The spouse seeks Christ. The glory of his humanity.
1In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.Nel mio letticciuolo le notti lui cercai, che è l'amore dell'anima mia, lo cercai, e nol trovai.IN my litle bed in the nightes I haue sought him, whom my soule loueth, I haue sought him, and haue not found.In lectulo meo, per noctes, / quæsivi quem diligit anima mea: / quæsivi illum, et non inveni. 2I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.Mi alzerò, e anderò attorno per la città, per le contrade e per le piazze cercherò di lui, che è l'amore dell'anima mia. Lo cercai, e nol trovai.I wil rise, and wil goe about the citie: by the streates and high waies, I wil seeke him whom my soule loueth: I haue sought him, and haue not found.Surgam, et circuibo civitatem: / per vicos et plateas / quæram quem diligit anima mea: / quæsivi illum, et non inveni. 3The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?Mi trovarono le sentinelle, che stanno a guardia della città. Avreste mai veduto colui, che è l'amore dell'anima mia?The watchmen which kepe the citie found me; Haue you seene him, whom my soule loueth.Invenerunt me vigiles qui custodiunt civitatem: / Num quem diligit anima mea vidistis ? 4When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.Quand'io le ebbi oltrepassate di poco, trovai l'amor dell'anima mia: lo presi, e nol lascerò fino a tanto che io lo abbia introdotto nella casa di mia madre, e nella camera di lei, che mi generò.When I had a litle passed by them, I found him whom my soule loueth: I held him: neither wil I let him goe, til I bring him into my mothers house, and into the chamber of her that bare me.Paululum cum pertransissem eos, / inveni quem diligit anima mea: / tenui eum, nec dimittam, / donec introducam illum in domum matris meæ, / et in cubiculum genetricis meæ. 5I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please.Io vi scongiuro, o figliuole di Gerusalemme, pe' caprioli, e pe' cervi de' campi, che non rompiate il sonno della Diletta, e non la facciate svegliare fino a tanto, che ella il voglia.I adiure you ô daughters of Ierusalem by the roes, and the hartes of the fildes, that you rayse not vp, nor make the beloued to awake, til herselfe wil.Sponsus. Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, / per capreas cervosque camporum, / ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, / donec ipsa velit. 6Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?Chi è costei, che ascende per il deserto quasi piccola colonna di fumo dagli aromati di mirra, e d'incenso e di ogni polvere di profumiere?What is she, that ascendeth by the desert, as a litle rod of smoke of the aromatical spices of myrtrhe, and frankincense, & of al powder of the apothecharie?Chorus. Quæ est ista quæ ascendit per desertum / sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhæ, / et thuris, et universi pulveris pigmentarii ?
7Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surrounded the bed of Solomon?Ecco, che attorno al letto di Salomone stanno sessanta guerrieri dei più forti d'Israele:Behold threescore valiants of the most valiant of Israel, compasse the litle bed of Salomon:En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt / ex fortissimis Israël, 8All holding swords, and most expert in war: every man’s sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.Tutti hanno la spada, e sono spertissimi nella guerra: ognuno ha al suo fianco la spada pei notturni timori.al holding swordes, and most cunning to battels: eueree mans sword vpon his thigh for feares by night.omnes tenentes gladios, et ad bella doctissimi: / uniuscujusque ensis super femur suum / propter timores nocturnos. 9King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus:Il re Salomone si fece un cocchio di legno del Libano;King Salomon hath made him a portable throne of the wood of Libanus:Ferculum fecit sibi rex Salomon / de lignis Libani; 10The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple: the midst he covered with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.Gli fece le colonne d'argento, il dosso di oro, il conopeo di porpora: le parti di mezzo di care cose ricoperse per amore delle figlie di Gerusalemme.the pillers therof he hath made of siluer, the seare of gold, the going vp of purple: the middes he hath paued with charitie for the daughters of Ierusalem.columnas ejus fecit argenteas, / reclinatorium aureum, ascensum purpureum; / media caritate constravit, / propter filias Jerusalem. 11Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see 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.Uscite fuora, e mirate o figlie di Sion, il re Salomone col diadema, con cui lo incoronò la madre sua nel giorno dello sposalizio di lui, e nel giorno della letizia del cuor suo.Goe forth ye daughters of Sion, and see king Salomon in the diademe, wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the day of his despousing, and in the day of the ioy of his heart.Egredimini et videte, filiæ Sion, / regem Salomonem in diademate quo coronavit illum mater sua / in die desponsationis illius, / et in die lætitiæ cordis ejus.
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Worthington
Bed. The Church, finding Christ by his own revelation, and not by philosophy, holds him fast. (Worthington)
St. Ambrose
He had delayed coming at the usual hour, to give us to understand, that he is not found amid delights, nor in a crowd, but that we must seek him diligently, like Magdalene, John xx. (St. Ambrose, de Isaac.)
Haydock
The apostles endeavoured to convert the synagogue, but their offers were rejected, and the guards, or princes, persecuted them. (Menochius) (Chap. 5:7.) (Haydock)
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City. To prevent fires, etc. God will require the souls of the flock at the hands of his pastors.
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Calmet
Me. She was perhaps dead. Women had separate apartments, to which none but the husband could have access, Genesis 24:28. At the end of the marriage-feast, the bride was conducted to her husband's house, Matthew 25:1. (Calmet)
Menochius
The Jews shall in the end acknowledge Christ, (Worthington) as the Church desires. (Menochius)
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1:The bridegroom (Calmet) speaks as [in] Canticles 2:7., (Worthington) and Canticles 8:4. He retires early.
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Calmet
Who. The female companions of the spouse, (Calmet) or the bridegroom's friends, (Menochius) admire her at a distance, Canticles 6:9., and 8:5. (Calmet)
Menochius
The converted Gentiles change the desert of the world into a paradise, by their good works, which ascend like a perfume. (St. Gregory) They admire their own conversion, and proclaim that we must fight for heaven, (Worthington) and adore Christ, the God-man; imitating all his virtues, (Haydock) and preaching his gospel. (Menochius)
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Calmet
Bed. Being stationed at the door to prevent any alarm, 5:8. (Calmet)
Ven. Bede
In the Church Christ finds his repose, and daily produces the only heirs of heaven. (Ven. Bede)
Menochius
The angels, saints and pastors watch to defend it against the spirits of darkness. (Menochius)
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Calmet
Litter. Septuagint, to conduct his spouse with solemnity; or a throne; though it most probably denotes the bridal bed. (Calmet)
Hebrew apiron. Greek, phoreion.
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Haydock
Going. Protestants, "covering of it of purple." (Haydock)
Worthington
Death must be endured, if necessary, for the sake of the faith, as this is the highest degree of charity. (Worthington)
Calmet
He, etc. Hebrew, "is prepared for the beloved above the," etc. See Homer, Odyssey 5:660. (Calmet)
Haydock
Protestants and Pagnin, "the midst thereof being paved (Montanus, set on fire) with love for (Montanus, by) the daughters." (Haydock)
Menochius
The most desirable things adorn the litter, or the Church, that all may come to her, who has God to guide her decisions. (Menochius)
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Alcuin † AD 804
Go. All are invited to come to Christ, who, in his sacred humanity, which he took of his mother, was crowned in heaven, after his passion. (Worthington) (St. Gregory) (Alcuin)
St. Bernard
The synagogue crowned him with thorns, and gave him the hard bed of the cross. (St. Bernard; St. Anselm, etc.)
Calmet
Bethsabee might live to see the marriage of her son, who owed the crown to her, 3 Kings 1:18., and Proverbs 4:3. Both the parties were crowned, (Isaias 61:10.) and no doubt Solomon would display his usual magnificence. The diadem was a bandage, adorned with embroidery, and precious stones. (Calmet)
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In my bed by night, etc.... The Gentiles as in the dark, and seeking in heathen delusion what they could not find, the true God, until Christ revealed his doctrine to them by his watchmen, (ver. 3,) that is, by the apostles, and teachers by whom they were converted to the true faith; and holding that faith firmly, the spouse (the Catholic Church) declares, ver. 4, That she will not let him go, till she bring him into her mother’s house, etc., that is, till at last, the Jews also shall find him.
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The Church finding Christ not in darke ignorance nor in philosophie but by his reuealing him selfe to her, holdeth him for euer:
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euen til the lewes shal at last also find him.
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Christ speaketh as before ch 2. v. 7
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The Church of Christ admireth her owne conuersion from Gentilitie,
now ful of good workes.
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She also professeth that the ascending to eternal rest, is by fighting manfully, in obseruing the ten commandments, in the six dayes of this life:
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euen to bloud, if nede be,
which is the highest degree of charitie.
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And inuiteth al others to come vnto Christ,
who in the flesh which he tooke of his mother, was crowned in heauen after his Passion.
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
… Are then these things also written? He says in the Song of Songs, On my bed I sought Him whom my soul loved . At what season? By night on my bed I sought Him Whom my soul loved: Mary , it says, came while it was yet dark. On my bed I sought Him by night, I sought Him, and I found Him not
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 30
… “On my bed I sought Him Whom my soul loveth; I sought Him in the night, and found Him not.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.17
… The love of the flesh is overcome by the love of the spirit. Desire is quenched by desire. What is taken from the one increases the other. Therefore, as you lie on your couch, say again and again: “By night have I sought Him whom my soul loveth.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 66.10
10. Whether you read or write, whether you wake or sleep, let the herdsman’s horn of Amos always ring in your ears. Let the sound of the clarion arouse your soul, let the divine love carry you out of yourself; and then seek upon your bed him whom your soul loveth,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 71.1
… I hasten to embrace with the arms of love one whom my eyes have never seen, and silently say to myself:—‘“oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flee away and be at rest.”’ Then would I find him “whom my soul loveth.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.7
… Do not let an enemy sow tares among the wheat when the householder is asleep (that is when the mind which ever cleaves to God is off its guard); but say always with the bride in the song of songs: “By night I sought him whom my soul loveth. Tell me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon;”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 13.12
… mine eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.” The Lord seeks us, when He says: “I sought and there was no man. I called, and there was none to answer;” and He Himself is sought by the bride who mourns with tears: “I sought on my bed by night Him whom my soul loved: I sought Him and found Him not; I called Him, and He gave me no answer.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.25
… Dinah went out and was seduced. Do not seek the Bridegroom in the streets; do not go round the corners of the city. For though you may say: “I will rise now and go about the city: in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth,” and though you may ask the watchmen: “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?”
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
… He not only rose, but had also the dead with Him when He rose . But she knew not, and in her person the Song of Songs said to the Angels, Saw ye Him Whom my soul loved? It was but a little that I passed from them (that is, from the two Angels), until I found Him Whom my soul loved. I held Him, and would not let Him go
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.9
… “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. In His shadow I delighted and sat down, and His fruit was sweet to my palate. I found Him Whom my soul loved, I held Him and would not let him go. My beloved came down into His garden to eat the fruit of His trees.
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 30
… “On my bed I sought Him Whom my soul loveth; I sought Him in the night, and found Him not.” Of those also who found Him, and held Him by the feet, it is foretold, in the same book, “I will hold Him Whom my soul loveth, and will not let Him go.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.24
… prefer the food of the soul to that of the body. Leave it to your sisters to run to and fro and to seek how they may fitly welcome Christ. But do you, having once for all cast away the burden of the world, sit at the Lord’s feet and say: “I have found him whom my soul loveth; I will hold him, I will not let him go.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 46.13
… Wounded with the Saviour’s shaft, we shall say one to another: “I have found Him whom my soul loveth; I will hold Him and will not let Him go.”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 3.5
… “Blessed are ye that weep, for ye shall laugh;” or if we take the word of the prophet as applied to our bodies, we must wash away the offences of the body with tears of penitence. For Solomon made himself a bed of wood from Lebanon, its pillars were of silver, its bottom of gold, its back strewn with gems.
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.9
51. Above it is said: “Sixty strong men round about its offspring, armed with drawn swords, and expert in warlike discipline,”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.30
… On hearing this the bride disclosed the mysteries of chastity: “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth his flock among the lilies,” that is among the pure virgin bands. Would you know what sort of a throne our true Solomon, the Prince of Peace, has, and what his attendants are like?
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.32
… Hence, again, of the strong warriors of the heavenly country it is said, Every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fears in the night (
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 3.2
For now meanwhile thou standest outside the door: but God grant that you all may say, The King hath brought me into His chamber . Let my soul rejoice in the Lord: for He hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and a robe of gladness: He hath crowned me with a garland as a bridegroom
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.17
… for what though it be of thorns? Every king is proclaimed by soldiers; and Jesus also must in a figure be crowned by soldiers; so that for this cause the Scripture says in the Canticles, Go forth, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, and look upon King Solomon in the crown wherewith His mother crowned Him
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 22
… In His humiliation His judgment was taken away.” It is written that there was put on Him a crown of thorns. Of this hear in the Canticles the voice of God the Father marvelling at the iniquity of Jerusalem in the insult done to His Son: “Go forth and see, ye daughters of Jerusalem, the crown wherewith His mother hath crowned Him.”
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I WILL RISE, AND WILL GO ABOUT (the Arabic version: I will traverse) THE CITY: BY THE STREETS AND BROAD WAYS, I WILL SEEK HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH: I SOUGHT HIM, AND FOUND HIM NOT: (the Arabic version adds: I called him, and he did not obey me). THE WATCHMEN, THAT KEEP (the Syriac version: that go about) THE CITY, FOUND ME: (the Arabic version adds: and I said): HAVE YOU SEEN HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH? The Syriac version: have you seen the essence of love, which my soul loveth?). A LITTLE WHILE AFTER I PASSED BY THEM, I FOUND HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH: I HELD HIM; AND I WILL NOT LET HIM GO, TILL I BRING HIM INTO MY MOTHER'S HOUSE, AND INTO THE CHAMBER OF HER THAT BORE ME. The Arabic version: of her who conceived me. The connection here is difficult; namely, in what manner these things are joined to the preceding ones so that the propriety of the drama is preserved. First, our Sanchez: In the first chapter, he says, the sacred Writer described clearly the desire of the bride, by which she was moved toward the absent bridegroom; in the second, he embraced the blandishments and offices of the bridegroom toward the beloved; in the third, he now draws nearer to the nuptials; for he arranges the spouses in a chariot, by which according to custom they were brought home with applause and music. For among the Hebrews the bridegroom did not approach the bride unless after her transfer to the house of the bridegroom. The sense therefore of this verse is, as if to say: I grieved that the bridegroom was absent from the bed: because he could not be in it unless the sacred rites of the nuptials were completed. Or I desired to have the companion of the bed, that is, to enter into nuptials: because before these she did not hope that she would ever have with him in the nights him whom she loved. Bernard agrees with this interpretation, sermon 75, saying that the bride, when she was in bed, sought the bridegroom, not indeed lying in the bed, but when she desired him absent, she deliberated with herself about investigating him. And the translation of the Septuagint agrees very much with this explanation, who render ἐπὶ κοίτην, that is, to the bed, as if to say: I desired to the bed, or to marriage. This is Sanchez. Second, Genebrardus thinks that here is a new drama, or rather a new act, namely the second act of the drama: wherefore no connection is to be sought here, because at another time, namely at night, the things are done which are narrated here; the rest however by day. Gislerius judges better that here is indeed a new act and a new narration, but connected with the prior ones: for the bride narrates after the departure of the bridegroom what she did at some time, when she noticed that her beloved had departed from her, with what zeal she sought him, how she found and held him, lest he depart again. Third, John the Carmelite thinks that these words of the bride are produced, so that they give a reason why the bridegroom said to her, chapter II, verse 10: "Rise up, make haste, my love;" because namely he found her lying in bed or idle; hence he calls her away from him saying: "Rise up, make haste." Fourth, Gilbert the abbot, who continued the Sermons of St. Bernard on the Canticle, and begins here, thus connects it, sermon 1: "From the mountains, he says, she had betaken herself swiftly to the bed of the bridegroom, where she, aroused and failing in the abundance of delight, fell asleep exhausted in the embraces of her beloved. Delighted she fell asleep a sweet sleep, but awakened she did not find him, this woman of delights, in her hands. Those joys therefore, those ineffable joys, passing over in silence, yet burst forth into this voice: In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth." Fifth, more aptly does Luysius of Leon think that the bride, overcome by love, fell into sleep, and in dreams or half-asleep spoke to her young companions: "The voice of my beloved," and so forth, which are narrated from chapter II, verse 8, to the end of the chapter; now, he says, the bride, freed from sleep and awakened, thinking that the bridegroom, in whatever manner he seemed to speak to her through rest, was lying with her, sought him, and not finding him leapt from the bed, and having gone out of the house, is said to have traversed all the places of the city seeking him. In this, Solomon is to be understood as commemorating not what was actually done, but what the nature of the matter being treated demands should be done, having expounded it appropriately to the matter itself. And so because he understood that either propriety was being neglected by him, or a good part of this song ought to be omitted, for this reason he assumed a character from the common people, and introduced a woman brought up in the country, so that, propriety being preserved, he might express in her all the force of love. Wherefore the bride, stirred partly by the goads of love, partly by fear (lest something evil befall the bridegroom absent during the night), could not command herself to remain at home as long as it was dark; but leapt up immediately, neither deterred by darkness, nor fearing nocturnal dangers, nor having any regard for herself, but following love alone as her guide, sought out her husband. For that the nuptials had already been entered into before by the bridegroom with the bride, and that the bridegroom had come to the bride, is sufficiently clear from the preceding passages, especially from chapter I, verse 3, where the bride says: "The king hath brought me into his chambers;" and verse 11: "Whilst the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth the smell thereof;" and chapter II, verse 4: "He brought me into the cellar of wine, he set in order charity in me," etc. On the other hand, Aben-Ezra thinks that the bride here narrates those things which she was seeing while dreaming, and he proves this from the fact that she herself says: "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth;" for indeed one sleeps and dreams at night: for who would seek him whom she knows to be present with her, or absent in bed? and from the fact that in verse 5, the bridegroom commands that no one awaken her from sleep; therefore the bride was already sleeping and dreaming, which is indeed probable, especially on account of verse 5 already mentioned. If it pleases one to follow this, say that here is a new dream of the bride, in some ways similar to, in some ways dissimilar from, the former, namely that the bride dreams that she anxiously sought her beloved through the streets and squares, and finally after long circuits found him, held him when found, and did not let him go. For those things which one loves and greatly desires, one dreams of frequently and in various ways. Whence also lovers fashion dreams for themselves, and the desires of lovers are the dreams of the waking. Hence St. Anselm notes that it is not surprising that the bride sleeps in bed and at the same time rises up like a column of smoke; because the more she is drawn away from earthly things, and as it were falls asleep to them, the more highly is she elevated to heavenly things.
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY ADAPTED, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. First, the Chaldean paraphrast expounds these things concerning the Jews, who by adoring the golden calf lost the grace and holiness of God; for thus he says: "And when the people of the Lord Israel saw that the clouds of glory had been taken away from them, and the crown of holiness, which had been given to them on Sinai, had been taken away from them, they remained darkened as night, and they sought the crown of holiness, which had been taken away from them, and did not find it." Second, Titelmannus and others understand these things concerning the state of the old Synagogue, or more generally concerning the state of human nature before the advent of Christ, and then of the new Church after His advent. For the human race before Christ, from the fall of Adam, miserable and lying in the bed of its infirmity, sluggish and sick for every good, and that in the night of infidelity and ignorance, sought in the law of nature from its wise men, sophists and philosophers a remedy for such great evil, namely the highest good, or that in which the happiness of man consists, and the way to attain to it; but it drew nothing solid and true from them, as those who trusted in the blind ingenuity of their mind, when it ought to have left its bed and passed over to the light of divine grace, without which the spouse is sought in vain and not found, He alone who blesses the soul seeking and loving Him: thus also the Synagogue lay sluggish and sick in the bed of the Mosaic law, and in the night of shadows, that is of figurative ceremonies, and sought the spouse through the streets and squares, when, trusting in the letter of the law, and attending to the merits and examples of the fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., through lustral ceremonies and sacrifices of animals, and those shadowy judgments, it strove to justify itself and to merit God. But not finding Him there, it went to the watchmen of the cities, namely the scribes and Pharisees, and from them sought Him; but it received no fitting answer from them. After therefore, despising their vain traditions and rejecting false doctrine, it turned its ears and mind to the new doctrine of Evangelical grace coming from heaven with Christ, the Synagogue finally found whom it had sought so earnestly and awaited for so many ages, its true beloved, the Savior of the world, promised to the fathers from the beginning, and prefigured by various enigmas of ceremonies: whom until then it itself, though obscurely, had sought through its typical sacrifices and ceremonial observances, which all looked to Christ the Savior of the world as to the end of the whole law, according to what the Apostle says, that Christ is the end of the law "unto justice to every one that believeth," Rom. X, 4. But because this Canticle is an epithalamium, not of the Synagogue and Moses, nor of the state of the law of nature and God, but of Christ and the Church, as St. Jerome, Cassiodorus, Bede, Origen, Theodoret and others teach throughout; hence these things are to be expounded concerning Christ and the Church. Now, because, as I said in the Preface to the Canticle, the origin, progress and perfection of the Church is described, and the origin or infancy of the Church is described from cap. I, vers. 1, up to cap. II, vers. 8; from there moreover up to cap. III, vers. 6, the progress of the Church, or adolescence, is described; it follows likewise that these things, which cap. III, vers. 1 and seq. up to vers. 6 contain, are to be referred to its adolescence, which is here terminated. Now the infancy of the Church was from the birth of Christ up to His ascension into heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit, which contains the deeds of Christ from nativity up to death, resurrection, ascension and Pentecost: from there moreover begins the adolescence and propagation of the Church, which the apostles brought about by preaching. Wherefore the infancy of the Church is described in the Gospels, but the adolescence in the Acts of the Apostles. This bed, therefore, of the bride, or of the primitive Church, was the rest of the same, by which after the ascension of Christ into heaven, she rested with the Blessed Virgin and the apostles in Sion until Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and after that she rested in Sion and Judea for many years, in which the apostles preached to the Jews alone (Baronius reckons ten years, but I reckon only four, as I have shown in Acts XII, 1); indeed she thought she would rest there perpetually with her spouse Christ; but she did not find Christ there, because few of the Jews embraced the faith, the rest with the scribes and high priests despised Christ and the Church, indeed they persecuted them. Wherefore the Church, namely St. Peter and the apostles taught by Christ, undertook the laborious journey and burden of evangelizing among all nations, and there they found Christ in the faith, religion and obedience of all nations, as is evident from the Acts of the Apostles and from Ecclesiastical History. The connection therefore of the Canticle, and its exposition is to be sought from the success of Christ and the Church, which is described in the Gospels, Acts and Ecclesiastical History. The sense therefore is, as if to say: I, the Church, resting sweetly in Sion and Judea, and there occupied in prayer, the word of God, and frequent communion, in holiness and every Christian virtue and perfection, as is evident, Acts I, 13 and following, there I sought Christ, but did not find him, because most of the Jews adhering to the Mosaic law rejected the faith of Christ: but Christ dwells and is found in the Church, and in the multitude and universality of believers of the whole world. For the bride knows that Christ dwells through faith in the hearts of the faithful, as St. Bernard notes. I said therefore: "I will rise, and go about the city" Jerusalem, and I will leave Judea subject to it; through the "streets and broad ways," evangelizing "I will seek him whom my soul loveth," namely Christ, and the faith and worship of Christ: "I sought him, and found him not," because the Jews resisted Christ and the Gospel. "The watchmen that keep the city found me," namely the high priests, the chief priests, the scribes, Herod Agrippa, and the other rulers of the Jews; I asked them: "Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?" Do you recognize the Messiah promised to your fathers? Do you believe in Jesus Christ crucified? But they were silent, and by their silence they testified that they knew not Christ. Wherefore "when I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth," namely when after the persecution of the high priests and the death of St. Stephen, that is in the second year after the passion of Christ, Christ converted St. Paul and appointed him a teacher of the Gentiles, saying: "This man is a vessel of election to me, that he may bear my name before the Gentiles and kings," Acts IX, 15. And when, Acts X, 11, He showed St. Peter a vessel sent down from heaven, He signified that not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles were to be called to Christ and the Church, and therefore He commanded St. Peter to convert Cornelius the centurion, as it were the firstfruits of the Gentiles, and to join him to Christ. Whence shortly after, namely in the year of Christ 37, which was the fourth from His passion and resurrection, the apostles, having divided among themselves the provinces of the Gentiles, each went to his own and likewise converted them and joined them to Christ. There therefore in the faith of the Gentiles the apostles found Christ, as it were dwelling and ruling in the universal Church. Then therefore said the Church: "I held him, and I will not let him go;" because I will establish everywhere churches of the Gentiles, and therefore priests, deacons, bishops, sacraments, teachers, preachers, miracles, etc., I will establish them in the faith of Christ, so that they may never abandon it, but either together, or alternately and successively hold it fast, so that always a great part of the world may worship and adore Christ: "Until I bring him into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her that bore me," that is the Synagogue. For the old Synagogue of the Jews was the mother and source of the Church of Christians. For the first Christians, namely the apostles, were sprung from the Jews. The sense therefore is, as if to say, I will transfer Christ and the faith and worship of Christ from the Jews to the Gentiles, and there I will establish and confirm Him, until at the end of the world through Elias and Enoch I shall convert the Jews: thus therefore Christ and the faith of Christ "I will bring into the house of my mother," that is into the Synagogue of the Jews, so that all Israel may be saved, and from Jews and Gentiles there may be made one flock and one shepherd. This is what the Apostle says: "Blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion he that shall deliver and turn away ungodliness from Jacob," that is from the Jews sprung from Jacob, Rom. XI, 25. Thus St. Gregory: "Into the house of her mother," he says, "he will bring the beloved, when at the end of the world the Church through preaching shall send Christian sacraments into the Jewish people; but into the chamber, as it were into a more secret part of the house, he will bring him, because from that same people he will convert so many that all will cast off the burdens of the world, and in their inmost thoughts will desire to please God alone. Such men will make a chamber for the bridegroom: because while they cast off from themselves all the filth of desire, as it were they will prepare a secret place in the mind in which he may delight:" thus also Cassiodorus, Bede, Aponius, Philo of Carpathus, Justus of Orgelitanus, St. Anselm, Rupert, St. Bernard and others everywhere, who in the same manner as St. Gregory expound this fourth verse: "Until I bring," etc. Whence you may gather that the preceding three verses also are to be expounded in the same manner as I have expounded them. For this is required by the very sequence and connection of the history. Note that when the bride says she sought the bridegroom Christ through the nights, understand through the darkness, namely when darkness of infidelity and ignorance of God, Christ and salvation occupied Jerusalem and Judea and the whole world. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 75: "This world has its nights and not a few. Why do I say that the world has nights, when almost the whole of it is night, and is always wholly occupied in darkness? Night is Jewish perfidy, night is the ignorance of Pagans, night is heretical depravity, night is also the carnal and animal conversation of Catholics. Is it not night where the things that are of the spirit of God are not commanded? But also among heretics or schismatics: as many sects, so many nights. In vain through these nights of justice do you seek the sun and the light of truth, that is the bridegroom, because there is no fellowship of light with darkness." Mystically, the bed of Christ was the womb of the Blessed Virgin, likewise the manger and the sepulchre, where St. Mary Magdalene and her companions, as well as SS. Peter and John sought Christ and found Him not, because He had already risen from it. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 3: "Is not the bed a tomb? Is not the bed a manger? Is not the bed the womb of a virgin? etc. With good reason therefore the bride, placing the bed, calls it hers: because everything that is infirm in God is not made manifest to Him from His own nature, but from ours. From us He assumed what He endured for us, to be born, to be nursed, to die, to be buried. Mine is the mortality of the newborn, mine the weakness of the little child, mine the expiration of the crucified, mine the sleep of the buried one. Those former things have passed away, and behold all things are new. In my bed by night I sought Him whom my soul loveth. What? Were you seeking in your bed Him who had already received Himself into His own? Did you see the Son of Man ascending where He was before? Already He has exchanged heaven for a tomb, and for a stable, and do you still seek Him in your bed? He is risen, He is not here. Why do you seek in the bed the strong one, the great one, glorified in the stable? He entered into the powers of the Lord, put on beauty and strength; and behold He sits upon the cherubim, He who lay beneath a stone." And with many things interjected, at the end of the sermon urging I will rise and go about: "Why not," he says, "should she rise, knowing of the resurrection of her beloved? However, O blessed one, if you have risen with Christ, you ought to savour the things that are above; and you must seek Christ not below, but above, where He sits at the right hand of the Father." A city is called Locicila on account of the gathering together, a bride on account of love, sheep on account of gentleness." Whence he concludes, and gives this admonition to the pastors of the Church: "Therefore take heed to yourselves, whosoever have been allotted the work of this ministry; take heed, I say, to yourselves and to the precious deposit which has been entrusted to you. It is a city, watch for its keeping and harmony. It is a bride, strive for her adornment: they are sheep, attend to their pasture. And these three things to that threefold questioning of the Lord will perhaps not incongruously be said to pertain: Peter, lovest thou Me? feed My sheep," John XXI, 17.
