EXPLICATIO IN CANTICA CANTICORUM

• 963A

No. 1. Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. This is the voice of the Church coming to Christ in a kiss; desiring that the offense which men by sinning had contracted before God be undone, and longing to find the peace in which, while we were enemies to God the Father, we are reconciled through his very Son: on account of which the prophet says to God: Give us thy peace, O Lord, for thou hast rendered all things to us (Isa. XXVI). In the Gospel too (Luc. XV) the father kissed the son returning from a far country. For then in a certain way he handed over a kiss to those coming to him, when he willed his only-begotten to be born in man, through whom also he granted that we should cleave to him by the bond of peace. Finally the angels too, when Christ was born: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luc. VIII), cried out with 963Bharmonious voice for this reason, because by saying such things to us they plainly taught him who is our peace.

No. 2. For thy breasts are better than wine, fragrant with the finest ointments. We not incongruously take the breasts of Christ to be the apostles and evangelists; for through them we are nourished in faith and refreshed with spiritual food. And they are proved better than wine for this reason, because the evangelical teaching is recognized as more eminent than the law once given. In short, there the figure, here the truth; there, as with the austerity of wine, it showed only that the neighbor was to be loved and the enemy hated; here the sweetness of grace admonishes that we pray for our enemies and that those who hate us are to be loved. It also declares those same breasts of Christ, that is, the apostles, to be fragrant with the finest ointments, because they shone forth with such great virtues 963Cand such great miracles that the odor of their justice, spread far and wide, then delighted those who beheld it, and refreshes even to this day all who hear, as one of them proclaims, saying: But thanks be to God, who always triumphs over us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of the knowledge of himself in every place through us (I Cor. II).

No. 3. Thy name is oil poured out, therefore the maidens have loved thee. He whom God anointed, that is, Christ, with the oil of gladness above his fellows (Psal. XLIV), of him also the name is as it were oil poured out: for whoever are named Christians from Christ and are anointed with the chrism itself, and, baptized in his name, are filled with the holy Spirit, like the ointment which descends from the head upon the beard of Aaron (Psal. CXXXII); which declares him to be true, perfect, and most strong; 963Dthat is, the sacred Spirit, who has been poured forth by God in Christ, descends also upon the hem of his garment, and fills the whole Church even to the end; which, by cleaving to him, is without doubt his very garment. For in the transfiguration 964Ahis face shone as the sun, as we read in the Gospel, and his garments became white as snow (Mat. XVII; Luc. IX), such as no fuller upon earth can make them. For none of the teachers ever led his disciples to such brightness as he; or thus, washed from their stains, he makes those who believe in him white as snow. These therefore the maidens, whether the young Churches or uncorrupted souls, have loved; who also, filled with the fragrant ointment, say with the Apostle: The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the holy Spirit, who is given to us (Rom. V).

No. 4. Draw me after thee, we will run in the odor. The Lord says in the Gospel: No man comes to me unless the Father, who sent me, draw him (Joan. VI). For he is drawn to Christ who believes in Christ; but those run 964Bafter him who imitate him, or who by his gift make progress in following him.

No. 5. The king has brought me into his storerooms. Christ brought the Church into his storerooms when he revealed to her the hidden mysteries of the Scriptures, as the Apostle says, that he might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his bounty toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephes. II). Or the saints are wholly brought into Christ's storerooms then, when at the end it shall be said to them: Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matth. XXV).

No. 6. We will exult and rejoice in thee, mindful of thy breasts above one. The saints exult and rejoice in the Lord when they recall how, through the breasts of Christ, namely the teachings of the apostles, they were nourished with spiritual 964Cmilk. Which teaching of Christ, while they perceive it to be clearer than the precepts of the ancient law, in it, or from it, beholding Christ, they understand, to whom he himself says in the Gospel: Blessed are your eyes that see, and your ears that hear; amen I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see the things that you see, and saw them not; and to hear the things that you hear, and heard them not (Matth. XIII; Luc. X).

No. 7. The upright love thee. For the depraved cannot love equity: for those are upright and love God who are not held captive by love of the creature; but, as befits the upright, preferring the precious gift, they have cleaved to God the author of all things with a most strong love. But those too are approved as loving God rightly who, set not only amid his benefits but amid his scourges, 964Dlikewise give thanks, just as he too was saying: I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be ever in my mouth (Psal. XXXIII): that is, both when I receive gladness from a gift, and when I receive sorrow (from the same one chastising me). 965AJust as another too, tested by a most vehement suffering, rotting in flesh and sincere in heart, spoke: If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not endure evil? The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, as it pleased the Lord so is it done; blessed be the name, etc.

No. 8. I am black, but comely, daughter of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar. Black by the confession of sins, comely by the grace of the sacrament, daughter of Jerusalem. For from that [Jerusalem] the Church of the firstborn was born through the Gospel, which first believed in Jerusalem; or certainly, as the Apostle says: That Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother (Galat. IV). And rightly, because she likens herself to the tents of Cedar; which is interpreted, of darkness; to whose sons the Apostle says: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Ephes. 965BV). She can also be called black when she is given over to sufferings, reproaches, insults, and contempt. Consider her black and comely: in Paul: In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are perplexed, but not forsaken; we are cast down, but perish not (II Cor. IV). Just as the tents of Cedar; we are made as it were the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all; and like the skin of Solomon, always bearing about the mortification of Jesus Christ in our flesh, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

No. 9. Do not regard me because I am swarthy, for the sun has discolored me. That is: do not despise me set in persecution; for I have endured the heat of tribulations, and have as it were lost the beauty of temporal pleasantness: For through many tribulations must I enter 965Cinto the kingdom of God (Act. XIV). For I am among those of whom it is written: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted: and you indeed shall have sorrow, but the world shall rejoice, yet your sorrow shall be turned into joy (Matth. V; Joan. XVI).

No. 10. The sons of my mother have fought against me. The sons, namely, of the Synagogue, who stoned Stephen the martyr as he taught and reproved: And there was a great persecution in the Church which was at Jerusalem, and all the brethren were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria (Act. VII). Or those also fought against the Church who persecuted Paul, preaching among the gentiles, through the several cities. Likewise also those who judged that the burdens of the law were to be imposed on those who had believed from among the gentiles, which burdens the blessed James, with the rest of the apostles, 965Ddecreed were salubriously to be removed (Act. V). For those also who had persuaded the Galatians, believing in Christ, to be circumcised, disturbing the evangelical tradition, are taught to have fought against the Church, of whom the apostle Paul says: For neither do these who are circumcised keep the law, but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh (Gal. V). Of these same he also said: Would that they who trouble you were cut off (Ibid.).

No. 11. They have set me a keeper in the vineyards. These vineyards too are the Synagogues: Saul had received power, and letters from the chief priests, that whatever men and women he found believing in Christ he might deliver into custody to be punished (Act. XI et XXII): so that while he perpetrated these things, he was as it were keeping the vineyard of the Synagogue. 966AAnd there follows, My own vineyard I have not kept. For, made Paul out of Saul, a preacher out of a persecutor, while he preached the word of God to the contradicting Jews and was utterly spurned, he said to those same unbelievers: To you indeed it behooved to preach the word of God, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of so great salvation, behold, we turn to the gentiles, for so has the Lord commanded us through the Scripture: I have set thee as a light of the gentiles, that thou mayest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth (Act. XIII; Isa. XLIX). Or, as he himself wrote to the Galatians, You have heard of my conduct in Judaism, that I persecuted the Church of God and stormed it, and advanced in Judaism above many of my contemporaries in my nation, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers (Gal. I). And again: But 966Bthe things that were gains to me, these I have counted losses (Philip. III), saying as it were under an enigma: They have set me a keeper in the vineyards, for my own vineyard I have not kept.

No. 12. Show me whom my soul loves, where thou feedest, where thou liest at noon. We read in the Gospel: If they shall say, Behold, here is Christ, behold, there, go not out (Matth. XXIV; Marc. XIII). For here and there are known to be parts; but Christ, lying in the Catholic Church as at noon, has flooded the whole world with his splendor, and rests in those who are fervent in spirit, and out of that charity by which he irradiates the whole globe, he daily feeds the peoples who believe in him.

No. 13. Lest I begin to wander among the flocks of thy companions 966C: that is, if in that brightness in which the whole body of thy faithful subsists I have not known thee dwelling, I shall begin to stray among the flocks of the companions, that is, among the congregations of heretics. For heretics may in a certain part be called companions of Christ, because they profess his nativity, passion, and resurrection; but because concerning them the Apostle says: Having the form of piety but denying the power thereof (II Tim. V), they are proved to be no longer companions but adversaries.

No. 14. If thou know not thyself, O most beautiful among women, go forth and depart after the footprints. It is the voice of Christ to the Church, If thou know not thyself, O beautiful among women: if thou dost not understand that thou art she to whom it is said in the psalm: Hearken, daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and the house of thy father, for the 966Dking has desired thy beauty (Psal. XLIV), because thou alone hast received the beauty of the incorruptible sacrament. And well does he say, among women, that is, glorious among the heresies: for they are aptly called by the name of women, because they have lost the virginity which is in Christ. Therefore stray not, by seeking me elsewhere outside thyself in any way; for in thee, where thou hast not been seeking me until now, I rest as at noon. Now understand where thou art to seek me, feeding and governing thee thyself, lest, as in the night, the pretense of any persons lead thee away: for since certain sincerity endures with thee only while I reign in thee, know that thou art among those to whom, after my resurrection, I truly promised: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age (Matth. 967AXXVIII). But if by some doubt of my promises thou waverest in any way, and knowest neither my presence nor thine own beauty: go forth, and depart after the footprints of thy flocks. Rightly indeed will she go after the footprints of the flocks, because she has forsaken the presence of the shepherd. And feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds: delighting unjust men with the traditions or conventicles of heretics. For by these rebukes they deserve to be chidden, who do not recognize Christ in the Catholic Church, or themselves to be the Catholic Church.

