The spouse of Christ is but one: she is fair and terrible.
1My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.Il mio Diletto è disceso nel suo orto all'arcola degli aromati per pascolare negli orti, e cogliere de' gigli.MY beloued is gone downe into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feede in the gardens, and to gather lilies.Sponsa. Dilectus meus descendit in hortum suum ad areolam aromatum, / ut pascatur in hortis, et lilia colligat. 2I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies.Io al mio Diletto, e a me il Diletto mio, il quale tra' gigli pascola.I to my beloued, and my beloued to me, who feedeth among the lilies.Ego dilecto meo, et dilectus meus mihi, / qui pascitur inter lilia. 3Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem terrible as an army set in array.Bella se' tu, o amica mia, soave, e splendida come Gerusalemme, terribile come un esercito messo in ordine di battaglia.Thou art fayre ô my loue, sweete, and comelie as Hierusalem: terrible as the armie of a campe set in aray.Sponsus. Pulchra es, amica mea; / suavis, et decora sicut Jerusalem; / terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata. 4Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Galaad.Volgi da me gli occhi tuoi, perch'ei mi fecero sorvolare: i tuoi capelli come un gregge di capre, che spuntano dal Galaad.Turne away thine eies from me, because they haue made me flee away. Thy heares as a flocke of goates, which haue appeared from Galaad.Averte oculos tuos a me, / quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt. / Capilli tui sicut grex caprarum / quæ apparuerunt de Galaad. 5Thy teeth as a flock of sheep, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them.I tuoi denti come un gregge di pecorelle, che tornano dal lavatoio, tutte con parti gemelli, e sterile tra queste non è.Thy teeth as à flocke of sheepe, which haue come vp from the lauatorie, al with twinnes, and there is no barren among them.Dentes tui sicut grex ovium / quæ ascenderunt de lavacro: / omnes gemellis fœtibus, / et sterilis non est in eis. 6Thy cheeks are as the bark of a pomegranate, beside what is hidden within thee.Come la scorza di melagrana, così le tue guance senza quello, che in te si nasconde.As the barke of a pomegranate, so are thy cheekes beside thy hidden.Sicut cortex mali punici, sic genæ tuæ, / absque occultis tuis. 7There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number.Sessanta sono le regine, e ottanta le spose di secondo ordine, e le fanciulle sono senza numero.There are threescore queenes, & fourescore concubines, and of yongmaydes there is no number.Sexaginta sunt reginæ, et octoginta concubinæ, / et adolescentularum non est numerus.
8One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed: the queens and concubines, and they praised her.Una è la mia colomba, la mia perfetta, ella è unica della sua madre, eletta alla sua genitrice: la videro le donzelle, e beatissima la chiamarono; le regine, e le spose di secondo ordine, e la lodarono.My doue is one, my perfect one, she is the only to her mother, elect to her that bare her. The daughters haue seene her, and declared her to be most blessed: the queenes and concubines, and haue praysed her.Una est columba mea, perfecta mea, / una est matris suæ, electa genetrici suæ. / Viderunt eam filiæ, et beatissimam prædicaverunt; / reginæ et concubinæ, et laudaverunt eam. 9Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?Chi è costei, che esce fuora come aurora sorgente, bella come la luna, eletta come il sole, terribile come un esercito messo in ordine di battaglia?What is she, that cometh forth as the morning rysing, fayre as the moone, elect as the sunne, terrible as the armie of a campe set in aray?Quæ est ista quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, / pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, / terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata ? 10I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valleys, and to look if the vineyard had flourished, and the pomegranates budded.Io discesi nell'orto delle noci per vedere i pomi delle valli, ed osservare se la vigna fosse fiorita, e se germogliassero i melagrani.I came downe into the garden of nuttes, to see the fruites of the valles, and to looke if the vineyarde had florished, and the pomegranats budded.Sponsa. Descendi in hortum nucum, / ut viderem poma convallium, / et inspicerem si floruisset vinea, / et germinassent mala punica. 11I knew not: my soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab.Io fui nell'ignoranza: l'anima mia mi conturbò per ragione dei cocchi di Aminadab.I knew not: my soule trubled me for the chariotes of Aminadab.Nescivi: anima mea conturbavit me, / propter quadrigas Aminadab. 12Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee.Ritorna, ritorna, o Sulamitide ritorna, ritorna, affinchè non ti veggiamo.Returne, returne ô Sulamitesse: returne, returne that we may behold thee.Chorus. Revertere, revertere, Sulamitis ! / revertere, revertere ut intueamur te.
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Worthington
Lilies. The church teaches, that God is delighted with the pious desires and works of the faithful. (Worthington)
Calmet
She answers the question which had been put to her. (Calmet)
Menochius
God associates lilies, or the perfect, to his angels. He "feeds his flock," and "is fed," on works of piety, as Hebrew and Septuagint imply both. (Menochius)
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Calmet
Beloved. She speaks thus, when she finds him, and runs to his embraces, having found what trouble her neglect had occasioned. (Calmet)
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Worthington
Thou. Christ again commends his Church, which is well composed of distinct orders, some governing, others retired from the world, and the rest exercising works of mercy, amid its troubles, who altogether form a complete army, terrible to all her enemies. (Worthington)
Theodoret
Jerusalem. Which was then one of the finest cities in the east. (Calmet) The Catholic Church resembles the heavenly Jerusalem. (Theodoret)
Calmet
Terrible. So great is the power of love, (Romans 8:35.) in the martyrs, and of the Church, against infidels! (Calmet)
Menochius
She is lovely to Christ, and terrible to the wicked. Even her spouse is wounded by her glance. (Menochius)
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Worthington
Turn. The more one contemplates God's majesty, the more he will be convinced that it is incomprehensible. (Worthington)
Theodoret
To pry into mysteries, may cause Christ to retire. (Theodoret, etc.)
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Worthington
Number. The true pastors are numerous, but hirelings more so. The faithful are innumerable, and all are united in the same faith. (Worthington)
Origen † AD 253
The spouse and the queens represent the more prefect; the concubines, or wives of inferior degree, those who are led by fear; and the maidens, such as are languid and negligent. (Origen)
Haydock
The Roman Church is at the head of all metropolitan, episcopal, and parochial Churches. (Haydock)
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Worthington
Who. The companions of the spouse, (Calmet) or the synagogue, admire the Christian Church. (Worthington)
Calmet
Morning. Aurora. The Church dissipated the darkness of paganism; she appeared as the moon under persecution, and as the sun, after the conversion of Constantine. (Calmet)
Ven. Bede
The like will happen in the days of antichrist. (Ven. Bede)
Menochius
The religion of the patriarchs may be compared to the morning-star: that of Moses, to the moon; and of Christ, to the sun. (Menochius)
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Montanus
Aminadab. The devil, (Theodoret) or probably some renowned general. Aquila explains it "of the people's leader," (Calmet) or "munificent one." (Montanus)
Menochius
I knew not what forced me to flee with such speed, as if I had been panic-struck, (Calmet) or the spouse professes that she knew not that he had retired into the garden of nuts, or she would not have been under apprehensions of his being ill-treated by Aminadab, as Christ was by Pilate. (Menochius)
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My beloved is gone down into his garden.... Christ, pleased with the good works of his holy and devout servants labouring in his garden, is always present with them: but the words is gone down, are to be understood, that after trying his Church by permitting persecution, he comes to her assistance and she rejoices at his coming.
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One is my dove, etc.... That is, my church is one, and she only is perfect and blessed.
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Who is she, etc.... Here is a beautiful metaphor describing the church from the beginning. As, the morning rising, signifying the church before the written law; fair as the moon, shewing her under the light of the gospel: and terrible as an army, the power of Christ’s church against its enemies.
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The Church teacheth her children that Christ is delighted with the godlie desires, and fructful vvorkes of the faithful.
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Christ g••••e commendeth his Church, wel composed of distinct orders (some gouerning, some retired in clo•sters from this world, the rest also exercising vvorkes of mercie, in the trubles of this life) al together making a complete armie terrible to al enimies.
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The more anie contemplate Gods Maiestie, the better they perceiue that he is incomprensensible.
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Manie true pastores,
more hyrelinges, that also preach truth, but for temporal commoditie.
And innumerable faithful soules in the Church.
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Al vvhich are but one bodie in vnitie of •aith
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The voice of the old synagogue, admiring the beautie of Christs Church
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The Church of Christ exhorteth the Synagogue of the Ievves to returne to Christ.
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
… and again, Myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices . Now these are the symbols of the burying; and in the Gospels it is said, The women came unto the sepulchre bringing the spices which they had prepared : Nicodemus also bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes . And farther on it is written, I did eat My bread with My honey
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.31
… Let none murmur against the goodman of the house, for he says, Friend, I do thee no wrong; is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own ? The robber has a will to work righteousness, but death prevents him; I wait not exclusively for the work, but faith also I accept. I am come who feed My sheep among the lilies
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.9
… “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south, and blow upon My garden, that My spices may flow out.” For from all parts of the world has the perfume of holy religion increased, and the limbs of the consecrated Virgin have glowed. “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem.”
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St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 7.3
… Undoubtedly these are the souls whom the Word calls alone His chosen spouse and His sister, but the rest concubines and virgins and daughters, speaking thus:
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 7.7
… For “there are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my undefiled, is but one.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.12
… In the Book of Songs we read as follows:—“there are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.24
… He passes on to Solomon, through whom wisdom itself sang its own praises. Seeing that not content with dwelling upon his praises, he calls him uxorious, I am surprised that he did not add the words of the Canticles:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.3
… from the letters of Cyprian himself, that bad men, while by no means converted to a better mind, can have, and confer, and receive baptism, of whom it is most clear that they do not belong to the holy Church of God, though they seem to be within it, inasmuch as they are covetous, robbers, usurers, envious, evil thinkers, and the like; while she is one dove,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 5
10. This, then, my brethren, John learned. What John learned by means of the dove let us also learn. For the dove did not teach John without teaching the Church, the Church to which it was said, “My dove is one.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 6.6
… For by this authority, which Christ has retained to Himself alone, and conferred upon none of His ministers, though He has deigned to baptize by His ministers; by this authority, I say, stands the unity of the Church, which is figured in the dove, concerning which it is said, “My dove is one, the only one of her mother.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 142.3
… That which is “the way” is also “the ways,” just as “the Church” is also “the Churches,” the “heaven” also the “heavens:” they are spoken of in the plural, they are spoken of also in the singular. On account of the unity of the Church it is one Church; “My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 75.2
2. But that the Church is one, the Holy Spirit declares in the Song of Songs, saying, in the person of Christ, “My dove, my undefiled, is one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Unity of the Church 4
… but the beginning proceeds from unity. Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person of our Lord, and says, “My dove, my spotless one, is but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her.”
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 39
… But those Churches are not without spot or wrinkle of unfaithfulness. And therefore the Prophet said of them, “I hate the Church of the malignants, and I will not sit with the ungodly.” But of this Church which keeps the faith of Christ entire, hear what the Holy Spirit says in the Canticles, “My dove is one; the perfect one of her mother is one.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.24
… 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.” And He will answer: “My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.41
… “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” Then shall the angels say with wonder: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?” “The daughters shall see you and bless you; yea, the queens shall proclaim and the concubines shall praise you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 1.11
… for the Holy Spirit does not work the remission of sins except in the Church. And if our communion is the Church of Christ, then your communion is not the Church of Christ. For that is one, wherever it is, of which it is said, "My dove is but one; she is the only one of her mother;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 3.17
Chapter 17.— 22. "For as regards the fact that to preserve the figure of unity the Lord gave the power to Peter that whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed," it is clear that that unity is also described as one dove without fault.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.3
… in any way to belong to that Church, which He so purifies by the washing of water, "that He may present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." But if they are not in that Church to whose members they do not belong, they are not in the Church of which it is said, "My dove is but one; she is the only one of her mother;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.10
17. Now, therefore, the question is, how could men of the party of the devil belong to the Church, which has no spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, of which also it is said, "My dove is one?"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.34
… And this is indeed in the Catholic Church, but not in it alone, as neither is it in the saints alone who are built upon the rock, and of whom that one dove is composed.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 7.51
Chapter 51.— 99. Taking all these things, therefore, into consideration, I think that I am not rash in saying that there are some in the house of God after such a fashion as not to be themselves the very house of God, which is said to be built upon a rock, which is called the one dove,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.14
… that is, into higher places ye shall be lifted up, adhering however to the bond of the Church. For I think no other dove silvered can be better perceived here, than that whereof hath been said, “One is My dove.”
Early Popes (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals) The Epistles of Pope Fabian 3.5
… Whence it is written, “A brother aiding a brother shall be exalted.” For the Church of God ought to be without spot or wrinkle, and therefore it ought not to be trodden and defiled by certain persons; for it is written, “My dove, my undefiled, is but one.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.41
… Then shall your Spouse himself come forward and say: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” Then shall the angels say with wonder: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?”
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MY BELOVED WENT DOWN INTO HIS GARDEN TO THE BED OF AROMATIC SPICES, TO FEED IN THE GARDENS, AND TO GATHER LILIES. — The Arabic version has "to gather lilies": for "bed of aromatic spices," in Hebrew it is ערוגות arugoth, which Aquila and Symmachus render πρασιάς, that is, furrows, beds; Pagninus renders it "lines of furrows"; the Septuagint, however, translates it "phials," by which the Nyssene, homily 15, understands holy souls, which bring forth the aromata of virtues: for these are such that, made into vessels of wisdom, they receive divine and incorruptible wine within themselves, through which they obtain all joy; whence St. Jerome, on Psalm XLI, 1, for what the Septuagint translates, "As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after thee, O God," translates it, "As a bed prepared for irrigations of waters, so my soul prepared for thee, O God." See what is said at chapter V, verse 13. The Bride, when asked by the young maidens where the Bridegroom has gone, answers that he has gone into his garden: thus St. Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret and others. She names first the garden, then gardens in the plural, because just as in one large and vast garden there are many smaller ones, so in one general Church there are many particular ones: thus Gregory, Bede and others. Furthermore, the Bride, having indicated to the young maidens the place of the Bridegroom, namely that he was in his garden, immediately set out there with them, and there finding the Bridegroom, was received and praised by him, when he said: "Thou art all fair," as we shall hear in verse 3; for in verbal drama actions are passed over in silence, and are left to be understood by readers from what follows.
