soe
pt
tj
a4,
tats
Hee
wei
5
isesa Fe
atthe
rate oe
Rite eee
: : My i rithe Robey
yieke
rath
5S
:
Wink
Betis
Shs.
a
he]
Heetetet tiaereese Meerseriedy) pale sqeseantyaclitas seeneddyditigqedes:
pee Oc BtUtuoIa Pi |
i
ar Vad SS a0
YS if 2 f
Ose | Sreees a5. ewe
O° | OLS -€ £3,1 SIP HIP:
piGdz ON ‘WH iedeud 5 | ¥
Aseaqr 3daq ‘boy .
THE LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA
ENDOWED BY THE
AT CHAPEL HILL
DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC
SOCIETIES
B°1),85
eL58
°
Cc
x
w
°
LN)
This book is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
WALTER ROYAL DAVIS LIBRARY
For due dates and renewals, visit library.unc.edu and select “My Accounts.”
i Date Returned Date Returned
RECEIVED NOY 29) 2018
| B.Sit pee (See
bd
: Guest House Library hy.
> ; } —— : .
Asit{s =
A COMMENTARY
alll
https://archive.org/details/commentaryonsongOolitt_O
——
PREFACH.
THE Song of Songs, though for many centuries a
favourite theme of the most eminent Saints and Chris-
tian writers, either by way of direct comment or of
illustrative quotation, has fallen, during these latter
times, into comparative neglect. It is rarely made the
- basis of sermons, or even of devotional treatises, and
thus, as may be reasonably inferred, does not occupy
any prominent place in private study of Holy Scripture.
Two attempts, both most valuable in their way, to
reinstate it in its proper position as an element of re-
ligious teaching, and as affording ample subject-matter
for practical meditation, have been recently made. The
first-is the well-known translation of Avrillon’s devout
book, L’ Année Affective ; the second is the series of
Sermons in a Religious House, preached by the late
Dr. Neale.
But the plan of each of these works excludes com-
pleteness of treatment, and leaves much of the ground
still uncovered. Nor do any of the commentaries
usually accessible supply the defect. The mystical
exegesis, which is of the very essence of any true under-
standing of perhaps the most difficult book in Bora;
v1 PREFACE.
was either quite foreign to the temperament and method
of the expositors; or when some genuine feeling of
sympathy with patristic theology did manifest itself, as,
for example, in the writings of Matthew Henry, the in-
fluence of eighteenth-century modes of thought, and
the fear of being altogether out of harmony with the
readers of their time, cramped and enfeebled their
utterance.
It is only seven years since the late Mr. Thrupp en-
deavoured to revive intelligent interest in the religious
study of the Canticles through the means of the devout
and scholarly gloss which he published. But, while
he admitted the truth of the main outlines of the tra-
ditional interpretation, he exhibited much timidity in
following up the details, a timidity all the more re-
markable when contrasted with the boldness with which
he proposed conjectural emendations of the Hebrew
text. His volume, therefore, though very useful in
its degree to students, does not appear to have -suc-
ceeded in its higher aim, that of promoting reverent
perusal of the Canticles amongst the educated laity.
Nor could this class obtain assistance from foreign
sources. Apart from colossal works like those of
Ghislerius and Cornelius 4 Lapide, there is no book
which presents in a compendious form the pith of
ancient and medizeval exposition on the Song; though
there are, no doubt, many, like that of Hamon the Port-
Royalist and the briefer composition of S. Francis de
Sales, which may be read with interest and profit.
The following Commentary is an attempt to fill this
void, at least provisionally, until some more competent
hand undertakes the task. Its chief claim to atten-
tion is that it is almost exclusively a compilation from
PREFACE. vii
the writings of the Fathers and Schoolmen, with Just
so much illustration from ascetic writers, hymnodists,
and poets, ancient and modern, as seemed to give point
to their comments, and to make the continuous perusal
of the volume an easier task. _
An attempt to bring to bear on the Canticles all the
appropriate matter which exists, would simply have been
to aim at turning into this one channel all-the streams
of the devotional theology of the Middle Ages, and
would have defeated the intention with which the
Commentary was undertaken, that of summarizing in
brief and portable compass the results of seventeen
centuries of loving meditation on the Book of Divine
Love. |
This work, therefore, does not aim, like the larger
compilations already referred to, at making clerical
readers independent of further study on the subject.
Rather it is hoped that the extracts from the writings
of Origen, S. Bernard, Gilbert of Hoyland, Henry
Harphius, and others like-minded, may incite them
to fuller perusal. But it does propose to give other
students of the Canticles, and especially the inmates —
of Religious Houses (for whose instruction it was
originally projected) a sufficient, though necessarily
brief, insight into the treasures which have accumu-
lated, in the course of centuries, around this shrine
of sacred mysteries. To further this end, a sugges-
tion made by a critic of the Commentary on the
Psalms, too late so far as the plan of that work was
concerned, has been here adopted, namely, the addi- |
tion of English versions to the Greek and Latin
quotations which occur in the course of the work.
As these have been somewhat hastily executed, they
Vili PREFACE.
are consequently not a little rugged, and aim merely
at giving the sense approximately, without pretending
to any literary excellence. )
It would have been most desirable if a Commen-
tary such as this, not designed for critical pur-
poses, but of a purely devotional character, could have
been kept absolutely free from polemical matter, yet,
as the spiritual character of the Canticles has been
freely impeached in our day, it has been necessary to
make some protest against the method and arguments
of its impugners; but this has been excluded so far
as possible from the text, and relegated to the Intro-
duction, in which a few of the literary problems con-
nected with the Song of Songs are briefly discussed.
It remains only to request a lenient judgment on
this tentative execution of a most difficult task, and
to ask for such assistance at the hands of readers as
may make a future edition, should it be required, less
defective.
Lonpoy,
Nativity of Our Lady, 1869.
INTRODUCTION.
I. Tu exceptional position occupied by the Song of
Songs among the books of Holy Writ, standing as it
does apart from Law and Prophets, Histories and
didactic compositions, and having obviously on the sur-
face but very faint relations to the remaining Scriptural
Canticles, has naturally concentrated much attention
upon it, and given rise to no little variety of comment
on all the particulars connected with its external form
and history, and its internal signification. One fact
alone remains undisputed, that of its inclusion within
the Canon, both Jewish and Christian, from the earliest
times of which we have any record. Its place in the
Septuagint testifies to its recognition as a sacred book
by the Jews two centuries before the Christian era, and
the language used concerning it by Rabbinical autho-
rities puts it on avery different level from that accorded
by them to the Deutero-Canonical Books. They classed
it as one of the five Megilloth of the Bible, along Rabbinical
with Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, and cape
ranked it first among them, reading it at the Passover,
the most solemn festival of the year. Fully in accord-
ance with this position is the remark of Rabbi Akiba,
a contemporary of the Emperor Hadrian, saying, “The
entire history of the world does not present an epoch
like the day when the Song of Songs was given to
Israel, for though all the Hagiographa are holy, yet
_ the Song of Songs is. most holy.” The corollary from
these premises is that the Canticles have been regarded
b
Canonicity
of the Song.
First objec-
tion to mys-
tical view
refuted.
Date and
authorship.
».¢ INTRODUCTION.
all along as the work of an inspired writer, and as
instinct with a spiritual meaning; both which views
are explicitly asserted by the Targum, which begins its
paraphrase with the words: ‘The songs and praises
which Solomon the Prophet, king of Israel, spake by
the Hoty Guost, before the Lorp the Creator of the
universe.”
It has been objected in modern times against the
alleged admission by the ancient Jews of a mystical
import underlying the letter, that they prohibited the
perusal of the Canticles by all persons below thirty
years of age, whence it has been argued either that
the book was given in vain so far as all who died in
youth were concerned, or that the very fact of with-
holding it establishes the denial of its spiritual cha-
racter. This objection, apart from its failing to settle
whether the Jews were right or wrong in their disci-
pline on this head, falls to the ground for two reasons ;
first, that the Rabbins extended the same prohibition
to the beginning of Genesis and the earliest and latest
chapters of Ezekiel, without any impeachment of their
inspiration ; and secondly, that the Eastern Church,
like the Church of England, while avowedly upholding
the mystical sense, refrains, on grounds of expediency,
from public reading of the Canticles in divine worship,
though the place of the book in the Old Testament
Canon, as received by Christians, has been acknow-
ledged ever since the earliest known list was drawn up
by Melito, Bishop of Sardis, about a.p. 170.
II. The questions of date and authorship have both
been hotly contested. The prevalent opinion amongst
Jews and Christians until comparatively recent times,
agreed with that of the Targum and Septuagint, and
other ancient versions, in ascribing the Song to Solo-
mon, son of David. There were, however, some ex-
ceptions. Some Talmudists assigned it to Hezekiah,
R. Kimchi and a few others to Isaiah. On the other
hand, the received tradition is supported by some
important arguments. Apart from the title, which
may of course have been added by a later hand (as is
doubtless the case with several of the Psalms,) and
INTRODUCTION. xl
from direct references to Solomon as a living person,
which might be only poetical, there are two items of
internal evidence which fix the date with tolerable Mmternal
accuracy. First is the passage in chap. vi. 4, “Thou
art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jeru-
salem.” Tirzah, as the capital of the Northern king-
dom under Jeroboam I. and his successors until the
building of Samaria, (1 Kings xiv. 17; xv. 21; xvi.
8, 23,) would never have been coupled with Jerusalem,
the head of the Davidic and Aaronic polity, by a poet
of either Israel or Judah after the revolt of the ten
tribes, owing to the political and religious hostility
which immediately arose between the two realms, just
as no poem before the union of the English and
Scottish crowns praises both London and Edinburgh.
Thus the furthest possible limit of date is the outbreak
of war between Abijah and Jeroboam in B.c. 958.
Another passage narrows the period much more. The
eighth verse of the same chapter tells us of Solomon’s
harem, ‘‘There are threescore queens and fourscore
concubines.” But in 1 Kings xi. 8, we read, ‘“‘ And he
had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hun-
dred concubines.””. Wherefore we conclude that the
Song was not only written in Solomon’s life-time, but
at a comparatively early period of his reign, before he
had fallen into the extravagant excesses of his old age.
The plea which would deny the authenticity of the
passage of the Book of Kings, treating it as a mere ex-
_aggeration of later times, to be corrected by the more
reasonable estimate of the Canticles, may be dismissed
at once, apart from any question of inspiration, as
neither justified by what we know of the manners of
Eastern sovereigns nor by the treatment which two
equally compatible statements would receive if found
in the pages of a secular historian. So far as. style
and diction are concerned, the chief modern critics are
agreed in attributing the Song of Songs to the Solo-
monic age, in opposition to a somewhat earlier school,
which post-dated it considerably, on grounds now ad-
mitted to be insufficient.
In the absence of direct internal evidence and of
b2
evidence.
Probability
of Solomon’s
authorship,
from the
title ;
_ from author-
ship of other
songs ;
xil INTRODUCTION.
historical testimony at all coeval with the date of the
composition, it is impossible to lay down as a cer-
tainty that Solomon was author of the Song. But
there is, at the very least, quite as much to be said in
favour of the earliest known tradition as can be urged
against it. The title goes for something, for it esta-
blishes that at the very remote period when it was
affixed,—earlier at. any rate than the LXX. version—
no rival claimant had been effectually set up. Those
who deny the Solomonic authorship urge that such
an epithet as “Song of Songs’ makes against the
claim, because no author would venture on such a
panegyric of his own work. The reply to this is two-
fold. The critics must either accept the inscription as
synchronous with the poem, or reject it. If they
accept the genuineness of the name “Song of Songs,”
they must take the remainder of the title into account
also, and admit Solomon’s claim. If they reject the
whole inscription as a later interpolation, then Solo-
mon is not to be charged with having qualified his
oem with any epithet at all, and the count fails.
And this without taking into account a further con-
sideration, that of the inspired character of- the book ;
since, if Solomon was divinely instructed what to write,
there can be no more personal vanity in his using the
title “Song of Songs” than there is blasphemy in a
Prophet beginning a sentence with “Thus saith the
Lorp.” There would be, at the outset, something
unaccountable in the total loss of the most copious
class of writings of the wisest and most powerful of
Hebrew kings. Most copious, because the thousand
and five songs attributed to him in 1 Kings iv. 32,
must have necessarily exceeded in bulk those three
thousand proverbs, of which such important remains
exist. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the
great majority of these poems were of merely passing
and secular interest, but it is difficult to conjecture
why utter oblivion should have come on them all, as
the negation of his authorship in this case requires its
supporters to maintain. This difficulty, no light one
in face of the preservation of so many songs of David
|
|
INTRODUCTION. Xill
and Asaph, is more readily solved by acceptance of
the traditional view than by any other means.
The next plea in Solomon’s favour is of small weight
independently, but not without importance in a cumu-
lative argument. He is praised, in the same passage
which mentions the number of his writings, for his On aie
great skill in natural history : ‘And he spake of trees, history ;
from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the
hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also
of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of
fishes.” (1 Kings iv. 33.) There is no book of Scrip-
ture which dwells so much as the Canticles upon
natural imagery, or which mentions so many names of
animals and plants in terms implying familiarity with
their habits. The only reply which has been sug-
gested to this plea is that other people may have
known these things as well as Solomon. No doubt;
but the real point at issue, that the internal evidence
is so far perfectly consistent with the traditional au-
thorship, is not in the least weakened by such a
demurrer. The like may be said of the analogies of and from
idea and diction, admittedly existing between Proverbs @3)°g'es
and Canticles.!_ They do not fix with certainty the verbs.
parts of the Book of Proverbs which are due to Solo-
mon’s pen, nor do they give any clue to the priority
of date in either case. But allowing, as all do, that
Solomon is author of part of the Proverbs, the coin-
cidences lend additional weight to the traditional view,
and, as must never be forgotten in discussions of the
kind, make the burden of disproof heavier for the
contesters of the claim in possession.
Two other pleas are urged against Solomon from y,.ther
opposite sides. Those who allow the spiritual inter- objections.
pretation of the Song maintain that Solomon was not
morally fitted to be the instrument of such teaching,
while those who adhere to the newest modern literal
"Cant. 1. 11=Proy. xxy. 11; | Prov, xx. 13; Cant. v. 6=Prov.
Cant. iv.5=Proy. v.19; Cant. | i. 28; Cant. vii, 1= Prov. xxv.
iv. 9=Prov. i. 9; Cant. iv. | 12; Cant. vii. 9=Proy. xxiii.
11=Prov. v. 3, xvi. 24; Cant. | 31; Cant. viii, 7=Prov. vi. 31
iv. 12=Prov. v. 15; Cant. v. | —35, &c.
1=Proy. ix. 5; Cant. vy. 2=
Methods of
Interpreta-
tion.
Traditional
view.
Allegorical
view.
Literalist
view.
Arguments
for tradi-
XIV INTRODUCTION.
view regard the poem as in some degree a satire against
him, and therefore certainly not from his pen. The
second of these objections will be considered later,
while it is enough to say of the first one that it loses
sight on the one hand of the admitted discrepancy
between the youth and age of Solomon, to the former
of which the Song may more probably be ascribed ; and
on the other of the frequent instrumentality of sinners
in working out the designs of Gop, of which the pro-
phecy of Balaam and the apostolate of Judas are
sufficient examples.
III. The third question, and that which has been
most eagerly contested of all, concerns the interpreta-
tion of the Song, whether it is to be mystical, alle-
gorical, or literal, and in each of these cases what is
the method to be followed. As before, there is a
traditional view in possession, which has the pleas of
remote antiquity, continuous tenure, and perfect con-
sistency with itself in its favour. This view, common
to the Talmud and Targum and to all Christian writers
(with a brief exception to be noticed presently) for
sixteen centuries, is that the poem is wholly mystical,
with no historical basis whatsoever, and that it denotes
the relations between Gop and His Church, albeit there
is much variety of detail in setting forth the particulars
of this relation. An intermediate view supposes an
historical foundation for the Song, preferably the bridal
of Solomon with Pharaoh’s daughter, and holds that
a superstructure of religious allegory has been raised
on this basis, as in that other case of the Exodus, so
frequently used as a type of spiritual deliverance from
sin. And a third view, almost exclusively modern,
denies all inner meaning to the poem, save of the most
incidental kind, and maintains a literal exposition.
The mystical interpretation, which forms the subject:
matter of the commentary in this volume, and which
traces the history of the Divine dealings with man
under the Law and the Gospel, has in its favour a
cumulative mass of evidence of a very cogent nature.
In the first place, the relationship of marriage is very
tional view, frequently used in Scripture to denote the union be-
INTRODUCTION. XV
tween Gop and the chosen people, the ornaments of a
bride and abundant progeny are the promised rewards
of devotion and obedience, barrenness and divorce
are the threatened punishments of spiritual adultery.
There is thus no antecedent improbability, as has been
alleged, in the nuptial imagery.of the Song having a
_ mystical signification. This comes out most clearly in from the
that Book which has most obviously approached, if ee
not actually borrowed, the language of the Canticles, ,
namely, the prophecy of Hosea, in which the marriage of
Gop to Israel, and her sins against the nuptial bond, are
steadily dwelt upon. A further illustration is afforded
by the language of the forty-fifth Psalm, which represents
a King, who is styled Lorp and Gop, as the Spouse of
a Virgin Bride, and which is directly applied to Curist
in the Epistle to the Hebrews. As the structure of
this Psalm, like that of the seventy-second, absolutely
forbids its literal application to any mere human soy-
ran, save at the hands of those who are resolved to
see no Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, be
the evidence what it may, it contributes a most im-
portant item of proof to the tenability of the tradi-
tional view. This is further borne out by the Gospels,
the Pauline Epistles, and the Revelation. The Baptist
speaks of Curist as the Bridegroom, and of himself
as the Bridegroom’s friend; while the Saviour, in
defending His disciples from the charge of religious
laxity, applies the name Bridegroom to Himself, and
that of ‘children of the bridechamber”’ to His fol-
lowers. S. Paul illustrates the metaphor further by
declaring that he has ‘‘espoused”’ his converts ‘‘as a
chaste virgin, to Curist,” and that earthly marriage
is only a type of a heavenly mystery. The Apocalypse,
with its description of the heavenly Jerusalem as the
Bride of the Lamb, and of the final triumph of the re-
deemed as His marriage feast, completes the chain of
Scriptural evidence; and if the mystical interpretation
of the Canticles be set aside, it becomes exceedingly
difficult to explain the use of this peculiar imagery,
which cannot be traced to any other source.
The plea that not marriage, but courtship, which
from paral-
lelsin Arabic
and Persian
literature ;
Songs at
Zikrs,
Xvi INTRODUCTION,
leads to marriage, is the scope of the Song, has been
urged against the Catholic view, but vainly in the face
of the recurrent phrase “the Virgin of Israel’ in the
Old Testament, and the clear statement of the New
that the marriage has not yet come, and only the be-
trothal has taken place. The next argument of weight
is that which serves to repel the @ priori objections
taken to the form and diction of the poem as a vehicle
for spiritual ideas. If it could be shown that the
Song, if mystically explained, is an isolated pheno-
menon, having no parallel in any literature, very much
would be done towards discrediting the ancient view.
But such is not the case. The Arab nation, which in
blood and language is most nearly allied to the He-
brews, has preserved to the present day the custom of
chanting in public worship songs in which the religious
meaning is veiled under the ordinary terms of earthly
love. The service at which these are recited is called
a Zikr, the poems themselves (usually in honour of
Mohammed) muweshshah. On this, Mr. Lane, in his
Modern Egyptians, chap. xxiv. writes as follows: ‘He
pointed out the following poem as one of those most
common at Zikrs, and as one which was sung at the
Zikr which I have begun to describe. I translate it
verse for verse, and imitate the measure and system
of rhyme of the original, with this difference only,
that the first, third, and fifth lines of each stanza
rhyme with each other in the original, but not in
my translation.
With love my heart is troubled ;
And mine eye-lid hind’reth sleep :
My vitals are dissevered ;
While with streaming tears I weep.
My union seems far distant :
Will my love ever meet mine eye ?
Alas! did not estrangement
Draw my tears, I would not sigh.
By dreary nights I’m wasted :
Absence makes my hopes expire :
My tears, like pearls, are dropping ;
And my heart is wrapped in fire.
INTRODUCTION. XVil
Whose is like my condition ?
Scarcely know I remedy,
Alas! did not estrangement
Draw my tears, I would not sigh.
O turtle-dove! acquaint me |
Wherefore thus dost thou lament ?
Art thou so stung by absence ?
Of thy wings deprived, and pent?
He saith, ‘ Our griefs are equal ;
Worn away with love I lie.’
Alas! did not estrangement
Draw my tears, I would not sigh.
O First and sole Eternal!
Show Thy favour yet to me.
Thy slave, Ahmad El-Bekree,
Hath no Lorp excepting Thee.
By Ta-H4, the Great Prophet,
Do not Thou his wish deny.
Alas! did not estrangement
- Draw my tears, I would not sigh.
I must translate a few more lines, to show more
strongly the similarity of these songs to that of Solo-
mon ; and lest it should be thought that I have varied
the expressions, I shall not attempt to render them
into verse. In the same collection of poems sung at
Zikrs is one which begins with these lines :
O gazelle from among the gazelles of El-Yemen!
J am thy slave without cost:
O thou small of age and fresh of skin!
O thou who art scarce past the time of drinking milk!
In the first of these verses we have a comparison ex-
actly agreeing with that in the concluding verse of
Solomon’s Song; for the word which, in our Bible, is
translated ‘a roe,’ is used in Arabic as synonymous
with ‘ghazal’ (or a gazelle,) and the mountains of
El-Yemen are the ‘mountains of spices.’ This poem
ends with the following lines :
The phantom of thy form visited me in my slumber :
I said, ‘O phantom of slumber! who sent thee ?’
He said, ‘He sent me whom thou knowest ;
He whose love occupies thee.’
Attempted
reply, from
absence of
sacred
names ;
XVill INTRODUCTION.
The beloved of my heart visited me in the darkness of night ;
I stood, to show him honour, until he sat down.
I said, ‘O thou my petition, and all my desire!
Hast thou come at midnight, and not feared the watchmen?’
He said to me, ‘I feared, but, however, love
Had taken from me my soul and my breath.’
Compare the above with the second and five following
verses of the fifth chapter of Solomon’s Song. JF ind-
ine that songs of this description are extremely nu-
merous, and almost the only poems sung at Zikrs;
that they are composed for this purpose, and intended
only to have a spiritual sense (though certainly not
understood in such a sense by the generality of the
vulgar ;) I cannot entertain any doubt as to the design
of Solomon’s Song. The specimens which I have just
given of the religious love-songs of the Moslems have
not been selected in preference to others as most agree-
ing with that of Solomon, but as being in frequent
use.” To this may be added the statement of Major
Scott Waring as to a kindred custom in Persia, ‘‘ The
Persians insist that we shall give them the merit of
understanding their own language, that all the odes of
their celebrated poets are mystical, and breathe a fer-
vent spirit of adoration to the Supreme Being. They
maintain that the Soofees profess eager desire with no
carnal affection, and circulate the cup, but no material
goblet, since all things are spiritual in their sect; all
is mystery within mystery.” And finally, European
literature contributes its quota of parallel in the Vita
Nuova of Dante.
A twofold reply, of but little cogency, has been
attempted to this proof that there is no inherent un-
likelihood in the mystical interpretation. It is alleged,
firstly, that the Song of Solomon contains no hint,
no key, no direct reference to holy names and ideas,
such as is certainly found in the first quotation from
Arabic sources given above, and such as may pos-
sibly be found in the full text of the remainder, and
that we are therefore not at liberty to interpret it
otherwise than literally. This loses sight of a very
important and familiar canon of composition, that an
INTRODUCTION. x1x
allegory, in order to be perfect, ought moé to con-
tain its own key. So far as it does, or as any ob-
trusive clue is given, it is defective in structure. The
beast-fables of Bidpai, Alsop, and Krilof, supply fa-
miliar examples. Any distinct intimation of the pur-
port in the body of the fable is simply destructive, and
even au application tagged on is more than superfluous,
ranking with the too audible stage-explanations in the
tragedy of Pyramusand Thisbe. This charge against the
Song of Solomon, then, merely proves its high literary
excellence, and the skill with which the author avoided
the defect into which the Arab poet has fallen. The
only reason which would excuse deviation from this
rule would be the imperative need of warning persons
against being led astray by the literal sense; but as a
fact, in the whole literary history of the Canticles for
nearly nineteen hundred years, there is scarcely an
example on record of the literal sense having held
its ground anywhere for a moment. Surely, “if the
mystical exposition be so unnatural and far-fetched as
some declare, this would not and could not be so, as
we may learn from the total failure of the Alexandrine
critics to establish their allegorical interpretation of the
Iliad. Another objection, that urged by an American
literalist, Professor Noyes, is more philosophical in
tone, but not more convincing. It is that the funda-
mental differences between the pantheistic system of the
Sufis and the religion of the Jews, and the great in-
terval of time which lies between Solomon and Hafiz,
(even if it be conceded that the odes of the latter are
religious poems at all) make it absolutely impossible
to institute any parallel between them. This argu-
ment loses sight of the original question, which is not
whether there is any close likeness between Sufism and
Judaism, which might crop up in literary forms, but
whether there is the least antecedent improbability in
the human mind selecting amatory language to express
devotional thoughts. The allegation that it is most
unlikely to do so is disposed of by the parallels ad-
duced, and the cogency of the argument would be un-
affected by the broadest divergency of race and creed,
untenable
on abstract
grounds.
Objection
from dissi-
milarity of
race and re-
ligion, and
from dis-
tance of
time ;
inadequate
as disproof,
Anthropo-
morphiclan-
guage of the
Song.
Main diffi-
culty of the
literalist
view.
XxX INTRODUCTION.
as all students of comparative mythology know full
well. But, not to dwell on the constant intercourse
between Canaan and Persia, from the days when Abra-
ham met Chedorlaomer till those when John of Per-
sepolis came with Macarius of Jerusalem to the Council
of Nicza, which allowed ample opportunity for Iranian
ideas to enter Palestine, the proof from the kindred
race and religion of Arabia remains unmoved by any
exception based on the plea of diversity, weak as even
that is. Still less weight can be attached to objec-
tions drawn from the anthropomorphic language of the
Song, which has been declared inappropriate in the
highest degree to such august themes as those which
the traditional interpretation finds in it. For this,
again, is a mere @ priori plea, and therefore of no
logical force whatsoever, failing, besides, to take ac-
count of the manner in which the shadow of the com-
ing Incarnation is cast over the Old Testament, occa-
sioning, nay, necessitating such language in order to
prepare the minds of the Jewish nation for the recep-
tion of the full Messianic idea of a Gop-Man, which
is gradually unfolded with advancing clearness as the
prophetic series draws near its close. And as regards
the question of the abstract fitness or unfitness of the
language, it may be briefly observed that the “ verify-
ing faculty’ of seventeen Christian centuries, exercised
amongst others by men of such keen intellect, spiritual
insight, and moral purity as Origen, Athanasius, Au-
gustine, Gregory the Great, Alcuin, Bernard, Thomas
Aquinas, and Gerson, may well be set against the con-
flicting opinions of the last hundred years in a matter
of the kind.
This portion of the controversy leads up directly to
what is, after all, the main difficulty in the way of
literalists, a difficulty which they have not hitherto
even plausibly seemed to overcome. It is that of ac-
counting for the presence of the Song, assuming it to
be a mere love-poem, in the Canon of Scripture at all,
whether as originally admitted by the Jews or subse-
quently adopted by the Christians. It would stand
apart from all the rest of Scripture as alone without
INTRODUCTION. Xxl
a directly religious signification, and be necessarily
degraded into a secondary rank, if not altogether ex-
cluded from the list of inspired writings. The only
semblance of answer to this plea is the allegation that
the Song does not stand alone in this respect, because
the Book of Esther belongs to the same category,
being alike without those sacred names and phrases
which mark all other portions of the Bible.
But this phantom argument vanishes at a touch.
The Book of Esther does stand in a very clear and
definite relation to all the other historical books,
because it gives the details of a most important crisis
in the national life of the Hebrew people, serving as
the chief link between the Captivity and the restora-
tion of Israel. And further, though holy words are
carefully excluded from the book (possibly through
reserve in a writing designed for circulation amongst
Gentiles,). yet the fast proclaimed by Esther and Mor-
decai points at once to a time of prayer to that Being
Whose Name is left unspoken, and the Feast of Purim,
celebrated by Jews everywhere for the twenty-three
centuries which have since elapsed, testifies to the
national sense of a deliverance scarcely second to that
of the Exodus. The Song, however, cannot be so con-
nected with other parts of Scripture on a literalist
theory, but must remain as a startling and inexplicable
anomaly.
IV. The sense that this is so has prompted, at
Tsolation of
the Song
from the
rest of the
Bible.
The Book of
Esther not a
parallel
case.
Solutions
different eras, various tentative solutions of the diffi- proposed
culty. The earliest of these was propounded by Theo-
dore of Mopsuestia in the first quarter of the fifth
century, and represented the Song as merely an epi-
thalamium on the marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh’s
daughter or with Abishag the Shunammite. This
theory, after being condemned in express and forcible
terms in the Fifth General Council, disappeared com-
pletely for more than eight hundred years, when it
was reproduced for a moment by Gregory Abulfaraj.
It rested again till revived by Grotius, who allowed it,
nevertheless, to include an allegory ; and it was finally
developed into a very elaborate form by the celebrated
1S
difficulty.
XXli INTRODUCTION.
Bossuet, in 1690, whose genius gave it a measure of
popularity amongst scholars till the early part of the
present century, when the ingenious criticisms of
Dr. Mason Good (some of which had been anticipated
long before by Natalis Alexander,) established the utter
incongruity of the language of the Song with the cir-
cumstances of a State alliance and with the national
surroundings of an Egyptian princess, to whom the
pastoral character of the Bride could in no wise be
accommodated. The eloquent words in which Theodoret
expresses the mind of the Church in his day against
the views ascribed to Theodore of Mopsuestia merit
citation. In the preface to his commentary on the
Rejoinder of Canticles, he says: ‘‘ Since the majority of those who
Theodoret.
slander the Song of Songs and deny it to. be a spiritual
book, weave fables unworthy of crazy old women, some
of them saying that Solomon the Wise wrote it con-
cerning himself and Pharaoh’s daughter ; a few authors
of the same stamp alleging that Abishag the Shunam-
mite is the Bride, and not Pharaoh’s daughter ; while
others, taking a somewhat more philosophical view,
call it the Royal Speech, so as to understand the
people by the Bride and the King by the Bridegroom ;
we think that we shall be well employed in refuting
at the outset of our exposition these false and mis-
chievous theories, and then will proceed to set forth the
true and clear meaning of the author. And yet these
men ought to know that the holy Fathers, much their
superiors in wisdom and spiritual insight, were they
who placed this Book amongst the divine Scriptures,
and approving it as full of the Spirir, pronounced it
worthy of the Church. For had they thought other-
wise, they would never have included a work whose
subject was passion and desire in the number of Holy
Writ. . . . Not only Eusebius of Palestine, and Origen
the Egyptian, and Cyprian of Carthage, crowned with
the diadem of martyrdom, and men earlier than they
were and nearer to the Apostles, but also those who
were afterwards famous in the Churches, Basil the
Great in his exposition of the beginning of Proverbs,
and the two Gregories, allied to Basil, one by blood
INTRODUCTION. XXlil
and the other by friendship, and that valiant champion
of religion Diodorus, and John, who to this day waters
the whole earth with the streams of his teaching, and
they who came still later, all pronounced this Book to
be spiritual. Seeing that this is so, let us consider
whether it be reasonable for us to follow our own
theories, paying no attention to so many eminent men,
and despising the Houy Spirit Himself, by not listen-
ing to him who says so well: ‘The thoughts of mortal
men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain,’
(Wisd. ix. 14,) and blessed Paul saying of certain
persons, ‘ They became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened,’ (Rom. i. 21.) But
let us cry thus with blessed Peter, ‘ We ought to obey
Gop rather than man,’ (Acts v. 29.) Let us also say
to them, ‘ Whether it be right in the sight of Gop to
hearken unto you more than unto Gop, judge ye: for
we cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard by the Hoty Guost.’ . . . Coming then
from the old to the new Bride, let us in this wise in-
terpret the Song of Songs, and rejecting false and mis-
_ chievous theories, let us follow the holy Fathers, and re-
cognize one Bride conversing with one Bridegroom; and
learn from the holy Apostles who that Bridegroom and
Bride may be. For the inspired Paul teaches us that,
writing thus, ‘ I have espoused you to one husband, that
I may present you as a chaste virgin to Curist,’ (2 Cor.
xi, 2.) He calls her a Bride who is made up of many.
For he does not say, ‘I have betrothed thee,’ but you,
that is, holy souls, perfected in virtue. For Divine
Scripture understands the Church by the Bride, and
calls Curist the Bridegroom.”
It is needless to heap up testimonies of the same
kind from other Patristic writers, since their own com-
ments on the Song will speak for them in due time.
But it is worth while to dwell for a moment on one
point of the citation just given. It has been alleged
by some modern critics that the dazzling powers of
Origen gave the tone to the traditional interpretation origen not
which has held its ground ever since his day, and that the author
: ‘ , : of the mys-
he drew it from Talmudic sources, being the first to tical view.
Modern
hypothesis.
XX1V INTRODUCTION.
introduce it into the Church. Considering how em-
bittered the opposition to Origen became even in his
own life-time, this is not very probable in itself, but it
is refuted by the contemporaneous language of S.
Cyprian, who was not influenced by Origen’s works,
and also by Theodoret’s incidental mention of an
earlier and consentaneous tradition ascending much
nearer to primitive times. Of this tradition but one
written fragment has come down to us, a solitary note
on Cant. iii. 9, by S. Theophilus of Antioch, who died
between A.D. 178 and 189, a few years before Origen
was born. But the fragment is decisive as to the
method followed in the second century, and materially
lessens the probability of Talmudic influence having
affected a pre-existing literalism.
Omitting the various phases through which the
literalist theory has passed since its revival in the six-
teenth century by Castellio (who went to the length
of rejecting the Canticles altogether) it will suffice to
state briefly the view now in fashion, but soon to be
discredited by its own supporters on the ground of
its glaring improbability and self-contradiction, pos-
sessing, as it does, no shred of external evidence
or internal plausibility. According to this hypothe-
sis, invented by Jacobi in 1771, and accepted with
further developments by the majority of subsequent
literalists, the Song represents the adventures of a
newly-wedded or betrothed Hebrew shepherdess, who
is accidentally seen by Solomon in one of his pro-
- gresses, is vainly solicited and tempted by him, and
Disagree-
ment of its
supporters.
even carried off as a prisoner to the royal harem,
whence she finally escapes with her beloved shepherd
back to the scenes of her former life. The witnesses
called in defence of this theory, like the elders who
testified against Susannah, are agreed in the main
outline of their story, but are so irreconcilably at va-
riance with one another on points of detail essential
to consistency, as to be destructive of each other’s
credit. For if anything might be fairly expected to
be most unmistakably prominent, were the theory true,
it would be the distinction between the language of
INTRODUCTION. XXV
the genuine affection of the shepherd-husband, and
that of the seductive wiles of the royal tempter. But
Ginsburg and Renan, Meier and Hitzig, are utterly at
variance on this head, and interchange the speeches in
the most bewildering manner. Can any one suppose,
were the stage directions in Shakespeare absent, that
there could be the least donbt in assigning their several
parts with accuracy to Othello and Lago, to Postumus
and Jachimo? Further, if the poem be intended, as
has been suggested, as a satire upon Solomon, the
difficulty is very much increased by the elaborate way
in which the censure is concealed, so that the lapse
of about two thousand eight hundred years has been
necessary for its discovery. If a poet of the northern
kingdom had written it with this intent, there is no
conceivable reason why he should not have been more
- plain-spoken, because the fiercer his invective, the
better would the kings of Ephraim have been pleased.
And if he was a total stranger to the Aaronic wor-
ship, the men of the Great Synagogue, with whom
Mosaic orthodoxy and loyalty to the House of Da-
vid were first principles, would never have included
his work in their Canon. If, on the other hand, a
southern bard (and, by the hypothesis, an inspired
one,) were the writer, there is at once a startling dis-
similarity between the extreme caution employed, (wor-
thy of a courtier epigrammatist under Domitian cr Louis
XIV.,) and the bold denunciations of royal guilt such
as we know to have been the wont of Hebrew prophets,
a Nathan, an Elijah, a Micah, or a Jeremiah.
As this commentary is not designed for critical, but
for devotional purposes, it is beside its aim to go into
the further disproof of this theory at length; but two
items of the moral argument against it may be given,
one from the pen of a favourer of it, and the other from
that of an opponent. ‘‘ Wherever,” observes Dr. Da-
vidson, ‘‘ the doctrinal interest prevails, scientific ex-
egesis declines in proportion, because it is overridden.
The genuine spirit of interpretation is always favour-
able to the literal sense. For the same reason Hofman
and Delitzsch have recourse to the typical. Though
e
The Song
not a satire
upon Solo-
mon.
Moral ar-
gument
against
literalism.
XXVl INTRODUCTION.
they do not recognise the validity of the allegorical
method, they are too much led by doctrinal preposses-
sions to embrace the literal, and are therefore fain to
adopt a kindred mode of explanation.” If for “‘ doc-
trinal interest’? we substitute the equivalent term “ re-
ligious belief,” the meaning of this sentence will be
unaltered, but a little clearer, and it is in fact an ad-
mission that in exact proportion as men accept the
tenets of Christianity, they will recede from “the
letter that killeth” and draw near to “‘ the spirit that
giveth life.’’ The other remark is that of Hengsten-
berg, who has said with biting truth: “ The literal
interpretation of this Book gained its honours in the
age of Rationalism, when the Church was degraded to
its lowest level, and when it was bare and void of
sound ecclesiastical judgment, and of holy taste and
tact.” He might have gone further, had his position
allowed it, and have pointed out that the Lutheran
body, true to the animal and earthly instincts of its
celebrated founder, has always been nearer the ground
than any other large Christian community, and less
capable of lofty spiritual views. The whole sect, in
its three centuries of existence, though prolific in re-
spectability, has not given birth to one man in whom the
common consent of other men has recognized the
marks of a saintly character, such as have not infre-
quently illustrated the members of other Communions,
nor has it produced any book (with the possible ex-
ception of Gerhard’s Meditations) which has been per-
manently added to the list of those devotional works
that have really enriched religious literature. In the
field of the outer letter of Biblical study, in textual
and grammatical criticism, in historical elucidation, it
has laboured in a spirit of diligence and zeal beyond
all praise, yet as
the least erected spirit that fell
From heaven; for even in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else, enjoyed
In vision beatific.
INTRODUCTION. XXVli
Consequently, from being thus always engaged with
the outer shell, the inner sense and the religious aroma
have always escaped it. It has expended much care
and science on Holy Writ, but its spiritual chemistry
has invariably been of the kind which turns the most
lustrous diamonds into black and worthless lumps of
carbon, never of that higher constructive type which
makes the light of jewels flash on our eyes from the
dark places of the Bible.
The necessity, after the gradual manufacture of the
reigning literalist theory, for discovering some ground
for the retention of the Canticles in the Canon, has
led to the assertion that its design is to teach a higher
morality with regard to love and marriage than that
prevalent amongst the Jews of the Solomonic age, and
In particular, to be a protest against polygamy and its
attendant evils. There is a very sensible rule in Eng-
lish law-courts to the effect that whatever may be the
apparent grammatical meaning of an old statute, the
only rule which can guide a judge is the interpretation
put on its wording by his predecessors in their deci-
sions. If it can be shown by a series of precedents,
that the meaning contended for was never so much as
urged, not to say recognized and allowed by the Courts,
the plea breaks down at once. So it is in this case.
There is not the faintest hint in any writer, Jewish or
Christian, before the nineteenth century, that such a
lesson is inculcated by the Song of Songs, there is no
trace of any influence having been exerted by it in this
direction.
Conversely, the rule holds good that a series of de-
cisions in agreement with one another, however little
they may seem at first sight to outsiders to be logically
deducible from the premises, are declaratory of the
true force of a statute. Here, then, is a book which
has exerted an exceedingly marked influence in Chris-
tendom ever since a Christian literature arose ; which
has materially affected the whole range of ascetic theo-
logy; which has powerfully contributed to the forma-
tion of that religious ideal which moulded ten centuries
of Christian history; which continues to maintain its
e2
The Song
not a trea-
tise on wed-
lock.
XXVill INTRODUCTION.
hold upon many thousands of: believers, directly or in-.
directly. For all practical purposes, and for all philo-
sophic investigation into the spiritual records of the
world, no method: is of any. value save the mystical
one, for no other has ever passed into the stage of
energy, or has. contributed anything to the religious
consciousness of mankind: If the truth of Jacobi’s
hypothesis could be set beyond a doubt by the dis-
covery of coeval documents, there would be at best
but the same kind of languid antiquarian interest
aroused which greets each fresh alleged: Biblical testi-
mony found in cuneiform inscriptions, because the theory
has always been utterly barren and dead; and the graver
problem would remain unsolved, how a literature so
peculiarly limpid and emphatic in its utterance on moral
and social questions should have suddenly changed its
whole method; and have approached the question of
marriage by a path so indirect, obscure, and enigmatic,
as to be wholly inaccessible to all for whom the teach-
ing was intended, and to owe its first survey to the
chance guess of a stray traveller, eighteen centuries after
another road had: been opened, involving the total disuse
of the older one. There have been many rival theories
as to the road by which Hannibal’s army crossed the
Alps, but no one has yet conjectured that it came over
the summit of Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn, much
less that there was no other path for ordinary traffic till
the Simplon was made practicable. And, it may be
added, the upholders of this theory have shown. by their
own conduct how little they value the lesson they pro-
fess to have found: The marriage law of Prussia, under
which most of them live, is perhaps the very laxest and,
least. moral in the civilized world ;. only slightly, if, at
all, raised above the level of that: of Imperial Rome im
the days of Juvenal. Yet it does not: appear to have
elicited any protest based upon the Canticles, or, m-
deed, upon anything else, from the critics.
Form and V. With regard to the form and unity of the Can-
Sa, the ticles, there have also been conflicting theories, but the
earliest: Christian view has, curiously enough, been:re-
instated: by modern critics in both these respects, for
INTRODUCTION. XX1xX
they admit onthe one hand that the poem is essentially
one, and not a mere collection of odes loosely strung
together, and on the other that its truest designation
is that of a dramatic idyll. There is, however, the
utmost disagreement amongst them as to the portions
into which the Song is to be divided. Magnus, for
example, makes twenty strophes of it; De Wette and
Heiligstedt twelve, though disagreeing as to the points
of division; Hitzig finds nine, Weissbach six, and
several others five. There is a similar, though much
slighter, discrepancy between the pauses recognized by
the mystical interpreters (for in truth these pauses are,
with but one or two exceptions, very indistinctly
marked,) but there is a very great difference between
the result of these contradictions in the two cases.
The mystics, acknowledging the Song to be a drama
only in the modified sense of a dialogue carried on
between three speakers,—the Bridegroom, the Bride,
and the leader of their friends,—during a certain change
of action, of entrances and exits, are little disturbed
by any difficulty in adjustment of the divisions, because
the sense is quite unaffected thereby. But the lite-
ralists, who profess to see a regular plot evolved in
accordance with the rules and the spirit of modern
melodrama, are put out of court if they cannot agree
amongst themselves as to the progress of the action, and
few things in criticism are more instructive than the ela-
borate stage-directions and lavish creation of additional
dramatis persone to which Hitzig has been driven in
order to harmonize the contradictions of their theory.
The accepted Christian view, which acknowledges only wn. pride.
one masculine speaker in the Song, that Solomon who groom, King
is depicted as at once Shepherd and King, finds con- #oy °°?
firmation from the juxtaposition of these two ideas in
relation to the same person more than once in the Old
Testament, as thus in Ezek. xxxiv. 23, “And I will
set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them,
even My servant David; he shall feed them, and be
their Shepherd. And I the Lorp will be their Gop,
and My servant David a prince among them; I the
Lorp have spoken it.” Again, in Micah v. 2, 4, the
XXX INTRODUCTION.
“¢ Ruler in Israel”? Who is to come out of Bethlehem,
is to “feed in the strength of the Lorp.” Accord-
ingly, it is natural enough to find Curist claiming as
His own the titles of Shepherd and King, and the
Lamb of the Apocalypse crowned, and yet leading the
redeemed to pastures and fountains, so that this por-
tion of the imagery is as closely in accord with the
teaching of the New Testament as that concerning the
bridal relation was shown to be a little while back.
The Bride of In the following Commentary the Bride is usually de-
the Can-
ticles ;
threefold.
Catena of
Authors.
picted as the Church, whether Jewish or Gentile, or as
the holy soul which is the microcosm of the Church.
The Blessed Virgin, as the holiest of all elect souls,
and as thus the most perfect type of the Church of
Gop, is also given frequent prominence, in accordance
with the teaching of the great medizeval divines. But
a certain weight must be allowed to the twofold objec-
tion urged against absolute identification of her with
the Bride throughout; namely, that the Bridegroom
stands to her in the relation of Son, not of Husband;
and further, that it is not till the twelfth century that
any very large share is allotted her by the commentators.
As a fact, Rupert of Deutz, and Honorius of Autun,
who were the first to make her the leading figure in
the Canticles, are frequently compelled to desert their
path and return to the earlier track, and the four com-
mentators, Denys 4 Rykel, Delrio, Ghislerius, and Cor-
nelius & Lapide, who have professed to devote a section
on each verse to her, are constantly obliged either to
mere repetition of what they had already said concern-
ing the holy soul, merely strengthening the epithets,
or to pass over the paragraph with a few conventional
phrases. Therefore, in the following pages no at-
tempt has been made to pursue the formal tripartite
division, and the Bride is presented under each aspect
solely in proportion to what the text will reasonably bear,
and to the really telling expositions of the Schoolmen.
VI. It remains now only to speak briefly of the
authors whose works have been employed in the com-
pilation of this volume, and at the outset it should be
observed that one very marked difference is noticeable
INTRODUCTION. XXx1
between the Commentaries on the Psalter and those on
the Canticles. On the Psalter, possibly from its greater
prominence in the Western Church, the Latin Fathers
far surpass the Greek in beauty, depth, and fervour of
exposition. In treating the Canticles, the case is re-
versed. No Latin writer on this book, not even 8.
Bernard, approaches Origen; S. Gregory the Great is
inferior to Philo of Carpasia; Aponius ranks below
Theodoret ; Rupert beneath 8. Gregory Nyssen. To
counterbalance this advantage, the Canticles have suf-
fered very heavy losses, positive and negative. Nega-
tively, they have never been treated by some of those
whose genius was most adapted to such atask. WNei-
ther 8. Albert the Great nor S. Bonaventura, for ex-
ample, have included it in their labours. Positively,
the losses have been much more serious. Of the great
commentary of Origen but a few scanty fragments re-
main, breaking off before the close of the second chapter.
S. Gregory Nyssen’s work remains imperfect too, and
Michael Psellus, who paraphrases him, is compelled to
break off in consequence. Death seized S. Bernard
while he was engaged in the composition of his won-
derful sermons on the Song of Songs, when he was but
a fourth of the way through his task, and the like des-
tiny took away his continuator, Gilbert of Hoyland,
before he had completed the fifth chapter. Some of
the ancient commentators, as Eusebius and Polychro-
nius, are reduced to the merest fragments; others
have perished all but the name. Yet, after all such
deductions, the quantity of material existing down to
the close of the sixteenth century is very great, of con-
siderable interest and value, and singularly homo-
geneous, apart from the open borrowing or recasting
usual in commentaries of successive generations. Since
that time the number of writings on the book has
vastly increased in number, but not by any means in
spiritual value, and the list subjoined, therefore, makes
no pretence to be an exhaustive catalogue, but merely
indicates the volumes which have actually been laid
under contribution, or examined with that end, even if
unsuccessfully.
Greek and
Latin Com-
mentators.
Third
Century.
Fourth
Century.
XXXll INTRODUCTION.
1. First in order, though perhaps not in actual date
of present condition, comes the Targum on Canticles,
valuable as exhibiting the current of Jewish tradition,
and often illustrating remarkably the views of Chris-
tian theology. Icite it usually from Walton’s Polyglot.
2. Origen, (+ 253) whose splendid genius and
profound devotional instinct shone so conspicuously
in his Biblical writings, left a commentary of great
length on the Canticles, of which S. Jerome, a most
competent judge, observed that whereas he had sur-
passed every one else in his other commentaries, he
~ had surpassed himself in this. Only a few brief pas-
sages remain, carrying on the exposition to Cant. u. 15.
3. Still more unfortunate has been Eusebius of
Cesarea (+ 340,) of whose commentary only the
merest fragments exist, which were published by Meur-
sius at Lyons in 1617.
4. S. Gregory Nyssen (+ 370) has left a commen-
tary carried on as far as Cant. vi. 9. Its distinguishing
peculiarity is that he represents the Bride throughout
as the soul of man, and pays but little attention to the
more usual theory. His defects of obscurity and invo-
lution are by no means absent from the work.
5. A Catena, known as that of the Three Fathers,
SS. Nilus, Maximus, and Gregory Nyssen, drawn up
at an early period, is of considerable value, and is one of
the chief authorities for the tropological interpretation.
6. S, Epiphanius, the famous Bishop of Constantia
(+ 403,) wrote a commentary on the Canticles, long sup-
posed to be utterly lost,-and not therefore cited by any of
the chief compilers. It was translated, however, into
Latin by his namesake Epiphanius the Scholastic, about
a century after his death, and after lying neglected in
manuscript for twelve hundred years, was at last pub-
lished at Rome by Foggini in 1750. It is very terse,
and not of much importance, because, for the one part,
it follows Origen pretty closely; and for the other, it
is followed in turn and happily expanded by the sub-
ject of the next notice. The Abbé Migne’s edition,
though professing to give all the works, genuine and
spurious, of each Epiphanius, omits this commentary.
INTRODUCTION. XXxlil
7. Philo, Bishop of Carpasia in Cyprus (+ 374,)
the pupil and friend of S. Epiphanius, to whom he
owed his see, has left one of the most valuable of the
early commentaries on the Song of Songs. It is of
considerable length, and contains many passages of
great beauty, probably enshrining for us much of the
teaching of Origen, and undoubtedly much of that of
S. Epiphanius. It is noteworthy for another reason
also, that S. Gregory the Great borrowed freely from
it in his commentary, a circumstance which has led
Cornelius 4 Lapide to allege that Philo must have been
largely interpolated, rather than admit that the great
Western Doctor could stoop to draw materials from
the Hast.
_ 8. S. Ambrose (+ 397) though not formally a com-
‘mentator on Canticles, has, in fact, gone over nearly
the whole ground in one or other of his books, and
often with great beauty of illustration. A certain
Abbat Guilielmus of 8. Thierry at Rheims (+ circ.
1160) was at the pains to collect these scattered notices
into a single volume.
9. Polychronius (+ 427,) Bishop of Apamea, has Fifth
left a few fragments on the Song, in full agreement areca
with the traditional interpretation, and noteworthy on
that account, because he was brother of its first im-
pugner, Theodore of Mopsuestia. They were pub-
lished, along with those of Eusebius, by Meursius.
10. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus (+ 430,) is one of
the most important and able of the early expositors,
and the calm judgment of his language adds much
weight to his opinion.
11. S. Justus of Urgel (+ 540,) is the earliest ex- Sixth
tant Latin commentator, and, while following in the °°"
track of his Eastern predecessors, often adds a pithy
remark of his own, which exhibits the germ of that
kind of mystical exposition which culminated in the
twelfth century.
12. Next follows the commentary ascribed to Cas-
siodorus (+ 562,) though its authorship is disputed.
The truth seems to be that it is his, though. interpo-
lated to some extent. Whoever the author may be,
Seventh
Century.
Eighth
Century.
Ninth
Century.
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
the work is marked with great good sense and un-
questionable piety.
13. S. Gregory the Great (+ 604,) has not sus-
tained his usual level in his Commentary on the Can-
ticles. That there are devout and beautiful passages
in it; besides those drawn from Philo, is unquestionable,
but it does not reach the standard of his Morals on the
Book of Job.
14. S. Isidore of Seville (+ 636,) has compiled a
very brief gloss on the Canticles, containing no fresh
matter, and it may accordingly be passed over by
students.
15. Aponius, an author of somewhat uncertain date,
but probably about 680, wrote one of the very best of
the early Latin comments. It is unfortunately imper-
fect, but an epitome of the missing portion, by Lucas,
Abbat of Mount 8. Cornelius, is extant, and in a great
degree supplies the loss.
16. The Venerable Bede (+ 1735) follows Cassio-
dorus almost invariably, but often expands his thought
and adds some fresh touches which give additional
vigour and fervency.
17. Alcuin of York (+ 750,) like 8. Isidore of
Seville, brings nothing new to the exposition of the
Song, and may be safely omitted.
18. Angelomus of Luxeuil (+ 850,) compiled at
the desire of the Emperor Hlothar I. a commentary in
which he mainly follows Aponius and 8. Gregory the
Great, but not infrequently adds a few touches of his
own, which have their value.
19. Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt (+ 853,) a con-
temporary of Angelomus, has also compiled a terse gloss
drawn from his predecessors, and selected with much
judgment. It contains, however, very little original
matter.
20. To the same period, about the middle of the
ninth century, belongs the Ordinary Gloss, first drawn
up by Strabo of Fulda, and gradually augmented. It
will be found cited a few times in the following com-
rnentary.
21. The tenth century is an entire blank, so far as
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
expositions of the Canticles go, and the first book of
the kind which meets us in the eleventh century is a
mere epitome of S. Gregory the Great by S. Radulphus
of Fontenelle, first Abbat of S. Vandrille (+ 1047.)
His learned Augustinian editor, Hommey, retorts the
charge which Cornelius & Lapide brings against Philo,
for he claims for him the original authorship as against
S. Gregory, but on very insufficient grounds.
22. Michael Psellus, a Greek physician and senator,
(+ 1105,) wrote, about 1050, a metrical paraphrase of
the Canticles in accentual iambic verse, based on the
commentary of 8. Gregory Nyssen, but occasionally
introducing new matter of his own.
23. 8. Anselm of Laon, the “Scholastic Doctor,”
(+ 1103,) is supposed to be the true author of a com-
mentary of much interest which was originally printed
under the name of his more eminent namesake and
contemporary, 8. Anselm of Canterbury. It has also
been attributed to Hervé of Dol, and will be found
often cited in the succeeding pages.
24. Marbod of Rennes, who died at a very great
age in 1123, has left, like Psellus, a metrical para-
phrase of the Song, executed in hexameters. — Its close-
ness to the Vulgate text, however, and tolerable neat-
ness of execution, are its chief merits, for it does not
add anything to the exegesis.
25. 8S. Bruno of Aste, (+ cire. 1120,) is the author
of a compilation on the Canticles, which contains
scarcely a trace of new matter, and may therefore be
passed over.
26. The wonderful sermons on the Canticles by S.
Bernard, (+ 1130,) all too few, though eighty-six in
number, do not quite complete the exposition of the
first and second chapters. Their eloquence and fer-
vour are far more conspicuous than the actual amount
of direct illustration which they yield, though it is by
no means scanty, and they not merely deserve, but
compel perusal.
27. Honorius of Autun, the author of the famous
Gemma Anime, (+ circ. 1180,) has left two indepen-
dent commentaries, one of them entitled Sigillum B.
Eleventh
Century.
Twelfth
Century.
Thirteenth
Century.
°
XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
Maria, both of them containing many beautiful, though
fanciful passages.
98. Richard of 8. Victor, (+ 1130,) has commented
on portions only of the Canticles, and is not quite con-
tinuous in his work. What he has done is, however
worthy of his great reputation as a mystical divine,
and he will be found often cited.
29. Rupert, Abbat of Deutz, (+ 1135,) one of the
very greatest of medizeval commentators on Scripture,
has produced a gloss of considerable length, whose
main feature is the presentment of the Blessed Virgin
as the Bride, a rule only occasionally departed from
throughout his work, and that under great stress.
30. The same holds of the Gloss by Philip Harveng,
Abbat of Bona Spes, in Hainault, (+ 1150,) a cele-
brated mystic, but it is far inferior to that of Rupert in
beauty and value, and will be rarely found referred to.
31. The sermons of Gilbert of Hoyland, (+ 1175,)
on the Canticles, written in avowed continuation of 8.
Bernard, and approaching more nearly than any others
to the beauty and fervour of his style, are well deserv-
ing of study, and have supplied many paragraphs to
this book.
32. Irimbert, Abbat of Ambden, and previously of
S. Michael at Bamberg, (+ 1177,) commented at
some length on detached portions of the Canticles, and
sometimes happily enough. His work was first pub-
lished by the learned Bernard Pez in his Zhesaurus
Anecdotorum.
33. Alanusde Insulis, the Universal Doctor, (+ 1203,)
has followed in the steps of Rupert, but not without
leaving traces of his own marked individuality on his
work.
34. William Little, of Newbury, or Guilielmus Par-
vus, (+ 1208,) the author of a well-known and sensible
History of England, also wrote a commentary on the
Canticles, now lost, but which Delrio, who saw it in
MS. at Louvain about 1600, has largely cited. All quo-
tations from this source are therefore at second-hand.
35. Thomas, Canon of S. Victor, and first Abbat of
S. Andrew’s at Verceil, (+ 1226,) wrote a mystical
INTRODUCTION. XXXVI
comment on the Canticles, based on the Hierarchies of
the Pseudo-Dionysius, for the most part difficult of
comprehension by the uninitiated reader, but with oc-
casional passages which are really suggestive and clear.
It was published by Pez in the same volume as Ivimbert.
36. John Hailgrin, Archbishop of Besancon, and
Cardinal of S. Sabina, (+ 1237,) is author of a Gloss
belonging to the same school as those of Rupert and
Alan of Lille, but not, on the whole, of remarkable
merit.
37. A more famous Cardinal, occupying the same
title of S. Sabina, Hugo of 8S. Cher, (+ 1250,) is
next to follow. His great work on the whole Bible
includes the Canticles, and though mainly aiming at
condensing and systematizing the patristic comments,
often adds much of value to the older matter.
38. A Catena, passing under the famous name of
S. Thomas Aquinas, (+ 1274,) but of more than
doubtful authenticity, succeeds in order. It adds so
very little to what had: been done four centuries earlier
by Haymo of Halberstadt, that. it may be altogether
-pretermitted.
39. Nicolas de Lyra, a converted Jew, of Norman Fourteenth
birth, and afterwards an ornament of the Franciscan CY:
Order, (+ 1340,) is the author of valuable Postils on
the Bible, in which his knowledge of Hebrew is made
to bear on the exegesis. The distinguishing pecu-
liarity of his useful treatise on the Canticles is the re-
newed prominence into which he brings the forgotten
thought of the spiritual identity between the Jewish
and Christian Churches, thus striking at the root of
that alleged severance of the Song from all relations to
the Old Testament which has been charged by modern.
literalists: against the mystical exposition.
40. The Emperor Matthew Cantacuzene, (+ circ.
1360,) who, after a: year’s partnership of the Byzantine
throne with his father John V., retired to a monastery:
on Mount Athos; wrote in his monastic state a commen-
tary containing many beautiful passages, and noticeable
as the only Greek one which depicts the Blessed Virgin
as the Bride..
Fifteenth
Century.
Sixteenth
Century.
XXXVlli INTRODUCTION.
41. John Gerson, the “Most Christian Doctor,”
(+ 1429,) has directly treated the Song in his Sym-
psalma in Canticum, and indirectly in his more cele-
brated Treatise on the Magnificat. But his writings,
though full of piety and fervour, contribute scarcely
anything to the exposition.
