EXPOSITIO IN CANTICA CANTICORUM

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1055D505 Both manuscript codices and printed editions set the name of Cassiodorus at the head of this little work — at least those which it has been possible to see; all the librarians too, if you except one, and very many other authors of better note ascribe it to our author without any controversy. To me, however, it seems most certain that it is not Cassiodorus's; but by what arguments chiefly I am led to that opinion, our preface, which we have placed before the head of this work, will sufficiently show. Consult it therefore, if you please, kind reader.

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1056DSolomon, inspired by the divine Spirit, composed this little book concerning the marriage of Christ and the Church, and in a manner made an epithalamium of Christ and the Church, that is, a song upon the bridal chambers. Whence also he called this work the Song of Songs: because it surpasses all songs. For as it is said, King of kings, and Lord of lords (Apoc. XVII, 14), and solemnity of solemnities: so it is called the Song of Songs on account of its excellence and dignity. But in this respect that little book is the more obscure, 1057Abecause no persons are there named, and it is composed as it were in the comic style.

Verse 1. Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. It is the voice of the Synagogue longing for the coming of Christ. As though she said: So many times has he promised me his coming through the prophets; let him come therefore now, and let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, that is, let him speak to me through himself.

For thy breasts are better than wine. Suddenly turning her words to him for desire of whom she was burning, she adds, For thy breasts are better than wine. By the breasts of Christ the sweetness of the Gospel is understood: because by it, as by milk, the infancy of believers is nourished. Wine, however, signifies the severity of the law: but the breasts of Christ are better than wine, because the sweetness of the Gospel is better than the severity of the law. For in the law no repentance is reserved, but it is commanded that he who sins be slain; whereas the Gospel says: I will not the death of the sinner (Ezech. XVIII, 32), and so forth.

Verse 2. Fragrant with the best ointments. The ointments 1057Bare the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or also the workings of the virtues; of which the Apostle says: We are the good odour of Christ (II Cor. II, 15).

Thy name is oil poured out. Thy name, O Christ, is poured out. In Greek chrisma, in Latin unctio, anointing — whence Christ. The name of Christ is so called from anointing. For the Holy Spirit is wont to be called by the name of oil, according to what the Psalmist says: God, thy God, hath anointed thee with oil (Psal. XLIV, 8), that is, with the Holy Spirit. This oil was poured out when that grace which Christ had in a singular way was given to all the elect. Whence also from Christ they are called Christians, by a sharing in the name of Christ. And well is it said to be oil not dripped but poured out, because this grace was given abundantly to all who cherish the faith of Christ.

Therefore the young maidens have loved thee. The young maidens are said to be the souls of the elect, which in baptism have left behind the filth of the old man and have been made new in Christ. And well are they spoken of in the feminine gender: because 1057Cthe souls of the saints, the more conscious they are of their own frailty, the more abundantly do they love Christ.

Verse 3. Draw me after thee, we will run. The voice of the Church. Here there is a change of person; for hitherto the Synagogue has spoken, here the Church of the Gentiles begins to speak: Draw me after thee, we will run. Because (she says) I know my own weakness, and I see that by my own strength I can do nothing good, by thy grace draw me to the imitation of thee; or also, when thou hast 506 ascended into heaven, Draw me after thee, that I may deserve to follow thee.

The King hath brought me into his cellars. Here the Church speaks concerning Christ her bridegroom to the faithful souls. The cellars of God are eternal blessedness and the joys of the heavenly fatherland, into which the Church has already been brought by faith and hope, and one day shall be brought in the reality.

We will exult and rejoice in thee. Of thy gifts (she says) we will exult and rejoice. But because we know that this is not of our own merit, in thee, not in ourselves, shall we exult. This is what the Apostle says: He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (I Cor. I, 31).

1057DMindful of thy breasts above wine. That is, mindful of thy grace, and of the mercy by which we have been saved. For the breasts are that very grace by which we are saved. Remembering also that thou hast deigned to temper the severity of the law with the breasts of evangelical teaching.

The upright love thee. Those (she says) who are upright of heart love thee; that is, those who attribute nothing to their own merits, but reckon all to thy grace. For no one loves thee save the upright, and no one is upright save he who loves thee.

Verse 4. I am black, but comely, ye daughters of Jerusalem. Here again the Church speaks of her afflictions to the holy souls. I am black, because I suffer persecutions; but I am comely in virtues, O daughters of Jerusalem, that is, ye faithful souls. I am black, that is, misshapen by the persecutions and hardships which I endure; but I am comely with the beauty of the virtues. And in what way she is black, and in what way comely, she shows when she adds:

As the tents of Cedar, as the skins of Solomon. For thus 1058Ait is to be distinguished: I am black as the tents of Cedar, comely as the skins of Solomon. Cedar was a son of Ishmael, which is interpreted darkness. And the Ishmaelites have always been accustomed to dwell in tents, and have no houses. The Church says therefore that she is black as the tents of Cedar, on account of the persecutions which she suffered from the sons of darkness, which is what Cedar is interpreted. Hence the Psalmist says: I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar (Psal. CXIX, 5), that is, I have lived among persecutors and sinners black with unbelief. But she says that she is comely as the skins, that is, the tents of Solomon, who is interpreted peaceable: since she was worthy of the visitation and consolation of her bridegroom Christ amid her straits. And as tents are made from the skins of dead animals, so the Church, the tabernacle namely of God, is built up out of those who mortify themselves together with their vices and concupiscences (Galat. V, 24).

Verse 5. Consider me not that I am swarthy, because the sun hath discoloured me. O souls faithful and devoted to God, 1058Bconsider me not that I am swarthy, that is, that I am afflicted with tribulations, that I am oppressed with persecutions; because the sun hath discoloured me, that is, the heat of persecution has in a manner darkened my splendour. As if she said: Think upon my inward beauty, and attend to that, not to those things which I am seen to suffer outwardly. Such is what the Apostle also says: Faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For the sufferings are not worthy (Ephes. III, 13), and the rest. Now the sun in the Scriptures has many senses. Sometimes it signifies the very Mediator of God and men; whence it is written: To you that fear my name the sun of justice shall arise (Malach. IV, 2), that is, Christ. It signifies also the Church, as the Lord says: Then shall the just shine as the sun (Matth. XIII, 43). Sometimes the heat of persecution, as here and in the Gospel, where it is said of the seed that fell upon the rock, and when the sun was risen it was scorched; which the Lord himself opens up in expounding it: But when persecution ariseth because of the word, they are scandalized 1058C(Matth. XIII, 6, 21).

The sons of my mother have fought against me. Whence this persecution took its beginning she shows when she adds: The sons of my mother have fought against me. It is the voice of the primitive Church, whose mother is the Synagogue, to whom it is said by the prophet: And thou shalt be called the faithful city (Isai. I, 26), and mother of cities, daughter of Sion. Her sons are the Jews, who fought against the primitive Church when they stirred up persecution against the believers, and all were scattered through the regions of Samaria (Act. VIII, 1).

They have set me keeper in the vineyards. One vineyard was the primitive Church at Jerusalem; but when, because of the Jewish persecution, all the believers were scattered, many vineyards were made, that is, many Churches were built throughout the whole world. The primitive Church therefore says: They have set me (namely the apostles and teachers) keeper, that is, that I should be the keeper of the Churches. Whence also in the Greek it is well said, they were sown abroad, where we read, they were scattered (Act. VIII, 1); for to this end were they divinely scattered disperi, that more Churches might be made throughout the whole 1058Dworld.

My vineyard I have not kept, that is, that one Church which was at Jerusalem I have not kept. This is to be referred not to her will, nor to her mind, but to the place. I have not kept it — supply: so that it should be there where it began.

Verse 6. Show me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest down at midday. It is the voice of the Church to her bridegroom Christ. O bridegroom, whom my soul loveth, that is, whom I love with the whole intent of my mind, show me where thou feedest, that is, where thou causest thy sheep to be fed; for he himself is the good Shepherd, as he himself says in the Gospel (Joan. X, 14). Show me where thou feedest and where thou liest down, that is, where thou restest, and this at midday, that is, in the heat of persecution or of temptation. For the Church, labouring under persecutions, entreats her bridegroom to tell her in whose minds he rests. For to lie down is, for the bridegroom, to rest, as he himself says: Upon whom doth my spirit rest (Isai. LXVI, 1059A2), and so forth. For lest the saints wither in the heat of temptation, he himself lies down and rests in their hearts, and protects them from every heat of temptations and persecutions. Why this?

Lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions. By the flocks of companions he calls the conventicles of heretics, who are companions of Christ, because they too feed their own flocks. And the sense is: O bridegroom, show me thy saints and elect, lest perchance I stumble and fall in among heretics, thinking that thou canst be found there. This verse the heretics distinguished ill, as though the bride were asking: Where dost thou feed, where dost thou lie down? and he himself answered: At midday I lie down, and in the southern quarter.

Verse 7. If thou know not thyself, O beautiful among women, go forth, and go after the steps of the flocks. The voice of the bridegroom to his bride the Church. As if he said: Thou complainest that thou art as it were forsaken by me and blackened by the heats of persecutions; and thou dost not consider how beautiful thou art among women, that is, thou attendest not to the beauty of the spiritual virtues by which thou art adorned above all others, 1059Balthough thou art blackened by temptations. If therefore thou know not thyself, that is, if thou dost not acknowledge this thy dignity and comeliness, go forth from my fellowship, and go after the steps of the flocks, that is, follow and imitate the teaching of the erring heretics, 507 who, despising the true Shepherd of the one flock, have heaped up for themselves many flocks.

And feed thy kids, that is, sinners and erring hearers; and this beside the tents of the shepherds, that is, according to the doctrines of the heretics. For there is one shepherd, Christ, who has one flock, that is, the unity of the catholic Church. But the shepherds are many, the heretics, who gather to themselves a flock of deceived men, whom they feed for the devil; of whom the Psalmist also says: They are laid in hell like sheep (Psal. XLVIII, 15). In this place the wicked are called sheep, not on account of simplicity or innocence, but on account of dullness: because they know not how to resist depraved teaching; but all things that are laid upon them by depraved teachers they endure with no 1059Cgood patience.

Verse 8. To my company of horsemen amid the chariots of Pharaoh have I likened thee, my friend. His company of horsemen he calls the army of the children of Israel, namely the six hundred and six thousand who went out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea (Num. II, 32; Exod. XIV, 22). And he calls that multitude his company of horsemen because, as a charioteer is set over his chariot, so God was set over that people, protecting and defending it, and bringing it into the land of promise. To this his company of horsemen he likened his friend; since as that people was saved through the Red Sea, Pharaoh being drowned (Exod. XIV, 27, 28), so the Church of the Gentiles was freed by baptism from the servitude of the devil, and was brought into the true land of promise and into evangelical liberty; and thus she who was the handmaid of vices was made the friend of Christ, cleansed and washed by baptism from the filth of sins.

Verse 9. Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-dove's. It is the nature of the turtle-dove that, if by chance it has lost its mate, 1059Dit seeks no other thereafter. To the turtle-dove therefore is the Church likened: because from the time that Christ left the world in bodily presence and sought the heavens, the Church perseveres most tenaciously in his love; nor does she receive any adulterous lover: because she despises the world and all its concupiscences, and contemplates in mind the beauty of her bridegroom alone. And he compares the cheeks of the Church to the cheeks of the turtle-dove: because in the cheeks modesty chiefly appears, and by this the shame and modesty of the Church is shown: because she blushes at everything foul, and dreads to commit what may displease her bridegroom. And the sense is: fear not that thou wilt wander among the flocks of thy companions, because with so great a modesty of love for me, and with so great a shamefastness, have I endowed and fortified thee, that I am certain thou canst not forsake me and turn aside to strangers.

Thy neck as necklaces. By the neck of the Church the holy teachers are designated; for through the neck food is supplied for the refreshing of the body. The words also by which the secrets of minds are made known go forth 1060Athrough the pipe of the neck. So the holy teachers both show us the food of saving doctrine, and also make plain to us the hidden things of the Scriptures. This neck of the Church, therefore, is as it were a necklace, because the holy teachers are adorned with the gems of chaste doctrine and with the ornaments of the virtues. For a necklace is an ornament of maidens or of matrons.

Verse 10. We will make thee murenulae of gold, vermiculated with silver. Murenulae, according to the letter, are an ornament of a virgin's and a girl's neck, namely little rods of gold interwoven, with the finest threads of silver sometimes intermingled in a beautiful variety; and this is what he says: Vermiculated with silver, that is, marked out and joined to one another in the manner of the earthworms which they call lumbrici. And murenulae are so called from their likeness to the sea-fish which is called murena. Mystically, the murenulae are the interwoven doctrines of the Scriptures, joined together out of the diverse opinions of the holy Fathers. For gold signifies the brightness of the spiritual sense: silver indeed denotes the lustre of eloquence. The bridegroom therefore makes golden murenulae for his bride, 1060Bwhen Christ instructs his Church with the teachings of the holy Fathers, shining in sense and in eloquence, and kindles her to imitate their faith and virtue. It is to be noted that he says in the plural, we will make thee; for Christ as it were joins himself to the persons of the teachers, through whom those very murenulae are linked together, that the Church may be adorned with them.

Verse 11. While the king was at his reclining. The voice of the bride calls her bridegroom Christ king, who by his divinity governs all things, and who also according to his humanity was born of the royal stock of David. The reclining of the king was his incarnation. For to recline is to be laid back or to sit down at meat. And then Christ reclined, when for our redemption he bowed himself down even to the taking up of our nature. And then

My nard gave forth its odour, when the virtue of the Church shone forth the more. For when she considers God made man for her sake, she is the more kindled to the pursuit of the spiritual virtues and to the love of her Creator. 1060CFor nard denotes the fragrance of the spiritual virtues. There were certain saints of God before the incarnation, but (as has been said) holiness increased the more from the time of the incarnation, and then in a manner the nard of the Church, that is, the odour of the virtues, gave forth its odour more strongly. According to the letter, nard is an aromatic herb, with a thick and brittle root, and a small and dense leaf, whose tips spread themselves out into spikes. With this ointment Mary Magdalene is read in the Gospel to have anointed the feet and the head of the Lord in the house of Simon (Matth. XXVI, 7; Marc. XIV, 3; Luc. VII, 38; Joan. XII, 3).

Verse 12. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. Myrrh is an aromatic species of exceeding bitterness, with which the bodies of the dead are embalmed. In this place the passion and burial of Christ are designated: for the body of the Lord, when taken down from the cross by Nicodemus and Joseph, was embalmed with myrrh and aloes, and wrapped in linen cloths with spices, and given over to burial (Matth. XXVII, 59; Marc. XV, 46; Luc. XXIII, 53; Joan. XIX, 40). The Church therefore says to her bridegroom: A bundle of myrrh 1060Dhath my beloved been made to me: because for my sake he died and was buried.

He shall abide between my breasts. No one doubts that the place of the heart is between the breasts. She says therefore: He shall abide between my breasts, that is, he shall be held eternally in the memory of my heart, and I shall never forget his so great benefits; but whether I be in prosperity or in adversity, yet shall I remember him who loved me so greatly, and died for me.

Verse 13. A cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi. Cyprus is an island where noble vines are reported to be, bringing forth the largest clusters. Engaddi likewise is reported to be a place having little trees that sweat out the liquor of balsam. The bride therefore speaks of the resurrection of Christ her bridegroom: A cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me; as if she said: My bridegroom, who tasted the bitterness of death for me, 508 and was to me as it were a bundle of myrrh, in his resurrection was made 1061Ato me a cluster of Cyprus, when he gladdened me with the joy of his resurrection. For wine maketh glad the heart of man (Psal. CIII, 15); and this in the vineyards of Engaddi: because by his resurrection he gave forth his fragrance throughout the whole world as with the sweetest odour of balsam, and spread abroad far and wide the fragrance of faith in him. And Engaddi is interpreted the fountain of the kid, by which baptism is signified, and the sacrifice in which all sins are washed away. For the kid signifies sinners. Baptism therefore is the fountain of the kid; because it receives sinners, but renders them unstained and cleansed from all sins.

Verse 14. Behold thou art beautiful, my friend: behold thou art beautiful. The voice of the bridegroom Christ to his bride the Church. Twice he repeats that she is beautiful, on account of the perfection of her work and the purity of her thought. Behold thou art beautiful, that is, thou art perfect in good works, living holily and piously and justly according to the Apostle (Tit. II, 12). Behold thou art beautiful, having a clean and single intention of heart: because not for earthly advantages, nor for the glory of the world, but that thou mayest please the eyes of God alone, 1061Bdost thou work good things.

Thy eyes are of doves. The dove is a most simple bird, and by it the simplicity and innocence of the Church is figured. For she has as it were the eyes of doves, because she keeps herself free from all feigning and dissimulation. Or also she has the eyes of doves, because she understands the knowledge of the divine Scriptures with a chaste and simple gaze, seeking in it the spiritual and divine senses. For since the Holy Spirit appeared in the likeness of a dove (Matth. III, 16), rightly is the heavenly doctrine understood in the eyes of the dove.

Verse 15. Behold thou art beautiful, my beloved, and seemly. As if she said: Thou indeed sayest that I am beautiful in work and in thought; but I believe and know that I have all this beauty from thee. For thou art beautiful and seemly, thou art the fountain of every good, and whatever good I have, I have by thy grace. And he is called beautiful and seemly: because he is wonderful both in the perpetuity of his divinity and also in the dignity of the humanity he took up.

1061COur little bed is flowering. The little bed of the Church is whatever tranquillity or rest there is in the present life. For the Church is as it were in war, while for Christ she endures diverse conflicts: but she rests as it were in a little bed when she enjoys some small measure of peace granted her. But this little bed is flowering, that is, the rest of the Church is picked out with the variety of the virtues as with blossoming flowers. For then she applies herself more freely to divine contemplation; then she carries out more freely fastings, vigils, and the other exercises of good works.

Verse 16. The beams of our houses are of cedar, our panelled ceilings of cypress. The houses of the Church are the assemblies of the faithful scattered throughout the whole world. But the beams and the panelled ceilings are the very persons of the faithful, of whom the Church consists. But it is to be observed that the beams are for the strengthening of the house, the panelled ceilings for its adornment. And therefore by the beams are designated the teachers, by whose teaching the Church is propped and sustained; but by the panelled ceilings the saints who rejoice in simplicity, who by their 1061Dvirtues adorn the Church, but do not fortify it by teaching. And this is to be observed, that the panelled ceilings are fastened to the beams: so too the life of the faithful in the Church hangs upon the teachers, because by their teaching it is instructed and strengthened. And well are they called beams of cedar and panelled ceilings of cypress; for both trees are of an incorruptible nature, designating the saints who burn with unfading desire in the love of their Creator, and, despising things transitory, hasten to things eternal. The cedar also puts serpents to flight by its odour: so the holy teachers drive off demons or heretics by the fragrance of their teaching.

Verse 1. I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. After the bride has shown what manner of house she and her bridegroom have, the bridegroom too shows of himself what manner of one he is, saying: I am the flower of the field, and the rest; namely, because I spread the odour of my virtue through the breadth 1062Aof the whole world. I am the flower of the field, that is, I am the glory of the world. For as a field is adorned with flowers and grows green, so the whole world is adorned with the faith and knowledge of Christ. I am also the lily of the valleys: because I bestow my grace chiefly upon those minds which, having no hope in themselves, submit themselves to me with humble devotion. For the valleys signify the humble, or the minds of the humble, whose lily is Christ, because the beauty of humble minds is he who said: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart (Matth. XI, 29). This too, which he says, I am the flower of the field, can be referred to the incarnation. For a field is not ploughed, is not cut, is not furrowed by any ploughshare. He says therefore, I am the flower of the field, that is, the Son of the Virgin: he calls himself therefore the flower not of tilled land, but of the field: because he is the fruit of virginal flesh, according to the prophecy of Isaias: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse (Isai. XI, 1). The same Christ is the lily of the valleys, that is, the son of humble parents: for the valleys signify his humble and poor parents. For the Son of God, coming into 1062Bthe world, deigned not only to become man, but even a poor man for us; and he chose to have parents not rich, but poor, that, being made a partaker of our poverty, he might make us partakers of his riches and glory.

Verse 2. As the lily among thorns, so is my friend among the daughters. Seeing his bride hasten to rest and flee eternal labours, and through the quiet of the present time strive toward eternal blessedness, he admonishes her by such a comparison and declaration, that she may know she must come thither through the afflictions and labours of this world. As the lily among thorns, he says, so is my friend among the daughters. The thorns which prick and tear signify all the perverse, whether within or without the Church. And the sense is: So must thou live for a time in the world, and so oughtest thou to be prepared against all adversities, as the lily is among thorns, and yet does not cease to flower and to send forth from itself a pleasing odour: so is my friend among the daughters; because not only from those who are 1062Coutside the Church dost thou suffer evils, but even from those who, regenerated by baptism, seem to have come into the adoption of God. And note that above the bridegroom called himself the lily of the valleys: now he calls his bride As the lily among thorns; because he who is truly the lily makes his Church by grace to be a lily, white, namely, with the virtues, or free from every stain of vices.

Verse 3. As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. Now the bride, praised by the bridegroom, returns him the like, and tells what manner of one he himself also is. As the apple tree, she says, and the rest. As the apple tree 509 has beauty of fruit and a pleasing odour among the wild trees of the woods: so also the man Christ Jesus, the Mediator of God and men (I Tim. II, 5), shines with a special grace among the sons, that is, among the elect. For he himself is the Son of God by nature, the rest of the elect by grace, having received power from the only Son of God to be sons of God. Hence John: We saw his glory, the glory as it were 1062Dof the Only-begotten of the Father (Joan. I, 14); not of any sort whatever, but as it were of the Only-begotten of the Father.