No. 15. To my cavalry amid Pharaoh's chariots. Habakkuk the prophet says: Art thou angry with the rivers, O Lord, or is thy wrath upon the rivers, or thy indignation upon the sea, thou who mountest upon thy horses, and thy chariots 967Bare salvation (Abac. I)? Which horses do we take to be the apostles and evangelists? Therefore Christ speaks to the Church. Then I likened thee to my cavalry amid Pharaoh's chariots, when I turned the wise of the world to be called to my faith, that, laying aside the swelling of the world, running under me (who am the true salvation) they might advance; and, carrying me about with pious preachings, might manifest me to the eyes of believers by faith. And just as the prince of this world, who has now been cast out, used false philosophers, as it were bright chariots, unto destruction, so I, with the apostles filled with my wisdom, will train believers unto salvation.

No. 16. Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's. He has proclaimed chastity, the companion of modesty. For the kind of turtledoves is said, when its bodily consort is lost, to go about 967Csolitary, and to seek no further carnal union. And so the bride of Christ has an exceptional beauty when with modesty she retains her chastity.

No. 17. Thy neck as necklaces. In the neck are intimated those who do not cease to meditate on the law of God by day and by night, and who also, like clean animals, render up the saving doctrine by continually ruminating it. These, because they are the most excellent ornaments of the Church, are described as the necklaces of the bride.

No. 18. We will make thee golden chains. This is the voice of the teachers, who then arrange the ornaments of the Church, mingled of gold and silver, when they discourse spiritual understandings with the brightness of eloquence. Now golden chains, flowing down from the head, are wont to be fitted for adorning the neck: and therefore those doctrines are most excellent which, 967Dproceeding from the head, that is, Christ, so minister with spiritual office that they teach our neck to be subjected to the yoke of Christ, so that to such it is said by the Apostle: Not minding high things (Rom. XI), etc.

No. 19. While the king was on his couch. The Gospels relate (Marc. XIV; Joan. XII) that, two days before the Passover, while the Lord reclined, by a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of pure nard it was poured over his head, and here the prophecy says: When the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its odor. Therefore both this and that are known to have been said or done figuratively, because, our King being set on his couch (whether on the cross, where with bowed head he yielded up his spirit, or in the sepulcher, where laid away in body he rested), the Church anointed him with the fragrant ointment of pious confession, 968Aso that she ceases not in every way to preach that he suffered willingly and rose from the dead on the third day by his own power, unto the salvation of believers.

No. 20. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved. The species of myrrh is recognized as apt for embalming the bodies of the dead. And so the bundle of myrrh is Christ, having suffered, and died, and been buried. He shall abide between my breasts. That the breasts of the Church are the learned and those abounding with spiritual milk, who nourish the peoples being born in the faith, those without doubt are proved to be, who cease not in every way to announce the death of the Lord, as it has been commanded, until he come.

No. 21. My beloved is a cluster of Cyprus. A cluster in Cyprus is Christ hung upon the wood of the cross: which kind 968Bof wood is always fragrant and incorrupt, for we mark beforehand the sign of the cross, with the odor of chrism, upon the forehead. And well does he say: My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus, because not to those who crucified him, but to those who believed in the crucified, the sweetness of this cluster has been granted. In the vineyards of Engaddi; among the peoples of the Synagogue, where the Lord's passion was accomplished. Engaddi is interpreted the eye of my temptation. Read the Gospel, and thou wilt find that the Pharisees and Sadducees intended nothing else by their questionings than to tempt the Lord on every point, and to find grounds for accusing him; to whom he himself says: Why do you tempt me, hypocrites (Matth. XXII)? But so great a good of Christ's passion, wrought indeed for them, is established as granted to us who have believed.

968CNo. 22. Behold, thou art beautiful, my love. Christ pronounces the Church, whom he made his love by the kiss of his peace, twice beautiful, as the Apostle taught her to be holy in body and spirit (I Cor. VII), adding, thy eyes are doves'. There is nothing that adorns the face in the body more than the disposition of the eyes, by which we fittingly take the holy apostles, who were even able to foresee things to come; whose privileges the blessed apostle Paul, designating them, writing to the Corinthians says: You are the body of Christ (I Cor. XII). And in another place: God has indeed set some in the Church, first apostles (Ephes. IV), etc. Now when he says, thy eyes are doves', he plainly shows the apostles themselves, who were commanded to be wary as serpents, and simple as doves (Matth. X): by the likeness of which bird 968Dhe demonstrates that these same were also filled with the holy Spirit.

No. 23. Behold, thou art beautiful, my beloved. Christ, whom in this place the Church commemorates as beautiful and comely, the Psalmist thus proclaims, saying: Beautiful in form above the sons of men, grace is poured out on thy lips (Psal. XLIV). But this beauty of thine is thence, because In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Joan. I). And adding, our couch is flowery, he shows the Lord's own body, in which the Godhead rested, pure, fragrant, born of a Virgin.

No. 24. The roofs of our houses. These houses 969Ain which Christ dwells are the saints: as the prophet says: for I will dwell in them (Levit. XXVI; II Cor. VI). And the roofs and paneling of these houses, of cedar and cypress, which are recognized as incorruptible and fragrant, demonstrate the direction toward God and neighbor, which has been granted from above through the holy Spirit (that is, that the saints may be in themselves).

No. 25. I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. I am the glory of the world, from the virginity of the humble.

No. 26. As the lily among thorns. To man, cast out of Paradise, it is said: Cursed is the earth in thy works, it shall bring forth to thee thorns and thistles (Gen. III); which earth is understood to be human flesh, which is wont to produce the stings of lusts and the thorns of concupiscences. Wherefore, when he says: As the lily in the midst 969Bof thorns, so is my love among the daughters: by daughters he means the heresies, which, as it were reborn through baptism, are called by the name of daughters; but, compared to thorns, are taught to be corrupting and corruptible. Which corruption the Church knows not, who, compared to the sincerity of lilies, gives forth fragrance and shines to and fro.

No. 27. As the apple tree among the trees of the woods. The Psalmographer says, for who among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord, or who shall be like to God among the sons of God (Psal. LXXXVIII)? There a son by adoption, here by nature; and therefore no one among the saints, or in the whole race of men, however he be reckoned by the name of son, is found like to Christ; who, by the sweetness and refreshment of his fruit, goes before the elect in incomparable beauty.

No. 28. Under the shadow of him whom I had desired. 969CUnder the protection of the same one whom I ever sought to be present, I remained humble and secure.

No. 29. And his fruit is sweet to my throat. The Lord says in the Gospel: I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing (Joan. XV). Although therefore the fruit arises in the branch, yet it is to be accounted to the vine, from whose root the branch with its fruit came forth; and therefore whatever the just bring forth as fruit in good works, all is to be referred to Christ. In whose fruits an incomparable sweetness is felt. Those saints too who by the office of the throat were wont to ruminate what they had tasted, that is, to meditate on the things that are Christ's, they too perceive an exceeding sweetness from his fruit.

969DNo. 30. He brought me into the wine cellar. The Lord, about to ascend into the heavens, charged the apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, saying to them: Rejoice, for I have overcome the world, and I go to the Father; but you, sit in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. And as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath's journey away. And when they had entered the upper room, they went up where Peter and John were staying. And after a little: These were all gathered together with one accord with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren; and the crowd of men was about a hundred and twenty (Act. I, II), set in this place; and when the holy Spirit came upon them they were filled; and when 970Athey had begun to speak in various tongues, they were thought by the people to be full of new wine. Then therefore the Church is brought into the wine cellar, when this apostolic congregation, remaining in unity, is filled with the holy Spirit, as the Apostle also says: In one Spirit we were all baptized, whether slaves or free, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit (I Cor. XII). But because charity is poured forth in the heart of the pious through the holy Spirit, he at once subjoined, He set charity in order in me. For this is charity set in order, that a man love his neighbor as himself; and so love God that he even deny himself for his sake. And even in the wicked there is loved, not the iniquity which they themselves commit, but the creature in which the good have been formed by God. But that too is charity set in order, that servants should not feel toward the Lord as evildoers, 970Bnor love themselves with an abominable love like the wanton, but even, where it is necessary, mutually correct one another with freedom, superstition being cast out, according to that: Better are the wounds of one who loves than the deceitful kisses of one who flatters (Prov. XXVII); and again: They who reprove shall be praised, and upon them shall come a blessing (Prov. XXIV).

No. 31. Stay me with flowers, compass me about with apples. She desires to be joined to, or surrounded by, the companies of the saints, who languishes with a pious and chaste love; because the languor is not of sickness, but of ineffable desire, according to that: My soul has fainted in thy salvation, and in thy word have I over-hoped; my eyes have failed for thy word, saying: When wilt thou comfort me (Psal. CXVIII)? Happy they who advance by such progress: 970Cfor in a certain way, he who desires much languishes and faints until he finds the things desired or sought.

No. 32. His left hand under my head. Solomon himself says in the Proverbs: Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and abounds in prudence; length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory. And thus the elect Church of Christ, having the left hand under her head, describes temporal things as subjected to her; and taught that his right hand embraces her, while she desires the eternal.