Christ transferred His faith and piety, excluded by the Arians and other impious men in the East, to the West, from Greece to Italy, from Africa to Spain, from Asia to India; but especially at the end of the world He will transfer it from all provinces to Judea, when He will convert it through Elias and Enoch, as I said at the end of the preceding chapter: for Judea is properly the garden of Christ, inasmuch as He Himself was born and raised in it from Abraham, David, and the other faithful kings, and first established the faith and Christian religion in it; whence in it the apostles and first faithful flourished with wonderful holiness; yet the greater part of the Jews remained obstinate in Judaism and hostile to Christ; whence at the end of the world Christ, excluded by wicked and impious gentiles, will migrate to the Jews, and will convert them through Elias, and then "all Israel shall be saved," Rom. XI, 26; hence also Antichrist will fix the seat of his kingdom in Jerusalem, so that he may be held to be the true Messiah and Christ, the son of David and Solomon, but will be convicted by Elias of falsehood and heresy: wherefore the Jews will transfer themselves from Antichrist to Christ. The Church therefore says here, that maidens, that is, pious souls, should seek Christ the Bridegroom, and His faith and worship exiled from the East and other provinces, in the West, as it were in His garden, namely in Rome in Italy, Spain, Germany, and at the end of the world in Judea, and thence should call forth reformers of faith and religion into other provinces, deformed by infidelity and wickedness, so that they may restore them to their former beauty and splendor. Areas of spices therefore are the Church and the faithful devoted to prayer, mortification, and other virtues, by which, as it were by spices, Christ is delighted and nourished, and there He gathers lilies of the chaste and virgins. See what is said in cap. V, vers. 1 and 13, where note that the proper and peculiar gift and flower of Christian faith and religion is the lily, that is, chastity and virginity: wherefore where faith fails, there immediately fails chastity, and lust reigns; on the contrary, where faith flourishes, there chastity also flourishes, as I have shown more fully elsewhere. Furthermore, the Chaldean takes these things in the Jewish manner concerning the return of the Jews from Babylon: for this reformation of the Jews and the Synagogue was a type of the reformation of the Church: "The Ruler of the world, he says, willingly received their prayer, and descended into Babylon to the council of the wise, and gave rest to His people, and led them out of their captivity by the hand of Cyrus, and Esdras, and Nehemiah, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and the elders of the Jews, and they built the house of the sanctuary, and appointed priests over the oblations, and Levites over the custody of the word of holiness; and He sent fire from heaven, and willingly received the oblation and incense of spices, and as a man who nourishes his beloved son in delights, so delicately did He nourish them; and as a man who gathers roses from the valleys, so did He gather them from Babylon." Mystically St. Jerome, at the end of his Commentary on Zechariah, understands by the garden the Holy Scripture: "The garden, he says, and paradise into which the Bridegroom descended to the Bride, is the reading of the Holy Scriptures, from which He plucks lilies, and violets, and roses, and various spices, so that He may fill the vials of the souls of believers, and pour forth lilies to the Lord from them."
The garden and paradise of Christ is the holy soul, which frequently dwells in an area of spices, that is, meditating on the passion of Christ most full of all virtues; but especially the paradise of Christ is the assembly of holy souls, such as exists in monasteries and religious families: for there are areas of spices, that is, orders of all virtues, and lilies of chastity, whereas in the world and secular life all things are full of the thorns of vices and nettles of lusts; whence Christ transfers Himself from them to the religious, and is delighted and nourished by their chastity and virtues. Wherefore the religious who consecrates himself wholly and dedicates himself to God can say: "I to my beloved, and my beloved to me;"; hence also Christ is accustomed to reform the declining old age of the Church through the flourishing youth of the religious in spirit, as I said above, and then that is fulfilled, Psalm. CII, 5: "Thy youth (or rather thy old age) shall be renewed like the eagle's:"; wherefore God, when He wishes to reform the Church, institutes a new religion fervent with apostolic spirit, or reforms one already instituted, and reduces it to its primitive observance and fervor; He also institutes lilies, that is, assemblies of virgins, or renews and polishes those already instituted: for the reformation of the Church consists especially in the reformation of the clergy, religious, and virgins: for these then reform the laity and Christian people. Examples are in SS. Basil, Augustine, Benedict, Romuald, Bruno, Bernard, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius.
The Blessed Virgin is a garden of delights, and a paradise of Christ, whence in her body corporally for nine months, and in her soul and mind spiritually as it were in his temple he continually dwelt: wherefore Nyssenus, Theodoretus and Justus Orgelitanus say that Christ descended into his garden, when he descended from heaven into the womb of the Virgin, and assumed flesh from her. Christ therefore, while he lived on earth, was fed among the lilies of virgins, because he delighted in the virginity of the Blessed Virgin, of St. Joseph, and of St. John the apostle, and in turn he fed them with the most chaste loves of virginity and heavenly life and delights; let him therefore venerate and invoke these, who wishes to imitate their chastity, and thus to draw Christ to his soul, as it were to a virginal bridal chamber. A memorable example is in St. Edward king of England, who by their inspiration and gift preserved perpetual virginity with his spouse Editha, even unto death; he was therefore wonderfully devoted to St. John, so much so that he denied alms to none who asked in his name. St. John himself proved the king's soul, and appearing in the form of a poor man to him alone, asked of him alms in the name of St. John, and when the king had nothing else at hand, he gave him a ring taken from his finger, wherefore he received a great reward of liberality from him: for St. John appearing to two Englishmen making pilgrimage to Jerusalem, sent the ring back to the king through them, and said: "I on account of the love of your king will keep my eyes upon you in every way. For I am John the apostle of Christ, who embrace your king with the greatest affection on account of the merit of his chastity. This ring therefore, which he gave to me appearing in the form of a pilgrim, bring back, announcing to him that the day of his death is at hand, whom within six months visiting I shall visit, that he may follow the Lamb whithersoever it goeth." Thus it came to pass, for the king being called from this life by St. John, in the year of the Lord 1066, on the 5th day of January, ascended into heaven: thus Alfred the abbot in his Life among Surius, who also recounts many and great miracles wrought by him after his death. Furthermore Philo Carpathius and Lucas the abbot understand by the descent of Christ into the garden the descent of Christ to the lower regions; for to the thief he said, Luke XXIII, 43: "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." The beds of spices were the ancient patriarchs and saints, such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, David, etc. Philo adds: "Hence it came to pass, that in the most fragrant gardens of human minds, burning with Christian faith and charity, God himself was fed, from which he chose the most brilliant odours of lilies, and garlands of apostles, martyrs and all the blessed to adorn the heavenly bridal chamber." Anagogically, Christ gathered lilies, when he plucked virgins, pure and perfect souls from this life, as it were from an earthly garden, and transferred them into the heavenly paradise, where associated with angels, they shine forth in wonderful splendour in eternal glory.
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I have explained this verse in chapter II, verse 16. The Chaldean translator renders it: and on that day I served the Lord of the ages, my beloved, and my beloved caused his majesty to dwell in the midst of me, and nourished me with delights. For the bride, because she was full of love for the bridegroom, repeatedly mentions and emphasizes him, especially here, where she was going with the young maidens to the garden to seek the bridegroom; whence perhaps upon seeing him and showing him to the young maidens, she burst forth into these words of love toward him. Nyssenus, in his final homily (for he himself ends his Commentary on the Canticles here), teaches that the bride so conforms herself to the bridegroom in all things that she plainly expresses his likeness in herself and puts on his form, so that whoever sees her esteems that he sees the bridegroom: just as whoever perceives an image esteems that he sees the exemplar to which the image was fashioned; and whoever beholds an effigy in a mirror not only thinks that he sees the thing depicted, but actually does see it: for there the thing itself exhibits itself through its image, and a ray not direct, but reflected from the mirror: wherefore whoever wishes to receive this image of Christ in his mind ought to erase from it all images of other things, so that, like a polished and pure mirror, he may receive in himself the illuminating colors and rays of Christ. Such was Paul, saying in II Corinthians III, 18: "But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with face unveiled, are transformed into the same image," that is, after the manner of mirrors we receive and render the image of Christ in ourselves. And Galatians II, 20: "And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me," that is, as if all things that do not pertain to the nature of Christ were worn away by polishing, I have nothing in me that is not in him, and for this reason Christ is my life, who is sanctification, and purity, and immortality, and light, and truth, and such things. Whatever else nourishes my soul, not in grass or shrubs, but in the splendors of the saints; for lilies signify this, since they are adorned with a certain brilliant color." Thus far Nyssenus. Mystics or contemplatives understand these things of ecstasy and rapture, whereby the soul, irradiated by the light of God as if struck by lightning, through that immense beauty, goodness, wisdom, etc. of God, as it were through a shadow beholds them, and is amazed at them, and thus is wholly rapt and absorbed into them, so that it can attend to no other thing; whence it does not see what is present, does not hear, nor uses any sense: thus St. Thomas, II-II, Question CLXXV, article 2. Furthermore, Richard of St. Victor, book V On Contemplation, chapter V and following, teaches that the soul is drawn into this ecstasy, or alienation, by three causes, namely first, on account of the magnitude of devotion: for vehement love causes ecstasy, says St. Dionysius; secondly, on account of the magnitude of admiration; thirdly, on account of the magnitude of exultation. Ecstasy arises therefore from great devotion, when the soul is so inflamed by the fire of heavenly desire and divine love that, like wax, it melts, and as if removed from its own state, and like smoke attenuated, ascends to the heights: to which devotion and love sometimes the magnitude of light is added, sometimes the affection of devotion alone works the alienation. It arises then from great admiration, when the soul irradiated by divine light, and suspended in the knowledge of the supreme beauty and perfection of the divine, is shaken by so vehement a stupor that, in the likeness of a flashing lightning, having transcended the senses, it is elevated to the highest; and this admiration and perfect knowledge sometimes comes to the soul unprepared; sometimes it rushes upon it as it is intent upon the affection of love or upon deep meditation; sometimes beginning from light it ends in the most ardent fervor. It arises finally from ineffable exultation, when the soul, having tasted the abundance of internal sweetness, indeed even fully intoxicated, completely forgets what it is and what it was, and in the excess of alienation from excessive joy is transferred; such was the rapture of St. Francis, concerning whom St. Bonaventure writes thus in his Life, cap. X: "He was seen at night with his hands extended in the manner of a cross, his whole body lifted up from the earth, and surrounded by a certain shining cloud, so that the marvelous illumination within the mind was a witness to the marvelous perambulation throughout the body." Something similar happened to St. Dominic, who, when in Mass he elevated the most pure body of Christ in his hands on high, all who were present watching and marveling, he himself likewise was lifted up from the earth by the height of one cubit, his earthly and heavy body being raised up on high by the devotion of his soul and by the spirit of grace. Such also was the ecstasy of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, concerning whom Maffei writes thus in his Life, lib. I, cap. VII: "It happened at some time that, alienated from his senses from the completion of Saturday until the completion of the following Saturday, he persisted in a certain most high excess, in which he was so instructed concerning the Most Holy Trinity by intellectual vision, that, although still unlearned, he dared to write a book about it." Such also was that of Blessed Teresa, concerning whom we read thus in her Life, cap. LXXIV: "Her prayer was not only constant, but so fervent, that as soon as she withdrew herself into prayer, she was immediately often caught up outside herself even without any preparation, struck by the efficacy of the Spirit, she was drawn away from the use of the senses: sometimes also from these raptures she returned with the greatest exclamations and tears, in which she spent a great part of the night." She used to say the same thing, that the soul perfectly loving and contemplating becomes one spirit with God, in that manner and likeness by which rain falling from heaven into a river is mixed with its water, and becomes one thing with it; or as two lamps pour forth two lights, which coming together in the same chamber produce one light; where note that these things are not in all respects similar, for their union is as it were essential; but the union of the soul with Christ is accidental through contemplation and love. For the error of Almaric and of the rude contemplatives in the time of Ruysbroeck was that in ecstasy the soul is annihilated and passes into the essence of God, as Gerson recounts and refutes, tract. On Contemplation.
THE FIFTH PART OF THE DRAMA, THE FINAL PART OF THE BOOK, IN WHICH THE REFORMATION, RENEWAL, PERFECTION, AND FINALLY THE HAPPINESS AND GLORIFICATION OF THE AGING CHURCH, OR RATHER THE STRIVING TOWARD ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND GLORY, IS DESCRIBED. See what is said in the Proem, cap. III.
THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM. VERSE 3. THOU ART FAIR, O MY LOVE, AND COMELY, AND BEAUTIFUL AS JERUSALEM: TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY SET IN ARRAY. For the sake of the sequence and beauty of the drama, note that the bride, as soon as she found the bridegroom in the garden, or meeting him on the way to the garden, greeted him reverently and lovingly, and told him with what sorrow and effort she had sought him; how much therefore she had suffered reproaches, blows and spoils from those who went about; by what marks and praises she had distinguished herself to the young maidens seeking him, all of which, as already recounted, are here passed over in silence: having heard these things, the bridegroom consoles her, and in turn confirms the praises and dowries assigned to her in chapter IV, and moreover adds others. He says therefore: THOU ART FAIR, O MY LOVE, COMELY AND BEAUTIFUL. — For comely the Hebrew is נאוה כתרצה ketirtsa, which first, plainly and aptly with the Hebrews, Pagninus, Vatablus, Marinus and others, thou shouldest translate, as Thirza, that is to say, the bridegroom. Thou art fair as Thirza, and beautiful as Jerusalem: for Thirza, or Thersa, as Our translator rendered it in III Kings XV, 33, was a most beautiful city in the tribe of Manasseh, situated on a high mountain; whence Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, or of the ten tribes, placed his throne in it, and made it the capital of the kingdom. Jeroboam was followed by his descendants and successors as far as Omri, the father of Ahab, who, having built a city on the mountain Somer, and from thence called Samaria, which was afterwards called Sebaste, that is, Augusta, in honor of Caesar Augustus, by Herod, transferred to it the capital and seat of the kingdom, as is evident from III Kings XIV, 17; and XVI, 6, 8, 9, 15, 23 and 24. For although Thirza, in the time of Solomon, was not yet the capital of the kingdom of Israel, nevertheless it was very beautiful and pleasant; whence shortly after under Roboam it was made by Jeroboam the capital, and the Holy Spirit, who dictated these things to Solomon, foresaw this would soon come to pass. Secondly, the Septuagint translate תרצה tirtsa as εὐδοκία, that is, good pleasure, approbation, benevolence: for רצה ratsa means to will, to please, to be well-pleased; whence it is transferred, thou art fair, O my love, as good pleasure; Symmachus, well accepted; the fifth edition, as long as I approve well; the Syriac, thou art fair according to my will; hence Our translator rendered it comely, because those things which please someone well are to him grateful, comely and pleasant; others translate it comeliness, in the abstract, that is to say, Thou art so comely that thou seemest to be comeliness itself, that is, thou art most comely and most pleasant. Moreover our interpreter, equally as the Septuagint, often translate for proper names their meanings, when these agree with the matter being treated, or when some mystery lies hidden in them; thus for Simon Cananæus he translates, Simon the Zealot; for Thomas he translates, Didymus; for Cephas he translates, Peter; for Boanerges he translates, sons of thunder; thus in I Paralipomenon IV, 22, for the proper names Joachim, Chozeba, Joas and Saroph, he translates, "and, He who made the sun stand still, and the men of Falsehood, and the Secure and the Burning, who were princes in Moab." AS JERUSALEM, — For Jerusalem was most beautiful, whether thou regardest the temple, or the royal house, or the walls, or the streets, or the buildings, forums, lanes, or the people, and especially the women and brides. The Hebrews are accustomed to compare men to trees, gardens, cities, and conversely cities to men and assemblies of men; whence the heavenly Jerusalem is compared to the bride, Apocalypse XXI, 2: "I saw, he says, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Moreover the Chaldean takes these things of the twofold temple of the Jews: "Thou art fair, he says, in this day in the time of the second temple, as thou wast accepted of old in the time of the first." But in the time of Solomon there was not yet a second temple. TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY SET IN ARRAY. — The Syriac, as chosen, that is to say, The bride is to me the bridegroom sweet and lovable, but to enemies fierce and terrible, according to that, chapter I, 9: "I have compared thee, O my love, to the horses in the chariots of Pharao." In Hebrew כנדגלות cannidgaloth, that is, as bannered, namely, armies and cohorts, that is, as an army set in array, as Our translator rendered it: for under banners are arranged cohorts and armies, and in their right disposition and order consist the strength and fortitude of camps: for few soldiers rightly disposed and arranged will rout many badly disposed, scattered and disordered. The Septuagint, reading אימה aiumma, that is, terrible, with other points as אימה ema, translate θάμβος, that is, fear, stupor, admiration; whence the Vatican translators render, fear as an army set in array; fear, that is, to be feared and striking fear into enemies. The Nyssene, equally as the interpreter of St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, for fear, translates stupor: for fear begets stupor, and makes men silent and stupefied. St. Ambrose, in the book On Virginity, translates, admiration set in order, "because, he says, the eternal city has all mysteries, and is a matter of admiration to all who behold it, because it is full of equity, and perfect, and borrows its splendor from the light of the Word, while it always tends toward it; let it also be terrible, raised by a certain order to the summit of virtues.
