly a great proclamation. Whence the Lord to the apostles: Now I will not call you servants, he says, but friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you (Joan. XV). For the sign of this friendship is the revelation of the Father's secret, and that which is specially conferred on those who love him and keep faith with this friendship, 1086Athe excellence of the contemplative dignity.

But since above, companions are spoken of by the bride in the place where she says: Lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions, while now by his own voice the bride is called his love, it must be considered what difference there is between a friend and a companion. A companion is one who is associated with us for doing something together with us; but a friend is one who, like in the practice of life, is joined to us by a devout and faithful love: the companions of the bridegroom, then, are those who seem as it were to be associated with him through some good works, but he proves of things with what intention they did it, when, being desirous of human praise, they show 76 themselves to be very alien from the love of him whom they seemed to imitate not simply and devoutly but for their own temporal advantage. But his friends are those who for the sole hope of eternal goods 1086Bare faithfully joined to him, and, while they are separated from him by no prosperity and no adversity, show how greatly they burn with the love of him before whom they care to set nothing at all. On account of such a quality of life the Church, or any holy soul which follows the footsteps of Christ, when this beauty is proclaimed of her, deserves to be called by the name of his love; but because that beauty shines forth from the speculation of the mind as from a kind of face, he adds the cause why he called her fair, saying: thine eyes are doves'.

The eyes of the Church are the holy doctors, because, as the eyes are leaders of the way for us, so the holy doctors, showing us the way of life, go before us by word and example as with a double eye.

Morally, too, any soul whatever, that is, in the head of the inner 1086Cman, has two eyes, understanding and discretion. For it understands and sees what it must do, then discerns how that action ought to be ordered, so that with the one eye it may look at the quality of its act, with the other at the manner. For he sees well whither he ought to tend who both considers the quality of the life to be held, and, by now tightening and now relaxing that quality according to place and time, forms the strong and the weak; yet so that that very tightening or relaxing is set within a fixed and fitting limit. The cause, then, why he says fair is this, namely that her eyes are doves'; which comparison is rightly made on account of the sevenfold virtue of the dove's nature and simplicity.

For the dove lacks gall, harms no one, picks the better 1086Dgrains, nourishes the young of others, nests in the clefts of the rock, has a moan for a song, is accustomed to sit above the waters so that it may foresee the coming of the hawk. On account of these seven marks of its nature the bride is compared to the dove; so that if she refers these things with a dove's eye to the moral form, she may worthily be called fair, while she strives to have by grace what the dove has by nature.

It lacks gall; which the bride of Christ also ought spiritually to lack, so that, according to the Apostle: Let all bitterness, and anger, and clamour, and blasphemy be put away from her with all malice (Ephes. IV). It harms no one; the bride of Christ too ought to hurt nobody, by word nor by deed; but, according to the Apostle, 1087Ato have peace with all men (Rom. XII). It picks the better grains; so too one who loves Christ ought to gather from Holy Scripture the better sentences, by which he may know how both to order his own life honestly and usefully and to form the life of his neighbours after his own example by teaching and acting. It nourishes the young of others; the Church too gathers into her bosom, as if her own sons, those who are not of her 77 body, such as heretics and perverse Christians, and is busy to join them to her body by admonishing, by reproving, by drawing them with benefits; and this any soul which is truly the bride of Christ ought to do, that she love and cherish strangers and those contrary to her, as her own household, for Christ's sake, so that she may always conquer evil into good (ibid.). It nests in the clefts of the rock, that it may escape the bites of serpents; so 1087Btoo the Church, or the soul joined to God, ought to seek refuge in the passion of Christ, for Christ is the rock (I Cor. X), whose passion's clefts are the wounds, the strongest defences against the snares of the malignant spirits. It has a moan for a song; and in this temporal life, to one who loves God, moaning ought to be for a song, that is, in place of worldly place and gladness, that sadness which is according to God, which worketh penance steadfast unto salvation (II Cor. VII): for it is written that blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matth. V), and on the contrary: Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall weep (Luc. VI). It is accustomed to sit above the waters so that it may foresee the coming of the hawk; so too the faithful soul ought to dwell in mind above the streams of the Holy Scriptures, 1087Cthat from them it may understand and learn how it may be able to beware of the snares of the ancient enemy.

The bride, then, is proclaimed fair on account of these seven parts of dovelike simplicity; which, because she exercises them with the simple eye of the mind as with a dove's eye, she so pleases the eyes of the bridegroom that he declares her fair not once but twice, as though confirming it, and intimates in these parts the twin love, namely of God and of the neighbour. For not to be angry, to hope in the sacraments of the passion of Christ, to groan genere for one's sins or for the delay of the heavenly kingdom, to bend the mind to sacred Scripture, is the sign of divine love: further, to harm no one, to receive and cherish strangers as if one's own, is the proof of brotherly charity. But because 1087Dthe Holy Spirit, through whom the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, is the same charity (Rom. V), consisting in the twin part of love, for John says: God is charity (I Joan. IV); let us consider in these seven parts of innocence the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit himself, namely the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isa. XI). For it is of wisdom to repress the motions of the mind while it wisely considers that the anger of man worketh not the justice of God (Jac. I); hence Solomon: The fool, he says, immediately sheweth his anger, but he that dissembleth an injury is shrewd (Prov. XII); and again: A stone is heavy, and sand weighty, but the anger of a man is heavier than both; Anger hath no mercy, nor fury when it breaketh forth [Vulg. Prov 27:3 ira stulti, "the anger of a fool"] 1088A(Prov. XXVII). Whence a certain one of the Gentiles says: He who will not moderate his anger Will wish undone what his resentment and his mind have urged, While he hastens by force the penalties of his unavenged hatred. (HORATIUS, Epist. I, II, 59.) 78 And to show that it is of wisdom to know how to rule the mind, he adds: Anger is a brief madness, rule the mind: which, unless it obeys, Commands: check it with reins, check thou it with a chain. (HORATIUS, Epist. I, II, 62.)

By the spirit of wisdom, then, the disordered motion of the mind is to be repressed, because through this evils are wisely avoided, which for the most part are born from it so grievous that they are scarcely or never laid to rest.

The spirit of understanding also is (Isa. IX), to harm neither oneself 1088Bnor others, and through the discretion of reason to understand that it is just that what one would not have done to oneself one should not do to another (Matth. VII) But because every injury of hurting is done in two ways by him who inflicts it, namely by word and by action, and is received in two ways by him who suffers it, that is, in mind and in body, a twofold remedy of understanding is also to be applied, that he may weigh that both the integrity of brotherly charity is corrupted and the severity of divine goodness is provoked, which is to harm both oneself and others. For that is true innocence by which one harms neither oneself nor others, because he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul (Psal. X), and no one sins against another without first sinning in himself. Great indeed is the gift of this understanding, by which one establishes for oneself such a manner of living that one pleases both God and men, and that this is 1088Cthe sign of true innocence, to love God and the neighbour, which is the perfecting of all holiness.

Further, by the spirit of counsel, anyone having zeal for a holy intention gathers the better and more useful sentences of the holy Scriptures, from whose sense, as from a certain help, taking counsel for himself, he may find a certain state of conversation, or one befitting quality; and this, collected out of diverse sentences, may become the counsel of a life to be well ordered.

But the spirit of fortitude greatly strengthens the mind that trusts in the power of the passion of Christ, when by the seal of that passion it is both fortified outwardly in the body and made firm inwardly in the mind against every onset of diabolical assault. For by this spirit of fortitude Moses warred down the Egyptian enemies (Exod. 1088DVII-XIV), when he laid them low by manifold plague through the rod and delivered the people of God from their bondage, intimating that he himself, the Lord strong and mighty in battle (Psal. XXV), was to succour the whole world by the wood of his cross, the universal enemy, that is, the devil, being laid low by the power of his passion. By this spirit of fortitude also Gideon conquered the enemy with three hundred (Jos. VIII) bearing before them the form of the cross in the character of this number, which is marked by the letter TAU: and in Ezekiel (cap. IX) no one is struck who is found sealed with this letter, as with the form of the cross.

But the spirit of knowledge is, to commit to tenacious memory the series of the holy Scriptures, the things by which he may pour forth the streams of sacred doctrine, which 1089Ahe may know how to divide with such discretion that both the simple may have that by which they are instructed, and the learned that by which they are exercised.

79 But to offer equal charity to all, so as to love enemies equally with friends for God's sake, and, according to the Apostle: To become all things to all, that we may gain all (I Cor. IX), is assuredly the spirit of piety; by which spirit certainly he is led, whoever strives not slothfully to succour his neighbour in every need, whether of body or of soul, according to his power and beyond his power.

Further, to groan in the twofold manner of compunction, that is, either by the remembrance of sins or by the inmost desire of the soul thirsting for God, is from the spirit of the fear of the Lord, by which one fears either to be damned for sins or to be deprived of the inheritance of the loving Father.

But since there are four fears, one servile, the other 1089Bworldly; the third initial, the fourth filial, the two last are referred to the spirit of the fear of the Lord, of which the one indeed, that is, initial fear, is not without charity, I do not say perfect, but inchoate. Whence John in his Epistle, when he said: Perfect charity casteth out fear (I Joan. IV) showed that, although not yet perfect, charity nevertheless is in initial fear. But in the other, which is filial, consisting in love alone, there is perfect charity, of which the Psalmist says: The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever (Psal. XVIII). Initial fear is that of which it is said: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Eccle. I), when a man begins to be wise and to taste God, where fear and the spirit accompany one another, 1089Cas it is read, fear is without hope. And the more good will grows, that is, charity, so much the more does fear almost decrease, so that from this initial fear, by which one fears to be punished, which is of the imperfect, one may at some time advance to filial fear, by which one fears not to be punished but to be separated, which is of the perfect. But the two fears which we set down in the preceding, that is, the servile and the worldly: they do not pertain to the spirit of the fear of the Lord, because they are separated from chaste fear; for servile fear is to cease from evil for the punishment threatening from man, the evil will nevertheless being retained. Worldly fear is to cease from good on account of the punishment which is feared from man: and these fears, namely the servile and the worldly, Christ forbids, saying: Fear ye not them that kill the body, but have nothing that they may do to the soul 1089D(Matth. XX). Afterwards he adds concerning initial fear, saying: But rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell (ibid.), which he would not command unless charity were in it, even if not yet perfect.

And it is to be noted that sometimes in Holy Scripture this fear is called servile, because it is akin to the servile, since both there and here one ceases from evil by fear of punishment. But that fear makes one cease from evil in deed and not in will; this one both in deed and in will. In the spirit, then, of the twofold fear of the Lord, that is, initial or filial, every holy soul has groaning for song, because in the joy of the present life she groans forth a mournful mind, either because she fears to be damned for sin, or because she fears 80 to be separated from God. Therefore, as we have said, on account of the sevenfold 1090Aquality of virtue and of dovelike innocence, the bride is recorded by the bridegroom to have the eyes of doves, because she shows forth in action what, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, judging it useful, honest, she sees with right intention. But because she understands that every good, if she has any, she has not from herself but from God, she ascribes the whole grace of the beauty conferred on her to her Creator and Redeemer himself, saying: Behold, thou art fair, etc.

VERSE 15.-- Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flowery.

Thou, she says, O beloved, essentially art fair and comely, I, whatever of beauty I have, have accidentally, by participation in thee, according to the measure of grace bestowed on me by thee, from thee; because thou, as Creator, art capable of being received through indwelling grace, I, as 1090Bcreature, am capable of receiving, participating in that grace as thou thyself hast granted. And this indeed according to the power of thy divinity; but according to the humanity, according to the outward man, thou wast beautiful in form above the sons of men (Psal. XLIV); but according to the inward man, to thee alone, the only-begotten, God giveth not the spirit by measure (Joan. III), while those who partake of thee receive him by measure, one indeed thus, another thus.

But all beauty and comeliness they have from thee, who truly and naturally art fair and comely, because whatever of meekness, whatever of piety, whatever of justice, whatever of patience, of humility, whatever finally of virtue or holiness ever could be or can be, they look upon and receive in thee, the singularly 1090Choly man, as in the highest exemplar.

Having set forth this saying, then, behold, thou art fair and comely, she pursues some parts of that very beauty and comeliness, while she adds: Our bed is flowery, etc.

Of which parts indeed the first, that is, our bed is flowery, can be referred both to the head and to the members of the head, but the two remaining to the members alone, which nevertheless depend on the head itself by participation in its beauty and comeliness. But first, concerning the first part, it must be said how it will be sought both as the head and toward the members of the head: toward the head indeed, either according to the good pleasure of the divinity ruling all things, or according to the sacrament of the humanity 1090Dredeeming the world; but toward the members according to the participation, as we have said, of divine grace dwelling in the mind of each holy man and working in it the gifts of its condescension.

By the name of the bed rest is designated in two ways, that is, either bodily or spiritual. For as after labour the body seeks rest, so the mind too, wearied by certain labours of perturbations, desires rest; but in this place by the bed spiritual rest ought 81 to be understood, because we have said it is to be referred both to the head and to the members of piety.

Nevertheless, we must first see concerning the rest of the head, which in no way ought to be believed necessary or advantageous to the substance of him who is subject to no accident, and with whom there is not any change, nor 1091Ashadow of vicissitude (Jacob. I), but the rest of the head is the salvation of the body. For just as God says that he labours when he bears with the depravities of the wicked, so too he says that he rests when he delights in the virtues of the good. Of his labour indeed, by which he bears with those still living perversely, he says through the prophet: I have laboured, sustaining (Jerem. VI): for the Lord does not labour in sustaining, whose power of dignity no fatigue touches, but, speaking in the words of humanity, he calls his very patience towards us labour. Further, of the rest by which he delights in the good he says: Upon whom shall I rest, but upon the humble and the quiet and him that trembleth at my words? [Vulg. Is 66:2 ad quem autem respiciam, nisi ad pauperculum, et contritum spiritu, "to whom shall I look, but to the poor little one and the contrite of spirit"] (Isa. LXVI); as if he should say in other words: He prepares rest for me in himself who in humility and quiet keeps the rule 1091Bof my precepts. The rest of God, then, is our advantage, just as, on the contrary, his labour is our loss.

To a member of this head, then, that is, to some faithful and holy man, the signification of this bed, which we have called rest, is fitted; because just as, by the opposite, for the reprobate the rest and delight of this world is in the future a perpetual labour and fatigue of the soul, so for the elect the labour and fatigue of this world is in the future the eternal rest and consolation of the soul. For the bed of a holy man is the silence and the cultivation of the contemplative life, which the more remote it is from the world, the nearer it is to God; and the more he labours in the observance of the divine precepts, the greater rest he has in the contemplation of the divinity as it were they are in one bed. God through grace inspiring, governing 1091Cand preserving, man through grace inspiring, governing and preserving, willing, acting and perfecting; God participable by grace, man participating in grace.

The members of this head therefore say, our bed is flowery, because, since with the aforesaid they are as it were in one rest, participable and participating, that is, head, member, unfading buds of virtues sprout, so that deservedly that bed is called flowery, that is, composed with the varied comeliness of good works. Thus the bride speaks to the bridegroom: the bed is not thine, but ours, flowery, because to adhere to God through honesty of life flowering with holiness, in thought, will, action, is as it were to rest with him in one bridal chamber; otherwise the soul profits nothing without grace resting 1091Dwith it.

Further, according to the sacrament of the humanity, the bed of the beloved is the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, because it is wonderfully flowery 82 both with the beauty of virginity and with the inestimable and ineffable operation, through the Holy Spirit, of a singular nativity. But our, she says, bed, because thine indeed it is by the election of the incarnation, mine by faith in that same incarnation; thine on account of the manifold gifts of the proportion of thy grace dwelling in the mind of the Virgin and Mother, mine on account of the example of her magnificent holiness, to be imitated according to my ability, and the excellence of the novelty of novelties, to be adored without example.

The bed of the beloved is also the sepulchre, in which after the passion he was laid away, which is therefore flowery because from 1092Athis burial the ensigns of the glorious resurrection flowered forth. This bed too is not only thine, she says, but ours, because thou didst rise from this bed, that is, from the sepulchre, and gavest me the hope of rising again, the certainty of which hope is to me as it were a bed in which I rest secure, wholly, through the zeal of thy grace working with me, because I do not doubt of the future joy of the resurrection, and of the everlasting reward of transitory labour.

VERSE 16.-- The beams of our houses are of cedar our panelled ceilings of cypress.

But the beauty and comeliness of the following parts, by which the beloved is proclaimed fair and comely by his beloved, which are: The beams of our houses of cedar, the panelled ceilings of cypress, look specially to his members, whose virtues nevertheless 1092Band graces are ascribed to his beauty and comeliness, whose is all that is called good and honest.

First, however, we must look into whose houses these beams and panelled ceilings are: according to universality, the great house of this beloved, that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the holy universal Church; but according to particularity, the single churches which are contained within this universality are also called his houses. And the beams and panelled ceilings of these houses are the angels, that is, the rulers and doctors of the several Churches, who have been in time and place for protection and adornment by words and examples, who also, spreading far and wide the odour of their holiness and doctrine, have protected and adorned the universal Church itself as well, 1092Cprotect and adorn; will protect and adorn, whose memory is in benediction for ever and ever.

But these beams are said to be of cedar, the panelled ceilings, however, of cypress. Now the cedar has three memorable things in its nature: height, odour, incorruptibility; which indeed rightly befit the holy doctors, because they are raised up by the contemplation of the Divinity, are spread round about by the odour of doctrine and of good action, by no rottenness of unbelief or depravity 83 are corrupted. There is also a fourth distinction of the cedar's nature, that by its odour it is said to put serpents to flight, showing indeed this virtue of the doctors whom it designates, that by their doctrine they are able to repel evil thoughts creeping secretly in hearts 1092Dand to put to flight, together with the thoughts themselves, the ancient serpent who suggests them, that is, the devil.

The cypress too has in its nature two of the graces written above, namely of odour and of incorruption; which also befit the doctors on account of the odour of life and doctrine and the incorruption of faith.

The beams and panelled ceilings may, however, not unfittingly be understood differently, so that we take the beams in the Church as the prelates, and the panelled ceilings as their subjects, because the beams support the panelled ceilings, as the prelates their subjects, while they provide them with necessaries, so that, as by the conjunction of beams and panelled ceilings the house is clothed with beautiful comeliness, so by the religious unanimity of prelates and subjects the Church of God may be ordered with fitting and reasonable disposition.

1093AAnd well are both, as cedar and cypress, described as odoriferous and incorruptible, because both the prelates are raised aloft by the good odour and incorruption of life, doctrine and faith, and the subjects are daily provoked by their erudition to the same graces of the virtues. Whence also the cypress, which is set in the part of the subjects, has this by nature, that, planed by the hand of the craftsman, it presents a comely appearance, because this is proper to good subjects, that when they have been touched by the hand of holy admonition or rebuke by their prelates, they do not recoil insolently, but submit themselves obedient to their admonitions with a cheerful countenance and a patient mind.

But that we may look at all these things generally in the universal Church too, which is as it were a certain commonwealth of the bridegroom and the bride, 1093Bthese ensigns of the adornment of the house of the Lord are daily venerated and proclaimed, it contains principally the head, that is, Christ in his deeds and precepts, and after him his members, among whom, above all, eminent and of singular merit, is the blessed Virgin Mary, who in the signification of the flowery bed is held most beautiful: then the apostles or apostolic men and their hearers and followers, set in the very house of the Lord as beams and panelled ceilings, by whose life, erudition, institution, authority in all things this whole commonwealth of God is venerably confirmed and adorned, so that to those who look rightly nothing more honest, nothing more pleasant, nothing surely sweeter can be esteemed in the pilgrimage of this life. For this is as it were a certain way and concourse of future felicity 1093Cand a contemplation, far off, in faith, hope and charity, of that great and incomparable commonwealth.

But that this glorious state of the nobly instituted Church has stood at the nod of him 84 who said: Without me you can do nothing (Joan. XV), the same bridegroom and ruler of it himself confesses, truth confirming truth, not that he needs our attestation, but that he may instruct us unto greater faith, and that he may teach no one to presume of his own justice in any good.

VERSE 1.-- I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.

Rightly, he says, O beloved, dost thou judge, who ascribest all thy beauty to me, because I in truth am 1093Dthe flower of the field, that is, the honour and beauty and adornment of the whole universal Church, spread through the whole world, or most joyful field, and diverse in species of holiness and grace, germinating and flowering from my gift. I also am the lily of the valleys, that is, the cleansing, refreshment and medicine of the humble, or of those cast down by some sorrow and affliction of this world for the sake of my name.

85 For the nature of the lily has in it three delightful things: whiteness, odour, medicine against burning; for whoever in this valley of tears, with humbled spirit and contrite heart, bewail their excesses, recognizing themselves infirm and always imploring my aid, without doubt shall obtain cleansing and whiteness of soul, and then 1094Ashall be refreshed by the odour of good conversation, I inspiring and helping, and against all the incentives of the flesh and against the burning of affliction and of the world as it were setting on fire, shall be cooled by the opposing of my love and of the consolation of hope.

Another too, O beloved, I am the flower of the field, that one, namely, of whom Isaiah says: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root (Isa. XI). For thou didst say above that our bed is flowery, namely the womb of my Mother, from whom I willed to be incarnate; but I say that it is flowery for this reason, because I am its flower, from which flower many other flowers proceed, that is, spiritual grace, which the prophet mentioned enumerates. And there shall rest, he says, upon him, without doubt upon the flower, the spirit of the Lord, the spirit 1094Bof wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him (ibid.). I am the flower, then, of the field, namely of that earth of which it is said: Truth is sprung out of the earth (Psal. LXXXIV); which is therefore called a field, because it is not rough, nor tortuous, a village, but level and even, as being levelled by the power of the Most High after the manner of a plain from every unevenness of morals; which brought me forth, the flower of flowers, that is, the Holy of holies, without the seed of man, just as a field without seed produces the shoots of diverse flowers and herbs.

The lily too am I of the valleys, that is, the whiteness and odour and salvation of those who imitate the humility of my mother, and not of those who glory in the merit of chastity; for those who glory, and contain themselves for human favour only, 1094Chave not progress, the lily of virginal whiteness, and, by inward purity, the sign; but rather they are unclean with the blackness of vainglory before the sight of my purity, and therefore I neither am nor can be called their lily: but of those who imitate me and her, I am the lily by the gift of grace, she is the lily by example, so that they too may become a lily by imitation. Whence follows: as the lily among thorns.

VERSE 2.-- As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

As I, he says, among the Jews, whom I expected to make grapes, but they made thorns (Isa. V), shone with humility, meekness, patience and the manifold grace of the virtues, while they, standing like a thorn against 1094Dme, pricked me with many stings of words and of manners, so thou, O my Church, my bride, or any soul whatever that loves me, you ought to be among the daughters 86 of this world, that is, souls thorny with malice and unbelief, in humility and patience, so that, when thou hast imitated me in this manner, thou mayest be proved truly my love, and let such imitation of me be the proof of true friendship.

Or as my mother according to the flesh, Mary, who is a lily by the whiteness of virginity and the odour of holiness, went her way with humility and patience among the daughters of the Synagogue, who like thorns pricked her, putting upon her the stain of infamy, because they did not believe in the virtue and power of God. Because she recognized through the spirit the dispensation of God, and felt fulfilled in herself what she had formerly heard through the prophet and afterwards through the angel. 1095ASo also, by her example, whatever soul is a friend to me through faith and love ought, among the daughters whom the corruption of malice and impiety has begotten, to keep humility, patience and honesty, and on account of the hope of future remuneration never to fall away from them.

Or let us say simply that the soul which wishes to show itself worthy of the friendship of God ought always to stand among depraved men as the lily among liliuminter thorns, so that, as the lily among thorns, being set there, does not lose the dignity of its whiteness and odour, so she, among depraved manners, may not lose the integrity of faith and patience, or of any holiness granted her, but rather may learn by tolerating that, the more she is afflicted by their perversity, so much the more are the merits of greater virtues heaped up for her; 1095Bfor, as blessed Gregory says, whoever does not tolerate the wicked, he himself through his intolerance is witness to thee that he is not good. Hence blessed Job speaks of himself, saying: A brother am I of dragons and a companion of ostriches (Job XXX); and the Lord to Ezekiel: The sons of man are unbelievers and subverters with thee, thou dwellest with scorpions [Vulg. Ez 2:6 fili hominis … increduli et subversores sunt tecum, "O son of man … unbelievers and subverters are with thee"] (Ezech. II). Peter also approves the life of Lot, saying: And he delivered just Lot, oppressed by the injury and the luxurious conversation of the wicked; for in sight and hearing he was just: dwelling among them who from day to day vexed the soul of the just man with wicked works (II Petr. II). Hence John writes to the Church of Pergamum, saying: I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is, and thou hast my name, and hast not denied my faith (Apoc. II); Paul also 1095Cpraises and strengthens his disciples, saying: In the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Holding the word of life (Philip. II).

By these authorities it is sufficiently established how great a virtue it is to tolerate the depraved manners of men, since from the greater malice of the reprobate greater gains of merits grow for the elect, because it is written: The more Pharaoh oppressed the people of God, the more it was multiplied (Exod. I).

But who the daughters are among whom the Church or holy soul is said to dwell as the lily among thorns is gathered from the comparison itself, because as for those which are compared to thorns, it is evident 87 that they are taken in the adverse part; and they are therefore called daughters, because 1095Dthey are generated from the wicked seed of perverse doctrine, or from an evil conception of the mind. But the Church, or any faithful soul whatever, which through faith and operation is the bride of Christ, that she may be able to be as the lily among thorns, comes to meet him who rules and protects her with gracious praise through another comparison, saying: As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, etc.

VERSE 3.-- As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. Under the shadow of him whom I had desired I sat, and his fruit was sweet to my throat.

My beloved, she says, has compared me to the lily among thorns, keeping its virtue, which, although he has granted it me by his gift, yet he taught me by his own example that I should become this. For as the apple tree, fruit-bearing, having in itself three useful things by which it refreshes, 1096Athis being fruit, odour and shade, among the trees of the woods too, which certainly are unfruitful, is held incomparable, so my beloved, by the fruit and odour of holiness and of justice and of doctrine, and by the shade of his protection, with which he refreshes, teaches and defends those who believe in him, among the sons, that is, the Jews, stood forth; who at first indeed were sons, and now wish to be, but are not, because of them God said: I have nourished and exalted sons, but they have despised me (Isa. I); and elsewhere: The strange sons have lied to me, the strange sons have grown old and have halted from their paths (Psal. XVII): who boast themselves to be sons of Abraham, but are not, because they have not the works (Joan. VIII); and therefore they are unfruitful and useless trees, and on this account to be cut down and cast into the fire. For among such 1096Btrees, caught by eternal burning, he hung on the tree of the cross, from which he poured out for me the sweetest fruit of his body and blood, with which he daily refreshes those who believe in him: but they, like wild trees, not only brought forth no fruit of good work, but even poured out the most bitter sap of their malice and impiety, crying: Crucify, crucify (Joan. XIX.), and: His blood be upon us and upon our sons (Matth. XVII).

Under the shade of this tree, then, that is, the refreshment and consoling defence of the New Testament, which I was desiring now for a long time in the ancient fathers, who sighed with great desire for the times of softening and refreshing grace, now at length after the advent, passion, resurrection and ascension of Christ 1096CI sat, with faith unshaken and stable. For the Law, with a certain heat of inclemency and of incurable punishment, when it said: If anyone shall have done this or that, let him die the death (Exod. XIX), had long afflicted me; but grace moved such heat with the shade of mercy and the remedy of penance, under which desirable shade I did not walk, did not stand, but rather sat and rested, because 88 I received this decree of piety, confirmed by the authority of my Lord himself, to be held immutably.