No. 33. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes. By the daughters of Jerusalem he means the holy and peaceable souls of teachers; whom, by the clean and swift animals which cease not to ruminate, and which are fed in the fields of the holy Scriptures, he adjures, that they make not to awaken, until she herself will: which we know Paul the apostle did, 970Dwhen to virgins concerning the keeping of holiness he gave, not a command, but counsel (I Cor. VII); and in the Gospel it is said to the rich man: If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor (Matth. XIX). And in another place where eunuchs are praised, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven; and it is at once added, he who can receive it, let him receive it. And again the Apostle, when he exhorts to continence: This I say for your profit (he says), not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is honorable, I exhort, and which affords the means of beseeching God without hindrance (I Cor. VII). And again to Philemon: But without thy counsel I would do nothing, that thy good deed might not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary. For then is the beloved 971Ain no way awakened until she will, when the vows of the saints are offered to the Lord by a spontaneous will.

No. 34. The voice of my beloved. This voice of Christ, which is so much commemorated in this prophecy, is not unfittingly taken of that voice by which the race of dead men is awakened in the Gospel, as he himself proclaims, saying: Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour shall come in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and they shall come forth who have done good, unto the resurrection of life (Joan. V). And in the Apocalypse it is said: Blessed is he who dwells a part in the first resurrection (Apoc. XX). He finds a part in the first resurrection who, rescued from evil habit, rises as it were from death, Christ giving life.

No. 35. Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains. Christ 971Bcomes leaping upon the mountains, when he appeared more perfect to the perfect; bounding over the hills, when by the excellence of his majesty he surpassed all the height of the saints.

No. 36. My beloved is like a roe. He is like a roe, because in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. VIII) he appeared to us; like also to the fawn of the harts, because from the saints who conquered the serpent he drew his origin according to the flesh.

No. 37. Lo, he himself stands behind the wall. He stands behind our wall when he is clothed with the veil of our body.

No. 38. Looking through the windows. When he hid something of himself, but made something manifest; as it were he looked forth through the windows and the lattices. For he did not show himself wholly, especially as to God, who to Philip, desiring to see the Father, 971Csaid: So long a time I have been with you, and you have not known me; and in another place: He who loves me keeps my commandments, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him (Joan. XIV). Or he looked forth through the windows and the lattices then, when he taught the people in parables. It can also be understood that he then looked forth through the windows, when in the passion, his side pierced by the lance, blood and water flowing forth, he brought forth the sacraments of redemption and of the laver.

No. 39. My beloved speaks to me. The beloved is often described in this book: for who is so beloved of the Church as he for whom the martyrs laid down their souls? Arise, hasten, and come: arise, believe; hasten, the course of pious labor accomplished, receive the reward. My love, reconciled to me through death; my beautiful one, 971Dmade clean through the laver.

No. 40. For now the winter is past. Because temporal tribulation has received an end.

No. 41. The rain is gone and departed. Frequent and manifold temptation, or the persecution of the pagans, has grown quiet.

No. 42. The flowers have appeared in the land. The saints abounded in the world, arising in the month of the New, when the Passover is celebrated; to whom the Apostle says: If you have risen with Christ, mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth (Col. III).

No. 43. The time of pruning has come. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord, the pruning-knife of discipline applied, purged from all superstition, are prepared for the fruits to come.

972ANo. 44. The voice of the turtledove is heard in the land. Anna, in the Gospel, a most chaste widow of eighty-four years, not departing from the temple, in fastings and prayers recognizes Christ, and speaks of him to all who awaited the redemption of Israel (Luc. II). He too commanded the combining of these same birds to be offered in sacrifice, who held nothing at all excellent in the offering to God, except when the faithful, sanctified in body and spirit, are offered to the Lord.

No. 45. The fig tree has put forth its green figs. At length the Synagogue too brought forth Israelites believing in Christ, as the Apostle also says: I would not have you ignorant of this mystery, that blindness in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the gentiles should enter, and so all Israel should be saved (Rom. XI).

972BNo. 46. The flowering vines have given forth their odor. The congregations of clerics, and also of monks and virgins, advance in the Church, and became known through good report and conduct.

No. 47. Arise, my love, and my beautiful one. With pious appellations he ever exhorts the Church that, temporal things being left behind, she sigh after the eternal.

No. 48. My dove in the clefts of the rock. The Church is called a dove for no other reason than that she is without guile and is filled with the holy Spirit; she dwells in the clefts of the rock, because she ever has a refuge in these, the wounds of Christ, from which she has been healed. She is also received into the hollow of the wall, when she is cherished with holy consolation from the Scriptures, or when she is wholly protected by the merits and prayers of the preceding saints. In 972Cthese clefts of the rock, Thomas the apostle, like a dove, found protection, when after the resurrection, the places of Christ's wounds having been handled, all doubt removed, he faithfully cried out: My God and my Lord (Joan. XX).

No. 49. Show me thy face, Sion. Sion is interpreted contemplation, which is rightly understood of those who say with the Apostle: But we, beholding the glory of God, are transformed into the same image from brightness to brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord. And again: while we contemplate not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen (II Cor. III). For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. She therefore is invited to stand always before God, like Elias, who was saying: The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand this day 972D(IV Reg. III); and let her not be of those whom the prophet marks, saying: They have turned to me the back and not the face (Jerem. II); and, thy voice, he says, in my ears (III Reg. XVII); and, the just cried, and the Lord heard them and delivered them out of all their tribulations (Psal. XXXIII).

No. 50. For thy voice is sweet. The prayers of the saints, ever acceptable to the Lord, and present by his grace, because they received from the light of Christ, that they might remain in the beauty of justice.

No. 51. Catch us the little foxes. The Lord says by a parable in the Gospel (Matth. XIII) that, when the blade had grown, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared the cockle: that is, as the Church advanced, numerous 973Aheresies too arose, or, while she abode in that faith, those things which they wrongly held were searched out. So too that Samson, who is interpreted the sun, having caught three hundred foxes, applied fire to their tails, and kindled the crops of the enemies (Judic. XV). For heretics in their beginnings are always conspicuous, as with a feigned religion, but in their last days they draw fire, assigned to the burning of Gehenna. And therefore Catch us the foxes: convict the heretics, and shut up their cunning with the testimonies of the holy Scriptures. He calls them little foxes, because they contain nothing great by understanding according to the right faith; for they display all that they know; being petty, they demolish the vineyards, subvert the peoples, corrupting them with depraved traditions. Our vineyard has flourished. The Catholic Church 973Badvances with unfailing increase.

No. 52. My beloved is mine, and I am his. The Apostle says: They shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church (Ephes. V). For concerning him the same Church says: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance (Psalm. XV). And again it is said by the Father to the Son: Ask of me, and I will give thee the gentiles for thy inheritance, and for thy possession the ends of the earth (Psalm. II). Christ therefore has the Church in his body, and the Church has Christ in the head: which connection, because it cannot be sundered, she has rightly said: My beloved is mine.

No. 53. Who feeds among the lilies. Christ feeds among the lilies when his body, which is the Church, is adorned by the companies of the saints and of virgins.

973CNo. 54. Until the day breathe out, and the shadows decline. Until the evangelical tradition advance in clearer light, and the figures of the Old Testament, which as shadows preceded in the rite of sacrifices, in typical observances, be driven away.

No. 55. Return, be like, my beloved to me. While he intimates the beloved to return, and calls him like to a roe and a fawn, he demonstrates the ascension of Christ into the heavens, to be compared to clean and swift animals. For these by a swift bound bound over the higher places of the mountains; but Christ surpassed all things that seem lofty, because concerning him the Apostle says: Wherefore God exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 973Dof things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father (Philip II). Now Bethel is interpreted the house of God: therefore upon the mountains of Bethel, because to all the saints who are in heaven and on earth, he preaches Christ more powerful.

No. 56. On my bed by night I sought. Among those who slumber in the faith, and are blotted out by the darkness of ignorance, the Church sought Christ, whom she loves; but see what follows: I sought him, and found him not. The Lord says to Adam: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread (Gen. III). For those who are unstrung by some vice or by the drowsiness of sloth do not quickly come to the eating of that bread which descended from heaven, 974Abut those who have kept watch in holy labors, they find him.

No. 57. I will arise and go about the city. I considered all the glory of the present age, I inspected the congregations of the unbelievers and the diverse sects of the philosophers; but not even there did I find him whom my soul loves.

No. 58. The watchmen found me. The wise of the world and the worshipers of idols disputed against me, searching out many things in vain, and composing many books by fruitless labors, to whom I said: Why are you troubled to no purpose by superfluous effort? Why do you wear away your wits in vain with vehemence? have you seen him whom my soul loves? Since you glory in the false name of wisdom, God has made foolish your wisdom (I Cor. II), because you were in no way able to find Christ there.

974BNo. 59. When I had passed a little beyond. When I had passed beyond men of this kind, who in the world are thought famous for their empty knowledge, and had withstood their superstitious inventions, and had judged their wisdom foolish, she found him whom my soul loves. Hence it is that the Apostle says of such: We speak wisdom among the perfect, yet wisdom not of this world, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory (I Cor. I): and because that wisdom which is Christ is not found among such men, there follows: which none of the princes of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory: as it is written, that eye has not seen, nor ear 974Cheard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him (Ibid.). But because the bride finds him whom she loves among the spiritual, hear what follows: But to us God has revealed them by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (Ibid.).

No. 60. I held him, and will not let him go. For so will I cleave to Christ, will persevere in his faith, until, preaching him in the peoples of the Synagogue as in the house of the mother, I bring him into the chamber of her that bore me: that the Jews, who until now denied him with the mouth, may receive him with the heart; and, the eyes of their mind enlightened, may at length find in the chamber, abiding in the secret place of the holy Scriptures, him who once was revealed to us. Or Christ is then brought into the house of the mother, when to 974Dthe heavenly Jerusalem the Christian people, which is his body, is joined. Where is that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor into the heart of man, etc.