Under his shadow, which I desired, I sat: because I trust in his protection, and hope to be governed by him amid adversities. For the shadow of Christ is the protection of the Divinity, by which he guards and defends the elect.

And his fruit is sweet to my throat, that is, the contemplation of the Divinity, with which I trust to be satisfied; for this is the expectation of the saints, this their reward and their fullness, the vision of their Creator. The Church therefore desires the shadow of her Creator: because she longs for his protection amid the adversities of the present life. His fruit is sweet to my throat, because I look to enjoy fully the sight of his vision, and to be satisfied with the sweetness of his charity.

Verse 4. The king brought me into the wine cellar, he set charity in order in me. The wine cellar is the Church, in which is the wine of evangelical teaching. Into this cellar, therefore, the friend of the bridegroom is brought, when out of all nations the faithful are gathered into one Church. He set charity in order in me, 1063Ashe says. Among all, charity holds the primacy in virtue, by which the Church herself subsists. Charity therefore is set in order in the Church: because the love of God and of man is to be held not rashly, nor confusedly, but in order. For God is to be loved above all things with the whole heart, the whole soul, all one's strength, all one's mind. One's neighbour, finally, is to be loved as each one loves himself (Deut. VI, 5; Matth. XXII, 39; Marc. XII, 30, 31; Luc. X, 27). For he wishes to confound charity who sets the charity of his neighbour before the love of God: of whom the Lord says in the Gospel: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me (Matth. X, 37). Or also he set charity in order in me, that is, he himself first loved me. Then he taught in what manner I ought to love him, whence he himself says: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you (Joan. XV, 16). And John says: Let us love God, because he first loved us (Joan., IV, 19).

Verse 5. Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love. After the Church, or the soul beloved 1063Bof God, has said that charity is set in order within her, she shows in what manner she wishes to rest, or on what bed to repose with her beloved bridegroom, saying: Stay me up with flowers, and the rest. She addresses the souls that already cleave perfectly to the divine love. By the flowers are understood the beginnings of holy conversation; by the apples, the perfect examples of good works; and the sense is: O holy souls, who cleave to the love of your Creator, stay me up with examples of good works, and show in what manner you have lived at the outset of the virtues, or in their advancement, or in the perfection of good works, because I languish with love. For then does the soul languish with the love of God, when she sets nothing before his love; nay, she is made as it were languid and feeble for worldly works, and nothing delights her but the meditation of heavenly things and the contemplation of her Creator.

Verse 6. His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. When (she says) I shall lie on such a bed, his left hand, that is, the bridegroom's, shall be under my head. By the 1063Cleft hand is understood the prosperity of the present time, or also the gifts of God which are conferred upon the saints in this present life. By the right hand, indeed, is taken the blessedness of the heavenly fatherland. The left hand of God is the pledge of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of the divine Scriptures, and the other such gifts and charisms by which holy Church is consoled in the present. By the head is taken the chief part of the mind. The left hand of the bridegroom, therefore, is under the head of the bride, because the Church receives all these gifts to this end, that by them she may learn to sigh after things eternal. But the right hand of the bridegroom embraces her: because the whole intent of the Church, or of the faithful soul, is this, that she may one day come to eternal blessedness, and rejoice in the sight of her Creator. And well is first the left hand under the head of the bride, and afterward the right hand of the bridegroom embraces her; because no one will be able to come to the embraces of eternal blessedness, unless here he strive to be a partaker of the heavenly mysteries and of the divine gifts.

Verse 7. I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, until she please. It is the voice of the bridegroom adjuring 1063Dthe daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the friends intent upon eternal desires and seeking the vision of peace, that they rouse not and disquiet not the bride who is at rest. I adjure you, and the rest, that you be not willing to disquiet the beloved, that is, the soul given over to divine contemplation and occupied with prayers or divine readings, and to rouse her to outward works, until she please, that is, until, the time of contemplation being fulfilled, and the frailty of the body admonishing her, she herself be willing to be roused from the sleep of eternal quiet, and to go forth to the doing of temporal things. But let us see by what he adjures the daughters of Jerusalem — namely, by the roes and the harts of the fields. Roes and harts are clean animals, hostile to serpents and to poisons. They signify the virtues of the saints, which shine with spiritual purity, and not only beware of the poisons of diabolical deceit, but even pursue them and bring them to nothing. And the sense is: I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by your virtues, which you rejoice to have been conferred upon you by divine grace, 1064Athat you disquiet not the soul given over to my contemplation, until, the hour of contemplation being ended, she herself be willing to do something else.

Verse 8. The voice of my beloved. The voice of the Church. The voice of my beloved — supply: this is it. For the Church, rejoicing that she is so greatly loved by the bridegroom that he even adjures the daughters of Jerusalem on her behalf, that they disquiet her not while she rests, says: this is the voice of my beloved speaking for me. And desiring to see him whom she loves, but not being able, she adds:

Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. By the mountains and hills are understood all the perfect saints, raised from earthly things by the sublimity of their conversation, and as it were overtopping the level of the plains by the merits of a better life. Of these mountains Isaias says: The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills (Isai. II, 2). The bride therefore speaks of her beloved: Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, and skipping over the hills, that is, even according to his humanity surpassing all the excellence of the saints, all the purity of divine 1064Bcontemplation; and he is said not to stand upon the mountains, but to skip over them: because although for an hour he visits the heart of the saints by inward inspiration, yet he suddenly withdraws, that he may kindle them to the love of 510 himself. This too can be referred to the incarnation of Christ, who in coming gave certain leaps: because from heaven he came into the womb of the Virgin, from the womb of the Virgin into the manger, from the manger into baptism, from baptism to the cross, from the cross to the sepulchre, from the sepulchre to heaven; hence the Psalmist: He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way (Psal. XVIII, 6), and the rest.

Verse 9. My beloved is like a roe and a fawn of harts. Roes and harts, although in their own nature they have many things which suit allegorical senses, yet have this peculiar to them, that they do not tarry in the more level places, but are wont to give certain leaps in steep and lofty places. Rightly therefore is Christ likened to these, on account of his subtle contemplation; and because by no understanding can the majesty of his divinity be comprehended. 1064CBut he is likened not to harts, but to roes — to the smaller animals, namely — on account of the humility of his incarnation: because he deigned not only to become man, but to become a humble man. And he is said to be like a fawn of harts: because according to his humanity he drew his origin from the harts, that is, from the patriarchs; or also he is compared to a fawn of harts on account of the variety of the virtues and his innocence.

Behold he standeth behind our wall. By the wall our mortal condition is named: because, set as it were like some thick wall between us and God, it does not permit us to enjoy the contemplation of him; for the first man was so created that he might enjoy the vision and converse of God (Gen. I, 26): but after he had sinned (Gen. III, 6), a certain wall was set up, namely that mortality by which we are weighed down. For (as the Wise Man says) The body that is corrupted weigheth down the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things (Sap. IX, 15). Her bridegroom, therefore, whom above she compared to roes or to fawns of harts, 1064Dshe now says stands behind her wall: because Christ sometimes draws near when he permits himself to be contemplated, as far as the human mind can take him in; but sometimes he is removed afar off, and like a roe or a hart escapes with certain leaps. Since therefore a wall was set between us and him, and we could not see him, he deigned to make in that very wall windows and lattices, through which he might in some manner be perceived, in some manner be discerned. Whence there follows also:

Looking through the windows, looking forth through the lattices. For windows and lattices are as it were made in the wall when he by his grace permits himself to be contemplated, although in a glass and in a riddle. This too, which he says, He standeth behind our wall, can be referred to his humanity; for he as it were stood behind our wall when he set our flesh before himself, in which his divinity lay hid. But that which follows, Looking through the windows, looking forth through the lattices, this is referred to his divinity. 1065AFor he who looks through windows or lattices sees all that is done outside, and is himself seen by no one; so God, though he sees all things, cannot himself be searched out and comprehended.

Verse 10. Behold my beloved speaketh to me, he exhorts me to preach, saying: Arise, make haste, my friend, my dove, my comely one, and come. The voice of the bridegroom calling her forth to the pursuits of public work. Arise, make haste, my friend, by faith and love; my dove, by innocence and simplicity; my comely one, by the beauty of the virtues, hasten and come. As if he said: Arise from that most sweet couch of thine, that is, from the quiet in which thou desirest to please me alone in psalms, hymns, and prayers; hasten and come, that is, hasten to the profit of thy neighbours; that them also thou mayest make imitators of thee by the office of preaching and by the example of good works, and mayest lead them with thee to salvation. And it is to be noted that above he adjured the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up nor make the beloved to awake: but here he himself rouses her and exhorts her to rise 1065Bto labour; because all things have their time, and there is a time for all things under heaven — a time of contemplation, a time also of action. For at one time holy preachers ought to apply themselves to divine contemplation, and to delight their mind with heavenly quiet: but at another time they ought through charity to take care of their neighbours, and to give them examples of good works, and to bestow upon them the teaching of divine contemplation.

Verse 11. For now the winter is past, the rain is gone and departed. By the name of winter and of rain is expressed the harshness of unbelief, which held the whole world until the coming of Christ. The bridegroom therefore says: Arise, my friend, and come, because the winter is past, the Sun of justice having appeared; and the rain of unbelief is departed, and the serenity of the true faith has shone forth in the world. Such is what the Apostle says: The night is passed, and the day is at hand (Rom. XIII, 12).

Verse 12. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time 1065Cof pruning is come. Winter and rain being ended, the flowers have appeared in the land, namely the grace of the virtues and of chastity; and, the harshness of unbelief passing away, the spring mildness of faith succeeded, the time of pruning is come, that is, of the cleansing of the saints. For the pruning of the vineyards signifies the cleansing of the saints, which is in Christ and through Christ; of which he himself says: I am the vine, you the branches (Joan. XV, 5).

The voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. That is, the voice of the preaching apostles. For the turtle-dove is a most chaste bird; and since it is wont always to dwell and to nest in lofty trees, it signifies the apostles or the other teachers, who can say: Our conversation is in heaven (Philip. III, 20). And in that it has a groaning instead of a song, it signifies the weeping of the saints, who exhort their own to tears and lamentation, saying: Be miserable, and mourn: let your laughter be turned into mourning (Jac. IV, 9). The voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land, that is, the voice of the preaching apostles; in our land, that is, in the Church, of which the Psalmist says, The earth is 1065Dthe Lord's, and the fullness thereof (Psal. XXIII, 1).

Verse 13. The fig tree hath put forth her green figs. The fig tree signifies the Synagogue; and green figs is the name given to the first and unripe figs, unfit for eating, which fall easily at the beating of the wind. And at the sounding of the voice of the turtle-dove the fig tree hath put forth her green figs: because, while the apostles were preaching, many came forth from the Synagogue of the Jews who both believed in Christ and yet wished to observe the law carnally, and were more delighted with the authority of the law than with the sweetness of the Gospel: wishing to observe circumcision, the sabbath, and the other precepts of the law according to the letter; of whom the Apostle says: They are zealous for you, not well; but they would have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh (Galat. VI, 13).

The vines in flower have yielded their odour. After the voice of the turtle-dove was heard, after the fig tree put forth 511 her green figs, the vines in flower have yielded their odour: because the multitude of the Churches was spread through the breadth of the world, 1066Ato scatter widely from themselves the flowers of the virtues and the odour of good working.

Arise, make haste, my friend, my fair one, and come. Be not willing (he says), my bride, whom I have made my friend by faith and love, to grow slack in idle torpor; but arise and come, and show outwardly to thy neighbours the examples of the virtues.

Verse 14. My dove in the holes of the rock. If the rock is Christ, according to what the Apostle says: And the rock was Christ (I Cor. X, 4); the holes of the rock are the wounds which he received on the cross for our salvation, namely the piercings of the nails and the stroke of the lance (Joan. XIX). In these holes, therefore, the dove, that is, the Church, abides: because she has set the whole hope of her salvation in the passion of her Redeemer. There she lies hid in safety from the snares of malignant spirits, as from the swoop of the hawk; there she nests, that is il est she gathers the brood of good works.

In the hollow of the stone wall. Stone walls are wont to be made of dry stones for the fortification of vineyards, to drive off 1066Bfoxes or the other harmful little beasts. By the stone wall, therefore, is signified the guardianship of the heavenly virtues, namely the angelic protection; as Isaias says of the Lord's vineyard: And he set a stone wall about it, and dug round about the vineyard (Isai. V, 2). In the hollow of the stone wall, then, she abides, because she is surrounded on every side by the protection of the angels, and is guarded from the temptations of the devil.

Show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face seemly. Thou (he says), my beloved, who restest most sweetly on the bed of contemplation, come and show me thy face, that is, go forth from the secret of quiet to public action, and display the beauty of thy good works to others for an example. Show me, he says; for the Church as it were shows her face to God when she displays to her neighbours, for their profit and advancement, through the works of the virtues, how great a beauty she has within. This is what the Lord says in the Gospel: Let them see your good works, and glorify your Father 1066Cwho is in heaven (Matth. V, 16). Let thy voice sound in my ears. The voice, namely, of preaching, or of divine praise, by which thou mayest make others to profit. For the voice of the Church sounds in the ears of the Lord when God is delighted by the conversion of many through preaching. And well does he say: Show me thy face, and let thy voice sound, not another's; show me thy own face, namely, which I gave thee in baptism, when I cleansed thee from every sin. Let thy voice, he says, sound in my ears; that it may proceed from the sincere intention of love for me; that thou preach for no other cause but for me.

Verse 15. Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards, for our vineyard hath flourished. The voice of the bridegroom giving command to his bride and to the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, to the holy teachers, or to the faithful souls. Catch us (he says) the little foxes. The fox is a crafty and deceitful animal, dwelling in caverns and dens, and going not by a straight but by a winding path; and therefore it designates heretics or schismatics, who 1066Ddestroy the vineyards, that is, who cease not to tear and to deceive the Church of God, namely the people of the faithful. He commands therefore that they catch the little foxes, that is, that they cease not to war down and destroy heretical depravity at its very beginning, lest, being grown strong, it assail more mightily. For our vineyard hath flourished, that is, the Church throughout the whole world has put forth the flowers of the virtues. And note that whereas above he said vineyards in the plural, now he says in the singular, our vineyard hath flourished: because out of many Churches one Church is chosen.

Verse 16. My beloved to me, and I to him, who feedeth among the lilies till the day break, and the shadows retire. The voice of the bride. My beloved to me — supply: let him be joined by the bond of charity and love, and I to him shall be joined, and shall consent in the interchange of mutual love. Or My beloved — supply: let him give words of exhortation and of divine promise; and I — supply: will show him my face. Or also, let my beloved deign 1067Ato be joined to me by the glue of charity, and I to him shall be joined by the bond of worthy obedience, complying with his precepts. Who feedeth among the lilies, that is, who is delighted and made glad among the white and sweet-smelling virtues of the saints. And it is to be noted that above the lily is spoken of in the singular; but here, in the plural, lilies, because many are the virtues of the saints, but there is only one faith and one charity, in which God is chiefly delighted. Or also he feedeth among the lilies, that is, he is most sweetly delighted among the choirs of virgins. For the whiteness of lilies is rightly compared to virginal purity. Till the day break, that is, until the clouds of the present life pass away, and the day appear, that is, until the brightness of everlasting blessedness come. And the sense is: My beloved affords me help, and I to him render worthy obedience — he who is delighted with the virtues of the saints — until, the night of the present life being run through, in which he is discerned through a glass and in a riddle, there appear the day of the heavenly brightness, that he may be seen face to face (I Cor. XIII, 12).

Verse 17. Return; be thou like, my beloved, to a roe 1067Bor to a fawn of harts upon the mountains of Bethel. The voice of the Church desiring the sight of her bridegroom. O my beloved, who biddest me rise from the bed of quiet, and exhortest me to show thee my face, return, that is, permit me to behold the brightness of thy divinity; and that which thou promisest me perfectly in the other life, namely thy blessedness and the knowledge of thee, permit me to have while still in this pilgrimage at least in figure and in a riddle. Be thou like to a roe or to a fawn of harts upon the mountains of Bethel. It has already been said above that roes look down upon the plains and strive up to the heights of the mountains. Christ therefore is compared to roes, because, rising from the dead according to the flesh, he sought the heights of the heavens. And he is called a fawn of harts, that is, the son of the ancient Fathers. For the harts are the patriarchs and prophets, from whom Christ drew the origin of his flesh. The fawn is reported to have this nature, that when the sun is burning it seeks out shaded and shadowy places, in which it may be sheltered from the heat: so also Christ rests in the 1067Cminds of those who by the dew of the Holy Spirit are tempered against the heats of carnal pleasures. As if she said: O my beloved, return, that is, gladden me by enlightening me more often with thy visitation, thou who through the flesh which thou hast assumed hast already penetrated the heights of the heavens. And the mountains of Bethel signify the minds of the saints, raised from earthly things by heavenly desires. For Bethel is interpreted a house rising up, or a house of watchings, and it signifies the watchful minds of the saints, which rise up to the desiring of 512 heavenly things, and keep vigil to obtain them: having within themselves God as their indweller, who says through the prophet: I will dwell in them and walk among them (Levit. XXVI, 12). Above these mountains of Bethel, therefore, the beloved is like a roe or a fawn of harts: because he deigns to visit those minds which strive to be the house of God.

Verse 1. In my little bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, and found him not. It is the voice 1067Dof the Church gathered from the Gentiles. In my little bed (she says), that is, while I was still resting in carnal desires, and while I was still set in the darkness of unbelief and ignorance, I sought him whom my soul loveth. For many of the philosophers, not knowing God, yet with the highest zeal sought after him, wishing to know the Creator through the creature, as Plato, who in the Timaeus disputed much concerning the soul, and as Aristotle, Socrates, and the rest, who spent all the time of their life in studies for the sake of searching out the truth. I sought him, and found him not; for God could not be known through worldly wisdom.

Verse 2. I will rise, and will go about the city: through the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not. I will rise up (she says) from the couch of the body and of carnal delight, and will go about the city of this world, traversing seas and lands. Through the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth, that 1068Ais, I will look upon those who walk by the broad roads of this world and are given over to their own pleasures, if perchance I may find the traces of my beloved. Although this may be said, by way of example, of many, yet it was chiefly fulfilled in that Eunuch who came from the ends of the earth to adore the God of heaven at Jerusalem, whom Philip found, and showed him Christ in the prophecy of Isaias (Act. VIII, 27). This also was fulfilled in Cornelius, who, while still a pagan and not knowing God, gave alms and gave himself to prayers, whom Peter baptized with all his house (Ibid. X, 22). Repeat, however, the difficulty of the finding, and he says: I sought, and found him not.

Verse 3. The watchmen who keep the city found me. The watchmen are the holy apostles and the other teachers of the Church, who keep the city, that is, holy Church, and defend it from the snares of unbelievers and of spiritual enemies; and these she questions.

Have you seen him whom my soul loveth? The Church as it were questions the watchmen when with attentive ear she 1068Breceives their preaching.

Verse 4. When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth. To pass by the watchmen is to search out diligently their sayings and their teaching. For we are wont to say: I have run through a book in reading it, or I have passed through it. When (she says) I had passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: because when with careful meditation we seek out the sayings or the writings of the saints, straightway we find the beloved: because we discover God in their teachings. It can also be understood thus: When I had passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth; that is, when I had understood that Christ surpasses all sublimity and grace, then I found him whom my soul loveth, that is, then I truly understood how far he stands from the merits of the other saints.

I held him, nor will I let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me. That is, I clung to him with most ardent faith and devotion; nor will I let him go, but I will persevere in his love and faith, 1068Ctill I bring him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that bore me; that is, until I preach him to the Synagogue, who is my mother spiritually, and lead her also to faith in him. This shall be done at the end of the world, when (as the Apostle says) the fullness of the Gentiles, shall have come in, then all Israel shall be saved (Rom. XI, 25, 26). So much, therefore, does the Church promise herself out of the charity of her bridegroom, that she even believes she can convert the Synagogue. But in that she says, till I bring him in, it is not to be thought that she will then leave him, when she has brought him into her mother's chamber; but till stands for the everlasting, that is, I will always cleave to him, I will always persevere in his faith and love. Such is the saying in the psalm: So are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us (Psal. CXXII, 3). Shall it be that after he has had mercy on us, our eyes shall not be unto him? Assuredly they shall.

Verse 5. I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, until she please. Twice is 1068Dthis little verse repeated; for it has already been set down above: but above it belongs to the primitive Church gathered from the Jews; here, however, to the Church gathered from the Gentiles and more closely bound to Christ by the bond of love. For one and the same is God's care for the saints who pleased him either in circumcision, or also in the time of baptism when the grace of the Gospel was shining forth. But since this little verse has been expounded above, it must now be seen why he brings in the Church as it were sleeping, whence also he adjures the daughters of Jerusalem not to rouse her, since a little above he brings her in not sleeping or resting, but pressing on with the zeal of a most laborious search, by which she was seeking the bridegroom. If therefore she was seeking the bridegroom, how was she resting? but a most sweet and most pleasant sleep it is to seek Christ. The Church therefore sleeps, and seeks Christ; she sleeps, namely, to earthly desires and to the deeds of the world: but she watches and seeks the bridegroom, because she cleaves to his 1069Acontemplation, desires him alone, and strives to come to him. The bridegroom therefore adjures the daughters of Jerusalem, namely the souls that cleave to the desires of the heavenly fatherland, not to rouse her from this sleep of most sweet quiet and contemplation, until she please. And sleep is deservedly called love: because as one sleeping closes his eyes to visible things and contemplates things invisible, so he who applies himself to divine contemplation sleeps as it were a stranger to outward things, and sees only things spiritual and heavenly. Nor is it a wonder if love be called sleep, since in what follows death is called love: Love is strong as death. But when he says, until she please, he shows that the Church of the Gentiles would of her own will prepare herself to bear labours and persecutions for Christ.