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The Church became beautiful, and equally strong and terrible as an army in battle array, when errors and vices brought into the faithful by Arians and other impious men were rooted out by zealous emperors and princes, pontiffs and bishops in the Council of Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Lateran, Florence, Trent, and other councils both ecumenical and provincial; and the Church, whether universal or provincial, was restored to its former brightness of faith and virtues: for here the Holy Spirit begins to describe the renewal of the aging Church, which has been done often and in various ways at different times and places through bishops and outstanding kings, whom God raised up as reformers of the Church. Thus St. Athanasius reformed the Alexandrian Church, so that it flourished in all holiness and seemed to be God's paradise. Thus Lucifer of Cagliari reformed Sardinia, Eusebius of Vercelli Italy, St. Hilary Gaul, Dionysius and soon after St. Ambrose Milan, which had been deformed a little before by Auxentius the Arian bishop, St. Paulinus Trier; thus in other ages they restored the fallen morals of particular churches. But especially at the end of the world Elias and Enoch will do this with their followers, as I said a little before; whence then the Church will be beautiful as Tirzah among the nations, and fair as Jerusalem among the Jews: for Tirzah was the capital of the Samaritans, who were despised by the Jews as gentiles and idolaters; Jerusalem truly of the Jews. The Church is indeed similar to the cities of Tirzah and Jerusalem, because just as in these there was a gathering and multitude of citizens, so in the Church there is a multitude of the faithful. Again, Tirzah is the same as complacency, sweetness, beauty, comeliness, such as is in the Church of the gentiles reformed. Jerusalem is the same as vision of peace, such as it will be in the Jews, when they themselves converted to Christ, will peacefully conspire with the gentiles in one Church, and therefore will be transferred into one heavenly Jerusalem. Hence the Church is called Jerusalem by St. Paul, Galatians IV, 26, and by St. John, Apocalypse XXI, 1, on account of the reasons which I reviewed there. Hear St. Gregory: "The Synagogue is said to be beautiful and beloved, sweet and fair as Jerusalem, because the holy four gospels, once converted, will be followed as the Church: for Jerusalem indeed is interpreted as vision of peace; by which the holy Church is well figured, because while it always suffers pressure in the world, spurning the way, it runs contemplating the peace of the heavenly homeland, trusting in him who said to his disciples, John XVI, 33: In the world you shall have pressure: but be confident, I have overcome the world. Deservedly indeed the converted Synagogue is said to be beautiful as Jerusalem, and beloved, and sweet, and fair, because while it imitates the holy Church, it works the precepts of the four gospels, from which it receives beauty of morals, so as to please; it gathers the exercise of holy work, so as to remain in friendship; it learns the sweetness of gentleness, so as to endure; it shows the appearance of fair conversation, so as to draw by example." Furthermore, the beauty of the Church, equally as its strength, which makes it terrible to demons, heretics and the impious, consists in the hierarchical order, by which bishops are subject and obedient to the pontiff, presbyters to bishops, deacons to presbyters, other clerics and laity to deacons, and each in his own order and degree. For the pontiff rules and directs all these through bishops, just as the angel of the first heaven, which is called the first mobile, moving it from east to west, consequently also moves the lower heavens first subject to it; whence no force can resist it, or inhibit this motion. Such is the power of obedience and order; on account of it the Church is said to be terrible as an army in battle array. This is what Isaiah foretold, chapter XXVI, verse 1: "The city of our strength is Sion; the Saviour will be set in it, a wall and bulwark shall be placed in it." He gives the reason, chapter LIV, verse 11, saying: "Behold I will lay thy stones in order, and will lay thy foundations in sapphires, and I will make thy battlements of jasper: and thy gates of graven stones, and all thy borders of desirable stones," what these stones are he explains by adding: "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and great shall be the peace of thy children." Again, in the manner of the armies of camps arranged in order, in Hebrew it is, as it were, bannered, namely phalanxes and battle lines, because in the universal Church there are many particular ones, and in the particular ones many grades of clergy and laity, many orders of religious, who all, although distinguished by particular banners, nevertheless all fight under the banner of the cross of Christ: wherefore from him, namely from Christ crucified, flows all their beauty, equally as their strength; hence St. Anselm: "Thou art terrible," he says, "because in thee I fight and thou fightest in service to me, as one fights in camps, and thou art arranged by institution:" in the Church indeed there are strong wedges of martyrs, strong battalions of virgins, unconquered battalions of doctors, etc. Moreover Cassiodorus adds that the Church is said to be beautiful and pleasant in virtues, terrible in dominion, which extends even to the ends of the earth. Furthermore this order unites all the faithful among themselves, equally as with the head Christ; and this is the reason why the Church is most strong and terrible to enemies like the armies of camps arranged in order: because namely it is united supremely through charity, and the union of so many faithful is unconquerable, and overcomes all things: hear St. Gregory: "It is known to those experienced that soldiers when they go forth in readiness against enemies, if they march closely and concordantly, are feared by the enemies coming against them, because while they do not see an opening through a breach in them, they do not find how to penetrate them hesitating; and this impenetrable fortification is made for them, that being arranged concordantly they protect themselves from one another. For while they make a rampart for themselves from themselves, they do not leave an opening for enemies to enter; and so that they may kill the enemy, they themselves kill more easily. Thus it happens in the multitude of the faithful, which while it ceases not to fight against evil spirits, it is necessary that it be bound together by the peace of charity, by which it is saved: for if it holds peace, it appears terrible to enemies; if it is divided by discord, it is easily penetrated everywhere by enemies. Let it therefore fortify itself by peace, bind itself by unity, unite itself by charity, so that while it suffers no harm in itself through a breach, it may always follow its leader exulting without confusion."
The holy soul is beautiful through grace, pleasant through courtesy, charity and benevolence, terrible through zeal, because in all things it conforms itself to God's will, and strives to promote his glory; such a one is terrible, says Bede, because it has the entire array of virtues arranged in itself; if therefore gluttony tempts it, temperance will resist; if lust, chastity will resist; if anger, patience will resist; if pride, humility will resist; if avarice, liberality will resist; if sloth, zeal will resist. Hear Hugh of St. Victor, Erudit. Theol. from Miscell. II, lib. I: "It has succeeded," he says, "with men, is beautiful to the divine powers, terrible to demons: why? because it walks as the armies of camps arranged in order, not scattered through envy, but crowded together through charity. An array is through assembly, of camps through readiness, arranged through agreement. Assembly is made by penance, readiness is set by vigilance, agreement is provided by concord;" hence the Chaldean renders: "How beautiful thou art, my beloved, in the time when thou wishest to do my will! beautiful is the house of the sanctuary, which thou hast built for me like the former house of the sanctuary, which Solomon, king of Jerusalem, built for me; and thy terror was upon all peoples in the day when thy banners walked through the desert." Note, the strength of the Church and of the pious soul arises from its beauty, therefore it is terrible to enemies, because it is fair as Jerusalem, that is as the vision of peace; peace therefore makes it terrible, for peace arranges and orders all its movements and affections according to the law and will of God, so that they are as it were the armies of camps arranged in order, that is dense, concordant and composed, which no force is able to break through. Hence the soul composed and peaceful is unconquered and insuperable. Furthermore Nyssenus reads, thou art beautiful, near, as benevolence or good pleasure, fair as Jerusalem, a wonder as arranged in array, and thus explains it: The pious soul, he says, first, is similar to the benevolence of Christ, because he himself emptied himself taking the form of a servant, and gave himself as a price for the life of the world; thus indeed the pious soul spends itself for the salvation of neighbors, as Paul did, and in this consists its beauty. Second, it is comely as Jerusalem, namely the heavenly one, because since it has God dwelling in itself, who bestows all beauty on the heavenly Jerusalem, it is also said to be similar to it in beauty. Third, the same wonder is as an arranged array, because when, he says, it does all things in order and decorum, it excites such admiration of itself as the army of angels, who in all their ministries are most orderly. Thus also Theodoret, who nevertheless renders εὐδοκίαν, that is good pleasure, as approbation; so that as the bride called the bridegroom, cap. V, vers. 16, desire, that is supremely desirable, thus the bridegroom here in turn calls the bride approbation, that is supremely approved, pure and perfect. Three moreover Anonymous ones think the pious soul is called a wonder, because contemplating the immense beauty of God, marveling it is amazed, as the angels do.
The Blessed Virgin is beautiful in favor, because she alone above all creatures pleases the whole Holy Trinity, the angels and the saints, according to that word of Gabriel, Luke I, 30: "Thou hast found grace with God." O blessed Virgin, says Rupertus, thou art sweet and comely as Jerusalem, in that thy soul always beholds the heavenly peace, and from thy visitation many souls learn to conduct themselves in a heavenly manner; wherefore they are called, or are, daughters of Jerusalem, because they choose the better part, according to that, Psalm XLV, 11: "Be still, and see that I am the Lord," etc. Thou also art terrible to demons, heretics and the impious, as an army set in array, in which there is the greatest harmony; and therefore no access is given to the enemy through discord. Wherefore all heretics who also assail Christ and the blessed Virgin are trampled down by her; hence the Church sings of her: "Thou alone hast destroyed all heresies throughout the whole world." Sophronius adds, sermon On the Assumption: "The Blessed Virgin," he says, "is as an army set in array, because she is surrounded by innumerable hosts of angels and saints;" hence Damascenus, oration 1 On the Nativity: "O most holy," he says, "daughter, who art nourished with the milk of thy mother's breast and art surrounded on all sides by angels!" hence also St. Bonaventure in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter III: "Mary," he says, "is interpreted as lady: this also most aptly befits the empress who is truly lady of the heavenly, earthly and infernal things: lady, I say, of angels, men and demons," etc. Whence St. Augustine says: "Michael, the leader and prince of the heavenly militia, with all the administrative spirits, thy servants, O Virgin, obeys thy commands in defending in the body and in receiving from the body the souls of the faithful who specially serve thee, O Lady, and commend themselves to thee day and night." The same in the Canticle: "We praise thee, Mother of God; to thee," he says, "all angels and archangels, to thee thrones and dominions faithfully serve; to thee all powers and all virtues of the heavens of heavens and all dominions obey." Blessed Gertrude, book IV of Revelations, chapter XXX, speaking of the angels whom she saw before the Mother of God, those who had prepared themselves for the feast of the Assumption, to bring them and to defend them from the snares of malignant spirits, adds: "Because at the command," she says, "of the Mother of God a multitude of angels everywhere protects and defends all who invoke the glorious Virgin." Finally St. Germanus, oration On the Girdle of the Mother of God: "Thou," he says, "by the invocation alone of thy most holy name repelling the invasions of the most wicked enemy against thy servants, keepest them safe and unharmed." See the sayings at chapter I, verse 9, at those words: "I have compared thee to the chariots of Pharao."
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TURN AWAY THY EYES FROM ME (in Hebrew, from before me, or from my presence), BECAUSE THEY HAVE MADE ME FLY AWAY. The Hebrew הרהיבוני hirihibuni, that is, they have prevailed over me; Pagninus, they were stronger than me; Vatablus, because they overcome me; Zurich, turn away thy eyes, that we may not gaze directly upon me, because they make me proud; R. Solomon and the Anonymous, they lifted up and made me proud; Aben-Ezra, they are more powerful than me, they take away from me strength and dominion; R. David, they strengthened me in love; St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac, chapter VIII, they lift me up, and he explains it thus as if Christ were asking the perfect soul not to detain itself in elevated contemplation, but to allow itself to descend to the instruction and salvation of the less learned: "And if thou," he says, "art perfect, yet other souls still need to be redeemed, others to be supported: wherefore turn away thine eyes from me; for thou dost lift me up by seeing me; but I descended that I might lift up all. For the more anyone intends toward the Lord, the more he lifts up the Lord, and he himself is lifted up." Learn from all these versions how powerful are the eyes of the sincere, chaste and beloved bride, inasmuch as they prevail over the bridegroom, rule him, and as it were captivate him and make him their own: the sense is, as if to say, So great is the beauty of thy eyes, O bride, so great and so fiery is the power in them, that they snatch me into love of thee, that they rule me, that I succumb to love, that they almost rob me of my mind, that by excess of love my fleeing heart as it were flies away and flies over into thee, according to that passage, chapter IV, verse 9: "Thou hast wounded my heart in one of thy eyes; " in Hebrew, thou hast taken away my heart." See what I have said concerning the power and allurement of women's eyes, chapter IV, verses 1 and 9. That law is known from Euripides in the Hecuba, received from the customs of the ancients: "Let no woman look upon men in adversity." He shows what he said, "thou art fair, and comely" from the beauty of the eyes, which is so great that it snatches the bridegroom's heart into love of thee, so much so that the bridegroom, powerless over his heart, sees it fly away to the bride, as if to say, Thy eyes are so beautiful that I cannot bear their light and power; turn them aside a little therefore, and avert them to the side, that I may behold them more freely and slowly as it were from the side, restored to me: wherefore cold is the exposition of the Chaldean, which reads thus: "Cause thy wise masters to recline, a great assembly round about, in my sight; for they consulted with me in captivity, and established a gymnasium of the doctrine of my law."