No. 61. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem. This sentence he has already set down above, and, insofar as God has heard us, we remember that we treated it with testimonies adduced. But therefore I think it is repeated again in this book, lest any of the teachers either solicit those about to believe with gifts, or deter them with threats, but only preach the things that are holy, and voluntarily lead those about to believe, or to be converted, to faith or religion.

No. 62. Who is this that comes up through the desert. The Church comes up through the desert, when the people 975Aof the gentiles, occupying the multitude of believers by faith, advances. For concerning her it is sung in the Psalms: He has set the desert into pools of waters, and the land without water into outlets of waters (Psalm. CVI et CXIII). Little rods of smoke from aromatic spices, he means the prayers which from compunction of heart ascend to the Lord from the saints. For smoke is wont to stir up tears. Myrrh and frankincense, and the powders of every dust, intimate the marks of mortification, or the diverse gifts of graces which abound in the elect.

No. 63. Or the couch of Solomon. The couch of Solomon is the rest of Christ; which rest is fittingly taken of the Church, whom we read in the Psalms to be elect under a number: For, he says, the Lord has chosen Sion, he has chosen her for his dwelling. This is my rest for ever and ever, here will I dwell, for I have chosen her 975B(Psal. LXXV). And under the number sixty, because sixty consists wholly of its parts, and rises by the number ten, rightly are they described of the mightiest of Israel, who, the Lord being present, are appointed to the guarding of the Church. To her too it is said by the prophet: Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and night forever they shall not be silent. All holding swords, most skilled for wars. And the sword of each upon his thigh (Isai. LXII). For to them the Apostle says: Stand therefore, having your loins girt in truth, and put on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, in all things taking the shield of faith, in which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephes. VI). Those therefore are most skilled for wars, 975Cwho have known how to fight back against the concupiscences of their flesh; and he usefully bears the sword upon his thigh who mortifies the carnal fluxes and lusts with spiritual food. Whoever therefore of this kind are found in the Church, these are recognized to be strong of the mightiest of Israel, contemplating God.

No. 64. King Solomon made himself a litter. Where the setting forth of foods is written, there is the faith of believers, through which Christ is perceived. For when the Lord was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, and she, returning, had announced his majesty to the others remaining in the city, his disciples coming up asked him, saying: Rabbi, eat. But he said to them: I have food to eat which you know not. And a little after: from that city many of the Samaritans believed in him 975D(Joan. IV). Their faith he showed would be food for himself, when a little before he foretold to the disciples that he would eat this which they knew not. But in this place, as the following words teach, the name of litter shows rather the instrument in which something is carried, or, as another edition has, a bearing-chair, than the food itself. Of the woods of Lebanon: of the chief saints in the Church.

No. 65. He made its pillars of silver. He prepared the supports of the Church out of his learned men or apostles, as Paul, the vessel of election, wrote to the Galatians: When, he says, James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, had recognized the grace of God, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship (Gal. II).

No. 66. A golden resting-place. Christ, about to feast well, finds a resting-place in those who, endowed with sincere 976Aunderstanding, shine like gold in the holy congregation.

No. 67. A purple ascent. The purple ascent teaches the exceptional perfection of the martyrs in the shedding of blood.

No. 68. The middle he built with charity. That he might build all these ornaments of the Church, there is no other cause than that he loved us and delivered himself for us, an oblation and a victim to God for an odor of sweetness (Ephes. V).

No. 69. Go forth and see, daughters of Sion. Ever have before your eyes, holy souls, King Solomon, our peaceable one, who is Christ, how he endured the passion (Marc., XV; Joan. XIX), to free the human race from destruction; behold him in 976Bthe diadem with which his mother crowned him: in that crown of thorns which the Synagogue set upon his head in the day of his espousal. For then he espoused to himself the whole Church, when, ascending upon the gibbet of the cross, from that same cross he taught all who believe in him the sign upon their foreheads, as he himself says: I, when I shall be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself (Joan. XII). Which day of the passion was also the day of the gladness of his heart: for as Christ bestowed the good things which through his possession, unto generations and many times, upon the faithful.

No. 70. How beautiful thou art, my love. The repetition of the discourse commends the beauty which it praises; or the kinds of saints which it introduces under the appearance of similitudes, it shows beforehand as to be considered.

976CNo. 71. Doves' eyes besides that. The simplicity of the spiritual is greatly to be revered, because they know not how to extol themselves, and with a conscious purity they strive to please God rather than men.

No. 72. Thy hair as flocks of goats. The Apostle teaches that hair was given to a woman for an ornament (I Cor. XI); and therefore the Church has as its ornament, most of all, those peoples who first believed from the circumcision, who, their goods being sold and paid out for the use of the poor, had one heart and one soul (Act. IV). These came up from Mount Galaad: Galaad is interpreted, a heap of testimony, as if their ascent, that is, their advance, proceeded from the testimonies of the holy Scriptures, when there they understood Christ, in whom they afterward believed.

976DNo. 73. Thy teeth as flocks of shorn ewes. By teeth he means the preachers, who transmit into the body of Christ, salubriously to be crushed small, the things they have received. These are compared to the flocks of the shorn, because, the old man laid aside, they went forth in newness of the Spirit. They also came up from the washing, when, having received remission of sins through baptism, they advanced in Christ.

No. 74. All with twin offspring. All filled with the charity of Christ and of neighbor, and because they are prompt to mercy, therefore is none barren among them (Jos. VI).

No. 75. As a scarlet ribbon are thy lips. That harlot Rahab, who deserved to be saved and to be associated to the people of Israel, hung a scarlet cord as a sign of salvation through the window of her house. Wherefore the lips of those 977Aare comely, because they therefore preach the passion, and announce the redemption given through his blood; and they rejoice together that they have found nothing sweeter to speak of, as the Apostle also says: I judge myself to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (I Cor. I).

No. 76. As a piece of pomegranate are thy cheeks. Those effect the comeliness in the face of the Church who, modesty accompanying, keep chastity; or the holy martyrs, who, imitating the passion of Christ, were suffused with the rosy comeliness of their own blood, besides that which lies hidden within, beyond the merit of chastity and of martyrdom. Many and other are the good things of the saints which he knows, because he granted them in their heart.

No. 77. As the tower of David is thy neck. By tower 977Bis meant the perfection or the doctrine of the saints, which is built not by itself, but by Christ, with bulwarks, with the testimonies of the holy Scriptures, by which the unbelieving or the heretics are warred down.

No. 78. A thousand shields hang. This tower can fittingly be understood to be the canonical Scripture of the Old and New Testament, which, through the holy Spirit, as a lofty tower, has been constructed. A thousand shields hang from it. This number is taken for the fullness of the whole, as in the Psalm: Of the word which he commanded to a thousand generations (Psalm. CIV), as though he said, unto all generations. And so in this holy Scripture all the armor of the strong is found; from which one fights back strongly either against the devil, or against his ministers. For the Lord himself too, when in the desert 977Che was tempted by the devil (Matth. IV), brought forth arms from this tower, when with testimonies produced from holy Scripture he conquered him utterly.

No. 79. Two breasts as two fawns of a roe. The two breasts of the Church are the two Testaments, fitted to the two fawns of a roe, twins, that is, to the two peoples who are nourished from thee, namely of the circumcision and of the foreskin, born from the propagation of sin; which nevertheless feed among the lilies, while they advance alike by the examples and doctrines of the saints.

No. 80. Until the day breathe, and it decline. Until, as the Apostle says, that which is mortal be swallowed up (II Cor. V).

No. 81. I will go to the mountain of myrrh. Let me be joined to those who have grown by mortifying themselves for the sake of God, and, 977Dby offering themselves to him, cease not to proffer the odor of grace.

No. 82. Thou art all beautiful, my love. As the Apostle says, that he might present to himself the Church without spot or wrinkle (Ephes. III). Nor is it idle that he says, Thou art all beautiful, namely in all, the small and the great. But so, not only in the martyrs, confessors, learned virgins, but also in the continent, the almsgivers, and the penitent.

No. 83. Come from Lebanon, my bride, come. Lebanon is interpreted whiteness: for unless one has received whiteness by the sacred baptism in which remission of sins is given, he cannot come to Christ.

No. 84. Thou shalt be crowned from the head of Amana. Seir is interpreted a lamp; Hermon, consecration: all which 978Aare referred to Christ, who consecrates those whom he illumines, and himself crowns those whom, illumining them, he shall have consecrated.

No. 85. From the dens of lions. The Church is called forth from the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards, when, proud elation left behind, or the tradition of diverse sects, simple and humble she comes to Christ.

No. 86. Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister. This wound of the heart is love. And so, by an immense love in that eye, the Church pleased Christ; since she looked not to temporal, but to eternal things. And so now with one hair of the neck; because she was zealous not to be adorned with visible things, but with things to come; or perhaps the one eye and hair of the neck is the people of the believing Church, which Christ so loved that he laid down his soul for it.

No. 87. How beautiful are thy breasts. How 978Badmirable are those teachers who nourish men being born in the faith, and, like pious nurses, bear the annoyances of the babbling carnal peoples, until they bring to perfection those whom they have raised with spiritual milk.

No. 88. Thy breasts are more beautiful than wine. Already above we have said that these breasts are the apostles, or apostolic men, whose doctrine exudes wine: namely the tradition and precept of the old law. And the odor of thy ointments above all aromatic spices. The distribution of the graces which is granted through the holy Spirit, which the Apostle declares when he says: to one is given the word of wisdom, to another of knowledge (I Cor., XII), etc., so far excels that it surpasses all the vanities of the world.