Verse 6. Who is she that goeth up by the desert as a little rod of smoke of the aromatical spices of myrrh, and of frankincense, and of all the powder of the perfumer? The voice of the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, of the saints of the primitive Church, marvelling at the beauty of the Church gathered from the Gentiles. 1069BWho is (they say) she? Who, 513 that is, of what sort. How worthy of praise and admiration, who, cleansed by circumcision, and not yet sanctified by baptism, already runs to God? She goeth up (he says) by the desert; this is said in imitation of the ancient Jewish people, which, freed from the Egyptian servitude, came through the desert, the Red Sea being crossed, to the land of promise: so also the Church was going up through the desert of the nations, already freed from Egypt, that is, from the confusion of idolatry, and Pharaoh, that is, the devil, being drowned, that she might be fed with the heavenly manna, and might enter the true land of promise. She goeth up (he says) to the mountains of the virtues, or also to heaven itself, raised on high by the virtues; she who says in the psalm: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains (Psal. CXX, 1), and so forth; and elsewhere: To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in the heavens (Psal. CXXII, 1). These mountains are the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and the other saints of God, who are deservedly called mountains for their virtues. For first to the mountains, that is, to the saints, 1069Cdoes the Church lift up her eyes, or the faithful soul which considers their teaching and their acts, and rejoices to be fortified by their example and intercession. Afterward, advancing, she dares to direct the gaze of her heart to him also who made the mountains, and says: To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in the heavens; that is, who restest gladly in the saints. As (he says) a little rod of smoke of the aromatical spices of myrrh and of frankincense. Smoke is born of fire, and straightway seeks the higher regions of the air, until it is withdrawn from the sight of those who look on. Smoke, therefore, signifies holy desire suffused with the fire of divine love; nor are they compared simply to smoke, but to a little rod of smoke: because holy Church, or the soul that loves God, is slender and delicate, made thin by the disciplines of the Holy Spirit, not having the grossness of carnal desires. Or else they are compared to a little rod of smoke, not to scattered smoke, on account of the unity of the Church, which in Christ is one. And whence that smoke came he shows, when he adds, Of myrrh and of frankincense and of all the powder of the perfumer. With myrrh the bodies of the dead are embalmed; but frankincense is burnt in the sacrifice of God; and therefore 1069Dby myrrh is designated the mortification of the flesh, by frankincense is expressed the purity of prayers. To a little rod of smoke of myrrh and of frankincense, therefore, is the Church likened: because the saints strive to please God by the mortification of their flesh and by prayers poured forth with a clean and single heart. And of unversi (he says) powder of the perfumer, that is, the heap of all the virtues. For the spices are said not to have been whole, but reduced to powder: because the actions of the saints are to be weighed with great discretion, and to be winnowed as with the sieve of the most subtle consideration, lest perchance there be in them anything harsh or unfitting: lest at the least through the virtues themselves the thousand-shaped adversary creep in, who, being crafty, is wont to do harm even through good things.

Verse 7. Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel surround the little bed of Solomon, all holding swords, and most expert in war. Whither this beloved and wonderful one has gone up is shown when there is added, Behold the little bed of Solomon, 1070Aand the rest. Although the bed of Solomon may be taken as that heavenly rest of the heavenly blessedness in which God rests with his saints, yet more probably the present Church is understood, in which the saints of God, the tumults of the vices being lulled to sleep, are delighted in the embrace of Solomon, that is, of the peaceable man. Whence also the Psalmist says of Christ: His place is made in peace, and his dwelling in Sion (Psal. LXXV, 3). The little bed of Solomon, therefore, that is, the Church, threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel surround. By the threescore valiant ones is understood the order of teachers, who either fortify the Church by preaching, or by contemplation desire to attain to that heavenly blessedness. And the number sixty consists of the senary and the denary; for six times ten, or ten times six, make sixty. The senary indeed signifies the perfection of work: because in six days God perfected his works; but the denary, the recompense and reward which will be given to the elect at the end; whence also those who came into the vineyard are read to have received a denarius (Matth. XX, 10). The threescore valiant ones, therefore, signify (as has been said) the holy 1070Bteachers, valiant and steadfast in mind. And there is added of the most valiant of Israel: all who believe in Christ and love Christ are called Israel, that is, a man seeing God. But the most valiant of Israel are those who know how to guard the Church by preaching, and to defend her from the assaults of demons or from the attacks of heretics. For these surround the little bed of Solomon: because to them the Church is committed, and by them she must be kept with watchful care. All holding swords, and most expert in war. For they hold the spiritual sword, the word of God, of which the Apostle says: And take unto you (he says) the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephes. VI, 17). And they are most expert in war: because it is needful that they be instructed in the art of spiritual battle, who wage wars against the principalities and powers of the world, against the rulers of the world of these darknesses, against the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ibid., 12). For that enemy is most wily, and most expert both by the subtlety of his spiritual nature and also by the long duration of time, 1070Cagainst whom the saints take up wars.

Verse 8. Every man's sword upon his thigh, because of the fears of the night. By the thigh the propagation of offspring is understood; upon the thigh, therefore, they have swords who by the fear of God check and restrain all the motions of carnal pleasure. And this because of the fears of the night, that is, because of the hidden ambushes of the malignant enemy, who in the night of this world lies in wait chiefly for the saints who stand out in the Church, so that, when they have been deceived, he may be able to defile the couch of Solomon, that is, the rest of the saints. And it is to be noted that above they are said to hold swords, but here to have swords upon the thigh. For they hold swords that they may withstand adversaries, that they may overcome them, and that they may pierce through heretics and all who contradict the sound faith. Upon the thigh, therefore, they have swords, that they may take care of themselves, that they may repress the flux of carnal pleasures: lest, preaching to others, they themselves become reprobate (I Cor. IX, 27).

Verse 9. King Solomon made himself a litter of the wood 1070Dof Lebanon. That which above was set forth by the couch of Solomon is now designated by the litter, namely the holy Church, in which the saints of God rest as upon a bed, and as upon a bed recline to the banquets of eternal blessedness and satisfaction. Of the wood of Lebanon did Solomon make the litter. Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, whose trees excel all others in height and in beauty and in durability, and therefore they signify the saints, shining with the appearance of the virtues and hastening toward things eternal. For Lebanon is interpreted "white-robed," or "whitening," or "made white." The wood of Lebanon, therefore, is the saints, robed in white, or made white in baptism, and adorned with the beauty of all the virtues.

Verse 10. He made the pillars thereof of silver. By the pillars are signified the 514 teachers of that same Church, who uphold and strengthen it by word and by example; whence also in the Acts of the Apostles it is said: James and John and Cephas, who seemed to be pillars (Gal. 1071AII, 9). These pillars are of silver, because they shine with the brightness of heavenly speech; for the words of the Lord are chaste words (Psal. XI, 7), and the rest.

A reclining-place of gold, an ascent of purple. By the golden reclining-place is understood eternal rest, which is promised to the saints in the Church; to which, nevertheless, the ascent is purple. The purple ascent is the passion of Christ, because purple imitates the color of blood. By a purple ascent, therefore, one arrives at the reclining-place, because they come to the reclining at the eternal banquets, and to the repose of the rest above, who in the present labor to venerate and to imitate worthily the passion of the Redeemer. For unless a man shall have imitated the actions and the life of Christ, he will not be able to arrive at eternal rest.

He paved the midst with charity, because of the daughters of Jerusalem. He paved the midst with charity: because Christ commended his charity to all the faithful by suffering for us and by preparing rest for us, according to what the Apostle says: But God commendeth his charity in us: because when as yet we were sinners, 1071Bhe delivered up his Son to death for us (Rom. V, 8). Otherwise: by the silver pillars are designated the apostles and apostolic men; by the golden reclining-place, the order of the teachers, who, when they promise the unspeakable joys of eternal life, assuredly make us to rest sweetly. And this reclining-place is well called golden, because unspeakable is that reward which the saints await. For among perishable things nothing is more precious than gold. But by the purple ascent is signified the order of the martyrs, who, having imitated the passion of Christ, poured out their blood for him. But what shall we do, says the blessed Gregory, who are of no merit, who see ourselves to have a place neither among the teachers nor among the martyrs? There follows, he paved the midst with charity. Let us therefore have charity, with which the midst of this litter is paved, which is also on that account called the broad commandment, because it prepares eternal salvation for all its observers. Let us hold this effectually, and through it we shall be saved, and this because of the daughters of Jerusalem, that 1071Cis, because of the simple souls that are conscious of no virtue in themselves; which, the more conscious they are of their own greater frailty, so much the more do they labor to love their Savior and Redeemer.

Verse 11. Go forth, and see, ye daughters of Sion, king Solomon in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart. The voice of the Church inviting the souls of the faithful to behold how wonderful and fair her bridegroom is. For the daughters of Sion are of the Church, who are also daughters of Jerusalem, namely holy souls, citizens of that city above, who both enjoy perpetual peace with the angels, and by contemplation gaze upon the glory of God. Go forth, he says, ye daughters of Sion, that is, go out from the turbulent converse of this world; that with a mind unencumbered you may be able to contemplate him whom you love. And see, he says, king Solomon, that is, the true peaceable one, Christ, in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him. As if he should say: Consider Christ clothed in flesh for you, which flesh he took from the flesh of the Virgin 1071Dhis mother. For he calls diadem the flesh which Christ took for us, in which by dying he destroyed the empire of death, in which also by rising again he bestowed upon us the hope of rising. Of this diadem the Apostle says: We saw Jesus crowned with glory and honor through his passion (Hebr. II, 9). But his mother is said to have crowned him, because the Virgin Mary furnished him from her own flesh the matter of his flesh. In the day of his espousals, that is, in the time of his incarnation, when he joined to himself the Church, not having spot or wrinkle (Ephes. V, 27); or when God was joined to man. And in the day of the joy of his heart. For the gladness and joy of Christ is the salvation and redemption of the human race; according to what is in the Gospel, when he saw many flowing together to his faith. In that hour, says the evangelist, he rejoiced and said: I confess to thee, Father of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones (Matth. XI, 1072A25). And in the evangelical parable, when the sheep was found, he called together his friends, saying: Rejoice with me (Luc. XV, 6). This whole passage can also be referred simply to the passion of Christ according to the letter. For Solomon, foreseeing in spirit the passion of Christ, long before forewarned the daughter of Sion, that is, the Israelite people: Go forth, saying, and see king Solomon, that is, Christ, in the diadem, in the crown of thorns wherewith his mother crowned him, the Synagogue, in the day of his espousals, namely when he joined the Church to himself, and in the day of the joy of his heart, wherein he rejoiced that the world was redeemed through his passion from the power of the devil. Go forth, therefore, that is, go out from the darkness of unbelief, and see, that is, understand with the mind: that he who suffers as a man is true God; or also go forth outside the gate of your city, that you may see him crucified on mount Golgotha.

Verse 1. How beautiful art thou, my friend; how beautiful 1072Bart thou and esset seemly. The voice of Christ twice repeats, how beautiful art thou, namely in work and in preaching, In work, because thou doest nothing foul, nothing unworthy of my eyes; in preaching, because thou dost not cease to invite even thy companions, the daughters of Jerusalem, to consider the mystery of my incarnation.

Thy eyes are those of doves. By the eyes is understood the keenness of the spiritual senses, by which the Church contemplates things divine and everlasting. But the eyes of the Church are compared to a dove on account of spiritual grace: because the Holy Spirit appeared in the likeness of a dove (Matth. III, 16). And there follows.

Besides that which lieth hid within, that is, besides the glory of that recompense above, which thou art to receive at the end of the world; which, although in the present thou contemplatest it by faith, nevertheless lieth hid within; for it cannot be seen in the present, but shall be perfected in the time to come.

Thy hair is as flocks of goats, which have come up from mount Galaad. By the hair of the Church are understood the subtle thoughts of the Church, by which temporal things 1072Care for the most part ordered. But they are compared to flocks of goats, because these animals are clean, and feed upon rocks, or with heads thrown back in lofty places: because the thoughts of the saints, even if for bodily necessity they are occupied with temporal things, 515 nevertheless do not depart from their intention toward things inward; and even in that care which they expend upon bodily necessity, they gaze as it were always upon heaven. We can also understand by the eyes the teachers and preachers of the Church, who in the body whose head is Christ hold the highest place, and see heavenly and spiritual things before the rest of the members. But by the hair we understand the innumerable multitude of the simple faithful established in the lay order: who, although they see spiritual things less, nevertheless by their multitude and number furnish a great ornament to the Church. And well are they compared to flocks of goats. The goat is fitting for sinners, and by it are understood the peoples of the faithful given over to the actions of the world, which cannot be carried on without sin. And well does there 1072Dfollow, Which have come up from mount Galaad. Galaad is interpreted "the heap of testimony," according to the letter indeed; and this because, when Jacob was withdrawing from Mesopotamia, Laban pursued him, and on the third day found him, and there in testimony of a mutual covenant they raised up a heap of stones (Gen. XXXI, 46). Mystically the heap of testimony is Christ, in whom stands the multitude of all the saints, who are living stones, cleaving to that true stone of which Peter says: Unto whom coming, a living stone, be you also as living stones built up (I Petr. II, 4). Flocks of goats, therefore, have come up from mount Galaad, because the multitudes of the saints climb up to the heights of the virtues, and labor to follow in all things the doctrine and the precepts of Christ.

Verse 2. Thy teeth as flocks of shorn sheep, which have come up from the washing. As by the hair of the Church is understood the innumerable multitude of the simple faithful, 1073Aso also by the teeth of the Church are understood the teachers. For with the teeth we grind our food; and holy teachers are well conformed to teeth: because the spiritual foods which the simple cannot take, they themselves in a manner break small by expounding them. The chief tooth of the Church was Peter, to whom it was said in the vision: Arise, kill, and eat (Act. X, 13); as if it were said, those whom thou convertest to the faith, kill from that which they are, that is, that they may cease to be sinners; and eat, that is, transfer, or transform them into the body of the Church. And well are these teeth compared to sheep shorn and washed in the washing. For sheep are wont after shearing to be washed in running water, lest unwashed sweat cling to the body and breed the scab. Shorn, therefore, are the holy teachers and masters of the Church, who, washed by the laver of baptism, have lost their fleeces, that is, their means and substance, for Christ. To all the faithful indeed belongs what it says: Which have come up from the washing; for no one can be faithful without the laver of baptism. But shearing 1073Bdoes not belong to all: because not all are so perfect that they are able to lose their own for Christ; but this belongs especially to those who according to the word of the Lord sell all their goods and give to the poor (Matth. XIX, 21), and naked and unencumbered follow Christ. Such, therefore, are the teeth of the holy Church, that is, her preachers and ministers, sheep washed by baptism through innocence: rejoicing in voluntary poverty and in the spollatione of their goods. There follows.

All with twin offspring, and there is not a barren one among them. Because they stand out by the twofold charity and love of God and of the neighbor, and teach it to be observed: or also because they preach faith and work. And there is not a barren one in them; that is, no one is a stranger to good works.

Verse 3. Thy lips are as a scarlet fillet, and thy speech is sweet. By the lips of the Church are understood the holy preachers, who are also figured by the teeth. Now scarlet has the appearance of blood or of fire. The lips, therefore, of the Church (that is, the holy preachers) are compared to a scarlet fillet, 1073Cbecause they continually preach the passion of Christ, who poured out his blood for our redemption. Or they are likened to a scarlet fillet because the preachers burn with love: loving those on whom they bestow the words of preaching, and even those from whom they suffer evils. To this also pertains the fact that the Holy Spirit appeared in fiery tongues (Act. II, 3), because he made the apostles speakers and burners: burners by love, speakers by preaching. And well is it called a scarlet fillet; for a fillet binds and constrains the hair, and holy teachers by their preaching knit the multitude of the faithful in the Church into the unity of faith and love, and reduce them to one comeliness. By the hair also may be understood the subtle thoughts of the mind. With a scarlet fillet, therefore, we bind the locks, when we constrain and restrain our thoughts by the discipline of the fear of God. And thy speech is sweet. Sweet is the speech of the Church, when holy teachers either bring back to memory the passion of their Redeemer, and preach 1073Dhow much God has loved man, or also when they announce heavenly rewards to their hearers.

As a piece of a pomegranate, so are thy cheeks, besides that which lieth hid within. By the cheeks we have said above that the Church is figured. For when we are ashamed, the redness of the blood is poured out in the cheeks. Now the pomegranate has a ruddy rind, but within is full of a multitude of grains, whence it is also called the grained apple. By the piece of a pomegranate, therefore, is understood the memory of that same passion of the Lord, which above is also figured in the scarlet. For one and the same thing is wont to be expressed by different figures. The cheeks, therefore, of the Church are compared to a piece of a pomegranate, because the holy teachers keep the memory of the passion of their Redeemer with veneration, nor are they ashamed of his cross, but rather glory in it, saying with the Apostle: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. VI, 14); and elsewhere the Apostle, writing to his disciple: Be not (he says) ashamed of the cross of Christ, nor of me his prisoner (II Tim. 1074AI, 8) [Vulg. testimonium Domini nostri, "the testimony of our Lord"]. And well are the cheeks compared not to a whole pomegranate, but to a piece. For when a pomegranate is broken, redness appears on the outside, whiteness within: so also the holy preachers and teachers, when they announce the passion of Christ, are as it were redness on the outside; but when they show how great a benefit of our redemption has come from it, and that man through the passion of Christ has deserved not only to be justified from sins, but even to attain fellowship with God, that is as it were the whiteness of that which lieth hid within. By the cheeks of the Church may also be figured the martyrs, who are ruddy with the pouring out of their own blood like a pomegranate; but when the pomegranate is broken, whiteness appears within, because after death they shine with miracles.

Verse 4. Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks. The neck of the holy Church is her holy preachers and teachers. For the same are here designated by the neck who above were designated by the eyes, or by the teeth, namely the holy 516 preachers, 1074Bwho like necks pass on the foods of the word of God that they have received to nourish the body, and bring forth the voice of divine preaching to their hearers. Or also the holy teachers are signified by the neck, because as through the neck the head and the other members are joined to the body, so the holy teachers are as it were mediators between Christ and the rest of the faithful whom they instruct, and as it were join Christ to his body, that is, to the Church. Now this neck is compared to the tower of David, which, being interpreted "strong of hand" or "desirable in sight," signifies Christ. And indeed the whole Church is the city of David, that is, of the great King Christ, who is strong of hand: since he overcame the devil, according to what the Psalmist says: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle (Psal. XXIII, 8). He is also desirable in sight: because (as the Apostle says) the angels desire to look upon him (I Petr. I, 12). But the tower of this city is those who excel the rest either in knowledge or in perfection of work. Which is built with bulwarks. The bulwarks are the sacred mysteries of the divine Scriptures, from 1074Cwhich there go forth as it were javelins, by which the adversary powers are driven back.

A thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armor of valiant men. A thousand bucklers are understood to be the innumerable defenses of divine protection, by which the holy Church is fenced about and defended. All the armor of valiant men, that is, all the equipment either of holy work or of divine preaching. And well are the neck of the Church, that is, the preachers and teachers, compared to the tower of David, because they are always as it were in war, fighting for the defense of the holy Church.

Verse 5. Thy two breasts are like two twin fawns of a roe. The two breasts of the Church signify those same holy teachers. Nor is it a wonder that one and the same thing is figured in different ways. For the holy teachers are eyes, because they show to their subjects the ways of life which they ought to enter. They are teeth, because they grind and break small the foods of the divine Scriptures, that they may be chewed, namely by the simple, that is, understood. They are the neck, 1074Dbecause they join the head and the members, that is, Christ and the Church; those same teachers, therefore, are also the breasts of the Church, because they nourish the little ones and the simple faithful with the milk of the word of God, according to what the Apostle, speaking to the more simple, says: I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal; and to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not meat (I Cor. III, 1, 2). And well does he say, not simply breasts, but with an addition, two breasts, since a woman has neither more nor less than two breasts; because assuredly the holy teachers nourish the little ones from each people, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, with the milk of the word of God. For Paul too says of himself: He who wrought in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision wrought in me also among the Gentiles (Gal. II, 8). And fitly the two breasts, just as two twin fawns are said to be roes, who namely are the offspring and sons of our Savior Jesus Christ, who above was designated by the roes; for these animals both see most keenly and climb up to higher places with exceeding swiftness: so also the holy 1075Ateachers both themselves see what things are to be done, and show them to others, and, despising earthly things, strive to ascend to those above.