42. Far different is the case with the beautiful com-
ment of the Ecstatic Doctor, Dionysius Leewis a Ry-
kel, better known as Dionysius the Carthusian (+ 1450.)
He is the first to divide each chapter under three
formal heads, according as he treats of the Church, or
Sponsa Universalis, of the holy soul, or Sponsa particu-
laris, or of the Blessed Virgin, or Sponsa singularis, a
method which found several followers at a later time.
I am not sure that this work does not rank above even
his lovely exposition of the Psalms.
43. Contemporary with this is the work of Nicolas
Kempf of Strasburg, Prior of the Carthusians at
Gaming in Austria, and known as Nicolaus de Argen-
tina, (+ 1450,) published by Pez, in the two closing -
volumes of the Bibliotheca Ascetica. Though mainly
drawn from SS. Gregory the Great and Bernard, it is
full of beautiful passages due to the compiler himself,
and will amply repay examination.
44. The celebrated mystic, Henry Harphius, (+ 1478,)
has left a treatise on the spiritual life, entitled Theologia
Mystica, consisting of long expositions or meditations
on detached verses of the Song, perfectly crowded with
beauties, though not always available for separate cita-
tion. No edition after 1580 is trustworthy, as the
book was tampered with by its later editors.
45. Jacob Parez de Valentia, Bishop of Christopolis,
(+ 1507,) has treated the Canticles in a gloss which,
though of little originality or power, contains not a few
suggestive passages. )
46. Francis Titelmann, a Franciscan, (+ cire. 1547,)
aman of great learning and no mean critical skill, has
written usefully on the Song, though not contributing
much to the mystical exposition.
47. S. Thomas of Villanova, Archbishop of Valencia,
(+ 1555,) was cut off by death after having merely
INTRODUCTION. XXX1X
outlined his intended Commentary on the Song, and
when but three chapters had been sketched.. The pa-
tristic spirit shines, however, in the fragment, and
causes regret at the incompleteness of the undertaking.
48. Martin Delrio, a learned Jesuit, (+ 1608,) is the
first on the list of those commentators of the seven-
teenth century who began a twofold treatment of the
books they discussed, first giving a literal and textual
comment, and then a catena of earlier expositions. His
own original matter is not striking, but he has collected
much yaluable material together.
49. Michael Ghislerius, a Clerk Regular, (+ cire.
1615,) is the most ponderous of writers on the Can-
ticles. He has bequeathed to us an enormous folio of
nearly a thousand pages in double columns and small
type, wherein he discusses every verse in five different
ways; textually, taking the Church, the holy soul,
and the Blessed Virgin, severally as the Bride, and clos-
ing with a long catena of ancient expositors, which is
by far the most valuable part of his work, though even
it is by no means exhaustive.
50. Henry Ainsworth, an English Independent
(+ 1622,) is deserving of consultation, for the Rab-
binical learning and the apt parallelisms from other
books of Scripture which he has brought to bear upon
the Song.
51. Luis de la Puente, or De Ponte, (+ 1624,)
composed a huge volume of Sermons on the Canticles,
intended for the use of Religious, but heavy and life-
less in treatment, and quite below his reputation.
52. It is unnecessary to do more than name the
well-known commentary of Cornelius 4 Lapide (+ 1637)
since its character is sufficiently well known to make
criticism superfluous.
53. John Cocceius, a German Protestant theologian
of enormous learning and diligence, and of great piety,
(+ 1669,) of whom it was said, that “Grotius sees
Curist nowhere, but Cocceius sees Him everywhere,”
recalls the spirit of the best medizevalists by his remark-
able gift of mystical appreciation. His Commentary
on the Canticles is injured by its exclusive reference to
Seventeenth
Century.
xl INTRODUCTION.
the literal history of the Christian Church, and by oc-
casional outbreaks of controversy, but it may be con-
sulted with much profit.
With this author closes the period formally embraced
in the following commentary, which does not profess
to deal with the exevesis of the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries, properly beginning with Bossuet’s
commentary in 1690. But as textual criticism often
throws new and valuable light on mystical interpreta-
tion, later writers have been freely consulted, and it
will suffice to enumerate, amongst others, Harmer,
Percy, Mason Good, Rosenmiiller, Heiligstedt, Hitzig,
Hengstenberg, Weissbach, and Thrupp. It. would have
been easy to have extended the catalogue largely, but
at the sacrifice of unity of plan; and_ besides, the
omitted authors are for the most part readily accessible
and familiarly known, whereas the majority of those
quoted in the succeeding pages have been hitherto
practically confined to a very narrow circle of readers.
A COMMENTARY
ON
Le SONG OF SONGS.
CHAPTER I.
1 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
Song of songs. ‘‘ As we have been taught by Moses
that there are not only holy places, but a Holy of
~ holies, that there are not only other Sabbaths, but Sab-
baths of sabbaths; so now we are taught, by the pen
of Solomon, that there are not only songs, but a Song
of songs. Blessed, truly, is he who enters into the
holy place, but more blessed he who enters the Holy
of holies. Blessed is he who keepeth the Sabbath, but
more blessed who keepeth the Sabbath of sabbaths.
So, too, blessed is he who understands songs, and sings
them, for.no one does sing save on high festivals, but
much more blessed is he who sings the Song of songs.
And as he, who enters into the holy place, still needs
much ere he is able to proceed into the Holy of holies,
and as he who keeps the sabbath enjoined on the people
by the Lorn, wants many things that he may keep the
Sabbath of sabbaths, so too he who traverses all the
songs of Holy Writ, finds it no easy thing to ascend to
the Song of songs. Thou must needs go out of Egypt,
and, issued thence, cross the Red Sea, that thou mayest
sing the first song, saying, ‘I will sing unto the Loxp,
for He hath triumphed gloriously.’ And even though
thou mayest have sung this first song, thou art still
far from the Song of songs. Pass spiritually through
B
Origen,
Exod. xv. I.
Numb. xxi.
Wes
Deut. xxxii.
1 e
Judg.v. 1.
2 Sam. xxii.
Isa, Xxx. 29.
Aponius.
Ricard. Vic-
torin.
Rupert.
Theodoret.
Eph. v. 19.
Nicol.
Argent.
Honor. Aug.
S. Greg.
Magn.
S. Bernard.
2 A COMMENTARY ON (tra.
the wilderness, till thou comest to the well, which the
princes dug, that thou mayest there sing the second
song. Afterwards approach the borders of the Holy
Land, and, standing on Jordan’s banks, sing the song
of Moses, ‘ Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak ;
and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.’ Yet
again, thou needest soldiers, and the inheritance of the
Holy Land, and that a bee should prophesy to thee
and judge thee—for Deborah is, by interpretation, a
bee—that thou mayest utter that hymn also, which is
contained in the Book of Judges. Ascending to the
record of the Kings, come to the song when David
escaped from the hands of all his enemies, and from
the hand of Saul, and said, ‘The Lorp is my rock, and
my fortress, and my deliverer.’ Thence thou must
reach Isaiah, that thou mayest say with him, ‘I will
sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved touching His
vineyard.’ And when thou hast traversed all these, go
up yet higher, that thou mayest with pure soul cry unto
the Bridegroom this song of songs.” TheTargum counts
ue ten songs, adding to Origen’s list those of Adam, sung
after his fall and pardon; Joshua’s at Ajalon; and a
tenth, never yet uttered, to be sung by the people of Gop
at the end of their long captivity, to which applies that
prophecy, ‘‘ Ye shall have a song, as in the night when
a holy solemnity is kept.” This one, however, is the
Song of songs, because as Curist our Lorp, as Man,
surpassing all Apostles, Patriarchs, Prophets, and hea-
venly powers, is King of kings, and Lorp of lords,
so this song, since entirely concerning Him and His
Bride, excels, and includes in itself, all the hymns of
victory, of thanksgiving, of instruction, and of lamen-
tation in Holy Writ, just as the bridal feast surpasses
all others, and since no blessing which other songs
commemorate can be compared with the Incarnation. -
And as the Apostle tells his hearers to speak to them-
selves ‘in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs,”
we understand that psalms, accompanied by an instru-
ment, denote the active life of charity, and hymns the
contemplative life, and songs, embracing these two, are
the life of the righteous, who give soul and body to
Gop; while the Song of songs, that holy secret which
only Gop’s unction can teach, only spiritual experience
can make-clear, is the life of the perfect. The Song
is Solomon’s, the third in order of his books, following
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, to teach us that after the
ae THE SONG OF SONGS. 3
have passed the purgative way, by following the moral
precepts of the first of these; and the illuminative way, s. Greg. M.
by learning in the second that all earthly things are
vanity, and Gop alone to be desired; we attain in the
third place to the unitive way, and by it make our en- Origen.
trance into the Holy of holies, where the High Priest,
our Bridegroom, stands, that we may there learn and Nic. Argent.
sing the song of perfect love,—there only, for ‘ how Ps. cxxxvii.
shall we sing the Lorp’s song in a strange land?” It *:
is Solomon’s, for Solomon means Peaceful, and Crist, ~ wee
to Whom it in truth appertains, is “ our Peace,” having 1 y; 44
been ‘‘ made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and a ap
sanctification, and redemption.” edna ¢
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth : for thy love is better than wine.
First, say the Fathers in general, it is the cry of the omn. patr.
Synagogue, Gon’s ancient Church, yearning for the
Incarnation of Curist, and desiring that Gop would
no more speak to her only by the voices of angels and
prophets, but face to face. I care not, she says, to g, Bernard.
hear Moses, who is slow of speech to me, the lips o
Isaiah are unclean, Jeremiah cannot speak, for he is a
child, and all the Prophets are tongueless. Let Him
of Whom they speak, Himself speak, let Him kiss me Dion. Carth.
with the kisses of His mouth. And His answer is set
down for us by the Apostle: ‘‘Gop, Who at sundry ueb.i.1.
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son.” She asks for His kiss,
because as two separate bodies unite in the act of kiss-
ing, so Curist, by His becoming flesh, united Gop and The Gloss,
man together, two natures in One Person. And as
a kiss denotes peace and reconciliation, it is the fit
greeting of Him, our peaceful Solomon, Who came to 8. Justus
us as Gop and Saviour. It is also the ery of the 0's*!-
Gentile world, yearning for the teaching of the Hoty yo. parpn.
Spirit, for as the breath of one that kisses is felt by
the one that is kissed, so by the kiss of CHrist, we s. Ambros.
understand the inspiration of the Hoty Guost Whom
He hath sent. Next, the words belong to every faith- s. Greg. M.
ful soul which desires the presence of its Lorp. See, §- Berard.
exclaims a Saint, how sudden is the opening of her pier
address. Asking a great thing from a mighty Person,
she uses no customary flattery, she takes no indirect
B 2
S. Bernard.
Serm. viii.
S. John v.
14,
Hugo Card.
Ps, Ixxiii. 24.
De Ponte.
Parez,
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Ps. xiviec.
4s A COMMENTARY ON give
way to that which she longs for. She makes no pre-
face, she seeks not to conciliate good-will, but breaking
out from the abundance of her heart, says, in plainest
and boldest words, Let Him kiss me with the kisses of
His mouth. His mouth. Yes, but it is not every one
who dares ask this, but only such as have already re-
ceived the pledge of love, and desire it again. For us
sinners it is fitter to fall down trembling at the feet of
our righteous Lorp, like the publican, not daring to
look up, but like the sinful woman, content to kiss His
feet, and to bathe them with our tears. Then, when
He hath said, ‘‘ Thou art made whole, sin no more, lest
a worse thing happen to thee,” we may dare to rise a
little, and kiss the Hand which has cleansed and lifted
us, giving Him the homage and glory which are His
due. At last, after many tears and prayers, we may,
in fear and trembling, lift our heads to His glorious
mouth, not merely to gaze upon it, but to kiss it. To
Thee, O Lorp Jxsv, to Thee has my heart fitly said,
Thy Face, Lorp, will I seek. For Thou madest me
to hear of Thy mercy betimes in the morning, when,
as I lay in the dust, kissing Thy sacred footsteps,
Thou forgavest me the sins of my life. Then, as the
day grew on, Thou madest glad the soul of Thy ser-
vant, bestowing on me the grace of holy living in the
kiss of Thy Hand. And now what remains, O gracious
Lorp, save that in the fulness of light, in the fervour
of the Spirit, Thou, mercifully admitting me to the
kiss of Thy mouth also, wouldst fill me with joy with
Thy countenance? Note, too, how it is said Let Him
kiss me, with no name particularized, no context to ex-
plain who is meant. And that because to the Bride
there can be but One to think of, because her word
ever is, “* Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there
is none on earth I desire in comparison of Thee.’ She
asks, too, not for a single kiss, but for kisses, for those
seven great gifts of the Sprrit which Curist bestows,
and for other graces besides. And He gives them in
four ways, by His Incarnation, by His conversation
amongst men as their Teacher, by mystical incorpora-
tion with us for our redemption, and by the final glory
which He promises. Peace with Gop in CuHrist, is
then the scope of the Bride’s longings, as she prays for
illumination, for love, for perfect union with Him of
Whom she says, “ Full of grace are Thy lips, wherefore
Gop hath blessed Thee for ever.’ His lips, which give
Bo THE SONG OF SONGS. D
the kiss, are His truth and sweetness, hers, which re- Henr.
ceive it, are her understanding and affection. And He Harph.
has heard the cry of His Bride, and answered it, giving
her more than she asked, giving her Himself again
and again in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. ‘ The pseudo-
soul,” observes an ancient writer, “sees herself cleansed Ambros.
_ from all her sins, and fitted to approach the Altar of °° S@":”
Curist. She sees the wondrous Sacrament and saith,
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, let
Curist Himself impress His kiss on me.” And Simeon
Metaphrastes, in that hymn which the Eastern Church
puts in the mouth of her children before Communion,
speaks of the kiss which the penitent soul offers in turn
to her Lorp in that sacred rite :
More than the harlot I have erred, who, learning Thine abode, dvowes.
Made purchase of the precious nard, and boldly took her road
To seek and to anoint Thy feet, O Curist, my Gop and Lorp,
And, as she came with love to greet, was not by Thee abhorred.
So, Si ee of Gop, calm Thou my fears, and give me, not de-
spised,
Thy feet to clasp, and kiss, and wash with tears, that nard un-
priced.
The soul may kiss her Lorp also by acts of love and
compassion towards His poor, and will be rewarded by
~ Him therefor with that last kiss which He will give
at the Doom, saying, ‘‘Come, ye blessed.” But they
who have not so kissed Him here, shall see His face no
more, for He will turn His back upon them. And that
which is true of the Church, and true of every believ-
ing soul, is especially true of her who is the Church’s
fairest ornament, the purest and most blessed of Saints,
the Virgin Mother of Gop. The words are her prayer
to Gop the Fatusr, that by the breath of His mouth,
which is the Hoty Guost, He may give her that in-
effable kiss, His Only-begotten Son. When the Angel
brought her the marvellous tidings of her true be-
trothal, then by her answer, “ Behold the handmaid of S. Luke.
the Lorp, be it unto me according to thy word,” she **
did in truth say, Let Him kiss me with the kisses of
His mouth. And after His nativity, the prayer was
yet more literally answered, when the tender Mother Co™: # 1@p-
hung over her infant Lorp, and clasped Him to her
breast. And His love so endured that even at the last
moment of life He bent to offer His kiss. ‘‘ He bowed panier, de
His head to His Mother,” says a holy writer, ‘and to Pass. Dom.
all mankind, as though bidding His last farewell, and
Nic. Argent.
Rupert.
Keble, Lyra
Innocent.
Theodoret.
S. Greg. M.
Isa. lxv. 24.
Origen.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Haymo.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodorus.
Beda.
S. Just. Org.
S. Greg. M.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Nilus.
S. Maximus.
Hom. in
Mat. 83.
Serm. ix.
6 A COMMENTARY ON (1923
offering the kiss of peace. See here, O faithful soul,
the unspeakable love of thy Gon, that He loved us unto
the end.” And we learn hereby the pain as well as
the sweetness of His kiss. ‘
Three Saints of old their lips upon the Incarnate Saviour
aid ;
And each with death or agony for the high rapture paid.
His Mother’s holy kisses of the coming sword gave sign,
And Simeon’s hymn full closely did with his last breath en-
twine.
And Magdalen’s first tearful touch prepared her but to greet
With homage of a broken heart His pierced and lifeless feet.
for Thy love is better than wine. The change from
the third person to the second, from speaking of the
Bridegroom to speaking to Him, denotes, some Fathers
say, His swift appearing in fulfilment of His Bride’s
desire, coming even before He is actually called ; show-
ing how more than ready Gop ever is to answer our
prayer, according to that saying of the Prophet, “Be-
fore they call, I will answer: and while they are yet
speaking, I will hear.” The LXX. and Vulgate have
Lhy breasts. And some tell us that the gentle teach-
ing of Crist, drawn from the secret treasures of His
wisdom and knowledge, is meant thereby, milk fitted
for babes, better than the wine of human wisdom or
even of the old Law. Philo of Carpasia and several
others see in the breasts the two Testaments, both
given by Curist, whence the sincere milk of the Word,
refreshing, and not hurtful like wine, is granted to
mankind. Anda kindred explanation is found in those
writers who will have the Apostles and Doctors of the
Church to be meant here. The ancient exposition of
the Three Fathers interprets the words of the hidden
grace of the Holy Eucharist, with which agrees well
that passage of S. Chrysostom: “ See ye not with what
eagerness infants seize the breast, with what pressure
they fix their lips upon the teats? Let us approach
with no less desire to this Table, and to the spiritual
breast of this Chalice, nay, with yet greater longing, let
us, as sucking children, drink in the grace of the
Spirit; let it be our one sorrow, our one grief, if we
be stinted of this spiritual food.” Some of the inter-
pretations, however, bring us back to the true mean-
ing of the literal Hebrew, Thy loves. Thus 8. Bernard
bids us see here the long-suffering of Curist in bear-
ing with sinners, and His loving-kindness in recelving
I, 2.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 7A
them when they return to Him. S.Gregory speaks of s. Greg. M.
the love of Gop and of our neighbour as supplying
that stream of charity which is the necessary food of
the soul. And we may take it also of that sweetness
of Curist, which is the Hoty Sprrit Himself, given
in twofold manner, for the remission of sin and for the
increase of grace. However it be explained, we come Rupert.
back to the one thought of union with Him Whose
loving kiss is beyond all earthly blessedness.
Néxtap &nv 7d planua’ Td yap ordua veKTapos evel, Anthol.
Noy peOdw 7d biAnua, ToAdy Thy Epwra TeTWKOS. Greec.v. 305,
Nectar to me was the kiss, for the mouth was breathing of nectar,
Now am I drunk with the kiss, having quaffed off love in abun-
dance.
They inquire at much length, too, (unnecessarily so
far as the Hebrew is concerned,) why the Bridegroom’s
breasts are commended, while we should expect such
praise to be given only to the Bride. And the happiest
answers are, first, that Curist, Himself the source of
all true and pure love, unites in His own Person a Corn. 4 Lap.
mother’s affection for us with a father’s, whence the
Book of Sirach, speaking of the Eternal Wisdom, says,
“ T am the mother of fair love ;” and secondly, that as Ecclus.
mothers feed their babes from their own bodies, so **!V- 18:
Curist feeds His children, and poured forth, like the
fabled pelican, His very Blood for our refreshment as g onrysost.
He hung upon the Cross.
Et nunquam sine lacte charitas,
Lac non uberat, uberat cruorem.
And never without milk is charity,
It is not milk it yields for us, but blood.
The Bride sums up the fruits of that kiss in a four-
fold manner. She has obtained from it the sweetness of
milk, the warmth of wine, the fragrance of odour, and
the gladness of unction. She is refreshed by the first,
which is light to her understanding; she 1s inflamed
by the second, which is heat to her affection; she is g, thomas
excited to appetite by the third, which is the foretaste 4 Villanova.
of glory to her longing; sheis consecrated by the last,
which is joy of spirit in the Passion.
3 Because of the savour of thy good oint-
Origen.
Gal. iii. 24.
Theodoret,.
Ps. xlv. 8.
S. Just. Org.
8 A COMMENTARY ON [EPS
ments thy name is as ointment poured forth,
therefore do the virgins love thee.
The first clause here does not exactly represent the
existing Hebrew text, nor yet any of the chief versions.
The true rendering is, Pleasant for odour are Thine
oimtments. The LXX. reads, The perfume of Thine
ointments is above all spices. And the Vulgate, con-
necting the words with the previous verse, has [Thy
breasts are] fragrant with the best ointments. The
Bride, observes Origen, had already some acquaint-
ance with spices, to wit, the words of the Law and the
Prophets, wherewith, before the Bridegroom’s coming,
she was partially instructed and trained for the service
of Gop, as still in her early youth, and under tutors
and governors, for “the Law was our schoolmaster, to
bring us unto Curis.” All these were spices, where-
with she seems to have been nourished and made ready
for her Bridegroom. But when the fulness of time
was come, and she came of age, and when the FarHer
sent His Only-begotten into the world, anointed by
the Hory Guost, the Bride, smelling the fragrance of
the divine unction, and perceiving that all those spices
which she had been hitherto using were far inferior
compared with the sweetness of this new and heavenly
ointment, saith, The perfume of Thine ointments is
above all spices. Of this anointing the costly unguent
wherewith Aaron was consecrated is but an earthly
type, as inferior as the earthly High Priest is to the
eavenly one, yet having a mystital reference to it.
And note, that the Bride speaks of ointments, in the
plural, as confessing the many gifts and graces which
come from Curist as their one source. And thus is
said in another place touching this same unction:
. “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity,
wherefore, O Gop, Thy Gop hath anointed Thee with
the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. All Thy gar-
ments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.” The Latin
Fathers, following the Vulgate, explain the passage
somewhat differently. As they often speak of the
Apostles and Doctors of the Church ag the breasts of
CHRIST, so they call them here Sragrant, because emi-
nent for miracles and holiness, so that the perfume of
their righteousness came abroad, giving delight and
refreshment to their hearers. And in this sense we
may take the words of S. Paul: “Now thanks be unto
he 35} THE SONG OF SONGS. 9
Gop, which always causeth us to triumph in Curist,
and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by
us in every place, for we are unto Gop a sweet savour
of Curist.” §S. Bernard, who supposes the breasts to
be of the Bride as well as of the Bridegroom, tells us
that she is fragrant with the triple unction of contri-
tion, devotion, and of piety ; the first pungent, caus-
ing pain, the second lenitive, soothing pain, the third
healing, and even expelling disease. The first is made
_ by the soul breaking and grinding her sins in the mor-
tar of conscience, and then distilling them within the
crucible of a glowing heart with the fire of penitence
and grief, that she may say, “ My heart was hot within
me, and while I was thus musing, the fire kindled.”
That is the ointment wherewith the sinner anointed
the feet of Curist. The second ointment is not to be
found on earth, but has to be sought afar. ‘“ Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights,” and the un-
guent of devotion is formed of the blessings which
the Divine bounty has bestowed on man, pondered in
the vessel of the heart, heated with the fire of longing,
and blended with the oil of gladness. With this we
anoint not the feet of Curist, but His head. The
third ointment, of piety, or lovingkindness, is made
from the sufferings of others, from the wants of the
poor, the burdens of the oppressed, the troubles of the
sad, the errors of the sinful, blended with the oil of
mercy, heated with the fire of love. This is the oint-
ment which we must buy, as Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James, and Salome did, and
anoint therewith the whole Body of Jusus, by helping
every suffering member of It. Returning to the truer
sense of the passage, we see how true of the holy soul
which desires CuristT is that saying of the Wise Man,
‘Ointment and perfume delight the heart.” And this
twofold gladdening is set forth by S. Peter, saying,
“Gop anointed Jusus of Nazareth with the Hony
Guost and with power,” and He in turn gives us these
same blessings, “ doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil,” giving that consolation which
earthly wisdom cannot bestow, and that healing which
human physicians know not. And Rupert, dwelling
in his wonted manner on the graces of the Mother of
Gop, does not fail to point out the correspondence of
the Angel’s words to her with those of S. Peter spoken
2 Cor. ii. 14.
Serm. x.
PS GXxix ede
S. James i.
We
Serm. xii.
Ghislerius.
Prov. xXvii.
9.
Acts X. 38.
Rupert.
S. Luke i.
35.
S. John xii.
4),
Corn. a Lap.
Ecclus.
XXiv. 15.
Didymus.
Ps. lxxvi. 1.
Ps. viii. 1.
Lib. de
Virgin. 3.
Isa. xlii. 6.
Isa, 1. 4.
Origen.
Phil. ii. 7.
Orat. de
Nativ.
Eusebius.
S. Just. Org.
Theodoret.
Beda.
Joel ii. 28.
S. John iii.
34.
10 A COMMENTARY ON Eins!
of her Son : “ The Hoty Guost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee,”
so that she was truly the house filled with the odour
of the ointment, and, rejoicing in the fragrance of that
perfume granted to her, might say, “I yield a pleasant
odour like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onyx, and
sweet storax, and as the fume of frankincense in the
tabernacle.”
Thy Name is as ointment poured forth. Before the
coming of Curist the Name of Gop was inclosed, as
in a vial, amongst the Hebrew people alone, as it is
written, “In Jewry is Gop known, His Name is great
in Israel.” But now we can more fitly say, ‘“«O Lorp
our Governor, how excellent is Thy Name in all the
world.” “That ointment,” says S. Ambrose, “ existed
eternally, but it was with the Farnmr, in the Fatusr.
Its perfume was known to Angels and Archangels
above, as inclosed within the vase of heaven. The
FatHEr said, ‘I will give Thee for a covenant of the
people, for a light of the Gentiles.’ The Son came
down, and all things were filled with the new fragrance.
.. .. The Son of Gop kept that fragrance at first in
His Body, as though in a vase, biding His time, as He
saith Himself, ‘The Lorp Gop hath given Me the
tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak
a word in season.’ The time came, He opened His
mouth, and the ointment was poured forth when power
went out of Him. This ointment was poured forth upon
the Jews, and gathered up by the Gentiles, was poured
forth in Judea and perfumed all lands.” Origen,
pressing the exact meaning of the LXX. version, emp-
tied owt, reminds us how “Curist Jesus emptied
(éxévwoe) Himself, and took upon Him the form of a
servant.” “He Who is full,” exclaims S. Gregory
Nazianzen, ‘“‘is emptied, drained of His glory for a
short time, that I might be partaker of His fulness.”
But it is not merely the knowledge of Gop which is
so poured forth, but His Name. What name? And
first they answer that it is the Name of Curtst, itself
denoting “ anointed,” which is poured forth, not only
by being widely preached, but because it is poured on
all the faithful in the waters of Baptism, wherein they
are given the title of Christians. And this is what the
Prophet foretold, saying, ‘I will pour out My Sririr
upon all flesh.” Pour out, not drop out, for “ Gop
giveth not the Spirit by measure.” Poured forth,
ay THE SONG OF SONGS. 11
adds S. Gregory the Great, because whoso are Chris-
tians in truth as well as in name, abound with the
streams of holy charity, which soften them, and make
them fit for kindling, so that they break forth in the
flames of good example; and, as another expositor re-
marks, also with that love for the Creator kindled in
the creature when Curist died for us. He was known
but little before His Passion, says one more Greek
_ Father, but when His life was poured forth upon the
Cross, when the alabaster shrine of His most sacred
Body was broken, the Apostles, filled with the perfume
of that sweet ointment, traversed sea and land, filling
the whole world with its fragrance. S. Augustine
calls Jerusalem the vase wherein that ointment, which
he takes to be Gop’s mercy, was first shut up, but
when the rebellious city was broken and destroyed,
then the unguent pervaded all nations. And, as when
the precious oil which has been in a vase is poured
forth, we can only guess at its nature by the few re-
maining drops and the perfume, so the Name of Gop
is mysterious, and no title which divines can invent
_ discloses His nature and excellence. We conjecture
Him only by the effects of His working, by the fra-
grance which He diffuses, and therefore He is like
ointment poured forth. But the Name of Curist,
royal, priestly, holy though it be, is yet only a title of
office, by which all His servants may address their
King. His Bride must have some dearer, closer, more
personal name by which to call Him. “If you write,”
says she in the words of S. Bernard, “it has no savour
for me unless I read Jusus there. If you argue or
discuss, it has no savour for me, unless the sound of
JEsus be.there. Jusus is honey in the mouth, melody
in the ear, gladness in the heart. And it is medicine
too. Is any of you sad? Let Jresus come into his
_ heart, and thence leap into his mouth, and lo, as the
Name of Light issues forth, every cloud disperses, and
the clear sky returns. Does any fall into sin, and
hasten thence in despair to the snare of deathP If he
invoke the Name of Life, will he not breathe again
to life? Who ever found hardness of heart, torpor
of sloth, rancour of soul, languor of indifference, able
to stand before the face of that saving Name? Who
is there, whose fountain of tears has chanced to dry up,
that does not burst forth more plentifully and flow more
gently into weeping, when he invokes Jesus? Who
S. Greg. M.
Philo Carp.
Theodoret. '
Tauler.
S. August.
in Ps, xxx.
Serm. xv.
Ps. 1.15.
Nic. Argent,
Phil. ii. 9.
The Hymn,
Gloriosi Sal-
vatoris.
Targum.
S. Greg. M.
S. Ambros.
Ps. ciii. 5.
Cassio-
dorus.
Aponius,
S. Anselm.
Laudun,
12 A COMMENTARY ON [iss
is there, quivering and trembling in peril, to whom that
Name of Might invoked has not straightway given
confidence and banished fear? Who, I ask, swaying
and wavering in doubt, has not at once seen certainty
shine forth at the invocation of that Name of Renown?
Who, fearing in adversity and already fainting, has
ever lacked strength if the Name of Help has sounded ?
These are all diseases and weaknesses of the soul, and
that is their medicine. And you may prove it. ‘ Call
upon Me in the time of trouble, so will I hear thee,
and thou shalt praise Me.’” That Name is truly oil
poured forth, for it refreshes the weary, heals the sick,
lightens the blind, and floats high above all other
names, for ‘Gop hath given Him a Name which is
above every name, that at the Name of Jusus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth.”
Name of gladness, Name of pleasure,
By the tongue ineffable,
Name of sweetness passing measure,
To the ear delectable ;
’Tis our safeguard and our treasure,
’Tis our help ’gainst sin and hell.
’Tis the Name for adoration,
Tis the Name of victory,
’Tis the Name for meditation
In the vale of misery :
Tis the Name for veneration
By the citizens on high.
Therefore do the virgins love Thee. The earliest of
all comments on this Song, the Chaldee paraphrase, ex-
plains these words in full accordance with the spirit of
Christian writers, as denoting the righteous who follow
after the goodness of Gop. , And first it is to be noted
that the Hebrew word now alamoth implies not only
virginity, but youth, and accordingly the LXX. gives
veavides, and the Vulgate adolescentule. What then
are these young damsels who love the Bridegroom ?
They answer, in the first place, that they are souls
newly born in Baptism, having put off the old man and
the wrinkles of sin, and renewed their youth as an
eagle. And they are well called damsels, because the
Saints, conscious of their own weakness, love all the
more for that reason Curist their strength. Others,
dwelling yet more on the admission of fragility, see
here souls yet imperfectly taught, and only beginning
I 34 THE SONG OF SONGS. 13
to run their course, being still weak in the faith.
Whereupon Rupert aptly remarks, “ Had not the oint-
ment been poured forth, had not the Worp been made
flesh, imperfect souls never would have dared to love
Gop, nor even to hear Him, as they said, when it had
not yet been poured forth, ‘Let not Gop speak with
us, lest we die.’” And S. Thomas of Villanova bids
us remark further, that the Bride saith that the virgins
love Him because His Name is as oil poured out, be-
_ cause their fire of devotion is but newly kindled, and
needs this fuel. She does not say this of herself, be-
cause her fire has long since been kindled to a clear
flame, and she loves Him for Himself alone, and even
when He gives no oil. They want Thine, she cries to
Him, I want Thee. And some extend the meaning
yet further, to newly planted Churches, not as yet
fully established, but zealous in their first love. Others
again, looking rather to the idea of purity than of
weakness, prefer to see here the holiest and most per-
fect Churches and souls. Martyrs who have attained
their crown, says one Father. All healthy and vigo-
rous souls, says another, neither in their infancy, too
young to understand love, nor in their dotage, too old
to retain it, but in the mid flower of their spiritual life
_and beauty, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing. And thus the words tell us of the early zeal of
the Christian Church, when the memory of the Apostles
was still fresh in the minds of the faithful, and the crown
of martyrdom was often sought and won. Wherefore
the Apostle saith, ‘I have espoused you to one hus-
band, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Curist.” “Literally, too,” notes the Ecstatic Doctor,
“it means the consecrated virgins, those elect maidens,
those virtuous damsels, many of whom, for Thy sake,
despised not only the riches of the whole world, its
delights, its honours, and all its outward pomp, its
vanity and lightness: but most manfully endured the
eruelest deaths, and happily triumphed; as the holy
Katharine, the famous Ursula, and countless others
like them, who served Thee most constantly in vir-
ginity of soul and body, and to the present day un-
numbered others, abandoning in their youth this
evil world with all its deceit, enter convents and
holy retirements, wherein abiding always inclosed,
they give themselves up to Thy pure embraces in the
spirit.” And of such we may cite the words of a great
Rupert.
Exod. xx.
19.
S. Thomas
a Villanova.
S. Just. Org.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Corn. a Lap.
2 Cor. xi. 2.
Dion. Carth.
S. Cyprian,
De Hab.
Virg. 1.
Cassio-
dorus.
Beda.
Haymo.
Lyranus.
S. John vi.
44,
S. John xii.
S25
Santolius
Victorinus,
The Hymo,
Nobis,
Olympo.
S. Bernard.
Serm. in
Cant. 21.
14:
Saint and Martyr in the early Church: “ The flower
of the Church’s bud, the glory and ornament of spiritual
grace, the joyous disposition, the perfect and untar-
nished work of honour and praise, the image of Gop
answering to the holiness of the Lorp, the more illus-
trious portion of the flock of Curist. The glorious
fruitfulness of our Mother the Church exults through
them, and abundantly blossoms in them, and by how
much the more the great band of virgins adds to its
own number, so much does it increase its Mother’s joy.”
A COMMENTARY ON [I. 4.
4. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king
hath brought me into his chambers; we will
be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember
thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
Draw me. They say, some of them, that the speaker
is now changed, that whereas the Synagogue expressed
in the former versés her longing for Curist’s Advent,
now we have the Gentile Church eager to come to
Him. But it is far better to hold here by the view
which recognizes the substantial identity of the Jewish
‘and Christian Churches, and sees but the one Bride
throughout, at first expecting, and then receiving, her
Spouse. She says draw me, because she knows herself to
be too weak to reach Him of herself, for He hath said,
“No man can come to Me, except the FatHrer Which
hath sent Me draw him.” Draw me to Thy Cross,
whereof Thou hast said, ‘ And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” Draw me yet
further, after Thee in Thine Ascension, that I may
not be left desolate here on earth, but rest and be with
Thee evermore. And so the hymn:
O CuRist, Who hast prepared a place
For us beside Thy throne of grace,
Draw us, we pray, with cords of love,
From exile to our home above.
But why draw? Does the Bride need to be drawn after
the Bridegroom, as though she followed Him unwill-
ingly ? Nay, it denotes no reluctance, any more than
an invalid feels in being drawn to his bath or to his food,
though a criminal may well need being drawn to judg-
ment or toexecution. She longs to be drawn, and there-
fore prays for it, which she would not do were she able to
follow her Beloved at her will. But why can she not ?
I. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 15
Are we to callher at once weak andthe Bride? TIfone:
of the virgins complained of weakness and asked to be
drawn, we should not marvel, but does it not seem
strange that the Bride, who ought to seem able to draw
others, as being strong and perfect, should herself need,
as weak and feeble, to be drawn? But it is that she
may follow the steps of His conversation, imitating
His example, learning His discipline. And to do all
this she needs His aid, that she may renounce herself,
take up her Cross, and follow Curist. What marvel
if she need to be drawn, who runs behind a Giant, who
seeks to overtake Him Who “ cometh leaping upon the
mountains, skipping upon the hills?” or, she saith,
“His Worp runneth very swiftly.” She cannot run
at an equal pace, nor rival His swiftness ‘“‘ Who re-
joiceth as a giant to run His race:” her strength is
insufficient, and she prays to be drawn. I am weary,
she saith, I faint, leave me not, but draw me after
Thee, lest I should wander after other lovers, lest I
should run uncertainly. Draw me, for it is better for
me that Thou shouldst use any force against me, awing
me with threats, chastening with scourges, than, spar-
ing me, leave me perilously secure in my sloth.
Draw me, even if I be unwilling, to make me fain,
_ draw me when slothful, to make me run. ‘‘ Behold, O
Heavenly Bridegroom, O sweetest Jzsu,” exclaims a
true servant of His, “my spirit strives to cling faith-
fully unto Thee, to rest in Thee, to give itself up to
Thee alone in loving contemplation, but a thousand
hindrances draw me back, delay me, stop my way.
My understanding is wavering, my reason weak, my
will inclined to vain and evil things, sensuality drags
me down, the needs of daily life keep me busy with
earthly and tangible cares, the temptations of the
senses beset me, the world and the hosts of evil spirits
attack us on every side, and I walk in the midst of
snares, in the thick of grievous perils, and, besides,
the weight of my sinful flesh depresses me. What
then am I to do save fly to Thy most gracious help,
and with the deepest longing of my heart pray, Draw
me after Thee, evermore hold, bedew, enlighten, aid,
and comfort my heart. For Thou hast said in Hosea
the Prophet, ‘ I drew thee with cords of aman, with
bands of love ;’ and in Jeremiah, ‘I have loved thee
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kind-
ness have I drawn thee.’” And in this drawing, which
Cant. ii. 8.
Ps. cxlvii.
x
Ps, xix, 6.
Dion. Carth.
Hos. xi. 4.
JOR ak Xk ss
Henr.
Harphius.
Eccl. iv. 32.
S. Aug. in
S. Johan.
XXXVi. 4.
PSexXxxvile4.
Virg. Eclog.
as
Theodoret.
Pseudo-
Dionys. de
Div, Nom. 3.
Serm. xxi.
Beda.
Corn. a Lap.
16 A COMMENTARY ON frp4)
consists in leading the human will into union with the
Divine will, as the magnet draws the iron to itself, the
Three Persons of the Holy Trinity co-operate, the Fa-
THER drawing by His power, the Son by His wisdom,
the Hoty Guost by His goodness, a threefold cord
which is not quickly broken. ‘ And even to be drawn
by your will is but little,” says the Doctor of Grace,
“you are drawn by pleasure also. What is to be
drawn by pleasure? ‘ Delight thou in the Lorp, and
He will give thee thy heart’s desire.’ There isa plea-
sure of the heart to which that heavenly Bread is
sweet. And if the poet could say,
—Trahit sua quemque voluptas,
not necessity, but pleasure ; not compulsion, but de-
light; how much more forcibly may we say that a man
is drawn to Curist, when he delights in truth, delights
in blessedness, delights in righteousness, delights in
everlasting life, all which is Curist?’ The LXX.
reading, They have drawn Thee, referring to the virgins
who love CurisT, comes in fact to the same thing, for
they do not draw till they have first been drawn. And
an ancient writer compares this drawing of Gop towards
us to men in a ship pulling at a rope which is attached
toarock. They seem to draw the rock to them, but
they are in fact drawing themselves to it.
We will run after Thee. And first it is to be noted
how the address changes. Draw me, and we will run.
Why does the Bride thus speak? It is, answers S.
Bernard, because drawing tells of weakness, of trial,
of suffering, all which the Bride prefers to bear alone,
as better able to endure them than the tender virgins.
She is willing that they should partake of the conso-
lations which are implied in running, that they should
share her joy, but not her sorrow. But this is forced
and poor compared with the simpler explanation of an
older writer, who says that the Church uses the sin-
gular form at first, as denoting her unity, and then the
plural, because she is made up of many faithful, nay,
of many ranks and degrees of the faithful. Draw me,
then, she says, in my corporate character, draw my
prelates and pastors, that they may in their turn draw
on the virgins, the tender flock committed to their
charge. Secondly, whereas the Bride’s weakness made
it needful for her to be drawn, her confidence in the
strength to be given her is such that she does not say,
Tt4q] THE SONG OF SONGS. ~ ie
“We will follow,” nor “We will walk,”. but “We Origen.
will run,” and therein she is like the Apostle, who s. Greg. M.
said to his children, “ So run, that ye may obtain.” 1 Cor. ix. 24,
The LXX: and Vulgate here add some words not in
the Hebrew, and read the whole sentence thus : Draw
me after Thee, we will run Sor the odour of Thine oint-
ments. When we think on those gifts of grace, faith,
hope, and charity, which all come from Curist, and
strive to imitate the examples of His Saints and Mar- phito Carp.
tyrs, who displayed them in their lives, we are run-
ning, says an ancient Father, after the odour of His
omtments. When those same gifts are vouchsafed to
ourselves, notes another, we do not thereby cease to angelomus
run, rather we are kindled with longing for the Beatific Luxov.
Vision, and haste eagerly towards the source of the
fragrance which delights us. And in this sense S. Au-
gustine takes it: “ Let us love and copy Him. Let mps. xc.
us run after His ointments; for He came and gave
forth perfume, and His fragrance filled the whole
world. Whence was that fragrance? From heaven.
Follow Him then to heaven, if thou givest no false
answer to those words, ‘ Lift up your hearts,’ lift up
your thoughts, lift up your love, lift up your hope.”
‘* If His Name alone can do all this,” exclaims Origen, Origen.
“if its perfume so cause and strengthen the virgins to
run, what will be the virtue and height they shall at-
tain when they reach His very self, incomprehensible,
ineffable? I think if they do so attain, they will walk
no more, nor run, but cling closely to Him, bound
with the cords of love, that no more removal shall be
possible, but they may be one with Him.” And they
inquire further what are these various ointments of Hugo Card.
His which draw eager souls, like gallant hounds, upon
His track. S. Bernard replies by quoting the Apostle, S"™- 22m
“Curist Jesus, Who of Gop is made unto us wisdom, 1 Cor. i. 30.
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption ;”
and shows how different Saints ran for each of these,
as Nicodemus, seeking to learn the deep things of Gon,
desired wisdom; Mary Magdalene and S. Peter in
their penitence, seeking righteousness; S. Paul and
those who like him had left all, that they might be like
untoCurist, sought for sanctification; and the Martyrs,
eager to share in the Passion of Curist, yearned for
that redemption which was paid upon the Cross. Akin
to this is another interpretation, which names the oint-
ments as three. First, Curist’s preaching, giving Nic. Argent.
. c
Parez.
Corn. a Lap.
Ep. 175, ad
Julittam.
Philipp.
Harveng.
Origen.
Targum.
S. Hieron.
Theodoret.
S. Greg. M.
S. Just. Org.
Hugo Card.
18 A COMMENTARY ON (I. 4.
light and healing error, after which Saints run wisely.
Secondly, Curist’s conversation, kindling affection, and
healing our moral nature, for which one needs to run
sweetly. Thirdly, Curist’s miraculous working, which.
strengthens, and keeps in the course of good works,
and this makes us to run mightily. And as Gop led
the Hebrews in the wilderness after the Ark of the
Covenant, fragrant with incense, so Curis, the True
Ark of the Lorp, goes before us in the desert of this
world, perfumed with holiness and power, and we can
do no less than follow Him. Or you may take the
words in a more literal sense, referring them to the
various anointings used in the Church, as in Baptism,
whereby we are made Curis1’s soldiers, and begin to
run our race; in Confirmation, when we receive addi-
tional strength, that we faint not in our course ; in
Ordination, when priests and prelates are given es-
pecial charge to follow close upon Curist, and to draw
the people after them in the same way by setting them
a holy and fragrant example. Thus, quaintly observes
S. Basil, pigeon-fanciers catch doves, by sending out
a dove smeared with perfume, which attracts others to
it by the fragrance, and allures them into the dove-cot.
The King hath brought me into His chambers. Here
is the first explanation of who that He is Whose kisses
the Bride desires. The Bride does not yet call Him
her Bridegroom, nor her Beloved, but her King, that
she may glory in His power and riches. He, like
David, is Shepherd and King, and appears in both
characters in the Song. Into His chambers. Doubt-
less royal ones, as befits a king, and heaped with riches.
The words used by the LXX. and Vulgate (rame‘oy,
cellaria,) denote a store-room, or place where treasures
or provisions are kept. And much of the traditional
interpretation is in accordance with this view. The
Targum, which sees throughout the Song a history of
Gop’s dealings with Israel, explains this passage of the
people being brought to the foot of Sinai, there to be
given the Law out of the Treasury of the Most High.
And most of the Christian Fathers see here the reve-
lation of Gop’s mysteries to the Church, or to the
faithful soul, differing, however, as to the exact mean-
ing of the chambers. Some take them of Holy Writ, the
storehouse of Gop’s oracles. §S. Bernard and Cardinal
Hugo, accepting this view, amplify it by dwelling on
_ the four senses of Scripture, as separate chambers
hy): THE SONG OF SONGS. 19
with various stores. The first chamber is the Historical
sense, containing the coarser food intended for the
slaves and cattle. Secondly, comes the Tropological,
with its three compartments, severally containing oil
and wine for refreshment, balms and spices for delight,
and ointments for healing. The third chamber is Al-
legory, wherein are the arms of the warriors, the golden
shields, and the spears of Solomon, to wit, the mys-
teries of Curist and the Church Militant. Fourth is
Anagoge, wherein is nought but pure gold and precious
stones, that is, whatever belongeth to everlasting life.
Others will have it that the foretaste of the joys of gassio.
heaven, granted to certain Saints by faith or by direct dorus.
revelation, is intended. S. Ambrose takes it of the sponte.
mystery of the Atonement, revealed to the Bride after sans. band
the Passion and Resurrection of Curist, by the preach- 8. Ambros.
ing of the Apostles ; and in another place, of the visions ae
and joys granted in contemplation or trance, as to S. Isaac.
Paul, when he was caught up to the third heaven; and 2 ©. xii.
in yet a third passage, of the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. Philo stands alone in understanding the
chamber to be that human Body of Curist wherein the Philo Carp.
Kternal Worp tabernacled. And note, that whereas
it is said, ‘‘ We will run after thee,” here we read, Oven
“The King hath brought me in,” implying that He S. Greg.
withdrew her for a time from the virgins which be her 395%...
fellows, and that she now returns to tell them what’ ‘
great things He had done for her, wherein they rejoice.
All run, but only one is perfect, who so runs as to
obtain, and alone receives the palm, and becomes a
Queen. Here they tell us not only, as before, of the
unity of the Church, and of the rarity of perfect souls,
but point out how there is one in especial of whom the
words are most true, even her to whom the King gave
Himself as a Son, and who, entering into the house
of Elizabeth, was greeted by her cousin and the unborn Philipp.
babe, saying, in effect, We will rejoice and be glad in thee, B™V"®:
Whether these latter words be addressed by the Bride Cassio.
to Curist, or by the virgins to Him or her, they are dorus.
alike thanksgivings and not boastings. If they be ad- Gres. M.
dressed to the Bridegroom, they are the joint voices Origen,
of the Spouse and her companions, she for what she §. Greg.
has already obtained, they because of that promise, "5° narq
‘The virgins which be her fellows... . with joy and Ps, xlv, 15,
gladness shall they be brought, and enter into the 6
King’s palace.” If they be congratulations to the
7 c2
Origen,
Rupert,
:
S.Ans.Laud.
Origen.
Cassiodor,.
S. Greg. M.
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
S. Greg. M.
S. Thomas
Aquinas.
Prov. xxiv.
16.
Nic. Argent.
Serm. xxiv.
Ovid.
Metaph.
i. 84.
Alanus.
20 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 4.
Bride, they are, observes S. Anselm of Laon, a promise
on their part to make themselves ready in body and
spirit for her fellowship, that they may enter in also.
We will remember thy love more than wine. Here
again they differ as to whether these words are spoken
to the Bridegroom or to the Bride. Taking the former
view, we note first that it is said, ““ We wild remember.”
It is a promise for the future, on the part of those who
have not yet attained so high a spiritual level as to care
little for earthly wine. Here too, as in the second
verse, the A. V. reading love, appears in the LXX. and
Vulgate as breasts. As before, too, it is explained of
the lowly and gentle teaching of Curtst, contrasted
with the austerity of the Law, and S. Gregory the Great
dwells here on the tender love which Curist showed
the Church when He hung dying on the Cross. If the
words be addressed to the Bride, then it is the voice
of her children, saying, Because thou hast loved the
breasts of Curist: above the wine of pleasure and of
worldly wisdom, we too will love thy teaching, because
the Righteous loveth thee. Two of the Fathers allego-
rize the passage of 8. John the Divine, who leant on
the breast of Jusus at the Last Supper. The upright
love thee. Here they all dwell on the intimate and
necessary connection between true holiness of life and
the love of Curis, showing that the latter never can
be in any great measure in the soul which does not
aim at the former. The upright, not those who al-
ways stand, for “the just man falleth seven times,”
but those whose intention is right, even when their
performance is imperfect. Upright, because they
stand looking up to their Creator, not bowed down to
the creature. §S. Bernard dwells at some length on
the form of the human body as enforcing this thought,
but does not in effect say more than a heathen poet
had said before him :
Pronaque quum spectent animalia cetera terram,
Os homini sublime dedit: ccelumque videre
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
While other creatures downward look on earth,
He gave to man a towering face, and bade
Him lift his upward gaze to sky and stars.
Right, also, because they keep to the middle of the
King’s highway, never swerving aside, but journeying
I. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 21
straight on towards heaven, and seeking Gop for His
own dear sake.
5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters
of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the cur-
tains of Solomon.
The Targum takes this of the fall and rising again Targum.
of Israel, when the golden calf was made, whereby the
chosen people became as black as the Aithiopians in
idolatry, but afterwards, repenting, became comely
once more, and returned to the service of Gop, making
eurtaims for His tabernacle. And similarly many Chris- ee
tian writers see in it the Church, or the penitent soul, 24 Wenn.
speaking of her past sins and present conversion to 22.
Gop. 8. Gregory the Great recognizes here the con- 8: Bernard.
flict of the higher and lower wills in the soul. She is g, Greg. .
black, not only by reason of past sins, but of present
ones, and yet comely, because she is striving after that
righteousness of which she is conscious within. It is
the soul of a catechumen, says Origen, already comely Origen.
through repentance, but not yet white, because not
admitted to the cleansing of Baptism. Or again, S. August.
black by nature, comely by grace. Yet once more, de Ver.
the Church is black with suffering and persecution, Gassiodor.
and nevertheless comely in holiness and in reward, nay, S.Ans.Laud.
-adds §. Bernard, even more comely because of that jye0.¥'t
blackness. The address to the daughters of Jerusalem Instit. 84.
has led more than one Father to see here the Gen- eee area
tile Church, confessing her lowly and heathen origin,
and yet asserting the truth of her calling in Curtist,
and therefore claiming acknowledgment from the Sy-
nagogue,.or even from the Jewish Christians, just as
the Atthiopian wife of Moses made good her claim Numb. xii.
against Aaron and Miriam. Not very dissimilar is the oe
view of those Greek Fathers who, taking the words of piito Carp.
the whole Church, see in the blackness the Gentile Theodoret.
element, and in the comeliness the Hebrew. Akin to
this in spirit is the interpretation that the mixed cha- s, august.
racter of the Church, as made up of saints and sinners, Pe att
is implied. And finally, Rupert reminds us how Our ¢''hucher.
Lady’s purity was doubted, when she was found to be Beda.
with child, so that she was blackened by injurious
thoughts, while comely indeed, as full of grace,the taber- Rupert.
nacle of our true Solomon. Black, too, as the Mother guitem.
of Sorrows, when she stood by the Cross, despised Parv.
Honorius.
Origen.
Hugo Card.
Origen.
Philo Carp.
Beda.
Origen,
Hugo Card.
Ps. cxx. 4.
S. Greg. M.
S. Bernard.
Rev. iii, 12.
Aponius.
Gloss.
Cassiodor.
Gal, v. 24.
22 A COMMENTARY ON (126;
with her Son, comely in the joy of His Resurrection.
Daughters of Jerusalem. Which Jerusalem, that
which now is, and is in bondage with her children, or
that which is above, and free, the mother of us all ?
Origen takes the former view, and makes it a call to
the Jewish nation. Cardinal Hugo and others refer
it to the Angels and spirits made perfect, the appeal
of the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant.
As the tents of Kedar. The tents of the Ishmaelites,
formed of coarse goats’ hair, and black, or dark, as
Kedar means, are taken as the types of sin, of suffer-
ing, or of Gentilism, and contrasted with the costly -
hangings, or curtains of Solomon, made for the adorn-
ment of the temple, or, following the Arabic Version,
the monarch’s own pavilions of state. And so the
Church is despised outwardly by her persecutors, yet is
glorious and adorned within. Hvyen Kedar, as descend-
ing from Abraham, was not altogether without a share
in the Divine blessing, and Solomon inherited the sure
mercies of David, therefore, O daughters of Jerusalem,
despise not me, says the Gentile Church, who am that
AXthiopian woman whom Moses took as his wife.
Others, remembering that it is written, “Woe is me
that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech, and to
have my habitation among the tents of Kedar,” take
these tents to be the sojourn of the soul in the pilgrim-
age and wars of the body, while the curtains speak to
us of that temple of which it is written that he which
entereth in shall go no more out. The Church, says
another, most deeply, is like the tents of Kedar, for
she shelters under her wings penitents stained with
their sins. She is like the curtains of Solomon, as sur-
rounding wise, and peaceful, and holy Saints. Cur-
taims of Solomon. 'The Body of Curist, touchingly
notes the Gloss, is truly called a curtain, because it
was stretched out upon the Cross to shelter us. For
curtains the LX X.and Vulgate have skins. And that,
says Cassiodorus, because as tabernacles are made
from the skins of dead animals, so the Church, which
is Gonp’s tabernacle, is framed of those who have mor-
tified themselves with the affections and lusts. Yet
again, the verse tells us of the hardships and repulsive-
ness of the higher Christian life, as it appears to the
world, rough, sombre, and uncomely, whereas those
who are within see round them, not the black goats’
hair of the tent of warfare, but the purple, gemmed,
I. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 23
and golden tapestry of the Prince of Peace, into Whose Honorius.
chambers of the celestial life they have entered.
6 Look not upon me, because I am black,
because the sun hath looked upon me: my
mother’s children were angry with me; they
made me keeper of the vineyards, but mine
own vineyard have I not kept.
They take the first clauses in various senses, accord-
_ ing as they explain the swn to be the heat of temp- S. Greg.
tation and of suffering, or the warmth of Currst. X3*8°"-
Wonder not that I am black, though not created so, Aponte
because the fire of evil temptation hath scorched me,
and dried up that once green germ in me which lacked Beaa.
root. Marvel not at the persecutions which I have to
endure, and ‘ faint not at my tribulations, which is your Eph. iii. 13.
glory,’ for those very trials have given me patience
and constancy. And just as bodies which habitually
rest in the shade wither up in the broad glare of day,
whereas those which move about andlabourinthe light _
scarcely feel the effects of heat, so those toilsome ones $- Peron...
who prepare themselves for struggles and temptations, ~~”
overcome the world, and win that blessing, “The sun pg, exxi. 6.
-shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night.”
If the sun be Curist, then the words may denote that s.Ans.Laud.
the sufferings which the Church endures at the hand
of her enemies are for His sake, Who is the Sun of
Righteousness; or again, that burning zeal for His S. Bernard.
house hath eaten her up, or longing for Himself hath
consumed her. Or you may take it with 8. Gregory, S. Greg. M.
that Saints, whatever progress they may seem to make
in holiness, and however they may be looked on by
men as burning and shining lights, yet feel themselves Angelomus
to be utter blackness when compared with the perfect *"*°’
righteousness of Curist, for the nearer we draw to-
wards grace, the more we learn our sin. And there
are not wanting those who apply the words to CHRIST frimbert.
Himself, despised and rejected in His Passion, so that
He was ‘“‘as a root out of a dry ground; He hath no 1sa. hii. 2.
form nor comeliness.”’
My mother’s children were angry with me. 'They Origen.
take it first of the trials of the Primitive Church, op- 8°44
pressed by Jewish persecutors, once headed by 8. Paul, Gloss.
and children of the Church’s mother, the Synagogue,
S. Ambros.
2, in Ps,
Cxiixs
S. Just. Org.
Dion. Carth.
Aponius.
Corn. 4 Lap.
Nic. Argent.
Ps, lxix. 8.
Origen.
Philo Carp.
S. Bernard.
Cassiodor.
Lyranus ‘
Cassiodor.
Acts xiii. 46.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
S. Bernard,
Ghislerius.
24 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 6.
but not her brethren. And next, of the J udaizing
party within the Church herself, who endeavoured to
impose the ceremonial Law on the Gentile converts.
And they dwell on the forcible wording of the LXX.
and Vulgate, which translate thus: They fought against
me. It was true also of those heretics and evil Chris-
tians who arose in later days in the bosom of the
Church, the Arians and schismatics, and evil rulers,
especially unworthy Bishops, who rend instead of
guarding the flock. And, taking the words of the
soul, instead of the Church, we may see here either the
strife carried on against it by its own passions and de-
sires, akin as these are to its higher and better aspira-
tions; or, more generally, the resistance of lax and
worldly Christians to those who strive to serve Gop
more perfectly, and that especially in the Religious life ;
for those who are without resist the vocation of such
as feel themselves called thereto, and those within but
too often war against such as would recall them to the
full strictness of their rule, as many a reformer, like
S. Gregory VII. or 8. Teresa, has proved. And there-
fore it is written in another place, “I am become a
stranger unto my brethren, even an alien unto my
mother’s children.” We may, however, take the words
in a good sense also, of those wise teachers, Apostles
and others, who seek to war against the sins of Chris-
tians, and who give them a charge to keep.
They made me the keeper of the vineyards. In their
very attempt to crush the infant Church, the Jews
were the involuntary cause of its rapid spread beyond
the limits of Palestine into every part of the Gentile
world ; but, adds the Church, mine own vineyard have I
not kept, because I have been forced to abandon the
Jews to their own devices. And so the Apostles, “It
was necessary that the Word of Gop should first have
been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you,
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo,
we turn to the Gentiles.”
There are some who see here the story of Adam’s
fall. Made by Gop the keeper of the garden of Eden,
he was fought against by the serpent and by Eve, and
kept not his vineyard. Others explain it of the great
peril of high office in the Church, lest, when men are
set, not merely to labour in this vineyard, but to over-
see other labourers, and to prevent the incursions of
robbers, they neglect the care of their own souls, and,
EA) THE SONG OF SONGS. 25
after preaching to others, become castaways. There is
another sense, however, in which the words may be
taken, of that Good Shepherd Who laid down His
life for the sheep, and was not careful of Himself, so __
long as His peril might be the salvation of others, and !im>ert.
Who, because He thus gave up His own vineyard, was
made keeper of all others. And so speaks the aged
Apostle, in the very strongest sense: ‘“ I could wish Rom. ix. 3.
that myself were accursed from Curist for my bre-
_ thren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” S. Am- Exhort. ad
brose, referring the vineyard to the state of consecrated V"8:
virginity, warns the brides of Currst lest they should
suffer any Ahab or Jezebel to turn their vineyard from
a place wherein sweet fruits grow, into a mere garden
of pot-herbs, into a secular form of life, good in its
degree, but not comparable to the better way. And
if so, much more does it befit Religious to beware lest = Us
when their Lorp comes, He should say, “ I went by ay eas
the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and,
lo, it was all overgrown with thorns, and nettles had
covered the face thereof.”
7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,
where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock
to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions ?
Thou whom. my soul loveth. “So I call Thee, for S. Greg.
