A further description of the graces of the church the spouse of Christ.
1What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but the companies of camps? How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince’s daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, that are made by the hand of a skilful workman.Che è quello, che tu vedrai nella Sulamitide se non cori militari? Quanto belli sono i tuoi passi ne' (tuoi) calzari, o figlia di Principe! Le punture de' tuoi fianchi (son) come monili lavorati per mano d'artefice.VVHAT shalt thou see in the Sulamitesse but the companies of campes? How beautiful are thy pases in shoes, ô princes daughter! b the ioyntes of thy thighes are as iewels, that are made by the hand of the artificer.Sponsa. Quid videbis in Sulamite, nisi choros castrorum ? / Chorus. Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui in calceamentis, filia principis ! / Juncturæ femorum tuorum sicut monilia / quæ fabricata sunt manu artificis. 2Thy navel is like a round bowl never wanting cups. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.Le tue viscere (sono) un nappo fatto al torno, che non manca mai di bevanda. Il tuo ventre come un monte di frumento circondato da' gigli.Thy nauel as à round bowle, neuer wanting cuppes. Thy bellie as an heape of wheate, compassed about with lilies.Umbilicus tuus crater tornatilis, / numquam indigens poculis. / Venter tuus sicut acervus tritici vallatus liliis. 3Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.Le due tue mammelle come due teneri cavrioli gemelli.Thy two breasts, as two fawnes the twinnes of a roe.Duo ubera tua sicut duo hinnuli, / gemelli capreæ. 4Thy neck as a tower of ivory. Thy eyes like the fishpools in Hesebon, which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, that looketh toward Damascus.Il tuo collo come torre d'avorio. Gli occhi tuoi come le peschiere di Hesebon, che sono alla porta di questa figlia popolosa. Il tuo naso come la torre del Libano, che guarda contro Damasco.Thy necke as a towre of yuorie. Thine eies as the fishpooles in Hesebon, which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. Thy nose as the towre of Libanus, that looketh against Damascus.Collum tuum sicut turris eburnea; / oculi tui sicut piscinæ in Hesebon / quæ sunt in porta filiæ multitudinis. / Nasus tuus sicut turris Libani, / quæ respicit contra Damascum. 5Thy head is like Carmel: and the hairs of thy head as the purple of the king bound in the channels.Il tuo capo come il Carmelo, e le chiome del tuo capo come la porpora del re legata nei canali.Thy head as Carmelus: and the heares of thy head as a kings purple tyed to cundite pipes.Caput tuum ut Carmelus; / et comæ capitis tui sicut purpura regis / vincta canalibus.
6How beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest, in delights!Quanto bella se' tu, e quanto splendida nelle (tue) delizie, o carissima!How beautiful art thou, and how comely my dearest, in delightes!Sponsus. Quam pulchra es, et quam decora, / carissima, in deliciis ! 7Thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.La tua statura è somigliante alla palma; e le tue mammelle ai grappoli.Thy stature is like to a palmetree, & thy breastes to clusters of grapes.Statura tua assimilata est palmæ, / et ubera tua botris. 8I said: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof: and thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine: and the odour of thy mouth like apples.Io dissi: Salirò sopra la palma, e coglierò i suoi frutti, e le tue mammelle saranno come grappoli della vite, e l'odore della tua bocca come l'odore di mele.I sayd: I wil goe vp into the palmetree, and wil take hold of the fruites therof: and thy breasts shal be as the clusters of a vineyard: and the odour of thy mouth as it were of apples.Dixi: Ascendam in palmam, / et apprehendam fructus ejus; / et erunt ubera tua sicut botri vineæ, / et odor oris tui sicut malorum. 9Thy throat like the best wine, worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate.Le tue fauci come ottimo vino degno di esser bevuto dal mio Diletto, e delle labbra, e dei denti di lui per ruminarlo.Thy throate as the best wine, worthie for my beloued to drinke, & for his lippes and his teeth to ruminate.Guttur tuum sicut vinum optimum, / dignum dilecto meo ad potandum, / labiisque et dentibus illius ad ruminandum. 10I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me.Io (sono) del mio Diletto, ed egli verso di me è rivolto.I to my beloued, and his turning is toward me.Sponsa. Ego dilecto meo, / et ad me conversio ejus. 11Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.Vieni, o mio Diletto, andiamo fuora alla campagna: facciam nostra dimora per le ville.Come my beloued, let vs goeforth in to the filde, let vs abide in the villages.Veni, dilecte mi, egrediamur in agrum, / commoremur in villis. 12Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish: there will I give thee my breasts.Al mattino alziamoci (per andare) alle vigne: veggiamo se la vigna è fiorita; se i fiori van partorendo i frutti: se i melagrani sono in fiore: ivi darò a te le mie mammelle.Let vs rise earely to the vineyards, let vs see if the vineyard florishe, if the flowers be readie to bring forth fruites, if the pomegranates florish: there wil I giue thee my breasts.Mane surgamus ad vineas: / videamus si floruit vinea, / si flores fructus parturiunt, / si floruerunt mala punica; / ibi dabo tibi ubera mea.
13The mandrakes give a smell. In our gates are all fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee.Le mandragore spirano odore: nelle nostre porte (son) tutti i pomi: e i nuovi, e i vecchi a te, o mio Diletto, gli ho serbati.The Mandragoraes haue geuen a smel. In our gates al fruites: the new and the old, my beloued, I haue kept for thee.Mandragoræ dederunt odorem / in portis nostris omnia poma: / nova et vetera, dilecte mi, servavi tibi.
7:1
Worthington
What? Christ commends the Jews, who shall at last embrace the faith with great fervour. (Worthington)
Haydock
Thou. Hebrew and Septuagint, "ye." They join this sentence with the preceding chapter. (Haydock)
Genesis xxxii
Companies. Hebrew, "as it were the choir (or dance) of Mahanaim," (Calmet) where Jacob saw the camps of angels, near the Jaboc. (Haydock) (Genesis xxxii.)
These dances might be proverbial.
7:4
Cassiodorus
Ivory. Preachers communicate the sentiments of the Church, (Calmet) which prevails against the gates of hell. [Matthew 16:18.] (Cassiodorus)
7:5
Calmet
Carmel. Shaded with trees. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "purple," which colour was sometimes given to the hair. (Propertius 2:18.)
Calmet
Channels. Of the dyers. Hebrew, "to beams." (Calmet)
Haydock
Protestants, "the king is held in the galleries" to view thee. (Haydock)
Menochius
Christ was all charity, and the faithful are twice dyed, with the love of God, and of their neighbour. (Menochius)
7:7
Calmet
Grapes. The Church triumphs over her adversaries, and feeds her children. (Calmet)
7:8
Calmet
Up. Christ shed his blood on the cross, and enabled his Church, composed of Jews and Gentiles, who were before barren, to produce a numerous progeny. (Calmet)
Mouth. Hebrew and Septuagint, "nose."
7:9
Haydock
Lips. Septuagint, "sufficient for my lips and teeth." (Haydock)
Theodoret
The wine in that country was very thick, when kept a long time. It here denotes charity, or the gospel truths, Luke 5:37., and Acts 2:13. Hebrew, "causing the lips of them who sleep to speak," (Calmet) as the apostles did, in transports of zeal. (Theodoret)
Calmet
Yet the reading of the Septuagint, Aquila, etc., seems preferable. (Calmet)
7:10
Calmet
Turning. The Church is submissive to Jesus Christ, and is entirely actuated by his Spirit. (Calmet)
She takes the words, as it were out of his mouth, (ver. 9.) and answers, worthy, etc., acknowledging that all the praise belongs to him.
7:11
Worthington
Villages. She begs that he would come and remain with her. (Worthington)
Menochius
She accompanies him into the country, on the morning after the fifth night. There Christ affords the purest delights, (ver. 12.; Calmet) and the Church (Menochius) becomes his mother, while she instructs and feeds others. (St. Gregory, hom.) (Menochius)
7:13
Haydock
Mandrakes. Hebrew dodai comes from the same root as dodi, "my breasts or loves," ver. 12. (Haydock)
Calmet
It may denote oranges, as mandrakes are not spring-fruits, Genesis 30:14. (Calmet)
Menochius
Yet (Haydock) married women eagerly sought after mandrakes. Here they may signify such as are fit to gain souls to Christ. (Menochius)
Calmet
And the old. Or great abundance, Leviticus 26:10., and Matthew 13:52. (Calmet)
Worthington
She acknowledges Christ to be the Saviour of all, under the Old and the New Testament. (Worthington)
Calmet
A doctor of the Church shews Christ in the prophets, and figures of the law, as well as manifested in the gospel. (Aponius, etc.) (Calmet)
7:1
7:5
Thy head is like Carmel.... Christ, the invisible head of his church, is here signified.
7:1
Christ interposeth his commendation of the Ievves, vvho at last shal returne to him vvith great seruoure of faith and deuotion.
7:4
And so iointly praiseth his Church consisting of both peoples.
7:9
The Church, as it vvere taking the vvoid out of Christs mouth vvhiles he praised her, she returneth al the praise to him.
7:11
Praying him to come and stil remaine vvith her,
7:13
Acknovvleging him to be the only Sauiour of both old and nevv testament.
7:1
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.31
… “My beloved is white and ruddy”; white in virginity, ruddy in martyrdom. And because He is white and ruddy, therefore it is immediately added “His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely.” The virgin bridegroom having been praised by the virgin bride, in turn praises the virgin bride, and says to her:
7:4
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 1.11
… xii. 12, 13 ). But one with a small nose is he who is not adapted for keeping the measure of discernment. For with the nose we discern sweet odours and stenches: and so by the nose is properly expressed discernment, through which we choose virtues and eschew sins. Whence also it is said in praise of the bride, Thy nose is as the tower which is in Lebanon (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.32
… since any opposition that is impending in the night is not seen. Every man’s sword, therefore, is put upon his thigh because of fears in the night; that is, because holy men, while they fear things which they do not see, stand always prepared for the strain of a struggle. Hence, again, it is said to the bride, Thy nose is as the tower that is in Lebanon (
7:6
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Mysteries 7
… And again, God the Word says to her: “How beautiful and sweet art thou made, O love, in thy delights! Thy stature is become like that of a palm-tree, and thy breasts like bunches of grapes.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.20
… But this pleasure is wrapped up in allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more ardently desired, and more joyfully unveiled, and may appear; to whom it is said in this same song, “Equity hath delighted Thee; and the bride who there hears, “Charity is in thy delights.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 65.3
… O thou who ascendest in whiteness, leaning upon thy Beloved! for by His light thou art made dazzling to whiteness, by His assistance thou art preserved from falling. How well becoming thee are the words in that Song of Songs, which is, as it were, thy bridal chant, “That there is love in thy delights”!
7:8
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.7
68. For there are spiritual nostrils, as we read, which the spouse of the Word has, to whom it is said: “And the smell of thy nostrils;”
7:9
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 2.2
… and do we, then, deny His goodness, when He is the manifestation of goodness, expressing in His Person the likeness of the Eternal Bounty, even as we showed above that it was written, that He is the spotless reflection and counterpart of that Bounty?
7:11
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.9
… “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. In His shadow I delighted and sat down, and His fruit was sweet to my palate. I found Him Whom my soul loved, I held Him and would not let him go. My beloved came down into His garden to eat the fruit of His trees. Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the field.
7:1
What shalt thou see (Hebrew and Septuagint, what shall you see) IN SULAMITE (many wrongly read, in Sunamite) BUT THE CHOIRS OF CAMPS? — The Septuagint for choirs render χλωρόν, that is grass, but it seems it should be read χορόν, that is choir, as the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Latin have: for what is the grass of camps? Whence the Septuagint corrected at Rome have, what shall you see in Sunamitide, which comes as the choirs of camps? St. Ambrose, On the Death of Valentinian, from which she comes as choirs. Symmachus, despoiled in the woundings of camps. Finally Aquila, what as a spectacle shall we behold, he says, in the peaceful one? Pagninus, what shall you see in Sulamite? the choir of camps. Choirs are assemblies of those exulting and singing, and dances of those leaping for joy. Wherefore less correctly Aben-Ezra and Luysius of Leon thus translate and interpret, what shall you see in Sulamite, O young maidens, who are thus arranged, as two choirs of camps? These words pertain to the end of the preceding chapter; whence in Hebrew they are joined to it: for the Hebrews begin chapter VII from the following sentence: "How beautiful are thy steps!" etc. Furthermore, the choirs of camps are dances, leapings and dancings of triumphant soldiers; Sulamite therefore surrounded by armed soldiers, with them appears to have gone forth and danced the warlike dance of arms, such as was once that which they called the pyrrhic dance. Here chorus is said in the singular as a collection, or assembly of singers and dancers; and choirs in the plural, distributively, because in it there are many orders of singers and dancers. it is evident from the word Sulamite, that is, of Jerusalem, or Solomonic; by which word therefore she denotes the Synagogue of the Jews, as I said in the preceding chapter, final verse: for Solomon appears to have had, besides the daughter of Pharaoh, who represented the Church of the Gentiles, another wife, a Sulamite, that is, of Jerusalem, beloved before all others, and joined to the daughter of Pharaoh in great love, who represented the Church to be gathered from the Jews, as Alcazar says in his Allusions to the Apocalypse, to these words of the Song. For Solomon, equally as Christ, as is evident, Luke chapter XIX, 41, had great care for his Jewish nation, that it might be joined to Christ and the Church, and thus be saved. As therefore he himself described the origin, progress and perfection of the Church among the Gentiles, so here he describes the same among the Jews, who will be converted at last, and thus consequently proceeds to describe the progress and perfection of the Church: for the Church will attain this when the Jews are converted, for then it will become one flock and one shepherd throughout the whole world. Wherefore as St. John, describing in the Apocalypse the course and progress of the Church, chapter VI, after various states of the Church symbolically shadowed forth in four horses, immediately in the sixth seal passes to the last times of Elias and Antichrist, and then pursues those laboriously through 14 chapters, and finally, chapters XXI and XXII, concludes by describing the glory of the saints in the heavenly Jerusalem: for there will be the consummation, triumph and glorification of the Church: so also does Solomon do precisely here, as will be evident from what follows.
St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Philo, Aponius, Honorius, Anselm, Alcuin, Haymo and others hold that the Bridegroom speaks here; these words therefore are those of the Bridegroom Christ (or, as others say, of the Bride the Church: for He said these things a little before to the Synagogue: "Return, return, O Sulamite") exulting over the conversion of the Synagogue, that is, of the Jews, to the Christian faith. Therefore the Bridegroom Christ, just as in chapter VI He praised the beauty of the Church gathered from the Gentiles, so here He praises the comeliness of the Church to be gathered from the Jews, as if to say: What wilt thou see, O Church of the Gentiles, in the Sulamite, that is, in the Synagogue of the Jews now converted to their Messiah and true faith, except choirs rejoicing exceedingly at so great a conversion and dancing; but choirs of camps, which namely so exult that at the same time they fight strongly against antichristians and other infidels and impious men: "For the camps are indeed of those warring, saith St. Gregory; camps therefore shall be seen in the Sunamite, because for the faith which the Synagogue then impugns, she shall then robustly fight against infidels;" whence the Syriac version renders it, what shall ye see in the Sunamite, which descendeth as a heap, or as the joy of camps triumphing over perfidy as over a conquered enemy? The Arabic, as it were coming choirs (others, dances) of camps. For the Jews at the end of the world, recognizing their Elias and Christ preached by him, condemning their perfidy, shall put on the zeal of Elias, and shall most keenly defend Christ, as St. Paul did, made a Christian from being a Jew. Thus concerning the conversion of the Synagogue, that is, of the Jews to Christ, do Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Bede, Anselm, Rupert, Honorius, William, Cosmas Damian, Delrio, Alphonsus of Orozco, Alcazar, book III Allusions to the Apocalypse, expound these things; yet some, as Theodoret, Justus and St. Ambrose, On the Death of Valentinian, treat of the Church in general strongly contending with the world, flesh and demon, and vanquishing them, and triumphing over them conquered, concerning choirs and dances of camps, that is, rejoicing in spirit, and to God as the author of victory, singing and giving thanks. "For, as Theodoret saith, from camps are made choirs, for when soldiers have conquered in camps, singing the paean of valor they return, and leading choirs they celebrate the proclamation of victory with praises," as the Israelites made choirs and dances when Goliath was prostrated by David: whence when he returned from his slaughter, there met him "women from all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, and saying: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands," I Kings XVIII, 6. Much greater is the choir and exultation of the soul fighting against vices with virtue, and vanquishing and overcoming them. Hear Theodoret himself: "The Bride becometh a choir, bearing divine praises in her mouth: which indeed blessed David showed, Psalm CXVII, 15: The voice, he saith, of exultation and of salvation in the tabernacles of the just; and again, verse 27: Make a solemn day in the thick woods, even to the horns of the altar. But camps the blessed Paul declareth, II Corinthians X, 4: The weapons, he saith, of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels, and every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ." Furthermore Philo and Justus of Orgelitanus by choirs understand the diverse orders of the saints in the Church, similar to the heavenly orders of angels, who being continually placed in conflict, with God defending, are always unconquered. Anagogically St. Ambrose, in the oration On the Death of Valentinian, taketh these things of the soul conquering, the world conquered, triumphing in the heavens. Hear him: "What wilt thou see in the Sulamite, which cometh as choirs of camps? that is, in her who hath fought much and against many in the body: for she fought against foreign enemies, she fought against the slippery changes of the world, she fought against the frailties of the body, against manifold passions." Therefore the camps shall be turned for the inhabitants into choirs of those dancing and exulting for victory. Symbolically, our Alcazar, book III Allusions to the Apocalypse, at this place of the Canticle, by choirs of camps understandeth religious orders, and companies especially which in the Church propagating, and in defending against heretics and other infidels labor strenuously: for these as soldiers and unconquered armies of Christ with Elias and Enoch at the end of the world shall convert the Jews, and shall fight most strongly against Antichrist. These rightly representeth the Sulamite, that is Those who interpret the chariots of Aminadab as the Turks, interpret the choirs of the camps as the military orders opposed to the Turks, such as the Teutonic, the Jerusalemite, the Templars of St. John, of St. James, etc., and likewise Charles Martel, Charlemagne, St. Louis, Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin, Charles V and others, who routed the Saracens; whence Genebrardus notes in his Chronology that in nearly the same year in which the Ottoman usurped the empire of the Turks, God created Rudolf of Habsburg as emperor of the Christians, from whom the Austrians descend, as if He had set them in opposition to the Ottomans; just as the Hebrews relate that on the day when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple, Cyrus was born, who destroyed his descendants. But those who interpret the chariots of Aminadab as antipopes and their schisms, interpret the choirs of the camps as the true pontiffs, bishops, kings and princes, who cast them down from the pontifical seat which they had seized. But those who interpret the chariots as emperors harassing the Church and other tyrants or libertines profaning the Church's dogmas, laws and sanctions, interpret the choirs of the camps as ecumenical and national councils, and also academies established among Christians against them, such as the Parisian, Oxonian, Cologne, Salamantine, Paduan, Louvain, etc.; likewise religious orders, which God raised up in every age to reform the faith and sanctity of morals; or, having been raised up but growing old, He renewed them and recalled them to their pristine splendor and fervor. Thus against the heresies of the carnal sect, which occupied the world six hundred years ago, so that many gave themselves over to gluttony and luxury, He opposed St. Romuald and the Camaldolese, who by their austerity and example chastened this luxury; thus against Abelard He opposed St. Bernard; against the Albigensians, SS. Dominic and Francis; against Luther and Calvin, St. Ignatius and the Society of Jesus.
The holy soul, by the invincible strength of an exalted spirit, fighting bravely against the world, the flesh and the demon, and vanquishing them, and triumphing over them thus conquered, performs the choirs and dances of the camps, that is, rejoices in spirit, and sings to God as the author of victory and gives thanks. peaceful, because religious persons, with pacified movements of mind, announce and reconcile the peace of Christ to all, according to that saying of Christ, Matt. V, 9: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." To these it rightly belongs that the choir of the heavenly host sang to Christ at His birth, Luke II, 14: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will;" for this reason religious persons, as it were soldiers of Christ, wage war against demons and vices, so that men may enjoy divine peace. I observe, says Alcazar, that it was rightly noted by Honorius that the whole universal Church is indeed one bride of Christ; yet in this Canticle it is considered as four brides of Christ: of which the first is the firstfruits of the Synagogue; the second, the Church of the Gentiles; the third, the remnant of the Jews; the fourth, the remaining Gentiles and all surviving heretics, partisans of Antichrist. But indeed in this Canticle I find only three brides: mother, daughter, granddaughter: the mother is the firstborn Church, which the shepherdess woman represented; the Egyptian woman represented the daughter, and this is the Roman Church; the religious Church finally, which Shulamite represents, is the granddaughter. Hear Honorius: "When anyone secular marvels at the sudden conversion of this one (who, leaving the world, enters religion about to die), it is said to him by spiritual persons, Cant. VII, 1: What shall you see in the Shulamite, but the choirs of the camps? in a soul formerly captive to vices, but now converted to virtue, you will see nothing further except the praises of God and the struggle against the snares of the devil: for the converted always praise God for their conversion, they constantly struggle against vices." Tropologically, St. Jerome, in book I Against Jovinian, interprets by the sons of Aminadab, that is, of the people offering willingly, virgins: for these indeed willingly offer virginity to Christ, for this is a matter of counsel, not of precept: I shall cite his words below: for virgins are as it were choirs of the camps, constantly struggling against the flesh, and therefore they are as it were the chariots of Aminadab.
First, these words as it were the paean of triumph the angels sang to the Blessed Virgin ascending into heaven: for then all the orders of angels attended her, as if the ranks and choirs of camps, according to that said of Jacob concerning his brother Esau fleeing, about the angels meeting him for his protection, Genesis XXXII, 2: "These are the camps of God." Second, "in her itself, says Hailgrinus, are seen the choirs of camps, namely the ranks of the holy adhering to her, who together with her fight for us against the enemy; whence she herself is called the vessel of camps in Ecclesiasticus, chapter XLIII, verse 9, where under the light of the moon it is said of her: The vessel of camps on high, shining gloriously in the firmament of heaven." Third, Alanus: "In the Virgin, he says, there were choirs of singers, as to the harmony of virtues; but camps of fighters, according as the Virgin surrounded and instructed in holy disciplines, repelled the assaults of vices and demons." Hence as it were a type of the Blessed Virgin prefigured "Mary the sister of Moses," who, having crossed the Red Sea, and Pharaoh having been drowned in it, "took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances, singing before them, saying, Exodus XV, 20: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea." And Judith, to whom after the slaying of Holofernes and his camps being scattered, returning to Bethuliam, Joachim with all the priests sang, Judith XV, 10: "Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honor of our people: because thou hast done manfully, and thy heart hath been strengthened, because thou hast loved chastity, and after thy husband hast known no other: therefore also the hand of the Lord hath strengthened thee, and therefore thou shalt be blessed forever."
HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THY STEPS IN SHOES, O DAUGHTER OF THE PRINCE! In Hebrew, daughter of Nadib (which Philo read incorrectly as Arab); thus the Septuagint as if Nadab were the proper name of the father of the bride; whence St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, takes Nadib as if it were a shortened form of Aminadab, just as Emmanuel is shortened by the French into Noel: beautiful, he says, are thy steps in shoes, son of Aminadab; the Arabic version, in the shoes of the daughters of Nadab; St. Ambrose, On the Death of Valentinian, in shoes, daughter of Aminadab, that is daughter of the prince. This is quite fitting, that the daughter of Aminadab should be the bride of Solomon, who was called Aminadab, that is prince of the people, as I said in chapter VI, 11: for in Scripture the bridegroom and husband is called the father of his bride, because he nourishes and protects her as a daughter, according to that passage, Jeremiah III, 4: "Call me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity." Some, taking daughter properly, think that this bride was truly a daughter of Solomon: for Aminadab was a son of Solomon, and the father Solomon celebrates an epithalamium for him with his bride, as if with a daughter, that is his daughter-in-law, throughout this entire Song; thus they themselves think. Others take Nadab as an appellative, and render it prince; Aquila, one who gives willingly, munificent; Symmachus, leader; the Syriac, prepared; St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 17, of will or good pleasure; the Vatican Scholiast, liberal, because, as St. Ambrose says, God is voluntary, and well-pleased, and liberal, and gathered the Church. In chapter VI, the bride praising the bridegroom begins from the head, ends in the feet; here on the contrary the bridegroom praising the bride begins from the feet, ends in the head: the reason for this difference is that the bridegroom descended downward from heaven to earth, to join the bride to himself; but the bride, called up from earth to heaven by the bridegroom, ascends upward. Therefore the praise of the bridegroom is in descent, the praise of the bride in ascent; the praise of the bridegroom is in the dignity of calling the bride, the praise of the bride is in the dignity of grace and glory, to which she is called by the bridegroom. Theodoret gives another reason: The praise of the bridegroom, he says, begins from the eyes, that is from contemplation, and ends in the feet, that is in action, because his action arises and is directed from contemplation; but the praise of the bride begins from the feet, that is from action, ends however in the head, that is in contemplation: because she ought to begin from action, and from it proceed and make progress even to contemplation. By steps understand both the very gait itself, and the feet by which we walk; whence Vatablus renders it, how beautiful are thy feet shod, O daughter of the prince! as if to say, What beautiful shoes and buskins thou hast! how magnificently thou walkest in them shod and buskinned! For formerly noble women adorned shoes and buskins with pearls, gems and gold, as Pliny testifies, book IX, chapter XXXV, and Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, chapter XI. Thus the eyes of Holofernes are said to be captivated by the sandals of Judith, chapter IX, verse 13, and chapter XVI, verse 11: "Her sandals," he says, "ravished his eyes, her beauty made his soul captive, he cut off his head with a sword;"; and Isaiah III, 18: "The Lord shall take away," he says, "the ornament (in Hebrew, the glory) of shoes." Thus St. Catherine, queen of Portugal, paid a great weight of gold for her shoes or slippers, which St. Francis Xavier asked her to convert to the aid of neophytes, saying that she would climb to heaven much more easily in these shoes for the poor than in royal ones; wherefore she willingly granted him the same. Three Anonymi, R. Solomon, Genebrard and Sanchez think these are the words of young maidens celebrating the beauty of the bride. St. Gregory thinks that here Christ the bridegroom praises the bride the Church, because he sent preachers to the Synagogue of the Jews, and converted them. Better, others think that Christ here praises the Synagogue of the Jews recently converted; for the discourse had proceeded concerning it. Furthermore the Chaldean paraphrases in the Jewish manner: "Solomon said in the spirit of prophecy before the face of the Lord: How beautiful are the feet of Israel when they ascend, that they may appear before the Lord three times in the year with taxed shoes, and offer their vows, and their voluntary offerings!"
Christ says to the Synagogue of the Jews, now believing in him through the preaching of Elias and others: How beautiful are thy steps, by which thou hast come to me and to the Church! with what swift readiness thou hast run to the faith, and not only to faith, but also to the preaching of faith! For immediately, as thou didst become faithful, thou didst begin to be a preacheress of the Gospel, and like Paul, running through cities and provinces with great eagerness and fervor, thou didst strive to lead thy fellow Jews and other nations to Christ. The Jews converted at the end of the world by Elias will do this; this is what Isaias says, cap. LII, vers. 7, and from him Paul, Rom. X, 15: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, that preach good tidings!" see the words there; and Ephes. VI, 15: "Your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace:" thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Theodoret, Bede, Philo, St. Anselm, Honorius and others, and St. Ambrose, serm. 17, who also adds that symbolically by shoes are signified the common people: for these equally with princes will be converted to Christ, and often are more skilled than they. He alludes to cap. VI, vers. 11: "My soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab," as if the Synagogue were to say: I was once judaizing and was troubled by the chariots of Aminadab, that is, by the course so prosperous of the Gospel, by which the gentiles throughout the whole world, like Aminadab, that is, a willing and generous people, of their own accord subjected themselves to the faith and to Christ: this indeed I saw and envied, thinking that so much was taken away from the law and from Moses, whom I followed; but now, enlightened by Elias outwardly, and by God inwardly, I have believed in Christ, and have joined myself to the Church of the gentiles, and I myself have become Nadab, or Aminadab, that is, a willing and generous people, of my own accord subjecting myself to Christ and to Christianity; and in this I rejoice and exult, and therefore, associated with the chariots of the Gospel, like a mare I drive and draw them eagerly, so that I may everywhere propagate the faith and fame of Christ. Theodoret gives another reason why the Church is called the daughter of Nadab: There was, he says, Nadab, who, Levit. X, 1, when he had brought strange fire into the tabernacle of God, met his end. We find therefore that the Lord's spouse, the Church, brought not a legal fire into the tabernacle of God, but that which she had received from the spouse himself: For, he says, I am come to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I that it be kindled? Luke XII, 49. This new fire from the New Testament she brought into the tabernacle of God, the spouse crying out and saying, Apocal. XXI, 5: The former things are passed away, behold all things are made new. Deservedly therefore does he call her the daughter of Nadab, who offered a sacrifice of men with new fire: for although they brought the fire with different intent, yet the same thing was done by both. Thus Theodoret.
First, the soul which fixes its footsteps in the way of the commandments of God and in the path of the examples of the holy Fathers, walks beautifully and proceeds rightly toward heaven: for it treads upon all earthly things and all the affections and desires of the soul with the shoe of mortification: for the shoe, because it is made from the skins of dead animals, signifies mortification, which is the right way to perfection and glory: thus St. Gregory: "The daughter of the prince, he says, the holy Church (and any soul in her) is called, because by the preaching of Christ she is regenerated into new life, who by the power of his divinity rules over every creature which he created. But what are the shoes of the Church, except the examples of the preceding fathers, by which she is fortified in the way of this world, so that through all the tribulations which arise, she may walk confidently shod? whence elsewhere Paul says to preachers, Ephesians VI, 15: Your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace. For shoes are made from dead animals, and we shod our feet spiritually, when from the holy fathers dead in the flesh we take examples, so that after their likeness we may overcome the temptations of this world." Second and rather, you should attribute these to apostolic men and preachers: whence the same St. Gregory: "Yet it can be understood that the Church is shod, when in her preaching she is fortified by the death of Christ to bear the evils that arise. Beautiful therefore are the steps of the bride shod, who is the daughter of the prince, because before the divine eyes the office of each elect one pleases, according to the examples of the preaching fathers." Thus also St. Ambrose, in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 17, verse 5, which see. Third and fittingly, you should understand this passage according to the letter with three Anonymous writers, Theodoret and St. Ambrose, concerning the modesty, gravity, and piety of gait and external actions, which proceed from the internal composure of affections: for this strikes the eyes of those beholding it and wonderfully refreshes and edifies them, as if to say: How well you walk shod, O faithful soul! who just as you have all your affections composed internally, so externally you walk, speak, act and work modestly, gravely, chastely, decorously and religiously, so that you draw all into love and admiration of you. He therefore commends external modesty and piety, which ought to be supremely dear to the holy soul, both because it is an index of internal composure and preserves it; and because it attracts others to virtue. For since men cannot behold internal virtues, they behold external ones, and from these are kindled to imitate those: for this is to telmor, that is to decorum, which all behold and desire. See there the sayings on Philippians IV, 5, to those words: "Let your modesty be known to all men." Whence St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, takes this gait in shoes concerning the beauty of chastity: "The bridegroom, he says, is praised by the bride, he praises in turn the virgin bride, and says to her: Thy steps are made beautiful in shoes, daughter of Aminadab, which is interpreted as the people willingly offering; for virginity is voluntary, and therefore the steps of the Church are praised in the beauty of chastity." And St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 17: "Good, he says, is the shoe of the soul modesty: a good step is the footprint of chastity, etc.; let us therefore use the body as a shoe for lower works of virtue: for service, not for precipice: for obedience, not for pleasure: for obedience, not for dissension; and let us place our footstep in the way of wisdom, lest some force of the torrent conclude our steps." Furthermore, it is added "in shoes," so that it may signify gait and progress in modesty, chastity, and every virtue continuous, constant and strong, which treads upon and overcomes all the thorns of temptations and the hindrances of adversaries, as if armed with shoes of constancy. Thus shod and composed in all things was the Blessed Asella, concerning whom St. Jerome, epistle 15 to Marcella: "Nothing, he says, more pleasant than her severity, nothing more severe than her pleasantness, nothing sadder than her sweetness, nothing sweeter than her sadness. So is the pallor in her face, that while it indicates continence, it does not breathe ostentation, her speech silent, and her silence speaking; neither swift nor slow her gait, the same bearing always, neglected neatness, and in cultivated dress, cultivation itself without cultivation."
The Blessed Virgin was most excellently shod, because she was supremely composed in all her movements, both of soul and body, and proceeded everywhere like a queen of heaven in angelic fashion, so much so that she was a source of wonder and amazement to all the angels: especially when they saw her ascending to heaven with such great glory and majesty in both body and soul, and they surrounded and accompanied her like legions and choirs of the heavenly host out of honor. Hence through the daughter of the prince, Theodoret and St. Ambrose understand the daughter of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is said, Psalm 50:14: "And with thy principal spirit confirm me"; for what other is the daughter of the Holy Spirit but the Blessed Virgin, to whom the archangel Gabriel announced, Luke 1:35: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee"; but Honorius says: The Blessed Virgin, he says, was the daughter of a prince, that is of King David, to whom Christ was promised, that he would come forth from his line, and consequently his mother, the Mother of God. Hear St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter 14: "In this shod state (of the body) Mary proceeded beautifully, who without any commingling of the flesh brought forth the author of salvation as a virgin; whence John most excellently says, chapter 1, verse 27: I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shoe, that is, I am not worthy to comprehend the mystery of the Incarnation within the straits of human understanding, and to unfold it with the poverty and meanness of speech"; hence also Isaiah said, chapter 53, verse 8: "Who shall declare his generation?" Rupert adds that servants go barefoot, but the free and noble go shod; whence he says: "Therefore the serpent bit the heel of the handmaid (Eve), but thou, O daughter of a prince, well shod, hast crushed the head of the serpent; thou especially, O prince and singular beloved lady, and as I have already said, Song of Songs 5:2: My dove, my one dove, namely to thy mother's generation, that is to a free generation, a generation not of flesh, but of faith, thou who didst conceive me, a man not of the flesh of man, but of the Spirit of God, and didst bring forth the father or prince of sons, not of flesh, but of faith or promise." More precisely Alanus: "Thy steps, he says, glorious Virgin, are nobility of lineage, integrity of flesh and mind, fruitfulness of offspring. The shoes are affections in meditations, effects in works, progress in desires, excess in joys. But thou art the principal daughter of a prince, namely of God, who is the prince of princes and Lord of lords, who begat thee specially by grace, specially formed thee: yet so the daughter of God, that also an untouched mother." "Or by feet and steps are understood mental affections, which were altogether purified and adorned by the Incarnation of Christ; by the shoes is figured the divine Incarnation." And Hailgrinus: "Her (the Virgin's) thoughts and works, beautiful with spiritual devotion and intention, like feet in hyacinthine shoes shone forth (according to that): I shod thee with hyacinth, Ezekiel 16:10: see what is said there. Finally William: "Not, he says, by swiftness of feet, but by purity of affections she went from virtue to virtue, seeing God of gods in Sion, Psalm 83:8. She embraced the innocence of Abel, the obedience of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the humility of David, the patience of Job, the continence of Daniel. Being therefore most fittingly shod with these and such examples of the fathers, in the worn steps of her spirit she went from virtue to virtue; and in emulating the virtues of the fathers, she even surpassed those very fathers, whose emulator she rejoiced to be, by the special purity of her affections and the prerogative of her actions. The joints of thy thighs are like jewels (St. Ambrose, a necklace) which are made by the hand of a craftsman." Under the joints of the thighs understand also the thighs themselves, or hips by metonymy: which are beautiful like jewels, muscular, round and strong. Again understand the joints both the lower ones, by which the thighs are joined below with the knees; and more especially the upper ones, by which the same are joined above with the bones and ribs of the belly. It alludes to the touch of the angel, who touching Jacob in the thigh, and dislocating his joint and sinew, made him lame, Genesis 32:25 and 31; by which Jacob's lameness prefigured his descendants limping in faith and religion, so that now they would worship God, now idols; now they would oppose Christ, now they would embrace him. But first at the end of the world the Synagogue, converted to Christ, will adhere with strong joints of the thighs firmly to the body of the Church, that is to the other faithful of the gentiles and to Christ the head: wherefore then it will no longer halt in faith, but will walk straight and strongly in it to follow it, to preach it and to propagate it, and that agilely and flexibly in all directions, whithersoever the spirit of Christ shall have impelled it: for this is what the joints, or vertebrae of the thighs, signify, which are agile and flexible in every direction at the command of man. Hence secondly symbolically the two joints of the thighs, says Cosmas Damianus, signify truth and charity, and their bond and union, as the Jews will join them at the end of the world when converted. Hence again through the thighs are noted thirdly the members of generation adjacent to the thighs, and generation itself, as if to say: The Synagogue will have strong thighs, and therefore will beget strong sons for Christ: thus Cassiodorus, Philo, Justus, St. Gregory, whom hear: "By the two thighs of the bride, the two peoples of the Church, by the joint of the thighs the harmony of preachers is designated, by whom the peoples are united, while circumcision and uncircumcision are instructed by them unto the Catholic faith. Which as ornaments exist, because while in the wisdom by which they shine they do holy works, as it were they bear stones in gold, from which follows: Which were made by the hand of the artificer. By the hand of the artificer ornaments are made, because by the work of Christ preachers are made beautiful and useful." To this is added the Chaldean: "And their sons, who came forth from their loins, are beautiful as precious stones, which are fixed in the holy crown, which Beseleel the artificer made for Aaron the priest." St. Anselm adds that Jews and believing gentiles are compared to ornaments, because they admonish one another to adhere constantly to Christ, and fortify themselves against the snares of the devil.
These hang from the preceding sentence and from the choirs of the camps (whence all these three senses are comprehended under the same verse 1 by the Bibles), and give their reason, as if Christ were to say: Therefore, O Synagogue, now converted to me, you proceed as the choirs of the camps, that is, your steps are beautiful, straight and strong, because the joints, or vertebrae of your thighs are beautiful, straight and strong: for from these depends the beauty, equally as the straightness and strength of gait, so that namely one does not halt, does not stumble, but with straight and strong thighs walks straight and strongly.
The joints of the thighs signify, first, prudence and modesty in approach and in every external action, whence the Septuagint translates the joints as ῥυθμοί, that is, rhythms, numbers, modulations, harmonies of songs, as if to say: Just as a song proceeds with such harmony and numerousness in its numbers, feet and modulations, so let your gait, speech and every external act be harmonious and composed. Hear St. Ambrose, on Psalm CXVIII, sermon 17, verse 4: "Therefore such a procession of the Church (and of the holy soul) is signified, that it is compared to the most precious ornaments and to the torques of the triumphant: for these are the ornaments of warriors. Whether therefore the generation of Christ from the virgin, or the propagation of the Church, in appearance indeed as if adorned by the hand of an artificer with torques, but in truth with the insignia of spiritual virtue, crowned the necks of the sons." Second, the joints of the thighs signify the chastity of the holy soul: for in the act of generation the thighs are opened; but in continence they are joined and tightened. Hence our Sanchez understands by the joints of the thighs the bands or clasps of the femoral garments, or tunics, by which the thighs are covered and clothed: for the chaste fasten their femoral garments, the unchaste loosen them. Hence that passage in Ezekiel XVI, 25: "Thou hast divided thy feet to every one that passed by, and hast multiplied thy fornications." Chastity therefore adorns the thighs like a most beautiful and precious necklace, made by the hand of the supreme artificer God: this the religious embrace, and the Jews will embrace it at the end of the world, that they may preach Christ more effectively by word and example; whence St. John saw 144,000 virgins, who at the end of the world will follow the Lamb in virginity, Apocalypse chapter XIV, 1: thus Philo of Carpathus, who also adds that chastity is a work of the supreme artificer God similar to that which he fashioned in the womb of the Virgin. Symbolically, the two thighs and their joint signify first of all the concord, bond and union of all the faithful in the twofold charity of God and neighbor; just as therefore the thighs cohere with other members through the vertebrae, so each faithful person ought to be joined with other faithful by true charity: thus St. Gregory, Bede and others; whence John the Carmelite thus explains it, as if to say: The society in charity of spiritual sons, who are propagated from you as from a thigh, and are bound together by the bond of mutual love, is similar to necklaces or little chains, whose rings are mutually linked together. Again, the joints of the thighs signify second the consonance of virtues: thus Philo: "By the consonances of the thighs," he says, "the temperance of life and the sanctity of morals, as it were a certain heavenly harmony of divine wisdom, are unfolded: for when holy Scripture here says that the consonances of the thighs are similar to torques made by the hand or work of an artificer, it demonstrates that the agreement of one will and intention of peoples well-suited to one faith and glory is made plain by the work of that supreme artificer, who fabricated heaven and earth." Thus also St. Ambrose, On the Death of the Emperor Valentinian: "The modulations," he says, "of your thighs similar to torques, that is, grace and moderation consonant with you in all your deeds, equaled the insignia of great triumphs." This therefore is the necklace, this the torque of virtues, which St. Peter commends to the faithful saying, II Epistle I, 5: "But you, making all diligence, minister in your faith virtue, and in virtue knowledge, and in knowledge temperance, and in temperance patience, and in patience godliness, and in godliness love of the brotherhood, and in the love of the brotherhood charity." Moreover, third, three Anonymous writers in Theodoret understand by the joints of the two thighs the composition of the movements of both appetites, namely the irascible and the concupiscible, or of anger and concupiscence; for these, when composed by the artificer reason or mind, are beautiful, like necklaces made of gold by various art and bending. Fourth, finally, Honorius holds that here in the choirs of the camps of the Church is noted the second rank or order of them, which is that of the married, so that the joint of the thighs is the love and concord of spouses, which is the work and gift of the artificer God. Tropologically, the same Honorius: "The thighs," he says, "are the fear and love of the soul, by which it begets a good work, which is spiritual offspring, which will be the heir of the kingdom; for by fear indeed it declines from evil, by love it does good; the joint of these is faith, by which it believes the punishment which it fears; and believes the joy which it loves. This joint is like a necklace; because just as a necklace adorns and protects the breast, so faith adorns and protects the soul. This is made by the hand of the artificer, because faith is given through Christ."
The two joints of the thighs of the Blessed Virgin are motherhood and virginity, for in the joining together of these, all her virtues, gifts and prerogatives are bound together, woven and founded. Again, those things which have been said of a holy soul apply to the Blessed Virgin before all others, for her gait and every action was supremely modest, fitting, pious and religious: besides this in her there was the highest harmony and consonance of all virtues: moreover angelic chastity and virginity shone forth in her, on account of which she merited to be chosen as the Mother of God: thus Philo, St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter XV, and Rupertus, who explains it thus: The joints of thy thighs are like ornaments, that is, the integrity of thy virginity and the perpetual keeping of modesty, is protected by heavenly safeguards. Whose is this work? whose virtue? namely of God most high; and this very thing, says a certain wise man, is wisdom, to know that continence is a gift of God. I say therefore not just any ornaments, but those which have been fashioned by the hand of a craftsman, that is, which God alone could make and give or could have given. William adds that beside the thighs is the seat and movement of concupiscence, but in the Virgin these were joined, covered and adorned with the ornament of virginity, so that she felt no movement of the flesh in them: for the tinder of sin in her was extinguished. Hear Alan: "The thighs are wont to be signs of generation; but the joint of the thighs is understood to mean nothing other than the harmony of two fruitfulnesses, which were in the Virgin: one of the mind, the other of the womb. And this joint was like an ornament, that is, it had with it a twofold companion, the virginity of the flesh and the virginity of the mind. By an ornament chastity is usually signified: for an ornament is wont to be placed on the breast for adornment, and as a sign of chastity; whence it is called an ornament, that is, admonishing chastity. The sense therefore is: The joints of thy thighs are like ornaments, that is, as thou art endowed with a twofold fruitfulness, so with a twofold virginity." Briefly, but pointedly, Honorius in the Seal: "Thy thighs, he says, are blessed, from which proceeded the precious pearl Christ, the ineffable ornament who is the adornment of all creation. The craftsman is God the Father, his hand is the Son through whom he made all things, through whom also the incarnation was disposed." Finally, pressing the point about ornaments, Hailgrinus: "She was blessed, he says, not for herself alone, but also for us; not chaste or beautiful for herself alone, but also for us an admonition of chastity; therefore she is compared to ornaments, which are called ornaments as it were admonishing chastity: for by her example she admonishes and invites us to the purity of continence."
7:2
YOUR NAVEL IS A ROUNDED BOWL, NEVER LACKING IN DRINK,—that is, in potion, in Hebrew מזג mazag, that is, a mixture, namely wine mixed with water and tempered, as in Italy, Judaea and other hot regions wines are mixed and diluted with water; whence the Syrian translator renders it, the mixture does not fail in it, that is, wine mixed with water in the customary manner; the Arabic, no temperature fails; less correctly the Zurich version renders it, never lacking in fruitfulness. For rounded bowl in Hebrew it is סחר sachar, which Pagninus and others translate as roundness, that is, round; Aben-Ezra and Vatablus, moon: for the navel is similar to the half-full moon, which is hollow above like a bowl, and round below like a lathe. Our Sanchez takes the navel by metonymy as an ornament of the navel, namely a gem or a clasp hanging from the neck down to the navel, which Isaiah, chapter III, verse 18, calls himlah, which would have the appearance of the moon: for, as St. Jerome says: "Women have clasps hanging in the likeness of the moon." Better Luysius and commonly others take the navel itself, for this is like a rounded and turned bowl: now understand under the navel the whole belly and intestines, for the navel is their knot, chain, bond and ligament. "The knot and meeting of veins is in the navel," says Pliny, book XI, chapter XXXVII: for just as the body is bound together by nerves and bones, so the belly is bound together by the navel as if by a chain, whence its rupture is lethal. For the navel is as it were the center of the body, which if you remove, all the lines drawn from it to the circumference vanish, and the whole circle: wherefore a navel that is perfectly round, full and perfect is a sign of good health and vigorous youth; the navel therefore is the ligament of the intestines, which occupies almost the middle of the flatness of the belly, made for this purpose, that through it the fetus, while it is in the womb of the mother, may be nourished; hence by catachresis the navel is called whatever in any thing is in the middle: thus the city Reate is called the navel of Italy; and Cicero, in the sixth Verrines, calls the grove of the Ennensians, from which Proserpina was snatched, the navel of Sicily; and Livy, book V of the Macedonian War, calls Aetolia the navel of Greece. In like manner Jerusalem is the navel of Judaea and of the whole world, as I shall say presently. Hear Aristotle, book I of the History of Animals, chapter XIII: "The belly is below the chest in front, and its root is the navel: to which root the part subject on either side is called the flanks: but that which is directly subject is the udder or abdomen, whose last part is the small channel; but above the navel is the hypochondrium, named as it were from the cartilage, a sub-cartilage." The same, book II, chapter VIII, teaches that apes are similar to man except for the navel, which they lack, but in its place have something hard. Now the navel, that is, the belly of the bride "does not lack drink," that is, potion, or drinkable liquid and moisture as it were milky, because it is full of it like the full moon, and like a bowl, which is always filled with wine, so that it may refresh the eyes of those beholding, and nourish the taste of those drinking: for other bowls often lack wine and are empty; and the moon often fails and is deprived of light, as is evident in the new moon. Otherwise Sanchez and Delrio, as if to say: Your navel is similar to a rounded bowl not needing drink, that is, drinkable liquid, because it is not rough in any position or squalor, or unclean and impure with any filth, but is altogether refined and clean, because it would have been recently washed and cleansed with mixed wine. Moreover, as Alcazar rightly observes, for navel in Hebrew it is not טבור tabbur, that is, navel, but שרר sorer, which word signifies that intestine, which in the newly born infant is cut off, and tied at the navel; and it is that intestine, which penetrates internally all the vital organs, namely the stomach, the liver and the heart. But that all these vital organs, through which that intestine penetrates, are comprehended in the sacred Scripture by the word sor or sorer, which Our translator renders as navel, is manifest. And this indeed is clear even from the passage in Job, XL, 11: "His strength is in the navel of his belly;" and from that in Proverbs III, 8: "It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." The navel therefore comprehends all the vital organs, as if to say: The vital organs of the bride are full of moisture and juice, by which they are abundantly irrigated, nourished, and preserved vigorous, lively and succulent.