Verse 6. Who feed among the lilies, till the day break, and the shadows decline. Who feed among the lilies, that is, they take delight in the purest and brightest senses of the Scriptures. Till the day break, that is, till that eternal day come which the Psalmist desired, saying: Better is one day in thy courts above thousands (Psal. LXXXIII, 11): And the shadows decline, that is, let the sorrows and disturbances of this world pass away. Till the day break, that is, till the day arise; for the day shall breathe, that is, shall arise, when that true Sun of justice, that is, Christ, shall appear; and then the shadows shall decline, that is, all the clouds of sorrow and the darkness of the present world shall pass away. But if we should wish also to look at the letter itself, he has beautifully expressed the rising of day and of night: for night is nothing else than the shadow of the earth, which rises up as the sun goes down beneath the earth; but when the sun again ascends above the earth, the shadows decline, that is, night gives way. 1075BThey feed, therefore, among the lilies till the day break and the shadows decline, because the preaching and teaching of the holy teachers is necessary in the present life only; for in the other life, after the eternal day has appeared and the night of the present world has been ended, it will not be needful that any be taught: because all with unveiled face shall contemplate the glory of the Lord (II Cor. III, 18). Whence also the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah: No more shall a man teach his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all shall know me from the least even to the greatest (Jer. XXXI, 34).

I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. In the myrrh is understood the mortification of the flesh, or the endurance of sufferings for Christ; but in the frankincense the devotion of holy prayers. The mountain therefore of myrrh, and the hill of frankincense, are the minds of the saints, lofty through contemplation. The bridegroom therefore promises that he will come to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense: because he deigns to visit with his visitation those minds which mortify their members with their vices and concupiscences 1075C(Gal. V, 24), which also make themselves, through the zeal of holy prayers, a sacrifice pleasing to God.

Verse 7. Thou art all beautiful, my friend, and there is not a spot in thee. The voice of the bridegroom to his friend the bride. Thou art all beautiful. On every side (he says) thou receivest no spot, nor wrinkle. For not the teachers alone, or the perfect, are beautiful before the eyes of God, who excel in the highest knowledge and contemplation; but also the simple faithful, whoever are adorned with right faith and good works, are held to be beautiful in the eyes of the bridegroom. For, as the Psalmist says: He hath blessed all that fear the Lord, both little and great (Psal. CXIII, 13); therefore he says: Thou art all beautiful, not one part of thee only. We say this not because anyone can be without sin in the present life, since it is written: There is no one upon earth without sin, not even an infant of one day (Job XIV, 4): but for this reason, because perfect faith and heavenly desire wipe away every spot of the lighter sin; for there is no question now 1075Dof the graver sins, and those who commit them are no longer the bride of Christ, nor have they any portion of this holy beauty. Hence it is that John says: He that is born of God sinneth not (I Joan. III, 6), understand, with the sin unto death; not that anyone is free from light sin, without which this life is not led. The Church, therefore, is all beautiful, in so far as she keeps herself chaste and free from every sin. But if at any time she is darkened by a light sin, by swift repentance and by right faith unto heavenly desire her ancient beauty is repaired in her.

517 Verse 8. Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, come. Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia: it is interpreted from the Hebrew "whitening" or "white-robing"; but from the Greek it is interpreted "frankincense." Whence also above, where it says: I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense, the hill is taken as Lebanon. The bridegroom therefore calls his bride, robed in white by baptism, made white by the brightness of all the virtues, burning with the zeal of holy prayers. 1076AAnd he calls her that she may come, that is, that she may advance in the virtues. God does not call the soul only when he leads it, stripped of the bonds of the flesh, to the heavenly rewards; but he also exhorts it by inward inspiration, that it may advance in the virtues. For by as many steps as the saints advance in the virtues, by so many do they tend toward God. And he says come three times, because he wills her to be perfect in thought, in speech, and in work. Or he calls her first, that she may come to him by faith; he calls her a second time, that, now freed from the body, she may receive the worthy recompense of the heavenly rewards; he calls her a third time, that on the day of the general resurrection, her body now resumed, she may rejoice, crowned forever with a twofold robe.

Thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from the summit of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards. Amana they say to be that mount Amanus of Cilicia, which is also called Taurus. But Sanir and Hermon are mountains of Judea in which lions and leopards are reported 1076Bto dwell; and by these mountains are understood the powers of the world, namely kings and princes, who are lifted up like mountains in pride, and who furnish dens to malignant spirits as to lions and leopards. For the malignant spirits are called lions on account of pride, leopards on account of ferocity, or also on account of their thousand arts of harming, because the leopard is a spotted animal. From these mountains, therefore, the Church is crowned, when the princes of the world are converted to the faith of Christ; and not only for her own virtues, but also for the manner of life of such men, is the Church rewarded unto salvation. This can also be understood of the present. For the Church is crowned from the summit of these mountains, when, the princes being made subject to the catholic faith, the Church, which before was oppressed, is crowned and glories in Christ; as was done in the time of Constantine, when at his conversion the Church was wondrously glorified. She is crowned also from the dens of lions and from the mountains of leopards, when she converts the proud and all the cruel and deceitful, and for their conversion also receives eternal rewards.

1076CVerse 9. Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my bride; thou hast wounded my heart. He calls the holy Church his bride and his sister, who is a bride because Christ incarnate betrothed her to himself, and, cleansing her from the filth of sins, joined her to himself with the dowry of the Holy Spirit. But she is a sister, because for her sake he who was made incarnate deigned to become her brother, as, rising from the dead, he said to the women: Go, tell my brethren (Matth. XXVIII, 10). When therefore he says that he has a wounded heart, he has expressed the greatness of the love with which he loves his holy Church. And he affirms this by repeating and pressing it: Thou hast wounded my heart, that by such repetition he may show how much he loves his Church. But by what thing it was wounded, he shows by adding.

With one of thy eyes, and with one hair of thy neck. By the eyes of the Church we understand the spiritual senses or the holy teachers: but by the hairs, the multitudes of the peoples subject to her, with which the holy Church is adorned. 1076DAnd the sense is: although thou art all beautiful, O Church, and although I love thee for many things, yet chiefly the brightness of the spiritual senses and the sincerity of thy teachers delight me, and also the simplicity of life of the peoples subject to thee, who piously and faithfully obey the words of the teachers. And well, though above he said eyes and hairs in the plural, does he here say in the singular with one eye, and with one hair; that by this the unity of the holy teachers may be expressed. For there is a unity of the heavenly doctrine which they bestow upon their subjects. For one Lord, as the Apostle says, one faith, one baptism (Ephes. IV, 5), and also one devotion of the subject faithful. This also which he says, Thou hast wounded my heart, can be understood of the passion of Christ. Thou hast wounded my heart, that is, by thy love thou hast brought it about that I should be wounded on the cross. But it is to be noted that he says, With one hair of thy neck. For by the neck we have said that the teachers are signified, and the hair of the Church cleaves to the neck, whereby the subject peoples are nourished by the holy teachers, 1077Aand cleave to their sound doctrine, and labor to live according to their precepts.

Verse 10. How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my bride! By the breasts we have said above that those same teachers are figured, who are also designated by the eyes; for the holy teachers are breasts, that is, they nourish the humble with simple doctrine; they are eyes when they preach the highest and heavenly things. He says therefore: How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my bride! that is, how beautiful are thy teachers! since their discourse both excels in eloquence and is precious in the weight of its senses.

Thy breasts are more beautiful than wine. This little verse has already been expounded above, where it is said: Thy breasts are better than wine. And this is to be noted, that above the Church praised the breasts of her bridegroom, saying: Thy breasts are better than wine; but now in turn the bridegroom extols the breasts of his bride, that by this the unity of the Church may be commended. For Christ is the head, and the Church is his body; for the beginning of the evangelical preaching surpasses the sentence of the law.

1077BAnd the odor of thy ointments above all aromatical spices. The ointments of the Church are the graces of heavenly doctrine, or also the fame of the virtues which is fragrant from the Church; but by the aromatical spices are understood the observances of the law. Above the aromatical spices, therefore, is the odor of the ointments of the Church: because the dignity and fame of evangelical perfection transcends every praise of legal observance.

Verse 11. Thy lips, O bride, are as a dropping honeycomb. A honeycomb is honey in the wax; and honey in the wax is the spiritual understanding in the letter. The lips of the Church, therefore, are called a dropping honeycomb, because the holy teachers, who are designated by the lips, bring forth spiritual instruction for the faithful who are to be taught. And the lips of the Church are called not only a honeycomb, but a dropping one; for a honeycomb drops when the abundance of honey, overflowing, can no longer be contained in the waxen cells. Rightly, therefore, is the divine Scripture called a dropping honeycomb, because it is understood in manifold ways, and is expounded in various senses, now according to the letter, now according to allegory, now according to morality, 1077Cnow according to anagogy, that is, the higher sense.

Honey and milk are under thy tongue. Milk is fitting for little ones, 518 and therefore by milk is designated the simple doctrine with which the beginning of believers is imbued. But honey, which is believed to be made from the dew of heaven, signifies the heavenly and spiritual doctrine which is fitting for the perfect and the instructed. Under the tongue, therefore, of the Church there is honey and ac: because sometimes she announces heavenly mysteries to the perfect, sometimes plain and simple things to the untrained.

And the odor of thy garments as the odor of frankincense. The garments of the Church are the ornaments of good works, according to what John says in the Apocalypse: For the fine linen is the justifications of the saints (Apoc. XIX, 8); and in Job it is said: I was clothed with justice, and I clothed myself with my judgment as with an ornament and a diadem (Job. XXIX, 14). And we have said that by frankincense is designated the purity of holy prayers. The garments, therefore, of the Church are compared to frankincense: because all the works of the Church are as it were prayers; for in all things that she does she always 1077Dbeseeches the Lord, and in such a manner that is fulfilled which the Lord says: We ought always to pray (Luc. VIII, 1). Nor can this be fulfilled always before the Lord in any other way, unless our whole life and manner of living be such that it is reckoned as prayer in the sight of God. Frankincense is a tree of Arabia, like the laurel in bark and in leaf, sending forth its sap after the manner of the almond; and it is gathered twice in the year, in autumn and in spring. In the autumn gathering the trees are prepared by cutting the bark in the most burning heat of summer, and thus, as the rich foam bursts forth, which hardens and thickens, a mat of palm receives it where the nature of the place requires. What has clung to the tree is combed off with iron; and therefore what is of the bark seems to be purest, that is, white frankincense. The second vintage is in spring, the bark having been cut for it in winter; this comes out red, and is not to be compared with the former. It is also believed that the frankincense of a young tree is whiter, but that of an old one more fragrant. That which has hung from it in the roundness of a drop we call male 1078A; a drop struck off by a blow we call manna.

Verse 12. A garden enclosed, my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up. He calls the Church his sister and his bride, whom from a handmaid he appointed to be his sister, and, pledged with the dowry of the Holy Spirit, made his bride. This Church, therefore, is a garden: because she brings forth the shoots of the spiritual virtues, which are designated in what follows by the names of the aromatical spices. And this garden is enclosed: because the holy Church is fortified by the help of the Lord her Redeemer, and fenced about by the protection of the angelic powers, and lies open to no snares of the malignant spirits. This same Church is a fountain sealed up: a fountain, therefore, because she flows with the streams of heavenly doctrine, with which she washes from sins all who believe in Christ, and gives them the knowledge of truth to drink. And this fountain is sealed up: because the word of the faith of evangelical truth is fortified with a seal, so that neither heretics nor malignant spirits are able to violate or 1078Bto break into the catholic faith. This garden, or this fountain, that is, the Church, was first planted or sprang up in a small little place of Judea: then, preaching having been sown throughout the whole world, she sent forth her garden-plots, or her rivulets; whence there follows:

Verse 13. Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of the orchard. The shoots of the Church (as has been said) are the increases of faith and the sowing of preaching; and these shoots are a paradise. Paradise in Greek is called garden in Latin: because that primitive Church, which in Judea was as it were a garden, sent forth throughout the whole world many gardens, that is, Churches. But the pomegranates, which have a ruddy rind, signify those who not only have been sanctified by the common baptism, but also those who, baptized in their own blood in their passion, have been made martyrs. But the fruits of the orchard signify the works of the virtues, or those who exercise those same virtues in work. The shoots, therefore, of the Church were a paradise of pomegranates: because after the apostles the martyrs obtained the first place 1078Cin the Church, who by suffering strove to imitate the passion of the Lord himself; although generally the whole multitude may be understood as a paradise of pomegranates, who are pomegranates because they always retain in memory the passion of their Redeemer. And as the pomegranate contains within one rind a multitude of grains, so in the Church the multitude of the faithful is contained within the faith of the Lord's passion. Hence the Apostle says: As many of you as have been baptized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in his death (Rom. VI, 3).

Verse 14. Cypress with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of Lebanon. Cypress is an aromatic tree, having a seed like that of coriander, that is, white and translucent, which is boiled in oil, and from it is pressed out that which is called cypress, from which the royal ointment is prepared. We read in Exodus that manna was like the white seed of coriander (Exod. XVI, 31). Cypress, therefore, and manna have one signification: for they signify heavenly grace, coming as manna 1078Dfrom the things above. Cypress, therefore, grows in the garden of the Church, when all the faithful are taught to set heavenly grace before all things, and through it to hope for salvation. For no one can be saved by his own virtues, but by the grace of God alone. Spikenard is a type of the Lord's passion, whence also Mary Magdalene anointed the head and the feet of Jesus with pure spikenard (Joan. XII, 3). Spikenard, therefore, is in the garden of the Church, when all the saints venerate the memory of the Lord's passion, and give thanks to him because he so greatly loved them that for their salvation and deliverance he underwent death. Spikenard and saffron. Saffron has a flower of a golden color, and therefore it signifies charity. For as gold is more precious among all metalia, so charity holds the primacy among all the virtues, the Apostle saying: And now there remain faith, hope, charity, but the greater of these is charity (I Cor. XIII, 13). Saffron, therefore, grows with spikenard in the garden of the Church, when the members of Christ, that is, 1079Aall the faithful, strive effectually to hold the love of God and of the neighbor. But saffron is said to cool burning fevers: so true charity cools the ardor of worldly and carnal concupiscence, and kindles in the mind the love of God and of the neighbor. Sweet cane and cinnamon. Sweet cane. it is a low shrub which is also called cassia, with a purple bark; it signifies the saints in the Church who are foremost in humility and patience, namely the poor in spirit, whose is the kingdom of heaven (Matth. V, 3). But the purple bark signifies the likeness of the passion of Christ, which the humble in spirit always retain in their heart, or which those who are grounded in true humility, always retaining it in their heart, labor to imitate. Cinnamon is likewise a low shrub, but of wonderful power and odor, and therefore they designate the advancement of humility, which is also designated by the sweet cane. Sweet cane, therefore, and cinnamon are in the Church, when the saints of God both truly hold humility and patience 519 in their heart, and show them outwardly to others. But that the sweet cane has a ruddy bark, while cinnamon 1079Bhas an ashen color, signifies that the saints of God, the more they are mindful of the passion of their Redeemer, so much the more vile and contemptible are they in their own eyes, saying with Abraham: I will speak to my Lord, although I am ashes and dust (Gen. XVIII, 27); and with Job: Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in embers and ashes (Job XLII, 6). With all the trees of Lebanon. The trees of Lebanon excel in beauty and in height and in strength, and therefore they signify the teachers and all the perfect in the Church, of whom above the house of the Church is read to have been made, the same Church saying: The beams of our houses are of cedar, our rafters of cypress (Cant. I, 16): because, namely, the holy teachers fortify the Church by their preaching. With the sweet cane, therefore, and the cinnamon, all the trees of Lebanon are mentioned in the garden of the Church: because whether the humble and patient, or all the perfect teachers, have the same faith in the Church, and await the same blessedness.

1079CMyrrh and aloes with all the chief ointments. Myrrh is a tree whose sap is called stacte, of such power that whatever has been touched by it is preserved unharmed from all rottenness and worms. Aloes is a tree of most sweet odor, so much so that it is burnt upon altars in place of incense. But it has a most bitter sap, resisting rottenness and worms. Hence also in the passion of the Lord Nicodemus is said to have brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pounds (Joan. XIX, 39). By these trees, therefore, is designated the continence and chastity of the flesh. For rottenness is wont to designate luxury, according to what the prophet says of certain men: The beasts have rotted in their dung (Joel. I, 17). In the garden of the Church, therefore, there are myrrh and aloes, that is, minds heavenly and free from all corruption, hearing from the Apostle: Follow peace with all men, and chastity, without which no man shall see God (Hebr. XII, 14). With all the chief ointments. By the chief ointments, what better is understood than charity? of which the Apostle says: I show unto you yet a more excellent way 1079D(I Cor. XII, 31); and then: If (he says) I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing (I Cor. XIII, 1). And well are the chief ointments placed after myrrh and aloes: because after the continence of the flesh there succeeds true charity, which is God, by which God is loved above all things (I Joan. IV, 16). For neither can those who are held by worldly love, that is, who still take delight in pleasures and enticements, be partakers of this charity.

Verse 15. The fountain of gardens, the well of living waters, which run with a rush from Lebanon. The fountain of gardens is that primitive Church herself, who by the knowledge of truth waters the gardens, that is, the Churches sown throughout the whole world; she is also the well of living waters: because the knowledge of truth, which is the Church, is in certain men as it were a fountain where it lies open, in certain men as it were a well where it lies hid, and cannot 1080Abe clearly perceived. For between a fountain and a well there is this difference, that a fountain is said to be both in the depth and on the surface of the earth, but a well is always in the depth. The Church, therefore, is a fountain and a well: because the mysteries of God in certain men are easily taken as from a fountain; but in certain men they are drawn out with difficulty as waters from a well. The living waters designate those same mysteries of the Scriptures, which have in themselves a heavenly power. But on the contrary the teachings of the heretics are called cisterns, that is, collections of waters, of which the Lord says through the prophet: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold the waters (Jer. II, 13). These flowing waters run with a rush from Lebanon, that is, they flow from the Church, which has been made white and robed in white by baptism and by good works, which is what Lebanon is interpreted to mean. From this Lebanon (that is, from the Church) there flow, that is, there stream forth, the waters of the heavenly doctrines, and this with a rush, that is, with a certain power, by which all the fabrications of the heretics are destroyed and overthrown. Hence also the Psalmist: The stream of the river 1080Bmaketh the city of God joyful (Psal. XLV, 5), that is, the power of the divine words.

Verse 16. Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind: blow through my garden, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow. When the virtues of the Church have been enumerated under the name of aromatical spices, the Lord, who is the bridegroom and redeemer of the Church, knowing that the Church herself was to be multiplied by persecutions, thereupon in a manner bids her come, not by commanding persecution, but by permitting it. Arise (he says), O north wind, and come, O south wind. By the north wind and the south wind are understood the blasts of the persecutions and disturbances of those who rage against the Church. The north wind indeed is a most cold wind, the south wind a warm one; and therefore by the north wind are designated terrors and threats, by the south wind the snares of blandishments, by which two ways the Church is tried, namely by terrors and by blandishments. But in that he says: Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, he does not command the wicked, nor does he compel them to do evil; but he permits it, and gives them the power that they may 1080Cbe able to rage against the Church; so far as by their malice the Church may be tried, and they more grievously punished. For the Lord knows how to do certain good things by the evils of men; but he holds the persecution itself in his own power, so that they may not rage as much as they wish; whence it is written: Who maketh a weight for the winds (Job. XXVIII, 25): because, namely, he imposes upon the blasts a certain measure of persecution, according to what the Apostle says: He will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it (I Cor. X, 13). Blow through (he says) my garden, that is, my Church, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow, that is, let the fragrance of the virtues and the odor of good works go forth from her. For the more bitterly the Church is shaken, so much the greater odor of the virtues does she send forth from herself.

Verse 1. Let my beloved come into his garden, that he may eat the fruit of his apple trees. The Church, hearing persecution called for, as though preparing herself against adversities, says: Let my beloved come into his garden, 1080Dthat is, let Christ my bridegroom come, whom I love with my whole heart, to his Church, that he may eat the fruit of his apple trees, that is, let him be delighted and fed by the good works of his faithful. For the food of the Lord is our good works, as he himself, beholding the faith of the Samaritans or of the Gentiles, said to his disciples: I have meat to eat which you know not (Joan. IV, 32).

I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride. To the Church desiring that he come to her the bridegroom answers that he has already done this. I (he says) have already come. For veni, here, is not the word of one commanding, but the indicative of the past tense. O my sister, my bride, 520 I have already come into my garden, I have already visited my Church; but I also visit it daily, and I am fed with the apples of her virtues and enjoy her odor. I come to her, that I may correct the erring, strengthen the infirm, confirm the doubting, and endow all the perfect with heavenly rewards.

1081AI have reaped my myrrh with my aromalibus. By myrrh are designated those who have ended their life by martyrdom, or also who have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. V, 24). But the aromatical spices are the works of the holy virtues, fragrant with the odors of good working. The Lord therefore reaps his myrrh with his aromatical spices, when he cuts off from this life with the sickle of death the holy martyrs, or the rest of the elect who are marked out by good works, and, when they have been brought to the ripeness of good works, stores them up in the granaries of the country above.