This tree indeed is the tree of life, whose shade and divine protection, which its branches pour out, branches of honour and grace, which namely are the oppositions of diverse virtues against the heats of worldly temptations: as, against pride, 1096Dthe opposition of humility is necessary; against anger, of patience; against lust, of chastity and continence; against contumacy, of obedience; against avarice, of largesse and mercy; against strifes and contentions, of peace and concord; against envy and hatred, of love; and that we may comprehend it briefly, against all the delights and temptations of this world surely there must be opposed the remembrance of the future misery of the wicked and the glory of the just.

The outpourings of such shades indeed protect the soul from the heat of carnal suggestions and delights, under which, because I desired them, I sat, that is, I rested, since indeed I found in them the grateful and wholesome refreshment of protecting grace.

And his fruit, without doubt that of that apple tree, 1097Athat is, of Christ, my bridegroom and Lord, sweet to my throat, because the utility and suavity of his precepts is sweet and pleasing to the palate of my heart and to the capacity of my mind. Or the fruit of this apple tree hanging on the tree of the cross is sweet to my throat, because the receiving of the body and blood of Christ pours sweetness and health into my breast, and it is plainly the perfect refection of my body and soul ani mae.

Otherwise also the sons among whom the bridegroom is said to dwell as the apple tree among the trees of the woods are taken to be the elect, who are called sons of God by name, on account of the observance of his commandments, for which they shall obtain from their heavenly Father himself the inheritance of eternal life; among whom Christ dwells like the apple tree among the trees of the woods, because as the apple tree 1097Bexcels all the trees of the woods in beauty and in the odour and sweetness of its fruits, so Christ goes before all the saints in the comeliness of virtues and the sweetness of doctrine, as it is written of him: Beautiful in form above the sons of men, grace is poured abroad in thy lips; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (Psal. XLIV).

Under whose shade or the Church, because, the branches of that tree, whether of sacraments, or of commandments, or of gifts, being spread through the whole breadth of the world, she is wonderfully protected and consoled from all heat of sadness and perturbation, remaining secure and immovable through the hope of future retribution, whose fruit is sweet to the throat of her, because all the mystical things of his utterances, and the venerable institutions of the sacraments, which 1097Che brought forth from the hidden wisdom of his divinity, are sweet and pleasing to the mind that devoutly embraces and venerates them, 89 on account of the salvation which is conferred on it from thence, quickening and refreshing without end.

But what effect the sweetness and suavity of this fruit has, what more sublime and more perfect thing it brings forth, she shows by what she adds.

VERSE 4.-- The king hath brought me into the wine-cellar, he hath set in order charity in me. [Vulg. Ct 2:4 Introduxit me in cellam vinariam, without rex, "the king"]

The effect of this introduction proceeded from the cause of the fruit, well pleasing and therefore taken up with great zeal of mind, because the more the precepts of God are desired, so much the more fully are they admitted by divine love to ever greater things to be desired. That fruit indeed 1097Dwhich flowed forth, and still flows forth, from that glorious and most excellent tree, the Lord Jesus Christ, not all receive equally: because one receives this, another that, according to what he savours and loves.

For to this one the virtue of patience savours and pleases more, to that one, of obedience; to this one, of humility, to that one, of continence; this one the assiduity of prayer delights more, that one, of reading, of fasts; and in the whole they procure by divine gift the species of the virtues, of the graces.

But there is a certain as it were singular and as it were separate storehouse, standing in a certain secret place, which is called a cell because of a certain narrowness of its own, in that it admits few into its recesses, where is laid up the sweetness and suavity of that fruit which maketh glad the heart of man (Psal. CIII), and boils out every humour of vices, 1098Anamely the evangelical precept concerning the utility of charity. Which is rightly called by the name of wine, because as wine, by purging itself, rejects from itself everything pestiferous, and by its natural colour boils out every noxious humour; so the precept of charity puts to flight from the heart every pest of vices, and expels all the passions of the mind, because no one can both have charity and be evil; and therefore the full understanding of this is deservedly called the wine-cellar.

Those, then, who delight to rest under the branches of that saving tree and to gather without loathing the sweetest fruit of holiness, will at some time arrive at this perfection, that they enter the wine-cellar without obstacle, because this way is not narrow for them, for whom the way of worldly pleasure, 1098Bbroad and spacious, is utterly closed. For the way of this precept is narrow, because it seems difficult to many and laborious when it is said: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you (Matth. V).

But because we read that it has been observed by many saints, this precept is not difficult except to those who have not yet perfectly tasted the sweetness of the fruits, that is, of the divine commandments. This, then, is the wine-cellar, perfection, and, to those freely entering the narrow way, sweetly savouring and on this account perfectible, of the understanding of the divine precept concerning the excellence of charity.

But because charity itself looks in diverse directions, there is necessary in it 90 an order to be attended to, so that one may know in what place each affection is to be put, and which is to be taken as prior, which as posterior. Whence, when she had set before: 1098CThe king hath brought me into the wine-cellar, she adds, and he hath set in order charity in me. For this is the order of holy love, that first we love God, then our neighbour, lastly even the enemy himself. This order is indeed necessary, because it is impossible that anyone love his neighbour, or, what is more difficult, his enemy, unless he love God, since the cause of the love of these is the love of God, and in this way what was impossible becomes possible. For what is necessary to be, it is impossible not to be, and what is necessary not to be, it is impossible to be. But it is necessary that the love of God be where the love of neighbour is, because no one loves his neighbour for God's sake unless he love God: but it is necessary that the love of God not be where 1098Dthe love of neighbour is not, according to the word of John: He that loveth not his brother whom he saw, God whom he seeth not, how can he love? (I Joan. IV.) But it is not always necessary that the love of God not be where the love of the enemy is not, because it can happen that one who loves God has no enemy whom he may love for God's sake: but if he has one, then it is necessary that the love of God not be where the love of the enemy is not, because he proves that he does not love God who is unwilling to love his enemy for God's sake.

This order, then, as has been said, seems to be necessary, when it is determined that love of neighbour is impossible unless the love of God precede, according, however, to that love which is according to God, not that which is according to the world. For the love 1099Aof the world is without the love of God, because that is according to the flesh, this according to the spirit.

But the mode of love according to the flesh is twofold: one which is altogether against God, as is that of the wicked who love one another for the fellowship of iniquity; the other which is not against God, as is that of parents, kinsmen, and friends, to which love, however, the love of God is always to be preferred, and, for God's sake, the love of each neighbour. But the first mode according to the flesh is altogether foreign to the present place, because it is wholly disordered and contrary to God; but the other, which is not against God, is not abhorrent to the present place, if only it be ordered, because if a man is loved more in God than God, then it is disordered.

1099BIt may, however, not absurdly be taken so that we say that the order of charity is twofold, one in God, the other in the neighbour: for it is written: God is charity (I Joan. IV): and in this charity which is God, the Church, or any holy soul whatever, ought to learn, know and understand the order, that in the first place she should name the Father as the voice, in the second the Son as the word from the voice, in the third the Holy Spirit as the reason proceeding from the voice and the word. But let her not say it in that sense, as though there were any degree in the Trinity, 91 which it is impious to say, but that she may distinguish in persons, by this order of terms, that charity, that is, God, whom she ought to love with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength, one and the same in substance.

1099CBut love itself is distinguished by this order, that God be loved first with the whole heart, then with the whole soul, lastly with the whole strength, by believing, with the whole soul by confessing, with the whole strength by working.

But in the love of neighbour charity is ordered through the several precepts of the Law which follow: for not to commit adultery, not to do murder, not to speak false witness, to honour father and mother, etc., following the order of the Decalogue, is charity ordered, each in its own place as well. How also, or with what affection, the diverse persons in the Church ought to be loved, charity is ordered; because in one order ought the faithful friend to be loved, in another order the dearest son, in another order parents, in another order the full brother, in another order 1099Dthe spouse, in another order the servant by the master, in another order the master by the servant, in another the stranger, in another the acquaintance, in another the priest, in another the kinsman and neighbour. For to bestow necessaries on the needy, to visit the sick or those committed to prison, to console the needy and those oppressed by unjust judgment, to bury the dead, to correct those who act wickedly, to help brothers in some labour, to instruct the less knowing, or to expend whatever other things are necessary to the utility of neighbours, all these assuredly are orderable offices of holy charity.

Deservedly, then, the holy mind is brought in by her king and bridegroom into the wine-cellar, that is, into the understanding of the divine precepts, when, inebriated by the sweetness of his grace, she understands the diligence of charity to be expended, so manifoldly ordered. Whence, 1100Awhen she is affected by so great a strength of this inebriating wine that she remains as it were insensible to every worldly delight, and for the immense desire of charity so ordered is not only stupefied but even languishes, demanding for herself some solace of this languor, she goes on to say: Stay me up with flowers, etc.

VERSE 5.-- Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love.

What are the flowers but souls bringing forth the beginnings of good work and beginning to be fragrant with heavenly desire? And what are the apples but souls already holding perfection from the beginnings of good works through the nourishment of divine grace, as it were advancing from flowers to fruit? She, then, who languishes with divine love 1100Bseeks to be stayed up with flowers, compassed about with apples, because, since she is not yet able to see as he is him whom she loves so orderly with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength, that is, with faith, confession, operation, yet it is a great consolation to her that she rejoices in the pious advancements of her neighbours, now beginning, now perfected.

92 For holy Church has in herself certain lesser ones whom she may instruct by word and example, that they may be as flowers catching the first-fruits of holiness. She has also certain greater ones in whom she may be instructed, and by whose doctrines and examples she may be daily edified, who are as apples, pleasing already by the maturity and perfection of good works. Such, then, namely both the lesser and the greater, growing up in this manner with zeal for piety, 1100Cgreatly console holy Church, which surely with great gladness of heart sees her sons, small and great, rude and perfect, love this which she herself vehemently loves; and this is a great consolation of her languor, in the exile of this pilgrimage, that they tend with her by desire towards that to which she believes she will at some time arrive by reward.

In this way too any saint whatever who languishes with the love of God can say: Stay me up with flowers loribus, compass me about with apples, when he esteems as a great remedy of such languor the progress of his neighbours, which he sees in the good work of his own, whom he loves in God, these indeed sprouting towards pious pursuits, those bearing fruit in those very pursuits. Did not he who 1100Dlanguished with such love that he said: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, nevertheless desire the utility of his neighbours, saying, but to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sakes? (Philipp. I.) Whose progress to see he meanwhile reckons as a great consolation, when he is perfectly able [praevalet; read non praevalet, "is not able"] to comprehend the face of God which he so greatly desires to see. Although he greatly desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, did he who languished with divine love fear that he could not at some time attain what he loved? By no means; but this came about by the dispensation of God, that the delay of this reward might become a greater exercise of virtues, and also an ampler remuneration of labour for the utility of those whom he loved; for he who desired to be dissolved was certainly sure of the reward, as he himself says elsewhere: We know 1101Athat if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (II Cor. V).

Wherefore he bore the pain of this delay more lightly, because he rejoiced that those whom he loved were tending with him to receive the same reward.

Whence he sends consolatory things to certain of his disciples, saying words: I give thanks to my God always for you, in the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus, because in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. I). Behold, he who desired to be dissolved 1101Band to be with Christ, how much he rejoiced and gave thanks, that, because he could not yet attain this, yet by the advancements of the sons whom he had begotten in Christ he greatly relieved the inconvenience of this delay.

93 In another way also the Church desires the utility and progress of her sons through faith and operation, so that she is then said to be stayed up with flowers when she is adorned with the faith of believers, which is the beginning of religion and as it were the first rising flower of holiness. But because faith without works is dead (Jac. II), she is said to be compassed about with apples when she is said to rejoice in the pious works of those same believers, bearing fruit manifoldly, as in fruits already ripe.

And since these two are so joined to each other that the one 1101Ccannot be useful without the other; for it is written that without faith it is impossible for anyone to please God (Hebr. XI), but faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself (Jac. II), great surely is the consolation of the soul languishing in the love of God when she sees her neighbours advance in faith and operation.

But since this bride of Christ, who by that love so magnificently, as we have said, ordered is made weak and languid, is not [non; read non solum, "not only"] consoled by the progress and utility of her neighbours, but is also lifted up by the reality of present goods and the hope of future ones, she adds, saying: His left hand under my head.

VERSE 6.-- His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

1101DThe left hand of Christ, that is, the sinistra, are temporal goods, but his right hand eternal goods; but certain temporal goods in this world God grants to his elect for the expectation of future goods, so that while they receive his present gifts they may be prepared more ardently and more securely for desiring the eternal.

But the left hand of Christ is under the head of her, because she presses down these very temporal goods by the intention of the highest love, so that she may look upon them as lower, and always attend to eternal goods as higher. For under the head, that is, under the mind, not above, ought all these temporal things to be, namely that she may never set them before divine love, but may so use them that, not for pleasure but rather for necessity, she may moderate them by the reasonable equity of the mind 1102Aand may always admire the more, by loving and sighing, those things which ought to be above the mind. For this is his right hand which may embrace him, namely those everlasting goods, which, when she shall have obtained him, she may be able to rest in secure blessedness and blessed security.

She says, therefore: His left hand under my head and his right hand shall embrace me, because all things that he has ordered in creatures for my utility I shall hold in thought for thanksgiving, but those on account of which these things have been furnished me for a time, as being to abide with me eternally, I shall be zealous to love and to desire with the whole devotion of my mind.

Or, his left hand under my head, because that he was born and suffered, that he rose again and ascended into heaven, 1102Bwill be in my memory; and his right hand shall embrace me, because the memory of these things will animate me to the ensigns of the future resurrection and 94 glory, to be loved and desired.

Or the left hand of God is, in this world, a certain small knowledge of him, but the right hand of him, after this life, the full and true knowledge of him; but the left hand under our head is, but the right hand of him shall embrace us, because we see now indeed through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face (I Cor. XIII). For the left hand is under the head because it is granted to us in this life to think something of God and to see it with the mind, but the right hand of him shall embrace us, because in the future life he will fill and surround us with so great a vision of himself that what this may be neither eye can see, 1102Cnor ear hear, nor into the heart of man can it ascend (I Cor. II).

This charity, then, ordered in the bride by the condescension of ordering grace, sets the left hand under her head and embraces her with its right hand, so that, all temporal gifts being put in the second place, she may rest principally in the desire of eternal life; and that in this way the grant of present things may be also the certainty of future things, the consolation of the mind weak and languid in the love of God.

And you, sisters beloved of Christ, who by despising the world languish with the love of God, ought to give such a sign of this kind of love that you may be stayed up with flowers by believing, compassed about with apples by working. Let the left hand of Christ be under your head and his right hand embrace 1102Dyou, so that you may always attend to the temporal goods somehow granted you by God as lower, but to the eternal as higher. For length of days is in his right hand, in his left hand riches and glory (Prov. III); because in this present life he sometimes grants to his elect to foretaste the riches of his goodness, but in the future life to possess them eternally without end. Delights in the right hand of him are even unto the end (Psal. XV), which you can surely obtain, if you so languish in his love that you persevere in him firm and stable even unto the end. His right hand indeed shall embrace you, because not in part as now, but whole and perfect knowledge of himself he will give, and for brief and transitory labour he will grant you rest and life and length of days for ever and ever. Amen.

• 1103A

How, says the Psalmist, shall we sing the canticle of the Lord in a strange land? (Psal. CXXXVI.) But what is the canticle of the Lord? First, to speak simply: The canticle of the Lord is whatever we compose, write and say according to the manner of the Church's doctrine or ordinance, in a concordant modulation of senses and words. The canticle of the Lord is the whole page of the Old and New Testament, which we sing well when we announce it with right and full faith, setting forth to the praise of the Lord now the series of the things done, now the signification of the things themselves. But a Canticle of this kind anyone can sing by way of knowledge, not only in his own land but also in a strange land; because a bodily place does not take away 1103Bthe power of singing, though it may take away the will and the pleasure, because of some passion of sadness: as with that people set in the grief of captivity, who, when it was said to them, Sing us a hymn from the canticles of Sion, answered: How shall we sing the canticle of the Lord in a strange land? For, to take it in figure, their not being able to sing the canticle of the Lord in a strange land was our not being able to praise the Lord perfectly in the place of our pilgrimage; which is to us as it were a strange land; Because we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come (Hebr. XIII), which is our fatherland and the land of our eternal inheritance. For to tell the works of God, to declare his commandments, to write and expound them, is, as we have said, to sing a certain canticle of the Lord 1103C: this too is possible in this place of our pilgrimage, since the Psalmist says: Thy justifications were the subject of my song in the place of my pilgrimage (Psal. CXVIII).

But that we may consider something higher, there is also another canticle of the Lord, which it is not possible to sing in a strange land. And which is that? Surely the one which the Holy Spirit modulates by his sevenfold grace, as it were through the distinctions of seven voices; because that voice of the inner man sounds in one way through the spirit of wisdom, in another through the spirit of understanding, in another through the spirit of counsel, and in another through the spirit of fortitude; but in another manner through the spirit of knowledge, and in another through the spirit of piety, and in another again 1103Dthrough the spirit of the Lord (Isa. XI).

For by these distributions of graces, as by certain different voices, is constituted the whole modulation, of the canticle 96 of the Lord, of that most sweet canticle, which a life honest, holy, pleasing to God and perfect sings on the strings of the virtues.

For there is no dissonance there between flesh and spirit, because the flesh sings in accord with the spirit so concordantly that they build up the perfect harmony of the spiritual 1104Acanticle, which is, in the place of our pilgrimage, the best kind of divine canticle. But this canticle cannot be sung in a strange land, that is, in a body subject to sins; which is then a strange land when, being by sinning in the power of the devil, it is unworthy of the dwelling of Christ: or it is then estranged from us when, doing ill, it struggles against the spirit and the reason of the mind. Strange is the land. Man by always loving earthly things, and on this account estranged from God, and therefore powerless to sing the canticle of the Lord, because the sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God (I Cor. II).

But to what purpose are these things? Plainly to this, that I may show you, most holy sisters, that this office which you have enjoined on me is beyond my strength, because while I am not at all 1104Bor but little fit to sing the Canticle of the Lord, far less fit shall I be to sing the Canticle of the Lord of canticles. For matter of this kind ought to belong to orators declaiming eloquently and wisely, whose office is to speak aptly for persuading, and whose end is to persuade by speech; but since there is in me neither wisdom nor eloquence, in one who lacks the office of speaking aptly, still less assuredly is the end of persuading by speech present. For I should then be writing to you profitably if I were saying the things I say or am about to say so aptly that I could persuade you to honesty of life and profit of soul. For my land is a strange land, resisting the spirit, serving the Lord of sin, and therefore I am not fit to sing in it the Canticle of the Lord, how much less 1104Cthe Canticles of canticles. But as a certain one was, let it be permitted to one who fears to hope, so that I, who for the smallness of my understanding fear to pursue so sublime a matter, may yet hope through your prayers to be helped, out of regard for the Divinity, in carrying through the things I have begun.

VERSE 7.-- I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up nor make the beloved to awake, till she herself please.

The beloved, therefore, delighted by the sleep of his beloved, under whose head, that is, her mind, he had placed his left hand, that is, temporal profit, but whom with his right, that is, with the love of eternal life, he had embraced, addresses the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, faithful souls, 1104Din this manner, saying: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up nor make the beloved to awake, till she herself please.

What is this sleep, so sweet and so wholesome, that for its sake such an adjuration of the beloved is made! Is it not that in which the beloved, resting in sweet and desirable quiet, had said above, his left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me?

97 For she had set all temporal things behind her, 1105Abut with that contemplative eye of the desiring soul she was intent on the eternal and unfailing goods, and in this desirable vision of the mind she was delightfully as it were sleeping. For a sleep of this kind cannot come about lightly in a mind already disengaged from all doings and laid down for itself in great quiet in the love of God. Whence the Lord, admonishing through the Psalmist: Be free, he says, and see that I am God (Psal. XLV). These two words are inseparable in this purpose, because no one at all will be able with the eye of inmost contemplation to see the essence of the Godhead unless he has first been careful to be free from every exterior hindrance: having set be free first, then, he adds see, so as to intimate that one must first be free in mind from all thought of worldly things, so that thence 1105Bit may become possible, the eye being as it were closed upon earthly things, to sleep in the love of the Divinity with a keener and subtler vision.

But since the grace of this sleep does not come and remain equally, as it is established that one is raised up by a greater, another by a lesser power of contemplation (for Mary advanced further in the divine vision than Peter or John, but these further than any other saint): it is certain that all the saints have the holiness of this sleep in diverse manner, manifold because of the disparity of quiet, so that each in his own place, according to the grace of quiet conferred on him, has his special sleep in the contemplative life. Whence the prophet, in the person of every faithful one who sleeps in this manner, says: I will take my rest, and consider 1105Cin my place (Isa. XVIII): as if he said openly: Because this is the order of sleep, that it is not permitted to sleep before having quiet, I will take my rest, that is, I will take away from me the causes of all earthly care, and then at last, sleeping in mind from these things, I will cleave to divine contemplation in the place of the grace specially conferred on me. While the beloved, then, sleeps in whatever manner or place, the daughters of Jerusalem are adjured by the beloved that they stir her not up nor make her awake, till she herself please.

But what are the daughters of Jerusalem but souls tending towards the vision of heavenly peace, yet, the infirmity of the mind still hindering praepudiente, less able to arrive?

And what is it of the beloved to help [adjuvare; read adjurare, "to adjure"], but to bind by the decretal writ of his 1105Dprecepts? Further, what are the precepts themselves, but, like roes and harts of the fields, lifting up to heavenly things and making eager and strong in good work, the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures.

Or by the roes and the harts we can understand the Fathers of the Old and New Testament, whose talents, virtues and pursuits are denoted by natural behaviour. For it is said that roes have four notable marks of nature: that when she has been wounded she is healed by tasting 98 dittany; that she discerns wholesome herbs by the keenness of her sight; that she ruminates; that she feeds in mountainous places and always seeks the higher. And this is the life and doctrine of the saints: to heal their excesses by humble 1106Aconfession, to discern the better sentences of the Holy Scriptures by the keenness of their understanding, to take the food of the divine commandments by reading and to take it up again by committing it to a retentive memory, to rise up from virtues to virtues by daily progress.

In the hart also three commendable marks of nature are observed: namely, that swallowing a serpent, it drinks from a spring and puts off all the venom together with the hairs of its whole body; that, chased by dogs in the densest woods, it opens a way of flight for itself with its horns; that in changing pastures, forming a column, one setting its head on the back of another, they bear one another up because of the weight of their horns.

These things too it befits the faithful to do and to teach: that he who has been infected by some venom of sin should run back to Christ, the fountain 1106Bof mercy, by the infusion of whose kindness and grace he may be free both of that sin and of the other vices of the soul. If in his mind he is chased by malignant spirits, as by certain dogs, in the woods of worldly affairs, which are full of sins and vices, let him make himself a way of escaping them by a strong repulse of the spirit, or, having renounced all occupations of this kind, let him be careful to be free for God alone in the love of the contemplative life, which is also to open for oneself with the horns a way of salvation. For the horn, though it is born of the flesh, goes beyond the flesh; and he who cleaves to the contemplative life, though he be in the flesh, is yet raised up in mind outside the flesh. Let them be careful to bear one another's infirmities of manners or of bodies with equanimity, and to serve one another with dutiful charity; as 1106Cthe Apostle says: Bear one another's burdens and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ (Gal. VI).

The daughters of Jerusalem, then, are adjured by the bridegroom, that is, souls desiring to follow peace are bound, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that is, by the precepts and teachings of the holy Fathers, lest they stir up or make to awake the beloved, that is, lest they disquiet her from the purpose of this inmost quiet and sleep; till she herself please, that is, till that inmost indweller of hers inspires her, to whom she is bound by love, so that she may be willing at times to condescend to the infirmity of her neighbours and to provide for their necessary profits. For this willing lies in the disposition of him who provides all things, who by a hidden inspiration makes known to her 1106Dwhen it is useful and honourable to cleave to contemplation and when to provide for the necessities of neighbours 99 according to place and time.

Finally, the force of this admiration [admirationis; read adjurationis, "adjuration"] is such, by which the sons of obedience are constrained, that they show their prelates the honour of reverence, because it is written: Obey those set over you and be subject to them, for they watch as those who will render an account for your souls (Hebr. XIII). Hence it is that they do not dare to rouse them, as vicars of Christ in office, but as spouses sponsus in the zeal of holy conversation, lest they disturb them, if they compel them by some shamelessness or importunity of their own to be torn away from the secret of inner quiet and more often to be occupied with outward things. The subjects themselves also ought to receive the word of this admiration [admirationis; read adjurationis, "adjuration"] among one another 1107A, lest they disquiet the pious pursuits of the brethren, whether in reading, or in prayer, or in some spiritual office, so long as the inspiration of the Divinity holds them in it.

But the beloved, ever burning for the quiet of this contemplative sleep, may rejoice that she is confirmed and defended by such an adjuration of the beloved and as it were by right ought not to be disquieted, made more secure she proclaims: The voice of my beloved.

VERSE 8.-- The voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.

The voice, she says, of the aforesaid admiration [admirationis; read adjurationis, "adjuration"] is not the voice of some prophet, not of a lawgiver, not of a teacher, as of one announcing or teaching something of himself; but rather of the beloved himself, both through himself, and 1107Bthrough them establishing the decrees of his mysteries and commandments; because all Scripture is the voice of my beloved, uttered by the spirit of his mouth and written in our hearts by the finger of his divinity. And therefore you ought not to hold this voice of small account, daughters of Jerusalem, so as to rouse me for the sake of outward things and compel me to wake more often.

For this too is a certain kind of the voice of the beloved, a voice adjuring and as it were juridical: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice and all these things shall be added unto you (Matth. VI), so that this ought to be fair, the beloved himself dictating it, that for those who cleave to God the necessary use of the creature should consequently serve. The beloved himself plainly taught and confirmed it by his own testimony, when he extolled the partner of this my pursuit 1107Cwith such praise, Mary, he said, hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her (Luc. X). This surely is also the voice of the beloved, so that I ought rightly to set this pursuit of my sleep before the watchings of all affairs. But what is it that I heard and learned from this voice of my beloved, that is, from Holy Scripture, when through the quiet of the mind I slept in his contemplation? This, assuredly, which I will now tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem, of the power of my beloved himself. Behold he cometh leaping upon 100 the mountains, skipping over the hills. Behold, she says, he cometh. His coming is spoken of not according to the divinity but according to the humanity. For he who according to the divinity is uncircumscribed and not in a place 1107D, how should he be said to come, who, existing immovable and unchangeable, as he remains ever one and the same in himself, so that he is neither changed in place nor borne into diverse states by any variation. But as often as he shall be said to come into the hearts of the saints, this is not according to any movableness of his, but according to their aptitude, by which they apply themselves less or more to his love, that he will be alleged to come through his inspiration. According to the humanity, then, he came, when, made passible for us, he willed to suffer the local translation of human custom: for that he might become visible he came from heaven and assumed human nature, in which he suffered and died and rose again; and he ascended into heaven, all of which he did, to be moved and as it were to come from one thing to another. In this manner of coming, then, 1108Athe beloved cometh, leaping upon the mountains, when in the time of the dispensation he shone forth with many and magnificent leaps upon the mountains of the sublime virtues.

For certain mountains are the chief and eminent virtues, upon which this beloved made his leaps when he made certain progressions from virtue to virtue: for God, high above the heavens, came to earth humble by being born; from which mountain of humility he ascended to another mountain, of obedience, for he was made obedient to God the Father unto death, but the death of the cross (Philip. II); by taking which upon him he made a leap onto the mountain of patience; from which at last he climbed onto the mountain of glory, where by rising again and ascending into heaven he set up the triumph of his victorious death.

1108BThis beloved, then, cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills; because whatever of wisdom and understanding, whatever of counsel and fortitude, whatever of knowledge and piety, whatever of divine fear, whatever finally of any honesty, justice and holiness ever could be or can be, shone forth more sublimely and more brightly in this beloved, as in the head, before all his members, that is, the saints, who are called hills. Anyone of understanding can see this in part in the books of the Gospels: how this beloved leaped upon the mountains, that is, upon the virtues, by word and example, skipping over the examples and teachings of all the saints by his singular and incomparable pre-eminence of working and doctrine; he hath rejoiced 1108Cas a giant to run the way, because from the highest heaven is his going out, and his circuit even to the highest of it (Psal. XVIII).