Thy Name surpasseth all thought and understanding, Syssev-
nor could all creation reach so high as to express or oe
comprehend it. Thy Name, then, that by which Thy
goodness is known, is the affection of my soul to Thee,
for how should I not love Thee, Who so lovedst me,
even when I was so black, as to lay down Thy life for
Thy sheep, which Thou feedest. For greater love than
this cannot enter into thought, that Thou boughtest
my salvation with Thine own life.” Where Thou feed-
est. Not Thyself, but Thy sheep. And where is it
save in that Sacrament of the Altar, in which Thou
givest the nourishment of Thy Passion and the foun-
tain streaming from Thy side to all devout souls?
To rest at noon. They take it in many ways. And
first, let us see here, with the old Cypriote Bishop, that
mysterious time when Jxsvs, wearied with His long Philo Carp.
journey of thirty-three years, and its last blood-printed
Idem.
The Hymn,
’ Patris
Sapientia.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
S. Greg. M.
Origen.
Hom. 1.
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
Idem.
Aponius.
26 A COMMENTARY ON [-7:
footsteps along the Way of Sorrows, sat thus on the
Well of our salvation, and it was about the sixth hour,
and there was darkness until the ninth hour.
He upon that Cross at Sext for our sake was mounted ;
By the passers-by reviled, with transgressors counted :
Vinegar and gall they give to His thirst to slake it,
Which, when He had tasted of, He refused to take it.
Again, noon, as the time of greatest warmth, fitly de-
notes especial seasons of trial and persecution in the
Church, urging her to call on her Lorp to be a shadow
from the heat, lest she faint therein. 8. Gregory ap-
plies it rather to the fiery assaults of sin, when the
Bride seeks the coolness of sanctifying grace. Once
more, the Bride would fain see the full glory of her
Beloved, would see Him in the clear light of faith and
love, undimmed by any darkness. “JI ask not,” she
says, ‘“‘as to other times, where Thou feedest at even-
ing, or morning, or at sunset. J ask of that time when,
in the flower of the day, Thou art in the fullest light
clothed in the splendour of Thy Majesty.” Others
will have it that the Church, in her clear brightness as
the light of the world, is intended by the noon-day.
For as she preaches the doctrine of Curist everywhere
throughout the world, and is therefore fitly styled
Catholic, contrasting with the dark heretical sects which
lurk in the corners of single nations, she is like the
noon spread over the heavens. And, because it is
noon when the sun is in mid-sky, so as Curis, the
Sun of Righteousness, is the Head of the Church,
directly over her, giving her light and warmth, the
epithet suits her well. And if it be objected that she
is not yet all clear and bright, that dark spots of sin
mar the beauty of her face, yet the words hold good
of her Saints. “They,” says the Father last cited,
‘‘who have received Thee as the Author of salvation,
are in the noon-day. Thou shinest on them, Thy grace,
as the noon, warms them. Thou hast become the noon
of them who feed on Thy riches, and trust in Thee.”
Andanother tells us that these especial sheep of CHRIST,
whom He keeps with Himself in the noon-day warmth
of His love; whom He does not merely guide with His
staff, but cherishes in His bosom, are those virginal
souls which have given themselves to Him alone, forsak-
ing earthly tiesfor Him. Yet again, you may take the
passage, with two great mystical writers, to denote the
t W) THE SONG OF SONGS. 27
two chief divisions of spiritual life, the active being Hugo Vic-
typified by the feeding of the Bridegroom, and the }7""-
contemplative by His rest. At noon, too, because Harphius.
there are three hours of contemplation. The first is
thought, like the early morning, having but little ra-
diance or heat. Of this is written, “Karly in the Ps.v.3.
morning I will direct my prayer unto Thee, and will
look up.” The second period is meditation, like the
third hour, when the sun begins to get high, and to
glow. Whence the Psalm, ‘‘ While 1 was thus mus- Ps.xxxix. 4.
ing the fire kindled.”’ The third time is foretaste, like
the noon-day, “‘ when it parcheth the country.” This, Ecclus.
the true fervour of contemplation, is the place where xiii. 3.
the Beloved resteth at noon-day. ‘‘O place of true
repose, not unfitting the name of bed, where Gop is eae
seen, not in His wrath, nor as though wrapped in His ““?™
providential love, but as a Will altogether merciful,
loving, and perfect. This vision affrights not, but
soothes ; calms all anxious restlessness; arouses not,
wearies not, but tranquillizes. The tranquillity of
Gop makes all things tranquil, and to look upon His
rest, is rest itself.’ Another most striking interpre-
tation is that of Irimbert, who sees in the rest, the Irimbert.
descent of Curist into the grave, when He made the
place of darkness bright with the glorious rays of His
Divinity, and fed the hungering flock of Patriarchs
which had waited so long in Hades for the coming of
its Shepherd, till—
Lumen clarum tenebrarum S. Pet. Ven.
Sedibus resplenduit. eae Hymn,
ortis
Splendour lighted the benighted portis.
Seats of darkness with its ray.
And Cardinal Hugo, with scarcely less beauty, applies Hugo Card.
the words to that noonday of the Church, when the
Pentecostal fires descended on the Apostles, enlight-
ening them with all the radiance of the Hoty Guost,
after the night of the Passion, the dawn of the Resur-
rection, and the first warmth of the Ascension had all
passed over the young Bride of Curist. Lastly, we
may take the question to be that of the Church Mili-
tant, feeling that her portion here, though sweet, is in-
sufficient for her cravings, and desiring the full fruition
of CuristT in that Land
The Hymn,
Where no cloud nor passing vapour ep ehian
Dims the brightness of the air, luminosa.
Serm. 33,
Gen. xxxii.
30.
Ps. xxiii. 2.
Virgil.
Culex, 103.
28 A COMMENTARY ON (lh 7
Endless noonday, glorious noonday,
From the Sun of suns is there,
There no night brings rest from labour,
All unknown are toil and care.
And on this let us hear S. Bernard: “O true noon-
day, fulness of glow and light, abiding of the sun, dis-
peller of shades, drier up of marshes, ejector of evil
odours! O perennial solstice, when the day shall no
more go down! O noontide glory! O vernal mild-
ness! Osummer beauty! O autumnal plenty, and
lest aught should be lacking to my tale, O rest and
festival of winter! Or, if thou wouldst rather have it
so, winter alone is over and gone. Show me, says the
Bride, the place of such love and peace, and fulness,
that as Jacob, yet abiding in the flesh, saw Gop face
to face, and his life was spared, so I too may look on
Thee in Thy light and glory, by contemplation in trance
of soul, as Thou feedest more abundantly, and restest
more securely. For here too Thou feedest, but not in
security, nor canst Thou rest, but Thou must needs
stand and watch, because of the terrors of the night.
Alas! here is no clear light, nor full refreshment, nor
safe dwelling, and therefore tell me where Thou feed-
est, where Thou restest at noon. Thou eallest me
blessed when I hunger and thirst after righteousness.
What is that to their happiness who are filled with the
good things of Thy house, who feast and rejoice before
Gop, and are merry and joyful? When wilt Thou fill
me with joy with Thy countenance ? Thy Face, Lorn,
will I seek. Thy Face is the noon. ‘Tell me where
Thou feedest, where Thou restest at noon. I know
well where Thou feedest, but restest not, tell me where
Thou dost both rest and feed.” There will be, even
in the noonday radiance of Heaven, cool waters and
green pastures for the flock of the Good Shepherd, and
so the type of heathen poetry shall be fulfilled:
Et jam compellente vage pastore capella
Ima susurrantis repetebant ad vada lymphe,
Que subter viridem residebant carula muscum.
Jam medias operum partes evectus erat sol,
Quum densas pastor pecudes cogebat in umbras.
The roaming she-goats, at their herdsman’s will,
Resought the low fords of the whispering stream,
Which rested blue beneath the verdant moss.
And now the sun had reached his midmost toils,
When to the thick shade drove the swain his flock.
El THE SONG OF SONGS. 29
Lor why should I be as one that turneth aside by the
Jiocks of Thy companions ? This is the reason, say they
all, assigned by the Bride for her question. It is not
merely for herself, that she may find her Beloved, that
she asks Him to tell her His abiding-place, but for
His sake too, lest He should lose her. And they agree
in the main, also, to interpret the second clause of
_ bodies other than the One Church, but bearing a spe-
cious resemblance to it. Turneth aside. The Vulgate
reads, Lest I begin to wander. The LXX., agreeing
with the margin of A.V., and with most modern critics,
has As one that is wrapped up, or veiled.’ Of this
there are various expositions. First and most pro- ‘
bably, we may take it of the customary veiling of har- Gen-*xxvilt.
lots. Why should I, the Virgin Bride, by wandering y
near other shepherds than Thee, appear as though a
shameless courtezan? Again, it may be, Why should
I, who look on Thee face to face, and have felt Thy origen.
kiss, be compelled to veil myself in modest bashful- S. Hieron.
ness, lest any eyes save Thine should see me? If #4 Bustoch.
Thou tell me where Thou restest, I can come at once
to Thee, unveiled, but if Thou tell me not, I must
needs cover my face while I am seeking Thee among
strangers. Or, why should I, missing Thee, be forced corn. a Lap.
to put on the garments of mourning, and appear as a
widow instead of a bride? Origen, who gives various oyigen,
explanations of the passage, remarks that several of the
philosophical schools and sects assumed the title of
Veiled, implying thereby their possession of hidden
truth, and that the Church here beseeches that she
may know and teach the truth openly, so as not to
appear like one of them; nor, adds 8. Augustine in
the same sense, like the obscure and localized com- Ep. ad Vin-
munities of heretics. And last, we may take vezled as cent. 48.
practically coming to the same thing as the wandering ®: Gree.
of the Vulgate, understanding it to mean putting on Coed!
the walking-dress of the East over the attire worn S. Bernard.
within doors. Thy companions. Origen says that the oyigen.
companions of Curis are the Angels placed in charge
of the various Gentile nations of the earth, those
atablus.
1 The root ioy, tewit, whence | and thence may be transferred
: i ici to the notion of wandering
mee) ‘ aay a a aaa round and round a place.
is derived, includes the idea a Hence Symmachus translates,
circular motion, as a garmen : ; € ;
is wrapped about the person, | ™ this sense, s pemBoucvn.
S. John x.
16.
Theodoret.
S. Just. Org.
Cassiod.
S. August.
de Verb.
Dom. 50.
Aponius.
2 Tim. iii. 5.
S. Greg. M.
Rupert.
Irimbert.
S. Just. Org.
S. Athanas.
Philo Carp.
30 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 8.
“other sheep” which are not yet of Curist’s fold.
But the great majority of commentators see in the
flocks of the companions the sects of heretical Chris-
tians. They are called Curist’s companions, though
they are not His friends, because they assume the
Christian name, and profess to teach the same truths
as the Church, and promise the like blessings. And
as companions is the special Eastern title for those who
feast at the same table, so these profess to feed their
disciples with the same banquet of Sacraments and
Holy Writ, though they poison it by perverting its
sense, “having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof.” §. Gregory extends the application
of the words to all false brethren, all evil Christians,
who are in a sense CurIst’s companions, as having a
place in His Church and a share in His Sacraments,
but are not truly His elect. Rupert stands alone in
seeing here a reference to the Scribes and Pharisees,
and therefore a petition of the Church to be guarded
from Judaizing. Another, not very dissimilarly, applies
the passage to the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old
Testament, companions indeed of Curist, as loving and
following Him as far as they knew, but still wander-
ing uncertainly, and with no clear noontide revelation.
S. Bernard takes the words, very singularly, of the
evil spirits, transforming themselves into angels of
light, and pretending to be Curist’s servants and
friends in order to deceive the soul which seeks Him.
8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among
women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of
the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shep-
herds’ tents. |
Tf thou know not. The simple meaning of these
words has been obscured by the LX X. and Vulgate,
which endeavour to reproduce the pleonastic Hebrew
idiom, and read Jf thou knowest not thyself, and nearly
all the ancient commentators have interpreted this of
self-ignorance. And thus 8. Justus of Urgel, taking
the words in close connection with those that follow,
observes, that Curist thus addresses the Church, If
thou know not that thou art fairest amongst all Chris-
tian bodies, since all except thee have lost their purity,
then go forth to seek Me; but if thou truly knowest
what thou art, and with what grace I have dowered
1. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 3]
thee, then look within thyself, and thou wilt find Me
there. §S. Bernard, also taking the words ‘as those of gs. Bernard,
the Bridegroom, interprets them in a far sterner sense,
as a rebuke to the Bride who, ignorant that she is yet
but in the body, and merely fairest among women, (that
is, amongst secular and carnal souls, having no true
vigour or constancy,) yet dares to ask Gop to show her
the place of His glory. She is therefore recalled to
herself, and convinced of her ignorance, and chastised
- for her boldness, and to teach her humility, she is com-
manded to go forth out of the sanctuary of her heart,
away from holy contemplation, and to busy herself
again in the lower service of external cares. And not
dissimilarly S. Jerome, addressing the Abbess 8. Eus-
tochium, explains the passage, ‘Though thou be fair,
and thy beauty be loved by Me thy Bridegroom more
than that of all other women, yet, unless thou know
thyself, and keep thy heart with all watchfulness, un-
less thou fly from the glances of youth, thou shalt go
forth from My chamber to feed the goats, which are
to stand on My left.” Yes, adds S. Augustine, carry-
ing on the same argument, to feed them not as Peter
feeds My sheep, not to be in My fold, Who am the
One Shepherd, but by the tents of other shepherds,
not of unity but of division. A second view puts the
_ words into the mouths of the Bride’s virgin friends, as
though of encouragement to her, lest she should be too
much cast down with thoughts of her marred beauty,
and not knowing herself to be fairest, doubt of re-
taining her Spouse’s love. By the footsteps of the
flock. That is, observes one, follow up all the traces
of those Saints of the Old Covenant who belonged
in faith to the New, lead on, and feed thy kids, thy
weak and sinful members, by the tents of the shep-
herds, the Churches of the Apostles, that there they
may be healed. And this is, in fact, the Christian
view of the old Jewish gloss, which says here, ‘‘ The
Holy and Blessed One spake to Moses the Prophet:
Thou askest that their exile may be ended. Let the
Synagogue, which is compared to a most beautiful
virgin, and whom My soul loveth, walk in the paths of
the just, and direct its prayer in the mouths of its
rulers, and lead its generations and lead its sons, (who
are compared to kids of the goats,) to walk in the
house of the congregation, and in the house of doctrine,
and because of that good deed they shall be supported
Serm. 38.
S. Hieron.
Epist. 22.
Serm. 50, de
Verb. Dom.
Cf. Origen.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Theodoret,.
Targum.
Aponius.
Parez.
Beda.
S. Brun. Ast.
Cassiod.
S. John xxi.
16.
Dion, Carth.
S. Ambros.
de Isaac et
Anim. 4.
Numb. xxiv.
5.
1 Kings x.
28
2 Chron. ix.
23.
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
Serm. 2, in
Ps. cxix.
Id. de
Isaac. 4.
Tres Patr.
Philo Carp.
32
in their captivity, till I send them Messiah the King,
Who shall lead them into rest to their own tabernacle,
which is that House of Sanctuary which David and
Solomon, Shepherds of Israel, shall build for it.”
Aponius, too, takes the words as spoken by Curist to
the Synagogue, urging her to come to the knowledge
of the truth. The common view sees in the flocks,
kids, and shepherds, the heretical, sinful, and schis-
matic companionship into which a Church or a soul
which does not strive after self-knowledge is certain to
fall. There is not wanting, however, a nobler and
more cheering interpretation, which is, in fact, the
truest meaning of the passage. When the Lorp asked
Peter, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” and
was answered, ‘“‘Lorp, Thou knowest that I love
Thee ;” His further speech was, ‘‘ Feed My sheep.”
So, the way for the Church or the soul to find Curist
is to go forth from herself, to follow the traces of the
straying flocks, to feed more especially the kids, weak
and sinful servants of His, and so to reach the tents of
the shepherds, the wise and holy teachers to whom
He intrusts His sheep. And again, the kids may well
denote the petulant and unrestrained desires of the
heart, which need to be checked, ruled, and fed, not in
the tabernacles of the body, but in those of the spirit,
whereof is written, “How goodly are thy tents, O
Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel.”’
A COMMENTARY ON [I. 9.
9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a
company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.
The obvious reference here is to the Egyptian breed
of horses, chiefly esteemed in Solomon’s time, as we
read in Scripture; and the Church, or the faithful
soul, is compared to a gallant steed, first, because of
the swiftness of her running after CHrist; next, be-
cause of her ready obedience and submission to His
yoke; thirdly, because of her bearing the Gospel chariot
into all lands; and lastly, because of her fruitfulness,
bringing forth young abundantly by preaching. And
much in this same sense the Greek Fathers understand
it, explaining, as they do, that Curist compares the
Gentile Church, in its zeal and holiness, to His great
steeds the Apostles, who drew Him in Pharaoh’s
chariots, that is, amongst all the nations of the earth.
And so a Saint has said, ‘‘ Those swift-limbed steeds,
I. 9.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 33
the Apostles, from Sion as from their starting-point, ere enae
went forth into the whole world.” -Xlix. I,
O Guider of Thy chariot fleet, mount, Lorn, these steeds of fire, The Se-
And make a pathway for their feet through our hearts’ deepest quence, Reg-
mire ; num LEE
That we, borne safely in this car from out the troubled sea, Hab. ili. 15.
May reach our country’s haven far, and ever dwell with Thee.
Origen, dwelling on the word Pharaoh as the Scrip- Origen.
tural type of evil, comments thus: “As in Egypt, when
Pharaoh, pursuing after the children of Israel, went
forth with horses and chariots, My (LXX. and Vulg.)
chivalry far surpassed and excelled Pharaoh’s chariots,
in that it overcame them and drowned them in the
sea, so thou, My Love and Bride, excellest all women,
and art made like to My chivalry, which, compared
with the chariots of Pharaoh, proved stronger and
more glorious.’ He further proceeds to remind us
what that chivalry of Gop is, by citing the vision at
Dothan, when Elisha’s servant saw the “mountain 2 Kings vi.
full of horses and chariots of fire round about.” And 17:
thus the sense would be, I have matched thee against §- Bernard.
the horses and chariots of Pharaoh. I have set thee, Aponius.
My Church, to war against the chief priests and scribes
who denied Me. I have set thee to fight against all
_ the darkness and idolatry of the spiritual Egypt.
Others would turn it, I have likened thee, who wast
once in Pharaoh’s chariots, in bondage and misery, to
My own chivalry, for I have brought thee through the poaa.
Red Sea of Baptism, and made thee clean and free. A Haymo.
yet deeper mystical sense, seeing in the white horse of _
the Apocalypse, on which He Who is Faithful and Ricard. Vie-
True rides, the Manhood of Curist bearing His God- xix’ Lhe
head as Its Ruler,—finds here the manner in which
Curist makes His Bride like Himself, in that He qeoaoret,
“will change our vile Body that it may be like unto Philip iii,21,
His glorious Body.” And this He will do, when He trimbert.
makes us go up, as He did, ‘‘ with a merry noise, and ps. xivii. 5.
the sound of the trump;” when we are “caught up 1 Thess. iv.
to meet our Lorp in the air;” cauglit up, as Elijah nee a
was, by the fiery “chariot of Israel and the horsemen jo.
thereof ;” which are those cherubim on which He rides, Ps. xviii. 10.
‘ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them Heb. i. 14.
also, who shall be heirs of salvation ;’’ horses terrible to
Pharaoh’s chariots in the battles of the soul, going on joy xxxix.
to meet the armed men, mocking at fear, and turning 21.
D
S. Thom. a
Villanov,
S. Bernard.
Serm,. 39.
Exod. xiv.
25.
Ps, cxi. 10.
Zech. X. 3.
Prov. i. 9.
34 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 10.
not back from the sword. Yet another view is that
Gop makes His Saints like His chivalry the Angels,
even while He suffers them to be driven by Pharaoh
in his chariot; that is to say, that He gives them
grace whereby they lead a life of angelic purity and
holiness even while in the prison of the flesh, and
sorely tried by temptations of the evil one. ‘And
you will not marvel,” adds S. Bernard, “that one soul
is here compared not to one horse only, but to a
company of horses, if you remark how many armies of
virtues there are in a single soul which is holy, what
orderly array in affections, what discipline in habits,
what equipment in prayer, what vigour in action,
what dreadfulness in resolution, what steadiness in
fight, what aggregate of triumphs.” That matching
against Pharaoh is no light struggle, as the Saint goes
on to say: ‘There Israel is brought out of Egypt,
here man out of the world, there Pharaoh is routed,
here the evil one; there Pharaoh’s chariots are over-—
whelmed, here the carnal and secular desires which
war against the soul; those went down in waves, these
in weepings. And I believe that now the demons, if
they encounter such a soul, cry out, ‘ Let us flee from
the face of Israel, for the Lorn fighteth for him.’”
10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of
jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
This rendering is sufficiently close to the Hebrew
text, save that the word “pearls” might perhaps be
well substituted for “gold.” The simile of the horse
continues, and now the costly trappings with which the
swift and docile steed is decked are described. First
comes the headstall, to which the bit and bridle are at-
tached, and this is said to be made with rows DIM
torim, a word akin to Torah, the Law, and denoting
orderly arrangement. Thus, the first adornments of
the Church of Gop are the precepts and statutes by
which He guides her, because “the fear of the Lorp
is the beginning of wisdom,” and when “the Lorp of
Hosts hath visited His flock, and hath made them as
His goodly horse in the battle,” He adorns the neck
which bears His yoke with those additional instruc-
tions of which is written in another place, “ They shall
be an ornament of grace unto thine head, and chains
about thy neck.” So too the Targum explains it;
I. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 35
and we have in HKzekiel a fuller enumeration of this
adorning: ‘‘ I decked thee with ornaments, and I put Ezek. xvi.
bracelets upon thine hands, and a chain on thy neck: |!
and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in
thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head:
thus wast thou decked with gold and silver.” But the
LXX., Arabic, and Vulgate, taking the word torim in
its frequent sense of turtle-doves, translate here, Thy
cheeks are comely as those of a turtle. The words are
spoken by the Bridegroom, says Origen, to comfort Origen.
the Bride, deeply blushing at the rebuke she has just , .aoret
received. And he explains the cheeks, as the seat of j
modesty, to be those members of the Church who § $202:
are eminent for purity and shamefastness. They are Rupert, &c.
cheeks of a dove, because of the faithfulness of those
birds to one another when they have paired; and so
the Church keeps herself faithful to her one Beloved,
and mourns for Him when He is absent from her. Of
a dove, says another, because Curist is Himself that
Dove, and those Doctors of the Church who are emi- Aponius.
nent for holiness, are her cheeks, and are like Him.
Again, they lay stress on the well known habit of the
turtle-dove of dwelling in retired and shady places, to
point out the need of solitary retirement for the holy
soul. And thus 8S. Bernard: “It is far above one’s germ. 40.
own power to be plighted to the Lorp of Angels. Is
it not beyond thee to cling to Gop, and to be one spirit
with Him? Sit then solitary like the turtle, have
nothing to do with crowds and multitudes, forget also
thine own people and thy father’s house, so shall
the King have pleasure in thy beauty. . .. With-
draw, then, but in soul, in resolve, in devotion, in
spirit, not in body.’ The unvarying note of the
turtle suggests to the Greek Fathers the grave and tyes Patr.
steadfast discourse of true Christians, as distinguished
from the frivolous loquacity of the heathen world.
And others dwell on its mournful sound, as typifying Nic. Argent.
the tears of pity and intercession flowing down from
the contemplative Saints, called the cheeks of the
Church, because close to the eyes, which are the en-
lightening gifts of the.Hony Sprrrit. Thy neck as
collars. If of “pearl,” as suggested above, then the
points of likeness will be three, roundness, whiteness,
and orderly arrangement, typifying the Religious Life,
round, iw the vow of poverty, because as a sphere
touches other bodies at one oe only, so the profes-.
D
Theodoret.
S. Hieron. in
Esaiam.
Tres Patr.
S. Ambros.
in Ps, cxix.
Cassiod.
Beda.
S.Ans.Laud.
S. Greg. M.
Tres Patr.
Juv. Sat.
XVI. 59.
Targum.
Gen. i. 26.
Trimbert.
36 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 11.
sion of poverty detaches Religious almost completely |
from earthly things; white, in the profession of chas-
tity ; and regular, in the pledge of obedience to rule.
The flexibility of the neck too, as also denoting obe-
dience, has been dwelt on by several expositors, and,
as some add, it is therefore said, “as a necklace,” be-
cause of the pliancy of that ornament. And, 8S. Am-
brose observes, the law of Gop is not a bond or a
yoke upon the obedient neck, but a collar, which even
dumb animals take pride in wearing. Most early
commentators, however, explain the neck to mean the
chief Doctors and preachers of the Church, because, as
the throat is the passage for food from the head to
the stomach, and is also the channel of speech, so they
communicate the doctrine of Curist to the people, and
utter it in their discourse. S. Anselm of Laon adds an-
other reason, that they are the link of union between
Curist the Head, and the faithful laity of His Body.
And as a necklace goes all round the neck, so true
obedience embraces all the actions of the Christian
life, especially amongst Religious. Again, as necklaces
are made of jewels set in gold, so the true adornments
of Saints are good works undertaken in wisdom. Once
more, as jewelled collars are made of many separate
parts, all united in one flexible band, so the decoration
of the Bride of CHrist is made up of many virtues,
twined with humility. And itis not to be forgotten
that in ancient days the jewelled necklace was not
merely the ornament of virgins (wherefore a Saint
says, addressing women, “ Let your collar and chains
be modesty and shamefastness,”) but also the especial
prize of conspicuous valour,
Ut qui fortis erit sit felicissimus idem,
Ut leti phaleris omnes et torquibus omnes.
That whoso valiant is in fight, the same may richest be,
And all be glad with costly gauds and collars fair to see.
11 We will make thee borders of gold with
studs of silver.
We will make. First they ask, Who are these that
speakP And the answer of the Targum is the best,
that it is the same Who said in the beginning, “‘ Let us
make man in our image ;”’ to wit, the Most Holy Trinity,
Farner, Son, and Hoty GHost. The Chaldee para-
phrast thus continues, ‘‘'‘Then was it said unto Moses,
1} THE SONG OF SONGS. 37
Get thee up into the mount, and I will give thee two
tables of stone, cut from the sapphire throne of My
glory, shining as the finest gold, ruled with lines
traced by My finger, wherein are written ten sayings,
purified more than silver which has been purified
seven times, and I will give them by thy hand to the
people of the house of Israel.” But this sense, beau-
tiful as it is, refers to the past, long before the time of
the Canticles. It is not We have made, but We will
make, and is therefore a promise to the Bride of some
good things she has not yet obtained. So then we
may compare the similar promise in another place:
“ Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be
as the wings of a dove, that is covered with silver
wings, and her feathers like gold,” and are led on
from the harsh, stern dictates of the Law to the grace
and truth of the Gospel, according to that saying of
the Prophet, ‘For brass I will bring gold, and for
iron I will bring silver.” We may see here in the
word border, areference to Him Who standeth * round
about His people for evermore,” and then, as it is
written, ‘A word fitly spoken is as apples of gold in
pictures of silver,” the gold may denote the Godhead
of the Worp, the pictures or studs of silver the pure
- Manhood of Curist.. Several of the Fathers agree
with the general spirit of the Chaldee interpretation, *
and take the golden borders to denote the knowledge
of Holy Scripture, intertwined with silver threads of
types, prophecies, counsels, and the like, or even with
the human eloquence of devout preachers; silver, as
pure and holy, but not golden with direct inspiration.
They vary, however, in attributing the words to the
Bridegroom or to His friends. Origen, taking the
latter view, and following the LX X. rendering, which
is similitudes of gold with spots of silver, holds that
the speakers are the Angels, who ordained the Law in
the hand of a Mediator, and the Prophets who ex-
pound that Law. While the King is in His lying
down, and has not yet come to deck His Bride Him-
self, they desire to do something for her adornment.
They have no gold, because of “the Law having a
shadow of good things to come, and not the very
image of the things,” and therefore they can give only
similitudes of gold, the Ark of the Covenant, the
altar of incense, the shew-bread, and the like, mere
types of future mysteries. They have silver, the
Ps. lxviii. 13.
Ainsworth.
Isa. lx. 17.
Ps. cxxv. 2.
S. August.
S. Greg.
yss.
Theodoret,.
Aponius,
Beda.
Origen.
S. August.
de Trin. i. 8.
Gal. iii. 19.
Heb. x. 1.
2 Chron. i.
15.
S. Ambros.
Psellus.
Philo Carp.
Gal. vi. 17.
S. Greg. M.
Cassiodor.
S. Bruno
Ast.
Dion. Carth.
Parez.
38 A COMMENTARY ON (I. 11.
moral precepts and counsels to guide man’s life, but
only in very small quantity, so that they can bestow
merely spots of it, unlike the true Solomon, of whom it
is written, “ And the king made silver and gold at Jeru-
salem as plenteous as stones.” Others, agreeing with
Origen in taking the clause While the King is in His
lying down with the present sentence, explain it of
the current dispensation, to end when He arises to
judgment, and they interpret the similitudes of gold
and the spots of silver to be the imperfect foretaste of
eternal joys granted to the Church Militant on earth.
Again, they take the golden ornaments to signify the
cleansing of the Church by fiery persecutions, and in
this sense one commentator declares that the Martyrs
are the golden jewels of the Church, marked with
silver spots denoting the torments and sufferings they
endured, as the Apostle writes, ‘I bear about in my
body the marks of the Lorp JEsus.”
The Vulgate rendering, necklets (murenulas, literally,
little eels, named from their flexibility and cylindrical
form) damascened (vermiculatas) with silver, has given
rise to much comment from the Latin Fathers. Thus
S. Gregory observes, “The eel is a fish which, when
taken, twists itself into a circle, in resemblance of which
an ear-ring is made, called murenula, by which is de-
noted preaching, which hangs to the ears, and enters
them. Collars (monilia) are fastened to the neck with
murenule, just as wisdom and religion are united by
preachers with Holy Writ. For by these necklets we
understand Holy Writ to be meant. It is well said
to be damascened with gold and silver, because it
shines with wisdom, and is heard, by clear preaching,
throughout the world.” Another Saint, looking to the
twinings of the eel, says that the golden necklets de-
note the more involved and difficult sayings and doe-
trines of Scriptures, and the silver threadings the ex-
positions of the Saints thereon. Not very dissimilarly,
another holy writer sees in the gold the contemplation
of Divine mysteries, and in the silver the created chan-
nels through which we are here obliged to make that
contemplation. Or, as yet another puts it, the gold is
Cuxist’s benefits of love: the silver, the good works
and wisdom with which we carry them out. After
these explanations, that of Parez seems poor, who
takes the golden necklaces to be the spiritual graces of
the Church, the silver threadings her temporal endow-
I, 12.] ‘THE SONG OF SONGS. 39
ments. Lastly, 8S. Jerome says that gold denotes the
Virgin life. Before Curist came, the Church had the
silver of chaste marriage and widowhood, but the S. Hieron.
more precious metal of virginity was His gift. And jon’ /0"™™
the words therefore point to that especial aureole re- ~
served for maiden brows.
They say, who know the life divine, Keble,
And upward gaze with eagle eyne, Christian
That by each golden crown on high, Year.
Rich with celestial jewelry,
Which for our Lorp’s redeemed is set,
There hangs a radiant coronet,
All gemmed with pure and living light,
Too dazzling for a sinner’s sight,
Prepared for virgin souls, and them
Who seek the Martyr’s diadem,
12 While the king sitteth at his table, my
spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
They assign four principal meanings to this setting 8. Aug. de
of the King, or rather, following the original idiom, ec eiae
and that of the ancient versions, His lying down. ~ re
First; itis taken of the repose of Curist’s Godhead
in heaven. “The lying-down of the King is the 8. Bernard.
- Bosom of the Faruer, for the Son is ever in the Fa- 8°™ 4”
mHER. - And thou canst not doubt Him to be a merciful
King, whose everlasting down-lying is the dwelling of
the Farnmr’s lovingkindness. Fitly does the cry of
the lowly ascend to Him, Who is the fount and habi-
tation of gentleness.” And this is the sense in which
Origen and those other Fathers who attach the words Ovgen.
to the previous verse understand them, taking, as they
do, the Incarnation of Curist to be His standing up to
help mankind in the battle. But others will have it Cassiodor.
that the Incarnation itself is here meant, called lying Reni
down because of the humility with which the Lorp
emptied Himself of His glory. Thirdly ; the Passion 8: pea
and Death of Curis, His lying down on the Cross and Theodoret.
in the grave, is the view of more than one Saint and S. Greg.
Father. And lastly ; there is the indwelling of Curis? fY pate,
in the holy soul. They vary also as to the meaning of
the spikenard. The older interpretation explains it of
Curist Himself, “It is no marvel,” says Origen, “if Origen.
Curist, as He is the Fountain, and streams of living
water proceed out of Him; and as He is the Bread, and Theodoret.
gives life; so He is the Spikenard also, and gives odour,
Ps. cv. 15.
Heb. v. 14.
Serm, 42.
Rupert.
Parez.
Dion. Carth.
Philipp.
Harveng.
40 A COMMENTARY ON [rs12;
and is the ointment wherewith those who are anointed
become Christs, as He saith in the Psalm, ‘Touch
not My Christs.’ And it may be that as the Apostle
saith, unto ‘those who by reason of use have their
senses exercised to discern both good and evil,’ CHRIST
adapts Himself for each of the soul’s senses. There-
fore He is called the True Light, that the soul’s eyes
may have illumination; therefore He is the Worp,
that the ears may hearken; therefore He is the Bread
of Life, that the soul’s taste may perceive savour.
Therefore also He is called spikenard or ointment, that
the soul’s sense of smell may receive the fragrance of
the Worp. Therefore, too, He can be touched and
handled with the hand, and the Worp was made flesh,
that the hands of the inner soul might handle the
Word of Life.” Next; the spikenard will denote the
lowliness of the Church, or of the soul which draws
near Gop. ‘Good,’ exclaims S. Bernard, “is that
odour of humility which, ascending from the vale of
tears, and impregnating all the regions round about,
perfumes with grateful sweetness the royal chamber
itself. The spikenard is a lowly plant, which they who
have carefully studied the properties of herbs state to
be of a warm nature, and thus I hold it not unsuitable
to understand here that virtue of humility which is hot
with the exhalations of holy love.” And if it be true
of all humble saints, whether of the Old or New Cove-
nant, as they allege, much more is it so of her, the
holiest and most exalted of all, in whose hallowed womb
the King vouchsafed to le down. “The King Him-
self,” says a saintly writer, venturing, with holy bold-
ness, to put words into the pure mouth of the Mother
of Gop, “Son of the Most Highest King, Himself of
no lesser dignity, from His equal throne with the Fa-
THER, from His royal seat, from the secret dwelling of
His unapproachable Majesty, where the Angels see
and desire His Face evermore, vouchsafed to come
hither to earth for the salvation of perishing souls,
and rested in my chamber. In my womb, I say, that
King gladly laid Himself down, and found nought in
me to make His dwelling displeasing to Him. And
there lying, He filled me marvellously with His grace :
While preserving my virginity, He took away my
maiden barrenness, and His forceful fire consumed me
as a whole burnt-offering, and filled the entire house .
with the most fragrant perfume of ointment.”
T1245) THE SONG OF SONGS. Al
Only her spacious soul, the blessed Sea, J. Beau-
Where all those floods of precious things did meet, mont,
Knew what it comprehended; Glorious, she Psyche, vii.
Did taste the relish of each mystic sweet 98.
Tn one miraculous instant, and did try
The various dainties of Divinity.
And so, too, it was not till He came in the flesh, that
the sweet odour of the Church went up to Gop, filling
His house, the earth, and no longer shut up in the
narrow casket of Judea. Thirdly; they explain the
spikenard of repentance, and here, most naturally, that origen.
other Mary, who anointed the feet of Jesus with oint- Beda.
ment of spikenard, very precious, when her King sat eaten
at table, is taken as the type of all true penitent souls.
In preedulci unctione, The Hymn,
Nardum ferens pisticum, Pange,
Et unguenti fusione lingua,
Typum gessit mysticum, Magdalene.
Ut sanetur unctione,
Unxit «gra Medicum.
She, in that anointing sweetest,
Bearing spikenard rich and pure,
In its pouring-out completest,
Showed us mystic types and sure,
Sick, she gave that Healer meetest
What she sought herself for cure.
Next; it is taken to denote the faith of the Church s. Ambros.
in her Incarnate, suffering, and risen Lorp, and her Ps. cxix.
preaching of that faith till its perfume filled the world. © 708: O78:
Fifthly ; it is explained of all good works, especially
of prayer. And following this view in connection with cyssiogor
that which sees in the lying down, the Passion and Beda.
Burial of Curist, we may remember not only the
spices with which the Sacred Body was interred, but
also those which the holy women brought to the sepul-
chre, deeming Him to be still there, and may take upon
our lips those words of the Holy Eastern Church :
Let us rise in early morning, S. Johann.
And instead of ointments, bring Damasc.
Hymns of praise unto our Master, a oie
And His Resurrection sing,
We shall see the Sun of Justice
Risen with healing in His wing.
‘And this especially when we approach the sacred
Banquet wherein the King indeed sitteth at His table,
to feed His guests with His own most precious Body
S. Greg. M.
Theodoret.
Honor. Aug.
Origen.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Origen.
2S. Pet. i.
20.
Aponius.
Cassiodor,
S. Greg. M.
Prudent.
Cathem, x.
515
S. John xix.
39.
A2 A COMMENTARY ON fiei33
and Blood. We greet Him, however, not only in His
glorious Resurrection, but in His wonderful Ascension,
so that the odour of our petitions and holy deeds may
be wafted upwards to His feet as He sits on the great
white throne. When the fires of Pentecost came down
after CHRIsT went up and entered His chamber once
more, then the words of salvation and the holy ex-
amples of the Saints of Gop sent their fragrance over
all the earth, because the incense was kindled by the
flame of the Spirit.
13 A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto
me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
As we had in the spikenard the Incarnation of
Curist, so here we have His Passion set before us in
the myrrh. And observe, this myrrh is not loose, but
in a bundle, tied up. First then, Curist is a bundle
for us, because He was not content to be with us in the
Omnipresence of His Godhead, but came: to us also
bound in human form, and with like passions to ours.
He is a bundle, again, because He ties Himself to our
souls with the cords of His most tender and unfailing
love. And thirdly; because each group of Curist’s
sayings, and each doctrine or miracle of His, is bound
up with others, with the cord of truth, and cannot be
taken separately. And this is what the Apostle means
when he says that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of
any private interpretation.” Next; the bundle is of
myrrh, because that bitter herb typifies the suffering
and death of Curist, and also the share in that suf-
fering which must be the lot of all who follow Him.
Myrrh, they remind us, was used in the burial of the
dead, to preserve the body from corruption.
Aspersaque myrrha Sabzeo
Corpus medicamine servat.
And myrrh which is sprinkled preserveth
With unguent of Saba the body.
And therefore the Church, mindful not only of the
mixture of myrrh and aloes which Nicodemus brought
for the burial of the Lorp, but of her own preservation
from the rottenness of sin by His dying, dwells in
thankful love on the story of His Passion. He shall
lie all night. The words all night are not necessarily
implied in the Hebrew, nor are they expressed in the
Lita] THE SONG OF SONGS. 43
old versions, but the verb 5 lun here used, so often
has this sense,! that we need not hesitate to apply their
mystical import. .AlZ night, then, in all time of our
tribulation, in every sorrow, and throughout the dark-
ness of this world, till the day break, Curist shall be
with us, closest and dearest. Betwixt my breasts. And
that because He is My Wellbeloved. “Just now,”
says 8. Bernard, “He was King, now He is Well-
beloved. Just now, He was in His lying down, now
betwixt the breasts of His spouse. Great is the might
of humility, to which the majesty of Godhead_so
readily bows itself. The name of reverence is quickly
changed into that of love, and He Who was far off,
speedily is near. A bundle of myrrh is my Well-beloved
unto me. Myrrh is a bitter thing, harsh and rough ;
it denotes tribulation. She, knowing that it awaits
her for her Beloved’s sake, utters that saying thank-
fully, trusting that she can valiantly bear it all. ‘ The
disciples departed,’ she says, ‘from the presence of
the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for His Name.’” Betwixt my breasts.
The metaphor is taken from the Eastern custom of
carrying a small posy or bag of myrrh in the bosom,
to scent the clothes, and also as a safeguard against
infection, and thence it is fitly transferred to them who
keep in their heart the memory of CHRIsT’s death.
My breasts. Of the Church, the Old and New Testa-
ments, one with its prophecies and types of the Passion,
the other with the history and the results of it, between
which lies the scarred form of the Man of Sorrows.
My breasts, of the holy soul, which carries CurisT be-
tween the two great commandments, the love of Gop
and the love of one’s neighbour. A bundle of myrrh
betwixt the breasts of His most dear Mother, in His
Incarnation, because He preserved her then pure from
all taint of her virginity ; and again in the hour of His
Passion, when the sword passed through her bosom,
and she tasted the bitterness of death with Him. And
it is because of all these reasons that it has been the
delight of Christians for many centuries, and especially
of those Virgin souls which are dedicated to their
Lorp, of whom it is written,
In earum pectore cubat in meridie,
Inter mammas virginum collocans cubiculum ;
1 Gen. xix. 2; Judg. xix. 6,9; Ruthiii. 18; Job xxix. 19, &e.
S. Bernard.
Serm., 43.
Acts v, 41.
Cassiodor.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
Parez.
Rupert.
Dion. Carth.
Godeschal-
cus. The
Sequence,
Virgines
caste.
Dion. Carth.
Corn. a Lap.
Thrupp.
Cassiodor.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
S. Bernard.
Zech. xiii. 1,
Gen. xiv. 7.
2 Chron. xx,
2.
44, A COMMENTARY ON [I. 14.
He lieth on their bosom in the noontide, a19
Making His couch betwixt the breasts of the virgins ;
to wear the crucifix upon their breasts in memory of
their suffering Bridegroom.
14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of
camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi.
And now we have the Resurrection. There is no
doubt as to the plant intended here, which is the famous
henna of the Kast, worn by the women in posies on
their breasts, because of its beautiful and fragrant
blossoms, and employed as a dye to give the favourite
golden red tinge to their nails. And the word WDD
copher, here read in the Hebrew, means also expiation
or ransom, so that we have here a confession from the
Bride of the preciousness and fragrance of that Re-
demption wrought for her, which makes the traces of
Curist’s Passion appear even in her humblest mem-
bers. This camphire can be gathered only in the vine-
yards, where the wine of the Passion is produced,
vineyards truly of Hn-gedi, the “ fountain of the kid,”
because when the mingled tide flowed from the spear
wound on the Cross, then the prophecy was fulfilled,
‘In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the
house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for
sin and for uncleanness,” and the waters of Baptism
were provided to wash away our guilt. Hn-gedi now, be-
cause of the clear sweet waters of the Gospel, but once
Hazazon-Tamar, the “ pruning of the palm,” by reason
of the stern precepts of the Law, cutting off, rather than
cleansing, the sinner. An ambiguity in the LXX. and
Vulgate rendering of D7 SDs eshcol ha-copher,
which they both turn botrus Oypri, has led to much
difficulty and variety of exposition amongst both Greek
and Latin commentators. With the single exception
of Origen, who rightly explains the words of a thickly
flowering shrub, (though he prefers, after all, to follow
the less correct rendering,) they agree in taking botrus
to mean a cluster of grapes, and the Latins, for the most
part, suppose Cypri to denote the island of Cyprus, then,
as now, famous for its wine, and thus merely an epithet
of excellence. Others, nearer to the truth, take it to be
the proper name of a balsam-tree, resembling the grape
in its clusters, and therefore said to grow in vineyards.
I. 14.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 45
Tt is nota little curious that the error of rendering grape
for cluster is found not only in those who followed the
ambiguous rendering, but in the Chaldee Targum itself.
The Greeks generally suppose Cypri to denote blooming
or flowering, from the verb xumpifw, and interpret the
whole phrase, a grape in flower, 1.e., before the fruit is
developed. ‘And this,” says Origen, ‘because those
to whom the Worp is the True Vine, do not find Him
giving them all at once ripe and sweet grapes; nor
does He suddenly become to them that rich wine which
makes glad the heart of man, but first He gives them
only the pleasant odour of blossoms. This flowering
grape is said to be in the vineyards of Engaddi; that
its grateful fragrance may at the very beginning be
poured into the soul; that she may afterwards endure
the bitterness of trials and temptations which beset
believers for the sake of the Worp of Gop; and at
last He gives them the sweetness of His maturity, till
He brings them to the wine-presses, where is poured
out the blood of the grape, the blood of the New Testa-
ment, which shall be drunk on the festal day above,
where the great banquet is prepared... . And in
that this flowering grape is said to be of the vineyards
of Engaddi: the word Engaddi is interpreted, the eye
of my temptation. Any one, then, who understands
how men’s life on earth is a temptation, and who also
knows how one is delivered in Gop out of temptation,
and who detects the nature of his own special tempta-
tion, so that it may be said of him that in all these
things he hath not sinned with his lips before Gop:
to such a man the Worp of Gop becomes a flowering
grape in the vineyards of Engaddi.”
Some of the Latin Fathers, remembering the vine-
bunch borne on the pole by the spies, see in the grape
of Cyprus the Crucifixion of Curist; and in Engaddi,
the Scribes and Pharisees who surrounded and tempted
1 This curious rendering may
thus be accounted for: 4 or
Ain is strictly the eye, and is
merely transferred by metaphor
to a pool or fountain, as an eye
of the earth. Gaddi is ex-
plained, ‘‘my temptation,” by
following the LXX. interpre-
tation of Gen. xlix. 19, where
is read, ‘‘Gad, a temptation
shall tempt him,’’ instead of
our reading, ‘‘a troop shall
overcome him.” From the verb
Ta or 13, properly ‘‘to press
violently on,’’ with the pro-
nominal suffix, comes Origen’s
view. Another explanation,
‘my cutting,’ referred to later,
comes from another sense of the
same verb, ‘‘to prune,’ or
‘make an incision.”
Origen.
Ss. Ambros.
Aponius.
S. Just. Org.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 44.
Rom. iv. 25.
Aponius.
S. Mat. v. 4.
Corn. 4 Lap.
Hortolanus.
S. Hieron.
Trad. in
Gen. xiv.
S. Ambros,
in Ps. cxix.
Beda.
46 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 14.
Him; but the majority prefer to take it of the Resur-
rection. And thus, amongst several others, S. Ber-
nard: ‘‘ If He be well-beloved in myrrh, much more
in the sweetness of the grape-bunch. Therefore my
Lorp JEsvs is myrrh to me in His death, a grape-bunch
in His Resurrection. He mingled Himself for me as
the most healthful of drinks, in tears, in a measure.
He died for our offences, and rose again for our justi-
fication ; that dead unto sin, we might live unto righ-
teousness. Therefore, if thou hast’ mourned for thy
sins, thou hast drunk bitterness; but if thou hast re-
vived with holier conversation in hope of life, the bit-
terness of the myrrh is changed for thee into wine,
which maketh glad the heart of man.” Aponius, con-
trariwise, from finding here in the meaning of Cypri
a reference to the funereal cypress, explains that
Curist is the grape of sorrow to sinners, when He
pours the spirit of grief and compunction into their
souls, according to His own saying, “ Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ And
that in Hngaddi, because it is the fount of penitential
tears which washes the rank-smelling kids. Again;
if Engaddi be explained fount of my cutting, it may
be taken of the precious balsam for all our hurts,
flowing from the wounded side of Cuxrist, as balm from
the incisions in a tree. They are also careful to dwell
on the fact that Hn-gedi was the place whence the
choicest balsam came. And thus 8. Ambrose, though
explaining one word differently : ‘‘ Engaddi is a place
in Judea, where opobalsam grows. If you ask its
meaning, it is in Latin, temptation. In those vineyards
is a tree which yields ointment if pierced, and this is
the product of that tree. If it be not cut, it is not so
fragrant and penetrating in odour, but when it has been
skilfully pierced, it drops a tear. So Curtst, crucified
on that Tree of temptation, weeps over His people, to
wash away our sins, and from the bowels of His mercy
pours ointment upon us, saying, ‘Farner, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.’ Then He
was pierced with a spear on the Tree, and there came
forth from Him blood and water, sweeter than any
ointment, a victim acceptable to Gop, pouring the
odour of sanctification throughout the world; and as
balsam from a tree, so power went forth from His
Body.” Beda, following up a reference of 8. Gregory
the Great to the use of balsam in chrism, tells us that
I. 15.] THE SONG OF SONGS. AT
the balsam denotes the graces of the Holy Spirit, and
bids us note the collocation of ideas. The Bride first
says, that her spikenard yielded its odour while the
King was lying down, then she compares Him to a
bundle of myrrh ; and thirdly, calls Him a grape-cluster
of Cyprus; declaring lastly, that He is in the vineyards
of Engaddi. And that because a devout woman first
anointed the Lorp with spikenard when He lay down
at supper. After that, the disciples wrapped in fine
linen His crucified Body, anointed with myrrh for
burial, and after this, He, in the joy of His Resurrec-
tion, which came so soon, bestows spiritual gifts on the
faithful. And it is said in the vineyards, denoting the
Churches and faithful souls which rejoice in the re-
demption bought for her by Curist. Nowhere, save
in H/ngedi, adds another, for just as many kings tried
in vain to transplant the balsams of that place success-
fully, so there is but the one faith wherein the Bride
ean find her Beloved, and the life of Curist, outside
His Church, withers away in the soul.
15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold,
thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.
“This,” notes Origen, “is the second address of the
| Bridegroom to the Bride. In his former speech He
invited her to learn to know herself, telling her that
she was fairest among women, but that unless she did
know herself, she should certainly undergo sufferings.
And as she at once hasted in thought and understand-
ing to self-knowledge, He compares her to His horses
or chivalry, whereby He overcame Pharaoh’s chariots.
So too He compares her cheeks to turtle-doves because
of her great modesty and her swiftness in action, and
her neck to jewelled collars. Now, He declares her
to be fair, and not as before, merely fair among women,
but as near Himself, and lifts her to a still higher title
of praise, and affirms that she is not fair merely when
near to Him, but fair even if He be absent. For this
is denoted hereby, that after saying, Behold thow art
fair, My companion, (A. V. marg.,) He adds after
this absolutely, and without any addition, Behold, thou
1 The LXX. translate *nv7 primary meaning of the word
; ee "*:-2 | ig “one who eats at the same
my neighbour, 7 mAnotoy pov. Phin?
The rootis my, he fed, and the
rir?
Philo Carp.
Aponius.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 44,
Origen.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Psellus.
Origen.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
S. Bernard.
Serm., 45.
Dion. Carth.
Thom.
Vercell.
Hugo Card.
Origen.
Philo Carp.
Cassiod.
48 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 15.
art fair.” Man, comment other Greek Fathers, is like
a mirror, which appears beautiful or hideous according
to the object closest to it, which it reflects, and there-
fore in this life Curist’s Bride can be fair only by
nearness to Him, that His countenance may shine on
and in her, His companion. But in the world to come,
when the Church is no longer militant, but Trium-
phant, she will have perfection and beauty, not as now
by imitation, but inherently of her own. Others, in-
cluding some Western expositors, take the words of
the double holiness in act and thought, in labour and
contemplation, in body and soul, vouchsafed by Curist
to His Bride. S. Gregory the Great sees here, as in
the two breasts of a former verse, the love of Gop and
of one’s neighbour as the double beauty of the Church ;
while 8S. Bernard prefers to find in the words a reference
to the grace of penitence, whereby pardon, and thereby
renewed beauty, has been won, and that of humility,
whereby it is retained. ‘‘ The repetition,” says the Ke-
static Doctor, “is a token of affirmation, of love, of se-
riousness, and to arouse attention, as though He were
saying, Thou, My Bride, My holy and elect Church, for
which I gave Myself up to death, thou art fair in soul
and in chastity of body. Fair by the gifts of nature,
fairer by the blessings of grace. Fair within by the
brightness of thy virtues, gifts, and merits: fair with-
out, in thy most lovely ways. Fair in the beauty of
the Sacraments, adorned with the manifold divisions
of thy ministry, the varied order, station, and ranks of
thy prelates, religious, and doctors, decked not only
with those supernatural gifts of that grace which
maketh us graceful, but of that grace which is given
freely.”” And that, comments another, because the first
fairness is of the purgative way, which brings us to
know ourselves and love Gop; the other, the illumina-
tive, which makes perfect, because we see Gop as He
is. Another explanation, not without some beauty,
sees here the twofold Church, Hebrew and Gentile, the
first having been long Gop’s companion, the other but
lately come to Him, but both alike fair in His sight.
Thou hast doves’ eyes. First, they take it of the en-
lightening graces of the Hoty Guost, granted to the
Church and to every faithful soul. Then, of the inner
vision of the soul herself, fixed on heavenly things.
Doves’ eyes, not only because of the Dove that came
to Jordan, but as the type of meekness and purity,
I. 15.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 49
and conjugal faithfulness. Thus, for the one part,
Venerable Bede observes: ‘‘CuHrtst’s love has doves’ Beda.
eyes, because every soul which truly loves Him inter-
nally, is not fired, like hawks, with greed for things
without, nor plans evil against any living things; for
it is said to belong to the meek nature of the dove, to
look on everything that may happen with simple,
gentle, and lowly heart.” And for the other view, let
us hear 8. Gregory: ‘‘ Her eyes are well said to beg, Greg. M.
doves’ eyes, because whilst she sighs amidst passing
things, and is borne aloft to eternal longings, she
guards her senses in simplicity, and abhors fleshly de-
sires. For the dove, when loving, utters sighs instead
of songs. Fitly, then, is the holy soul compared to a
dove, for whilst the ungodly prate and rejoice in their
love of the world, the elect soul pines in her longing
for heaven, because she fears to lose that which she
loves so long as it is delayed.” And Psellus turns it Psellus.
prettily of the virgin life, looking to the Creator and
not to the creature :
*150v, pol, KaAn TYVyXavELS, @ Tapbeve,
Exes yap Sumatra TepTva mepioTepas Tapbévov
émétay cov Tos 6pOaduods aneoTpelas THs TAGs,
kal mpds eue Toy TAacTOUpyoy Thy ody evaTevifes®
mepiorepas 5¢ ucuynta viv dpOarpods 6 Adyos,
7d Kabapdy Tov BAcuuatos onuaivwy r7s Tapbévou,
Kal yap TocotTov Kabapoy toxev exelyn BACuma,
ote narede cadapas Toy KdAALoTOV vuudloy.
Behold, He saith, O Virgin, thou art fair,
Thou hast the sweet eyes of a virgin dove,
When thou hast turned thine eyes from wandering,
And gazest upon Me, thy fashioner.
The Word now maketh mention of doves’ eyes,
Noting the pureness of the virgin’s mien ;
For she hath just such pureness in her mien
As she hath purely scanned her fairest Spouse.
Another interpretation sees in the eyes of the Church, Aponius.
the Prophets and Apostles of earlier times, and the §. Greg. M.
great Doctors and preachers of later days. And thus 8.
Anselm of Laon: The dove lives beside streams, that s,ans.Laud.
when she sees the hawk she may plunge in and escape,
she chooses the better grains, she nourishes young ones
not her own, she wounds not with her beak; she has
no gall, she makes her nest in the holes of the rock,
she has a sigh instead of a song. So too, holy preachers yonorius
dwell beside the streams of the divine Scripture, where- Augustod.
E
50 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 16.
with their hearts are watered, that by their aid they
may escape the devil’s assaults; they choose the better
grains, that is, the better doctrines, not those of here-
tics; they nourish the young of others, that is, they
train with precept and example men who were formerly
aliens from Curist and children of the evilone. They
do not rend with their beak, that is, they do not, like
heretics, pervert and rend sound doctrines; they are
free from gall, that is, unreasonable anger. They build
in the clefts of the rock, that is, they make their nest
in the death-wounds of Curist, Who is the firmest of
all rocks. They have sighing for singing, because as
others delight in song, so do they in tribulation. Be-
sides, the dove flies in flocks, and so the Church strives
S. Bernard, to draw many with her to the joysof heaven. Finally,
Btn Once they expound this whole verse of the Blessed Virgin,
Rupert. th, /@ir in her purity, fair in her lowliness, fair in the
beauty of her earthly body, fairer in the loveliness of
her stainless soul, fair in her virginity, fair in her
childbearing, and, as she was full of grace, and espe-
cially dowered by the Hoty Guost, she has doves’ eyes.
The Hymn, Tu columba nubilis,
Reginamise- Turtur subarrhata,
ricordia,
Tu domus eburnea,
Civitas murata ;
Tu sic dicta viola,
Quod inviolata,
Ager, rosa, lilium,
Mater, uxor, nata.
Mary, thou art bridal dove,
Thou art turtle dowered,
Ivory abode of love,
City strongly towered ;
Thou, inviolate by stain,
Name of violet bearest,
Rose-bud, lily-flower, plain,
Child, spouse, mother fairest.
16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea,
pleasant ; also our bed is green.
Tt is now the Bride who speaks in answer to the
praises which the Bridegroom has just uttered to her.
And here at once arises the question so much debated
in the Early Church, as to the physical aspect of
Cuzrist. The Eastern Fathers, almost universally,
I. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. dl
press the literal sense of such texts as that in Isaiah.
* He hath no form or comeliness, and when we shall
see Him there is no beauty that we should desire
Him.” But the Western doctors, with more than
equal unanimity, explain these and the like phrases
as denoting only the lowliness and suffering of His
Isa. liii, 2.
earthly life, Who yet was ‘fairer than the children of Ps, xiv. 3.
2?
men.” The Bride, remarks Origen, now that she is
gifted with the spiritual insight of doves’ eyes, recog-
nises the beauty of her Spouse, namely, the Godhead
hidden under the veil of Humanity. Zhou, she says,
art fair. She does not qualify the words as He did,
by adding among men, for she knows of none other
beauty save His, not even her own, as she ascribes it
all to Him. “To us who now believe,” exclaims S.
Augustine, ‘the Bridegroom ever seems fair. Fair
was Gop the Worp with Gop, fair in the Virgin’s
womb, where He lost not His Divinity and took on
Him Manhood. Fair was the Worp born an Infant,
for when He was an Infant, when He sucked, and was
carried in arms, the Heavens spake, and the Angels
uttered praise. A star guided the wise men, and the
Food of the meek was worshipped in the manger.
Fair was He then in heaven, fair on earth, fair in the
womb, fair in His parents’ args, fair in His miracles,
fair in His scourges, fair inviting us to life, fair reck-
ing not of death, fair laying down His life, fair taking
it again, fair upon the Tree, fair in the tomb, fair in
heaven, fair unto the thought.”
He is not fair only, but pleasant, a yet stronger
word, denoting, as they say, far more than mere beauty
of feature, that winning grace in expression, voice, ges-
ture, and act, which attracts affection even as har-
monious regularity of countenance compels admiration.
And they delight in finding twin sources of beauty in
the Redeemer in the most various ways. First, and
most obviously, we may take it of the two Natures in
His one Person, the first being fair by reason of its
Divine essence, the second pleasant for its tender par-
doning grace. ‘“ How fairart Thou unto Thine Angels,
O Lorp Jxsv,” cries a Saint, ‘‘in the form of Gop, in
Thine eternal day, in the splendour of the Saints, Thou
splendour and image of the FarneEr’s substance,
begotten before the morning star, Thou truly ever-
lasting and undimmed radiance of unending life!
How pleasant art Thou to me, my Lorp, in the very
| E 2
Origen.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Angelomus.
S. August.
in Ps, xlv,
Ghislerius.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
S. Bernard.
Serm., 45.
