Sermons on the Song of Songs23 Sermon XXIII. Of three ways of contemplating God, represented under the figure of three storerooms

"" HE King hath brought me into His storerooms (Cant. i. 3, Douay). Lo, here is the source of fragrance; here is the point towards which we run. The Bride had said that we must press forward, and in what strength; but whither our course was to be directed, she had not said. Now, then, she declares that it is towards the Lord's storerooms, and in the strength of the fragrance which is exhaled from them. This she presses with her characteristic eagerness, and desires to be introduced into His fulness. But, in the first place, what is to be understood by these storehouses? Let us, to begin with, imagine that in the dwelling of the Bridegroom THREE WAYS OF CONTEMPLATING GOD T3I there are chambers fragrant with perfumes, and filled with all kinds of delights. It is in these that, as in a treasury, is stored and kept in reserve whatever is most rare and valuable of the products of garden and of field. Hither, then, do all those who run direct their steps; but who are they that run? These are the souls who are fervent in the Spirit, the Bride, the maidens in her train; but she whose love is most ardent runs more swiftly, and arrives sooner. When she arrives, she suffers no repulse, and not even any delay. Forthwith the portals are opened to her, as to an inmate of the house, as to one greatly beloved, who is specially dear and welcome. But what as to her maidens? They follow afar off; they are still weak; they cannot press forward with devotion equal to that of the Bride; they cannot experience fervour and earnest desire such as hers; therefore they arrive later, and they remain without. But the charity of the Bride does not rest, nor does she pride herself, as is frequently the case, upon her happy successes so as to be forgetful of them. On the contrary, she consoles them the more assiduously, and exhorts them to endure patiently and calmly the repulse they have received, and her absence. Then she declares to them the joy which she has attained, and that for the very reason that they may rejoice with her, in the hope of one day attaining to a share in the graces and blessings of their mother. For she does not so pursue her own [spiritual advantage as to neglect the care of them, nor desires that her benefit should be hurtful or prejudicial to them. However far removed from them she is by superior merits, it is of necessity that her charity and tender care for them keep her with them always. It is her duty, moreover, to follow the example of her Bridegroom, both, on the one hand, in seeking the heavens, and, on the other, in promising to be ever upon earth with His people, even to the consummation of all things. So also the Bride, whatever progress she may make, and whatever advancement she may attain, is prevented by her care, her deep interest and affection for those whom she has begotten in the Gospel, from ever leaving them or forgetting them in the depths of her heart.

2. Let her say, then, to them: Take courage and rejoice. The King has brought me into His storerooms: regard yourselves as having been thereby brought in also. I alone seem to have entered in, but the advantage is not to me alone. Every advancement of mine is virtually yours; it is for you that I make profit; and I share with you the graces which more than you I have deserved. Do you wish for an unquestionable proof that her words are to be taken in this sense and intention? Then listen to the reply which they make: We will be glad and rejoice in thee; we do not deserve to do so in ourselves, but in thee. And they add: We are mindful of thy bosom (Cant. i. 4); that is, we shall endure patiently until 1 Officina: but the earlier sense is a workshop.' This usage is later: e.g., ' Deniquc Cellar 10 cunctisque similibusMonasteriiofficinis laicales pr&fecit personasf etc. * Ratpertus Monachus de Casibus St. Galli,' cap. 6, ap., Du Cange.—Ed.

3. Now, since the context is clear by what I have said above, let us see what is the mystical meaning of the storehouse.' Later on mention is made of the garden also and the chamber, and I take these three for the subject of our present discussion; for when treated together, they throw light mutually on each other. Let us seek, then, if you please, these three words in the Holy Scriptures: the storehouse, the garden, and the chamber. For a soul that is athirst for God willingly occupies itself with, and lingers in, these* knowing that in them it will assuredly find Him whom it thirsts for. let, then, the garden represent the plain and simple historical sense of the Scripture; the storehouse the moral sense of it; and the chamber the secret and mystical truth, reached by Divine contemplation.