101 VERSE 9.-- My beloved is like a roe, and to a young hart: lo, this one standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking forth through the lattices.

Hence he is said to be like a roe and to a young hart: for it is natural to the roe always to seek ascents; and while to the saints the distribution of graces is allotted in diverse manner: Some indeed thus, and others thus, to the only-begotten alone sol God giveth not the spirit by measure, because in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally (I Cor. VII; Joan. III; Coloss. II). For the saints 1108Din the pursuit of the virtues now ascend, now do not ascend, because in their merits that grace which they have now works, now rests, so that this may serve them for the keeping of humility, that they do not always have ready to hand the grace of the virtue conferred. But in this beloved the grace of the virtues abides not for a time, nor by intervals, but without intermission, as it is written of him that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and remained upon him (Luc. III; Joan. I).

He is likened also to a young hart for swiftness, because, as the young hart, through the lightness of its youthful body, is much swifter than the hart, so this beloved, as it were the young one of the harts, that is, the son of the patriarchs, from whose stock he came forth, is far 1109Amore excellent and more agile in the efficacy of the virtues and the wisdom of his words than even the pursuits and teachings of the ancient Fathers themselves.

Since, then, this beloved by exhorting and by leaping on before calls all to the pursuits of the virtues, and some follow according to their power, some, their frailty standing in the way, despair of being able to follow, some, weighed down by the mass of their sins, distrust that they can rise again to them, [she] takes away from them every occasion of distrusting, holding out to the beloved the ineffable kindness of this beloved, mercifully inviting all to his grace, and adds: Lo, he himself standeth behind our wall, etc. There is one general wall, namely that of original sin; but this wall is spread out into many special walls 1109Bof actual sin. For from original sin, as from a certain mass, have come forth many and diverse actual sins, because after they fell through the original sin of the first parent, the kind of this infirmity is poured over into their posterity, namely to be always prone to sins. But this general wall began to be destroyed when the Son of God came through the flesh, by whose blood it was at length removed and scattered, when, dissolving the enmities between God and man, he reconciled us to God (Eph. II); and lest it be able to be built again, it is destroyed daily in the Church through the grace of baptism.

But the special wall is set up in diverse men in diverse manner, because in one it is the vice of pride, in 1109Canother that of avarice, 102 in this one that of lust, in that one that of unchastity, in some one that of obedience [obedientiae; read inobedientiae, "of disobedience"], in some other that of impatience, or whatever other vice, which according to the quality, and the manner and the number, of the vice itself makes a wall of whatever kind between man and God also [quoque; read quo, "by as much as"] the vice is greater or more frequent or more numerous and in man, by so much the heavier and more immovable is the weight in the wall.

But behind this wall, whether the general one of original sin or the special one of actual sin, this beloved stands, because he is ready mercifully to receive whoever, some such wall being removed, have been zealous to draw near to him again by destroying it through penance. For to stand is the part of one who helps, to sit of one who judges. He standeth behind the wall, because while he disposes through his grace to come to us 1109D, the wall of sin standing in the way, he is as it were compelled to stand. For at first he stood long so as not to come to remove that wall of original sin, on account of many things, by hindering his coming, by many afflictions and adversities by which those were pursued who desired and awaited his coming, at whose coming they knew that this wall was to be destroyed through his blood and that they were to be reconciled to God.

He stood, then, for this cause and put off coming, looking meanwhile through the windows, looking forth through the lattices. For what were the windows in the wall but the prophets and other teachers of the divine law, by whose doctrine and preaching God might find as it were certain outlets for looking, through which he might pour out some 1110Alight of his grace, by which the human race, enlightened and admonished, might cease to delay the coming of this beloved, which was to profit its salvation, by the interposing of so great malice as of a certain wall

But the lattices, that is, the front part of the building, were the ancient fathers who went before, namely the patriarchs before the law announcing Christ, through whom he who was to come long after looked forth in part by signs and portents and certain teachings of reasons; admonishing that they should not hinder by the wall of their evils the future times of his so great salvation.

So long, then, did he stand behind our wall, looking forth mercifully and taking counsel by word, law, signs and prodigies, until at last, moved per motus 1110Bby the affliction of his own, who cried out often: Come, O Lord, and do not delay, loose the crimes of thy people, the commotions of all lands being quelled under Caesar Augustus, and a most firm and most true peace being disposed by the ordinance of God, as though the wall of the resisting malice were now shaken, this beloved began to show by being born the face long desired, 103 and thereafter by preaching, dying, rising again, ascending into heaven, and so spreading the law of his Gospel through the whole world, to destroy daily through the grace of baptism the wall of original sin long set against him.

Further, the windows and lattices in the wall of actual sin, through which this beloved is daily looked out upon, 1110Care the examples and teachings of the Gospels and of the apostles and of the other holy fathers; windows indeed there, where they pour the light of knowledge and understanding into our hearts, that we may be able to see how we may remove the wall of each sin set between us and God; but lattices in that place where, from their writings, through the power of contemplation, we know in part and we prophesy in part (I Cor. XIII) God looking upon us, so that while we attend to the glory or the punishment of the future life, we may labour daily to destroy the wall of sin that separates us from God.

Moreover. The Son of God, coming in the flesh, stood behind the wall of our mortality, looking forth upon us through the windows and lattices of his divinity; who 1110Dalso shone out as God from the power of the miracles and yet lay hidden from the nature of human passibility. For he who looks forth through windows and lattices is neither wholly seen nor wholly not seen: so, surely, our Redeemer too, coming in the flesh, showed himself God by the miracles, but hid it by the sufferings. He stood, then, behind the wall of human passibility, because, hidden among men by his humanity, he did not come as God; but he looked forth through the windows and lattices, because by divine compassion he dictated to the whole human race the everlasting gifts of salvation. And because the beloved whom he drew inwardly by the regard of his mercy he instructed outwardly too by the word of preaching, he shows it by adding:

VERSE 10-- Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful formo sa one, and come. 1111A

This speech of the beloved is distinguished in a threefold manner, by the beauty of the address, of the exhortation, and of the cause: of the address indeed, when he says: my love, my dove, my beautiful one, but of the exhortation when he says: Arise, make haste, come; of the cause when he says: For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers have appeared, the time of pruning is come. For the beauty of the address is to say: Love, dove, beautiful one; the beauty of the exhortation, arise, make haste, come; the beauty of the cause, that the winter and the rain have gone back, that the flowers appear, that the time of pruning is here, that the voice of the turtle has been heard, that the fig tree has put forth her green figs, that the flowering vines have given their fragrance.

1111B104 But the order in this address, exhortation and cause is not disposed without consideration. In the address indeed, when first he says love, then dove, lastly beautiful one; but in the exhortation first arise, then make haste, lastly come. Further, in the cause, in the first place winter is past, in the second the rain is gone, in the third the flowers have appeared, in the fourth the time of pruning is come, in the fifth the voice of the turtle is heard in our land, in the sixth the fig tree hath put forth her green figs, in the seventh the flowering vines have given their fragrance. The cause of this exhortation, by which the beloved is admonished to arise, to make haste, to come, is the going back of the winter and the rain, the appearing of the flowers, and the time of pruning; the voice of the turtle and the fig trees putting forth their green figs, and the flowering vines.

1111CBut it must be seen whence this speech proceeds: she had said above, the voice of my beloved, which voice we said is Holy Scripture, for the whole divine page is the voice of God, through which by reading the beloved the leaps of him clothed with the wall of our mortality, and speaking to her through the windows and lattices of miracles and doctrines; for as often as we see or read the Holy Scriptures, God speaks to us or with us. In this manner, then, the beloved, that is, the Church or any faithful soul, perceives the beloved speaking to her, when she hears, reads and understands the order of the divine dispensation, the religion of the sacraments, the profit of the divine precepts.

But the beloved himself, as it were solicitous out of the salvation of his beloved, 1111Din a speech of this kind takes on assumunt himself the office of a good orator, so as to draw the hearer in three ways, that is, so as to make her attentive, teachable, well-disposed: for while he calls out not once but three times, saying, arise, make haste, come, as if he said, Offer thyself not sluggishly but swiftly and zealously, he makes her attentive, as one about to hear something settled and unwonted; but when he often addresses her with a word of love and of grace, saying: My love, my dove, my beautiful one, he renders her well-disposed, so that she may bring forth a greater will to prepare herself and to hear.

Further, he teaches him the cause of this calling distinctly by number, saying: For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers have appeared, the time of pruning is come, the voice of the turtle is heard, 1112Athe flowering vines have given their fragrance, he makes her teachable, so that she may recognize the time of great salvation and grace, which she ought to receive with great veneration and joy.

And this is the sign of great kindness, by which this beloved often looks toward us through the windows and lattices of his infinite clemency, standing behind the wall of our evils, set against us as a cloud, that prayer may not pass through (Thren. III), speaking daily and admonishing us to scatter this wall or this cloud with the battering-ram of the virtues and the breath of the Holy Spirit.

What, then, does the beloved speak to the beloved? Arise, he says, make haste, my love 105 my dove, my beautiful one, and come: arise through faith, make haste through hope, 1112Bcome through charity: or, arise through intention, make haste through working, come through contemplation: for this is the perfection of thy whole worship and religion, to believe, to hope, to love: for the other three, namely intention, working, contemplation, are constituted from these. For if thou believest rightly, thou also aimest rightly at doing good things; but thou workest for the hope of obtaining the reward, and thou contemplatest the more subtly, the more thou art raised up to God through charity.

And this thou wilt be able to do if thou be a love, that is, if, the error of unbelief being cast away, to be reconciled to me through faith; if thou be a dove, that is, if thou live simply, harm no one and be content with thine own alone, in the hope of the future reward; or if, some frailty 1112Ccompelling thee, thou go out of the ark, that is, out of the Church, by doing ill, thou remain not in the world, but return quickly bearing an olive branch in thy mouth, that is, having hope of mercy through confession and the measure of penance.

If thou be beautiful, that is, keeping by the love of God alone, thou set behind thee all the cares of the world, or whatever things can infect the beauty of thy mind, so that, having not the bleared eyes of Lia but the beautiful and fair face of Rachel, thou mayest be able with the eye of the mind purged to gaze into that majesty of heavenly beatitude which is God.

VERSE 11, 12.-- For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone.

1112DThe flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

But why do I so greatly invite thee se to these things? Because the cold of unbelief and the storm of blindness and ignorance, which had overcast the whole face of the world, have gone back; and the flowers have appeared, that is, the beginnings of good works have now begun to spring up, and the time of pruning is come, that is, the counsel and rule of cutting away vices and sins are now had in the time of grace. The voice also of the turtle is heard, that is, the sound of preaching, from which resound the counsels, precepts and examples of chastity, of solitary conversation, of heavenly speculation and of penance, all of which the turtle expresses, chaste and moaning, a lover of solitude and 1113Anesting on high. For in the very beginning of the Gospel voice the turtle cries out by words and by manners, whether the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the son of virginity, or his mother herself, the blessed Virgin Mary, or his forerunner, blessed John the Baptist. Finally, the Lord himself, born of the Virgin, is the herald of chastity; led into the desert, he consecrates solitude; praying on the mountain, he admonishes that contemplation be pursued; he exhorts to penance, proclaiming as with a moaning voice: 106 Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matth. X). The blessed Mother of God also is a singular mirror of chastity, who, solitary solidaria and set in divine contemplation, is greeted by the angel and taught beforehand that she is to be the mother of Christ, and soon announces the sentence of divine punishment changed by penance 1113B, when she proclaims that his mercy in generation and generations is to be (Luc. II). But Saint John the Baptist, the son of chastity, a virgin in mind and body, the more he was removed from men, the nearer he stood to God through contemplation; for he was in iu the desert preaching the baptism of penance (Matth. III), and crying with the moaning voice of the turtle: Bring forth fruits worthy of penance (ibid.).

VERSE 13.-- The fig tree hath put forth her green figs, the flowering vines have given their fragrance. Arise, make haste, my love, my fair one, and come. [Vulg. Ct 2:13 Surge, amica mea, without propera, "make haste"]

The fig tree, he says, hath put forth her green figs, that is, Judaea, hitherto barren, carnal, has begun to understand the ceremonies 1113Cand, by believing with the heart unto justice, but by confessing with the mouth unto salvation (Rom. X), what it savoured carnally, this it now savours spiritually and longs to show by faith and by work.

The flowering vines also have given their fragrance, because the gentiles, having heard the word of faith, now begin to spread everywhere the fragrance of good work.

Not without reason, then, is the order of this speech attended to, in which these three, faith, hope and charity; or the other three, intention, working, contemplation, are considered, since these are the consequences of those: that he who believes should hope and love; and no one can hope and love except he who has believed; no one also works unless he first intends what, and how, and when, and why he works; but the subtlety of contemplating 1113Dno one can attain unless he has advanced to it by the sublimity of good works.

But it will not be, as we believe, unfitting to note the sevenfold number of the cause, so that we may show that the effect of the cause itself was always the condescension and good pleasure of the sevenfold Spirit: For the passing of the winter, that is, of unbelief; the passing of the rain, that is, of persecution; the appearing of the flowers, that is, of good works; the cutting away of vices; the proclaiming of the turtle, that is, of the Gospel; the putting forth of the green figs of the fig tree, that is, the revealing of the legal observances into the truth of the mysteries; the sweetly fragrant working of the vines, that is, of the gentiles converted to the faith: what are they but the good pleasure and condescension of the sevenfold Spirit?

For causes of this kind, and what was effected from them, 1114Aor is effected, causes, that is, to believe, to hope, to love, the Spirit of God worked from the beginning and works still daily; because all removal of unbelief and malice, and the bestowal of faith and salvation, stand by the gift of him who provides, composes and orders every 107 state of equity, honesty and profit in holy Church. Whence also the bridegroom, when he speaks to the bride: The voice of the turtle is heard, adds, in our land, namely so as to intimate that there is no effect of the sacraments, no hope of salvation, outside the Catholic Church: but that every voice of the Gospel preaching, in the observance of the precepts, in the order and reverence of the sacraments, is to be held within holy Church, in which the Holy Spirit himself is given and received. For in the beginning, as it is written, 1114Bthe earth was void and empty, because before the human mind was made fruitful by the divine spirit, it was composed with no flower or bud of the virtues; but after the spirit of God moved over the waters (Gen. I), that is, over the flowing and unstable hearts of men, while at length the light of truth and the fruit of justice is poured out through the whole world, so that that earth, at first void and empty, became the Church of God, in which he himself might dwell through his grace, and might make it his land, now flowering and fruitful, and showing forth a certain living and rational pattern of honesty and discipline, as it were of a man, through the indwelling grace.

Since, therefore, the beloved has made the beloved solicitous for her own salvation, he admonishes her not to be negligent 1114Cof the salvation of her neighbours too, so as to intimate this charity, which provides for neighbours as for itself with the zeal of kindness, so that she may deservedly be honoured with the address of the grace that calls and justifies, love, dove, beautiful one.

For it follows, when the beloved, the former number of the address being repeated, [says] arise, make haste, my love, my fair one, and come. Because, he says, thou hast advanced by my grace to this, that thou art able to take care of thyself, by despising the world and by cleaving to my love through the pursuit of the contemplative life, thou oughtest also at times to profit thy neighbours by word and example through the labour of the active life; because, since I have made thee such that thou hast the grace of teaching and of working, not without peril to thyself wilt thou render account for the buried talent. But arise at some time to this labour 1114Dfrom that most sweet sleep of thy quiet, for the sake of a brother's need, and make haste by teaching and by drawing back thy neighbours from the love of this world, that thou mayest lead them too with thee into that solitary dwelling of thy quiet. And this thou shalt do as my love through faith, my fair one through working, my dove through the infusion of the Holy Spirit.

VERSE 14.-- My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the stone wall, show me thy face; let thy voice sound in my ears, for thy voice is sweet and thy face comely.

Because I have compared thee to a dove 108. But the dove has her refuges in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the stone wall; what also will be thy refuges 1115A, in which thou mayest set all the hope of thy salvation, so as to flee from the manifold temptation of this world? surely in the clefts of the rock, of which it is written: And the rock was Christ (I Cor. X); for these clefts are the wounds of my passion, which are to every Christian as it were certain refuges in all adversities. For my five wounds are the safe refuges of thy five senses, so that when thou hast held out the sign of my passion in this number, thou mayest be able to persist secure in the integrity of all thy senses. For this integrity of the senses will be necessary to thee as thou teachest and workest, because if thou bring forth the things thou teachest and workest in my name with honesty and profit, reasonably, orderly and moderately, thou wilt be able the more to draw the minds of those who hear or look on 1115B. For generally an honourable kind of case, if it is brought forth unworthily, gives offence, just as a lowly kind of case too, if it is at times brought forth reasonably, will obtain a share of honour.

In my passion, then, thou hast been made love, fair one, dove, because to this end I laid down my life for thee, I shed my blood, that I might present thee to myself a bride glorious, not having spot, nor wrinkle (Ephes. V). For when, foul of it through thyself, thou didst not suffice for thyself, nor could the whole creation suffice for thee, my passion, to which the whole world is not equal, made satisfaction to God for thee, so that thence, reconciled and joined to me, thou mayest be called love, fair one, dove.

1115COr the clefts of the rock are the four Gospels, in which my deeds and words are looked into; or else the pursuits of the virtues, namely of humility, patience, obedience, prayers, vigils, holy readings, and the rest, which are as it were certain approaches for coming to me and for entering the kingdoms of heaven, of all of which thou oughtest to preach to thy neighbours and to show them, because without these they cannot attain salvation.

My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the stone wall. Christ the rock (I Cor. X), Christ also the stone wall. The stone wall indeed before the passion, because he was still frail and passible from human infirmity; but the rock after the resurrection, when, all corruption laid aside, he was made impassible from the firmness of his glorified 1115Dbody. But the beloved ought to be a dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the stone wall, because while she considers the many marks of powers, of works and of virtues which were in Christ from the strength of the divinity, yet she ought specially to consider that mark of charity which he showed in his flesh, which he delivered to death for her salvation: for he showed the judgment of this great love towards man 109 when for his redeeming he was able to offer nothing other than himself.

The hollow of the stone wall, then, is the charity of Christ dying in the flesh, in which charity, of the Church indeed generally, but specially any holy soul is a dove, because through charity she finds a place of abiding in Christ, where spiritually she may nourish the young of good 1116Aworks and escape the snares of the ancient serpent: for it is written that God is charity, and he who abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him (I Joan. IV).

The dove is also in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the stone wall. But the dove has a moaning instead of a song; and the faithful soul ought to moan when she recalls the passion of the Redeemer, weighing what God has done for her, when he who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth (I Petr. II), willed to die for sinners, and what man owed, God made man paid. Let her moan also for her excesses, in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the stone wall, because she has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the propitiation for her sins 1116B(I Joan. II), who daily confers salvation on every penitent by the sacrament of his passion and the singular example of this charity. For daily our Redeemer renews his clefts for us, that is, the signs of his passion, in the immolation of his body and blood; and he shows the hollow in which we may be protected from the snares of the enemies in the assigning of so great a charity.

The stone wall can also be taken as the doctrine of the apostles, or of apostolic men, because as a stone wall is built of many stones, so the doctrine of the saints is constituted of very many teachings of the virtues. In it there is for every faithful soul a hollow, that is, a keeping of life, because from their sayings and writings she learns how, by fleeing sins and by nourishing the young of good works 1116C, she may escape the snares of malignant spirits.

The beloved, then, is admonished at times to leave the quiet of contemplation and to go out to the labour of the active life for the sake of her neighbours, so that what she herself learned through quiet from the divine precepts and the examples of the saints, this she may bring into the minds of her neighbours by preaching; and as she herself by the sweetness of these was affected as to the assiduity of contemplation, so also she may affect the minds of her neighbours with desire of them through the power of preaching.

Whence the beloved too, admonishing her, adds: Show me thy face. For what is the face of the beloved but a certain image of holiness shining out from fellowship with the beloved? For the more sedulously each one 1116Dcleaves to divine contemplation, the more beautiful the face of the mind shines out from the radiance of holiness. Hence it is that Moses, having conversed forty days with the Lord on the mountain, 100 is written to have brought forth a shining face from fellowship with the speech of the Lord (Exod. XXXIV). For he who has tarried on the mountain of heavenly contemplation brings forth a certain face of holiness from the very Spirit of God, with whom he is one; whence the Apostle: With open, he says, face beholding the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. III). Those, then, who are led by the Spirit of God are transformed by the Spirit himself into the image of Christ according to the inner man, from glory to glory, so that those who have drawn from him something of glory into the face of the inner man 1117A, by which they may know him more clearly, the nearer they draw to him by contemplative glory, the more glory they may gather to themselves from him, through which they may know him ever more clearly and more truly. Whence also Ezechiel, when he described the vision of the holy living creatures, said: The likeness of a man in them (Ezech. I). For whatever of justice and meekness, whatever of modesty and humility, whatever of patience and piety, whatever finally of holiness the elect of God ever could have or can have, they drew from that singular man, the Lord Jesus Christ; and, illumined by that principal face of holiness, they too conceived in their own manner a certain face of holiness.

Such, says the beloved, thy face, drawn out spiritually from my grace, O beloved, show me, that 1117Bis, go forth in public to the praise of my name with a fair appearance of action and speech, so that thy neighbours, seeing thy works, may glorify thy Father who is in heaven (Matth. V), and themselves, from the rightly composed countenance of thy action and speech, may compose the countenance of their own mind and intention too.

Let thy voice sound in my ears: the voice of one preaching sounds in the ears of the Lord then, when it accords with my voice, so that what sounds outwardly to the ears of man through the voice, this may speak in the ears of God through faith. And, having set first, show me thy face, he fittingly adds, let thy voice sound in my ears, to show that with the heart it is believed unto justice, but with the mouth confession is unto salvation (Rom. X); for by the face 1117Cthe knowledge of faith, but by the voice the sound of preaching [can] be expressed.

Further: Show, he says, me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears, that is, go forth in public in action and preaching from that angelic dormitory of thy holy solitude with such an intention that thou admit me alone as witness of thy conscience, not so as to expose thyself to human favours, but so as to please my sight alone. For thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely. For this reason thou oughtest to go forth, because thy neighbours can attend to this in the beauty of thy manners and the sweetness of thy speeches, whence they may both correct the depravity of their own manners and take hold of the integrity of right faith.

111 But often also the very showing of the countenance and bearing 1117Dis a certain voice of the mind, and as a certain one says: Often the countenance, though silent, has a voice and words.

Whence of her who showed the sadness of her mind by the change of her countenance, after the reproach of barrenness was taken away, it is written that: Her countenance was no more changed to divers ways (I Reg. I). For the diversity of the countenance showed the diversity of the soul; but the cause of this diversity being taken away, a right and composed countenance too spoke a right and composed soul. But this voice of honesty, set in the countenance and bearing of the outward man, sounds in the ears of God then, when one keeps it unchangeably for meriting the glory of eternal life alone. Thy voice, he says, is sweet and thy face comely: thy voice, he says, which is the interpreter of the soul and speaks either by manners or by tongue, 1118Afor it preaches and teaches, whether by doing well or by speaking well; this voice, he says, which is sweet, let it sound in my ears, because that life pleases me greatly which both does and teaches good things, the love of God and of neighbour so acting in it that it both pleases God and edifies the neighbour. And thy face comely, because it brings this to pass from thy intention and faith, both of which are known to me alone, that what thou doest or sayest may be worthy of the praise of my approval. With this comeliness, then, and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously and reign, so that, since thou art joined to me by such a dowry of virtues, thou mayest not unfittingly be called Queen of thy bridegroom who is King, since, with me ruling and instructing, thou knowest both to rule thyself reasonably and to bestow on others the rule of souls.

1118BBut because heretics often deprave this sweetness and beauty of right faith and right preaching by perverse doctrine, so as to pervert the hearts of the simple, the voice of the beloved makes an apostrophe to the masters of this very faith and preaching when it adds, catch us the little purvulas foxes.

VERSE 15.-- Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines; for our vineyard hath flourished.

The foxes are the heretics, because of the craftiness and cunning with which they deceive the unwary by the arguments of words; who always seek hiding places in which to teach, and think those things perversely, making conventicles apart, lest the holy and Catholic Church detect their depravity. And they are called little foxes, 1118Cwhether because of the feigned humility of the heretics themselves, or because of the subtlety of their most keenly sought-out sentences, by which they force chiefly the minds of those who marvel but understand less to favour their depraved doctrines. Catch, he says, us; for the heretics are then caught for God when by Catholic doctors, through the assertion of right reason, which they can destroy by no arguments, divine grace going before, they are led back to the bosom of their mother, holy Church, from 112 which they had departed by erring, and confirm by words and examples the faith which before they attacked. Catch, he says, us the little foxes, as if he said in other words: Convict the subtle and crafty corrupters of right faith by their own sentences, and by probable reason, which they cannot refute at all, compel them to pass over into 1118Dthe fellowship conturbernium of our party: For I will catch the wise in their own craftiness, and I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject (I Cor. I, III); so that when they have recognized the reason of living or teaching rightly, their own wisdom may displease them, and what they strove before to build up by it they may destroy when the truth is recognized, and may become one with my faithful.

For our vineyard hath flourished, that is, either the universal Church or a particular one, or some faithful individual and single person, has taken hold of the beginning of living or believing rightly; and therefore they are to be removed or caught, if any have arisen among them not living or believing rightly, lest they suffocate the tender faith, the works of piety, both by depraved dogma and by depraved examples.

1119ANor is it absurd, as we believe, if we call each faithful soul the vineyard of the Lord, as we do the universal or particular Church, because of the like propagation of the virtues, and the spiritual wine which maketh glad the heart of man (Psal. CIII), which can abound in each faithful individual through the grace of the Holy Spirit, as also in the universal or particular Church. For each one ought with the knife of spiritual exercise to cut back the sacraments [sacramenta; read sarmenta, "the shoots"] of the vices, to turn over the earth of his heart with the hoe of inmost consideration, and if he has admitted anything earthly or sordid in thought or in deed, to lay it about the root of the heart by keeping it in memory, and to water it by repenting with frequent fountains of tears; to bind the whole intention of his good purpose to Christ, who is the tree of life, 1119Blest it flow down again to earthly things, and to hope ever in his help and support; or to cleave to the tree of the cross of Christ, bearing about his mortification in his body; and in such a manner, the mind, assiduously tilled and tended by the grace of the Holy Spirit, becomes ever more fruitful, and is called, according to the prophet, the vineyard of Sorec, which sounds "chosen and fair." Whence the Lord's sentence in the Gospel concerning the barren vine and the vine bearing fruit, where he calls himself the vine, and the disciples the branch, but the Father the husbandman: Every branch in me, he says, that beareth not fruit, he will take it away, the Father, and every one that beareth fruit he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit (Joan. XV). If, then, the Saviour is the vine and we the branches, and God the Father the husbandman, so long as we keep the precepts of God we always 1119Ccultivate, and our tillage is a purging, that we may bring forth more fruit: For it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom. IX), whose help we always need, that we may arrive at the end of our good purpose.

113 VERSE 16, 17.-- My beloved to me, and I to him, who feedeth among the lilies, till the day break, and the shadows retire.