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. First, the sinful soul seeks God, that is, its highest good and happiness in the bed, that is, in the pleasures of the flesh through nights of ignorance and the darkness of sin: for the bed of the miser is gold; of the proud man, honor; of the glutton, delights; of the slothful man, idleness, according to that passage, Proverbs XXVI, 14: "As a door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the slothful man upon his bed." These seek Him in the night, which is caused by the object of the earth, that is, of earthly desires, which they embrace, and which place themselves between themselves and God, and cast obstacles, so that they cannot draw in His light. Wherefore these do not find God, both because they seek in darkness, and because there is no place and rest of God there: thus Cassiodorus, Philo of Carpathus, Bede and others. Wherefore the sinful soul, but penitent with St. Mary Magdalene (whose action is here depicted to the life, whence also the Church reads this in place of the Epistle on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene) rises from this bed of pleasure and concupiscence, and goes about the streets and squares diligently seeking Christ, whom she finally finds in the house of Simon, that is, of obedience, reclining at table at the time of dinner, so that he might feed his guests and hosts with his divine words. There therefore from behind, Mary Magdalene washing his feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them with her mouth, anointing them with her hands, received pardon, grace and salvation from Christ. In like manner the holy soul seeks Christ in her bed: first, when she seeks Him in her own comfort; but she does not find Him there, because Christ is not found except on the cross, as St. Martin used to say. Thus Cassiodorus: "I will rise up," he says, "from the bed of the body and carnal pleasure, and I will go about the city of this world, traversing seas and lands: through the streets and squares I will seek, etc., that is, walking through the broad ways of this age, and observing those devoted to its pleasures, if perchance I might find the footprints of my beloved in them." Second, when she seeks Him in her own will; but she does not find Him there, because Christ did not come to do His own will, but the Father's; whence in the garden, with His passion at hand, He prayed: "Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done," Luke XXII, 42. Let her therefore put off her own will, and put on the divine will, whether indicated to her by God, or by a superior, who is God's vicar and interpreter, whoever wishes to find God and God's grace. Third, when she seeks Him in curiosity, curiously going about and examining all the sects of men, arts, states, studies and exercises: but she does not find Him there, because this going about makes a man vagrant, unstable and erring. Whence St. Justin the philosopher, in his Dialogue against Trypho, relates that he visited all the schools of the philosophers, namely those of Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Epicurus, the Stoics, etc., and nowhere found wisdom, but being admonished by a grave man, who appeared to him suddenly, to read the prophets; by reading them, he found what he sought: whence converted to Christ, he became both a teacher and a glorious martyr. Thus today, those who change states, offices and exercises of piety and virtue, now trying one, now another, make no progress, but waste time in wandering. For nothing is so contrary to progress as the frequent change of exercises, as Cassian, Climacus, Dorotheus and other masters of spiritual things teach. Fourth, he who seeks Him in his own peace, leisure and tranquility, when God Himself calls him to war, to business, to labors to be undertaken for the salvation of souls, does not find God in that; because God gives to each his own light and grace in that state to which He calls him, not in another: whence those whom He calls to the lot of Mary Magdalene, to them He appears in solitude and contemplation; those whom He calls to the lot of Martha, to them He appears in action, to each in that which is proper and peculiar to him, to which He destines him. Hence Theodoret teaches that God is not found in the bed of prosperity, when God sends adversities upon us, so that by them He might exercise and increase our patience and virtue. Hear St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac, chapter V: "There are many who seek Christ in leisure, and do not find Him, and they seek Him in persecutions and quickly find Him, and therefore as it were after trials, because He is present in the perils of His faithful. How little," he says, "when I passed by them, and I found Him!" Fifth, God sometimes withdraws His presence, illuminating grace and consolation from a holy and fervent soul, so that He may sharpen its longing and kindle its fervor more intensely. Thus St. Gregory, in the fifth book of the Morals, chapter IV: "The bridegroom, he says, hides himself when he is sought, so that he may be sought more ardently when not found; and the seeking bride is delayed in finding, so that, made more capable by her delay, she may sometimes find more abundantly what she sought." For, as St. Bernard says, sermon 84: "It is a great good to seek God; I consider this second to none among the goods of a holy soul: it is first among gifts, last among advances. No virtue comes before it, none yields to it. To whom does it come, whom nothing precedes? To whom does it yield, which is the consummation of all things? For what virtue can be ascribed to one not seeking God, or what is the end of seeking God? Seek, he says, his face evermore, Psalm 104:4. I believe that even when he is found, seeking will not cease. God is sought not by the steps of the feet, but by the desires of the heart. And surely a blessed finding does not extinguish holy desire, but extends it." The same doctor teaches elsewhere that the soul cannot seek God unless His grace has gone before: "because God hath first loved us," 1 John 4:10. "Not at all, he says, unless loved first." Whence St. Augustine in Psalm 69: "Seek, he says, him who sought thee first, and carried thee upon his shoulders," as a wandering and lost sheep. Again St. Gregory, homily 25 on the Gospel: "We seek the beloved in bed, he says, when in some small rest of the present life we sigh with longing for our Redeemer. We seek through the night: because although the mind already watches in him, yet the eye is still darkened. But she who does not find her beloved, it remains that she rise and go about the city, that is, she traverse the holy Church of the elect with mind and inquiry: let her seek him through the streets and squares, that is, let her look upon those walking through narrow and broad ways, so that if she can find any traces of him in them, let her search them out: for there are some even of worldly life who have something to imitate from the practice of virtue. Those seeking us find those who guard the city: because the holy Fathers, who guard the state of the Church, meet our good efforts, so that by their word or writing they may teach us. When we have passed by them a little, we find him whom we love; because our Redeemer, though humble as a man among men, was yet by divinity above men. When therefore the watchmen are passed by, the beloved is found; because we see that the prophets and apostles are below him, we consider that he who is God of nature is above men." He then adds the reason why Christ wishes to be sought: "Therefore he is sought first without being found, so that after being found he may be held more tightly. For holy desires, as we have said, grow by delay. But if they fail by delay, they were not desires. Whoever was able to attain to truth burned with this love. Hence David says: My soul hath thirsted after God, the fountain of living water; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? Psalm 41:3. Furthermore St. Bernard, who wrote ten sermons on these words, indeed concludes and ends his sermons on the Canticles in them, teaches first that the soul seeks God for seven reasons; for thus he says, sermon 85: "The soul seeks the Word, to whom it may consent for correction, by whom it may be illuminated for knowledge, on whom it may lean for virtue, by whom it may be reformed for wisdom, to whom it may be conformed for beauty, to whom it may be joined for fruitfulness, in whom it may rejoice for gladness." Second, sermon 86, he teaches that the soul ought to seek God modestly, cautiously and secretly, namely in the secret of the bed and of night. For when "nocturnal sleep brings silence, then prayer will surely be freer and purer." St. Bernard adds that God is sought in the bed of infirmity, so that he may heal it in the nights, according to that: "The Lord will help him on the bed of his pain: thou hast turned all his bed in his sickness," Psalm 40:4. And in the night of ignorance, so that he may dispel it with his light: "And if it please you to understand, he says, by the name of bed is figured human infirmity, and by nocturnal darkness equally human ignorance, it follows and is altogether fitting that the power of God and the wisdom of God the Word be sought more urgently against both original evils. For what is more fitting than that virtue be opposed to infirmity, wisdom to ignorance." Again St. Ambrose, sermon 7 on Psalm 118: "He sought, he says, in the nights, that is, in persecutions and adversities. For night is to all those who do not have perfect security." Finally, a soul seeking God already finds him in some way, indeed both has and holds him: for she would not seek him unless she knew him, desired him and loved him. She finds him therefore through faith and hope: she seeks in order to possess him through charity; she finds him absent through desire, so that she may hold him present through joy: she finds and holds him through patience, so that she may possess him through consolation: she holds him through the beginning of pious affection, so that she may possess and hold him through the increase and perfection of his grace: she holds him through love, she seeks in order to possess him through fervor. Whence St. Bernard, in his treatise On the Love of God: "Thou art good, O Lord," he says, "to him who seeks Thee; what then to him who finds Thee? But indeed this is wonderful, that no one is able to seek Thee unless he has first found Thee: Thou dost therefore wish to be found so that Thou mayest be sought; to be sought so that Thou mayest be found." Therefore God is sought through the beginning of faith, hope, penance, patience, and other virtues; He is found through the increase of these same virtues, especially love and charity, as Richard of St. Victor teaches, according to that passage: "They shall go from virtue to virtue; the God of gods shall be seen in Sion," Psalm 83:8. St. Augustine in Psalm 104, on those words: "Seek the Lord, and be strengthened: seek His face evermore. God," he says, "is to be sought without end, because He is to be loved without end." And a little before: "But if He is always sought, when is He found? Did I say always in this whole life, in which we live here, from the time we knew that we ought to do this, when is He both found and to be sought? Already indeed faith finds Him, but hope still seeks Him: but charity both finds Him through faith, and seeks to have Him through vision: where then He shall be so found that He may suffice for us, and we shall seek no further." The same St. Ambrose treats this more fully, book III On Virgins: "If thou wishest," he says, "thou also to hold Christ, seek Him continually and fear not punishment: for frequently amid the sufferings of the body, amid the very hands of persecutors, Christ is found better. How little it was," he says, "when I passed by them, until I found Him. In a small space and brief moment, when thou hast escaped the hands of persecutors and hast not succumbed to the powers of the world, Christ shall meet thee, nor shall He suffer thee to be tempted long." Frequent repetition has greatly aided progress.
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For 'lanes' in Hebrew is שוקים scheuakim in the plural, whose singular is שוק schok, that is, the shin-bone or leg, which runs from the hip-joint to the ankles, and from this by metaphor comes 'lane' or 'alley', which runs off from the main street in another direction, just as the shin-bone runs out from the body. Whence the Septuagint translates it, ἐν ἀγοραῖς, that is, in marketplaces. St. Ambrose, in Book III of On Virgins, reads 'in the marketplace': ἀγορὰ indeed is a marketplace, where goods for sale are openly displayed to all, or where the gathering of men is accustomed to take place. Moreover, in a city there are many marketplaces: namely, the cattle market, where cattle are sold; the vegetable market, where vegetables; the pig market, where pigs; the grain market, where grains; the wine market, where wines, etc. The bride therefore signifies that she sought the bridegroom in vineyards and marketplaces, where there is accustomed to be a crowd of men: but in a crowd the bridegroom is not found, who loves secrecy and solitude, or certainly faith and order, such as exists in the Church of the faithful. Hear St. Ambrose, Book III of On Virgins: "Christ is not a wanderer of the streets: for Christ is peace, in the marketplace there are quarrels; Christ is justice, in the marketplace there is iniquity; Christ is faith, in the marketplace there is fraud and treachery; Christ is a worker, in the marketplace there is idle leisure; Christ is charity, in the marketplace there is detraction. Finally, the marketplace is sometimes the haunt of thieves; Christ is in the Church, in the marketplace there are idols. In the Church the widow is justified, in the marketplace she is deceived; let us therefore flee the marketplace, let us flee the streets. For it is not merely an injury not to find whom you seek, but also often where you ought not to have sought, it is a wound: to have sought in the houses of men who falsely assume the name of teachers for themselves, to have sought more boldly than modestly." Yet the bride goes about, because "the flame of love did not allow her to remain at home," says Theodoret. Literally, as I have said, he speaks of the apostles going about the lanes and streets of Jerusalem, evangelizing, so that they might convert the Jews to Christ: but in these they found not Christ, but Moses; not spirit, but flesh; not truth, but shadow. Whence the Chaldean, after his manner judaizing, thus translates: "The children of Israel said to one another: Let us arise and go, let us go around the tabernacle of the covenant, which Moses set up outside the camp, and let us seek the doctrine from the face of the Lord, and the holy majesty, which has been taken away from us; and they went about through the cities and streets, and through the lanes, and did not find it." Mystically, by lanes and streets Theodoret and Aponius understand the Holy Scriptures; but St. Gregory, Bede and Anselm understand the examples of the saints, who followed either a narrower (which the lanes signify) or a broader (which the streets signify) manner of living. Anagogically, the Nyssene understands the orders and ranks of angels and saints in the heavenly Jerusalem. Whence St. Bernard, Sermon 78, thinks that the bride here seeks Christ in the lanes and streets where he had shortly before preached and healed the sick; but she did not find him, because Christ, rising from death, had ascended from the earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly. Tropologically, three Anonymous writers in Theodoret: The city, they say, is the pious soul which seeks the bridegroom in itself through the marketplaces of action, and through the streets of contemplation, walking alternately, and going about from one to the other in turn: thus the Anonymous writers. But Philo of Carpathus: "By marketplaces and streets, that is," he says, "I shall rise from the past actions of my life, I shall depart from the habit of evils, I shall examine my conscience, and I shall carefully review all around the actions of my life; I shall recall the years of my past life, I shall diligently seek in the city, that is, in the Church, in the holy Scriptures, in the lives and examples of the saints, how I ought to walk rightly toward God, and how I have lived and walked up to now: for I have walked in the broad and open ways of sinners, imitating the common customs and habits of others: and therefore through marketplaces and streets she says she will inquire according to that: I thought on my ways: and turned my feet unto thy testimonies, Psalm 118:59. For in marketplaces and streets are displayed, sold, and dealt with all things suited and pleasing only to the pleasure of the body, by which the souls of Christians are miserably captured and killed. She also confesses that she was vexed by these, and was prevented by them from seeking the Lord and finding him: for narrow is the way, and strait is the gate, that leadeth to life, Matthew 7:14." Symbolically, the soul circles the city when by thought it circles the world, contemplating heaven, earth, and all things in them, as the philosophers did; but they did not find God, both because although they knew God from these things through a shadow, they nevertheless did not glorify Him as God; and because destitute of the light of faith they fell into many errors, and circling around relapsed into their own ignorance, and served the creature rather than the Creator, indulging their pleasures, ambition and honors, as the Apostle teaches, Rom. I, 25: whence in the circuit of contemplation and experience of all the world's goods, Solomon teaches that he experienced great vanity and affliction, Eccles. II, 3 and following. Wherefore St. Augustine wisely, in Psalm XXXIII, verse 5, to those words: "I sought the Lord, and He heard me," says: Do not seek anything else from the Lord outside of Him, but seek the Lord Himself, and He will hear you, and while you are still speaking He will say: Behold I am here. What is: Behold I am here, behold I am present, what do you wish? what do you seek from me? Whatever I shall give you is baser than I, have me, enjoy me, embrace me, you cannot yet have the whole, touch me by faith, and you will cleave to me. This God says to you: All your other burdens I will take from you, so that you may wholly cleave to me, when I shall convert this mortal of yours to immortality, so that you may be equal to my angels, and always see my face, and rejoice; and your joy no one will take from you, because you sought the Lord and He heard you, and He delivered you from all your tribulations. Morally, note here that the love of the bride produces in her an ardor for seeking the bridegroom; whence although she did not find him in the bed, nor in the streets and squares, nor with the watchmen; yet finally after all these things she found him. Wherefore Richard of St. Victor teaches that the bride, by this careful circuit of hers, made much progress in love and ardor for seeking: for having suffered rejection a third time she was more inflamed, just as fire in stubble agitated by contrary winds burns more fiercely: "For frustration of the beloved thing is a scourge of love to the lover." Whence St. Bernard, in the sermon On the triple cohesion of bonds: "Let the heart of those seeking the Lord rejoice; if you rejoice in labors, if with unwearied foot you run the way of the commandments, if daily each state is more recent in profiting and perfecting than in beginning, truly you seek His face always." Symbolically, Richard of St. Victor here teaches that God is found in a threefold creature, as it were in a threefold likeness of God: first, in animals, heavens, elements, compounds; second, in man; third, in the angel, who is the seal of likeness, and in whom from the beginning the likeness of God has remained impressed. He himself therefore is the mirror of God: "For the angels are," he says, "as the holy Lord God their God is, and so much so that the soul itself has passed from those pure ones to the author of purity, and from contemplations to the one to be contemplated, and immediately found: because they are so near that nothing is between, and after these there is nothing to find except Him; having found the beloved, and congratulating the angels, and recalling the benefit obtained through them, she says: A little while after I passed by them I found Him, etc., that is immediately as I passed by these I found the beloved; I passed by these to come, and through these I passed to find: for by their meeting and aid I obtained what I desired, who both provoked and inflamed my desire, and obtained the meeting of the beloved." Symbolically again Gilbert the abbot, successor of St. Bernard, in the explanation of the Canticle, sermon 1, aptly says that Christ is sought in the bed of leisure and tranquility of mind, and in the night of forgetfulness of cares and temporal things: "You are well placed," he says, "in the bed, if your mind is freely at rest in some leisure from occupations. What is more suited to the use of love than freedom and leisure? And freedom begets allurement: in leisure affection is set free, and no small amount is devoted to it." And after a few words: "On the contrary, frequent care of the world renders affection almost insensible, and as it were draws a callus over the mind. Care entangles the soul, rest unfolds it. Desires unfolded into what do you think expand themselves? Do you see how many good things are contained in the bed? rest, freedom, allurement. In the bed of rest and vacancy vows burn more ardently. A place suited to the enjoyment of charity urges the bride to seek more ardently. For there she lacks the beloved more painfully, where she could enjoy him more abundantly. In my bed, she says, and by nights." And after several interjections: "Good therefore is the night, which by prudent forgetfulness conceals all temporal things so that one may seek Him who is eternal; a time expedient and unfolding opportunities; which hides the concupiscence of the world, care, thought: for this is to have the world hidden, or to be hidden from the world. Thus also we can be hidden in the hiding place of Your face, O Lord."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Rupertus thus introduces the Blessed Virgin speaking: "Now from the time when Christ was baptized by John, He began to be absent from my bed, or from my chamber, in that secret place of my dwelling, so that I could not find Him. For immediately He was led into the desert by the Spirit, and afterwards He returned. He preferred the Gospel to my affections, so that He said: What is it to me and to thee, woman? But He also taught others to do likewise, namely that they should leave father and mother for the sake of the Gospel. Thus I sought Him with desire, and I did not find Him, that I might possess the solitary One in solitude. I said therefore: I will rise, and will go about the city through the streets and broad ways; I will seek Him whom my soul loveth. I said and did so: for when He went about through cities and towns, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, I followed and sought Him. I sought Him, and found Him not. For He, being so intent upon His work, in a certain way dissembled that He knew me as His mother." And after some things which he inserts for this purpose: "After this I stood beside His cross. But was this for me to have found my beloved? nay, it was for me to have found a sword, which also pierced my soul. He was buried, the sepulchre was closed and sealed; and with what mind did I seek Him? with what desire did I desire Him, knowing that He was to rise from the dead? From that place I did not find Him. The watchmen who guard the city found me? What watchmen, or who guarding the city? His disciples who were appointed for this purpose, to guard, nay rather to build the true city of Jerusalem. And I said: Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? etc. A little after I passed by them, I found Him whom my soul loveth, and not in any manner, but I saw Him ascending into heaven, and the apostles, with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, I saw preaching the glory of the Lord." Now let us bring each thing to the anvil, and through each verse let us investigate more deeply certain secrets which lie hidden.
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Hebrew, found me the keepers (watchmen) who go about in the city: so also the Septuagint, Aquila and Symmachus. St. Bernard, sermon 79, notes the vehemence of love in the bride confusing words: "O love headlong, he says, vehement, burning, impetuous, which suffers you not to think of anything besides yourself, you disdain other things, you despise all things except yourself, content with yourself. You confound order, you disregard use, you know no measure; all that appears to pertain to propriety, to reason, to modesty, to counsel and judgment, you triumph over in yourself, and reduce into captivity. Behold all that she thinks, and all that she speaks, sounds of you, smells of you, and nothing else: thus you have claimed for yourself both her heart and her tongue. She says: Have you seen him whom my soul loveth? As if truly these knew what she thinks. Him whom your soul loves, do you ask about him? And he has no name? Who then are you, and who is he?" Whence he adds: "Love speaks everywhere; and if anyone of these things which are read desires to attain knowledge of them, let him love, etc. For just as he who does not know Greek does not understand one speaking Greek, nor does he who is not Latin understand one speaking Latin, and so of the rest: thus the tongue of love will be barbarous to him who does not love, and it will be as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." You will ask, who are these watchmen, or keepers of the city. I answer first, according to the letter properly and genuinely, they are the learned in the law, the pontiffs and princes of Jerusalem: for it was their office to indicate to the people the Messiah, or Christ coming. These therefore the apostles and the faithful rightly interrogated concerning Christ, when they expounded to them the doctrine, life and miracles of Christ by preaching, so that being convicted by these things they might answer that he himself is the true Messiah predicted by the prophets and promised to the fathers. But they themselves expected the Messiah as a splendid and glorious king, as it were another Solomon: wherefore when they saw Christ humble, poor and crucified, they despised him, nor believed that he was the Messiah. See the words of verse 1. Tropologically, watchmen, that is keepers of the Church and of the faithful soul, are first angels, who know the bridegroom, namely God, clearly, indeed see him face to face, and instil his knowledge and love into men; whence pious men often invoke them, and consult them concerning doubts and the manner of finding God and pleasing him: thus Theodoret and three Anonymi in the same, Nyssenus, homily 6, St. Ambrose, book On Isaac, chapter V; St. Bernard, Psellus and others. Second, watchmen are apostles, pastors and prelates, who carefully keep watch over the flock, that is the faithful committed to their care; these therefore by the judgment and guidance of their pastors find the bridegroom: thus St. Gregory, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Bede, Philo and St. Anselm, who says: "Found," that is they found me seeking, the holy pastors who guard the Church knew my affection. When she said she was found before she found, she notes to us the vigilance and diligence which pastors ought to have in the Church, namely that as soon as anyone is moved by compunction, they be ready to admonish him, and draw him to the knowledge of God. The words of St. Gregory I cited in verse 1. Now hear St. Bernard, sermon 76: "How good are the watchmen, who while we sleep keep vigil themselves, as if about to render account for our souls! How good are the keepers, who watching in spirit, and spending the night in prayers, sagaciously explore the snares of the enemy, anticipate the counsels of the malignant, detect the snares, elude the traps, scatter the nets, frustrate the machinations! These are the lovers of the brethren and of the Christian people, who pray much for the people and for the whole holy city, II Mach. XV, 14. These are they who are much solicitous for the Lord's sheep committed to them, who give their heart to keep watch early to the Lord who made them, and in the sight of the Most High they beseech, Eccli. XXXIX, 6." Therefore the same St. Bernard, sermon 77, teaches from this example of the bride that the faithful in matters of doubt ought to consult their superiors and obey them; otherwise, if they trust in their own wisdom without their counsel, they expose themselves to the danger of falling: "Let those hear this," he says, "who do not fear to enter the ways of life without a guide and teacher, being to themselves in the spiritual art both disciples and masters at the same time. This is not enough: they even gather disciples to themselves, blind guides of the blind. How many have been found to have gone astray most dangerously from this path! Namely, being ignorant of the cunning of Satan and his thoughts, it came to pass that those who had begun in the spirit were completed in the flesh, drawn away shamefully, fallen damnably." Whence he gathers this admonition: "Let those therefore who are of such a kind see how carefully they walk, and let them take an example from the bride, who in no way could arrive at him whom she desired before she encountered those whose teaching she would use to know about the beloved, certainly to learn the fear of the Lord. He gives his hand to the seducer who pretends to give it to the teacher. And he who sends sheep into pasture without a keeper is not a shepherd of sheep, but of wolves." To this pertains the version of the Chaldean, who, judaizing, understands by the watchmen the Synagogue, namely Moses and Aaron: for thus it has: The assembly of Israel said: Moses and Aaron and the Levites found me, keeping watch over the tabernacle of the covenant, who went about round about, and I asked them concerning the majesty of the glory of the Lord, which had been taken away from me. Moses the scribe, prince of Israel, answered and said to them: I will ascend to the high heavens and will pray before the Lord, if perhaps he will be pleased concerning your sins, and will cause his majesty to dwell among you as of old. To this pertains the explanation of Aponius, who understands by the watchmen Isaiah and the prophets: for they proclaim so clearly the incarnation, passion and resurrection of Christ, and do proclaim, that the reader in them and from them easily finds Christ; and of Philo of Carpathus, who understands by the watchmen the just, who vigilantly search out and execute the law and will of God: for their examples, counsels and admonitions lead us to Christ, namely to holiness and perfection. Third, and others understand by the watchmen philosophers, whom the gentiles questioned concerning God and the highest good; but they heard nothing except what was uncertain and vain. Thus Justin of Orgelitanus, who introduces the Church speaking thus: The wise men of the age disputed against me, and the worshippers of idols, searching many things vainly, and composing many useless books with labors, to whom I said: Why do you vex yourselves in vain with superfluous effort: "Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?" Since you glory falsely in the name of wisdom; God has made your wisdom foolish, because you were not able to find Christ therein. Fourth, others understand by the watchmen heretics, who keep vigil so as to spread their heresies; and they go about cities and kingdoms, so as to seduce the faithful: when the faithful passes by these and goes on to orthodox teachers, he finds Christ and the faith of Christ, and true religion: thus Gislerius. Fifth, Rupertus attributes these things to the Blessed Virgin seeking Christ either in Jerusalem lost and found in the temple, or already dead and buried: "And I, with what mind," he says, "was seeking him, with what desire was I desiring him, knowing that he was to rise from the dead! Thence I did not find him. The watchmen who guard the city found me. Which watchmen, or guarding what city? His disciples, because they were disposed to this, that they should guard, nay that they should build the true city Jerusalem; concerning which, or to which the Beloved himself says through Isaiah, Isaiah LXII, 6: Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen, all the day and all the night they shall not hold their peace, to praise the name of the Lord. These watchmen were already then keeping vigil, because mourning and weeping they could not sleep: these watchmen found me, and the women who keeping vigil all night came to the monument, who also had bought spices, that coming they might anoint him, found me good by eagerly bringing the message, that he had risen, and that they had seen him. And I say: Have you seen him whom my soul loveth? We have seen, they say, we have seen the Lord. He is truly risen, and has appeared to Simon."
