Sermons on the Song of Songs44 Sermon XLIV. Correction ought to be adapted to the character of offenders, so that those of humble and complying dis- position should be gently dealt with, but the stubborn and obstinate severely chastened to oblige them to reform
Sermon XLIV. Correction ought to be adapted to the character of offenders, so that those of humble and complying dis- position should be gently dealt with, but the stubborn and obstinate severely chastened to oblige them to reform
1 My beloved is to me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi*—Cant i. 14- IF the Bridegroom were beloved in the bitter myrrh, much more will He be so in the sweetness of the grape. Therefore my Lord Jesus Christ is to me in His Death myrrh, in His Resurrection a cluster of grapes; and thus He has given Himself to me as a most salutary draught, though commingled with tears. For our sins He died, for our justification He was raised again from the dead (Rom. iv. 25), so that we, being dead unto sins, should live unto righteousness (1 Peter ii. 24). If, then, you have mourned for sins past, you have tasted the bitterness of the draught; but if you have now entered upon a holier life, and are beginning to breathe in more and more the hope of eternal life, the bitterness of the myrrh is changed for you into wine, which maketh glad the heart of man. And, perhaps, when there was offered to the Saviour upon the Cross wine mingled with myrrh, and He would not drink it, this was signified, that He thirsted only for the former. You, then, after experiencing, as I have said, the bitternesses of the myrrh, and then tasting the wine of gladness, may yourself say without rashness: My Beloved is to me as a cluster of camphire [grapes in the vineyards of Engedi. Engedi has a twofold meaning, and each sense tends to teach the same lesson, for it means ' the fountain of the kid' and ' the washing of the nations'; and both the one sense and the other point to the tears of sinners. It signifies also the eye of temptation/ which also pours forth tears, and looks onward to temptations, which are never wanting to the life of man upon the earth. But the people of the Gentiles, who walked in darkness, were never able to discover by themselves, nor, on this account, to escape, the snares of temptations, until, 1 lb; fSorpvc njc icvirpov (Sept.), the Cyprus flower, or Alhenna {Lawsonia inermis, Linn.), which is indigenous to India and probably to Egypt, and may have been introduced by Solomon into his vineyards at Engedi for the sake of the strong odour of its flowers. The Henna blossoms are yellowish-white in colour, and the powder from them is used by Eastern women as a dye for the ends of the fingers and the nails, as well as the blossoms (Tamar-henna) for bouquets. They grow in grape-like clusters. The Greek word &6rpvg denotes, in fact, simply a bunch of grapes or the grape itself. The Latin derivative, bolrys, signifies, also, the strongly aromatic plant artemisia, called also ambrosia; but here it appears to be used the sense of a bunch of grapes. See Cant. iv. 13.—Ed.
1 Some copies omit vinum.
2. It is said that in Engedi grow aromatic shrubs, which the people of the country train in the manner of vines; and thence, perhaps, it is that they are here called vineyards. For otherwise, what would the cluster of camphire do in the vineyards of Engedi? Whoever carried clusters [of grapes from one vineyard to another? For wine is usually carried to places where there is none, and not whither there is a store of it already. He calls, then, by the name of the vineyards of Engedi the peoples of the Church, which possesses a liquid balm, that is, a spirit of gentle kindness, in which she tenderly cherishes the weakness of those who are still babes in Christ, and consoles the sorrows of penitents. If any brother, then, shall have fallen into some fault, the minister of the Church, who has already received of that Spirit, will at once take measures to restore him, and that in the same spirit of gentleness, considering himself lest he also be tempted (Gal. vi. 1). That material oil, with which the Church is accustomed to anoint all those who are baptized, is a type of this.
3. But as the wounds of that traveller who fell among thieves, and whom the charitable Samaritan took up and carried on his own beast to a hostelry, that is, to the Church, were not healed with oil alone, but with wine and oil together (Luke x. 30-34), so the spiritual physician needs to mix the wine of fervid zeal with the oil of gentleness, since it behoves him not only to console the weak, but also to restrain the unruly. For if he perceives that the wounded man, that is, the sinner, is not at all amended by the gentle and kindly reprimands which he has first employed, but, on the contrary, abuses his forbearance, becomes more negligent by his patience, and sleeps the more securely in his sin, then, the oil of his gentle remonstrances being shown to be of no use, it behoves him to employ more powerful remedies, and so to pour in the wine of penitence—that is, to have recourse to stern accusations and reproofs, and if need be, and the stubbornness of the offender be so great, to smite him with the staff of ecclesiastical censure. But whence shall he obtain that wine? It is not wine, but oil, that is found in the vineyards of Engedi. Let him seek it in the isle of Cyprus, for that isle is fertile in producing wine, and that of the best; let him gather there of those weighty clusters, which the spies of Israel formerly bore upon a strong pole (Numb. xiii. 23) between two, [in which they typified the prophets who went before, and the Apostles who followed after, and in the midst Jesus in His beauty; let him take unto himself this cluster, and say: My Beloved is to me a cluster of the grape of Cyprus.