Divine love and human love are not constituted in a like manner nor on an equal ground; and though it is said equivocally, yet by the ground of definition it is very diverse, since between affections of this kind, of the flesh and of the spirit, there is no comparison at all. For divine love always has a certain relative, but human 1119Dlove not always, because often one who loves is not loved, nor is the consequence the same on both sides. For it follows that a man loving God is loved by God, since to love God is nothing other than to live justly and piously, and it is consequent that God, just and pious, loves the just and pious, when such an affection comes from the gift of his grace: but it does not follow that a man loving is always loved by a man, because, though often, yet not always does carnal affection work this relative; but the affection of the Divinity always works it, according to the sentence of the Saviour, who says: he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him (Joan. XIV). For the relative of this love is converted, so that because he loves he is loved, 1120Aand because he is loved he loves, the prevenient grace working this in the hearts of the elect, so that they may see by divine love, which also loves its own gifts in each one. Whence here the beloved speaks of her beloved: my beloved to me and I to him. For it is proper to relatives to be said reciprocally; for what is predicated of him who is beloved is conversely predicated of her who is beloved: for a dilectus is someone's dilectus, and a dilecta someone's dilecta. This relation, then, comes about in this manner, that it is said: dilectus dilectae, dilectus et dilecta, dilecti dilecta: let her say, then, my beloved to me and I to him; as if she said: Because the beloved has conferred his grace on me to this end, that I may please him by right faith and working, therefore he is beloved to me; and because, since he has given me free will, I obey the calling grace by keeping his precepts, therefore I am beloved to him: 1120Bfor unless he loved me out of mercy, I could not love him out of grace, he would not love me out of mercy. For whatever good lies near me, to will, to be able to do, to perfect, I have wholly from his gift (Rom. IV).

Who feedeth among the lilies. Behold the cause why I am beloved to him: for he feeds, that is, he delights in whiteness, that is, in the cleanness and chastity of mind and body, and in the most sweet fragrance of the virtues; which, since through his grace they breathe out from my love, therefore he has made me worthy of his love.

Till the day breathe, and the shadows decline, that is, until, that true and eternal day of future beatitude growing bright, and the night of this worldly misery and tribulation withdrawing 114.

1120CWhen God shall be all in all (I Cor. XV) he will give me the full and perfect and unchangeable reward of his vision, where he in me with the beauty of his gifts and I in him with the eternal incorruption of body and soul shall be fed.

But because this mutual love which we have set down always befits any father and son, this is proper to those things which are said relatively, that the very thing that they are, they are said dicautur to be of others, or in whatever way something to something else. For whatever is recognized in the nature of relation, it is necessary that it be considered together with another: for when father is said, it is necessary that there be a son whose father he is said to be, and in the same way, by conversion, it must be said of the son. If, then, the saints are sons of God, 1120Dthrough love and the observance of his commandments, it is necessary that God himself be called their father by grace, by creation and by governance, and conversely, if God is father, they are sons. Whence here too it is not absurd to say my beloved to me in respect of the father, and I to him in respect of the son or daughter; for God himself says in a certain place of his own: I will be to them for a father, and they shall be to me for sons and daughters (II Reg. VII).

Or let us say it in another way; it seems to have almost the like sense of relation, so that when it is said my beloved to me, there is understood: is a helper and protector; and I to him, there is understood: am obedient. These too are brought together with each other, so that because he is a helper and protector to me, therefore I am obedient to him, and because I am obedient to him, he bestows his help upon me.

1121AWho feedeth among the lilies, because he delights in the whiteness of virtues and the cleanness of thoughts and of works, as he says in a certain place: And I am present to clean thoughts (Prov. VIII); and as it is written: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matth. V), so long does he work the effect of his grace in me, until the day of understanding and of spiritual knowledge shine forth, the darkness of ignorance, or of carnal understanding, having been put to flight. For the more the mind is joined to God in advances of the virtues, the higher it is lifted up in the subtlety of divine contemplation.

Or until the day is, that is, the light and splendour of good works which has shone forth in my mind through the indwelling of divine grace, may shine again upon the hearts of others by word and example, and remove from them every shadow or 1121Bnight of depravity and malice: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and justice and truth.

Return: be thou like, my beloved, to a roe, and to a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. [Vulg. Ct 2:17 super montes Bether, "upon the mountains of Bether"]

While the beloved was feeding among the lilies of the soul, shining white and fragrant with virtues, he so refreshes that soul with the sweetness of his charity that, despising earthly things, she was wholly suspended in heavenly things, and yet she could not comprehend the uncircumscribed divinity 115 as it is. Whence, when with the whole effort of her mind she pursues the beloved, who exceeds all sense and as it were in a certain manner flees, because he is incomprehensible and ineffable, she is beaten back by the radiance of so immense a 1121Cbrightness, and does not judge that he is to be pursued further, whom she considers can in no way be comprehended. For to this it is written of the holy living creatures that, when a voice came above the firmament, they stood and let down their wings (Ezech. I). By the name of firmament, indeed, the supernal powers are designated, which, while other companies of angels were falling from heaven, themselves stood firm in the love of God. But the voice in the mind is a certain sound of understanding; but one voice comes to be beneath the firmament, another from the firmament, and another above the firmament. For as holy minds lift themselves up from earthly things to things above, a voice comes to be beneath the firmament when they understand subtly some things of the nature, order, quality of visible things; but a voice comes to be from the firmament when they weigh the ineffable and eternal joys of those supernal 1121Dspirits; but a voice comes to be above the firmament when, in contemplating, they think something of the loftiness of the Divinity, of which, because they can comprehend nothing fully as it is, standing and not able to advance further, they humbly lay down the wings of contemplation, and they are astounded at him whom they understand to be incomprehensible; being astounded, they venerate and are afraid; being afraid, they love; loving, they at some time behold him as he is.

Because, therefore, in the contemplation of the Divinity she who is beloved fails, and cannot long follow him who is beloved as though already flying away, she calls him back and implores that at least he deign in some manner to reveal the sacraments of his humanity, 1122Asaying: Return, my beloved, be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel; as if she said in other words: Since I am not able perfectly to grasp the sublimity of thy divinity, for we see now through a glass in a dark manner (I Cor. XIII), at least grant me to search out and to understand the truth of thy humanity, the reason of the truth, the utility of the reason; the truth in faith, the reason in the cause, the utility in the end of the cause. For we believe that thou wast made man for this reason, that thou mightest save the human race, whose end is eternal life.

But in the action of a cause of this kind thou wast like to a roe or to a young hart, because, born of the stock of the patriarchs, like a young hart of servants thou didst swiftly dispense the order of human salvation; for 1122Bafter thou didst begin to preach, in three years and a half thou didst accomplish the universal good of so celebrated and wonderful a business, and having suffered thou didst rise quickly after three days; and after forty days thou didst ascend the heavens, and such an outrunning and return was as of a roe or of a young hart leaping on the mountains.

116 But this outrunning or return of thine was upon the mountains of Bethel, that is, of the house of God, which is the Church, whose advance and institution was being carried on in this outrunning and return; upon whose mountains, that is, the apostles and the other holy preachers, like a swift young hart thou didst run together by the ready gift of thy grace, when thou didst teach them by the sudden coming of the Holy Spirit, so that what others can scarcely grasp through long spaces of time, these attained in one moment. 1122CFor by what could thy leap upon these mountains be swifter than to give in one hour the knowledge of all tongues.

Grant, then, that I may understand the sacraments of all these things, that understanding I may be able to meditate on them, that I may not draw back from them in faith and work, in faith by believing, in work by imitating according to my power. For thou art like to a roe or to a young hart in my heart when I turn over these sacraments of thy dispensation, namely how, to institute these things, thou didst run as by certain leaps from heaven into the womb of the virgin, from the womb onto the cross, from the cross into the sepulchre, from the sepulchre again into heaven. But this likeness appears to me upon the mountains of Bethel, that is, in the Scriptures which holy Church holds 1122Dand venerates, which Scriptures, namely, are mountains on account of the loftiness of the senses which are contained in them, from the utilities of the divine precepts or from the sacraments and the realities of the sacraments.

But because the whole force of this love between him who is beloved and her who is beloved hangs on faith in the sacraments and the observance of the divine commandments, having let go that intention of seeking by which she wished to comprehend God in his nature, but could by no means, she began to attend to how she might comprehend God through faith and justice. For if, according to the voice of John, God is charity (I Joan. IV), and to have faith and justice is to love God, assuredly to have this charity is to have God.

1123ABut what do we call this charity, except all that good which can be conceived in the mind, believed in the heart, confessed with the mouth, exercised in work? truly no one attains all this good except him who perfectly loves God, and no one loves God except him who attains this good, as was set down a little above, my beloved to me and I to him.

For this good is a certain way, which leads to better things to be comprehended, of which life the term and close is eternal life. But since there is no small difficulty in finding a good of this kind, while there are very few who have the perfect charity of God, the beloved adds, relating the order of the seeking and the finding of this, which does not come about easily:

1123B117 VERSE 1.-- In my bed by nights I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, and found him not.

By the name of the bed the rest and tranquillity of the mind can be designated; because while through thought we rest from worldly din, we can investigate more subtly the quality and manner of the good to be sought, the end of which good to understand is to find God: but we call it the end, not that by which it ceases to be, but that by which it perfectly begins to be. In her bed, then, the beloved seeks the beloved, when in the rest of her mind she desires to understand the right rule of goodness and of discipline and of knowledge.

But she seeks by nights, because in the consideration of subtle things the eye of the mind is darkened, so that it does not at once prevail by 1123Citself to see what it seeks. Whence she by no means finds the beloved whom she seeks, because the very difficulty of understanding makes a certain delay of finding.

VERSE 2.-- I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

118 What then is to be done? assuredly, that from that quiet of mind in which she lies alone with her own sense, she rise to study, searching out also the senses, actions and writings of others, so that what she does not prevail praevale to understand by herself, she may perceive from their sayings and writings.

For this is to go about the city, and to seek the beloved through the streets and the broad ways: to run through the Church and 1123Dto search out the sentences of the holy doctors, to investigate those who walk by the broad and by the narrow, and to consider whether there be in them any traces of holiness, because sometimes secular men have something of good work which is to be imitated, and also to be imitated according to one's power. For the broad way is that of secular men, the narrow that of the saints, because many are they who walk by the broad, but few who walk gradiuntu by the narrow way (Matth. VII).

VERSE 3.-- The watchmen who keep the city found me: Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?

But the watchmen find her going about the city and the streets and the broad ways, because to the studious mind searching into the documents of the Church, looking into history also, which is as it were the broad way, because it is open and easy to understand, and allegory also, which is as it were the narrow way, because it is 1124Asubtle and difficult to understand, and searching out whether there be in them any things useful and necessary to faith and to working, the holy doctors come to meet her with their sentences and authorities, and show the beloved whom she was seeking to her as she understands and desires to imitate. For they are called watchmen of whom the Lord says in the Gospel: Blessed are those servants whom, when the Lord shall come, he shall find watching (Luc. XXII). For the holy doctors, set in the body, were watching, and still watch by doctrine and working for their own profit and that of their neighbours; but stripped of the body they watch and will watch by writings and examples, for their own reward indeed, but for the salvation of their neighbours. These watchmen, namely, keep the city, because the holy doctors confirm and protect the holy universal Church by the reasons and authorities of their testimonies and 1124Bexamples, and make it impregnable to the enemies of the holy faith.

Such watchmen, then, the beloved, hesitating, questions suscitatur, saying: Have you seen him whom my soul loveth? Can you, she says, show and prove in your writings and deeds that you so loved God that assuredly to imitate your life and doctrine is to find the beloved?

VERSE 4.-- When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

119 But because perseverance of the search does not put off the effect of the finding, she adds: When I had a little 1124Cpassed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: for when for some while she has passed through the deeds and writings of the holy Fathers by reading or hearing, at length she finds the beloved by understanding and by desiring to imitate.

But because what she has understood here she resolves to observe in faith and work, as the beloved found, she goes on, saying: I held him, and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me. But what is sought studiously with desire and eagerness is held dearer when found and is held more strongly. Whence the beloved, that is, the holy soul, after, by going about the Church and frequently looking into the sayings and deeds of the holy Fathers, understanding the norm of living or of teaching rightly as God himself, 1124Dfound the beloved. Since indeed to live and to teach rightly is to have God, she holds him firmly in memory, and does not let him go, until she insinuates him to others also by teaching and doing, and brings him into their sense through faith and love; not that after this bringing in she ceases to hold him, but that she desires that to others also the participation of this grace, and, by virtue, of it diffused in herself through the Holy Spirit of charity, be conferred everlastingly together with herself. For this word until must be understood to have been set for a limit [pro determinatione; read non pro determinatione, "not for a limit"], but for what is everlasting, as if she said: So long will I commend him to their tenacious memory, pitying him to my sense and to that of others, until he be so made firm in us by faith and action that he cannot fall away any more from our mind.

1125ABut it is not to be thought that the places of this bringing in are set down so distinctly and differently without reason, that is, the house of the Mother and the chamber of her that bore. For since the whole body of the Church, on account of the diversity of senses and of pursuits, is divided into three, that is, into the little, the middling and the great; the house indeed receives all, but the chamber not all, but the great only, and those who attain something of speciality more differently from the others: for every house is a more evident and ample place, into which not only the Lord but also the whole household enters: it is the public place of the universal Church; but the chamber is a certain singular and as it were private place in the Church, to which access and entrance lies open to none but those raised up by ecclesiastical dignity and order, whose profession it is specially to cleave to God. But relative 1125Bnames, like father and mother, which are always said to be that which they are of others, are taken in three ways, that is, 120 by nature, by affection, by adoption, of which, the first being passed over, the two remaining ways can be fitted to the mother or her that bore of this place. For holy Church is the mother of every faithful one by affection and adoption, because to him whom she has adopted to herself through faith for a son, living holily and justly, she always lays open her affection. And that we may distinguish something here, let us say that she is also she who bore him, according as she begets him, by forming him to the honesty and utility of a holy life, or by instructing him with the pages of sacred Scripture, and so by bringing him up into a perfect man in virtue and knowledge according to the measure which is pleasing to helping grace.

1125CThe beloved, therefore, brings the beloved into the house of her mother, when she shows God, whom she acknowledges by faith and work, to the sons of her holy mother the Church, that is, to the little, the middling and the great, both by the examples of the acts of the saints and by the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, which she now brings forth for the letter alone, now interprets for the mystical sense, so that all may attain them, that is, the little, the middling and the great, each according to his capacity; the little indeed to the letter only; the middling both to the letter and to the mystical sense, but in part and not perfectly; the great both to the letter and to the mystical sense, not in part but perfectly, and who can investigate and understand things yet other, and things as it were unsearchable to others. Whence to them 1125Donly is the beloved shown in the chamber of her that bore, because to them the subtlety and discernment of the precepts and a certain secret discussion of the divine sacraments is covered [operitur; read aperitur, "is opened"] from the secret place of the Church that instructs them.

But after these things the seeking, the finding and the bringing in by the beloved, to be taken in this manner also, so that with respect to the preceding sense they are said in some things otherwise, in some things uniformly. For otherwise by the name of the bed can be understood the secure dissoluteness of carnal pleasure, and dissolute security, where, because it is the night of sin, Christ is not found; wherefore from this useless and wretched quiet let the sinner rise with the eagerness of a ready mind, and, that we may speak uniformly according to the sense above, let him run through holy Church with devout intention, passing through whose watchmen, that is, the doctors, let him learn by reading 1126Aand hearing how he may correct his morals. And let him find in the city of virtues God whom he could not find in the bed of evil security, and let him grow by advancing so long, until he brings him into the house of his mother, which is otherwise to say this world, which is the place and habitation of human offspring, as of a mother procreating universal man. For he openly proclaims to all how great things God has done for him, and, provoking them to his example, exhorts that, carnal pleasure being despised, they forget the house of this their mother by leaving the world.

And when in this way he has brought 121 the beloved into the house of his mother through the active life, at last he advances so far that he brings him through the contemplative life into the chamber, that is, into the secret places of solitude, 1126Bwhether of the hermitage or of the monastery, which is uniformly to say of her that bore, that is, of the Church, which begets, nourishes and forms him to the honesty of the monastic life; and her he himself afterwards so surpasses by so great an excellence of virtues, that by his example and doctrine the Church herself advances more than he had before advanced by her instruction; and let this be to bring the beloved into the chamber of her that bore him.

Loving and praising whose study and purpose, the beloved addresses the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the simple souls in the Church, who are therefore called daughters, not sons, because for infirmity of mind they cannot yet climb up to those things to which all the perfect have attained by manliness of soul. I adjure you, he says, O daughters of Jerusalem, etc.

1126CVERSE 5.-- I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up nor make the beloved to awake, till she herself please.

For to those who rest in mind and body in the chamber of monastic conversation, such a cause often arises that it is necessary to lay aside for a while that contemplative eye and to provide in some things for the profit or necessity of neighbours; but because there are some infirm minds which wish this to be done by their superiors too frequently, and demand rather that they be stirred up and awake to exterior things, they are as it were forbidden by certain adjurations, by the sentences and authorities of the Fathers running through the breadths of the holy Scriptures, but rather that they leave it to the judgment of those 1126Dwho understand through the spirit of discretion in what place and time they ought to awake to this office.

For the sentences of the holy Scriptures, or the authors themselves of the sentences, are as it were certain roes and harts, because while they propose that earthly things are to be left and heavenly things sought, they show as it were certain leaps from earth to heaven, and while they command men to be fervent and solicitous in good work, they hold out a certain agility of mind to be had by them; for it is written: Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth; seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; and elsewhere: But our conversation is in the heavens; and in another place: Hasten to enter into that rest; and again: Hastening and 1127Amaking speed unto the meeting of the Lord; and elsewhere: So run that you may comprehend; and the Lord in the Gospel: Run while you have the light, lest the darkness comprehend you; [Vulg. Jo 12:35 Ambulate dum lucem habetis, "Walk whilst you have the light"] and elsewhere: Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand; and in the Psalm: Blessed is the man whose help is from thee, he hath disposed ascents in his heart in the vale of tears (Col. III.--Phil. III.--Heb. IV.--Amos. IV.--I Cor. IX.--Joan. XII.--Luc. XXI.--Psal. LXXXIII).

Behold the roes and harts of the divine 122 fields, which show that it is more useful to sleep in the chamber of contemplation than to keep watch for exterior business; not that these things ought to be omitted altogether, when the profit or necessity of neighbours demands it, but that the part of Mary is better than that of Martha.

1127BWith these, then, and other like sentences, as with certain incantations, the beloved adjures the daughters of Jerusalem, lest lightly and without cause they compel their neighbours to come down from inmost quiet and to pass over to exterior actions. Wherefore you, O daughters of Jerusalem, who see the vision of peace, yet so, if you walk in the Spirit, and have mortified the deeds of the flesh (Rom. VIII), for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh (Gal. V), to be free of whose wars is to see the vision of peace, always love the secret of holy contemplation, always be zealous to bring this beloved, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the chamber 1128Aof your mind, so that when the Spirit of divine charity has taken you up, and has taught you to despise all earthly things, you may hear with the prophet behind you the voice of a great commotion: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place (Ezech. III).

For you are the place of the glory of God when you receive him in your hearts through the love of holiness, and if you sprinkle forth from yourselves anything of virtue and grace through humility, patience, obedience and chastity, and the other works of piety, it is the glory of God, from whom and through whom you have it, and the same himself is blessed, to whose praise and glory profits all that is seen in you of honesty and discipline.

For this is the voice of a great commotion, because those who are lifted up through the spirit are moved with so great a grace 1128Bof compunction that they afflict themselves with grievous lamentations, either because they are still bound by their sins, or because they are put off so long from the joys of the heavenly life.

You hear also behind you the voice of a great commotion when you attend to the tumults and fleeting joys of this world, but out of love of the eternal joys set them after in your mind, and, forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching yourselves forth to what is to come, you follow on to the prize of the supernal vocation, so that the hearing of this voice may be no small consolation to you, while it is said: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.

• 1127C

We read in the history of the Kings that, when Eliseus the prophet had been questioned by the king of Israel, saying: Why hath he gathered these three kings, to deliver them into the hands of Moab? after some things: Bring me, he says, a minstrel; and when the minstrel sang, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said: Make the channel of this torrent ditches and ditches (IV Reg. III). It is plain in this matter that the spirit of the prophet is not always present to the prophets, and therefore the prophet, the spirit resting in him, caused a minstrel to be brought, so that, while the minstrel sang, the spirit which was in a certain manner resting in him, granted ( an. concussus?), might be roused up and might see for him that about which he was being questioned.

But to what end the bringing forward of this example? assuredly 1127Dit looks to your intention, O beloved sisters, and to mine. For because it seemed to your humility that the Spirit of holy love was resting in you, and was as it were idle, you indicate that it is useful and necessary to bring you some minstrel, at whose singing that spirit which had as it were fallen asleep in your mind might be roused, for a double cause, as I think: either that, as David by singing softened the fury of Saul, so, if anything of unevenness should suddenly steal upon your mind, it might be composed by the sweetness of the singer, 1128Cor, if your soul had anything less of fervour in divine love, it might be kindled by a certain inmost force of song.

Since, then, this was your intention, by I know not what spirit you brought my littleness, which knows how to sing nothing of the kind, and enjoined upon me the office of this minstrel. What was I to do? on the one side your affection was urging me on, on the other side the danger to my wit was driving me back. At length, presuming on the help of God and the suffrage of your prayers, I did not refuse to be your minstrel, however unlearned, since I reckoned that with your love my excess would be easy, and because, according to the sentence of the great orator, virtue which charity follows is by no means to be rejected; but what is my virtue? Small, assuredly, and such as 1128Dis of almost no power in the arduous work of so great an office. Yet if charity can do anything in any way, it administers this.

But this indeed was your intention; my intention, however, was to obey those who asked, and to sing something by which your spirit might be roused. But behold, unskilfulness stands in the way of good will, since this ought to be the part of a skilled singer, that he know both how to profit and how to delight, according to that of Flaccus: He has carried every vote who has mixed the useful with the sweet.

1129A124 Secular letters report that a certain Orpheus by his song soothed tigers and lions, by way of likeness, namely, because he tamed the bestial and wild manners of men by the reasonable sentence of his speech. Amphion also is said to have moved stones with the sound of the lyre testitudinis and with bland entreaty to have led them whither he would, because he composed the hard and uncomposed manners of men rightly and by the sweet measure of reason. Great, then, is the skill of a singer, to change the minds of the hearers by the measure of his song. But I do not reckon that the measure of this my begun song has availed to this with your sanctity, not on account of the slowness of your wit, but on account of the density of my ignorance. For he is an unskilled singer who does not know the property of voices and of modes, 1129BAnd the harper Is laughed at, who always strays on the same string, (HORAT., De arte poetica, V. 356.) Whence, after some part of this most excellent canticle had been sung through, I had decided rather to be silent than to uncover further such great follies of mine.

But because sometimes a skilled craftsman, laboriously reshaping a form made from the same material by an unskilled craftsman, makes it as it were another, and a skilled singer restores to a dissonant and as it were discoloured song its proper, very pure and entire colour: I too, encouraged by this, for the sake of your love, will gird myself again with the help of God for those things which I had thought to leave, so that if I 1129Cshall have made some twisted and uncomposed work, some learned and skilled man may find material whereby he may exercise his wit, by acquiring for it a better and more useful, or more lively, form and colour, if yet the work itself shall have escaped the erasure or the deserved flame.

VERSE 6.-- Who is she that ascendeth through the desert, as a little rod of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh and of frankincense, and of the whole powder of the perfumer?

Now the beloved has entered the chamber of the beloved, now she has begun to draw a little near to his kiss, because she has flown away from the allurements and cares of secular life, fleeing from which she has removed herself far, and has remained in the solitude of her body and soul. But the solitude of the body is to be quiet in the place assigned to oneself, and not to wander through the exterior senses about the business of this world, either 1129Din speech or in action. But the solitude of the soul is to be occupied with no exterior things, either in thought or in will.

Which solitude, assuredly, is a great ascent of the mind. And the daughters of Jerusalem marvel at the wonderful ascent of the beloved through the desert, because infirm minds are greatly amazed at and praise the singular life of those who are free for God alone and have no care of worldly honour and advantage. It says, therefore: Who is she that ascendeth? But before we describe an ascent of this kind, let us consider what and of what sort is the desert through which this ascent is made. And first let us understand that both ascent and desert are each named equivocally, because by one name they can signify diverse things. For ascent is the ascent of the body and of the heart

1130A125 The desert is the Church of the gentiles; the desert the Synagogue of the Jews, the desert the world, the desert some separated place, the desert the soul taken out from all the cares of the world.

But desert is so called from deserting, because it deserts and is deserted; because it both deserts the continent one and is deserted by the continent one: but by grace [vero gratia; read verbi gratia, "for example"] the world will desert the one who contains himself, because in no manner can it come by affection for itself to the holy soul, which reckons all things of this world as nothing; it is deserted by the continent one, because by no reckoning does the holy soul consent to share in the pleasures or actions of the world, lest, held back by it perhaps, she be able to escape with difficulty or never.

But this continence we name both according to 1130Bthe general situation of the body, which belongs to the good and the bad, and according to the situation of the soul, which belongs specially to the good, and specially to the bad, according to the affection of good and of evil.

The situation of the body is the exterior place: the situation of the soul the interior place: and sometimes the exterior place profits or harms the interior place. But we said a little above that the desert is the world, or some place set apart, or the soul exempted from the cares of the world. But to the soul exempted from the cares of the world the world does harm, not according to its substance, but according to the affection of its malice; but the place set apart profits, not according to its nature, but according to the quiet and the clean removal of din from it. According to this, therefore, the exterior both profits and harms the 1130Cinterior place. Let us say, then, why each of those things which we set down above is named by the name of desert.

For the Church of the gentiles, so long as she remained in gentility, was a certain desert, because not yet was there in her the worship of any religion and the frequency of sacred laws or sanctions, but as it were the lairs of beasts, on account of the bestial manners of men, in whom reason itself and the natural law were so lulled to sleep that they could not discern what of honesty they owed to their own life, or what of reverence and subjection to the Creator. For of this desert the Psalmist says: the beautiful places of the desert shall grow fat (Psal. LXIV). For what are the beautiful things of this desert, except the most wholesome and most seemly 1130Dinstitutions of the sacraments and of the venerable sanctions, which then began to grow fat when, by the teachings and authorities of the holy Fathers, they advanced to greater increments of honesty and reverence? Of which desert the Lord says through Isaiah: I will set the desert into a pool of water, and the impassable land into streams of waters (Isa. XLI): for he set the desert into a pool of water and the impassable land into streams of waters, when to gentility, which for dryness of mind bore no fruits of good works, he gave the flowings of preaching, and to which, for the roughness of its dryness, the way did not lie open to preachers, he afterwards made streams of doctrine to flow forth. To which also in another place, through the same prophet, he promises again, saying: The desert shall rejoice, and the impassable and the solitude shall exult, and shall flourish like the lily (Isa. XXXV): 126 1131Ait shall rejoice in faith, exult in action, flourish in the beauty of virtues, so that like the lily it may be fragrant with the odour of good life, shine with the whiteness of cleanness, avail with the medicine of inmost salvation.

Judaea also is called a desert, from whom the testament and the giving of the law and every right of sacrifices and ceremonies departed, so that, the temple being destroyed and the city made desolate, the whole royal and priestly dignity among them, and every solemn rite, has ceased, but they themselves, dispersed through diverse regions, bear the sign of this desolation. Which the Lord foretold to them in the Gospel as to come, saying: Your house shall be left to you deserted (Matth. XXIII); and in Jeremiah it is written: The Lord hath cast down, and hath not spared; all the beautiful things of Jacob he hath destroyed in his fury 1131B(Thren. II).

The world also can be called a desert, not bodily but spiritually, because the more it is heaped with the filth of sins, the more it is made desolate of the presence of divine grace; for it is written: The land shall be brought down in solitude (Jer. L); the land indeed in solitude, because the mind occupied with earthly cares and pleasures is made desolate of the assembly of the virtues.

A place set apart also is called a desert, because where there is no access of secular business or of forensic actions, that is not unfittingly named a certain solitude. Whence when the Psalmist had set forth beforehand the tribulations of enemies and the troubles of iniquities, and such disturbances of heart that he even 1131Cfeared death from them, at length turning back from there: I said, he says, who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Psal. LIV). And at last, a wholesome counsel having been found: Lo, he says, I have gone far off flying away, and I abode in the solitude; I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit and from the storm (ibid.) And the Lord, after baptism, being about to fast, was led into the desert, where, being tempted by the devil (Matth. IV), he triumphed in himself over our temptations, showing that those who love a quiet life are indeed to be wearied by temptations, but to be delivered by the help of God through fastings and prayers.