Ps. XxXxv.
10.
Philo Carp.
Aponius.
Origen.
Ps, cxxi. 6.
S. Ambros,
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Tres Patr,
Ps. xci. 4.
52 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 16.
seat of this pleasantness of Thine! For where Thou
didst empty Thyself, where Thou didst strip Thine
unwaning light of its natural rays, there Thy loving-
kindness shone forth the more, there Thy charity
blazed out more brightly, there Thy grace shed its
rays further. How bright to me is Thine arising, O
Star out of Jacob; how gleaming is Thy coming up,
O Flower of Jesse’s Root; how joyous is Thy light,
visiting me in darkness, O Dayspring from on high !
How fascinating and wondrous is Thine heavenly
might, in Thy conception by the Hoty Gnoszt, in Thy
Virgin-birth, in Thy stainless life, in Thy streams of
doctrine, in the flashings of Thy miracles, in the reve-
lations of Thy Sacraments! How brilliantly, O Sun
of righteousness, dost Thou arise from the heart of
the earth after Thy setting, how beautiful in Thine
apparel! At last, O King of Glory, Thou ascendest
to the highest heavens. Wherefore then should not
all my bones say, ‘Lorp, who is like unto Thee?’”
He was fair, observes an Eastern Father, in the Pro-
phets, but pleasant in the Apostles ; fair in keeping
those good things which He gave under the Law,
pleasant in the abundant promises of better things in
the Gospel. Fair in His pure Body, pleasant in His
stainless human soul. ,
Also our bed is green. This, the true sense of the
Hebrew, is not found either in LXX. or Vulgate.
The former has two readings, each adopted by certain
expositors. Our bed is shady, and Thou art a shadow
‘to our bed. The Vulgate has, Our bed is flowery.
Origen, taking the first reading, explains that the
Bride says our bed, because her members are CHRIST’S
members, and adds that it is shady because of His
promise, “The sun shall not burn thee by day,
neither the moon by night,” and shady too because of
the thick growth of good works from souls watered by
His grace, and not parched up with spiritual dryness,
under which shade we may avoid the hot breath of
sin. Theodoret, who takes the same reading, expounds
the bed to be the divine Scriptures, shady because
guarded by the grace of the Hoty Sprriv, and shel-
tered from the heat of wickedness. The other LXX.
reading, which is the received one, is followed by
several Eastern Fathers, but they do not take it, as
might be expected, in the sense of those words, “ He
shall defend thee under His wings, and thou shalt
I. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 53
be safe under His feathers,” but of the Human Na-
ture of Curist, mercifully shading from our eyes the
dazzling glory of His Godhead, on which man cannot
look and live. The Latin commentators, for the most g, Greg. mM.
part, expound the bed of the tranquillity of the Church,
flowery with the many virtues of the Saints. Beda, Beda.
reproducing in a Christian form the explanation of
the Targum, adds that the Church is flowery not only
with good works, but with the abundant offspring of
faithful, produced to Gop from water and the Spirit,
and blooming with the flower of faith. And it is to
be noted, continues he, that throughout this book the
Bride always expresses a desire to be with her Spouse
in the house, on the bed, or any other inner place,
whereas the Bridegroom is always summoning His
love to outer tasks, to the labours of the vineyards or
of the gardens. And that because Holy Church, if it
might be, would ever gladly converse with her Lorp
in the quiet of earthly peace, and bring forth and train
up for Him a heavenly progeny. But He ordains her
to be tried by constant sufferings in the present life,
that she may arrive, all the purer, at everlasting
blessings, and lest, if all temporal things should be
too prosperous, she might take pleasure in her exile,
and sigh less after the Heavenly Country. Another
sees in the flowery bed that hallowed womb where the Rupert.
Incarnate Lorn rested for nine months, and the same
idea, substituting the overshadowing trees (denoting
darkness and mystery) for the blossoming flowers of
beauty and lowliness, is seen in the way in which the
Greek Fathers explain the LX X. reading of Habakkuk
ii. 3: “Gop shall come from Teman, and the Holy
from the thick and shady mountain of Paran.” Thus
in the Eastern Office for Christmas Day :
Rod of the Root of Jesse,
Thou, Flower of Mary born,
From that thick shady mountain
Cam’st glorious forth this morn:
Of her, the Ever- Virgin,
Incarnate wast Thou made,
The immaterial Essence,
The Gop by all obeyed!
S, Cosmas.
*T think,” observes S. Bernard, “that the Church’s Ss. Bernard.
bed, whereon one may rest, means cloisters and con- Serm. 46.
vents, where one lives free from the cares of the world
Vieyra.
Serm. do
S. Francisco
Xavier.
Aponius.
Angelomus.
Hugo Card.
Nic. Argent.
The Hymn,
Huc ad ju-
gum Cal-
varie.
Isa, Xxviii.
20.
Venantius
Fortunatus.
The Hymn,
Pange
lingua,
Heb. iv. 9.
Francis
Baker.
54 A COMMENTARY ON [I. 16.
and the anxieties of life. And it is declared to be
flowery, when the conversation and life of the brethren
are beautified with the examples and precepts of the
Fathers, as though with fragrant flowers.” And note,
that this bed is flowery, rather than made of cedars and
firs, for another reason, that as cut flowers fade quickly,
and need to be renewed daily, so it is needful for Reli-
gious constantly to renew the vows and resolutions of
their profession, so as to offer them fresh and sweet to
Gop. Two other writers see here, by a somewhat
forced interpretation, the tomb in which Curist lay
down, called flowery by reason of the fragrant myrrh
and spices used at His burial. Far more beautiful is
the view of. Nicolaus de Argentina, who dwells on
the Vulgate diminutive lectulus, “little bed,” in the
text here, and bids us remember that hard and nar-
row bed of the Cross, which was the bridal couch of
Curist and His Church. And precisely in this sense
runs the hymn:
The fox hath where to lay his head,
Her nest receives the sparrow:
Thy Monarch, for His latest bed,
One plank hath, hard and narrow.
Of it the Prophet spake, saying, “ The bed is shorter
than that a man can stretch himself on it.” It was
once dry and leafless, but now, because of the Resur-
rection, it is the delight of the Western Church to
represent it as fleury or pommée, breaking out into
blossom and fruit. And so in the great Passiontide
hymn:
Faithful Cross, above all other
One and only noble Tree,
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
And lastly, as this is not our rest, we may take the
green or flowery bed of those pastures of heaven,
where the Sabbath remaineth for the people of Gop
when they have ended their weary pilgrimage and
warfare.
Thy vineyards and thine orchards are
Most beautiful and fair,
Full furnished with trees and fruits
Exceeding rich and rare,
I. 17.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 55
Thy gardens and thy gallant walks |
Continually are green ;
There grow such sweet and pleasant flowers
As nowhere else are seen.
Jerusalem! my happy home!
Would Gop I were in thee,
Would Gop my woes were at an end,
Thy joys that I might see!
17 The beams of our house are cedar, and
our rafters of fir.
The first inquiry here is, Who is the speaker? All
save Origen, who varies from himself on this head,
agree that the Bride still speaks. Next, What is the
house (LX X. and Vulg. houses) thus described? The
more usual interpretation is that the local Churches on
earth-are the joint dwelling-place of Curisr and of the
elect soul. Theodoret, however, explains it of Holy trneodoret.
Scripture, incorrupt as cedar, perfumed as cypress
(LX X. and Vulg.,) and several Fathers say that the S. Greg.
soul itself is the house intended. Taking the common g7yo34, org.
exposition, they tell us that the beams, the most import- 8. Bernard.
ant part of the Church’s building, are her Prelates and
- great preachers, cedar because of their incorruptness,
and.that the rafters or fretted ceilings (LXX. patvd-
para, Vulg. laquearia) denote the clergy in general,
or else the faithful laity, resting, as Beda reminds us, Beda.
upon the beams, and lifted high from earthly things
by their precept and example. Another interpretation
sees in the beams the great dogmas on which the
Church’s structure rests, and in the panels the prac-
tical virtues with which the Saints who rest on these Treg patr.
doctrines adorn their dwelling. Not remote from either
of these is the view of Honorius, who takes the houses Hon. Aug.
to be the cloisters, whose beams are the Abbats and
other superiors, and whose panels are the Religious ;
of cypress, because that tree does not revive when cut
down, and was therefore borne anciently before the
bier of the dead, and thus typifies the death to the
world of those who seek to be hidden in the taber-
nacle of Gop. Yet again, taking the house to be the g, Greg.
soul wherein Curist dwells, its beams, they tell us, are Nyss.
the inner virtues, its main strength and support; the
panels, less important, but more ornamental, the out- Ss. Bernard.
ward beauty of a devout life. It is to be noted, fur-
1 Kings vi.
LOS Wil neous
Hengsten-
berg.
Targum.
Dion. Carth.
Parez.
Ecclus. xxiv.
13.
The Hymn,
Regina cle-
mentia.
Targum.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Theodoret.
Philo Carp.
56 A COMMENTARY ON fuged
ther, that both the Temple and palace of Solomon
were built of cedar and fir or cypress, and that a re-
ference to that fact is intended here. But, whereas
they were framed with beams and planks cut from the
wood, and therefore dead, here, on the other hand, the
Hebrew implies that whole trees, living evergreens,
cedars and firs, formed the house and shadowed the
bed of the Bridegroom, which was therefore more
beautiful and enduring than the former temple and
palace. And so the Targum: “Solomon the Prophet
said, How fair is this house of the sanctuary of the
Lorp, which is builded by my hands, of cedar wood!
But fairer shall be the house of the sanctuary which
shall be builded in the days of Messiah the King, the
beams whereof shall be of the cedars of the garden
of Eden.” And what was that cedar shrine and
palace, incorrupt, repelling all evil, save the most pure
womb of His immaculate Mother? Cedar, in her
utter purity, cypress in her sorrows by the Cross of her
Son; wherefore it is written, ‘I was exalted like a
cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree upon the
mountains of Hermon.”
Tu fons, hortus, platanus,
Cedrus exaltata,
Tu palma, tu olea,
Cypressus plantata.
CHAPTER II.
1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of
the valleys.
The first clause here is rendered in the Syriac, LXX.,
and Vulgate, flower of the plain, and modern crities,
for the most part, hold that the narcissus, not the rose,
is the plant intended. The commentators differ as to
the speaker. The Targum, followed by some Greek
Fathers, assigns the verse to the Bride, but the ma-
jority of the Westerns, with some great Eastern names
too, hold that it, as well as the succeeding one, belongs
to the Bridegroom, claiming to be Himself the chief
ee
II. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 57
glory of that flowery bed of which the Bride had de-
lightedly spoken just before. Following this interpre-
tation first, let us hear Origen: ‘“ The plain is level
ground, cultivated, and tilled by husbandmen. The
valleys denote rocky and untilled places. We may
thus understand the plain of that people which was
cultivated by the Law and the Prophets, and the
valleys of the rocky and untilled dwelling of the
Gentiles. The Bridegroom was therefore the lower
among the Jewish people, but because the Law brought
no man to perfection, therefore the Worp of Gop
could not there pass beyond the stage of flower, and
arrive at the perfection of fruit. But He was made
a Lily in the valleys of the Gentiles. What kind of
Lily? Such, no doubt, as He describes in the Gos-
pels, which the Heavenly Farner clothes. The Bride-
groom becomes then a Lily in this valley, because His
Heavenly Farner clothed Him with such a garment
of flesh as Solomon in all his glory could not have.
For Solomon had not a body pure from all desire and
from fleshly enjoyments, and thus lable to no sin.
But He seems to set forth why He, Who was the
Flower of the field, willed to be the Lily of the valleys.
Though He had long been the flower of the field, yet
- He never says that any flower imitating or resembling
Him had sprung from that field. But when He be-
came the Lily of the valleys, immediately His beloved
became a lily too, in imitation of Him; so that the
result of His labour is, that as He is made a hly, so
His neighbour, that is, every soul which draws near
Him and follows His example, becomes a lily also.
What He then says, ‘ As the lily among thorns, so is
My love among the daughters,’ we may take as spoken
of the Gentile Church, either because she arose from
the midst of unbelievers, as out of thorns, or because
set in the midst of thorns by reason of noisy heretics
around her, attacking her with their teeth.” And the
same great Father in another place expounds the words
of Curist’s Incarnation. For my sake, he says, who
was in the valley,the Bridegroom comes into that valley,
and becomes a Lily there. Instead of being the Tree
of Life, planted in the Paradise of Gop, He became
the Flower of all the plain, that is, of the whole world,
of the entire earth. For what could so truly be the
flower of all the world as the Name of Curist? His
Name is ointment poured out. Aponius sets be-
Origen.
Cassiod.
Aponius.
Beda.
S. Mat. vi.
28.
Hom. 2.
Aponius.
S. Cyril.
Alex. de
Incarn.
Theodoret.
S.Ambros.
de Spir.
Sanct. ii. 5.
Alanus de
JInsulis.
58 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 1.
fore us this same idea from another point of view.
CuRrist was, he comments, the flower of the field be-
fore His Incarnation, because in His glory He was
the worship of the heavenly spirits in all the plain of
the heavens, but after His Incarnation He became the
Lily of the valleys, when He came down into the vale
of tears, and brought with Him three things, the
doing-away of sin, the wiping out of falsehood, and
the cooling of desire, just as the lily exhibits three
qualities, whiteness, fragrance, and medicine for cer-
tain complaints after it has been parched in the fire.
S. Cyril of Alexandria sees in the perfume of the
flower, invisible in the visible blossom, the Godhead
united with the Manhood of Curist, and inseparable
from It. Theodoret, agreeing with many others that
the words flower of the plain denote CuRisT’s coming
to earth, explains the lily of the valleys of His further
humiliation, when He went down into the lower parts
of the earth, and preached in Hades the Resurrection.
Yet again, they take the plain to be His most holy
Mother, from whom He sprang by no human will, as
the flower grows in spots no man has tilled. And
thus 8. Ambrose: ‘‘ Curist was the Flower of Mary,
and sprang from the virgin womb to shed the sweet
perfume of faith throughout the world. A flower,
though cut down, retains its fragrance, and if pounded,
collects it, nor does it lose it by being torn up. So
too the Lorp Jxsus withered not when ground upon
the Cross, nor did He disappear when so torn away
from us, but when wounded with that piercing of the
spear, He, Who cannot die, bloomed yet more beau-
teously with the Precious Blood He shed, breathing
forth the gift of eternal life to them which were dead.”
“The human Nature of Curist,” says one of the
greatest of the Schoolmen, ‘is called a plain, for as a
variety of flowers spring up in a plain, so are there
many virtues in the human nature of Curist. Herein
was the violet of lowliness, the rose of patience, the
lily of purity. Curist was the flower of this plain;
that is, its glory because of His Godhead, since He had
by reason of that Godhead the fulness of gifts in His
human nature. Fitly is that human nature of Curist
denoted by a plain, because of its width and smoothness,
for in Him was no roughness of sin. Whence also
He is said to be Lily of the valleys. For as there was
perfect humility in Mary and in Curist’s human na-
——
eve] THE SONG OF SONGS. 59
ture, therefore the person of the Virgin and the Man-
hood of the Worp are called valleys.” In the lily,
beautifully notes another, there are five things ob- Hon. Aug:
served. It is white, having a projecting anther of
golden hue, it is fragrant, and expanding, and ever
curving downwards. So was Curist white in His
Manhood, golden in His Godhead, fragrant in His
pes open in receiving penitents, bowed down in
is condescension to sinners, and in lifting them up.
Another writer dwells somewhat variously on some of
these same qualities. ‘‘ CHRIST was a lily,” says he, Eucherius,
“because of the glory of His Resurrection, externally i» Lib. 1.
white because of the glory of His Body, golden within
by reason of the resplendence of His soul. And before
His Passion He was as it were a closed lily, but when
crowned with glory and honour because of that Pas-
sion, He was thereafter an open lily, because He dis-
closed in His assumed humanity the power of that
divine radiance which He had with the Farner before
the world was.” So far we have considered how
Curist is Flower and Lily in Himself, and may next
turn to ponder how He is these to us. And first,
Origen tells us that the words mark different stages of Origen.
spiritual progress, that He is the Flower of souls
which are like a plain by reason of their simplicity,
gentleness, or equity, in that He is in them the begin-
ning of good works, the promise of fruit, while to
those who search into deeper and more hidden things,
as though in the valleys, He becomes a Lily, either in
the brightness of purity or the sheen of wisdom, that
they too may be lilies, breaking forth from the midst
of thorns, that is, fleeing from the thoughts and cares
of the world. 8. Gregory teaches that Curist is the
Flower of the plain, in that He gives the soul the
beauty of heavenly desire; the Lily of the valleys,
because of the purity He infuses into the lowly. And
they delight to tell us how He is the crown and glory :
and loveliness of the Virgin Life. CuHrist, observes es ERGO
S. Jerome, (writing of one who had given herself to her Demetr.
Lorp,) as the author and Prince of virginity, confi- PF oe ated
dently speaks, “ I am the flower of the plain and the Virgin. ‘ii.
lily of the valleys.” The order of Virgins in the s just. Org.
Church, comments another, is a plain, that is, an un- Hon. Aug.
tilled soil whose flower is Curist, because He is its
delight, its crown, and its reward. He is, notes a
third, the Lily of the valleys, not of the fields of the nic. Arg.
S. Greg. M.
Ps. civ. 10.
Tres Patr.
Philo Carp.
S. Mat. vi.
28.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Card. Hail-
grin.
Dion, Carth.
60 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 1.
active life, much less the lily among the thorns, but of
those who dwell in the lowly and sequestered life of
contemplation, whereon the rays of the sun pour the
heat of love, unstayed and undisturbed by any words
of temptation, while the mountains stand around, and
the rivers of grace flow down them into the valleys, so
that there is abundance of corn there, and the Lily,
finding the water it loves, flourishes abundantly.
Following the other interpretation, which ascribes
the words to the Bride, they tell us how the Church is
the flower of the plain so far as she consists of believ-
ing Israel, levelled to the smoothness of a field by the
Law and the Prophets, watered by the rain of hea-
venly knowledge, bright with the flowers of holiness.
The Gentiles, uneven and rough through unbelief, and
depressed by the weight of sin, are the valleys out of
which the Lily springs from the depth, so high that
she cannot be hid even in the lowest parts of the vale,
lifting up her head in the grace and beauty of faith,
of purification, and of contemplation of Gop. The
Church under the Law, remarks another Greek Fa-
ther, not dissimilarly, calls herself a flower, when she
has listened to the voice of the Prophets, and striven
to serve Gop. But when she has heard the voice of
Curist Himself in the Gospel, telling His disciples
to cast away all worldly anxiety, and saying, ‘‘ Con-
sider the lilies how they grow,” then, attaining to the
loveliness and fragrance of true devotion, she is bold
to say, L am the lily. They take it too, of any holy
soul growing in the plain of this world, exposed to
wind and storm, but lifting itself up to heaven and
diffusing perfume around. And the words plain and
valleys denote twofold humility ; the first, that where-
by any one humbles himself to his superiors, and does
not try to rise above his equals: and the second, that
more perfect lowliness whereby he humbles himself
to his equals, and strives to descend below his inferiors.
Not any flower, but especially a lily, because it is white
externally and with a golden spike within. Such is
the soul, which is compassed with the glory of righte-
ousness, and which carries within its inmost shrine the
spiritual gift of wisdom and knowledge. How much
more then is it true of her who was herself that pure
calyx within which the golden glory of the Eternal
Wisdom tabernacled! Well may the Eestatic Doctor
say, “ The most Blessed Virgin is the most blooming,
1:2.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 61
fairest, and most fragrant flower of the field, that is,
of this world, wherein we are placed as in the arena of
contest, for our life on earth is a warfare. She is also
the flower of that other field, the garden of delights,
the heavenly Paradise. And again, she is the flower
of the field, that is, of the Church Militant in its pil-
grimage here on earth, whose mother, flower, queen,
and advocate she is, obtaining by her prayers and
merits the ornaments and perfume of merits for the
Church. Then, she is the flower of every devout soul
which loves her, into whose thought she never enters
without fruit, and without shedding her sweetness
around. She is the Lily of the valleys, that most sweet
and peerless Virgin Mother of Gop, the blooming off-
spring of her lowly parents, from whom she sprang:as
a most fair Lily, nor was Solomon in all his glory
arrayed as that fair Lily was.” And lastly, taking our
own version, we may see in the rose and lily the
double grace of martyrdom and chastity which forms
the choicest coronal of heaven. Thus S. Bernard ob-
serves, “The flower is virginity, the flower is mar-
tyrdom, the flower is good deeds. In the garden,
virginity ; in the field, martyrdom; in the chamber,
goodworks. He is the flower of the garden, the Virgin
sprung from a virgin stem. He too is the flower of
the field, the Martyr, the Crown of Martyrs, the force
of martyrdom.” Wherefore the Paris Breviary fitly
sings in the Common of Virgin Martyrs:
Roses and lilies are the Bridegroom’s portion,
Thou, to thy Bridegroom evermore found faithful,
Gavest Him roses as a Martyr, gavest
Lihes, a Virgin.
2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love
among the daughters.
Noting the contrast, so strongly marked in the first
clause, they observe that as the lily surpasses thorns,
so does the Church of Gop excel the Synagogue, the
schools of philosophy, and the parties of the State.
Again, the Church was a lily among thorns in the time
of her greatest purity and beauty, when she was the
victim of repeated persecutions. Whereupon Hono-
rius: “ As I, saith the Bridegroom, am the Lily of the
valleys, the ornament of the lowly, so thou, My love,
shalt be the lily among thorns, the glory of the Gen-
Serm, 47.
Sant. Vict.
The Hymn,
Quidsacram,
Virgo.
Theodoret.
S. Just. Org.
Honor.
August.
. Ambros.
Cassiod.
S. August.
de Bapt. 5.
S. Greg. M.
Corn. a Lap.
Tres Patr.
Hugo Card.
Eccles. x. 8.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Aponius.
S. Bernard.
Serm, 48,
62 A COMMENTARY ON rity 2
tiles ; and as I am the Lily among thorns, that is, the
Jews who pierce and wound Me, so thou, O Church,
My love, shalt be among the Gentile daughters of
Babylon, which is confusion, who shall pierce thee
with many a thorn, and rend thee with many a suffer-
ing.” The words are true also of that inner Church
of the elect, compassed by the outer Church of the
called, wherein are many reprobates who show no grace
or beauty in their lives, but are like thorns, flowering
quickly in temporal prosperity, withering swiftly in
goodness, wounding the devout with their evil habits,
cut down and given to feed the fire. Such as these
are daughters, indeed, but not of Gop, rather of the
evil one, carnal and worldly souls, given up to the
wounding and torturing pleasures of the senses. And
observe further, that a hly growing amongst thorns
ensures the wounding of him who would gather the
flower for his very own. On which a devout writer
comments thus: ‘‘ As the Bride’s love for her Spouse is
signified here, so also is His love for her. For he that
would gather a lily amongst thorns, necessarily suffers
their pricks ; which is evidently true of the Bridegroom
Himself, for He, gathering that lily from the midst of
the reprobate, suffered the prickings of the thorns,
whilst He underwent the rendings of the persecutors
as He was assembling His elect by His own preaching
and that of His disciples. Whence it is written,
‘Whoso breaketh a hedge [the synagogue of the
people,| a serpent shall bite him.’ The Lorp acted
like a hunting dog, which pursuing wild game, thrusts
its head amongst the prickles of thorns, fearing no
wounds so that it may take its prey. He drew
forth the Church, lurking like a wild beast amongst
thorns, that is, amongst the reprobate; but He en-
dured the piercings of the thorns even to bloodshed-
ding, in token of which He wore a thorny crown upon
the Cross.” The soul which clings to Curist amidst
the troubles, cares, and persecutions of an ungodly
world, is also fitly called a lily among thorns. But all
these cannot really hurt the lily, rather do they set off
her beauty. ‘The thorn,” expounds S. Bernard, “ is
sin, the thorn is punishment, the thorn is a false
brother, the thorn is evil hard at hand. ‘As the lily
among thorns, so is My love among the daughters.’
O shining lily, O frail and delicate flower, the unbe-
lieving and destroyers are with thee, see then that thou
II. 2.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 63
walk cautiously amongst the thorns. The world is full
of thorns. They are in the earth, in the air, in thy
flesh. To be amongst them, and not to be hurt by
them, comes of the Divine power, not of thine own
strength. ‘But be of good cheer,’ saith He, ‘I have
overcome the world.’ Therefore, although thou seest
the prickles of tribulations, like those of thorns, aiming
at thee on every side, let not thine heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid, ‘knowing that tribulation
worketh patience; and patience, experience; and ex-
perience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.’ Con-
sider the lilies of the field, how they flourish and
bloom among the thorns. If Gop so guards the grass
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,
how much more His love and dearest Bride?” And
another holy writer treats at much length of the various
thorns which must be overcome by patient continuance
in well-doing. The truly patient soul is likest to the
beauty of Curist, to the measure of a perfect man, in
that it bears all cheerfully, and loves those who put
it to pain; first, by words of slander and calumny, then
by actual wrong-doing. How is this patience to be
attained P Hearken, O lily among thorns. ‘My soul
hath long dwelt among them that are enemies unto
peace. I labour for peace.” And again: ‘‘ They that
- went about to do me evil, talked of wickedness, and
imagined deceit all the day long. As for me, I was
like a deaf man and heard not, and as one that is
dumb, who doth not open his mouth.” And this is
effected by loving contemplation of our Maker, be-
cause the soul that looks on Gop is deaf and blind to
meaner things, and is filled with such delights in think-
ing on Him that pain becomes of no moment, or even a
source of pleasure, as the Cross was to S. Andrew,
the fire to S. Laurence, the stones to S. Stephen, the
dungeon and rack to S. Agatha. And this patience
is threefold, in heart, word, and deed, indisposing
men to vengeance, leading them on to entire forgive-
ness of their enemies, and thence to hearty interest in
and affection for them. Those who begin by check-
ing their own impulse to revenge, at first from the
lower motive of fear of results, and then for the sake
of salvation, and at last from true love of Gop, attain
even on earth the “ peace to men of good will,” pro-
mised by the Angels at the Nativity, and, tried by
many sorrows and tribulations, reach at last the per-
S. John xvi.
33.
Rom. v. 3.
Henr.
Harph.
PSe CXX25,03
Ps. xxxviii.
12, 13.
S. Luke ii.
14.
Irimbert.
Prov. xxxi.
209.
2 Esd. v. 24.
Keble,
Christian
Year.
Dion. Carth.
Rupert,
S. Birgitt.
Serm. Angel,
16.
S. Pet. Dam.
Serm. 3, de
Nat. B.V.M.
Sedulius.
64 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 2.
fect tranquillity of the children of Gop, in their own
beloved Home. Among the daughters. Thatis, among
all elect souls, loving Gop the FatHer with filial ten-
derness, but yet thorny, as beset with the pricks of
original and actual sin, and unable to fulfil His com- -
mandments perfectly. And therefore there is only
one of whom it is truly written, ‘‘Many daughters
have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all,” and
yet again, “Of all the flowers Thou hast chosen one
Lain
Ave Maria! blesséd Maid,
Lily of Eden’s fragrant shade,
Who can express the love
That nurtured thee, so pure and sweet,
Making thy heart a shelter meet
For Jesus’ holy dove!
Whereupon the Carthusian: Although there were
many holy virgins, yet in respect of the Most Blessed
Virgin they seem as though but thorns, in that they
had some sinfulness, and though pure in themselves,
yet the embers of evil were not utterly quenched in
them. But the Virgin Mother of Gop was perfectly
freed from all sin, the embers of evil were completely
quenched in her, and yet she was filled with the in-
tensest love. Another reminds us that she was indeed
among thorns, in that she, like her Son, was a mark
for slanderous tongues, she, with her Son, suffered at
the Cross. ‘‘ As arose groweth among thorns,” says
the great Swedish Saint, “so grew the Blessed Virgin
in this world among troubles; and as the rose in-
creases, so do the thorns likewise; thus as Mary, the
choicest of roses, advanced in age, so much the more
deeply was she wounded by the thorns of tribulation.”
Another Saint refers the thorns to Our Lady’s kinship
to the unbelieving Hebrews. ‘‘ Sprung from the thorny
race of Jews, she shone bodily with the pureness of
virgin modesty, and she glowed in soul with the warmth
of double charity, she was ever fragrant in good works,
and with the unvarying impulse of her heart she soared
up towards heavenly things.” A Christian poet, six
hundred years before the great Bishop of Ostia, had
expressed nearly the same thoughts in verse :
Et velut in spinis mollis rosa surgit acutis,
Nil quod ledit habens, matremque obscurat honore ;
Sic Eve de stirpe sacra veniente Maria,
IL. 3]
SONG OF SONGS, 65
Virginis antique facinus nova Virgo piavit, .
Sicut spina rosam, genuit Judea Mariam.
As from the sharp thorns springs the gentle rose,
Stingless, and hides its mother with its bloom ;
So blesséd Mary, come of Eva’s stem,
A new Maid, purged that elder Maiden’s sin.
Thorns bear the rose, Judea Mary bore.
3 As the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat
down under his shadow with great delight, and
his fruit was sweet to my taste.
When Cuetst took the nature of man, He came
down into the wood of this life, and became one of its
trees, but a fruitful one, nay, able to make fruitful
trees of men however evil and wild. And human life
is called a wood,' because in it are found many things
which beset the soul, lurking as wild beasts do in a
forest, sluggish when the sun is hot, but active in the
darkness. Because the “singular beast” which feeds
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
PSoisx xa las
in the wood had sorely hurt the beautiful vine of Vulgate.
human nature, therefore the apple-tree was planted in
the wood; which, in that it is a tree, is of like nature
with the wood of humanity ; for Curist was tempted
- in our likeness, though without sin. But in that it
bears such fruit as to gratify the senses, it is more
unlike the rest of the wood than the lily is unlike the
thorns. Tor the pleasantness of the apple is common
to three senses, it is beautiful to the sight, fragrant to
the smell, and sweet to the taste. So CHRIsT is more
than the Bride, for He is the joy of our eyes, and the
ointment to our smell, and life to us who eat of Him;
but human nature, even if perfected in virtue, is but a
flower, not feeding the husbandman, but merely deck-
ing itself. For He needs not our good things, whereas
we do need His. Therefore the purified soul beholds
her Bridegroom made the apple-tree in the wood, that
2 It is almost a common-
place to note that this figure
is used by Dante in the very
opening of the Divine Comedy.
Nel mezzo del cammin di nos-
tra vita,
Mi ritrovai pel una selva os-
cura,
Chi la diritta via era smar-
rita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era é
cosa dura
Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra
e forte,
Che nel pensier rinnova la
paura.
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
S. Bernard.
Philo Carp.
Origen.
S.Ans.Laud.
Aponius.
Psellus.
Ovid. Ep. ex
Pont. 15.
Origen.
S. Bernard.
serm. 48.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M,
Beda.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
66 A COMMENTARY ON (II. 3.
graffing into Himself all the wild boughs of that wood,
He may cause them to bring forth fruit like His own.
They assign other reasons too why CuHristT is called an
apple-tree,| and several of them dwell on His feeding
us with the Gospel, while the Holy Eucharist is the
idea which suggests itself to others, as the juiciness of
the apple makes it both food and drink, and so CuRisv
gives us His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the
Altar. A Greek and a Latin commentator, in distant
centuries, following up this view, understand here, to
make the simile more perfect, a pomegranate-tree,
(therein agreeing with the Arabic version,) because the
juice of that fruit is ruddy and watery, typifying that
which flowed from Cunrist’s side upon the Cross.
They have pushed the metaphor further, and remarked
how the grains from which the fruit is named lie en-
closed in the ruddy flesh within the rind, just as the
members of Curist, in the One Church, are united in
His Body, crimson with His life-blood :
Que numero tot sunt, quot in horto fertilis arvi
Punica sub lento cortice grana rubent.
Many, as in a fertile orchard’s soil
Beneath their slight rind blush the Punic seeds.
Among the sons. They vary much in expounding
these words. Some will have it that the Angels, or
Angels and men together are meant, but 8. Bernard
protests against this view, on the ground that Curist
1s spoken of as He appeared when made lower than
the Angels, and thus, though fairer and more fruitful
than the trees of the wood, than all mankind, not so
glorious to the eye as many trees of the orchard or
park. The praise given Him here, observes the Saint,
is poor and small, as coming from one who is small.
It is not the mighty Lorp, highly to be praised, that
is commended, but the Lorp, small, yet highly to be
loved, the little Child Who was born for us. Limiting,
then, the word sons in this wise, some will have it that
the Apostles and Prophets, and the elect generally,
Gop’s special children by adoption, are here intended,
those trees of Eden around the Tree of Life. Others,
taking it in a bad sense, refer it to evil men generally,
1 It may be observed that | the apple, isthe tree denoted by
moderncritics, generally speak- | MEN, but the mystical sense is
ing, say that the citron, not | not affected thereby.
Il. 3.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 67
as having the wildness and brute terrors of the forest
in them, or to the Jews in particular; or, with further
restrictions of meaning, many of them see a reference to
the crucified Redeemer, hanging on the tree between
the two thieves, suffering Himself, as 8. Thomas ob-
serves, to be fastened to a tree as its fruit, in order to
atone for the first sin of man, in plucking the fruit from
the tree of knowledge of good and evil. J sat down
under His shadow with great delight. 'The Hebrew
of the first clause, closely followed by the LXX. is,
T delighted, and sat down under His shadow. The
Vulgate, a little differently, I sat down under the
shadow of Him Whom I desired. There are three
things, comments Henry Harph, which cause a shadow,
light, medium, and object. CHRIST, in His Divinity,
is the Light whence is cast the shadow of Gop. The
medium, whose form this shadow takes, is His Man-
hood, by the fulness of His grace, and the abundance
of His merits. The object of the light, which becomes
the shadow, is our will, lying, of its own glad accord,
under the light divine. And as the shadow moves
with every motion of the interposed body which causes
it, and accompanies it wherever it goes, so the will
which has become the shadow of Gop follows within
the guiding of His Sprarr in everything, and externally
imitates the Manhood of the Lorp Jzsus, and His
teaching in all the paths of perfection. Again; the
shadow denotes Curist’s providential care and _guar-
dianship of His Church, and of every soul which puts
its trust in Him, according to that saying of the Psalmist,
“My soul trusteth in Thee, and under the shadow of
Thy wings shall be my refuge.” Or you may take it,
with S. Gregory, of the Hoty Spirit, ‘The Shadow
of Curist,” says he, “is the protection of the Hony
Guost. For the Hoty Guost overshadows the soul
which He fills, because He allays the heat of every
temptation, and while He gently fans the soul with
the breeze of His inspiration He banishes whatever
baneful heat it had been enduring.” Yet again, S.
Bernard tells us that faith, being the evidence of
things not seen, is shadowy and dark, as we walk by
faith and not by sight, although that very shadow is
leading us to the full glory of the heavenly vision.
And whereas it is not said I delight, and I sit; but, £
delighted, and I sat ; we may understand the Church
speaking of the time when she was yet in the Syna-
F2
Rupert.
Aponius.
S. Bernard.
Psellus.
S. Thomas
Aquinas,
Comp.Theol,
Cc. 228.
Henr.
Harphius.
Origen.
Cassiodor.
S.Ans. Laud.
Ps. lvii. 1.
S. Greg. M.
S. Bernard.
Serm, 48.
Origen.
Philo Carp.
Ss. Ambros.
Isa. XXX:
S. Bernard.
Serm. 48.
Nic. Argent.
Jrimbert.
Thom.
Vercell.
Bonar.
Origen.
68 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 3.
gogue, abiding under the Law, which is but the shadow
of the Gospel, and even then by anticipation rejoicing
and trusting in Curist alone, looking hopefully for the
Man who should “be as an hiding-place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a
dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.” And they remind us how Elijah lay down
under the shadow of a juniper-tree, and arising, found
a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his
head. So, those who come near to the Cross, find the
shadow of Curist fall on them in the mysterious sacra-
mental veils wherewith His Body and Blood are hidden
from our eyes. Another reminds us that the dark say-
ings and hidden things of Holy Scripture, the chosen
meditation of the faithful soul, are the shadow of Curist
Himself; and the further explanation that every fore-
taste given us here in contemplation, is but the shadow
of the Beatific Vision, has not been forgotten. Again;
as the Cross is the Tree which throws the shadow,
every sorrow and trouble endured for Curtst’s sake
in this world is not merely endured, but delighted in
by the faithful soul, which desires to be conformed to
His Passion.
Oppressed with noonday’s scorching heat,
To yonder Cross I flee;
Beneath its shelter take my seat,.
No shade like this for me!
Beneath that Cross clear waters burst,
A fountain sparkling free ;
And there I quench my desert thirst,
No spring like this for me!
A stranger here, I pitch my tent
Beneath this spreading tree ;
Here shall my pilgrim life be spent,
No home like this for me!
For burthened ones a resting-place
Beside that Cross I see ;
Here cast I off my weariness,
No rest like this for me,
And so resting, she advances in holiness and in like-
ness to Him, because as the day passes from noon
towards evening, the shadows become longer, and
cover a greater space. Of none is it so truly said,
II. 3.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 69
LI sat down under His shadow, implying long and Rupert.
happy rest, as of her concerning whom the Angel
spake, “The power of the Highest shall overshadow S. Luke i.
thee,” for her abiding in the peace of Gop was of **
no brief hour, but for all time. They tell us too
how the Saints, striving to imitate the Sun of Righ-
teousness, are His shadows, a delight to those who tres Paty.
hearken to their teaching and follow their examples.
And His fruit was sweet to my taste. There are
many such fruits, for the Tree of Life bears twelve, pey. xxii. 9.
besides those fruits of the Spirit which the Apostle Gal. v. 22.
counts up for us. And first, it is the preaching of $. Ambros.
Curist’s Passion, and that which comes thence, the ;
remission of our sins. Then, there is the meditation Origen.
on Gop’s love, a true sustenance of the soul, and the
contemplation of the Godhead, Manhood, and Life of
Curist, whereof a Saint tells us: “ Curist Himself is 8: Gree. M.
a fruitful Tree, planted in our hearts by faith, which
tree, if our soul love as it deserves, and tend carefully,
brings forth sweet and wholesome fruits. When the
soul eagerly gathers and eats of these, she esteems
all worldly pleasures as inferior to their sweetness.”
Again; the Holy Eucharist, as noted above, is the Aponius.
fruit of that Tree which gives us both food and drink. Rye
He Himself, when born for us, the fruit of the over- Dion. Carth.
Shadowing Spirit, was sweet to His Mother as she
pressed her lips to Him. Further; as fruit is the
ultimate product of the tree, so action is the ultimate
product of man’s will put into exercise, and when that
will is moved by a higher influence than any of earth,
then man’s good works are the fruit of the Sprerr, Haron,
pyeaint to the palate, and not biting, and yet palling,
ike earthly delights. Words are but leaves; devout
thoughts and inward devotion are the flower; but only
the perfect Christian life is the fruit. And they tell Dion. Carth.
us, too, that the deeper insight into the things of Gop Thom.
which is attained by contemplative Saints in mystic
vision is, in an especial manner, the fruit of that same
Tree which gives us the other fruits of refreshment
and consolation in our hungering and thirsting after
righteousness here below, and who are bidden to “ taste Ps. xxxiv. 8.
and see how gracious the Lorp is,’ and find Him in-
deed sweet to their taste or palate, that spiritual un-
derstanding without which the choicest dainties are
insipid.
Tres Patr.
Theodoret.
Cassiodor.
Hugo Vic-
torin.
S. Greg. M.
Targum.
Hugo Card.
S. Just. Org.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 49.
Acts il. 2.
Beda.
S. Bernard.
Acts ii. 13.
Adam. Vict.
The Se-
quence,
Lux jucunda
for Pente-
cost.
70 A COMMENTARY ON [Il. 4.
4 He brought me to the banqueting-house,
and his banner over me was love.
The banqueting-house. More exactly, with LXX.
and margin of A. V., the house of wine. The Vulgate
is but little different, the chamber of wine. They take
the words, firstly, of admission into the Catholic Church,
wherein alone is the wine of the Sprrit to be found.
Next; it is explained of Holy Scripture, a view not
very remote from that of the Targum, which calls
Mount Sinai the house where the wine of the Law was
stored up for Israel. That, after all, remarks Cardinal
Hugo, was only the chamber of water, the mere out-
ward and typical sense. Not till Curist came for His
bridal with the Church, was the water turned into
wine, and the inner mystical meaning revealed. But
as the revelation was not completely given till the ad-
vent of the PaARACLETE, some explain the house of wine
to be that upper chamber in Jerusalem where the dis-
ciples were gathered together on the Day of Pentecost.
“Do you not think,” asks S. Bernard, ‘that the
chamber of wine is that dwelling where the disciples
were assembled, when ‘suddenly there came a sound
from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting,’ and fulfilled
the prophecy of Joel? Might not each of them, going
forth inebriated with the plenteousness of that house,
and given to drink of such pleasure as out of a river,
truly say, ‘The King hath brought me into the cham-
ber of wine?’” This was that new wine put into new
bottles, of which the Lorp spake, so that the Jews were
in one sense right when they said, “ These men are full
of new wine.”
Utres novi, non vetusti,
Sunt capaces novi musti ;
Vasa parat vidua ;
Dat liquorem Heliszus,
Nobis sacrum rorem Deus,
Si corda sint congrua.
Bottles new, no longer olden,
Hold that wine, so new and golden;
Lo, the widow’s jars are here:
Oil Elisha is renewing,
Gop gives us His own bedewing,
Tf our hearts prepared appear.
Again; remembering that it is written, “ Wisdom hath
II. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. ra:
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars : Prov. ix.
she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; ¥ G.¢
she hath also furnished her table,” some explain the nyss. :
house of wine to be the Altar of Gop, where the Cup Rupert.
of Salvation, the Wine which truly maketh glad the an
heart of man, is given by the Bridegroom to His love. Radb.
And with this sense the banqueting-house of the A. V.
best accords. Also they see here a reference to the
progress of the soul in prayer and contemplation, when
Gop bestows the wine of comfort, joy, love, and fer-
your. First, as the Greek Fathers tell us, by medita-
tion on the mystery of the Incarnation, because CuRrist’s
Human Body is the house wherein dwells Gop the
Worp, the true Wine of the soul. Then, as a great
Latin Doctor adds, ‘“‘ What can we better understand s, Greg. M.
by the chamber of wine than the hidden contemplation
of eternity ? In this eternity the holy Angels are ine-
briated with the wine of wisdom, when, beholding Gop
face to face, they are filled with every spiritual delight.
Into this the holy soul enters, if it leave all temporal
things behind, and be brought in by the Bridegroom,
and there tastes whatsoever is bestowed upon it of those
delights of the Angels. And if as yet, because still
detained in a corruptible body, she cannot fill herself
completely ; nevertheless, even from that very little
which she can hurriedly take, she understands how
much she ought to love that which she does love.”
Nay, more, add others, for the draughts she there im- Hononius.
bibes make her utterly forget everything else, and Heo. Gand:
take from her all wish, yea, all power, of returning to
her former life. And lastly ; the house of wine is inter- pion. Carth.
preted of the heavenly mansion where the marriage-
feast of the Lamb is made ready, And the Church says
of this, not, He will bring me in, but, He brought me in.
And that for two reasons, first, because His promise
is so sure, that a thing pledged by Him is as certain as
though it were already past ; and again, He has be-
stowed so many foretastes of everlasting blessedness
even here on earth that we may truly say, He brought
me into the banqueting-house, where the Saints assemble Origen.
from the East and the West, and sit down with Abra-
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Gop.
And His banner over me was love. Little doubt what
that banner is, the sign of that love greater than which
no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.
Tres Patr.
Ghislerius.
Isa. Lxii. 10.
Jer. li, 27.
Numb, ii. 2.
S. Hieron.
Ep. ad
Marcell.
Aponius.
72 A COMMENTARY ON (II. 4.
Salve Crux, arbor
Vitee preeclara,
CHRISTI vexillum,
Thronus et ara.
Hail, O Cross, Life’s Tree
Glorious alone,
Curist JESus’ banner,
Altar, and throne.
But it will not be the token of warfare in the House of
Wine on high, as it is in the Church Militant on earth.
There it will be, as the same hymn continues, the em-
blem of past victory, the pledge of everlasting peace,
and the glory of the triumphant Saints:
Crux ceelestis
Signum victoriz,
Belli robur
Et palma glorie.
Cross of the heavens,
Victory’s crown,
Strength in the battle,
Palm of renown,
Here, the office of the banner is manifold. First, it is
the summons to the nation, to assemble the host. And
so it is written, ‘ Lift up a standard for the people.”
Next, it is the signal for the battle: “Set ye up a
standard in the lands, blow the trumpet among the
nations, prepare the nations against her.’ Thirdly,
the great banner marks the tent of the Leader, for
“* Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by
his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s
house.” And in all these ways the Cross of CHrist
is the banner of the Church. But the Vulgate reads,
less exactly, He set love in order over me. Ordinavit
in me charitatem. ‘* Love,” observes S. Jerome, writ-
ing to Marcella, ‘‘ has no order, and impatience knows
no measure, and therefore this is a hard thing.” But
Gop is the author of order, not of confusion, and there-
fore the first way in which we are taught His love in
order is by contemplation of the Three Persons of
the Holy Trinity, wherein we learn first, the Name
of the Farner, Who so loved the world that He
gave His Only-begotten Son for it; secondly, the
Name of the Son, the Eternal Wisdom Who loved
us and gave Himself for us ; thirdly, the Name of the
Hoty Guost, the Sprrit of love, Who comforts and
strengthens us. And our order is therefore that we
a
II. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 73
are to love the Lorp our Gop with all our heart; with
all our mind; and with all our strength. He set love
in order, for He loved us first, and thus drew us on to
love Him. S. Bernard understands the gift of spiritual Cassiodor.
tact and discretion, which regulates and guides our bie
zeal, teaching us what things are to be preferred to Sean
others,—the love of Gop to the love of man; heaven and 50.
to earth; eternity to time; the soul to the flesh. But
love is also divided into active and affective, and it is
after the order of Gon’s law that active love has to
busy itself with less perfect things, and persons, for
their sakes, rather than for its own, when it would
prefer rising with affective love, to the contemplation
of heavenly things. It is to be noted that the LXX.
takes this whole verse as addressed by the Bride to
the companions of the Bridegroom, and reads, Bring
ye me into the house of wine, set love in order over me,
applying the words first to the Jewish Church calling
on the Prophets to lead her to Curist, then of the Origen.
Christian Church appealing to the Apostles and Doc- Philo Carp.
tors ; and afterwards of faithful souls asking for further
instruction in divine mysteries, and for guidance in
their affections. It has thus been not inaptly applied pe ponte.
to postulants for the Religious Life, asking for admis- Ghislerius.
sion from Superiors, and instruction in the rule and
order which they propose to follow. The Vulgate may
also be explained to mean, He set love in array over
me; that is, as my chief and leader in the battle, teach- Hugo Card.
ing me that in all things charity is the more excellent
way. Or, again, He arrayed his love against me, at- Sanchez.
tacking the fortress of my heart with power which I
could not resist, entering it as its Lord and Conqueror,
and setting His banner in token of victory over its
highest battlements.
O generous love! that He who smote J. H. New.
In man for man the foe, man, Dream
The double agony in man of Gerontius.
For man should undergo ;
And in the garden secretly,
And on the Cross on high,
Should teach His brethren, and inspire,
To suffer and to die.
5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with
apples, for I am sick of love.
The version before us seems to be the intreaty of
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
Tres Patr.
S. Greg. M.
Origen.
Aponius.
Titelmann.
Pia Desid.
lii, 2.
74: A COMMENTARY ON alae
the Church for the Holy Eucharist under its two forms,
the flagons denoting the chalice, and the apples the
species of Bread, true medicine of the soul which longs
for Curist. But there is a twofold difficulty in ac-
cepting this apparently obvious meaning. In the first
place, the Bride speaks not to the Bridegroom, but to
His friends, for the verbs are in the plural, and He
alone would be asked to give Himself. Next, the
A. V. is at variance with the older translations and
with modern criticism. The LXX. reads, Strengthen
me with ointments, strew me with apples, for I am
wounded with love. The ointments are those which
have been poured forth, the apples are the fruit of
that Tree under whose shadow the Bride sat down.
And the words are thus, notes Theodoret, a petition to
the Bridegroom’s friends to heap up about her every
memory of His love, to guard her against herself, to
hinder her from straying to any other than Him.
Thus too a Western Doctor, following the same read-
ing, tells us that the ointment is that which CuRist
shed, the apples, what hung upon the Tree. Others,
however, explain the ointments to be the graces of the
Hoty Sprrit, and particularly that of ghostly strength,
while the apples are discourses on divine things, sweet
to the palate of the Bride. The Vulgate is somewhat
different: Prop me with flowers, surround me with
apples. Itis, says 8. Gregory, the mother calling her
children round her bed, that in seeing their beauty
and growth she may find some comfort, the flowers
being the younger and weaker offspring, the beginners
in the spiritual life; the apples, those who have gone
on further towards perfection. And with this agrees
Origen’s interpretation, which sees catechumens and
faithful souls in the two, and also that of Aponius, who
explains the flowers of all pure souls, and the apples of
the Apostles, growing out of CHRIsT, as out of a tree,
by His teaching. Again, the words have been aptly
taken to denote severally the words and the deeds of
Curist, which the Bride beseeches His companions
to recall to her memory, lest she should fail to bear
them in mind; and thus she looks at them and turns
them over lovingly as the letters and gifts of her ab-
sent Bridegroom. Hermann Hugo reminds us that
it is no earthly flowers and fruits that she desires, but
roses and lilies and apples, such as S. Dorothea in
the legend sent to Theophilus by the hand of an Angel,
Hré.) THE SONG OF SONGS. “a
to tell him of her arrival after martyrdom in the garden
of Gop, blooming in its pride when earth was lying
frozen in the grasp of winter. The Bride would fain Hugo Card.
have many such flowers heaped around her,—roses by
the martyrs ; lilies by the virgins ; violets by the con-
fessors and penitents; and apples by all who do good
works in the Church, and bring forth fruit to perfec-
tion. And yet again, the flowers may well be -the
prayers of the faithful, and the apples their works, by
- which the Church in general, or any soul in particular,
may be aided. Modern criticism translates the first De Wette.
clause of the verse, strengthen me with raisin-cakes, and Htag
the latter, strew my bed with apples, (i.e. probably, apple- xxx. 12.
leaves.) The raisin-cakes, made of dried grapes, out
of which the wine has been pressed, but still retaining
much sweetness, and amongst the most satisfying of
foods, and the apples, or their Teaves, used, not for sus-
tenance, but for a bed whereon to recline, most fitly
typify that spiritual communion of the faithful soul
which is cut off, by one cause or another, from oppor-
tunities of Sacramental feeding at the Altar of Gop.
Strength and rest are to be had even thus, and the
sick may be healed by touching the hem of JEsvu’s
garment.
Lorp, I cannot seek Thee Lyra Eucha-
At Thine Altar-throne, ristica,
Yet may I receive Thee,
Friendless and alone.
Far from Priest and Altar,
CurisT, to Thee I cry,
Come to me in spirit,
Let me feel Thee nigh.
In my silent worship
Let me share the Feast,
Be Thy Love the Altar,
Be Thyself the Priest.
For I am sick of love. O happy infirmity, where Gisten. _
the “sickness is not unto death,” but unto life, “ for 8: Johm *! 4
the glory of Gop!” O happy fever, that proceedeth Origen.
not from a consuming, but a perfecting fire! O happy ¢' sae M.
disorder, wherein the soul relisheth no earthly things,
but desires only the savour of heavenly food! The
LX xX. reads, wounded with love; that is, as all the
Easterns agree, with the love of Gop. And thus 8. g¢. aug. in
Augustine says, “ She calls herself wounded with love. Ps. xxxvii.
For she loved, and did not yet possess; she grieved,
Origen.
S. Hieron.
Ep. 140.
Ps, xlv. 6.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Isa. xlix. 2.
S. John x.
30; xiv. 23.
Francis
Quarles,
School of
the Heart,
33.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
Hugo Card.
76 A COMMENTARY ON ited
because she had not yet; therefore, if she grieved, she
was wounded, but the wound hurried her to true
healthfulness. For he who is not wounded with this
wound, never can attain to true health.” Every virtue,
observes Origen, wherewith the soul is affected, is as
it were an arrow of Gop shot at the soul, arrows that
are very sharp, so that it is subdued unto Him.
“Gop,” says an ancient Father, “hurled His Son at
me, His Bride, as at a target, a javelin whereof is said
by the Prophet, ‘In the shadow of His hand hath He
hid Me, and made Me a polished shaft.’ That arrow,
piercing me with its point of faith, hath brought its
Archer together with it, according to that saying, ‘I
and My FatHeEr are one.’ ‘We will come unto him,
and make our abode with him.’” And so a quaint
old English poet says :
Lorp, empty all Thy quivers, let there be
No corner of my spacious heart left free,
Till all be but one wound, wherein
No subtle sight-abhorring sin
May lurk in secret, unespied by Thee,
Or reign in power, unsubdued by Thee,
Perfect Thy purchased victory,
That Thou may’st ride triumphantly,
And leading captive all captivity
May’st put an end to enmity in me.
Then, blesséd Archer, in requital, I
To shoot Thine arrows back again will try ;
By prayers and praises, sighs and sobs,
By vows and tears, by groans and throbs,
Pll see if I can pierce and wound Thine Heart,
And vanquish Thee again by Thine own art ;
Or, that we may at once provide
For all mishaps that may betide
Shoot Thou Thyself, Thy polished shaft, to me,
And I will shoot my broken heart to Thee.
The interpreters of the Vulgate reading, which is also
that of A.V., explain the words to denote the eager,
restless longing of the exiled soul for the Heavenly
Country, which gives her strong distaste for earthly
things, and makes her languid in all that regards them.
And her sickness, adds another, is threefold. She is
sick because of her own vileness, which she fears will
repel her Spouse; sick with anxiety, lest she should
fall short in those good works which He desires; sick
by reason of her frailty, lest she should become cold
and lax through want of perseverance. And accord-
IT. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 77
ingly, she asks for three remedies against these,—
JSlowers, to give her beauty ; apples, to give her fruit ;
and, in the next verse, His own Hand to be her stay.
None has expressed this yearning for heaven, this
sickness of earth, both springing from love, better
than S. Teresa.
z Teresa.
Ah, what a length does life appear a
How hard to bear this exile here, ‘ Pe
How hard from weary day to day in me.
To pine without relief:
The yearning hope to break away
From this my prison-house of clay
Inspires so sharp a grief,
That overcome I weep and sigh,
Dying because I do not die.
* * * #
Ah, Lorp, my Light and living Breath,
Take me, O take me from this death,
And burst the bars that sever me
From my true life above.
Think how I die Thy Face to see,
And cannot live away from Thee,
O my eternal Love.
And ever, ever weep and sigh,
Dying because I do not die.
And in this sickness of love, comments a great master Garcon
_ of the ascetic life, the Bride passes out of herself, and sympsalma
falls into a death which is life, a trance wherein, no im Cant.
longer able to sustain herself, she is stayed up in the
prerar une Arms, and therefore adds, as she feels
them,
6 His left hand is under my head, and his
right hand doth embrace me.
“The Bridegroom cannot bear the suffering of His g, Bernard.
Bride, He is at hand; for He cannot delay when called Serm. 57.
by such longings. And because He finds that she was
faithful in her tasks, and eager for gain while He was
absent, in that she desired to have flowers and apples
to be added to her, He returns to her now with an
even more spontaneous reward of grace. He supports
her reclining head with one of His arms, holding the
other ready to embrace her, and cherish her in His
bosom.” And on the difference between these two
hands, let us hear the Doctor of Grace: “ His left aucust.
hand is under my head, for He will not leave me even in Ps. cxliy.
S. Greg. M.
1 Tim. iv. 8.
S. Just. Org.
S. Mat. vi.
33.
S. Pet. Dam.
Ep. 37.
In Ps. cxx.
Cassiodor,
Philo Carp.
Beda.
Serm. 4, in
Nativ. Dom.
78 A COMMENTARY ON II. 6.
in temporal needs and desires, but nevertheless the
left hand will be under my head, not put before it, but
beneath it, that His right hand may embrace me, pro-
mising me everlasting life. Thus is fulfilled that say-
ing of the Apostle: ‘Having promise of the life that
now is, and of that which is to come.’ What of that
which now is? His left hand is under my head. What
of that to come? His right hand doth embrace me.
Do ye seek things for time? ‘Seek ye first the king-
dom of Gop,’ that is, the right hand, ‘and all these
things shall be added unto you.’ Ye shall have, saith
He, riches and glory, and in the world to come life
everlasting. With the left hand I will sustain your
weakness, with the right I will crown your perfection.”
Again, the same Saint in another place observes that
the right hand is above, the left hand below; the left
for consolation, the right for protection. Our head,
that is, our faith, where Curist dwells, rests on the
left hand, because we set that faith above all temporal
things, and then, truly, the right hand embraces us.
But, writes another Father, even the temporal things
here intended are not earthly, rather they are Divine.
“ Gon’s left hand means the pledge of the Hoty Srinir,
the understanding of the sacred Scriptures, and such
like gifts and graces whereby Holy Church is com-
forted in the present life. By the right hand is de-
noted the blessedness of the Heavenly Country, and
by the head the guiding principle of the soul. There-
fore the Bridegroom’s left hand is under the Bride’s
head, because the Church receives all these gifts to
the end that she may learn to sigh for things eternal.
And the right hand of the Bridegroom embraces her,
because the whole aim of the Church or of the faithful
soul is that she may at length attain everlasting bless-
edness, and rejoice in the vision of her Maker. It is
well said, therefore, that the Bridegroom’s left hand is
under the Bride’s head, and then that His right hand
embraces her, because no one can arrive at the em-
braces of eternal bliss, unless he strive to be partaker
here of heavenly mysteries and Divine gifts.” And
thus too, more tersely, 8. Bernard: ‘ The left hand
raises, the left clasps. The left heals and justifies, the
right embraces and blesses. In His leit hand are
merits, in His right rewards. In His right, I say,
S. Hieron. 4, delights ; in His left, medicines.” Another view sees
in Zech,
in the left hand, under the head, as giving a certain
II. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 79
degree of support, the old Law, but in the loving
embrace of the right the tidings of the Gospel. Again,
the left hand is taken to denote punishment and suf-
fering, the right to be blessings and rewards. And in
this sense an Eastern Father writes: ‘“ His left hand
is under my head, that is, I am lifted up above suffer-
ings, and not pressed down under them, because I am
united to my Bridegroom, and heed Him eagerly. His
right hand shall embrace me; that is, He will deck me
with His bounties, and as though embracing, and grasp-
ing, and fulfilling my desire, heap me therewith.” So
too S. Bernard tells us that when we have attained that
love which casteth out servile fear, Gov’s left hand
of threatening is wader our heads, and we are bold
enough, in confident hope, to draw close to that right
hand wherein are His promises; but that when we
fear Him more than we love or hope, when dread of
wrath to come is our chief sentiment, then His left
hand is over our heads. Another, accepting the view
that the left hand denotes punishment and suffering,
applies it in a different and very beautiful way. “The
scaffold, and torments of divers punishments, seemed
to the foolish and ungodly shameful and hateful, but
to the Martyrs, and to all who have been brought into
the hall of wisdom, to be joyous delights, and beds of
rest for the weary. Beds whereon fire rouses only a
sportive smile; whereon the amphitheatre of the tried
soul is turned into a paradise, the gratings and frying-
pans become the softest feathers, the balls of flame
turn to the sweetest flowers, melted lead into balmy
unguents, the scourges, and rods, and toothed irons,
become the most delicate brushes, wherewith the soul,
cleansed from every stain of sin, and called back to
her former beauty, is restored to her Creator. For
death undergone for Curist’s sake is preferred as
more precious than any joy, any pleasure, or the most
costly gem. These, then, are the delights of holy
souls for winning everlasting joys, where the Church,
fainting in delight, is glad of being held in the em-
brace of Curist her Beloved, that she may be counted
worthy to bear the most savage tortures for her Maker.