4. In the first place, I think that the historic sense is not unfitly referred to the garden, because in the history are found men of many virtues, as it were fruitful trees in the garden of the Bridegroom and 1 Sermon IX.

5. In the Moral sense, secondly, you have a threefold discipline: three cells, as it were, in one storehouse. Therefore it is, perhaps, that they are spoken of in the plural as storerooms (cellaria), in contemplation of this number of cells. A little farther on, the Bride felicitates herself on having been brought into * the cellar of wine' (ii. 4, ' banqueting house,' A.V.). We, then, because we read, ' Give an occasion to a wise man, and he will be wiser' (Prov. ix. 9), take occasion from this name, which the Holy Spirit has thought fit to give to this cell, to give it also to the two others; to call one the cell of perfumes, the other that of unguents. We shall explain presently the reasons for these names. But in the meantime notice that all which surrounds the Bridegroom is sweet, as all is salutary—wine, perfumes, and unguents. Wine, the Scripture declares, maketh glad the heart of man (Ps. civ. 15). We read also that oil maketh his face cheerful {Ibid., Douay), and it is with oil and medicinal powders that ointments or unguents are compounded. Lastly, perfumes are not only agreeable by their odour, but are useful because of their medicinal virtue. It is, then, with good reason that the Bride 6. But I have other names also for them, for which, as I consider, a still greater probability may be shown. To name them in their order, I take the first cell to be that of discipline, the second that of nature, the last that of grace. In the first you learn, following the rule of Christian ethics, to be the last of all; but in the second to be equal to all, and in the last to be superior to all; that is to say, you learn how to act as an inferior, how to act as an equal, and how to act as a superior; or, again, to be below, to be beside, to be above others. In the first you learn to be a disciple, in the second to be a companion, in the third to be a master. Nature has, indeed, made all men equal but that natural order having been corrupted by pride, men have become impatient of that equality, desirous to elevate themselves above others, and full of efforts to do so; greedy of vainglory, envying and provoking one another. Thus, first of all, insolence of character requires to be restrained by the yoke of discipline, until the stubborn will, worn down by observance of the severe and constantly repeated rules of the elders, may be humbled and cured, and regain by its obedience that good of nature which it had lost by the indulgence of pride, until the man shall have learned to possess his soul in patience, and to live peacefully and kindly, as far as in him lies, with his fellow creatures; that is to say, with all men; and that not by fear of punishment, but by the spontaneous impulse of the will. Then he will pass on into the cell of nature, and will make proof of that which is written: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unify I It is like the precious ointment upon the head (Ps. cxxxiii. i, 2). For characters thus disciplined, are, as it were, sweet spices pounded together, from which is composed the oil of joy, which is the good of nature, and a sweet and excellent unguent is produced from it. The man who is, so to speak, anointed with this becomes peaceful and amiable; one who provokes no quarrel, who deceives no one, who attacks no one, who offends no one; who does not set himself above others, or prefer himself to everyone else, but, on the contrary, maintains with those around him a continual interchange of kindnesses given and received.

7. I think that if you have clearly understood the leading characteristics of the two former cells, you will be of opinion that I have not unfitly named the one that of perfumes, the other that of unguents. For in the former, as the forcible pounding of a pestle forces forth and extracts the strength and fragrance of spices, so the pressure of the rule and the rigour of discipline expresses, so to speak, and draws 1 The terseness of the original, subesse, coesse, praeesse, may be admired, but hardly equalled.—Ed.

2 It is curious to find this phrase, which Thomas Jefferson made so famous in his ' Declaration of Independence' [of the United States], written in 1776, employed totidem verbis more than six hundred years earlier.—Ed.

* Cervicosa; not a common word.—Ed.