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. By the honeycomb and the wine the holy preachers are figured: but by the honey and the milk, the good hearers. For the preachers are the honeycomb, who bring forth the hidden and innermost mysteries of the Scriptures as honey from the combs, when by preaching they make them manifest to others. But the honey is the good hearers: because they strive to receive attentively the sweetness of the word of God, and to be fed upon it with delight. The preachers themselves are the wine, who are also the honeycomb: because they announce the strong sacred mysteries 1081Bof the Scriptures. But the milk is all the weak hearers, for whom open mysteries are suited as milk. Since, therefore, the life of all these is passed in different pursuits, and by the good intention of all of them the Redeemer is fed and delighted; and thus he as it were eats the honeycomb with the honey, and drinks the wine with the milk. We can also refer this to the death of the elect, whom the Lord eats, when through death he calls them to eternal life, and joins them to his body, that is, to the fellowship of the elect now rejoicing in that heavenly happiness. But if we understand this of the death of the saints, we ought to understand in the wine those whose souls now glory in heavenly happiness; but in the honeycomb, those who now rejoice in body and soul in that blessedness, such as are those who rose again with the Lord (Matth. XXVII, 52).

Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, O dearly beloved. Not only does the Lord rejoice in the advancement of the saints, but he also exhorts us to rejoice in their virtues 1081Cand to imitate them: Eat (he says), O friends, that is, my faithful, who are friends by doing what I command; you are my dearly beloved by loving me with a perfect charity of soul. Eat, therefore (he says), and drink, that is, rejoice together in the good acts of the saints, and set them before yourselves for imitation. But it is to be noted that he says, drink and be inebriated. Inebriation is sometimes put in the Scriptures for fullness, as it is said of the brethren of Joseph: They drank and were inebriated with him (Gen. XLIII, 34); and the Psalmist: Thou hast visited the earth, and hast inebriated it (Psal. LXIV, 16), that is, thou hast satisfied and filled it. He exhorts us therefore not only to eat and to drink, but also to be filled: because there are some who eat and are not filled, because, namely, they hear the divine preaching with delight, but negligently forget it, and do not bring what they have heard to the effect of good work. But those eat and are filled who lay up in their inward senses the words of life which they hear, and labor to fulfill them in work; 1081Dof whom the Psalmist says: The poor shall eat and shall be filled (Psal. XXI, 27). But if (as has been said above) we understand this of the death of the saints, the friends and the dearly beloved are the angelic spirits, whom the Lord bids rejoice together with his elect, when they are carried over from this life to the rest of eternal blessedness, according to what is read in the evangelical parable: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost (Luc. XV, 6).

Verse 2. I sleep, and my heart watcheth. The voice of the Church, I sleep: because, my bridegroom granting some little peace, I am at rest, nor do I suffer such oppressions as the primitive Church, and therefore my heart watcheth, because, peace being granted me, I cleave more securely to the love of my bridegroom, and direct toward him the eyes of my heart. But because this time is not one of rest, but rather of labor and of contest, again the bridegroom rouses the Church to labors, and exhorts her to the contest of preaching.

1082AThe voice of my beloved knocking. The beloved knocks, when Christ exhorts his faithful to the advancement of the virtues; or he knocks, when he admonishes them to gain their neighbors by preaching. And there is a third knocking, with which the Lord knocks upon his elect, when through the trouble of sickness he signifies that death is near; of which knocking it is said in the Gospel: That when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately (Luc. XII, 36). But in this place he is said to knock, that is, to urge the Church on to the work of preaching.

Open to me, my sister, my friend, my dove, my undefiled. Open to me, my sister. Sister, because thou hast been made coheir of my kingdom; my friend, because, delivered from the yoke of servitude, thou hast come to know the secrets of my truth; my dove, because thou hast been sanctified by the dowry of my Spirit; my undefiled, because by the pouring out of my blood thou hast been cleansed from every spot of sins. Open to me, that is, go forth from the quiet and leisure of sweetness and of contemplation to the work of preaching.

1082BFor my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights. The head of the Church (as the Apostle says) is Christ (Ephes. V, 23); but the locks are the innermost thoughts of the saints, which do not flow loose and unbound, but are gathered together by the bond of the fear and the love of God. But the dew and the drops of the nights in this place designate minds that are dark and full of unbelief and cold. The head, therefore, of the bridegroom is full of dew, when all worldly men grow torpid toward the charity of God, and according to what the Lord says: When sin aboundeth, charity groweth cold (Matth. XXIV, 12). And when such men persecute and hate the saints of God who meditate upon heavenly things, then as it were the locks of the bridegroom are full of the drops of the nights. When, therefore, such men are multiplied and burden the Church, then the bridegroom admonishes his bride that she rise and press on to the work of preaching.

Verse 3. I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? The Church, being called on by her bridegroom to the office of preaching, answers: I have put off my garment: how shall I put it on? I have stripped myself of the cares and occupations 1082Cof this world, without which the office of preaching is carried on either scarcely or not at all, and how can it come about that I should return again to those things which I have forsaken? For he who fits himself to take up the office of preaching ought also to provide temporal things for his subjects, which cannot be managed without great solicitude. But that the garment signifies the solicitudes and cares of the world, the Lord shows in the Gospel: And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take his garment (Matth. XXIV, 18); which is plainly to say: He who stands on the lofty citadel of contemplation, let him not come down to take his garment 521, that is, let him not come down to take up the cares of the world; that is, lest he be again entangled in the occupations of the world. The Church, therefore, or every holy soul, fears to be stripped of this garment, and, resting in the contemplation of her Maker, to be clothed again and taken up with worldly business.

I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? I have washed my feet, that is, the actions with which I was never accustomed to touch the dust, 1082Dthat is, to do earthly things, I have washed with the worthy weeping of penance, so much so that now nothing pleases me to think upon but divine things. How shall I defile them? that is, how can it come about that I should return again to thinking upon perishable and earthly things, I who now, in an occupied and free heart, enjoy the divine gaze?

Verse 4. My beloved put his hand through the hole, and my belly trembled at his touch. The beloved puts his hand through the hole and touches the belly, when the Maker visits the heart with inward inspiration, and kindles it to the advancement of the virtues: or also when he calls us back to the memory of his works, that we may consider: that, when he was God, he deigned to become man for us; that, taking on our earthly things, he might make us heavenly, and by dying for us might bestow eternal life upon us. And when this comes to pass, the belly trembles: because, when we begin to think upon such things, the secret places of our heart are shaken, while we begin to be amazed with how great a condescension the Maker deigned to do these things for us 1083AFor that the belly signifies the heart, the prophet shows, saying: My belly, my belly is in pain (Jer. IV, 19); and he shows what this was, saying: The senses of my heart are troubled.

Verse 5. I arose up to open to my beloved. We open to the beloved not only when we receive his coming, but also when we preach to others; and those who through malice had closed their breast, converted by our preaching, we bring it about that they too open the door of their heart to Christ. And well is it first said, I arose up; then, to open to my beloved. For he who by preaching wishes to open the hearts of others to Christ ought first to rise up, that is, to be lifted up to the zeal of good works, and to fulfill in work what he preaches: lest perhaps, preaching to others, he himself become reprobate (I Cor. IX, 27); hence also Luke says of the Lord: Which Jesus began to do and to teach (Act. I, 1); first he says to do, then to teach.

My hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers 1083Bwere full of the choicest myrrh. By the hands with which we work is designated the working itself; but by the fingers, the discernment of the working: because in no member are the distinctions of the joints so many as in the fingers. The hands of the Church drop myrrh, when her preachers give their labor to continence and to the mortification of their flesh, saying with the Apostle: I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection (II Cor. IX, 27). Or when they are ready to die for Christ; as John says: If Christ laid down his life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (I Joan. III, 16). But the fingers are full of the choicest myrrh, when we subtly discern the work of mortification itself, whether it be done for the sake of the reward above, or for the praises of the world. For he who fasts for human favors, or presses on with works of abstinence or of continence, has indeed myrrh in his hands, but has it not in his fingers: because he does not discern why he does this; of whom the Lord says: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (Matth. VI, 2). Or the hands of the bride drop 1083Cmyrrh, when they fit themselves to the works of the holy Church, of chastity or of holy continence.

Verse 6. I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved, but he had turned aside and passed on. She opens the bolt of the door when the Church, or any faithful soul, spreads open the heart to the Creator as he comes. But he had turned aside and passed on. For very often, when we wish to treat of things spiritual, the more subtly we strain, the more the eye of the heart is beaten back; whence Solomon says: I said, I shall be made wise, and she withdrew farther from me (Eccl. VII, 24); the Psalmist too says: Man shall come to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted (Psal. LXIII, 8). For the more anyone lifts up his heart to divine contemplation by the purifying of the flesh, the higher he finds that to be which he was seeking. He says therefore: He had turned aside and passed on, because no one can grasp him in this present life as he is.

My soul melted when the beloved spoke. The more nearly (she says) I perceived the coming of my bridegroom at the touch of his secret inbreathing, the more did 1083Dwhatever was cold in me grow warm, so that now nothing pleases me but to be dissolved into tears. For the bridegroom speaks when Christ breathes into the holy soul by his inward inspiration, and suggests to it a heavenly desire; and so, as he speaks, it melts: because the more it is breathed upon by heavenly desires, the more fully it dies to earthly things and is made as it were insensible to the world, and lives by heavenly desire alone. This is what is also said through the prophet: Who is blind but my servant? Who is deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers? (Isai. XLII, 19).

I sought him, and found him not: I called, and he answered me not. Again she redoubles the cause of her grief. To all indeed who seek him devoutly the Lord is always at hand: to those who call upon him he answers, that is, he hears them unto salvation; but very often he does not hear the faithful soul that desires him and longs to come to him, to this end, that he may so show himself to it as present as he promises he will show himself in the time to come; 1084Aor also he does not answer, that is, he does not hear, to this end, that at his own good pleasure every holy man may be stripped of the bonds of the body and, being free, be caressed by the embraces of his bridegroom. For when the Apostle said: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Philip. I, 23), he was as it were seeking to cleave to his bridegroom, and calling him with the desire of his mind; and yet he did not answer him, because he did not at once free him from the body, but permitted him still to be exercised with labors and to sweat over the needs of the Church.

Verse 7. The keepers who go about the city found me; they struck me and wounded me. The watchmen who guard the city are the holy teachers, who go about the city of God (that is, the Church), keeping unsleeping care of her, that they may both defend her from adversaries and, by their word or their example, kindle her to heavenly desires. They find the bride, therefore, seeking her beloved, when the holy teachers instruct and form the soul that is intent upon heavenly desires — present, by their word, or 1084Babsent, by their sacred writings. They struck me (she says) and wounded me. The word of God is a sword, as the Apostle says: The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit (Hebr. IV, 12). By this sword the bride is struck and wounded, when the preacher's discourse speaks of God, and pierces the hearers through as it were with a certain dart of compunction and love.

522 The keepers of the walls took my cloak from me. This cloak here is understood as the tunic above, where it is said: I have put off my tunic — namely, the covering of worldly desires, which the keepers take away: because whatever of the love of this present world has remained in anyone's mind, the holy teachers take it all away, and make her love only her bridegroom Christ. Such as these can say with the Apostle: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. VI, 14). The keepers of the walls. The walls of the city are the holy teachers of the Church. But the keepers of the walls are those 1084Cwho instruct even those who are able to preside over others, such as Paul was, who instructed and guarded Timothy and Titus — walls, surely, of this city — that is, exhorted them to the perfection of good work.

Verse 8. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish with love. The daughters of Jerusalem are the faithful souls, whether they are still sojourning in this present life, or already enjoy Christ, or are one day to contemplate Christ face to face. Or the daughters of Jerusalem are the citizens of that city above, in which is the highest peace and the happiness of divine contemplation. But in this place we ought to take the daughters of Jerusalem as souls that desire God, but are still passing their time in this pilgrimage. The bride therefore adjures the daughters of Jerusalem to tell the bridegroom that she languishes with love, when the faithful soul adjures other faithful souls that desire God to make it known to Christ, and to tell him that she is held by his love. And well does she say that she languishes with love. For the more she has begun to desire the things above, 1084Dthe more she grows faint toward the things that are of the world. Nor is it any wonder if such are said to languish, since the Apostle calls them dead: You are dead, he says, and your life is hid with Christ (Coloss. III, 3). So then the daughters of Jerusalem answer the bride who adjures them.

Verse 9. What manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved, O most beautiful of women? what manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved, that thou hast so adjured us? This comes to pass when some faithful man addresses a faithful brother, and they suggest to each other words of heavenly desires, by which they kindle themselves to the love of things above. Tell me, she says, who now desire, who now long to come to the vision of my Creator, what manner of one is thy beloved, that is, in what manner Christ ought to be loved. Long since, she says, I began to fear him; but now, since charity drives out fear, I choose to hear words by which I may be kindled to his love. Do thou therefore, who already seekest him with love, 1085Aand languishest with love of him, tell me: What manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved. Beloved of the beloved — the Son is of the Father, as he is God of God, light of light. Or also, thy beloved of the beloved is Christ on that side by which he is to be loved, not on that by which he is to be feared. For to fear belongs rather to the imperfect, whom fear calls back from sins; but to love, to the perfect. Now therefore she asks What manner of one the beloved is of the beloved, that is, in what manner Christ ought to be loved, or of what sort he is toward those who have known how to love him only.

Verse 10. My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands. The voice of the Church answering: My beloved is white and ruddy: white by virginity, ruddy by his passion. White, because without sin; for without sin did he pass his life: Sin indeed he did not do, neither was guile found in his mouth (I Petr. II, 22). Ruddy, because he washed us from our sins in his own blood (Apoc. I, 5). Chosen out of thousands. For by a singular grace Christ the man shone out in the whole 1085Bmass of the human race: because through him God purposed to save the human race, and he himself is the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. II, 5); of whom the Psalmist says: There is none that doth good, there is not so much as one (Psal. XIII, 3); and Solomon: One man among a thousand I have found (Eccle. VII, 29), that is, Christ; and he himself in the psalm: I am alone until I pass (Psal. CXL, 10). Chosen therefore out of thousands, because out of all the multitude of the saints he alone was worthy to hear: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matth. III, 17).

Verse 11. His head is the finest gold. The head of the bridegroom is God, according to what the Apostle says: The head of Christ is God (I Cor. XI, 3); which is compared to the finest gold, because as gold is more precious than all metals, so almighty God excels and rises above the good things made by him; whence the Lord says: None is good but God alone (Marc. X, 18). The head therefore of the bridegroom is the finest gold, because the goodness of God is unspeakable, transcending the goodness of all things: because nothing is good save by 1085Cparticipation in this highest good.

His locks are as the elatae of palm trees. The locks of the bridegroom are the multi udines of the faithful, cleaving to God through faith and love, which are compared to the elatae of palm trees. The elatae of palm trees are the longer and more excellent branches, at times of a golden color, curling and ever stretching toward the heights, and never losing their greenness. Such then does the Church call the locks of her bridegroom — curling, that is, and glowing red. Some say that the elatae of palm trees are a species of aromatic tree, which in Latin they call abies or spatae; for in Greek the fir is called ἐλάτη. And this species is fit for the making of ointments. But by abies here we ought to understand not that great tree which is fit for ships and houses, but (as we have said) a species of aromatic tree. So much, according to the letter, concerning the elatae of palm trees. The locks therefore of the bridegroom are compared to the elatae of palm trees: because the multitudes of the faithful both rejoice in the greenness of faith, and are lifted up to desire things eternal, and taste the sweetness of the delight 1085Dabove; and the more they perceive of it, the more do they seem in their own eyes sinners and contemptible; whence there follows:

Black as a raven. For the locks of the bridegroom are black as a raven, because the multitudes of the faithful are conscious to themselves of their own frailty, and have known that of themselves they have nothing good; or also, they are elatae of palm trees in hope and in victory, but black as a raven, as being despised and contemptible amid the pressures of this world. The elatae of palm trees are the saints, because by the grace of God they press on toward the palm of heavenly victory; but black as a raven, because they know themselves to be of themselves weak and sinners. The locks of the bridegroom may also be taken as the angelic powers, which cleave to God in a special way, as the locks to the head, and contemplate him from close at hand. And these are rightly compared to the elatae of palm trees: because they are never bent from the uprightness of their estate, but remain unstained in the dignity of their office; and the more they contemplate the brightness of their Creator, the 1086Amore fully do they behold, in comparison with him, how worthless is every created thing, and therefore they are said to be black as a raven.

523 Verse 12. His eyes are as doves upon brooks of waters, which are washed with milk. His eyes are the gifts of the Holy Spirit; which John shows in the Apocalypse, saying: I saw a Lamb as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth (Apoc. V, 6). Whence also they are well compared to doves upon brooks of waters, because the Holy Spirit is delighted with pure and sincere minds. For doves settle not upon pools or marshes, but upon brooks of waters: because (as has been said) the Holy Spirit makes chaste and clean minds a dwelling-place for himself. Which are washed with milk: because (as has been said) the Holy Spirit is understood under the name of milk, that is, the grace of God, which is bestowed upon the Church through the Holy Spirit, and by which, as little ones by milk, so the Church is nourished. We may also take by the eyes of the bridegroom the teachers of the Church, who are compared to doves 1086Bon account of their innocence and simplicity. These doves settle upon the brooks, that they may see the coming of the hawk from afar and be on their guard: so also the holy teachers, drenched with the water of baptism, are made white with the brightness of chastity and holiness.

And they settle beside the fullest streams, that is, beside the abounding knowledge of the Scriptures. But if we think there is any difference between the brooks and the fullest streams, it must be said that by the brooks are signified the writings of the Old Testament; by the fullest streams is taken the copious teaching of the holy Gospel. These doves therefore are both upon the brooks of waters, and settle beside the fullest streams: because the holy teachers assiduously search out perserutantur the mysteries of the Old Testament as well as of the New.

Verse 13. His cheeks are as beds of spices planted by the perfumers. By the cheeks of the bridegroom is taken the modest kindness of Christ, or his severity, or the bearing of his countenance; for in a man's cheeks gladness, or modesty, severity 1086Calso and kindness are discerned. And therefore in the cheeks of the bridegroom the bearing of our Redeemer's countenance is rightly taken. For those were his cheeks when he rejoiced in spirit, as the Gospel says, or when he wept over the dead Lazarus (Joan. XI, 35), or when he grieved over Jerusalem that was to perish (Luc. XIX, 41), and many things of that kind. These cheeks of the bridegroom are compared to beds of spices; for as beds of spices, excellently laid out and set in order, delight the sight of those who look on them, and offer them the grace of their fragrance: so the meekness of Christ delighted the absent by report and those present in very deed, and called them forth to love of him. These beds are planted by the perfumers. The perfumers are the prophets or the apostles, of whom the one sort described all these things as still to come, the other as already done.

His lips are lilies dropping the first myrrh. By the lips of the bridegroom are taken the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which are compared to lilies: because they announce the rewards of eternal whiteness. They drop the first myrrh, because they teach that these things are to be reached 1086Dthrough the mortification of the flesh. Or also the lips of the Lord are compared to lilies, because they teach the works of chastity and cleanness. They drop the first myrrh, because they suggest that whatever adversities come are to be borne patiently. The lips of the Lord were lilies when, teaching on the mountain, he said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the clean of heart (Matth. V, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10). They drop the first myrrh, when after these things he added: Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake.

Verse 14. His hands are turned and golden. For in the hands of the bridegroom the working of the Saviour is worthily taken. For as a man works easily with the lathe, and needs no rule, so the working of the Saviour was easy; for whatever he willed, he accomplished on the spot: because he spoke, and they were made (Psal. XXXII, 9); and of whom the evangelist says (Matth. VII, 29): He was as one having his word in power. For they were crant golden, because his working was carried through by the power of the divinity; for in gold the Divinity 1087Ais figured: because as gold surpasses the other metals and is more precious, so the Divinity excels all its own works in an unspeakable manner.

Full of hyacinths. The hyacinth is a stone of the color of air. What then is taken in the hyacinths, but hope and heavenly desire? And the hands of the Lord are full of hyacinths, because all his working stirs us up to hope and desire of the things above. The hyacinth is also an aromatic flower, of purple color and of good scent. The hands of the Lord are full of hyacinths, because on the cross they were pierced with nails, and sprinkled with the redness of his own blood as with a purple color. But the former exposition, concerning the hyacinth as a stone, fits better here. In another translation a stone is found. For his hands are said to be turned, full of Tharsis. Tharsis is the stone which we call chalcedony.

His belly is of ivory. Among the members of the human body nothing is frailer than the belly, nothing more tender; and therefore by the belly is taken the frailty of the humanity assumed in Christ. Now ivory is the bone of the elephant, which animal 1087Bthey say is most chaste, and of a most cold nature whence also it is vehemently sought after by the dragon, which is of a hot nature. The belly therefore of the bridegroom is of ivory, because the assumed humanity of the Redeemer admitted no corruption, no stain; Sin indeed he did not do, neither was any guile found in him (Isai. LIII, 9). He assumed indeed the frailty of the flesh; and yet he was free of all sin; just as the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses in the desert (Num. XXI, 9) had indeed the figure of a serpent, but lacked the malice of venom.

Distinguished with sapphires. The sapphire is a stone having the color of a clear sky. Whence in the vision of the Lord it is said: And they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven when it is clear (Exod. XXIV, 10). By the sapphires therefore are understood the works of the divine Majesty, which are accomplished in the flesh. The belly therefore of the bridegroom was distinguished with sapphires: because the humanity of Christ shone with heavenly powers. Nor is he said to be full of sapphires, but distinguished with them; so, 1087Cnamely, that between the sapphires the whiteness of the ivory might appear: because the Lord so worked those things that were of the divinity, that he none the less accomplished those that were of the humanity, and did not leave off those that were of the divinity. For the working in Christ, of the divinity and of the humanity, is distinguished. For that he hungered, that he thirsted, that he wept, that he grew weary, that at the last he could be crucified and die, were works of the humanity; but that he raised the dead, that he came to the aid of all the sick, that he raised himself from the dead, were most evident works of the divinity.