All these things pertain to the Synagogue, that is, the Jews at the end of the world through the conversion by Elias; therefore the Synagogue, and equally the Jews, indeed the navel of the whole habitable world, that is the middle and center, is Jerusalem, according to that passage, Ezech. V, 4: "This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the lands round about her;" and therefore Christ wished to teach and be crucified in it, and founded His Church in it, so that from thence itself, as it were from a center, it might easily expand in every direction to the periphery of the other provinces, according to that passage, Psal. LXXIII, 12: "But God is our king before the ages: He hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth." Again, the city of Jerusalem, in the time of Christ, had the appearance of a navel and of a turned or round crater, as is evident from its image, which Adrichomius exhibits in his Description of the Holy Land. Moreover, it itself, as it were a navel, connected all Judea and all the Jews, and their bellies, that is their desires, through its rabbis, priests and princes it restrained and controlled. Finally, it itself was as it were a turned crater never needing cups, because like a crater it abounded in the wine of wisdom and doctrine, and distributed that to all others, according to that passage, Isai. II, 3: "For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem;" whence Jeremias, Thren. II, 15: "Is this, saith he, the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth?" Therefore Solomon signifies here that Jerusalem at the end of the world shall be converted to Christ through Elias, who shall preach in it against Antichrist, and shall be slain by him in the same place, but on the third day shall rise glorious before all beholders, as is evident from Apocal. XI, 11, which when the Hierosolymites see, they shall believe in Christ preached by Elias, and then shall bring over the other Jews to the faith of Christ, and shall nourish, cherish and promote them in Christian piety, as was done at first in the time of Solomon in the old law, when the scribes at Jerusalem taught the true faith, and in the new time of Christ, for the metropolis of Judea, namely Jerusalem being converted, all Judea shall be converted, just as Rome being converted through Constantine, the whole world was converted; Jerusalem therefore shall then abound in holy priests, teachers, preachers and prophets, who with Elias shall resist Antichrist, and shall teach the Jews the orthodox faith of Christ, as it abounded in these in the time of the apostles. Just as therefore an infant in the womb of its mother draws nourishment from the mother through the navel, by which it is joined and united to the mother (for, as Aristotle says, lib. II De Generat. animal. cap. IV: "Growth comes to the fetus through the navel in the same way as to plants through roots"): so the Jews from the mother Church shall be nourished in faith and Christian piety through Jerusalem and teachers sent from it: thus Honorius, Delrio and others; hence by the navel preachers are understood, as Cassiodorus, Beda, Aponius, Anselmus and St. Ambrose teach, serm. 6 in Psalm. CXVIII. Hear St. Gregory: "The navel is the order of holy preachers, which is well called a crater; because while the people are instructed through them, they are made drunk with spiritual wine by their office; which is well called turned, because according to the customs of all men it is necessary that the tongue of the preacher be turned; which needs no cups, because what it gives to others, it is necessary that it drink more abundantly than others, and contain more fully what it gives." To this pertains the version of the Chaldean: "And the prince of thy school, by whose merit all ages are governed, as a fetus is nourished through the navel in the womb of its mother; he is splendid in the law like the circle of the moon, when he comes to cleanse and to defile, and to justify and to condemn; and the words of the law shall never fail from his mouth, as the waters of the river shall not fail, when it goes forth from paradise."
The navel of a pious soul is the mind fostering holy inspirations, thoughts and affections: for this binds and restrains the belly, that is the sensitive appetite, and the flanks of the belly, that is desires, with the knot of temperance and continence, in the manner of a navel: thus three Anonymous writers in Theodoret. This again, like a turned crater, abounds with heavenly wine of wisdom, prudence, doctrine, grace, consolation, joy, which both itself drinks and others, and thereupon inebriates them, so much so that it seems to contain in the belly of the mind a fountain of this heavenly water, according to that saying of Christ, John VII, 38: "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water;" and that, cap. IV, vers. 14: "The water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting:" thus St. Ambrose, On the Death of Valentinian: "Good, he says, is the navel of the soul, capable of all virtues, like a crater adorned by the author of faith himself: for wisdom mixed her wine in a crater, saying, Proverbs IX, 5: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." Hence Ezekiel, cap. XVI, vers. 4, rebukes the Synagogue, that is the Jews of old, saying: "And when thou wast born in the day of thy nativity, thy navel was not cut," as if to say, Thou didst cling to the former errors and idolatry of thy mother: but this navel is cut by the holy soul, and shall be cut by the Jews at the end of the world. See the sayings there. Tropologically, first, the cutting of the navel is the cutting of desire, which heals, sanctifies and makes blessed the man: truly Seneca: "He who has closed desire, by Hercules contends with Jupiter concerning happiness;" hence John of Carmel thus explains: The navel and belly, that is thy intellect, O bride, is God's wisdom, as containing a fetus, because it proffers its drink to the thirsty, a round crater most apt for drinking. Again Philo of Carpathus understands by the navel the priests, and by the crater the chalice of the Eucharist, "which never, he says, lacks the true body and blood of Jesus Christ, which is mingled to the peoples through faith and charity, which is taught most openly by that water which the priest mingles with wine in the chalice. And he rightly said that the same priesthood is not unlike the navel and is turned, so that he might openly teach that priests ought to be clean and pure, and cleansed of every stain, and well turned with all virtues, and to think and meditate and teach nothing else in their whole life and in every matter to be done, except heavenly things; for you know that saying, Psalm CXXXI, 9: Let thy priests be clothed with justice: and let thy saints rejoice in gladness." Hence again by the navel others understand thirdly chastity, which the Eucharist brings forth, according to that saying, Zechariah IX, 17: "For what is his goodness, and what is his beauty, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing up virgins?" thus Rupert, William and others. Honorius however understands sobriety, which is the mother of chastity: "The navel of the soul, he says, is temperance, because as the navel is in the middle between the upper and lower members, so is temperance in the middle between virtues and vices; which is a turned crater, full of cups, because it is round with circumspection and fruitful with wisdom; and as drink tempers thirst and gladdens the heart, so temperance restrains the ardor of vices, and represses the immoderate fervor of virtues. Hear Aponius: "In which (navel) it seems to me that those are praised, who not only by being reborn from earthly desires are cut off from sin, but already by the lathe of habit or of good desire are wonderfully polished, no longer need cups of joy, but minister to others in need the absolution of the soul by example of their conversation. For no one leads a soul thirsting for God, after the dryness of crimes to the fatness of holiness, except he who furnishes a cup with praiseworthy examples." Finally Honorius, referring these things to the choirs of the camps of the Synagogue converted to Christ, of which it was said at the beginning of the chapter, assigns here their third rank, namely of the soft and delicate, but merciful: "Because the navel, he says, is a soft member and the middle part of man, which has above itself six parts, namely the head, eyes, nose, mouth, neck and breast. The seventh part is the navel, below itself it also has six parts, feet, shins, leg, hip, thigh, belly, and the seventh here again is the navel, signifying in the Church those who through the seven works of mercy shall obtain the sevenfold rest, which shall be given through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are like a turned crater, never in need (that is, always full) of cups, because they are turned by charity, smoothed by the exercise of virtue, always full of cups of doctrine, whence thirsting for justice, they may abundantly inebriate. This is said for this reason, because if the imperfect then in the Synagogue shall be such as the perfect are to be believed?"
First, St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter XIV: "Truly," he says, "that womb of Mary is a turned vessel. In which was wisdom, which mixed in the vessel her wine, furnishing the unfailing grace of her knowledge by the fullness of her divinity." Second, Honorius: "Your navel," he says, "understand it as blessed, in which the Son of God hung (for as a shield hangs on a nail, so the little child hangs on the navel); who is a turned vessel, never lacking cups, that is, he offers himself abundantly to all who thirst." Third, Rupertus: "In men," he says, "luxury is in the loins, but in women in the navel, as the Lord testifies, speaking of the devil to blessed Job: His strength is in his loins, and his power is in the navel of his belly, Job XL, 11; therefore your navel is a turned vessel, what is it but as if he said: Perfect virtue of chastity is in you, and you are freed from all carnal appetite of pleasure?" Fourth, Alanus: "The navel," he says, "is in the middle of the belly; by the navel of the Virgin therefore is understood the power of understanding, by which she loved God, namely charity: this in the Virgin was as a vessel, because by means of it, the Virgin gave the world to drink the wine of joy, of which it is said, Psalm XXII, 5: How excellent is my chalice that inebriates! and elsewhere: Wine that gladdens the heart of man, Psalm CIV, 15. It is called turned because we work more easily with a lathe; and the Virgin herself without any difficulty, without any enticement, without any constraint of the flesh conceived and brought forth. Never lacking cups: he says less and means more, that is full of cups, namely furnishing to the world the wine of love, the wine of salvation, the wine of joy, the cup of life." Finally, in that navel, says William, the salvation of men was, by the very fact that there was the victim of human reconciliation, and thence to us in his time, that is, when "the Word was made flesh," salvation flowed: namely that virginal navel furnished to the Son of God the substance of flesh, in which he would die for men, by the heat of the Holy Spirit, and by that very fact as a turned vessel gave the world to drink life. And after some things: "Never lacking cups." However much they draw from it, and however much they draw, it cannot be exhausted: for even if all the sinners of the earth drink from it, nevertheless it abounds and overflows.
THY BELLY IS LIKE A HEAP (Symmachus, a pile) OF WHEAT, SURROUNDED WITH LILIES. The Zurich Bible, surrounded with lilies; St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter XIV, reads, like a heap of fine wheat among lilies; but this appears to be a typographical error, and for "fine" should be read "fortified," as the same St. Ambrose reads it, On the Death of Valentinian, and thus the Hebrew, Septuagint and Latin texts have it. He says the same thing, or nearly the same, as what he said concerning the navel (for under it he comprehends the belly, as I have said), but by another metaphor and similitude: for there he compared the belly to a crater, which is full of wine; here however he compares it to a heap of wheat, but surrounded with lilies, so as to signify that it is full of every kind of nourishment (for this consists both in drink and in food, namely wheat), and that it abundantly feeds one who hungers and gives drink to one who thirsts. A heap of wheat is a symbol of fertility and fecundity, but lilies are of chastity; it signifies therefore that the belly of the bride is so fruitful in nourishing the other members, that it is nevertheless pure and chaste. By wheat, or grains of wheat threshed and pure, which are surrounded with lilies, or rather by a field of wheat flourishing happily in ears and stalks, swelling and turgid, understand this: for this in the fields of nobles, especially in gardens, is surrounded at the margins with lilies and other flowers growing beautifully, both for pleasantness and delights, and also for the sweetness and fragrance of odor. These are the lilies of the field, which Christ names, Matthew VI, 28: to this heap the belly of the bride is likened, because like it, with solid and succulent food and with the swelling of chyle, it swells full and level on every side, and on account of its proper digestion by the force of heat exhales a sweet odor, as the belly of Alexander the Great exhaled, and of similar men. Furthermore, Sanchez and Alcazar do not take the belly here naked, but clothed to the ankles, namely with a garment and tunic of the belly: for this seems more honorable and fitting, as if to say, The garment by which thy belly is covered is of golden cloth, with work raised upon it imitating heaps of wheat, and with a border of lilies graphically embroidered with a needle. It signifies therefore that the bridegroom beautifully suits her that ankle-length garment, because he hopes that the fecundity of his bride (namely signified by the belly) will be like the fecundity of wheat, with abundant offspring thereafter to glory and exaltation, which lilies represent, by which she will be raised up: for lilies are a symbol of exaltation from a humble place to eminent dignity and glory; but wheat of fecundity: for, as Pliny says, book XVIII, chapter X: "Nothing is more fertile than wheat; nature granted this to it, because it nourishes man most of all, inasmuch as from a bushel, if the soil be suitable, one hundred and fifty bushels are returned." Hence that passage, Luke I, 42: "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Finally the Chaldean renders it: "And seventy wise men surround it like a round threshing floor, and their storehouses are full of tithes sanctified, and votive and voluntary offerings, which Esdras the priest and Zorobabel and Josue and Nehemias and Belsan, men of the great church, appointed for them, who are compared to roses, so that they may have virtue to labor in the law day and night."
Jerusalem to be converted to Christ through Elias at the end of the world will be like a heap of wheat, because it will be full of priests and preachers, who feed the faithful with the Word of God and the Eucharist as with mystical wheat, not unto luxury, but unto chastity; and therefore it is surrounded with lilies, because it breathes forth the brightness of purity, equally as the sweetness of fragrance: for this is "the wheat of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins," Zach. IX, 17. For the Synagogue after the death of the apostles and the first faithful remained as it were barren, since the other Jews were unwilling to be converted to Christ; but with the remnants converted at the end of the world through Elias, the Synagogue will become as a heap of wheat, because it will produce many grains, that is, many faithful to be stored in the Lord's granary, whose multitude, says Delrio from St. Ambrose, is a heap heaped together in one bond of charity, made equal by the cylinder of justice and modesty, and surrounded by the examples of other virtues. With such a heap full, the belly of the Synagogue will then be, so that she herself may be able to glory in being made a mother of joyful children. Certainly, just as in the Catholic Church that vital drink never fails, so neither does wheat to feed all doubly. Furthermore, St. Gregory understands by the navel preachers, by the belly the people: "By the belly," he says, "the breadth of the people is designated, which, just as a heap of wheat is surrounded with lilies, because while intent upon holy works, it is prepared for the heavenly granary, is fortified on all sides by the examples of the saints, that it may persevere." The people chosen by God is compared to wheat, Matt. XIII, 30: "Gather the wheat," he says, "(that is, the elect) into my granary" which is heavenly. The Synagogue therefore, containing holy and elect Jews, is as it were a heap of wheat. Hear Philo the Carpathian: A heap of wheat is the multitude, or assembly of the Church; because just as from many grains one heap is heaped together, so also from many peoples one Church of all the faithful is joined together; one and the same people in the faith of Christ, bound together by the communion of one baptism, and of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, etc. But here it must first be surrounded and pressed together with lilies, that is, be exercised in the most fragrant and fruitful actions of virtues and most chaste conversations, then presently to carry with it something of incorrupt fruit to that heavenly homeland, so that to each may be given of the fruits of their own hands, and may carry a bosom full of virtues.
The mystical belly of the holy soul is the mind containing in itself wheat, that is, holy doctrine, by which it nourishes itself and others in all virtue; and therefore it is surrounded with lilies of purity and chastity sweetly fragrant: thus Theodoret and three Anonymi. Hear Honorius: "The belly of the soul is memory, in which it stores up the foods of Holy Scripture, which is similar to a heap of wheat: because just as grains are heaped up in a heap, so also in memory many sentences and imaginings are heaped together, which are surrounded with lilies, because they are pressed together with pure thoughts." Finally, the belly, that is, the mind of the saints is a heap of wheat, that is, a workshop and collection of justice, beneficence, and all virtue. Symbolically, Honorius thinks that here in the choirs of the camps of the Synagogue, by the belly is noted the fourth rank of the married, who use the belly for the battle of generation, but abound in the wheat of alms: these are surrounded with lilies of chastity; these therefore are the married fruitful, equally as holy, of whom the Psalmist, Psalm. CXXVII, 3: "Thy wife as a fruitful vine on the sides of thy house. Thy children as olive plants round about thy table." For the Jews are fruitful, and will be fruitful at the end of the world, so as to generate children to be grafted into Christ in heaven; hence we see so great swarms of Jews scattered throughout so many kingdoms over the whole world: wherefore Gislerius aptly thinks this sense to be according to the letter the first and primary.
The womb of the Blessed Virgin was a heap of wheat, that is, Christ, who is the food and bread of Christians, surrounded by lilies, that is, attended by virgins, as Honorius says; hence first, concerning her it is said, Luke I, 42: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb;"; and chapter XI, verse 27: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee." This therefore, says William, is "like a heap of wheat, because distended and swollen with offspring; but nevertheless surrounded by lilies, because by the emptiness of perpetual virginity, but swollen with the fullness of truth." Hear St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter XIV: "In the womb of the virgin at once a heap of wheat and the grace of the lily's flower was germinating, because she was generating both a grain of wheat and a lily: a grain of wheat according as it is written, John XII, 24: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone; but because from one grain of wheat a heap was made, that prophetic word was fulfilled, Psalm LXIV, 14: And the valleys shall abound with corn: because that grain dying brought forth much fruit. This grain therefore satisfied all men with perpetual food of heavenly gifts. That prophetic utterance was consummated, the same David saying, Psalm LXXX, 17: And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock. In this grain divine oracles testify that there is also a lily, because it is written, Canticles II, 1: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys, as a lily among thorns. Christ was a lily in the midst of thorns, when he was in the midst of the Jews." Secondly, Rupert: "Thy womb, he says, is like a heap of wheat, namely that thou didst prudently gather wheat by meditating on the Scriptures, as it is said in a certain place, Luke II, 19: But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. Such a heap is well surrounded by lilies, because indeed the beauty of chastity, just as it makes the clarity of understanding the Scriptures, so also it prepares authority for every man that he be worthy to speak outwardly those things which he has stored up within or compared the words of God like the wheat of the Lord." Hear Christ appearing to St. Bridget, and mystically describing to her each member of the Blessed Virgin, book V of her Revelations, at the end of the tenth Question: "Thy womb, O blessed virgin, was most pure like ivory, and like a place most splendid from virtuous stones: because the constancy of thy conscience never grew lukewarm, nor could it be corrupted in tribulations. The walls of this womb therefore, that is, of thy faith, were like most brilliant gold, in which is noted the strength of thy virtues, and thy prudence, and justice, and temperance with perfect perseverance, because all thy virtues were perfect in divine charity."
7:3
THY TWO BREASTS ARE LIKE TWO YOUNG ROES THAT ARE TWINS OF A GAZELLE. — It is repeated in the Synagogue of the Jews what was said of the Church of the Gentiles, chapter IV, verse 5, of Christ, where I have explained these things. The Chaldean translator renders: "Thy saviors, who are about to redeem thee, are like Moses and Aaron, sons of Jochebed, who are compared to two young roes that are twins of a gazelle." Honorius judges that by the breasts in the choirs of the camps of the Synagogue the fifth rank of the same, namely of doctors, is denoted: The same tropologically: "The two breasts of the soul, he says, are wisdom and knowledge by which she nurses the unwise and the ignorant, which are like young roes of a gazelle, which always seek high things, while they strive to climb to the heights of virtues; they are twins, while in twofold love they seek heavenly things. He said a young roe of a gazelle, to distinguish it from a young roe of deer, which runs swiftly, but does not seek high things like this one." Philo by the two breasts understands the religious and the lay, and analogically the twofold beatitude of the saints in heaven, namely the glory of soul and body.
7:4
YOUR NECK IS LIKE A TOWER OF IVORY. — Small towers of ivory are sometimes made by princes for magnificence, elaborated with great skill, just as Solomon made his august throne, as it is said in II Paralipomenon IX, 17, from ivory; indeed Achab built an entire house from ivory, as is found in III Kings XXII, 39: for the teeth of the elephant are so great and vast that some exceed the measure of twelve palms, indeed ten feet: wherefore from them posts are made in houses and stables, says Pliny, who therefore calls them horns rather than teeth. And this is the cause of the longevity of the elephant, namely that with vast and strong teeth it completely grinds food and reduces it to flour, and thus digests it most excellently, and converts it when digested into its own substance; and because it is carried in the mother's womb for a long time, namely for two years, so that it is born strong and vigorous. See Aldrovandus on the Elephant, Part XLII, III and following. He repeats in the Synagogue of the Jews what he said in the Church of the Gentiles, cap. IV, 4 (see the things said there): for to each he gives a towered neck, but here he adds that it is of ivory. A towered neck signifies the unconquered strength of the Synagogue, by which it will raise itself generously like a tower against all temptations and persecutions of the Antichrist: likewise the pontiffs, doctors and prelates, who heroically resist the same. The Chaldean version makes this: "Your judge also, who judges your judgment, is strong over the people, to bind them, and to draw those who are condemned in judgment to prison; like Solomon the king who made a tower of ivory, and subjected the people of the house of Israel, and converted them to the Ruler of the age." Ivory denotes elephantine (for the elephant is the most chaste of beasts and animals) chastity, purity and cleanliness, in which the Jews will abound at the end of the world, Apocalypse XIV, 1 and following, especially doctors and prelates: for ivory is white, polished, shining, smooth, straight, even, firm. Such likewise will be the virtue and strength of the Jews. Moreover, how chaste the elephant is, is gathered from the indications which Aristotle gives, lib. V On the History of Animals cap. XIV, where he teaches that the elephant remains continuously chaste for three years, and after three years completed, when the female has given birth, it is mixed with her only incidentally for the sake of generating offspring: "The elephant, he says, repeats copulation with three years intervening: he renders her pregnant, and never thereafter touches the same one. It carries the womb for two years: it brings forth single offspring, a fetus of the size of a two-month or three-month calf." He gives the reason lib. IX, cap. XLIX: "The elephant, he says, is the mildest and most placid of all beasts, inasmuch as it is trained and understands through many services; sometimes it even learns to adore a king; it is strong in sense, and excels in the rest by sagacity of mind; when it has satisfied itself by copulation, it will not touch her again. Male elephants are said to live, some two hundred, others one hundred and twenty years; the female also nearly the same, but they are said to flourish in age around the sixtieth year." The cause therefore why the elephant is chaste is its gentleness, sagacity and love of long life, for chastity prolongs life, which lust shortens. The same, lib. II, cap. I: "The elephant, he says, has testicles not conspicuous externally, but hidden internally around the kidneys, wherefore it performs copulation more quickly;" the same, lib. V, cap. II: "Elephants, he says, when about to copulate seek solitudes, but especially beside rivers;" so much does the act of venery shame them, that they wash themselves in the river. Hear Pliny, lib. VIII, cap. V: "Elephants, he says, from shame never copulate except in hiding, the male at five years, the female at ten; initiates, and no more; at the sixth they are washed in the river, not before brought back to the herd; nor do they know adulteries, and on account of females they have no conflicts among themselves, destructive to other animals." And from such great chastity is such strength in the elephant, that it even carries towers and in them the ranks of soldiers on its back. Aldrovandus adds from Aelian in the Elephant, part XLIV, II, that the elephant so hates adulterous men and women, that it takes vengeance on them, and kills them, of which vengeance he recounts several examples there. Angelomus adds, III Kings X: "The elephant, he says, is mixed temperately with his female, and does not use a second." And Bede on that Psalm XLIV, verse 9: From houses of ivory: An ivory house, he says, is a heart most innocent and most chaste. In ivory there is whiteness, and by whiteness innocence is designated. For the elephant, whose is ivory, is most chaste, because it knows only one wife, and her most temperately and when she is dead never knows another. Hear St. Gregory: "The neck of the bride is called like a tower of ivory, because the preachers of the Church are high through contemplation, and strong through the exercise of the works of the saints, and precious through divine wisdom." Similar things are found in Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm and others. And Angelomus in book III of Kings, chapter X, on those words: Teeth of elephants were brought to Solomon: "Thy neck is like a tower of ivory, that is," he says, "thy doctors are strong on account of the brightness of wisdom." Philo Carpathius, however, understands by neck the priests: "For as the neck," he says, "is near and joined to the head, so the men who are ministers of God adhere most sacredly and closely to the most holy body and blood of Jesus Christ; and they are his neck, most ivory, whenever with pure conscience and sincere charity of soul they celebrate and handle the divine mysteries immaculately; just as above the ivory box was said of those who admit no filth of mind, but most immaculately minister to the most divine sacraments with the most honest life and customs:" thus he. Aponius understands by it the martyrs, who subjected their neck to the sword for faith, and after death shone forth like ivory. Symbolically, Honorius: "The sixth," he says, "order (in the choirs of the camps of the Synagogue) is that of the religious, who are expressed by the neck, of whom it is subjoined: Thy neck is like, etc., that is, the spiritual ones, who join the Sunamite to Christ by words and examples, as the neck joins the head and body, are like a tower of ivory, that is like an elephant, invincible in virtues. Elephants are accustomed to carry towers, from which they fight as is read in the book of Maccabees: thus spiritual men carry the sacred Scripture as a firm tower, from which they fight against the enemies of the kingdom of God. But also by ivory their chastity is understood, as that animal is said to be of a chaste nature." To this is added Alcazar, who attributes all these things to the religious, especially for Christ, however for two years five (as they say) of each, and no more; in the sixth they are perfused and fighting in faith, and at the end of the world about to fight against Antichrist: for these raise their neck against infidelity, and the neck is a symbol of Christian liberty: for although the religious submit their neck to the yoke of Christ and obedience, yet this submission produces in them great souls and liberty, by which they despise all worldly things, fear no tyrants, but only the offense of God: wherefore for God they willingly subject their neck to the sword, if need be. Again William: "The head," he says, "is speculative reason, which is intent on the contemplation of eternal things; the members subject to the head are the sensual appetites, which are ruled by reason; the middle between the head and members, and joining both, is the neck, that is, practical reason which is intent on right action and directs it: this is similar to a tower of ivory, constructed through imitation from the examples of the ancient fathers: for ivory is the tooth of elephants: and all these, like Abraham, Moses, David, etc., were great, chaste, and strong elephants. Finally Rupert, adapting these to the Blessed Virgin, understands by neck her humility, which made her like a tower of ivory, as strong as it is beautiful: "What," he says, "or what kind is thy neck? surely not extended, but rather lovingly bowed down; and this is thy humility, great strength, most beautiful strength. Truly like a tower of ivory, which is both lovely in appearance and strong in stature. Strong to whom? lovely to whom? Strong to God, lovely to God; but to the devil terrible and inaccessible. How strong to God himself? namely as is proved from these examples: because if thou wast strong against God (he himself says, Genesis XXXII, 28, to his faithful father Jacob), how much more shalt thou prevail against men." William adds: "If by the ivory tower the examples of those saints, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and others are signified, surely the Mother of God is most truly called such, who much more sublimely than the others, from that ancient ivory constructed a tower of strength terrible to all enemies: for she not only perfectly expressed the virtues of the ancients in her customs, but also in those same virtues exceeded the measure of the ancients far by supereminent grace, and conquered each one, not only in other things, but also in their principal ones: Abraham in obedience, Moses in meekness, David in humility," etc. More subtly Hailgrinus: "The Blessed Virgin," he says, "is a tower, to which the wretched flee in every danger; ivory, on account of the brightness of chastity and the constancy of firmness, and because ivory is the tooth of the elephant, to which there is continual war with the dragon: as the Blessed Virgin from the beginning of the world waged war against the ancient serpent by God's predestination, Genesis III, verse 15." Hear Christ the Lord, mystically describing the neck of the Blessed Virgin to St. Bridget, book V of Revelations, at the end of Question 810: "Thy neck is nobly erect and most beautifully elevated, because the justice of thy soul is fully erect toward me, and movable according to my will, because it was never inclined to any evil of pride: for as the neck is bent at the head, so all thy intention and operation was bent toward my will."