8. You have seen the reason of the names, see now the different characters of the cells; for it is one thing to repress by fear, and by the rigid rule of discipline, the wanton and wandering senses and the irregular appetites of the flesh, and another to preserve a kindly agreement with brethren by a spontaneous disposition to do so. These differ in difficulty, and, indeed, in the faculties which effect them; and so also to live a regulated life under the authority of another, and to do so with our own will for the only constraining influence, are altogether distinct things. In the same way, no one will declare the living in peace and on good terms with others, and the ruling over them for their benefit to be actions of equal merit and requiring the same powers. How many are there who live in peace under the direction of an intelligent guide, whom, if they were set free from the obligation to obey, you would speedily perceive not to be able to remain even peaceful and harmless to their neighbours? And similarly there are very many who are seen to conduct themselves simply and without offence among their brethren who, if they were set over them, would behave themselves so as to be not only useless, but even unwise and harmful. Such persons ought to content themselves within the bounds of a mediocrity which is advantageous to them, following the measure of the grace which God has bestowed upon them; not having, indeed, any great need of a master, but yet being unfitted to be masters themselves. These, 9. Now let us pass to the bedchamber. What is that chamber? Have I the presumption to think that I know what it is? By no means do I arrogate to myself any experience of so exalted a subject, nor do I boast of a prerogative, which is reserved to the happy Bride alone, being careful, according to that proverb of the Greeks, to * know myself,' and to know, as did the Psalmist [in a similar case], that such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it (Ps. cxxxix. 6). If I had no knowledge whatever, I should say nothing. What little I do know I will not enviously keep back from you what I do not know, may He, who teacheth man 1 C. 3. * Know thyself.' This precept was inscribed in letters of gold over the portico of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It was attributed to Thales, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece; and indeed to Pythagoras, Chilo, Cleobulus, Bias, and Socrates, as well as to Phemonoe, a (mythical) Greek poetess of the ante- Homeric period, said to have been the daughter of Apollo. Juvenal (Sat. XL, verse 27), says:

E caelo descendit yvu>9i acavrbv. See also Cicero, * Tusculan. Disputat.,' I., I, 22, 52.—Ed.

I c- 3.

a There is apparently a reminiscence of 1 Kings xi. 3.

s St. Augustine expresses himself in a similar manner (in Joannem Tract, ix. n. 3) Whether Mary, who anointed our Lord, as we read in several passages of the Gospel, and Mary, the sister of Martha, were the same, or different persons, has been a subject of much controversy among old writers. Jansenius Gandavensis (' ConcordLe Evang.,' c. 48) treats the question with his usual solidity. There are some writers, especially among the Greeks, for example, Origen and Theophylact, who think that there were three distinct women named Mary mentioned in the Gospels. The first was the * woman who was a sinner,' mentioned, but not named, by St. Luke (vii. 37). The second is also mentioned, but not named, by St. Matthew (xxvi. 7), and St. Mark (xiv. 3). The third was the sister of Martha (John xii. 3). St. John Chrysostom, on the contrary (Horn. 81), thinks that there were only two Marys—one who poured the perfume on the Head of Jesus, and that on two different occasions; the other the sister of Martha. St. Jerome again (in Matt, xxvi.) would identify her who poured the perfume on the Head of Jesus with the sister of Martha; and regards her who poured perfume on His feet, in the house of a Pharisee, as a different person; St. Ambrose, in his Commentary on St. Luke, seems of the same opinion. St. Gregory the Great admits only one Mary, and many writers are of his opinion. St. Ambrose {/oc. **/.), though he is not unwilling to believe that these were different persons, writes sometimes as if they appeared to him to be the same, * who was changed through change of time and of character,' so that she who began by being the 'sinner' of the Gospel, in the end became holy. * For although,' he says, 1 the Church does not change the person, as for the soul, it changes as it makes progress towards good.' However that may be, St. Bernard expresses the same doubt in his Sermon XII. in Cantica but in Sermon III. in Assumptiotte, n. 2, he asserts, and that at much length, that she who is referred to in Luke vii. is the same with her of whom mention is made in Matt, xxvi., Mark xiv., and John xii. He speaks thus: * See the prerogative of Mary, and what an advocate she has in every circumstance. If the Pharisee is indignant (Luke vii.), if her sister complains (John xii.), if even the disciples murmur (Matt, xxvi., Mark xiv.), in every case Mary keeps silence, and Christ speaks for her/ 10. Who of us can worthily distinguish between these varieties of merits, or rather of rewards? Nevertheless, that I may not seem to pass over in silence that which is within our knowledge, notice that the former of the women mentioned sought her safety under the shelter of humility; the latter in the seat of hope; St. Thomas in firmness of faith; St. John in breadth of charity; St. Paul in the depth of wisdom; St. Peter in the light of truth. If, then, in the [home of the Bridegroom there are many mansions, each, whether Queen, or friend, and even she who is only of the number of the maidens, finds place and lodgment there proportioned to her merits, and is permitted to remain there until she passes beyond it by inspiring contemplation, enters into the joy of her Lord, and of the sweet secrets of the Bridegroom explores the utmost depths. This I will endeavour to make more clear in its place, as far as the Lord shall vouchsafe to enable me. But now it is sufficient to know that to none, whether of the maidens, or of the friends, or even of the Queens, is access opened to that secret of the inner chamber of the Bridegroom, which He reserves for Her who is His dove, His undefiled, His only and perfect one. On that account I am not troubled or surprised if access to it is not given unto me, especially because it is to my mind quite clear that not even the Bride attains to the knowledge of all the secret things into which she desires to be admitted. For does she not earnestly ask the Bridegroom where He feeds His flock, and where He rests at noon (Cant. i. 6)?