The left hand under her head may well be the shield
of faith, held in the warrior’s left hand as he fights ; and
by the embrace of the right hand we may understand
the sword of prayer, wherewith he is ever armed on
the right. With one of these arms the enemy 1s par-
‘’heodoret.
S. Bernard.
Serm., 51.
Aponius.
Thom,
Vercell.
Isa, lili. 2.
Origen.
Prov. iii. 16.
S. Bern. de
Dilig. Deo.
80 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 6.
ried, with the other he is laid low.” Others see in the
first clause the highest grade of mystic contemplation,
whichis Gop’s left hand under the head of intellectual
meditation in the illuminative way, while the embrace
of the right hand denotes the close union of the loving
will with Him in the unitive way. But the loveliest
interpretation of all is that which sees in the left hand
the Manhood of the Eternal Worp, and all the works
wrought by Him after His Incarnation, when He was
indeed wnder our head, made lower not only than the
Angels, but than men, a Man of Sorrows, acquainted
with grief, despised and rejected, marred more than any
other, with no beauty that we should desire Him, so
that we esteemed Him not; and in the Right Hand the
Godhead of the Crucified One, full of Divine gifts,
the place of everlasting glory and blessedness. And
thus Origen says: “That part of the Worp of Gop
which existed before His taking flesh in this dispen-
sation, may well be His Right Hand; that which ex-
ists through His Incarnation may be called the left.
Whence the left hand is said to have riches and
honour. For through His Incarnation He sought for
riches and honour, that is, the salvation of all. In
His right hand is said to be length of days, whereby
without doubt that part which was in the beginning
with Gop, which was Gop the Worp, is denoted as
eternal. This left hand then, the Church, whose Head
is Curist, desires to have under her head, that it may
be protected by faith in the Incarnation; but to be
embraced by His right, that is, to know and to be
taught those things which were dark and hidden be-
fore the time of the dispensation which began when
He took flesh. The right hand is there where we
must hold that all things are wherein is nought of the
misery of sin, nought of the fall of weakness. Here
is the left hand, where He cured our wounds, and ecar-
ried our iniquities, made Himself sin and a curse for
us. All these, although they do as it were support the
head and faith of the Church, may fitly be called the
left hand of the Worp of Gop.” And in the same
strain 8. Bernard observes, ‘ In the left hand the holy
soul recalls to mind that love, greater than which none
is, that He laid down His life for His friends; in the
right she remembers the Beatific Vision which He
promised to His friends, and the joy in presence of
His majesty.” And therefore the Church looks for-
TI) THE SONG QF SONGS. 81
ward in hopeful awe for the coming of that Great Day
when the sheep and the goats shall be portioned, the
one on His right hand, and the other on His left,
trusting that then He will set her on His right hand p, .,
in a vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colours,
denoting the various graces and merits of the holy
souls whom He has purified by suffering here.
7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that
ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
The Vulgate and LXX. are both at variance with
this version. The former reads, I adjure you, O ye
daughters of Jerusalem, by the she-goats, and by the
stags of the fields, that ye stir not, nor awake My love
(fem.) until she please. “It is,” observes Cassiodorus, Cassiodor.
“the voice of the Bridegroom, adjuring the daughters
of Jerusalem, that is, souls bent on everlasting desires,
and seeking the Vision of Peace, not to rouse or dis-
turb the reposing Bride. That is, do not disturb or
try to engage in outer works the soul which is busied
in Divine contemplation, prayers, or reading, wntil she
will, to wit, until at the close of her time of contem-
plation, she desires, warned by her bodily weakness,
to be roused from her sleep of everlasting rest, and to
proceed to her temporal duties. Let us see then by
what He adjures the daughters of Jerusalem. By the
she-goats and the stags of the fields. She-goats and
stags are clean beasts, hostile to serpents and poisons. Beda.
They denote the virtues of the Saints, which shine
with spiritual clearness, and are not merely on their
guard against the venom of the devil’s craft, but ac-
tually pursue it and bring it to nothing.” §S. Gregory, 8S. Greg. M.
agreeing with most of this explanation, prefers to un-
derstand the daughters to be weakly and effeminate
souls, who prefer the temporal aspects of religion to
the eternal ones, and therefore are eager to engage
the Church chiefly in external works, instead of trust-
ing to her better judgment as to the share to be given
to each. 8S. Justus of Urgel applies the words very S. Just. org.
aptly to the wisdom of Christian teachers in not forcing
the wills of the faithful towards counsels of perfection,
but leaving, instead, some room for voluntary and Ag:
spontaneous offering. And he cites S. Paul’s counsel, 300° Vi 25
not command, to virgins, and his advice to Philemon, Philem. 14,
G
S. Mat. xix.
12, 2).
Aponius.
Titelman.
Hugo Card.
Rupert.
82 A COMMENTARY ON (TLE.
as also the Lorp’s own language respecting eunuchs,
and to the young man whom He told to sell that he
had, and give to the poor, in illustration of his com-
ment. The palace of Curist, as another tells us, has
not only many chambers and a banqueting-house, but
also a great park, wherein are many souls, once wild
in the woods of Gentile philosophy, but now captured
by the hunters of the Church, and tamed for the de-
light of the daughters of Jerusalem, and set to disport
themselves in the fields of Holy Writ, retaining their
old swiftness and acute senses, but employing them
better than before, when, as Platonic and Stoic teachers,
they were only seeking after that Gop whom they
have now found. They are urged to be patient with
the Church, and to let her have her sleep out, to re-
cruit her strength, when they would fain see their own
intellectual eagerness in the pursuit of Divine know-
ledge universally shared. Again, it may be an appeal
to all devout and peaceful souls, in the name of the
Patriarchs and Seers of the Old Testament, and of the
Apostles and Doctors of the New, not to interfere
with the pious employments of their brethren on any
pretext, but to rejoice in any spiritual advantage they
may gain therein. Or you may take it as the address
of Curist to the children of the earthly Jerusalem,
the Scribes and Pharisees, not to interfere with or per-
secute the Christian Church, and this in the name of
those swift ministering spirits, the Angels, who might
otherwise be agents of punishment to them, as they
had been of old to the Egyptians and Canaanites, when
they meddled with the Synagogue. Cardinal Hugo,
viewing the text as a warning against spiritual impa-
tience to arrive at results before the means have been
got ready, compares the necessary pause to the filling
of cups before a feast can begin, to the tuning of in-
struments before a concert, to the whetting of arrows
and hooks before a hunting-match, with other similes
of the kind. And Rupert, taking the daughters of
Jerusalem literally, interprets the passage of a warning
to them, in the name of the Patriarchs, not to inter-
rupt the silence of the Mother of Gop touching the
mysterious burden of her womb, till it should please
her to speak, lest Herod should learn the truth too
soon, and find the Child to slay Him.
The LXX. read, I adjure you, O ye daughters of
Jerusalem, by the forces and powers of the field, of ye
i. Fj THE SONG OF SONGS. 83
shall stir up or awake the love so long as she (or he)
please. And this is explained by Origen to mean that Origen.
the Church is Gon’s husbandry, but that each soul has
its own plot in the great field, to till for Him and plant
with virtues and good works. The Bride urges the
daughters of the heavenly Jerusalem, by all that is
dearest to them in these gardens of their souls, that if
they have once begun to stir up and rouse love, which
_ was sleeping, they are not to check its rising within
any narrower bounds than those of the Bridegroom’s
will, because there should be no other measure to our
love of Gop. It matters not what patience or suf-
fering on the Bride’s part this may involve, for it is
her part to obey His will so long as He manifests it. 8. Epipha-
S. Gregory Nyssen, agreeing in other respects wit eraree
this, will have the forces and powers of the field to Nyss.
denote the Angels, whom the elect souls are hereby
enjoined to imitate. Psellus, on the other hand, sees pselius,
here a continuance of the former intreaty of the Bride
that she may be decked for her Bridegroom, and re-
presents her as calling on the Angels to increase in
every way her love for Him, until His will for the sal-
vation of all mankind may be fulfilled in her. Another
very singular view is that of Philo, who takes the Philo Carp.
words as those of a holy soul beseeching other Saints
not to urge Gop, Who is love, to call her to Himself by
death, until His own good time, that she may employ
herself in His service here below, according to that
saying, “ Until I have showed Thy strength unto this Ps. Ixxi. 16.
generation, and Thy power to all them that are yet for
to come.” The Greek Fathers, it will thus be seen,
agree with the A. V. in ascribing the words to the
Bride, and represent Love himself, whether Gop, or a
faculty of the soul, as the sleeper. Herein they are
also in accord with the Targum, which represents the Targum.
words as an address of Moses, after the return of the
spies, adjuring the people of Israel by the Lorp of
_ Hosts and the powers of the land of Israel, not to
rouse the Lorp, nor to attempt to enter Canaan until
a Hence it ase ene and taking mivy hinds, as
argum accepts the } ’ pies §
“forces”? and ‘ powets,” for | though it were equivalent to
*‘eazelles’ and **hinds,’”’ ob- oy (from the same ultimate
viously referring nixa¥ to the | root Sx) princes or chieftains,
Toot Nax “he went out to war” | 2 Kings xxiv. 16.
G2
Ainsworth.
Prov. v. 19.
S. Ambros.
Targum.
84: A COMMENTARY ON [II. 8.
His will should allow of it, at the end of the forty
years. This, taken in conjunction with some of the
patristic comments given above, will lead us on to what
is probably the true mystical import of the words.
The Bride urges all devout souls, in the name of those
other souls which, though less perfect, and not yet as
meek and docile as the sheep of Curist’s fold, are yet
dear to the Good Shepherd, not to hasten Gop’s good
time by impatience, but to let patience have her per-
fect work. Storms and persecutions may rage round
the ship of the Church, but if He be in the ship, even
though asleep on a pillow, it is the truest faith to
await His waking, instead of rousing Him entirely
from slumber, only to rebuke our incredulity. Again;
as the word is not Beloved, but Love, we may well see
here counsel against hurrying on souls too fast in re-
ligious growth, lest undue forcing should make them
weakly exotics, rather than hardy, vigorous, and fruitful
plants. It is, in other terms, the Apostle’s counsel to
give milk to babes and meat to the full-grown only,
and not to urge immature Christians to apply to them-
selves language and usages fitted only for the tried
athletes of the Faith. Still further is it a warning
against arousing CuristT, by our sins, to stand up in
judgment against us, because each of us has not been
in soul a true Spouse to Him, “ as the loving hind and
pleasant roe.”
8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he
cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping
upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart :
The first act of this dramatic idyl closed with the
preceding verse, wherein the Bride warns her com-
panions against disturbing the slumber of the Bride-
groom. Now, His time for waking has come, she
hears His voice and sees Him, from a distance, hasten-
ing to her, and the second stage of the action— wherein
some commentators not unfitly see typified the first
efforts of the Pentecostal Church—begins with await-
ing His nearer approach to perfect union. The Tar-
gum, which refers the words to Gop’s message by
Moses to Israel in Egypt, and to His Passover, as He
went slaying the first-born of the Egyptians, while
II. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 85
sparing the houses marked with the blood of the Lamb,
gives, as it were, the key to all subsequent expositions.
Lhe voice of my Beloved! At first it was only by His
voice that Curist was known by the Church, for He
sent it before Him by His prophets, and was only
heard, not seen ; while His people had merely the pro-
mise of His Advent announced to them, according to
that saying of the Apostle, “Gop, Who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son.” And therefore, as the
present verse represents the last few moments before
His Advent, rather than that very time itself, this
Voice has been aptly said to be that of the great Fore-
runner, the “ Voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare
ye the way of the Lorn.” And this exposition receives
support from a saying of the Baptist himself, wherein
he most plainly refers to this very passage of the Song :
“He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom: but the
friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth
Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom’s
voice.” Another and singular view is, that the Voice
of the Beloved is that call of the dead to resurrection,
which will precede His second Advent to judge the
_ world. A Latin Father, following the reading which
makes the Bride the sleeper, bids us note how light
her slumber is, how she is roused at once by the first
tones of the Bridegroom’s voice, heard in Holy Writ,
in prayer, or in meditation, according to His own
saying, ‘‘ Every one that is of the truth heareth My
voice.” A Greek commentator, on the other hand, bids
us observe how difficult true contemplation is, how we
do but hear the voice, without seeing the form, of the
Worp of Gop, and how, even when He does appear,
the swiftness of His movements is such as to dazzle
the eye, as He does not remain fixed that we may gaze,
but comes rapidly on. And from this is drawn counsel,
where the Western writer does but state a fact, to wit,
the need of the soul being on the alert to catch the first
intimation of her Bridegroom’s presence. If He will
but speak to her, it is enough, because “the sheep
follow Him, for they know His voice.” Again; as the
time of silence and waiting was said above to be appli-
cable to the abiding of the Apostles in Jerusalem dur-
ing the ten days of expectation; the Voice here may
fitly be taken of the mighty rushing wind of Pentecost,
Origen,
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
IGOR Fe Fle
Tres Patr.
Isa. xl. 3.
S. Mark i. 3.
Hengsten-
berg.
S. John iii.
29.
S. Just. Org.
Aponius.
S. John
XVili. 37.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. John x. 4.
Ghislerius.
Corn. 4 Lap.
S. John
XVi. 14.
S. Ambros.
I PS CkLX.
S. Greg. M.
Hom. 29, in
Evang.
Hugo Card.
In loc,
S. Bernard.
Serm. 53.
86 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 8.
which gave the Apostles utterance, called the Voice of
the Beloved, because of the mission of the Comforter
from the Son. And so itis written: ‘“ He shall glorify
Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it
unto you.” Behold, He cometh leaping upon the moun-
tains, skipping upon the hills. ‘I long,” cries a Saint,
putting words into the mouth of the Bride, “that love
should be stirred up for me. I count myself wounded
with love, and love itself hastens to me the more.
T said, Come, it leaps and skips. I ask Him to come
with grace. He worketh the increase of graces, and as
He comes, brings with Him additional grace; nay, He
gains it Himself in coming, because even He desires
to please His beloved. He leaps upon the high places,
that He may ascend to His Bride. For the chamber
of the Bride is the Judgment-seat of Curist.” He
leaps on the Church, He skippeth on the Synagogue.
He leaps on the Gentiles, He skippeth on the Jews.
Let us behold Him leaping. He leaps from heaven
into the Virgin’s womb, from the womb into the manger,
from the manger into Jordan, from Jordan to the
Cross, from the Cross to the grave, from the grave into
heaven. And there is an ancient tradition of the
Church, that the Lorp, in the course of His Ascension,
tarried one day with each of the nine orders of the
Angelic hierarchy, arriving on the tenth at the right
hand of the FatHsr, and thereupon sending the Hoty
Guost down on the Apostles. For this reason, they
say, it is that the Kyrie Hleison is said nine times in
the Mass, and ended with the Gloria Patri. All this,
observes S. Gregory, was leaping on the mountains,
because beyond man’s reach, though for the most part
visible to him, and also because surpassing, in the
might of His loving-kindness, all that the greatest
Saints have everdone. S. Bernard, pointing out that
the Bridegroom is said first to leap over mountains, and
then over hills, refers the verse to the humiliation of
Gop the Son, passing from His throne in the highest,
revealing, as He goes down through the choirs of
angels, the wonderful mystery of His love, hidden from
all generations. He reaches the mightiest Spirits, still
unspeakably below Himself, and passing by them,
comes to the lowlier powers, and leaves even these
far above Him, made, as He was, lower than the Angels
for our sakes, and found in fashion as aman. Not
only so, but He is said to leap over the Angels for an-
a
II. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 87
other cause also, His far greater eagerness to minister
to the heirs of salvation, rejoicing as a giant to run His y, ,;, 5
race. ‘He leaped over Gabriel, and came before him serm. 54.
to the Virgin, as the Archangel himself beareth wit-
ness, saying, ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lorp is with
thee.’ What? dost thou find Him in the womb Whom
thou leftest but now? How is this? ‘He did fly, ps. xviii. 10,
yea, He did fly before on the wings of the wind.’ Thou Vuls.
art vanquished, O Archangel; He who sent thee for-
ward hath leaped over thee.” And the same Saint re- Serm. 4, in
minds us in another place how often the Lorp literally 48°°"*:
chose a mountain for His manifestations, preaching
His first discourse to the people on one, praying on
another, transfigured on a third, crucified on a fourth,
and ascending again from that Mount of Olives which
had been His frequent resort.
Thrice for us the WorpD Incarnate high on holy hills was set,
Once on Tabor, once on Calvary, and again on Olivet,
Once to shine and once to suffer, and once more, as King of kings,
With a merry noise ascending, borne by cherubs on their wings.
Again; He leaped over mountains and hills by His Origen.
conquering the kingdoms and provinces of the earth
through the conversion of the Gentiles in the person of
His messengers, of whom is written, “ How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings.” And, as another aptly points out, He
overthrew the idol temples, so often set upon hills in the
midst of groves, a meaning enforced, as is noted, by
the version of Symmachus, who reads, Going against
the mountains, leaping against the hills.
Vieyra.
Isa. lii. 7.
Theodoret.
The lonely mountains 0’er, Milton,
. And the resounding shore, ; Hymn on
A voice of weeping heard and loud lament ; the Nativity,
From haunted spring, and dale 182.
Edged with poplar pale,
The parting genius is with sighing sent ;
ith flower-inwoven tresses torn
The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
He comes leaping also to holy souls, not only to those s. Ambros.
more perfect ones, like His Apostles, who are lofty PS: °*
and strong as mountains, rooted deep in love, and
kissed by the first rays of the sun; but also to the
lowlier hills which court His presence. ‘‘ Behold, He
cometh, not upon the plains, nor upon the valleys, but
leaping upon the mountains. If thou be a mountain,
Cassiodor.
Beda.
Origen.
PSaCkKX1 nls
Acts ix. 36,
marg.
Aponius,
Beda.
Lyranus,
88 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 9.
He leapeth on thee. He leaps on Isaiah, He leaps on
Jeremiah, He leaps on Peter, John, James. The
mountains are round about Him. If thou canst not
be a mountain, if thou art not strong enough for that,
be at least a hill, that Curist may go up on thee, and
if He pass, let Him so leap over thee, that the shadow
of His transit may be thy safeguard.’ And another
Saint reminds us that the Bridegroom is said to leap,
and to leap over the hills, to teach us that though He
comes often to His Saints, yet that the sweetness of
internal contemplation is very brief and rare for each
one even in the case of those most advanced in holi-
ness, because we are weighed down with the burden
of the flesh. He comes leaping to us as we study Holy
Scripture, appearing in passage after passage on the
hills of the Old Testament, and the loftier and more
conspicuous mountains of the New. And in this sense
we may take that saying, “I will lift up mine eyes
unto the hills, from whence is my help.” Like a roe
or a young hart. For roe the LXX. reads dopxad: a
doe. And because this word is derived from 5épxa,
“T see,” by reason of the animal’s large and beautiful
eyes, Origen tells us that Curist is compared to it
because He comes to us in contemplation, and that He
is like a young hart, because the stag hates and de-
stroys serpents, and thus figures the active Saints who
imitate their Lorp in making war upon evil. There
is a crowd of other yet more fanciful interpretations,
amongst which it is unnecessary to specify more than
two, which seem really to illustrate the words, to wit,
the swiftness of the creatures named, and their delight
in climbing among the mountains, symbolising the
working of Curist in the soul; and the harmlessness
of the young hart, which has not yet put out its horns,
denoting the gentleness of the Saviour.
Behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh
forth at the windows, showing himself through
the lattice.
This wall, observes De Lyra, is that thick darkness
in which the Law was given on Sinai, through which
pierced the lightning-flashes from the hidden glory of
Gop. Cxrist Incarnate stood, notes another, as though
behind our wall, because the Godhead lay hid in our
II. 9.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 89
humanity. And because human weakness could not
endure His infinity, were He to disclose it, He inter-
posed the barrier of flesh, and whatever great work He
wrought among men, He did as though hiding behind
awall. He who looks through windows and lattices, is
partly seen and partly hides himself: so too our Lorp
Jesus Curist, when He was working miracles by
divine power, and enduring insults in the weakness
of the flesh, looked forth as it were through windows
and lattices, because while hiding Himself in one way,
He showed in another way who He was.
Again, He stands behind owr wall, that is, our sin Cassiodor.
and fleshly weakness prevent us from seeing Him con-
stantly, and yet He gives glimpses of Himself, by
making, as it were, openings in that wall whereby we
can contemplate Him partially. This is the wall to pane pay
S. Greg. M.
which Hezekiah turned his face and wept, because he pines
could not yet behold his Saviour. The windows *¥.?.
whereat we see Him, observes a Greek Father, are our Ore
powers of understanding, chiefly exercised when we
pray or read Holy Scripture, and as we are so engaged,
we see Him at intervals. And whereas the LXX.
word for lattice is nets, the same Father tells us that
it is just when we are in the midst of temptation and
snares that we see Curist’s Face shining on us through Origen.
the meshes, to bid us be of good courage, for He is at
hand to free us. Another, remembering how S. Paul
describes that mid-wall of partition which stood be-
tween Jew and Gentile till the Passion, tells us that Philo Carp.
the wall is the Law, which hid Curist altogether
under type and shadow. The windows, which gave
fitful glimpses of Him, are the Prophets ; and the /at-
tices, through which He looks owt (LX X.) denote the
Apostles, who had seen Him in the body, and were able ¢ piipna.
to preach His full revelation. 8. Epiphanius, how- nius.
ever, not very dissimilarly, takes the chief Messianic
Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, to be these
windows. S. Bernard applies the words windows and
lattices very touchingly to the weaknesses and suffer- 8. Bernard.
ing of our mortal bodies, as though gaps and crevices Serm. 56.
in a ruinous wall, and tells us that through these same
windows of His own human Body the Lorp looked out
on suffering mortality, and learned to share and pity its
deepest sorrows. The Chaldee paraphrase helps us to
another deep mystical meaning, applying, as 1t does,
the verse to the Lorp looking through the windows of
Corn. a Lap.
S. Just. Org.
Cantacu-
zene.
Isa. lix. 2.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 56.
Ps, xviii. 29.
Nic. Argent.
90 A COMMENTARY ON (II. 10.
the Israelites in Egypt as they slew the Paschal Lamb,
sprinkled its blood, and ate its roasted flesh with bitter
herbs. So the Lorp Jusus looks out steadfastly on
faithful souls from behind the wall of the species of
Bread and Wine inthe Holy Eucharist, showing Him-
self in part to them even there, as they feed on Him in
faith, and gives them joy with the light of His coun-
tenance. And again, they remind us how His love
looked out upon us through the lattices of those Five
Wounds He bore for us upon the Cross. The time
will at last come when our wall shall be swept away,
and all, especially sin, which now hinders us from be-
holding Curist face to face, shall vanish. Our sins
separate between us and Gop. Would there were no
barrier against me.save that of the body, exclaims
S. Bernard, and the sin which is inherent in the flesh,
and not many another source of evil besides. I fear
that besides that sin which is of my nature, I have
added many, very many, of my own unrighteousness,
whereby I have driven the Bridegroom too far from
me, so that were I to speak truly, I should confess
rather that He stands behind several walls than behind
one. But it is written, ‘‘ With the help of my Gop I
shall leap over the wall.” Till that blessed time come,
we may pray in the language of a devout writer: “O
my Beloved, Thou standest behind the wall of my mor-
tality, blindness, and sloth, and I cannot see Thee, nor
love Thee, as I would. Look upon me, then, through
the lattices of all the powers of my soul, that I may
know and love Thee as much as Thou vouchsafest.
Look at me also, sometimes, through the windows,
through those partial images of Thyself in my soul.
So, though I cannot see Thee perfectly and wholly,
yet I may ever in part behold Thee more clearly, and
love Thee more truly, when and how far Thou willest,
that I may thus learn by experience that Thou standest
behind my wall, looking at me through the windows,
and gazing on me through the lattices, and that no
barrier parts Thee and me save that wall of mortal
flesh, after whose dissolution I may see and know
Thee perfectly, even as I am now known unto Thee.”
10 My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come
away.
II. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 91
Spake. The word MMV anah, here rendered spake,
is very much more frequently used in the Bible in the
sense of answered. Accordingly the LXX. turns the
sentence, My beloved answereth and saith unto Me,
which suggests at once the constant occurrence of the
same phrase in the Gospels, applied to our Lorp, and
by no means always denoting a reply to spoken words,
but rather to unspoken thoughts, which He reads as
in an open book. Rise wp. The LXX. in some copies,
and the Vulgate add, hasten, and also insert the word
dove among the epithets of the Bride in this verse. Rise
up, the Lorp says, and come, My love; rise up from the
pleasures of the world, rise up from earthly things, and
come to Me, thou who art still labouring and heavy
laden, because thou art careful about things of the
world. Come away above the world, come to Me, for L
have overcome the world. Come near to Me, now fair
with the beauty of eternal life, now a dove, meek and
gentle, and altogether full of spiritual grace. And why,
another Father asks, does he say, Rise wp, hasten ?
Because He would say, I bore for thee the tempest’s
rage; I met the waves which were thy due. My soul,
for thy sake, was exceeding sorrowful unto death; I
arose from the dead, breaking the gates of death, and
loosing the fetters of hell. Therefore I say unto thee,
Rise up, and come away. He calls her out of the
house into the field, and saith, Rise wp from thy plea-
sant couch, from that repose, wherein thou seekest to
please Me alone with psalms, and hymns, and prayers,
hasten and come, that is, hasten to the help of thy neigh-
bours, that by preaching, and the example of good
works, thou mayest make them true imitators of thee,
and lead them to salvation with thyself. She is His
love, observes 8. Justus, because reconciled to Him by
His death, His fair one, because washed from her sins.
Or, as S. Bernard, at fuller length, comments, She is
fitly called His Jove, who seeks her Bridegroom’s profit
by earnestly and faithfully preaching, counselling, and
ministering. Fitly is she His dove, who unceasingly
seeks to gain the divine pity for her loved ones, sigh-
ing and entreating for them in prayer. Fitly also is
she His fair one, who shining with the heavenly long-
ing of lofty contemplation, at any rate when it may be
timely and suitably done, clothes herself in its beauty.
It may also be taken of any holy soul which Gop calls
to Himself out of the troubles of the world. And thus
S. Matt.
xi. 25.
S. John v.
19, &c.
S. Ambros.
de Isaac et
Anima, cap.
4.
Origen.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
S. Just. Org.
S. Bernard.
S. Hieron.
Epitaph.
S. Paule.
92 A COMMENTARY ON (II. 11,12.
S. Jerome speaks of one who had served her Master
well, and was ready when He came and called for her.
“The moment she heard the Bridegroom calling, Rise
up, come away, My love, My fair one, My dove; for
lo, the winter is past and over, the rain is gone; she
_ joyfully answered, The flowers are seen in the land,
Ps. xxvii. 15.
Ss. Ambros.
in Ps, cxix.
Rupert.
Brev. Paris.
et Rotomag.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
the time of pruning is come. I believe verily to see
the goodness of the Lory in the land of the living.”
His calling is not merely away from the world, but
into heaven. “See,” He says, “the middle wall of
separation, which parted the concord of our inner af-
fections and roused the bodily passions to strife, and
to contrariety, is taken down. Come then, unfearing,
to see Me no longer through the lattice, but face to
face, O My love, to enjoy My loving countenance.”
And it is also taken in especial of the summons to
the holiest of Saints by the voice of the Archangel.
«Thou, the Heavenly Sender of the message would
say, My love for thy lowliness, My dove for thy gen-
tleness, My fair one for thy purity, come. Come,
Mary, come, for Eve hath fled to a hiding-place.
Come, and believe the Angel bringing thee glad tid-
ings; for Eve believed the whispering serpent. Come,
and crush the serpent’s head, for Eve was deluded
with the head, and tempted with the belly, and tangled
in the tail of the serpent. Come, and say, Behold the
handmaid of the Lorp. For Eve hid and excused
herself alike. The serpent, said she, deceived me, and
I did eat. This is the Voice of my Beloved, and He
saith this to me, Rise up by faith, hasten by hope,
come by charity.” The words are applied to the
Blessed Virgin in another sense also, used as they are
by the Gallican Church as one of the Antiphons for
the Feast of the Assumption. And how does the
Bride treat the call? She hears the command, replies
a Saint, she is established by the word, she is aroused,
‘she advances, she draws near. She becomes fair, she
is called a dove. Fair, because drawing near Gop
she has received the image of the Divine beauty in
herself as in a mirror; a dove, in that she is lovely
with that image of the Hoty Guost she has received.
11 For lo, the winter is past, the rain is
over and gone ;
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the
II. 11, 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 93
time of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in our land ;
Here, as so often, the Chaldee anticipates the true Targum.
mystical sense, by explaining these words of the end-
ing of the bondage of Israel in Egypt, and of the Voice
of the Hoty Spirit of redemption, promised to Abra-
ham, and now heard by his descendants. For singing,
it reads, with the old Versions, pruning, and interprets
the phrase of the circumcision of the firstborn. And
the first general exposition of the verse by the Fathers
takes it of the Gospel revelation, ending the rigour
and harshness of the Jewish Law on the one hand, and
of Gentile idolatry on the other. The rain is over, . .
because the Sun of Righteousness, shining out, has ee pao
dispersed the mists and clouds of error and sin, the S. Greg.
earliest Saints, Apostles and Martyrs, spring up as M» &
flowers in the new field of the Church, as Prudentius
sings of the Holy Innocents :
All hail! ye infant martyr flowers, Prudentius,
Cut off in life’s first dawning hours: pk ph
As rose-buds snapt in tempest strife, flores es
When Herod sought your Savioun’s life. tyrum.
The Voice of the Holy Dove descends in tongues of
fire on the disciples at Jerusalem, and the time of
pruning away all ignorance, unbelief, and love of the
world, has come, when the FarHer purges the branches
of that True Vine which He hath planted. And ob-
serve that there are three stages of pruning the choicer
vines. First the thick and hurtful branches are cut Nic. Argent.
away. Secondly, the useless shoots, at the time
when the vines flower. ‘Thirdly, the superfluous
leaves, which hinder the ripening of the grapes, that
their removal may suffer the sun’s rays to shine on the
fruit. So too, it is needful in the soul first to prune
away the more serious faults; secondly, lighter of-
fences, or even things which are not offences, but
merely useless and superfluous; and thirdly, things
which are useful, lawful, and permitted, have to be cut
away, that the precious and beautiful fruit may be
ripened by the Sun of grace.
~ “One ancient Father, however, takes the word in a §, Epiph.
yet wider sense, that of reaping, and explains the whole
passage to be only another form of those words of the
S. Mat. ix.
37.
Philo Carp.
The Easter
Sequence,
Mundi reno-
vatio.
Venant.
Fortunat.
The Hymn,
Salve, festa
dies.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Angelomus,
Parez,
Psellus.
Nic, Argent,
94: A COMMENTARY ON [II. 11, 12.
Lorp, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the la-
bourers are few, pray ye therefore the Lorp of the
harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His
harvest.”
And next, they take the winter and rain to be the
time of the Lorp’s Passion, when the floods came
about Him, and the joyous shining which follows them
denotes His Resurrection. So in many a hymn, as for
example, Adam of 8. Victor :
Coelum fit serenius,
Et mare tranquillius ;
Spirat aura levius,
Vallis nostra floruit.
Revirescunt arida,
Recalescunt frigida
Postquam ver intepuit.
Now the heaven from clouds is free,
And more calmly rests the sea,
While the air breathes balmily,
In our valley flowers appear: .
Green is now the dried-up plain,
And the chilled earth glows again
Since the genial spring is here.
And similarly a yet older poet:
Hail, festal Day, for evermore adored,
Wherein Gop conquered Hell, and upward soared !
See the world’s beauty, budding forth anew,
Shows with the Lorp His gifts returning too !
The earth with flowers is decked,—the sky serene,
The heayenly portals glow with brighter sheen.
The greenwood leaves, the flowering meadows tell
Of CuRisT, triumphant over gloomy Hell.
They give other interpretations of the voice of the
turtle besides that of the Pentecostal Advent. First,
that it denotes the preaching of the Apostles, and this
is followed by many. Then, that it refers to the song
of the Blessed Virgin, chanting the glory of the In-
carnation. The loneliness and sorrowful note of the
bird lead some to see in it a type of the Baptist,
crying in the wilderness: and lastly, these same quali-
ties cause another writer to remind us of the sad and
desolate life of that turtle-dove whose Soul Gop did
indeed deliver out of the hands of His enemies, but
whose Body suffered pain for three and thirty years,
and Who uttered His voice in the land in the Seven
IT. 11, 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 95
Words upon the Cross. And the Gloss bids us notice Gloss.
a difference between the use of the words turtle and
dove. The turtle is a solitary bird, the dove a gre-
garious one; and accordingly the voice of the turtle
always denotes the revelation of those more secret
mysteries, the knowledge of which is confined to a few
great Saints, whereas the dove implies whatever is
made known to the lowliest, and therefore it was a
Dove, not a turtle, which descended on Curist at the
waters of Jordan, because His consecration to His
Priestly office was to be known to all mankind. And
there is a resurrection of Curist in every faithful soul S. Ambros.
also, when the winter of spiritual coldness, the rain of
temptation, are past and over, when the blossoms of Dion. Carth.
holy words and works spring out of the heart, when
the time comes for pruning away all luxuriant and
unprofitable growths :—or, if you take the word to be
singing, the time for making melody in the heart with
spiritual song,—when the dove-like voice of pure,
faithful, and retired prayer goes up in supplication to
the Lorp. Only One Dove, not many, as a Saint tells ¢. pernara.
us, because the Inspirer of penitential prayer, Who Serm. 59.
Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings ry
which cannot be uttered, is but One. They take the Rom. vil.
words also of the Annunciation, in the spring-time of
the year, when Mary heard the heavenly message: “‘ O
fairest of the daughters of Jerusalem, thou heardest (V8? gr.
the voice of the turtle, thou heardest and didst under- de Assumpt.
stand. He spake within, and thou wast within, there-
fore thou didst hear and understand, saying, It is the
voice of my Beloved.” And, lastly, they take the
winter to be all the sorrowful exile of earth; the spring,
with its tokens of rejoicing, to denote the bliss of the
Heavenly Country, the true Land of Gon’s people.
Our Land, as the Bride calls it, for her Bridegroom,
Who is Lorp of it, gives it to her as a marriage pre-
sent. The flowers are said to appear in the land be-
cause holy souls are received into heaven when they
depart from earth. And because they did not remain
slothful in good works in this life, winter though it
were, they blossom gloriously in the Land of the living.
It well follows: The time of pruning is come, because
the larger the number of the elect that is gathered into
heaven, the more swiftly are the reprobate cut off
1 The Hebrew may denote singing, but not that of birds, as
suggested by the italics of A, Y.
S. Greg. M.
96 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 13.
from the Church as useless branches, that the world
Vieyra, may come toanend. The great Portuguese preacher,
scrm. de las in a touching funeral sermon delivered on the death of
xequias de : ah ee
Dona Maria @ young lady of rank, dwells on the juxtaposition of
de Atayde. flowering and pruning in this verse. ‘‘ The flowers,”
says he, “appear in our land, and Death grants them
nolonger time. They appear, they disappear. Behold
the flowers, how the spring of their life is the autumn
of their death. The pruning knife which is in his
hand, is a tool for August, and not for April, but Death,
with unseasonable activity, arms himself therewith,
and threatens the buds, that the flowers may not guard
themselves. O the sternness of it, O the disappoint-
ment! Itis not the blow I grieve for, but its date.
That there should be a time to bloom, and a time to
prune, is natural, but that the time of blooming and
of pruning should be the same, that the very flower
of life should be the most frail, is hard indeed.” The
turtle which utters her voice is the Church,.the land
of the Bridegroom is the life of blessedness, her voice
is heard therein, because her prayers, uttered in long-
S. Greg. M. ing here, are received by CuristT in heaven. And
aw '8,2 even here she has her flowers of promise, the foretaste
of that bliss which, in its perfection, will be abundance
of fruit.
13 The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs,
and the vines with the tender grape give a good
smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come
away.
It is still only the promise of fruit. The fig-tree of
the Synagogue, though unable to bring fruit to matu-
Cassiodor. rity, yet trained souls imperfectly to some degree of
spiritual advance; reared its Nathaniels and other
seekers after Gop, soon to be ripened in the sun of
CuHRIsT’s presence, and to develop into Apostles and
Saints of His Church. And whereas the green figs,
for the most part, fall from the tree before they ripen,
S. Ambros. go, though multitudes listened to Curist and His
Lua 128: Apostles’ preaching, comparatively few clung stead-
fastly to the Faith, or brought fruit to perfection.
Others, however, take this falling away of the imma-
ture figs to denote the disappearance of the ceremo-
Beda. nial rites of the Law. And taking the fig-tree to be
the Christian, rather than the Jewish Church, they
II. 14.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 97
tell us that its young fruits, soon to be so sweet, are Philo Carp.
the early Martyrs and Saints, and that the Vine of S- Gres. M.
the Church put forth the grapes with a good smell,
when the multitude of new converts filled the world
with the fragrance of their holy works. S. Bernard s. Bernard.
prefers to distinguish two classes of Saints here, the Serm. 60.
meek and gentle, typified by the sweetness of the fig;
the zealous and fervent, denoted by the glowing pro-
duce of the grape. Others, applying the words to the theodoret.
devout soul, tell us that the green figs denote the first- Psellus.
fruits of faith, immature, but the pledge of better
things to follow. These grow, some allege, on the tree
of human nature, not able of itself to achieve ripeness ;
but others tell us that the only tree which bears such com. a Lap.
fruit at all is the Cross, which bore no flowers, but at
once gave the fruit of salvation to the world. And as
the Chaldee paraphrase interprets the words as a sum- Targum.
mons to Israel to enter the Land of Promise, of which
it is written, “ They shall sit every man under his vine Micah iv. 4.
and under his fig-tree ; none shall make them afraid,” 3,75!
the words are also explained of the blessedness of Zech. iii. 10.
heaven, and the foretaste of it which a holy life yields
us even onearth. And therefore the Bridegroom again = pi :
says, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away, be- Hom: 5.
cause in this pilgrimage and race, incessant advance
' and progress are needful, and the soul that has risen
can go on rising, can come ever nearer to her Gop,
finishing her course. And the repetition denotes, on S. Bernard.
His part, His tender affection, His eager longing for Se™™. 61.
the salvation of mankind, wherefore He calls His be-
loved once more to her labour in the vineyard. So
long as it is winter He suffers her to rest, He permits
that in seasons of distress and tribulation quietness
and confidence should be her strength, but the moment
the time is again favourable, she must be up and doing
His work upon the earth.
14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the
rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me
see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for
sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Parez.
The Greek Fathers, remembering how the Apostle
has said that the Rock is Curtst, interpret the dwelling oes 4
of the dove as the sure doctrines of the Faith, the Pieodren
mysteries of the Gospel. For the secret places of Tres Patr.
H.
98 A COMMENTARY ON {ID. 14.
the stairs, the LXX. reads having a bulwark, or outer
wall, which, Origen tells us, implies that the Bride is
called out of the city, beyond its fortifications, to her
labour, but is told that her path shall not be unshel-
tered, seeing that the shadow of the Rock will be over
Philo Carp. it. Others tell us that this owter wall is the old Law,
and that we are called to pass from it to the safer
Aponius. refuge of the Gospel Rock. So too, a Western com-
mentator bids us see in the clefts of the Rock the four
Gospels, in the cavern of the wall (Vulg.,) the doctrine
of the Apostles and the examples of the Saints. But
he gives also that which is the favourite interpretation
of the Latin Fathers, namely, that we are to see, in
the clefts and cavern, the Five Wounds of the Lorp’s
erucified Body. “I would understand by the clefts of the
S. Greg. M. Rock,” observes S. Gregory, “the wounds of CHRIST’s
hands and feet as He hung upon the Cross; and in
the same way, I should call the wound in His side,
which was made with the spear, the cavern of the wall.
Rightly is the dove said to be in the clefts of the Rock,
and in the cavern of the wall, because when in medi-
tating on the Cross she imitates CHEIsT’s patience, and
calls His words to mind for her example, she is a dove
Rupert. in the clefts.” They shall look, observes another, on
Zech. xii. 10. Him whom they pierced. And He says, that the soul
which sighs because of His piercing with the nails, is
a dove in the clefts, and when grieving for the wound
in His side, she is in the cavern of the wall. Iwasa
wall, the Lorp continues, when I was mortal and pas-
sible, but now that I have risen from the dead, I am a
most strong Rock, nevertheless, the clefts are still to
s. Bernara, be seen in Me. ‘“O happy clefts,” exclaims the great
Serm.61. Abbat of Clairvaux, “which build up faith in the Re-
surrection and in the Divinity of Curist! ‘My Lorp,’
saith Thomas, ‘and my Gop.’ Whence came this
oracle, save out of the clefts of the rock? Herein the
sparrow hath found her an house, and the turtle a nest
where she may lay her young. Herein the dove guards
herself, and fearlessly looks on the wheeling hawk.”
He is here in unconscious accord with Homer :
Ps, 1xxxiv.
Se
Hom. I. xxi. guyev, bs Te WéeAELAL,
495. € 1M £49 ¢ { pee 4 /
h pae bp ipnkos KotAnv eioémtato wETpHV.
she fled; as flies a dove,
Shunning the falcon, to the hollow rock.
And he goes on to remind us how the bowels of
IT. 14.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 99
Curist’s mercy may be seen by us through His gaping
wounds, and how the Martyrs found their rest therein
when their own bodies were but one huge wound
under the torturer’s hand. And so runs the hymn,
Here is the heart’s true bulwark found, The Hymn,
And here is rest secure, Cor meum
And here is love’s most certain ground, tibi dedo.
And here salvation sure.
In this cleft Rock, once rent for all,
And in this Heart’s protecting wall,
May I confide, may I abide,
O Jesu, SAviourR glorified.
Again, while the rock must always mean Curist, the Beda. '
wall may be taken as the guard of Angels round about a Bernard
the elect, or as that wall of the Communion of Dalute Sern. Gain,
built up with living stones, wherein the soul may tarry
for a time in contemplation of the holy lives of Saints
departed. But if she will be perfect, she must pass
from the disciples to the Master, from active imitation
of the servants to loving gaze upon the face of the King.
The wall may be insecure, the Rock never. And there-
fore it is well said to the Church Militant by the Pro-
phet, “O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and Jer. xlviii.
dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her 28.
nest in the side of the hole’s mouth.” The words are
taken by 8. Bernard in yet another sense, as denoting
the hidden mysteries of Gon’s glory, wherein the con-
templative soul makes her dwelling. The A. V. read-
ing, secret place of the stairs, supported by the Chaldee
paraphrase, but not by any of the old versions, accords
very well with this last meaning, as the clause will
then denote the gradual ascent of the soul towards
Gop, up the steps of that ladder which Jacob saw in pry
his dream, set up on the earth, and its top reaching to Gen. ssviii,
heaven, denoting the Manhood and Godhead of the 12.
One Mediator between Gop and man. It is in this
latter sense of secret retirement and meditation on the Philipp.
mysteries of Divine love that we shall best apply ties
words to the Blessed Virgin, although more fanciful
reasons are given by various commentators when ex-
plaining them of her, to whom is then said, Show Me Rupert.
thy countenance, in pure love and trust, not like Eve,
who hid her face from Me in the garden after her sin,
let Me hear thy voice, saying, ‘Behold the handmaid Dion. Carth.
of the Lorn, be it unto me according to Thy word,”
_ unlike Eve too, who was aie and uttered no word of Rupert.
H
Origen.
Theodoret.
Beda.
S. Just. Org.
Rom. x. 10.
Aponius.
S. Epiphan.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Philo Carp.
Psellus.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 63.,
100 A COMMENTARY ON [II. 16.
penitence when charged with her guilt, nor song of
thanksgiving when I gave her the promise that her
Seed should crush the serpent’s head. The face and
voice are, they tell us, the works and prayers of the
Church or of the holy soul. As the face is the outer
expression of our nature, so our purity of life and
devoutness of zeal must be exhibited in action; and
Gop requires our preaching of His kingdom, and our
prayers and praises also, because “with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.” Another and sin-
gular view sees here Curist calling on the Jewish
Church, which had turned away its face from Him, to
turn it back to Him now, though all stained with His
Blood, that He may cleanse it with that very stream
which has reddened it ; to utter again in His ears that
voice which had but lately yelled out the harsh and
bitter cry, ‘ Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” that with
the medicine of that same Blood, He may restore to
her the power of celebrating His praises in sweet and
musical tones. And He shows His love by telling the
sinner that it is for His own sake as well as ours that
He asks this, by adding of our harsh voice that it is
sweet, of our disfigured countenance that it is comely.
Some of the Greek Fathers take all the latter clause
of this verse as the words of the Bride, desiring to see
and hear Curist in the flesh, and no longer in pro-
phetic mystery.
15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that
spoil the vines: for our vines have tender
grapes.
The Bride has now obeyed her Bridegroom’s sum-
mons, and they two have gone on together to the vine-
yards, but in no leisurely fashion, as the companions
are at once called to the work of capturing the mis-
chievous fox-cubs. And note that the Bridegroom
speaks in the same terms as the Bride. She had
spoken, but just now, of owr land, claiming as hers
what is His. He, in turn, says, Take ws the foxes.
“ He might have said, Take Me, but through love of
His fellowship with man, He says, Take ws. O sweet-
ness, O grace, O might of love! Is the Most Highest
of all thus become one of all? Who hath done this?
Love, that knows nothing of dignity, yet rich in dig-
nity, powerful in affection, mighty in persuasion.”
II. 15.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 101
The Targum, explaining the little foxes to be the Targum.
Amalekites, of whom is written, ‘“ Remember what peut. xxv.
Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come 17; !8.
forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and
smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble
behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary ; and he
feared not Gop ;” gives the key to the mystical sense.
Accordingly, the primary interpretation is that heretics, oyieen, xe.
spoiling the vineyard of the Church, but not actually
striving to root up the vine, like the wild boar of Pa- Ps. Ixxx. 13.
ganism or open unbelief, are intended. They are
ealled foxes from their craft and deceit; little foxes, S. Greg. M.
because of their external show of humility. They
assign as another reason for the simile, that one well- Hugo Card.
known trick of foxes is to simulate death, lying stiff
and extended, till their prey, taking courage, ap-
proaches near enough to be seized ; resembling here-
tics, who make a special show of sanctity and deadness
to the world, in order to deceive the unwary. And
note, that the command is not to kill them, nor even to
drive them out, but to take them. That is, comments , peer?
the Doctor of Grace, to convince them of error, to con- in Ps. ixxx.
vert them, and that, not only for their own sakes, adds
another Saint, but for that of the Church in general.
If the heretic be truly convinced of his sin, and so re- s. Bernard.
pent and be converted, we have gained him for Gop; Serm. 64.
if not, at any rate, the weaker members of the Church
have been put on their guard by his detection, and are
stablished in the true faith. S. Ambrose, citing that s. Ambros.
text, “ the foxes have holes,” says that heretics are aptly §?; 0,
compared to foxes for this amongst other reasons, be- ~~ ~~ *
cause they do not dwell in a house, but prefer a burrow
of their own making, where they lie in wait for that
hen of the Gospel which gathers her chickens under
her wings. Secondly; it is said that the words are Origen.
addressed by the Bridegroom to His companions, the
Angels, directing them to extirpate the evil thoughts
which the craft of the powers of darkness introduces
into the vineyard of the soul in order to spoil its fruits.
They take them, when they suggest to the spiritual
understanding their true origin, and teach it, by the
discerning of spirits, to know what is from Gop and
what from the devil. They take them when Jitile, by Tres Patr.
repressing them at once, before they have effected a § Gres.
lodgment in the soul, and before they have grown to **~
maturity by being willingly dwelt on. They are called
Dion. Carth.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 64.
Corn. a Lap.
Neh. iv. 3.
102 A COMMENTARY ON [IE, 15.
foxes, too, and little foxes, by way of contempt, to
make us learn that they are no formidable enemies,
lions, tigers, bears, endowed with gigantic strength,
that we have to encounter, but rather skulking foes,
whose whole resource is craft, needing only watchful-
ness as the sole weapon to repel it. S. Bernard, ap-
plying the passage to the Religious Life, remarks that
the words do not refer to the spiritual perils which
beset novices, because their vocation is only in its
flower, and the foxes wish for fruit. The danger of
novices is, that a frost of spiritual coldness may blight
the promise of their early zeal, but the peril of the
professed is more subtle, namely, that Satan will trans-
form himself for them into an angel of light, and sug-
gest ideas to them which look like virtues, but which
lead to sin. He specifies such examples as a Religious
leaving the convent and returning to the world for a
time, in the hope of converting kindred and friends,
and bringing them to the same haven, but being, in-
stead, led back by them into secular habits. Or, on
the contrary, withdrawing for the opposite reason of
desiring a solitary life in a hermitage, and then falling,
either because of the removal of the external constrain-
ing discipline of a community or from spiritual pride.
Again; excessive and unprescribed fasting and penances
are more likely, adds the Saint, to lead to evil than to
good, because they give rise to scandal in one way or
other by introducing a different standard of practice
into the house from that recognized by authority. On
the other hand, the little foxes of a Religious house are
petty relaxations and violations of the rule, such as
breaking silence, lack of punctuality, and other seeming
trifles, which, if not checked at the outset, finally sub-
vert the whole discipline and order of the community.
And observe, it is not merely necessary to take the
foxes which have already made their way into the
vineyard, but to keep others out for the future, and
this must be done with a wall or fence. _ Not with one
so low and so slightly put together that our enemy
can say of it, “ Even that which they build, ifa fox go
up he shall even break down their stone wall.” The
stones must first be laid in close order, so that no cre-
vices shall be in the wall; next, they must be built up
to a considerable height, so as not to be climbed over ;
thirdly, they must be cemented with mortar, that they
may not be dislodged. So the prayers and good works
If. 15.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 103
of a soul which seeks to keep the enemy aloof must be
regular and continuous, not intermittent and casual ;
they must be numerous, so as to fill up the day in such
wise as to leave few idle moments for temptation, they
must be bound together with that binding cement of
love towards Gop and our neighbour, whose chief in-
gredient is the precious Blood of Curist. Again;
they remind us how the Lorp, speaking of Herod An-
tipas, said, “Go, tell that fox,’ and thereby showed
another class of enemies of the vine to be here in-
tended. ‘See you not how that wild beast has eaten
the tender shoots, how that cruel monster hath slain
the infants in Bethlehem of Judah, the city of David?
Take the foxes, for our vineyard hath flowered. (Vulg.)
Its fruit is yet in flower, and not in grape; it is not
yet ripe, and therefore it is most destructive to the vine-
yard that its flower should be cut down or spoiled.
Let it grow first and let fruit come of the flower, let
the Gospel be founded, and let it be known by signs
and wonders that the Holy of Holies hath come,—this
will be the coming of the flower to fruit, of the grape
to ripeness. Then, if this grape be cut down, it will
be kept, and carried on the pole of the Cross; that by
the proof of its Resurrection and sweetness, men may
learn what is the Land, what is the Kingdom, with which
the little foxes, which spoil the vines, have nought to
do.” The Syriac, LXX. and Vulgate translate the
last clause more correctly than the A. V., rendering it,
our vines (vineyard, Vulg.) are in flower. This is the
time to take the foxes, for when the time of ripeness
has arrived, the Lorp of the vineyard will come Him-
self for the vintage of the mature grapes, and then
there can be no more peril from the craft of the enemy.
And, finally ; the words may be explained as spoken to
the Angels in the Day of Judgment, according to that
saying of the Lorp, ‘So shall it be in the end of the
world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels,
and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire.” Especially is it spoken
of the evil spirits, who strive to injure His vineyard.
And then truly will His vine flourish in luxuriant
beauty for evermore.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he
feedeth among the hilies.
S. Luke xiii.
32.
Rupert.
Cf. Heng-
stenberg,
in loc.
Honorius.
S. Mat. xiil.
40.
Eph, yv. 31.
S. Just. Org.
Aponius.
Hugo Card.
1 Corsiii79.
Rom, xiv. 8.
Ps. cxvi. 12.
Parez.
S. Epipha-
nius,
Rupert.
Isa. vii. 14.
104 A COMMENTARY ON [IT. 16.
“ For they two shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Curist_and the
Church.” Her Beloved is hers, because He is her
Head; she is His, because she is His Body. ‘“ My
Beloved is mine, saith the holy soul, He gives me the
grace of vocation, the badge of redemption, the glo-
rious liberty of adoption. And what do I give Him ?
Obedience of will, the desire of preserving that purity
which He gave me by nature. What gives He to me?
A perfect example of guarding virginity, by His Virgin
birth. What give I to Him? Singular gladness by
my being born again in Baptism, by keeping His pre-
cepts with all my heart, by imitating the nature of
angels and heavenly spirits.” And whereas the He-
brew, as well as the LX-X. and Vulgate, reads simply,
My Beloved to me, and I to Him, they delight in sup-
plying words to complete the idea variously. My Be-
loved is careful for me, anxious for my salvation. J
am careful for Him, to obey Him in all things. He
co-operates with me, by His assisting grace, [ with Him
by my free will, thus being a “labourer together with
Gop.” My Beloved is like to me, in nature, having
taken on Him the form of a servant. J amlike to Him
by grace, being made holy and pure, and wise through
His gift. Hevs the reward to me of all my toils, suf-
fering, and weariness. Jam the reward to Him of all
the sorrows of His life, and of His Passion. He lived
and died for me wholly, and to me. Jwill live and
die to Him, ‘for whether we live, we live unto the
Lorp, and whether we die, we die unto the Lorp.”
My Beloved drank to me in the Cup of His Passion ; £
drink It to Him in His honour and glory, taking the
Cup of Salvation, and calling on the Name of the
Lorp. My Beloved spake to me, revealing to me the
mysteries of His law, J to Him in psalms, and hymns,
and spiritual songs. My Beloved 1s wisdom to me: I
am heart to Him. He comes from heaven to me, I
from the Gentiles to Him. And S. Bernard bids us
note the briefness, and as it were incoherence, of the
Bride’s words. She is too fervent and eager to be
altogether silent; she is too deeply and inexpressibly
happy to say much. And thus infrequent speech is a
mark in Scripture of that especial soul which could
more truly than any other say, My Beloved is mine, and
T am His, because I am she of whom is written, “A
Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call
1I. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 105
His Name Immanuel;” and therefore, “all genera- S. Lukei.4s.
tions shall call me blessed.”’ There is an old poem,
written with a lower intent, which, taken in a better
meaning, makes a good comment on this verse:
My true-love hath my heart, and I have his, Sir Philip
By just exchange one to the other given: Sidney.
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven,
My true-love hath my heart, and I have his.
His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides,
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his, because in me it bides,
My true-love hath my heart, and I have his.
He feedeth among the lilies. What are denoted by S. Greg. M.
the lilies, asks a Saint, save pure souls? which re-
tain the whiteness of chastity, and by their fair fame
give their pleasant fragrance to all near them. The
Bridegroom feedeth among the lilies, doubtless because
He delights in purity of souls, which both preserve
bodily chastity, and are pleasant unto Him by their
stainless thoughts, giving, at the same time, a pattern
to their neighbours, as though a grateful savour. And
‘so runs the hymn for the Common of Virgins :
Who feedest where the lilies spring, The Hymn,
Surrounded by the Virgin ring, Jesu,
With glory decking them, Thy brides, Corona
And granting spousal gifts besides. Virginum.
Our Beloved is fed, when we love Him, for His food Nic. Are.
is our love; and our sighs, affections, desires, and as-
pirations are His chosen dainties. He is among the
lilies, says S. Bernard, of His own truth, and meek- §. Bernard.
ness, and righteousness, lilies which have sprung out ee
of the earth, shining thereon, conspicuous amongst the
other flowers, fragrant beyond all spices. As many
virtues as there are, so many are His lilies, and they »
are countless, all snowy white, all sweetly perfumed.
Our lilies of good works are few and poor, and much
intermingled with flowers of less account, yet He loves
them, and is fain to dwell amongst them, continuing
as He began, for He dwelt first on earth between the Rupert.
lilies of the pure lives of Joseph and Mary in the car-
enter’s dwelling at Nazareth. So far, the text has
Meek taken of Curist feeding Himself. But its fuller
Serm. 71.
In Ps. cxix.
Bern.
Cluniac.
Rhythm.
Esth. ii. 8.
S. Greg. M.
S. Bernard.
Serm, 72.
106 A COMMENTARY ON (IT. 1%
sense appears to be that He is here spoken of as the
Good Shepherd, feeding us in His pleasant pastures.
“The divine Mysteries,” comments 8. Ambrose, “are
good pastures. There thou mayest gather that new
flower which gave the sweet odour of the Resurrection,
there pluck the lily, wherein is the brightness of eter-
nity; there too the rose, the Blood of the Lorp’s
Body. The books of Holy Writ are also good pas-
tures, wherein we are fed by daily reading, wherein
we obtain refreshment and strength, when we taste
what is written in them, or chew the cud of frequent
thought over it. In these pastures the Lornp’s flock
is fattened. Good too are the pastures of Curist,
Who feeds us among the lilies, that is, in the glory of
the Saints.” In this last sense the Cluniac also, speak-
ing of the joys of Paradise:
While through the sacred lilies,
And flowers on every side,
The happy dear-bought nations
Go wandering far and wide.
And that, because “when the King’s commandment
and His decree was heard, many maidens were ga-
thered together unto Shushan the palace,” for Shu-
shan is by interpretation, “ Lily.”
17 Until the day break, and the shadows
flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like
a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
Bether.
Until the day of Resurrection, the day of the reve-
lation of eternal glory, dawns, until the shadows of
this world’s night flee away, so long does the Bride-
groom feed amongst the lilies of pure souls obeying
Him truly upon earth. But why, asks S. Bernard,
is it said Until? Should we not rather expect that He
would feed more among the abundant lilies of heaven
than amongst the rare ones of earth? And the saint
replies that the reason is twofold. First; we sinners
here have to be incorporated into Curist’s mystical
Body, and that we may be so, have to be ground with
His teeth of suffering and trial, but there will be no
sinners and no suffering in heaven, wherefore the Lorp
speaks not of eating there, but says that He will drink
IT. 17.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 107
new wine in His kingdom, and that, because the Saints, S. Mat.
after their full refinement from all dregs, which cannot **" 29
be accomplished in this life, will be the sweet and pure
wine of the marriage feast. The Carthusian, more Dion. Carth.
simply, bids us see here a warning to us to cultivate
the lilies of purity in our hearts by holiness of thought,
word, and deed, until the close of our lives, that the
Lamb may find His accustomed pasture in some few
spots at least of the world. When the day comes, we
shall no longer need to tend our gardens, for their
flowers will be perennial, their dangers gone. Others
take the day to be the preaching of the Gospel, before
which the shadows of the Law disappeared, though
even under that Law Curist was feeding His people
as their Shepherd. But the literal sense of the Hebrew
is somewhat unlike all this. It points to the coming-
on of the evening, not to the dawn of day, and runs,
Until the day breathe, that is, till the cool evening Sanchez.
breeze sets in, and the shadows flee, that is, lengthen
out before us, becoming vaguer in their outline. And
this is the sense of both LXX. and Vulgate, though
most of the commentators have followed the other
view. And so rendering the passage, we shall follow
the traditional Hebrew construction, and take it with
the clause which follows, rather than with that which
precedes. The Bride is called to her labour, and the Hugo Card.