THY EYES ARE LIKE THE FISHPOOLS (St. Ambrose, pools, namely from waters springing forth and living) IN HESEBON, WHICH ARE IN THE GATE OF THE DAUGHTER OF MULTITUDES. Pagninus, of the daughter of nobles: rabbim indeed signifies both many and nobles, and princes; the Syriac version, at the gate of many. Lyra and the rabbis wrongly understand Hesebon as Jerusalem: for this is said to be Hesebon, that is, estimation, because the city was of the highest dignity and esteem: "Hesebon," says Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, page 127, number 31, "was a glorious and distinguished city and very well fortified, situated in the mountains, surrounded by walls of burnt brick, to which as to a mistress the greatest number of villages served: which when it had been before the Moabites, was possessed by the Amorites by right of war, and in it dwelt Seon king of the Amorites, who with his people being slain by the Israelites, this city was rebuilt by the sons of Ruben and given to the Levites, against which Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied in the vision of Moab: in the time of St. Jerome it was called Esbus, distant from the Jordan twenty miles." Adrichomius adds, number 32, that near the gate of Hesebon there were notable fishpools, or pools and fountains of waters, to which the Hebrew enaim alludes; for this word signifies both eyes and fountains, because what eyes are in the head, fountains are in the earth. Again, as the praise of fishpools or pools is, says Delrio, if they abound in clear liquid, if they are transparent, if they return an image like mirrors to the beholder: in the eyes the first praise corresponds to abundant aqueous humor, the second to the vitreous, the third to the crystalline; in these three one may find those three qualities: for eyes are abundantly moist, and transmit vision, and represent an image. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Thy eyes, O Synagogue, are like twin, most placid, and most pure, most serene and most limpid fountains. Again, as fishpools are surrounded by trees, and are pleasantly shaded by them, so also eyes are surrounded by pupils and eyelashes, and between them a pleasant light gleams and vibrates, just as branches of trees hanging over pools make the crystalline waters shine through. Add that the crystalline humor of the eye is similar to a pool, because the origin of both lies hidden beneath, but the extreme surface remains quiet, stable and serene, so that like a mirror it represents objects placed before it. This is more truly in the bride, whose eyes are modest, grave, composed, constant: for inconstant and wandering eyes indicate a mind either fearful, or light, or crafty; pools or ponds therefore, in which waters do not flow, but remain still, denote and praise the quietness and serenity of the eyes: for this stability increases light and splendor, and is an indication of internal gravity, simplicity and constancy; just as frequent blinking of the eyelids, or swift movement of the orbs hither and thither is reckoned a sign either of an organ badly affected, or of a light, timid, deceitful mind: thus Delrio. Furthermore, this gate of Hesebon is called the daughter of multitudes, that is, the gate facing the region in which there was a great multitude of men: for delicate and elegant regions are metaphorically called daughters by the Hebrews. This region was either a forum, for in a forum there is a great multitude of men; or the suburbs, and the abundance of many villages subject to the city of Hesebon, as I said a little before from Adrichomius. This gate denotes the cavities of the head, in which as in gates the orbs of the eyes are situated; and they are called daughters of multitudes, because within these cavities of the head there are many cells of all the senses, both internal and external: many also vital and animal spirits, which serve the individual senses: many finally arteries, veins, muscles, nerves, etc. Again, the eyes themselves are here tacitly compared to gates, because like gates they were wide and decorously open: thus Juno is called by Homer Boopis, that is, having bovine and large eyes. By the symbol of the pool therefore is signified a threefold beauty of the eyes, says Luysius: first, their amplitude, that is, a just and becoming magnitude; then, serenity, from which light and splendor arise; finally, quietness as a kind of stability, which since it is in the eyes full of gravity and comeliness, is certainly an indication of a constant and equally simple mind: for those whose eyelids and eyes move frequently and with great speed are either timid, or altogether crafty and deceitful.
The eyes of the Synagogue converted to Christ are his wisdom and prudence, or sincere faith and knowledge, and pure and clear understanding both speculative and practical; likewise holy thoughts, as Theodoret and St. Ambrose say in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 16, and pure intention of pleasing God alone; hence Heshbon in Hebrew is the same as thought, as Aquila translated it, or, as Pagninus says, it is the same as haste of understanding, from חוש chus, that is, he hastened, and בין ban, that is, he understood, see the remarks on chapter IV, verse 1, and chapter I, verse 15: for just as there he compared the eyes of the Church to doves, so here he compares the eyes of the Synagogue to pools; whence R. Solomon asserts that the Hebrews and the Talmudic ברכות berechot, which our translator rendered pools, use it for eyes. Again, the eyes of the Synagogue at the end of the world were bishops, prophets and rabbis or doctors, as Cassiodorus, Justus and Anselmus say, who will teach, govern and direct the daughter of the multitude, that is the congregation of the Jewish people, in the faith and way of Christ in the way of salvation: for wisdom like a fountain and eye shines forth in the teacher, for it is "the brightness of eternal light, and a mirror without spot of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness," Wisdom VII, 26. Hence Honorius by the eyes understands in the choirs of the camps of the Synagogue the seventh order, or rank, which, he says, is that of the prelates. The Chaldean version tends to this: "Your scribes (doctors) are full of wisdom like pools of waters, and they know how to establish the calculations of intercalations, and they intercalate years, and mark the beginnings of years and months in the gate of the house of the Great Council." Hence Cosmas Damianus by the eyes understands bishops, and their perspicacity for contemplating divine things, and their providence for governing the sheep entrusted to them: for these are as it were the twin eyes of the mind, like twin pools which near the gate of Heshbon of a city once very populous, as if situated in its face, contained a vast supply of most healthful waters, flowing perpetually from the mountains of Gilead, and were of great use to an innumerable multitude, and afforded admirable benefits. Furthermore, in "daughter of the multitude," for which in Hebrew is בת רבים bath rabbim, that is, daughter, that is a city of many inhabitants, another mystery and oracle of the conversion of the Arabs seems to be hidden: for bath rabbim, or Rabba, was a great, powerful and populous city, and therefore the metropolis of the Ammonites, which Og king of Bashan first conquered, then David through Joab the commander, II Kings XI, 12; finally Ptolemy Philadelphia, the second king of Egypt after Alexander, from whom Philadelphia was named, and it was near the city of Heshbon; whence Jeremiah in the calamity of the Chaldeans joins both together saying, chapter XLIX, 3: "Howl, Heshbon, for Hai is laid waste: cry out, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird yourselves with haircloth: mourn and go round about the hedges: for Melchom shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together." The sense therefore is, as if he said: Thy eyes, O Synagogue, are like pools situated at the gate of Heshbon, which looks toward Philadelphia, or by which one goes to Philadelphia, thus Delrio and Vatablus: so at Rome one gate is called the Tiburtine, by which one goes to Tibur; another the Tusculan, by which one goes to Tusculum; another the Praenestine, by which one goes to Praeneste, etc. Solomon therefore indicates the eyes, that is the bishops of Jerusalem and Judea at the end of the world looking toward neighboring Arabia Felix, whose principal city is Philadelphia, that they may convert it to Christ, just as they once converted the same; whence the Church of Philadelphia once was subject to the patriarch of Jerusalem. The same will happen at the end of the world, when Elias and the bishops of Judea will go, or will send preachers into Arabia and other neighboring regions, that they may lead them from Mahomet (for Mahomet was an Arab, and leader of the Arabs) and from Antichrist to Christ. This seems to be indicated here by the Holy Spirit through τὸ bath rabbim, or Rabba, that is Philadelphia, which just as the pools of Heshbon is called a city of waters, II Kings XI and seq., because the torrent of Jacob flows around it, as Adrichomius says. Arabia Felix therefore he mentions here before others, both because it is itself bordering on Judea, and because frankincense, which is offered to God, myrrh, aloes, cassia, amomum, cinnamon, spikenard, cardamom, pepper, and every kind of aromatics Fourth, just as these pools were near the gate of the daughter of the multitude, so meditation and contemplation are near the gates of paradise, where there is an innumerable multitude of the children of God, namely of saints and the blessed. Fifth, just as in pools the water is stagnant, and therefore quiet and stable, so meditation composes the motions of the soul, and makes them stable and quiet. These are the waters of Siloam, which go with silence, Isaiah chapter VIII, 5. Sixth, just as pools pour forth abundant water, so meditation gives abundant conceptions and affections, which we may pour forth into a multitude however large. Seventh, these pools are in Heshbon; Heshbon in Hebrew is the same as thought, rumination, computation, reckoning, estimation, because the force and fruit of meditation consists in deep and serious rumination, estimation and weighing of the mysteries of faith: for this reason many of the faithful, although they believe in the rewards of heaven and the torments of hell, are nevertheless not moved to abstain from sins and to observe the laws of God, because they do not weigh those things according to their gravity, do not ruminate upon them, do not ponder them. For who would dare to steal, fornicate, kill, if he seriously and deeply considered and weighed the eternal fires of hell, which he would most certainly bring upon himself? See Bernard in the book On Consideration; hence the Hebrews call a work machascebah, which is radically the same as chesbon or heshbon, that is, of thought, an artificial, arduous and ingenious work, which requires much thought and meditation, such as the work of Phrygia: thus good works, which proceed from deep meditation, are elaborate, exact, excellent, heroic. Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus and is most fertile, so much so that no kinds of wood are in use there except fragrant ones, as Pliny says; it also abounds in gold, silver, diamonds, gems, pearls; it nourishes lions, leopards, horses, mules, herds of camels and elephants; it is said finally that Arabia Felix alone nourishes the phoenix, the queen of birds. Then because three Magi and kings, the first from all provinces, from this Arabia came to adore Christ, led by a star, to Jerusalem, according to that, Psalm 71:10: The kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts, namely gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which they offered to the boy Jesus, Matt. 2:11. Finally St. Paul, converted to Christ, immediately went into this Arabia, and there for three years preached with such fruit, that a single city of it, Beccara, which was an archiepiscopal see, had 35 bishoprics under it, as witness William of Tyre in the Holy War, and from him Adrichomius in Arabia.
The holy soul has two eyes, meditation and contemplation: these are similar to pools, first, because just as fish are nourished in pools, so in meditation the affections and desires of a pious mind are nourished. Second, just as pools are clear and return the image of the one looking into them, so the soul in meditation becomes a mirror receiving the likeness of God and representing His image in itself. Third, just as pools send forth broad waters, so the eyes flow and rain down tears of devotion and compunction, as is evident in David saying Psalm 6:7: I have labored in my groaning, I will wash my bed every night: I will water my couch with my tears, in Hebrew amse, that is, to melt and as it were to make swim, as if to say, I will pour forth such abundant tears that by them my bed as it were melts and swims. And Jeremiah, Lam. 1:46: Therefore, he says, I weeping, and my eye conducting waters: because the comforter is far from me, converting my soul. Hear St. Gregory: Heshbon is interpreted as the girdle of sorrow; the eyes of the bride therefore are said to be like pools in Heshbon, because while they are saddened by their pilgrimage and strengthened by sorrow against spiritual enemies, they wash themselves with tears, so that through them peoples may be fittingly cleansed before God. Thus also Rupert, Bede and St. Thomas. Hear Aponius: In the eyes of Heshbon those are seen to be shown who for their own or others' crimes bring forth fountains of tears; and Hugh of St. Victor, Notes on Joel: The pool of Heshbon, he says, are diverse kinds of compunction; the eyes of the bride therefore are pools in Heshbon, because from there they are increasingly clarified, whence in these frequent pools they are washed. Thus the Jews at the end of the world, so compunct by their long perfidy, will pour forth showers of tears like the pools of Heshbon.
First, Rupertus: The eyes of the Blessed Virgin, he says, were like pools on account of compunction and tears, which she shed for the Church and the miseries of the faithful. Hence anagogically the same Rupertus, through the two eyes similar to two pools, understands the upper and lower irrigation, which Axa asked from her father Caleb, Judges I, 15: For the upper irrigation, he says, the soul receives, when it afflicts itself in tears with desire for the heavenly kingdom; truly the lower irrigation it receives, when it weeps and fears the punishments of hell. Therefore in these words: Thy eyes, etc., the mystical sense is, as if he said: Thy eyes on account of love or desire of the beloved, by which thou languishest and art moved to compunction, flow with tears, and these tears are pools in Hesbon, that is, waters flowing in the girdle of sorrow: this compunction is land irrigated with waters, a certain beginning of eternal sweetness and inheritance: just as that Hesbon and the land beyond the Jordan was the first possession of the promised land for that daughter of multitude, namely the people of Israel, whose multitude are not fewer in number, those who ascended or ascend, so that they might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Second, Alanus: The eyes of the Virgin are said to be the contemplative and active life: in the active she sees what is to be done, in the contemplative what is to be loved; these are compared to pools, because they satisfy the Virgin with spiritual refreshment, and free her from the stain of sin. These are in Hesbon, that is in the girdle of sorrow, on account of the length of labor and misery, and as far as the contemplative life is concerned on account of the expansion of the homeland; which pools are in the Church, that is in the gate of the daughter of multitude. Third, William: The Blessed Virgin, he says, was similar to the cherubim, who round about and within are full of eyes, Ezekiel I, 18: for she herself was full of eyes of providence, providing without ceasing for good, not only before God, but before all men. Truly these eyes of hers were never darkened by even the slightest dust of carnal allurement; no motion of even slight jealousy, or of anger disturbed them, but like living water they were always pure and transparent, because they had nothing turbulent or dusty in themselves, but expressed a certain likeness of living water, that is of heavenly grace. Hear Christ depicting the eyes of the Blessed Virgin to St. Bridget, book V of the Revelations at the end, Question 9: Thy eyes were in the sight of my Father so bright, that he beheld himself in them, because in thy spiritual sight and in the understanding of thy soul the Father saw thy whole will, that thou didst will nothing except himself, and didst desire nothing except according to him.
YOUR NOSE IS LIKE THE TOWER OF LIBANUS, WHICH LOOKS TOWARD DAMASCUS. In Hebrew tsopha, that is, beholding the face of Damascus, thus Pagninus, the Septuagint, looking upon the face of Damascus. The Tower of Libanus, says Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, page 100, number 90, was a tower which Solomon built on Mount Libanus (for it is evident that he built it there, III Kings IX, 19, and II Paralipomenons VIII, 6) near Damascus of such height that from it the houses of Damascus could be counted; and of such beauty that the nose of the bride is compared to it. This tower was in the place of a watchtower, so that from it they could observe the coming, ambushes and attempts of the Syrians, who harassed Judaea with frequent incursions, and could announce to the Jews, by giving a signal of fire or trumpet, so that they might prepare either flight or arms to meet them. For Damascus was the capital of Syria, as Isaiah says, chapter VII, verse 8. For nose, in Hebrew it is aph, which signifies both face and nose; whence some, with Vatablus and Pagninus, translate, your face is like the tower of Libanus, because the face of the bride was round, high and elevated like a tower, so that being situated from afar it might look out; Our translator, however, the Septuagint, Pagninus and the Hebrews translate, nose. You will ask, how is the nose of the bride compared to a tower? For this seems at first sight to be an enormous, incongruous and unbecoming hyperbole. Some understand by nose an ornament fashioned like the tower of Libanus, which hung from the forehead to the nostrils in the manner of orientals and adorned them: for St. Jerome teaches that the ancients adorned the nose with this ornament in Ezechiel XVI, 12, at those words: I gave earrings upon your mouth. Again, our Sanchez thinks the nose is compared to the tower of Libanus: because, he says, this tower viewed from afar appeared small on account of distance, and had the appearance of a nose. Thus rocks near Sorrento are called goats, according to Pliny book III, chapter VI, because to those viewing from afar they present the form of a goat: and what is called Scylla is a rock in Sicily; what is called Niobe is a rock in Sipylus: because they present to those beholding them the likeness of Scylla and Niobe. But here the nose is compared to a tower, not only as to appearance and seeming, but as to truth and the thing itself. I say therefore that Solomon in this bucolic song assimilates the members of the bride in the Hebrew manner to rural things: thus in the preceding verse he assimilated the eyes of the bride to the pools of Hesebon, and in verse 5, he assimilates her head to Carmel: thus here he compares the nose to the tower of Libanus, not as to magnitude or height: for who, even if a giant and Polyphemus, has a nose as long as a tower is high? But first, as to proportion, because as much as this tower of his rises from Mount Libanus, so much proportionally does the nose of the bride rise from the breast and the other members subject to it. Again, just as a great tower rises from Libanus, so a nose proportionally great rose from the face of the bride. It indicates therefore that the bride has a great nose, but one becoming and proportioned to her face: for a great nose is a sign of great discernment, prudence, judgment, discretion, and equally of a lofty and strong spirit, whence that saying of Martial: And boys have the nose of a rhinoceros, And: You may be sharp-nosed, indeed be a nose. And Horace: You hang by a hooked nose. Whence Pliny, book XI, chapter XXXIII, teaches that new customs have devoted the nose to crafty mockery, which the Greeks call mycterism: for mycter is nose, and thus the Septuagint translates here: hence the word nasutus, says Festus, denotes one who is keen-scented, because he immediately explores the odor of anything and perceives it before he has inspected it; whence St. Jerome, epistle 100, writing to Bonasus who was excessively sharp-nosed, and equally keen-scented, wittily censuring his excessive discernment and acuteness: I will give, he says, counsel by which hidden things you might appear more beautiful: let the nose not be seen in the face, let speech not sound in speaking; and thus you might appear both handsome and eloquent.
The nose of the Synagogue at the end of the world, to be converted to Christ like the tower of Lebanon, will be a great and exact providence, foresight, discretion, by which it will smell from afar and perceive all the snares and attempts of Damascus, that is, of the devil and Antichrist thirsting for the blood of souls (for Damascus in Hebrew means the same as a sack or prey of blood), and will elude and overcome them with a spirit of great fortitude and magnanimity: for a great nose draws in a great spirit, and is therefore an index of magnanimity; whence the Hebrew aph, that is, nose, also signifies anger and rage, for these are shown in a reddened and smoking nose, and is an index of magnanimity; whence Ludovicus of Leon by aph, or nose, understands rage and gravity of countenance, because it arises from a great and lofty soul; and R. Solomon by aph understands the gravity of the whole face, which shines forth most in the forehead of the bride. Just as therefore the Jews of old from the tower of Lebanon detected the schemes of the Syrians coming from Damascus, and anticipating their counsels and snares eluded them; so precisely the Jews at the end of the world converted to Christ, and especially their bishops and prelates, will most sagaciously and most certainly discern all the feigned and adulterous ways of the Antichrist, false prophets, heretics and politicians, and the fictitious faith from the true and genuine morals of Christians and orthodox faith; as if with keen and sharp nostrils, so that their secret counsels which they seek, and the subtle machinations which they contrive against Christians, they will immediately smell out, anticipate, and render vain: thus Cosmas Damianus. For the Antichrist will be the most cunning of all men, most eloquent, most learned, most powerful, most wicked, and thus will be the mouth and instrument of the devil: wherefore he will devise a thousand deceits, frauds and arts, by which he may turn the Jews away from Christ, and draw them to himself, as I said in II Thessalonians II, and Apocalypse XI and following. Wherefore a great nose, that is, sagacity, fortitude and spirit will then be necessary for Elias, the prelates and Jews converted by him, that they may uncover these arts, discern, decline, confute, and disperse them. Hence again by nose you may understand Elias and the prelates, especially the Roman Pontiff and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who will most fiercely oppose the Antichrist for their Jews, and will most diligently smell out his frauds, and will lay them bare to their Jews, and will animate and arm them against them with all zeal: thus the Roman pontiffs as if the noses of the Church, have smelled out the heresies and tricks of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Pelagius, Priscillian, Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, and have condemned and dispersed them. Furthermore Cassiodorus, Bede, Philo, Anselm, and the other Fathers in their manner assign all these symbols, as I said above, to preachers. Hear St. Gregory: In the nose is held the discretion of odor; by the nose therefore the discretion of preachers is designated, because through them the odors of virtues and the stenches of vices are shown to us. But the nose exists as the tower of Lebanon, because when once preachers are washed with the water of baptism, and daily with tears are whitened from the sins which they have committed against God, they become worthy to be raised up to higher things more and more through fortitude. But the tower looks toward Damascus, because every holy preacher always contradicts sinners: for Damascus indeed is interpreted as bloody, and is said of a sinful nation, Isaiah cap. I, 15: Thy hands are full of blood. Hence Philo of Carpathus by the nose of the Church understands St. Paul the prince of preachers, who has smelled most highly the divine mysteries, and has most sagaciously discerned them from the stenches of the world.