11. But let me tell you to what point I have arrived, or rather that I think I have reached; for you will not impute vanity to that which I say in the hope of serving you. There is, then, in the dwelling of the Bridegroom a chosen spot in which the Sovereign Ruler of the universe decrees His laws and shapes His designs, setting laws in weight, and measure, and number, to all things created. That place is lofty and secret, but it is by no means noiseless. For though He, as far as regards Himself, disposes all things with sweetness, yet He disposes them, and does not permit that one who has reached that point by contemplation should remain in quiescence; but He wearies, and by a course, marvellous and yet delightful, renders full of unrest and lassitude the soul that searches out and admires these deep things. The Bride expresses beautifully, in a later part of this Canticle, each of these feelings, that is, the delight and, at the same time, the inquietude of this contemplation, as where she says: I sleep, but my heart waketh (v. 2). For in speaking of sleep she signifies that she tastes the repose of a trance most sweet, and the stillness of complete admiration; but when of waking, that she endures the weariness of a restless curiosity and laborious research. Thus the holy Job says: When I lie down I say, When shall I arise and the night be gone? (Job vii. 4). Do you not understand by these words that a holy soul desires to escape from a repose which, in a 12. There is still another place, in which the vengeance, most severe and most secret, of God the Judge, just and terrible in His dealings with the children of men, watches ceaselessly over His creatures, gifted with reason, but doomed on account of sin. The awestricken beholder, I repeat, here regards God, who by a just and secret judgment neither washes away the evil actions of those who are reprobate, nor accepts their good actions; and, moreover, He hardens their hearts, lest they should perchance repent and return, and be converted, and He should heal them. Nor is this without a sure and eternal reason, which is manifestly so much the more awful, as it is, in fact, immovable and eternal. That is a very fearful saying upon this subject which we read in the Prophet, where God, speaking to His Angels, says: Let us have pity on the wicked (Is. xxvi. 10). And when they are stricken with terror, and inquire: Will he, then, not learn to do righteousness? No, He replies; and he adds the reason: In the land of righteousness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Let ecclesiastics, let the ministers of the Church, be seized with fear who commit so many wrongs in the lands of the Saints of which they have possession, and who, far from being content with the stipends which ought to suffice for them, keep for themselves, with wicked and sacrilegious greed, the overplus, which ought to go to nourish the poor; who are not ashamed to consume for their own pride and luxury the sustenance of the needy, and thus are guilty of a double crime inasmuch as they seize upon what is not their own, and abuse holy things to the service of their vanities and lusts.