Bridegroom, after the summons, departs, leaving her
alone. She, knowing herself unable to accomplish her
labour unaided, calls on Him to turn back again to
help her, and that so long as the working-day conti-
nues, remembering that it is written, “ Man goeth forth Ps. civ, 23.
unto his work and to his labour until the evening.”
The nearer the night is, the shorter the time that re-
mains for completing our appointed task, the greater pengsten-
need have we of His help, and we therefore say, bers.
«* Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day Ser
is far spent.” And S. Anselm therefore applies the s. Anselm.
word turn to the Lorp’s co-operation with His Church Cassiodor.
in the conversion of the heathen. Others see rather S Gree M.
_ a prayer to Him to visit our souls, even if only in the 8. Bernard.
sudden and rare semblance of a stag appearing at_in- Somiis"
tervals upon the hills. Again; some take it of His Rupert.
return to judgment, coming in that same human form pa AE pies
which He took of us, and His Resurrection and Ascen- prio Carp.
sion have been also thought to be here referred to.
Upon the mountains of Bether. Some take these to be
S. Just. Org.
Gesenius.
Cocceius.
Col. iii. 11.
Lyranus.
Honorius.
Titelman,
108 A COMMENTARY ON [III. 1.
the proud and haughty, to be brought low when Curist
appears and sets Himself above them, while others,
conversely, take it of His visits to lofty and contem-
plative souls. Bether, meaning ‘division,’ a region
cut up by a chain of hills pierced with valleys in every
direction (whence the LX X. mountains of hollows,)
denotes here anything which parts us from Curist,
and we, unable to surmount the obstacle ourselves,
pray to Him to turn, and show the light of His coun-
tenance, that we may be whole. Further than this, it _
is a prayer to Him to break down the mid-wall of par-
tition between Jew and Gentile; and yet more, to
come from the mountains of division, parting believers
from idolaters, into that wide place of the Church
Universal, ‘where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free, but Curist is all, and in all.” And De
Lyra, who, according to his wont, explains the moun-
tain to be those of Sinai, when Israel’s sin in the
matter of the calf caused Gop to threaten that He
would abandon and destroy them, thereby points the
lesson that all occasions of sin are necessarily gulfs
opened between the souland Gop. Finally; in the
petition of the Bride for the perfect bliss of heaven,
it is not enough for her longing that she should merely
enter in there, unless her Bridegroom come close to her
Himself, leaping over the nine divisions of the Angelic
hierarchy, in order to come to her who is of His own
nature, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.
CHAPTER III.
1 By night on my bed I sought him whom
my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found
him not.
While mankind lay on its bed of sickness, smitten
with the deadly disease of sin, and in the midst of the
darkness of ignorance, it looked eagerly on every side
for the coming of the Great Physician, but could no-
where find Him, till the time when He, our true Elisha,
nL 1 THE SONG OF SONGS. 109
came of His own loving-kindness to stretch Himself
on the couch of our mortality, to rouse the lifeless
sleeper. So too, until His Advent, the Synagogue lay 8. Ambros.
on the bed of the Mosaic Law, looking for her Lorp ™?*:°*™
in the dark shadows of the ceremonial types and of
the hidden prophecies, and found Him no more than
- the Gentiles did. And as night denotes the time of
rest as well as of darkness, so here we may see the
Church in its earliest days resting after Pentecost, and Com. 4 Lap.
confining itself and its preaching to Jerusalem and
Judea, but not finding Curist in the hard hearts of
the Jews, who refused to hear the glad tidings and to
put on Him. And therefore she was compelled to rise
up from that brief repose, and begin the long journey
of her mission to the heathens, never ended since.
Taken of the soul, rather than of the Church at large,
it may be variously interpreted. They say, for the Cassiod.
most part, that it denotes the impossibility of finding erie Care
Cxurist while we lie down in carnal pleasure, and in Angelomus.
the darkness of sin. Or, again, not quite so sternly,
but still in a voice of warning, they tell us that it is
not in bodily ease and quiet that we can find CHRIST, Vieyra.
Whose bed was not of down, but the hard Cross:
Ah, malé te placido queesivi, Sponse, cubili ; hee Pla
: at f esid. ii, 10.
Qui Crucis in thalamo reperiendus eras.
Pax mihi lectus erat. Tibi Crux erat aspera lectus.
Hoc te debueram querere, Sponse, toro.
Ill sought I Thee in my hushed place of rest,
Spouse, Whom the Cross’s bridal-chamber shrined,
My bed was peace, the rough Cross Thou hast pressed,
That is the couch where, seeking, I shall find.
There are many, observes S. Ambrose, who seek CHRIST g, Ambros.
in ease, and find Him not, and then seek Him in per- de Isaac. 5.
secution, straightway finding Him ; and for this reason
they find Him after temptations, because He is always at
hand in the peril of His faithful ones. ‘ Alas, Lorn,”
exclaims one of the greatest of penitents, ‘‘ I went very
far to seek Thee, and Thou wast very near. I may s. August.
find Thee in mine eyes, by modesty and purity ; in my Confess.
mouth, by confession of Thy greatness and my sins;
in my memory, by the remembrance of my iniquity
and Thy mercies ; in my mind, by holy thoughts and
meditations on Thy Divine Law; but above all, I shall
find Thee in my heart, because, if I love Thee, it can-
not be but that Thou shouldest rest there.” ‘There is
Ps, lxiil. 7.
S. Greg. M.
Hom, 25 in
Evang.
Guigon.
Carthus.
Scala
Paradisi.
Cc. Vili.
Gerson.
Gillebert. in
Cant. Serm.
13
Ric. Vict.
Cf. Bellarm.,
Ascens,
Ment. in
Deum.
110 A COMMENTARY ON (iit.
a happier sense, however, in which we may look at
the words, as agreeing with that saying of David,
‘““Have I not remembered Thee in my bed; and
thought upon Thee when I was waking?’ We seek
our Beloved on our bed, when during any brief repose
in this life we sigh with longing for our Redeemer.
We seek by night, because though the soul is watchful
in it, the eye isclouded. And on this a devout author
speaks: ‘“ Fear not, O Bride, nor despair ; think not
thyself despised if thy Bridegroom withdraw His face
awhile. All things work together for good. Both
from His absence and His presence thou gainest light.
He cometh to thee and He departeth from thee. He
cometh to comfort thee; He departeth, to make thee
careful, lest thine abundant consolation should puff
thee up. He cometh, that the languishing soul may be
comforted. He departeth, lest, if the Bridegroom be al-
ways with thee, thou shouldest despise His companions,
and thou shouldest ascribe this constant visitation not
to grace, but to nature. He departs therefore, lest, if
too continually with thee, He should meet with con-
tempt, that, being absent, He may be more desired,
and being desired, be more eagerly sought; and being
long sought, may be more gladly found.” There are
many ways, then, in which we may seek Him; there
are many reasons why we should seek Him. And
first, we may seek in the quiet of still contemplation.
Thou art well placed on thy bed, observes a famous
English Abbat, if thy soul keep free holiday in repose
from its occupations, for what suits love better than
repose and freedom? And night is good, which covers
in wise oblivion all temporal things, that we may seek
Him Who is Eternal; a convenient time, unfolding
favourable opportunities, and hiding from us the de-
sire, the care, and the very thought of the world.
Even in the night of trouble and sorrow we can still
seek Him in contemplation. But as the words are
spoken by a still imperfect soul, she does not say, On
our bed, denoting completed union with her Spouse,
nor on His bed, but on my bed. Still, even So, it is
the place where her passions have been hushed to
sleep, and where victory after strife has come. She
seeks Him then, pondering on His works, following
His traces through creation, from stones to plants,
from plants to animals, from them to man, thence to
the Angels, but finds Him not, because He is exalted
na hy “THE SONG OF SONGS. 111
above all, and she must soar to the highest before she
can reach his throne. I found Him not, only because S. Dionys.
He dwells in that light inaccessible which is night to $*e0P-
man’s eyes, not because I failed to search diligently. Nyss. os
So Mary Magdalene sought Him in the bed of His Thom.
sepulchre, coming before the dawn, and found Him Y*e!
not, because she looked for the living among the dead,
and yet was blessed in her seeking. And thus S. Ber-
nard couples the two ideas in his lovely hymn:
JESUM queeram in lectulo, S. Bernard.
Clauso cordis cubiculo ; Rhyth. Ju-
Privatim et in populo bilus,
Queeram amore sedulo.
Cum Maria diluculo
JESUM queeram in tumulo;
Cordis clamore querulo
Mente queram, non oculo.
I seek for JESUS in repose,
When round my heart its chambers close ;
Abroad, and when I shut the door,
I long for Jesus evermore.
With Mary, in the morning gloom,
I seek for Jusus at the tomb;
For Him, with love’s most earnest cry,
I seek with heart, and not with eye.
So then, the sleep, thus taken, does not typify spiritual Aben Ezra.
sloth, but that fulness of love which makes the Bride- §-4»s-Laud.
groom present even in the dreams of the Bride. And
that because she knows so many reasons for seeking
Him when she wakes. Upon these let us hear S. Ber- g, gBernara.
nard again: And first, because He is not always to be Serm. 75.
found, as He has Himself said: ‘ Ye shall seek Me, b
but ye shall not find Me;” and that from seeking at 5.40" ¥"-
the wrong time, by the wrong way, or in the wrong ~
place. Wherefore the Prophet says, ‘“‘Seek ye the
Lorp while He may be found,” before He shuts the
door against the foolish Virgins. Now is the accepted
time, before the bed of death, before the night of the
grave, in which there is no redemption. And here He
“must be sought eagerly, carefully, in no half-hearted
and leisurely fashion. Not after the flesh either, in the
bed of His tomb, His manger-cradle, or His Mother’s
womb, but in Heaven His dwelling-place. My bed
is mortal weakness: His bed is Divine power. I sought
Him there in the night of my ignorance, in the feeble-
Isa. lv. 6.
Serm. 84,
Ps. cv. 4.
Serm. 85.
Ps. cxix. 105.
Ps. cxix. 28.
Gillebert.
Ps, 1xxvi, 2,
Vulg.
Ps. iv. 9.
S. Bernard,
Serm. 86.
Ps. xli. 3,
Monsell.
112 A COMMENTARY ON (Rieae
ness of my spiritual night. And yet, even so, it was
good to seek Him, for it is written truly, “Seek His
face evermore,” even after He is found, seeking Him
with desire when He need no longer be sought with
the step. It is good for the lost sheep to seek the
Shepherd who first sought it; good for seven reasons.
First, for correction; agreeing in time with that Ad-
versary who wars against our sins. Next, for enlight-
enment, that the Worp may be a lantern to our feet.
Thirdly, for ghostly strength, that He may comfort us
according to His Word, that we fall not when the
world, the flesh, or the devil attempts to cast us
down. Fourthly, for the sake of learning wisdom,
only to be learnt from Him Who is Himself the Eternal
Wisdom. Fifthly, to recover the beauty lost by sin.
Sixthly, for fruitfulness in spiritual wedlock, bringing
forth good works abundantly, and rearing fresh chil-
dren for Curist. And lastly, because of the perfect
gladness to be found in the enjoyment of the Worp.
O whoever thou art that wouldst fain know what this
means, to enjoy the Worp, prepare for Him thy soul,
not thine ear. The tongue teaches it not, but grace.
It is hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed
unto babes. It is sweet, remarks another, taking up
the subject just where the dying Abbat of Clairvaux
laid it down, to seek Thee, O good JESU, it is sweeter
to hold Thee. The one is loving toil, the other perfect
gladness. Good it is to seek Him on the bed in con-
templation, for “in peace is His habitation, and His
dwelling in Sion.” By nights (Heb. LXX. Vulg.) I
sought Him. The nights are many, the bed is but
one. Many are the sorrows and trials of the righteous,
but they bear them all on the one bed of their calling,
saying, ‘‘I will lay me down in peace, and take my
rest.” So it may be taken too of the bed of sickness,
when the Lorp makes the bed of the patient.
O how soft that bed must be,
Made in sickness, Lorn, by Thee,
And that rest,—how calm, how sweet,
Where Jesus and the sufferer meet !
It was the Good Physician now,
Soothed my cheek and chafed my brow,
Whispering, as He raised my head,
“Tt is I, be not afraid.”
And, once more, the bed may be taken to denote the
2} THE SONG OF SONGS. 113
quiet, as the night does the coolness and obscurity of the Ghislerius.
Religious Life, wherein many a soul has sought the
Bridegroom, and found Him too at the last, though
He may have at first concealed Himself to incite a
closer search, according to His own paying TINS fea-liv: ¢.
little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment ;
but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on
thee, saith the Lorp thy Redeemer.” The Bride- Sheng att
groom hides Himself when He is sought, that He PAY i eta
be more eagerly sought when not found, and the
searching Bride is put off in her quest, that made more
capable by the very delay, she may at length find in
manifold more ways that which she sought for.
2 I will rise now, and go about the city in
the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek
him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but
I found him not.
L will rise now. The A.V. here implies a resolve to
instant action; but the Hebrew NJ, na, does not de-
note this, but rather, Z will therefore rise, or, Come
now, I will rise. Because I cannot find Him on my
bed, I will seek Him elsewhere. And observe first
that the exertion determined on is considerable. The
Bride does not make a small effort, and say, I will go
about my chamber, but, I will go about the city. The
Targum, which takes the preceding verse to denote Targum,
the withdrawal of Gop’s presence in the Shechinah
from the congregation of Israel when they made the
Golden Calf, explains this of the people going round
the camp from tribe to tribe, and outside it to the ta-
bernacle of the Covenant, seeking vainly for any trace
of the cloud of glory. So too, the primary sense given
by ancient Christian writers to the City here is that it
denotes the Church. Literally, it may be taken of Corn. a Lap.
the Apostles preaching in the earthly Jerusalem, but
finding Moses, not Curist, in the hearts of its people ;
or, with S. Bernard, of the eager looking of many im- §. Bernard.
perfectly instructed hearers, searching if Curist might Serm. 76.
be seen again in those streets and ways through which
He had passed teaching and healing, unknowing that
He had gone up from the earthly to the Heavenly
Jerusalem. And so Jeremiah had spoken, saying,
* Run ye to and fro in the streets of J erusalem, and Jer. ¥.1.
I
Prov. i. 20.
S. Luke xiii.
26.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
Ricard. Vict.
Theodoret.
S. August.
Cassiod.
§. Ambros.
de Virgin.
libs:
114 A COMMENTARY ON (Tih 2.
see now, and know, and seek in the broad places
thereof, if ye can find a Man, if there be any that
executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth ; and I will
pardon it.” And it was foretold in type that the
Eternal Wisdom should so be found, for itis written in
another place, “ Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth
her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place
of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city
she uttereth her words.” Nor are we left in doubt as
to the fulfilment of this saying, for in the Gospel we
read, “ Thou hast taught in our streets.” But they
did not listen when He was there, and now He must
be sought elsewhere, in another city, to wit, the Church
Militant here in earth. Some say that the streets and
ways denote the two kinds of life within the Church,
secular and religious, each having its Saints, and its
profitable examples, but the one narrower and more
spiritual, the other broader and more carnal. In each
of these the Bride seeks for examples and counsels
which may help to bring her to her Beloved. Another
takes the Holy Scriptures to be the ways of the Church,
through which the soul seeks her Lorn, but finds Him
not, so long as she looks to the letter alone, and not
the spirit. Again, remembering that there are two
cities, Jerusalem on high, and Babylon below, some
think the latter to be meant here, as signifying the
whole world. And then the streets and ways denote the
weary pilgrimage by land and sea of Gentiles seeking
the Lorp everywhere, if haply they might find Him,
in sects of philosophy, in mysterious rites, in cloudy
speculations, yet not discovering Him, save in such
rare cases as those of Cornelius and the eunuch of
Queen Candace. But that He is not to be found in
the pursuit of secular things is a lesson which they
enforce with much care. “ CuHxist is no haunter of the
market. For CurisT is peace, in the market is strife.
Curist is righteousness, in the market is iniquity.
Curist is good faith, in the market is fraud and de-
ceit. CHRIST is a worker, inthe market is idle leisure.
Curist is charity, in the market is disparagement.
Then the market is often a place of thieves, Curis? is
in the Church, idolsin the market. In the Church the
widow is justified,! in the market she is cheated. Let
1 The theological use of this | is noteworthy. It plainly
famous term in this passage | means ‘‘justly dealt with,”
His) THE SONG OF SONGS, 115
us then shun the market, shun the ways. For itis not
only bad for you not to find Him whom you seek, but
it is generally hurtful to have sought Him in the wrong
place.” One cannot but agree with 8S. Ambrose in the
earlier portion of this comment, but a profounder intel-
lect than his takes a widely different view of the influ-
ence of the search itself upon the soul. Hear Richard
of S. Victor on this point: “The Bride sought her Ricard. Vict.
Beloved through the streets and ways, and found Him
not at her wish. She did not yet feel His presence,
did not yet win the grace for which she longed. But
I have no doubt that she gained much by her journey,
and greatly increased her inner grace ; since no slight
longing after righteousness was kindled in her from
her recognition of good men and their virtues. For
she drew near those who burned with that fire which
the Lorp Jusus came to send on earth, and willed
earnestly that it should be kindled. And in drawing
near to them the lukewarm begins to glow, and the
fervent takes fire more eagerly.” Again, the CUY IB pscius
taken by some in the yet wider sense of the whole Gitlebert.
creation, whose streets and ways are all things visible Nic. Argent.
and invisible. The streets, narrow, and easily learnt,
are visible, tangible, earthly things; the ways or broad
_ places, (Heb. LXX. Vulg.) are heavenly and invisible
things, harder for the mind to take in with its glance,
but He Who is Uncreate is not even there, no, not in
the highest :
Thou art not here, . . . for how should these contain Thee} Southey,
Thou art not here, . . . for how should I sustain Thee ? le of
But Thou, where’er Thou art, hae
Canst hear the voice of prayer,
Canst read the righteous heart.
Descending with rapid plunge from the contemplation
of the whole universe, we come, with the Greek Fa-
thers, to the search in the microcosm of a single hu-
man soul. This city, ‘‘ whose builder and maker is Heb xiao.
Gop,” has its streets of action, its broad places of con-
templation, wherein the Beloved is sought. And thus
Saints may look. But sinners have to do it in another
Tres Patr.
‘fairly treated,’’ and is op- | in the way of becoming just
posed to injustice and fraud. | and righteous, not a quibble
itis obvious that S. Ambrose | which calls him innocent when
understood ‘justifying faith’ | he is defiled with sin.
to be that which puts a man 4
I
Philo Carp.
PS exdvaiile li
Eph, v. 14,
Gillebert.
S. Bernard.
perm. 75.
5S. August.
2 Kings vi.
1a,
Rupert.
116 A COMMENTARY ON [iipast
way, by carefully going over every year, nay every
action, of past life, with examination of conscience by
the rule of Scripture, looking not merely in the streets,
or their own more personal and private sins, but in
the broad ways of corporate offences, and of conformity
to conventional rules of right and wrong, trying if
Curist be visible in any part of their old conversa-
tion, in order that, learning that He is not there, they
may turn utterly away from it, and seek Him in that
holiness where only He may be found, “in the city of
our Gop, even upon His holy hill.” And so the
Apostle saith: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise
from the dead, and Curist shall give thee light.” Z
will arise, then, not from evil works, not from bad
habits, but from good to better; from habits to mys-
teries, from things hidden to things manifest, from
calm to sweetness. J will arise, for Curist hath
risen. Why should I not rise when I know of the
resurrection of my Beloved? O happy me, if I had
risen together with Curist, setting my affections on
things above, and seeking Him not below, but above,
for I should doubtless have found Him at the right
hand of the FarHrer. When once we enter into the
gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem, there will be no need
to seek Him any more, for He, as its Light, will per-
vade all its streets and ways. And observe that it is
well said, I sought Him through the streets and ways,
and found Him not, for there is only one Way to the
City where He dwells, and that Way is Himself. And
therefore, as we search vainly here, He tells us, “‘ This
is not the way, neither is this the city: follow Me, and
I will bring you to the Man Whom ye seek.” And
so, after our journey away from Him, after our vain
search in the company, after our retracing every step
of our former way, we shall find Him, as His Mother
did, in the Temple of Gop.
3 The watchmen that go about the city
found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom
my soul loveth ?
The watchmen that guard (Vulg.) the city, who find
the soul thus longing and seeking, are the holy Angels,
who guard the Church, or the faithful, and by whose
guardianship the mercy of Curist protects His own.
III. 3.] THE SONG OF SONGS. ly
They are well named watchmen, because they watch Ricard. Vict.
and are careful about the elect, that they may be de-
fended from temptation, may advance in good, and
may attain salvation. And so the Breviary hymn:
Custodes hominum psallimus Angelos, Hymn. in
Nature fragili quos PATER addidit Fest. Ang.
Coelestis comites, insidiantibus Cust.
Ne succumberet hostibus.
The Angel Guards of men we hail,
Sent by our Gop to mortals frail
As aids, lest we in battle fail
Before the crafty foe.
The soul, then, searching for Gop, is found by these,
and after going round the city and making her quest,
she attains to the appearance of the blessed Angels,
she perceives their approach, and is received by them,
for they are forerunners of the Bridegroom, and they
disclose their presence, revealing themselves. For they
are Angels of light, and come with light, whereby she
is flooded and illuminated, and reached all at once, so
that she is aware of their approach, and feels their
presence. Before, she was blind, and felt only herself,
now, the grace given her teaches her more. ‘Then her
longing breaks out into words, and she complains that
her door is open for Him, and yet He does not enter,
that she stands knocking at His door, and He does
not open. He has promised to come, and promised to
open, yet He seems to fail. Where then is He? for
ye, who ever behold His face, must surely know.
They found me, and set to work to purify me by action, Theodoret.
and to enlighten me by contemplation, dead as I was
in sin and ignorance, and the pupil of evil spirits.
They did this, and more, for me; but they could not
answer my question, because my Bridegroom is as in-
comprehensible to Angels as to men.
Again, the watchmen of the city are the teachers
raised up by Gop in His Church at various times.
Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Doctors, of whom is
written, “ I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Je- fsa. 1xii. 6.
rusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor
night; and in another place, ‘‘ Also I set watchmen Jer, vi, 17,
over you, saying, Hearken unto the sound of the
trumpet.” With this view, which is the more usual
one, agrees the Chaldee paraphrase, explaining the
words of Moses and Aaron watching over the congre- Targum.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 76.
2 Macc. xv.
14.
Ecclus.
KXXix. 5.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
S.Ans.Lanud.
8S. Just. Org.
Parez.
Angelomus,
Ps. cxxvii.
Boe,
S. Thom. a
Villanova.
118 A COMMENTARY ON [IIf..3.
gation of Israel. What good watchmen, exclaims
S. Bernard, who keep long watch while we are sleep-
ing, as having to give account for our souls! What
good guards, who watching in soul and passing the
night in prayers, skilfully track out the ambushes of
the enemy, forestall the counsels of the malignant, de-
tect the snares, avoid the springes, break the nets,
frustrate the schemings. These are lovers of the
brethren and of the Christian people, who pray much
for the people, and all the holy city. These are they
who, careful for the Lorp’s sheep committed unto
them, give their heart to resort early unto the Lorp
Who made them, and will pray before the Most High.
And though they do all this, and instruct the soul
which is seeking Curist, yet it is not enough that she
should passively drink in their teaching. She must
exhibit eagerness, longing, must actively search for
herself, not merely let them search in her behalf, and
therefore she asks, Have ye seen Him? For when
the soul fixes herself on these mere teachers and watch-
men, looking to them, and setting them up as her
standard, and not searching further for her Lorp, she
does not find Him. She must pass from them to Him.
And in saying, The watchmen found me, rather than £
found them, the Bride marks the vigilance and zeal of
good pastors of the Church, who themselves seek out
souls that are looking for Curist, that they may bring
them to His feet. They take the whole passage also
of the Church of the Gentiles, asking the philosophers
and idol priests, who disputed with her, the one un-
answerable question, Have ye seen Him? - It is the
Jewish Church also, looking for Him in the City of
Holy Writ, in its broad prophecies, and narrow dark
types, and accosting its watchmen, the Chief Priests,
Scribes, and Pharisees, with the same inquiry, Have
ye seen Him? And they get no reply in either case,
or “unless the Lorp keep the city, the watchman
waketh but in vain.” 'The world knew Him not, and
His own, to whom He came, received Him not. I
asked my senses, Have ye seen Him? And my sight
said, Nay, unless He be animage. But He is Truth
itself, and no mere image or phantasm. I asked my
hearing, and it replied, Unless He be a sound or a
melody, I know Him not. And yet He is this too,
the Worp Who is music to His own. I asked my
touch, and it answered, Unless He be smoothness or
a
III. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 119
roughness, I have not seen Him. Yet this also Heis,
gentle to others, harsh to Himself in His suffering
life. I asked my sense of smell, and it rejoined, If He
be not a perfume, I know Him not. Yet He is this
too, an offering to Gop for a sweet-smelling savour. I
asked my taste, and it replied, If He be nota flavour,
I cannot tell. This alsois He Who is our Food, sweet
to our taste. All, and more than all, yet the senses
cannot find Him. I asked all creation, Sun, I said,
moon, and stars, sky, earth, and sea, Have ye seen
Him? And they answered, We are not the Beloved,
we are but His works, and we cannot contain nor com-
prebend Him.
4. It was but a little that I passed from them,
but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held
him, and would not let him go, until I had
brought him into my mother’s house, and into
the chamber of her that conceived me.
But a little, whether spoken of time or of place.
And yet Curist’s coming was nine hundred years after
the utterance of this Song; four hundred years after
Malachi, the last of the prophetic watchmen, sealed
up the oracles of Gop; but they seemed but as a few
days to the Church because of the love she bore to
Him. JI passed from them. That is, observes one
Father, when I had learnt fully all they had to teach
me, when I had gone through this course of instruction,
I found Him. But the majority take it more deeply:
When I had left them all behind in search of Him
Who is above and beyond them all, when I had left
Gentile philosophers, as Justin and Cyprian did; when
I had quitted Scribes and Rabbis, like S. Paul; when
T have found the wisest Doctors, the holiest Apostles,
still far beneath Him Who is co-equal with the Fa-
mHER : when I have pierced beyond the highest choir
of Angels, likest to Him in nature, in beauty, wisdom,
and purity ; then, and not till then, can I find Him,
for love enters in when understanding waits without.
Tt is but a little, however, that I have to wait, for He
comes Himself to meet me, the very moment I have
forsaken self and sin, and have been washed clean
from my offences. But a little, for the knowledge of
Gop is granted with small toil, since the moment He
Thrupp.
Cassiodor.
S. Just. Org.
Parez.
S. Greg. M.
Ricard. Vict.
Nic. Argent.
Philo Carp.
S.Ans.Laud.
S. Bernard.
2 (Cornivanizc
Philipp.
Harveng.
Ric. Vict.
Ps. 1xxxiv.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 79, 83. h
Guilelm,
Parv.
Charles
Wesley.
120 A COMMENTARY ON (III. 4.
perceives the affection of the seeker He gives Himself
freely, and throws Himself into our arms. But a
little, for the Creed which sums up the mysteries of sal-
vation is soon communicated, and easily learnt. But a
little, for our light affliction, which is but for a mo-
ment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. But a little, and yet ascending up
far above all heavens, from the depth of sin and sor-
row to the exalted throne of the Son of Gop, whereon
He seats and crowns His Bride.
LT held Him, and would not let Him go. Gonis held,
observes Richard of S. Victor, by devotion in prayer,
by longing, importunity, memory, intreaty, faith, and
expectation of being heard, and He is not let goif there
be no intermission of intention, if the countenance of
the petitioner has not turned any more to other things.
She holds her Beloved therefore, though it be morning,
and does not let Him go until He bless her. She
wrestled with Him all the night wherein she slept;
but her heart was waking, because it had ceased from
outer cares, and toiled in seeking the Beloved. For
though she came through the night unto morning, she
ceases not from her wrestling, that is, her steadfast-
ness in prayer, and does not let her Beloved go until
He give His blessing that she may go from strength
to strength and behold the Gop of Gods in Sion, and
eno more called Jacob, but Israel. She wants as her
one blessing, Himself, as she holds Him by her love.
In vain Thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold,
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.
Yield to me now, for I am weak,
But confident in self-despair ;
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
Be conquered by my instant prayer ;
Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if Thy Name is Love.
*Tis Love, ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me ;
I hear Thy whisper in my heart ;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee ;
Pure, universal Love Thou art ;
To me, to all, Thy bowels move,
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.
III. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 121
And now that the Bride holds Him, and prevails in
her prayer of intercession, as she clasps Him in the
arms of love, that she may bring comfort to the feeble
of heart, the sorrowing cry of Isaiah is no longer true:
** There is none that calleth upon Thy Name, there is
none that stirreth himself up to take hold of Thee.”
Rather she exclaims, in the words of the Apostle :
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pre-
sent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of Gon, which is in Carist Jesus our Lorp.”
O how the faithful soul holds and, so to speak, con-
strains Him, whilst it does what is pleasing and ac-
ceptable unto Him! For the Bridegroom, like the
Bride, delights in the life, the ways, the fellowship,
and the familiarity of the righteous, and He is held by
virtuous deeds, not by the hands of armed men, not
by the pomp of the wealthy, nor the boastfulness of the
rich, not by the stateliness of the haughty, not by any
who suffer from the disease of gluttony, sloth, avarice,
luxury, or envy, but by works of mercy, lovingkindness,
continence, humility, temperance, good-will, purity, and
by the prayers of the just. Then the Bridegroom
- comes freely and gladly to be brought into our mother’s
house. Aud of this house they speak variously. First,
the speaker may well be the Gentile Church, resolving
never to cease her hold on the Lorp by prayer and
zeal till He turns, and has mercy on the Synagogue,
the spiritual parent of Christianity, by entering into
the heart of the Jews, and dwelling there. ‘Great is
the might of love. The Saviour had gone forth in
wrath from His house and His inheritance, and now,
softened by her fervour with Him, He is prevailed
upon to return not merely as Saviour, but as Bride-
groom. Blessed art thou of the Lorp, O daughter,
who both restrainest wrath and restorest the inherit-
ance. Blessed art thou of thy mother, for whose wel-
fare anger is turned away, salvation cometh back :
He cometh back Who saith, I am thy salvation.”
Another devout writer, taking the mother to be the
Christian, not the Jewish Church, explains the words
similarly of the resolute zeal with which holy men
labour for the reformation of spiritual abuses, not ceas-
ing their labours in their several places, and in Synods,
until Curist returns to that dwelling whence the sins of
Card. Hail-
grin.
Isa. lxiv. 7.
Rom. viii.
38, 39.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
Aponius.
Rupert,
S. Bernard.
Dion. Carth.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 79.
Tres Patr.
S. Ambros.
de Virg. 3.
Hugo Vict.
Expos. in
Hierarch.
lib. 6.
Theodoret.
Gal, iv. 26.
2Core vislOs
Act.S Ignat.
Mart.
Cocceius.
PSaC Xan le
122 A COMMENTARY ON (III. 4.
Christian priests and people seem to have driven Him.
And observe that it is not enough to bring Him into
the house. He must come not asa mere visitor, but
as the most intimate of guests, into the chamber, con-
ferring no common gifts, but His full grace. Again ;
they explain the grace and wisdom of Gop to be as it
were our mother, and that the soul is the house wherein
this dwells, with an inner chamber for the reception of
the deeper mysteries. The soul says, J will bring Him in.
‘* Therefore,’ comments a great mystical writer, ‘‘ Gop
will enter in unto thee that thou mayest enter in unto
Him. When His love enters and penetrates thy heart,
and affection for Him reaches its innermost recess,
then He enters thyself, and thou enterest thyself too,
that thou mayest goin unto Him. For He must needs
come as far as the chamber and enter the bower itself,
arriving at thine innermost habitatiom there to rest.”
And lastly; they take it of the Bride, saying with the
holy boldness of love, that she will not let her Bride-
groom go until she bring Him into her true mother’s
house, in the city of “ Jerusalem above, which is free,
and the mother of us all.” And this, because Curist
is Himself the dweller in holy souls, which are His
temple and habitation, ‘“‘for ye are the temple of the
living Gop: as Gop hath said, I will dwell in them and
walk in them.” Andso we read in the Acts of 8. Igna-
tius, who, when Trajan asked him, Who is Theophorus ?
—‘‘ Gop-bearer,” a name by which the Saint had just
designated himself—repled “He who has Curist
within his heart.” Trajan said, ‘*‘ Dost thou then carry
within thee Him that was crucified?” Ignatius an-
swered, “ Truly so, for it is written, ‘I will dwell in
them, and walk in them.’” ‘The words then are a
pledge on the part of the Bride that she will so ten-
derly, purely, and jealously guard Curist in her soul,
that He will have no mind to go thence, but will tarry
in it, so that when she presents herself before the gates
of the heavenly city, the warders will be fain to ad-
mit her, because they cannot refuse her without at the
same time repulsing their King. And whereas it is
said, Until I had brought Him, it is not implied that
she then will let Him go. Rather she will hold more
closely than ever, because then there will be no temp-
tation to part her from Him, nor any desire on His
part to withdraw. She will not let Him go till that
other until is ended: “Sit Thou on My right hand
ee ee
III. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 123
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.’ These
four verses were fulfilled by Mary Magdalene, who
sought her Lorp during the night of His absence from
His Church, came with spices to His tomb, was found
there by the Angels, questioned them about Him,
passed them, found Him whom her soul loved, and
did not let Him go till He sent tidings of His Resur-
rection back to Jerusalem by her. Accordingly, this
passage forms the first Lesson at the Nocturns of S.
Mary Magdalene’s Day in the Breviary.
5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jeru-
salem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the
field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
till he please.
The old versiéhs take these words here, as in chap.
ii. 7, to be spoken by the Bridegroom, and it is well to
observe again that the Hebrew admits of either con-
struction. It is repeated, says Cassiodorus, because
in the earlier verse reference was made to the Primi-
tive Church of the Jews, but here to the Gentile Church,
bound far more closely to Him in love. But the same
words are used to denote the identity of Gop’s love
and care for His Saints under both dispensations.
And whereas the Church has just been described not
as sleeping or resting, but searching eagerly, she is
nevertheless here said to sleep, because search after
Crist is the sweetest of all sleep. The Church sleeps,
therefore, and seeks for CHrist, sleeps to earthly de-
sires and worldly affairs, but wakes to her Bridegroom
and seeks Him, because she clings to contemplation
of Him, desires Him only, and strives to reach Him.
And it is repeated here for another reason, because the
Bridegroom has pity on His Bride, who had been
searching and toiling all the night to find Him, and
therefore needed repose more than she did before.
And, accordingly, the words may well represent to us
those seasons of repose and comparative tranquillity
which always intervened between the persecutions suf-
fered by the Early Church, giving her time to repair
her shattered strength, and to rear up children in-
stead of the fathers she had lost by the sword, or rack,
or fire, or the wild beast, man. If taken, as by the
A. V., of the Bride, it will then denote the appeal for
a brief time of peaceful contemplation, after she has
Beda.
Cassiodor,
Rosen-
miller.
Cocceius.
Targum.
Cassiodor.
Philo Carp.
S. Just. Org.
Card. Hail-
grin,
Hos. li. 14.
Theodoret.
Rom, xii. 1.
124 A COMMENTARY ON [III. 6.
drawn her Beloved into the inner chamber. Or it may
be explained, again, as a warning to the persecutors not
to break rudely in upon the calm and silent spreading of
the Word, so as to force that Lorp Whose still small
voice was well-nigh quiet like slumber, to speak to them
in His wrathful judgments, in the wind, and fire, and
earthquake, taking vengeance for His elect. This
point marks the close of the second phase of the action,
wherein the search for and discovery of the Bridegroom
are described. ‘The third stage of the drama, detailing
the espousals, now begins.
6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilder-
ness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh
and frankincense, with all powders of the mer-
chant ? .
The ambiguity of the A. V. does not exist in the
Hebrew, nor in the old translations, which, by em-
ploying feminine words here, tell us at once that the
Bride is intended. And the Targum, as so often, fur-
nishes a clue, putting the words into the mouth of the
Canaanite nations, looking in wonder and awe at the
mighty people which came out of the wilderness into
the Land of Promise. Similarly too, most Christian
writers ascribe the words either to the Patriarchs of
the Jewish Church, the old possessors of the spiritual
Canaan, looking in wonder on the Gentile Church,
coming up out of the wilderness of heathenism, or else
to the citizens of a yet holier Land, the Angels, mar-
velling at the progress of the soul which clings to
Curist. If it be asked how she comes to be in the wil-
derness at all, Hosea gives the answer: ‘‘I will allure
her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak com-
fortably to her.”” Not unfitly, observes Theodoret, is
the devout soul said to be like the smoke of incense,
for she, as the Apostle saith, hath presented her mem-
bers a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Gop, and
constantly offers the sacrifice of praise, and mortifies
her members which are on earth, and is buried together
with Crist, and presents herself as a whole burnt-
offering to Gop. And she is said to be perfumed with
myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the mer-
chant, because she worships Curist’s Manhood, signi-
fied by myrrh, and His Godhead, denoted by frankin-
cense; for she at once believes in the death of her
——
III. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 125
Bridegroom and in His eternal being. Therefore they
select for praise the myrrh and frankincense out of all
the powders of the merchant. For she has other vir-
tues drawn from Holy Scripture as though from the
merchant’s shop, but the myrrh and incense, the know-
ledge of Gop and of His dispensation, are chief among
them. The Church, or the holy soul, comments a
Latin Father, dwells in the wilderness in the world,
whilst it is an exile from the kingdom, and amongst
the wild beasts, that is, the evil spirits. Herein,
though she is not altogether deserted by her Spouse,
yet while she is in the flesh, she is not yet admitted to
the certain vision of Him, during her pilgrimage of
exile and temptation. Wherefore she always toils to
come up, in order to reach Him Whom she loves. For
there are some who care nothing for all visible things,
and lift up their hearts to the heavens, who strip them-
selves of their evil habits, despise this world’s wealth
and desires, and aim in hope at the unseen. They are
well said to come up like a pillar of smoke, because
they have both the sweet perfume of fair fame, and
buoyancy of spirit. Myrrh denotes mortification of the
flesh, frankincense purity of prayer; for the one is, as
it were, applied to the body dead to the sinful plea-
sures of the world, and the other burned in the censer
of the heart, on the coals of virtue, with the fire of
Gov’slove. And the other virtues are called powders,
to denote the way in which they are spread over every,
each, and all the good works of the faithful soul, not
lying here and there in lumps, but uniformly distri-
buted, and also because it is needful to grind all our
actions down in order to find if any evil thing lies hid
in them. And this grinding is contrition.
In mine own conscience then, as in a mortar,
I’ place mine heart, and bray it there;
If grief for what is past, and fear
Of what’s to come, be a sufficient torture,
TP ll break it all
Tn pieces small:
Sin shall not find a sherd without a flaw,
Wherein to lodge one lust against Thy law.
All the powders of the merchant also, because every
virtue is united in the one fragrance of a holy life,
every nation is united in the one Catholic Church, in-
distinguishably sending up their blended perfume to
heaven. The wilderness, remarks Hugh of 8. Victor,
S. Greg. M.
S. Greg. M.
in Ezek.
Hom. 22,
Ric. Vict.
Francis
Quarles,
School of the
Heart, 14.
Aponius,
Beda.
Hugo Vict.
de Erud.
Theol.i. 111.
Beda.
Ps. lxiii. 1.
Cocceius.
Corn. a Lap.
Card. Hugo.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 59, de
diversis.
S. Greg. M.
Hom. 22 in
Ezek.
Cassiod.
3 Chron. ix.
39.
126 A COMMENTARY ON (III. 6.
denotes a good heart, far from noise and tumult, un-
trodden by the concourse of earthly thoughts, but
green and flowery, bringing forth the germs of holiness.
There is heard the voice of the turtle dove, the Hoty
Guost, but no sound of man, nor of aught pertaining to
man. ‘This is the ‘“ barren and dry land” in which the
soul thirsteth after Gop, in which the only food is the
heavenly manna, the only drink is water from the
spiritual Rock. From this, no less than from that
other desert of the world, the Church and the faithful
soul ascend, as the fume of a sacrifice, as a cloud
drawn up towards heaven by the warmth of the sun,
and as part. of the train of the ascended Saviour.
Like a pillar of smoke, slender by reason of poverty,
straight in right intention, buoyant because unweighted
by sin, rising through desire of heavenly things.. And
on the word pillars, they note that the word MW
timeroth, is derived from or tamar the palm, a
tree which, slender and straight below, spreads out a
wide crown of foliage, perennially green, amidst which
hang luscious fruits ; and, because it never bends before
the winds, it is a familiar type and ensign of victory.
So the Church, beginning with a mere handful of be-
lievers, shot up into stately height, spread abroad
in perpetual youthfulness and fecundity through the
world, and, unshaken by persecutions, stands now as
the memorial of Curist’s triumph over the grave.
And the holy soul ascends from the wilderness, in re-
membrance of her sins, like a slender wand (virgula) in
holy confession of the same sins; and that wand one of
smoke, because as the fumes of a censer pass up in one
column out of the many orifices of the lid, so one act
of confession includes the acknowledgment of many
sins. There is myrrh there, in penitence, frankincense
in the intreaty for the Divine mercy and pardon, and aJ/
the powders of the merchant in the minute sifting and
examination of conscience. The merchant is that same
One Who came seeking goodly pearls, and gave His
all for one pearl of great price, bought with His own
Blood, while He sells to us without money and without
price. The LXX. and Vulgate, however, looking ra-
ther to the context than to the original word 93 rokel,
translate it ointment-maker. Still it is the same.
“The sons of the priests made the ointment of the
—-s ———
IIT. 7.4 THE SONG OF SONGS, 127
spices,’ and He Who is both a Son and a Priest, alone
makes that unguent which can heal our wounds, that
‘ointment poured forth” of which we heard in the
beginning of the Song. Only His powders, all those
graces and sufferings which He added in His Life and
Passion to His myrrh and frankincense, (as cinnamon, Exod. xxx.
and cassia, stacte and onycha, galbanum and calamus, T»rupp.
were blended with the holy oil and the incense of the
Temple,) only they are the perfume of the Church, be-
cause she puts no trust in herself or her works, but
only in the redemption which the Merchant purchased
for her at so vast a cost; and she knows that if she
strive to ascend from the pillar of her carnal desire, of
her own will and presumption, the cold winds will soon Nic. Argent.
~ drive its smoke back to earth, because its thick, gross
vapours are not light enough to ascend into the higher
and clearer air. The verse is also applied to the Assump- Pseudo-
tion of the Blessed Virgin, in a letter printed amongst tron. ad
the works of S. Jerome, in this wise: This festival is Eustoch,
peerless amongst the festivals of the Saints, as Blessed Ep. 10.
Mary is peerless amongst other Virgins, and it is a
marvel even to the Angelic powers. Wherefore in the
person of the heavenly citizens, the Hoty Guost saith
in the Canticles of her ascension: Who is this that
- ascendeth through the wilderness as a slender wand of
smoke from spices? Rightly as a slender wand of
smoke, because slight and delicate, as worn with holy
discipline, and because kindled within, as a burnt-
offering, by the fire of devout love and the longing of
charity. Asa slender wand, He saith, of smoke from
spices, doubtless because she was filled with the per-
fumes of many virtues, so that the sweetest fragrance,
grateful even to angelic spirits, flowed from her. The
Mother of Gop once ascended from the desert of this
world as a Rod sprung from the root of Jesse; but
now the souls of the elect marvel, in very gladness,
who she might be that surpasseth the dignity of angels
in the holiness of her merits.
Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced, Bishop Ken,
Next to His throne her Son His Mother placed ; Christian
And here below, now she’s of heaven possessed, aoe Ist
All generations are to call her blessed. sunday after
e Epiphany.
7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s ; three-
score valiant men are about it, of the valiant
of Israel.
Targum.
Cassiodor.
S. Just. Org.
Ps. cxxxii.
14,
Beda,
S. Greg. M.
Philo Carp.
Avrillon.
128 A COMMENTARY ON (III. 7.
The Targum sees here the sanctuary of Solomon’s
temple, and the orderly array of priests, standing min-
istering and stretching out their hands to bless the
people, who derive from that blessing strength and pro-
tection, as it compasses Israel like a strong and lofty
wall. “The bed of Solomon,’ comments Cassiodorus,
“is the holy Church, because therein the Saints of
Gop, when the tumult of sin is hushed, delight in the
embrace of the true Prince of Peace. The threescore
valiant men are the Doctors, who either protect the
Church by their preaching, or desire to attain heavenly
bliss through contemplation. The number siaty is
made up of six and ten. The number six (senarius)
denotes the completion of work, because Gop finished
His work in six days. The number ten (denarius, the
Vulgate word for a penny) signifies the wages and
reward which shall be given to the elect at the end:
wherefore they who came into the vineyard are said
to have received a denarius. Moreover, these Doctors
who guard the Church are not only called valiant, but
of the valiant of Israel, that is, of all who believe in
Curist and love Him, Who is Israel, that is, Seeing
Gop.” They are threescore for yet another reason.
The chosen guard of David consisted of thirty war-
riors, and David’s kingdom denotes only the Jewish
Church. But our Solomon rules over Jews and Gen-
tiles together, and therefore His guard must needs be
double that of His Farner’s Saints of the old Law.
The Church is the bed of Curist, observes another,
because He rests there, as it is written: ‘‘ The Lorp
hath chosen Sion to be an habitation for Himself: He
hath longed for her. This shall be My rest for ever ;
here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein.” The
bed of Solomon is, in this life, remarks a third in nearly
the same spirit, the peaceful conversation of the Saints,
withdrawn from worldly noises, which, by checking or
lulling the strife of sin, is a type of the happiness of
unending peace. Or you may take it, with 8. Gregory
the Great and various others, to be the devout soul, in
which CuristT is pleased to repose, when it is prepared
for Him by the removal of all worldly things, and
guarded by the teaching and example of those mighty
men who, fulfilling the ten precepts of the moral law
in the six days of their earthly labour, are symbolized
by the number threescore. And this title of Solomon’s
bed especially fits the soul after sacramental reception
Ill. 7.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 129
of the Body and Blood of Curist in the Holy Eu-
charist, when He is pleased to dwell for a time with
His guest. The sixty valiant men who then guard tres Patr.
the soul, are holy thoughts and resolutions armed with
the sword of the Spirit. They are sixty, because the
five senses, ruled and guided by reason, added as a
sixth and a supreme sense, are trained in obedience
to the ten precepts of the Law, so as to resist all snares
and terrors of the evil one. Yet again, the bed on which corn. a Lap.
our Wise King lay down to His rest wag the Cross, the
bride-bed of the Church, where is the true repose of
the Saints, which is also the standard of the battle,
round which the most valiant men are ranged as a
guard. The poet will tell us what are the tokens of
these valiant men whom the Wise King chooses as His
companions :
A glorious company, the flower of men,
To serve as model for the mighty world,
And be the fair beginning of a truce.
I made them lay their hands in mine and swear
To reverence the King as if he were
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,
To break the heathen and uphold the CHRIST,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
To love one Maiden only, cleave to her,
And worship her by years of noble deeds..
Tennyson,
Guenevere.
Another and especial bed of our Solomon was that Aponius.
wherein He was first cradled, the hallowed womb of Seah cbr
His Virgin Mother, who was fenced about by the Pa-
triarchs, Kings and Prophets of her race, as one tells
us, and by a special guard of Angels, as another com-
ments, who did in truth watch around the manger
where He first lay after His Nativity.
And, to pass rapidly over such interpretations ag Theodoret.
those which take the bed to be Holy Writ, or the te
Manhood of the Worp, or prayer, wherein the tried Philo ous
soul reposes with Curist, or the sepulchre round
which the Jews posted an armed guard, we may dwell
for a little on that last bed of which they tell us, the
eternal peace and bliss of heaven. That rest is called Bota
a bed, because therein is repose from all the unrest Ric. Vict.
and toil of this life. They who toiled here for Gop,
repose in that rest, for “there” (as is read in JOb,) you iii. 18
“the weary be at rest, the prisoners rest together,”’ inch
K
Ric. Vict.
5. Greg. M.
Moral, xix.
20.
Serm. in
Cant. Xv.
130 A COMMENTARY ON [III. 8.
There eternal quiet refreshes and rewards those whom
toil here in Gop’s precepts and progress in virtue
wearied, and they who here were bound in the chains
of human infirmity, there breaking their bonds asunder,
sacrifice to Gop the offering of praise.
8 They all hold swords, being expert in war :
every man hath his sword upon his thigh be-
cause of fear in the night.
Richard of S. Victor, in his comment on the pre-
ceding verse, bids us observe that the valiant men who
compass Solomon’s bed in desire, do not ascend it, nor
sleep there, and that even to compass it in guard is not
for those who must still mourn for their sins and wash
the bed of sorrow with tears of repentance, for their
bed is a troubled one, and not the peaceful couch of
Solomon. But when they have been cleansed from
their sins by true repentance, and have been freed,
by daily combat, from evil passions, and have been
strengthened by grace, passing from fear and hope to
perfect love, then they may take their stand, and hope
one day to mount the bed themselves, and contemplate
the bliss of heaven. And their weapons, he adds
when discussing this verse, are Holy Scripture and
psalmody. Observe first, that it is not said, They
all have swords, but They all hold swords, because it
is no very wonderful thing to know Gop’s Word, but
it is so to doit. He who is familiar with the Divine
Scriptures has a sword, but if he neglect to live in
accordance with it, he does not hold the sword, and is
therefore not expert in war, because he knows not
how to wield his weapon or resist temptation. ‘‘ Why
puttest thou thy hand to valiant deeds who art not of
the valiant men?” asks Gilbert of Hoyland, address-
ing ignorant, dull, and worldly preachers: ‘* Why un-
dertakest thou a guard, who shakest not off thy sloth ?
Why dost thou compass the bed, who hast no sword,
or if thou hast the sword of the Word, hast it in the
scabbard, not on thy tongue? Thou holdest not in the
hands of thy tongue the turning sword of the Word
of Gop. The Word runneth very swiftly, the Spirit
is fiery, but 1 know not how it is that it, contrary to
its nature, becomes dull in thy hand. That which is
sharper and more piercing than any two-edged sword
is blunted and weakened in thy grasp. The Word
|.
ILI. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS, 131
is not swift in thy mouth, it runs not swiftly, it turns
not readily in thy hand according to varying needs,
though it is more than enough for all the wants of
spiritual combat. Why undertakest thou an office of
which thou hast no experience? All holding swords,
and expert in war. Thou with no reason carriest a
sword who hast no adequate acquaintance with war-
fare, or if thou hast learnt to combat, engagest thyself
in preference with worldly tasks rather than with
those of Curist . . . Thou who art an Evangelical,
speak altogether evangelically. Let thy sermon sa-
vour of the Law, the Prophets, the Apostles ; sharpen
thy tongue with their words. Borrow from them the
weapons of Gop, mighty to the pulling down of strong- ¢ cor. x. 4.
holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of Gop?
Let the sword of the Sprrit turn in thine hands, that
it may serve thee for every need, nor let the power of
sacred eloquence forsake thee when a casual and sudden
occasion demands it. Let the powerful and effectual
word be on thy lips, and not in the leaves of a book.
‘For the Priest’s lips,—not his leaves—should keep mau. ii. 7.
knowledge.’ Take thy purse of money with thee.
Let thy sword be at thy side, not out of sight, let it
be close to thee. Gird thyself with it upon thy thigh,
that thou mayest be mighty and ready, both to exhort
in sound doctrine, and to convince the gainsayers.”
Observe in the second place, that the words seem,
though not necessarily, to imply the possession of two
swords by each warrior. In Japan, at the present
day, two swords borne by one person are a mark of
superior rank; in the later middle ages the usual wea-
pons of a noble were a sword and a long dagger, almost
a sword in dimensions, which was used, instead of a
target, to parry, while the sword was employed for
attack. So in explaining this passage, we shall do
well to recall that saying of the Gospel: ‘‘ He that ¢ pare
hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. xxii. 36, 3s.
And they said, Lorp, behold, here are two swords.
And He said unto them, It is enough.” And if we
~ take the two swords, as the commentators so often do,
to denote spiritual and temporal rule, then the sword Dion. Carth.
in the hand will denote the active strife of the soul 75°‘
against evil spirits, or zeal for passion and martyrdom, S. Greg. M.
and that upon the thigh the passive restraint of our *: 4st. Org.
1 «6 Vir evangelicus.”’
9
+>
BuN
Ric. Vict.
Ps, xlv. 4.
Psellus.
Hugo Card.
S. Brun. Ast.
Targum.
1382 A COMMENTARY ON [III. 9, 10.
carnal passions, kept in check by temperance and mo-
desty. Or, rather, as Richard of 8S. Victor wisely
tells us, by the love of Gop, the only sufficient weapon
against the assaults of the flesh. So wearing the sword,
the vahant men are conformed to their Leader, of
Whom is written, “ Gird Thee with Thy sword upon
Thy thigh, O Thou most mighty, according to Thy
worship and renown.” Psellus gives a quaint -expla-
nation of the verse, saying that the swords denote the
sign of the Cross, which Christians employ against
the evil one. And it may be added, in illustration of
this view, that the Cross jitchée, (that is, with the lower
limb ending in a point) borne still on so many shields,
is traditionally said to denote the cross-handled sword
of a Crusader, when set up in the ground before his
eyes as he lay wounded on the battle-field, to bring
the emblem of his salvation to his mind. Because of
fear in the night. That is, because of all the snares
of the devil, all the darkness and terror of adversity,
of ignorance, of the world’s gloom. One sword might
be sufficient, did we fight in the day, and not against
powers of darkness; but as we know not on which side
the attack will be made, there must be a sword ready
on the thigh as well as one in the hand.
9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of
the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, the
bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of
purple, the midst thereof being paved with love,
for the daughters of Jerusalem.
The word {PIDN, appirion, here translated chariot,
ought rather to be litter (LX_X. gopetov, Vulg. ferculum.)
The Chaldee takes this, as well as the bed of the pre-
vious verse, to be the Temple, in the midst of which
was the Ark of the Covenant, wherein lay the stone
tables of the Law, more precious than fine silver and
than the purest gold, overlaid with a veil of blue and
purple. And whereas the bed denotes night and rest,
the litter 1mplies the royal pomp of a procession by
day, a notion partly borne out by the Arabic version,
which here reads throne. So, with the Christian in-
terpretation that the Church is here described, we see
it less as the refuge for the weary than as the trium-
III. 9, 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 133
phal car of the Saints. As Curist made His own
human Body first to be the litter in which the God-
head is borne, so He made the Church to be that
vehicle in which He, the Man-Gop, should be borne Philo Carp.
in procession among the people to whom He comes as
King and Conqueror. The woodwork of this litter is
of the wood of Lebanon, of incorruptible cedar from
the “white” mountain, denoting the holiness, incor. [iso Vic
rupt truth, and steadfast perseverance of the Saints ; nO
though one of themselves reminds us, not inaptly, that gs. Gree.
as Lebanon is taken often to denote fierceness and Nyss.
pride, so that it is written, “‘ The Lorp breaketh the ps. xxix. s.
cedars of Libanus,” we are to understand here that the
very framework of the Church is made up of sinners
and idolaters whom Gop has converted to the faith.
And one of the very earliest Christian comments on
the Song leads in the same direction, pointing out
that the Lorp.took His flesh from Gentiles as well as g. peopnil,
from Judah, and that the wood of Lebanon, lying out- Antioch.
side the Holy Land, in an idolatrous region, typifies in cae
Ruth the Moabitess, from whom He sprang: and si- ~
milarly, that we, who spiritually carry Him in our
souls, are of Lebanon too, for we were once the wood
of the gainsayer, but have been cut down by the axe
of the Worp to be made a chariot for our Master. Polychro-
The pillars of silver are generally taken to denote the ™"*
Apostles and other principal Saints, as the stays and
props of the Church. So we read of ‘“ James, Cephas, Gal. ii. 9.
and John, who seemed to be pillars.”” They are silver,
not only to denote their purity of life and conversation,
but also because to them was intrusted the ministry of
that Word whereof is said, ‘‘ The words of the Lorp Ps. xii. 7.
are pure words, even as the silver, which from the
earth is tried, and purified seven times in the fire.”
The botiom thereof of gold. The LXX. reading dvd-
rattov, the Vulgate, reclinatorium, come nearer to the
meaning of the Hebrew, nidaaa. rephidah, which osenm-
seems to denote the sloping back of the litter, against Pe Wette.
which the rider leaned in a half-reclining posture. z
They differ as to this. Philo of Carpasia, holding that Philo Carp.
as one class of Saints is denoted by the cedar-wood, and
a second by the silver pillars, takes the golden back to
bea third, and to mean the Martyrs. Till they came, the , ates
Son of Man had not where to lay His head, but now He ss. ;
has these, of whom is written, “ As gold in the furnace
Wisd. iii. 6.
Cassiod.
S. Greg. M.
Hom. 15 in
Ezek.
Hitzig.
Beda.
Aponius,
S. Venant.
Fortunat.
The Hymn,
Vewrilla Re-
gis.
Henry
Harphius.
Alanus.
Prov. ix. 1.
134: A COMMENTARY ON (IIT. 9, 10.
hath He tried them, and received them as a burnt-
offering.” Cassiodorus, however, will have it that this
reclining-place denotes the everlasting rest promised
to the Saints in the Church, while 8S. Gregory in_ his
comment here takes it to be Divine contemplation ;
and in another place, that rest in charity which the
devout find even onearth. The covering of it of purple.
Here again the LXX. and Vulgate differ from the
A. V. reading, The going-up (émiBaow, ascensum,) while
modern critics take it to be the seat, with a purple
cushion or carpet laid upon it. The going-up is purple,
tersely writes S. Beda, because no one can enter the
Church save by means of those Sacraments which
derive their power from the Lorp’s Passion, and are
purpled with His Blood. Aponius bids us see in the
litter the Cross of Calvary bearing the Crucified Re-
deemer, being itself that Cedar of Lebanon which is
the stateliest of trees, and carrying on it the silver
pillar of His most pure and spotless Body, which shows
the gold of His perfect Godhead, while the purple
denotes the precious tide which flowed there for us.
And we have all these tersely expressed in the world-
famous processional hymn :
O Tree of beauty, Tree of Light,
O Tree with royal purple dight,
Elect, on whose triumphal breast
Those holy limbs should find their rest.
Tree of Lebanon, having the beauty of fine silver, the
rich glow of pure gold, and decked in its midst with
kingly purple. O most happy litter of the Cross,
wherein Curist descended to our basest depths, that
He might draw us to His majestic height! He made
this litter for Himself, because He voluntarily under-
went death for us. He madeit of the wood of Lebanon,
a Gentile mountain, because He elected to die by a
Roman punishment, and not a Jewish one. He paved
it with love, because He gave Himself to be rejected,
and as it were, trampled under foot. Akin to this is
the interpretation, already indicated, which takes the
litter to be Curist’s human nature, whereby He was
borne into the world. The silver pillars are the gifts
of the Hoty Guost wherewith He was endued, ac-
cording to that saying, ‘“‘ Wisdom hath builded her
house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.” The
golden slope is His most pure and holy soul. The
III. 9, 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 135
purple, as before, is His Passion, and His Heart is
full of love, and that for the daughters of Jerusalem,
the Vision of Peace, because He gives to holy souls
those graces and virtues which bring the peace which
passeth all understanding. Now the holy soul is borne
on this litter unto Gon, this same litter whereby Elias
was taken up to heaven. This is the ladder of sinners
by which Curist drew all things to Himself, as He
foretold. We too may have our spiritual Cross,
gemmed with love at its summit, with obedience on
the right, patience on the left, and humility below.