No. 89. Thy lips are a dripping honeycomb, O bride. Thy lips 978Care a dripping honeycomb, the exposition of the sacred Scriptures, honey and milk in thy doctrine, under thy tongue, in that thou nourishest little ones with milk, and in the honey takest away the rottenness of diverse wounds or sins.

No. 90. And the odor of thy garments. He says by the prophet to Jerusalem concerning the saints: I live, says the Lord, for with all these as with an ornament shalt thou be clothed, and thou shalt gird them about thee as a bride. Therefore the garments of the Church, namely all the saints famous in words and works, render the sweetness of odor.

No. 91. A garden enclosed is my sister the bride. This bride, who is enclosed as a garden, that is, by the grace of Christ, is surrounded with matter so indissoluble that of her the prophet Isaias said: He shall no more add that everyone uncircumcised and unclean pass through thee (Isa. LII). 978DThere can also be understood by the enclosed garden and the sealed fountain the very mother of the Lord, holy Mary, who, a virgin conceiving and a virgin bringing forth, showed in herself the undefiled beauty of the enclosed garden and the sealed fountain.

No. 92. Thy shoots are a paradise of apples. Thy advances, O congregation of the holy martyrs, with the fruits of apples; with the remaining multitude of the faithful, which is adorned with the sweetness of justice.

No. 93. Cyprus with nard, nard and saffron. The incorruption and fortitude of the virtue of the martyrs, doctrine, good report, are found in all the peoples reborn in Christ by baptism.

No. 94. Myrrh from aloe with all. The marks of the death of Christ with the chief gifts of the holy Spirit.

979ANo. 95. A fountain of gardens, a well of waters. A fountain, open, the instruction of the peoples; a well, the profundity of doctrines; which flow with force from Lebanon, when they are sent forth from Christ with the fervor of the Spirit.

No. 96. Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind. One Spirit, that is, because the north wind and the south wind are diverse names, he intimates the gifts of one holy Spirit: the north wind while it offers coolness to the sweltering, the south wind while it loosens the hard to believe or to do well. Now the Psalmist teaches that the north wind is set in a good sense, Mount Sion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King (Psal. XLVII). And again Ezekiel the prophet: The hand of the Lord is upon me, and I saw, and behold a shining Spirit was coming from the north (Ezech. I). And because in the two one is perceived, he says not, Blow ye through, but 979BBlow through my garden, and let its aromatic spices flow: breathe upon the believing people, and let its good works abound.

Num. 97. Let my beloved come into his garden. Let him enter into his Church and take delight in the works of his saints; or, let him be fed by the faithful in the poor, about to repay the eternal kingdom for things temporal.

Num. 98. Come into my garden, my sister. Hasten to my kingdom, O people enriched by my name: my sister, by my blood; my spouse, in my faith, as also the prophet Hosea says: I will betroth thee to me in faith (Ose. II).

Num. 99. I have reaped my myrrh with my spices. Receive my martyrs, who for my sake have suffered or died, together with their merits.

979CNum. 100. Eat the honeycomb with my honey. Those who have been instructed by the tender or the more forceful teaching of the Old and New Testament, receive into my body.

Num. 101. Eat, friends, and drink. The Lord says in the Gospel to the apostles: Now I no longer call you servants, but friends (Joan. XV). But to Peter the apostle, in that vessel let down from heaven in which diverse kinds of animals were shown to him, it was said: Peter, kill and eat (Act. X): that is, mortify [them]; put to death what they are, and make [them] what you yourself are. Therefore eat, friends, and drink. Let there be joy to you over the manner of life of the peoples passing over into your unity.

Num. 102. I sleep, and my heart keeps watch. For Christ's sake I am ready to die, but after death I believe that I shall reign with him. I also rest from temporal 979Ddelights, my senses in a manner lulled to sleep; but I long for things to come and seek after things eternal.

Num. 103. The voice of my beloved knocking. The Lord himself says in the Apocalypse: I stand at the door and knock; if anyone opens to me, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me (Apoc. III). The Lord knocks when he either teaches by doctrine the things that are good, or by hidden inspiration urges the hearts of the saints to do well. Or this is the voice of him knocking in the Gospel: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matth. XI).

Num. 104. Open to me, my sister, my beloved. Christ asks that it be opened to him, whether by the obedience of unbelievers, or in the faith 980Aof the nations that are called; for the door is opened to him then, when the things he has commanded are fulfilled, or when in those who have believed an entrance is unlocked to him through faith. The sister of Christ is the Church, of his blood; beloved, because reconciled through his death; dove, of the Holy Spirit, immaculate by the sacrament of baptism.

Num. 105. For my head is full. Those who seem to be preeminent in the Church by chief honor are regarded as, so to speak, a head in the body of Christ; and those who in the very congregation of the faithful administer the visible sacraments are described as, as it were, ringlets. But because for the most part mortal men are infected with vices or with works of darkness, these therefore, as though weighed down with the drops of the nights, seem to cling to Christ as to a head. But of certain ones the Apostle says: They themselves do not preach Christ sincerely 980B(Philip. I). Therefore the voice of the bride follows, as of one groaning for such men.

Num. 106. I have stripped myself of my tunic. Coming to the faith, I put off the old man according to the former manner of life, and put on the new, who is created according to God (Ephes. IV). If also any contagion, while I walk among earthly things, has clung to my feet, it has been washed away by Christ's washing; and then I behold, not without grief, the ministers of the sacraments, by whom I ought to be adorned, infected with carnal vices. And therefore, because I perceive myself darkened by the evils which I had renounced, in the transgression of certain ones, [I say]: I have stripped myself of my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? I declare it with mournful heart, speaking as it were more openly: Is it fitting that I should again put on the garments of sins of which, by believing, I 980Cstripped myself? Or that I should suffer myself to be defiled again, by living evilly, with the filth from which I was washed? or that I should go back, by an evil manner of life, from advance to failure, or from the brightness of righteousness to the blackness of sins?

Num. 107. My beloved put forth his hand. He put forth his hand through the opening, when he thoroughly taught me to pass through the straits of sufferings; and my belly was troubled at his touch, when, persecution being imminent, my weaker members, troubled, trembled at the bitterness of the punishments that were inflicted upon me by his permission. But this touch is understood as the torment of the coming blow, according to that [passage] in Job, when Satan says to the Lord: Otherwise touch his bones and his flesh, unless he bless thee to thy face (Job I).

980DNum. 108. I arose to open to my beloved. Awaking in heart, I confessed Christ, and, not deterred by bodily torments in my sufferings and in my works — the mortification of confessors — it also appeared in the elect: In the sight of the Lord precious is the death of the saints (Psalm. CXXV).

Num. 109. I opened the bolt of my door. All doubt removed, I believed in Christ, and loved him with unspeakable love, and preached him with clear voice among the nations, and called upon him to be present to me in tribulations.

Num. 110. But he had turned aside. In this he, as it were, turned aside and passed by, when he handed me over to persecutors and to the wicked, and himself permitted them to rage against my body.

981ANum. 111. My soul melted. Hearing his promises I burned with desire, when, he himself promising, I learned that they are blessed who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matth. V).

Num. 112. I sought him and did not find him. Thus in the trampling of the malicious I was forsaken as though there were no helper; and [as though] he who might defend from enemies could not come to aid, as also blessed Job, set in his suffering, said: I cry to thee and thou hearest me not, and thou lookest not upon me; thou art changed toward me into one cruel, and in the fury of thy hand thou art set against me.

Num. 113. The watchmen found me. The powers of the world seized me, who are known to govern, as it were, the commonwealth.

981BNum. 114. They struck me, they wounded me with blows. And they raged with torments upon my body; and loading me with chains, they shut me up in prisons. Prolonging life with exquisite tortures and not bringing death quickly, lest I might easily be freed from the punishments inflicted.

Num. 115. They took away my cloak. For when they demolished the churches down to the ground, and burned with fire the altars together with the Gospels and the other canonical books; when they shut up the priests, condemned to the mines; when no place for sacrificing, no liberty of baptizing, no leave of communicating was allowed; when the persecutors did all these things, then in a manner they took away from the bride of Christ, that is, the Church, as it were a certain cloak.

Num. 116. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem. He conjures all 981Cthe saints, [asking] whether through these tribulations they may come to him, the life of the world despised: that they may show the Church, set in these persecutions, fervent with unspeakable love toward God, and in no way growing cold amid such great and so horrible straits.

Num. 117. What manner of one is thy beloved? The voice of the elect asking, and inquiring the faith of the Church from her answer. What manner of one is thy beloved from the beloved? that is, what manner is God from God, or the Son from the Father? declaring in the likeness of all things the equality of the persons. For they are not distinguished [but are] of one nature, and are believed to abide in the same glory of majesty.

Num. 118. My beloved is white and ruddy. White, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God 981D(Joan. I). Ruddy, because begotten of the Virgin, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. White in virginity, ruddy in passion: as also the prophet says of him: Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra (Isa. LXIII)? Edom is interpreted "blood"; and therefore ruddy from the shedding of blood. This one, beautiful in his robe, walking in the multitude of his strength. Chosen out of thousands. He it is of whom [it is said] in the Psalms: Who shall be like to God among the sons of God (Psal. XLIV)? and again, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, grace is poured out on thy lips.

Num. 119. His head is the finest gold. We read in the Apostle: The head of the man is Christ, but the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God (I Cor. I). And therefore, just as among metals 982Anothing is like gold, so among creatures nothing will be compared to the Creator. But the head of Christ is God, according to what we recalled a little before from the Gospel, In the beginning was the Word, etc.