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Hebrew, as it were a little, when I passed by them, until I found him whom my soul loveth: thus also the Septuagint. St. Ambrose reads it by way of interrogation and admiration, how little it was when I passed by them, until I found him whom my soul loveth! that is to say, Vehement love caused it that all labour, all journey, all time which I spent from the questioning of the watchmen until the finding of the bridegroom, should seem to me little and small; as is said of Jacob, Genesis XXIX, 20: "Jacob served for Rachel seven years: and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the greatness of his love." Moreover the Chaldean refers these things to the building of the Mosaic tabernacle: "As it were a little, says he, and small he made, and the Lord returned from the anger of his fury, and the Lord commanded Moses the prophet, that he should make the tabernacle of the covenant, and the ark, and he placed his majesty in the midst of it." The literal sense is that which I gave in verse 1, namely the Church, that is St. Peter, St. Paul and the other apostles, when they had passed through the high priests, scribes and princes of Jerusalem, as those who rejected the faith of Christ, went to the Gentiles, and there found Christ in the conversion of all nations, who hearing the preaching of the Gospel, immediately embraced it and Christ in it. Tropologically, first, the soul instructed by the watchmen, that is by the angels, ascends to the Creator: which angels are near to God, so that if thou pass through them, thou shalt immediately find God, as St. Ambrose teaches, sermon 7 on Psalm CXVIII. The same, in the book On Isaac, chapter V, teaches that angels are ignorant of certain things, and therefore one must pass from them to God, that we may be fully illuminated: "The soul, says he, which seeks God, passes even through the guardians: for there are mysteries which even the angels desire to see. Whence also Peter says: Which have been preached unto you by them that have preached unto you the Gospel by the Holy Ghost sent from heaven, into which things the angels desire to look, I Peter I, 12." Thus also Gregory of Nyssa here, homily 6, teaches that the contemplative must pass through the angels and the whole creation, that through faith he may fix the eye of his mind upon the one supreme God. Secondly, the soul instructed by the watchmen, that is by the apostles, pastors and teachers, and obedient to them, finds Christ, but in such a way that it passes through them, that is does not remain in them, nor fixes its hope in any other than in Christ: thus St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Morals, chapter XXVII: "When the Church sought her Redeemer, says he, she was unwilling to fix her hope in the ancient preachers, saying: A little when I had passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth. For she could not find him if she had been unwilling to pass by them." The same St. Gregory in this place: "A little, says he, the watchmen pass and the soul finds her beloved: because while she thinks that the holy doctors were pure men, she raises her mind to the divinity, and there recognizes her bridegroom above men, equal to the Father, whom she then says she has found, when aided by holy labours, she fixes the eye of faith upon the brightness of his divinity, as if upon a mirror, in some measure." Thus also Cassiodorus, Bede, Philo and others. Cassiodorus adds: "To pass by the watchmen, says he, is to examine carefully their sayings and doctrine." St. Anselm adds: "He says a little, because the knowledge of God is obtained without great labour: for since God perceives the affection of the seeker, he himself offers himself and willingly imparts himself." Yet it is true what St. Augustine says in Psalm CIV, conclusion 2: "What is sought with greater difficulty is usually found with greater sweetness:" as happened to the bride here, who therefore adds: "I held him, nor will I let him go." Thirdly, Justus Orgelitanus, taking the watchmen to mean philosophers, thus expounds it: When I had passed by the wise men of the world, understanding their wisdom to be foolishness (for "God hath made foolish the wisdom thereof," I Corinthians I, 20), I came to Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Fourthly, St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter V, presses the point of a little, that is to say, shortly after trials and tribulations, Christ is present strengthening and consoling: "Many, says he, seek Christ in leisure and find him not, and they seek him in persecutions and quickly find him; and therefore as it were after trials, because he is present in the perils of his faithful. How little, says he, when I had passed by them! I found him, I held him, and I let him not go. For every one that seeks finds; and he that has found must cleave to him, lest he be able to lose him." Allegorically, St. Bernard, sermon 79, teaches that Christ passed over in the resurrection, passed through in the ascension, and therefore the bride ought to follow him by faith in both ways, so that she may find him sitting at the right hand of God. "Now," he says, "since he had already passed over by rising, and had added that he would pass through by ascending, she rightly declared that she herself had not merely passed over, but had passed through, she who followed him by faith and devotion even to the heavens. Therefore to believe the resurrection is to pass over, to believe also the ascension is to pass through." And after a few intervening remarks: "Therefore what was lacking to her, instructed by those things, because namely he who had risen had also ascended, she also ascended likewise, that is she passed through and found: why should she not have found, reaching with her mind where he is with his body?" Finally, do you wish to find Christ? Seek him in the manger of humility and poverty, on the cross of patience and martyrdom, in the streets and villages of preaching and zeal for souls, finally in the bosom of the Blessed Virgin, that is in purity and invocation of the Blessed Virgin, there you will find him. Hear Philon of Carpathus: "O how the soul of the faithful holds him, and (so to speak) constrains him, while it makes what is pleasing and acceptable to him. For the bridegroom delights in the life, morals, society and familiarity of the bride just as the righteous do: and he is held by works of virtue, not by the hands of armed men, not by the pomp of the rich, not by the boasting of the wealthy, not by the arrogance of the proud, not by gluttony, sleep, luxury, or the disease of envy, but by works of mercy, piety, continence, humility, temperance, benevolence, chastity, and the prayers of the upright; then the bridegroom willingly and most gladly is introduced into the house of our mother." Moreover, by the house of the mother and the chamber of the mother of the bridegroom, the Roman Church can be understood, over which the Supreme Pontiff presides, as the successor of St. Peter and vicar of Christ; which is therefore the mother and matrix of all Churches, which namely converts all the others either first to the faith of Christ, or being converted, nourishes them in her with the milk of her doctrine, as a mother cherishes, protects, preserves, strengthens and advances them, as if to say: The bride, that is the Church of the Gentiles: I will not abandon Christ and his faith, but I will share it with the Roman Pontiff and the Church.
I HELD HIM; NOR WILL I LET HIM GO, UNTIL I BRING HIM INTO THE HOUSE OF MY MOTHER, AND INTO THE CHAMBER OF HER THAT BORE ME. The Septuagint: until I brought him into the house of my mother, and εἰς ταμιεῖον, that is into a chamber; St. Ambrose: into the secret place: in Hebrew it is אל חדר el cheder, that is into the innermost sanctuary (namely the most hidden and intimate part of the house) of her who conceived me. In the chamber and cell are kept all things dear and precious: there also lovers speak and transact all secret matters; whence the bride asserts that she was conceived and born there, as if to say: As soon as I found the bridegroom uniquely beloved and sought with such great effort, I seized (for this is the Hebrew אחזתיו achaztiw) him, held him and embraced him, nor will I let him go, but I will bring him into the chamber of her who bore me, so that there I may enclose him as the most precious thing, lest he depart from me again, but I may be constantly with him, speak with him mouth to mouth, transact all secret matters, and wholly devote myself to his sacred love, and enjoy him: for in the chamber is the nuptial bed. Thus Theodoret.
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY ADAPTED, Concerning Christ and the Church. According to the letter it signifies, as I said at verse 1, that the Church of the Gentiles, where it has received Christ through faith and worship, shall never abandon him, but shall always remain in his faith and love, until it introduces him into the Synagogue, namely into the heart and chamber of the Jews (for this is the mother of the Church of Christians) and espouses her to Christ as a bride: for in the chamber the bridegroom dwells with the bride. Thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Philo, Alcuin, Bede, Justus, Aponius, Anselm, Honorius, Rupert, St. Bernard, and many others in various places. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 79: "He who enters the bridal chamber is a bridegroom. Great is the power of love! The Savior, indignant, had gone forth from his house and inheritance, and now, softened by this grace, he is bent so that he returns not only as savior, but also as bridegroom. Blessed are you by the Lord, daughter, who both restrain indignation and restore the inheritance. Blessed are you to your mother, by whose benefit wrath is turned away, salvation returns, he returns who says to her: I am your salvation. Psalm XXXIV, 3. This is not enough: let her add and say: And I will espouse you to me forever: and I will espouse you to me in justice and judgment: and in mercy and compassions. And I will espouse you to me in faith, Hosea II, 19. But remember, because she who reconciles these friendships is the bride. How then does she yield the bridegroom, and this bridegroom to another, not to say, desire? It is not so. The good daughter indeed desires him for her mother, yet not so as to yield him to her, but to share him. One suffices for two, except that now they will not be two, but one in him. For he is our peace, who makes both one, so that there is one bride, and one bridegroom Jesus," etc. Symbolically, by the house of the mother and the chamber of the one who bore her can be understood Holy Scripture, which for the most part has been received from the mother Church, namely from the Synagogue, as if to say: I shall strengthen myself and my faithful ones, and indeed I shall convert the Jews through Holy Scripture, introducing them into their sayings and senses: for these plainly contain the dogmas of true faith and exhibit them to those who read: thus Justus of Orgelitanus. Hence the Chaldean, after his manner judaizing, translates: "And the people of the house of Israel offered their oblations, and they labored in the words in the dining hall of the house of the doctrine of Moses their master, and in the chamber of Joshua the son of Nun his minister." Anagogically, the sense is, as if to say: The Church and the holy soul: I shall not abandon my Christ, until he himself introduces me into heaven, as it were into the bridal chamber, so that there I may become one spirit with him: for the heavenly Church of God, of angels and the blessed, is the mother of the earthly Church, or of that warring on earth, as the Apostle teaches, Galatians IV, 26: "That which is above, he says, Jerusalem, is free, which is our mother:" thus Theodoret and Justus of Orgelitanus. Furthermore, the bride does not say: Until he the bridegroom introduces me into heaven, but until I introduce him, from the confidence of love, as if to say: Thus shall I bind and unite the bridegroom to me through love, so that not so much he introduces me as I introduce him into heaven; both because love is bold and imperious; for the lover commands the beloved through love even though he be more worthy, and makes him equal to himself, indeed subjects him. For the lover obedient to the friend makes him in turn obedient to himself, as Jacob made the angel, and in him God, obey him and bless him, and therefore he was called Israel, that is, ruling over God, Genesis XXXII, 28. This is the power of love and obedience. Whence also concerning Joshua, chapter X, 13, at his command the sun standing still is said: "The Lord obeying the voice of a man;" both because the holy soul is the seat and vehicle of Christ remaining in it, wherefore it carries him wherever it pleases, and thus into heaven, according to that: "Glorify and carry God in your body," I Corinthians VI, 20.
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. Tropologically, the holy soul apprehends Christ by faith and hope, holds Him by devotion, embraces Him by charity, and does not let Him go, but introduces Him into the house of her mother and the chamber of her who bore her, that is into her mind, which is as it were the mother, nurse and nurturer of all the virtues, senses and powers of the soul, so that she may continually think of Him and meditate upon Him, converse with Him and be sweetly kissed by Him: thus the Nyssene, Philo, three Anonymous writers in Theodoret, and others. Hear the Nyssene: "I will not let go of God once apprehended by the handle of faith, until He shall be within my chamber, which chamber is my very heart. Then indeed this comes to pass when she shall have returned to that state in which she was from the beginning, when she was made by her who conceived." He adds "that he would be deceived who understands by the name of mother the first mother of our constitution, which is surely none other than God Himself." And Richard of St. Victor teaches that grace is the mother of the pious soul, who regenerates her spiritually, and dwells in her mind as in a house. The holy soul therefore says: I will introduce Christ into my mind, so that He may fully and plainly possess it, and my mind may fail from itself, and be wholly transferred into Christ through love as it were. "God is held," says Richard, "by devotion, by desire, by importunity, by remembrance, by prayer, by faith and by expectation of being heard; nor is He let go if one does not cease from intention, nor does the countenance turn again to other things. She holds her beloved, although it be dawn; nor does she let Him go until He blesses her. She wrestled with Him all the night in which she slept, but her heart kept vigil; because namely she ceased from external occupation, and labored in seeking her beloved: and even though she reached from night to dawn, she does not cease from wrestling, that is from the urgency of prayer, nor does she let go her beloved unless He give her a blessing, so that she may go from virtue to virtue, and see the God of gods in Sion, that is in contemplation through a mirror, and in an enigma she seeks this blessing and a change of name, so that she may be called not Jacob but Israel, nor need she any longer supplant vices, but having conquered vices may enjoy the purity of virtues, and contemplate God: for Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God, Matt. V, 8." Hence St. Anselm by the chamber of her who bore her understands the faithful, who make their mind a bed through holiness, in which Christ may rest sweetly. To this Hugh of St. Victor adds, in book VI of his Exposition on the Celestial Hierarchy of St. Dionysius, who thus addresses the holy soul: "Therefore God will enter into you, so that you may enter into Him; for then you enter into Him, when He enters into you. When His love enters and penetrates your heart, and His affection reaches to the innermost part of your heart, then He enters into yourself, and you too enter into yourself, so that you may enter into Him. It is necessary however that He reach even to the bridal chamber and enter the bedroom, and penetrate even to your innermost parts, and rest there. Indeed He perhaps does not love the chamber of the father unless He be introduced into the chamber of the mother, where affection is more tender and caresses sweeter, so that He may find nothing harsh and rigid in you from masculine harshness, but all may be melted and softened by the fire of love." But Aponius says: "When you shall have read the divine law," he says, "with a worldly heart, and shall have taught what it commanded to be done, you introduce the exulting Christ into the house of your mother. But when you shall have been worthy to discourse of His wonderful mysteries, and announcing to the blind Jew and Gentile the gift of grace, the true redemption of the human race, you introduce Christ being born anew into the chamber of your nurse." Finally St. Bernard, sermon 83, teaches that the spouse is held by charity. For love is conformity, the contract of marriage, and the embrace of bridegroom and bride: "Such conformity," he says, "marries the soul to the Word, with whom namely she is similar by nature, yet shows herself similar to Him by will, loving as she is loved. Therefore if she loves perfectly, she is married. What is more joyful than this conformity? what more desirable than charity? by which it comes to pass that, not content with human teaching, you, O soul, approach the Word trustfully through yourself, cleave constantly to the Word, question the Word familiarly, and consult with Him about all things, as much as your intellect is capable, so much bold in desire? Truly this is the contract of a spiritual and holy marriage. I said too little—contract: it is an embrace. An embrace truly, where to will the same thing, and to will the same thing not, makes one spirit of two." And after inserting a few things, he adds: "Love abounds in itself; love, when it has come, draws all others into itself and captivates affections. Therefore what it loves, it loves, and knows nothing else. He himself who is worthy of honor is worthy also of wonder and amazement; yet he loves to be loved more. Bridegroom and bride they are. What other relationship or connection do you seek between spouses, besides loving and being loved?" And soon after: "God demands to be feared as lord, honored as father, to be loved as bridegroom, etc. Love itself is merit, love itself is reward to itself. Love requires no cause beyond itself, no fruit. Its fruit is its use. I love because I love; I love in order to love. Love is a great thing, if indeed it returns to its own principle, if restored to its origin, if poured back into its own fountain, always drawing from it whence it may continually flow. Love alone is among all the motions of the soul, senses and affections, in which a creature, though not equally, can respond to its author, or render back a mutual return in like manner." From all which things at length St. Bernard concludes: "Grant that the honor of a king loves judgment, but the love of a bridegroom, nay the bridegroom himself, requires only the return of love and faith. Let it be permitted therefore to love back the beloved; why should not the bride love, and the bride love? Why should not love be loved? Rightly renouncing all other affections, she devotes herself wholly and entirely to love, she who must respond to love by returning love. For even when she has poured herself wholly into love, how much is this compared to the perpetual flowing of that fountain?" Finally, Richard of St. Victor, in the tract On the Degrees of Charity, chapter 1: "Charity," he says, "is the life of faith, the strength of hope, and the innermost force and marrow of all virtues. This orders life, inflames affections, informs acts, corrects excesses, composes morals, being powerful in all things and prevailing over all, which renders even omnipotence itself in a certain way impotent." He gives the example of Moses, who praying out of charity for the people adoring the calf, bound as it were the hands of God, so that he said: "Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and I may destroy them," Exodus XXXII, 10; and after some things: "Love alone is the force which can hold God, which not only suffers itself to be held, but piously complains in the Prophet that it is not held: I sought for a man among them that should build up a wall, and stand in the gap before me in favour of the land, that I should not destroy it: and I found none," Ezekiel XXII, 30. Finally thus he concludes: "Strong in adversities, but stronger in prosperity: for the love of Christ alone is that which purely spurns and spits upon the blandishments of laughing and mocking fortune, delighted with a sweeter taste, in comparison with which all sweetness is bitter, all joy is sorrow, all beauty is foul, all pleasantness is troublesome." Moreover Bede and St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac, chapter V, adapt these things to St. Mary Magdalene, holding the feet of Christ after the resurrection. Symbolically, Philo of Carpathus and three Anonymi in Theodoret hold that the mind is called the house of the mother, that is of God's wisdom, which is the cause and mother of all things: for the mind capable of wisdom is as it were a dwelling-place of the Word on account of similarity: it is the same as a chamber, on account of the secret treasures of his virtues, which it keeps as an image enclosed within itself; whence Philo: "By the house of the mother," he says, "I understand the heart of heavenly wisdom itself of the Word, and by the chamber of the mother this same heart. For I think the house is so called on account of that which is read: I will dwell in them and walk among them, II Corinthians VI, 16. But by the chamber (since in a chamber the best and most precious things are placed) faith, hope, charity, justice, fortitude, temperance, patience, virtue; these indeed are not ornaments of the body, but of the soul." Examples of this sentiment are David, saying Psalm LXXII, 28: "It is good for me to adhere to God;" St. Paul, saying Rom. VIII, 35: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? etc. For I am certain that neither death, nor life," etc. Most excellently St. Bernard, sermon 79: "Glue is good, says Isaiah, cap. XII, 7. What is more tenacious than glue, which is neither washed away by waters, nor dissolved by winds, nor cut by swords? Finally, many waters could not extinguish charity. I held him, nor will I let him go." And the holy Patriarch, Genesis XXXII, 26: "I will not let thee go," he says, "unless thou bless me. Thus this one does not wish to let him go, and perhaps more than the Patriarch does not wish it, because not even for a blessing, since he, having received the blessing, let him go, but this one does not so. I do not wish," she says, "thy blessing, but thee. For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what have I desired upon earth?" Psalm LXXII, 25. "I will not let him go." He then adds that Christ holds the holy soul more than he is held by it: "Nor perhaps does he wish to be held less, since he declares saying, Prov. VIII, 31: My delights are to be with the children of men. And what he promises he says, Matt. XXVIII, 20. Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world;" "What is stronger than this bond, which is established by the will of both so vehemently?" St. Bernard adds that Christ's entrance into the house brings salvation, but his entrance into the chamber brings special grace: "It would have sufficed," he says, "for salvation, if he entered the house; but the secret of the chamber signifies grace. Today," he says, "salvation is made to this house, Luke XIX, 9. Why should not salvation be to the household, the Saviour having entered the house? But she who merits to receive him in the chamber has her own secret for herself. Salvation is made to the house: delights are stored up in the chamber."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. The Blessed Virgin, anxiously seeking the lost Christ, found him among the doctors in the temple, held him and did not let him go, until she brought him into the house of his mother, that is into Judea, allowing Christ, and depriving herself of his most sweet presence, so that he himself by preaching might go about the villages and castles, and might join all to himself through faith and grace. Whence also she herself was the cause of the first miracle of Christ, namely the conversion of water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, on account of which the disciples believed in Christ, as St. John teaches, cap. II, 11. She will be the same cause why the Synagogue of the Jews at the end of the world through Elias shall be converted to Christ, just as she herself is the cause why many sinners repent and are converted to Christ, as is evident from the histories and lives of the saints. Finally, she herself introduced by Christ into heaven introduces into it the souls devoted to her, as St. Bernard, St. Anselm, St. Germanus, St. Bonaventure and others teach, who have written concerning the praises of the Virgin.
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These words are here repeated, for we have already heard them, cap. II, verse 7: wherefore it seems the bride has fallen again into sleep and ecstasy here. First, she fell into ecstasy, cap. II, verse 5, saying: "Strengthen me with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love:" for vehement love produces ecstasy, indeed ecstasy is the most sublime and most perfect act of love. "For divine love produces ecstasy," says St. Dionysius, On Divine Names. From this ecstasy the bride seems to have been aroused, in this cap. III, verses 1 and 2, saying: "I will rise, and will go about the city: by the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth;" but partly from the labour and going about seeking the bridegroom, partly from the finding and presence of the bridegroom, of which she soon adds: "I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him; nor will I let him go," again from the vehement love and joy with which she was filled, and as it were melted enjoying the bridegroom uniquely beloved in his bosom falling and falling asleep, she fell into a swoon and ecstasy, from which the bridegroom forbids her to be aroused: because as he loves the bride most ardently, so in turn he desires to be loved by her, and loving to be held by her most ardently. For many things in this drama, as also in others, are passed over in silence; but from the circumstances they are understood, and are to be supplied by the interpreter. Parabolically, it signifies the primitive Church, that is, the apostles after the labour and distraction of some years, which they spent in converting Judea, received themselves for some time to the quiet of prayer and the leisure of contemplation, so that they might restore the strength of their mind, and prepare themselves more ardently for new and greater labours, namely for the conversion of all nations. For this work required a great spirit, which it was fitting to stir up and ask from God by prayer; whence Christ forbids them to be aroused from this sleep and pious quiet. Let the apostolic men imitate the apostles, so that after the labours of action, they may from time to time withdraw themselves to the leisure of contemplation, so that they might restore the strength of their mind, and conceive new ardours of evangelizing. Moreover, I have explained this verse, cap. II, verse 4; wherefore nothing else occurs to be added here. Here ends the second part of the book, or the second act of this drama; the third follows.
THE THIRD PART OF THE CANTICLE, OR THE THIRD ACT OF THE DRAMA. Just as in the second act, which was from chapter 2, verse 8, up to this point, Solomon described the adolescence of the Church, namely its growth and propagation: so in this third act, which begins here and extends to chapter V, verse 2, he describes its mature age or perfection, by which it has been brought forward and exalted to the highest pinnacle, as it were, and its own summit. In this song, says Titelmannus, which lasts to the end of the chapter, the Holy Spirit speaks and wonderfully commends the beauty of the Church under various comparisons. First indeed, under the likeness of a beautiful woman ascending upward with great glory in the great fragrance of perfumes. Second, under the likeness of the precious couch of King Solomon, always fortified by the protection of the strongest men. Third, under the comparison of a most beautiful and most pleasant dish, or royal vehicle. After which the same Spirit then exhorts the daughters of Jerusalem, namely faithful souls, to the proper worship of the bridegroom, concluding and saying: Go forth, daughters of Sion, and see King Solomon. See what is said in the Proem, chapter III.