13. Who, then, in seeing that He, whose judgments are like the great deep, spares and pities such persons in this life, in order not to spare them in eternity, will seek rest in this place? This vision is filled with the tremor of judgment, not with the peace and security of the bedchamber of the King. Terrible is that place, and wholly devoid of calm and rest When brought into it, I shudder to the very heart, and revolve in my mind with fear that saying: Who knoweth whether he be worthy of love or of hatred l (Eccles. ix. 1). Nor is it wonderful if I (who am but as a leaf driven to and fro, or as the dry stubble, Job xiii. 25) should totter in that place, where that great man who contemplated with such marvellous insight [the doings of the Creator declares that his feet were almost gone, and his treadings had well nigh slipped, saying: was envious of the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Where- 1 Job vii. 4, Vulg. and Douay.

2 Tremor em, otherwise terror em.

14. Let it not astonish you that I have set down the beginning of wisdom as belonging to this, and not to the earlier place. For as in the earlier we listen to Wisdom teaching of all things as a professor in his lecture-hall, so in this we receive these teachings in ourselves; there we are indeed instructed, but here we are touched and influenced. Instruction renders men learned, but feeling makes them wise. The sun does not render all things warm upon which its light falls, so Wisdom also instructs many persons what they ought to do, without going on to give the earnestness and ardour needful to do it. It is one thing to know of the existence of great treasures, another to possess them; and it is the possession, not the knowledge, which renders a man rich. Similarly, there is a difference between the knowledge of God and the fear of God, and it is not the knowledge, but the fear of Him, which renders a man truly wise, provided it be a fear which makes [a durable impression on the soul. Would you call a person wise whom his own acquirements render vain? It is only the most foolish of persons who would call those wise who, when they had known God, glorified Him not as God, nor rendered thanks to Him. For my part. I am rather of the Apostle opinion, when he says that their heart was manifestly foolish (Rom. i. 21, 22). And truly the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, because the soul begins to have discernment of, and inclination for, God when He has stricken it with fear, not when He has communicated to it knowledge. If you fear the righteousness of God, if you fear His power, then, inasmuch as He is righteous and powerful, you incline to Him with preference and choice; for fear is a kind of preference. It (preference) renders one wise (sapor sapientem facit), as knowledge makes one knowing, and riches render one rich. To what purpose, then, is the former place? It serves only to prepare us for wisdom. There you are prepared for it, that here you may enter upon its possession. The preparation for it is the attainment of a certain degree of knowledge. But this is followed only too easily by the elation of vanity, unless this be repressed by fear; and therefore it is rightly said, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, since this 1 Affection sentiment.