The nose of a holy soul, like the tower of Lebanon, is her providence, vigilance, diligence and discernment, by which she foresees from afar what is useful and what is harmful, and carefully discerns virtue from vice, the inspiration of God from the suggestion of the devil, the spirit of charity from the spirit of flesh. Thus Theodoret: The nose of the Bride, he says, is lofty and sublime and receives the sweetness of heavenly fragrance, and perceiving the ointment of the Bridegroom cries out, Canticles I, 3: After thee we will run to the odour of thy ointments: for this reason it is compared to a tower, which is situated in Lebanon, and looks toward the face of Damascus. For because the devil, as blessed Paul asserts, II Corinthians XI, 13, transforms himself into an angel of light, and assumes the appearance of spiritual ointment, necessarily the nose of the Bride, erect and vigilant, looks toward the face of Damascus, lest deceived and omitting the true ointment, she follow the false and adulterated one. And below: Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward the face of Damascus: for thou foreseest lest the devil deceive thee under the appearance of divine things, and thrust falsehood upon thee instead of truth. Thus Theodoret. And St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 5, verse 37: Thy nostrils, he says, as the tower of Lebanon looking toward the face of Damascus, because the ointment of the true priest, which descended from the head upon the beard, that is, that divine odour, the odour of spiritual grace, which was from the Father in Christ, and by the sacrament of the Incarnation descended to the earth, so that all things might be filled with the poured out ointment, stands out by the most exalted power of judgment, and fills the nostrils of the soul, so that she may discern what is sweet-smelling and what is foul: the sweet things of the saints who can say, II Corinthians II, 15: For we are the good odour of Christ to God, from the foul things of sinners. Then comparing the nostrils to the tower of Lebanon he adds: These are nostrils as the tower of Lebanon, lofty above the world, but for this reason it looks toward the face of Damascus, namely the gentile people, smelling their faith, by whose grace she wipes away the foul odour of their sins. The face therefore of Damascus is the faith of the gentiles covered by no veil, clothed by no garment, naked and free, intent on heaven more than on earth. These the nostrils of the Church behold and look upon, gathering what is sweet in her and fragrant from the breathing and grace. Thus far St. Ambrose. Wherefore St. Antony in the way of perfection gave first place to discernment: hear St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Circumcision of the Lord: He who runs, he says, must necessarily be illuminated by the light of discernment, which is the mother of virtues, and the consummation of perfection: this indeed teaches that nothing be in excess: and this is the eighth day, on which the child is circumcised: because discernment truly circumcises, so that neither more nor less be done: for he who is excessive cuts off the fruit of good work, does not circumcise: just as he who is lukewarm, if he does less. The same, sermon 49 in the Canticles: Discernment, he says, puts order in every virtue, order gives measure, and also beauty and perpetuity. Finally he says: By thy ordinance the day continueth, day by day, Psalm CXVIII, 91, calling it virtue. Discernment is therefore not so much a virtue, as a certain moderatrix and charioteer of virtues, orderer of affections, and teacher of morals: take this away, and virtue will be vice, and the very natural affection will be converted rather into perturbation, and the destruction of nature. The same in the Resurrection of the Lord, sermon 2: But when both shall be present, namely both the affection of compassion and the zeal of justice, it is necessary that the spirit of discernment be present, lest perchance when this ought to be shown, that proceed, and indiscretion itself confound all things. Let our mind therefore have a third thing, namely the spirit of discernment: so that mixing times aptly with times, it may know how to emulate opportunely, and nevertheless to forgive. See Cassian throughout Collation II, where among other things he says, chapter X: True discernment is sought only by true humility; and the first proof of this humility will be this, if all things, not only those which are to be done, but also those which are thought, be reserved to the examination of the elders, so that no one trusting in his own judgment, may acquiesce in all things in their definitions, and may know from their tradition what he ought to judge good or evil, etc., for in no way can anyone be deceived, if he lives not by his own judgment, but by the example of his elders. Moreover the analogies of the nose and the tower, which I reviewed a little before, are most aptly suited to discretion: for this ought first, proportionally, to be greater than all the acts of man, because it must judge of them and discern and separate them, so that it may choose the good from the evil, and from the good that which is better. Secondly, comparatively, because discretion ought to excel not only the acts of man, but also the other virtues, so that it may judge them, preferring the necessary to the unnecessary, the more useful to the less useful, the better to the less good. This looks toward the face of Damascus, that is the devil thirsting for the blood of souls, so that it may smell out his machinations, illusions and attempts, and render them void and frustrated. Thirdly, in whiteness, because it is necessary that it be pure from every impure affection, and wholly white: thus the Just Orgelitanus: The nose of the Church, he says, are those who perceiving the odor of justice (which is in Christ), carry it into the inner parts of the heart. These who consist in great virtue, are arranged like the tower of Lebanon: but we have already said above that Lebanon is whiteness; the height of these looks toward Damascus, because their wisdom, which is from God, illuminates the world. Fourthly, in the office of watching; for discretion indeed sagaciously smells out hidden vices or virtues: wherefore it constantly looks toward the face of Damascus, that is against the appetite of flesh and blood, so that whatever smells of flesh and carnal things, it immediately rejects: for almost every temptation of man arises from flesh and concupiscence, for Damascus in Hebrew is the same as a sack of blood, or a drink, or a kiss, or prey. Therefore the office of discretion is carefully to discern whether that which comes into his mind is suggested by the flesh, or by the spirit, so that it may reject the former, accept the latter. Fifthly, in rectitude, for discretion ought to be right, inasmuch as it directs all virtues and makes them right: wherefore its intention ought to be most right, so that it may look upon nothing but God and God's law, grace and glory. Symbolically Aponius: The tower of Lebanon, that is of frankincense, he says, is the humanity of Christ, which breathes the most sweet odors of virtues, by which we repel the stenches of vices, into the nostrils of our mind. Damascus, says Aponius, is the same as a kiss of blood or a drink of blood. When therefore the devil offered to deceived men the bloody kisses of your friendships of blood, or cups, God almighty made for himself a tower of most sweet odor, where no stench of sin is found, through the flesh assumed from the Virgin Mary, whence looking upon it he would destroy the kingdom of the devil. Whence it seems to me that the nose of the Church should be understood as those in whom there is greater zeal and more ardent faith in the destruction of idolatry. Such a nose, in the manner of the tower of Lebanon, had St. Mary Magdalene, that is turreted (for magdal, or migdal in Hebrew is tower), who foreseeing the future repented, trampled upon the present, consecrated herself to Christ: and therefore on account of her diligence and ardor of faith, she received the name of the turreted, and merited to see Christ rising before the apostles, says St. Jerome, epistle 46 to Principia. The same, epistle 149 to the same, at the beginning: Mary Magdalene, he says, weeps at the cross, prepares ointments: seeks in the tomb, questions the gardener, recognizes the Lord, goes to the apostles, announces him found; they doubt, she is confident. Truly turreted, truly a tower of whiteness and Lebanon, which looks toward the face of Damascus, the blood namely of the Savior (as it were mesec, that is the procurator of our salvation, provoking to the sack of penance).
Physically, the Blessed Virgin had a larger nose: hear St. Epiphanius in Nicephorus, book III of the History, chapter XXIII, depicting the form and figure of the Virgin: A longer nose, rosy lips and full of the sweetness of words, a face not round and sharp, but somewhat longer: hands likewise and longer fingers. Morally, the Blessed Virgin had a nose like a tower, because she excelled in the highest foresight and discretion: again, the Blessed Virgin foresaw the future joys of the saints in the heavens, and the torments of the impious in hell; and therefore she despised all the prosperous and adverse things of this world in hope of future goods, and taught others to despise them. Hear Hailgrin: This nose is the discretion of the Mother of God, by which she both presenses the malice of the devil, and from afar as if from a mirror foresees, so that like a tower she might strongly oppose herself for us, and is said to be situated in Lebanon, to show that by the whiteness of her virginity, as if by her foot she might crush the serpent's head. Strong, says Rupertus, is this nose of discretion like the tower of Lebanon, while rightly despising visible things it strongly resists, and is not broken by the inconveniences of visible things, according to that, Psalm LX, 4: Thou hast led me, because thou hast been my hope; a tower of strength from the face of the enemy. How does this tower look against Damascus? Namely, by having a sense contrary to its sense, according to that, Rom. VIII, 5: For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh; but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit. Rupertus adds that Damascus represents a servant taken captive and mutilated in the nose, just as Judaea was deprived of the city of Jerusalem and the temple, as if of her nose by the Romans; and therefore he is similar to a man who lacks discretion, for he is so deformed, and is a man whose nose has been cut off. A wise soul, looking upon this reproach of Damascus, preserves the nose, that is discretion, in all things. Symbolically, St. Bernard, sermon 4 on the Hail Holy Queen: Thou, he says, Lady, art a beautiful nose, to whom the bridegroom says, Canticles VII, 4: Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon. The nose has two nostrils, through which it sends forth breath from the head: so thou, Lady, by thy virginity and humility didst bring forth the Son of God from heaven, the spirit of our mouth, the Prophet saying, Lamentations IV, 20: Christ the Lord, indeed, who as the spirit of our mouth warms us with charity, cools our cupidity, moves us to good will, justifies us by faith; thou therefore art the nose of the Church similar to a tower, namely of lofty dignity, of firm gravity; thou art a tower of Lebanon: Lebanon is a mountain, which is called whitening, signifies thy high innocence above all.
7:5
THY HEAD (the Hebrew and Septuagint add upon thee) like Carmel, - Arabic, thy head is fat, or thick like Mount Carmel; Aben-Ezra and Pagninus, thy head is red, from reddish hair like scarlet: for thus Carmel is translated by the Septuagint and ours as scarlet, II Paralipomenon II, 7. Better Luysius of Leon, as if to say, As Carmel stands out among the other mountains of Judaea, so thou, O bride, and thou thyself standest out among other women. Carmel is a mountain in Phoenicia, most noble for the fertility of vineyards and all fruits: so Theodoret. Alcazar and Gislerius understand by Carmel a crown from the flowers of Carmel, with which the bride's head was crowned; thus, chapter V, 11, he called the head of Christ the finest gold, that is a crown redeemed from the finest gold. So the sense is, as if to say, Thy head is like Carmel, that is, it suits thy head well that a crown woven from the flowers of Carmel adorns it, to represent namely that this head is elegantly compared to Mount Carmel.
By the head of the Synagogue many understand Christ, who like Carmel through grace is the highest, most pleasant and most fertile: thus Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm and others. St. Gregory adds (whom others follow): For on Carmel indeed Elias praying obtained rain, and we praying on Carmel obtain rain, when believing in Christ, desiring Christ, and receiving from the Father the irrigation of grace which we ask for. Justus Orgelitanus adds: in Christ as it were on Carmel the just perceive a dwelling place and nourishment of wisdom. Pagninus also adds that Carmel is the same as a lamb circumcised and slain, such as Christ is. But Christ is the general head and common to both the Church and the Synagogue; the particular head of the Synagogue, to be converted to Christ at the end of the world, will be Elias, who as formerly on Mount Carmel shone forth with wonderful holiness, the efficacy of prayer, familiarity with God and the glory of miracles, and there instituted a religious family of men serving God, who in the books of Kings are called sons of the prophets; whence from this mountain the religious Carmelites, as it were the successors of Elias, took their name; thus likewise the same Elias at the end of the world will do the same and greater things there, and will lead forth religious of all kinds in battle array against Antichrist: thus Alcazar. Elias therefore is compared to Carmel, first, because devoted to prayer he dwelt thereon with God. Second, because he inhabited that mountain, and there founded monasteries, so that he seemed to have occupied and possessed Carmel; whence St. Jerome, in his epistle to Paulinus, speaking of monks: Our, he says, prince is Elias, our leader is Elisaeus, our leaders are the sons of the prophets. Third, because Elias was hairy, long-haired and as it were crowned with hair as he went, as appears in IV Kings I, 8, just as Mount Carmel is clothed and crowned with the foliage and branches of trees. Fourth, because Elias excelled other prophets, just as Carmel excels other mountains of Judaea, whence the Jews even now, though faithless, have this axiom: Elias will come, he will resolve for us all the doubts of the law; he will show us the Messiah: wherefore when he returns at the end of the world and shows that Christ slain by the Jews was the true Messiah, the Jews will repent and believe in Christ. Fifth, because just as Carmel is most pleasant and most fertile, whence it became a proverb, so that a very fertile field is called in Hebrew Carmel: thus Elias full of grace and zeal will be fertile in virtues and good works, and will convert all Jews to Christ, so that it may apply to the Synagogue, Isaiah XXXV, 2: The glory of Libanus is given to her, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon: see the things said there. Sixth, Mount Carmel was as it were a fortress and asylum against invading enemies: thus also Elias was an asylum to the faithful against Achab, Jezabel and idolaters, and will be such against Antichrist and antichristians at the end of the world; whence Elisaeus, while he was being taken up into heaven, cried out to him, IV Kings II, 12: My father, my father, (thou art) the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof. Seventh, Elias on Mount Carmel contending with four hundred priests of Baal, and vanquishing them, by fire drawn down from heaven, which consumed his sacrifice, killed them all to a man, and restored the ancestral faith and worship of the one God, III Kings XVIII, 19 et seq.: he will do the very same at the end of the world, as appears Apoc. XI, 5: And if any man, it says, will hurt them (them, namely Elias and Enoch), fire shall come out of their mouths, and shall devour their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, thus he must be killed; whence Eccli. XLVIII, 1, among many and great praises of Elias, assigns this first: And Elias the prophet rose up like a fire, and his word burned like a torch. And concluding, vers. 9, he subjoins: Who wast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses. Who art written in the judgments of times (at the end of the world) to appease the wrath of the Lord: to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Blessed are they that have seen thee, and have been honoured with thy friendship. On account of these therefore analogies and reasons Elias about to return at the end of the world and to convert the Jews, is here called the head of the Synagogue, and is compared to Carmel; whence the Chaldean version renders: The king who is set over thee as a prince is just like Elias the prophet, who was zealous with zeal for the Lord of heaven, and slew the false prophets on Mount Carmel, and converted the peoples of the house of Israel to the fear of the Lord. Moreover Aponius by the head like Carmel understands the kings of the Romans subject to Christ. Again Honorius, insisting on the distribution of the choirs of the camps of the Synagogue into ranks and orders: The ninth, he says, order is that of the high priests, of whom it is said: Thy head is like Carmel, because they have the knowledge of circumcision (for this is what Carmel signifies) namely that they may distinguish and separate the spiritual and Christian circumcision, which consists in cutting away vices, from the carnal and Jewish, which will consist in cutting off the flesh of the foreskin.
The head of a holy soul is a holy mind and filled with all good things, says Theodoret, which is namely pleasant with virtues, and exalted in prayer and conversation, and fruitful of good works like Carmel. Hear St. Gregory: Because just as from the head the members, so from the mind all our thoughts are arranged; but Carmel is interpreted as knowledge of circumcision; the head of the bride therefore is said to be like Carmel, because any holy mind knows how it ought to be worthily circumcised; it knows that nothing is whatever is done in the body, if the mind be unclean; which if it becomes the temple of Christ, is inhabited by Him. Aptly is the mind compared to the head and to Carmel, because just as the head pours sense and motion, and animal spirits into the members subject to it; and just as Carmel communicates its pleasantness, foliage, flowers and fruits to the region subject to it, so also the mind inspires its vigor, virtue and grace into all the powers of the soul, senses and strengths subject to it; wherefore in Hebrew it is, thy head upon thee as Carmel, that is to say, Just as the head is upon the members and Carmel upon the earth, which it irrigates and enriches, so also thy mind is upon all the powers of the soul, and rules them, nay irrigates them, and blesses them with all good things. Symbolically William refers these things to the mystery of the circumcision of Christ: For Carmel is the same as knowledge of circumcision, that is to say, Thy head as Carmel, that is, thy mind, O Blessed Virgin, had knowledge of circumcision, that thou mightest circumcise Christ, although thou wert not bound to it by law: Thou didst well know, he says, O pious mother, why the remedy of circumcision had been given to the people of God, and yet me, whom thou didst conceive without concupiscence, and therefore not in sins, singularly, thou didst subject to carnal circumcision, as if to be purged from original stain; nor didst thou do this unwisely, but thou wert taught to serve divine inspiration by the Spirit: for it was fitting that I, the giver of the law, made of a woman, should also be made under the law, and this dispensatively, that I might redeem those who were under the law.
The Blessed Virgin through Christ and after Christ is the head of the faithful of the Church, watering them, nourishing them, refreshing them, protecting them like Carmel; whence the Carmelites, the first followers of Elijah after Christ, chose the Blessed Virgin as their patroness, and built a church in her honor on Mount Carmel, and from this were called the Brethren of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, as Trithemius testifies, in his book On the Praises of the Carmelite Order, chapter VII. Thomas Waldensis, a grave theologian, adds, in his book On the Sacraments, title I, chapter resser, and others, that the order of Carmelites was already begun at the time of the apostles on Mount Carmel (and the name itself is an argument), in the church, which was the first of all dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in the world; then afterwards, with the number of men and dwellings multiplied throughout Palestine, it was scattered and dispersed by the irruption of the Saracens; but when they were again expelled, it flourished again around the year of human salvation one thousand one hundred. See Paul Maurigia, in his book On the Origin of Religions, chapter XXX, who among other things says that Pope Honorius IV confirmed the name of Carmelites derived from Carmel for them under the year of the Lord 1217. Moreover, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Father Simon, general of the order, a holy man, and to him praying gave a white habit, and said: Take this scapular from me given to thee and to thy order as a sign of my congregation. Hear Christ the Lord, mystically describing the Blessed Virgin's head to St. Bridget, book V of Revelations, at the end, Question 9: Thy head was as shining gold and thy hair as rays of the sun: because thou, most pure virginity, which is in thee as the head of all virtues and the restraint of all illicit movements, pleased and shone in my sight, with all humility; therefore thou art deservedly called crowned queen above all things that have been created: queen, because of purity; crowned, because of eminent dignity. Thy forehead was of incomparable whiteness, signifying the modesty of thy conscience, in which is the fullness of human knowledge, and the sweetness of divine wisdom shines in it above all. Furthermore, some think that Solomon here uses comparisons so disparate and enormous in appearance, by which he compares the eyes of the bride to pools, the nose to a tower, the head to Carmel, in order to signify the enormity of the excess of the Blessed Virgin above all women, that is to say, By as much as pools surpass the eyes of a common man, by as much as a tower is greater than a nose and Carmel than a head, by so much the Blessed Virgin, and her eyes, nose and head in dignity, grace and glory exceed all women, nay all men and angels, and thus all creatures universally, and the eyes, nostrils and head of all. Hence she herself is called by Isaiah, chapter II, verse 2, a mountain in the top of mountains.
AND THE HAIR OF THY HEAD, AS PURPLE BOUND IN CHANNELS. The Hebrew: and the fineness of thy head as purple; fineness, that is fine hairs and curls; the Zurich version: and the subtle evaporation (that is fine hairs which arise from the head and evaporate) of thy head is like royal purple, which is bound in channels (of dyers); the Arabic: bound in amphitheatres; the Septuagint: the plaiting (St. Ambrose, in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 11, ornament) of thy head as purple. The king bound in passages, that is in channels, through which water runs; thus also Pagninus; Isidore more clearly: the king bound in hairs. The Hebrew rehatim signifies both channels and beams, which run from one wall to another, just as channels from one place to another; whence Cosmas Damianus translates: the king bound in coffered ceilings, that is, says he, Christ bound in the beams of the cross; Vatablus: the hair of thy head is as purple, and it is as it were a king surrounded by channels, that is dwelling near channels, where there are waters; which was most commendable in the Holy Land: for since it was dry, irrigated land was of the highest value there: thus Vatablus; but this seems foreign and far-fetched, as also that of others, who translate: a king surrounded by those running about, namely soldiers. The hair of the bride is compared to purple, which is bound or tied in channels, so that if any filth from the dye adheres to it, water immediately running through the channels washes it away, or rather so that once dyed in the dyer's vessels, it is again, and more, dyed in the channels, through which the purple liquid runs into a basin or dye vat; these vessels Pliny, book IX, chapter XXXVIII, calls cortinas: perhaps also these vessels are called channels here, because they were hollow and long like channels. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The hair of the bride is ruddy, shining and gleaming like royal purple freshly dyed, indeed diphthera, that is dyed twice, and therefore of vivid and glowing redness: thus interpreters everywhere. Hear Genebrard and Luys: He compares the bride's hair to the most precious purple, most beautiful, and most fresh, which dyers still dry for kings in the highest channels of buildings, or which they dye in the tubes of their workshop, and in those same tubes and channels in which the purple color is contained, holding them bound, so that they may better receive the color. Otherwise Sanchez, who understands by channels bands or cords of gold or silver, which like channels and water running through channels shine with silvery brightness. Whence also in the Talmud, chapter III On the Paschal Lamb, silver bands are called rehate hakkeseph, that is channels of silver. Gislerius adds that bands are called channels, because while they bind and press the flowing hair, they cause a certain rivulet and channel of flowing hair to run down through the head. Furthermore, that the Septuagint, Pagninus, Vatablus, Cosmas and others translate: the king bound in passages, Theodoret and from him Titelmann thus explain, as if to say: The hair of the bride is like a king crowned with a royal crown and clothed in purple, which has folds and striae like channels, and by these as it were furrows is aptly fitted and distinguished. The hair of the bride is beautifully crowned with twisted hairs, folded and striated; it is therefore beautiful both from the color, because it is purple; and from the binding and arrangement, because it is elegantly bound, bent and plaited with golden bands or ribbons. Finally, the color of purple is the color of blood; whence Pliny, book IX, chapter XXXVIII: The highest praise to it (purple), says he, is the color of congealed blood shining in appearance; whence Homer calls blood purple, and Virgil following him: He vomits forth the purple soul: for the soul, that is life, is said in Scripture to be in the blood, indeed some philosophers thought the soul to be nothing other than blood, as Aristotle testifies, book I On the Soul.
The head of the Synagogue to be converted to Christ will be Christ, and after Christ Elias, as I have said; therefore the hairs of this head will be religious and zealous men, disciples and followers of Elias: for just as hairs arise from the head and adorn and protect it, so these, proceeding from the discipline and spirit of Elias, will adorn him, defend him, aid him and fight for him against Antichrist and antichristians; and therefore they will be slain by him, and will be dyed and adorned with their blood as with the purple of martyrdom. But this purple of blood will be similar to the blood with which Christ was clothed in his passion, nay, it will draw all its force, color and beauty from it, just as if bound to the five wounds of Christ as to channels, it were rubbed and purpled by them. Therefore most excellent and most valiant martyrs to be in the end of the world, joined to Christ the king as hair to the head, through faith and charity, and bound to his sacred wounds as to channels through affection and meditation, will suck and drink from them the purple, that is, the strength and beauty of martyrdom: thus Alcazar, Cosmas Damianus, Honorius, Delrio and the others cited at the beginning of the head. So also through the purple hair St. Gregory understands the desire of martyrdom; so also Justus Orgelitanus and Aponius, who also adds that the channels signify the example of the virtue of martyrs, which they transmit to others. To this the version of the Septuagint tends, the king bound in the passages; Cosmas, in the beams, that is to say, Christ bound to the beams of the cross, from which as from channels the purple of his blood drips upon us, and through it strengthens us unto martyrdom, so that we may be purpled equally with him by our own blood; the Septuagint therefore here clearly signifies the mystery of the cross of Christ, when they say the hair of the bride is of the color of purple, and they set forth the reason, that the king is bound, nay fixed with nails above the hair of Sulamitis, namely the bride, and that from his wounds through five channels blood flows, and the whole flow of it is received by Sulamitis above her locks. The king bound in the channels, or with the channels, namely the king with the five channels of blood flowing from his wounds, above the cross is bound with the bonds of love and fixed with three nails, and purple bursts forth from all the wounds, by which the hair of Sulamitis, that is, representing the devotion of the religious Church, is wholly imbued. A certain pious sculpture serves this consideration wonderfully, which places St. Mary Magdalene at the feet of the cross, embracing it with her head uncovered, and so that the blood of Christ flowing down stains her hair with the color of Tyrian purple: thus Alcazar. To this also agrees what the Septuagint translate, the king bound in the beams, because just as Christ was king on the cross conquering and ruling over sin, hell and the devil, so likewise the religious crucified with Christ is king ruling over himself, over vices, affections, and the whole world, as St. Chrysostom teaches, tract. On the Comparison of the King and the Monk, and from him our Jerome Platus, lib. II On the Good of the Religious State, cap. XVI. To this the version of the Chaldean tends: And the poor people, who walked beside the prince, hither and thither, because they are needy, it will come to pass that they will be clothed in purple, as Daniel was clothed in the city of Babylon, and Mordecai in Susa on account of the merit of Abraham, whom he constituted king from the beginning as an abominator of the age; and on account of the justice of Isaac, whom his father bound, that he might offer him; and on account of the dignity of Jacob, who stripped the rods in the channels. Hence also Cassiodorus and Bede through the purple in the channels understand saints fixed in humility, in which the purple of the eternal king is dipped, to which all saints, imitating the humility of their Redeemer, strive to become conformed to his sufferings, so that they are turned into the dignity of purple and laboring for Christ, with Christ deserve to be crowned. But this purple is said to be bound, because their hearts are fixed and established in the fear and love of their Redeemer, and can never be separated from his charity. These things could also be applied to the cardinals of the Roman Church, for they as purple hair adorn the head of the Pontiff, and therefore wear purple, so that this may admonish them to shed their blood for Christ, if need be, and at the end of the world fighting with the Pontiff against Antichrist will truly shed it, as once St. Lawrence, St. Cyriacus and other first cardinals shed it with St. Sixtus, Marcellus, Cornelius, Urban, and the other first pontiffs.