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WHO IS THIS THAT ASCENDETH FROM THE DESERT (The Syriac and Arabic versions read: from the desert), LIKE A LITTLE ROD OF SMOKE FROM AROMATICS OF MYRRH, AND FRANKINCENSE, AND ALL THE POWDER OF THE PERFUMER? namely of the perfumer or apothecary, who reduces aromatics to powder, mixes them, compounds them, etc. As to the character of the drama, the Sulamitess, or bride of Solomon, is here introduced, of tall stature, advancing with beauty and magnificence, and ascending from the desert, that is, from the countryside and suburban field to her spouse Solomon, residing in Jerusalem and Mount Sion; for there were the temple and the palace of Solomon, as if to say: Who is this rustic maiden, who, brought to the royal chamber, advances thus splendidly? Hence she is compared to a little rod of aromatic smoke, which ascends straight upward and exhales a sweet odor; wherefore those seeing her and meeting her, admiring her comely and magnificent bearing, ask among themselves and exclaim: "Who is this that ascendeth," etc., as if to say: Whence such delights in the desert? whence such beauty and majesty in a rustic and foreign maiden? which grows like a little rod of smoke; because the higher the vapor of aromatic smoke ascends, the more their fragrance is perceived. For little rod, in Hebrew it is תמירות temiroth (which word is found only here, and in Joel chapter II, 30, where our version and the Septuagint render it, vapor), that is, palms, but artificial ones, such as are likenesses and depicted. For smoke ascending straight is similar to a palm, which, composed and compacted from various branches, is the straightest, densest and most beautiful of all trees; for above it spreads its branches far and wide on all sides, and is as it were girded and crowned with them as with a head of hair: in a similar manner smoke exhaling from various aromatics coalesces, and ascends upward most straight, most densely and most beautifully, and above dividing itself into various parts as it were into branches, and agglomerating itself into several as it were globes of vapor, is adorned and surrounded by them as with a variegated head of hair. Whence the rabbis and Pagninus render it: Who is this that ascendeth like columns of smoke ascending upward like a palm? Aquila according to Theodoret, like a likeness of smoke; Symmachus, like the vapor of incense; the Septuagint ως στέλεχος καπνού, that is, like a trunk, or stem, or little rod of smoke. It is therefore remarkable that St. Ambrose, epistle 62, reads it like a vine shoot. Our version aptly renders it, little rod, because the Hebrew temiroth is a diminutive from תמר thamar, that is, palm; temiroth therefore is a little palm, or small palm, or a little rod similar to a little palm. The Syriac, like the smoke of incense; the Arabic, as if perfumed with branches of frankincense. Again, for from aromatics, our version with Symmachus reads מקטורת miketoret, that is, from incense, from fumigation, or from fumigation and perfume, which is made from aromatics; already others with different pointing read מקוטרת mecuttereth, that is, fumigated, or perfumed; but it comes to the same sense. Wherefore the Septuagint renders it: Who is this that ascendeth from the desert like a trunk of smoke exhaling myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of the perfumer? Aquila, like a likeness of smoke from the fumigation of myrrh and frankincense, etc. St. Ambrose, epistle 62, like a vine shoot inflamed with smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the powders of ointment. The grammatical sense of the letter is therefore, as if to say: Those meeting the bride and admiring her said: Who is this tall and beautiful bride, advancing thus magnificently through the field toward Jerusalem, and exhaling a most sweet odor? for the more she advances ascending, the taller she appears, and the sweeter odor of myrrh, frankincense and other aromatics she exhales, and thus appears most similar to a little rod, or small columns of smoke, which like a palm ascend straight upward, and exhale the most pleasing vapor of myrrh, frankincense and aromatics (from which reduced to powder and mixed and compounded together) by the fire of incense, and breathe upon all who meet them. The Chaldean, after his manner, takes these things typically of the Synagogue; for the Synagogue was a type of the Church: "When," he says, "the children of Israel ascended from the desert, and crossed the Jordan with Joshua the son of Nun, the peoples of the land said: Who is this chosen nation, that ascendeth from the desert, perfumed with the incense of aromatics, and aided on account of the merit of Abraham, who served and prayed before the Lord on Mount Moriah, and anointed with the oil of unction on account of the justice of Isaac, who was bound in the house of the Sanctuary, which is called the mount of frankincense, and miracles are wrought for him on account of the mercy of Jacob, with whom he wrestled until the ascent of the dawn, and prevailed against him, and he himself was delivered, and his twelve tribes."
THE FIRST SENSE, FULLY ADEQUATE, Concerning Christ and the Church. The primitive Church gathered together from the apostles and other Jews in Sion and Jerusalem, having heard of the conversion of the Gentiles through St. Peter and of the Gentiles through St. Paul and Barnabas, marveling exclaims: "What is this" new and beautiful Church, rising from the desert of paganism thinly and delicately like a column of smoke, but from the continuous rising of smoke ascending upward it gathers itself together and grows into great amplitude, and exhales the most sweet odor of virtues? For it breathes forth frankincense, that is, the divinity of Christ: for it believes Christ to be God, and offers to Him frankincense, that is, sacrifices and divine honors; and myrrh, the humanity and passion of Christ: for it believes that Christ God assumed human nature for us, and in it suffered, was crucified, died and was buried; and all the dust of the perfumer's powder, that is, the remaining doctrine of evangelical preaching, it exhales and spreads abroad in every direction. Thus Philo of Carpathus, Justus of Orgelitanus, Theodoret, Aponius, Bede and Anselm, who hold that these are the words of the faithful of the primitive Church, although Rupert holds that these are the words of the Bridegroom Christ, and Cassiodorus holds them to be the words of the companions of the Bridegroom. Hear Theodoret: "Not without reason is the pious soul said to be like the smoke of incense, which, as the Apostle says, presents its members as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; and it is said to smell of myrrh and frankincense from all the powders of the perfumer, because it adores the humanity of Christ designated by myrrh, and the divinity signified by frankincense, and believes both the death of the Bridegroom and confesses His eternal essence, and thus from all the powders of the perfumer the myrrh and frankincense of Him the holy angels admire; for although it has other virtues drawn from divine Scripture as from the workshop of a perfumer, in it nevertheless excel myrrh and frankincense, that is, the knowledge of the divinity and humanity of the Bridegroom." Again the Church breathes forth frankincense, because it is devoted to prayer; and myrrh, because it strives for mortification of affections, so that it may put off the old Adam and put on the new, which is created according to God in justice and holiness of truth, Ephesians IV, 24; and all the dust of the perfumer's powder, that is, humility, obedience, almsgiving, and the other virtues, which are companions, indeed daughters of prayer and mortification. For just as aromatics crushed and reduced to powder, exhaling the fiery breath which they contained within themselves, breathe forth a sweeter odor: so also virtues, through humility as it were comminuted and crushed, smell more sweetly to God and men. Thus St. Gregory, Bede, Aponius and others, and St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac, chapter V. This sense is clear from the event which St. Luke narrates historically, Acts X, 43 and following, where the faithful Jews hearing of the conversion of the Gentiles, marveling exclaimed: "That the grace of the Holy Ghost is poured out upon the Gentiles also." Therefore God gave also to the Gentiles repentance unto life. Likewise from the fact that Isaiah predicted concerning this conversion of the Gentiles, chapter XXXV, verse 1: "Let the desert and the wilderness be glad, and the solitary place shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. It shall bud forth and rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God." And chapter XLI, verse 18: "I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the desert a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together." And chapter XLIII, verse 19: "Behold I do new things, and now they shall spring forth, surely you shall know them: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen. This is what the Apostle marvels at, Ephesians II, 11: "That you, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, etc. For you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testaments, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Indeed, the Gentiles have been substituted in the Church as the Jews fell away from the faith: which the Apostle, astonished, exclaims, Romans XI, 33: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" Moreover, the conversion of the Gentiles was admirable with respect to all causes: first, the material cause, because those converted were proud men, carnal, fierce, barbarous, and unfit for the discipline of Christ; second, the formal cause, because conversion and Christian holiness consists in the mortification of passions, in humility, in chastity, in patience, in love of enemies, and the like, which are repugnant to corrupted nature; third, the efficient cause, because it was accomplished by the apostles, who were fishermen, poor, vile, rude, unlettered, and lacking eloquence, as the Apostle teaches, I Corinthians I, 21; fourth, the final cause, because it has as its end glory, not earthly, but heavenly: whence contrary to nature, as it were, it must ascend into heaven. Hence he says it ascends, first, because just as a vapor of earthly or marshy smoke, excited by the rays of the sun from the desert, ascends on high, so from the desert of paganism, excited by the rays of the grace of Christ, ascends a most sweet vapor and odor of contrition, prayer, and other virtues. Second, because Christ ascending into heaven draws the Church after him, so that it might transfer mind and heart to things above, and through heavenly glory; whence the Apostle says: He "hath made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," Ephesians chapter II, verse 6. Wherefore the Church not only triumphant, but also militant is called heavenly, indeed heaven itself, because from heaven by God it is called to heavenly life, and is itself heaven, according to that passage, Apocalypse chapter XXI, verse 2: "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." For which reason the assembly of the Gentiles here is said to ascend from the desert of idolatry and paganism to the militant Church of Christ, as being called to a high vocation, and to heavenly doctrine and life. Third, because it alludes to the ascent and journey of the Hebrews from the desert of Arabia, under the leadership of Moses to Sion and Jerusalem, preceded by the pillar of fire and cloud; for this was a type of the Church of the Gentiles ascending from the desert of infidelity to the primitive Church of the apostles, and of the faithful converted from the Jews in Jerusalem and Judaea. The sense, therefore, is what Cosmas the Gardener expresses pathetically, as if to say: Primitive Church, that is, the first faithful converted from the Jews, while Paul and Barnabas convert the Gentiles to Christ, Acts XIII, 48: What is this, O Paul and Barnabas, that I see rising from the desert of the Gentiles? What is this new bride, whom you as groomsmen lead up from the deserts of the Gentiles into the chamber of my spouse, so abundantly perfumed, breathing forth the scent of myrrh and frankincense and all the aromatics of the perfumer's art, broken and mixed together, so that the vapor exhaling from her, first a small rod, then gathering itself on high, seems to bear the highest palms and columns? Surely because of constant prayers and all kinds of pious works, which proceed from the faith and charity with which she wholly burns, like the most sweet odors of a holocaust, they continually raise themselves up to the sight of God in heaven with a continuous mist, and greatly delight my spouse. Who would ever have believed that such a multitude of Gentiles, once ignorant of Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, lacking all hope and even God himself, would now be granted the rights of the city of God, and indeed, with my Synagogue mother repudiated, be ennobled by marriage to my spouse Christ? The Canaanite nations once marveled and were utterly amazed when they saw our ancestors ascending from the desert of Arabia, and with the smoky column, sometimes also fiery by night, preceding them, invading their possessions. Now in turn we Jews marvel that the Gentiles ascend from the desert of infidelity, and their faith and charity's misty, most sweetly-smelling smoke, like aromatic palms and columns, breathing upward, burst into the evangelical kingdom hereditary to our nation. But what cities, I understand, you teachers, my co-heirs and corporeal and fellow-partakers of the promise, chosen by God, our city and all its fortunes together with them I willingly share. What virgin souls I see, faithful, charitable, and perfected in justice, near to me, betrothed to my Christ by you as groomsmen, and led to him (as I remember the Royal prophet predicted), I receive with joy and exultation into the common chamber. Symbolically, three Anonymous writers in Theodoret explain thus: "What is this which, having removed itself from perturbations through virtue and knowledge, is lifted up to God, ascending like a column of smoke, which the fire consuming the forest carries lightly into the air. For thus the soul, kindled by the spirit, through the action of the flesh diminishes its grossness, and through contemplation of things refines their forms, becoming light through both good morals and speech, and is borne to God, nor is it weighed down by earthly burden. In this manner, redolent with myrrh and frankincense from aromatics, and with all the powder of the perfumer, it is carried to the heavenly bridegroom." Then they adapt each thing to each thus: "Therefore through virtue, as it were myrrh, it is fragrant when it mortifies the sense of the flesh; but through knowledge, as it were frankincense, as with the marks of truth, it shows itself the divine image. Thus passing through the natures of things, it smells sweetly and tends toward their author; from which, like the powder of their reasons and modes, it is stirred up for it, with these refined by the explorers of truth's paths through careful discourse, which excels all this as in the fire of the spirit." Most subtle considerations to be sifted, lest perchance something hard remain in them. Moreover, St. Ambrose, for "as a column of smoke," reads "as a vine shoot," which, although it differs from the Hebrew and Greek, nevertheless has a fitting sense. For the Church of the Gentiles, as a branch grafted into the vine, namely Christ, draws from him all faith, grace, sanctity, wisdom, spirit, just as a branch draws all its strength and sap from the vine. Again, although the branch necessarily takes something from the earth, it does not draw that which is vast and unclean, such as the earthly is, but that which has been first attenuated and purified through the roots of the vine, and converted beforehand into another, purer nature. Ambrose, for "as a column of smoke," reads "as a vine shoot," which, although it differs from the Hebrew and Greek, nevertheless has a fitting sense. For the Church of the Gentiles, as a branch grafted into the vine, namely Christ, draws from him all faith, grace, sanctity, wisdom, spirit, just as a branch draws all its strength and sap from the vine. Again, although the branch necessarily takes something from the earth, it does not draw that which is vast and unclean, such as the earthly is, but that which has been first attenuated and purified through the roots of the vine, and converted beforehand into another, purer nature. Thus the Church purifies, polishes and perfects all use of food, drink, clothing and earthly things through the grace of Christ, so that it is not polluted by them, but sanctified, and becomes not earthly but heavenly; because it uses all these things not for pleasure, but for the glory of God, and for its own and others' salvation according to the law and will of God. This is what Christ says: "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing," John XV, 4. Hear St. Ambrose, book On Isaac, chapter V: "What is this which, when before it was abandoned in hell, now cleaves to God's Word; which through the desert, namely through this uncultivated place of earth, beset with thorns and the briars of our sins, ascends as a vine shoot raising itself to higher things, like smoke born from fire and seeking the heights? then moreover it is fragrant with good works, and that odor of pious prayer exhales the sweetness, which like the sweet fragrance of pious prayer is fragrant ointment; because it is composed of the petition of eternal and invisible things, not of bodily things; yet especially it smells of myrrh and frankincense, because it is dead to sins and alive to God."
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the soul tending toward perfection. Angels, says Nyssenus, Theodoretus, St. Ambrose and others, and men seeing such a soul, as if marveling say: What is this, how strenuous, how strong, which, although it ought to descend, because it is compacted from the earth of Adam, and by the weight of its origin cast itself headlong into the depths of sins, now by a new and truly wondrous force climbs the steep heights of virtue? It ascends, I say, from the desert of the world, where there is solitude of virtue and holiness, where among carnal and gross men, who think and understand nothing but earthly things, and among dragons, that is demons, it dwells and lives dangerously, passing beyond all of these, it alone courageously climbs to the high summit of perfection. It is very similar to a rod of smoke rising from myrrh and frankincense aromatic, kindled by fire; for the bitter myrrh of mortification, and frankincense of prayer delivered to the fire of divine love, is borne upward, and as a certain rod of direction, is extended toward God by the fiery motion of charity: for mortification of the flesh diminishes the weight which burdens the mind; prayer indeed, which of its own nature is borne upward, is spiritual lightness, by which the mind yearns for heavenly things: by these two, therefore, as it were the wings of lightness, the soul is borne upward. And all the dust of the perfumer's art, because God, as a most skilled perfumer, crushes the pious soul with temptations, tribulations, illnesses, persecutions, as it were with hammers, humbles it and as it were reduces it to dust, so that He may test, sharpen and perfect its patience and virtues; for these, as it were worn down by so many hardships, while they are corrected by the fire of charity and smell more sweetly, and are borne more rightly toward God like a rod of smoke: for the fire penetrates them when ground more easily, and concurs in a certain more subtle nature, just as fragrant pastilles before they are placed in censers or incense vessels, are accustomed to be ground, and reduced to powder are placed on coals, so that smoke may be excited more quickly, and that sweet fragrance may be exhaled more swiftly, which may be drawn in by the nostrils. Thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Philo, John of Carmel and others. Hear St. Gregory: "In the desert the holy soul lives, while exiled from the kingdom, among beasts, namely demons. For here, although not entirely abandoned by the bridegroom, yet while in the flesh, it is not yet admitted to the certain vision of Him, while it wanders from Him through exiles and temptations; because while it does not yet reign with Him, it seems to itself to be abandoned by Him. On account of this it always labors to ascend, so that it may feel more and more Him whom it loves greatly; so that because it does not hold Him perfectly in the desert, it may refresh itself by His very desire, so that thus strengthened on the way, it may sometime arrive at what it has long desired." Then Gregory adds after some things: "But well, as a rod of smoke they are said to ascend, because they are said to have both the odor of good reputation and the subtlety of mind." Soon he gives the reason why this smoke is of myrrh and frankincense: "For myrrh indeed is used to preserve the bodies of the dead lest they putrefy, but frankincense is burned so that they may smell sweet. By myrrh therefore the mortification of the flesh is signified: by frankincense indeed the purity of prayers is understood. The holy soul therefore, while it mortifies its flesh from the putrefaction of vices, while it denies all the pleasures of the world through continence, applies myrrh as it were to a dead body, so that after judgment it may remain sound from eternal corruption. But when it kindles itself toward heavenly things with greater desire, and from the chamber of the heart fervently casts out all superfluous thoughts, it makes its heart as it were a censer before God, in which while it gathers virtues through love, it arranges them as it were like coals in a censer, in which the mind may kindle itself in the sight of God by the fire of charity. And while it sends fervent and pure prayers to God, it draws forth as it were smoke of aromatics from the censer, so that it may smell sweet before its beloved, and may stir its neighbors to love of Him." Finally Gregory notes that it is said dust of the perfumer, not perfume, and adds the reason: "For we make perfumes when we gather virtues in the heart. But when we ourselves retrace our virtues through each and every work more carefully, lest anything in our works remain uncultivated, lest a vice lie hidden among virtues; then assuredly we pound the ointments of virtues as it were into dust, so that our works may be the purer, the more subtly we do not cease to discern them from every creeping in of vices. Minds of this kind make themselves pleasing to their beloved through His grace, and while they separate themselves from all worldly noise, they prepare in themselves a place in which the bridegroom may rest." Therefore a holy soul offering itself to God in holocaust through prayer as incense, and through mortification as myrrh, and through all the powder of the perfumer, that is through almsgiving and any other virtue of charity kindled by fire, ascends rightly to God, and exhales to Him a most fragrant perfume in an odor of sweetness, by which God is delighted and nourished. Moreover, through the desert, first it denotes the world and worldly people. First, because, as Richard of St. Victor says, the world is barren and withers, nor does it have fruit; because it does not know Christ, nor can it receive the Holy Spirit. Second, because, as the same adds, its lovers are deserted, because they are abandoned by God, and because they themselves abandon God. And thus through this desert the pious soul ascends, insofar as it separates itself from the company of the wicked, and passes over to the good in love, and imitates them, insofar as it makes progress among those deserted from grace, and among those descending. Third, because, as the same adds, it deserts itself (and its lovers) and fails in itself; for daily with time the joys of time pass away, and as many days, so many joys of the days pass by. Whence since a perfect soul despises these joys, and tends toward the supernal and true joy, it ascends through the desert. But Hugo of St. Victor says: "The world, he says, is a desert on account of the abundance of evils and the scarcity of goods." Again he says a depraved heart is a desert, because it has no cultivation, and produces harmful things, and beasts dwell in it. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 59 from the small ones: "The penitent soul ascends, he says, through the desert, namely a land without path and without water, remembering its sins." Second, through the desert Rupert understands solitary life, Bede, holy conversion: "Which separated from the allurements of the world, is dedicated to searching the law of God alone, and to the observance of heavenly precepts, which hungering and thirsting for justice feeds on manna alone of the heavenly word, and drinks from the fountain of life, which flows from the spiritual rock, according to that: 'My soul hath thirsted after thee, in how many ways doth my flesh thirst after thee. In a land desert, and without way, and without water: so in the holy have I appeared to thee,' Psalm 62:2. Such is the life of religious." Third, Hugo Victorinus, book I of Theological Instruction, chapter III: "The desert, he says, is a good heart, because it is far from noise and tumult, and is not trampled by the frequency of earthly actions and thoughts, but remaining green and flourishing, produces shoots of virtues, and the dove of the Holy Spirit sings there; and the voice of man is not heard, nor anything pertaining to man." All these things signify that God works great and excellent things through the humble and the humble, in works both of nature, and more especially of grace. Second, Cassiodorus: A holy soul, he says, is called a wisp of smoke, because it is slender and delicate, attenuated by the disciplines of the Holy Spirit, subtle, not having the grossness of carnal desires. Thus also St. Gregory. Therefore a pious soul ought to be straight and subtle, so that it may extend and stretch itself toward heaven: "Just as a wisp is straight and slender, extended in length, says Hugo of St. Victor, book II of Theological Instruction, chapter 110: because it tends only upward, it ought to be straight, and because the way is narrow, slender, and because it is long, extended. Moreover it is not a wisp of insensible and hard wood, but of smoke, which has appearance, not substance. For when it is perceived, it seems to be something; when the hand is applied, nothing is found. Thus any good person here seems to be through the appearance of flesh, but here is not through love. Moreover smoke ascends from fire, because desire comes from love. And what kind of smoke? from the aromatics of myrrh. The perfumer is Christ, the perfumes are virtues, myrrh is the mortification of the flesh, incense is the devotion of the mind; the whole powder of the perfumer, the multitude of all virtues." Cassiodorus: A holy soul, he says, is called a rod of smoke, because it is slender and delicate, attenuated by the disciplines of the Holy Spirit, subtle, not having the grossness of carnal desires. Thus also St. Gregory. Therefore a pious soul ought to be straight and subtle, so that it may stretch and extend itself toward heaven: "Just as a rod is straight and slender, extended lengthwise," says Hugh of St. Victor, lib. II Erudit. Theol. cap. CX: "because it tends so much upward, it ought to be straight, and because the way is narrow, slender, and because it is long, extended. Moreover it is not a rod of insensible and hard wood, but of smoke, which has appearance but not substance. For when it is perceived, it seems to be something; when the hand is applied, nothing is found. Thus every good person here seems to be by the appearance of flesh, but here is not by charity. Moreover smoke ascends from fire, because desire comes from love. And what kind of smoke? from the aromatics of myrrh. Christ is the perfumer, virtues are the pigments, myrrh is the mortification of the flesh, frankincense is the devotion of the mind; the whole powder of the perfumer is the multitude of all virtues." Thirdly, St. Bernard, serm. 59 among the minor works, understands these things of the ascent of the sinful soul through penance: "The penitent soul ascends," he says, "through the desert, remembering her sins. She ascends like a rod of smoke the same sins by humbly confessing them. Which confession is rightly said to be made like a rod of smoke, because through many kinds of sins, just as smoke from a censer is drawn through many holes. And it should be noted that, although smoke never has splendor, it can sometimes have odor. That this smoke of confession has a certain odor of piety is suggested by what follows: From the aromatics of myrrh and frankincense, and all the powder of the perfumer. Confession ought always to be accompanied by myrrh and frankincense, that is, mortification of the flesh and prayer of the heart: for one without the other produces little or nothing. For he who mortifies the flesh and neglects to pray is proud." And after a few interjections he adds: "And all the powder of the perfumer. After remembrance and confession of sins, after mortification and prayer, the fruit of almsgiving ought to be shown. Which are rightly called powder, because they are made from earthly substance; but the perfumer, because they emit the sweetest odor." You may ask what a rod of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh, frankincense, etc. signifies symbolically. First, Richard of St. Victor understands by a rod of smoke humility, which ascends, because it alone exalts its cultivators. The Bridegroom therefore is compared not to a rod, but to a slender rod, so that the speed of ascending may be noted: "For rods," he says, "which grow thick as they grow, are not drawn very high, but rods which grow more swiftly and upward are more subtle and smaller." This is relevant to the fact that balsam, which is the most fragrant liquid and most excellent (as from a certain account known to us of those who saw that remarkable balsam garden, unique in the whole world near Cairo in Matharaea, Titelmannus says) is not gathered from trees, but from certain small shrubs or twigs, in almost the same manner as those twigs grow among us, in which grapes grow, which we call St. John's grapes. In the same garden also many other aromatics are gathered rather from herbs or twigs, which require annual cultivation, than from broad and wide trees. Victor understands by a rod of smoke humility, which ascends, because it alone exalts its cultivators. The Bridegroom therefore is compared not to a rod, but to a slender rod, so that the speed of ascending may be noted: "For rods," he says, "which grow thick as they grow, are not drawn very high, but rods which grow more swiftly and upward are more subtle and smaller." This is relevant to the fact that balsam, which is the most fragrant liquid and most excellent (as from a certain account known to us of those who saw that remarkable balsam garden, unique in the whole world near Cairo in Matharaea, Titelmannus says) is not gathered from trees, but from certain small shrubs or twigs, in almost the same manner as those twigs grow among us, in which grapes grow, which we call St. John's grapes. In the same garden also many other aromatics are gathered rather from herbs or twigs, which require annual cultivation, than from broad and wide trees. Whence St. Anselm notes that the bride sleeps in bed, as is clear from the preceding verse, and at the same time while sleeping ascends: because, he says, at one and the same time she both slumbers and ascends, when the soul, as much as it is able, alienates itself from external cares and carnal desires, and by the progress of good works or thoughts appropriates itself to the vision of its Creator. Thus he himself: but it is more true that there is another act of the scene here, by which the bride is introduced as if ascending while awake, as I have said. Fourth, Rupert and St. Bernard, in the book of Sentences, understand by the desert Christian simplicity and humility, because it is abandoned by many: "Because there is scarcely anyone who is an imitator of Christ, who strives to work this good. Through this desert it is necessary that we ascend like a rod of smoke from spices, stirred up by the study and discipline of virtues, inciting our neighbors to the likeness of acting well." Thus they. Anagogically, St. Ambrose in Exodus chapter XVI, thus reads and thus explains: "Who is this that ascends from the desert like a vine shoot, perfumed with smoke, fragrant with myrrh and frankincense from all the powders of ointment? Emulate, he says, and you your faith, that you may be like that soul, which stirs up in itself the charity of Christ, which the virtues of heaven marvel at ascending, because it ascends without offense with joy and gladness, like a vine shoot, and like smoke it raises itself to the heavens, fragrant with the odor of pious resurrection, and the sweetness of faith. But he expressed its subtlety well by comparison with powder and by mention of ointment, because in Exodus we read the subtle incense composed of many things, Exodus XXX, 35: but that is the prophetic incense, which is the prayer of the saints, that it may be directed in the sight of the Lord, as also David says: 'Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight,' Psalm CXL, 2."