Num. 120. His locks are as the high fronds of palm trees. Those saints indeed are known to cling to their head, that is, to Christ, who, in the likeness of the raven, acknowledge themselves sinners: of whom is he who says: If I should wish to make myself righteous before thee, my own mouth shall condemn me (Job. IX). And again another: For I acknowledge my iniquity (Ps. L). And with harmonious voice John pronounces with the elect: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, who will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity (I Joan. 982BI). Likewise also Paul: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (I Tim. I). And because everyone, according to the Gospel, who humbles himself shall also be exalted (Matth. XXIII; Luc. IV, XVIII): those who cast themselves down by the confession of sin, according to what is written in this book, are not undeservedly compared to the loftiness of palm trees.

Num. 121. His eyes are like doves. Filled with the Holy Spirit, his elect abide without any gall of bitterness, and imbue the people with the little streams of the Scriptures.

Num. 122. Which are washed with milk. Thereupon made cleaner, because they believe with undoubting faith that Christ was born in the flesh; and acknowledge themselves reborn, washed, and nourished by the visible sacrament, they abide beside the fullest streams, that is, among the most abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit.

982CNum. 123. His cheeks are like little beds of spices. For just as in the eyes of doves we rightly understand the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit, so also in the cheeks, which are near the eyes, [we understand] those Churches which believed through the apostles, which, like little beds of spices, produce a most sweet odor from holy manner of life: planted by the perfumers: namely by devout preachers, to whom the Apostle says: But thou, when thou wast a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and made a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive (Rom. XI).

Num. 124. His lips are dropping myrrh. His teachers, [proclaiming him] by the Spirit or even [born] of the flesh of the Virgin; and in this preaching his passion, so that for him who died for us they do not refuse death.

Num. 125. His hands are turned and golden. Among the hands 982Dof Christ are reckoned those who do not cease to work the things that are good. Therefore turned and golden, because always ready for every good work; full of hyacinths, according to that [word] of the Apostle: Rich in good works, giving easily, and laying up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on the true life (I Tim. VI).

Num. 126. His belly is of ivory. In his belly are reckoned those who, believing, bring forth in faith; and this belly of ivory is also not unfittingly taken as the font of baptism, from which we are reborn; and because the bones of ivory are known to be the beautiful and incorruptible bones of a dead animal, therefore it is said to us by the Apostle: Or do you not know that whoever of us have been baptized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in his death? For we are buried together 983Awith him by baptism into death, that as Christ rose through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life (Gal. III). Set with sapphires; adorned with the saints begotten of himself and most illustrious in confession.

Num. 127. His legs are marble columns. The legs, which bear the whole body, are the saints themselves who [bear] the house of the Church, and are described as marble columns founded upon golden bases. For these are the just who support the rest with charity, and prop them up with the consolations of the Scriptures, as the Apostle says: We who are stronger ought to bear the weakness of the weak, and not to please ourselves. And a little after, he indicates the holy Scriptures as it were golden bases, saying: Whatever things were written, were written for our instruction, 983Bthat through the patience and consolation of the Scriptures we might have hope (Rom. XV).

Num. 128. His appearance is as of Lebanon, choice as the cedars. All the saints who have given a most sweet odor from good manner of life, and endure in the integrity of incorruption, have received, God being the author, the grace of such great goods.

Num. 129. His throat is most sweet. Those who expound his mysteries, and daily meditate on his law, administer a most sweet savor in sacred doctrine. And wholly desirable. Where that shall be fulfilled which blessed John says in his Epistle: Dearly beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, and we shall see him as he is (I Joan. III).

983CNum. 130. Such is my beloved. She persuades the just to attend to these varieties of graces, and to these ornaments of the mysteries, when she suggests that the beauty of the bridegroom is to be contemplated in his members.

Num. 131. Whither has thy beloved gone? As if searching and saying: Since thou hast set forth so great a beauty of his, that our heart is made to burn to seek him, now show whither he has gone, or where he has turned aside. And rightly is the Church called a virgin, most beautiful among women, because Paul speaks thus of her to the faithful: I have espoused you to one husband, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ (I Cor. XI). And fittingly they say of him: Whither has thy beloved gone, whither has he turned aside. For he turned aside in a manner when he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, 983Dtaking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man; he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross (Philip. II). Therefore whoever seeks the exalted one in the form of God will not find him unless he believe in the form of the servant: in which he humbled himself for this reason, that he might raise us up who lay prostrate.

Num. 132. My beloved has gone down to the garden. He went down to his garden when in his coming he visited Israel his people, as he himself says: I am not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel (Matth. X). But by the little bed of spice we understand the holy Virgin Mary herself: for from her arose for us the order of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Num. 133. That he may feed in the gardens, and gather lilies. 984AThat he may reign among the nations, or take delight in the Churches: that from them he may take up virgins and all the saints.

Num. 134. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. I am the kingdom of Christ and he is my king; I am his body and he is my head. He feeds among the lilies, when he rests in the heart of virgins, or when there, through the grace which he himself bestows, he daily increases and advances.

Num. 135. Thou art beautiful, my beloved, beautiful, etc. Beautiful through righteousness; sweet and beloved, because always peaceable, comely as Jerusalem. The Lord says in the Gospel: In the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels in heaven (Matth. XII; Luc. X). And rightly is the Church described as comely as Jerusalem, to whom for eternity the likeness of the angels is granted by the Lord.

984BNum. 136. Terrible as an army in battle array. How many tyrants and persecutors, together with their author the devil, have tried to break the strength of the Church and in no way have been able to prevail. For the holy Church has the battle array of a camp set in order, when, Christ being at hand, neither does persecution overcome the martyrs, nor carnal delight the virgins, nor covetousness the merciful, nor the ambition of temporal glory the humble.

Num. 137. Turn thine eyes away from me, for. Do not require me always to be seen in the body, whom thou discernest better in spirit through faith. For I ascended into heaven for this reason, that I might not always appear to thee confined to a place — I who so fill all things (by the presence of my divinity) that I am present everywhere, and contain all things, and am contained by no place.

984CNum. 138. Thy hair is like flocks of goats, thy teeth like a flock of sheep which all [bear] twin offspring, and there is none barren, etc. Like the rind of a pomegranate. These four verses, it is agreed, are here written twice, which by God's gift we have already treated in an earlier place: in which, however, he foretold the peoples of the Jews and gentiles to be converted with the fruit of twofold love, and declared the glory of the martyrs with their merits.

Num. 139. There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines. In the number sixty, which is completed by six ascending through ten, we recognize every perfection of good things which is accomplished from the precepts of the law. But how the number six consists of the whole of its parts, note briefly: for its sixth part is proved to be one, its third two, and its half three. But who does not know that one, and two, and three 984Dare six? which, in another number, with the parts distributed and reduced to a sum, is found to be thus completed with difficulty. And so the queens are called the perfect souls of the saints, which are not handmaids of sins: for so it is written, Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (I Cor. III). But the concubines, who, like Hagar, bring forth unto bondage (Gal. IV), are rightly reckoned among those who, having received the seed of the word of God, are wise not in spiritual but in carnal things. But of the young maidens of whom there is no number, there is the multitude of those who are ready to hear the things that are ever holy, and yet do not strive to fulfill in works what they hear, of whom the Apostle says: Ever learning, and never 985Aarriving at the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. III). And although these are kinds of men who are joined to Christ as it were through his teaching, nevertheless, because in the elect not diversity but unity is commended, hear what follows.

Num. 140. One is my dove, my perfect one. Dove, because she is simple, and is wise in spiritual things; perfect, because, leaving the world, she loves me more than temporal things or herself, according to that [word]: If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come and follow me (Matth. XIX).

Num. 141. She is the one chosen of her mother. Of her mother the heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle says: But the Jerusalem which is above is our mother (Gal. IV). She is therefore one to her, because in future blessedness she alone shall be joined to her.

985BNum. 142. The daughters saw her, and proclaimed her most blessed. For what holy souls are there that do not extol the Church with wondrous praises, when not even the concubines, that is the carnal, are silent in her praise, since they admire her unconquered in the martyrs and victorious in the virgins?

Num. 143. Who is this that comes forth as. She rises up as the dawn, when, the works of darkness despised, she lives chastely and soberly in the married; beautiful as the moon, when in the continent she shines with white brightness; choice as the sun, when in the virgins she shines forth with the beauty of perfection, like that good earth in the Gospel, which, having received into itself the seed of the word of God, produced fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold; terrible as an army set in order. Is she not terrible who overthrew the rites of the nations 985Cand the worship of idols, and herself, enduring in the faith of Christ, could not be overcome by the nations? And she is very terrible in this too, when that power is given to her in Peter, where it is said: Whatever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven (Matth. XVI et XVIII).

Num. 144. I went down to the garden of nuts, to see. The garden of nuts designates the canon of the Old and New Testament: for the nature of nuts shows one thing in the shell, and retains another in the kernel. And if anyone does not discern in the holy Scriptures, and does not, as it were, seek the inner things within the shells of the nut, he cannot come to the birth of spiritual understanding. But as for what he says, That I might see the fruits of the valley: that I might see 985Dthe fruit of the most lowly people in the Church, as is sung in the Psalms: For thou wilt save the humble people, and wilt bring low the eyes of the proud (Psal. XVII).

Num. 145. That I might look whether the vineyards had flourished. That I might prove whether the Church had so far advanced that there should spring up in her those who would reach the perfection of martyrdom; and that they should be beautiful, ruddy, on account of the shedding of the blood of their Christ.