Verse 15. His Crara are pillars of marble, which are founded upon bases of gold. The legs of the bridegroom are the journeys of the Saviour, by which he deigned to become man and to come to us; and these are rightly compared to pillars of marble, because nothing is stronger than marble, nothing straighter than a pillar. And the legs of the bridegroom are pillars of marble: because all the ways of the Lord are both strong and straight. Of his strength 524 the Psalmist says: He rejoiced as a giant to run the way, his going forth is from the top of heaven 1087D(Psal. XV II, 6). Of his straightness, elsewhere: The Lord is just, and hath loved justices; his countenance hath beheld equity (Psal. X, 8); and, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Psal. XXIV, 10). These legs are founded upon bases of gold, because all things that were to be done through Christ or in Christ were foreordained and determined beforehand by the counsel of the divinity before the founding of the world. For gold, which (as has often been said) is more splendid and more precious than the other metals, signifies the most unalloyed secret of the divine counsel. From the bases of gold therefore the pillars of marble rise, because from the beginning of the world were foreordained the incarnation, the nativity, the passion and the resurrection of the Saviour, and the other mysteries by which the human race was to be redeemed. Whence also the prophet, praising God, said: O Lord my God, I will honor thee, I will sing praise to thy name, who doest wonderful things: let thy counsel be made true (Isai. XXV, 1).

His fairness is as of Lebanon, chosen as the cedars. Lebanon 1088Ais a mountain of Phoenicia, the boundary of Judea toward the north, and it is loftier than the other mountains. The trees also of that mountain excel the timber of all other forests both in height and in fairness and in strength. As (he says) Lebanon is loftier than the other mountains of the land of Judea: so our Redeemer is fairer than all the elect: because he is fair in form above the sons of men (Psal. XLIV, 3). And as the cedar is more beautiful and taller than the other trees, so he too by the grace of the divinity excels all the saints from the beginning of the world.

Verse 16. His throat is most sweet. Above, by the lips of the bridegroom his words were understood; now, by the throat, the inward sweetness of those very words is signified, by which our understanding is refreshed; whence also the Psalmist: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Psal. XXXIII, 9.) And many indeed can easily understand the words of the Lord; but few are they who are able to penetrate their sweetness, that is, who are eager to fulfil the precepts of God out of love and desire.

And he is wholly desirable. As if he were to say: Why do I linger in describing him 1088Bthrough his single members? Wholly desirable is my bridegroom. Wholly (she says), because perfect God, perfect man. Wholly desirable therefore is he, because he kindles the angels and all the elect to desire of him, according to what the Apostle says: On whom the angels desire to look (I Petr. I, 12); and the more nearly he is beheld, the more does he provoke those who behold him to gaze upon him with greater desire.

Such is my beloved, and he is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Beloved, because through faith and charity I cleave to him; but friend, because he has deigned to make me, redeemed from the bond of sin, his friend, and privy to his secrets; and the more anyone loves him, the more worthy of his friendship is he made.

Verse 17. Whither has thy beloved gone, O most beautiful of women? It is the voice of the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, of the Churches, or also of the holy souls. For the bride of Christ is the Church, and the daughters of Jerusalem are that same Church, which consists 1088Cof the several souls of the faithful. They say therefore: Whither has thy beloved gone, O most beautiful of women?

Whither has thy beloved turned aside? and we will seek him with thee. For the bride herself had above adjured the daughters of Jerusalem to tell the bridegroom that she languished with his love; those same daughters of Jerusalem had asked what manner of one the bridegroom was, and she accordingly had set forth the form of her bridegroom; now the daughters of Jerusalem themselves ask whither that bridegroom has gone, that they may seek him with her. This the holy souls do, when they converse with one another concerning eternal salvation: burning with the love of Christ, and desiring the sight of him; or when they diligently search out in whose hearts especially Christ may rest, that they may be built up by their example and manner of life. And it is to be noted what is said, Whither has he gone, or, Whither has thy beloved turned aside? For he as it were turns aside for a time while he is sought, that he may stir up a greater desire to seek him. For to this end he very often defers the vows and prayers of the saints, that they may begin to desire him more ardently; just as of old 1088Dhe did not at once show himself to Mary who sought him, but appearing in the form of a gardener (Joan. XX, 15), he showed at length that he himself was the one who was sought. Christ therefore always hears his elect, but he always as it were turns aside, when he does not at once grant what is asked. And well is it said: we will seek with thee; for he who seeks Christ without the Church can wander and grow weary, but cannot profit.

Verse 1. My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of spice, that he may feed in the gardens, and gather lilies. We have already been taught above what the garden of Christ is, namely the holy Church, of which it was said above: A garden enclosed is my sister the bride. Christ is gone down (he says) into his own garden, to the bed, which he himself prepared and tilled, which he sowed with the seeds of the virtues, which he lit up with his own grace, which 1089Ahe defended by the wall of his own keeping from the onset of the malignant spirits. And well is he said to have gone down into his own garden; for in a garden he willed to be buried (Joan. XIX, 41), and first of all appeared to Mary Magdalen in a garden (Joan. XX, 15), and there in a manner consecrated the first-fruits of the Church. He is said to have gone down when from the higher and heavenly seats he went down into the garden which he himself had planted in a lowly place; but for this he went down, that the garden (that is, the Church) might ascend to him. Whence also in what follows he says of the garden, that is, of his Church: Who is this that ascends through the desert? To the bed (he says) of spice. By the bed is understood the soul of every faithful man, which is cultivated by heavenly discipline and diligently composed, and squared by the evenness of its sides. That he may feed (he says) in the gardens, that is, that he may be delighted by the devout labors of the saints. For he himself is fed by our good things, so far that in the poor man he himself is refreshed. And that he may gather lilies (he says), that is, that he may gather to himself out of this world the holy souls that have been brought by ripeness of virtue to perfect whiteness, 1089Band may make them rejoice with him in eternal blessedness. For the lilies are holy souls, made white by the pursuits of the virtues and by good works.

Verse 2. I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feeds among the lilies. I to my beloved — there is understood, I prepare a pleasing pasture; and my beloved to me will grant the grace of perfection, or the reward of eternal recompense. Or else, I to my beloved prepare a dwelling in my own self; and my beloved to me, because he himself dwells in me, and makes me dwell in him; as he himself says in the Gospel: I in you, and you in me (Joan. XIV, 20).

Verse 3. Thou art beautiful, my friend, sweet and seemly as Jerusalem. The Church was seeking her bridegroom as though he were absent; but he, that he might show himself always present, 525 and might make plain that he is always at hand to her who speaks of him and desires him, answers quickly: Thou art beautiful, my friend, sweet and seemly as Jerusalem. Thou art beautiful, because thou hast not spot nor wrinkle 1089Cof sin, but art green with every brightness of the virtues. My friend — the Church, or every faithful soul. Sweet and seemly as Jerusalem. Jerusalem, which is interpreted vision of peace, signifies that city above in which is true peace and happiness: because there the saints so rejoice over the gift, that there is nothing over which they should grieve on account of corruption. Therefore the Church, which is still on earth, or every faithful soul, is after the likeness of that Jerusalem sweet and seemly: because so far as it can it imitates that peace. There follows:

Terrible as a battle-line of the camps set in order. The Church is terrible to the malignant spirits, and she is set in order as a battle-line of the camps; when, namely, each of the faithful rightly keeps his own order and his own calling. For there are three orders of the Church: of teachers, of the continent, and of the married; which kinds were shown in those three men, Noe, Daniel and Job. For Noe, who steered the ark amid the waves, signifies the holy teachers; Daniel, unmarried and chaste, signifies the order of the continent; 1089DJob, who had a wife and sons, expresses the order of the married. Therefore the Church is set in order as a battle-line of the camps, because each order of the Church stands as in a line of battle against the enemy hosts of the malignant spirits, while the holy teachers spend their labor upon preaching and teaching. The continent, despising the things that are of the world, think only upon the things that are of God, and with a mind free from earthly occupations are at leisure for God alone. The married press on with alms and with the other good works of the active life; and so they use the world as not to forsake the things that are of God. This most well-ordered disposition of the Church therefore is terrible to the unclean spirits, as a battle-line of the camps set in order for war. Or else the Church is beautiful and seemly as Jerusalem in the virtues: but terrible as a battle-line of the camps set in order, because she does not cease to carry forth her rule and her power unto the ends of the whole world. Or she is terrible as a battle-line of the camps set in order, because she is so knit and joined together by the unity of charity, that by no force of the malignant enemy, 1090Aby no plague of discord can she be pierced; for nothing so terrifies the malignant spirits as charity does.

Verse 4. Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me fly away. As if he were to say: I indeed gave thee dove-like eyes, by which thou mightest gaze upon me and pierce most keenly into the secrets of the Scriptures; but beware lest thou wish to strain them now to seeing me: because while thou livest in this present life, thou canst not; For man shall not see me, and live (Exod. XXXIII, 20). But when, loosed from the bonds of the flesh, thou hast come to me, then shalt thou see me with open vision, and there shall be fulfilled what is promised in the Gospel: But he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him (Joan. XIV, 21). But as for what is said, for they have made me fly away, it is not to be thought that God forsakes those who seek him, and withdraws from them, since he himself commands: Seek, and you shall find (Luc. XI, 9); but it is rather so to be taken, that the more anyone has wished to search out the divinity of the majesty of God, the 1090Bmore does he understand how unsearchable and incomprehensible it is. And this is what the Psalmist says: Man shall come to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted (Psal. LXIII, 7). As if he were to say: Although a man lift up his heart to seeing God, God shall be exalted, because how great he is cannot be grasped.

Thy hair is as a flock of goats which have appeared from Galaad. These little verses have been expounded more than once; but let it not irk us to expound again what it did not irk the Holy Spirit to repeat. For he set down these little verses twice for this reason, that we might hold as most certain and settled what we heard confirmed by repetition. The hairs of the holy Church are the manifold varieties of subtle thoughts. And they are well compared to a flock of goats; for the goat is a figure of the sinner; whence also it is commanded in the law that whoever has sinned through ignorance and has come to know his guilt should offer for his offense a she-goat for a holocaust (Lev. IV, 28). The hairs therefore of the Church are compared to a flock of goats, because the saints, who are members of the Church, take pains to blot out all the guilt of their thought by worthy 1090Cpenance and by the tears of just compunction. And well are they said to have appeared from the mountain of Galaad. Galaad is interpreted a heap of witness; and therefore by Galaad is signified the mind of the saints, who are a heap of witness, since it attests by the most evident tokens that it disregards all things that are of the world, and desires God alone. By Galaad also can our Lord and Redeemer himself be understood. For Galaad is the name both of a mountain and of a city. From the mountain therefore of Galaad the flock of goats appeared, because the Church is founded upon Christ, as he himself says: A city seated upon a mountain cannot be hid (Matth. V, 15). He himself is the heap of witness: because the multitude of the prophets and of the patriarchs bear him witness by their deeds and their writings.

Verse 5. Thy teeth are as flocks of sheep, which have come up from the washing, all with twin young, and there is not a barren one among them. By the teeth of the Church is understood the firm steadfastness of her words. And these are well compared to a flock of sheep that have come up from the washing, because the words of the Church sound nothing but innocence and meekness, 1090Dand keep in themselves nothing foul, nothing base or unclean; but they are washed in the washing of sincerity and purity, hearing from the Apostle: Let not evil speech proceed out of your mouth (Ephes. IV, 29). And well are they said to be all with twin young, because the speech of the saints sounds nothing else nor utters anything, save what belongs to the love of God and of the neighbor. For the saints ought to speak those things only which pertain to the everlasting soundness of bodies and of souls.

Verse 6. As is the rind of the pomegranate, so are thy cheeks, apart from thy hidden things. We said above that in the cheeks the chaste modesty of the saints is figured; in the rind of the pomegranate, the mystery of the passion of Christ, as we hear from Paul the apostle: Be not ashamed of the cross of Christ, nor of me his prisoner (II Tim. I, 8) [Vulg. testimonium Domini nostri, "the testimony of our Lord," for "the cross of Christ"]. And these things indeed are great, which are in the open: but greatest are those which are within, that is, those which are kept in store for the saints in time to come.

1091AVerse 7. There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and of young maidens there is no number. The queens are the teachers of the holy Church, who by the merit of faith and of knowledge draw near to the couch of the eternal King, and bear spiritual sons to God. The number sixty is completed out of ten and six. For ten multiplied by six 526 rises into sixty. And by ten are signified the divine precepts, on account of the Decalogue of the law; but six is put for perfection, because in six days God finished his works. The queens therefore are said to be sixty, because they signify those, as we have said, who are strong in perfection of knowledge and of work, and who preach for the love alone of their Creator and with a view to the recompense above. This number also, that is, sixty, is made up out of twelve taken five times; for five twelves, or twelve fives, make sixty. The queens therefore are said to be sixty, because they signify those who, being set in the Church, have known how chastely 1091Bto order the five senses of their body according to the institution of the twelve apostles. The concubines signify those who preach Christ not sincerely, but for the sake of temporal gain, or for the sake of popular praise. For these also, like the queens, come to the couch of the King through knowledge, and beget spiritual sons; but they stand estranged from the crown of the eternal kingdom. And well are they comprised under the number eighty; for this number is made up out of ten and eight. But eighty is sometimes taken in a bad sense on account of the number four, by the multiplying of which it consists. For four signifies all things temporal and present, on account of the four regions of the world or the four seasons of the year. Rightly therefore are these concubines said to be eighty: because (as has been said) they preach for the sake of temporal and visible things alone, and care less for things spiritual. Of such the Apostle said: There are some who announce Christ not sincerely, etc. (Philip. I, 17, 18); until he says: in this I rejoice, yea and I will rejoice. Of young maidens there is no number. The young maidens are souls already regenerate in Christ, 1091Cwho, having put off the oldness of the first man, have been renewed in Christ, and yet are not yet marriageable, not yet fit for the couch of the King; because they have not yet come to the perfection of preaching Christ. And of these there is no number, because infinite is the number of souls believing in Christ, nor can it be grasped by any man. For the rest, all the elect are numbered by God; for with him, by whom even the number of the stars is comprehended (Psal. CXLVI, 4), the number of the elect cannot be unknown.

Verse 8. One is my dove, my perfect one. That is, one is the catholic Church spread throughout the whole world, which, consisting of queens and of young maidens, or of young men, has also concubines, that is, certain persons who are called Christians or teachers in name only. One therefore is the Church, because she admits no rending or schisms; but as there is one God, one faith, one baptism (Ephes. IV, 5), so there is one general Church, which is rightly also called a dove: because by the dowry of the Holy Spirit, who appeared in the form of a dove, 1091Dshe was betrothed and sanctified to Christ.

She is one to her mother, the chosen one of her that bore her. Our mother is that heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle says: But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. This Church therefore is one to her mother, because after the example of that Church which already enjoys Christ, she herself is instructed and formed in this pilgrimage, and strives to come to that blessedness in which she reigns together with Christ.

The daughters of Sion saw her, and the queens proclaimed her most blessed, and the concubines praised her. Those whom above he called young maidens, here he calls daughters. But the queens and concubines let us understand in this place as above. The daughters therefore, the queens and the concubines proclaim and praise the Church, because the whole body of the faithful marvels at the catholic Church. For that same Church, which consists of many persons of the faithful, makes up the catholic, that is, the universal Church.

1092AVerse 9. Who is this that comes forth as the morning rising? It is the voice of the Synagogue. For at the end of the world, when the Jewish people has been converted to Christ at the preaching of Elias and Enoch, she too will marvel at the Church, saying: Who is this? that is, how great and of what sort is the Church, that comes forth? that is, that goes forward from virtue to virtue. For the Church is said not to stand still, but to come forth: because she was not content with one place, but has taken possession of the whole world by her heavenly preaching. She comes forth as the morning, because, the darkness of unbelief being past, she has shown that she has the light of truth.

Beautiful as the moon. The natural philosophers report that the moon is lit up by the sun. And behold, the Church is beautiful as the moon: because she is lit up by the brightness of her bridegroom Christ, and shines again with his grace. Or she is beautiful as the moon in this present life, where sometimes, peace and tranquillity or security being granted her, she waxes, and sometimes, worn down by adversities, she wanes.

Chosen as the sun. In the other life, where she will shine again with perpetual joy from the vision of her Creator. Or she is chosen 1092Bas the sun: because she strives to imitate that other Sun of whom it is written: To you that fear my name the sun of justice shall arise (Malach. IV, 2). This Sun she imitates by living in humility, and justice, and godliness.

Terrible as a battle-line of the camps set in order. Terrible to the powers of the air, set in order as a battle-line of the camps, that is, made one by the unity of charity, so that she can be pierced by no temptations.

Verse 10. I went down into the garden of nuts. The Church, being praised by the Synagogue, answers: I went down into the garden of nuts. The garden of nuts is this present life. For as in a nut the shell indeed is seen to be very hard, but the kernel lies hidden: so in this present life our consciences are shut up, and do not appear, until, the shell of the body being broken, they are made manifest. The Church therefore goes down into the garden of nuts when through her teachers she considers the life of each; whence there follows:

That I might see the fruits of the valleys. The fruits of the valleys are the virtues which are seasoned with humility. I went down 1092C(she says) into the garden, that I might see the fruits of the valleys, that is, that I might consider the saints, endowed indeed with excellence of virtues, but pressed down by humility.

And to look whether the vineyard had flourished. That is, that I might consider who were making progress in the pursuit of holy virtues.

And whether the pomegranates had budded, that is, that I might search out those also who are now fit to imitate the passion of Christ. For the pomegranates (as has often been said) signify the mystery of the passion of Christ. The Church therefore considers, through her prelates, who are growing in the virtues, or who are now so perfect that, imitating the passion of Christ, they are fit also to shed their blood for him; such as quaies were they to whom the Apostle said: To you it is given not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for him (Philip. I, 29).

527 Verse 11. I knew not. It is the voice of the Synagogue, who, seeing so great a grace of the Church, and having looked into the truth of the Gospel, grieves that she did not before know the faith of Christ; and as though excusing herself for having been converted so late, 1092Dshe says: I knew not, O Church, bride of Christ. I knew not, that is, I did not recognize so great a grace, and such great gifts of spiritual virtues bestowed upon thee by thy bridegroom.

My soul troubled me because of the chariots of Aminadab. I was troubled (she says) by an exceeding anxiety of mind because of so sudden a preaching of the Gospel. For I knew that the law and the prophets had been given from God, and therefore, when on a sudden I saw the Gospel preached, I was troubled because of the chariots of Aminadab. Aminadab was the great-great-grandson of Judah, through whom the generation of Christ is woven together. Now Aminadab is interpreted the willing one of my people; and therefore he signifies Christ, who was the willing one of his people: because he himself, being God, of his own will was made man; being Founder and Creator, of his own kindness alone he was made a portion of his own people. And the sense is: I was troubled (she says) because of the sudden preaching of the Gospel, which as it were 1093Awith a most swift chariot suddenly flew over the whole world. And well does she call this preaching not a car, but chariots: because the preaching of the Gospel stands upon the authority of four evangelists, and the four Gospels are as it were the four chariots of the New Testament, over which Christ himself presides as charioteer, himself guiding and ordering the car of the Gospels.

Verse 12. Return, return, O Sunamite. It is the voice of the Church calling the Synagogue to the faith: Return, return, O Sunamite. Return, O Synagogue, from unbelief to faith, return from hatred to love. Sunamite is interpreted captive or despised. Such was the Synagogue before the coming of Christ, captive namely in the bond of the devil, and despised by God: because she did not recognize Christ, who was sent for her salvation.

Return, return, that we may behold thee, that is, that we may look upon the beauty of thy chastity.

• 1093B

Verse 1. What wilt thou see in the Sunamite, but the choirs of the camps? It is the voice of the bridegroom, who, hearing the Synagogue invited to the faith by his bride the Church, says: What wilt thou see in the Sunamite, but the choirs of the camps? as if he were to say: Thou indeed, O bride, grievest over the ruin of the Synagogue, and that she comes late to the faith; but the time is at hand when she shall be converted, and then thou shalt see in her nothing but the choirs of the camps, that is, nothing but the concord of charity and the steadfast strength of faith, wherewith she shall fight for the defense of my faith. For choirs belong to singers: but camps to fighting soldiers. In the Sunamite therefore shall the choirs of the camps be seen, because the Synagogue, when converted, shall both preach Christ in concord with the Church, and shall fight for the faith of Christ even unto death.

How beautiful are thy steps! From this place the bridegroom begins to set forth the praises of his bride. And it is to be noted that he begins to weave her beauty from the steps, and ends her praises at the mouth, as above 1093Che had begun from the eyes. And this he did either to vary the beauty of the song, or also because it is thus most apt for the mysteries. How beautiful (he says) are thy steps! He saw the Church not standing idly in one place, but traversing the whole world with swift preaching, and therefore he began to praise her from her steps.: For the steps of the Church are the swift preaching of the apostles, through whom the Gospel resounded into all the earth.

In sandals, that is, in the examples of the fathers who went before. For sandals are made from dead animals. And the sandals of the Church are the examples of the fathers who went before, by which she has her steps fortified; that by imitating him more safely, and without stumbling, she may walk.