Many think that here is noted and rebuked the boldness and curiosity of the Church, or of the pious soul, which wishes to fix the eyes of the mind too deeply in contemplating the essence and majesty of God, so as to penetrate and comprehend as it were the incomprehensible, when rather it ought to care for the affairs of the house with Martha and the salvation of neighbors: in which matter it does not profit, but rather the keenness of its eyes is blunted and dulled, just as he who gazes with fixed eyes upon the sun is blinded, according to that passage, Proverbs XXV, 27: "He that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory:" thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Theodoret, Philo, Bede, Anselm, Rupert and St. Ambrose, whose words I have already recited. To this is added Justus Orgelitanus, who understands these things of the contemplation of the humanity of Christ, as if to say, "Do not always seek to behold me in the body, whom thou seest better by the spirit through faith. For this reason I ascended into heaven, that I might not always appear to thee locally, I who so fill all things by the presence of my divinity, that I am everywhere present, contain all things, and am contained by no place." But this sense agrees little with the context, as well as with the Hebrew phrase: for the bride is not here rebuked for curiosity, but is praised for the beauty and allurement of her eyes, by which the pure intention and love of the Church toward Christ is signified, as I said chapter IV, verse 1: for this intention of pleasing and cleaving to Christ alone wonderfully pleases Christ and snatches his heart, so that he may love in return her who loves him, and may wholly intend toward her who intends toward him. Christ therefore signifies by the charity of the Church that he is conquered, so that he may marvelously love in return her who loves him so much, and so that he may decree to complete his course and the time of the world by her love, that the remnant of Israel may be saved: for he deals with them in what follows, so that when this is done the Church may be joined to Christ her bridegroom forever, and may enjoy him most happily in heavenly glory, where the consummation of the nuptials of both will be.
What I have said concerning the Church, say concerning the soul with the name changed: moreover, the explanation of Nyssen here is new and paradoxical, homily 15 and the last (for here Nyssen ends) and he who follows him, indeed is his abbreviator, Michael Psellus: for they hold these to be the words not of the bridegroom, but of the bride to the bridegroom; and what the Septuagint translates, ἀπόστρεψον τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου ἀπεναντίον ἐμοῦ, thus they transfer, turn away my eyes from that which is contrary to me (the interpreter of Nyssen translated from me, so that τὸ ἀπεναντίον is the same as from my side, that is from me, but it is clear from what follows that Nyssen's meaning is different): for they have ἀνεπτέρωσαν με, that is, they caused me to fly away; but Nyssen, pressing τὸ ἀνα, translates, they gave me wings again, as if to say, Turn away, O Christ, thy eyes from that which is contrary to me, and turn them toward me, because the light of thy eyes gave me again the wings of grace, which I had lost through sin, so that winged and freed from earthly desires, I might fly to heaven.
Some explain this concerning the Blessed Virgin conceiving and bearing Christ, as if to say, O Virgin, who art occupied in the highest and purest contemplation of divinity, turn away from it the eyes of thy mind, and turn them to contemplate the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, which is accomplished in thee: for the eyes of thy purity of mind have as it were stolen me from myself, and caused me to fly from the bosom of the Father into thy lap. But because here the matter is literally concerning the reformation of the Church and the conversion of the Synagogue, rather thus expound it, as if to say, Thy pure and burning intention, O Virgin, by which thou most ardently intendest, desirest, prayest for and procurest the renovation of the Church and the conversion of the Jews, so greatly pleaseth me, that I can bear it no further, but rather I yield to it, and as it were give myself to it, that I may accomplish and complete in deed that which thou so greatly desirest and demandest. These hidden eyes of the mind of the Blessed Virgin were revealed by the eyes of her august body, and burning with love of God; whence the Poet said of them: O most dear lights, Most brilliant suns, Most blessed torches, Most august stars! Lights of the soul, suns of the mind, torches of the heart, stars of the spirit. O countenance! O heaven, so covered with so many and so divine torches and lights! "O face like unto a great divinity to me!" Indeed I saw in Rome an image of the Mother of God, painted by St. Luke, in which the eyes and countenance represent august majesty, and more than human.
THY HAIR IS AS A FLOCK OF GOATS, THAT APPEARED FROM GALAAD. VERS. 5 and 6. THY TEETH ARE AS A FLOCK OF SHEEP, THAT CAME UP FROM THE WASHING, ALL WITH TWINS, AND NOT ONE BARREN AMONG THEM. THY CHEEKS ARE AS A PIECE OF A POMEGRANATE, BESIDES THAT WHICH LIETH HID WITHIN. All these things have been explained, cap. IV, vers. 1: for the bridegroom repeats these praises of the bride, that he may confirm them and inculcate them in the young maidens: only note that the Septuagint, the Arabic, Symmachus and Aquila add here, as a scarlet thread thy lips, and thy speech is sweet, which verse they transcribed from cap. IV, vers. 3, and brought hither. Again, for as the rind of a pomegranate, the Syriac translates, as the crown of a pomegranate: for this indeed bears a spreading crown at the top of the rind. To these things, for besides that which lieth hid within, or as cap. IV, vers. 3, translated, besides that which is hidden within, the Arabic transfers, besides the beauty of thy silence.
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Queens, that is patriarchal, primate and metropolitan Churches, are sixty, that is many; concubines, that is episcopal Churches, are eighty, that is more; maidens, that is parochial Churches and others, there is no number: for they are very many and as it were innumerable; but above all these stands out the Chair of St. Peter, namely the Roman Church, says Cosmas Damianus, which is the queen of queens, and the head and prince of the whole Church, which moderates and governs all the others, lest they deviate from right faith and piety; and when they do deviate, it corrects and reforms them: wherefore this is one dove, that is one spouse of Christ, uniquely beloved by Him, perfect in faith and religion, unique to her mother, and chosen of her who bore her, that is uniquely equally beloved of the primitive Church of Jerusalem, says St. Anselm; for this one, as a mother, brought forth the Roman Church, when she sent Sts. Peter, Paul, and other first believers to Rome, that they might convert it, and establish it as the head of the Church. Wherefore the Roman Pontiff, who presides over it, sends reformers throughout the whole world, who may restore true faith and religion in particular Churches that have collapsed or become corrupted, as St. Sylvester sent Ossius of Cordoba, who presided over the Council of Nicaea, where Arius was condemned; Julius, Liberius and others sent St. Athanasius, Eusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer of Cagliari and others, who might bring back the Eastern bishops who had fallen into Arian heresy to true faith; indeed the Roman Pontiffs send religious and apostolic men to the Indians, Tartars, and other gentiles, that they might preach and propagate faith among them; and at the end of the world they will send distinguished men into Judaea and Jerusalem, who will resist Antichrist, and convert the Jews; wherefore then Rome will be united to her mother, that is Jerusalem, namely the Church of the Synagogue, when the daughter shall lead the mother going astray, namely Rome shall lead Jerusalem, from Moses equally as from Antichrist to Christ. Then shall be fulfilled that oracle, Isa. XIX, 24: "In that day shall Israel be the third to Egypt and to the Assyrians; a blessing in the midst of the land, which the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying: Blessed be my people of Egypt, and the work of my hands to the Assyrians: but my inheritance Israel:" see the things said there. And that, Isa. XLIX, 23: "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of thy feet." To this agree most of the Fathers, who by one dove understand one Catholic Church spread throughout the whole world: for the head and prince of this is the Roman Church: thus St. Gregory of Nyssa, Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm here, and St. Augustine, tract. V in John, and St. Cyprian, tract. On the Unity of the Church. The property and mark of the Church therefore is, that it be one, although Catholic and spread throughout the whole world: one, I say, through one faith, hope and charity, and through one head, namely Christ and His vicar the Roman Pontiff; from which unity whoever separates himself, is a schismatic or heretic: see St. Cyprian, lib. On the Unity of the Church. Cassiodorus adds that it is called a dove, because upon it the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove in the baptism of Christ, Matt. III, 16; but its mother is the heavenly Jerusalem, to which it, called by God, tends and proceeds: for Paul calls this the mother of the faithful, Gal. cap. IV, 26. But Nyssen understands by mother the Holy Spirit, who as a dove brought forth the Church itself, as a young dove and a little dove. But St. Gregory understands by mother the grace of the Holy Spirit, which amounts to the same thing: "Our mother, he says, is the regenerating grace by which one dove is chosen; because it gathers those alone who remain in simplicity, and are not divided from unity. For many faithful, while they attend to the same thing, while with one desire of Christ they nourish one another, while having one heart and one soul they unite themselves in charity, from many members make one body, and all living in the simplicity and unity of unity, are one dove: which alone is said to be perfect and chosen of her who bore her, because outside this Church which we speak of, no one to perfection, no one to life, unless through this alone is nourished by fostering grace." But John the Carmelite understands by mother Christ, who as a mother with maternal affection loves the Church and the perfect soul uniquely and most tenderly, according to that which He Himself says, Isa. XLIX, 15: "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee." will not forget thee. Behold, I have described thee in the palms of my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes. Finally, William notes that queens, that is, perfect souls, are numbered sixty, because to these is added the law of the Decalogue, which the number ten signifies, the number six, which is a symbol of perfection acquired through the evangelical counsels: for those are perfect who observe not only the precepts but also the evangelical counsels. Concubines denote those who keep only the precepts of the Decalogue; whence to these is added the number eight of circumcision, that is, of the purification of sins committed against the Decalogue. Moreover the Chaldean, after his manner judaizing, understands these things of kings and peoples attacking Jerusalem: "Then," he says, "the Greeks arose, and gathered together sixty kings of the sons of Esau, clothed in coats of mail, ascending upon horses and horsemen, and eighty commanders of the sons of Ishmael ascending upon elephants, besides other peoples and tongues, whose number was not reckoned, and they appointed Alexander king over them as their prince, and they came to fight against Jerusalem. And at that time the assembly of Israel was like a perfect dove, and served unanimously its Lord, and laid hold of the law, and labored in the words of the law with a perfect heart, and its righteousness was pure as in the day when it went forth from Egypt."
Queens, that is perfect souls, are sixty, that is few; concubines, that is those making progress, are eighty, that is more; maidens, that is those beginning, are very many, and as it were innumerable: but truly there is one dove, that is very few, and out of a thousand scarcely one is a most perfect soul, which is the singular spouse of Christ, and attends to Him alone, and is wholly as it were transformed into Him, such as was St. Paul, whose heart was a sea of charity, which absorbed the whole world, and he strove to save all nations, even the Jews most hostile to him; whom therefore God valued more than a thousand saints even perfect, religious and apostolic. See St. Chrysostom, homily 8, which he wrote in praise of St. Paul. Thus Origen, homily 2, Theodoret, three Anonymous writers in the same, Philo, Justus and St. Ambrose, book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter VIII: "It is praised, he says, that since there is one dove having the unity of the Spirit, in which is peace, which made both one, and which is not composed of diverse elements of discrete and conflicting nature. Every blessed soul is simple, which imitates him who says, John XVII, 21: That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: for this is the consummation and perfection;" whence also he added: "That they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one. This therefore is the soul a dove and perfect, which is simple and spiritual, and is not troubled by the passions of this body, in which there are conflicts without, fears within." To this are added the Nyssene, St. Gregory, Rupert and others, who understand by queens souls which aspire to the heavenly kingdom; by concubines, those who keep the law of God from fear of hell or other loss or hope of reward; by maidens, those who are rude in faith, and remiss in works. Luke the Abbot adds: "Upright and perfect souls, which have reformed in themselves the true nobility in which they were created, are called queens, because they reign over sin, or the people of those believing in Christ is committed to be ruled by them, which adhering to the Word of God both conceive and bring forth kings. St. Augustine, book LXXXIII Questions, Question LV: "Queens, he says, are souls reigning in intelligible and spiritual things; concubines, which receive the reward of earthly things, of which it is said, Matthew VI, 2: They have received their reward; maidens, whose knowledge is not determined, and they can wander in diverse doctrines." Symbolically, one dove is the soul which is wholly intent upon one and the highest good: therefore it is perfect in the highest degree, if it is vacant to one God alone, as St. Aegidius, companion of St. Francis, used to say, indeed Christ, Luke X, 41: "Martha, Martha, he says, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary: and Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her:" for charity joining the mind to one God makes it as it were one thing with God, says St. Gregory; hence truly that wise man, "who, he says, desires perfection, aspires to union; whatever he desires tends to unity." "Rare, says Blessed Lawrence Justinian On the Chaste Marriage of the Word and the Soul, at the end, I say, is the soul, which by the merit of life, by the privilege of gift and the immensity of love is called the spouse of the Word, of whom the spouse in her praise says, Canticles VI, 8: One is my dove, my perfect one, the chosen of her that bore her. Finding her such, he loves her with singular charity, visits her frequently, speaks to her familiarly, embraces her sweetly, and scarcely suffers himself to be absent from her. He departs from her sometimes, not as angry, but as inflamed with love: for the more slowly he returns, the more vehemently is she inflamed by the very delay, she knocks more frequently, provokes more ardently, and says Canticles II, 13: Arise, my love, my fair one, and come: my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, shew me thy face: let thy voice sound in my ears: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely: for love indeed does not endure delay, knows not delays in the desire of enjoying whom it loves. The art of love is not grasped by one ignorant of loving; only the experienced one knows it."