4. We have spoken, then, of this cluster; let us now see how the wine of fervent zeal is expressed from it. For if a man, being himself 5. But since according to the word of the Wise man, Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment (Eccles. x. 1, Vulg.), and when that is once lost, nature has no means in itself of repairing the loss; a man feels that a sad change has passed over him, and that he has fallen into that state, of which the Scripture says truly: The imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth (Gen. viii. 21). That youth was not well spent or good, of which we read in the Scripture that the younger son made demand that his portion of his father's substance should be given over to him, and began to wish to have in his separate possession that which he had enjoyed so happily in common with others, so as to possess alone that, which though it loses nothing by participation, is lost altogether by partition. For he spent all his substance, says the Scripture, in living riotously with harlots (Luke xv. 13, 14). Who are these harlots? Are they not those carnal concupiscences which banish and destroy the sweetness of this anointing, and of which the Scripture gives us the salutary warning: Go not after thy lusts (Ecclus. xviii. 30). Truly does the Wise Man describe them as * about to die for the worldpasseth away, and the lust thereof (1 John ii. 17). When, therefore, we desire to indulge these, we deprive ourselves of the sweetness of good which is common and social for the sake of that which is individual and selfish. These are undoubtedly those foul and acrid flies which defile in us the beauty of nature, distract our mind with cares and anxieties, and 6. It is, then, from the commencement of such a most wicked and unhappy youth as this that the thoughts and inclinations of man turn easily to evil, and that he is by nature more prompt to anger with his neighbour than to compassion for his faults. Thus it is that a man is divested of almost every sentiment of humanity; and while he still needs and expects the help of others, he is disinclined to render help to others in return. [Such a man, though himself a sinner, judges others severely who are sinners as himself, and even ridicules and scorns them, not considering himself, lest he also should be tempted. From this evil, nature cannot, as I have said, recover by its own strength, nor regain the oil of that original sweetness and kindness which has once been destroyed in it. But yet, what nature is unable to do is in the power of Divine grace. And he upon whom the Holy Spirit shall in His pity deign to pour the salutary unction of His goodness will at once regain his former feelings of goodness and sympathy, and shall obtain from grace even more than he had at first by the gift of nature. It will render him holy in faith and in goodness, and will bestow upon him, not merely oil, but the balsam gathered in the vineyards of Engedi.
7. For there is no doubt that from the 4 Fountain of the kid flow forth gifts more precious still, the anointing of which transforms kids into sheep, which enables sinners to pass from the left hand to the right, after they have been abundantly steeped in the oil of mercy; and thus, where sins abounded, grace much more abounds (Rom. v. 20). Does it not appear to you that such a man is restored in a sense to his humanity, who, putting off the hardness of the spirit of the world, and recovering, by the help of grace, the abundance of human loving-kindness, which carnal lusts, as it were foul and acrid flies, had well nigh destroyed in him; so that he derives from the humanity which he bears, or, rather, which is himself, the means and the manner of compassionating other men; and regards as something inhuman and brutal, not merely for a man to do to another that which he would not wish to have done to himself, but also the not doing to others whatsoever he wishes they should do to him?
8. This, then, is the source of the oil. But whence is the wine? Evidently from the cluster of the Cyprus grape. For if you love the Lord Jesus with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, could you possibly see and endure without emotion the injuries inflicted upon Him, and the contempt of which He is the object? Assuredly not; you would be at once actuated by a spirit of 1 Another reading is ritum exhorreat.
1. Botrus Cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi. Si dilectus in myrrha, multo magis in botri suavitate. Ergo Dominus meus Jesus myrrha mihi in morte, botrus in resurrectione, se ipsum mihi saluberrimum temperavit in potum, in lacrymis in mensura. Mortuus est propter peccata nostra, et resurrexit propter justificationem nostram, ut peccatis mortui justitiae vivamus. Itaque tu, si peccata luxisti, bibisti amaritudinem; si autem jam respirasti in spem vitae vita sanctiori, mutata est tibi myrrhae amaritudo in vinum, quod laetificat cor hominis. Et fortassis hoc illud significaverit, quod Salvatori oblatum est in cruce myrrhatum, et ideo noluit bibere, quoniam istud sitiebat. Tu ergo post myrrhae, ut dixi, amaritudines, vinum jucunditatis experiens, haud temere et ipse dicere poteris: Botrus Cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi. Engaddi duplicem habet interpretationem, et uni ambae intellectui serviunt. Dicitur namque fons haedi, et baptisma gentium; lacrymasque peccantium aperte designat. Dicitur et oculus tentationis, qui et lacrymas aeque fundat; et tentationes, quae minime unquam desunt vitae hominis super terram, prospiciat. Sed et populus gentium, qui ambulabat in tenebris, nunquam per se laqueos tentationum agnoscere, ac per hoc nec evadere potuit, donec per gratiam illius qui illuminat caecos, recepit oculos fidei, donec venit ad Ecclesiam, quae habet oculum tentationis; donec se tradidit viris spiritualibus instruendum, qui illuminati spiritu sapientiae, suo et experimento docti, possunt veraciter dicere quia non ignoramus astutias diaboli, et cogitationes ejus.