The hair of the soul is purple, that is, an abundance of pious thoughts and affections, and especially the desire for mortification and martyrdom, which the soul itself draws from the drops of blood flowing from Christ on the cross, which she drinks and draws in by meditating upon them continually; she therefore, like the hair of Christ clothed in purple, and depending entirely upon him as upon her head, bound through contemplation to the channels of his wounds, shines forth in the double dye of love of God and neighbor and of martyrdom, and is not permitted to wander and flow away into other thoughts. Whence St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 17: She, he says, as a well-deserving queen is crowned with the blood of Christ, as it is written, Canticles VII, 5: And the ornament of thy head like purple. The blood of Christ is purple, which stains the souls of the saints, shining not only in color but also in power, because it makes them kings and better kings, to whom it may give an eternal kingdom. Thus also Theodoret, Honorius, Rupert. Hear also the three Anonymous writers in Theodoret: The hair of thy head like purple, namely the doctrine of Christ woven together by the connection of reasons and morals, as the garment of a king is the covering of thy soul, in which he rules over disturbances, and is a king bound in the passages, that is, subject to no disturbance, but bound by that divine doctrine of which we have spoken as by a rope in the passages of the present life, lest he slip on the slippery path of sensible and perishable things. Moreover, the pious mind binds itself to the passion of Christ by a rope of love, and thus in turn Christ is bound by the same rope; whence Sanchez, taking channels to mean ropes, teaches that the pious soul through holy thoughts and meditations on the passion of Christ binds Christ himself to her, not unwilling but willing, so that he cannot think, will, or desire anything else, and in turn Christ does not permit himself to be separated from her thought and love; for how could the most gentle desires of Christ the spouse not seize and hold the soul that aspires to him alone? How could those bonds not bind, by which the faithful spouse has so restrained her thoughts that she has cut off from herself all faculty of thinking except of the spouse? O therefore happy bonds of the religious, that is, of those bound, by which they have bound the movements and pursuits of the soul, lest it slip away from God and go into diverse things! For unless these bonds are broken, they bind Christ himself, as spouse and king entirely their own.
Physically, the hair of the head of the Blessed Virgin was blonde tinged with purple, as I said above from St. Epiphanius and Nicephorus. Ethically, the hairs, that is, the thoughts of the Virgin were continually tinged with the memory and compassion of the purple of the king, that is, the passion of Christ: for which reason she herself truly became a martyr. The sense therefore is, says Hailgrinus: Your mind prudently circumcised, and your thoughts dyed in the blood of the Lord's passion, were always so affected, as if they saw the fresh blood flowing from the wounds. A bundle of myrrh remained between her breasts, until she was assumed into joy, which absorbed all sorrow. More fully, William: The purple of the king, he says, is the flesh of the Redeemer reddening with its own blood; that flesh was the sacred garment of the Word, from which the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, John I, 14; but at the time of the passion it was dyed in a royal purple to be adored by men and angels, in its own blood; whence, Philippians II, 9, the Apostle on account of the passion of death says to him that a name was given by the Father, which is above all names; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. But when that sacred flesh, which the Word had taken to himself from the willing Virgin, was pierced with key and lance for drawing forth the price of human redemption, according to the prophecy of the truthful Simeon, a sword pierced the pious mother's soul, Luke II, 35. As many wounds as the son received in the flesh, so many the pious mother received in the heart; what four or three nails and one lance made in the flesh of the son, that one sword made in the soul of the mother. The flesh of the son reddened with the blood of passion; those maternal thoughts reddened, so to speak, with the blood of compassion; well therefore is it said to her, Canticles VII, 3: The hair of your head is like the purple of the king. But what is added, bound in channels, signifies that the dye of that royal garment, which was made by the passion, was immediately followed by an abundance of his grace, which in sacred writings is signified by water. See what is said at chapter V, verse 9, to those words: You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, in one hair of your neck. Finally, Philo, bishop of the Carpatians, translating anew from the Septuagint, the terrible king in his excursions, explains it of Christ's excursion from the heavens through the Blessed Virgin to the earth and to hell, and his return to the heavens: For from heaven, he says, he excursed to the earth like a bridegroom coming forth from the virgin bridal chamber into the world; and descending even to the underworld, he destroyed death, and took the spoils of hell. He alone is altogether terrible in his progressions and deeds, which he did for our salvation not compelled by any bonds of necessity, but overcome by the ardor of immense charity and the ineffable greatness of his goodness, he voluntarily came to these mortal and sorrowful things; and that he might endow us with his immortality, he was clothed in our mortality, never abandoning us, never leaving us destitute, but everywhere cherishing and protecting us: for he says, Matthew XXVIII, 20: Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. O incomparable power of love! O supreme goodness!
7:6
HOW BEAUTIFUL YOU ARE, AND HOW COMELY, DEAREST, IN DELIGHTS! - From the Hebrew with Pagninus you would translate, O how beautiful you have become, and how sweet you have become, love in delights! namely of the bridegroom, by delighting him; or word for word, how beautiful you have become, and how pleasant (or sweet, grateful and acceptable), O charity in delights! thus the Septuagint. In Hebrew it is battaanugim, which by systole signifies in delights: by diaeresis however bath taanugim, which is the same as daughter of delights, as Aquila and the Syriac translate, that is, most delicate and most delightful; whence Vatablus translates, holding the first place in delights, by which namely you delight both yourself, and the bridegroom, and us young maidens of Zion and all others wonderfully. The Arabic: how beautiful is your glory, how delightful you are, O love in delights! Many think these are the words of the bridegroom, continuing to praise the bride, the Synagogue. Better, others think these are the words of the chorus of young maidens of Zion, that is, of virgins and maidens of the new Jerusalem and Christian Zion, who, having heard from the bridegroom such praises of the bride through each of her members, admiring her beauty, exclaim: How beautiful you are, etc., or rather that these are the words of the Church of the Gentiles, which, rejoicing with the Synagogue of the Jews converted to Christ, congratulates her, and exulting applauds her sister now in faith (for it was fitting for sister to do this to sister), saying: How beautiful you are, etc. That this is so will be clear from verse 9, where it is said: Your throat is like the best wine, worthy of my beloved to drink. Which words are clearly not of the bridegroom, but of the chorus of young maidens; for the bride would not say of herself, worthy of my beloved, but worthy of me. And from verses 7, 8: Your stature (O bride) is compared to the palm, and your breasts to clusters of grapes. I said: I will go up into the palm: for Christ did not go up into the palm of the bride, but rather came down, since she is far higher.
A chorus of young maidens, or girls of Jerusalem, that is, of souls new and imperfect in faith, of the Synagogue of the Jews to be converted through Elias, applauds, saying: How fair art thou, O my Lady, and how comely in thy delights! which thou enjoyest, and by which thou delightest thy spouse Christ, and us thy young maidens in a wonderful manner, and thou appearest so much more beautiful in that from so long and dark a deformity of infidelity and ignorance of Christ and thy salvation, thou hast suddenly emerged to so fervent a faith and zeal, so perfectly that thou hast given very many and most valiant martyrs to Christ, who, as I have already said, like the hairs of thy head, bound with purple like the king's ornament in channels, do wonderfully adorn and embellish it. This is what Isaias foretold, exulting in spirit, cap. XXXV, vers. 1: The desert and the wilderness shall be glad, and the solitary place shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. Sprouting it shall sprout, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God. Hear St. Ambrose in Psalm. CXVIII, serm. 17, vers. 5: How fair, says he, and sweet hast thou become, O charity, in thy delights! Fair with the beauty of virtue, sweet with the pleasantness of grace, with the remission of vices, which no bitterness of sin vexes, and charity itself, which by loving God and His name hath received; for God is charity. Cassiodorus: The Synagogue of the Jews, says he, is a new bride, fair in faith, comely in future works. Honorius: Fair by external works, comely by internal virtues. Three Anonymous writers in Theodoret: Thou art surrounded, say they, with admirable beauty, namely that which comes to thee from likeness and the exemplar; for joined to thy spouse, and enjoying him, thou art filled with incredible spiritual joy.
A holy soul through grace and heroic works, especially patience in adversities and martyrdom, becomes so beautiful that she is a daughter of delights, that is, an allurement and delight to God, to angels and to all saints. Wherefore St. James, cap. I, vers. 2: All joy, he says, count it, my brethren, when you shall fall into divers temptations: knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And patience hath a perfect work. And Paul, Rom. V, 3: We glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. Hence the Chaldean translator renders it: The king Solomon said: How beautiful art thou, assembly of Israel, in the time when thou bearest the yoke of my kingdom, in the time when I correct thee in infirmities on account of thy sins, and thou receivest it in charity, and delights appear to thee. The delights therefore of a holy soul are, first, tribulations and crosses; secondly, divine sweetnesses, inspirations and spiritual consolations, which God breathes into the faithful devoted to him and especially the afflicted, and chiefly the hope of heavenly glory: thus Cassiodorus. Thirdly, Theodoret says these delights are of love and charity: For thou lovest, he says, thy spouse who loveth thee, and placing all thy delights in his love thou hast despised all other things. Fourthly, Rupert: What is it, he says, to be beautiful and comely in delights, except to have in abundance of grace meekness and the greatest humility of heart? Fifthly, these delights are Holy Scripture: hear St. Gregory: It is to be noted, he says, that she is called most dear in delights, because whosoever doth not strive to abound in the delights of Holy Scripture doth not attain to the charity and familiarity of Christ. Hence it is said, Matt. cap. XIII, vers. 12: To every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound; but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away from him: for he who aboundeth in these delights is refreshed; refreshed by these, he is continually prepared to perceive greater things. Sixthly, St. Augustine, tract. 65 in John, teacheth that the death which charity inflicteth is most sweet, and that these are the delights of charity, and charity in delights: for thus he saith: O how well it is sung to thee in thy epithalamium, Cant. VII, 6: Because charity in thy delights! She doth not lose thy soul with the impious, she discerneth thy cause, and as death is mighty, so is it in thy delights. What a wonderful kind of death, to which it was not enough not to be in torments, unless it were moreover also in delights. For this reason the spouse is here called ahaba, that is, love, affection, charity in delights, that is, most delightfully and supremely lovable, beloved, dear (Our translator renders it, most dear), so that she herself seemeth to be very love itself, very beauty itself, very sweetness itself, and comeliness, very delights themselves: because for her charity is in delights, that is, because she loveth those things which are truly lovable; because she loveth those things which are worthy of charity and affection: thus Sanchez. Thus the third daughter of St. Sophia, virgin and martyr, was called Charity, as being supremely lovable to God and men. Thus St. Lieba, or Lioba, in England conceived by noble parents through a vow, from her earliest age consecrated to God by her parents through a vow, received this name, that she might be beloved of God and men: for Lieb in German signifieth beloved; wherefore educated piously in a monastery she became of wonderful sanctity. Hear the author of her Life: She was angelic in appearance, pleasant in speech, clear in intellect, great in counsel, Catholic in faith, most patient in hope, diffuse in charity; and although she always bore a joyful countenance, she was never dissolved into laughter by excessive hilarity. Wherefore elected abbess, she governed the nuns subject to her with singular prudence and sanctity: wherefore by the Emperor Charlemagne and his wife Hildegard she was often summoned, held in honour by them, and received with great reverence, so that Hildegard at Aachen kissing her eyes as she departed said: Farewell for eternity, lady and most beloved sister, farewell, precious portion of my soul. May Christ our creator and redeemer grant that we may see thee on the day of judgment without confusion. Moreover in this light we shall never enjoy the sight of each other from this day forward. She shone forth with many miracles. Her Life, written by Rudolph, a grave man, is extant in Surius, on the 28th of September.
Nothing is more beautiful, nothing more splendid, nothing more pleasant, nothing more delightful in all creation than the Blessed Virgin: wherefore the Church in the Office sings to her this antiphon taken from here: Thou art made beautiful and sweet in thy delights, O holy Mother of God. How beautiful, says Hailgrinus, art thou in motherhood, how becoming in virginity, how admirable in both! For, as William rightly explains: In what great delights of holiness was she engaged, when she held God the Word in her maternal embraces, and impressed upon Him the sacred kisses of her maternal mouth; when she nourished with her maternal breasts Him who in heaven fed the angels from Himself, and performed the other offices of maternal piety in due time! Finally in all these things, not ignorant of the divine mystery and her privilege, she most excellently knew herself to be the mother of majesty, and this knowledge was to her singular and perpetual delight. Further, as regards the present matter, the blessed Virgin shall be beautiful and becoming through the conversion of so many Jews to herself and her Son through Elias, which she herself shall procure, as it were charity in delights, so that she may offer her charity to them to be tasted, and in turn may delight in their charity and holiness, and may rejoice in them. Hence she is not only the delight, desire and joy of men on earth, but also of angels and the blessed in heaven, so that all sing to her: As the habitation of all that rejoice is in thee, O holy Mother of God. Finally Philo, reading (although against the faith of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin Codices), how beautiful and mighty thou art made, refers this to Christ the Bridegroom, as He is man: Charity in thy delights, that is, says he, what Wisdom, which is Christ, says in Proverbs VIII, 31: And my delights were to be with the children of men: for He embraces us with such charity that He wishes nothing else but to be always with us, this is what He desires of us, this He seeks, this He earnestly begs; whence He adds: This is thy greatness, thou art likened to the palm, as if to say, The greatness of thy immense charity is likened to the palm: for the palm shows the internal charity of the heart and the strength and force of invincible faith, etc., which lifts the heart to things above and eternal, and is not broken by any adversities, but among all things, nay above all things, endures and reigns unconquered and forever.
7:7
THY STATURE IS LIKENED TO THE PALM TREE. - The Hebrew: this stature of thine; the Septuagint: this greatness of thine, which the Complutensians refer to what preceded in this manner, thy love in thy delights, this is thy greatness, as if to say, Thy delightful love is thy greatness; Aquila: this rising up, or resurrection of thine, namely whereby, O Synagogue, thou didst rise from perfidy to faith, from death to life, from Moses to Christ; Symmachus: this youth, or thy age especially in its bloom, strong and warlike, which began from the seventeenth year, as Plutarch testifies in Gracchus, denotes the vigorous and strong age of the Synagogue in the faith of Christ, whereby she was to contend even unto death against Antichrist. The Syriac: this stature of thine, which namely I have hitherto described; the Arabic: thy fame or nature and character is magnified, as the palm; for the palm grows straight upward, and has at the top a head and foliage similar to the human. The sense is, as if to say, O new bride, thou art tall, and with a high neck and body like the palm tree: for this is a great gift and praise, which women desire, therefore they also raise their necks, and place towering headdresses upon their heads, and put high buskins upon their feet, that they may appear taller. Hence Ovid concerning Galatea, in Book XIV of the Metamorphoses: Taller and more stately than the alder. Anagogically Honorius says: The delights of the Church reigning with Christ are the joys of paradise in exultation: in these delights she is beautiful and becoming, because she shines as the sun and moon, and is most dear to Christ and the angels.
YOUR STATURE IS LIKE TO A PALM TREE. - To the Synagogue converted to Christ, and to be converted through Elias, a stature like a palm tree denotes her great and lofty spirit, by which she will generously raise herself against the threats and blandishments of Antichrist, and by despising them will transcend and overcome them, so much so that she will desire to suffer death for Christ, as I said a little before. Hence, just as the palm tree, the more it is pressed down by a burden imposed upon it, the more it raises itself up, so likewise then those converted to Christ, the more bitter things they suffer from Antichrist, the stronger they will become. Again, just as the palm tree, as Pliny testifies, lib. XIII, cap. IV, is not fruitful except in hot, nitrous, or salty soil, and therefore seems by its height to despise the earth and to seek heaven, and to ascend straight thereto, and scarcely to rest upon roots in the ground, because it finds there nothing but what is insipid: so also holy men have their mind fixed on heaven, and therefore all earthly things seem foolish to them, and they love the cross of Christ, and in it strike roots, are nourished and grow even to heaven, toward which they long. I have reviewed many analogies of the palm and the Church, or of a holy soul in perpetual verdure, uprightness, strength, height, fruit, foliage, etc., at Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 18, at those words: As a palm tree I was exalted in Cades, among which that one is especially fitting for the Synagogue, which Nyssenus attributes to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus in his Oration concerning him, namely, that the palm alone among trees, in the root has perfect thickness of sharpness rising from the earth and growing; and when proceeding straight upward it receives increase of height, nothing is added to it in thickness, but it remains equally thick, strong and inflexible: in like manner the Synagogue, to be converted to Christ at the end of the world, will immediately from the beginning receive such great thickness and strength of faith and virtue, that it will straightway become perfect, and will put forth teachers and martyrs, who like Paul will pour out their soul and life for Christ. Hence again you may take symbolically by the palm the cross of Christ, from which all grace and strength will come to them, as will be evident from the following saying: I will go up into the palm tree, etc., that is to say, Your stature, O Synagogue, is like to Christ exalted on the cross, because you make many martyrs for him and those crucified by Antichrist. This is what Christ foretold, John XII, 32: And I, if I be exalted from the earth, will draw all things to myself. AND YOUR BREASTS ARE LIKE CLUSTERS. - By clusters understand the winged or spathe-like parts of palm trees, in which a multitude of dates is contained: for these indeed have plainly the form of breasts, as much as clusters of grapes: thus Theodoret, three Anonymous writers, Gislerius and Sanchez, although Aben-Ezra, whom Luysius, Alcazar and Genebrardus follow, take clusters of the vine and grapes here, which they say in Judaea are married to palms, as in Apulia they are married to the tallest trees: for vines there become so thick and tall that they can be equaled and joined to the tallest trees, so that one produces as many grapes as suffice to press out a vessel of wine. Whence also follows: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof: and your breasts shall be as clusters of the vine: for these are not only similar in form but also in juice to breasts, for they give wine, as breasts give milk. Whence, cap. I, vers. 1, and cap. IV, vers. 10, he said: Your breasts are better than wine. Moreover he joins breasts to stature, because when a woman grows in stature and age, her breasts likewise grow and swell, so that as a bride she may conceive, bear and nourish offspring, according to that, Ezekiel XVI, 7: And you grew and became great, and came to the beauty of women: your breasts were formed. And thy breasts are like clusters of grapes,—that is to say, Thou dost supply the milk of thy doctrine conveniently and abundantly to all thy children. See the symbols of breasts, which I have reviewed in chapter IV, verse 5, and chapter I, verse 1. Moreover Alcazar, who takes botros not as the fruit of the palm tree, namely dates, but as the fruit of the vine, namely grapes, thus explains it, that is to say, Just as in Judaea vines are joined in marriage with palms and produce clusters and wine: so likewise the Synagogue converted to Christ shall join a cluster and wine with the palm and dates, that is wisdom with holiness, and therefore her breasts shall be like clusters of wine, not of milk: because she shall nourish her disciples with the wine of perfect wisdom and virtue, namely contempt of the world, zeal, mortification, desire, martyrdom, etc., by which novices are nourished in well-ordered religious communities: for the disciples of Elias also, about to contend against Antichrist, shall be equally as the religious themselves. These therefore, like clusters which, having drawn nourishment from heaven, have grown on high, already cooked and ripened by the heat of persecutions and tribulations, and pressed with heavy weight in the winepress of the cross, shall yield sweet wine to the Bridegroom Christ, which shall gladden his heart. Breasts therefore like clusters signify the remarkable diligence and constancy of the Synagogue in teaching, charity in winning souls, generosity in nursing little ones, as Philo and Honorius say. Symbolically Honorius: The stature, he says, of the Church (and of a holy soul) is perseverance in struggle, which began to grow in Abel and shall persevere unto the last elect, or took its beginning in growing in the apostles, and shall be completed in the Synagogue in its final conversion. The palm is rough below and beautiful above, and is called victory, and is understood to be the life of Christ, which here on earth was in the harshness of sufferings, and after the victory of the cross was in the beauty of the heavens. The stature therefore of the Bride shall be likened to the endurance of Christ, because the Church here was harsh in pressures; but having obtained victory over vices, she shines beautiful in the heavens; the palm also preserves its leaves, and the Church, while the state of the world changes, holds the same mysteries of faith. The breasts of the Church are the two Testaments, from which preachers suck the milk of mystical understanding, which preachers are called breasts, because they provide milk of doctrine to the unlearned; who are likened to clusters, because just as clusters are full of wine, so they themselves are full of knowledge; and just as clusters when pressed intoxicate, so they themselves, pressed in the world, offer the milk of doctrine.
A holy soul is like a palm tree, according to that passage, Psalm XCI, 13: The just shall flourish as the palm tree. First, because like a palm tree it is upright through justice. Second, because it is lofty through heavenly life and contemplation, according to that, Philip. III, 20: Our conversation is in heaven. Third, because it is always verdant through the vigor of the soul; whence St. Ambrose, lib. III Hexam. cap. XVII: Imitate, he says, O man, the palm tree, so that it may be said also to you, Canticles VII, 5: Thy stature is become like to a palm tree. Keep the verdancy of thy childhood and that natural innocence which thou didst receive from the beginning, so that planted beside the running waters thou mayest have thy fruit prepared in thy season, and thy leaf shall not fall away, etc. Psalm I, 3. Fourth, because it struggles against adversities and rises up higher. Fifth, because it produces dates, that is, the most sweet fruits of almsgiving and other virtues. Sixth, because the palm tree, although it does not grow in the thickness of its trunk, as I have said from Nyssen, nevertheless grows in the spreading of its branches and foliage; whence St. Gregory: The palm tree, he says, while it grows, is compressed below and spreads out above; thus the holy soul begins from the lowest to the smallest things, and gradually growing to greater things, reaches even to the amplitude of perfect charity. For no one, as it is written, becomes great all at once. In the Psalm, however, it is said of the just man: The just shall flourish as the palm tree, Psalm XCI, 13. But the two breasts of the bride are the two precepts of charity, which inebriate and nourish the soul that they possess with heavenly wine. Nevertheless, the cross of Christ can be understood through the palm tree: for the palm tree, growing very high into the air, produces the sweetest fruits, and the cross of Christ has prepared heavenly food for us, to which the stature of the bride is compared, because whoever loves Christ greatly does not hesitate to die for Christ, imitating him. Seventh, the palm is a symbol of the victory which the saints obtain by fighting against the flesh, the devil and the world, and of its reward which they shall obtain, according to that, Apocalypse VII, 9: And palms in their hands: thus Cassiodorus: The palm, he says, adorns the victorious hand. Eighth, the palm is thorny and prickly; thus the thorns and pricks in the just are reproofs against sinners, says Philo, by which they chastise their vices. Again, the palm is rough below in the trunk, but pleasant above in the branches, and sweet in the dates; thus also the Holy Church, says Cassiodorus, and the soul sustains in lower things the harshness of labors and sufferings for Christ; in higher things, however, that is in heavenly things, it awaits the beauty and sweetness of rewards. Moreover, the holy soul has breasts of doctrine and beneficence by which it may suckle and nourish others; whence Theodoret: When, he says, thou art so exalted that thou reachest the heights of heaven, nevertheless thou dost humble thyself to thy weak disciples, to whom thou givest the breasts of thy doctrine, being in need of doctrine: for the palm tree has hanging fruits. Furthermore, Cassiodorus, Bede and Justus understand by breasts doctors; but Aponius understands martyrs: for these by the example of their blood, as it were with milk, nourish and strengthen the faithful who are smaller in faith. This is supported by the Chaldean version: And in the time when the priests extend their hands in prayer, and bless their brethren, the house of Israel, their fingers are like the extended branches of palm trees, and their stature is like a palm tree. And thy Church stands face to face against the priests, and their faces are bowed down to the earth like clusters of grapes. Finally, Philo of Carpathus understands by stature the magnitude of charity, as I have said at the end of the preceding verse; whence read thus: Charity in delights, that is, thy magnitude. Symbolically, the stature of the palm tree is the four dimensions of the cross, which I have enumerated at Ephes. III, 18, by which the holy soul ought to measure itself, as far as it can, and make itself commensurate. Anagogically, Honorius: The stature of the glorious soul is the equality of angels, to which the palm is compared, because on earth it was confined, but in heaven it is expanded. Its breasts are compared to clusters, because the apostles and other doctors of it are full of eternal sweetness.