AND ALL THE POWDER OF THE PERFUMER. That is, all the virtues which shine forth in individual faithful: "because, as Aponius says, just as many aromatics of the sweetest odor, reduced into one powder, are prepared by perfumers for the delights of kings; and while they are many, collected into one body, a single rod of great odor, vaporized by fires, is produced: so by the unanimity of many peoples the confession of right faith and reasons is shown to render one sweetness of odor in the sight of God, as a rational perfumer, gathers the senses of heavenly aromatics." Wherefore first, the Church, exhibiting herself to be beheld or known by all, by her splendor invited and drew all nations to herself; hence she is compared to the smoke of fragrant aromatics: for smoke ascending falls into the sight of all who have open eyes; but odor enters the nostrils of those who are blind, or have their eyes closed. Second, this variety of odor, that is, the fame of all virtues, conciliated all to herself. For one is drawn by the odor of chastity, another by that of another virtue. Hear Bede: "The Church ascends like a rod of smoke from aromatics, etc., because it is constructed from many faithful persons: because some, in the manner of myrrh, devoted to the mortification of the pleasures of the flesh, apply themselves more; some, in the figure of frankincense, are particularly occupied with frequent prayers; others toil with the fruits of other good works, yet all inflamed by one fire of the spirit, as it were one rod of smoke with undiscriminating zeal throughout, and common devotion seek the high things of heavenly life." Third, St. Anselm understands by perfume virtues; by powder humility, because in order that virtues please God and men, they ought to be adorned with humility, so that man reduce himself, as it were, to powder, and reckon himself to be nothing and to be able to do nothing. Fourth, St. Gregory, homily 22 on Ezekiel, and Cassiodorus understand by powder and pulverization of aromatics the subtle examination of works: because, says Cassiodorus, the actions of the saints are to be considered with great discretion, and as if with the finest sieve of consideration are to be winnowed, lest perchance anything harsh remain in them. Fourth and most aptly, St. Gregory, Justus, Philo, Aponius, Bede and others understand by the rod of smoke the soul yearning toward heavenly things. I have recited the words of St. Gregory on this passage above. Now hear him likewise, homily 22 on Ezekiel at the end: "Let us transcend all things by desire, so that we may be gathered in mind into one. No longer by fear of punishments, not by memory of vices, but inflamed by the flame of love, let us burn in tears with the odor of virtues." He adds the reason: "For the holy Church of the elect, when it raises itself from this world in holy prayers with burning love, ascends through the desert which it deserts; but how it ascends, he adds: Like a rod of smoke from aromatics. Smoke is born from incense, which designates prayer: smoke is accustomed to draw forth tears. Therefore smoke from aromatics, compunction of prayer conceived from the virtues of love, which prayer nevertheless is called a rod of smoke; because while it seeks only heavenly things, it proceeds so rightly that it is in no way turned back to desiring earthly and temporal things for earthly zeal. But it is called a rod and not a staff, because sometimes in the ardor of compunction the force of love is so subtle that the very soul, which merited to be illuminated, cannot comprehend it. But myrrh and frankincense are well added: for myrrh and frankincense offer sacrifice, those who both mortify the flesh, and kindle a fragrant victim of their love in the sight of the Lord; myrrh, because they torment themselves, and by tormenting preserve themselves from vices; frankincense truly, because they love the vision of God, to which they burn with all their heart to arrive, and exhibit themselves to him in holy virtues."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Rupertus holds these to be the words of Christ, admiring and celebrating the humility of the Blessed Virgin, as if to say: You say (as Abraham did): I am dust of the earth, such as the wind scatters, the breeze carries away; and He says: No, but you are the dust of the perfumer, or the dust of the perfumer, dust of myrrh and frankincense, such as the perfumer the Holy Spirit makes from the finest frankincense, which is the sweetness of mind; and from the most approved myrrh, which is the mortification or incorruptibility of the flesh. You say: I am a foul smoke before the divine eyes, such as rises from a furnace or from a chimney failing, ascending and failing; and He says: No, but smoke from the aromatics of myrrh and frankincense, such as it befits to ascend from the golden censer before the golden altar, even to the mouth and sense of smell of the Lord. Such smoke, or rather such a wisp of smoke, you, O blessed Mary, breathed forth a sweet odor to the Most High, instructed and refined by heavenly disciplines; such did you ascend through the desert, that is, having a soul exceedingly solitary. Rupertus says nearly this very thing. Furthermore, the Blessed Virgin ascended as a wisp of smoke of myrrh, frankincense and all the dust of the perfumer: because daily through many acts, suited to the habits of her grace and virtues (for she herself equally cooperated with divine grace, so that when she had degrees of grace intense as a hundred, she elicited acts intense as a hundred, and thus merited another hundred degrees, and this always continuously doubling), she grew and advanced marvelously in mortification, in prayer, and in other virtues, especially in humility, which the dust of the perfumer represents, so that at the end of her life grace and merits far surpassed all men and angels, even the cherubim and seraphim collected and taken together, as Francis Suarez and others teach. Again, St. Jerome, vol. IX, epistle 10 to Paula and Eustochium, concerning the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, adapts these same words: "This festival indeed," he says, "just as the Blessed Mary is incomparable to other virgins, so is it incomparable to the festivals of all the saints; and it is also to be admired even by the angelic virtues. For which reason from the person of the heavenly citizens, in her ascension the Holy Spirit admiring says in the Canticles: Who is this that ascends through the desert, as a wisp of smoke from aromatics? And well indeed as a wisp of smoke, because slender and delicate, because refined by divine disciplines, and burned within in a holocaust by the fire of pious love, and by the desire of charity. As a wisp, he says, of smoke from aromatics, namely, because filled with many odors of virtues, flowing from her breathed forth the sweetest odor, even to the angelic spirits. And the Mother of God ascended from the desert of the present age, a rod from the root of Jesse once sprung forth; but the souls of the elect marveled with joy what she was, who even by the virtues of merits surpassed the dignity of angels." Note that this epistle is not by St. Jerome; some think it is by Sophronius. Baronius, vol. I, in the year of Christ 48, cap. X, asserts it is by neither, especially because it appears to have been written after the times of Nestorius, because the author doubts whether the Blessed Virgin was assumed into heaven both in body and soul, when this itself is certain. Finally, attribute all that has been said above all to the most sacred humanity of Christ; for this is the first and primary spouse of the Word, as I said in the Proem, cap. II.
3:7
Hebrew, behold his bed, which is Solomon's (that is, behold the bed of Solomon, as Our translation, the Septuagint, the Chaldean and others render it; to signify the greatness and excellence of Solomon, 'his which is' is added), around which sixty mighty men from the mighty of Israel; the Septuagint, sixty powerful men from the powerful of Israel; Vatablus, sixty heroes from the heroes of Israel. The Syriac renders it, giants; for these were most strong. He alludes to the attendants of Solomon, who guarded him both as he walked and as he rested at home or in bed, just as the Pope and princes are attended and guarded by the Swiss. He numbers them sixty, either because there were precisely that many, or because this number is perfect, says Honorius: for it is composed of the six, which is made from the three first of its principles, namely from unity, duality and trinity, or from a double trinity, and from the ten, which is the first composite number: for the first nine numbers consist of single notations, for example 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., whence they are called digits; but the ten, namely 10, is composed of unity and the cipher 0, and the ten is the first source of the other tens, namely 20, 30, 40, and of the hundreds 100, 200, 300, etc., and of the thousands 1000, 2000, 3000, etc. For if you double, triple or quadruple ten, you will make 20, 30, 40; but if you multiply ten by ten, you will make 100, 200, 300; if by a hundred, you will make a thousand, twice a thousand, thrice a thousand. He alludes again to the thirty mighty men of David, who are enumerated in II Kings XXIII, 24 at the end, whom Solomon appears to have doubled, so that there were 60. Whence at Jerusalem near the royal palace, or the palace itself was a house of the mighty. See Adrichomius in his Description of Jerusalem. Aben-Ezra thinks these are the words of the bridegroom, who reproaches the bride walking alone, as if to say: I Solomon your bridegroom go attended by sixty mighty men, and do you dare to walk alone through the desert? Luysius of Leon on the other hand thinks these are the words of the bride, who responds to those admiring her gait, so that she turns their eyes from herself to the bridegroom being carried in a litter, and they may admire his magnificence and the pomp of sixty mighty men. But the Fathers and interpreters generally take these, as well as the words of the preceding verse, as spoken by those meeting the bride and celebrating her beauty and magnificence; or certainly, as Theodoret and Nyssenus, homily 6, by the friends of the bridegroom, so that they may inflame the bride with love for the bridegroom, as if to say: So great is your beauty, O bride, that your bridegroom Solomon provides sixty mighty men as guards for your bed, lest anyone snatch you from him, or in any way harm or afflict you. The Chaldean, understanding by the bed the temple of Solomon, and by the mighty men the priests of Israel, thus translates it in the Jewish manner: "When Solomon king of Israel built the house of the Sanctuary of the Lord in Jerusalem, the Lord said in His word: How beautiful is this house of the sanctuary which has been built for me by the hands of king Solomon son of David, and how beautiful are the priests in the time when they extend their hands and stand in their place and bless the people of Israel; and blessing surrounds them as a high and strong wall, and in it all the mighty men of Israel prevail and prosper." St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Theodoret, Philo and almost all others understand by the bed of Solomon the Church, especially of the Gentiles, in which, as in a bed, Christ, who is the true Solomon, that is the king of peace, rests. But because the Church is a bride, and a bride is not a bed but rests in a bed, hence you may more aptly understand by the bed a city, first Antioch, then Rome: for St. Peter first placed his pontifical chair at Antioch and resided there for seven years; whence there the faithful were first called Christians, Acts XI, 26. But after seven years he transferred the chair from Antioch to Rome, and there thereafter living and dying he firmly established it, and appointed as his successors St. Clement, St. Linus, St. Cletus, etc. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The bed, that is the place in which Christ and the Church reside and rest, was formerly Antioch, then Rome; for there St. Peter the Roman Pontiff and Vicar of Christ resided with his priests and clerics, and there dying he established and firmly placed the pontifical and apostolic chair: wherefore the Roman Church is the mother, teacher and nurse of all other churches spread throughout the whole world. For this reason Christ assigned to her sixty mighty men, that is very many distinguished pastors, teachers and eminent saints, who guard and defend her spotless faith, lest any error creep into the Church; just as to the primitive Church of Antioch he assigned apostles and other teachers who condemned and refuted the creeping error of those judaizing about observing the ceremonies of the Mosaic law, Acts XV, 28. But to the Roman Church he first gave most mighty pontiffs, cardinals, priests and faithful, who against Nero, Trajan, Decius, Diocletian, etc., fought most valiantly for the faith of Christ for 300 years, and sealed its truth with their blood and martyrdom. For to St. Peter, who established the pontificate at Rome, and to his successors Christ said and promised: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matt. XVI, 18. Hence Christ gave wonderful strength to almost all Roman pontiffs to guard the faith and defend the Church, as is evident from ecclesiastical histories and the lives of the pontiffs; wherefore these are rightly called the mighty men of Israel, because just as Jacob wrestling mightily with an angel and prevailing over him was called by him Israel, that is ruling over God, Gen. XXXII, 28: so each holy pontiff strengthened by Christ rules over tyrants, hell and demons, and then through fervent prayers and vows to God himself, so that he may rightly be called Israel. Let so many Leos and Gregories be examples, invincible in virtue and eminent in holiness. Hence Rome is aptly said to be as it were ρωμη, that is strength and fortitude; whence Rome was formerly called Valentia, as Solinus testifies at the beginning of his Polyhistor. Hence again God established the Church at Rome, that it might be more fortified: because the Roman city, if you consider its situation, is most fortified; for on one side it is protected by a double sea below and above, on the other by the Apennine and the Alps as by an almost insurmountable rampart and is surrounded. Rome therefore is the safest seat of the Church, so that in it as in a bed Christ guarding may rest. See Bosio On the Signs of the Church. Just as therefore, verse 1, he called Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Church a bed, in which one sleeps secretly (for this is what the Hebrew משכב mischab signifies), so here he calls Antioch and the Antiochene Church and the Roman Church, beginning and as it were still in its infancy, מטח mitta, that is an extended and expanded bed (for נטח nata means to extend, to expand), because namely Peter sitting in it extended the faith of Christ and the Church through Asia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Pontus, etc.: but the Roman Church now larger and magnificent he calls in the following verse a litter. Both moreover are attended by sixty mighty men. Antioch therefore first, then Rome, that is the Roman Church, is the bed in which Christ and the universal Church of all nations rests, because in her faith, doctrine and governance it sleeps securely. And thus the Fathers are to be understood, such as St. Gregory, Philo, St. Thomas, etc., when they understand the bed to mean the Church, namely that they understand the first and fundamental one, namely the Antiochene and Roman, which are guarded most powerfully both by angels, indeed archangels as its guardians, and by pontiffs, prelates and doctors, and by saints both heavenly and earthly. Now hear Cassiodorus: "The bed of Solomon is called the holy Church, because in it the saints of God, with tumultuous vices put to sleep, delight in the embrace of the true Peacemaker. The sixty mighty ones are doctors, who either by preaching fortify the Church, or by contemplation desire to attain to heavenly blessedness. The number sixty consists of six and ten: six indeed signifies the perfection of work, because God perfected His works in six days: ten moreover signifies recompense and reward, which will be given to the elect at the end; hence also those who came into the vineyard are said to have received a denarius. But these doctors who guard the Church are called not only mighty, but from the mightiest of Israel, namely of all those believing in Christ and loving Him, who is called Israel, that is, seeing God." Morally, note here that fortitude is especially required in pontiffs, prelates and princes: first, by which they subdue their passions, lest they allow themselves to be drawn from the right path either by fear, or love, or avarice; second, by which they generously resist the unfaithful and impious, according to that saying in Ecclesiasticus VII, 6: "Seek not to be made a judge, unless thou hast strength (manly courage and vigor) to break in pieces iniquities;" third, by which they severely chastise and root out the errors and vices of the people. Hence Jethro gave this counsel to Moses, Exodus XVIII, 21: "Provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, in whom there is truth, and that hate avarice, and appoint of them rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, who may judge the people at all times." Symbolically, St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac, chapter V, understands the bed to mean Christ; for in Christ the Church and the holy soul rests: "Because true rest is owed to her in Christ," says St. Ambrose, "for Christ is the bed of the saints, in which the hearts of all, wearied by worldly conflicts, rest." Hence in Revelation XIV, 13 it is said: "Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord." And of St. Stephen it is said, Acts VII, 59: "He fell asleep in the Lord." And Psalm IV, 9: "In peace in the selfsame (that is in the Lord, as St. Augustine says) I will sleep and rest." But Philo of Carpathus understands by the bed of Christ the sepulcher, which the mighty ones of Israel guarded, that is the soldiers, guardians of the sepulcher.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the soul tending toward perfection. The bed of Christ is a holy mind, which therefore sixty, that is, many strong ones, surround and guard—both angels, as Aponius says; both doctors and superiors, as St. Gregory and Cassiodorus; both saints, as Philo; saints, I say, both living and those who have departed from life, that is, the blessed in heaven: for these by their merits, words and examples protect us. But most truly the bed of Christ, who is Solomon, that is, the peaceful King, says Bede, is a soul at peace, separated from the tumults of the world, which, having subdued the waves of passions, imitates the tranquility of eternal peace. So also Philo of Carpathus: "Whatsoever," he says, "bride purges and empties her heart of the cares of the world, and fills it with divine love, prepares a chamber for her bridegroom Christ Jesus, and rests with him from all disturbance of human affairs." By the sixty strong ones, he understands the apostles and martyrs. Hear St. Gregory: "Solomon," he says, "that is, the peaceful one, is Christ, of whom it is written, Ephesians II, 14: 'He is our peace, who hath made both one.' We therefore make a bed for Solomon, when we cease entirely from the cares of the world, while we willingly rest in the sole desire of Christ, and we cleanse our heart from every earthly desire so that he may rest with us. But the number ten, if it be multiplied by the number six, namely sixty is completed. By the number ten therefore we understand the Decalogue of the law; by the number six we understand this whole time, which we see to revolve in six working days. By the sixty strong ones therefore, we understand all the perfect, who were before us in the Church; who, while they fulfilled the ten precepts of the law, the more spiritually, the more strongly in six days, as if they completed the number sixty. These surround the bed of Solomon, because they fortify the holy mind, in which Christ rests, by words and examples, by which they repel the enemies coming to the entrance of the mind." See the same St. Gregory, book VII of the Morals, chapter VIII. Allegorically, the bed of Christ, says Aponius, was the cross, for in it he himself, dying, rested and fell asleep, and he desires that the bride, that is, the holy soul, should take rest with him in the same, and as it were recline in a bed, so that she may be like him and his spouse, that is, the companion of his yoke: for who would fear the cross, when in it he has Christ as a companion reclining with him, defending and strengthening him? The cross therefore is a bed, on account of the union with Christ, and the firm confidence fixed in his aid and grace. Finally, in the cross and the love of the cross is the rest of the saints. The strong ones, who guard it, are angels; for these are present to the suffering, so as to strengthen them, indeed they even suggest a greater thirst for suffering. These are from the mightiest of Israel, that is, from the chief angels, whom God sends to martyrs and the afflicted, so as to supply them with great strength and courage to overcome the fears which the demon instills, and all bitter things, just as he sent Raphael to the afflicted Tobias, who says he is one of the seven who stand before the Lord, Tobias XII, 15. So Eliseus, surrounded by the army of the Syrians, saw the camps of angels coming to his protection; whence he says to his servant Giezi, struck with fear: "Fear not: for there are more with us than with them," IV Kings VI, 16. So Jacob, fearing Esau with armed men coming against him, saw the camps of angels defending him; whence he called the place Mahanaim, that is, the camps of God, Genesis XXXII, 2. So the angels fought for Moses and the Hebrews against Pharaoh and the Egyptians pursuing them, and drowned them in the Red Sea; whence Moses says to the Hebrews trembling: "Fear not: stand and see the great works of the Lord which he will do this day," Exodus XIV, 13. This is what David sings, Psalm XXXIII, 8: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp (in Hebrew חונה chone, that is, shall pitch camp) round about them that fear him: and shall deliver them." Tropologically, the bed in which the soul rests peacefully is prayer, for there she enjoys her bridegroom, and failing in herself is wholly joined to him in affection; there in turn Christ sends peace, strength, grace, and all gifts to the soul. Wherefore demons strive with all effort to disturb those praying, and to turn them away from prayer; but angels stand by those praying, who break the force of demons and preserve those praying in prayer, as St. Nilus teaches, tract. On Prayer, chapter XLIV and following, and chapters LXIX and LXXV. Again, the bed of Christ is charity, which the mighty men of Israel defend, that is, all virtues, especially mortification, which applies the sword to the thigh, that is, it cuts off and slays the desires of the flesh. Again, the sixty mighty men are good thoughts, which whoever continually brings upon himself, he drives away all evil thoughts and defends charity. Thus three Anonymous writers in Theodoret: "The sixty mighty men, they say, are efficacious thoughts, which by divine virtue guard the soul on all sides, prepared for God's rest, against the deceits of wicked spirits: for reason, which presides over the five senses, together with the senses themselves received, makes up the number six. But when he who commands the senses by reason fulfills the divine precepts, which are ten in number, he completes the number sixty, living by virtue, as has been said. These are from the mightiest of Israel, truly the notions of a mind seeing God, from which those efficacious thoughts for performing good are constituted." Furthermore, "it is no ordinary strength of soul, says St. Ambrose in book I of the Duties, chapter XXXIX, which wages inexpiable war against all vices, unconquered in labors, strong against dangers, more rigid against pleasures, harsh against enticements, to which it knows not how to lend an ear, nor (as it is said) to say yes, neglects money, flees avarice as a kind of blemish which weakens virtue: for nothing is so contrary to fortitude as to be overcome by gain, etc. Nor let it be tempted by desires, lest it be broken by fear; because virtue is constant in itself, so that it may strongly pursue all vices as poisons of virtue." Moreover, the bed of Christ is obedience and the obedient soul, such as the Blessed Virgin was above all; whence Aponius: "Solomon," he says, "is interpreted as peaceful, Israel seeing God in mind. And who else is peaceful but Christ? He made for himself a bed in the Virgin Mary, because he is also approved to rest upon a soul obedient to him. But the sixty represent the ministries of angels, of which it is said: 'Then the devil left him, and behold angels came and ministered unto him,' Matthew IV, 11: which through each of the five bodily senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, taken twelve times (that is, in the sacred number sixty) those glorious mysteries are fulfilled in her. But the mighty men, which he said, shows that the saints can do more than demons. Holding swords, he taught that they always hold the precept of the same Creator. Learned for battles, he says, so that through the good of holiness he might show that teachers can more foresee the evil snares of demons for the protection of souls than those can devise arts of harming. From the mightiest of Israel, which he showed, indicates that these ministries are from that army which always sees the face of the Father in heaven. And in that he says, each one's sword upon his thigh, he taught that the holy angels are girded with spiritual arms against each of the princes of vices, which besiege the aforesaid senses on account of their nocturnal and hidden snares." From which it is clear that Aponius, by the mighty men of Israel who guard the soul, understands the saints, both angels and teachers. Symbolically, the bed of Christ is Holy Scripture, says Theodoret, in which God enters into a mystical sleep with the soul; for there, he says, receiving the seeds of divine doctrine, she conceives and brings forth pious desires, which she finally bears and brings into action: for those who devoutly read Holy Scripture feel the light of God and holy impulses breathed into them through it, so that they despise earthly things and long for heavenly things with their whole heart. Heretics attack this bed, but the mighty men of Israel defend it, namely, teachers excelling in knowledge and saints excelling in virtue, who rout them with the sword of the word of God. Anagogically, Bede says: The bed of the blessed soul, he says, is heavenly glory and blessedness, in which it rests most happily and will rest forever throughout all eternity: thus also Nyssenus, homily 6, and from him Psellus and Richard of St. Victor, who adds: "The mighty ones of Israel, that is, those who contemplate God with their mind and seek Him, and whose spiritual desires have been more fervent, surround this bed: for, inflamed with vehement desires, they go about on all sides and seek an entrance, that they might taste this rest and enter into it in some measure; and this is their surrounding, and their course of desire around this bed." But Psellus says: Sixty mighty ones of Israel, he says, surround the bed, that is, the glory of Christ, that is, all the holy ones who are truly of Israel and are able to see God: but these are said to be sixty, because the Israelite people is divided into twelve tribes and parts; but when to each part of these, which make one Israel, five mighty ones are assigned, namely five senses armed for battle through mortification and temperance, then it plainly appears that there are sixty most mighty ones from one Israel. The bed, in which Christ and the divinity of Christ, espousing humanity to itself, rested for nine months, is the womb of the Blessed Virgin, thus Aponius: so also the bosom of the Blessed Virgin was the bed of Christ, in which He, now born as an infant, often rested and slept peacefully; whom therefore sixty mighty ones surrounded, that is, very many angels adoring Christ their God and venerating His mother, and guarding and protecting both of them against the snares of demons, Herod, scribes, etc. But Rupertus understands by sixty mighty ones sixty patriarchs and leaders, who would defend Israel, from which the Blessed Virgin and Christ were born, against any enemies whatsoever, whom he himself enumerates one by one. To this pertains that passage, Psalm XVIII, 6: "In the sun He hath set His tabernacle: and He as a bridegroom coming out of His bride chamber;" and that passage, Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 11: "In all things I sought rest, and in the inheritance of the Lord I shall abide. Then the Creator of all commanded and said to me: and He that made me rested in my tabernacle."