Num. 146. I knew not, my soul troubled me. What did Christ not know, except sin? He also knew not those who in the Gospel say: Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name, and in thy name do many mighty works? And then (he says) I will say to them: Amen I say to you, 986AI know you not (Matth. VII): not that he did not know what manner of men they were, but because he knew that there was nothing good from them. My soul troubled me because of the chariots of Aminadab. We find this Aminadab too genealogically in Christ. Whence we recognize that these chariots too are to be taken in a good sense: in which we not unfittingly understand the evangelists. Furthermore, as for what he says, My soul troubled me, this troubling is not contrary to tranquillity, but is found to be fitting to solicitude, according to what is said to Martha in the Gospel: Why art thou solicitous, and troubled (Luc. X) about many things? And in the Psalms: Thou hast moved the earth, and troubled it; heal thou its breaches, for it is shaken (Psal. LIX). But whence do all the narratives of the Gospels narrate except through the Holy 986BSpirit, according to that [word] of the prophet Ezekiel: Wherever the Spirit went, thither also the wheels were borne together (Ezech. III et X)?

Num. 147. Return, return, O Shunammite. We find this Shunammite twice set in a praiseworthy place in the book of Kings: that is, both her who ministered to king David in his old age, and in his embrace remained indeed a most beautiful virgin (IV Reg. IV), and also her whose son, born by promise and afterward dead, Elisha raised up (III Reg. I). Wherefore who would doubt that by this name the holy Church is to be understood? But often return is said to her, who once, in that younger son going away into a far country (Luc. XV), had been turned away; for then she returned, when she was converted to God from the heart. 986COr return is said to her so frequently for this reason, that even if, being converted, she should fall, she may not sink into despair, but by the indulgence of hope may recover from the habit of sinning. Which voice is surely approved as [addressed] to the saints, who desire to behold the beauty of her [now] converted.

Num. 148. What will you see in the Shunammite, but. What is to be beheld in the Church, but the disposition of those who, always in readiness as though set in a camp, do not cease to fight against the devil, for this reason surely, lest the faithful lose their faith; lest the religious, puffed up, become apostates; lest the merciful be hardened by avarice; lest the penitent return to their vomit; lest the virgins lack the beauty of integrity; lest the continent lose the brightness of chastity? These are in the Church the choirs of the camp, continually set in the contest, and, 986DGod fortifying them, ever unconquered.

Num. 149. How beautiful are thy steps! How admirable is the advance in those who announce the word of God in the Church of Christ! as the Apostle recalls what was written in the prophet: How beautiful are the feet of those who evangelize good things! And again he himself: [Your] feet shod in the preparation of the Gospel of peace (Rom. X).

Num. 150. The joining of thy thighs. By the joining of thy thighs we understand the fellowship of the peoples coming from the circumcision and the uncircumcision; and by this, both those who according to the flesh were propagated from the thigh of Abraham, and those who deserved [to be] in his seed, that is in Christ — when they are joined into the unity of faith — are described as necklaces which have been made by the hand of a 987Acraftsman. For what craftsman joined these peoples in faith like necklaces, except he of whom the Apostle says: He is our peace, who has made both one (Ephes. VI)?

Num. 151. Thy navel is a turned goblet. Those who are placed not at the extremity but in the middle of the Church's body are called the navel. The turned goblet: they are useful vessels, turned in it, because they are prepared for obeying and for every good work (Ephes. II), and never lack drinks, because they are always filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Num. 152. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat. Those who always receive the holy nourishments of the Scriptures, and gather up within themselves the things that are wholesome, are reckoned under the likeness of the belly, and these are rightly called as it were a heaped-up 987Bpile of wheat, because from the sound doctrine with which they are daily filled, they abundantly refresh many; which doctrine advances so far that by devout persuasions it leads many even to the observance of virginity.

Num. 153. Thy two breasts are like two fawns. The two testaments are fitted to the two fawns of a roe, that is, to the peoples coming from the propagation of sin. For by these works are nourished those who, subject to original sin, are reborn in Christ as fawns.

Num. 154. Thy neck is like a tower of ivory. The knowledge of the Scriptures, which is acquired by frequent meditation, is designated, like a tower of ivory, in the beauty of the neck. And [it is called] a tower of ivory for this reason, that those who attend upon the word of God advance to higher things by daily progress through the brightness of 987Crighteousness.

Num. 155. Thy eyes are like the fishpools in Heshbon. Thy spiritual teachers, set in the gate, are in Christ like watering waters for instructing the peoples. For [they are called] fishpools for this reason, that they are filled with the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. In another book Solomon himself also says: I made pools of water, to water the woods of the springing trees (Eccle. II).

Num. 156. Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon. The nose of the Church are those who, perceiving the odor of righteousness which is in Christ, transmit it to the inner things of the heart. These, who stand in great virtue, are set forth as the tower of Lebanon. And we have already said above that Lebanon is whiteness: the whiteness of their loftiness looks toward Damascus, because their wisdom, which is from 987DGod, illuminates the world.

Num. 157. Thy head is like Carmel, and thy hair. On Mount Carmel the holy Elijah and Elisha often had their refuge (III Reg. XVIII): wherefore in the head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ — since he is the more exalted (as though on Mount Carmel) — both the just find a dwelling, and the multitude of peoples, like a variety of animals, receive the nourishment of wisdom. The hair of his head, like the purple of a king bound in the channels: for the more eminent saints, namely the blessed martyrs of Christ, likened through the purple to royal ornaments, are understood to be always joined to saving doctrines.

Num. 158. Thy stature is likened to a palm tree. Thy perfection 988Ahas come to its reward, and thy teachers have been made sweet through the Holy Spirit.

Num. 159. I said, I will go up into the palm tree. Those go up into the palm tree who advance in the cross of Christ, of whom the Apostle says: they who are in Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences. But they themselves obtain the fruits, the rewards, of this palm (the holy cross), who say with the same Apostle: if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified (Rom. VIII).

Num. 160. And thy breasts shall be like the clusters of the vine. For no others are found who nourish those being born in faith, except the teachers of the Church.

Num. 161. And thy odors like [those] of apples. And the sweetness of thy instruction shall be spread abroad through those who, living soberly and justly, do not cease 988Bto offer the odor of good manner of life.

Num. 162. Thy throat is like the best wine. In the throat also can be understood those saints through whom the law and the prophets and the gospel teaching were proclaimed: which holy Scripture indeed, endowed with excellent savor, gives forth fragrance and shines like the best wine, and through the Holy Spirit inebriates those who drink.

Num. 163. Worthy for my beloved to drink. They drink of the sacred Scripture of Christ, when from it Christians, who are his members, are satisfied in wondrous ways and with incomparable sweetness.

Num. 164. And for his lips and teeth to ruminate. The lips and teeth of Christ are the teachers of the Church: these do not cease to ruminate what is holy, when they daily 988Cmeditate on the things that were written for our instruction.

Num. 165. I am my beloved's, and his turning is toward me. To this beloved, in the voice of the Church, it is said: my soul has cleaved after thee, thy right hand has upheld me (Psal. LXII). Let us see also elsewhere how she speaks to her beloved: But we thy people, and the sheep of thy flock (Psal. LXXVIII). And as to how his turning is toward me, the prophet says: And it shall be, before they cry, I will hear; while they are yet speaking, I will hear (Isai. LXVI), says the Lord. But there is no turning of Christ toward the Church so evident as when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Joan. I).

Num. 166. Come, my beloved, let us go forth. Christ goes forth with the Church into the field, when with the aforesaid saints he visits the world, as it is written 988Din the Gospel: He who sows the good seed is the Son of man (Matth. XIII; Marc. XIV); the field is the world. Let us abide in the villages; among the believing peoples spread on every side, in whom Christ dwells through faith; not without the Church, since, reckoning those same ones among his members, he makes them his Church.

Num. 167. Let us rise early to the vineyards. That the souls which have already deserved to be cultivated through faith may, in the mornings, know that Christ has risen, lest they any longer distrust concerning the resurrection of their own body.

Num. 168. Let us see if the vineyard has flourished. Let it appear whether the faithful proclaim with the mouth what they have believed with the heart, as the Apostle says: With the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. X); or if the flowers bring forth 989Afruits, whether in them, through holy desires, the works of piety have come forth.

Num. 169. If the pomegranates have flourished. Whether those who have believed in Christ advance in such great love that they even delight in every way to be slain for him. Do you wish to see a pomegranate? Hear in the Acts of the Apostles Paul the apostle: I, he says, am ready not only to be judged in Jerusalem, but also to die for Christ (Act. XXI).

Num. 170. There I will give thee thy breasts. In this holy confession my teachers shall be joined to thee, prepared to suffer for thee, who also shall reign without end with thee.

Num. 171. The mandrakes have given their odor. Those who are founded in faith with a deep root, and are known to flourish by a certain austerity of discipline or 989Bfrugality, have instructed the peoples by public preachings, offering the odor of sweetness from a most holy manner of life.

Num. 172. All gifts new and old. Because both in the patriarchs and prophets and in the apostles and martyrs I myself have kept for thee things new and old; because they proclaimed thee and believed that thou wouldst come, these do not cease to preach thee born of the Virgin and having suffered for the salvation of all, and after the resurrection taken up into heaven.

Num. 173. Who will give thee to me for my brother. Christ sucks the breasts of the mother when the Christian people is refreshed by the mysteries of the ancient law, or when the teachers refresh [them] with spiritual sacraments and most devout exposition, as if with true milk.

989CNum. 174. That I may find thee without and kiss thee. That I, he says, may find thee in truth through the Gospel, thee whom the figures of the Old Testament covered. And he says well: I will find thee without, because to that younger son returning from the far country, the father went back to meet him (Luc. XV): that I may kiss thee, he says, that I may deserve to be reconciled to thee; and now no one will despise me; that is, that it may not be said to Peter, concerning Cornelius whom the grace of the Holy Spirit had gone before: Why didst thou go in to men having uncircumcision, and eat with them? But let Peter himself declare: In truth I perceive that there is no respect of persons with God, but in every place, and in every nation, he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him (Act. XI).