2. Ferunt in Engaddi arbusculas balsami crescere, quae in modum vinearum ab indigenis excoluntur: et inde forsitan vineas appellavit. Alioquin quid faceret botrus Cypri in vineis Engaddi? quis unquam botros de vineis in vineas transportavit? solet siquidem vinum, ubi deest, aliunde evehi, non ubi adest. Ergo vineas Engaddi dicit plebes Ecclesiae, quae habet balsami liquorem, spiritum mansuetudinis, in quo parvulorum adhuc in Christo teneritudinem blande fovet, et dolores poenitentium consolatur. Sed et si quis frater in aliquo delicto praeoccupatus fuerit, vir ecclesiasticus, qui hunc spiritum jam accepit, curabit hujusmodi mox instruere in eodem spiritu lenitatis, considerans se ipsum, ne et ipse tentetur. In hoc typo quotquot baptizandi sunt, etiam corporaliter Ecclesia oleo materiali ungere consuevit.
3. Quia vero vulnera illius qui incidit in latrones, et jumento corporis pii Samaritani, Ecclesiae est deportatus in stabulum, non in solo oleo, sed in vino simul et oleo sanitatem recipiunt: necessarium habet spiritualis medicus etiam vinum fervidi zeli cum oleo mansuetudinis, cui sane convenit non modo consolari pusillanimes, sed et corripere inquietos. Si enim viderit illum qui vulneratus est, id est qui peccavit, blandis ac lenibus hortamentis, quae in eum praerogata sunt, minime emendatum, magis autem forte etiam abutentem sua mansuetudine, et patientia negligentiorem fieri, et in peccato suo etiam securius obdormire: frustrato tam suavium oleo monitorum, oportebit sane mordacioribus uti medicamentis, et vinum compunctionis infundere; duris videlicet cum eo increpationibus atque invectionibus agere, et, si causa requirit, et duritia tanta est, etiam censurae ecclesiasticae baculo percellere contemptorem. Sed unde illi hoc vinum? Nec enim in vineis Engaddi vinum invenitur, sed oleum. Quaerat ergo in Cypro: nam illa insula ferax est vini, et vini optimi; tollensque inde sibi ingentem botrum, quem olim exploratores de Israel in vecte ferebant, chorum propheticum praecedentem, et subsequentem apostolicum, medium autem Jesum pulchro schemate figurantes: hunc ergo botrum accipiens sibi dicat: Botrus Cypri dilectus meus mihi.
4. Vidimus botrum; videamus qualiter zeli vinum exprimatur ex eo. Etenim si peccanti homini homo peccator minime indignatur, sed magis quasi quemdam ei suavissimi balsami rorem sudans pium exhibet compassionis affectum; hoc scimus unde venit, et jam audistis, sed non advertistis forsitan. Dictum namque est, quod ex consideratione sui ipsius cuique veniat mansuetum esse ad omnes, dum homo consilio sapientissimi Pauli, ut pie condescendere sciat praeoccupatis in peccato, considerat se ipsum, ne et ipse tentetur?. An non hinc denique amor proximi radicem trahit, de quo in lege mandatur: Diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum? Ex intimis sane humanis affectibus primordia ducit sui ortus fraterna dilectio, et de insita homini ad se ipsum naturali quadam dulcedine, tanquam de humore terreno, sumit procul dubio vegetationem et vim, per quam, spirante quidem gratia desuper, fructus parturit pietatis: ut quod sibi anima naturaliter appetit, naturae consorti, id est alteri homini, jure quodam humanitatis, ubi poterit et oportuerit, non existimet denegandum, sed sponte ac libens impertiat. Inest ergo naturae, si peccato non obsolescat, istiusmodi gratae et egregiae quasi suavitatis liquor, ut molliorem magis ad compatiendum peccantibus, quam ad indignandum asperiorem sese sentiat et exhibeat.