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ALL HOLDING SWORDS, AND MOST LEARNED IN WARS: EACH MAN'S SWORD UPON HIS THIGH BECAUSE OF FEARS (Arabic, terrors) OF THE NIGHT. The Septuagint: all holding a sword, learned in war, each man his sword upon his thigh, from fear in the nights: they read אחזי ocheze, that is, holding, grasping; now others with different pointing read אחוזי achuze, that is, grasped by the sword, as if to say, So tightly and skillfully do they hold and grip the sword that they appear to be grasped by it; whence Vatablus: all who are fit for the sword and accustomed to war, each having his sword upon his thigh on account of the fear which arises in the nights. Moreover the Chaldean renders it and explains it paraphrastically thus concerning the priests of the old law: "Moreover the priests and Levites, and all the tribes of Israel universally grasp the words of the law, which are compared to a sword, and weigh and wield them as the strong learned in war, and upon each of them is marked the sign of circumcision in their flesh, as it was marked in the flesh of Abraham, and they prevail and are strengthened in it as the strong man who is girded with a sword upon his thigh, and therefore they fear not from harmful spirits and demons which walk in the night." He exaggerates the strength of the sixty mighty men who surround the bed of Solomon, saying that they are girded with swords and know most excellently how to fight and do battle, as being exercised in arms by long use in warfare, as if to say, That the bridegroom and bride may rest securely in the bed, sixty strong warriors armed with swords keep watch around it continually, so that at the least fear or movement of enemies, indeed at any noise which easily arises at night, they may brandish and grip them. The sword by which the angels guard the Church is their wonderful power and strength; whence Aponius: "He taught, he says, the holy angels against each of the princes of vices, which besiege the aforesaid senses, girded with spiritual arms on account of their nocturnal and hidden snares." The sword by which the apostles and apostolic men, the pontiffs and doctors guard the bed of Christ, that is, the Roman Church, is the word of God, as Paul says, Hebrews IV, 12: "For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of soul and spirit," etc., as the same says, Ephesians VI, 13. This therefore dispels the nocturnal fears which heretics and rude Christians and the impious excite in the night, that is, in the darkness of infidelity, ignorance and impiety, who especially lie in wait for the bishops and prelates of the Church: for when these are overcome, the faithful easily overcome the rest, thus Cassiodorus, Philo, Justus, and St. Gregory, book X of the Morals, chapter III and IV, whom hear: "Nocturnal, he says, fears are the hidden snares of temptations, and the sword upon the thigh is the watchful guard pressing down the allurement of the flesh. Lest therefore hidden and sudden temptation creep in, it is necessary that the sword of guard placed upon our thigh press it down: for holy men are so certain of hope that they are nevertheless always suspicious of temptation, to whom it is said in Psalm 11: 'Serve the Lord in fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling,' so that from hope comes exultation, and from suspicion is born trembling." Tropologically, the sword upon the thigh is first, mortification and continence, or chastity, which cuts off the motions of the flesh and lust, which resides in the loins between the thighs: wherefore it signifies that bishops and pastors ought to excel in both. Whence St. Ambrose, book X on Luke, chapter XXII: "It is the sword of passion, he says, that you may strip off the body, and by the spoils of the immolated flesh the sacred crown of martyrdom may be purchased for you;" and St. Gregory: "What, he says, do we understand by the sword except the rigor of conduct, and what by the thigh except the appetite of the flesh? Therefore all the elect, who have already advanced to the perfection of life, always bear the sword upon their thigh, because by the rigor of conduct they continually break the appetite of the flesh, lest the enemy, whom they fear in the night of this world, coming suddenly find an easy entrance, and through the softness of pleasure the more easily, the more voluptuous he finds them, lead them to graver sins." See the same, book III of the Pastoral, chapter XXXIII. The same, book XIX of the Morals, chapter XXIX: "It is not said, he says, all having, but holding swords, because namely the word of God is not wonderful only to know, but to do: for he has, but does not hold the sword, who indeed knows divine eloquence, but neglects to live according to it; and he is no longer able to be learned in spiritual battles, who does not at all exercise the spiritual sword which he has: for it is not enough to resist temptations." Finally, St. Jerome, vol. III, epistle 140 to Principia: "I believe you understand this passage most excellently, and that you are girded with the sword of Christ. But so that you may know that virginity always has the sword of chastity, by which it cuts off the works of the flesh and overcomes pleasures, even the error of the gentiles fashioned virgin goddesses armed. And Peter also girded up his loins, and had a burning lamp in his hands." Whence, concluding concerning Christ, he adds this: "Therefore in His glory and beauty, or in the form and beauty of His divinity, mortifying the works of the flesh, and born of a virgin, He was the prince of virginity for future virgins." Moreover, secondly, the sword is prayer by which the fears of the night are put to flight, which the demon sends upon the faithful through tribulations, scruples, anguishes, and pressures; whence Jeremiah, Lamentations II, 19: "Rise up, he says, praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord." Thirdly, the sword of the faithful is the love of God; whence Richard of St. Victor: "Upon the thigh, he says, of delights, or of carnal pleasures, they have the sword of love on account of the fears of the night, that is, on account of the hidden lapses into sin: for if they do not love, on account of blindness and ignorance they offend in many things: for love begets knowledge and you beware of sins in him whom you love." Symbolically, Psellus understands by the sword the sign of the cross; for by this the devil is struck down and put to flight, just as enemies are put to flight by a sword. Finally, Rupertus, applying these things to the Blessed Virgin, understands by the strong ones of Israel David, Joshua, Judas Maccabaeus and the other princes, who most mightily defended and protected Israel. He adds the reason, namely: "Because the devil wished to cut down and uproot the root or good tree, which was the race of Abraham, to whom the promise of the blessed seed was first made, by the swords of barbarous nations or of impious kings: whence the sacred histories are full. For this reason it was a time of war then, for this reason material swords were then necessary, so that the race of Abraham might be defended, so that the root of Jesse might be defended, so that, I say, the race and root of David might be defended and protected, until thou, O Blessed Virgin, shouldst be born, the bed, as has already been said, of the true Solomon." Morally, note that the strong ones signify that the prelates of the Church ought to be, in wisdom, prudence, and every virtue by which we contend with heretics, demons and vices, not raw recruits, but trained and perfect; whence St. Cyprian, book IV, epistle 2 to Antonianum, praises St. Cornelius the pontiff, because he ascended gradually through each grade of the orders to the summit of the pontificate: "He did not, he says, arrive at the episcopate suddenly, but promoted through all ecclesiastical offices, and having often merited the Lord in divine administrations, he ascended to the sublime height of the priesthood through all the grades of religion." For this reason the Council of Trent, session XXIII, chapter XI, ordains that orders be conferred upon clerics through intervals of time: "So that, it says, more carefully, how great is the weight of this discipline, they may be taught, and in each office, according to the prescription of the bishop, they may exercise themselves, and that in the Church to which they shall be assigned, unless perhaps they be absent for the sake of studies; and thus they may ascend from grade to grade, so that in them with age the merit of life and doctrine may increase; which both the example of good morals, and assiduous ministry in the Church, and greater reverence toward priests and higher orders, and more frequent than before communion of the body of Christ will especially approve." Wherefore St. Gregory, book IV, epistle 53, gravely admonishes on this matter King Childebert of the Franks, and censures the vice of sudden advancement: "It has come to our ears," he says, "that some of the laity are being tonsured while their bishops are dying, and are ascending to the episcopate by a precipitous leap. And he who was not a disciple becomes a master through inconsiderate ambition. And because he has not learned what he might teach, he bears the priesthood in name only: for he remains a layman in his former speech and work. How then shall he intercede for the sins of others, who has not first wept for his own? For such a pastor does not protect the flock, but deceives it, because while shame prevents him from persuading others to do what he himself does not do, what is this but that the Lord's people remain to be plundered by robbers, and from that source take their destruction, whence they ought to have had great aid of saving protection?" But how depraved and perverted this is he demonstrates by a military example: "For it is certain that you do not place a commander over an army unless to you his labor and proven faithfulness have been established, unless the virtue and diligence of his former life have shown him to be fit. But if the army is entrusted to be governed by no men other than such, what sort of commander ought to be over souls may be well gathered from the consideration or comparison of this matter. But it shames us, and we are ashamed to say, that priests seize for themselves the command, who have not seen the beginning of religious warfare."
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The Chaldean interprets by litter the temple of Solomon, which was a type of the Church: for thus he translates: "The king Solomon built himself a temple of the sanctuary of cedar wood, and of cypress wood, and of pine wood which are brought from Lebanon; and he covered it with the purest gold. And after he had finished it, he placed in the midst of it the ark of the testimony which was the pillar of the age; and in the midst of it were two tables of stone, which he placed there Moses in Horeb, which were more precious than purified silver and the best gold, and he stretched out and overshadowed over it a veil of hyacinth and purple." For litter in Hebrew is אפריון appirion, which the Septuagint render with a consonant voice φορεῖον from φέρων or φέρειν, that is to carry: thus litter is said from carrying; a litter therefore is a conveyance by which some person is carried and borne by porters lifting it up, or is conveyed by horses or mules. The Hebrews translate appirion as a bed, or a bridal couch, in which the bridegroom and bride dwell; thus they wish it to be called from fruitfulness, because offspring are generated in it: for פרה para is to bear fruit; hence appirion is a fruitful bed. Hence the Vatican codices of the Septuagint and St. Ambrose, book III On Virgins, read, the king Solomon made himself a bed; R. David translates, a bed by which brides are carried; R. Solomon, an honourable chamber; the Syrian, a throne; the Arabic, a building. Wherefore here by bed understand a bed-carriage, or a litter, say Luysius of Leon, Sanchez and others, in which a soft cushion like a bed is spread, which has both the softness of a bed and at the same time the majesty of a throne, says Genebrardus. For this is what φορεῖον signifies, that is a litter: for a litter signifies three things: first, a carrying-vehicle, or a litter; second, a chariot and triumphal throne, as here Nyssenus, Theodoretus and the other Greeks understand it; third, a conveyance arranged for display. These three things are suited to this place, and this litter seems to embrace in itself these three things, that is the functions of these three. Furthermore some, as Sanchez, Gislerius, think the bed of which verse 7 speaks is the litter; others more rightly distinguish the bed, in which the bridegroom sleeps at night, guarded by sixty mighty men on account of nocturnal fears, from the litter, by which he was conveyed in the day for display: for the bed pertains to nocturnal rest, the litter to diurnal display. Solomon therefore, as in the preceding verse he explained the little bed of his sleeping chamber for nocturnal rest: so here he explains the royal litter or triumphal chariot, by which he was conveyed through the city in the day, and displayed his magnificence and glory to the people. Therefore Aben-Ezra interprets appirion less correctly as a magnificent palace; and others (to whom St. Gregory, Rupertus and Richard of St. Victor are inclined) as a litter by which dishes of the table are brought in: for the Hebrew appirion, in Greek phoreion, in Latin litter, is properly a conveyance by which display is made; whence Suetonius in the Life of Caesar: "In the Pontic triumph, he says, among the conveyances of the display he preferred the title of three words: I came, I saw, I conquered:" that is among the conveyances of the triumphal display, by which name are contained idols, spoils of enemies, crowns, machines, and other things which are usually carried in a triumphal display; as Titus in his triumph over Jerusalem and the conquered Jews, carried around the golden candlestick, distinguished by seven golden branches, as we see expressed in Rome on the Arch of Titus. And Livy, book I: "He himself, he says, a man magnificent both in words and in displaying sacred things no less, bearing suspended the spoils of the slain enemy general, carried on a litter made aptly for this purpose, ascended to the Capitol." Hence are called litters of sacred things, by which the simulacra of gods, or images of saints, and especially the Holy Eucharist, are magnificently carried and borne about. For reclining-place in Hebrew is רפידה rephide, which the Syrian, Vatable and others translate as a stratum or pavement, better our reclining-place, and the Septuagint ανάκλιτον, that is a reclining-place, namely the back part in a litter, or chariot, where leaning back on their backs the bridegroom and bride recline with grace and pleasantness. For ascent in Hebrew is מרכב merchab, that is a vehicle, a seat, a chariot: the Septuagint and our version here translate ascent, but in Leviticus chapter XV, verse 9, they translate a covering, and in Habakkuk chapter III, 7, cavalry. sum in Hebrew is מרכב merchab, that is a vehicle, a seat, a chariot: the Septuagint and our version here translate ascent, but in Leviticus chapter XV, verse 9, they translate a covering, and in Habakkuk chapter III, 7, cavalry. Whence first, some, as St. Gregory, Philo, Hortolanus, by merchab, or ascent, understand the steps by which one ascends to the litter or vehicle; and by these they think purple is mystically signified—passions and martyrdoms, or labors and blood, by which ascent is made to eternal glory. Second, Genebrardus, Sanchez and others understand the covering of the vehicle, or heaven, which ascends above the silver columns, or is stretched out; whence the Syrian and Arabic versions translate it, covering, or veil of purple: thus Theocritus, idyll. 15, describing the litter of Arsinoe and its veil: "And above purple tapestries." Third, properly by ascent you may understand the seat or throne, into which the bridegroom and bride ascended and sat: for this is properly called merchab, and this is wont to be purple: for purple being soft provides a soft seat, and it itself is the garment, and the bed of kings and princes. The grammatical sense therefore is, as if to say, The litter, that is a splendid sedan chair, or a magnificent chariot for pomp, which Solomon made for himself and his bride, whose material was the cedars of Lebanon, whose sides were adorned with silver columns, whose reclining place was of gold, whose seat was of purple. The litter signifies the Roman Church now broad and magnificent, presiding over the other Churches scattered throughout the whole world by the Roman Pontiff, and dominating like Solomon. For just as in verse 1, he called the Church in Jerusalem and Judea enclosed, and as if sleeping, mischab, that is a little bed, then in verse 7, the Church of Antioch gathered from Jews and Gentiles, and the Roman Church being born under St. Peter in Rome, and lying hidden in the darkness of infidelity, he called מטח mitta, that is a bed extending itself, and spreading into neighboring nations, but by night, that is secretly and clandestinely, "on account of fear of the nocturnal" Jews and Gentiles persecuting it: thus here he calls the Roman Church now shining as if in clear day and splendid, indeed presiding, and triumphing over infidelity and tyrannies, a litter, on account of its magnitude and magnificence, which it especially attained in the times of Decius and Diocletian through the martyrdoms, sanctity, and miracles of so many illustrious pontiffs, cardinals and faithful, such as St. Cornelius, Sixtus, Urban, Marcellus, Lawrence, Sebastian, Cecilia, Agnes, etc., and through the conversion of so many Roman senators and princes, and finally of Constantine the Great himself, who as the first Christian emperor made all Rome Christian, and in it built royal basilicas, such as the Lateran, St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. Lawrence's, the Holy Cross, etc., as if royal litters: indeed he as it were subjected the whole world to it, while he made it Christian by his example and command. The litter can also be called the magnificent conveyance by which the Roman Pontiff on the Feast of the Body of Christ, borne on the shoulders of bearers, attended by all cardinals, bishops, prelates, the whole clergy and people, carries about the sacred Eucharist in solemn supplication. For this honor is attributed not so much to the Pontiff as to Christ, whose vicar the Pontiff is, whom he carries about in the Eucharist, and proposes to the people to be venerated and adored. By this litter therefore is depicted the magnificence of the Roman Church; at the same time also by the word litter is hinted that the Pontifical Chair and the Roman Church are not bound to the city of Rome, but are mobile, and like a litter can be transferred elsewhere, as it was transferred to Avignon two hundred years ago, and remained there for sixty years, and at the end of the world when Rome returns to paganism and expels the Pontiff, he will then transfer the seat and assembly of his faithful elsewhere, as I said in Apocalypse cap. XVIII. The Chair therefore and Roman Church is a litter, in which in his vicar the Roman Pontiff Christ resides: whence it is said to be made of the cedars of Lebanon, that is most firm and incorruptible: for cedar does not suffer decay, and "eternity commends the cedar," says Pliny. Hence when in the Constantinopolitan, Alexandrian, Antiochian Chair have sat bishops who were heretics, who had corrupted the faith and Church, as Nestorius, Eutyches, Peter Gnaphaus, Macedonius, etc., in the Roman Chair however no heretical pontiff has sat through Christ thus providing for fifteen hundred years for the undefiled faith of the Church. The silver columns denote doctors and prelates, especially cardinals, who as it were hinges and columns support and adorn the seat and Roman Church equally, while they shine with the whiteness of wisdom and purity of life like silver, and resound by word and example throughout the city and the world. The golden reclining place is the faithful and pious Roman people, conspicuous in gold, that is, in golden piety and religion, in which Christ rests and reclines sweetly: for the propensity of the Roman people toward piety and devotion is wonderful. I myself have seen no nation more inclined to the duties of religion. Whence scarcely a day passes throughout the year in which some solemn feast of a saint is not celebrated somewhere in Rome with ample indulgences, ornaments, the harmony of musicians, and great concourse of people. The ascent, that is, the purple throne, according to Justus Orgelitanus, is an immense and as it were infinite multitude (Bozius counts three hundred thousand) of most valiant martyrs, who at Rome for the faith and the Church, from St. Peter even to Constantine, poured out their blood, in which Christ most joyfully reclines in the seat of his companions and sons (for Christ is the father and prince of martyrs). Whence also the Blessed Virgin, the mother of Christ, chose for herself a place at Rome among the martyrs, when appearing to John the Patrician under Pope Liberius, she commanded that a basilica be built for her in the Esquiline, which today is called by the magnificence of Holy Mary Major: for in the Esquiline was the place of execution of martyrs; whence near them was the Ursus with the cap, where we read in the Martyrology of very many martyrs, either slain or buried, and in memory of this matter a church was built there in honor of St. Bibiana, now beautifully restored by Urban VIII, is to be seen. If you prefer to understand by ascent the veil, or the heaven of the litter, or the triumphal chariot of Christ, this excellently represents the martyrs, who by their blood veil, cover and adorn Rome and the Roman Church, and triumphing gloriously over the tyrannies of the infidels ascended into heaven, and from there protect and defend the Roman Church: thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Nyssenus, Philo, Justus, Aponius, Beda and others, who understand by the litter the Church, namely the primary or Roman Church, in which as in a magnificent litter Christ and the universal Church, as the bride of Christ, reside and triumph. Hear St. Gregory: "The woods of Lebanon are said to be incorruptible; therefore the king Solomon made for himself a litter of the woods of Lebanon, because according to the grace of his foreknowledge, Christ constructed the holy Church from saints who would remain forever. He made its columns silver, because he gave to that Church preachers, who both sustained it by examples, strengthened it with great rectitude of justice, and adorned it with the splendor of eloquence as with the brightness of silver so that they might instruct by preaching. He made a golden reclining place, because when it shone in the hearts of the perfect, he showed them the power of his divinity through contemplation. In which contemplation, while he showed them the beauty of heavenly joys, he composed for them as it were a reclining place of gold, because he appointed a place in which, being refreshed, they might rest. That this reclining place is rightly said to be golden, because wisdom is better than all riches, and all things that are desired cannot be compared to it." He then interprets the purple ascent thus: "To this reclining place one arrives through many labors, one ascends through many tribulations, so that if it be necessary, even blood is permitted to be shed. Therefore the ascent is rightly said to be purple: for when all the saints and martyrs for eternal life delivered their bodies to torments, when they patiently endured scourges, thorns, fires, swords and innumerable other tortures, did they not ascend to this reclining place, namely to the blessed life, through a purple ascent?" Symbolically, the litter of divinity is the humanity of Christ: for this is as it were a couch in which the divinity of the Word reclines and rests, says Philo Carpathius; and the litter of both is the sacred Eucharist, in which the whole divinity and humanity of Christ is contained, and is carried about in supplications to the glory of Christ, and the devotion of the faithful, so that they may give thanks to God, and ward off impending dangers, and obtain from God all grace and blessing. This litter was made of the woods of Lebanon, that is, of the most pure blood of the Blessed Virgin free from all corruption: for Lebanon in Hebrew is the same as whiteness, and white purity. The silver columns are the wisdom of Christ, eloquence, force of speaking and preaching, like silver sonorous and efficacious. The golden reclining place are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Isaiah teaches rested upon Christ, cap. XI, vers. 2, and in turn Christ rested in them as it were reclined. The golden reclining place are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Isaiah teaches rested upon Christ, cap. XI, vers. 2, and in turn Christ rested in them as it were reclined. The purple ascent is the bloody sweat of Christ, his passion, death and martyrdom: thus Bede, who says that by this is signified that no one enters the Church unless imbued with the sacraments of the Lord's passion. Again, the litter, that is the couch, and as it were the triumphal chariot of Christ was the cross, says Aponius: for this was made from the incorruptible woods of Lebanon; whence even now in its relics, which are preserved in various places, it endures. For on the cross Christ triumphed over sin, death, the devil and hell according to that saying of the Apostle, Colossians II, 14: "Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he hath taken the same out of the way, nailing it to his cross: and despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open triumph in himself." The columns of the cross were humility and obedience, according to that: "He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross," Philippians II, 8. The golden reclining place was his unconquerable patience and magnanimity, upon which resting, he bore and overcame all wounds, injuries, and sorrows with gentleness. The purple ascent was the purple cloak with which the Jews clothed him as if in mockery as king of the Jews, or rather the pouring forth of all his blood, which stained and purpled his whole body, according to that, Isaiah LXIII, 1: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? this one beautiful in his robe, etc. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone." II, 8. The golden reclining place was his unconquerable patience and magnanimity, upon which resting, he bore and overcame all wounds, injuries, and sorrows with gentleness. The purple ascent was the purple cloak with which the Jews clothed him as if in mockery as king of the Jews, or rather the pouring forth of all his blood, which stained and purpled his whole body, according to that, Isaiah LXIII, 1: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? this one beautiful in his robe, etc. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone."
IN THE MIDST THEREOF HE BUILT IT WITH LOVE. Hebraic: in the midst thereof incense of love, because namely this chariot is the fiery cross of Christ, and burning with love: for it breathes forth and ejects nothing but love toward God and men; whence by this fiery chariot he himself, like a true Elias, carries not only himself, but also his elect ones, indeed snatches them up into heaven. Aponius adapts these things to the cross in a somewhat different manner. For thus he says: "The litter of the cross made of cedar wood, in whose silver columns the true and immaculate body, uncontaminated by the stain of sin, gleams white, and the glory of the glorious soul shines with gold, in which even now the word of God is proved to have a reclining place and the corporeal and royal sense of divinity glitters." Tropologically, Nyssenus and others understand by the silver columns the doctors, shining with the brightness of heavenly eloquence; by the purple ascent, the prelates and princes, for purple is their adornment; by the golden reclining place, the mind upon which all the powers of the soul rest and lean. Cassiodorus and St. Gregory, however, understand here by the golden reclining place the heavenly glory, in which is the eternal rest of the saints. The same St. Gregory, in homily 15 on Ezekiel, understands charity, in which the saints rest in this life: "With silver columns," he says, "is the reclining place of gold, because through that which is said clearly by holy preachers, the minds of hearers receive the brightness of intimate charity, in which they may rest." Hebraic: in the midst thereof incense (or covering) of love, that is, the whole life and person of Christ breathes forth nothing but love; for as he did not live for himself, but for us; so he did and suffered all things from love: thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Theodoret, Nyssenus, Philo, Carpathius and others. For the daughters of Jerusalem, because they who in faith, through faith admire and celebrate the vision of Christ and the beauty of the Church, or those who study to please the spouse Christ, and to recline and feast together with him. He proceeds here to other things; the exposition of the Wise one is given elsewhere. For the daughters of Jerusalem, because they who in faith, through faith admire and celebrate the vision of Christ and the beauty of the Church, or those who study to please the spouse Christ, and to recline and feast together with him. He proceeds here to other things; the exposition of the Wise one is given elsewhere. Burning with apostolic zeal, and preaching Christ crucified, is called the litter of Christ: for the name of Christ, faith and worship he carried about through all nations; whence the litter of Christ was St. Paul and the apostles, says Theodoret, and Hortolanus, and Gislerius, indeed Christ himself, Acts IX, 15: "For he is a vessel of election to me, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:" for he himself was the cedar of Lebanon, high and proud, while existing as a Jew he persecuted the Church, but from thence cut down and hewn, he became an incorruptible litter and triumphal chariot of Christ, according to that which he himself says, II Corinthians II, 14: "Now thanks be to God, who always maketh us to triumph (that is, causeth us to triumph) in Christ Jesus, and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us in every place: for we are the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish." His silver columns were the wisdom and efficacy of preaching Christ crucified, according to that: "But we preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God," I Corinthians I, 23. The golden reclining place was the unconquerable constancy of mind, modesty, gentleness, upon which leaning he bore and overcame all labours, difficulties and adversities strongly and peacefully. The purple ascent was his continual passion, wounds and afflictions, in which he gloried: "But God forbid," he says, "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world," Galatians VI, 14. Read the whole chapter II Corinthians XI, where he enumerates his wounds and passions, as it were trophies and triumphs. In the midst thereof he built it with love, because he breathed forth and eructated nothing but the fires of love, even toward the Jews most hostile to him. See Romans chapter IX, 1. Wherefore St. Chrysostom, homily 22 to the People, at the beginning, gives these praises to Paul: "Paul, an earthly angel, a heavenly man, a receptacle of the Holy Spirit, of incomparable zeal, great in charity, a solicitous curator of the churches of God, an orator of piety, a leader of the weak, a bridesman of the faithful, a reprover of the Jews, a net of all of us, after mortification a teacher, and after death a herald, who shows us how we ought to ascend into the heavens." The same, book II On Prayer: "That Paul, an insatiable worshipper of God, common father and progenitor of the servants of Christ, that guardian of the whole world, who makes temples of Christ out of men." See what I have said concerning the praises of St. Paul in the Proem to his Epistles, and in the Idea of St. Paul, which I prefixed to the Acts of the Apostles. Appositely Gregory of Nyssa, homily 7, notes that God is in the just in various ways, namely as in a place, as in a house, as in a throne, as in a footstool, as in a chariot, and as in a horse receiving a bridle: but here he is described as being in a pious soul as in a litter, a matter and work of the greatest excellence, inasmuch as it no longer lives for itself, but God dwells in it living, according to that saying
Symbolically, Hugh of St. Victor, from the Miscellany II, book I, chapter CXX: "The couch, he says, is any congregation of the saints bearing souls to the eternal banquet; the silver columns are those who by the strength of their example carry others, and illuminate them by the light of their preaching; the golden reclining place is the splendor of eternal happiness, in which one reclines and rests from all labor; the purple ascent is because to that clarity of that rest, one comes only through tribulation." Anagogically, this couch signifies the Church of the saints triumphing in the heavens, whose foundational columns, gates, measures and gems St. John graphically depicts, Apocalypse XXI, 12. God made this on account of the daughters of Jerusalem, that is the blessed both angels and men: on account of the angels, that he might restore their ruins; on account of men, because Christ suffered and died for them.
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. First, a pious mind, especially one devoted to mortification and bearing the cross of Christ, is the couch of Christ according to that passage: "Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies," II Corinthians IV, 10; and: "I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body," Galatians VI, 17; and: "You are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body," I Corinthians VI, 20. Hence St. Ignatius the Martyr was called θεοφόρος and χριστοφόρος, that is, God-bearer and Christ-bearer; and thus he himself calls himself in the title of his Epistles. Second, Hugh of St. Victor, Theological Instruction from the Miscellany I, LX: "The couch of Solomon, he says, is a heart exercised in the study of virtue: the couch, the word of wisdom; hence it is carried from mouth to ear. The bed, a contemplative mind: this couch must first be of the cedars of Lebanon through purity and incorruptibility of truth; of silver in precepts and promises: in the brightness of silver, pure conduct; in the resonance, sweet promise. It has gold through heavenly wisdom, which does not corrode in eternity, but glows red in charity. It has purple, when it preaches the passion. Ascent to glorification. In the midst charity is spread out on account of the daughters of Jerusalem, which is proposed to the tender and infirm to obtain salvation: who is so tender that he cannot love? for if you cannot do other things, you can at least love, so that you may belong to the couch of Solomon." Third, a mind in charity, zeal for souls and spi- Apostles: "I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me," Galatians II, 20. Symbolically, first, St. Ambrose, book III On Virgins after the beginning, reads thus from the Septuagint and explains it thus: "The king Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of Lebanon, the pillars thereof of silver: a golden reclining place, the back thereof strewn with gems. Who is this, he says, bed, if not the form of our body? for in gems air is shown in the appearance of brightness; in gold, fire; water, in silver: earth, through wood: from which the human body is composed of four elements, in which our soul rests, if it does not exist rough on mountains, not on dry ground deprived of rest, but elevated from vices rests supported by wood." Second, three Anonymous writers in Theodoret understand by this couch doctors, by whom Christ is as it were carried in a chariot to teach and perfect men; by the silver pillars they understand the words of the Lord; by the golden reclining place, the peaceful tranquility of mind; by the purple ascent, the heavenly homeland, in which King Christ, as Solomon the peaceful, makes all saints purple-clad, that is, kings. To this belongs the exposition of Rupert, who, taking the couch as the instrument by which dishes are brought to the table, understands by it Holy Scripture, which furnishes the soul with feasts of every kind. Third, St. Anselm understands by the couch judges, who are of the cedars of Lebanon because incorrupt; and the silver pillars, because they strongly resound true judgment; and the golden reclining place, because they shine with charity and wisdom; and the purple ascent, because with Christ ascending in them they are prepared for any persecutions. Tropologically, first, our Sanchez understands by the couch of Christ mortification, by which all love of the world is cut off from the soul, so that it may become the bride of Christ and resign all its love to him: hence Christ rests pleasantly in it: wherefore St. Basil, in Rule 6, teaches self-denial to be the basis and foundation of the spiritual life: "Because it itself, he says, is the sum of all things, forgetfulness of the higher life, and withdrawal from its own pleasures." Its two pillars are, hatred of self and love of God; the reclining place is patience; the purple ascent is progress in every virtue. Second, Hugh Victorinus, book I Theological Instruction chapter IX and XI, distinguishes three couches: "Let us posit, he says, three things, that is the bed of Solomon, and the couch of Solomon, and the chariot of Pharaoh; and let us understand by the bed of Solomon a heart resting in the sweetness of contemplation; by the couch of Solomon, a heart carrying itself about in the exercise of good works; by the chariot of Pharaoh, a heart resting in the desire of carnal things." Third, Richard of St. Victor, taking the couch by which dishes are brought with Rupert, understands by it the holy soul, which feeds and refreshes Christ: "While he, he says, delights in her good works, studies and desires, as it is written: My people have satisfied me with their voices, filled me with odors; he also refreshes his members by example, prayer, teaching, counsel and conversation." This is made of the cedars of Lebanon, that is, of the elect, who grow and bear fruit through Christ and in Christ, who is called Lebanon, that is, whiteness, on account of purity. The four pillars are the four cardinal virtues, which support the soul and make it splendid before God and men, like silver. The reclining place is a pure conscience, in which Christ reclines and rests. It is called golden, because refined by the fire of tribulation. The purple ascent is the desire of heavenly things, by which the mind ascends to God Christ and the saints. This Richard expounds at length, which I have contracted into a few points.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN. The litter of Christ was the womb and arms of the Blessed Virgin, in which she herself bore Christ; likewise the manger and cradle were as it were a mobile and portable litter of Christ; the columns were the two arms of the Blessed Virgin, with which she held Christ; the reclining place was her bosom and breast, upon which Christ reclined; the purple ascent was her mind, her head, and her fair and purplish hair, which encircled, cherished and veiled Christ resting in her bosom. The other things which I have said concerning the Church and the holy soul, apply with greater right to the Blessed Virgin, with only the name changed.