The soul also removed from all the cares of the world is a desert, because the less it thinks of the things that are of the world, the more it carries a heart solitary from carnal 1131Ddesires. Whence the Lord in the Gospel: When, he says, thou shalt pray, enter into the chamber, and having shut the door pray to thy Father (Matth. VI); for praying we enter the chamber when in the secret of our heart we stand alone and without voice lay open to God alone what we ask; we shut the door also when we stop up the entrance of our exterior senses, lest through them anything should be brought into the heart which could hinder our prayers. And this is the solitude of the soul very necessary to each one who seeks God and desires to find him.

But we said above that ascent is both of the body and of the mind, but this is to be considered only of the ascent of the mind, which is not made except through the desert.

127 For so long as the mind is entangled in the cares and 1132Atumults of this world, it is by no means able to ascend to the height of the virtues, but first the solitude of body and of mind is to be sought, so that, while the mind is drawn away by no exterior or interior disquiet, it may be lifted up more freely to the study of good work.

Holy Church, therefore, which has been gathered from two peoples coming from the foreskin and from the circumcision, ascends through the desert of faithlessness when, the unbelievers of both peoples remaining in faithlessness, she herself among them grew up by faith, hope, charity to wonderful summits of virtues. And the more grievously she was crushed and as it were broken small by their persecuting, the higher did she send up from the fire of the Holy Spirit the smoke of holiness, by the straightness and rigour of life and of doctrine. Whence it is added: As a little rod of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh 1132Band of frankincense and of the whole powder of the perfumer.

She was as a little rod, because she remained straight and rigid in end and in operation: but she was a little rod of smoke, because that very straightness and strength smoked from the fire of divine love. But what was the material in which this divine fire grew hot? assuredly faith, hope and charity, which are signified by the kinds of aromatics, of myrrh and of frankincense and of the whole powder of the perfumer. Now myrrh has a bitter juice, and with it also the bodies of the dead are embalmed lest they putrefy; but frankincense is offered in sacrifice to God; further, from the whole powder of the perfumer a most precious ointment is made. Nine made, when for the preservation of the orthodox integrity of the faith they suffered from the unbelievers and heretics, 1132Cthe corrupters of the faith itself, persecutions and deaths many and various, sent up the myrrh of smoking faith as it were into heaven; for through the whole world this smoke of faith and of sufferings ascended, which blinded and put to flight the unbelieving and the persecutors by the bitterness of miracles, but enlightened and confirmed believers with how sweet an odour. But when, fervent in the worship of God and in religion put into deed, they were continually instant in prayers for the state of the Church and for attaining the eternal beatitude which they hoped for, did they not also bring forth the frankincense of smoking and fragrant hope? for unless they had a firm hope of future goods, they would by no means assiduously supplicate God to attain them. But when, strong in faith and hope, they could say with the Apostle: I am sure that neither life, nor death, nor angels, 1132Dnor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the charity of God (Rom. VIII). Did they not spread on high the odour of the whole powder of the perfumer? For what is charity but the whole powder of the perfumer? For charity is a universal virtue, because all virtues come forth from its root, and therefore wherever there is any virtue, there is charity.

But who is this perfumer, if not the Holy Spirit, because by his grace he compounds this universal powder? For the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Rom. V).

128 Let us see to what great subtlety the Apostle reduced charity as it were into powder, when, 1133Aenumerating its parts: Charity, he says, is patient, is kind, envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things (I Cor. XIII). Behold into how many parts he divides charity, so that through these determinate parts he may intimate that whatever virtue shall have been the last, and the most fortified [munitissima; read minutissima, "the smallest"] of the whole body of good, this is the atom of charity. But where all is said, nothing is excepted; all good therefore is charity; therefore, as the whole powder of the perfumer is made from all precious spices, so charity is composed of all the virtues of the soul, so that not unfittingly it is marked 1133Bby the signification of the whole powder of the perfumer; for where any virtue is lacking, charity is not perfect.

Every soul too that is beloved of God ascends through the desert of this world when, having spurned and set after all its cares and business and delights, she always tends to heavenly things by advances of the virtues, and although she be detained in the world by the body, yet she dwells in heavenly things by the mind. Through the desert also she makes ascents of the soul, because the more the soul [quanto animus; read quanto minus animus, "the less the soul"] is occupied about exterior things, and the more it is deserted by the frequency of useless thoughts, the more is it borne up by the love of divinity and the delight of good acts. And this as a little rod of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh and of frankincense and of the whole powder of the perfumer, so that, according to the sense above, she 1133Ctoo may have the rod of equity, by faith, hope and charity, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. In this vale of tears also let the myrrh of labour and patience smoke in the sight of God, as she weighs: that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us (Rom. VIII). Let her kindle also the most pure frankincense by the instancy of prayers, delighted by whose sweet odour God may confer on her the grace of his blessing, through which she may grow and be multiplied with an offspring of virtues. And let her be fragrant with the whole powder of the perfumer, so that with a spirit of humility and a contrite mind she may render to God every office of holiness, for a sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit (Psal. L): for one is sifted as it were into the finest powder 1133Dwhen, through the breaking of a heart greatly humbled, one set in the highest virtues is made thin before the eyes of God. For with the finest powder of this breaking and humility, kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, David was smoking when he said: 129 I am a worm and no man (Psal. XXI), and when in another place he called himself a dead dog and a flea (I Reg. XXIV, XXVI), and in the Psalm Moses is said to have stood in the breaking in the sight of God, to turn away his wrath (Psal. CV). For with how great contrition of spirit and virtue of compassion was he crushed when, praying for the sin of the people, he said to God: Either forgive them this trespass, or if thou do not, strike me out of thy book that thou hast written? (Exod. XXXII.) Paul also, broken small by the abasement of humility, names himself the least of the apostles 1134A(II Cor. XV), but, crushed by the breaking of piety and compassion, wishes to become anathema for his brethren (Rom. IX).

But this ascent is said to have been as a little rod of smoke; for smoke, when it ascends, so fails little by little in ascending that it cannot be seen at all, because so great is the subtlety of the contemplative life in the saints, so great the sublimity of holy conversation through the desert of inmost solitude, that it escapes the minds of those who marvel rather than it is held by consideration to imitate it, so that, while it does not prevail to comprehend by following, it fails in the very consideration of it.

VERSE 7.-- Behold, threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel surround the bed of Solomon.

It is not repugnant to reason, as I think, if we take this bed of Solomon 1134Bin three ways, either as the universal Church, or the soul of each saint, or the holy Scripture of both testaments; not that he who is uncircumscribed is comprehended by places, but that the granting and preservation of graces and of saving effects is his repose in some one of the aforesaid, saving, guarding and governing.

For the universal Church is the bed of this Solomon, that is, of the peaceable man, our Lord Jesus Christ, because he rests in her through the saving observance of his commandments and the life-giving concorporation of his sacraments, which he displays to her under the species of sacramental things, pacifying those things which are in heaven and on earth, so that there may be as it were one commonwealth of this magnificent emperor, namely one 1134CChurch, both that which rejoices in the fatherland and that which is still a pilgrim on earth. For the head of the Church is Christ, but she the body of Christ (I Cor. XI); and as the body without the head does not live, nor can do anything; and as the head is not vital without the body; so also Christ confers life on no one without the unity of the body of the Church. Christ and the Church, then, are one, who, since the head is undivided from its body, whoever does not have the peace and unity of the Church does not have Christ either: whence also in the very body of the sacraments, namely in the body and blood of Christ, to the head the body, that is, 130 to Christ the Church, is made consacramental and concorporal, by her own and by his mystery, when the mystery of Christ taken in the truth of his body 1134Dprofits no one unless he has taken up the mystery of the Church, namely the ecclesiastical fellowship, in the same sacrament; because, since, as we said, Christ is undivided from his body, that is, the Church, in his sacrament the same Christ is not said to be truly taken unless he be taken whole, concorporated to that same Church by his own and the Church's mystery; for he himself says: He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me and I in him (Joan. VI).

Where, then, does Christ rest more than in the Church, which daily in partaking is concorporated to his body and blood and is made as it were one with him? Whence those who cut themselves off from the unity of the Church by living evilly or by teaching perversely, because they do not abide in the Church, since Christ and the Church are one, do not abide 1135Ain Christ, and therefore, when they partake of his body, they take him indeed in the truth of the substance, but they do not take him to the effect of their salvation. For this is not truly to take him, because he is not taken whole, since indeed, since at the altar the Church, as has been said, is concorporal and consacramental in Christ, he does not take the whole body of Christ, namely the head with the members, who, since he is outside the Church, does not unite himself to Christ and to the Church in the sacrament of both. He takes indeed the sacrament itself according to its essence, which turns out to some for life, to some for their end; but the virtue and the reality of the sacrament he does not take, because, since this is the virtue and the reality of the sacrament, that by loving one another whoever 1135Bpartake of that which profits no one to his end, but profits every believer to salvation, be of the unity of the body of the Church, whoever, Christ conforming and uniting them, shall not have been true partakers of so great a fellowship, do not truly take Christ, while they are proved to take him not to their salvation but to judgment: for since Christ himself commands, saying: If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift (Matth. V); he shows that the gift is not to be accepted where the soul of the offerer has not had the bond of peace and charity. But if this unity, not kept individually among fellow members, repels 1135Cthe gifts of those who offer, how much more will he who deserts the unity of the whole body of the Church be able neither to offer a gift nor to partake of what is offered?

But this bed is Solomon's, that is, the peaceable one's, who said: My peace I give unto you, peace I leave unto you (Joan. XIV), who confederates the things which are in heaven and on earth, because, since the Church, the body of Christ, is one, which partly reigns in heaven with Christ 131, partly is still a pilgrim in the body, whoever withdraws from the unity of this pilgrim part does not merit the fellowship of that supernal part, since indeed, since they are one according to the virtue and reality of the sacrament, that is, of ecclesiastical unity, although they are not yet associated in one place, yet they are so joined in spirit that whoever does not have the one, 1135Ddoes not have the other. Whence in this bed of this peaceable one, that is, in the Church, in which Christ still rests through the veils of the sacraments, whoever through penance has recovered the lost unity merits to be associated also to that which is on high, when he comes and incorporates in reality who reconciled us to God through his blood.

The soul, too, of each saint is the bed of this our true peaceable one, because, since the soul of the just is said to be the seat of wisdom (Sap. VII), there surely God rests sweetly where, wisely, reasonably and honourably, with wisdom itself governing, the place of that same resting is arranged; where the mind is by grace so coupled to God that it is made one spirit with him, the sacrament of which unity confers the whole effect of salvation, 1136Aas the Saviour himself says: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing (Joan. XV). For since the mind is powerless for any fruit of goodness and discipline without grace working with it, so great a power of this conjunction is conferred upon it that, since he is almighty to whom it is coupled through unity of spirit, it too is itself made almighty through grace, as he himself says, all things are possible to him that believeth (Marc. IX). For if the saints joined to God are called gods, he indeed essentially, they by appellation, it does not seem inconsequent that, since they are made one body with the Almighty through the sacrament of unity, they should also be made partakers of his omnipotence in a certain manner of their own, who can say with the Apostle, he hath given us all things with him 1136B(Rom. VIII). For to those to whom he has given all things with him, when they do not have [non habent; read nunc habent, "now have"] the Almighty, there is nothing which in him and through him they cannot do. But such a mind is called determinately the bed of the Saviour, that is, of the peaceable one, because wherever this peaceable one has rested and made his dwelling by the condescension of his grace, all the adversity of carnal affection that fights against the spirit is lulled to sleep.

Further, this bed of this Solomon is also, not absurdly, taken to be Holy Scripture, because in it Christ rests through the teachings of his precepts and the examples of the virtues, where the testament of this peaceable one is preached, which he confirmed in his death, namely the precept of peace and love, when 1136Che says: A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you (Joan. XIII); the fulness of which love consists in a twofold relation, namely of God and of neighbour, on which the whole law hangeth, and the prophets (Matth. XXII); and because the whole page of each sacrament 132 contains it, and discerns nothing useful or honourable without it, not undeservedly may sacred Scripture be named the bed of this peaceable one. For there Christ is found by one who reads and meditates in it; there he can understand what he ought to believe, what to hope, what to love; and to have this threefold virtue is to have God, to the eternal having of whom he is led and confirmed by faith, hope, charity. There Christ, lying hidden and as it were resting, is recognized and awakened, because in the minds of the reader, 1136Dafter he is understood, if the mind is moved by the steps of faith and of good works, Christ is as it were awakened from rest. For in the Gospel it is written that Christ was known in the breaking of bread, he who lay hidden in the form of a stranger (Luc. XXIV), because Holy Scripture, which is that heavenly and living bread, Christ, is strange to those who do not understand; but when it has been distributed through the breaking of exposition, Christ, who lay hidden in it, is recognized by the mind of one who understands.

But we must see what it is that threescore valiant ones, of the most valiant of Israel, all holding swords and most expert in war, are said to surround the bed of this peaceable one. For many have tried to scatter this bed and to carry off this peaceable one: some by vain 1137Aand irreligious worships, some by perverse morals, not a few by the errors of depraved dogmas; whom these valiant ones most valiantly withstood by deeds, words and writings, holding the swords of the word of God, and most expert in warring down enemies of this kind: first indeed the holy apostles and apostolic men, then the holy martyrs, finally the priests, who were all of the most valiant of those who see God with the mind and draw from him the strength of unconquered fortitude, surrounding and guarding this bed, each in his own time and place; not that they were necessary to this peaceable one, but that he was exceedingly necessary to them, whom they feared to lose through the perversity of the wicked, who laboured in every way to overthrow the Catholic faith.

1137BBut why is the number of these valiant, or most valiant, ones fixed at the number sixty: for it is not without some reason that, although the multitude of these valiant ones was innumerable, it is comprehended in this finite number: it could indeed be that that real Solomon had more guards of his body, or appointed and designated keepers, each at his own office, of his possessions stored in diverse places; but since God granted him so great a peace that no wars were stirred in his time, it seems a wonder, if it is to be taken according to the letter, why so many valiant ones were deputed to guard his body alone. But since reason demands rather that these things be referred to the spiritual sense, let us see what this number 133 sixty signifies; for sixty is composed of 1137Csix and ten, the one multiplied by the other. Now six, which, when its parts are gathered together, is neither diminished nor extended, is said to signify perfection. But ten, which is composed of five taken twice, suggests the Decalogue of the law, for the keeping or contempt of which, on account of the five senses of the body, by whose office the mind is led either to good or to evil, the whole of mankind, in the order of the ten virgins, the five wise and the foolish, is either rewarded or condemned. So six, which signifies perfection, and ten, which shows the Decalogue, multiplying one another and making up sixty, show that these sixty valiant ones so perfectly fitted their outward senses to keeping the divine precepts 1137Dthat they are deservedly reckoned in the lot of the five wise.

Now those who have the science of the art of Arithmetic are wont to say to me that such a number as sixty is superfluous; for, since some numbers are so equalled by the collection of their parts that they take back neither less nor more than the whole body, and are therefore called perfect, while some, because by the composition of their parts they return less than the whole body, are named diminished, those which, when their own parts are gathered together, surpass the whole body by some quantity are called superfluous. But we, who refer this number of these valiant ones to the good part, ought to take this surpassing not as superfluity, but as the increase of spiritual gain, which advances from virtue to virtue, 1138Aso that we may say that these valiant ones, in the talents of the five senses entrusted to them, wrought so magnificently for their own profit and that of their neighbours that, their zeal in good works always taking increase, from valiant they were made most valiant.

Let us see, however, what the parts of this number sixty bring, so that we may be able to know whether they pertain to the perfection of these valiant ones of Christ. Of the number sixty, then, the half part is thirty, the third twenty, the fourth fifteen, the fifth twelve, the sixth ten, the tenth six, the twelfth five, the fifteenth four, the twentieth three, the thirtieth two, the sixtieth one. These parts, gathered together, make up a hundred and eight, surpassing the whole body of sixty 1138Bby forty-eight. And what is the reward of all the perfect, but a recompense of all their labour a hundredfold better, in the future regeneration, when they shall be born again into the immortality of their bodies, to that life of the eighth age which shall never be ended.

Well, then, is the company of these valiant, or most valiant, ones comprehended in the number sixty, whose parts, brought into one, grow 134 to a hundred and eight, so that we may refer this not to superfluity but to the increase of virtues, since by doing and teaching rightly they have gained advancement for themselves and for others, for which they may obtain perfect blessedness, which is designated by the number a hundred, and which will be fulfilled in the eighth age, as we have said, to abide without end.

1138CVERSE 8.-- All holding swords, and most expert in war: every man's sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.

And these sixty valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surrounding the bed of Solomon, what do they do? All, he says, holding swords, and most expert in war: he does not say having, but holding, because they could indeed have them in a certain secret store-room of a soul that knows and understands, but not hold them in the public carrying, as it were, of the voice and work of one who preaches. They hold swords, therefore, because they always carry ready the teachings of knowledge and of action, by which they may train those who see and hear them for spiritual contests; but what are 1138Dthese swords but the words of God: For the word of God is true, and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul, of the joints also and the marrow, and a discerner of thoughts (Hebr. IV) [Vulg. Vivus, "living"]: for such a sword, dividing and separating, God sent into the earth when he came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law, and a man's enemies they of his own household (Matth. X). This sword, surely, of the word of God, by which separation and every kind of discernment is commanded to be made between good and evil, between virtues and vices, the renowned warriors of God ought to use, whose purpose it is to surround the bed of this peaceable one with doctrine and working, whether we refer this bed to the Church or to the proper mind of each saint, 1139Ain which the Godhead is believed to rest by the condescension of his grace; so that in both places they may both defend the Church from the depravity of unbelievers and guard themselves from the suggestion or deception of malignant spirits.

And what are the wars in which such men ought to fight, and in which they are recorded as most expert? Assuredly the great strife and discord of virtues and vices, where at issue is the conflict of two adversaries to one another, namely of the flesh and the spirit, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. V). And rightly they are proclaimed most expert not in war but, in the plural number, in wars, because one is the war of humility against pride, another of chastity against lust, another of patience against anger, another of obedience against contumacy, another of sobriety 1139Bagainst luxury, another of avarice against liberality [avaritiae contra liberalitatem; read liberalitatis contra avaritiam, "of liberality against avarice"], or of whatever virtue struggles against the vice opposed to it; for carrying through which wars happily these sixty 135 valiant ones are recorded as most expert, because in their deeds and writings are the method and counsel for the equipping of these wars, to be brought to a good and honourable end.

Whence also is added: Every man's sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night. For the method of repressing diverse vices is diverse, because pride is repressed in one way, luxury in another, and avarice in another, and single vices demand single contrary remedies, so that against each one it is fought with its contrary as with a different sword. Now the sword is the watchful guard of the mind, of which Scripture commands: 1139CWith all watchfulness keep thy heart (Prov. IV): which sword upon the thigh is set when the suggestion of the delighting flesh is repressed by the watchful guard of the resisting mind.

Let us say, by likeness, that in the thigh is also the seed-bed of offspring, from which, conception having been given, man is formed, who, his members being distinguished one by one in the womb, is at length brought forth by being born, and little by little, through the stages of the ages, is led on into the perfect man. And what is the suggestion of the delighting flesh in each man, but a certain conception of a vice suddenly rushing in? Which, if it is not at once pressed down by the sword of the mind stoutly resisting, takes form in the mind through delight, then through consent is as it were born, 1139Dand so, growing step by step through action, it is made through custom a damnable and deadly vice; for in the propagating of each vice these are the parts of its progression, namely suggestion, delight delectasio, consent, action, custom, just as in man too these are the parts of the process of birth, that is, conception, formation, nativity, the drawing-out of the body and the fulness of age. Every man's sword, therefore, ought to be upon his thigh, so that, the head of evil suggestion being cut off praecito and the seed-bed, as it were, of malice to be conceived being weakened, the whole body of the vice that would be born may be driven off; and why this? Because of fears, he says, in the night. For what do those who guard a city, or a house, fear by night, but sudden enemies or thieves, but malignant spirits, 1140Awho try to plunder or steal the treasures of our soul? These indeed, through the night of depraved suggestion or delight, with which they wrap the mind of each man so that it cannot discern the peril of the evil itself, rush in suddenly and creep in, and wound the mind with such darts of temptations that at times they cast it down from the state of its rightness. But this they can do only by night, when, the warmth of pious zeal withdrawing, the cold of torpor and negligence has taken hold of the mind; when the sun of justice has set in it on account of sloth and has not shone upon it with the light of his grace; because then they make ready their arrows that they may shoot at the poor man in secret (Psal. X).

Because of these fears in the night, therefore, that is, the hidden ambushes of temptations, each one ought 1140Bto stand girded with the arms of justice, and to watch all the entrances 136 of his inner house so vigilantly that no place of entering may lie open to the enemy. Zeal of this kind shows who are the valiant or most valiant, who guard, or are able to guard, the bed of the true Solomon by surrounding it, and who are most expert in the girding of a holy purpose, always holding the swords of providence and of ready vigilance, because of the sudden fears in the night of creeping vice.

But where and whence these most valiant ones receive the knowledge and daring of this spiritual warfare, what follows suggests insinuaut; for it is added: King Solomon made himself a litter, etc.

VERSE 9.-- Solomon made himself a litter of the wood of Libanus.

1140CFor whence do they receive it to be valiant, if not from the doctors of holy Church, whose deeds and words they desire to imitate, or from the testimonies and authorities of the holy canonical Scriptures.

Now the litter of this true king Solomon is holy Church, or the whole canonical Scripture of the Church itself, or, in the individual, the soul of any just man; for since "ferculum", a litter, is so called from ferendo, bearing, each one of these is surely not absurdly named a litter equivocally: the Church, indeed, on account of the bearing of the divine sacraments which are contained in it; holy Scripture on account of its taking up of the divine utterances, or precepts, whose mysteries and utility it contains; but the soul of the just man 1140Don account of its perceiving of divine knowledge, through which it is made capable of honourableness and discipline; all which are the delights of spiritual banquets.

And how the several members can adhere to each head of those we have set forth, we shall take care to set out; that is, we shall assign how the silver pillars, the golden reclining-place, the purple ascent, and the midst of these strewed with charity, fit either the Church or canonical Scripture or the soul of the just man.

First, however, it must be considered in what way each of these litters is said to be built of the wood of Libanus: Libanus is interpreted whitening. And what is understood by the wood of Libanus, which is recorded to be by nature incorruptible, but the saints and elect, 1141Awho through strength of spirit and the whiteness of worldly life have kept, and keep, an incorrupt holiness in thought, speech and work?

Of the wood of Libanus, therefore, king Solomon established a litter for himself, because Christ, out of the venerable and incorrupt deeds and teachings of his saints, both most becomingly ennobled his Church, and composed his holy Scripture, and instructed the soul of each just man, so that 131 each one of these should be a litter of heavenly banquets and a refreshment of faithful souls.

VERSE 10.-- The pillars thereof he made of silver, the reclining-place of gold and the ascent of purple: the midst he strewed with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.

The silver and the gold are fittingly 1141Bunderstood in each one on account of the brightness and purity of the utterances, and the majesty of the senses which shine in those same utterances. For if thou refer it to the Church, its pillars are of silver, because the holy patriarchs and prophets, and the apostles too, or apostolic men, in their preaching, or in the exposition of each testament by which they lift up and sustain the Church, set forth what they say or write in faithful and lucid speech.

In which speech the reclining-place is of gold, because their very preaching, or exposition, glows with the precious brightness of its senses; in which anyone who before laboured in not knowing and in seeking, now understanding, may as it were by resting redeem himself, and leans the mind wearied as it were by ignorance upon the banquets of inner refreshment.

1141CThe ascent of this litter too is of purple, because the highest profession in the peace of the Church is that which, by contempt of the world, mortification of the flesh and the casting away of one's own will, arranges an ascent made purple by the martyrdom of the mind, when the mind offers itself to God a living victim for an odour of sweetness (Ephes. V). For no one can ascend by contemplation to the highest step of divine charity unless he is free from all the cares and desires of the world; because, although the steps of the saints ascending by virtues are many and diverse, as it is written of them: They shall go from virtue to virtue (Psal. LXXXIII); yet the highest ascent, as we learn, is where the mind lifts itself above itself by contemplative charity. For in this purple 1141Dascent there are diverse steps, because one is more eminent than another; for it is more to pray, fast and keep vigil than only to meditate and read; it is more to bear insults and reproaches or persecutions of whatever kind for justice than only to abstain from injustice: yet in all ascents of this kind the labour of body and mind, and the continence of life, is as it were a certain precious purple of the mind.

But the midst of this litter king Solomon strewed with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem, because in the midst of these so sublime merits in the Church, many minds, as though strewn low by frailty and infirmity, are laid down; because, though they are not able to leave the world perfectly, yet they love and venerate those who despise the world; though they cannot labour for 1142AGod by fasting, keeping vigil and praying, or by mortifying the flesh, yet while they love these things in those who do them, they make them as it were their own, and what they themselves 132 do not have in themselves through infirmity, this they have in others through charity. Such souls certainly belong to this litter, and are refreshed in it in their own manner, because what the saints and the perfect attain in deed and virtue, these attain by charity alone.

Further, if thou look upon the whole body of canonical Scripture, its pillars of silver, the reclining-place also of gold, are the sentences and authorities of the divine utterances, clear in the brightness of their words, and shining in the singular excellence of their senses, the reading of which is the sweetest refreshment of the soul, since there faith sustains, hope lifts up, charity through contemplation 1142Bmakes to recline. Whence also the reclining-place is of gold, because contemplative charity is greater than faith and hope, as gold is more precious than silver. For when any of the faithful has learned from a litter of this kind, by reading or hearing, what he ought to believe, what to hope, then, all transitory things being put behind, in the love of God alone, as in a certain golden reclining-place of contemplation, he is fed and nourished through quiet of mind unto eternal life.

In this litter the ascent is of purple, because therein are recited the passion of the Redeemer, and the glorious triumphs of the martyrs dying for the love of that same Redeemer, in which passions there were several ascents: for as we can see in the very head of the martyrs, first scourged, then smeared with spittle, struck with blows of the hand, 1142Ccrowned with thorns, lastly fastened to the cross, he made as it were a certain purple ascent in his passion; following whose footsteps the martyrs had the ascents of manifold labour, because having had trial of mockeries and stripes, moreover of bands and prisons, they were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, at the last they died in the slaughter of the sword (Hebr. XI), so that through these ascents of passions they might reach the highest step of eternal beatitude. But when pious minds read and hear of this ascent, they busy themselves to imitate it, so that, as of the temporal passions, so also of the eternal consolations they may be made partakers.

The midst also of this litter is strewed with charity, because in the whole divine page charity holds as it were the middle 1142Dplace, while all the sentences of the holy Scriptures look to it as to a certain best and sure becoming, as the Apostle says, that the end of the precept is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned (I Tim. I). And when the Lord showed the two precepts of charity, namely of God and of neighbour, on these, he says, two precepts the whole law hangeth and the prophets (Matth. XXII); but that from which all other things hang seems in a manner to hold the highest and principal place. The midst therefore of this litter king Solomon strewed with charity, because in the midst of the holy Scriptures he established the primacy of charity.

And why this? For the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, for the souls belonging to the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the vision 1143Aof peace, that they may understand that neither the silver pillars, nor the golden reclining-place, nor 133 the purple ascent, has anything of virtue without the virtue of charity, but that all things, and by charity, ought to proceed as many branches from the one root of a tree. For the Apostle says that if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, which is to have silver pillars, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; and if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, which is to be a golden reclining-place, and if I should deliver my body so that I burn, which is to have a purple ascent, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing (I Cor. XIII).