15. But there is a place where God is beheld as truly tranquil and in repose; it is, in fact, the place, not of a judge, not of a teacher, but of a Bridegroom. I do not know how it may be with regard to others, but as far as concerns myself, that is for me a chamber into which entrance has sometimes been granted unto me; but, alas! how rarely that has happened, and for how short a time it has lasted! It is there that is clearly recognised the mercy of the Lord from everlasting and to everlasting upon them that fear Him. Happy is he who can say: 1 am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts (Ps. cxix. 63). The decree of the Lord standeth fast; His purpose of peace endureth upon them who fear Him, forgiving the evil actions and rewarding the good which they have done, and, by a marvellous method of His mercy, making, not only those things which are good, but also those which are evil, work together for their good. O truly blessed, and, indeed, the only blessed one is he, unto whom the Lord will not impute iniquity! (Ps. xxxii. 2). For there is none without sin, no not one; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. iii. 23). But who shall lay anything to the charge of God*s elect l (Rom. viii. 33). It is sufficient for all righteousness to me to have Him upon my side, against whom alone I have offended. Everything which He has decreed not to impute unto me is as though it had not been. Not to sin is the righteousness of God, but the forgiveness of God is the righteousness of man. I have seen these things, and can bear witness to the truth of that saying: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for His seed abideth in him (1 John iii. 9). Now, the heavenly seed is the eternal predestination, wherewith God hath loved His elect, and bestowed graces upon them in His Beloved Son, before the foundation of the world; beholding them in Him with favour, that they might be rendered worthy to see His power and His glory, and be made sharers in the inheritance of Him, to whose image and likeness they were to be conformed. These, then, I have looked upon as having never sinned, because, even though they are seen to have sinned in time, their offences do not appear in eternity, because the charity of their Father covers the multitude of sins. He calls them blessed, then, whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered 1 It is in the same sense that in the treatise upon ' Grace and Freewill,' n. 29, the sins of the predestinate are said to he hidden in the charity,' that is to say, of liod. Compare Sermon IV., De Diversis, n. 5, and Sermon I. for Septuagesima, with notes.

16. O place of true repose, and which I may not unfitly call by the name of chamber! O place in which God is beheld, not, as it were, aroused and in wrath, nor as distracted with care [of all His great creation], but in which is experienced the influence of His good, and favourable, and perfect will! That vision does not terrify, but soothes; it does not arouse an unjust curiosity, but allays it; and tranquillizes the spirit in place of wearying it. Here true rest is felt. The God of peace renders all things peaceful, and the soul, looking up with fixed gaze at His ineffable stillness, is itself awed into quiescence. It is as if one beheld some king or great judge, who, after the hearing of causes in his court all the day long, dismisses his crowds of attendants, puts an end to the labours of his office, returns with night to his peaceful palace, enters into his chamber with those few companions whom he condescends to honour with his intimacy in private, and there enjoys his repose with the more confidence because it is in such complete retirement, and because, as he looks peacefully around, he sees only the faces of those who are dear to him. If it should ever be the happy lot of any of you to be caught up and withdrawn for awhile into that hidden and mysterious sanctuary of God, and not to be called away from it either by the needs of the body, by the sting of some care, or, it may be, by the haunting pang of some sin, or, at least, by the inrushing flood of ideas and images belonging to this world, which are very difficult indeed to banish, such an one will be able in truth, when he returns to us again, to lift up his head and say: The King hath brought me into His chamber. And yet I would not rashly affirm that this would have been that very chamber into which the Bride rejoices to have entered. It is indeed a chamber, and the chamber of the King; but of the three that we have pointed out as included in the threefold vision, there is that one alone in repose and peace. For, as we have already shown, in the first chamber there is but a brief and fleeting repose, and in the second none whatever; because in the first God is beheld as wonderful and admirable, and the curiosity is violently excited to search out the numerous instances of His glory; while in the second He is beheld as terrible, and human weakness is thrown into terror at the sight of Him. But in the third He is beheld not as terrible, and He even deigns to appear not so much admirable, as lovable, serene and peaceful, sweet and gentle, and full of mercy towards them who look unto Him.

1 IntucntihiSy otherwise invocantibus se—towards them who call upon Him. See Ps. lxxxvi. 5.—El).

17. Now that you may retain in memory a brief summary of what I have said to you about the cellar, the garden, and the chamber of the Bridegroom, at unusual length in this sermon, remember that there are three times, three merits, and three kinds- of reward. In the garden, take note of the times; in the cellar, of the merits; and in the bedchamber, of the rewards, in that threefold contemplation of the soul that is seeking and searching for the chamber of the King. As for the cellar, we have spoken of it sufficiently. But with regard to the garden and the chamber, if there should appear to be something to be added or further explained, I will not pass over an opportunity of doing so. If not, let what has been said suffice, without repetition, so that I may not weary you (which God forbid!) by my words, which are spoken to the praise and glory of the Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.