This saying applies uniquely and most properly to the Blessed Virgin, who is the one dove of Christ, the spouse, perfect, the only one of her mother, that is of the Church, chosen by her mother, that is by St. Anne: for the Blessed Virgin is perfect above all saints and angels in grace, virtues, merits, glory; wherefore she alone is loved, praised, and proclaimed blessed by Christ, and by His Church, St. Anne, and all saints and angels: for nothing less than God is worthy of being the Mother of God, as St. Bonaventure says. Again, queens, that is virgins, among whom nevertheless the Blessed Virgin alone and unique; concubines, that is widows; maidens, that is married women, are understood by three Anonymous writers: hence in the litanies they are invoked most recently: virgins, widows and married women. This saying applies to the Blessed Virgin, for she herself is one dove, that is, one spouse of the Holy Trinity, chosen and beloved before all men and angels, "chosen by her mother, that is by the Church of the patriarchs," as Rupertus says, "and of just kings, from whom she was born, according to whose faith the blessing which was promised to them, she is the gate or matter. And to that mother and to this mother she is one and chosen, because neither among angels nor among men has she a like or first, nor shall she have a following one; truly a dove, because full of grace; truly chosen, who not only would exist saved, but would also bring forth salvation itself." Wherefore the Holy Trinity appears to have poured forth all its love into the Blessed Virgin, so much so that it loves her alone more than the whole world and all angels and men taken together, as Francis Suarez and other theologians teach: see Suarez, III Part. Question XXXVII, disp. 18, sect. IV, where he confirms this by four reasons and very many testimonies of the Fathers. Hear William: "One is my dove, my perfect one; one is the queen of queens, the lady of concubines, the nurse of maidens: this is a dove through fecundity, and mine through the novelty of singular childbirth; my dove, to whom I am a singular offspring; my perfect one, to whom nothing is lacking for grace and for glory, whose fecundity did not deflower virginity, nor did virginity ignore fecundity." And after some things: "She is also uniquely chosen by her mother, singularly chosen for the ministry of redemption and the regeneration of grace. For she exhibited a signal and singular ministry of redeeming grace in that she bore the Redeemer himself to herself and to us, nourished him and us with pious milk, and brought him to the years of maturity with the diligence of pious maternal care." Hear also Honorius: "You alone transcend the merits of all, and therefore alone chosen before all, my dove, in whom I have poured forth the gifts of the Spirit; my perfect one, whom I have filled with perfection through the gifts of virtues. This one alone is imitable to her mother, namely to the present Church; chosen by her mother, by the multitude of angels. The daughters of Sion, that is of the Church, saw her with the eyes of their heart, and proclaimed her most blessed, as she herself said, Luke I, 48: All generations shall call me blessed. And queens and concubines, the active and contemplative, thus praised her, saying: Who is this, as follows in the next verse." Furthermore, Lucas the abbot, the continuator of Aponius, understands by one dove the humanity of Christ: for the eternal Word espoused this to itself before all things, when, made man, it assumed it from the Blessed Virgin, to whom therefore it was most beloved as to its mother. The same humanity is said to have been chosen by its mother, because it itself was chosen as the mediatrix between the strength of divinity and the fragility of flesh: thus Lucas, for the humanity of Christ was the first and nearest spouse of the Word, as I have already said many times.
THEY SAW HER, THE DAUGHTERS (young women), AND CALLED HER MOST BLESSED; THE QUEENS AND CONCUBINES (saw her), AND PRAISED HER. The Arabic version, after her, the queens, concubines, and they shall praise her; which is remarkable, since they themselves are also beautiful and deserve praise; but admiring the spouse's beauty to be far greater, and not envying her, but rejoicing together, they celebrate and proclaim her with one voice. He alludes to Leah, the wife of Jacob, who when she had borne a son from Zelpha her handmaid, called him Asher, saying, Genesis xxx, 13: "This is for my happiness: for all women shall call me blessed." The sense is clear, for they praise the Roman Church as a mother, all her daughters, that is, the parochial Churches; and the concubines, that is, the episcopal ones; and the queens, that is, the patriarchal and metropolitan ones. A soul likewise eminent in charity and holiness, as was the soul of Moses and Paul, the other faithful souls admire and celebrate. Finally, all angels and men glorify the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, according to that passage, Luke xi, 27: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the breasts which thou hast sucked:" foreseeing this very thing, she sang beforehand, Luke i, 48: "All generations shall call me blessed: and they proclaimed her blessed, says William, by virginity, more blessed by fruitfulness, most blessed by fruitfulness together with virginity." By fruitfulness, I say, both physical of Christ and spiritual of the faithful and Christians, especially in heavenly glory, where they cry out what follows: "Who is she that cometh forth as the dawn," etc.: thus Rupert. Moreover, Luke the Abbot, understanding by the spouse the humanity of Christ espoused to the Word: "They saw her, he says, all the virtues, the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem united to paternal charity, being born on earth, wrapped in swaddling clothes, shining with the glory of majesty, and they proclaimed her most blessed, saying, Luke ii, 14: Glory be to God on high. She alone is shown to have obtained all blessedness on earth, among all in full measure." Finally the Chaldean, understanding these things of the victories and triumphs of the Maccabees, thus translates: "Then the sons of Hasmonaeus went forth, and Mattathias, and all the people of Israel, and they fought against them, and the Lord delivered them into their hands. And when the inhabitants of the provinces saw this, they called them blessed, and the kingdoms of the earth, and the mighty praised them."
THE VOICE OF THE YOUNG WOMEN, VERSE 9. WHO IS SHE THAT COMETH FORTH AS THE DAWN RISING, FAIR AS THE MOON, CHOSEN AS THE SUN, TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY SET IN ARRAY? WHO IS SHE THAT COMETH FORTH (in Hebrew נשקפה niskapha, that is, she looks; St. Ambrose and Jerome, she looks forth; Vatablus, she looks out; Pagninus, she is seen) AS THE DAWN RISING, FAIR AS THE MOON, CHOSEN (the Syriac, pure) AS THE SUN, TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY SET IN ARRAY? — The Syriac, as myriads, namely, of cohorts and soldiers; the Arabic, armies set in order in a garden of nuts; the Septuagint, fear, or amazement (both active and passive: for the Hebrew אימה ema signifies both, in which our text and the Hebrews with different pointing read אימה viumma, that is, terrible) as set in order, namely, an army: for the best soldiers about to fight in battle at first fear and tremble; but then fighting they overcome fear, and inflict it upon the enemy and become terrible to them as lions: thus the just man fearing and dreading God becomes terrible to his enemies. Symmachus, terrible and striking fear according to armies; the sixth edition, terrifying among the magnified; the fifth edition: illustrious as magnified. It is the voice of the young women, concubines and queens praising the spouse, by which they confess that all her beauty is surpassed by the beauty of the spouse by so great an interval as the dawn surpasses the night, and the sun and moon surpass the other stars. Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Theodoret, Bede and others hold this to be the voice of the Synagogue admiring the beauty of the Church, concerning which more presently.
THERE ARE SIXTY QUEENS, AND EIGHTY CONCUBINES, AND OF YOUNG MAIDENS THERE IS NO NUMBER. ONE IS MY DOVE, MY PERFECT ONE, OF HER MOTHER (Septuagint, of her mother) THE CHOSEN OF HER THAT BARE HER. — "The only one of her mother," that is, only-begotten, or uniquely loved above other daughters by her mother; the Arabic version: my one perfect one and the one of her mother. Concubines are called not mistresses and harlots, but legitimate wives, though secondary: because namely they were not matrons of the household, nor did their sons succeed to the father's inheritance and kingdom, but were dismissed with gifts, as Abraham gave gifts to his concubine Hagar and her son Ishmael; but he held Sarah as it were as his primary wife and matron of the household, whose son Isaac was therefore Abraham's heir absolutely. See the passages, Genesis XXV, 6. Understand by young maidens virgins of honor, who accompanied the queens and concubines for the sake of honor, and formed their retinue; or as if they were kept in the harem, so that, when the queens or concubines died, they might succeed to their place and become wives either primary or secondary. You will ask whether these queens, concubines and young maidens were Solomon's, or another's? For polygamy was once lawful, not only among the gentiles, but also among the Hebrews; whence the kings of the Parthians, Persians, Medes, Assyrians, Syrians had many wives, as even now the kings of the Moors, Turks, Indians, Tartars, etc. have. First, our Delrio holds that these were not Solomon's, but another's, from whom a comparison is sought: "Now our shepherd," he says, "prefers his lot to the wealth and fortunes of all kings." It is not to be understood of King Solomon, whose herds of women were far greater than these, and contrary to what we read here: "He had more queens than concubines" (see III Kings XI, 3); but I take it indefinitely of any most powerful monarch. "Let there be someone," he says, "who in his harem has shut up many primary wives of free condition and more concubines (thus are called secondary wives joined without the ceremonies and rituals of marriage, of servile or freedwoman condition), and many young maidens, who are kept in another chamber's lot with a thousand keys in the inner chambers of the house; whatever is divided among so many, in my one spouse is all gathered together; wherefore I also prefer you, O beloved, to all of them, and call myself more blessed than such a king." For of old the bridegroom and bride were honored with the name of king and queen; whence Plautus in the Stichus: "His king pleases the queen, each bride her bridegroom." By the name therefore of king and queen, bridegroom and bride, though plebeian, called and greeted each other mutually for the sake of honor and joy. Second, others more aptly hold that these were Solomon's, for the very connection itself seems to require this: thus St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, Genebrardus, Sotomaior, Gislerius and others here, Abulensis, I Kings XI, Question IX and following, Pineda, book VI On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter V. For Solomon at the beginning of his reign, when he was more chaste, and wrote this, had only sixty queens, and eighty concubines, not for the sake of lust, but of royal magnificence, lest he should appear inferior in dignity to neighboring kings who displayed a large harem: for in this age of polygamy, the splendor of kings consisted in the number and splendor of queens; but when he grew older and more intemperate, he took to himself seven hundred queens and three hundred concubines, III Kings XI, 3. He says therefore: "I Solomon have sixty queens, and eighty concubines, who are attended by many young maidens virgins; but to all of these I prefer the daughter of Pharaoh: for she is to me the first and supreme wife, she is the queen of queens; she alone is more beloved to me than all the rest; whence of her I say: One is my dove, my perfect one; as she alone is to her mother, the chosen of her that bare her; because on account of beauty, both of body, and more of soul, and chaste, modest and composed manners, she is uniquely dear and beloved to me as to her mother above other daughters." But if this number of wives in Solomon, still holy and writer of the Song of Songs, seems greater than is fitting, say with Sanchez that these queens and concubines were of neighboring kings, who accompanied the nuptial pomp of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh for the sake of honor, and afterwards often visited him for the sake of friendship, and perhaps homage. For these kings appear to have been friends or subjects to Solomon. He names sixty queens, eighty concubines, because after the beginning of his reign he appears to have had precisely that many, or because he sets down a definite number for an indefinite one: for the number sixty is a perfect number, namely composed of six and ten multiplied together and multiplied by themselves: it is therefore fittingly assigned to queens: but eighty is composed of ten, which is perfect, and eight, which is imperfect; it is therefore aptly attributed to concubines, as being imperfect wives. "The number six," says Justus, "is perfect, because it consists of all its parts, for its sixth part is one; its third part, two; and its half is shown to be three." Finally Abulensis, III Kings XI, Question XII, and Pineda, book VI On the Affairs of Solomon, V, hold that Solomon had more queens and concubines, namely up to a thousand, but that only the principal ones among them and those more familiar to Solomon are here numbered, and that these were sixty of the queens and eighty of the concubines. But it is difficult to believe that he, having written such spiritual canticles, was so carnal and devoted to women as to have had a thousand wives.
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Because the dawn is the beginning of light, the moon the increase of light, and the sun the fullness of light, by these symbols are signified the beginning, progress and perfection of the Church; whence Honorius: "The Church," he says, "before the Mosaic law was in the state of natural law as the dawn, when it had only some beginning of law and divine knowledge; it was the moon under the law, because then that knowledge was growing, still needing the rays of the sun; it was the sun under the Gospel, because then the Church, with the true Sun shining forth and utterly dispelling all nocturnal darkness, was to exert itself with final effort: for even St. Gregory taught that the prayer tends toward the times of Antichrist; nor does Cassiodorus dissent, who wishes this to be the voice of the Synagogue at the end of the age, converted to Christ through the preaching of Elijah and Enoch. Others more rightly refer all these things to the progress of the Christian Church: for it itself, arising under Christ and the apostles, began thinly, obscurely and latently, as the dawn in Judaea; then it grew like the moon waxing toward the full moon, but with pale light, namely through terrors, persecutions and the countless martyrdoms of martyrs under the ten emperors persecuting it until Constantine the Great; when it became as the sun, scattering the rays of its faith and dominion throughout the whole world; soon it began to be as an army in battle array, when it conquered idolatry and paganism, and routed the rising heresies of Arius, Nestorius, Pelagius and others, and reformed the abuses of morals arising among the faithful. But it will be especially such at the end of the world, when, contending most mightily with Antichrist, through Elijah and Enoch it will overcome him, and will convert the Jews, and will shine forth everywhere with wondrous glory of holiness; whence St. Gregory, Theodoret, Bede, Cassiodorus, Cosmas Damianus, Delrio here and Francis Ribera on Apocalypse XI, verse 2, refer all these things to the end of the world, and rightly: for the following passages look to this. For then the Church, oppressed by Antichrist and the impious, and nearly extinguished, raised up by Elijah and Enoch will rise again as the dawn, and will gradually increase as the moon, and at last will shine as the brightest sun, and will be as an army in battle array, which will either destroy all the antichristian and impious, or subject them to itself. Whence St. John in Apocalypse XII, 1 and following, alluding to this, describes the Church to come at the end of the world by the appearance of a woman crowned with 12 stars; who treads the moon under her feet, and is clothed with the sun, and brings forth a male child, whom the dragon, striving to devour, is overcome by Michael. See the things said there. Then likewise Christ will come to judgment, by which he will make the Church militant triumphant, and brighter than the sun, terrible to all demons and the reprobate. Hear St. Gregory: "The holy Church, rising as the dawn at the last judgment, proceeds, because, leaving behind the darkness of corruption, it is renewed in brightness. Which is well said to be chosen as the sun, because it is led to the same glory to which its head Christ is led, who is said to be the sun of justice; whence it is that the same sun says, John XVII, 24: Father, I will that where I am, there my minister also may be." Hear also Cassiodorus and Bede, holding that these are the words of the Synagogue at the end of the world, admiring the beauty of the Church: "What is this, which, as the dawn, having passed through the darkness of infidelity, shows itself to have the light of truth, advancing from virtue to virtue, and occupying the whole world with heavenly preaching; fair as the moon, because it is illuminated by the grace of the true sun Christ, and because in the present life sometimes, when peace is granted, it grows; sometimes it is seen to decrease through adversities; chosen as the sun in the other life, where it will shine perpetually with joy from the vision of its Creator, and also in the present life, because it imitates the true sun Christ; and being united by the bond of charity, it is terrible to demons as an army in battle array."