1143BBehold how our king Solomon strewed the midst with charity in this his litter, when through the whole body of holy Scripture he established charity as in a certain centre, so that all things revolve round it and into it. And as the sun is highest when it is fixed in the centre and goes no further, so holy Scripture, disputing of the virtues, is highest in the proclaiming of charity, and does not go beyond it, to the prejudice of any virtue.

But in the third place, if thou consider the soul of any just man, its pillars of silver are the four cardinal virtues, of which all the others are appendages, namely prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. But how of silver? By the purity of proven faith and by the true preaching of evangelical doctrine, drained of all 1143Cdross of heretical falsity, of which it is written: The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by the fire (Ps. XI). Whence the Lord says of heretics through the prophet: I gave them silver and gold, but they made Baal out of the silver and gold (Ose. II); now gold pertains to the mind, silver to utterance: for God grants gold and silver to a holy soul when he grants it to have both a divine sense and wisdom, and to bring forth with beauty of utterance that which conceives the mind [mentem; read mens, "that which the mind conceives"]. And because heretics deprave this sense and, teaching it depraved, give it utterance, they as it were fabricate idols of falsity out of gold and silver.

He, then, who wishes that his virtues, if he has any, should be pillars 1143Dwhich sustain the structure of the soul, ought to take pains that they be of silver, because, unless they shine with the purity of faith and doctrine, it is greatly to be feared lest, not being able to bear the structure itself, they sink down through the weakness of their crookedness. But of whom the pillars are of silver, his reclining-place too is of gold, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh (Matth. XII); since where wisdom abounds in the sense, there praiseworthy eloquence flows forth outwardly. It is written: Wisdom resteth in the heart of the just, and prudence in the speech of his mouth (Prov. XIX). For when the mind shines with the brightness of wisdom, it follows that it utters prudently that by which it understands anything. But why is the mind of the just man called a reclining-place? Surely because the Godhead, in a mind which pleases it by the beauty of humility, patience, chastity and 1144Aobedience, is said to recline itself through the gold, the gift of its indwelling grace; 134 whereas, on the contrary, it is said of the minds of the reprobate that the Son of man hath not where to lay his head (Matth. VIII).

And what is the purple ascent of this litter? The faith and memory of the Lord's passion; to believe which, and to set in it all the hope of one's salvation, and after its form to crucify oneself also to the world, to vices and concupiscences, so that one can say with the Apostle: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. VI), is without doubt to ascend by the purple ascent of the mind.

And how this litter's midst with charity is strewed for the daughters of Jerusalem, the Apostle 1144Bshows, who says: I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak (I Cor. IX); whence is this but from charity? For since love is twofold, namely of God and of neighbour, and the one hangs from the other, whoever is endowed with the highest virtues ought to have this midst: that, when brotherly necessity or utility has required it, he should come down a little from that height of his rigour, and should provide for the infirmity of his neighbours by condescending to it.

For in this way, unless he love his neighbour, he is by no means proved to love God, since the one love is established from the other: For he that loveth not his neighbour whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? (I Joan. IV.) [Vulg. fratrem suum, "his brother"]

Whether, then, the Church, or holy Scripture, or 1144Cthe soul of any just man, be called the litter of this true Solomon, what follows does not resist the members from adhering, not unfittingly, to each head. But if the gaze of the mind be applied diligently, it will not be, as I think, tedious to consider how beautifully the last member of this litter is sealed with the conclusion of charity. For what is there of religion in the Church, what of sacramental reality, what of knowledge or eloquence in the whole divine page, what of holiness and justice in the soul of a saint, which does not set its whole beginning or end in regard to charity? And further, what are the sacraments of the Church, what the utterances of the whole of holy Scripture, or what is it that the soul of the just man ought to believe, to hope and to love, 1144Dbut the incarnation, passion, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and the showing forth of all the things he did for human salvation? And what are the holy proclamations of all these, but signs of divine charity? for on account of his exceeding charity wherewith God loved us, he sent his Son in the likeness of flesh, made a curse for us, that he might redeem us from the curse (Ephes. II). Whether, then, this litter be called the Church, or holy Scripture, or the soul of the just man, everywhere this charity holds the middle place, because from it all things proceed, and to it all things look. For the whole sum of this charity is God made man, and this is the whole that the saints teach in the Church through Holy Scripture, namely that we should attend with all our might to the 1145A135 greatness of this divine charity and mercy, because through it we have been freed from death and restored to the eternal life which we had lost by sinning.

Whence now, in what follows, the daughters of Sion are admonished to attend diligently to the grace of the divine goodness, not only in the thing but also in the working of the thing itself, and to take notice of the wonderful ordering of their salvation.

VERSE 11.-- Go forth and see, O daughters of Sion, king Solomon in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals and in the day of the joy of his heart.

Sion is said to be watching, and the daughters of Sion, that is, of watching, who are they but the souls of believers, who through the grace of contemplation keenly watch into the 1145Bsecrets of the heavenly mysteries? To them it is said that they should go forth, because they ought by no means to be occupied in carnal things who desire to be held by the eye of the mind in spiritual things. Go forth, he says, and see, for you cannot see unless first you go forth: Go forth therefore, that is, go out from the consideration of corporeal and visible things, and fix the gaze of the mind on the glory of the divine magnificence, and on the very cause of the universal redemption, and on the whole incorporeality, altogether, of human salvation. Why? Namely for this, that you may see king Solomon in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him: but with what eye ought you to see? Surely with the inner rather than the outer, because by the faith of corporality you ought to go out to corporality; 1145Cit behoves you to understand spiritually, not carnally, the things which you see or hear: for so it is said see, as if it were said, understand.

You, therefore, daughters of Sion, who are called not sons, on account of strength, but daughters, on account of infirmity; because you have not yet advanced into the robustness of spiritual understanding, since king Solomon has made a litter for you, at whose banquets you sit daily by looking into the sacraments of the Church, by reading and hearing canonical scripture, by searching out also the sentences of the holy doctors, go forth with a higher sense and see that same king Solomon in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him.

What or of what kind is this diadem of king Solomon wherewith his mother crowned him? We can indeed 1145Dsay, taken singly, the one sign of the passion, namely the crown of thorns with which his mother the Synagogue, who begot him according to the flesh, crowned him in mockery; but it seems better that we take this diadem as the whole sum of the twofold passion, which, as a diadem is composed of many kinds of precious stones, so is composed of many signs of diverse sufferings; which 136 after he had borne it in his body, he was crowned with glory and honour as with a certain diadem, as the Apostle said: We saw Jesus for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that through the grace of God he might taste death for all (Hebr. II). Whence you, O daughters of Sion, do not consider only the outward and contemptible signs of these sufferings, that is, the scourges, the spittings, the blows, the 1146Acrown of thorns, the cross, the burial; but from this consideration go forth, and behold with the eyes of the mind what of glory and honour, of remedy and health, has sprung forth thence for the whole world. For this is the diadem which you ought to admire and venerate, and this is the primacy of charity which he established in the midst of his litter; and with such a diadem the excellence of his mercy towards you shines. Was he not crowned with glory and honour, rising again from this corruption of a passible body into impassibility and incorruption, and did he not set the crown of this glory and honour upon his body, which is the Church, when he confirmed to it, with himself, a participation in future incorruption for ever?

Or if we call this diadem, generally, the whole order of the human dispensation, wherewith his 1146Bmother crowned him, namely the blessed Virgin Mary, from whose womb he took up that same humanity, it does not seem to be repugnant to reason; for in the composition of this diadem with which Christ was crowned as man there are, as it were, certain ornaments of distinguished gems: the nativity, the circumcision, the baptism, the fast, the temptation, the passion, the resurrection, the ascension; all which are enclosed in the gold of his mercy. For gold is more precious than all metals, and the tender mercies of God are over all his works (Psal. CXLIV). Out of the most shining gold, therefore, of the infinite mercy of God, and out of the works and signs of that mercy, which we have recounted above, as out of certain gems, is fashioned this diadem of king Solomon, namely of the true peaceable one, 1146Cthe Lord Jesus Christ: Who, reconciling us to God, set at peace all things that are in heaven and on earth (Colos. I). Whence the daughters of Sion, who have the grace of divine contemplation, are admonished that, looking into all these things with the inner sense, they should understand how great a salvation has flowed forth to them thence.

And when was he crowned with such a diadem? In the day, he says, of his espousals, in the day of the joy of his heart. What was the day of the espousals of Christ, but the time of the incarnation, when he came forth from the Virgin's womb as a bridegroom coming out of his bride chamber (Psal. XVIII), to couple to himself the Church, for whose redemption he deigned to become incarnate? Or rather the day of espousals was the time of his passion, when, redeemed with the price of his blood, he presented to himself the Church 1146Da glorious bride, not having spot, nor wrinkle (Ephes. V). For with this price of inestimable weight he betrothed her; for her he caused the eternal kingdom of his Father to be written down as a dowry; from her he himself also exacts espousal gifts, 137 exacts namely the merits of faith and the virtues, without which no soul can be coupled to God; some parts of which he enumerates a little later in what follows.

What, then, was the day of the joy of his heart? The time, assuredly, of the resurrection, when, all the sadness of passion and corruption being overcome, he showed himself festive and crowned with glory and honour, with the trophy of a completed redemption. But this affection of heart did not so befall him as that beforehand, doubtful, he did not know what was to come, and then, as if 1147Awith doubt removed, conceived joy in his mind (for no time is ascribed to the Godhead); but a manner of speaking of this kind befits only his humanity, by which he is said to have had a day of joy on account of the glory of the resurrection and the fulfilled purpose and order of redemption; although this too could rather be referred to the Church, which is his body, according to that manner of speaking by which, frequently in holy Scripture, what is said of the head is referred to the body, as, conversely, from the body to the head, on account of the concorporation and unity by which Christ and the Church are made one; for the passion, resurrection and ascension of Christ is the greatest and special joy of the Church, when she remembers that by this wonderful help she has passed from captivity to liberty, from death to life, from corruption to 1147Bincorruption.

But since this whole epithalamium of the bridegroom and the bride, which in this place is called, for its excellence, the Canticle of Canticles; looks to the wonderful spectacle of this espousal, let us see how beautifully and pleasantly the bridegroom and the bride, alternating with one another, sing the proclamations of holy love. For above the bride set forth the dignity and excellence of the bridegroom who is to be coupled to her spiritually, in the reverence of the bed, in the abundance of the litters, in the splendour and glory of the ornaments, and, what is greater than all these, in the singular prerogative of charity; and she was exhorting the daughter of Sion to go forth to behold and admire the beauty of these nuptials, so that 1147Cthey too, striving according to their power to be joined to these nuptials, might, him whom they now saw through a glass in a dark manner, afterwards, the eye of the mind being now wholly purged, see face to face, the king in his beauty.

To whom the bridegroom presently responds with a songful testimony of beauty, and enumerates very many parts of that beauty, offered to him as it were for the espousal gifts of the bride; which nevertheless are of the grace of that same bridegroom who gives them, so that he may show in turn that she who receives is deservedly to be coupled to him, whom he has made glorious by his own gift with so many proclamations of beauties, to whom he has fitted the name also of the bed and of the litter signified before, and whom he has made the cause of the ornaments laid upon her. He says, therefore, how fair thou art, my love.

1147DVERSE 1.-- How fair thou art, my love! how fair thou art! thy eyes are doves' eyes, besides that which lieth hid within; thy hair is as flocks of goats which have come up from mount Galaad.

Since by the grace of the Holy Spirit every blessing of the virtues flows forth in the Church's field, fittingly now the bridegroom extols her with sevenfold proclamations of beauties, which he regards in the comeliness and grace of the eyes, the hair, the teeth, the lips, the cheeks, the neck and the breasts; because surely 139 Christ judges the Church worthy of his fellowship, whom, for the abundance of her graces, he commends by the elegance of all the members in her face.

For the face of the Church is her public assembly, in which are considered, ordered and prescribed 1148Athe matters always necessary and useful, by which her members may be informed and set in the comeliness of unity, so that no spot of deformity may appear in them, whether in faith, or in action, or in any constitution of the canonical sanctions. For this public assembly of the Church is distinguished by the varied quality of professions, of dignities and of orders, because one is the profession of monks, another of clerics, another of laymen; and among these one profession is of virgins, another of the continent, another of the married; and of dignities one is imperial, another pontifical, another prefectural, or whatever else can be called by the name of dignity. Further, of orders, one is priestly, another levitical, another sublevitical, or any other ecclesiastical order whatever; all which things are signified by 1148Bthose parts described above, laudably placed in the body of the bride by the testimony of the bridegroom. For the eyes of the Church are the watchfulness and prudence of those set over her; the hair, the multitude of subjects; the teeth, the expositors of sacred Scripture; the lips, the elegance of preachers, or of readers reciting Holy Scripture; the cheeks, the modesty of those under discipline; the neck, the sublime eloquence of doctors; the breasts, the diligence of masters instructing the lesser; the distinct variety of all whom in the body of the Church the Psalmist praising together says: There stood, he says, the queen on thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Psal. XLIV). But of these one by one we must speak more fully in their place.

How fair thou art, he says, my love, how fair thou art! She whom he calls fair he also names his love, 1148Cto suggest that the one is productive of the other; for she who is adorned with so many kinds of beauties, which he adds below, is deservedly made his love, and she who is proved his love is assuredly shown to be fair: for he would not have made her, as his love, privy to his secret, unless he had coupled her to himself through grace, pleasing him by the beauty of the virtues. And by the repeated praise of beauty he approves the twin virtue of faith and of working, which are so inseparably joined to one another that the one without the other is always proved useless.

And adding the first member of the sevenfold beauty, thy eyes, he says, are doves' colnmbarum eyes, besides that which lieth hid within intrisecus. As was noted before above, the eyes of the Church are the watchfulness and providence of those set over her 1148Dtowards the utility of their subjects; because, as the eyes are certain guides and guardians to the body beneath them ( for the blind man walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither ea he goeth (Joan. XII) [Vulg. Jo 12:35 qui ambulant in tenebris, nescit quo vadat; the wording is that of 1 Jo 2:11, in tenebris ambulat, et nescit quo eat]; 140 so prelates by their care and vigilance guard those subject to them, and lead them into the chosen way by preaching and action, set as watchmen in both respects, both for the necessity and utility of souls and of bodies. But these eyes are doves', besides that which lieth hid within, because innocently and simply they provide for carnal things, and prudently, by administering spiritual things, they foresee and beware the peril of their subjects: for when at times they are occupied in earthly things for the utility of their subjects, they look upon those earthly things not with a raven's eye but with a dove's, because without cupidity and carnal desire they seek and have them simply for sole 1149Anecessity; of whom the prophet says, and as doves to their windows (Isa. LX); for what are our windows but the outward senses, through which we look out upon these visible things, either by desiring them or by setting little store by them? But the saints are as doves to their windows, because whatever they taste in outward things through the bodily senses they set out simply and innocently for their uses; they seize nothing in them with avidity and delight, but regard in them only the common necessity of themselves and of their own.

It is praiseworthy, then, to hold in this way the pursuit of the active life, but far more praiseworthy is that which lieth hid within, to have, namely, the virtue of the contemplative life; for outwardly they dispense outward things honourably, but 1149Bwith what intention they do it lies open only to divine knowledge, while very often certain religious men, handling outward things at times, are judged by human eyes, which do not see hearts.

There follows the second part of the sevenfold beauty, in which it is said: Thy hair is as flocks of goats, which come up from mount Galaad.

By the hair, as was noted before, the multitude of subjects is designated, who, although they are not able to attain the perfection of their elders, yet adorn the assembly of the Church as hair adorns the head, adhering to their heads, that is, to their elders, by obeying according to their own manner and ability and by keeping the law appointed for them. For each one, in his own place and order, adorns and graces each profession according to the rule fixed for it by the fathers to be 1149Ckept in common, though in diverse manner. For although in the Church universal or particular not all live equally, not all, each set in his own private office, keep the rule equally, and very often exceed it, yet they are covered by the public and common ornament of religion and order; just as, on the contrary, the devotion of one man confers nothing of honour or honourableness on the whole body of the Church, if its whole institution be deformed by irreligiousness. In short, its religious community is its beauty and nobility, as also irreligious unanimity is its baseness and ignobility.

141 Whence also it is said that these hairs are as flocks of goats, because in the several professions 1149Dthere are certain flocks, multitudes gathered together; flocks indeed as regards the diversities of orders, or as regards particular Churches, but one flock as regards the unity of the faith and the Church universal. And they are flocks of goats, because all the ecclesiastical professions, though differing among themselves on account of the various qualities of orders, yet always look with equal intention to one end, while all, desiring heavenly things, adhere to God each in his own manner.

And goats of what kind? Which have come up, he says, from mount Galaad. Galaad is said to be a heap of testimony; and who is this heap of testimony, but a certain collection and sum of the Holy Scriptures, or of the institutions written down by the holy Fathers for the utility and honourableness of the Church? For what is 1150Asacred Scripture but a certain heap of testimony, everywhere preaching and testifying of Christ? Of which testimony it is sung in the Psalm: The testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones (Psal. XVIII). For the little ones, that is, the humble, understand the testimony of holy Scripture, and while they obey it by believing and living well they are wise; for the highest philosophy is the best manner of living. The institution of the holy Fathers also is a certain heap of testimony, because, while it is lawfully observed, it is certified to its observers for honourableness of life.

The hair of holy Church, therefore, is as flocks of goats which have come up from mount Galaad, because the multitudes of subjects advance daily by the testimonies of the holy 1150BScriptures and by the institutions instititutis of those set over them, fixed for them for a common order of living.

VERSE 2.-- Thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, which have come up from the washing, all with twin offspring, and there is none barren among them.

In the third place is set, thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, which have come up from the washing, all with twin offspring, and there is none barren in them.

The teeth, as was written above, can, not absurdly, be taken as the expositors of sacred Scripture; because, as the teeth grind the food, so the holy expositors in the Holy Scriptures reduce the grossness of the letter to the subtlety of the spiritual sense, so that what could not be understood on the surface may, ground as it were 1150Cby these teeth, pass more easily into the belly of understanding.

But why are these teeth as flocks of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing? Namely on account of a mind freed from the business of the world, and washed from the dust of earthly action in the fountain of the divine Spirit. For they cannot advance to the 142 subtlety of so great an understanding unless such cares have been laid aside as certain burdens, and with the whole body of the inner man in the whole of that fountain of the Godhead, of which the Psalmist says to God: Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure, for with thee is the fountain of life (Psal. XXXV). And what of utility this washing or drinking confers he suggests when he adds, and in thy light we shall see him (ibid.) [Vulg. lumen, "light"], as if he said openly: thou pouring into us the light of knowledge, 1150Dwe shall understand the obscure things of Holy Scripture.

The teeth, then, of holy Church are as flocks of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing, because the handlers of sacred Scripture, the more they have been freed from earthly actions and purged in the washing of divine inspiration, the more strongly are they able to break, and the more finely to grind, the whole literal solidity of the Old and New Testament.

For the allegorical or moral sense, flowing forth fittingly and usefully from the literal surface of the holy Scriptures, is the becoming whiteness and as it were the alluring beauty of these teeth.

Whence also is added: All with twin offspring, and there is none barren among them. For what are the twin 1151Aoffspring of these, but either the double sense of the holy Scriptures, which are as it were broken by exposition, namely the allegorical and the moral, or the knowledge of the two Testaments, or the showing forth of the twofold charity? For since the sense in the whole body of Holy Scripture is threefold, namely historical, allegorical and moral, wherever the historical is expounded it is resolved into one of these two parts, namely allegory or morality, and very often the understanding of one and the same history is brought back into the senses of both parts, so that sometimes what the history sounds ought to be understood only mystically. Of which threefold sense of Holy Scripture it is said: Write them threefold in thy heart (Prov. XXII). And they are enriched as it were with the twin offspring of the two testaments, because whatever 1151Bthey expound they take up either from the Old or from the New Testament. Further, they are multiplied with the offspring of the twofold charity, because the love of God, whom they savour delightfully in Scripture itself, draws them to the labour of expounding sacred Scripture; the love of neighbour also, for whose utility they willingly take up this occupation for themselves.

In whom there is no barrenness of these twin offspring, because all whom the weight of earthly action does not burden, and whom the most healthful fountain of the divine Spirit washes, can delightfully give themselves to the business of expounding the books with this twin intention, with maternal [materna; read materia, "matter"] love; looking by intention to allegory and morality, by matter to the Old and New Testament, by love to God and neighbour.

1151C143 VERSE 3.-- Thy lips are as a scarlet fillet, and thy speech sweet; as a piece of a pomegranate, so are thy cheeks, besides that which lieth hid within.

Of which sevenfold beauty the proclamation is: thy lips are as a scarlet fillet, and thy speech sweet: the lips can be called the preachers of the divine utterance, or those who pronounce the utterances themselves elegantly by reading or by singing, and kindle the people of God, by sweetness of sense or of voice, to divine fear and love. Whence also they are compared to a scarlet fillet, because, as a fillet binds the hair together and orders it lest it be scattered, so the holy preachers, or those singing or reading sweetly in the Church, join the listening people by the bond of peace and unanimity, and make them sound together with one another in the harmony of faith 1151Dand love. For the fillet of the subjects is as it were dissonant and discordant from the fillet of the holy preachers, when they neither believe rightly nor work rightly; but when by their preaching they are led through to truth and rightness, they are as it were joined to them in faith and love; while they believe and love the same thing as they themselves, and agree with them in the law of God. And when they hear and attend to those pronouncing the same truth, whether with fair harmony or with an assertion probable to reason, through the grace of compunction they bind themselves the more strongly in the love of God.

Whence also the fillet to which they are compared is said to be scarlet. For scarlet is of a fiery colour, and what is charity but fire? For when some, hearing of that 1152Ahighest good which God is, are pricked to well-doing for the sake of receiving that good, assuredly they are kindled with the fire of divine charity.

The lips of the Church, then, that is, the holy preachers, or those who dutifully compose the preaching itself, are as a scarlet fillet, because by the dignity and sweetness of the very things they preach they set the minds of the hearers alight to the love of eternal life

Whence is added, thy speech sweet: for the weak are drawn by gentler precepts and repelled by harsher ones; but under the law sinners were commanded to be punished, and the guilty received retaliation, when they were bidden to give eye for eye, tooth for tooth (Exod. XXI); but in the time of grace the speech of the Church is sweet, because to sinners confessing their faults 1152Bnot punishment but mercy is promised, and the guilty, if they look back, are not fined with retaliation but are absolved by penance. Or else the holy preachers are a scarlet fillet for this reason, that by their preaching they bind in the superfluities of thoughts and works, so that through zeal for holy working they may burn with the fire of divine charity, and through contempt of the world may redden with a certain 144 martyrdom of the mind; for scarlet is both fiery and red, and those who glow with divine charity do not fear to suffer all adverse things for God.

Further, how great a kind of the sevenfold beauty proclaims the modesty of the disciplined in the Church, when it is said, as a piece of a pomegranate, so are thy cheeks, besides that which lieth hid within. It is called the "malum punicum" because its kind is from the Punic region, 1152Ccarried over from there; and it is also called the "malum granatum", because it contains within itself a multitude of grains; and a piece of pomegranate reddens without and is white within, and gives off more fragrance broken than whole. The cheeks of the Church, then, are said to be as a piece of a pomegranate, because the discipline of the religious, who in the house of discipline hold forth the habit of honourableness, displays modesty outwardly in the face with a rosy beauty, which proceeds from the inward diligence of a mind graciously shining white. For the whiteness of chastity which shines in the mind begets the redness of modesty in the face, when the religious soul fears to commit any such thing as would detract from its honourableness or its discipline. Whence, by contrast, to the reprobate mind, which boldly 1152Ddoes not blush to sin, it is said through the prophet: The forehead of a harlot woman is made thine, and thou wouldst not blush (Jer. III).

The lowering of the countenance, then, and a glorious composure of the eyes, is the sign of a religious and chaste mind, and therefore those composed honourably in their conduct are fittingly said to be as a piece of a pomegranate, who reverently convey outwardly, by habit and conduct, the comeliness of holiness which they bear inwardly in intention and thought. And though the outward bearing, religiously composed, is praiseworthy, yet far more praiseworthy is that inward habit of the mind which is known to God alone, since the holy soul hardly or never suffices outwardly est to show how greatly it burns within with divine charity.

Whence, when the bridegroom had first said of the bride, as a 1153Apiece of a pomegranate, so are thy cheeks, he added, besides that which lieth hid within.

For what is it that lieth hid within, but the force of charity which is manifest to God alone, and works outwardly whatever there is of honourableness or holiness.

The disciplined hearts of holy Church, then, are as it were a piece of a pomegranate, besides that which lieth hid within, because the whiteness of the virtues which they have inwardly through the grace of God, this they display outwardly through the form of patience and modesty; but the very force which contains in itself, by the working of the Holy Spirit, the whole quickening and strengthening efficacy, they leave to the judgment of God alone, while they stand indeed in great hope. But in their very hope they are not without fear. The force of divine charity they indeed 1153Bfeel in themselves, but by what scrutiny the things which, out of that charity, they proclaim by conduct and life are weighed before God, they do not know.

145 VERSE 4.-- Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks; a thousand bucklers hang from it, all the armour of valiant men.

But in the sixth place of the beauty enumerated this proclamation is set, thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks, a thousand bucklers hang from it, all the armour of valiant men. We noted above that by the neck is signified the sublime eloquence of the doctors, which is compared to a tower for this reason, that it is raised aloft by the depth of its words and senses. But this is called the tower of David, that is, strong of hand, because, namely, whatever of comeliness or 1153Csublimity the utterances of the doctors contain in themselves, whether by word or by writing, is assuredly of his grace who is spiritually called strong of hand, because it is his To spare the subject, and to war down the proud. (VIRG., Aeneid., IV, 654.)

As it is written of him, that he resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble (Jac. IV). For he rests in the heart of the humble, and distributes to them fittingly the gifts of his knowledge, as it shall please him, to one thus, to another thus.

And what are the bulwarks with which this tower is built, but the fortifications of strong and sublime sentences? For by the authorities of the sentences with which the doctors thunder, the Church is fortified and strengthened 1153Dagainst the dogmas and deeds of the perverse, lest, founded upon the rock of faith, she should be able to fear any contrivances of the contrary and adverse father [patris; read partis, "party"]. For in this are beheld the counsels and precepts of the virtues, and the wonderful deeds and miracles of the holy Fathers.

Whence also is added, a thousand bucklers hang from it; for what is designated by the thousandfold number, which is set for perfection, but universality? For the thousand bucklers are all the instructions of the virtues, which fortify us against the assailing engines of the vices: For if The breast petus seethes with avarice and with wretched desire? There are words and sounds by which thou mayest soothe this pain And lay aside a great part of the disease. Dost thou swell with love of praise? There are sure expiations which, The little book thrice purely read, will be able to restore thee. 1154AThe envious, the wrathful, the sluggard, the drunkard, the lover, No one is so wild that he may not grow gentle, If only he lend a patient ear to cultivation. (HORAT., Ep. I, I, 39.)

For if the glory of this world delights thee, hear the apostle John saying: Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world; if any man shall have loved the world, the charity of the Father is not in him (I Joan. II): if thou art tempted by the vice of vainglory, hear the Apostle saying: Let us not be made desirous of vainglory (Gal. VI): if thou art tempted by avarice, hear the same saying: That God loveth a cheerful giver (II Cor. IX): if thou art tempted by lust, hear him again saying: Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? If any man violate this temple, he shall destroy 1154Bhim; for the temple of God is holy, which you are (I Cor. VI). 146 If anger strikes the mind, hear what is said: Be angry, and sin not; and that the anger of man worketh not the justice of God (Ps. IV). If the sin of disobedience corrupts the mind, hear it written that obedience is better than victims, and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams, because it is as the sin of witchcraft to resist, and as the crime of idolatry to refuse to acquiesce (I Reg. XV): if impatience weighs down the mind, attend to what is written, that the patient man is better than the stormer of cities (Prov. XVI). If pride presses upon the mind, hear what is written, that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble (I Pet. V).