Daughter of the prince. Another translation says, daughter of Aminadab. Aminadab (as was said above) is called the willing one of my people, who rightly holds the figure of Christ. For the Church is both daughter and bride: daughter, because redeemed by his blood, regenerated by his baptism; 1093Dbride, because she is joined to him by the dowry of the Holy Spirit.

The joints of thy thighs are as necklaces that are wrought by the hand of a craftsman. In the thighs, or in the loins, Holy Scripture is wont to designate the propagation of generation. Whence we read of Jacob: All the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob (Exod. I, 5). The thighs therefore of the Church are the spiritual generation of the believing people through the word of preaching and the washing of regeneration. The joint of the thighs is the joining of the two peoples in one faith, the Jewish and the Gentile. And well is this joint compared to necklaces: because the faith of both peoples is chiefly made manifest in works; for faith without works is dead (Jac. II, 26). And they are wrought by the hand of a craftsman, that is, of almighty God, by whose gift the power of good work is granted to believers. This is that craftsman of whom Paul spoke, when he made mention of the patriarch Abraham: 1094AFor he looked for an abiding city, whose builder and craftsman is God (Hebr. XI, 10).

Verse 2. Thy navel is a turned bowl, never wanting cups. The navel is the frailest part of the body, and therefore by the navel we ought to understand the frailty of our mortality. Now a bowl is a larger cup having handles on this side and on that. The navel therefore of the Church is a turned bowl: because the more the teachers of the Church remember their own frailty, the more do they press on with the word of preaching; that, offering the alms of the word of God, they may themselves obtain mercy from God. And well is it called a turned bowl: for with the lathe we work more easily; by which is signified the readiness of paying out the word, or of giving alms. For alms are not to be given peevishly, nor with hesitation; according to what Solomon says: Say not to thy friend: Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give to thee, when thou canst give at once (Prov. III, 26). That also which is made on the lathe needs no rule or line applied from without: but is unerringly completed of itself. The navel therefore of the Church is a turned 1094Bbowl, because whoever either preaches or gives alms ought to do this for love alone and for the expectation of the heavenly me cedis. For whoever either preaches or has pity on his neighbors for the sake of temporal recompense or of praise, is a bowl, but not a turned one. And this bowl never wants cups, because to preachers the preaching of the word of God is never lacking: because he himself whom they preach supplies them with the cups of knowledge and the strength of constancy; whence also the Psalmist: The Lord shall give the word to them that preach the gospel with great power (Psal. LXVII, 12).

528 Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. The same frailty which was signified by the navel is shown in this place by the belly, because the belly is guarded by no firmness of bones. Well therefore is the belly of the Church compared to a heap of wheat, because the more each of the saints is mindful of his own frailty, the more zealously does he press on to bring forth the fruits of good works. And rightly he says, not an abundance of wheat, but a heap 1094Cof wheat, that by this he may signify the increases of the virtues, which like a heap climb by growing from the lower to the higher parts. For as a heap spreads out below in broad amplitude, but above is drawn together and pointed in a certain narrowness: so in the Church there are many who live more indulgently, but few who press on to the highest perfection. For more are found who give alms out of their goods than who leave their goods for God. This heap is said to be set about with lilies, because the saints do the good things which they do out of desire of the brightness and whiteness above. For by the lilies that heavenly brightness is signified. By the belly of the Church can also be taken the divine font of baptism, in which the faithful are regenerated into a new creature. This belly therefore is compared to a heap of wheat set about with lilies, because those regenerated at the font of baptism are taught to sweat over good works, and always to gape after the beholding of the glory of the brightness above.

Verse 3. Thy two breasts are like two twin fawns 1094Dof a roe. The breasts of the Church (as has already been said above) signify the holy teachers, who instruct all the little ones (that is, those newly regenerated in Christ) with the milk of a plainer and easier teaching. And well are they called two breasts, because out of two peoples, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, the faithful are gathered, and are nourished with the milk of spiritual teaching. These two breasts are said to be like two twin fawns of a roe. The two fawns are the two Testaments, upon which all the preaching of those same teachers rests, of which Testaments the one author and promulgator is Christ, according to what Solomon says: The words of the wise are as goads, and as bright ones fixed deep on high, which are given by one shepherd (Eccli. XII, 11), namely Christ. For the roe rightly signifies Christ, because both in sight and in swiftness it excels the other living creatures, and it is a clean animal, dividing the hoof and chewing the cud. For such are the members of Christ, namely the teachers, marked out by keenness 1095Aof knowledge, and forsaking earthly things with that same swiftness, and hastening to the things of heaven. Dividing the hoof, that is, having discernment of good and evil; and chewing the cud, that is, meditating on the precepts of God with diligent memory.

Verse 4. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory. The holy teachers, who are signified by the breasts, are themselves signified also by the neck. For both through the arteries of the neck the voice goes forth, and by the service of the neck vital nourishment is supplied to the other members: so also the holy teachers both announce the words of life to the peoples, and nourish them with the food of heavenly teaching. The neck therefore of the Church is compared to a tower of ivory: because the holy teachers furnish that same Church both with beauty and with strength; with beauty indeed, which is signified by the whiteness of the ivory, by living chastely and sincerely; and they furnish strength, which is signified by the tower, when they fortify that same Church against the temptations of the devil or the assaults of heretics.

Thy eyes are as the fishpools in Hesebon, which are in the gate 1095Bof the daughter of the multitude. That is, those same teachers, who were signified by the neck, are signified also by the eyes. For they, as eyes, provide for the whole body of the Church, and show the way which it ought to enter. These eyes of the Church are compared to fishpools built in the gate of the city of Hesebon, because the holy teachers wash the peoples believing in Christ with the life-giving washing, and refresh them with the drink of saving doctrine. And Hesebon is called daughter of the multitude according to the letter, on account of the multitude of peoples flowing together thither. So also the holy Church is rightly called daughter of the multitude, because daily she gathers a great number of the nations. And Hesebon is interpreted a girdle of sorrow. The eyes therefore of the Church are compared to the fishpools of Hesebon, because the holy teachers, having set aside the fleeting joys of the world, bind themselves with the girdle of sorrow: because they live chastely and soberly in this world (Tit. II, 12), and weep for their own wanderings; that mourning in this present world they may be able to come to true and eternal joys. And in the gate 1095Dof Hesebon these fishpools are said to be: because no one is able to enter the Church, unless he be first washed with the water of baptism, and unless he be given to drink of the font of saving doctrine. This also signified the brazen laver which Solomon had set in the porch of the temple, that the priests who were to enter the temple and to immolate the victims might there wash their bodies (III Reg. VII, 23).

Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. Because by the nose we distinguish stenches and good odors, rightly by the nose of the Church are understood those same holy teachers. For they have known how sagaciously to distinguish the fragrant teaching of the catholic faith and the death-bearing stench of heretical error. For among the divine gifts also, which are distributed through the Holy Spirit, it is said: To another is given by the Spirit the discerning of spirits (I Cor. XII, 10). The nose therefore of the Church is compared to the tower of Lebanon, because the holy teachers both hold the highest place in the Church, and stand as it were upon the mountain of Lebanon, and defend the Church from the assaults of the malignant spirits. This tower is said to be toward 1095DDamascus. Damascus is the metropolitan city of Syria, which of old fought against the children of Israel, having as it did most mighty and most cruel kings. Now Damascus is interpreted a drink of blood, or an eye of blood. They report that Abel was slain there, and therefore it signifies the powers of this world, which thirst for a drink of blood: because they are delighted with the pleasures and enticements of flesh and blood. It signifies also the aeras powers, which thirst for the gore of our souls. This tower therefore is against Damascus: because this Church, fortified by the help of Christ, always resists the devil and his members.

Verse 5. Thy head is as Carmel. The head, therefore, of the Church is understood to be the principal part of the mind of the faithful; for as by the head the rest of the members are ruled, so by the mind the thoughts are ordered. And fittingly is the head of the Church compared to Carmel. For Carmelus, which is also called Carmel, is interpreted knowledge or science of circumcision. 1096ATherefore the head of the Church is likened to Carmel, because it knows that circumcision, once celebrated bodily, must now be observed by it spiritually, according to what the prophet says: Be ye circumcised to the Lord in your hearts (Jer. IV, 2). This understanding of circumcision the Jews did not have, and therefore they are rebuked by the blessed Stephen, the protomartyr, 529 who says: Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, ye have always resisted the Holy Spirit (Act. VII, 51). In the book of Kings too it is read (III Reg. XVIII, 45) that Elias went up into mount Carmel, and there by his prayer watered the dry earth with heavenly rains after a long drought of three years and a half. Which history breathes a beautiful allegory; for Elias, who is interpreted my God the Lord, signifies Christ, who, though he is God and Lord of all and of the whole creation, is in a special way her own, that is, is the proper God and Lord of the Church. He goes up into Carmel when by his grace he climbs the minds of his faithful, and through them bestows upon the parched world the rains of his graces. 1096BRightly therefore (as has been said) is the head of the Church compared to mount Carmel: because the mind of the saints is lofty by a certain manner of life, and offers Christ an ascent into itself through the increase of the virtues.

And the hair of thy head as the purple of the king bound in the channels. If by the head of the Church the mind is understood, by the hair of the head we ought to understand the thoughts of the mind, which continually issue from it. But the purple colour, which has the appearance of blood, signifies the mystery of the Lord's passion. According to the letter, what he says, the purple of the king bound in the channels, signifies wool already wrought into the purple colour and not yet drawn out into threads, but still set in the channels, which in Greek they call βάτια, in which the blood of the shellfish is wont to run down and to turn the wool into a purple colour. Mystically these channels signify the humility of the saints, in which the purple of the eternal King is dyed, when all the saints, by imitating the humility of their Redeemer, take pains to be made conformable to his sufferings; so far as they may be turned into 1096Cthe dignity of purple, that is, labouring for Christ, they may deserve to be crowned and to reign with Christ. And this purple is said to be bound, because the hearts of the saints are fixed and established in the fear and love of their Redeemer, nor can they ever be separated from his charity.

Verse 6. How beautiful art thou, and how seemly, most dear one, in delights! How beautiful art thou — namely, in faith — and seemly in work, most dear one, in delights. Above it was said of the same Church: Beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun, terrible as a battle-line of the camps set in order; but here it is said, beautiful and seemly, most dear one, in delights. Which things seem to be as it were contrary; for to be set in order like a battle-line of the camps, and to be in delights, are at odds, because delights are wont to unnerve the strength of soldiers. But the holy Church does both: she is set in order like a battle-line of the camps, because she resists unbelieving heretics, and terrifies the malignant spirits by her holiness and perfection; she is also in delights, because she continually tastes the sweetness of the heavenly pleasantness with the palate of the mind, and amid 1096Dthe pressures of this world desires to obtain those delights, and to be satisfied with them without ceasing. Whence deservedly she who is such is said to be most dear to her bridegroom Christ.

Verse 7. Thy stature is likened to pulmae. The stature of the Church is her perfect uprightness; for she is not bent down to vices, but stands upright and unmoved. Whence the Psalmist said in the person of sinners: I am bowed down and humbled exceedingly (Psal. CXVIII, 107). And the prophet, under the figure of Jerusalem, says to the sinning soul concerning the malignant spirits: Because they have humbled thee, and have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may pass over (Isa. LI, 23). But on the contrary the holy Church stands upright, and never consents to be bowed down, hearing from the Apostle: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, do manfully, and be strengthened, and let all your things be done in charity (I Cor. XVI, 13). And the Lord speaks to the children of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who rescued you out of the workhouse of the Egyptians, that you might walk upright (Exod. VI, 8). The stature 1097Atherefore of the Church are likened to the palm, which in all that she does ever keeps in memory the reward above. For the palm adorns the victorious hand, and therefore signifies that reward which is to be given in the heavens to the saints who conquer.

And thy breasts to clusters of grapes. The breasts of the Church (as was said above) are the holy teachers, who nourish with the milk of simple doctrine those regenerated in Christ. But these breasts are likened to clusters when the same teachers declare more perfect things to the perfect, as the Apostle said, speaking to the simpler sort: I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal; as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not meat (I Cor. III, 1). Behold breasts full of milk; which breasts were turned into clusters when he said: We preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, and we speak wisdom among the perfect.

Verse 8. I said: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruits thereof. That it might be shown that all this excellence and greatness of the gifts of the Church comes from the grace of God, 1097Bthe same bridegroom is brought in saying: I will go up into the palm tree; as if he should say: From that source thou hast breasts for the nourishing of little ones, from which also thou hast clusters, whereby thou mayest hold out a more perfect doctrine to the more perfect: because I by my grace have gone up into thee, and have granted thee this perfection. I will go up, he says, into the palm tree. The palm signifies the Church, or also the soul of any faithful man who is mindful of the Lord his God, who says: Have confidence, I have overcome the world (Joan. XVI, 33). She too strives to be the conqueror of all vices and of iniquity. And fittingly is he said here to have gone up into the palm, whereas above he is read to have gone down into the garden. For the Church said: My beloved is gone down into his garden. The garden is the same as the palm, namely one and the same Church. But the Lord goes down into her and goes up to her: he goes down into her by sending her from the heavens the abundance of his grace; he goes up to her by increasing his gifts in her and by lifting her up to loftier things 1097Cby certain advances, as it were by certain steps. But this too is to be known of the nature of the palm, that in its lower parts it is rough, in its upper parts most beautiful with the grace of its leaves and the beauty of its fruits. So also the holy Church in her lower parts endures for Christ the roughness of labours and sufferings; but in her upper parts, that is, in the heavens, she awaits the beauty and sweetness of the rewards. The tree of the Lord's cross too may be expressed by the palm, into which our Redeemer went up for the redemption of the human race, and on which he overcame the enemy of the human race. He says therefore, I will go up into the palm tree, that is: I have spoken through my prophets, and have promised that I would come to the passion and would redeem my Church. I will take hold, he says, of the fruits thereof, that is, of the fruits of the good works and labours over which the Church sweats, by rewarding them. Or also according to my sense, whereby the cross is understood by the palm: I will take hold of the fruits 530 thereof, that is, the triumph of the passion being fulfilled, I will come to the glory of the resurrection, and will grant spiritual gifts to my apostles.

1097DAnd thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine. This has already been expounded above; for the breasts of the Church are the teachers, when they nourish little ones with simple doctrine; but they are made clusters of the vine when they announce lofty things to the more perfect. For the blessed Paul at one and the same time had breasts and clusters, when speaking of Christ he said: Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ (Rom. IX, 5); behold the breasts, that is, the simple preaching concerning Christ: but these breasts were turned into most sweet and most strong wine when he added: Who is God over all, blessed for ever.

Verse 9. And the odour of thy mouth as of apples. Thy throat as the best wine. The mouth and the odour of the Church is her present preaching, which reaches those who are absent from her by report or by writing; but the throat is the very voice of the preacher, which is heard in the present. The odour therefore of the mouth of the Church is compared to the odours of apples, because the very report of her preaching is full of sweetness and grace. But the throat is likened to the best wine, because the very 1098Avoice of those who preach showed in itself great power to its hearers. But that the odour of apples is in newness, and that of wine in age, signifies that the preaching of the Church has all sweetness and grace both in its newness and also in its perfection.

Worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and teeth to ruminate upon. It is the voice of the Church, who, hearing herself praised by the bridegroom, answers with rejoicing, saying: Worthy for my beloved to drink; as if she should say: My bridegroom has compared my throat to the best wine, and that wine is worthy to be drunk by my very beloved; that is, the gospel preaching, which he has placed in my mouth, ought to be announced in the world through him and not through another; for it was not fitting that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven be preached to the world through any other than through the Mediator of God and men (I Tim. II, 5). And for his lips, she says, and teeth to ruminate upon. The lips and teeth of the bridegroom, as was said above, are the holy teachers. That best wine, therefore, is to be ruminated by the lips and teeth of the bridegroom, because the gospel preaching, 1098Bdelivered by God, is to be handled and expounded by the teachers. Nor is it absurd that, although wine is drunk and not ruminated, yet here it is said to be ruminated by the lips and teeth, which belongs rather to food than to drink; for the holy teachers ruminate the spiritual wine when they diligently search out the gospel precepts, and investigate them by frequent meditation and confer them one with another.

Verse 10. I to my beloved, and his turning is toward me. I to my beloved — understand: I bestow the obedience of justice and devotion; to him and to no other do I promise my faith and my service. And his turning is toward me, that in the present he may protect me amid the labours and hardships of this life, and in the future may bring me into the joys of the heavenly life. This may also be the voice of the Synagogue in the person of the holy Fathers, who longed for the coming of Christ. As if she should say: I know, she says, that he is always present to me by a spiritual presence, and therefore I to my beloved — I desire to serve him with all devotion; but at last his turning is toward me, 1098Cbecause I wish that at last, as he promised, he may appear to me in my own substance. For the bridegroom had said above: I will go up into the palm tree, that is, he had promised that he would come in the flesh, and would be manifested to the world as man in my substance.

Verse 11. Come, my beloved; let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages. It is the voice of the same Synagogue. Come, my beloved, that is, appear through the manhood thou hast assumed. Such also is that word of the Psalmist: Stir up thy might, and come (Psal. LXXIX, 3). And Isaias: O that thou wouldst break asunder the heavens, and come (Isai. LXIV, 1). Let us go forth into the field. The field is this world. Let us go forth, he says, into the field, that is, let us preach to the world. Let us abide in the villages, that is, let us announce thy faith to the pagans themselves also. No one is ignorant that Pagans are named from the villa, the village: for πάγος in Greek is called villa in Latin; thence they are called Pagans, because they are far from the city of God. It can also be the voice of the Church: Come, my beloved; as if she should say: Already by the mystery of the ascension thou hast raised to the heavens the manhood thou didst assume; but come, by visiting me 1098Dmore often with the presence of thy divine majesty. Let us go forth into the field, in the same sense as above: let us preach to the world the faith of thy incarnation. Let us abide in the villages, that is, let us announce thy faith even to the pagans who know thee not; and not in passing only, but let us abide there, until we make them catholics out of pagans, and thine own out of strangers.

Verse 12. Let us get up early to the vineyards. The morning is the rising of the new grace, when, namely, the darkness of unbelief passing away, the Gospel began to be preached to the world.

Let us see if the vineyard has flourished, that is, let us look upon the Church, whether she has already received the first rudiments of faith.

If the flowers bring forth fruits. Let us look also whether the flowers bring forth fruit, that is, whether they who have now believed in Christ are fit for working well. For the Church puts forth flowers when the faithful first come to the faith; but the flowers bring forth fruits when she now works well by that very faith and love, lest 1099Athe faith itself be idle, or dead without works; for, as James says: Faith without works is dead (Jac. II, 26).

If the pomegranates have flourished. Pomegranates (as was said above) have a ruddy or blood-coloured rind, and therefore signify the passion of the Lord, or of his members. He says therefore, If the pomegranates have flourished, that is, whether the saints who are now perfect in faith and in work are also fit to imitate the passion of Christ and to suffer for him. Pomegranates were those to whom the Apostle said: To you it is given, not only that you believe in him, but also that you suffer for him (Philipp. I, 29).

There will I give thee my breasts. The breasts of the Church are the teachers, who first instruct the faithful unto the faith. When, she says, we shall have gone out to the vineyards, there will I give thee, O bridegroom, my breasts, that is, I will beget for thee spiritual sons. Whence there is further subjoined:

Verse 13. The mandrakes have given a smell in our gates. The mandrake is an aromatic herb, whose root 1099Bhas the likeness of a human body. Its apples are of the best odour, after the likeness of the Matian apple, which our own people call the apple of the earth. This herb is most apt for medicinal uses. For they report that those who labour under the trouble of sleeplessness are relieved by a draught of this apple, and are able to sleep. Likewise they report that those who for the sake of a cure are to be cut, if they have drunk the outer rind of this apple, do not feel the cutting or the burning; 531 all which things, if anyone should wish to search out mystically, he will find there spiritual senses, and such as befit the Church. He says therefore, The mandrakes have given a smell in our gates. The gates of the Church are the apostles and their successors: because no one enters the city of God (that is, the Church) unless he has been regenerated by the water of baptism through the holy teachers and instructed in life-giving doctrine. Of these gates the Psalmist said: The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psal. LXXXVI, 2). And the mandrakes designate the fragrance of the virtues. In the gates, therefore, of the Church the mandrakes 1099Chave given their smell, when the apostles or their successors scattered far and wide the report of a most sweet repute and the odour of the virtues. And therefore the Church invites her bridegroom to come, because now his name is announced far and wide through the apostles, and the odour of the preaching of Christ is spread far and wide.

All apples, the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee, that is, the precepts or the promises of the Old Testament and of the New I have kept for thee, O my beloved. For she knew that all the things which were announced in the Old Testament could not be fulfilled save through Christ and in Christ, and therefore she said: I have kept for thee apples new and old, that is: I await thee, that through thee there may be fulfilled in the New Testament the things which were foretold in the Old. Whence also in his passion, now hanging on the cross, When he had tasted the vinegar, he said, It is consummated (Joan. XIX, 30); and after the resurrection, to the apostles: All things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me (Luc. XXIV, 44). The new and the old apples may also be understood as the persons of the just, who were either in the Old or in 1099Dthe New Testament. The Church says therefore, I have kept for thee the new and the old, that is: the just who went before in the Old Testament, or followed after in the New, I have kept for thee, that through thee they might receive the rewards of their labours. For none of the just was able to enter the kingdom of heaven save through Christ: because he first ascended, and opened heaven for his members who follow.