A holy soul arises like the dawn, when it rises from the darkness of sin to the light of grace; it grows like the moon, when it spreads more and more to this light, and advances in every virtue; finally it becomes elect like the sun, when it shines forth in full charity and holiness: then it is terrible to demons and the wicked, like an army arrayed in battle order. Hear St. Gregory: "For the moon indeed, while it illuminates the night, shows to those with dimmed eyes the path which man walks: thus certainly every soul, which leaves darkness and extends itself to holy work, while it gives an example of good working to neighbors, scatters light as it were to those with darkening eyes: for when sinners behold a good work, and turn themselves to doing the same, as those wandering in the night return to the way by the light of the moon. This soul therefore, while it offers good examples to sinners, shines like the moon in the night; but while it grows more and more, and from day to day through the habit of work receives the light of justice so perfectly, that it also offers examples of imitation to the good, which before appeared to be imitated only by sinners, it truly becomes the sun from the moon, because what shone in the night to those wandering, now manifests the light of truth to those walking in the day." The same, book XVI of the Morals, chapter 25: "The mind of the just, he says, is the dawn which, leaving behind the darkness of its sin, now breaks forth to the light of eternity." Haymo notes that the sun and moon never rest, but move perpetually, and continually grow in the morning until midday; the faithful and just ought to do the same, according to that passage, Proverbs IV, 18: "But the path of the just, as a shining light, proceedeth and groweth even to perfect day." Those beginning to shine therefore begin like the dawn, hence they still have mixed darkness of desires and vices; those making progress shine more like the moon, because as this illuminates the night, so they illuminate sinners; the perfect shine like the sun, which by day irradiates all: thus indeed the perfect also illuminate all, even the just, by their splendor: thus St. Gregory. To this pertains the version of the Chaldean: "The nations said, he says, How splendid are the works of this people like the Morning! beautiful are its young men like the moon; and pure are its merits like the sun; and its terror was upon all the inhabitants of the earth, when its standards walked through the desert." Furthermore, Justus Orgelitanus accommodates these to three degrees of chastity: "For the married living chastely, he says, shine like the dawn; widows and the continent grow beautiful like the moon; virgins radiate like the sun." St. Bernard, however, in sermon 60 among the lesser ones, adapts these to three virtues of religious: namely by the dawn he understands humility, by the moon chastity, by the sun charity. Anagogically, the holy mind, which in this carnal and corruptible life shines like the dawn and like the moon, which is subject to various changes, and now grows, now wanes; in heaven full, clear and with constant light will gleam like the sun, according to that saying of Christ, Matthew XIII, 43: "The just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father:" thus St. Gregory, Theodoret and St. Ambrose, On the Death of Valentinian, whom hear: "What is she, who looks forth like the dawn, etc.? She looks forth, he says, the holy soul from a higher place, as if despising lower things; she has come forth from the darkness of this age, shining like the moon, gleaming like the sun;"
Rupert teaches that the blessed Virgin was the dawn at her nativity, the moon at the conception of Christ, the sun at her assumption into heaven: "When thou wast born, he says, O blessed Virgin, then did a true dawn arise for us, a dawn heralding the eternal day; for as the daily dawn is the end of the past night and the beginning of the following day, so thy nativity, a nativity from the seed of Abraham, bright from the line of David, to whom the promise of blessing was made with the oath of God, was the end of sorrows and the beginning of consolation, was the end of sadness and the beginning of joy for us." He then proceeds from dawn to the moon. "But when the Holy Spirit came upon thee, and thou didst conceive a son as a virgin and didst bear as a virgin, now thou and from that time forth art beautiful, not in any manner, but as the moon: for as the moon shines and illuminates with light not its own, but conceived from the sun; so thou, O most blessed, this very thing, that thou art so bright, thou hast not from thyself, but from divine grace, O full of grace!" Finally from the moon he passes to the sun: "But when thou wast assumed from this world and translated to the ethereal chamber, then thou and from that time forth art chosen as the sun; chosen, I say, for us, because as we adore and worship thy Son born of thee, the true sun, the eternal sun, as the true God, so also do we honor and venerate thee as the true Mother of God, knowing that all honor paid to the mother doubtless redounds to the glory of the Son." Again St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Assumption: "O glorious Virgin, he says, thou most ardent lamp, thou wast even to the angels themselves a miracle of light, so that they might say, Canticles VI, 8: Who is she that cometh forth as the dawn rising, fair as the moon, chosen as the sun? for she shone more brightly than the rest." So also St. Jerome, epistle 32 to Eustochium: "Then, he says, the angels shall wonder at the soul ascending to the heavens, and shall say: Who is she looking forth as the dayspring, fair as the moon, chosen as the sun?" Hear the analogies of the dawn and the Mother of God, which our Spinellus has gathered from the Fathers, cap. XXIV On the Mother of God, no. 18. The dawn is the end of night and the beginning of day, and testifies that the sun is at hand; it puts to flight the birds of night, but invites the birds of day to sing; it also continually advances toward greater splendor, and at that time white dew falls, by which the crops are refreshed from the heat and the earth is made fertile: thus the Virgin Mother of God, shining upon a world surrounded by the darkness of ignorance and sins, like the destruction of eternal darkness: not only the herald and bearer of the Sun of Justice, but also its mother, she drives far away the demons like unclean birds of darkness: she stirs up and invites the servants of God and the very angels themselves, like birds of day flying on high, to the praises of God, and much better than those three boys of old freed from the burning of the Babylonian furnace, who invited all creatures to bless God: since far greater benefits of God toward mankind have become known and have come through the Mother of God. She is also like the dawn continually rising, in that in all her acts while she lived, she ever grew with greater increments of merit, and now her knowledge among men and piety toward her is perpetually propagated more and more each day, and by her prayers divine grace descends into the souls of men like white dew, by which they are refreshed from the heat of temptations and concupiscence, and are made fertile for bringing forth good works. Therefore the Mother of God herself is called by St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, in his oration On the Oblation of the Virgin, the dew, which is the divine dew in us, and the sprinkling divinely watering our dried heart; or rather the blessed Virgin as the dawn brought forth the dew Christ, which as dew refreshes the heat of concupiscence, and makes fertile the garden of the soul, and renders it fruitful of good works; whence Isaiah, cap. XLV, vers. 8: "Drop down, he says, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just," namely Christ: wherefore Durandus in the Rationale of Divine Office, treating of the Feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin, asserts that the blessed Virgin was born on the 8th of September on a Saturday, and at the breaking of dawn, according to a revelation made to a certain religious man, so that it might be signified that she herself would be the dawn, which would precede and bring forth the Sun of Justice. Furthermore the blessed Virgin is invincible against demons, like an army set in array. Hear St. Bernard in St. Bonaventure's Mirror, cap. III: The visible enemies do not so fear a numerous army arrayed in camp, as the aerial powers fear the name of Mary, her patronage and example: they flow away and perish like wax before fire, wherever they find frequent remembrance of this name, devout invocation, careful imitation." Symbolically, according to Philo of Carpathus: The Humanity (for this is the first in the Canticle, that is, the Bride of the Word) of Christ, he says, shines forth like the moon; but the Divinity radiates like the sun, according to that passage, Psalm LXXXVIII, 38: "His throne is as the sun in my sight, and as the moon perfect." But Abbot Luke adapts all these things to the Humanity of Christ; for this first: "goes forth," he says, "like the dawn after the darkness of ignorance, rising like the morning light to sacred baptism. Secondly, through each virtue beautiful as the moon, which in so many years (namely thirty) advances in wisdom and bodily age as many days as the moon completes its orbit and diminishes; which as the moon at the rising of its manifestation affords joy to sorrowing wayfarers, at the wedding when the wine failed, among the beginnings still of believers, shines forth resplendent; and in whose setting the whole world was shaken by tempest, and darkness covered the luminaries of love. Thirdly, chosen as the sun, after the most full glory of resurrection, subsisting in paternal brightness; for these three grades can indeed be understood full of praises in the future judgment. It will appear to the just in the beauty of the moon, shining in the majesty of the virtues of the heavens; but to the wicked assigned to eternal fire, terrible as an army set in array." Thus Luke, or rather Aponius, of whom Luke is the abridger.
THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM. VERSE 10. I WENT DOWN INTO THE GARDEN OF NUTS, TO SEE THE FRUITS OF THE VALLEYS, AND TO LOOK IF THE VINEYARD HAD FLOURISHED, AND THE POMEGRANATES BUDDED. I WENT DOWN INTO THE GARDEN OF NUTS, TO SEE THE FRUITS OF THE VALLEYS (the Septuagint, the offspring of the torrent; Symmachus, to consider the fruits of the valley; the Arabic, the produce of the torrent), AND TO LOOK IF THE VINEYARD HAD FLOURISHED, AND THE POMEGRANATES BUDDED (the Hebrew and the Septuagint, had flourished)—namely the pomegranate trees. The Septuagint and the Arabic add, there I will give thee my breasts. Theodoret, Cassiodorus, three Anonymous writers, Genebrard and Cosmas of Damascus hold that these are the words of the Bride narrating to the Bridegroom why she came to the garden; but since in verses 1 and 2 the Bride indicates that she went down into the garden in order to seek the Bridegroom there, it seems inappropriate that here she should put forward another reason for her descent: wherefore more aptly St. Jerome, in Zechariah chapter XII, St. Gregory, Philo, Anselm, Rupert, Abbot Luke, Delrio, Sanchez and others hold that these are the words of the Bridegroom, who, reconciled to the Bride seeking him so earnestly, dissembles the offense, and puts forward another reason for his sudden departure, of which verse 6 speaks, namely that he might inspect the fruits of the garden, whether they were budding or even ripening: for some fruits, such as cherries, plums, and indeed certain fruits properly so called, ripen at the beginning of summer, when the vineyards flower and pomegranates bud.
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Christ, seeing the prelates of the Church of the Gentiles negligent in reforming the errors and morals of the faithful, turns aside to the garden of nuts, that is to the Synagogue of the Jews, from which He was born and gathered apostles, and thus in it He placed the foundations of His Church, so that He might convert the Jews and consider and gather their fruits in His time, namely the nuts of penance and patience, and the apples of the valleys (for in the valleys where there are waters and streams, fruits and other produce grow more abundantly), namely the fruits of humility, and grapes and wines of devotion, and pomegranates of charity. He did this at various times and places, but will do it especially at the end of the world, when through Elias and Enoch He will make most of the Jews Christians, indeed eminent saints. By this descent Christ invites the prelates and faithful of the Church, so that they themselves might descend and care for the salvation of the Jews (whom we see neglected everywhere) and not despair of it, but expect it with long-suffering; the same I say of any hardened ones: thus Philo Carpathius, Rupertus, Lucas the abbot, Cosmas Damianus, Gislerius, Delrio and others understand by the garden of nuts the Synagogue of the Jews, converted to Christ and to be converted, especially at the end of the world, for Christ shows here that He takes great care of these, as also Paul does, Rom. cap. IX, vers. 1. For the nut first produces no fruit unless struck with poles and stones, so the Jews of old did nothing good unless driven by God through plagues and stripes. Second, just as the nut is covered with a bitter bark and then a hard shell, so the Jews have a bitter and hard heart against Christ, and are obstinate in their Judaism: thus Rupertus. Third, the nut is said to emit a spirit which brings torpor and drowsiness, says Clement of Alexandria, lib. II Paedagog. cap. VIII; whence the nut is called by the Greeks καρύα from κάρος, that is torpor and heaviness, which it induces, just as the nut is called in Latin from nocendo, to harm: thus we see that many Jews labor under the drowsiness of perfidy, and Paul asserts this from David, Rom. cap. XI, 9. Fourth, just as the nut easily corrupts and rots, and then is putrid and harmful, so formerly the scribes and Pharisees, and now the rabbis have corrupted the kernel of the law by their perverse interpretations and made it putrid: on account of which Christ rebuked them, Matt. V, 20, and XXIII, 14. Fifth, just as the nut tree, according to the testimony of Pliny, lib. XVII, cap. XII, harms the neighboring fields and plants with its heavy shade, so that nation harms other nations with whom it associates by the bad example of its life and impious doctrine, and does not permit them to bear any evangelical fruits. Sixth, the law of Moses is compared to a nut: "For just as the nut tree," says Philo Carpathius, "produces bitter leaves, and those threefold, and the fruit itself, namely nuts, covered with a most bitter bark which they call the husk, and a harder shell, and a dry covering, which indeed contain within a kernel not unpleasant, fourfold divided, and with a woody cartilage running through it, and a thin membrane, while it is green, enclosed: so that law written by the finger of God from those carnal sacrifices and ceremonies, like a nut with bitter fronds, seemed to be, although mystically signifying the triune God and one, and covered with a very hard sense, although mystical, like a bark; yet it held enclosed a most sweet fruit, and especially salutary, Christ Jesus about to descend from heaven; and this to be spread forth by the fourfold evangelical sense, through the four corners of the world, and to be extracted and eaten most holily only by those who rightly and sanctely crack it open."