Behold, these are the bucklers which hang from the tower and the bulwarks 1154Cof the most eloquent doctors, whose sentences and authorities are the strongest fortification of the Church, while their precepts and counsels are to every soul, against vices and sins, both instruction and fortification. A thousand, then, bucklers hang from it, because there is no vice against which a fortification is not found out of all the sayings and writings of the holy Catholic Fathers. But because in the same writings are recited both the valiant deeds of the saints and the precepts of the divine law most constantly kept by them, it is well added, all the armour of valiant men. For there thou wilt find how valiantly they fought against vices and sins with the arms of the spiritual warfare, whose armour was the observance of the divine commandments and 1154Dthe imitation of the Fathers who went before. A thousand, then, bucklers and all the armour of valiant men hang from it, because whatever of strength one is pleased to seek against the enemies of the soul, one may find in the most learned sentences and the magnificent deeds of the fathers.

But though the bulwarks and the bucklers have the same office of fortifying, yet they differ in this, that the bulwarks stand immovably, while the bucklers can be held and moved by the hand. And what can the bulwarks be called, but the miracles of the saints? And what the bucklers, but the excellent cultivations of the holy virtues. In Holy Scripture, then, which the utterances of the doctors bring forth and commend, are narrated the wonderful miracles of the saints, which we indeed cannot do and as it were move; but the works of the virtues each of us can exercise 1155Aand, as though holding them in the hand, move by diverse pursuits according to our small measure, if we burn with the love of God.

From the neck of holy Church, then, a thousand bucklers hang, and all the armour of valiant men, because in Holy Scripture, which the eloquence of the doctors uncovers and adorns, she finds, in general, against the darts of the vices both protecting safeguards and repelling armaments.

VERSE 5.-- Thy two breasts are as two fawns of a roe, twins, which feed among the lilies till the day break, and the shadows retire.

147 But the seventh proclamation of the beauty proclaimed is this: Thy two breasts are as two fawns of a roe, twins, which feed among the lilies till the day break and the shadows retire. As was shown above, 1155Bby the two breasts can be understood the diligence of the masters who instruct the lesser, the twin teaching of piety and of knowledge: of piety, when they form them in the honourableness of the active and the contemplative life, or in the love of God and of neighbour; of knowledge, when they instruct them in the reading of the Old and the New Testament, or in the historical and allegorical exposition of that same Scripture. Which two breasts are as two fawns of a roe, twins, because these instructors of the lesser in the Church are pavi little in their own eyes, acting and teaching according to the doctrine of their elders, and presuming nothing of their own knowledge, following the holy fathers in life, conduct and doctrine as sons follow mothers, and so tending to the things above, and in these things advancing daily in wit and understanding, and leading with them those whom they teach to the understanding 1155Cand desiring of higher things. Who are well compared not simply to fawns but to twins, because of those same twin teachings of piety and knowledge cleaving inseparably to one another, so that, as though begotten in one moment, neither exists prior in any part of itself. For the Church of Christ has always had nurslings of both lives, that is, of the active and the contemplative; she has always flourished in the love both of God and of neighbour; she has always been bright with the knowledge of both Testaments. And the two testaments are so inseparably joined to one another that the one is significative or expositive of the other; for the Old signifies the New, the New expounds the Old. So too the love of God without the love of neighbour, nor that of neighbour without the love of God, can in any wise exist, 1155Dbecause the one is probative of the other. For he who loves his neighbour is proved to love God, because he is invited by the love of God to love his neighbour. Neither can he be a lover of the contemplative life who is ignorant of the active life, nor does he hold the active who does not desire the contemplative.

The two, then, doing at one time one and the same thing, because they are convertible by the consequence of subsisting; for it follows that he who understands the Old Testament understands the New, since they are one, this in figure, that in truth; and that he who loves his neighbour loves God, and conversely, which must always be together; but he cannot contemplate God who does not know how to act well. These two, then, existing on both sides in an undivided mode, are called twins, as it were under one generation, 1156Aand are proclaimed in the two breasts of the Church in the seventh and last place of beauty.

Further, the historical and the allegorical exposition are not always so inseparably joined, because very often the pure history alone is to be held, sometimes the allegory alone, when many things can stand according to the letter 148 which can by no means stand according to the spirit, and certain things are understood according to the spirit which in no way are taken according to the letter.

But where they fittingly agree together, the aforesaid likeness of twins is not unfittingly attended to, so that in the two breasts of the Church they are proclaimed undividedly as it were two fawns of a roe, twins. But because every pursuit of piety looks to a certain end, for nothing of good, except for the attaining of eternal life, 1156Bis taught and learned, he adds:

Which feed among the lilies till the day break and the shadows retire; for the qualities of all the kinds set down above, which were proclaimed in the beauty of the Church's breasts, feed among the lilies, that is, are nourished in the whiteness and fragrance of the virtues, because no one makes progress in the honourableness of the active and contemplative life, or in the love of God and neighbour, without the page of each testament, except through cleanness of mind and the exercise of good action.

And how long? till the day break and the shadows retire, that is, until the day of eternal felicity dawn and the night of this mortality fail, and then that be seen perfectly in truth which here was seen through 1156Ca glass in a dark manner, and what here was held in hope be held there in reality. There those two breasts, which we distinguished above in fourfold wise, will be seen in that eternal day, not in labour but in reward, which the breaking of the day and the retiring of the shadow signify; for the shadow signifies labour, the day reward.

But this word donec, "till", is set not for a limit but for the everlasting, that we may understand that we must labour so long in this life by working well, until we lay hold of eternal life by resting happily.

VERSE 6.-- I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

After the beloved, marked out by an excellent variety, had enumerated the kinds of beauty in the body of the beloved, that is, 1156Dof the Church, he adds the general comeliness of all the members which they ought to have who wish to belong to her body. But this comeliness in a twofold way, that is, by the mortification of the flesh and by the pleading of a devout spirit: for he who walks according to the flesh, and does not by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, is not of that fair body of the Church which has not spot nor wrinkle; for they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences (Gal V); the pleading of a devout spirit, too, is born of the most clement breathing of the divine Spirit, because the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings (Rom. VIII). For "asketh" is said for "maketh to ask", because whose mind 1157Ahe fills, he moves 149 to the grace of compunction, so that either from the consideration of his sins, or from the delay of the kingdom that shall profit him, he may groan, groaning may entreat, entreating may at some time receive either pardon of sins or the crown of desired beatitude.

The mortification of the flesh, then, is expressed by myrrh, because of the bitterness of labour and suffering; and the pleading of a devout spirit is understood by frankincense, because of the grief of slight compunction or penance, smoking as it were, or the ardour of charity, from which the pure prayer of the supplicating mind is directed to God. But though both virtues, namely to mortify the flesh and to pray often, are of the highest honourableness and utility in the body 1157Bof holy Church, yet that one is proved the more excellent which is acquired with the greater labour of mind and body.

Wherefore, that their merit may be distinguished, the myrrh is proclaimed by the name of a mountain, the frankincense by that of a hill: he says, then, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense, as if he said more openly in other words: to the minds of those who labour with this intention, that they may mortify themselves to vices and sins, and who study to obtain this by assiduous prayers, I will go through co-operating and conferring grace, that I may prove those minds worthy of my indwelling which the beauty of these virtues delights, since I am ready both to succour those who labour and to assent to those who supplicate.

1157CVERSE 7.-- Thou art all fair, love, and there is not a spot in thee.

Since, he says, I have above extolled thee with sevenfold proclamations of beauties, and then have graciously regarded in thee the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, for the subjection of the mortified flesh is indeed a great eminence of mind, whence is born the contemplative pleading of the free spirit towards God, but by the mortification of the flesh vices and sins are so lulled to sleep that there is nothing which resists the spirit, but so great both the purity and the evenness of the mind, that thou canst admit no defilements in thy body which might avail to blot out the grace of thy comeliness.

Thou art all fair then, my love, and there is not a spot in thee; a spot, I say, is not in thee, that is, it has no 1157Dbeing, because even if some one has come upon thee for a little while and by human frailty, it is quickly repelled by compunction of heart and humble confession and daily prayer.

VERSE 8.-- Come from Libanus, my bride, come from Libanus, come: thou shalt be crowned from the head of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains montitibus of leopards?

Wherefore, come from Libanus, my bride, come from Libanus, that is, because, every concupiscence of the flesh being now conquered and mortified, thou art made white by the cleanness of heart and body; come from Libanus, that is, from this thy whitening, for Libanus is interpreted whitening canditatio; and come not once, but again, because not 150 only must thou please in thought, 1158Abut in deed also; come, I say, from this thy whitening; for thou canst not come unless thou be white; and as my Bride, who art now through this whitening worthy of my embraces, pass over also into the fellowship of my kingdom, that thou mayest henceforth hold the unchangeable state and habit of a whitened soul. Come also a third time, because it profits not to please only in thought and deed, unless thou please also by perseverance in the good work itself, which is the representative certainty of future felicity.

Or else, that thou mayest proclaim the faith of the holy Trinity: come preaching the Father, come preaching the Son, come preaching the Holy Spirit, and, distinguishing the one God in these three persons, establish the holy sacraments of religion, and confirm the whole world in the 1158Bunchangeable truth of this faith.

Or else: come by faith, come by hope, come by charity, that is, all the perfection of good work, take up by faith, lay up by hope, embrace by charity. Or else, the sacrament of my body and blood and the reality of the sacrament: come by faithfully believing, come by reverently handling, come by healthfully receiving, that, incorporated into me through this my remedy of the soul, thou mayest truly be called my bride and love.

But to an incorporation of this kind thou canst not come, except from Libanus, that is, either white by baptism; or, if for fault of thine thou hast been cut off from my body, receiving back thy former whiteness by the fountain of penance.

And all these instructions of truth and faith, 1158Cscatter them through the regions of the whole world, that my praise may be announced through thee even to the ends of the earth; let those who seek, seek my sacraments, recognize them and receive them, and let their conversion become thy reward. For this is what follows, thou shalt be crowned from the head of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.

By these three names of mountains are designated three kinds of worldly heights, by whose destruction holy Church has attained perfect peace, and by whose humbling she has merited a perpetual crown.

The first height was in the worshippers of idols, who, when they had known the good of the reason implanted in them and the beauty of visible things, 1158Dthe Creator of them all, glorified him not as God, or gave thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened, because they changed the truth of God into a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. I): and thus to despise God was a certain height of pride.

The second height was the persecution of the reprobate, who, gainsaying God by perverse conduct, pursued the heralds of truth and justice with great injuries, afflicting them with many punishments and driving them even to death; and thus to resist God himself in his elect was also a certain height of pride.

151 Further, the third height was the perverse 1159Aspeech or writing of the heretics, by which they tried to destroy the true faith through human reason, and laboured to corrupt the simplicity of Holy Scripture with a certain haughtiness of dialectical discourse; who, while they sought to seem wise, were made fools, desiring through a certain pride of mind only to show off their own knowledge.

Now Amana is interpreted night bird, Sanir tooth of watches, Hermon anathema: which significations of the names can be fitted first indeed to the very head of all the wicked, of whom it is written: For he is king over all the children of pride (Job XLI), so that he may be called night bird, and tooth of watches, and anathema. For a night indeed bird, which by another name is called the owl or the light-shunner, the devil is rightly named, 1159Bwho hates the light, that is, good works, and loves sins, which are the works of darkness; and, as it is written: He sleepeth in the shade, in the secret of the chamber (Job XL) [Vulg. Job 40:16 in secreto calami, "in the covert of the reed"], because the minds round which he flies in tempting, while he subjugates them through consent, he prepares for himself a resting-place as it were in the shade of sin. He also is called tooth of watches, because it is written of him that as a roaring lion he goeth about seeking whom he may devour (I Petr. V), whose watching is never to rest from evil will. He is also not unfittingly called Anathema, because he is sequestered and as it were excommunicated from the fellowship of the good spirits; and he hastens to drag others too with him into destruction, that, as he himself, so they also may become anathema from God.

What befits the head, then, can, not unfittingly, 1159Cbefit the members also: and we said a little above that by these three names of mountains three kinds of worldly heights can be signified, which we placed in three qualities of perverse men, namely in the worshippers of idols, and the persecutors of the saints, and the heretics.

But it must be seen how the interpretations of these names befit such men: the worshippers of idols, namely, can, not absurdly, be called a night bird, because of blindness and lightness of mind: blindness, because, as this bird flees the day and wanders rather by night, so they, unwilling to receive the light of truth and faith, embraced rather the darkness of unbelief, so long as they were not freed from this unbelief by the grace of God. Further, because of lightness they are compared to a bird, 1159Dbecause they wandered in such uncertainty of error that they could grasp nothing true, nothing stable, in their worship. But the persecutors of the saints can be called tooth of watches because of the savagery and monstrousness of the persecutions, so that the tooth 152 may be the savagery itself, and the watches the persecutions that have no rest: for in Jeremiah also it is written that, when the Lord had said: What seest thou, Jeremiah? he answered: I see a watching rod; and the Lord: Well, he says, hast thou said, for I will watch over my word, to perform it illua (Jer. I) [Vulg. Jr 1:12 Bene vidisti, "thou hast seen well"]. As, then, in this place the watching rod is taken for correction, not resting because of the sins of the people until it be fulfilled, so the savagery of the persecutions, watching in the punishment and slaughter of the saints, can be called tooth of watches.

1160ABut the heretics are called anathema, that is, separated from God, because, while they are separated from the communion of the Church for the perversity of their faith by the steel of cutting off, that is, of excommunication, assuredly they are separated from the head, that is, from Christ. And the Apostle says: If any man preach to you other than what you have received from us, let him be anathema (Gal. I); but the heretics preached other than what had been preached by the apostles: therefore they were anathema, and so, anathematized and excommunicated, they went out from the Church.

Therefore the bridegroom cries Come to the bride three times, to show that she is to be crowned three times from the head or top of these; thou shalt be crowned, he says, from the head of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon. And how shalt thou be crowned? 1160BFirst from the head of Amana, that is, from the worshippers of idols, who, converted at thy preaching, have grown up in faith and action like good trees, whose conversion and progress was assuredly the adornment of thy head. Then also thou shalt be crowned from the top of Sanir, that is, from the persecutors of the saints, who, at thy exhortations and at the terrors of miracles, laying aside their savagery, submitted themselves to the yoke of Christ, whose conversion and humbling also is the amplification of thy crown in return for thy labour.

Thirdly thou shalt be crowned from the top of Hermon, that is, the proud eloquence of the heretics, who, after they had been changed from the depravity of their false knowledge by thy eloquence of sound doctrine, reasonable and joined with wisdom, 1160Cdefended with the strongest assertion of truth the faith which they formerly attacked, whose reformation to the right faith is thy crown and the reward of thy labour.

And since, on the contrary, as the soul of the just is the seat of God (Sap. VII), so the soul of the perverse is the dwelling of the unclean Spirit, there follows: From the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards: those whom we distinguished under the names of the three mountains could rightly be called dens of lions, because, while the malignant spirits subjected them to themselves through malice, nourishing that malice in them by their own suggestion and the consent of those men, they rested in them as it were in certain dens. For the lions are the malignant spirits, which roar round about to deceive 153 the human race, thirsting for the blood of the soul, that is, desiring to take away 1160Dfrom the soul the nourishments of the virtues. For as in the blood of a man is his life, so in the nourishments of the virtues the life of the soul is es

But the mountains of leopards are, over pride, the same hearts of the reprobate, and the leopards are the same malignant spirits, because of their fierceness and the manifold kinds, as it were the varied colours, of their thousandfold frauds. From the dens, then, of lions and the mountains of leopards the Church is crowned, because she by her preaching makes the minds of those who, brooding over earthly and perverse doings, had been dens of demons, seats of divine grace; and the hearts of those also who, holding forth a proud and as it were singular life or knowledge, brought forth the varied colours of sects and heresies, she makes worthy of the divine indwelling in the spirit of humility; out of 1161Atheir conversion and progress, surely, she is heaped with the greater fruit of her holy labour.

VERSE 9.-- Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, bride, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes, and with one hair of thy neck.

Still further the bridegroom, that is, Christ, approves and admires the zeal and progress of the bride, that is, of the Church, or of each faithful soul, and the comeliness and merit of that progress; so that, whereas above he first enumerated seven parts of her beauty, as it were in her outward habit, then set forth the twofold quality of the inward habit, and thirdly offered a threefold crown also for the progress of others, in all which he showed the great good pleasure of his condescension, now he brings in a more eminent, and as it were 1161Babove the rest the greatest, part of beauty, a twofold one, in which the sister and bride, by the greatness of her very dignity, has not only moved the heart of the bridegroom in that same good pleasure of his, but has even wounded it: sister through faith, bride through holy and true love. But what is this twofold part: One of the eyes and one hair of the neck? If in each one's sense we consider twin eyes as in one body, we shall place one on the right side, the other on the left. Now the eye of the left side is the wondering at all visible things, wonderfully and orderly disposed; from the consideration of which, though through a glass and in a dark manner, it gathers some magnitude, beauty and power of the Creator, and in 1161Ctheir administration and government his wisdom and goodness. Further, the eye of the right side is led away above, outside these visible things, when it is loosed from every contagion of this worldly desire, and is fixed upon the very face of the Creator by the gaze of contemplative charity. By this one of the bride's eyes, then, 154 the heart of the bridegroom is wounded, because, while the holy mind so couples to itself the supernal grace through the force of divine charity that it receives the name of Seraphim, that is, of burning, out of its very ardour it brings as it were a certain wound of love to the divinity united to it.

In one, however, hair of the neck we understand the subtlety of preaching: but since there are many subtleties of preaching, which yet is its one and singular subtlety, as it were one hair of the neck? According to the parts 1161Dof the faith, both in the deity of the Trinity and in the incarnation of Christ. And what is the one hair in the deity of the Trinity? One God in three persons, whose incomprehensible reason of Divinity we are bidden to believe, are not permitted to discuss; and what is the one hair of the neck in the incarnation of Christ? God made man. For who can in any wise investigate how the Word is embodied, how the supreme and life-giving Spirit is animated within the womb of a mother, how he who has no beginning comes to be and is conceived?

But in this one hair of the neck, on both sides, the heart of the beloved is wounded, because, while each one believes this, which is not gathered by human reason, he is strongly bound together in the love of almighty God through the merit of faith; but faith has no merit, to which human reason affords proof. 1162AFor faith is not against reason, but above reason; and therefore he who will believe nothing except what he comprehends by reason, as the philosophers, has no merit by his faith; but he who believes that which is not contrary to reason, and yet is above reason: whence the Apostle says: The word is nigh in thy mouth, and in thy heart, this is the word of faith. (Rom. X.) Christ too is not against reason, but above reason; in one, then, of the eyes love, in one hair of the neck faith is expressed. But because faith working through love is the foundation of all good things, while without love there is no virtue in faith itself, for the devils believe and tremble (Jac. II), and for this reason these two cannot be distinguished where they join a mind of perfect virtue to God: by one 1162Beye, then, of speculative love, and by one hair, that is, by the subtlety of faith, which consists chiefly in two things, namely the mystery of the divinity and the sacrament of the incarnation, the heart of the beloved is wounded, because by the force of a mind abounding in faith and love it is in some manner pierced toward knowing the more; whence not once but again, repeating, he says: Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, bride, thou hast wounded my heart. For very commendable before the eyes of almighty God is both faith working through love and love advancing through faith: faith, namely, the foundation of all good. love, building upon it, the grace and adornment of that foundation.

In another way also there can be understood 155 the one of the eyes and the one hair of the neck, namely sameness and unchangeableness, 1162Cas regards the state of the mind in its purpose of good; so that in the one of the eyes there is always the same and unfailing intention of spiritual actions, and in the one hair of the neck always the same and persevering habit of humility and lowliness of mind; whence it is written: A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun, but a fool is changed as the moon (Eccli. XXVII), and of the kine carrying the ark of God it is written that they went straight on, and walked by one way, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left. (I Reg. VI.) For what is the ark of God, but the mind of the saint, in which divinity is contained through the gifts of diverse graces; but he who carries it must not turn aside from the way of justice, lest, walking by a perverse way, when divine grace withdraws 1162Dfrom the mind, he be no longer said to bear the ark of God at all. The one of the eyes, then, is the one way of those who walk rightly before themselves, as is written of the holy living creatures, that every one went before his face: the one of the eyes soculorum is the same countenance of the mind, always forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth to those that are before it (Philip. III). The one hair of the neck is always the same littleness of humility, and a thinness so great that, though the holy man be of great merit with God, he so despises himself among men that he scarcely permits what he is to be seen in him, as one hair, though it be something, is yet scarcely seen and held. The one hair of the neck is the sameness of a mind humbling itself to God through obedience, in the state of whose purpose it so perseveres that it is neither lifted up by prosperity nor takes delight in adversities on the contrary it is said of the reprobate 1163Amind that it walked with neck stretched out and nape upraised (Isa. III); and of the Jews who did not humble themselves to God through obedience, with stiff neck and untameable heart. (Act. VII.) [Vulg. Act 7:51 incircumcisis cordibus et auribus, "uncircumcised in heart and ears"] With one, then, of the eyes and with one hair of the neck the beloved is wounded, because there greatly pleases him the one and the same persevering intention and discernment of spiritual actions, and also the one and ever stable humility of a mind bowed to God through obedience.

VERSE 10.-- How fair are thy paps, my sister, bride! Thy breasts are fairer than wine, and the odour of thy ointments above all spices.

It must be diligently considered what this praiseworthy beauty of the paps, or of the breasts, of the bride is, that is, of the Church, or of any holy soul whatever; 1163Bfor as in paps or breasts is the nourishment of little ones and of bodies newly begotten, so there can be certain spiritual nourishments by which souls still tender and weak may receive some increases of holiness, either themselves from themselves or others from them: themselves from themselves 156 through exercise, others from them through instruction.

But first it must be seen what these paps, or these breasts, are, and then what their beauty is, thus praised by the bridegroom: I do not think it contrary to reason if we say that these paps or these breasts are the knowledge of truth and the love of the virtues. But since there are two creatures, one spiritual and the other corporal, we believe it is not beside the matter if for each we appoint two qualities of increase, as it were two paps, or two 1163Cbreasts. For as there are two creatures, as we have already said, one spiritual and the other corporal, so the good of the creature also is twofold, one of the spiritual, the other of the corporal; for the good of the spiritual creature consists chiefly in the two things which we set down above in the signification of the paps or breasts, that is, in the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue. But the good of the bodily creature is either in itself or outside itself: the good in itself is the integrity of the senses and affections according to the five senses; the good outside itself is the ordered distribution among the creatures: for whatever is corrupted or amended is for man's sake, and whatever is good or evil is good or evil to man. And since all goods, 1163Dwhether inward or outward, are the gifts of almighty God, the privation of either is the anger of God and the punishment of man, as, on the contrary, the bestowal of them is the grace of God and the salvation of man: but the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue are to be considered in particular; in each soul they always receive increases, as though from certain paps and breasts of exercises, because the exercises themselves admit of more and less, more if they persist, less if they cease, namely so that they know the truth and love virtue more or less. For these two are so bound together with one another, as two breasts naturally in one body, that he cannot love virtue who has not known the truth, and he who knows the truth cannot but love virtue

1164ABut if we look at the whole body of the Church universally, as regards itself it does not admit of more and less in knowing truth or loving virtue, she who has an imperfect knowledge of truth and love of virtue. But as regards others whom she believes in Christ, increases of holiness accrue to her daily from the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue.

On both sides, moreover, there are first paps, then breasts; because, as paps are those of girls, who cannot yet have the nourishment of milk but hold the hope of having it, while breasts are those of women, who have abundance of such nourishment, so the Church in those whom she nourishes, or each soul in itself, first has indeed a certain hope through the 157 aptitude of a mind applying itself to good things and always advancing to 1164Bbetter, and then, now grown up as it were in faith and love, begins to have so full a knowledge of truth and love of virtue that it can nourish all its senses, both inward and outward, and bring them to perfection through the grace of God: and we say here that the outward senses are to be nourished, not that they may be able to do better bodily, but spiritually, lest, badly guarded, they become instruments of sin, as the prophet reproves sinners concerning them, saying: Death is entered through your windows (Jer. IX) [Vulg. Jr 9:21 ascendit mors per fenestras nostras, "death is come up through our windows"].

And the Church holds out the nourishments of these her breasts in three ways, namely by things, by deeds and by words: by things, as in the sacraments, without which no salvation can come to the soul; by deeds, as in the acts of the saints, by whose examples she is provoked and invited; 1164Cby words, as in the precepts and admonitions of Holy Scripture, by which she is nourished daily to eternal life

We have said, then, what the paps or breasts of the bride are; now it must be said what their beauty is, thus praised by the bridegroom: this beauty is not accidental, such as can be present and absent without the corruption of the subject, but essential, consisting in the property of its own nature: for that the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue are beautiful, what else is it than that they are? For it is beautiful to know the truth and to love virtue, as it is beautiful to be chaste, or just, or humble, or patient, or obedient; and chastity and justice, humility, patience and obedience are a certain beauty, and 1164Dthese, as we have said, are not beautiful accidentally in the subjects which partake of them, but essentially in themselves; for if they are, they are beautiful; if they are not beautiful, neither are they, because while they are corrupted they are not beautiful either; because they cease to be what they were. For chastity, or any other virtue, while it is corrupted, how is it beautiful, since that no longer is whose corruption is evil?

Since, then, the good of the soul consists chiefly in two things, by which it is nourished to eternal life as though from breasts, which are the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue, the corruption of knowledge can be called ignorance, of which the Apostle says: He that is ignorant, shall be ignored (I Cor. XIV), and the corruption of love covetousness, which is the root of all evils (I Tim. VI). And the more 1165Athis ignorance and covetousness grows, the more the good of the soul is corrupted: for the soul, since it is an incorporeal substance, cannot be corrupted according to its substance, but according to the good in which it partakes, which is the more 158 worn away and diminished in it the more it is itself deformed by sins.

Fair, then, are the paps or breasts of holy Church in general, or of each holy soul in particular, because both the one for her sons and the other in itself shine with so copious an abundance of good senses in the knowledge of truth and love of virtue, that from them flow forth the nourishments of all spiritual goods, and natural goods also, such as reason, wit and memory, flourish the more, and so the whole 1165Bbeauty of the soul is formed by partaking of these.

But what is it, that these breasts are called fairer than wine, when in wine there is riotousness (Ephes. V), while in these breasts there is the holy and sober delight of the soul, and on this account there can be no right comparison of these at all? Truly it is through the figure tapinosis, which is the lowering of a great thing, that these are called fairer than wine; not that there is any praiseworthy beauty in wine, but because the things aforesaid, namely the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue, are better and fairer in all things to the rational soul, for their utility and sweetness, than all the delights of the world which are signified by wine; since these corrupt the soul by partaking of them, those refresh it. In the same way, finally, 1165Cwhat follows: And the odour of thy ointments above all spices: if we take the odour of the ointments to be the good fame of the virtues, what comparison is there of spiritual and corruptible things? Since indeed there can be both a corruption of the good which is in the spiritual creature, and a corruption of the good which is in the corporal creature; because, as there are two creatures, spiritual and corporal, as we have also already said above, there are also two goods, one in the spiritual, the other in the corporal creature. The good of the spiritual creature is virtue; the good of the corporal creature is the ordered distribution among the creatures: the corruption, then, of the good which comes about in the spiritual creature is, as in the soul, sin and fault, but either punishment or towards punishment. If, then, by the incorruption 1165Dof the spiritual good they unite to God, but by the incorruption of the corporal good they not only do not unite to God, but very often are separated, when through the very delight of it we very often forget ourselves and are led away from the good of our purpose, while by its corruption, when we are afflicted, we are sometimes led back to good things, what comparison can there be in so great an unlikeness.