989DNum. 175. I will lay hold of thee, and lead thee. For when I have laid hold of thee and cleaved to thee through faith, it remains that I bring thee into the house of my mother: namely into the congregation of Jerusalem: thither surely I will bring thee, when I myself also, with all the goods which I have obtained through thy grace, shall have deserved to be led there, that is, to the heavenly Jerusalem.

Num. 176. There thou wilt teach me, and I will give thee a cup. There thou wilt teach me, that I may see now not in a riddle through a mirror, but face to face; and not in part as now, but then I shall know as also I am known (I Cor. XIII), as he says: And I will give thee a cup of spiced wine, and the new wine of pomegranates: when I shall have brought forth the best and sweetest fruits of the holy martyrs, 990Aand the sons of men who hope in the shadow of thy wings shall be inebriated with the fatness of thy house, and thou wilt give them to drink of the torrent of thy pleasures (Psal. XXXV).

Num. 177. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem. These things which are written in this place, already foretold above, are found expounded, Christ enlightening [us]. But I think they are written again in this book for this reason, that they may settle more forcefully in the heart; and, being twice suggested, may be renewed with livelier memory. These bid that temporal things be despised; and, set beneath us, they teach [them to be] as a left hand placed under the head; and they admonish that the heavenly glory, which embraces us from the higher part as a right hand, is to be awaited; or this, that those about to serve the Lord may perform the things that are holy willingly, not unwillingly, 990Baccording to what Peter the apostle teaches: Feed the flock of God which is among you, not by constraint but willingly (I Petr. V).

Num. 178. Who is this that comes up from the desert? Rightly is she described as coming up from the desert, to whom the prophet says: Because thou wast forsaken and held in hatred, and there was none that passed through thee (Isai. LX), etc. Of whose sons also it is sung in the Psalms: They wandered in the wilderness, in a dry place; they found not the way to a city of habitation. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them, and they cried to the Lord when they were troubled, and he delivered them out of their distresses; and he led them by the right way, that they might go into a city of habitation (Psal. X). Therefore it follows.

Num. 179. Abounding in delights. Whence also the people of Israel, 990Cgoing forth from the desert, enters into the land of promise flowing with milk and honey; and that son who, desiring to feed on the husks of the swine, could not be satisfied, is brought in to be refreshed at the feast which the father prepared from the fatted calf that was killed. These delights the Church, coming from the desert, finds manifold in Christ; and she is written to be leaning upon her beloved, because to her the same beloved says through the prophet: I have made, I will bear, I will carry, and I will save (Isai. XLVI).

Num. 180. Under the apple tree I raised you up. On the fragrant gibbet of the cross, where I lay down, there I raised thee up from the destruction of sins, when I command that thee, believing, be marked beforehand with the sign of the cross.

Num. 181. There thy mother was corrupted. Where thou didst deserve to be raised up through my death, there the 990DSynagogue was taken through her own impiety, when she cried Crucify; and answered, while Pilate was judging: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Luc. XXIII).

Num. 182. Set me as a seal. So that thou mayest say with the Psalmist, The light of thy countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord; thou hast given gladness in my heart (Psal. IV). Since whatever things are sealed cannot easily be violated, so receive my faith, that thou mayest keep it whole and unimpaired, and mayest fear in no way that the treasure of righteousness which thou hast received through the seal of the cross, which I have bestowed upon thee, will be touched by anyone.

Num. 183. Set me as a seal. Understand that the seal is to be set first upon the heart, then 991Aupon the arm: that is, that both in thought and in work thou mayest run to my sign; and by this show thyself to be not another's but mine; and, with me protecting thee, mayest persevere whole.

Num. 184. For thy love is strong as death. I loved thee so much that I willed to die for thee; and this was the strength of love, the bitterness of death. But jealousy is hard as hell; so that the saints too, on the other side, do not fear to be slain for Christ, whom they have known without doubt to have undergone death for their salvation.

Num. 185. Its lamps are lamps of fire. The vessels in which chastity dwells are always splendid and fervent with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Num. 186. Many waters could not quench charity, nor shall the floods overwhelm it, nor tribulations; no persecutions, however strong, can disturb or conquer the love which is from God, or toward God, 991Baccording to what the Apostle says: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or the sword, or peril? For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. VIII).

Num. 187. If a man should give his whole substance. As if he should say: And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing (I Cor. XIII). For nothing is more precious than this, as John 991Cthe apostle says: For God is charity; and he who abides in charity abides in God.

Num. 188. Our sister is little, and has no breasts. The Church coming from the gentiles, still untrained for believing, and not yet endowed with learned men for teaching, according to what the Apostle says: I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not yet able, but neither indeed are you now able, for you are still carnal (I Cor. III). And elsewhere: If you have secular judgments, set those who are contemptible in the Church to judge them. I speak to your shame: is there not among you any wise man, who is able to judge between his brother (I Cor. VI)? While he rebukes them in such great faintheartedness, he surely shows a people still small 991Din faith, and not yet fit for spiritual nourishments.

Num. 189. What shall we do for our sister? How shall we order the Church in the time when she is to be called to the faith?

Num. 190. If she is a wall, let us build upon her. Those who have begun to grow in faith and to be so established that by their strength they admonish the weak; having received the privilege of honor, let them be appointed to teach the rest, according to what Paul [says] to Timothy: Commend these things to faithful men who will be fit to teach others also (II Tim. II). And again to Titus: For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst correct the things that are wanting, and shouldst appoint presbyters in the cities, as I appointed to thee. While these things are thus ordered in 992Athe Church, they are as silver bulwarks added to the walls.

Num. 191. If she is a door, let us frame [it]. The Prophet says in the Psalms: Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door of enclosure round about my lips (Psal. CXL). And so, if there is anyone fit for speaking, and, like a door which is opened and shut, understands the time of speaking or of keeping silence; let us frame such a door with boards of cedar, so that, while it takes into itself the fragrant wood, it may be able to say with Paul: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. VI).

Num. 192. I am a wall, and my breasts are like a tower. It is the voice of the Church, advancing both in faith and for faith: I am a wall; because he himself has built me, who most mightily 992Bfights for me. And my breasts are like a tower. God building [them], they have grown in the loftiness of righteousness, and they nourish in me the little ones who are in Christ; and until they come to the food of perfection, they do not cease to bring them up, until it be said to them by the voice of wisdom: Leave off infancy, and come, walk by the ways of prudence.

Num. 193. From the time I was made in his presence. From the time I found peace with Christ, from that time I received both the defenses of walls and the bulwarks of towers with comeliness, when by him who founded me I deserved to be a city with them, having fortifications in the saints, and retaining beauty in the elect.

Num. 194. The peaceable one had a vineyard. Constant cultivation was 992Capplied by Christ to the Church, which has those peoples of whom it is sung in the Psalms: Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God (Psal. XCI). He delivered it to keepers. He committed it to be ruled by the apostles or their successors the bishops. To whom, under the name of Jerusalem, the Lord says through the prophet: Upon thee and upon thy walls I have set thy keepers; all the day and night, unto the end they shall keep silence (Isai. VIII).

Num. 195. The man brings its fruits, a thousand pieces of silver. Christ, of whom the prophet says: Behold a man, the Orient is his name (Zach. VI). He recompenses the kingdom of heaven for holy labors or almsgivings, according to what is said in the Gospel: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; 992DI was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick and in prison, and you came to me (Matth. XXV). But in the thousand pieces of silver is shown the fullness of the whole recompense, and the completed reward of the just.

Num. 196. My vineyard is before me. According to what is sung in the Psalms: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers. For the Apostle says: That the Lord himself, at the commandment and at the voice of an archangel and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven, and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first; then we who live, who are left, shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be ever with the Lord (I Thess. IV). Therefore, because after the resurrection the saints are ever with 993Athe Lord, therefore the Lord says, My vineyard is before me.

Num. 197. Thy thousand peaceable ones, and two hundred for these. For twelve, if they be enlarged by the number one hundred, make a thousand two hundred; which number surely befits the apostolic men, who were spiritually begotten of them through the Gospel in Christ, who, set in the highest perfection, like that best earth, answer to their author by the hundredfold fruit. These too are rightly described as peaceable, that is, the disciples of Christ, both because they themselves guard the fruits of the Church, or by the voice of their teaching drive off the wicked without, or by their prayers do not cease to defend the Church which Christ planted from wicked dogs and the bites of beasts.

993BNum. 198. Thou who dwellest in the gardens. Thou who overflowest among the peoples set under the cultivation of righteousness, or ever watered with the water of spiritual doctrine.

Num. 199. O friend, hearken, make me to hear. The Lord says in the Gospel to his disciples: Now I will not call 994Ayou servants, but friends (Joan. XXV); and again: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice (Joan. III). Make me to hear thy voice: that voice surely which thou speakest to the faithful who are to be rewarded: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many; enter into the joy of thy lord (Matth. XXVIII).

Num. 200. Flee, my beloved, and be like a roe and a fawn of the harts upon the mountains of spices. Thou who didst dwell with us on earth, incline to return to the things above. And thus ascending on high, thou who now appearest to the gazes of the flesh, be ever present to the eyes of the heart, that we may hold thee in faith whom we do not discern by sight. Be like a roe and a fawn of the harts; because thou art he 994Bwho didst take the flesh of mortals, and with swift leap didst cross over all the heights of the heavens. Upon the mountains of spices, being more exalted above all the glory of the angels.