A garden of nuts is any soul whatsoever, whose kernel, namely a good will and holiness, Christ desires and seeks, but He must break its hard shell, that is to say, desires, in order to obtain the kernel: for this great and long patience is necessary. "By a shell," says Pliny, lib. XV, cap. XXVIII, "nuts are enclosed, by a hide chestnuts, by a crust acorns, by a skin grapes, by hide and membrane pomegranates, by flesh and juice mulberries consist, by skin and juice cherries." The same, cap. XXII, says: "The walnut is protected by a double covering; first by the cushioned calyx, then by the wooden shell, which cause made them religious for weddings, fortified by offspring in so many ways, which is more likely than because falling they make a tripudium or sound." And after some things: "This alone is the fruit which nature has enclosed with a compact covering: for the shells have bifid keels, and their nuclei have a fourfold distinction, with a wooden membrane running between." Just as therefore great patience is necessary for one wishing to prepare a nut for eating, so the same is necessary for bridegrooms, that they accommodate their brides to their customs, and especially spiritual brides, that is to say, that they form hard and stubborn men, such as the Jews, according to Christian laws. Hence the proverb, which Plautus mentions in the Curculio: "Whoever wishes the kernel to be from a nut, let him break the nut," that is: Whoever desires advantage, let him not flee labor; whoever seeks pleasure, let him first experience toil, without which true pleasure is not prepared. "The nut," says St. Jerome, "is hard on the outside and bitter, but inside it contains the sweetest food." "Just as the Moly herb," says Homer, Odyssey X, "has a black root, but a milky flower." Wherefore the nut, or rather the breaking of the nut, is a symbol of the perfect patience of those who strive to gain souls for Christ and to betroth them to Him, especially those which have drawn a callus in perfidy, or in some vice by long custom of sinning, so that this callus may be removed gradually and gently: for, as three Anonymous writers say among Theodoret, the sweetness and beauty of virtue are preserved in the midst of bitterness, labors, temptations and hardships, just as the kernel of a nut is preserved in the midst of a hard shell. The nut therefore by its hardness represents any hardness whatsoever in its kind, which if it is directed toward a good object, is good, such as in patience, constancy and fortitude; if toward an evil, bad, such as in pertinacity and obstinacy, indeed it is often changed from evil to good, as the Jews will change their hardness in their perfidy, converted by Elijah, into the admirable constancy of faith. Hence Philo, lib. V De Vita Moysis: The nut, he says, signifies perfect virtue, for just as in a nut the same thing is end and beginning: insofar as it is seed, it is beginning: insofar as it is fruit, it is end: so also in virtues, each one is end and beginning; the outermost shell is bitter, the inner wooden bark is solid: so the labor of virtue is hard and difficult, by which nevertheless both one's own and another's happiness is attained. Again the wise and perfect, while they constantly retain divine wisdom and virtue within their bodies, carry it as a kernel in a fragile shell; whence the Apostle, II Corinthians IV, 7: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." This is served by the version of the Chaldean, who takes this judaically concerning the temple and Judaea: "The Lord of the age said: In the house of the sanctuary the second, which was rebuilt by the hand of Cyrus, I made my majesty to dwell so that I might see the works of my people, and so that I might see if the wise grow and multiply, who are compared to the vine, and if their shoots are full of good works, like pomegranate apples." Symbolically, St. Augustine in a sermon De Tempore, a sermon on the Sunday before the feast of the Nativity of Christ, teaches that the nut consists of three substances, just as the Church consists of Christ, Jews and Gentiles: "The nut," he says, "has in its body a union of three substances, the skin, the shell and the kernel: in the skin flesh, in the shell bones, in the kernel the inner soul is compared. In the skin of the nut the flesh of the Savior is signified, which had in itself harshness, not the fruits of the mountain, but the fruits of the valley, that he might see, does he descend? unless because he granted to them the regard of his mercy, whom he knows to persist in humility." Finally, he explains the flower of the vine and of the pomegranates thus: "The vine flowers, when in the Church children are newly born in faith, and are prepared for holy conversation, as it were for the solidity of fruit. Pomegranates germinate, when the perfect ones through their examples build up their neighbors, and invite them to the newness of holy conversation through preaching and the showing of good works. Indeed, that pomegranate, namely the Apostle Paul, had germinated, who said, Galatians IV, 19: My little children, whom I am in labor with again, until Christ be formed in you." Symbolically, Cassiodorus, Bede and Theodoret understand by the garden of nuts the conscience of each one, covered with as many husks and coverings as the nut has; among which is hidden the kernel of good will: into this the bridegroom descends, that he might see and gather the fruits of the valleys, that is the fruits of humility. The nut, says St. Augustine, On the Seasons, signifies the cross of Christ, whose rind signifies the outer flesh crucified, and through it the harsh penance and cross, which Christ commands to be taken up; the shell signifies the bones, that is the difficulty and hardness; the kernel signifies food, namely the divine and sweet food, which, difficulty overcome, those find who take up the cross. Again Aponius, Cassiodorus and three Anonymous writers in Theodoret, thinking these to be the words of the bride, that is the holy soul to the disciples, explain thus, as if to say: "Therefore he placed me in the chariot of Aminadab, that is Christ constituted me in his chariot," who is the true Aminadab, that is the prince of the people, "that I might bear him in myself through disciplines observed toward you, according to the reason of each of you."
The Blessed Virgin descended into the garden of nuts, when she contemplated the passion of Christ, in which the wood of the cross was the tree of nuts, which first by its hard rind represented the hardness of the cross and of suffering; secondly, the sweet kernel, namely the redemption of the human race, and the glory which Christ merited for himself and for us through the cross. St. Gregory, Aponius, Bede and Theodoret understand by the garden of nuts the conscience of each faithful one, covered with as many husks and coverings as the nut has: Christ descended, that he might see the fruits of the valleys, that is the fruits of humility: "For why, says Gregory,
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Tropologically, the nut, or rather the breaking and eating of the nut, signifies the patience by which the Church and preachers constantly labor in overcoming the obstinacy of the Jews: for a nut, in order to be eaten, must first be knocked down from the tree to which it adheres with great force; secondly, be stripped of its bark; thirdly, be broken; fourthly, the kernel be removed from the shell, or rather violently extracted; fifthly, be stripped of its husk, or its skin: thus, in order that you convert a Jew and any hardened person, great and long patience is necessary. I KNEW NOT (Septuagint, my soul knew not; Syriac, I knew not my soul, that is, I did not know myself. For "it troubled," in Hebrew it is שמתני samatni, for which Our [translation] reads שמתני with shin, deriving that from שמם scamam, that is, it stupefied, troubled, desolated, turned, troubled me; and Symmachus: my soul, he says, doubted from the chariots of the people leading; but the Septuagint, deriving scammatni from שם scham, that is, placed, translate, the chariots of Aminadab placed me; thus also the Arabic; Ambrose, in the book On Abraham, chapter VIII: Thou hast placed me in the chariot of Aminadab. BECAUSE OF THE CHARIOTS OF AMINADAB. — Here "Aminadab" can be taken, first, as the proper name of a man, not the brother of David, of whom in I Kings XIII, 17; nor another, in whose house the ark of the Lord rested, II Kings VI, 3: for this one was called Abinadab, not Aminadab; but of him who in the time of Moses was the leader of the tribe of Judah, and gave his daughter as wife to Aaron, and left after him his son Nahshon as his successor, leader of the tribe of Judah: thus Lyra and the Hebrews. Secondly, "Aminadab," or as it is in Hebrew Amminadib, can be taken appellatively, so as to signify a willing people, a liberal prince; hence the fifth edition translated, thou hast placed me in the chariot of the people of a leader; Aquila, of a people commanding willingly; Symmachus, of a people leading; others, of a noble people; Syriac, in the chariot of a prepared people. Philo of Carpathus translated Aminadab as the father's good pleasure, that is to say, the soul of the just is from the good pleasure of God, a chariot carrying itself and others to heaven. Hence some understand by the chariots of Aminadab the chariots of Solomon, who was a prince and leader of the people of Israel; whence Rupert and others understand by Aminadab Christ, as it were the antitype of Solomon, who is the leader of the faithful and holy people. Now the Chaldean translates: "But when it was revealed before the Lord that they were just, and that they labored in the law, the Lord said in His word: I will not add further to humble them, nor will I make with them consumption; but I will take counsel in my soul, that I may do good to them, and that I may place them exalted in the chariots of kings, on account of the merits of the just of that generation who are like in their works to Abraham their father." Furthermore, interpreters vary wonderfully here in meaning. First, Aben-Ezra, R. Solomon and Lyra translate, my soul placed me as a chariot of a people commanding, and thus explain it of the Synagogue and Israel, that is to say, While I knew not where the bridegroom was, while namely I worshipped idols, not the true God, I was given into captivity to the Assyrians and Babylonians, and became to them as a beast of burden, and a chariot carrying and bearing their burdens. Secondly, Luysius of Leon, Genebrardus, Vatablus and Almonacirius explain it, that is to say, O bride: With such swiftness was I snatched into the garden from desire of the bridegroom, that I seemed to be carried away by the very swift chariots of Aminadab. Thirdly, Sanchez, that is to say, I feared lest the bridegroom Aminadab, that is Solomon, would not receive me the bride in his nuptial chariot, because in chapter V, verse 3, I had delayed to open to him knocking. Fourthly, Sotomayor, that is to say, I feared lest the bridegroom, as if repulsed by me, wandering by night through the streets, would run into the chariots of Aminadab, that is the prefect of the city who goes about the city by night and seizes vagabonds. Fifthly, John the Carmelite, that is to say, While I sought thee absent amid the waves of pressing evils, I seemed like Aminadab of old, who drove his chariots through the bed of the Red Sea, where he was troubled by the magnitude of the prodigy, although strength prevailed. Others otherwise. But I say, sixth, grammatically the chariots of Aminadab (that is, of the prince of the people or of the willing) signify the peoples neighboring Judaea, who, attracted by the fame of Solomon's wisdom and power, willingly submitted themselves to him and brought tribute, III Kings IV, 24; and therefore they sent legates to him with horses and chariots, so much so that their abundance filled the court of Solomon; which the Jews, who wished to hold the first places in the court, bore with difficulty, and were troubled, just as the Macedonians were indignant when they saw their king Alexander the Great, having subdued the Persians (in order to conciliate them more to himself), assume their garments and customs; as Q. Curtius testifies. But parabolically it signifies that Christ joined the gentiles to the Church of the Jews, indeed preferred them, and therefore the Jews were troubled; hence both Solomon, and more especially Christ, is called Aminadab, that is, prince of the people, namely of the gentile and greater people. Therefore the sense is, as if to say, Just as the queen, seeing foreign chariots and horsemen beside the king, marvels and is troubled, and fears lest he migrate to a foreign nation, and from there take another wife: so here the Synagogue, seeing the Messiah not carried in the pompous chariot of Solomon, David, and other kings of Judah, but of Aminadab, that is, of the willing people, namely of the gentiles, and attended by gentiles, the Jews being left behind, marvels and is troubled. Wherefore the yod, that is, עמי ammi, is not an affixed pronoun signifying mine, as if the Synagogue noted her Jewish people; but it is a paragogic yod, which is added merely for the sake of ornament. It can, however, be taken as a pronoun, as if to say, The gentile people, whom God now calls ammi, that is, my people: for it alludes to Osee cap. I, 11. Thus far concerning the letter of the bark; now to the kernel.
Some think this to be the voice of the Bridegroom Christ, others the voice of the Bride the Church; but it is more true that it is the voice of the Synagogue of the Jews, partly converted and partly rather to be converted to Christ at the end of the world. For since in the preceding verse Christ had descended into the garden of nuts, that is into the Synagogue of the Jews, to convert it through his preachers; hence she, aroused by this voice and preaching of Christ, recognizes Christ, and grieving and repenting of her former deafness and blindness, assigns the cause thereof, and excuses her tardiness in believing in Christ, as if to say: I knew not that Christ was the Messiah, and therefore did not worship him, because the chariots of Aminadab troubled me. You will ask, what are these chariots? It is answered, first, that by them may be understood Israel and the victories and benefits bestowed upon Israel by God: for Aminadab was a prince of the tribe of Judah, in the time of Moses at the crossing of the Red Sea, who, as the Hebrews relate, while others hesitated to enter the sea, was the first to enter it boldly with his tribe and its chariots, and gave courage to the others to follow; thus all crossed the sea, Pharaoh pursuing and being drowned. Wherefore the tribe of Judah merited the principality and kingdom of Israel, that is of the twelve tribes, and through it thereafter God delivered and vindicated Israel from enemies through victories, even miraculous ones. Again, Aminadab gave his daughter Elizabeth as wife to Aaron, the first high priest of the Jews, Exodus VI, 23: wherefore in Aminadab are noted both the priesthood and the kingdom granted to Israel. The sense therefore is, as if the Synagogue were to say: I knew not hitherto that Christ was the Messiah, I knew not that the Christian faith and Church were true and orthodox, because the triumphal and victorious chariots of Aminadab held me in Judaism, that is the kingdom, priesthood, victories, benefits and miracles granted by God to Moses and Israel, by which God testified that he was the author of the law of the Synagogue and of the religion instituted by Moses: thus Titelmann. Secondly, more deeply and aptly, the chariots of Aminadab, or, as it is in Hebrew Amminadib, that is of the people willing, liberal and princely, are understood appellatively for the chariots of the Christian people gathered from the gentiles, who, the Jews resisting the faith, willingly believed the gospel; but these chariots denote the course and chariot of the gospel, indeed of the four gospels, which like a chariot most swiftly flew through the preaching of the apostles and apostolic men throughout the whole world; and because the Jews saw their law received from Moses abrogated by these, hence they were unwilling to believe in Christ; but at length taught by Elijah and Enoch they will see that Christ is not contrary to Moses, the gospel to the law, the Church to the Synagogue, but rather that Moses and the law through all its functions and rites prefigured and represented Christ and the gospel. They will likewise see the glory of the gospel, miracles, graces, zeal and spirit inspired by God to Elijah and to Christians: wherefore then they will believe, and will be placed in the same chariot of Christ and the Church; hence from the Hebrew the Septuagint and others translate, he set me as a chariot of my people willing, liberal and princely; and St. Athanasius in the Synopsis reading, he set me as the chariots of Aminadab, explains this of the Synagogue, as if she herself were to say of herself: "I saw that I was to be joined as in a chariot to the calling of the gentiles." Thus Paul, says Rupert, says that he persecuted the Church, but obtained mercy, because he did it in ignorance, because namely his soul was troubled on account of the chariots of Aminadab, seeing namely the course and course of the gospel to be adverse to Judaism. This is the common sense of the Fathers, for thus do St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus, Philo, Rupertus, Anselmus and others explain it. Rupertus adds that Aminadab, who gave his daughter as wife to Aaron, thereby joining the principality with the priesthood, represented Christ, who is at once both pontiff and prince of the Church. Solomon alludes to the name Aminadab in that passage, Psalm CIX, 3: "With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength in the brightness of the saints," where in Hebrew it is עמך נדבות ammecha nedaboth, which is the same as Aminadab; whence St. Jerome there translates it, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy strength, O Christ. To this pertains what God says in Osee I, 9, calling the Jews rebellious against Christ לא עמי lo ammi, that is, not my people; but the gentiles submitting themselves to Christ he calls עמי ammi, that is, my people; here Solomon adds נדיב nadib, that is, willing, liberal, that is, willingly, of their own accord and with a liberal mind subjecting themselves to Christ: and this was the cause of the blindness of the Jews, namely that Christ, inasmuch as they were unbelieving, substituted for them in the Church the gentiles who believed in him of their own accord, whereas the Jews objected that Christ was promised to Abraham and to his seed, that is, to the Jews and not to the gentiles, to whom the Apostle responds, Rom. IX, 7, that the children of Abraham are not reckoned according to the flesh, as the Jews were, but according to the spirit, namely those who follow the faith of Abraham, as Christian gentiles do: these therefore are the chariots of the gospel, which at first disturbed the unbelieving Synagogue, but afterwards wonderfully refreshed the believing one. Symbolically, Cosmas Damianus understands by the chariots of Aminadab the strength and forces of Antichrist, for these will at first keep the Jews in Judaism, until he is convicted and overthrown by Elias and Enoch of his error. Theodoretus adds, who thus expounds it, as if to say, They set upon me, that is, they imposed upon me and deceived me with the chariots of Aminadab, that is, the princes of this world; and Luke the abbot, or Aponius, who understands by the chariots of Aminadab demons, likewise Pilate and the Jews, who cried out against Christ, Luke XXIII, 21: "Crucify, crucify him." Finally, some think that grammatically here are noted the wars which Solomon waged against Hamath Suba, that is, Syria Sobal; likewise against the remnants of the Hethites, Amorrhites and Jebusites, whom he subjected to himself, as appears II Paralip. VIII, 3 and 7, as if the bride were troubled, fearing lest something sinister befall her spouse going forth to war; hence by the chariots of Aminadab they understand Mahomet, the Saracens and Turks, who have greatly troubled and still trouble the Church, for these abound in armies, horses and chariots. These are called Aminadab, that is, my people willing, because Mahomet arose from Christians: for he was born among the Homerites (whence also his nephew, who succeeded him in the second place in the kingdom of the Arabs, was called Homar), or in Arabia Felix, where a little before about the year of Christ 600, in the reign of King Elesbaan in the time of the Emperor Justinian, the Christian religion flourished wonderfully. But Mahomet was born a little before the year of Christ 600, under Gregory the Great the pontiff, and the Emperor Phoca, to whom succeeded the Emperor Heraclius, under whom Mahomet as a leader of the Arabs earned stipends; but when these were not paid to the Arabs by Heraclius's prefect, they rebelled and occupied Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt, as Paul the Deacon and Simoneta teach, and Genebrardus shows in the Chronicle, and gradually extending their arms, about the year of Christ 1300, they grew wonderfully. Then Ottomanus invaded the kingdom, and first made himself emperor of the Turks, and propagated it to his posterity through 14 generations, with great continual increase of empire and damage to the Church up to this time. Others understand by the chariots of Aminadab, that is, my people, antipopes, who divided the Church by schism; and there were twenty such: for the Church endured so many schisms. Others understand schismatic emperors, or those who attacked the pontiffs and the Church, such as were Frederick I and II, Otto IV, Henry IV and V. For this reason Christ a little before verse 10 says: "I went down into the garden of nuts," that is, into the Church divided by schism, just as a nut is split and divided into two fragments.