But in this comparison the argument is from the lesser to the greater, in this manner: If corporal goods, that is, the odour of spices, are of such sweetness, how much more spiritual goods, that is, the odour of the virtues: an incorruptible good incomparable to a corruptible one, as the soul, which is incorruptible, to the corruptible body.

159 But I call the soul incorruptible according to 1166Aits own substance, which is simple and incorporeal, as the incorruptible good which consists in the soul is so called according to substance, not according to addition. For good can be spoken of in two ways, substantively and adjectivally: for good in itself is not corrupted, but it is said to be corrupted by privation of good, when it withdraws from the soul and is changed into evil, as the soul itself also is not corrupted in itself, but is said to be corrupted by privation of good, because the privation of good is evil.

It is said, then: The odour of thy ointments above all spices, as if it were said: The fame and repute of thy virtues is better and more useful to thee than all the chosen things of this world, because these kill, those give life.

1166BBut if in another way we wish to refer both parts, namely the odour of the ointments and all spices, to the spiritual understanding, it must be seen what this special odour of the ointments of the beloved is, and what are all the spices to which that odour is so greatly preferred. For if we take all spices to be all the virtues, what will those singular virtues be which are preferred to the whole body of the virtues? It seems to us not absurd if we say that these virtues are faith, hope, charity; for without these virtues all the other virtues are as it were idle; for it is written that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebr. XI). But if no one can please God without faith, it is clear that no good works can confer salvation without faith; and he who, believing, works well bone, assuredly does so 1166Cin hope of future goods; but each one loves the things which he hopes to obtain, and whatever good he works, he works through love; because unless he loved, he would not labour to attain them.

Since, then, all good works cannot exist without these, that is, faith, hope, charity, deservedly are these preferred to all the virtues; and so it is said: The odour of thy ointments above all spices, as if it were said: Above all virtues there are fragrant in thee faith, hope, charity, which make thee perfectly into a bride and beloved.

But why are these called ointments? Because, as many kinds of herbs, when they have been gathered into one so as to make a certain composition of ointment, 1166Dtake the name of the ointment itself from that from which they have the greater virtue, so whatever good works have been compounded with the seasoning of faith, hope and charity are principally called the ointments of the Church, or of each holy soul, because they are not otherwise efficacious unless they have been named by the addition of these, so that it may be said: This ointment is compositive of faith, hope and charity; for example, someone has humility, chastity, patience, obedience, and some other virtues, whose composition can be called a certain spiritual 160 ointment. But it will be altogether inefficacious unless faith, hope and charity be there. Again, there is someone who does not have all the aforesaid virtues, but has others; but neither will he be able to have an approved ointment of these without 1167Athe addition of these three virtues. Whatever virtues, then, or however great, anyone may have, he must never lack these three; if he desires to have sufficiency for his salvation. Since, therefore, there are in the Church some endowed with these virtues, others with those, some with more, some with fewer, yet always cleaving to those, faith, hope and charity, it can rightly be said, not in the singular number the odour of the ointment, but in the plural number the odour of thy ointments; but this odour above all spices, because the virtues intermingled with these are fragrant and avail; those lacking them, even if they be fragrant, remain inefficacious. There follows: Thy lips are a dropping honeycomb.

VERSE 11.-- Thy lips are a dropping honeycomb, bride; honey and milk are under thy tongue: and the odour of thy garments as the odour of frankincense.

1167BWhat ought we to understand by the lips of the bride, but the preaching of each Testament? For as in the body the lips are so set that one is above, the other below, so the Old Testament is prior, the New is posterior; and because speech is expressed through the lips, the preaching of these two Testaments is not unfittingly understood by the lips. But what is it that these lips are called a dropping honeycomb? for a honeycomb is honey in wax. And what is honey in wax, but Divinity in humanity? And what else does the preaching of each Testament sound but God made man for the redemption of the human race, the one signifying through figure, the other representing in truth the thing signified? And whatever the Church preaches of Christ is both of his divinity and of his humanity 1167C. But who does not know that honey is sweet, that wax is of honey? And Christ was sweet from his divinity through his miracles and his preaching, and soft and tractable from his humility through the passion of the body: whence also he could be seized and slain, because God, immense, incomprehensible and invisible, through humility showed himself 161 visible and humble and as it were soft and flexible wax: for he was as it were honey in wax, because, bending himself from heaven to earth and ministering the light of his truth, he distilled the sweetness of his mercy and compassion through the whole world. The lips of holy Church, then, are called a honeycomb that is dropping, because the sweetness and grace of all the divine dispensation which was wrought concerning the human race, 1167Dand is now daily wrought in the sacraments and the realities of the sacraments, is known by her preaching. Of which it is further added, honey and milk under thy tongue, that is, both in voice and in heart, because, namely, honey is the food of the strong, milk that of infants; and these things in preaching, or the Church, pronounces by speaking or writing, by which both the strong may be strengthened and the weak nourished; and because she confirms her preaching by good works, instructing her sons by word and example, it is added:

And the odour of thy garments as the odour of frankincense; that by the garments good works ought to be understood, the authority of Holy Scripture teaches; for it is written: Blessed is he that keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame (Apoc. XVI). 1168AAnd in the Proverbs of Solomon: At all times let thy garments be white (Eccle. IX); for to keep one's garments is to have good works, lest one suffer a shameful repulse in the judgment, if one appear naked of the covering of the virtues with which to cover the deformity of one's sins. And to have white garments is not to defile one's works with the filth of vices, because before the eyes of God those works of the virtues are foul which are fouled by the admixture of vices.

And what is the odour of the garments, but the fame and repute of good actions? But this odour of the garments is as the odour of frankincense, because no good work is of any efficacy unless it be fragrant from the fire of charity. For as frankincense, when kindled, smokes and gives off its fragrance, so the mind of anyone, kindled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, 1168Bsmokes from the grace of compunction, either by bewailing its sins or by sighing for the supernal fatherland. And when through the grace of compunction it has recognized its past fault, or in hope of future goods has wished for a short stay in this life, it pursues the more ardently the gains of piety, when it both burns more inwardly through charity and is fragrant outwardly through good repute. For while his neighbours profit by his example, he makes their gains his own also, because in his actions they learn whence they may acquire for themselves the merits of good works.

The bridegroom says, then, to the bride, that is, to the Church or the faithful soul, 162 The odour of thy garments as the odour of frankincense, as if he said: The good odour of the virtues pleases me for this reason, that, kindled from the fire of my charity, it 1168Cis fragrant, and so that odour is directed to me as it were a certain prayer, just as frankincense is kindled and offered to me alone for the devotion of prayers.

VERSE 12.-- A garden enclosed, my sister, bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.

Through the figure metaphor, which is made in four ways, that is, from animate to animate, from inanimate to inanimate, the bridegroom goes on to proclaim the beauty of the bride, two ways of the aforesaid manner of speech being intermingled, that is, from animate to animate and from inanimate to inanimate: for whereas above he had declared the varied 1168Dbeauty of the bride with the eye and the hair, the paps or breasts and the lips, which are parts of an animate body, with the odour also of the garments, which is part of an inanimate body, now through that one mode alone which is from inanimate to animate he enumerates other proclamations also of her beauty, of her very dignity, through the likenesses of the garden and the fountain and the sendings-forth of the garden itself, which are described through seven kinds; namely of Cyprus, spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon, myrrh and aloes, of each of which we must speak.

And why is the Church called a garden? Surely because of the shoots of the virtues sprouting in her continually; and as a garden is called "hortus" for this reason, that something always arises ("oriatur") there, so the Church is called a garden because the works of the virtues always arise in her, through the progress of her sons, whom she daily acquires in baptism, and nourishes in faith, and advances in the works of faith. 1169ABut why is this garden enclosed? Either because of the invisible virtue and singular dignity of the sacraments, or because of the wonderful depth of the Holy Scriptures, or because of the impregnable firmness of the divine defence. For although from the invisible virtue of the sacraments the salvation of believers daily sprouts, yet it is not open to all: how does the Holy Spirit inwardly work in each sacrament the virtue and the reality of the sacrament? why were the sacraments themselves instituted? how and by whom are the same sacraments to be given and received? what faith, what merit of faith, what order, what cause of order, what finally the reverence of the sacraments themselves, what and how great the fault of irreverence; all which things, because they are so hidden and closed that they are open to no one 1169Bexcept to those who can say with the Apostle: But to us 163 God hath revealed them by his Spirit (I Cor. II), rightly is the Church, in which these sacraments are contained, called a garden enclosed; whence also the officers of these sacraments are not admitted into a garden of this kind husjusmodi unless they enter through him who says: By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved (Joan. X).

But because many obtain the offices of those sacraments through ecclesiastical dignities for a price, although before human eyes they seem to enter this garden, yet before the divine eyes it is altogether closed to them; and though they be called officers of Christ, yet they are not, because they have not entered through the door, 1169Cbut have climbed up another way. And what they are, the Saviour teaches, who, when he said that he was the door, adds: He that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber (ibid.).

Behold how enclosed this garden is, that access to it is granted to no one except through the door, that is, what is written [scriptum; read Christum, "Christ"]; and he who has not come to it through him is proclaimed a thief and a robber. Whence Gregory: Why is it not weighed that the blessing is turned into a curse for him who is promoted to this end, that he become a heretic? I do not think that the priesthood subsists there. To such men, then, this garden is truly enclosed. Who, although they have the sacraments, yet have not the reality of the sacraments, because they are proved to have these not to salvation but to their own damnation; and therefore what before 1169Dhuman eyes they seem to be, before the divine eyes they lose.

Further, on account of the depth of the Holy Scriptures the Church of God is called a garden enclosed, because full entry into their sense lies open to no one, except as he leads him in who hath the key of David, who openeth and no man shutteth, shutteth and no man openeth (Apoc. III). But they who by the grace of God have merited entry into this garden, how many, and how great, and how wholesome kinds of spiritual herbs thinkest thou he will find in it, by which he may be able to drive off the diseases of the soul and to revive the wounded mind? This garden is enclosed to Jews and heretics, because they do not understand the sacraments hidden in it, but attend only to the letter; to whom that saying of Isaiah applies: And the book shall be given to one that knoweth 1170Aletters, and it shall be said to him: Read, and he shall answer etrespondebit: I cannot, for it is sealed (Isa. XXIX) [Vulg. Is 29:12 nescienti litteras, "to one that knoweth not letters"; scienti litteras and Non possum, signatus est enim are the wording of Is 29:11]. This book, however, that is, the whole series of Holy Scripture, is contained in this enclosed garden, that is, the Church, written within and without, that is, in the literal and the mystical sense, sealed with seven seals (Apoc. V), that is, with seven sacraments, which the faith of the Church holds, namely the nativity of the Lord, the circumcision, the baptism, the passion, the resurrection, the ascension, the judgment to come.

Enclosed therefore is this garden, because of the sealed depth of this book, 164 which no one can open, save the Lamb that was slain, who alone was found worthy to loose this book, and to open the seven seals thereof (Apoc. V), because it belongs to his grace alone to open to human sense the mysteries of Holy Scripture, which 1170Bproclaim the power of those seven sacraments.

But on account of the impregnable firmness of the divine protection the Church can be called a garden enclosed, because she who is always fortified by divine defence can by no means be shaken by the onset of malignant spirits or of men; for although they make many and frequent assaults upon her, yet in no wise do they enter into her with any power of their evil will, because she is so enclosed by the hedge of divine protection that they find no means at all of entering into her from the opposing side. Whence, having received great security, she cries out confidently in the Psalm, saying: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom 1170Cshall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? (Psal. XXVI.) The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me; the Lord is my helper, and I will look down upon my enemies (Psal. CXVII).

A garden therefore enclosed is the Church under divine protection, because God has so strengthened her with his grace that the perverse can neither corrupt her faith, nor take away the institutions of the sacraments, nor cast her down from the state of inmost peace. And if it is granted to them for a time to tempt her by afflicting her outwardly, this temptation turns out for her not to damnation, but to a crown.

Whence also she is called a garden enclosed not once, but a second time, because God has enclosed her not only outwardly but also inwardly, while he so sanctifies and guards her 1170Din all things, that she is kept whole in body and soul unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (I Thess. V); here indeed temporally, but afterwards eternally.

Not only, however, is the Church called a garden enclosed, but also a fountain sealed, both on account of the uniformity of baptism and on account of the purity of holy preaching: for as by a fountain the filth of the body is washed away, so by baptism the filth of the soul, that is, sins, are washed; and as by a fountain the weary body is refreshed, so by holy preaching the soul that is failing from God is relieved. Now this fountain is said to be sealed; but we must see whence, by whom, and why it is sealed.

Whence, then, is it sealed? In baptism, in the form, the thing and the intention of the sacrament; in preaching, 1171Ahowever, in truth, sweetness and utility; for from this the Church is rightly called, in these two, that is, baptism and preaching, a fountain sealed, because baptism avails nothing unless there be present both the form of the sacrament, that is, the invocation of the holy Trinity, and the thing of the sacrament, that is, the power and efficacy of the sacrament; the intention also, that is, the will to baptize in the catholic manner. Further, preaching, 165 confers nothing, unless it be true, that it may stir up faith, sweet, that it may draw, useful, that it may inform. For by these parts of the sacrament, as by certain seals, this fountain is shut up, so that its special power and purity and wholesomeness may be intimated.

By whom, then, is it sealed? Surely by the Holy Spirit, who has sealed it with the seal of his sevenfold grace, because from the institution and power of the sacraments, and 1171Bfrom the utility of holy preachings, there flow forth in the Church the watering streams of all spiritual charisms: for there the holy mind receives what, and how, it should savour and understand, by what counsel, by what fortitude it is strengthened, by what knowledge and piety it is adorned, or with what fear of the Lord it is filled. Surely with these spiritual gifts the fountain of the Church is so sealed, that no one can be a partaker of that fountain who has none of these seven graces.

But why is it sealed? Because the sacraments of the Church are to be committed to no one unless he have faith and works; faith, that he may understand and believe that the things which he sees done outwardly and visibly in the sacraments work salvation inwardly and invisibly; works, that in partaking of those sacraments he may show himself worthy. To no one 1171Calso is the office of preaching committed, except to him who is proved to have the grace of this knowledge, as the Apostle says: How shall they preach unless they be sent (Rom. X)? he obtains from God the grace of the office.

VERSE 13.-- Thy sendings forth are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of apples.

But what do this garden, enclosed and fountain sealed, kept by so great a divination providence, send forth? Thy sendings forth, he says, are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of apples; for the sendings forth of this garden must needs be wonderful, which is made fruitful by the watering of a fountain so sweetly and wholesomely flowing, and so carefully sealed. For it is established as a paradise by the glorious sendings forth, spiritually coming forth, of diverse 1171Dvirtues, or of flowers and herbs, which, although they are enumerated below as very manifold kinds of prayers setting forth the whole range of the virtues, are yet divided into two final causes on account of the twofold quality of the times, namely of persecution and of peace. For every consummation of the saints has either been celebrated in persecution by martyrdom, or accomplished in peace by confession.

Whence well are the sendings forth, a paradise of this garden, that is, of holy Church, said to be of pomegranates with the fruits of apples, because by the glory either of martyrdom or of confession her holy praises everywhere flourish and give forth fragrance. For what is meant by pomegranates but the glorious 166 purple of the martyrs, what by the fruits of apples, but the life of the confessors shining white with good deeds? 1172AO how great are the delights of this paradise, how great the sendings forth of virtues, flowing forth abundantly and happily, where both the strong are nourished and the weak are refreshed! because there those who desire to imitate admire, proclaim and venerate the constancy of the martyrs; there those who cannot be martyrs attend to, approve and emulate the praiseworthy life of the saints living gloriously in peace.

VERSE 14.-- Cyprus with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon with all the trees of Libanus, myrrh and aloes with all the chief ointments.

Whence there also follows the designated beauty, wholesomeness and utility of this garden enclosed, or fountain sealed, by seven kinds of aromatic herbs, not only because the grace of the sevenfold 1172BSpirit effects these sendings forth of her holiness, but also because by this sevenfold number of kinds the totality of the virtues is expressed. For in the whole body of the Church no virtue can be lacking, because, since the head of the Church is Christ, and the body of Christ the Church, whatever of holiness, of honourableness, and of utility ever could be, or can be, it will be permitted to consider in the whole Christ, that is, in head and members.

Let us look, then, at the kinds themselves, by which the totality of the virtues, as we have said, is denoted, and let us know that what we understand in the parts is to be understood in the whole. Cyprus, he says, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon with all the trees of Libanus, myrrh and aloes with all the chief ointments.

Cyprus is an aromatic tree, signifying the blessing of spiritual 1172Cgrace, and it is interpreted mourning or sadness. Cyprus therefore in the Church is any holy soul, like an aromatic tree, which has it from the grace of God that it will despise the passing joys of this world, having that sadness which is according to God, which worketh penance unto a stable salvation (II Cor. VII); mindful of that saying of the Gospel: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matth. V); and of that apostolic one: Be wretched and mourn, let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow (Jac. IV).

Spikenard is said to drive off cold, saffron, however, to bring coolness to those who burn: what, then, is meant by spikenard but charity, what by saffron but chastity 1172Dis figured? For charity rouses the lukewarm in good work, and makes them burning; chastity tempers the mind and restrains it from the heat of evil concupiscence.

Sweet cane is an aromatic tree, short and small, but of hard bark, which, when crushed, is drunk and heals the entrails: further, cinnamon has an ashen colour, and keeps its strength a long time. By the sweet cane, which however, as we have said, is short and small, humility is not unfittingly understood; but 167 by its hard bark, crushed and drunk, the entrails are healed, because while by the virtue virtu e of humility the elation of the hard and proud flesh is broken, the wound of the soul is healed by the medicine of a contrite and humbled heart. By cinnamon, however, which is of the colour of ashes, and keeps its strength a long time, the abject habit of penitents is designated, who can say 1173Awith the Prophet: I did eat ashes like bread (Psal. CI), and with blessed Job: Therefore I reprehend myself and do penance in dust and ashes (Job XLII). But this abjection keeps its strength a long time, because that is true penance which so keeps the rectitude of a converted heart that it does not afterwards commit things to be repented of.

With all the trees of Libanus, that is, with all the virtues of a life made white by baptism, made solid by right faith, and raised on high by good works. For when he had set forth particularly those virtues which we placed above, by the forenamed kinds of trees, he adds universally, by all the trees of Libanus, all the virtues, that we may understand that the garden of the Lord, that is, the Church, sends forth indeed every virtue from herself, through the varied life of the saints, but that those forenamed are the heads 1173Bof all the virtues, so that the other members of the virtues lie weak without them.

Myrrh and aloes with all the chief ointments. He adds yet two kinds of the sevenfold virtues, namely the mortification of the flesh and patience; by myrrh, then, by which dead bodies are kept unharmed from the corruption of worms and from putrefaction, the mortification of the flesh ought to be understood, by which the putrefaction of vices and of carnal pleasures is restrained; by aloes, which has indeed a sweet odour, but a bitter taste, and purges the stomach, we can take patience, which, because on account of the future goods of perennial life it endures the evils of the world, is indeed fragrant from the cause for which it suffers, but bitter from the cause by which 1173Cit suffers: and if any disease of sin weighs down the soul, the bitterness of the very evil which it suffers purges it.

With all, he says, the chief ointments, that is, with the precious and approved gifts of spiritual charisms, which the Apostle enumerates, saying: To one indeed by the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the working of virtues, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches (I Cor. XII). Behold, these can be called the chief ointments, which are compounded by divine grace, before which, not without reason, are set the two kinds of virtue foreshown above by myrrh and aloes, namely mortification and patience, that we may understand that those only are to be imbued with these spiritual ointments, 1173Dwho have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences (Gal. V), who can say with the Apostle: And we glory in tribulations (Rom. V).

It is pleasing, then, here to attend and to wonder 168 that the garden of the Lord through these its sendings forth is truly as a most beautiful paradise, that is, a garden of delights, where the eternal salvation of the soul, and all sweetness, flourish, where all beauty and spiritual delight bloom, where perennial life and everlasting rest abide; not that these are conferred here in the present life, but that through those sendings forth of virtues and graces which we spoke of above one attains to these, and that the exercise of those is temporal, the showing forth of these eternal. Whence most rightly this garden, or paradise, is recorded to be 1174Aenclosed, because by no adversity of malignant spirits is holy Church overcome, she who is strengthened by the grace of the spiritual sendings forth of this garden.

But since, as the Church in general is called the garden of the Lord, so also in particular each holy soul, which flourishes with the bud of the virtues and the beauty of manifold graces, can be called the same, it must yet be considered, since the Church is a certain whole, while one soul is a part of the whole, how much the part differs from the whole. For what is in the part must be in the whole, but it is not converted, so that what is in the whole must also be equally in the part. For the universal Church in its parts, that is, in the singular and individual men of whose collection into one it is constituted, is a certain whole, because while 1174Bmany flourish with diverse virtues, and in this diversity all kinds of virtues are contained, the whole indeed contains all in its parts, but the part not all, but some.

Therefore the whole and the part differ in this, that the whole is far more comprehensive than the part, since all things flow together at once in the whole, but in the part not all, but some. Since, then, the holy universal Church in general is called the garden of the Lord, because within her the buds of all the virtues are celebrated; any holy soul also which brings forth some buds of the virtues can be called the garden of the Lord, according to some manner of its own which divine grace has conferred upon it.

VERSE 15.-- The fountain of gardens; the well of living 1174Cwaters, which flow with a rush from Libanus.

But since whoever is instructed is instructed either by word or by example; and the part has what it has from the whole, while words and examples are universally in the whole, not without reason does it follow that that principal garden of the Lord, that is, the universal Church, should be called the fountain of gardens that are particular, that is, of the single souls. For whence is it that they say, that they do, that they teach, except from the doctrines and institutions of the holy universal Church? And whence those doctrines themselves, except from the words, writings and examples of the holy apostles and of apostolic men? Wherefore rightly the Church is called the fountain of these gardens, that is, of holy souls. 169 Because whatever of holiness or honourableness 1174Dthey have, they conceive from the watering of ecclesiastical preaching, and they bring forth all the things which their progress is, the rule and state of ecclesiastical discipline. For a fountain (Gen. II) goes forth from the paradise of the Lord, that is, from the Church of God, which is divided into four rivers, that is, into the four Gospels, which water the whole face of the earth, that is, every intention of the dry mind, so that, inebriated by their doctrine through the grace of God, it may say with the Psalmist: The Lord will give goodness, and our earth shall yield her fruit (Psal. LXXXIV): for unless the goodness of God has visited the human heart, it will be able to bear no fruit of good works

But though the same Church, for all these gardens diversely 1175Abearing fruit on account of the diverse qualities of knowledge and of works, is in common called a fountain, because she waters all with the infusion either of knowledge or of pious zeal, yet to some she is singularly called a well of living waters, on account of the depth of divine knowledge specially hidden in them, which flows forth from the fountain of the Church itself exipsius. The fountain indeed flows openly upon the earth, but the water of the well is hidden in the earth, because one is the knowledge which the simple and weak attain for its easiness, another that which the learned and strong scarcely search out for its subtlety. The Church, therefore, is a fountain to all the elect, but not to all is she a well, because all indeed read or hear and understand the literal surface, but very few look into the depth of the spiritual sense hidden within 1175B.

But this well has living waters, because the Church, while she opens the depth of the divine utterances to those who read or hear, both corrects them from depravity, and kindles them to good works, and thus refreshes, by a vital doctrine as by living waters, those who ought to have died in their sins.

Of what waters, then? Which flow, he says, with a rush from Libanus: for what is the rush of these waters, but the vehement course of the Holy Scriptures flowing forth with great authority? And what is expressed by Libanus, but the knowledge and virtue of sublime doctors? The waters therefore flow with a rush from Libanus, because the Holy Scriptures, from the knowledge and virtue of the holy 1175CFathers, show the great force of their authority. This rush was indeed necessary to the Church, because the course of faith and of sound doctrine would have been hindered by heretics and perverse men, had not the torrent of the eloquence of the holy doctors driven back the opposing machinations of falsehood by the rush of true reason and eloquence.

But because against holy Church, or any holy soul, the adversary has always stood with a twofold battle line, for he tempts her either by threats or by blandishments, that he may cast her down from the rectitude of her state, the bridegroom, wishing to show how much she profits from this temptation, adds in a permissive manner of speech, saying: Arise, north wind, etc.

1175D170 VERSE 16.-- Arise, north wind; and come, south wind, blow through my garden, and let the spices thereof flow.

By the north wind, which is a harsh and cold wind, the harshness of threats, which descends from the coldness of a perverse mind, is understood; by the south wind, which is warm, the smoothness of blandishments, which proceeds as it were with a certain sweetness from a deceitful heart, is taken. When therefore the Church or some holy soul is wearied in these two ways, she is trained for greater exercises of the virtues, so that the more strongly she struggles against the enemy, the more gloriously after the victory she is joined to the embraces of her bridegroom. For by this twofold war the constancy of the martyrs was proved, by this also the conversation of the faithful is daily proved and crowned. For what mind is not tempted by the prosperities and adversities of this world? but that mind is crowned as proved, 1176Awhich is neither lifted up by prosperity nor cast down by adversity. Whence John is commended by the Lord in the Gospel, because he is recorded not to be a reed shaken by the wind (Matth. XI): for a reed, when it is driven by the wind, is bent to whatever side; but he is not a reed shaken by the wind who is bent back to neither side, namely to the right or to the left; because he is neither shaken by terror nor seduced by blandishment. Arises, then, the north wind, when one is driven by detraction, or by some harshness; the south wind comes when one is tempted by favour or by some prosperity.

But these blowing through the garden of the Lord, the spices thereof flow, because the more the Church, or a holy soul, is touched by adversities or prosperities, the more, through progress, 1176Bis she filled with the good odour of the virtues. For this quality of life is probative of holiness and justice, so that he may deservedly be called the garden of the Lord who is adorned with such virtue of patience, humility and longanimity: but where there has been privation of this good, there cannot be the appellation of spiritual good.

Moreover: By the north wind the devil is often designated, by the south wind the Holy Spirit, because the one binds up in cold, and the other loosens in heat. For on the testimony of the Prophet the devil is related to have said: I will sit in the mountain of the Testament, in the sides of the north (Isa. XIV). And at the suggestion and breath of the devil iniquity and malice abounded in the world. For on the testimony of the Truth: Where iniquity hath abounded, the charity 1176Cof many shall grow cold (Matth. XXIV) [Vulg. quoniam abundavit, "because iniquity hath abounded"]. And the prophet asserts of Judaea, saying: As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her malice cold (Jer. VI). But by the name of the south wind the Holy Spirit is taken, because by his grace the torpor of the mind is loosened, as the Psalmist testifies: Turn, he says, O Lord, our captivity, as a torrent in the south (Psal. CXXV): 171 for our nostrae captivity, which through the cold of torpor had remained sluggish for following God, is loosened by the heat of the Holy Spirit, so that it may run into the love of God.

The heavenly Bridegroom, therefore, deigning to visit his bride, that is, the Church or a holy soul, bids the north wind withdraw, and the south wind come, because it is a just progress and a fitting order that, first 1176Dthe cold of unbelief and malice having been driven off, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the mind should receive the heat of faith and of good working. Arise, he says, north wind, and come, south wind, blow through my garden, and the spices thereof shall flow: as if he should say in other words: Because into the minds designated for me the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot come unless the cold of unbelief has been put to flight, whatever torpor, whatever sloth, thou hast settled in those same minds, whether through ignorance, or through negligence, arise and withdraw and come, O Holy Spirit, who mayest loosen by the heat of thy breath those same minds bound with torpor, that, the vigour of good will and of pious intention having been conceived, they may flow forth with the fruits of holiness and with odours of fruits, spreading far, and wide, drawing many round about to their fellowship.

1177AFurther, at this voice of the bridegroom, the bride, now as it were animated and in a manner raised up again, rises with a ready mind to the inspiring grace, and because it follows that, the Holy Spirit blowing, she should bring forth the fruit of good working, she shows it, saying: Let my beloved come into his garden, etc.