The Cross of our body will be abstinence, even from
things lawful; watchfulness; and diligence in toil.
The Cross of our heart, the fear of Gop; sorrow for
sin; compassion on our neighbour; and the Passion
of Curist. The Cross of our soul, perpetual clinging
to Divine love; ardent humiliation of self; sincere
affection for enemies; and perfect forgiveness of in-
juries. Buta more frequent explanation of the litter
than either of these two, is that which takes it to be
the Curist-bearing soul. The litter of Solomon,
writes Hugh of S. Victor, is a heart trained in the y4,, viet
practice of virtue. It must needs be, in the first place, ad TRests
of the wood of Lebanon, by purity, and incorrupt 1. %.
truth; of silver in. precepts and promises. In the
whiteness of the silver is seen stainless conversation,
in its musical sound the sweet promise of Gop. It has
gold, too, by reason of heavenly wisdom, which rusteth
not for evermore, but is ruddy in love. It has purple,
when it preaches the Passion, and a going-up to glory.
In the midst there is spread love for the daughters of
Jerusalem, love set before the feeble and infirm, that
they may win salvation. For who is so feeble that he
cannot love? If thou canst do nothing else, at any
rate thou canst love, and so belong to Solomon’s litter.
Others limit the reference somewhat by seeing here tres Patr.
the Doctors of the Church, by whom Curist is borne,
as in a litter, in their preaching. Their silver pillars
are the words of the Lorp, their golden slope the
calmness of a peaceful mind, the purple ascent that
Heavenly Country where Curist robes the victor in
kingly raiment. And such a litter was Saint Paul, Theodoret.
that stately cedar cast to the ground and broken by Ghislerins.
Gop, silver in his preaching of Curist, golden in his
constancy and meekness, purple in his sufferings and
martyrdom. Taking the true sense of D2), merkab,
Cocceius.
S. Epiphan.
Zech. ix. 16.
Hugo Card.
Dion. Carth.
Cantacu-
zene,
The Hymn,
Gaudium
mundi.
The Hymn,
Gaude Virgo
principalis,
2 Sam. xviii.
Sos
J. Beau-
mont,
Psyche,
xili, 343.
1386 A COMMENTARY ON [III. 9, 10.
to be seat, and not ascent, as the Vulgate, nor covering,
or curtain, as A.V., Syriac, and Arabic, we get the
meaning that for all the Saints, as for Curist Himself,
the Passion is the only road to the throne of glory.
That seat is covered with purple, and with no other
tint. And then you may take the Saints of Gop to be
that central pavement, costly stones now laid low on
the ground, in the humiliation of the Church Militant,
but soon, in the Church Triumphant, to be “‘ as the
stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon His land.”
The most glorious Virgin, too, is aptly called the litter,
that is, the throne or royal seat of Solomon, the Sa-
viour. He made it of the wood of Lebanon, holy and
uncorrupt in body and soul. He gave it silver pillars,
those seven pillars of the gifts of the Hoty Guost
which support the House wherein Eternal Wisdom
dwells. SoS. Peter Damiani :
Aula coelestis speciosa Regis,
Fulta septenis sophie columnis,
Quem totus nequit cohibere mundus
Claudis in alvo.
Beautiful palace of the King of Heaven,
Reared on the pillars sevenfold of Wisdom,
Him Whom the whole world faileth to encompass,
Thou art eushrining.
The golden slope was that most ardent love which pre-
pared her for the Conception of her Divine Son; or,
as another hymn will bave it, that holy breast on which
the Infant Saviour lay reclined :
Gaude sacrum pectus aureum
Vere reclinatorium
Salomonis.
Joy, O sacred golden breast,
- Truest Pillow, where in rest
Solomon is lying.
And the purple ascent was her sorrowful union in the
Passion of JEsus, wherein she was more than Martyr,
crying, like her royal forefather, ““O my Son, would
Gop I had died for Thee, my Son, my Son.”
O Heavenly Mother, never agony
Was more heroic than was this of thine;
Excepting that of thy great Son, when He
His humble patience did prove divine.
Fitting it was that thou shouldst tread alone
The hardest steps of glory next thy Son,
IIT. 9, 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 137
Also her heart, in the midst of her body, was strewed
with tender Jove for all weak and suffering souls, daugh-
ters of Jerusalem, but in Babylonian exile below. Car-
dinal Hugo bids us note the contrast between the chariot
of Pharaoh, touching earth always, and borne along with
rattling speed, and the silent litter of Solomon, raised
far from the ground, proceeding noiselessly, types of
the carnal and holy soul. There is another explana-
tion given of this passage by more than one author of
mark, by mistaking the force of the Vulgate ferculum,
which is often used in classical Latin to denote a
dinner-tray or a dish of meat. This dish is, one tells
us, Holy Writ. The woodwork of its frame are the
inspired Seers and Apostles and Evangelists, cedars of
Lebanon, who have composed its several books. The
silver is the outer form of their words; the gold the
inner sense ; the purple is the royal cloth of CHRist’s
Passion which covers the whole, and on which the food
is served up. ‘That food is mingled of rare and costly
ingredients, peace, patience, long-suffering, joy in the
Hoty Guost, and the like, and the name of the dainty
so compounded is Love.
The midst thereof being paved with love for the
daughters of Jerusalem. The extreme difficulty of this
passage calls for separate consideration, rather than
for treatment with the remainder of the verse. First,
then, let us look at the various renderings of import-
ance. The LXX. has [He made] a stone pavement
within it, love from (amd) the daughters of Jerusalem.
The Vulgate, He spread (or, carpeted, constravit) the
midst of it with love because of the daughters of Jeru-
salem. The Arabic reading is, And the interior of tt
incrusted with jewels, and that for the daughters of
Jerusalem. Some of the older critics translate, The
midst of it kindled with love for, &c.; the later
ones, The midst of it beautifully covered (sc. with ta-
pestry) by the daughters of Jerusalem. The general
meaning is plain, that the very innermost core of the
Church’s being is not purity, nor beauty, nor preach-
ing, nor even the Passion itself; but the love of CHRIsT
for us, and our love for Him. And now let us see
what they tell us, obscure though most of their com-
ments be. S. Gregory Nyssen holds that dedicated
virginity, the cee offering of the daughters of Jeru-
salem to the Bridegroom, is set, as a tesselation of
jewels, in the midst of the Church. Others say that
Hugo Card.
Ricard. Vict.
Rupert.
S. Bernard.
de Grad.
Hum.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Tres Patr.
S. John xix.
13.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
S. Greg. M.
Ps. cxix. 96.
Dion. Carth.
Aponius.
1 Cor, xiii. 7.
Gillebert.
138 A COMMENTARY ON [IIT. 9, 10.
Curist makes, with His example and teaching, a tes-
selation, which is love, in the hearts of the faithful,
beginning with His work in the souls of His first He-
brew converts, here called Daughters of Jerusalem.
And the LXX. version, Adsorpwrov, pavement, applied
here to the love on which the throne of our righteous
Judge is reared, recalls that other Pavement of earthly
power, the Gabbatha where the unjust judge Pilate set
his tribunal. Turning to the Vulgate reading, we find
the common explanation to be that Curtst fills the
hearts of His faithful people with love for Him, in
return for the love which made Him lay down His
life for us. And on this S. Gregory the Great remarks,
«“ What shall we do, who have no merit, who see that
we have no place amongst the Doctors, or amongst the
Martyrs? It follows: He spread the midst of it with
love. let us then have love, wherewith the midst of
this litter is spread, which is therefore called a ‘com-
mandment exceeding broad,’ because it procures eternal
salvation for all who observe it. Let us hold effec-
tually to this, and we shall be saved by it, and that
because of the daughters of Jerusalem, for simple souls,
knowing themselves to have no strength; which, the
more conscious they are of their own weakness, the
more eagerly desire to love their Saviour and Re-
deemer.” Another tells us that there are many ac-
tions of our lives which are middling, neither very bad
nor very good in themselves, but which, if done in a
loving spirit, become part of the ornaments of CHRIsT’s
own car. Aponius gives two lovely meanings here.
Love was the mean, the mid part of union between
the Godhead and Manhood of Curist, between Gop
and Man ‘through Curist. And He spread the
midst of the Cross with love by hastening the time
of His Resurrection for the elect’s sake, keeping the
letter of the prophecy of His three days’ sojourn in
the grave, but rising in little more than thirty hours
from the Nones of Good Friday. This, he says, is
that love put under our feet, which “beareth all
things,” and though trodden, yields not, but by the
example of its holiness, uplifts the fallen. The Abbat
Gillebert, preaching to Cistercian nuns, explains the
whole verse of the Religious Life. He bids them re-
member first, how Curist provides delights for them
even on the journey, and next that, precious as the
litter is for its material, it is yet dearer for its Maker’s
III. 9, 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 139
sake. It is but the vehicle to the bridal bed, and if
the Bride be carried on her way with such royal pomp,
what will her reception in the King’s own palace be?
Here, in the toil of earth, He gives His Bride a golden
reclining-place to rest her weary frame, what then
must be the glory and the utter tranquillity of Heaven ?
Virginity is the wood of Lebanon, incorrupt, perennial,
fragrant, from the Mount of whiteness. The pillars
of the claustral life are knowledge and memory of the
divine law, faith and steadfastness. They are silver
pillars if trained in holy discourse, if not only at the
seven Hours of prayer Religious sing and make me-
lody in their hearts, but if their tongues speak often
of Curist in the words of Holy Writ. Let your
tongues, he says, be silver. Let no mass of lead be
east into your mouth. That mouth is leaden which
utters nothing refined, nothing keen, nothing of hea-
venly things; but is altogether relaxed, feeble, busy
with the meanest and, perchance, the most ungodly
things. For wickedness sitteth in the talent of lead.
The third grade, after purity of body and gravity of
speech, is the golden slope, where the unveiled Face
of the Lorp is seen in kingly and golden majesty, and
this is a purified and bridled spirit. No need now to
_ cite that saying of the Gospel, ‘‘ The Son of Man hath
not where to lay His head.” Seest Thou not, O Lorp
Jesu, how many resting-places Thou hast here? No-
where does Thy majestic Head more gladly lie than
on the golden bosom of virginity. Behold these virgin
breasts, breasts free for Thee. Here Thou reposest
oft, and restest at noon, in the golden stillness of Thy
radiance. Foxes have here no holes, nor do the birds
of the air make here their nests. These things are
hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto
babes, who follow the lowly ascent, the purple ascent,
and advance in the traces of the Passion of CHRIsT.
Then come the purple steps. If thou scornest, or
fearest these steps, remember that they are purple.
Lowliness accepted for Curist, bestows royal dignity.
Tread then, Bride of Curist, these purple steps with
innocent foot. The path whereon thy Beloved first
advanced is noble. How beautiful are those purple
steps, which Cuprtst first marked out with His snowy
feet, with the track of His precious Blood! Follow
then with eager zeal. Loose the fleshly shoe from off
thy feet, for this is holy ground where thou essayest
Zech. v. 7.
S. Luke ix.
68,
Cassiodor.
Heb. ii. 9.
140 A COMMENTARY ON ft
to goup. ‘Tread in these steps with bare and rapid
foot, that it may be dipped in the Blood of Curist.
And not thy foot alone, but dip thou thy hands and
thy head too, that thou mayst go up altogether purple,
altogether royal, and ennobled with the Passion of
Curist. And there is something more. The gold
and purple would be dull and cold without love, and
therefore, while coveting earnestly the best gifts, seek
the more excellent way. That is, Love in the midst
for the daughters of Jerusalem, the sisterly bond of the
cloister, the banishment of all spiritual envy, the desire
for mutual help, encouragement, affection, which train
the soul in that love which casteth out fear, so that
Curist is to it the source of gladness, and not of
dread. This is the wedding-garment which even a
priest must wear, and how much more the Bride!
11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and
behold king Solomon with the crown where-
with his mother crowned him in the day of his
espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his
heart.
The daughters of Sion are the same as the daughters
of Jerusalem, children of the Church, holy souls, citi-
zens of that city on high who with the angels enjoy
perpetual peace, and by contemplation behold the
glory of Gop. Go forth, the Bride says, O ye daugh-
ters of Sion, that is, pass out from the troublous con-
versation of this world, that you may with unburdened
soul look on Him Whom ye love. And behold King
Solomon, that is, Curist, the truly Peaceful One, with
the crown wherewith His Mother crowned Him. As
though she said: Consider Curtst, clothed for you in
flesh, which flesh He took from the flesh of His Virgin
Mother. For she calls that flesh which Curist as-
sumed for us a crown, wherein dying He destroyed
the empire of death, in which rising again He be-
stowed on us the hope of Resurrection. Of this crown
the Apostle saith: ‘‘We see Jzsvus, by the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honour.” And His
Mother is said to have crowned Him, because the
Virgin Mary gave Him the substance of His flesh
from her own. Jn the day of His espousals. ‘That 1s,
in the time of His Incarnation, when He united the
a ee
ad
III. 11.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 141
Church to Himself, not having spot or wrinkle, or
when Gop was united to Man. And in the day of
the gladness of His heart. For the joy and gladness
of Curist is the salvation and redemption of mankind,
according to His own saying in the Gospel when He
saw many flocking to the Faith. ‘At that time JEsus
answered and said, I thank Thee, O Farner, Lorp
of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them
unto babes.” And in the Gospel parable, when the
sheep was found, He gathered His friends together,
saying, “ Rejoice with Me.” §S. Gregory the Great,
giving exactly the same explanation, notices the ob-
jection that a crown is the mark of glory and honour,
whereas the Incarnation of Curist was His humilia-
tion. And he replies by saying that the crown and
glory are ours, because He is our Head, and that
which was His humbling is our boast, and pride, and
exaltation.
Next, to cite Cassiodorus again, all this verse may
simply and literally be referred to the Passion of
Curist. For Solomon foreseeing in the spirit that
Passion, warned long before the daughters of Sion,
that is, the people of Israel, saying, Go forth, and be-
hold King Solomon, that is, CHRIST, with the crown,
the wreath of thorns, wherewith His mother the Syna-
gogue crowned Him in the day of His espousals, that
is, when He wedded the Church to Himself, and in
the day of the gladness of His heart, when He rejoiced
that the world was redeemed by His Passion out of
the power of the devil. Go forth, then, that is, pass
out from the shades of unbelief, and behold, that is,
understand in soul, that He Who suffers as Man, is
Very Gop : or even go forth beyond the gates of your
city, that ye may see Him crucified on Mount Gol-
gotha. And in this sense more than one hymn takes
it, as thus:
Daughters of Sion, see your King!
Go forth, go forth, to meet Him!
Your Solomon is hastening
Where that dear flock shall greet Him !
The sceptre and the crown by right
He wears, in robe of purple dight,
It glitters fair, His diadem,
But thorns are there entwining,
S. Mat. xi,
25.
S. Luke xv.
6.
S. Greg. M.
Cassiod.
The Hymn,
Exite, Sion
jilia.
Eusebius.
Gen. xii, }.
Hugo Card.
Ricard. Vict.
142 A COMMENTARY ON (III. 11.
And from the Red Sea comes each gem
That in its wreath is shining :
Their radiance glows like stars at night,
With precious blood-drops are they bright.
Go forth from fleshly thoughts, and behold the crown of
living stones which is the Church itself, set on the head
of Curist by love. Like Abraham, “ Get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fa-
ther’s house, unto a Land that I will show thee.”
Others take the days of the espousals and gladness to
be different, and expound the latter of the Resurrec-
tion or the Ascension. Go forth, O ye daughters of
Sion, from carnal desire, from evil habits, from blind-
ness of heart, and behold the Glory of our King, the
bliss of His celestial gladness, that ye may be drawn
on by its sweetness and delight, and advance so far,
as to go forth from your very selves. When ye suffer
adversities, go forth from your imperfection and im-
patience, so as to bear readily the sorrows laid upon
you, and behold your King suffering for you, and by
His Passion crowned with glory and honour. Think
on that which is eternal, and cheerfully bear that which
is momentary ; think on the exceeding weight of glory,
and then the affliction will be light, which is accom-
panied by so great a reward. When ye suffer, look
upon that crown, and it will become a diadem for you,
wherewith you shall be crowned in the day of festival
when you go forth from the body, or when ye pass
from the bridal of the Church Militant to the bridal
of the Church Triumphant. Therefore, O ye daugh-
' ters of Sion, O ye wise Virgins, get your lamps ready,
Isa. lxii. 3.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Theodoret.
Hugo Vict.
Erud. Theol.
prepare the oil of good works, and the flame of love,
and so go forth to meet the Bridegroom and the Bride.
Then shall ye be “a crown of glory in the hand of the
Lorp, and a royal diadem in the hand of your Gop.”
And thus comes His last bridal crown, that glorious
diadem made up of Saints, living jewels, set in purest
gold, which the Church still places on the head of
Jxsus at the marriage-supper of the Lamb, more per-
fect than the crown of Love which J udea, unawares,
gave Him in His martyrdom, or than that of righteous-
ness, gemmed with joy, love, fear, and sorrow, which
Mary placed upon the brow of her Son.
IV. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 143
CHAPTER IV.
1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold,
thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy
locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that ap-
pear from mount Gilead.
The Bridegroom here. begins the praise of His Bride’s
beauty, and, as has been aptly observed, not like the
maidens in Ps. xlv., by dwelling on the richness of gow 3 Lae
her attire, but on the graces of her person. And ; ;
thus the mystical import is the enumeration of those
special tokens of perfection and_ holiness which are
to nS sought in every pure Church and every faithful
soul.
Doubly fair is she, in faith and in works; doubly phito carp.
fair in body and soul, in knowledge of Gop and know- S. Just. Org.
ledge of herself; fair in passive abstention from evil, Hugo Card.
fair in active performance of good. Fair in that con-
templation of divine glory which is claritas; fair in Dion. Carth.
that zeal for Gop’s honour, the good of her neighbour, yea
-and her own humiliation, which is charitas. Fair by
nature, fair in grace, fair in the practice of holiness,
fair in preaching the Word. And the doves’ eyes de-
note, as we saw before, purity, simplicity, the enlight-
enment of the Hoty Guost, steadfast contemplation
of things divine. But now comes a difficulty. The
A.V. adds within thy locks, or tresses arranged over
the face, which is also the view of Kimchi. And if R. Kimchi.
we take this rendering, we shall find its mystical sense Hiemehbert
by noting that loosened and uncovered hair was a token Ainsworth.
of mourning and captivity. But the Bride, freed by 1* *!™"-?.
her Spouse from the dominion of sin, has her tresses
orderly disposed and bound, in token of peace and of
subjection to Him. Her calm, pure eyes are in keep-
ing with the rest of her external mien, and look happily
and peacefully on Him. But this is not the interpre-
- tation given by the old versions, nor yet that of several
modern critics. The literal sense of fale y, “War
mibbaad letzammathek, seems to be out from within
thy binding, or, restraint, from the root DIDS, tzamam,
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
Serm. xvi.
De Imit. :
CaARISTI, 1.
19.
Tres Patr.
Philo Carp.
Tennyson,
In Memo-
rviam, XXXil.
Heb. Xiii. 20.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Ricard. Vict.
144 © A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 1.
“he tied up;” and the LXX. translate, without [mak-
ing mention of] thy silence; while the Arabic, a little
more full, is besides the beauty of thy silence. That is,
as they variously explain, devout silence is an addi-
tional grace, which increases the beauty of holinesse
It is said of the holy soul, remarks S. Ambrose, Thou
hast doves’ eyes, besides thy silence, because she sees
spiritually, and also knows the time to speak and the
time to be silent, that she may utter her discourse in
due season, and not incur the risk of sinning by im-
portunate speech. I would, says Thomas 4 Kempis,
that I had oftener been silent, and not been in com-
pany. Why are we so ready to speak and talk with
one another, when we so rarely return to silence with-
out some wound on our conscience? And again: No
man speaks safely, unless he who is silent gladly. The
Three Fathers go deeper than this, and explain the
phrase of the silent and hidden meditation of the soul
on those divine mysteries which are unspeakable, but
which she beholds with her dove-like eyes. And Philo
takes us yet further, reminding us of that secret
and unspoken prayer which goes up from every soul
which is rapt in contemplation and kindled with long-
ing after Gop. And of every such soul may be said
in the words of a modern poet, but with deeper mean-
ing :
Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,
Nor other thought her mind admits
But, He was dead, and there He sits,
And He that brought Him back is there.
The Vulgate, however, is quite different. It reads,
without that which lies hid within. That is, without
the glory of that heavenly reward which thou shalt
receive at the end of the world; which lies hid within,
though thou contemplatest it now by faith; for it can-
not be seen in this world, but shall be perfected in that
which is to come. It is a noble and beautiful thing,
observes another, to dwell in simplicity amongst men,
to feel no wish for any of those temporal things which
she sees before her eyes. But it is far nobler and
more beautiful that she is striving to keep her heart’s
desire unspotted, and that she shares in her soul the
glory of everlasting bliss. The outer beauty of the
soul may be seen, comments Richard of S. Victor, by
moderation in food and dress, by rejection of super-
IV. 1.] THE SONG OF soncs.) 145
fluities, by repose in demeanour and language, by
friendliness, courtesy, harmlessness, honesty, sympa-
thy, and helpfulness; by a cheerful face, ears which
do not itch, eyes not boldly lifted nor prying, an in-
structed tongue, checked from light and ‘useless talk,
uttering good and wholesome words. Further orna-
ments are freedom from anger, impatience, and spite ;
aversion from quarrels, detraction, or judgment of
others, and even from listening to those so engaged.
The soul is fair also when fervent in good works, in
Gon’s service, in brotherly love: when active, zealous,
and discreet in all her doings. Yet there is an inner
beauty which surpasses all this; which is purity of in-
tention, lowliness of mind, and that spirit which ever
prompts her to do great things and yet look down upon
herself, that perfect humility which walks hand in
hand with the love of Curist. But the true meaning R. Jona.
of the passage appears to be, Thine eyes are like doves’ page
eyes, from behind thy veil. The very word which is pitzig.
translated silence here by the LXX., is rendered b
them veil in Isaiah xlvii. 2, where the A. V. again
reads “locks.” The veil may be, as many will have
it, that of the Bride’s flowing tresses, but it seems 1 Cor. xi.15.
better to take it of that covering which maidens put
_ on when in the presence of their betrothed husbands,
as did Rebecca: “ What man is this that walketh in Gen. xxiv.
the field to meet usP And the servant said, It is my 55.
master; therefore she took a veil, and covered herself.”
The wearing of the veil, then, denotes not merely that
modesty and reserve which Tertullian urges as the De Veland.
fittest graces of Christian maidens, but is a token of Virgin.
the Spouse’s submission to her Bridegroom, and fur- Cocceius.
ther implies the duty of keeping herself for and to
Him alone, because “ He is to thee a covering of the Geilane
eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other.”
Not unfitly, then, shall we see here a special reference
to the delight of Curis? in the purity of the Religious
Life, the doves’ eyes behind that veil which conse-
crated Virgins have worn since the infancy of the Sania
Church. And thus runs the ancient English form for Virg.
bestowal of this veil at the profession of a nun: “ Re-
ceive, Virgin of Curist, the veil, a token of virginity Pontif.
and chastity, whereby may the Hoty Guosr come =*:
upon thee, and the power of the Highest overshadow
thee against the heat of evil temptations, through the
help of the same our Lorp Jusus Curist.” And the
L
146 - A COMMENTARY ON (IV. 1.
response was from the office of 8. Agnes: ‘‘ The Lorp
hath clad me in arobe wrought with gold, and hath
decked me with priceless jewels.”
Thy hair is as a flock of goats. As the eyes of the
Church are sometimes taken to denote her greatest
S. Ambros. teachers, Prophets, Apostles, and Doctors, who give
8. Just. Org. Jicht to the rest of the body, so too the hair, close to
the head, and its most comely ornament, is explained
of those more perfect members of the Church who are
nearest to Curist their Head. And as hair in itself
is insensible and dead, so too those who have come
nearest to Curist by following His counsels of perfec-
s.Greg. tion, and by adopting the Religious Life, are dead to
Nys8. the world and its desires. Moreover, the Saints are
compared to a flock of goats, because of their love for
s. Ambros. ascending to lofty heights. “ Let not these animals
Homies in geem vile to thee,” observes a Saint; “thou seest that
&cXIX. this flock feeds in lofty places, to wit, on a mount.
Therefore, where there are precipices for others, there
is no peril for the goats; there is the food of this flock,
there their provender is sweeter, their pasture choicer.
They are seen by their herdsmen, hanging from the
wooded cliff, where can be no attacks by wolves, where
the fruitful trees minister abundant produce. There
they may be seen bending anxiously with milk-laden
udders over their tender young: and therefore the
Spirit chose them as a comparison for the assembly of
Holy Church. And, that you may hear the mystical
import, the hair denotes the exaltation of the Worp,
and a certain loftiness of righteous souls, because the
understanding of a wise man is in his head. For wis-
dom, no doubt, lies in the exaltation of human thought.
And whereas goats are shorn that they may cast off
their superfluous covering, so too Holy Church has
her flock of shorn souls, that is, the virtues of many
such souls, in which flock you can find nothing insen-
sible, nothing superfluous; because faith hath made
them wise, and spiritual grace hath purged them from
all taint of superfluity. Fitly then are the souls of
the righteous revealed (LXX.,) and revealed from
Mount Gilead, that is, from the ‘ passing over of wit-
ness,’ because the Heavenly Witness hath passed from
the Synagogue to the Church. In this mountain
spring frankincense, balm, and other perfumes. These
perfumes, which merchants, gathered by faith and de-
votion from. the Gentiles, have brought, the Church
IV. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 14:7
possesses.” And similarly another Western Doctor
comments: *‘ The hair of the Bride is said to be as a
flock of goats, because the peoples of the Church, while
chewing the cud of the Tats commandments, con-
template heavenly things in faith, are clean animals,
and feed on high. And Gilead is interpreted, ‘The
heap of witness,’ denoting the Martyrs, who, holding
steadfastly to the faith of Curist, maintained the wit-
ness of the truth even by their death. Thus the
flock of goats ascends (Vulg.) from Mount Gilead, be-
cause the people of the Church go up with readier
faith towards eternal things according as they know
that the holy Martyrs have more boldly borne witness
to that same faith.” A Greek Father bids us extend
the meaning of Gilead further, so as to include all the
Prophets and Apostles who, by word and deed, have
borne faithful witness to Curis.
A second view of the passage, looking rather to the
multitude of hairs in the tresses of the Bride than to
their height from the ground, sees denoted here the
whole body of professing Christians, rather than the
more eminent Saints. For thus saith the Apostle, “If
a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her
hair is given her for a covering.” Wherefore the hairs
_ of the Bride of Curist are assemblies, gatherings, and
congregations of peoples who worship the One Gop,
the true ornament of the Bride herself, and the joy of
JEsus Curist, Who is the Head of the Bride and the
Creator and Redeemer of all mankind, according to
that saying of the Prophet, “ As I live, saith the Lorp,
thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an
ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doth.”
And then they are called a flock of goats, because the
bulk of the Church is made up of converted sinners,
who feed on Mount Gilead to obtain there wholesome
herbs which may cure all the disorders of sin. Or
S. Greg. M.
Philo Carp.
Philo Carp.
1 Cor. xi. 15.
Isa, xlix. 18,
Theodoret,
again, the whole body of the laity is implied, as busied B&44-
in worldly cares and occupations, with which sin is, for
the most part, mixed up. CHrist Himself is the Heap
’ of Witness on which the multitude of the faithful rests,
themselves living stones, clinging to that True Stone,
of which Peter saith, “To Whom coming, as unto a
18. Pet.
living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of ii. 4.
Gop, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built
up.” Therefore the flocks of goats go up from Mount
Gilead, because the multitudes of the Saints ascend to
; L2
148 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 2.
the heights of holiness, and aim to follow CuRist’s
teaching and commandments in all things.
Again, as the hair is a superfluity of the body, life-
less, and not essential to life, it may be taken to denote
all those purely human cares and occupations in which
the Church cannot help being engaged, which are no
help to her spiritual life, but im which she can so de-
mean herself as to make them a grace and beauty, and
a proof of loftiness of soul. And somewhat in this
Aponius. gense Aponius takes the phrase to denote wealthy
Christians, surrounded by luxury, and not self-denying
enough to adopt Apostolic simplicity of living, but
yet useful and ornamental to the Church by reason of
their faith and almsdeeds.
Yet another explanation is that which sees in the
hair, springing out of the head, a type of the holy
thoughts and words of the devout soul, dead to the
Tres Patr. world and the flesh, and brought out of the darkness
of sin, ignorance, and ungodliness, to truth, knowledge,
and piety, by means of the Gospel, revealed from
Mount Gilead, the invisible hill of Divine testimony.
The thoughts of the Saints are like goats, because they
Cassiod, never rest from climbing higher and higher even in
those very temporal things to which bodily necessity
Ricard. Vict, Compels their attention. They go up from Mount
Pen ee which is Curist, that Mount of Gop, that fat
s. lxvili. 15, . :
LXX.and mountain, where are the richest pastures, because
Vulg. every holy meditation comes from Him as its true
source. He nourishes them in our hearts, makes them
arise, and ascend, and that by the way of prayer.
Theodoret.
2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are
even shorn, which came up from the washing ;
whereof every one bear twins, and none is
barren among them.
The Targum, while explaining the hair, as many
Christian expositors do, to be the whole congregation
of Gon’s people, takes the teeth to denote the Priests, -
who eat of the hallowed flesh, tithes, and first-fruits,
who are white, and pure from violence and rapine.
And the general scope of patristic comment is nearly
Reon ‘ the same. ThusS. Gregory Nyssen, followed by man |
S: Greg. M. Others, inclusive of S. Augustine, explains these teet
Cassiodor. to be the Doctors of the Church, who grind, as it were,
Targum.
TV.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 149
the hard sayings and dogmas of the Faith down so as
to fit them for reception by the body of Christians ;
and who are themselves, as it were, shorn, that is, bare
of all clogging matter, come up from the washing of
conscience, clean from all pollution of the flesh and
spirit, and advancing ever in holiness, bearing, as twins,
calmness of soul, and purity of bodily life, and never
barren in producing virtues. 8. Augustine’s comment De Doct.
is nearly the same, except that he refers also to the )"§°*™
teachers of the Church cutting away their converts
from their former superstitions, as the teeth separate
a piece of food from the whole bulk, that he takes the
washing to denote Holy Baptism, and the twins to be
the love of Gop, and of one’s neighbour. And the
upper and lower rows of teeth wherewith this work of
incorporating sinners into the body of the Church is
effected, are, says Aponius, the books of the Old and Aponius.
New Testament. The righteous preachers of the
Church, comments 8S. Albert, who are the teeth whereby S. Alb. M.
men are incorporated into her body, should not decay ™ PS: ™ 7
through luxury, but be white with innocence, joined
in charity, even in justice, firm in constancy, bony in
vigour, biting into sin with doctrine and truth. Of
such is written, “ Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep that
are even shorn, which come up from the washing.”
S. Bernard accommodates the metaphor of teeth with s. Bernard.
much boldness and ingenuity to the Religious life. Se"™. 3
As the teeth are whiter than the rest of the white?”
body, so Religious are the purest members of the
Church, because of their more self-denying and devout
life. ‘Teeth have no flesh, like other bones; and Re-
ligious, while in the flesh, have forgotten it, hearing the
Apostle say, “ Ye are notin the flesh, but in the spirit.” Rom. viii. 9.
They have no skin; and so true monks do not suffer
even a trifling scandal or obstacle to abide amongst
them. They are cloistered by the lips, as Religious
are by the walls of their convent. They should not be
Seen, save in occasional mirth, and so Religious ought
only to appear when intending to do some deed of
charity, which will bring a smile of cheerfulness to
the sad. They have to masticate food for the whole
body, and Religious are bound to pray for the whole
estate of the Church, both for the living and dead.
The teeth taste no savour from the dainties they chew,
and so, true Religious take no glory to themselves for
any good thing they effect. Teeth do not easily con-
Ric. Vict.
Theodoret.
S. Bernard.
S. Epipha-
nius.
Theodoret.
Josh. ii. 8.
150 A COMMENTARY ON {LY. 3i
sume away, and perseverance is a quality of the cloistered
life. They are ranked in fixed and even order, and no-
where is there so much orderliness of rule and life as in
the convent. They are upper and lower, as monasteries
have their dignitaries and ordinary members, united in
harmonious toil. And even when the lower ones are
moved, the upper remain still, denoting the calmness
with which Superiors should rule, even when there are
disturbances in the lower ranks of their community.
Again; the teeth are explained to denote the ope-
rations of the soul, whereby it gradually assimilates
divine truth, or discerns the spirits, to ascertain
whether they be good or evil. While the devout
mind ponders and discusses all matters, notes the Prior
of S. Victor, it does as it were crush and grind them
with the teeth of discernment. These are the teeth of
the Bride, which are likened to flocks of shorn sheep,
for the shearings are innocent meditations, which cut
away outer things, that is, the love of earth, and the
desire of possessing worldly wisdom. Shorn in this
wise, they more readily take hold of spiritual things
and discern them. They come up from the washing,
to wit, that of compunction and penitential tears.
They are even, not because every Christian is equally
given to practising every virtue alike, but because
all virtues spring from one common source, which is
charity, so that each merit that can be observed is this
same charity under one form or other. They produce
twins, as one tells us, because they develop both con-
templation and action ; or, as another will have it, be-
cause they teach others by precept and example.
8 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and
thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a
piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
By the thread of scarlet He reminds the Bride of
Rahab, the harlot, who was a type of her in the Old
Testament. The Bridegroom beholds this sign in the
mouth of the Bride, as in a window, and saith, Thy
lips are like athread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely,
for it hath received its tint from My Blood, and brings
forth the words of truth, wherewith the hearers are
caught and bound, as with a cord; for thy comely
speech soothes, and persuades them, nor suffers them
to depart, but compels them to abide by thy lips. The
LY. 3.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 151
scarlet colour denotes preaching of the Passion, but Cassiod.
the thread is love. Scarlet is also the colour of fire,
and thus the words denote that ardent preaching of the Beda.
Apostles which they derived from the tongues of flame
which came down upon them at Pentecost. It denotes g, ambros.
the blood of Martyrs too, as well as that of Crist, and
therefore preachers persuade their doubting hearers by
the example of those who died for the Faith, showing
what must have been the prize for which they so strove.
The Latin commentators dwell much on the Vulgate Aponius.
word vitta, which means properly a fillet or head-band.
For the Doctors of the Church, by their eloquent preach- Cassiodor.
ing, bind the multitude of the faithful, like the tresses Ric. Vict.
of a head, into one orderly body in the Church. And
the holy soul, too, binds and restrains her many
thoughts with the discipline of the fear of Gop. She Psellus.
does more, for she practises silence, which the cord on
the lips denotes, though she can speak too, when needful, _
in comely fashion. ‘Therefore the lips of the Bride are Ric. Vict.
not compared to every sort of fillet, but to one of scar-
let, which is more precious, because her restraint of
her speech is the higher and nobler, since it comes
not from human wisdom, nor natural temperament, but
from divine love. Thy speech is comely, is pleasant,
and edifying, because it springs from charity, and flows
out of the fount of grace, for it tastes how sweet the
Lorp is, and gives out again that sweetness which it
experiences, and breathes that fulness which it enjoys.
Its words are sweet also, because the conscience is
cleansed from the bitterness of sin, and the dregs of
fleshliness. And thus they have no savour of rancour,
indignation, wrath, envy, or any hurtful thing, but
only of kindliness, meekness, patience, humility.
Thy temples are like a piece of pomegranate. The
old versions, taking the word ("| rakkah in its
widest meaning, translate Thy cheeks. And these, as the
seat of blushes, resembling the ruddy tint of the pome- Theodoret.
granate, denote the modest shamefastness of the Bride, Psellus.
and that, as before with her gentle eyes, from within her
veil. Therefore this praise denotes the Virgins of the
Church, imitators of the ruddy Passion of Curist the , 1...
Virgin-born, white, like the grains of that fruit, in §’ Gree.
purity, and that in a life as hard and austere as the Nyss.
rind of the pomegranate. Some, however, less hap- 5° Groce M,
pily, see here as in the preceding verse, a reference to S. Just. Org.
preachers of the Word, and others, somewhat better, Beda.
152 A COMMENTARY ON [Iv. 4. ~
prefer to take it as applying to the Martyrs, reddened
with their own: life-blood without, and white within,
like the Virgins, in their purity. The penitent soul,
which blushes for its sins, and guards all the good
things it contains with the rind of humility, is lovely
in the eyes of Gop. And itis not said to be like a
whole pomegranate, but a piece of one, because as a
piece of the fruit partly discloses and partly hides its
grains, so the Saints try to hide their virtues so that
only Gop may know them, but cannot altogether con-
ceal them from men. When the rind is torn open by
adversity, the virtues appear; patience in peaceful en-
durance of wrong, humility in cheerful acceptance of
contempt ; obedience, charity, with love of Gop. A
prece, too, because the most suffering amongst them
has never borne the like of Curist’s sorrow. Rupert,
who explained the previous verse of the burning love
which made the lips of the Blessed Virgin break out
Ps.xlv.3. in the Magnificat, so that the words, “Full of grace
are thy lips,” are especially true of her, takes this one
to denote the perfection of her modesty, and the yet
higher graces that lay hid within. (Vulg.) 8. John
Rootryses. Chrysostom, dwelling on the LXX. translation, besides
om. 8 in ° * Q .
S. Mat. thy silence, singularly explains this whole passage of
secret almsgiving, doubtless because the pomegranate,
embracing many grains in one fold, is typical of
charity.
4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded
for an armoury, whereon there hang a thou-
sand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
Ricard. Vict.
Rupert.
Cassiodor. They agree, for the most part, in explaining the neck
fponius. of the Church to denote her Prelates and Doctors, but
ic. Vict. : : : é ° :
differ widely in the reasons assigned for this view.
The most obvious one, that the prelacy occupies the
highest place, under the Head, in the body of the
Church, and is the link of union between Curist and
the corporate assembly of the faithful, is given by only a
few expositors. The other reasons alleged for the simile,
are that the neck transmits food to the body, just as
preachers are the channel of the Word, and that as the
S.Ans.Laud. neck is stretched out when we are on the watch against
S. Greg. M. enemies, and see them coming from a distance, so the
Doctors are the sentinels of the Church, posted on high
to keep a look-out against our spiritual foes. They are
IV. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 153
like the tower of David, first, by reason of their strength,
because they are stablished in Curist; next, by reason
of their height, because they soar upward in their aim
after heavenly things; and thirdly, because they are
foremost in the brunt of battle. They are no common
tower, but David’s, for the strength they possess is not
their own, but derived from Curist, of Whom David
is but the type. When the tower falls, observes Car-
dinal Hugo, it is not for its own ruin alone, but for
that of the entire city; for if the tower be taken or
razed, the whole city is easily stormed. So, when the
assembly of the Doctors falls into sin, the city of the
Church lies exposed and defenceless before its enemies.
That they may be the better guarded against any such
peril, it is added, builded for an armoury. Truly so,
says Aponius, (taking for the moment the true sense of
the passage, though following the Vulgate.) for as King
David built his tower in the citadel of Sion for his
armoury and guard, so the true David, the Worp of
the FatHeEr, when He ascended into heaven, stored up
for us in our Sion, the Church Militant, our true sup-
pe and weapons, the strength of our souls, His Cross,
is Body, and His Blood. But the Vulgate reading
is, builded with its outworks (propugnaculis.) And
these outworks or bastions are variously interpreted.
‘One explains them of the mysteries of Holy Scripture ;
another, of the gift of miracles; a third, more happily,
takes them to be the examples given us of love, mercy,
patience, and other virtues, in the life of Curist; and
the view that chosen sentences of Scripture are in-
tended is maintained by more than one. The LXX.
rendering is different. It simply transliterates the
Hebrew word for armoury, and reads builded to Thatl-
pioth. The Greek Fathers, accordingly, have fallen
back on the reading of Aquila, érdageis, which is prac-
tically the same as the Vulgate; or upon that of Sym-
machus, which is tpn, heights. The tower of David,
observes one of them, to which the holy Doctors are
likened, is Curist, sprung from David according to
the flesh. And if any one desire to know the height of
that tower, he must not look at it only in its human
building in Mary, the Mother of Gop, but pray that
he may likewise behold it above the heavens, set on
the right hand of the FatuEr.
Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers. That
shields were hung in this wise as ornaments on the
Cassiodor.
eda.
Ric. Vict.
Hugo Card.
Aponius.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Aponius.
S.Ans.Laud.
Ric. Vict.
Philo Carp.
Ezek, xxvii.
1
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Per xxx Ves,
LXX.
S. Greg. M.
Ric wVict.
Aponius.
Galsvi. 17;
14.
PSeexCliy/e
154 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 4.
outer walls of fortresses, we have learnt from the bas-
reliefs of Nineveh. Anda similar custom existed many
ages later, when the sides of the war-galleys of the
Norse Sea-kings were adorned in the like manner.
These bucklers, high in air, are taken by S. Gregory
Nyssen to denote the Angel-guards of the Church, a
view which he believes enforced by the succeeding
words, all darts (LXX.) of the mighty ones. And he
cites the Psalmist, “The Angel of the Lory shall camp
round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver
them.” A commoner opinion is, that Christian virtues
are intended, the fences of the soul against assaults of
sin. These are a thousand in number, to denote uni-
versality and perfection, and they are supplemented by
all the armour of the mighty; every example of holi-
ness given us by Saints of old. And we may not un-
reasonably assume the blazoning of some device on
each such shield, by which its:owner may be known,
his own especial bearing and motto, as a rallying-point
for his followers in the battle. The keys of S. Peter,
the sword of S. Paul, the various instruments of tor-
ture by which the Martyrs went to their crown, mot-
toes such as Humilitas, the chosen badge of S. Carlo
Borromeo, and the like, recall the valiant deeds of these
captains in Gop’s host to the thoughts of the mere
rank and file in that great army, nerving them to
similar daring. But of all the glorious escutcheons
hanging on that tower which rises from the valley of
weeping up to the Mount of Paradise, there is none
like the King’s own shield, on which the Cross is
blazoned. ‘‘Safe under the shelter of that buckler,
the Saints fear no darts of the evil spirits, but say, as
Paul did with smiling pride, ‘ Let no man trouble me:
for I bear in my body the marks of the Lorp Jzsvs.’
And again; ‘Gop forbid that I should glory, save in
the Cross of the Lorp Jesus Curist, by Whom the
world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.’ These
are those true and strongest arms which can keep
Curist’s soldier unhurt as he fights against the cohorts
of the powers of the air, which war daily with the
faithful, hurling at them the missiles of sins. But a
soldier of this kind is valiant, to whom a glorious life
of victory is promised by the Prophet, saying, ‘A
thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at
thy right hand.’ This is the armour wherewith all
the world was rescued, with which the Martyrs routed
7
IV. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 155
the kings and _ princes of the earth, and all the legions
of evil spirits.” And so a poet of our own:
And on his brest a bloodie Crosse he bore, pee
The deare remembrance of his dying Lorp :
For Whose sweete sake that aibbtis badge he wore, weg -
And dead, as living, ever Him adored :
Upon his shield the like was also scored,
For soveraine hope, which in His help he had.
Again, some take the towering neck of the Church to 5, nor
be Holy Scripture, hung round with the bucklers of Seyast Ore
testimony. And, not dissimilarly, it has also been ex-
plained of preaching the Gospel, as the neck is the
channel whence the voice comes from the chest to the
lips. Upon this neck of the Church, that is, in her
preaching of Holy Writ, which for strength and height ¢ Gree.
is likened to the tower of David, hang a thousand Hom. 15 in
bucklers, because as many as are the precepts therein, ©2¢k-
so many are the fences for our breasts. For, behold,
as we hasten bravely to the fight against the powers of
the air, we find in this tower the arms of our soul, that
we may take thence the commandments of our Maker,
the examples of our forerunners, whereby we can be
invincibly equipped against our adversaries. And note,
that it is said to be built with its outworks, for the
‘ outworks are of the same use as the shields, because
both shelter the combatant: but there is this difference
between them, that we can move the shield at our
pleasure for defence, while we cannot move the out-
works, though we may be defended by them. The
shield is in our hand, but we do not lay hold of the
bastion. What is then the difference between these
two, save that in Holy Writ we read both of the won-
derful deeds of our forerunners, and of the power of
good works? How truly they spake of Gop, their
miracles testify ; for they could not have done such
things through Him, unless they spake truth concern-
ing Him. And their works testify how gentle, how
lowly, how kindly they were. What then are their
miracles, save our bastions? since we can be guarded
by them, and yet have them not in the hand of our
will, because we have no power to do the like. But
the shield is in our hand, and defends us, because the
virtue of patience, the virtue of mercy, through fore-
stalling grace, is in the power of our will, and guards
us from peril of adversity.
S. Ambros.
Hom. 4, in
Ps. cxix.
Corn. 4 Lap.
Rupert.
Hugo Card.
Joann.
Carmel.
Philo Carp.
Theodoret.
S. Greg. M.
156 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 5, 6.
The holy soul has her tower-like neck too, lifted up
to Gop, and fitted for the yoke of Curist, bent by no
curve towards the allurements of earth, as it is the
royal tower of Curist, on which Nebuchadnezzar
cannot impose his yoke, for David, strong in battle,
built that tower, and set battlements upon its walls
for a defence and a glory, for a defence, because it
discovers and repels the enemy ; for a glory because
it soars up not only amongst lowly buildings, but even
amongst lofty ones. And it is thus for a defence or a
glory if it have in it the doctrines of the Word, as
though its jewelled necklets, and also have the darts
of the mighty prophets, which are hurled with the
sinews of faith against every high thing that lifteth
itself up. Again, not only constancy, as here, but
prayer, may be taken as the neck of the Church,
through which her voice goes up in petition, and
wherein, as in a tower, are stored her surest weapons
against all her enemies. A third will have it that
humble obedience is intended, since the neck is the part
which bears the yoke. And others again hold that
charity, which is our true link of union with our Di-
vine Head, is denoted by the neck. It is a tower,
because the loftiest of all virtues, and the strongest
too. Its bastions are the Evangelical counsels of chas-
tity, poverty, and obedience ; its shields, humility and
patience, multiplied a thousand-fold.
5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes
that are twins, which feed among the lilies,
6 Until the day break and the shadows flee
away.
The two breasts of the Church, whereat her children
are fed with milk, are the two Testaments, and the
Prophets and Doctors of the Circumcision and the
uncircumcision, who teach the faithful, who are likened
to two young roes because of their clear vision in divine
mysteries and their swift speeding in their daily course
to reach their Lorn, and which feed among the lilies
of a pure conscience and holy life, until, when the
day breaks and the shadows flee away, they attain
the prize which He has prepared for them. They
are twin roes, because of the perfect accord between
the Old and New Testament, the one being rich in
IV. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 157
type, and the other in fulfilment. Another view sees aponius.
in the two breasts the precepts of love to Gop and
love to our neighbour, while Psellus stands alone in his Psellus.
.explanation that they denote the Blood and Water
which flowed from the crucified Saviour. The outer
and inner man, united in one sentient being, visible
and invisible, is, S. Gregory Nyssen alleges, the basis 8: Greg.
of the comparison here, whether applied to the whole ial 7.
Church or to the individual soul, but no other Father
has followed him. Richard of 8. Victor, after assent- p: arg. Vict
ing to the view that the teachers of the Church are ye
designated by her breasts, and dwelling on the tests of
motherly tenderness, proceeds to distinguish the two
breasts into the contemplative and active, both yielding
the same spiritual nutriment. Again, the two breasts ,,..0 card
denote the building up of faith, and the training in holi- : :
ness; the shunning of evil and the practice of good.
They are twins, because they are born at one time,
that is, the time of grace, of one and the same Father,
which is Curist, and one Mother, the Church. They
feed among the lilies, in the flowery pastures of the
Scriptures, until the day break which has no evening.
They feed therefore among the lilies until the day ¢, 3 .aor
break and the shadows flee away, because the preach-
ing and doctrine of holy teachers is needful only in the
. present life, for in the life to come, so soon as the ever-
lasting day has appeared and the night of this world
has ended, there will be no need to teach any one, for
all shall with open face behold the glory of the Lorp. 2 Cor. iii.18.
Therefore the Lorp saith also by the prophet Je-
remiah, ‘And they shall teach no more every man Jer. xxxi.34.
his neighbour, and every man his brother, sayjng,
Know the Lorn, for they shall all know Me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the
Lorp.”
There is also a moral exposition, according to which eee
the breasts of the Bride are her fellowship in joy and aed alk
sorrow with those who rejoice and those who mourn.
These are likened to young roes, because in compas-
sion there should be quickness and cheerfulness of help,
and in congratulation there should be clear-sighted
acuteness to guide us aright in knowing what things
ought to be subject of rejoicing.
6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee
158 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 6.”
away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh,
and the hill of frankincense.
The majority of the commentators take the first
clause of this verse with the preceding words, as de-
noting the time during which the young roes feed
amongst the lilies. But the Masoretic pointing reads
it with the succeeding clause, and it will be convenient
to consider it in this connection. And it is no marvel
that the great mass of comment on the verse sets be-
fore us the Passion of Curis as the mystery hidden
Theodoret. under the types here set down. “The Bridegroom,”
comments Theodoret, “ having eulogized the beauties
of His Spouse, saith, ‘I will go for Myself (LX X.)
to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankin-
cense. Seeing thou art so fair, so lovely, so bright
in comeliness, and so wounded with love of Me, I ac-
cept death for thy sake, and will go of Myself to the
mountain of myrrh. But I will rise again, and return
to the hill of frankincense. We said above that myrrh
denotes death, and frankincense the Divine nature.
There is need therefore to ask why He speaks of a
mountain, when referring to His death, and of a hill,
when to His Divinity. And the reason is, because it
is so great, unspeakable, and unsearchable a thing that
Phil. ii, 6. He Who was in the form of Gop, and thought it not
robbery to be equal with Gop, should have humbled
Himself, and taken the form of a servant, and be found
in fashion as a man, and be obedient unto death, even
the death of the Cross. But for Him to return to His
own glory, and to be glorified with that glory which
He had before the world was made, was no great or
toilsome thing, rather it was most easy. Wherefore He
saith, a mountain of myrrh and a hill of frankincense,
showing thereby that one of these things was light for
Him, but the other very hard because of His Man-
hood. So, when He draws near to His Passion, He
S. John xii, saith, ‘ Now is My soul troubled,’ and ‘ Fatuerr, if it
27. be possible, let this cup pass from Me.’ And yet
een s9, again He added, ‘ And what shall I say? FatHmr, save
Me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto
this hour.’ This is what He means here in saying,
L will get Me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill
of frankincense. For I do both willingly, not con-
S.Johnx.17. strained nor compelled by aught. ‘ Because I lay down
IV. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 159
My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh
it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again.’ Or by the mountain of myrrh may not in-
aptly be understood the human Body of the Bride-
groom, which He offered voluntarily to death. For
that is the mountain of which is read: ‘A stone was
eut out without hands, and smote the image, and be-
came a great mountain.” It is of myrrh, because of
that Joseph by whom the mountain was anointed and
laid in the tomb. To this mountain of myrrh and
hill of frankincense the Bridegroom willingly came,
not only that He might die and be buried for the
Bride, but that He might rise again immortal, and
therefore His Flesh is likened to a hill of frankincense,
because after His Resurrection it was to give forth
living tongues, that is, Saints. And it is to be noticed
that the Chaldee suggests a connection of ideas be-
tween this mountain of myrrh, VVT-I, har ha-
mor, and that Mount Moriah, my “> har
ha-Moriah,' whereon the typical sacrifice of Isaac took
place, and whereon Solomon built that Temple which
foreshadowed the true Tabernacle wherein the Worp of
Gop tarried amongst men. Thither the Bridegroom
-betook Himself till the dawn of the Resurrection morn-
ing, till the shadows and types of the Law vanished
along with the dark cloud of sorrow which had settled
upon the mourning hearts of His Mother and His Apos-
tles. And still, evermore, till the dawning of the
Great Day, when all the shadows and unrealities of
earth shall flee from the rays of the Sun of Righteous-
ness, or, for each soul, till the evening of life close in,
the Bridegroom comes to the mountain of myrrh and
the hill of frankincense. For myrrh denotes mortifica-
tion of the flesh or endurance of suffering for CHRIST’s
sake, and frankincense implies the devotion of holy
souls. The mount and hill, then, are the souls of the
Saints, lofty in contemplation. The Bridegroom there-
1 TheTargum therefore takes | cense,”? which suggests the
these latter words as if mean- | yame of Mount Lebanon, 71229
ing, Mount of the myrrh of the | the « white” hill. ea as
eee oe we rote si play | will be seen presently, it has
of words in M277 nyi3, gibeath | been taken by an old commen-
ha-lebonah, ‘hill of frankin- | tator.
Philo Carp.
Dan. ii, 34,
35.
Targum.
Cassiodor,
S. Greg. M.
Gal. v. 24.
Hugo Vict.
de Anima
Sponsi,
lib. ii.
Esth. ii. 12.
Hugo Card.
Ecclus.
XXiv. 15.
S. Luke xv.
Ie
160 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 6.
fore promises that He will come to this mountain of
myrrh and hill of frankincense, because He vouchsafes
to bless with His visitation those souls which mortify
their members with their affections and lusts, and
which offer themselves a sacrifice acceptable unto Gop
by zeal in devout prayer. One expositor, admitting
the truth of this view, differs so far as to suppose the
Bridegroom to speak, not to the Bride, but to Himself,
because of the delight He takes in what He is about
to do. I will go for Myself. He goes for Himself,
because His singular love admits no partner of its
secret. He goes for Himself, because He will have
no companion in His journey, any more than He suffers
any one to share His love. Myrrh, which is bitter to
the taste, and preserves the bodies of the dead from cor-
ruption, signifies mortification of the flesh, Libanus,}
which name is by interpretation ‘“ whiteness,” signifies
purity of the flesh. This then is the way by which
the Bridegroom comes to the Bride, the mount of
myrrh and the hills of Lebanon, because He first slays
concupiscence by abstinence of the flesh, and then
cleanses the ignorance of the soul by purifying the
heart. And observe too, that we know in another way
that such must be the preparation of the Bride before
she is ready for the King, for it is written, “ Now
when every maid’s turn was come to go in to King
Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, ac-
cording to the manner of the women, (for so were the
days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six
months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet
odours, and with other things for the purifying of the
women ;) then thus came every maiden unto the
King.” And note, says Cardinal Hugo, that He calls
the bitterness of repentance a mountain, and the devo-
tion of prayer a hill, because penitential sorrow sur-
passes devout prayer as a mountain does a hill. Not
without cause does Wisdom say, ‘I yielded a pleasant
odour like the best myrrh,” which perfumes not only
the Church, but all Paradise. Whence is. written,
‘‘ Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repent-
eth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which
need no repentance.” And it should be known that
there is a valley of myrrh, and also a plain, a hill, and
a mountain of myrrh. The valley of myrrh is repent-
He reads, ‘‘ hills of Libanus.”’
IV. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 161
ance for sins, which are a deep valley ; whence the
Psalmist, ‘‘ Out of the deep have I called unto Thee,
O Lorp.” The plain of myrrh is the endurance of
bitterness in defence of one’s country, and in zeal for
justice, which is compared to a plain because of the
level of equity. The hill of myrrh is the endurance of
bitterness for the protection of one’s own innocence.
The mountain of myrrh is the endurance of bitter-
ness through longing for the Heavenly Country. And
to all these the Bridegroom promises to go when
He says, I will get Me to the mountain of myrrh.
For there is no getting to a mountain save by the
valley, the plain, and the hill. So too there is a valley
of frankincense, and also a plain, a hill, and a moun-
tain of it. The valley of incense is prayer for the
remission of sin, as, “ Forgive us our trespasses.”
' The plain is prayer for the bestowal of grace, “ Give
us this day our daily bread.” The hill is prayer for the
gift of perseverance, “ Lead us not into temptation.”
And the mountain of frankincense is prayer for the
bestowal of glory, which is, ‘Thy kingdom come.”
And He significantly says, I will get Me to the hill,
not to the mountain, of frankincense, because the Lorp
gives us the three first by coming to us in this present
life, but He will give the fourth in the next world to those
who come to Him. Wherefore He will say, ‘‘ Come, ye
blessed of My Faturr, inherit the Kingdom.”
Another interpretation sees here the calling of the
Jews and Gentiles. J will go, in the person of My
preachers, and therefore they must go. To the moun-
tain of myrrh, that is, to nations in bitterness, salted
with no salt of doctrine. And to the hill of frankin-
cense, to the Jews who keep to the incensings of the
Law. And in the Church, I will go to the Martyrs,
who endure the bitterness of death, and to the Con-
fessors, who offer devout prayers; bestowing patience
on the first, and perseverance on the second.
It is to be noted that some commentators ascribe the
words to the Bride, but the mystical meaning is the
same, whether she gets to the mountain, there to meet
her Lorp in prayer, or He comes to it, because He
PS) CXxxale
S. Mat. xxv.
34,
Gloss.
S.Ans. Laud.
knows He will find her waiting for Him. ‘“ O happy ginepert.
is the mountain to which Thou goest, good JESU, to Serm. 28.
which Thou comest, which Thou traversest, wherein
Thou dwellest, yea, and inhabitest for ever, wherein
Thou dwellest alone, and that to its utmost bounds.
M
162 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 7.
Come, JxEsv, begin to possess this mountain. Let no
man question Thee, let no man say, Wilt Thou dwell
in this mountain alone? A fertile mountain, a great
mountain, an abundant mountain, a mountain flowing
with unguents. These unguents cannot be exhausted,
for great is the plenty of them in the mountain of
myrrh. They will not fail therein, and therefore he
who goes to the mountain of myrrh will lack no un-
guents, nor shall he lack perfumes who goes to the
hills of Lebanon. For the frankincense of Lebanon
will not fail. Come, good Jxsv, to these hills, that
the incense may flow down before Thy Face. O what
smoke of incense goes up from these hills, when kin-
dled with Thy fire, yea, with Thyself. Thy fire hath
abundant matter to feed on, and great fuel of incense.
This incense will not be quickly consumed, its smoke
will not readily vanish. Its plenteous abundance can-
not be grasped in the hand, nor held in a censer, no
vessel can contain it, it knows not measure, because it
knows not intermission. Come then, good JxEsv, to
the hills of frankincense, for the mountains which Thou
touchest, send up the copious incense of prayer.”
7 Thou art all fair, my love; thereis no spot
in thee.
Beda. These words cannot, in the fullest sense, be spoken of
theChurch Militant here on earth, compassed with weak-
ness, and stained with the sins of her children. But they
hold good of the Church Triumphant, that ‘“ glorious
Eph. v.27. Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,”
Ente The fair Eclecta,! who with widowed brow,
Parpieie. Her absent Lorp long mourned in sad array,
land, xii. 69. Now silken linen clothed as white as snow,
Whose silver spanglets sparkle ’gainst the day ;
This shining robe her Lorp Himself had wrought,
While He her love with thousand presents sought,
And it with many a wound, and many a torment bought!
And thus arrayed, her heavenly beauties shined,
(Drawing their beams from His most glorious face,)
Like to a precious jasper, pure refined,
Which, with a crystal mixed, increase his grace;
The golden stars a garland fair did frame,
To crown her head ; the sun lay hid for shame
And yielded all his beams to her more glorious flame.
Rev. xxi. 11.
1 The poet is referring to the | many commentators under-
‘‘Blect. Lady’ of the Second | stand the Church.