A holy soul is the chariot of Aminadab, that is, of Christ: for Christ, as Rupertus and St. Ambrose say, is called Aminadab, that is, the prince of the people, namely of the faithful Christian, holy and elect; Christ therefore, as a charioteer sitting upon his chariot, directs the holy soul to heaven, just as Elias was carried in a chariot into the aether, and not only himself, but also others committed to his faith or charity, like the chariot of Christ, he conveys to heaven, as Philo says; whence three Anonymous writers cited by Theodoret, thinking these to be the words of the bride, that is, of the holy soul to the disciples, thus explain them, as if to say, "Therefore he placed me as the chariot of Aminadab, that is, Christ made me his chariot," who is the true Aminadab, that is, the prince of the people, "that I might bear him in myself through the disciplines practiced toward you, according to the measure of each of you." Hear St. Ambrose, lib. De Nabut. cap. XV: "If the soul, he says, is a chariot, see that the flesh be not the horse; but the driver is the vigor of the mind; which governs the flesh and its movements, as if certain horses, wisdom restrains with the reins." The same, lib. De Virgin.: "Christ, he says, the true Aminadab, drives the soul of the just like a chariot, ascending he governs with the reins of the Word, lest it be snatched by the fury of violent horses into an abyss. For his are as it were four horses, four affections, anger, desire, pleasure and fear, which raging, when it begins to be driven, it knows itself not at all. For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and like the course of irrational animals drags it unwilling; but when the impulses of the body roll along as if with a certain rush rushing forward, until the passions of the body delayed are softened by the virtue of the Word."
The Blessed Virgin is the chariot of Aminadab, that is, of the willing people, namely of the faithful, whom she conveys to heaven by obtaining for them obedience and liberality, by which they willingly and freely subject themselves to the precepts and counsels of Christ: wherefore to her belongs that which Eliseus cried out to Elias snatched away in a fiery chariot to heaven: "My father, my father, (thou art) the chariot of Israel, and the charioteer thereof," IV Kings II, 12: see the sayings at cap. I, vers. 9, to those words: "I have compared thee to the horsemen in the chariots of Pharao."
THE VOICE OF THE NEW BRIDE concerning the old, that is, of the Church concerning the Synagogue to be converted at the end of the world. VERSE 12. RETURN, RETURN, O SULAMITE: RETURN, RETURN, THAT WE MAY BEHOLD THEE. RETURN (others translate convert), RETURN (the Arabic adds a third return), O Sulamite: RETURN, RETURN, THAT WE MAY BEHOLD THEE. — The Scholiast says, we shall behold in thee as in a spectacle, that is, as in a wonderful and remarkable thing. For Sulamite many codices read Sunamite, and thus the Septuagint of the Vatican reads. Moreover Rupertus and others translate Sunamite as captive, despised: properly Sunamite in Hebrew is the same as changeable, variable. Again Sunamite can be translated with Honorius and Hailgrin here, and St. Jerome, epistle to Nepotian, as scarlet: for שני scani in Hebrew is cochineal; whence some suspect that the bride, who is introduced in the drama of the Song as Sunamite, is introduced as Tyrian: for there from the blood of the purple fish was made purple cloth, and from the grain of cochineal scarlet, whence that saying: I shall be clothed in Tyrian purple. For Tyre was near Lebanon, in which Solomon, walking about and hunting, is feigned to have found this pastoral maiden, and on account of the gifts of both body and soul to have chosen her as a bride; whence that passage in chapter IV, 8: "Come from Lebanon, my spouse," etc. For scarlet or purple garment is the garment of kings and queens, such as Solomon and his bride wore. Literally, Sulamite is the same as one sprung from Sunam, a town situated near the mountains of Hermon and Thabor. For Sulamite alludes to that Sunamite, the hostess of Eliseus, in the town of Sunam, whose son he therefore raised from death, just as Christ raises the sons of the Church from present and eternal death, IV Kings IV, 35. More truly, however, according to Justus Orgelitanus here, and Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, it alludes to that most beautiful Sunamite, who was given to David in his old age to warm him as a wife and virgin, III Kings I, 2. In a similar manner to Solomon, the son of David, was this Sunamite given as wife and virgin, that she might represent the Church, a virgin to be espoused to the virgin Christ, according to that passage II Corinthians XI, 2: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ:" because therefore that Sunamite of David was most distinguished in form, faith and morals, hence to Solomon's bride also in this drama the same name Sunamite is given, because she was most beautiful in body and soul; the other is more beautiful than the Sunamite, that is, the Church the bride of Christ. But Sulamite should be read, for thus the Hebrew and Greek Complutensian, and the Royal and Latin corrected at Rome read. Now Sulamite is the same as Jerusalemite, say Pagninus, Luysius and Vatablus: for Jerusalem was formerly called Salem; whence Sulamite is the same as citizen of Salem, or Jerusalem, that is, mystically, dwelling in peace. Better Delrio, Genebrardus and others: Sulamite, they say, is the same as Solomonia, that is, Solomon's wife; for just as from Paul is said Paula, from Caius Caia, from Cornelius Cornelia; so from the masculine Solomon is said Sulamite, that is, Salomo (by which name the mother of the seven Maccabee martyrs is called, according to Josephus), or Solomonia. Moreover, just as Solomon in Hebrew is the same as peaceful, perfect: so Sulamite is the same as perfect and peaceful, as Aquila, Theodoret, St. Ambrose and others translate here. The Hebrew texts have the article; for they have הַשּׁוּלַמִּית hassculamith, that is, that Sulamite, that peaceful one, who far excels all others. Again and rather the ה here is the article of the vocative case, as if to say, O Sulamite. It is remarkable that Symmachus translates contrarily ἐσκυλμένη, that is, despoiled. Finally Sulamite is the same as Sunamite, by enallage, by which the letter N is often changed and liquefied into L: thus Italians for Panermo say Palermo, for veneno, veleno, for Bononia, Bologna. Thus Syrians for nux say lux. Attics for virgos say λίτριν; for πνεύμων, πλεύμων, as Latins say pulmo. Dorians on the other hand change L into N, as for ἦλθον, they say ἦνθον, for βέλτιστος, βέντιστος, for φίλτατος, φίντατος; for πλάνε, πίνλε. All Greeks for δίν and ἀσύν say, συλλέγω, likewise συλλογισμός. Latins for νύμφη say lympha, for bonus, bonulus, bellus; for γρυλίζω, grunnio; for μέγαλος, magnus: thus Angelus Caninius in the Hellenisms. In like manner she who is here called in Hebrew Sulamite is called by the Septuagint and most Latins Sunamite. Wrongly Philo Carpathius for Sulamite reads Odollamite, that is, he says, testimony of water, as if here an unfaithful soul were called to baptism, that in it she might profess faith in the Holy Trinity.
6:12
Some think these are the words of young maidens, who, having heard from the bridegroom in chapter V the praises of the bride, wish to detain her as she departs, and desire to contemplate the beauty in her face, as we have heard them do in verse 9. More rightly the Fathers commonly think these are the words of the Church, ardently and steadfastly inviting the Synagogue of the Jews, which now, having heard the preaching of Christ, was beginning to love him, as we have heard in the preceding verse, that she convert herself immediately to him, and show her face both to him and to the Church in faith unanimous, serene and joyful; and therefore "return" is repeated four times, because the Jews scattered through the four regions of the world are to be converted from there to Christ, having heard the preaching of the four Gospels, which were signified a little before through the chariots of Aminadab, as Rupertus says: thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Aponius, Philo, Anselm and others. Again, as if to say: O Sulamite, that is, O Synagogue formerly adverse, now converted to Christ, return to the society and fellowship of the Church gathered from the Gentiles, so that the Gentiles, beholding thy beauty, which thou hast received through baptism, may exult, and rejoice with thee, and give thanks to God: this meaning is hinted at by what follows: "That we may behold thee," that is thy form and beauty; and: "What shall we see in the Sulamite, but the choirs of camps?"
A sinful soul, or a holy soul, but sluggish and fallen into venial defects, is invited by Christ four times, that is, urgently and continually to penance, change of life and fervor. Thus St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac, chapter VIII: "Well," he says, "as a charioteer says to the chariot: Return, Sulamite, that is, peaceful one; for the soul that is peaceful quickly converts itself and corrects itself, even if it has sinned before, and Christ ascends it more, and deigns to rule it, to which it is said, Habakkuk III, 8: Ascend upon thy horses, and thy riding is salvation;" and St. Bernard, sermon 3 On the Annunciation: "Therefore," he says, "perhaps he calls back the soul four times, which he regards, so that it may not persist in the habit of sinning, nor in the consciousness of sins, nor even in the lukewarmness of ingratitude, or in the haughtiness of exaltation." The same, sermon 13 among the shorter ones: "Return," he says, "first from foolish joy, second from useless sadness, third from vain glory, fourth from hidden pride. Vain glory is that which comes from the mouth outwardly. Hidden pride arises from within." To this is added the version of the Chaldean: "Return to me, assembly of Israel, return to Jerusalem, return to the house of the doctrine of my law, return to look upon the prophecy from the prophets, who prophesy in the name of the word of the Lord." Elegantly and acutely Hugh of St. Victor, Miscellanies II, book II, title 24: "Four times," he says, "the Lord says to her return, as if to say: Return to mine, because they are wonderful; from thine, because they are perverse; from thyself, because all flesh is grass; to me, because I am the highest good. Thou canst not see me, unless first we behold thee. I know not what blemishes thou hast on thy face; thou art foul, thou bearest an alien image; cleanse it therefore, that we may revere thee." Furthermore, Theodoret understands by the Sulamite the soul of an evangelical preacher, which, being peaceful in itself, suffers many temptations, hunger and persecutions: he says that she is invited here to return to the work of preaching and the salvation of souls: for God will be present to her, so that she may struggle out of all things and overcome all things. Anagogically, St. Ambrose, in the oration On the Death of Valentinian, understands these things of the holy soul, which is called forth by Christ and the angels from this life into heaven. Symbolically, three Anonymous writers in Theodoret understand by the Sulamite the soul devoted to contemplation, as if she is here called forth by disciples and companions, so that she herself may teach the manner of restraining and governing the four passions or disturbances of the soul, and therefore "return" is repeated four times.
The Blessed Virgin at the end of her life was called forth into heaven by Christ, the angels and the blessed, desiring to enjoy her most sweet presence, and to behold her gifts of grace and glory, from which she had drawn her soul, spirit and all grace. Again, she herself is invoked four times, that is, ardently and assiduously by the penitent and the faithful, that she may obtain grace and bring aid in whatever necessity. Tropologically, learn here how beautiful and fair is the soul of any saint, and especially of the Blessed Virgin, inasmuch as all the angels and the blessed desire with such ardor and so many repeated wishes to behold her, so that from this beholding they may obtain the greatest consolation, joy and jubilation: wherefore theologians think that the secondary happiness of the blessed consists in contemplating and enjoying the glorious humanity of Christ, just as their primary beatitude consists in the vision and enjoyment of the divinity.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
6:8
… S. formed for himself a harem with an exaggerated number of women (1 Kings 11, 3; cf. Cant. 6, 8), many of them foreign and idolatrous, toward whom the theocratic king, builder of the temple of Yahweh, was so weak as to build in Jerusalem and its surroundings little temples to …
… house of the Lord shall be established on the top of the mountains" (Isa. 2:2). In the Song of Songs the bride is spoken of as a figure of the Church: "One is my dove, my perfect one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her" (Cant. 6:8). In the New Testament, Jesus speaks twice of the Church, and uses the article (Matt. 16:18 and 18:17). He says expressly that he intended to build "his Church" upon Peter the rock, …
6:9
… Levi 18:12 ff.; IV Esd. 8:52); referring to the messianic tree of Is. 11:1, they describe the future "plant of righteousness" (Ethiopic Enoch 10:16; 62:8; 84:6; 93:2-5). In rabbinic writings, the tree of life represents blessed immortality (Midrash on Cant. 6:9). The rabbis told fables of the enormous dimensions of this plant (Talmud Jerus., Berachoth I, 1).
6:12
… her virginity; the ark of the covenant, of incorruptible wood like the body of M.; the fleece of Gideon (Judg. 6, 37-38), which receives the dew from heaven as M. received her Son from heaven; the bride of the Song of Songs (v.); the enclosed garden (Cant. 6, 12) and the sealed fountain (ibid., 4, 12), fi-
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.