IN THE MIDST WITH CHARITY HE CONSTRUCTED IT FOR THE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM. FOR THE DAUGHTERS. — Refer this both to the charity which immediately preceded, and to the whole litter. Again, "in the midst" is not an ablative singular pertaining to "with charity," as St. Gregory, St. Bernard and Cassiodorus thought, but is an accusative plural signifying those things which were the midst or inner parts of the litter: for in Hebrew it is תוכו tocho, that is, its middle covering, or incense, or that which was burned with love for it, namely both of the litter and of the purple ascent, that is, of the seat or throne, as if to say, The throne of the litter, in which the bridegroom sat, was surrounded with purple; but in the midst, where was the place of the bridegroom, it was strewn with stones burning hot representing charity, or certainly its midst, that is, the middle pavement of the litter, was strewn with burning gems. For "constructed" in Hebrew is רצוף ratsuph, that is, strewn, or burning with love: for רצף ratsaph is composed of צרף tsaraph, that is, to burn (whence the seraphim are called the highest angels, because they burn with love of God), and רבץ raphats, that is, to be strewn; whence ratsaph means to be strewn for burning or consuming; hence רצף retseph, that is, a live coal or burning coal; רצפה ritspa is a coal kindled upon the pavement, and from this the pavement itself strewn with stone, for example marble or marble work. Wherefore the Septuagint here and in II Paralipomenon VII, 3, and Esther I, 6, translate λιθόστρωτον, that is, strewn with cut stone, in varied and tessellated work; whence they translate here, its interior strewn with tessellated stones; St. Ambrose, book III On Virgins, its back strewn with gems; the fifth edition, its midst composed of pebbles: wherefore First, from the Hebrew thus you should translate, he constructed its midst with stones of love, namely with burning gems, such as pyropes and carbuncles, which are symbols of the love and charity of the bridegroom and bride, equally as of the daughters of Jerusalem; whence Vatablus translates, its interior strewn, or covered with love; the Syrian, its midst strewn with love before the daughters of Jerusalem; the Arabic, and its interior encrusted with gems, and that for love of the daughters of Jerusalem. Second, because the Hebrews lack cases, so that the same noun can be translated in any case; hence from the Hebrew thus you should transfer it, and the midst holds itself burning with love, as if to say, The midst of the litter holds itself burning with love, namely the bridegroom, that is Christ. Whence the Gloss of the Hebrews on that passage, Genesis II, 5: And the Lord made to spring up from the earth, thus has it: "In the midst of the bridal chamber the Messiah son of David, who is the lover of the children of Israel, as it is said in the Canticle III, 10:" In the midst with charity he constructed it for the daughters of Jerusalem. For the heart of Christ was as it were a furnace most ardent with charity: whence he himself was roasted and burned on the cross more by love of us than by suffering; and on the cross, as if on a litter in the midst of hands, feet and side, pierced and bloodied by five wounds through nails and lance, as if by five purple and burning— For it is established from Suidas and Varro that formerly newly married brides, lest they should blush, were accustomed to be carried by night in a litter to the house of the bridegroom: wherefore for the sake of honor they sat in the midst of the litter, so that the bridegroom would support the right side, and someone related or the groomsman the left. Fourth, others with the Septuagint translate in the accusative, he constructed its midst with gems for love from the daughters of Jerusalem, supply to win for himself: for these rejoice in gems and a gem-adorned chariot. Thus the version of the Septuagint can be expounded, its interior or innermost part strewn with stones (gems), love from the daughters of Jerusalem, supply, he wins or extorts; or thus, in its midst he placed love or charity, that is, an image of love or charity, so as to signify that this whole litter was composed by Christ from love, or for the sake of love, so that he might manifest his charity to all. Some therefore think that in the midst of this litter was placed a statue or image of charity. Thus the gentile animals depicted Cupid in their bridal chambers; whence Pausanias at the beginning of the Corinthians asserts that an image of Cupid depicted in a chariot, in whose middle base, he says, the image of the love of God (Cupid) emerged, with nereids standing on either side. Alcibiades also on his golden and ivory shield bore Cupid carved, who bent and deflected the thunderbolt, by which he signified that love also rules over Jupiter, and extorts his wrath and thunderbolt from him. Fifth, Our translator most excellently renders it in the ablative, in the midst with charity he constructed it: for since in the Hebrew nothing is here expressed as the material with which the midst of the litter is strewn, except charity, it is certainly necessary that it be strewn with charity. You ask, what is the sense of the Vulgate version, constructed with the middle of charity? First, our Sanchez takes charity for things dear and lovable, namely for gems, which attract the minds of those beholding them to love of themselves, as if to say: The middle of the couch was strewn with most precious and dear gems: whence the Septuagint translates λιθόστρωτον, that is, strewn with tessellated stones; St. Ambrose, a gem-studded couch; the fifth edition, composed of pebbles. Thus in chapter V, 16, where the Vulgate has "all desirable," in Hebrew it is "all is desire," and thus the Septuagint translates it altogether. Thus St. John, in his First Epistle II, 16, says whatever is in the world is concupiscence of the flesh or of the eyes, that is, is concupiscible by the flesh or by the eyes: for the Hebrews often take abstracts for concretes; and power, habit, or act for its object. Second, others by charity understand an image of charity, as if to say: Solomon placed in the middle of this couch a statue of charity, as it were the queen of this sacred marriage, which joined Christ with the Church by the highest and indissoluble bond of love, by which tropologically, says Sanchez, charity, the queen of all virtues, as the heart in the body, by which the other members live and flourish, is seated in the middle as in its own kingdom; from which all virtues, which abnegation and mortification find and strip away, have life and beauty. This makes the bridal chamber lovable, this brings with it its own natural ornaments, namely other virtues, which as attendants and handmaids never depart from its side: indeed this one performs the office of the other virtues. Which St. Augustine most excellently taught in his treatise On the Praises of Charity, volume IX, and adds that Solomon, a most wise man, took care to have this couch made hieroglyphically, which the daughters of Jerusalem would use at weddings, so that, gazing upon this form of holy marriage, excited by keen symbols of love and faith, they might honor and love their husbands; and this is signified by what follows: "For the daughters of Jerusalem." Third, others by charity understand the bridegroom, namely Christ, who is called charity, because He is supremely loving and lovable, as if to say: In this nuptial couch Christ sat in the middle as a bridegroom uniquely loving His bride the Church, so much so that He seems to be charity itself; and indeed if you take the couch for a manger or a cross, in its middle there was nothing but Christ incarnate for our love, wailing and crucified. Fourth, simply and plainly by charity understand an image, name, or symbol, or emblem of some kind of charity, such as carbuncles, doves, turtledoves, flames, as if to say: The middle of this couch, a throne, or certainly a pavement, was strewn with the image of doves, or carbuncles, or fire and flames, which are the insignia of charity, and perhaps the very image and name of charity itself were carved in the pavement itself, just as in the rational of the high priest were woven urim and thummim, that is, doctrine and truth, Exodus XXVIII, 30, so that it might be signified that all this ornament of so splendid a couch tends to nothing else than to show the love with which the bridegroom pursues the bride and the daughters of Jerusalem, the bride's handmaids or companions, so that he might in turn allure them to love and honor her more, so that this couch might deservedly be called a couch of love and charity, indeed charity itself; whence many translate, and its middle burned with ardor, or was the ardor of love, or was inflamed with charity. It appears therefore that either the seat or the pavement of this couch, or both, was strewn with an image of Charity, or with things ignited or bearing the appearance of fire, such as coals, flames, carbuncles, etc. For fire is a symbol of charity and ardor, according to that passage, Canticles VIII, 6: "The lamps thereof are lamps of fire and of flames." Hence also the Holy Spirit at Pentecost descended upon the apostles in the form of fire and fiery tongues, Acts II, 3. See the things said there. Furthermore, Charity is depicted in this form: a virgin with a rosy but ardent face, clothed in a scarlet tunic, furnished with wings, bearing on her head a golden crown distinguished and gleaming with carbuncles; her finger is adorned with a ring radiating with fire-stone; in one hand she bears a ruddy heart vibrating flames, in the other a bow and fiery arrows; this is the image, this is the emblem of charity: and perhaps thus it was depicted in the middle of this couch. This concerning the grammatical sense of the letter; now let us pass to the parabolic sense and the genuine meaning contained under it.
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, Concerning Christ and the Church. Solomon, that is Christ, made a couch, that is the Roman see and the Church, constructed entirely of charity, first, because such abundance of Christ's benefits overflow into it, that all things appear to be constructed with love and charity: for in it sits Christ's vicar, who has the fullness of ecclesiastical power over all churches and the faithful, and therefore can grant and does grant the most ample remission of sins, indulgences, and graces especially to the Roman Church: in it is the assistance of Christ and the Holy Spirit, so that it cannot err in faith and in religion; into it greater charisms rain down from heaven; in it are basilicas and churches full of the relics of holy pontiffs, priests, virgins, and thus almost the entire Roman city is soaked with the blood of martyrs. Whence Christ appearing to St. Bridget (as her Life relates) commanded her to depart from Sweden and go to Rome; for he said that there was an easier way to heaven: she obeyed and departed, and from there she went to heaven. Secondly, because Christ instilled into the minds of the pontiffs and faithful of the Roman Church a distinguished charity, and still instills it "for the sake of the daughters of Jerusalem," namely so that faithful and devout souls, as citizens enrolled in heaven, attracted by this charity of the Roman Church, may love it, honor it, follow it, and through it as a couch be carried from earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly: for there is no salvation for him who is outside the Church, whose head is the Roman Church. St. Gregory the Great alone, to pass over others, was of such charity that he fed all the orphans, monks, and poor of Rome, and very many throughout all Italy, indeed even beyond Italy, and in Palestine itself. In the jubilee all coming together to Rome from the whole world (who are numbered at several hundred thousand) are fed for three days at the expense of the Romans, and are treated liberally as guests. Again, the poured-out charity of the Roman people is evident in so many hostels, orphanages, hospitals, and other pious places with which Rome abounds, to say nothing of the daily alms of the faithful, by which all orders of mendicants are sustained, many nuns, boys, girls, and innumerable poor. I omit the dowries which are given yearly to very many virgins for marriage, the building and ornamentation of churches, the expenses of confraternities, etc., which indeed have often moved me and others considering the poverty of the Roman people to wonder, so that these works appear to be the proper works not so much of men as of God blessing the Roman Church. There exist books published on this matter, by which this very thing is clearly demonstrated, and especially the book whose title is: The Hidden Treasures of Rome; likewise booklets written concerning the Roman jubilees. Thus Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Aponius, Bede and others, who say that by these things Christ is signified, when he suffered and was crucified for us, to have constructed the Church with charity, because in it he kindles the love of himself and of divine things. These are the tapestries of charity, says Aponius, which spread over the middle of human nature and majesty, for the salvation and joys of holy souls of the daughters of the heavenly Jerusalem. This is surely charity constructed, which "bears all things," according to the Apostle, I Corinthians XIII, 7, which when trampled never yields, but raises up the afflicted by the example of its own humility. Symbolically, the couch of the divinity of Christ is his humanity: the couch of both is equally the cross and the Eucharist; for these three things are constructed with charity, according to that: "So God loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting," John III, 16; and that: "In this hath the charity of God been shown towards us, because God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by him," I John IV, 9. He gives the reason in verse 16: "God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him." And that of Christ: "I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I but that it be kindled?" Luke XII, 49. And that: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him," John VI, 57: for the Eucharist represents, nay truly exhibits to us for eating the whole divinity and humanity of Christ, roasted and toasted in love on the cross: wherefore the Eucharist is pure charity and love of Christ, by which he snatches to himself the daughters of Jerusalem, that is souls devoutly communicating; but the sacrifice and sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated and repeated especially in Rome, as being the place where there are several thousands of priests, and no fewer religious and monks, by whom the sacred synaxis is frequented by their rule; and this is the source and cause of the Roman charity which I commended a little before: nay the order and power of the priesthood of consecrating the sacred Eu- charity is derived from the Roman Pontiff, as from the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy: for from him bishops are created, who ordain priests throughout the whole world. For this reason, when the Pontiff departs from Rome and travels elsewhere, the sacrament of the Eucharist is always carried with him, and formerly when bishops came to Rome, he was accustomed to send it forth to meet them as a sign of mutual communion of faith and charity, as is evident from the epistle of St. Irenaeus to Pope Victor, which Eusebius recounts, lib. V Hist. cap. XXIV; from which Baronius concludes, in the year of Christ 198, tom. II, that the Roman Pontiff was formerly accustomed to send the Eucharist to all co-bishops of Catholic communion, but those who were judged unworthy by him were avoided by all as excommunicated, inasmuch as they did not communicate with the Pontiff of the Roman Church. Christ therefore on the cross, equally as in the Eucharist, is as it were a divine and immense image of charity, so that he is more truly than Solomon called Jedida, that is, beloved of the Lord, II Kings XII, 25; and he breathes upon and inspires the same into those who communicate piously. Whence St. Chrysostom, hom. 61 to the People: "As lions, he says, breathing fire, let us depart from that table, made terrible to the devil, and turning over in our mind our head, and the charity which he exhibited to us." The type of this was the ark of the covenant, whose cover was the golden mercy seat signifying Christ, who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world: the ark therefore was like a litter of this kind, in the midst of which was manna, which was a figure of the Eucharist; whence the Chaldean translator renders it, and between the cherubim, which were upon the mercy seat, dwelt the majesty of the Lord, who maketh his name to dwell in Jerusalem, more than in all the cities of the land of Israel. A mortified soul, and preaching Christ in apostolic spirit, is the litter of Christ; and therefore the middle, or, as the Septuagint has it, the inmost part thereof, namely the heart and mind strewn with charity: for he ought to burn with love of God and zeal for souls, who strives to gain them for Christ. Such was St. Paul, who says: "The charity of Christ presseth us, etc.; and Christ died for all: that they also who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again," II Corinthians V, 14. "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? tribulation? or distress," etc., Romans VIII, 35. And: "I wished myself to be anathema from Christ for my brethren," Romans IX, 3. Hear St. Chrysostom, homil. 32 in the Epistle to the Romans in the Moral sense: "The heart of Christ was the heart of Paul, and a tablet of the Holy Ghost, and a volume of charity, etc., so that he merited to love Christ so much that no one else loved him thus; so that he despised death and hell; so that he was broken by those fraternal tears." See the same in the eight homilies which he wrote in praise of St. Paul, and especially in the 2nd (which exist at the end of tom. III) and in the sermon immediately following, which is in the commemoration of St. Paul on charity, where among other things explaining that passage I Corinthians IX: "I became all things to all men, that I might save all," he exclaims: "Have you seen, I pray, a soul surpassing earthly things? for he wished to present every man wholly to God, and presented all as far as it depended on him. For as if he himself had begotten the whole world, so was he troubled, so did he care, so did he hasten to lead all into the kingdom of God by teaching, by praying, etc., to raise up the fallen, to strengthen those standing, to lift up those lying on the ground, to heal the contrite, to animate the sluggish with the oil of exhortation, to thunder terribly at enemies, to regard foes menacingly, in the manner of some excellent commander and physician bearing the instruments of his art." Soon he adds the reason: "For when he stood exalted in the citadel of all virtues, yet he surpassed every flame with the special ardor of charity: for as iron cast into fire becomes wholly fire; so Paul, inflamed with charity, became wholly charity: who, as if he were the common father of the whole world, so imitated their very parents in love of men, nay, he surpassed all not only carnal but also spiritual fathers in solicitude and piety, and spent money and words and his soul for those whom he loved." Preachers therefore, who, like Paul, strive to impress the faith and love of Christ upon the faithful, let them burn with the charity of Paul, thus they will inflame the same in others. Thus St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, and follower of St. Paul, when he carried with him only the Gospel of St. Matthew to preach through the provinces, and inflamed all with love of God, being asked from what book he drew forth such sweet and burning eloquence of preaching, answered: "From the book of charity; to this alone apply yourselves, and you will inflame all with similar ardor:" for truly that is so: Let the orator burn, if he wishes to set the people on fire. Morally, charity perfects all virtues, and subordinates and rightly orders them to itself, and prostrates all vices: whence without charity no virtue avails unto salvation, according to that passage, 1 Corinthians XIII, 4: "Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity: but rejoiceth with the truth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things:" thus St. Anselm; whence also the Nyssenus here, homily 7, teaches that charity is adorned and crowned with all virtues, of which he says virginity is the pavement; for by the purity of these virtues, as it were by certain rays of gems, it shines forth. Furthermore Richard of St. Victor, understanding by media the indifferent works, which are between virtue and vice as means, such as eating, drinking, studying, walking, etc.: "These, he says, ought to be strewn with charity, so that they may be done in charity and with good intention, and so that with fraternal charity they may be done in such a way that the weak are not scandalized or weakened by them, but so strewn, that is, made with such equality and discretion, that the soul may walk in all these things without complaint, and may know opportunely how to exercise them, and again to cease from them." Again St. Gregory, taking from Cassiodorus media as an adjective, as it were an epithet of charity, judges that it is called media because by means of it the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the more imperfect souls, will attain to the bridegroom's beatitude, if they unfailingly observe charity, even if there be lacking to them the golden reclining place of contemplation, and the purple ascent of martyrdom, and the silver columns of preaching. Rupertus gives the reason, who, taking the sacred Scripture as the table: "Media, he says, charity strewed," that is, in the midst of the Scriptures he placed the principality of charity, because all other things depend upon it, according to that saying of Christ: "On these two commandments (of loving God and neighbor) dependeth the whole law and the prophets," Matthew XXII, 40. He adds the cause, that charity makes another's good its own and proper, for example, he says: "They are not virgins in the flesh, but by loving the good of virginity in thee, O blessed Mary, they make it their own. No other than thou hath borne King Solomon, a king so great, so magnificent: but they, by loving in thee this so great privilege, become mothers of that same king. Likewise they are not martyrs, nor do they suffice among the strong to fight, and to shed their blood for love of King Solomon, but they love the martyrs, and by loving them, they make their glory their own. Moreover I will say: They are not gods, but by loving God, they are gods, or sons of God, as it is written: I said, You are gods, and all of you the sons of the most High." Finally St. Bernard, On the Degrees of Humility, at the beginning, taking this table of spiritual delicacies, namely of charity and virtues, interprets media charity as that which befits the media, that is, not the beginners, nor the perfect, but the proficient, who are placed in the middle of both: "Media, he says, charity strewed on account of the daughters of Jerusalem, namely on account of the imperfect souls, which, while they are still less able to take that solid food, are to be nourished meanwhile with the milk of charity in place of bread, with oil in place of wine. Which is rightly described as media, whose sweetness is not at hand for the beginners, prevented by fear; nor is it sufficient for the perfect, on account of the more abundant sweetness of contemplation. These are still to be purged from the noxious humors of carnal delights by the most bitter potion of fear, not yet experiencing the sweetness of milk; those already weaned from milk delight more gloriously in feasting from the entrance of glory: for the media alone, that is, the proficient, thus already experienced in certain honeyed little draughts of charity, that they are content with them meanwhile by their own tenderness. The first food therefore is of humility, purgatorial with bitterness; the second of charity, consoling with sweetness; the third of contemplation, solid with fortitude." And after interposing certain passages, he adds pathetically: "Who will invite me to that middle and sweet banquet of charity, where the just feast in the sight of God, and delight in joy, so that now, no longer speaking in the bitterness of my soul, I may say to God: Do not condemn me, Job X, 2; but feasting on unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, joyfully I may sing in the ways of the Lord: For great is the glory of the Lord? Psalm CXXXVII, verse 5. But these things are more ingenious and pious than solid and genuine: for this dish is not one of feasts, but is the seat, or magnificent chariot of the bridegroom and bride: and the middle signifies not a location and seat, as I have said; yet charity can be called middle in this sense, that it is placed and strewn in the middle of the dish. The blessed Virgin's womb and bosom was the most august dish, bearing and carrying the incarnate Word, as I said above, and therefore strewn with middle charity for the daughters of Jerusalem: because Christ, who is charity itself, inspired the greatest grace and charity in the blessed Virgin, so that she herself might bring aid to the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, to souls devoted to her, resorting to her in any difficulty: wherefore she is the mediatrix of God and men, as St. Bernard teaches, sermon 2 On the Assumption of the blessed Virgin: "She," he says, "is our mediatrix; she is she through whom we receive thy mercy, O God; she is she through whom we also receive the Lord Jesus into our homes." Wherefore with great sense of piety the Church daily invokes her: "Hail, queen, mother of mercy; our life, sweetness and hope, hail. To thee we cry, exiles, children of Eve; to thee we sigh, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Come then, our advocate, turn those merciful eyes of thine upon us; and show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb, after this exile, O clement! O pious! O sweet virgin Mary!" Hear St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Assumption: "Who can doubt that Mary's bowels have wholly passed into the affection of charity, in which she herself, who is from God, charity rested bodily for nine months?" And shortly after: "Nor is there on earth a place more worthy than the temple of the virgin's womb, in which Mary received the Son of God; nor in heaven a royal throne, in which Mary's son has exalted Mary today." Hence from the Hebrew it can be translated, and the middle is occupied by him inflamed with love, that is, Christ, who is wholly love and ardor, occupies the middle of the womb and heart of the blessed Virgin, and in her as in a throne and royal seat he sits, and pours forth his charity. Again, the blessed Virgin strewed the manger with charity, when she placed Christ, who is charity itself, newly born in it as on a bed: wherefore the manger was as it were a tabernacle of charity. Just as the gentiles feigned Cupid as the god of love, as it were a winged boy, bearing a bow and arrows, so truly you might paint charity as a winged boy, lying in the manger, scattering flames of ardor: for Christ in the cradle is a hieroglyph and allurement of love; for there the great Lord and exceedingly praiseworthy became a little child and exceedingly lovable: for what is more charming than the little one from Bethlehem charming all, as St. Francis called Christ from the sweetest delights of love? Moreover, the faithful and all churches, but especially the Roman, are devoted to the blessed Virgin: hence Rome alone has built magnificent basilicas and temples in honor of the blessed Virgin to the number of sixty-three (as many as the angelic Salutations are recited in the crown, or rosary of the blessed Virgin), and frequents and devoutly venerates them: wherefore as great is her piety toward the blessed Virgin, so in turn great is the blessed Virgin's liberality toward her and the outpouring of charity and graces.