The Blessed Virgin was physically of tall stature, as testified by St. Epiphanius in Nicephorus, lib. II, XXIII. Ethically her stature was the loftiness of soul, especially in adversities and the passion of Christ; whence John says of her, cap. XIX, vers. 25: She stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother. She stood, says William, that one by the cross of her Jesus, and by that very fact she was in a certain way herself erected upon the cross, standing by the cross of her son, she herself had become in a certain way a cross to herself through maternal affection. Thus therefore when she stood by that remarkable palm, her stature was likened to the palm; but now that her son is glorified, from his resurrection and thereafter, her breasts are likened to clusters of grapes; whence also follows: I will ascend, etc. The palm surpasses other trees not in length, but in stature, that is in firmness and strength. Mystically such is the Blessed Virgin; whence St. Epiphanius writes thus of her, tom. III, haeresi 78: When John made his journey into Asia, and Scripture nowhere says that he took the holy Virgin with him, but simply is silent on account of the miracle LIKE CLUSTERS OF THE VINEYARD: AND THE ODOR OF THY MOUTH (Septuagint, Pagninus and Vatablus, nose; Syriac, face; for the Hebrew אן aph signifies nose, face and mouth) AS APPLES. — Septuagint, as apples. For fruit, in Hebrew it is סנסנים sansinnim, which the Septuagint renders as peaks; Arabic, heights; Aquila, lofty; Symmachus, branches; Vatablus, shoots. All these come to the same thing: for there are signified the lofty, or the fruits of date palms hanging from the peak of the branches of the palm, likewise the fruits of the vine married to the palm, namely grapes and clusters, as Aben-Ezra, Alcazar, and likewise Delrio and others wish. Breasts are rightly compared to clusters, because they are swelling, succulent, round; hence larger clusters are called humasti, that is ox or cow udders: so great are the breasts of mothers and nursing women with large breasts, such as the Synagogue is here introduced. The odor of the mouth or nose is the breath or breathing which is exhaled through the nose and mouth: Fragrance, says Theodoret, for it smells sweetly like apples, both pomegranates, says St. Gregory: for their mention is frequent in the Canticles; also citrons, and any other: for the odor of apples is sweet and sharp, and has something of a vinous quality.
THE VOICE OF THE CHOIR OF MAIDENS. VERS. 8. I SAID: I WILL GO UP INTO THE PALM TREE, AND WILL TAKE HOLD OF THE FRUIT THEREOF: AND THY BREASTS SHALL BE AS THE CLUSTERS OF THE VINE: AND THE ODOR OF THY MOUTH AS APPLES.
He persists in the likeness of a palm tree, as if to say: Just as the palm tree, with its frequent segments of bark like steps, attracts those who gaze upon it to ascend to its summit, so that there they may pluck both the clusters of the palm tree, that is, dates, and of the vine married to it, that is, grapes: so you, O Synagogue, who have grown to the height and beauty of a palm tree, attract me, namely the chorus of maidens, that is, souls imperfect in faith and piety, so that I may ascend to your loftiness and reach your breasts similar to clusters of grapes, and from them may I draw milk, or rather wine of sublime doctrine, which may lead me to the perfection of Christian life, and at the same time from your mouth may I draw the sweet-smelling spirit of piety and holiness: thus the Gardener, Sanchez and Delrio. Hear three Anonymous writers cited by Theodoret: "Deliberating with myself I said: I will ascend through the imitation of virtue to the perfection of your doctrine, and through contemplation I will grasp its sublimity. And the breasts of your discipline, which naturally nourish me, will be altogether like a cluster of the true vine, which is Christ, affording me the grace of divinity, which like wine by nature moves the mind away from nature and transfers it above nature. Whence also the odor of your nostrils is like apples, namely the grace of the Holy Spirit, filling the mind with sweetness, which you, having received from the bridegroom, pour forth into us. Just as apples are both beautiful in appearance, sweet in odor, and pleasant to taste; so she will be to us both adorned with the beauty of virtues, and fragrant with the elegance of discourse, and sweet with the pleasantness of experience." First therefore by the palm tree understand the stature, that is, the loftiness of the palms of the Synagogue: for the discourse proceeded concerning this; loftiness, I say, not of body, but of spirit and virtue. Secondly, symbolically by the palm tree understand the cross of Christ; for the stature of the Synagogue was likened to the palm tree both naturally and symbolically, that is, to the cross of Christ, because she herself through the cross grew to the magnitude of the palm tree in virtue and spirit. Whence by the palm tree the cross of Christ is understood by Cassiodorus, Justus, St. Gregory, Honorius, William here, and Tertullian, book III Against Marcion, and St. Cyprian, sermon On the Passion, Peter Damian, sermon On the Finding of the Cross. Wherefore many hold that the cross of Christ was made from palm wood, and that this is signified here, concerning which presently. Hence again Cassiodorus, Philo, Honorius, St. Gregory, Aponius, Bede, Anselm, Rupert and many others understand these things of Christ about to ascend the cross. Hence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in the Tragedy of Christ Suffering, holds that Christ crucified was not on the ground, but to the cross already erected and fixed in the ground, through ladders was affixed: the same holds St. Bernard, On the Passion of the Lord (or whoever is the Author), chapter V, and St. Bonaventure in the Fasicle of Myrrh, chapter III. The contrary however is commonly held by others, namely that Christ prostrate on the ground was affixed to the cross: for that was easier and more convenient: thus hold St. Anselm, book On the Passion, Blessed Lawrence Justinian, sermon On the Passion of the Lord, St. Anthony in the Chronicles, part I, Luysius, book II On the Cross, chapter VII, and others, and toward this inclines Francis Suarez; yet the former opinion, that Christ was affixed to the cross when erected, is confirmed by the fact that this was a greater torment and greater ignominy for greater terror, and St. Bridget asserts that this was revealed to her by Christ praying on Mount Calvary, book VII of Revelations, chapter XV; whence St. Ambrose, book X on Luke, teaches that Christ ascended the cross; and St. Cyprian, tract On the Passion: "You ascended, Lord, the palm," he says, "because that wood of your cross portended triumph." The same teach expressly Nicephorus, book I, chapter XXX, Toletus in chapter XIX of John, Annotation 14, Rutilius, Benzonius, Paleottus and others, whom Daniel Mallonius cites, Annotations in chapter VI of Alphonsus Paleotti On the Stigmata of the Holy Shroud, and Consalvus Durantus, Annotations in book VII of the Revelations of St. Bridget, chapter XV — But on this matter more must be said at Matthew XXVII, 33. Hear Honorius: "That the stature of your perseverance is likened to the palm of my victory, this is so because I ascended the palm, and drew you after me to victory: namely because I was exalted on the cross, I drew all things to me, in which also you. I said, that is, I firmly disposed before the Father in the ages past, that I would ascend the palm, that is, the cross, and overcome the tyrant, and then I would seize its fruits, namely all those to be saved, of whom the last Jews are a part, and the tyrant overcome I would draw back fugitives to me." And after some things: "The true Sunamitess without labor is compared to his fruit, which is at the summit." Hence the Septuagint here translates for 'fruit' the word 'tops'; wherefore Rupert, Honorius and William hold that Christ ascending into the palm tree and seizing its fruit is the same as being exalted from the earth and drawing all things to himself, John XII, 32; because the ascent into the cross was difficult for Christ through nails, lance and thorns, so that he might obtain its fruit and top, that is, the dominion of the world. Hear Rupert: "He ascended into the palm tree by the hands of soldiers, who unknowingly fought against my divine dignity. As much as was in them, they miserably crucified a man about to die; but as far as it concerned me, I ascended into the palm tree as a king about to triumph. From which indeed the Jews, ignorant of the divine dispensation, warned him to come down, saying, Matt. XXVII, 42: If thou be the king of Israel, come down from the cross. I had ascended into the palm tree, and therefore I was unwilling to come down, the fruits not yet being formed (for the palm was still flowering when such things were said to him); but when I said, having tasted vinegar, John cap. XIX, 30: It is consummated, and bowing my head I delivered up my spirit, then the fruits of the world's redemption were in the palm." For this reason many hold that the cross of Christ was made at least in part from palm wood; hence the well-known verse, which the Gloss cites in Clement, On the Sum of the Trinity: The wood of the cross: palm, cedar, cypress, olive.
The holy soul eager for perfection says with St. Paul, Philip. III, 12: "I do not count myself to have apprehended, but I follow after, if so be that I may apprehend wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus:" wherefore with David she disposeth ascents in her heart, that she may go from virtue to virtue, as Theodoret says, and namely ascendeth into the palm tree of mortification and the cross of Christ: there she sucketh the breasts, not of milk, but of strong wine, namely of invincible patience. Again, after Christ ascended into the palm tree of the cross, straightway he seized its fruit; for on the third day he rose glorious from death, and on the fortieth day ascending triumphantly into heaven, and on the fiftieth day he sent the Holy Spirit upon the Blessed Virgin and the apostles; then the breasts of the Blessed Virgin became as clusters of the vine, because then he began to reveal to the faithful, and especially to St. Luke, who wrote them in the Gospel, the mysteries of conception, nativity, passion, and the other mysteries of Christ's life, especially the secret ones, and known to him alone, as accomplished in him or by him; then likewise he began openly to offer to sinners and the afflicted fleeing to him the wine of penance, consolation, grace and holy exultation. "And the smell of thy mouth like apples," which in his words was not only holy delight with sweet wholesomeness, but also vital refreshment, which indeed the primitive Church receiving from his mouth, and full of salutary sweetness, transmitted both in words and in writings to posterity: this smell therefore of his was spread throughout all the ends of the earth, and through all the ages of time. Thus William. Honorius adds: "The vineyard, from which the cluster was brought, was the flowery body of Mary; which cluster was pressed in the winepress of the cross: and thence flowed the drink of the faithful."
Rupert, with others, holding these to be the words of the bridegroom, says that Christ signified to his mother that he was going to his passion: for thus he introduces Christ speaking: "For if I said to my friends themselves, Matt. XX, 18: Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered to be crucified, and other things pertaining to this sense: nay, if I said even to my enemies, John cap. XII, 32: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself; how much more did I say to my most dear mother, or ought to have said, Cant. VII, 8 and 9: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof, and thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy mouth like apples: thy throat like the best wine. This was to say: I shall be exalted upon the victorious cross, and dying a fruitful death I shall work speedily the salvation of all who believe: and then thy doctrine, the doctrine of the law and of the gospel, shall be openly preached in due time, as in autumn sweet clusters are eaten; and the good odor of thy good works shall be spread everywhere, and thy speech shall be most sweet and delightful to me."
7:9
THY THROAT IS LIKE THE BEST WINE (Zurich version, flowing with most excellent wine), WORTHY FOR MY BELOVED TO DRINK, AND FOR HIS LIPS AND TEETH TO RUMINATE UPON. — Hebrew, thy palate (O spouse Synagogue, for the affixed pronoun in חכך chichech, signifying thine, is feminine) is like good wine (by eminence, that is, the best) which goes to my beloved in rectitudes (that is, straight and smoothly enters his mouth, as Our translator renders it, Prov. XXIII, 31. Pagninus translates, on account of the goodness of the wine; Symmachus, befitting my beloved in rectitude; Arabic, which my beloved goes to in rectitude; Zurich, which renders it suitable to my loves for those things which are most right) speaking or sounding on the lips of those sleeping; or as Pagninus, causing the lips of those sleeping to speak or murmur. Agathius, causing the lips of the old to speak: for excellent wine after drinking returns to the mouth and lips, and causes them to ruminate, murmur and speak, according to that: What goblets of fertile wine have not made eloquent? Thus the Sicilians, says Nigidius Siculus here, call the best wine the wine of the dead, which namely almost raises the dead and causes them to speak; hence Our translator renders it, to ruminate upon, according to that of the wine-drinkers: Good wine is not to be drunk, but to be chewed; the Septuagint, sufficient for the lips; Vatable, and thy palate is like wine, which flows most sweetly to my beloved speaking the speech of those sleeping, that is the speech of those stammering and imperfect, as if to say, Thy speech is as sweet, O spouse, as the best wine is wont to be sweet to my friend, by whom when drunk, he is not accustomed to speak with sufficient readiness. Thus Vatable. Our translator, the Septuagint and Aquila add, and teeth, because for ישנים iescenim or iescanim, that is of those sleeping or of the old, they read ושנים vescinnaim, that is and of teeth. Following this the Syriac translator renders, thy mouth is like good wine, that I may go to my cousin in rectitude, who moves my lips and my teeth; for instead of שפתי siphte, that is lips, the Septuagint and Syriac with other pointing read שפתי sephatai, that is my lips.
The Synagogue, converted to Christ, shall exhale from her throat the best wine, when through Elias inflamed with wine of Christian doctrine and charity, and as if drunk shall eruct it; when namely through her discourses and burning sermons she shall inflame all neighbors with love of Christ, which wine shall be worthy, pleasing and delightful to Christ for ruminating upon and more frequently commemorating; whence Cosmas of Damascus introduces the chorus of daughters, or young maidens of the Synagogue, thus speaking to her mistress: Grant, we pray, that we may sometimes kiss thee, and drink from thy throat the most hidden mysteries of divinity, which generous and best wine exhilarates the heart of the spiritual man, inebriates without fault, and renders Christian virgin souls succulent and most sober, so that now no one shall find fault with thee (as once they did) that, while thou givest a kiss, thou offerest wine. But that wine was first poured into thee by thy bridegroom, now most dear to me, and from thy throat as from some channel, when thou pourest it forth to others in teaching, the loves of Christ return to him as to their first origin: which he drinks with the greatest pleasure, and turns over in his mouth. Yea, and this very wine is that which renders old men otherwise infants and idiots eloquent and eloquent speakers, namely kindled and refreshed by heavenly heat.
Cato, as Plutarch testifies, was accustomed to kiss his wife, daughters and granddaughters, so that from their mouth and vinous breath he might smell whether they had drunk wine, and he would chastise the wine-bibbers, just as St. Monica when younger was called by her handmaids a wine-bibber and was chastised, as St. Augustine testifies, lib. IX of the Confessions, and corrected and cut off her appetite for wine. But the pious hang upon the mouth of the saints, who drunk with the spiritual must of divine love eruct the mighty works of God, so that they might draw a like spirit of the doxology of God: as happened to the Jews hearing the apostles, resounding Christ after receiving the Holy Spirit, Acts II, 15. For this must is most pleasing to Christ for drinking and ruminating upon; whence Bede and Honorius: The throat of the soul, they say, is the voice of its praise and confession, which is like the best wine, because it does not puff up by inebriating, but gladdens the heart by refreshing; and William: "In the throat, he says, is the office of voice; but the inner man also has his spiritual throat, by which often within he is clamorous in praise of God, with no bodily sound resounding without; whence the Prophet concerning the saints praising God, Psalm CXLIX, 6: Exultations, he says, of God in their throat. Moreover wine is both pleasant in taste and comely in color; when therefore we fulfill that form which the Prophet prescribes to us, Psalm CXLVI, 1: To our God, he says, let there be pleasant and comely praise, then our throat is like wine. Surely the pleasantness of praise consists in the cheerfulness of devotion. Whoever therefore praises God cheerfully and devoutly, without doubt praises him pleasantly, etc.; but whoever exhibits to God with purity of conversation the cheerfulness of holy and pious devotion, has in his throat pleasant and comely praise, such as truly befits God."
First, the throat of the Blessed Virgin is like the best wine, because it utters nothing but the praises of God, as when she sang, Luke I, 46: "My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour," etc.; whence William introduces her speaking thus: "Truly in the praises of my beloved my throat is like the best wine: for as much as I love, so much do I also praise, and in proportion to the measure of my love is the manner of my praise;" and this both in adversities and in prosperities, and especially when she stood at the cross of Christ: for then, resigned into the hands of God, she admired His immense love toward men and the obedience of Christ and praised Him. Second, Honorius: The throat, he says, is the doctrine of the Virgin, by which she taught by word and example that God exalts the humble and humbles the proud, according to that which she herself says, Luke I, 51: "He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." This doctrine is indeed the best and most excellent. Third, Hailgrinus understands by the throat the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, which are like the best wine, because she asks for nothing except what is pious, holy, and worthy of God; whence her son not only drinks of them, that is eagerly imbibes them, but also ruminates upon them, that is dwells upon them and delights in them. Hear Christ the Lord mystically describing the mouth and throat of the Blessed Virgin to St. Bridget, Book IX of the Revelations, at the end of question 9: "Thy mouth was as a lamp burning within and shining without, because the words and affections of thy soul were burning inwardly with divine love, and shining outwardly from the praiseworthy disposition of thy bodily movements and the most beautiful harmony of thy virtues. Truly, dearest mother, the word of thy mouth drew My Divinity to thee in a certain way, and the fervor of divine sweetness in thee shall never separate Me from thee, because thy words are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb," Psalm XVIII, 11.
7:10
Pagninus: his desire; Vatablus: I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me; that is to say, I love the bridegroom, and he in turn loves me uniquely: I am wholly his, he in turn is wholly mine; I have wholly devoted myself to his service, he in turn has turned his eyes, his care, his love and his offices toward me, and looks to what I wish or desire, and forthwith accomplishes it, so that he may comply with my wishes and desires: wherefore he seems to have given himself wholly to my power and will. For this is what the Hebrew תשוקתו teschukatteh signifies, Genesis III, 16, which our translator renders as "power," saying, "thou shalt be under thy husband's power," for which Aben-Ezra renders it, "and thy obedience shall be to thy husband." Moreover the Chaldean renders it: "Jerusalem said: At all times when I walk in the way of the Ruler of the world, He causes His majesty to dwell in the midst of me, and His desire is toward me, and at the time when I turn aside from His ways, He takes His majesty from me, and transfers me among the peoples, and they rule over me, as a man who rules over his wife."
It is the voice of the Synagogue converted to Christ, which responds to the love of Christ the bridegroom equally as to the praises of the young maidens, and repays love with love, and declares herself to be wholly the beloved's, that is to say, I am wholly the beloved's, as he in turn is wholly mine; I turn my eyes, mind and all my acts toward him, I direct all my thoughts and intentions toward him, I strive to please him alone and to satisfy him; I look to him alone, so that I may serve him in all things, as he in turn looks to me alone, so that he may comply with my comforts and wishes; I hang upon his word and nod, as he in turn observes my nods, mouth and wishes. Again, more effectively, "and" can be taken causally for "because," that is to say, I turn myself wholly to my beloved, and, that is because he also is wholly turned toward me: wherefore I have cast aside all hindrances and impediments to love. Aristotle gives a similar example, Ethics II: The bride, he says, looks to the bridegroom and desires him, as the parched earth looks to the sky and thirsts for its rain; and conversely the sky looks to the earth and desires to communicate its rain and influence to it, so as to make it fertile and productive of shoots and fruits. Hear Theodoret: "I have consecrated myself to my brother, and I have despised the custom of the gentiles, the Jews, and the heretics; for he also has preferred me to others, and has turned himself toward me. For when formerly he had nowhere to lay his head, now he has found a place to lay it; and although he has many concubines, and queens, and young maidens, he prefers me to all. Nor shall I allow myself alone to enjoy his sacred custom, therefore I say: Come, etc. Symbolically Cassiodorus understands by the turning the Incarnation: for in that the Word turned Himself to human nature, and ran to it from the height of the heavens: for the Hebrew תשוקה tescuka signifies a running forth; but this is alien and remote from the letter: for at the beginning of the Song he dealt with the Incarnation, but here toward the end of the Song he deals with the end and consummation of the Church.
A soul which devotes itself entirely to Christ, such as that of religious, truly says: "I to my beloved, and to me his turning," as St. Gregory says: "Because by faith and love I cleave to Christ alone, I follow him alone, I desire to see him alone with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one God, and joyfully proclaiming the sweetness of his regard, the kindness of his visitation, and the sweetness of his conversation which I experience." The symbol of this matter is the herb or flower which is called heliotropium, that is, a turning toward the sun; for just as this flower turns itself with the sun (even on a cloudy day) and revolves with it at all hours, so the soul loving Christ looks upon him continually, that it may always be with him, and turning itself through the mysteries of his life and passion, which the Church represents in turn throughout the whole year, it fixes all its thought, will and love perpetually upon him. Moreover, just as the sun turns this flower about with its rays and converts it to itself, so Christ is the first author of the soul's turning to himself: for by his grace he draws the soul to himself, soothes it, entices it, so that it may joyfully hang upon his breasts as it were of a mother. St. Ambrose notes, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter VIII, that this saying is repeated three times in the Song, according to three degrees and states of the soul: for a holy soul is first beginning, second advancing, third perfect. To the beginning soul it is said, chapter II, verse 16: "My beloved to me, and I to him, who feedeth among the lilies, until the day break, and the shadows decline." To the advancing soul it is said, chapter VI, verse 2: "I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies." Third, to the perfect soul it is said here: "I to my beloved, and to me his turning." "In the first, says St. Ambrose, as it were in instruction the soul still sees shadows, not yet moved by the revelation of the approaching word, and therefore the day of the gospel still shone upon it. In the second without the confusion of shadows it gathers pious odors. In the third now perfect it provides rest in itself for the word, that he may turn upon her, and lay down and rest his head, and deservedly now holding him whom before she could not find when sought, she invites him to her field saying, Song, chapter VII, 11: Come, my brother, let us go forth into the field, let us rest in the villages." Justus adds: "To me his turning," namely that he may hear my prayers, and that he may reward my good works and merits, and recompense them in heaven, says Philo. Thus in the Life of St. Brigid we read that Christ appearing to her said: "Be my spouse:" to which she immediately assenting, turned away from the world, wholly converted to Christ, changed her habit and her life: and from that time for 28 years she enjoyed heavenly conversations and had many revelations of the profound mysteries of God, which still exist and have been approved by many distinguished theologians with great praise of wisdom and piety. Thus also concerning Blessed Teresa our Francis Ribera writes, a noble interpreter of Holy Scripture, in book V of her Life, chapter X, that the divine majesty often said to her with great sign of love: "Now you are mine, and I am yours." And another time: "From now on you will be my spouse, henceforth you will regard my honor, not only as your creator, and your king, and your God, but as your true spouse. Henceforth my honor will be yours, and your honor will be mine." And again: "Because you are betrothed to me, hence whatever I have is yours, and therefore I give to you all the sorrows and labors which I endured, and through them as through your own property, ask from the Father what you will." Anagogically Philo interprets the turning of Christ as his return to judgment: "I, he says, will serve the Son of God, and he will abundantly reward me, when in that second advent he shall descend from heaven as judge to sit and examine all, gathering all mortals from the four corners of the earth through the light and office of angels. But we must first be converted to him, and he to us, as it is written, Psalm CXIV, 7: Turn to me, daughter, etc. And elsewhere, Zechariah I, 3: Turn to me, and I will turn to you. But he himself must first draw us, he himself must first offer himself to us: then indeed we shall turn to him and be healed, according to that, Jeremiah XVII, 14: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved, etc.