Verse 1. Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother? From these words it is understood that this whole song is divine and spiritual, and has in itself nothing that can be understood according to the letter. For what woman in love ever wished this, that he whom she loves should be made a little child, and her brother; and, turned into an infant, should suck the breasts of her mother? It is therefore the voice of that Church which went before the coming of Christ, which we call the Synagogue, that is, the congregation. Who, she says, shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of 1100Amy mother? And the sense is: Thou who art now in the bosom of the Father (Joan. I, 18), who shall grant that thou be made man, and, being partaker and consort of my nature, be called my brother? For he himself deigned to call himself the brother of the apostles, saying through the Psalmist: I will declare thy name to my brethren (Psal. XXI, 23); and after the resurrection, to the women: Go, he says, tell my brethren (Matth. XXVIII, 10). Sucking the breasts of my mother, she says, that is, fulfilling all things that belong to human nature, sin excepted. For the mother of the Synagogue in this place is understood to be human nature itself, from which the Synagogue herself arose. Sucking, she says, the breasts of my mother, that is, bearing all things that pertain to human frailty.

That I may find thee without, that is, that I may see thee made man in the open. For God was as it were within, since he was already hidden in the bosom of the Father's majesty; but he was found without when, made man, he showed himself visible to men, and, being incomprehensible, willed to be comprehended.

And I may kiss thee. And I may kiss thee, she says, that is, that I may behold 1100Bthee with a manifest vision, whom now I hold only in the kiss of faith; which she wished at the beginning of this song, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth (Cant. I, 1), that is, let him now come by himself, that he may appear to me. For the beloved was as it were kissing the Church through the prophets, when he promised his coming through them. She wishes, therefore, that coming by himself he may kiss her, that is, that he may show his presence in his own flesh.

And now let no man despise me. For the Synagogue was as it were despised before Christ came: because, given over to the observances of the law, she preached the coming of Christ under type and figure, and not in truth. But after Jesus appeared and enlightened the world by the grace of his coming, now no man despised her; nay rather, she was terrible as a battle-line of the camps set in order to her enemies: because through the whole world she preached Christ, and subjected the worldly empire to herself. Nor ought it to seem strange if we now call the Church the Synagogue; for the Church is one in the parts that go before and 1100Cin those that follow.

Verse 2. I will take hold of thee, and will lead thee into my mother's house. O beloved! by cleaving to thee through faith and charity, I will lead thee into my mother's house. The mother of the Church, in this place, is understood to be that heavenly Jerusalem of which Paul says: But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother (Gal. IV, 26). I will lead thee, she says, into my mother's house, that is, I will follow thee returning into heaven, after the act of thy incarnation and the mystery of thy passion. And I will lead thee, she says, stands for this: I will escort and follow; because the apostles escorted with their eyes the Lord ascending into the heavens, and followed him with a devout gaze even until the cloud received him, until the angels standing by said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven (Act. I, 11).

There thou shalt teach me. This refers back to what is above, where it is said, I may find thee without. When, she says, I shall have found thee without, 1100Dthat is, when I shall have beheld thee in the flesh thou hast assumed, there thou shalt teach me: because thou wilt answer to all things that I shall wish to ask. For often too the Lord anticipated the apostles when they wished to ask, and instructed them (Marc. IX). It may also be joined to this place, where he says, I will lead thee into my mother's house, there thou shalt teach me. When, she says, thou shalt have been received into heaven, and shalt have taken me also up with thee into heaven, there thou shalt teach me, and wilt lead me into all truth — which it is impossible for man to be able to attain in the present life. Hence it is that the Lord promises to the apostles, saying: The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father (Joan. XVI, 25). Therefore there thou shalt teach me, that is, thou wilt reveal thyself and the Father to me in open vision; that is, thou wilt show me thy divinity face to face.

And I will give thee a cup of spiced wine. By the wine is understood the fervour of charity and love. 532 I will give thee wine, she says, that is, I will show with how most fervent a charity I love thee. And this wine will not be plain, 1101Abut spiced, namely with good works and virtues. For the love of God, as the blessed Gregory says (S. Gregorius, homil. 30 in Evang.), is never idle; it works great things if it is there; for if it refuses to work, it is not love. For spiced wine is love together with work. Whence also the Lord in the Gospel: If any man love me, he will keep my word (Joan. XIV, 23). The proof, therefore, of love is the showing forth of work.

And the new wine of my pomegranates. The malum granatum is the same as the malum punicum. Now it is called malum granatum because it is full of a multitude of grains (grana); malum punicum, because it abounds most plentifully in Africa. For Punica is Africa itself. And it has a rind of a blood-red colour, and therefore (as has often been said) it holds the figure of the Lord's passion. For the new wine of pomegranates is the love of the holy martyrs, who loved God so greatly that they did not hesitate to die for him. And fittingly is it called new wine, and not any other draught, because new wine 1101Bis most fervent, so that in its exceeding ferment it boils out and purges from itself every impurity. The Church, therefore, will give to the Beloved the new wine of her pomegranates, that is, she will show in the sufferings of the holy martyrs with how great a charity Christ is loved.

Verse 3. His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. By the left hand (as the blessed Gregory says) are understood all the prosperities of the present life (S. Greg. in cap. II Cant. cant.); but by the right hand is understood the blessed life to come in the heavens. The Church, therefore, has the left hand of the bridegroom under her head, and the right hand embraces her: because whatever prosperities of the present world allure her, she counts for nothing; all things that smile upon her for a time she despises; and while she strives toward the vision of the heavenly blessedness alone, that alone she desires to embrace.

Verse 4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she herself will. The Church has certain persons within her who have been 1101Cborn again by the baptism of Christ and are entitled with the name of Christianity, yet by their manners and their manner of life serve the world, and strive to disquiet the Church lulled in a most sweet rest, and to rouse her to the enduring of tumults. These, therefore, on account of the grace of the mysteries of Christ which they have received, are called in this place daughters of Jerusalem, although by their manners they do the contrary. And the bridegroom adjures them not to stir up nor to make the beloved to awake, that is, that they should not by their own restlessness rouse her, set as she is in the sleep of a most sweet quiet, that is, in the contemplation of her Creator, and compel her to awake unto the anxieties and cares of the world. Till she herself will, that is, until, the office of her due service being performed, whereby she serves God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, she be admonished again by the care of bodily frailty to return to the use of the world.

Verse 5. Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? The voice of the Synagogue marvelling at the Church gathered from the nations. Who is, she says, this, that is, of what sort is she, of how great merit, that cometh up from the desert? For she had been forsaken by God 1101Dthrough idolatry and ignorance of the truth. She was ascending, therefore, by the steps of the virtues out of the desert, that is, out of the error of unbelief, in which for a time she had been forsaken. Flowing with delights, that is, abounding in virtues. Leaning, she says, upon her beloved, that is, acting with confidence in Christ, and referring all her virtues and all her goods to his grace. She knew that by her own strength she could accomplish nothing of good, and therefore she says with the Apostle: By the grace of God I am what I am (I Cor. XV, 10). And it is to be noted that she says, upon her beloved: for the Synagogue thought that she alone had the knowledge of God, the rest of the nations being left in ignorance. For God is known, as the Psalmist says, in Judea; in Israel his name is great (Psal. LXXV, 2). But to the Synagogue thus marvelling her own bridegroom and beloved answers what follows.

Under the apple tree I raised thee up. By the apple tree we ought to understand the Lord's cross, under which tree the Synagogue was raised up: because she was redeemed from the transgression of original sin, and from the power of the devil, by the cross of 1102AChrist: there was she raised up who was dead in her sins. And fittingly does he say the apple tree; for above also she compared her beloved Christ to this tree, saying: As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons.

There was thy mother corrupted, there was she that bore thee violated. By the mother and her that bore the Synagogue he means the greater and more principal part of the Jewish people, such as were the scribes and Pharisees, who delivered Christ to Pilate (Matth. XXVII, 2), and who as mother and bearer ought to have ruled and instructed the rest of the people; and such as were those who, at the urging of those chief men, shamelessly cried out: Crucify him, crucify him (Joan. XIX, 6). This mother, therefore, of the Synagogue was corrupted and violated under the apple tree, when she bound herself and her posterity with a cruel curse, saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matth. XXVII, 25). For they too were under the cross of Christ — not indeed in faith and devotion, yet by the imprecation of a cruel vengeance upon themselves and upon their posterity.

1102BVerse 6. Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm. Because, he says, under the apple tree I raised thee up, that is, because in my passion on the cross I redeemed thee, Set me as a seal upon thy heart, that is, have me always in memory, and forget not me, how great things I bore for thy salvation. Set me, he says, as a seal upon thy heart by faith; set me as a seal upon thy arm by worthy work. For we also, when we wish to hold something in memory, are wont to put a seal upon a finger or upon the arm, so that, admonished by it, we may remember that matter of which we have the care. And we ought to set Christ as a seal upon our heart and upon our arm, that we may always have his memory, and that, believing rightly in him, we may adorn that very faith with good works. And if we shall have done this, he too will take us up as a seal, and will remember us, according to what he promises to Zorobabel, leader of Judea: In that day I will take thee, O Zorobabel my servant, and will set thee 1102Cas a seal before my face (Aggaei II, 24). For if we shall have forgotten his benefits, and shall not have rendered him worthy thanksgivings, he too 533 will forget us, as is said of the impious king Jechonias: If Jechonias the son of Joachim king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence (Jer. XXII, 24).

For love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell. The love of Christ is strong as death. For as death separates the soul from the body, and it is no longer permitted to covet anything, nor to strive after anything in the present life: so the love of Christ, whomsoever it has truly pervaded, wholly mortifies him to this world and renders him as it were without feeling; and living for Christ alone, he is dead to the world. The sense is the same when he says, jealousy as hard as hell. For as hell never restores those whom it has once received, but ever retains them: so the true love of Christ never lets go him whom it has once received; whence the Apostle says: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 1102Dnakedness, or danger, or the sword (Rom. VIII, 35)? But the love of Christ may also be understood in this place, whose love was strong as death: because he so loved us that, being immortal, he took death upon himself for us. His jealousy was hard as hell, because hell knows not how to have mercy, nor to be softened by the punishments of the wretched: so also the love of Christ could not cease from mercy, nor be removed by any wickednesses of persecutors from the love of the human race. Some refer this which is said, jealousy is hard as hell, properly to the Synagogue, which was jealous of the nations and envied their salvation. Christ therefore admonishes her by saying this, that she may cease from envy and may rejoice together at the salvation of the Church.

The lamps thereof are lamps of fire and of flames. That is, the lamps of love are lamps of fire and of flames. The lamps of love are the hearts of the saints, in which, as in vessels, love dwells. These lamps, therefore, are of fire and of flames: lamps indeed of fire, because they burn in the heart 1103Aby love; but lamps of flames, because outwardly they shine by work.

Verse 7. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither shall the floods overwhelm it. The waters and the floods are the violent threats of persecutors, or also their blandishments, by which they strive to separate the saints from the charity of God. Of which the Lord says in the Gospel, concerning the man who built his house upon a rock: The floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was built upon a rock (Matth. VII, 25). Many waters, therefore, cannot quench charity, because no tribulation, no distress will be able to separate the saints from the charity of God.

If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing. This little verse needs no exposition; for the substances of no world, no riches, are anything in comparison of love. We read indeed that the saints left their own goods for the love of Christ, and yet they seemed to themselves to leave nothing in 1103Bcomparison of the charity of Christ, whom they loved. Whence the Apostle, when he was leaving for Christ not only his earthly substance but also the traditions of his fathers, said: All these things I despise and count as dung, that I may gain Christ (Philip. III, 8), that is, that I may acquire his love.

Verse 8. Our sister is little, and she hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to? The voice of the beloved addressing the Synagogue on behalf of the Church of the nations. Our sister, he says — that is, the Church of the nations — is little, and hath no breasts; and, the name being shared with the Synagogue by a great condescension, he says, Our sister; for because he took flesh from the Jews, therefore he as it were tempers himself to the Synagogue and makes himself her equal. Our sister is little, he says. As the age of any man is described, so also the age of the Church is described. For the Church as yet gathered from the nations was little under the very times of the Lord and of the apostles: because by the fewness of believers she was little; 1103Cand she had not yet breasts, that is, she was by no means able by preaching to beget spiritual sons for God. He says therefore, as though seeking the counsel of the Synagogue: What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to? The speaking to the Church is when God admonishes the soul of every faithful person, either inwardly by hidden inspiration or outwardly by open preaching. And the sense is: when through my apostles I shall speak to the Church gathered from the nations, what shall we do? how shall we entrust to her the heavenly precepts? Whether, namely, we shall entrust to her the least precepts, or, that she may be made greater, shall we deliver to her the more perfect mysteries of the heavenly secrets? For God almighty tempers the word of preaching to the measure and capacity of the human mind, considering the strength and capacity of the hearer. But the Synagogue being silent, the bridegroom himself answered for her.

Verse 9. If she be a wall, let us build upon it bulwarks of silver; if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar. If, he says, our sister be a wall, 1103Dlet us build upon it bulwarks of silver. As if he should say: When my apostles shall have begun to preach to the Church gathered from the nations, if the hearers shall be such as can deservedly be called a wall for their perfection — when, namely, being either endowed with natural talent or excelling in philosophical learning, they can as it were defend and fortify others in the stead of a wall — let us build upon such a wall bulwarks of silver, that is, let us add to them the eloquences of the divine Scriptures. For, as the Psalmist says: The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried by the fire (Psal. XI, 7). But if the hearers shall be such as can by no means resist enemies, nor beat back the weapons that come against them, but shall be as it were a door, so that, announcing simple things, they can bring some into the Church and unto the faith — such as are the priests of lesser rank, who by baptizing in the Church and by initiating men into the divine mysteries bring men into the Church — let us join together that door with boards of cedar, that is, let us set before them the examples of the Fathers who went before, 1104Awho like cedars — woods, namely, that cannot rot — have unfading works, and like boards are spread out in the breadth of knowledge and of charity. For the breadth of the boards signifies the breadth of the heart (in which there ought to be the breadth of charity or of knowledge), the Psalmist saying: I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart (Psal. CXVIII, 32). With these boards of cedar, therefore (that is, with the examples of the saints), let us join together that door; so that, namely, by imitating their examples they may open to others, as a door, the gate of entering the Church.

Verse 10. I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower. The voice of the Church. Who, when she had heard her beloved taking counsel for her salvation, herself answered gladly: I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower. I, she says, am a wall: because I am founded upon the firm rock 534 (Matth. XVI, 18), and made solid with the glue of divine charity. Or I am a wall, because I am built of living and chosen stones (that is, of the saints). And my breasts are as a tower, because I contain within me such as can, 1104Bin the stead of breasts, nourish others with spiritual doctrine, and, in the stead of a tower, can defend and fortify others; and who, as towers upon a lofty wall, so they themselves excel among the rest of my members by the merit of their doctrine and of their manner of life. But this I have not by my own merits, nor by the freedom of my will, but by the gift and grace of my bridegroom.

From the time that I became before him as one finding peace. That is, from the time that he poured out his blood for me and, propitiating God the Father toward me, dissolved the enmities that were between God and man, and made the things of heaven peaceable for me. From the time, therefore, that I found this peace, I have deserved to be a wall and to have breasts in the stead of towers.

Verse 11. The peaceable one had a vineyard, that is, my beloved, who is the true peaceable one: because through him all things are made peaceable that are in the heavens and on the earth. Whence also by the prophet he is called Father of the world to come, Prince of peace (Isai. IX, 6): in the type of which true peaceable one there went before Salomon, that is, peaceable, the author of this song. To him, therefore, 1104Cthere was a vineyard, that is, the holy Church.

In that which hath peoples. This he says, that he might show that he sings of the Church of the nations, not of the Synagogue. For the Synagogue was of one nation only, but the Church has peoples: because she holds and receives all the nations within her most capacious bosom.

He delivered it to keepers. The keepers of this vineyard (that is, of the holy Church) are the prophets, the apostles, and the successors of the apostles. Or also the keepers of this world are the angelic powers, who keep the Church from the assaults of temptations and of demons.

A man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver. He means strong and perfect men, for vir, a man, is so named from virtus, strength. The fruit of the Church is the reward of the heavenly life, for which the holy Church ceases not to labour in the present life. And the thousand pieces of silver which the man bringeth for the fruit signify all things that can be possessed in this world. For the number of a thousand is set for the highest perfection and fulness. The man, therefore, bringeth a thousand pieces of silver for the fruit of this vineyard: because the saints leave all 1104Dtheir own goods and pay them out to the poor, that they may obtain the fruit of this vineyard (that is, the reward above). Such also is that which the Lord says in the parable of the Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field, which when a man hath found, he hideth it, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field (Matth. XIII, 44).

Verse 12. My vineyard is before me. The voice of the bridegroom. Thou sayest, he says, that I delivered my vineyard to keepers: yet the vineyard is always before me; because, although I have committed her to my keepers, I nevertheless always have care of her, nor do I cease ever to be solicitous for her, but I am with her even unto the consummation of the world.

A thousand are thy peaceable ones, and two hundred to them that keep the fruits thereof. A thousand — understand, pieces of silver, which thou gavest for the fruit of the vineyard — are thy peaceable ones; as if he should say: O faithful soul, be not doubtful concerning the eternal reward, for which thou hast given all that is thine: because the thousand pieces of silver are thy peaceable 1105Aones, that is, that reward awaits thee assured, and thou shalt obtain true fruit therefrom. And two hundred — understand, pieces of silver — are peaceable to them that keep the fruits thereof. As by the number of a thousand the fulness of perfection, so also by the number of a hundred the highest perfection is designated: because the hundred is carried over from the left hand to the right. The two hundred pieces of silver, therefore, which is the hundred doubled, signify those who are perfect in doctrine and in holy work, who by living justly and piously keep themselves, and also by preaching convert others. To such as these, therefore, the two hundred pieces of silver are peaceable: because a doubled reward awaits them in the heavens; of whom it is said through Daniel: And they that instruct many unto justice shall shine as stars unto perpetual eternities (Dan. XII, 3). For these the Apostle bids be doubly honoured, saying: Let the priests that are among you be accounted worthy of double honour, especially they that rule over you and labour in the word (I Tim. V, 17).

Verse 13. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice. The voice of the beloved addressing the bride, that 1105Bis, the Church: O Church, thou that dwellest in the gardens, that is, thou that appliest thyself to the cultivating of the shoots of the virtues. For the garden of the bridegroom is the Church herself, which (as was said above) he promises to visit often. The Church, therefore, dwells in the gardens: because she continually nourishes the nurseries of the virtues; nor does she set up her hut there in passing, as one about to withdraw after a little, but she dwells there in a fixed station. Make me, he says, hear thy voice, that is, preach the Gospel to those to whom thou art able; announce the precepts of my law, and together with them the promise of the heavenly rewards. For this is pleasant and delightful to me, that I hear thy voice, that is, that I hear thee announcing the words of eternal salvation. But the friends hearken to thee, that is, the angelic spirits delight to hear thy voice, whom I made thy friends by the shedding of my blood, and whom I appointed as helpers and protectors against the malignant spirits. Or the friends, that is, the spirits of the just, hearken, whom I have taken up out of thy company to myself into the heavenly places. For they rejoice together over thy preaching and over the salvation of the brethren. Straightway 1105Cthe bride herself answers her beloved.

Verse 14. Flee away, my beloved, and be thou like to the roe and to the young hart upon the mountains of spices. A wondrous answer. She is invited to preach, and that the bridegroom may hear her voice; but she exhorts her bridegroom 1106Ato flee. But great is the sequence of the mystery. For because above the nativity of Christ had been foretold, when she said: Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts: for his passion had been foretold, where it was said: Under the apple tree I raised thee up; now she consequently exhorts the bridegroom to flee, that is, most swiftly to return by the ascension to the Father. And the sense is: thou biddest me preach, thou willest to hear my voice — flee away, my beloved, that is, the mystery of thy incarnation and of thy passion being fulfilled, return to heaven; that I may begin to think of thee no longer as man, but as God above all things. For then thou wilt hear my voice, because then I shall preach thee more freely to the whole world. And this is what the Lord says in the Gospel: I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go (Joan. XVI, 7). For it was expedient for the apostles and for the whole Church that Christ should return and should absent his bodily presence: because while he was present in the body they could not love him spiritually, nor could they think of him whom they beheld as man as God invisible and everywhere present. 1106B535 But after he himself ascended the heavens, the Church began to love him spiritually, and so now to think of him and to preach him as God. And this is what the Apostle says: And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no more (II Cor. V, 16). Therefore, my beloved, if thou wilt that I so preach thee, flee away, that is, withdraw to the heavenly places; and thou who wast comprehensible through thy humanity, be made incomprehensible through thy divinity. Yet nevertheless forsake me not in the present without thy visitation, but deign to seek me out with thy frequent visitation, and to offer thyself to me more often to be seen. And this is what she says: Be thou like to the roe and to the young hart upon the mountains of spices. As, she says, roes and the hinauli of harts, untamed animals, flee from human company, and yet are the more often seen upon the mountains: so thou too after thy ascension, although thou be invisible, yet deign to appear to me more often by the gift of thy grace, and this upon the mountains of spices. The mountains of spices are the saints of God, nearest to heaven by the excellence of their holy manner of life, and 1106Cfragrant far and wide with the odour and report of their virtues; hence the Apostle says of himself and of those like him: Our conversation is in heaven (Philip. III, 20); and elsewhere: We are the good odour of Christ unto God in every place (II Cor. II, 1).