5. Verum quia, juxta Sapientis sententiam, muscae moriturae exterminant hoc suavitatis unguentum, et minime habet in se natura unde id reparet sibi semel amissum, sentit se dolenda mutatione corruere in illud, quod vercaiter ait Scriptura: Proni sunt sensus hominis et cogitationes in malum ab adolescentia. Non bona adolescentia, in qua filius junior portionem sibi paternae substantiae postulat sequestrari, et bonum incipit velle dividere, quod in commune dulcius possidetur; et habere solus, quod participatione non minuitur, partitione amittitur. Denique: Omnia, inquit, bona sua dissipavit vivendo luxuriose cum meretricibus. Quaenam hae meretrices? Vide ne ipsae sint quae exterminant suavitatis unguentum, carnales videlicet concupiscentiae, de quibus saluberrime Scriptura te admonens: Post concupiscentias, inquit, tuas non eas. Et merito morituras describit Sapiens; quoniam et mundus transit, et concupiscentia ejus. His ergo, dum satisfacere singulariter volumus, boni nos socialis atque communis singulari suavitate privamus. Hae prorsus muscae sordidae et pungentes, quae in nobis decorem naturae foedant, mentem curis et sollicitudinibus lacerant, socialis gratiae suavitatem exterminant. Hinc homo junior filius appellatur, quod natura, quodam insensatae lubrico adolescentiae depravata, omnem virilis maturitatis ac sapientiae succum amiserit; et, versus in asperum, arente animo praeter se universos despiciat, factus sine affectione.
6. Igitur ab ineunte adolescentia ista pessima atque miserrima proni sunt sensus hominis et cogitationes in malum, et natura ad indignandum quam ad compatiendum paratior. Inde homo tanquam omnino exutus hominem, in quo vult sibi, cum opus habet, ab hominibus subveniri, non vult ipse hominibus opus habentibus subvenire. Magis autem judicat, spernit, irridet homo homines, delinquentes peccator, non considerans se ipsum, ne et ipse tentetur. A quo malo minime per se, ut dixi, natura resurget, neque recuperabit oleum ingenitae mansuetudinis, quod semel est exterminatum in ea. Verumtamen quod non potest natura, potest gratia. Quem ergo hominum unctio spiritus miserata, perfundere denuo sua benignitate dignabitur, is continuo revertetur in hominem, insuper et aliquid melius a gratia quam a natura recipiet. In fide et lenitate sanctum faciet illum, et dabit illi non oleum, sed balsamum in vineis Engaddi.
7. Nec enim dubium ex fonte haedi profluere charismata meliora, cujus utique unctio haedos verti in agnos, et de sinistra transfert in dexteram peccatores, abundantius quidem ante perfusos unctione misericordiae, ut, ubi abundaverunt delicta, superabundet et gratia. An non vere videtur tibi redisse quodammodo is homo in hominem, qui animae saecularis feritate deposita, et recuperata, etiam cum fenore gratiae, humanae unctione mansuetudinis, quam in ipso muscae carnalium cupiditatum penitus exterminarant; de suo quem gestat homine, imo qui ipse est, et materiam sumit, et formant miserendi hominibus aliis, ita ut tanquam feralem quemdam rictum exhorreat [ alias, ritum exhorreat], non solum cuiquam facere hominum quod pati ipse nolit, sed etiam non facere omnia omnibus quaecunque sibi fieri velit?
8. En unde oleum. Vinum unde? Profecto ex botro Cypri. Etenim, si amas Dominum Jesum toto corde, tota anima, tota virtute tua; nunquid si videris ejus injurias, contemptumque, ferre ullatenus aequo animo poteris? Minime: sed mox arreptus spiritu judicii et spiritu ardoris, et tanquam potens crapulatus a vino, repletus zelo Phinees, dices cum David: Tabescere me fecit zelus meus, quia obliti sunt verba tua inimici mei; et cum Domino: Zelus domus tuae comedit me. Vinum est ergo fervidissimus zelus iste, expressum de botro Cypri, et calix inebrians Christi amor. Denique Deus noster ignis consumens est, et propheta ignem dicebat de excelso missum in ossibus suis, eo quod divino amore flagraret. Hebens itaque ex fraterno oleum mansuetudinis, et ex divino amore vinum aemulationis, securus accede ad sananda vulnera illius qui incidit in latrones, piissimi Samaritani optimus imitator. Secure quoque dicito et tu cum sponsa, Botrus Cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi: hoc est, Zelus justitiae, amor dilecti mei mihi in affectibus pietatis. Et de hoc satis. Nam et infirmitas mea pausandum indicit, sicut et saepe facit; ita ut plerumque cogar imperfectas, ut ipsi scitis, relinquere disputationes, residuaque capitulorum in diem alterum reservare. Sed quid? Ego in flagella paratus sum, sciens me adhuc recipere longe imparia meritis. Vapulem sane, vapulem ut male operans, si forte verbera in merita reputentur: fortassis miserebitur flagellato, qui bonum in me non invenit quod remuneret, sponsus Ecclesiae Jesus Christus Dominus noster, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.