First, Honorius aptly attributes these words to the Blessed Virgin praying to her Son for the conversion of the Jews, according to the genuine sense of the letter: "I," says he, "have poured out prayers to my beloved for you, and his turning to me," that is, through me he wished you to be turned to mercy. Second, William adapts this to the Blessed Virgin standing by Christ crucified: "Indeed," says he, "I was dying with my beloved through maternal affection, so that his martyrdom would overflow into me and would make me as it were a co-martyr. I then to my beloved, to declare the measure of my love for him, and his turning to me then took place to declare his filial charity: for how much he loved me he showed most clearly in that very moment of passion, when seeing me, his pious mother, and the disciple standing whom he loved, he turned to me from the cross and said to me, John XIX, 26: Woman, behold thy son; and to the disciple: Behold thy mother. Indeed that turning of his to me in such great bitterness of true sorrows, both filial and showing a filial spirit in me, declared most remarkably." See the sayings at chapter II, verse 16, and chapter VI, verse 2.
7:11
The Hebrew and Syriac: let us lodge in the villages; the Arabic: thou shalt go forth and lodge in the villages. The Sulamitess, or the new Synagogue, the bride of Christ, recalls her bridegroom, whom she has now found and who is departing from the field toward the city, back to the field, namely to some rural place of her own, so that there more secretly, familiarly and fully she might converse and dwell with him. Moreover the Chaldean translates: "When the people of the house of Israel sinned, the Lord caused them to be carried away into the land of Seir, the region of Idumaea. The assembly of Israel said: I beseech thee, O Lord of all ages, receive my prayer: I am before thee in the cities of my captivity and in the provinces of the peoples."
The Synagogue at the end of the world, to be converted to Christ, will beseech him to go forth with her into the fields and villages, both so that, removed from urban noise and crowds, she might be free for prayer and conversation with him, and so that through his aid and grace she might convert rustic and rural people and others dwelling outside Jerusalem in villages and hamlets to the faith of Christ: thus Honorius, Delrio, Hortolanus and others. Thus Christ, while he lived, went about villages and towns, preaching the kingdom of God: for rustics, as being of simple, rude and innocent life, are more apt for the Gospel; whence Christ says, Matthew XI, 5: "The poor have the Gospel preached to them." And Isaiah, chapter XLIII, verse 20: "The beasts of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen. This people I have formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise." Therefore the Holy Spirit teaches here that rustics, the vile, and the common people are not to be neglected, but that catechists and preachers ought to preach the word of God to them as well as to citizens and nobles, indeed to those, as being more unlearned, it is necessary to remain longer in teaching, until they grasp and imbibe the doctrine and precepts of Christian life: this is signified by let us lodge. Thus Theodoret and three Anonymous writers, and St. Ambrose, On Isaac, chapter VIII, whom hear: "Above he was inviting to the garden, here to the field having not only the grace of flowers, but also wheat and barley, that is the solid fruits of virtues, so that he might see its fruit. But the reason why he wished to go out with her into the field is manifest, so that as a good shepherd he might feed his flock, relieve the weary, recall those who err. Therefore as a perfect soul not for herself but for others intervenes, so that she might go forth from the bosom of the Father, so that she might proceed forth as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber runs his course, so that he might gain the weak." But in book III On Virginity: "Hear," says he, "what the most holy Church says, Canticles VII, 11: Come, my brother, let us go forth into the field, let us rest in the villages." Hear also Hugh of St. Victor, Institutes of Monasticism, On the Cloister of the Soul, VII: "The soul goes forth," says he, "from contemplation to circumspection of itself; it goes forth from care of itself to the care of the neighbor, so that it might console the faint-hearted, correct the restless, so that it might become a field of virtues, which before had been of thorns and briers. Let us lodge in the villages, that is in those who are villagers, that is rude and slow to perceive the teachings of the court of Christ." Rupert has the same. Symbolically St. Gregory, by the going forth of Christ into the villages, understands his going forth from heaven to the earth through the Incarnation: "The field," says he, "according to the testimony of truth, Matthew XIII, 28, is this world; but the bridegroom goes forth into the field with the bride when the Word of God, having taken flesh, is shown to the world in the chamber of the Virgin. He lodges in the villages when he visits the nations through faith, which he bestows on those who receive it." For this reason Christ wished to be born not in a city but in the country, namely in the Bethlehem suburb, as it were a rustic boy: in imitation of which St. Jerome, St. Paula, St. Eustochium, and a great part of Roman nobility wished to live and spend their life there. Whence St. Jerome: "To me," says he, "a city is a prison, solitude is paradise."
A holy soul loves fields, that is, solitude, so that in it it may be more freely devoted to prayer and contemplation; so that from it it may conceive the ardor and zeal of preaching even to rustics, the unlearned and the poor, which Christ showed: thus Honorius, Delrio and others. Whence our Alcazar understands by fields and villages foreign regions, such as Japan, China, and Chinalo, into which apostolic religious desire to go forth, so that they may convert abandoned peoples and barbarians to Christ, because they know this to be most pleasing to Christ. Hear Cassiodorus: "Now," he says, "by the mystery of the Ascension, thou hast lifted up the assumed man to the heavens; but come, by the presence of divine majesty visiting me more often, let us go forth into the field of this world: let us preach the faith of thy incarnation to the world: let us dwell in villages and hamlets, announcing thy faith even to the pagans themselves." Cassiodorus adds: "No one is ignorant that pagans are called from villa, because πάγος in Greek, villa is said in Latin; hence pagans are called, because they are far from the city of God:" although others give a different etymology for pagans; hence also symbolically Philo: Christ the Bridegroom, he says, spent the night in villages, when in the rustic minds of the Jews, hard and obstinate souls, and most stubborn and savage hearts, he was a stranger even unto the night of death, unseen and hated. You would better understand these things of Jews already converted to Christ, and to be converted at the end of the world. Anagogically St. Ambrose, in the oration On the Death of Valentinian, understands these things of the departure of the soul from the body, and migration to heaven: "Thou hast come," he says, "to where the fruits of diverse virtues are brought according to the merits of each, where the rewards of merits abound. Let us go forth therefore into the field, in which labor is not empty, but the yield of graces is fruitful. What thou hast sown on earth, reap here: what thou hast scattered there, gather here. Or certainly come into that field, which is the odor of Jacob, that is, come into the bosom of Jacob, so that just as Lazarus the poor man in the bosom of Abraham, so also thou mayest rest in the tranquility of Jacob the patriarch: for the bosom of the patriarchs is a certain retreat of eternal rest. Let us rest in strongholds, where rest is safer, which fortified and surrounded by the enclosure of heavenly refuge is not disturbed by the incursions of worldly beasts." Thus also Honorius.
These words are most aptly applied to the Blessed Virgin, who, burning with the most ardent zeal for souls, earnestly desires and procures the salvation of all men, even the rustic and lowly, and therefore stirs up apostolic men who might preach to them and show them the way of salvation; William, however, understands these things of the Blessed Virgin urging the apostles that, after Stephen had been slain by the Jews, they should depart from them as from the faithless and those resisting the Gospel, into the villages of the Gentiles, and announce Christ to them. Rupertus holds the same view.
7:12
Let us rise in the morning (that we may go) to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard hath flourished, if the flowers bring forth fruit, if the pomegranates have flourished (Aquila, that is, have opened: for the flowers of the pomegranates open themselves): there will I give thee my breasts. — Vatablus, there I will pour forth my love toward thee. For "if the flowers bring forth fruit," the Septuagint translates, "if the shoot hath flourished"; Philo, "if the cypress hath flourished": for he himself read κύπρος, that is, cypress, in place of κυπρισμός, that is, shoot; Pagninus, "if the small grape hath opened itself"; Vatablus, "fresh or small grape": for in Hebrew it is סמדר semadar, concerning which I have spoken in chapter II, verses 13 and 15. For "pomegranates," the Arabic version translates "mountains": he alludes to the custom of Solomon, who, in order to draw his mind away from the cares of the city and kingdom, would set out in the morning to the countryside and vineyards. "In a chariot," says Josephus, book VIII of the Antiquities, chapter VII, "he delighted to be carried in the morning to an estate named Hetan, pleasant with gardens and artificial fountains": for indeed in the morning gardens and vineyards are most pleasant.
This is the voice of the ancient bride, namely the Church of the Gentiles, who congratulates the new bride, namely the Synagogue of the Jews, recently converted (that is, to be converted by Elijah), and approves her counsel: indeed she exhorts and invites the Bridegroom Christ to gratify the wishes of her sister the new bride. Or rather the Church here joins her voice with the Synagogue, and both together now united, and made one bride, namely the Church, beseech Christ the Bridegroom to go with them into the villages and vineyards, so that they may lead back to Christ with unanimous consent the remnants of Jews and Gentiles either seduced or struck down by the Antichrist, especially after the Antichrist has been killed and slain: for then his deceits and falsehoods and vain hopes will be uncovered; then likewise his fear and persecution will cease: wherefore it will then be easy to recall to Christ those seduced or terrified by him: and therefore God after the death of the Antichrist will grant to the fallen some time for repentance, and will defer the day of judgment, as I said on Daniel XII, 12. He says therefore: Let us rise up early to the vineyards, that is, let us visit the particular Churches. Let us see if the vineyard has flourished, that is, if the Church of Jerusalem and Judea, which is most dear to the Synagogue, flourishes in the faith of Christ. If the flowers bring forth fruit, that is, if the good seeds of Christ and salvation, which my preachers have cast into the Jews and Gentiles, and have as it were sown in their minds, and which have burst forth into flowers of good desires; if, I say, these seeds bring forth fruit of good and efficacious operation. If the pomegranates have flourished, that is, the desires, fruits and works of charity and martyrdom, says Angelomus. There will I give thee my breasts, namely the breasts of holy doctrine will I give to thee, O my beloved, not to be sucked as by a son, but to be embraced as by a bridegroom, and to be given to thy faithful, Jews and Gentiles, so that they may suck them, and be nourished by them in faith and Christian piety: thus St. Gregory, Philo, Justus and others understand these things of the Church inviting Christ to visit her particular Churches. Again I will give thee my breasts, that is, my heart and my loves, as Vatablus translates it. See what I have said concerning breasts, cap. I, vers. 1. Moreover, Honorius understands these things particularly of the Churches of the Jews to be visited at the end of the world: "The night, he says, was the time of the persecution of the Antichrist: but the morning is the time of peace after his death; in the morning therefore the bridegroom and bride rise up to the vineyards, who as it were slept in the night, while after the death of the Antichrist they raise themselves up to make Churches, or renew those destroyed under him, or gather together those scattered, which they saw destroyed under him, but as sleeping did not resist. But now he says: Let us see if it has flourished, etc. Through preachers let us make them see, if the vineyard namely the Synagogue has flourished in faith, so that they may imitate it, if those flourishing in faith perform the works of faith, so that they may imitate them; if imitators of martyrs flourish in patience, so that they may imitate them. In that field I will bring forth to thy honor all the doctrine of both laws, which are my breasts; so that the rude in faith may suck from thence the milk of doctrine."
Morning, says Philo, is when preventing grace is present, by which the soul is called from the darkness of ignorance of God and blindness of mind, and from the night of sins into the admirable light of religion and piety; then the vineyards and trees, that is, the habits of virtues, produce their flowers and fruits of holy operations. Angelomus understands by the flower of the vineyard the faith of the heart, by the fruits the confession of the mouth, by the pomegranates the shedding of blood for faith. Anagogically Honorius: "Morning, he says, the Church rises up to the vineyards, while she raises herself up to the heavenly Churches. For the whole time of this age is as it were night in comparison with the future age. But the day of judgment is as it were the morning of the eternal day, which is better than thousands of years; or the life of each man is as it were night, but the morning is the future life: in which morning each faithful one rises up to the vineyards, while after death he arrives at the heavenly Churches. There he sees the flowers of the vineyard, the fruits of the flowers, and the flowers of the pomegranates, that is, the rewards of the faithful and the gifts, which will be given to those working well, and the reward, which will be recompensed to the martyrs. There the Church will give her breasts to Christ, because the doctors of both laws will represent themselves in eternal glory."
The Blessed Virgin visits the Churches and will visit them at the end of the world, so that they may bring forth the fruit of virtues: "The vineyard flourishes, that is the Church," says William, "in those beginning: its flowers bring forth fruit in those making progress. But it is yours to see both, that is to approve in your good pleasure, but much more the flowers of pomegranates, that is the glory and devotion of martyrs on account of you reddened with their own blood. There I will give you my breasts, that is, in the Church of the Gentiles I will give you what I once gave you in the Church of the Jews, my breasts. Truly among the Jews I gave you bodily breasts to feed you: but in the Church of the Gentiles I will give you my spiritual breasts to feed your own: for I will feed your little ones spiritually with the milk of maternal piety; once I fed with bodily milk on account of the truth of the flesh. Finally, because I am to you a bodily mother, I will be your spiritual mother, bringing forth as it were your own children with maternal charity, until you are more fully formed in them, nourishing them there with maternal care, until you grow in them even to a perfect man. But I will do all this, commending them to you continually, and obtaining for them by pious prayers to you the increase of graces."
7:13
THE MANDRAKES HAVE GIVEN A SMELL. IN OUR GATES ARE ALL FRUITS (the Septuagint, nuts; Philo, fruit-bearing shrubs; in Hebrew it is מגדים megadim, that is delights, beloved things, delicate things, such as choice fruits): THE NEW AND THE OLD, MY BELOVED, I HAVE KEPT FOR THEE. — Hebrew, I have hidden for you: thus Aquila and Symmachus. Some refer "in our gates" to mandrakes, better others to the fruits which follow; whence the Arabic, all the fruits of trees standing at our doors. For mandrake, as Our [translator] rendered it, the Septuagint, Aquila, the Chaldean, Aben-Ezra, Vatablus, Pagninus and others [render it]; in Hebrew it is דודאים dudaim, which word alludes to dodim and daddim, that is breasts, because mandrakes have the appearance of breasts: wherefore Sixtus Senensis, lib. V Biblioth. cap. CIX, incorrectly rendered dudaim as lilies; R. Solomon, jasmine; others, form; others, violet: Oleaster in Genesis XXX, 14, thinks it to be a small flower which is called the lily of the valleys. This alludes here to Rachel, who, receiving from Leah the mandrakes which her son Reuben had found in the field, granted him her husband Jacob, Genesis XXX, 14: see what is said there. Hence the mandrake has the power of conciliating love, and therefore [is called] Circe's
Mandrakes with their fruits are beautiful and rare to behold in spring, fragrant to the sense of smell, insipid to the taste, as St. Augustine says, book XXII Against Faustus, chapter XXXVI; but in Judaea, as they say, they are savory, sleep-inducing to the head, they have the power of cooling, and have a certain form in the root resembling the human body, except for the head; whence Pythagoras called the mandrake anthropomorphon, that is, resembling man: see Dioscorides, book IV, chapter LXXI, and Galen, book VII of Simple Medicines. The mandrakes therefore signify the multitude of Jews and gentiles whose head was Antichrist, which, after his death, will remain acephalous, that is, without a head, but lulled to sleep in their perfidy and sins; at the voice of preachers it will awake, and will exhale the sweet odor of faith and piety. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Behold for you, O Christ the bridegroom, the odor of mandrakes, whose coldness hitherto was harmful, and whose odor was heavy, which were themselves barren, and as if bereft of life lulled in the sleep of death, and presented rather the image of a human tomb than of a true man, and besides this mutilated form possessed nothing of man. Let us read them, they have ripened: I have determined to gather them for you alone, and to eat with you: meanwhile eat the fruits which I have set aside for you in my heart, and I have kept at hand every kind of fruits both of this year and of years past, stored up for your delights. These are at the gates, that is, at the very entrance of the house and at the very approach, ready at hand. Thus Delrio through new and old signifies the good works of both peoples, namely of gentiles and Jews; or, as Hortolanus, the mysteries of both the New and Old Testament, which are offered to Christ, that is, to Christ's faithful, when they enter through the gate of baptism into his city, namely the Church. Symbolically however, as Cassiodorus, Aponius, Beda, that through Christ and in Christ all those things are fulfilled, and are being fulfilled day by day. Theodoret adds: "The precepts of the Old Testament," he says, "and the commandments of the New Testament, which I received from my mother the grace of the Holy Spirit, I have kept for you, and I have guarded the deposit intact." Thus Christ says, Matthew XIII, 52: "Every scribe learned in the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old," namely mysteries, gifts and works of the evangelical and Mosaic law, as the Fathers explain: thus Aponius, Anselmus, Delrio understand these of Jews and gentiles to be converted at the end of the world. Hear Honorius: "The Shunamite (like Reuben) going forth from the camps found the Mandrake, a royal maiden without a head lying in the field: pitying her greatly and returning to the king, she earnestly beseeches him to go with her, to come to the aid of the wretched one. By the Mandrake is understood the multitude of the unfaithful, whose head was Antichrist, who is the head of all evils; but the head will be cut off, when Antichrist is slain; the Church seeing this one without a head, desires to join her to herself in the faith of Christ and to be exalted with Christ as head: O beloved, whom I love above all, who hast come to me through grace, and hast visited me through the presence of gifts, come now also through grace to the multitude of the unfaithful, and visit them through the presence of charisms, and through preachers let us go forth into the field of the world, and let us scatter through the peoples the seed of the word of God, you inspiring, I preaching and working and teaching; let us tarry long in villages, in the gatherings of hamlets, let us rise early to the vineyards, that is, let us speedily establish Churches." To this is added the Chaldean, who understands these of Jews about to acknowledge their Messiah, namely through Elijah at the end of the world: for these, laboring under the long sleep of ignorance and perfidy, indeed under lethargy for so many centuries, are aptly represented by mandrakes, which bring on sleep, and are therefore given to those who are to be cut or burned, so that they may not feel pain, as Dioscorides testifies, book IV, chapter LXXI. Thus the Chaldean translates: "And when it shall be the will before the face of the Lord to redeem his people from captivity, it shall be said to the King of the Messiah: Now the end of captivity is completed, and the merit of the just is sweet before me, as the odor of balsam, and the wise men of generations established at the gates of the gymnasium apply themselves to the words of the scribes and to the words of the law; now arise, take up the kingdom which I have laid up for you." St. Ambrose assigns another property of mandrakes in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 19, verse 4, namely that some are male and others female, and that these latter are of grave odor, thus Jews and gentiles also stink bodily, but they put away this stench by the water of baptism, as experience shows. Hear St. Ambrose: "Many distinguish a certain sex among mandrakes, so that they think some are male and some female, but the females are of grave odor. It signifies therefore the gentiles, who formerly stank, when they were weaker, emasculated by a certain weakness of infidelity, began to bear fruit of good odor, after they believed in the coming of the Lord." Finally, mandrakes, because they induce cold, torpor, tardiness and sleep, denote the slow, negligent and sleepy: for these are said in common speech to have drunk mandrake or hellebore; wherefore when these by the grace of God shake off sleep, they are said to be mandrakes as it were awakened after the sleep of winter in spring, giving forth their odor. Aptly therefore is this here attributed to Jews and gentiles slowly and late, namely at the end of the world, to be converted: for these will break through the long delays of their tardiness and sleep, and will give forth the sweet and sharp odor and fragrance of diligence and fervor; whence he adds: "All apples new and old have I kept for thee:" for the old are the old Christians, the new are the new, namely the old Jews to be renewed through Elias, and at the end of the world to be converted to Christ. Finally, some think that by new things are here denoted the new world, namely America, discovered by Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus, and its conversion to Christ: for this new world containing Peruvians, Mexicans, Brazilians, Chileans, etc., is half of the whole world, as is evident from the cosmographic globe: wherefore it itself is in the gates, that is in the limits and ends of the earth once known: for plainly 140 years ago it was unknown, nor had it heard anything of Christ up to that time; now however through the religious of St. Dominic, St. Francis and the Society of Jesus, almost all of it is subject to the Church: thus in the East Indies in this century and the preceding one the faith is wonderfully propagated by the same through the Japanese, where many strive for the faith even unto the martyrdoms of slow fires, among the Chinese, the people of Macao, the Ceylonese. Indeed Thomas Bozius, vol. I, mark 20, dares to assert that one Francis Xavier accumulated more for the Church among the Indians than Luther and all the North took away. Ethiopia, or that vast empire of Prester John with its emperor and nobles, through the Society of Jesus submitted itself to the Roman Church, and received from it a patriarch in the year of the Lord 1628.
The mandrake gives odor, when the soul previously torpid, tardy, sleepy, awakening through the grace of God, lively and fervent, exhales a good reputation of virtues by working; whence St. Augustine, book XXII Against Faustus, chapter LVI, says that through the odor of the mandrake is represented the good reputation of the saints. The same induces sleep, when the soul, forgetting earthly things, as if sleeping in them, thinks of, meditates upon and desires heavenly things: thus Theodoret. The same procures fruitfulness, says Cassiodorus and Rupert, when the soul applies itself to the actions of charity, patience, humility, obedience and other virtues. The same purges melancholy and phlegm, removes nausea, puts to sleep sadnesses and pains, in various ways— the mandrakes in the gates will give odor, which in death, which is the gate of life, will give their opinion to the living, while they shine forth in miracles on earth, whose souls live in the heavens; which mandrakes formerly were, when they lost the devil the head of all evils, and put on Christ the head of all goods or the just, and now as mandrakes are medicine for many diseases. There all apples, new and old, the beloved spouse has kept, because all the works of the saints of the old law and all the works of the just of the new law, the heavenly Church will present to Christ to be recompensed.
The mandrakes that induce sleep are a symbol of contemplation, which lulls the mind away from earthly cares and things, so that it may enjoy God entirely; and therefore by the mystics it is called rest, or sleep, concerning which I have spoken in chapter II, verse 5 and following. In this the Blessed Virgin excelled, and in it she offered all new and old fruits, that is, all her past and present acts, to Christ her beloved. Likewise, "new and old," that is, all acts done according to the precept of the new and old law (for the Blessed Virgin observed exactly the precepts of both), she dedicated to Christ. Again, she herself offers to God all the saints both of the New and Old Testament, and at the end of the world will offer the Jews and gentiles through Elijah and Enoch, to be converted, and all their gifts, graces and virtues. William adds that the mandrakes gave their fragrance to Christ and the Virgin, when the divinity of Christ became known to the world through the preaching and miracles of the apostles: for then likewise from her became known to the world the virginity, dignity and majesty of the Mother of God. To these things, that she preserved all new and old fruits for Christ, when she kept in her heart the mysteries of the divinity and humanity of Christ, which she herself had seen, and in her time revealed them to Christians for their salvation and the glory of Christ: "For that thou wast conceived without corruption and brought forth, that thou wast preached by angels, that thou wast designated by a star, that thou wast smelled with mystical gifts by the Magi, and such things were indeed new, and declared thy divinity. But that thou wast born a little child, that thou wast wrapped in swaddling clothes, that thou wast nourished with milk, and such things were old, because they were of the oldness of the flesh, and these prove the truth of human substance in thee. But I kept all these things, comparing them in my heart, comparing indeed new things with old, and old with new, and both being compared together, proving thee God and man at the same time, I kept all these words, and thus all new and old fruits, my beloved, I kept for thee to be offered in their time, and to be expended upon thine own." Again, by new and old fruits is signified the gift of perseverance, by which we make all our acts holy even to the end of life, and dedicate them to Christ: for this is a great, indeed the greatest gift of Christ: moreover the Blessed Lawrence Justinian, in book II on the Destruction of the Spiritual Soul, before the end: "Old fruits," he says, "he calls habits, but new ones the acts of virtues, by which we ascend to perfection. These without doubt were figured by that ladder, which St. Jacob beheld in his sleep." Finally, Philo of Carpathus understands by mandrakes doctors, "because," he says, "while they carefully search the holy Scriptures, and from them prepare for the children of the Church a good and sweetly-smelling fruit and feed them, they spread abroad the most sweet odor and fruit of true faith. But by gates are signified the powers of the soul and the parts and members of the human body, such as ears, mouth and eyes, through the access of which all the merits of life and death enter, according to the purpose and will of him who uses the service of the body and the command of the mind: By the eyes are recognized the signs of modesty and chastity; by the ears, of honesty and propriety; by the mouth, of gravity and temperance for the observance of the commandments, easily are they recognized. Wherefore if we truly fear and love God, we look upon modest and honest things with our eyes; we perceive with our ears things that are salutary and the best. With our mouth we speak holy and necessary things, shameful things are shut out from our eyes, obscene things we close our ears to, vain and harmful things we keep silent about." Anagogically Honorius: "In the final," he says, "judgment...
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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.