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GO FORTH AND SEE, DAUGHTERS OF SION, KING SOLOMON IN HIS DIADEM (the Syriac and Arabic versions have "in a crown"), WITH WHICH HIS MOTHER CROWNED HIM ON THE DAY OF HIS ESPOUSALS, AND ON THE DAY OF THE GLADNESS OF HIS HEART. — For mothers were accustomed to crown their sons when they became bridegrooms at weddings; whence Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, in Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, reproaches Achilles that his daughter had been crowned by her for the wedding: "In vain indeed, she says, yet as if my daughter were about to be married to you, I brought her, after I had first crowned her." Philo also, in his Antiquities of Biblical History, introduces the daughter of Jephte, devoted to death by her father through a vow, thus lamenting her virginity: "O my mother, she says, you have borne your only child in vain, because hell has become my bridal chamber; all the preparation of oil which you prepared for me will be poured out; and the white garment which my mother wove, the moth will eat it; and the crown which my nurse wove, will wither in time." St. Chrysostom also, in homily 9 on I Timothy, in the Moral Interpretation, teaches that sons were accustomed to be crowned at weddings: and he adds the reason, that it might be shown that their spirit is altogether higher and superior to the allurements of the flesh: for that crown indicates brightness and purity of mind, which has never yielded to lust: "For this reason indeed, he says, crowns are placed upon the head, that they may be signs of victory, namely that they have previously been impenetrable to lust. Thus they enter the bridal chamber, because they have not been overcome by pleasure. But if anyone, overcome by lust, has given himself over to harlots, for what reason would he go crowned, he who has subjected his neck to such foul lust?" It is the voice of the bride, who calls forth the daughters of Sion, that they go forth from their houses to behold the bridegroom, who, borne upon a litter spread with charity for the sake of these same daughters of Sion, or Jerusalem, was carried magnificently, and crowned with a diadem by his mother on the day of the wedding, proceeding exultant and triumphing, as a new king and bridegroom: for bridegrooms, equally as kings, were accustomed to be crowned with a crown either of flowers, or of leaves, or of gold, or of gems, as Tertullian teaches, in his book On the Crown of the Soldier, Brissonius, On the Rite of Weddings, Alexander ab Alexandro, book II of the Genial Days, chapter V, and Charles Paschalius, book I On Crowns, chapter XVI. Whence Claudian sings thus at the wedding of the Emperor Honorius: You, Hymen, choose the festive torches; you, Grace, select flowers; you, Concord, bind the twin crowns. And Tertullian, On the Crown of the Soldier: "Weddings also crown bridegrooms, he says." Alexander the Great proceeded crowned, when he himself, as a bridegroom, united one hundred Macedonians with as many Persian women in lawful matrimony, as Plutarch testifies, in his book On the Fortune of Alexander. The same Paschalius, chapter XVII, from Plutarch and others, teaches that these crowns of bridegrooms were accustomed to be woven from asparagus and sisymbrium, from vervains, from fir and pine, and that these were indices and witnesses of pleasure, cheerfulness, joy and congratulation: finally, that it was the custom that the new bride should crown the doorway of her husband's house with wool, according to that passage in Proverbs XXXI, 13: "She hath sought wool and flax, and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands." That these nuptial crowns were distinguished, lofty, and as it were turreted, is indicated by that passage from Lucan, book II of the Civil War: And the matron pressing upon her brow a turreted crown. Such indeed was the crown with which Alexander the Great crowned his bride Roxana, as the type of Aelius indicates in Lucian. Furthermore, the bride invites the daughters of Sion to this spectacle of her bridegroom for this purpose, that she might draw them into admiration, love and worship of him; whence she calls him Solomon, that is, peaceful, because he himself will bring to them peace, that is, tranquility, joy, riches, honors, health, happiness and every good (for this is what peace signifies in Hebrew). The diadem was formerly first the insignia of kings, and was nothing other than a white and thin band encircling the head: for διαδεῖν means to bind, to encircle, hence διάδημα is a binding, a fillet; later, as the power, wealth and splendor of kings increased, the band was changed into a golden crown set with gems. "The diadem, says Caelius Rhodiginus, book XXIV, chapter VI, was a white band which was bound around the heads of kings." Which royal insignia was first invented, according to Pliny, by Father Liber. When someone had placed a laurel crown bound with a fillet upon a statue of Caesar, the tribunes of the plebs ordered the fillet to be removed from the crown, and the man to be led into chains. We read that Alexander the Great sometimes removed the diadem from himself, to bind a wound which Lysimachus had received on his forehead. They say this portended to him the kingdom, which indeed soon followed; Ammianus Marcellinus relates that envy was given to Pompey by detractors, because he carried his leg bound with a bandage on account of an ulcer, as if this were a presage of the affectation of new things. Among the Turkish people it is plain that relics of the ancient custom are still preserved. Moreover the Chaldean, relating these things in a Jewish manner to Solomon himself, thus interprets paraphrastically: "When Solomon the king came to make the dedication of the house of the sanctuary, a herald went forth in strength, and thus said: Go forth and see, inhabitants of the provinces of the land of Israel and people of Zion, the diadem and crown, with which the people of Israel crowned King Solomon on the day of the dedication of the house of the sanctuary; and he rejoiced with great joy in the solemnity of the feast of tabernacles, which King Solomon made at that time for fourteen days." With a fivefold diadem or crown Christ the king and spouse of the Church was crowned. First, with the robe of human nature, when He clothed it as a crown with His divinity in the incarnation: for among the Syrians the robe was considered a royal garment and a royal diadem, as Alexander ab Alexandro testifies, book I of Genial Days, chapter XXVIII. Solomon alludes to the epithalamium of Christ and the Church written by his father David, Psalm XVIII, 6, where he himself, comparing Christ the spouse to the sun, says: "In the sun He hath set His tabernacle: and He as a bridegroom coming out of His chamber:" for when the sun rises at dawn, its rays reflected in the night vapors and in the intervening cloud, exhibit the appearance of a crowned head: whence beautifully crowned with splendor it proceeds, as a bridegroom from His chamber. Again, often there is such an accumulation of vapors and arrangement of clouds beneath the sun, that the sun shining through them produces a halo, that is a crown, with which it is itself encircled, adorned and crowned: thus likewise the Eternal Word, assuming flesh, vibrating through it the rays of His divinity, that flesh shining through like a cloud and gleaming, as with a halo and crown, beautifully crowned and adorned proceeded: for Christ in the incarnation espoused to Himself human nature, which He assumed in the inseparable bond of union, so that He would adhere to it forever, and would never abandon it; and through the flesh which He assumed, He consequently espoused to Himself, and united to Himself the whole human nature and the whole Church: for He assumed flesh for this end, and crowned with the diadem of flesh proceeded. Moreover with this robe and crown of humanity He was clothed and crowned by His mother, namely by the Blessed Virgin: because she herself from her most pure blood, the Holy Spirit overshadowing, formed the body of Christ in her womb. Add, that Christ through the Blessed Virgin, as the daughter and heiress of King David, received the kingdom and royal crown of Israel, as it were by hereditary succession— seems to have obtained it; whence alluding to this, the angel, the paranymph of Christ's incarnation, says to the Blessed Virgin among other things concerning him: "And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever," Luke I, 32: for to David God had promised this kingdom of the Messiah, or of Christ to be born from David, saying: "Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy seat," Psalm CXXXI, 11. Thus by the diadem they understand the human nature, which Christ assumed in the incarnation, in this place St. Gregory, Bede, Alcuin, Honorius, Cassiodorus, Philo, and St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, and St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, cap. XVI, who thus speaks: "Blessed is the womb of Mary, which crowned so great a Lord when it formed him; it crowned him when it brought him forth, because although it formed him without any operation of its own (since the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin, whence he himself says in the Psalm: My substance was not hid from thee, Psalm CXXXVIII, 16), yet by this very fact, that she conceived and bore him for the salvation of all, she placed upon his head a crown of eternal mercy, so that through the faith of believers Christ became the head of every man." Hear St. Gregory: "The blessed Mary, Mother of Christ, is believed to have crowned him with a diadem, because he himself assumed our humanity from her, as is recounted in the Gospel, and this is said to have been done on the day of his espousals, and on the day of the gladness of his heart; because when the only-begotten Son of God willed to join his divinity to our humanity, when by his good will at the opportune time it pleased him to take unto himself the Church as his bride, then with the exultation of charity he willed to take our flesh from a virgin mother: in which, living for a time with sorrows, he greatly exulted over our redemption." St. Gregory then objects, and at the same time answers: "But since a diadem is assumed for glory, and in the assumption of humanity, not the glory of the Word of God, but humility is recognized, how is it said that he was crowned as it were with a diadem of our humanity? But since his incarnation itself was truly our glory, because we are his members through the communion of his body, Scripture well foretold a diadem of the members of the head: here therefore because he is praised by the bride, and he himself in turn deigns to praise the bride." This is what Isaiah, foreseeing 600 years before, exulting in spirit sang, cap. LXI, vers. 10: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels." See the remarks there. Therefore the day of the incarnation was a day of espousals and gladness, both of Christ and of men and angels: for Christ rejoiced in his humanity so noble, holy and perfect, that through it he was about to reconcile men to God; whence the angels exulting then sang: "Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace to men of good will," Luke II, 13. This is what Sophonias foretold, cap. III, vers. 14: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion: shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King will come to thee, the just and saviour: and on that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Fear not: Sion, let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save: he will rejoice over thee with gladness, he will be silent in his love, he will be joyful over thee in praise;" Septuagint: And he shall rejoice in thee with delight as on a solemn day: see the remarks there: for in this canticle the first bride of the Word is the humanity assumed by him, whose marriage is celebrated here. Secondly, just as Christ in the first year and day of his incarnation was crowned with the diadem of his humanity on the 25th of March, so likewise in the 34th and final year of his life, when the same day of the 25th of March returned, he was crowned with a crown of thorns by his mother (or rather stepmother) the Synagogue, namely by the Jews crucifying Christ: for that Christ suffered and died on the same day on which he was incarnate, namely the 25th of March, is taught by St. Augustine, lib. IV De Trinit. cap. IV, Epiphanius, hæres. 78 and 79, Francis Suarez, and very many others. For in death Christ, paying the price of our redemption, purchased the Church, that is us the faithful, in a manner as it were perfect, betrothed her, and joined her to himself; whence as a bridegroom he was then crowned with a crown, but a thorny one, because suffering and satisfying for the thorns of our sins; whence Isidore of Pelusium, lib. I, epist. 95: "Because," he says, "by that curse with which the earth was punished after the commandment was violated by us, thorny growth was produced; but the Lord, in order to heal every disease in himself, had come, and therefore was crowned with a thorny crown as victor: just as indeed famous and celebrated victors do, who carry that very weapon or instrument by means of which they obtained victory into their triumph. Be confident," says the Lord, "I have overcome the world." Christ therefore with this thorny crown as it were triumphal, as king of the Jews, that is of those confessing and praising God, crowned and diademed, triumphed over passion, cross, death, sin, the demon, and hell. For this reason Christians of old were unwilling to be crowned with roses, because Christ was crowned with thorns, as Tertullian teaches, lib. De Corona militis. And Clement of Alexandria, lib. II Pædag. cap. V: "It is contrary to reason," he says, "that we who have heard that the Lord was crowned with thorns, should ourselves, insulting the venerable passion of the Lord in sport, have our heads crowned with flowers." Wherefore Godfrey of Bouillon, who after receiving the Holy Land was the first of Christians to be made king of Jerusalem, was unwilling to be crowned with a golden crown, saying: "That he was unwilling to be crowned with gold in that city in which Christ was crowned with thorns," as William of Tyre relates in De Bello sacro, and Paul Æmilius, lib. IV De Rebus Francorum, near the end. Thus this diadem from the thorny crown of Christ is explained by Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Aponius, Anselm, Philo, Justus Orgelitanus, St. Bernard and others. Hear Theodoret: "He calls her mother," he says, "the Jewish people insofar as it pertains to the humanity of Christ, which unwillingly imposed upon him a crown of contempt: for she crowned him with thorns on account of contempt, but he himself through the thorns received a diadem of charity: for he bore ignominy on his brow, and willingly went to the torments of death: wherefore he called that day of dispensation, and the day of the gladness of his heart. For then the communion of the nuptials was made," namely at the last supper, when shortly before the passion he instituted the nuptial banquet, namely the Eucharist, as Theodoret adds. Furthermore St. Athanasius, tract. De Passione et cruce, teaches that Christ was crowned with thorns for two reasons. First, in order to expiate and remove that curse upon the earth: "Cursed is the earth in thy work. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," Gen. cap. III, vers. 17. Secondly, in order to take upon himself the stings of our thorns, that is of our cares and anxieties: "For he himself," he says, "was in sorrows and cares, that we might be free from sorrows, etc., and in place of thorns would give the wood of life." Hear St. Bernard, serm. 2 De Epiphania: "Go forth, angelic virtues, inhabitants of the heavenly city. Behold your king, but in our crown, in the diadem with which his mother crowned him. But you have been deprived of these delights until now, you have not tasted this sweetness until now. You have his sublimity, but you have not seen his humility. Go forth therefore and see king Solomon in the diadem with which his mother crowned him, in the crown of poverty, in the crown of misery. For indeed he was crowned also by his stepmother with a thorny crown, a crown of misery, to be crowned by his family with a crown of justice; when the angels shall go forth and remove from his kingdom all scandals, when he shall come to judgment with the elders of his people, when the whole world shall fight for him against the senseless. And his father crowns him with a crown of glory, as the Psalmist says: Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour," Psalm. VIII, 6. The third crown of Christ was that of glory, when on the third day He rose from death to life in a glorious body, and on the fortieth day ascended to heaven, and sat at the right hand of God the Father on the throne of glory, as it were a victor over death and triumphing over it, crowned with divine light, according to that: "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour," Psalm VIII, 6; and Hebrews II, 9 and seq.: "We see," he says, "Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour:" for the day of Easter, or of the Resurrection, as well as of the Ascension, was a day of joy and of the espousal of Christ, namely when Christ, now no longer mortal and destined to die, as before, but immortal and glorious forever, espoused to Himself both the Church then present and the Church to come, and promised to her a resurrection glory like unto His own, according to that, Psalm XCII, 1: "The Lord hath reigned, He is clothed with beauty." Tertullian gives the final cause, in his book On the Crown of the Soldier, near the end: "That," he says, "thou, O Christian, mayest emulate that crown of Christ, which afterwards came to Him, because He also tasted honeycomb after gall, nor was the King of glory saluted by the heavenly beings before the King of the Jews was inscribed upon the cross; being made a little lower than the angels at first by the Father, and thus crowned with glory and honour." The fourth crown was that of dominion and kingdom, with which He was crowned on the day of Pentecost, when, the Holy Spirit being sent upon the apostles, through them He converted many thousands of the Jews, and subjected them to Himself, and shortly after through the same apostles subjected all nations to His faith and obedience: for then He espoused to Himself, as it were by words of the present tense, and joined in marriage the Church gathered together both from the Gentiles and from the Jews. For as God on Sinai, giving the law to Moses and the Hebrews at Pentecost, espoused the Synagogue to Himself: so also Christ on Sion, giving the new law and promulgating it at Pentecost through the Apostles, espoused the Church to Himself. This is what Jeremiah says, cap. II, 2: "I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the charity of thy espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert;" and a bride is the ornament and crown of the bridegroom: for, as the Wise Man says: "A woman (a bride) that loveth, is a crown to her husband," Proverbs XII, 4. The Church therefore, which is the bride of Christ, is His crown, just as the faithful and saints are the crown of the Church, according to that, Isaiah XLIX, 18: "Thou shalt be clothed with them all as with an ornament, and shalt bind them on thee as a bride;" and cap. LXI, 10: "As a bridegroom decked with a crown," and cap. LXII, 3: "Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of the kingdom in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken, but thou shalt be called My Delight in her: because the Lord hath been pleased with thee, etc. And the bridegroom shall rejoice over thee, and thy God shall rejoice over thee." Hence St. Paul calls the Thessalonians converted by him his crown, I epistle II, 19: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you before our Lord? etc., for you are our glory and joy." And Philippians IV, 1: "My dearest brethren and most desired, my joy and my crown: so stand fast in the Lord, my dearest." Thus St. Ambrose, sermon 15 on Psalm CXVIII, says that all saints, and all their virtues and crowns are the crown of Christ: "What," he says, "is the crown with which Christ is crowned, if not the crown of glory? Joseph had a crown of chastity, Paul of justice, Peter of faith, the crowns of individual virtues are: Christ alone has the crown of glory, with which the Church has crowned Him. In this crown all crowns are; because glory is not the portion of one crown, but the reward of all crowns." Thus also Aponius and Nyssenus, homily 7. Therefore, as many good works as thou doest from the grace of Christ, so many roses dost thou weave into the head and crown of Christ: just as as many Hail Marys as thou recites to the Blessed Virgin, so many roses dost thou weave into her head, that it may become a rosary and crown of the Virgin. Moreover this crown is as much triumphal as it is nuptial and royal: for Christ with the arms of His eloquence and grace, through the apostles, subjected all nations to Himself; whence St. John compares Him to a rider and a white horse, Apocalypse VI, 2: "And behold," he says, "a white horse, and he that sat upon him had a bow, and there was given to him a crown, and he went forth conquering that he might conquer," all nations by piercing them with the arrows of love and subjecting them to Himself; and cap. XIV, verse 14: "And I saw, and behold a white cloud: and upon the cloud one sitting like to the Son of man, having on his head a crown of gold, and in his hand a sharp sickle." The fifth crown of Christ, both nuptial and triumphal, will be that of the blessed in heaven: for He Himself on the day of judgment, casting down the reprobate as His enemies into the depths, will lead His faithful and elect to heaven: and there He will join them in perpetual nuptial love with eternal glory, and will crown them as with a crown of glory, according to that passage, Apocalypse XIX, 6: "Alleluia: for the Lord our God the Almighty hath reigned. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath prepared herself, and it is given to her to cover herself with fine linen glittering and white. For the fine linen are the justifications of the saints. And he said to me: Write: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb;" and verse 12: "And on His head are many diadems;" and verse 16: "And He hath written on His garment and on His thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords." Moreover all these crowns of Christ are in His throne, namely in the Roman Church: the first indeed, because the Roman Church especially preaches and celebrates the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, and defends it most vigorously against all the heresies of Nestorius, Eutyches, Apollinaris, the Monothelites, etc., as is evident from the golden Letter of St. Leo written on this matter to the Council of Chalcedon. Hence also at Rome in the basilica of St. Mary Major the manger, in which Christ reclined and was crowned as it were with swaddling bands as with a diadem, is preserved: indeed the very church in which the Blessed Virgin received the message of the Incarnation, and the Word was made flesh, the angels transported from Nazareth to Loreto, which is situated not far from Rome. The second; because St. Helena brought from Jerusalem to Rome the holy cross, the nails, and the thorns of the crown of thorns of Christ, and placed them in the basilica of the Holy Cross, which is named from this in Jerusalem; where I myself have beheld and venerated them at close hand, and every year they are shown from on high to the people from a distance, and are presented for veneration. The third, because the Roman Church constantly preaches the faith of the Resurrection, and defends it against all sectarians, as St. Gregory did, who convicted and converted before the emperor Eutyches the patriarch of Constantinople, who denied the Resurrection; and many thousands of martyrs at Rome confessed and professed the Resurrection not by speaking, but by dying for its sake, constantly in deed. The fourth and fifth, because all the faithful nations, just as they are a crown of Christ, so also are they a crown of the Roman Church, both because they were converted by the apostles and apostolic men subject to St. Peter and the Roman Pontiff, and sent by him; and because they themselves are subject to it, and are instructed by it in faith and morals, and are directed to the heavenly Jerusalem, namely to eternal happiness and glory. For this reason the Roman Pontiff is encircled with a triple crown, so that he may represent the full kingdom of Christ over all nations, which he himself administers as the vicar of Christ, namely this is a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom, as St. Peter says, I Epistle cap. II, verse 9. See the sayings there; see also Carolus Paschalius, lib. IX On Crowns, final chapter. Tropologically, St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, cap. V, understands by the diadem charity, with which Christ was crowned, that is, surrounded and filled on all sides by the mother of Christ, namely by charity itself: "The angels," he says, "sing the epithalamium, the bride having been led even to the nuptial rest of the bridegroom, and they call the other heavenly powers, or souls, that they may see the charity which Christ has toward the daughters of Jerusalem. Whence also the Son of charity merited to be crowned by His mother, according to that of the Apostle: God hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, Colossians I, 13. The Son of charity therefore and He Himself is charity, not having charity from accidents, but having always His substance, as also His kingdom, of which He says: For this was I born, John XVIII, 37: and therefore they say: Go forth, that is go out from the cares and thoughts of the world, go out from bodily straits, go out from the vanities of the world, and see how the peaceful king on the day of His espousals has charity, how glorious He is, because He gave resurrection to bodies, and joined souls to Himself. This is a great crown of the contest. This excellent gift of the espousals of Christ, His blood and His passion. For who could give more, He who did not even spare Himself?" Thus also Theodoret and Nyssenus, hom. 7, who says: "Love wove this crown."
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the faithful soul. The faithful soul goes forth, so that it may admire, venerate and imitate Christ crowned in the flesh of humility, and with the thorny diadem of patience on the cross, and may learn from Him not to shrink from, but to desire and glory in, the thorny crown of mortification, whether voluntarily undertaken or inflicted from without: because by these thorns the harmful pleasure is crucified, and the concupiscence innate to us from Adam's sin, for the pain of thorns extinguishes the love and concupiscence of feasting. Christ, as he says, poured out His blood for you, and therefore by right demands your blood. The pious therefore rejoice in thorns, saying: "We glory in tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh patience." Rom. V, 3. But the impious rejoice in roses, saying: "Let us crown ourselves with roses before they wither," Wisdom II, 8; whence St. Peter, I Epistle IV, 14: "If you be reproached, he says, in the name of Christ, blessed are you: because that which is of the honour, glory and virtue of God, and who is His Spirit, resteth upon you;"; and Christ: "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matt. V, 10. Such was Moses, who "denied himself to be the son of the daughter of Pharao, choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have the pleasure of sin for a time, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians: for he looked unto the reward," Heb. XI, 24. "Let it shame, says St. Bernard, serm. 5, in the Feast of all Saints, a member to become delicate under a thorny head, when all the purple meanwhile is to it not so much of honour as of mockery." Moreover, these thorns are a crown of joy and gladness, because they produce that, both in this life and in the future; whence St. James at the beginning of his epistle, cap. I, 2: "All joy, he says, count it, my brethren, when you shall fall into divers temptations," etc. For this reason St. Catherine of Siena, when two crowns were offered to her by Christ, one thorny, the other golden, and the choice was given to her to select which she wished, but she knew that the other would be given to her after death, immediately chose the thorny one, so that after death she might receive the golden one in heaven; and she fixed it so forcefully upon her head that she felt severe headaches for many days. Therefore, as many injuries, diseases, fastings, hardships, pains as we suffer for the love of Christ, so many thorns of Christ's crown do we weave upon our head. Whence an angel appearing to Blessed Lydwina (as her Life has it among Surius), who had been afflicted for more than 30 years with the most severe diseases of head and body, announced to her near the end of her life that her thorny crown was nearly perfect, only a little something remaining, for which reason she should prepare herself to suffer it: when that was completed, the crown of patience would be perfect, and therefore soon the crown of glory would be placed upon her in heaven. As he said, so it came to pass. For this reason Richard of St. Victor here in cap. XIII, urging you to go forth, teaches that the troubled and tempted ought to look upon Christ's thorny crown; for just as this produced for Christ a crown of glory, so also will it produce one for them: "Judea, he says, when she inflicted martyrdom upon Christ, fabricated for Him a crown and glory, etc. (so also those who afflict us are the makers of our crown, and therefore are to be loved, not hated). O daughters of Sion, when you suffer adversity, go forth from your imperfection and impatience, so that you may bear lightly the evils inflicted upon you; see your king suffering before you, and through suffering crowned with glory and honour: consider the joy of your king. Propose this example to yourselves." Thus Richard. Again, the pious soul beholds Christ in the Eucharist with a diadem, that is, veiled and crowned as it were with the white bands of the species of bread, receives Him and unites Him to itself and as it were espouses Him: for in the Eucharist the nuptial banquet of Christ and the soul is celebrated, as Theodoret and Aponius say. Tropologically, daughters of Sion, that is, watchtowers, namely the soul devoutly and frequently contemplates in prayer Christ born, suffered and crowned with thorns as it were the spouse of its soul, and is wonderfully inflamed in His love; for which reason it is necessary that they first go forth from the imagination and love of carnal and worldly things. "Go forth, says St. Bernard, serm. 2 De Epiphan., from the sense of flesh to the understanding of mind, from the servitude of carnal concupiscence to the freedom of spiritual understanding: go forth from your land and from your kindred." The Blessed Virgin as it were crowned Christ with a diadem, or stole, and a most brilliant band of humanity, which bound up our wounds patiently on the cross, as I said a little before; whence to him reclining in the manger, to be beheld, looked upon and adored, the Blessed Virgin invites the daughters of Sion, that is all angels and men. Hear Rupert: "What, says he, is this diadem? The most brilliant authority of prophetic truth, of which as many are the proclamations, so many are the gems of Christ's diadem; on the day of his espousals, when as a bridegroom he came forth from Mary's womb from his bridal chamber, and on the day of the gladness of his heart when crowned with a thorny crown he completed his labour, and gladdened by the triumph of the subsequent resurrection. And on the day of that gladness, and on the day of his espousals in that diadem he is to be seen, and from that diadem is to be known how great he is." Whence St. Augustine, book IV of the Confessions, chapter XII: "He came, says he, to us first in a virginal womb, where human nature, mortal flesh, yet not always mortal, espoused him, and thence as a bridegroom coming forth from his bridal chamber he exulted as a giant to run his course, Psalm XVIII, 6: for he did not delay, but ran crying out in words, in deeds, in death, in life, in descent, in ascent, crying out that we return to him, and he departed from our eyes that we might return to our heart, and find him." Hugo of St. Victor adds, in the second book of his Miscellanies, book I, chapter XXX, that the Blessed Virgin crowned Christ with the crown of justice, which consists in the ordering and equalization of four passions of the soul, namely love and fear, joy and sadness: for he who has these four ordered, he is just, that is composed: he who has them disordered, unjust; but Christ assumed them most perfectly ordered from the purest flesh of the Blessed Virgin, in which they were supremely ordered and composed, for she was free from all concupiscence and disturbance: "for children for the most part take after their mother," and assume the character and manners of the mother rather than the father, as Tiraquellus teaches from Galen, Aristotle, Avicenna, Albert the Great and others, book II on Marriage, number 73. To this pertains that which is predicted of Christ, Psalm XLIV, verse 5: "Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty. With thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign. Because of truth and meekness and justice." Hear Hugo: "A stepmother, a father, and a mother crowned him (Christ): the Synagogue as a stepmother, the Virgin as a mother, God as his Father. The stepmother crowned him with a crown of thorns and misery, the mother with a crown of justice, the father with a crown of glory. The thorny crown pricked him materially on the outside, spiritually on the inside, not for his own, but for our crimes, that we for our thorns might not disdain to be pierced with him. The mother's crown adorned him with four precious stones. These are the principal four affections of the soul, joy, love, sadness, fear. These affections, as blessed Augustine says, when ordered, are justice; when disordered, injustice. Because therefore our Solomon assumed them ordered from the Virgin, she crowned him with the aforesaid crown of justice. But that you may come to the full knowledge of the third diadem, with which God the Father crowned him with glory and honour, depart from vices, see with faith, and in operation, and in imitation him crowned with the crown with which his mother crowned him, that you may have the aforesaid affections ordered by his example, he himself granting it. Who," etc.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
3:5
… Thus one appeals to maternal love, to patriotism, to honor, etc., in order to impel more effectively to act in a determined way (cf. Cant. 2:7; 3:5; 5:8-9; 8:4). Understood as an act of religion, adjuration consists in the direct or indirect invocation of the name of God in order to induce others to something by command or by prayer.
3:6
Myrrh (Heb. Môr; LXX Αὐωρία; Lat. Myrrha)
… Various biblical passages (Ps. 44:9; 48:8; Prov. 7:17; Cant. 3:6) speak of beds and garments perfumed with myrrh. …
3:11
Although allusions to accessory or ceremonial elements are not lacking (cf. Gen. 29:22, 27; Ecclus. 14:10; Ps. 18:6; Is. 61:10; Jer. 7:34; 16:9; Cant. 3:11; I Mach. 9:37; Mt. 25:1 etc.), in the Bible only in Tob. 8:24 is there mention of a written document drawn up at the time of the marriage.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.