Epistle of §. John, by whom
IV. 7.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 163
But even the Church Militant is ald fair in her Bride-
groom's sight, fair in all the ranks and orders of her
Saints, great and small; not only in her Martyrs,
Confessors, and Virgins, but in her temperate, alms-
giving, and penitent members. There is no spot in
her, because she keeps herself free from mortal sin,
and washes away with daily penitence those stains of
venial guilt which she has contracted through her
frailty. She is all fair, remarks a later commentator,
fair with the beauty of the Gospel Law; fair with the
knowledge of Gop, and of true faith and worship; fair
in the outward beauty of her Sacraments and stately
rites; fair in the grace and righteousness of her mem-
bers; fair in the holy deeds of her Saints.
And spoken of the holy soul, it is true that the words
cannot have their highest and noblest application dur-
ing her probation here, but only when she has come
close to her Bridegroom, and so has received the blaze
of all His splendours, being made radiant by Light it-
self. Still she may be all fair even on earth, in mind,
and soul, and flesh. In flesh, because purged by action
from all passions, and adorned with the practice of
holiness ; in soul, as parted from all evil concupiscence,
and decked with the words of the Commandments;
and in mind because set free from frivolous thoughts,
and made glorious and Godlike by grace in the Hoty
Guost. There is no perfect beauty without colour,
observes Richard of S. Victor, and a pale face lessens
the charm of lovely features, and the fairness of the
Bride is completed by the blush of penitence for her
sins, as she washes away those sins by daily confes-
sion and contrition. And it is especially true, observes
S. Ambrose, of those who live a life of virginal conse-
cration. For what greater loveliness can one fancy
than her beauty who is loved by the King, approved
by the Judge, dedicated to the Lorp, consecrated to
Gop? Ever a bride, ever unwedded, so that love
has no ending and modesty no peril. This is true
loveliness, which lacks nothing, which alone merits to
hear from the Lorp, Thou art all fair, My love ;
there 1s no spot in thee. And, above all, it is true of
her, of whom the Church exclaims in the Greater An-
tiphons of Advent, ““O Virgin of Virgins, how shall
this be? or neither before thee was any like thee:
nor shall there be any after ;” of whom the Doctor of
Grace, when dwelling on man’s universal sinfulness,
| M 2
S. Just. Org.
Philo Carp.
Corn. a Lap.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
Ric. Vict.
S. Greg. M.
S. Ambros.
de Virgin.
lib, i.
Brev. Sarisb.
S. August.
De Nat.
Grat. 36.
S. Joh. Dam.
Canon for
Christ. Day,
Ode vi.
Horologion.
Little Comp.
Hugo Vict.
Instit. Mon.
Serm. ix.
Donne,
Divine
Poems.
Words-
worth, Eccl.
Sonnets,
Tertull. c.
Marcion.
AVonlilic
164: A COMMENTARY ON [1V. 8.
observes, “‘ Excepting the Holy Virgin Mary, touch-
ing whom I would raise no question, for the honour of
Gop, when treating of sins, For we know that abun-
dant grace was given to her to overcome sin in every
wise: to her, who merited to conceive and bear Him,
Who, it is certain, had no sin ;”
For from that sin which could not touch Himself,
He kept His Virgin Mother undefiled.
And go the Holy Eastern Church heaps up all epithets
of purity in her praise: ‘‘ Stainless, immaculate, spot-
less, unblemished, holy Virgin, Bride of Gop, Our
Lady.” Thou art all fair, exclaims Hugh of 8. Victor,
preaching on the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed
Virgin, fair without and within, in heart and body.
Ruddy with charity, white with purity, graceful with
humility ; fair by nature, fairer by grace, fairest of all
by glory. There is no spot in thee, for, as we read,
In that, O Queen of queens, thy birth was free
From that which others doth of grace bereave,
When in their mother’s womb they life receive,
Gop, as His sole-born daughter, loved thee.
Nor does her praise cease down the centuries, as poet
after poet hands the torch on to a successor in the race.
Let us hearken again :
Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied ;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature’s solitary boast ;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished noon
Before her wane begins on heaven’s blue coast.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse,
with me from Lebanon: look from the top of
Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon,
from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the
leopards.
‘‘ Curist, in the person of Solomon, summons the
Bride to Himself, by the calling of the Gentiles. For
thou hast read, Come, My spouse, from Lebanon. 'The
name of Mount Lebanon is appropriately introduced,
for the word is in use amongst the Greeks to denote
incense. For He will betroth the Church to Himself
IV. 8] THE SONG OF 165
from idolatry.” So wrote an ancient Father, when
three of the Ten Persecutions had yet to run their
terrible course, and when Paganism still ruled with
all but undisputed sway in every province of the Em-
pire. The LXX. reads instead of, Look Srom the top of
Amana, thus, Thou shalt pass over from the beginning
of faith.._ On this Theodoret observes that the verse
accords with that passage in the Psalms, “‘ Hearken, O
daughter, and consider, incline thine ear: forget also
thine own people, and thy father’s house. So shall the
King have pleasure in thy beauty, for He is thy Lorp
Gop, and worship thou Him.” He calls her then from
Lebanon, which, lying outside the Land of Promise,
typifies Gentile idolatry, and also from Shenir and
Hermon, which denote the Law. Shenir, observes
Theodoret, means the “ path of lanterns,’ and denotes
that light which illuminated the night-season, before
SONGS.
1 This curious variant, where-
by the mystical sense is denot-
ed, requires some explanation.
In the first place, though the
wording of the A. V. implies
that Amana is a mountain, yet
the Chaldee takes it to be a
river, and the ‘top’ is there-
fore its fountain-head, and
beginning. Next; the word
MON (derived from the root
yox, ‘he stablished,”’ ‘‘he was
faithful,” and akin to Amen,
“‘verily,’’) is used twice as a
common noun in Nehemiah, in
x. 1, (ix. 88, A. V.) to denote
a “covenant,” and in xi. 23, a
*‘sure ordinance”’ (A.V. marg.)
The meaning given by the LXX.
is thus tenable, but it seems
better to explain it as a sum-
mons to the Church to pass not
only from Gentilism, but from
Judaism, the Old Covenant, as
is practically done by some of
the commentators.
2 Theodoret apparently de-
rived V0 from the root m0,
splendwit, but the etymon now
accepted is 10 he clashed,
spoken of the sound of wea-
pons, and the name Shenir is
diversely explained as ‘‘cata-
ract,”’ from the noise of falling
water, or as ‘breastplate,’
from its form and glittering
appearance. Hermon, fin,
a part of the same range, and
sometimes used for the same
mountain (Deut. iii. 9,) is also
variously explained as mean-
ing simply ‘lofty hills,’ or
else as the ‘‘ devoted” or ‘‘ac-
cursed”’ place, akin to Hormah
(Numb. xxi. 3,) from the Hi-
phil ony (‘devoted by curse
to destruction,’’) of the root
Dw, he shut up from common
use, or dedicated. The mys-
tical force will then be a sum-
mons to pass from the earthly
Jerusalem, a bondwoman, en-
compassed with strife and the
clash of arms, and doomed to
utter overthrow, unto the hea-
venly Jerusalem, the ‘‘ Vision
of Peace,” free, tranquil, and
eternal, which the Bride be-
holds spread out before her view
as she stands on the summit of
those mountains which she is
called on to abandon, seeing it
as Moses beheld Canaan from
Pisgah.
S. Athan.
Synops.
Theodoret.
Ps, xlv. 11,
12,
Ps, cxXxxiil.
3.
Philo Carp.
S. August.
in Ps. 67.
S. John
XVii. 24.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
S. Just. Org.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Dion. Carth.
Honorius.
Ric. Vic.
Nic, Argent.
166 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 8.
the Sun of Righteousness arose with the glory of day.
And Hermon is the mountain of which the Psalmist
speaks, mentioning “the dew of Hermon which fell
upon the hill of Zion,” denoting the precepts of the
Law. From these, and from the lions’ dens of fierce
and persecuting Jews, as well as from the mountains
of the leopards, the subtle and deceitful sophists of the
Gentiles, the Bride is urged to hasten away. She must
come from the beginning of faith, observes one Father,
because her earliest training was in the rudiments of
the Law, from which she is to pass into the fuller light
of the Gospel; she must come thence in another sense,
remarks a second, because faith must be her own be-
ginning ere she can undertake the work of converting
the world; then she will pass over, as the Chariot of
Gop, amidst rejoicing thousands, out of this world to
the Farner, that her Bridegroom’s words may be ful-
filled in her: ‘‘I will that they also, whom Thou hast
given Me, be with Me where Iam.” The Latin Fa-
thers take Lebanon, ‘‘ whiteness,” to be the laver of
Baptism, as the starting point of the Church’s career.
Besides the occurrence of the title Spouse here first in
the Song, the Vulgate has two peculiarities to be no-
ticed. First, the invitation to come is thrice repeated,
thus, Come from Lebanon, My Spouse, come from Leba-
non, come.! Next, the following clause runs: Thou
shalt be crowned from the head of Amana. This triple
calling is variously explained. It denotes, says one,
that the Bride must be perfect in thought, word, and
deed. Come, first, by faith; come, freed from the
body, to receive a heavenly reward; come, at the
general Resurrection, taking that body again, to be
crowned with double glory. Come, another takes it,
in faith, hope, and charity. Come, from merit to re-
ward, from faith to sight, from the chariot to rest, from
time to eternity, from the struggle to the prize, from
the way to the country, from peril to safety, from
misery to salvation. Come, renouncing the devil, come,
renouncing the world, come, renouncing thyself. Come,
in the Name of the Farner, Who made thee, come, in
the Name of the Son, Who redeemed thee, come, in
the Name of the Hoty Guost, Who sanctifieth thee.
Come, to the crown of that blessedness which is three-
1 Reading °ny, the fem. imper. from Tnx, he came, instead of
‘AR, with me.
IV. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 167
fold, in vision, in fruition, in perpetual security. Not
only so, but come and be crowned in this world too, by
the conversion of kings and rulers, of persecutors and
heretics, typified by the mountains and the wild beasts,
now become thy children and thy crown, according to
that saying of the Wise Man, “Children’s children
are the crown of old men.” Not less does the verse
apply to the devout soul, which is summoned from Le-
banon, and from Shenir and Hermon, whence the
Jordan flows, to pass on from the baptismal flood
wherein she was cleansed, away from the sins and pas-
sions of her unregenerate life. Go forth, cries S. Am-
brose, go forth from the body, and strip thyself com-
pletely, for thou must not be with Me, until thou art
a pilgrim from the body, because they who are in the
flesh, are pilgrims from the kingdom of Gop. Come,
He saith, Come, fitly repeating it, because whether
present or absent, thou shouldest be at hand and please
the Lorp thy Gop. Come present, come absent,
though thou be still in the body, for all are present
with Me whose faith is unto Me. He is with Me, who
goes forth from the world. He is with Me, who thinks
of Me, looks at Me, hopes in Me, whose portion I am.
He is with Me who is absent from himself; he is with
Me who denies himself. He is with Me who is not
‘within himself, for he who is in the flesh is not in the
spirit. Heis with Me who goes forth of himself. He
is close to Me, who is without himself. He is safe and
sound with Me, who for My sake hath lost his life.
Therefore, come, My Spouse, thou shalt pass over, and
throughly pass over from the beginning of faith. She
passes over and throughly passes over others who ar-
rives at Curist. She passes over by the merit of faith
and brightness of works, who shines like Shenir and
Hermon, that is, who passes by the way of the lantern,
conquering the temptations of the world, and over-
coming spiritual wickedness, seeking the crown of a
lawful contest, and therefore attains the glory of praise
from Curist the Judge. She comes from the lions’ dens,
from the palaces of earthly kings, all the temptations of
rank, power, and wealth; she comes from the moun-
tains of the leopards, from her variegated and powerful
sins, to the poverty of Curist, to the snowy pureness
Philo Carp.
Beda.
Proy. Xvii.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros,
de Isaac 5,
S. Epiph.
of a holy life. And as “a man is not crowned, except 9 tim. ii, 5,
he strive lawfully,” so the crown promised to the Bride ginebert.
must be won by victory over the world, and over all
Ric, Vict.
Dion. Carth.
Rev. xii. 1.
Henr.
Harph.
S. Pet. Dam.
TheRhythm,
Ad perennis
vite fontem.
S. Ambros.
de Virgin.
lib. 3.
Rupert.
168 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 8.
evil spirits and bad passions, denoted by Shenir, the
place of strife, and Hermon, the place accursed, and
by the lions and leopards. And this crown of life
promised to them who are faithful unto death, is of
twelve stars. They are the twelve joys of heavenly
bliss, to wit, radiance, surety, sweetness, calm, bright-
ness, impassibility, subtilization, swiftness, renewal
unspeakable, loving fellowship, gladness in the Man-
hood of Curist, joy ineffable in the goodness of Gop.
On all these Henry Harphius dilates with deep fer-
vour, but at too great a length for citation. What
he has said in the terms of mystical theology, has been
said before him by a Christian poet in the more ac-
ceptable form of verse.
To their first estate return they, freed from every mortal sore,
And the Truth, for ever present, ever lovely, they adore,
Drawing from that living Fountain, living sweetness evermore.
And they drink in changeless being as they taste those waters
clear
Bright "are they, and swift, and gladsome, no more perils need
they fear,
There the youth can know no ageing, never cometh sickness near.
Thence they draw their life unending, passingness hath passed
away
Thence they grow and bloom, and flourish, freed for ever from
decay
Now that deathlessness hath swallowed up the might of death for
aye.
They know Him Who knoweth all things, nothing from their ken
may flee
And the thoughts of one another in the inmost heart they see,
One in choosing and refusing, one are they in unity.
This summons, and this crown, belong especially to
virgin souls. And therefore one, who trained many
such, speaks to them: ‘“ Dedicate the first-fruits of thy
vigils to Curist, sacrifice to Curist the first-fruits of
thine actions. Thou hast heard that He called thee,
saying, Come from Lebanon, My Spouse, come from
Lebanon, thou shalt pass over: and throughly pass
over from the beginning of faith. ‘Thou shalt pass over
as a creature into the world: thou shalt throughly
pass over to CuRIsT, triumphing over the world. Thou
hast heard that He hath parted thee from the attacks
of lions and leopards, that is, from all spiritual wicked-
nesses.’’ And finally, the verse has been applied to the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and is used as an
IV. 9.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 169
Antiphon on that feast in some French Breviaries. eek
J will open my mouth,” exclaims the Eastern Church ea eo
on the same festival, “and will breathe a word to the Damasc.
Mother Queen. And I shall be seen praising her glo- haeaie
riously, and will sing with exultation her Repose. O mae
youthful virgins, with Miriam the prophetess, uplift
now the Song of Exodus, for the Virgin, the only Mo-
ther of Gop, passes unto her celestial heritage. The di-
vine tabernacle fitly received thee, all-holy One, thyself
a living heaven; and thou tookest thy stand, gloriously
adorned, as a spotless Bride, beside thy Gop and King.”
She is thrice called, says Vieyra, the Farner calls vieyra,
His Daughter, the Son calls His Mother, the Hoty Serm. 2, de
Gost calls His Spouse, to her crown. Thrice was she ENS
crowned even on earth; in the Incarnation of her Son,
in His Passion, and in His Resurrection.
9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister,
my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
Ravished. That is, as the margin reads, taken away
mine heart. The Lorp’s words are more true of Him-
self than of any other, that where a man’s treasure S. Mat. vi.
- ig, there will his heart be also, that while His bodily ?!:
Presence is in Heaven, the longings and affections of
His human Heart are on earth amongst His kindred.
And the especial way in which the constraining force of
His love compels Him to abide within the faithful soul,
is beautifully typified in the legend of a Virgin Saint,
of whom is told that He appeared to her once in vision, _
and took her heart from out of her side, replacing it MSO
with His own: so that she, whose daily prayer there- acta Sane-
tofore had been, “My Lorp, I commit my heart to vm:
Thee,” thenceforward said, “ My Spouse, I pray Thee Ni
to guard Thine own Heart :” in accordance with the
prophecy, “ And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, yo. ii. 16
that thou shalt call Me Ishi (my Husband) and shalt ="
call Me no more Baali (my Lord.)’ But the Vulgate,
agreeing substantially with the Chaldee, reads, Thow
hast wounded my heart. They refer it, generally, not
only to the love which Curis bears to the Church,
but to the proof of that love which He gave by suffer-
ing Himself to be pierced upon the Cross. ** Hence,”
observes the Illuminate Doctor, “appears CHRIST'S
Tauler,
De Vita
CHRISTI,
c. 53,
Corn, a Lap.
Thrupp.
2 Kings x.
15,
S. Athan.
Hitzig.
Weissbach.
Esth. ii. 17.
Hugo Card.
170 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 9.
boundless love to us, in that He gave Himself wholly
for us. What more could He do than He has done?
He unlocked His Heart for us as His most secret
chamber, to bring us in thither as His elect Spouse.
For His delight is to be with us, and to rest with us
in silent calm, in peaceful silence. He gave us His
Heart, sorely wounded, that we might abide there,
until, thoroughly purged, cleansed, and conformed to
that Heart, we might be fit and worthy to be drawn,
together with Him, into the Divine Heart of the Eternal
Fatuer. He gives us then His Heart, that it may be
our dwelling, and asks for ours in turn, that it may be
His abode. He bestows His Heart on us as a bed
decked with the ruddy roses of His purple Blood; and
requires instead our heart, a bed adorned for Himself
with the white lilies of good works.” There is yet ano-
ther sense of the word AIA libbabtini, which is
simply “to hearten,” exactly represented by the word
here coined by the LXX., éxapdiwcas, (although most
Greek Fathers accept the idea of wounding) and turned
by the Syriac strengthened, made confident, as though
giving a double heart, or as denoting the trust and
reliance Curist has in the love and fidelity of the
Church to Him, asking her, as it were, in the words of
Jehu to Jonadab, “ Is thine heart right, as My Heart
is with thy heart ?”
My sister, My spouse. Wherefore does He call her
both spouse and sister? A bridegroom generally does
not give the name sister to his spouse. That name,
however, He bestows here, in order to show that it is
before no carnal bridechamber that the marriage-song
is here being chanted. In calling her spouse, He
means that the Worp has wedded to Himself the
human soul; in styling her also sister, He witnesses
that He Himself has worn our flesh. Again, as kings
and queens entitle one another brothers and sisters, so
here the Bridegroom uses the name sister to denote
the royal station of His Bride, that she is no mere
inferior companion, but one decked, as Esther was, with
the crown and title of a queen. Thou hast wounded
My heart. It is said twice, of the Jewish Church, be-
cause she wounded Him living with the nails, and
dead with the spear. It is said of evil Christians, be-
cause they wound Him daily with their sins; it ig
said of the faithful Church, for whose sake He was
IV. 9.] THE SONG OF SONGS. Se
wounded in His Passion and in His compassion.
Every wound, every blow He suffered was twofold, for
hate smote Him in His Body, and love in His Heart.
With one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
The Targum explains the eye to be even one of the
least amongst the righteous, the chain or tress of the
neck to be one of the princes of the House of Judah,
wearing the kingly diadem. And the Christian inter-
pretation of this will be the direct personal love which
Curist bears to each faithful soul in particular, as
well as to the whole Church corporately. But the
commentators adopt a different view. The eye whose
glance has attracted the Bridegroom is, as the Gree
Fathers allege, the faculty of Divine contemplation,
the tress lying on that neck which bears the yoke of
Gop’s commandments, is active performance. The
right eye is that which looks at heavenly things, the
left that which is fixed on earth, and therefore the
spiritual Nahash (by interpretation “serpent,”) the
enemy of our souls, desires to pluck out our right eye,
even if we voluntarily yield ourselves as his slaves.
But the Lorp, on the other hand, tells us, “If thine
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
With this single eye, that is, with the sole and undi-
vided contemplation of thy salvation, of My love, and
‘of its fruition, thou woundest My Heart, and also with
one tress of thy neck. The neck joins the head and
members. Thou art a neck to Me, when thou strivest
to convert souls and unite them unto Me. The one
tress of thy neck is the single thought and fixed in-
tention wherewith thou toilest for this end. In this
twofold care, that for thine own salvation and for the
salvation of others, thou winnest My peculiar love for
thyself, and makest thy way unto the depths of My
Heart. S. Jerome takes the two eyes to denote the
virginal and the married lives. ‘“ I reject not marriage,
thou hast a left eye, which I have given thee because
of their weakness who see not aright; but the right eye :
of virginity is dearer to Me, which, if blinded, leaves
the whole body in darkness.” Spare not, O Bride, to
aim at thy spouse with such weapons as these. Use
thy loving glances as darts. Be not slack in this
matter, be not content to wound thy Beloved once
only, but smite Him with wound on wound. Happy
art thou, if thy shafts be fixed in Him, if thy love
wars in Curisv, if thine eyes be steadfastly fastened
Vieyra,
Serm. de las
Chagas de
S. Francisco.
Targum.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
S. Ambros.
Sam xd 2.
Luc. Abb,
S. Mat. vi.
22.
Ricard. Vict.
S. Hieron.
in Jovin.
ibDele
Gillebert.
S. Luke viii.
44,
Cassiod.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Theodoret.
Psellus.
Philo Carp.
172 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 10.
upon Him. Good is the wound out of which power
goes. A woman touched the hem of His garment, and
CuRist perceived that power had gone out of Him.
How much more, when His Heart is not lightly
touched, but wounded, does He cause grace to flow from
Him! That wound is not insensible. Therefore aim
the darts of a pure glance at Him, count Him as a
mark set up for such arrows. He receives them gladly,
because He hurls the like Himself. He looked on
Peter, and smote his heart, and pierced him to repent-
ance. ‘Tears give signs of a wounded heart. And
then with His merciful glance He wounds the heart
which He urges to any holy affection. Would that
He might multiply such wounds in me, from the sole
of my feet to the crown of my head, that there might
be no soundness in me. For that is an evil sound-
ness where are none of those wounds which the loving
glance of Curist inflicts.
The commoner explanation, however, of the Latin
Fathers, is that the eye denotes the Doctors and
preachers of the Church, and the tress, bound toge-
ther, and not left dishevelled, the multitude of the
laity. One eye, because of unity of doctrine; one
tress, because of unity of fellowship, in the Catholic
Church, for which Church the Bridegroom was content
to be wounded unto death.
10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my
spouse! how much better is thy love than
wine! and the smell of thine ointments than
all spices !
For love the LXX. and Vulgate read breasts. But
the LXX., reading the second clause, Thy breasts are
Suir from wine, give rise to a peculiar treatment of the
verse by the Greek Fathers. Explaining the breasts
to be the doctrine of the Church, they for the most
part agree in saying that these breasts no longer yield
milk for babes and imperfect believers, but the im-
mortal wine of the Saints, the fuller teaching which is
reserved for those of full growth. Philo of Carpasia,
however, gives a better interpretation of the same
reading, by saying that it is wine which the Bride has
drunk which makes her breasts fair and plenteous, and
that wine is the Blood of Curist, which fills the two
IV. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 173
breasts of the love of Gop and the love of man with g, greg, m,
the milk of charity, the gift of the Horny Guost.
The Three Fathers, also taking the wine to be the Tres Patr.
efficient cause of the loveliness of the breasts, explain
them to be the active and contemplative states in the
Church. But the Vulgate reading is more consonant
with the Hebrew, and implies comparison. The more Cassiodor.
usual Western interpretation is that the breasts are Beda.
the Doctors of the Church, who supply spiritual nou-
rishment to her children, giving them in the form of
milk that which they themselves have received in the
form of heavenly Bread. And this milk is better than
the wine of the ceremonial Law, which wine failed at
the mystical marriage of the Church, and was replaced
by Curist with a more generous vintage. Richard of
S. Victor, applying the words to the faithful soul, Ricard. Vict.
takes the two breasts to be spiritual and corporal com-
passion, whereby the sufferings of all, whether in soul
or body, are shared by the true follower of Crist.
And He is better pleased in this manner than with the
wine of rigorous judgment, because it is written:
“ Mercy rejoiceth against judgment ;” and mercy flows S. James ii.
from the breasts of heavenly wisdom and knowledge of !*
Gop, the fairest ornament of the Bride. They note Dion. Carth.
further that the Vulgate uses two distinct words in Henr. |
this verse to represent breasts, mamme and ubera, M*Phas-
The former is used of mothers, feeding their children
at the breasts; the latter word is of general applica-
tion. Mamme, then, observes Aponius, denotes the
blessing of fruitfulness, whera the glory of virginity.
With these the Church is shown to be fair at the time
of Curis1’s appearing, in that she daily conceives, daily
brings forth, daily suckles, and is yet a virgin. And
that is an unhappy man who does not believe that
Gop does by the Church what He did by the Virgin
Luc. Abb.
ary.
and the smell of thine ointments than all spices. So
the Vulgate, but the LX X. read the smell of thy gar- s.Greg.
ments. And these garments they take to be the works Nyss.
of mercy wrought by the Church, or the graces with tres patr,
which she is decked, under the Gospel, as sacrifices to
Gop, more pleasing to Him than the incensed obla-
tions of the Law, because they are perfumed with
Curist Himself, Who is, indeed, according to Theo- Theodoret.
doret, not merely the fragrance of these garments, but
Himself the raiment of the Church, which saith of
Isa. lxi. 10.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
S. Just. Org.
S. Greg. M.
Ricard. Vict.
Aponinus,
Hugo Card.
Xe XXX OSs
Theodoret.
Cassiodor.
174 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 11.
Him, “ He hath clothed me with the garments of sal-
vation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteous-
ness.” ‘The Western expositors differ little from this,
taking, as they do generally, the words to denote the
grateful perfume of the virtues and good deeds of the
Church, spread over the world by the preaching of
the Gospel, and superior in diffusion, number and fra-
grance, to the observances of the Law, the lore of
philosophy, and the vanities of the world. And that
because they spring out of charity, which is lacking in
mere earthly virtues, but which gives them that es-
pecial odour which is a sweet savour unto Gop. They
are called ointments, moreover, because they are de-
rived from the unction of the Hoty Guost, and they
were typified under the Law by the compound “ oil of
holy omtment” made of four principal spices mingled
with olive-oil, and designed for the consecration of the
priests and the furniture of the Sanctuary.
1] Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey-
comb: honey and milk are under thy tongue;
and the smell of thy garments is like the smell
of Lebanon.
As the honeycomb. This denotes the Doctors of
the Church, who bring forth her holy teaching, and
have as it were the combs of bees upon their lips,
which drop honey. And they have not only honey,
but milk also, providing for each his proper food,
as well that which suits infants, as that which befits
the perfect. And the honeyecombs which are borne
on the lips of teachers are the Divine Scriptures, con-
taining bees which make wax as well as honey, that is,
the sacred Prophets and Apostles, who, flitting over
the meadows of the Hoty Guost, and, as it were,
framing the cells of Holy Writ for us and filling
them with the honey of instruction, confer their benefit
onus. The letter is like wax, and the meaning hidden
in it like honey. This drops, because as the honey
drips from the comb when it is too plentiful to be re-
tained in the cells, so Holy Scripture has manifold
‘senses, and is diversely explained, sometimes literally,
Beda.
sometimes allegorically, sometimes morally, and some-
times by anagoge, which is the highest sense of all.
And these four senses are exemplified in the fourfold
IV. 11.] THE SONG OF SONGS, 175
meaning which Jerusalem bears in Scripture. Liter-
ally, itis the earthly city in Judea; allegorically, it is
the Church throughout the world; morally, it is any
Christian soul which has become the city of Gop;
anagogically, it is the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church
Triumphant. The preachers of the Church are com-
pared to honeycombs also for another reason, because
the sweet doctrines of the Gospel come from men them-
selves weak and frail as the waxen cells of the bee, ac-
cording to that saying of the Apostle, “ We have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of Gop, and not of men.” This honey-
comb the soul gathers from divers flowers of Scripture ;
she seeks them out, settles on them, and draws from
them the sweetness of spiritual delights. She puts
aside and despises the knowledge that puffeth up,
and seeks rather for edification; she chooses fragrant
texts, not ornate eloquence. She searches also for the
examples of the Saints and their spiritual sayings, and
ponders them in her mind, for the Saints were flowers
too, and flourished like the palm-tree. And as their
life was holy, so what they produced or taught was
sweet and pleasant. She flies then to these flowers,
and draws from them spiritual honey, but above all
from that especial flower which came forth from the
stem of Jesse, the flower of the plain and not of the
garden. And the perfume of this flower is as the
smell of a field which the Lorp hath blessed. This is
the field wherein the fulness of the Godhead dwells,
wherein are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
wherein the righteous flourish and bring forth fruit in
sanctity of life as well as in holiness of knowledge.
This is that flowery field wherein are as many blossoms
as there are righteous ones bringing forth fruit in good
works, and outside which there is no flowering, but
only withering. To this flowery and abundant field
the Bride flies like the prudent bee: she runs after the
perfume of this Flower, speeds to It longingly, clings
to It in love and faith, sucks the honey of grace from
It with the importunity of prayer, receives graces from
its plenteousness, grace so diffused upon her lips that
they breathe forth the savour of heavenly sweetness,
and offer it to others that they too may quaff. And
there is no inconsistency between the epithet here ap-
plied to the lips of the Church, and that a little
before, when they were compared to a scarlet thread.
S. Greg. M.
2 COralve sa
Ric. Vict.
Beda.
Hugo Card.
Prov. XXv.
16.
Philo Carp.
Hugo Vict.
Erud. Theol.
els
Ric. Vict.
ODER Keli 7a
Ps. xlvi. 4.
Beda.
176 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 11.
For the same teachers are cords in salutary precepts
and honeycombs in heavenly promises: cords, when
they bridle us from giving way to the glow of carnal
pleasures ; honeycombs, when they offer us the gifts
of celestial joys. They are cords also when they teach
openly what has to be done or avoided; honeycombs,
when they disclose the majesty and salvation which
lie hid in typical words and action. And observe
that they are said to drop, not to pour, because the
teaching of the Doctors and preachers of the Church
should be carefully proportioned to the capacity of
their hearers, and not all poured out at once, according
to that warning of the Wise Man: ‘“ Hast thou found
honey P eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou
be filled therewith, and vomit it.” Philo reminds us
that honey is food, and wax gives light, and both are
to be found in Holy Scripture. Another most beau-
tiful interpretation 1s that which sees in the honey-
comb dropping from the lips of the Church, Him Whose
Name is ever in her mouth in prayer and praise, in
the pure virgin wax of Whose most pure Body, taken of
the Blessed Mary, is stored the golden honey of the
Godhead, ever pouring forth its grace and giving to
each according to the measure of that grace.
Honey and milk are under thy tongue. That is, re-
freshment for the robust, and comfort for the little
ones, solid food for the perfect, and the milk of easy
doctrine for the weak. For she had a foretaste of the
sweetness of the life to come, where souls are refreshed
with the fruition of Curist’s Godhead, and with the
milk of His Manhood. She had a foretaste of that
blessedness, because she is refreshed with ‘‘ the rivers,
the floods, the brooks, of honey and butter,” which the
wicked and the hypocrite shall not see, that is, under-
stand or taste. This twofold sweetness, as the rivers
of a flood, makes glad the City of Gop on high, but it
visits with its brooks the righteous who are still exiles
and pilgrims, and gently bathes and refreshes them.
Under thy lips, not merely on them, but coming from
the depth of the heart. For false preachers carry
honey on their tongue which they have not under their
tongue, who preach of heavenly joys, while they are
yearning after mere temporal benefits with all their
might. But not so they who imitate the Great
Teacher, Whose inner love was as perfect as His out-
ward words and deeds, and of Whom His own Virgin
IV. 11.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 177
Martyr said, “I have received honey and milk from Mart. 8!
His mouth, and His Blood hath adorned my cheeks.” Asnetis ap.
And it is not only the Doctors of the Church who can © “™'°*
have the honey and milk under their tongues, but every aera
faithful soul which utters prayers and praises to Gop lib.1.
in simplicity and sweetness of heart, with devout af-
fection, and with meditation on the simple doctrines of
the Faith. Say then evermore most earnestly, ‘ Thou Ps. li. 15.
shalt open my lips, O Lorp, and my mouth shall show
Thy praise.” It is to but little or no profit for me to
open wide the lips of my mouth, unless Thou open
these lips of my heart.. Open these lips of mine, O
Lorp, and then they shall drop, like the honeycomb,
Thy sweet praise. Open these lips of mine, O Lorp,
and then honey and milk shall be under my tongue.
So that becomes true which the heathen poet said:
7) otdpa © iy maxras yAvKepdrepov' ex ctoudtwy dé Theocrit.
Eppee wor pwvd yAvKcpwrepa 7) méAt Knpd. Idyll. xx. 26.
Sweeter than milk-curd is my mouth, and from my mouth
there wells
A voice more sweet than honey is from out the waxen cells,
That is but a feigned sweetness which does but sound Gillebert.
on the tongue, and is not felt under it. That is but ole
scanty, which is all on the lips and tongue, and not the
greater part of it underneath. Some have only honey
under the tongue, and no milk ; others have only milk,
and no honey. But both honey and milk are under
the tongue of the Bride. Nor does the honey flow,
but rather drops. For she does not commonly and
recklessly pour forth the august and hidden meanings
of the heavenly secrets and mysteries of the Godhead,
nor offer milk when there is no pleasure in the draught.
She, under whose tongue are honey and milk, is
ready to speak sweet things. Blessed is the tongue
which drops as the honeycomb, and is full of milk like
the breast given to babes. All crying, and bitterness,
and blasphemy is banished far from lips like these.
Nor is there ungodliness and vanity under this tongue, Ps. x. 7.
but honey and milk. “The lips of a strange woman prov. v. 3.
drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than -
oil.” Butthere is no honey and milk under her tongue,
nor in her heart, nor yet in her last end, for ‘“‘ her end
is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”
But of a virtuous woman is said also in Proverbs,
N
Prov. xXxi.
25.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Theodoret.
Cassiodor.
Rev. xix. 8.
Job xxix. 14.
Hugo Card.
Prov. x. 12.
1S. Pet. iv.
8.
Ps. cxxxii.9.
Rev. xvi. 15.
1 Kingsi. 1.
Lev. xxi. 10.
178 A COMMENTARY ON (IV. 11.
“ Strength and honour are her clothing, and she shall
rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with
wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness.”
Her mouth is even now bringing forth that spiritual
and blessed rejoicing, and its sweetness is lying hid
under her tongue. And the honey and milk now there
shall burst forth in full exultation at the last day.
And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of
Lebanon. So the LXX., but the Greek Fathers prac-
tically agree with the Vulgate in taking the last word
to be incense. That is, as S. Gregory Nyssen observes,
the holy acts of the Church in the devout soul imitate
the divine blessedness itself, and their fragrance is like
that of the frankincense burnt inhonour of Gop. And
he dwells at some length on the fitness of garments as
a simile for a holy life, because the cloth of which they
are made is composed of countless threads crossing and
re-crossing each other, and so holiness of life does not
consist in a single virtue or a single good deed, but in
the union of a multitude of them woven together in
the daily course of existence. Theodoret, as noticed
already, declares that Curist Himself is the only true
covering and vesture of His Church, and that the in-
cense denotes His Godhead. The garments of the
Church, says a Western Father, are the ornaments of
good works, as S. John saith in the Apocalypse, “the
pure linen is the righteousness of Saints ;” and it is
said in Job, “I put on righteousness, and it clothed
me; my judgment was as a robe and diadem.” And
by incense the beauty of holy prayer is denoted.
Therefore the garments of the Church are compared to
incense, because all her works are of the nature of
prayer. And observe: that good works are called
garments for three reasons: first, they cover sins, as
it is written, “ Love covereth all sins;” and again,
“Charity shall cover the multitude of sins; next,
they give spiritual heat, when done to help others;
thirdly, they are marks of honour and distinction, and
so it is said, ‘“‘ Let Thy priests be clothed with righ-
teousness.” He who does not bring forth fruits meet
for repentance does not clothe himself as he ought,
and of this is said, ‘‘ Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked.” Of the
second, when there is no true charity, we read, “‘ They
covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.” And
of the third is written, “‘ He that is the High Priest
IV. 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS, 179
shall not rend his clothes.” These good works, acutely
observes Beda, as being external and done by men,
are compared to incense, itself made of Spices; but of
the inner anointing of the Hoty Gaosr, whereby the
will to do these works is given us, is said, “ How much
better is the smell of thine ointments than all Spices !”’
The incense smells sweetly in the garment of outward
abstinence. And that is in truth a seemly garment,
when the soul is not so much clothed with flesh as with
fasting from carnal things and restraint in pleasures.
Virginal purity is a seemly garment, and sends forth
a pleasant odour of incense as well to the Beloved as
to her who loves Him. For it cannot be that what is
offered with love should not yield delight to her who
offers it. "What then is the perfume of these garments.
_ Isit not incense? So the heavens are clad in radiant
light, but the heavens declare, not their own glory,
but the glory of Gop. O happy me, if but one or
other of my garments could give forth the pure frag-
rance of incense, not marred by any foreign admixture!
For I hold that none hath yet attained to this measure,
that every garment should smell like incense, who hath
not yet merited to be ranked in the bridal lot by the
Lorp Jusvs, the Bridegroom of the Brides.
_ Itis enough to say of the A. V. reading, that it seems
to denote two things, the perfume of the incorrupt ce-
dars of Lebanon, and that of the wine produced from
the mountain grapes, strong and fragrant, denotin g the
mingled purity and zeal, the contemplative and active
states, which are the “vesture of gold wrought about
with divers colours,” that decks the queenly Bride.
12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse ;
a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Inclosed, that Satan may not enter, but ever open to
the Bridegroom. The Church, once His handmaid, now
His sister, and betrothed to Him as His Spouse with
the dower of the Hoty Guost, is a garden, because
she brings forth the buds of spiritual virtues, which,
in a subsequent passage, are called by the name of
spices. This garden is inclosed, because the Holy
Church, fortified by the protection of her Lorp and
Redeemer, and fenced by the guard of the angelic
hosts, lies not open to the snares of evil spirits. This
same Church is also a eal sealed. A fountain, be-
N
Beda.
ver. 10.
Gillebert,
Serm. 34.
Hos. xiv. 7.
Ps. xlv. 10.
S. Epipha-
nrus.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
1 Cor. iii. 6.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
S.Ans.Laud,
Hugo Vict.
S.Ans.Laud.
Hugo Vict.
Gen. xxix. 2.
Dan. vi. 17.
Athenzus,
ii. 45.
Philo Carp.
Aponius.
S. August.
in Crescon.
ii. 15.
180 A COMMENTARY ON (LV. 12.
cause she flows with the streams of heavenly doctrine,
wherewith she washes all believers in Curist from
their sins, and gives them the knowledge of truth to
uaff. This fountain is sealed, because the word of
the Gospel creed is protected with the seal of truth, so
that neither heretics nor evil spirits may be able to
violate or break in upon the Catholic Faith. And so
the Apostle saith, “1 planted, Apollos watered, but
Gop giveth the increase.” I planted the spices of
virtues, as in the garden of Gop, Apollos watered, as
from the sealed fountain of heavenly teaching, but the
Lorp helped His labourers, lest they should toil in
vain. Others severally take the flowers of the garden
to be various orders of Saints, and the wall which in-
closes the garden to be charity, or the union of faith
and works, or, again, the discipline of the Church.
And whereas the A. V. translates in the second, clause,
A spring shut up, following the received text 23, gel,
all the old versions with one voice accept the variant
pe gan, (found in more than fifty MSS.) and repeat,
A gardeninclosed. Itis said twice, as one will have it,
because the garden of the Church was first made of the
Jews, and then of the Gentiles. Itis, remarks another,
because of its faith and works, and its division into the
active and contemplative lives. A fountain is sealed
when covered with a stone, and that stone marked
with the signet of the owner, that no stranger may
approach to draw water from it, but that it may be
kept for its lord alone, as the water of the Choaspes
was for the kings of Persia.}
The seal of this fountain is said by some Fathers to
be the sign of the Cross impressed at Holy Baptism,
but S. Augustine, writing against the Donatists, com-
bats this view on the ground that the fountain is within
the one inclosed garden of the Church, whereas Bap-
tism is common to heretics as well as Catholics, and
observes: “To this. peculiar fountain, of which no
1 T know not why Mr. Thrupp
defines a sealed fountain to
mean one diverted by a subter-
ranean channel to a place dif-
ferent. from that in, which it
springs, Such is the case, no
doubt, with Solomon’s pools
near Bethlehem, to which he
refers, following Maundrell and
Hasselquist, but he does not
add that there is a local tradi-
tion that they were literally
closed by the king’s signet, and
that Maundrell states that the
very small size of the opening
makes, it quite possible that
they were so closed.
IV. 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 181
stranger partakes, to this sealed fountain, that is, to
the gift of the Hoty Guost, whereby the love of Gop
is shed abroad in our hearts, none of them draws near,
unless changed, so to be throughly cleansed, that he
may be no more a ‘stranger, but thus a sharer in hea-
venly peace, a partner in holy unity, and, full of un-
divided love, a citizen of the City of the Angels.”
The holy soul is a garden inclosed, because in puts
ting forth virtues, it gives birth to flowers, and in re-
freshing itself with the gladness which those virtues
yield, it guards the fruits it has produced. The garden
is called zxclosed, because it hedges itself round with
holy resolve, as it hides its own good things with that
resolve for eternal life, and altogether despises the
praise of men, so that the ancient enemy cannot break
in to plunder its hidden treasures. It is also called a
fountain, because while constantly pondering heavenly
things, and ever gathering knowledge of Scripture in
the storehouse of memory, the holy soul ceases not to
produce living waters within itself, to give to its thirsty
_ neighbours for their refreshment. Whence it is written
that the Lorp said, “ Whosoever shall drink of the s. Jom iv.
water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the 14-
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life.” Yet why Theodoret.
‘is that fountain said to be sealed, save because the
spiritual sense is hidden from unworthy souls? But
in the case of a faithful man the Lorp saith, “ The sg. Jonni.
Sririt bloweth where He listeth, and thou hearest the 8:
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence He cometh
and whither He goeth.”
The soul is a garden wherein the plants of virtue
and the seedlings of spiritual pursuits are cultivated. eat
This garden is dug, when vices are rooted up init, and “™°"® "'
the habits of life are turned over. And itis dug yet
deeper when a man strives to learn the nature and
cause of his sins. For no lukewarm labourer, ignorant
of the nature of sins, can successfully mortify his vices.
It must then be dug with the memory of the Lorp’s
Passion, and those nails wherewith the ungodly pierced
His hands and feet pierce it too, when we remember
those things, and sorrow with His sorrow. This gar-
den is inclosed with the lock of silence, and with bars
set to both sight and hearing, lest aught evil should
enter by them. It is inclosed even from praise, and
it is a fountain sealed with the signet of the Hoty
S. Greg, M.
S. John xx.
15.
Rupert.
S. Just. Org.
Philipp.
Harveng.
J. Beau-
mont,
Psyche, vii.
103.
Dion. Carth.
Brev.Sarisb.
Ps, xlv. 15.
Targum.
182 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 12. -
Guost, and the precepts of Scripture, and walled
with the examples of the Saints.
And it may well be asked, Who can be a fitting gar-
dener for such a garden as this? S. Mary Magdalene
gives us the answer, ‘“‘ She, supposing Him to be the
Gardener.” And He had one peculiar garden, wherein
He abode, inclosed for Him alone, sealed with His own
signet, and fenced by the overshadowing Spirit, His
own most blessed Mother. In the first garden He
planted He put a Virgin, yet sin entered, and she fell ;
but into this garden none entered save Himself :
O Paradise, how poor a soil art thou
To the rare richness of this virgin bed!
That Tree of Life which in thy heart did grow,
Itself but as the shade of this was spread :
Here is the Garden where the noble Tree
Of everlasting Life would planted be.
That princely Lady is the sweetest, most blooming,
and most fruitful Garden of the Lorn, wherein are
planted all manner of spiritual trees, wherein rested
the Tree of Knowledge, wherein all virtues were
planted, all divine graces blossomed ; where the Sun of
‘Wisdom poured His brightest rays, wherein no winds,
nor rains, nor floods of sin could ever find a place,
which brought forth Him Who is the Maker of all
things, and bare the Saviour of the world; and which
was inclosed and sealed evermore with the signet of
inviolable virginity; which is the fountain of grace,
and, after Gop Himself, the source and author of all
blessings bestowed on us. Accordingly, this verse
formed the Antiphon at the First Vespers of feasts of
the B.V.M. in the old English Use. And what holds
of the Virgin of virgins, holds also, in its degree, of
the maidens of her court, which be her fellows. So,
following the clear leading of the Targum, many of the
Fathers have delighted to tell us. For the Chaldee
paraphrase runs thus: ‘‘ And thy women, who are
wedded to husbands, are honourable spouses, and as a
pleasant garden, to which no man hath entrance save
the righteous whose souls are sent thither by the hands
of the Angels. And thy virgins are hidden, and clus-
tered within, and sealed like a fountain of living waters,
which springs beneath a tree, and is divided into four
river-heads, and unless it were sealed in the great and
holy Name, it would go forth, and flow, and inundate
IV. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 183
the world.” And similarly that great Saint who ruled sire
the convents of Milan: ‘Thou, O virgin, art a garden je tnst.
inclosed, preserve thy fruits, let no thorns arise in Virg.c. 8.
thee, but let thy grapes flourish, let not any take from
thee the fence of thy modesty, for it is written, ‘ Whoso Eccles. x.
breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.’ Thou *
art a sealed fountain, O virgin, let no one defile or
trouble thy waters.” And again, the same Saint ob-
serves : ‘‘A virgin is as a garden inaccessible to thieves; 5 awpros.
she has the perfume of the vine, the fragrance of the de Virg. 1.
olive, the glowing beauty of the rose ; as religion grows
in the vine, peace in the olive, and the modesty of holy
virginity in the rose. Gird thyself then, O virgin, and
if thou desire that thy garden should yield thee such
odours, inclose it with the counsels of the prophets.
Set a watch before thy mouth, and keep the door of
thy lips.” So too, S. Jerome, writing to the Abbess g, yieron.
S. Eustochium, tells her that consecrated virgins ought Ep. 22, ad
to be shut up and sealed, not given to leave their home 52 Susie™
and wander, not even to seek their Bridegroom in the Virg. ~
streets, lest they fall like Dinah, though she had pa-
triarchs for her brothers and Israel himself for her
father.
That all this is no mere fanciful treatment of the
words appears from the exact coincidence of idea in a
‘heathen poet, by no means of an ascetic turn. Hear
Catullus :
Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro,
Quem mulcent aure, firmat sol, educat imber,
Multi illum pueri, multz optavere puelle.
Idem quum tenui carptus defloruit ungui
Nulli illum pueri, nulle optavere puelle,
' Sic Virgo, dum intacta manet, tum cara suis est,
Quum castum amisit polluto corpore florem,
Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec grata puellis.
Catull. xii.
39.
As a hid flower within closed gardens grows,
By plough uninjured, and by herds unknown,
And fed by winds, sun, rain, in beauty blows,
Till youths and damsels wish it for their own:
And yet, if it be lightly plucked, and fade,
No youths nor damsels wish for it again ;
So, dear and honoured is a spotless maid,
But if she lose her virgin bloom through stain,
On her no youths are bent, for her no damsels fain.
13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegra-
Cassiodor.
Corn. a Lap.
Philo Carp.
184 A COMMENTARY ON [1v. 13.
nates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with
spikenard.
14 Spikenard and saffron ; calamus and cin-
namon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh
and aloes, with all the chief spices.
Thy plants. More exactly, thy shoots, and accord-
ingly the LXX. and Vulgate read thy sendings-forth
(amocroAal, emissiones.) Further, the word translated
orchard in the A.V. is DD, paradise, and is rightly
so rendered by the old versions. The apostolates, then,
or emissions of the Bride, are her augments of faith
and spreading of preaching, that is, her planting local
Churches throughout the world, each of which is a
paradise, resembling that first and central one which
is their source and model. Or you may take them to
be the Apostles themselves, ruddy, like the pomegra-
- hates, with the blood of martyrdom, and bringing forth
S. Greg. M.
Luc. Abb.
Origen.
Theodoret.
Hugo Vict.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros.
Beda.
Ricard. Vict.
Rupert.
R. Ishaki.
Gillebert.
Serm. 34.
many spiritual children to Curisr by their toils and
sufferings, answering to the grains within that fruit.
8. Gregory takes the sendings-forth to be the holy
words and works of the Church, whereby she produces
offspring, and trains up some for martyrdom, and
others for holy continuance in life. And another view,
which takes the emissions to denote the flow of irrigat-
ing water, sees here all the devout baptized. How-
ever the word be explained, there is much depth in the
thought of some Greek Fathers, that this sending-forth
does not barely denote emissions, but the gifts and
offerings which the Bride sends to her Spouse at the
time of her betrothal, in token of her love and faith,
and especially the Saints she presents to Him.
Spoken of the holy soul, they take, for the most part,
her sendings-forth to be all the words she utters for
Gonp’s glory. But a fuller interpretation is that of
Richard of 8. Victor, who sees here all the virtues of
devotion,-putting forth their shoots and sending up
their fragrance to Heaven, and that especially in the
case of her who was that Paradise wherein Gop put
the Man Whom He had formed to dress it by His
labours and to keep it by His grace and power. The
words of Gilbert of Hoyland, who follows some Rab-
bins and also Aponius in taking the word emissiones
to denote irrigating waters, merit citation. After
1Y. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 185
dwelling on the sealing of the fountain as denoting
the partial concealment of Divine mysteries even from
those who dwell in the garden, he adds: ‘“ That foun-
tain is sealed indeed, but not dried up, whose sendings-
forth are so gracious. The fountain of wisdom is
sealed, but you may know it by its sendings-forth.
‘ In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the Zech. xiii. 1.
house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness.’ The one is open, the
other sealed; the one washes, the other waters; the
one cleanses sins, the other produces pleasant things ;
the one belongs to many, the other is the Bride’s alone.
There are remissions, here emissions. Yes, good JEsv,
yes, it is even so. Her sendings-out are Thy send-
ings-in, sent in by Thy good Angels. She would never
send forth such pleasant things unless Thou sentest
forth within her the delightsome waters of life. Thou
hast. both,—a paradise inclosed, and a paradise sent
forth. The one is in pure affection, the other in lov-
ing actions. The one is inward, the other comes forth
from it, and proves its existence.”
So much, in brief, for the general scope of interpre-
tations. But the various fruits and spices enumerated
have given rise toa garden, not less various, of mys-
tical exposition, and it will therefore be needful to enter
into somewhat fuller detail.
Pomegranates. Spoken of the Church, these, as ob- Philo Carp.
served before, denote martyred Apostles, containing in
them the seeds of many faithful souls won to Gop by
their toils, or other martyrs endowed with many inner
virtues. Again, the pomegranate, with its thorny
branches, and the hard and bitter rind in which its Xyoo°®
fruit is inclosed, that fruit itself being red with white picara. vict.
seeds, denotes an austere and mortified life, ruddy with qheodoret.
suffering, white with purity and good works. Or, once Hugo Card.
more, it signifies, as noted previously, charity, because
uniting many seeds in one receptacle. Especially does
it signify the fraternal union of the members of one
Religious order or house. Would, exclaims a Cis- Gillebert.
tercian Abbat, that we imitated these seeds, agreeing
together in unity of heart, as though in the inclosure
ofan Order. The seeds of this fruit cling to one ano-
ther with a nearly unbroken surface, and their difference
is rather that of separate number than of aspect. Let
us in turn learn to differ from one another in number,
notin mind. These seeds do not quarrel with each
Ps, cxxxiil.
1.
Tres Patr.
Cassiod.
Hugo Card.
Luc. Abb.
Cassiod.
Philo Carp.
Luc. Abb.
Angelomus.
Parez.
186 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 13.
other, they do not murmur against the rind, they do
not strive to break through it, they patiently bear
being inclosed within it, so that they almost seem to
say, “‘ Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, bre-
thren, to dwell together in unity.” And does not
the ruddy colour glow in this our Order, brethren,
through imitation of CHRist, as within the rind of the
pomegranate P And they are like the seeds of this
fruit, who think it natural to be restrained by the
outer discipline of the Rule, and count themselves not
oppressed thereby, but protected.
Pleasant fruits. Here the LXX. and Vulgate are
directly at variance. The former reads pera xaprod
axpodpiwr, shelly fruits or nuts; the latter has cum
Sructibus pomorum, which properly denotes all fruit
with a soft rind, though it may sometimes be used more
widely. The Greek Fathers pass lightly over the
phrase, but from coupling it, as they do, with the pome-
granates, they show that their view is that the nuts
denote souls guarded by rigid external discipline, which
shelters them from all outward troubles, and keeps
them safe till they are fully ripened by the Sun of
Righteousness. The Latins take the fruits as something
of less note than the pomegranates, sweet, indeed, and
fragrant, but not ranking with the Martyrs, and rather
denoting the less exalted Saints who busy themselves
in good works. Or again, the slightly acid and astrin-
gent flavour of the pomegranates, contrasted with the
sweeter taste of apples, denotes the austerer Christian
virtues of justice and temperance, compared with the
softer and gentler ones, mercy and loving-kindness.
Another, and the truest, way of regarding the latter
clause, pleasant fruits, is that it is meant to include
all the productions of the garden, and that the cata-
logue which follows is not additional, but explanatory
of what these divers fruits are, denoting either various
classes of Saints, or various spiritual graces.
Coming from the fruits to the spices, the LXX. and
Vulgate, both reading Lebanon where the A. V. has
Srankincense, count up exactly seven aromatic plants,
the mystical number. And accordingly, the Fathers
see here the seven gifts of the Hoty Guost, the seven
Sacraments, the seven virtues, three of them theolo-
gical, faith, hope, and charity, and four cardinal, jus-
tice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance, and the
seven orders of Saints in the Church.
IV. 14.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 187
Of camphire, or henna, it has been already observed
that it denotes propitiation or atonement (chap. i. 14,)
but this is not a view put forward here by any of the
elder commentators. Cassiodorus, stating that the Cassiod.
plant has seeds like coriander, white and semi-trans-
parent, takes it as a type of the manna, and thus as
denoting heavenly grace, the more that it was used in
the chrism for anointing kings. For this latter cause
another writer sees here those Saints who bring forth
good works wherewith Gop is, as it were, anointed ;
while a third understands it of the gift of ruling, and Hugo Card.
therefore as denoting -all Prelates and rulers in the
Church. Philo, who takes it to signify faith, rests on pyio Carp
the lowliness of the plant and its white clustering Hugo Card.
blossoms as bearing out his view. And others hold EG as
this whiteness to denote purity, as the first of graces,
especially as manifested in the Religious life.
Spikenard. Because this was the chief ingredient 8. John xii.s.
of the ointment wherewith Curist was anointed just
before His Passion, the plant in the garden of the
Church denotes thankful remembrance of that Passion,
and all it has obtained for us. Another, referring to
the same anointing, draws the different conclusion that Philo Carp.
the spikenard signifies the unction of Gon’s love in the Luc. Abb.
heart, whereby we are refreshed, and strengthened for
the combat. Philo takes it to be hope, because it is
warm, fragrant,and medicinal, and it is twice mentioned,
coupled first with camphire and then with saffron, be-
cause hope is the link between faith and charity.
Saffron, because of its golden hue, denotes charity,
for charity is among the virtues what gold is amongst Cassiodor.
metals. And others dwell on its elasticity when tram-
pled under foot (a cause assigned by some for calling Philo Carp.
it humility,) and the custom of mingling it with wine
as additional arguments for the sense. And as the
golden stamens of the plant, which alone are used
for flavour and perfume, are three in number, they
‘signify the threefold love of the devout soul for the
Persons of the Blessed Trinity, and the fulfilment of
its triple duty to Gop, to its neighbours, and to itself. Corn. Lap.
One more circumstance, on which they do not dwell, P2!° ©.
may be added, that it was an ancient custom to sprinkle
a bridal couch with saffron wine, or with the flowers 77yPhic-
of the plant. %i
Conscia jam Veneris nova serta parate Napze, Martianus
Crocumque lecto spargite. Capella.
Exod. xvi.
31,
S.Ans. Laud.
Cassiod.
Ric. Vict.
Tres Patr.
Theodoret.
Cassiod.
Isa. xliii. 24.
Ps, xlv. 2.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
Nic. Argent.
Cassiod.
Ricard. Vict.
Tres Patr.
Cosm. Dam.
Nic. Argent.
Gillebert.
188 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 14.
Prepare fresh wreaths that know the Lesbian queen,
And strew the couch with saffron.
And, as is more familiarly known, the bridal veil of
ancient Rome was of saffron hue. Wherefore we may
add that the mutual love of the Bridegroom and Bride
is denoted in this place. Finally, several dwell on the
real or supposed effects of saffron as a cooling febri-
fuge, and take it to be justice, or the Divine grace
whereby the desires of the flesh are quenched.
Calamus, the “sweet cane” of another book of Holy
Writ, from being the same word as the reed or pen in
the verse, ‘‘ My tongue is the pen of a ready writer,”
is taken by Theodoret to denote the Doctors of the
Church, whose writings are full of sweet instruction.
Other Greek divines dwell on the slenderness and lofti-
ness of the reed, as a type of the virtue of temperance,
which lightens the soul of much of the burden of the
body, and uplifts it to spiritual things. Again, the
straight uprightness of the reed, and its use as the
sceptre of Curist, make it a type of justice. The
hard bark and inner sweetness of the calamus have
led also to its being taken here as a type of religious
poverty, or of the contemplative claustral life. Cas-
siodorus and some others, mistakenly identifying cala-
mus with cassia, a totally different plant, give further
explanations which need not be detailed.
Cinnamon, because of its outer ashen-grey bark
which incloses the inner brown spice, denotes those
Saints who are lowly and penitential in their outward
conversation, while warm within through the heat of
Divine love. Others in this same warmth see forti-
tude, and also loving-kindness, because of the fragrant
and penetrating odour of the plant. And the ashy tint
is also-explained of obedience, whereby the self-will
of man is consumed into dust and ashes. Guillebert,
contrasting the tall calamus with the lowlier cinnamon,
observes, applying the whole verse to Curist, Who
suffered as our propitiation in the camphire, was buried
with the spikenard, rose again in golden beauty like the
crocus, and ascended like the reed, that the cinnamon
when broken gives forth a gush of fragrance. That,
he says, was Jesus, when He took bread, brake, and
gaveit. The Bride is like the calamus when she goes up
towards Gop in prayer from the waters of weeping ; she
is like the cinnamon, when she humbles herself for the
IV. 14.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 189
sake of man. The ascension is beautiful, but take care Ginebert.
that the descent be like to cinnamon; when any reason- Serm. 36.
able cause calls thee back and restrains thee from that
ascension and going forth, be like the cinnamon. Let
thy conversation, thine ordinary life breathe grace. If
thou be sometimes turned aside from thine own will and
resolve, and that will be bent, and as it were broken
at the bidding of an elder, let there be no murmuring,
no complaint. Be cinnamon, give forth a breath of
grace, not a complaint of injury.
With all trees of frankincense. That is, since in- 8. Greg.
cense is offered to Gop only, all those Saints who in Nyss-
every part of their lives aim at likeness to Him and
conformity to His will. Others, dwelling on the stately cassiodor.
trees of Lebanon, explain it of the more eminent Saints, 8-Ans.Laud.
compared to the cedars for strength and beauty. Or,
remembering that Lebanon means whiteness, you may Hugo Vic-
take it of the Virgins, pure in snowy chastity and *™™.
rising boldly up towards heaven.
Myrrh and aloes. At once we recall that “ mixture S. Greg.
of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight,” Sonn xix.
which Nicodemus brought for the burial of the Lorp, 39.
and are taught hereby the need of being conformed
to the likeness of His death, before we can share in Theodoret.
His Resurrection and glory. Myrrh, as noted before,
is. mortification ; aloes, yet more bitter, the pain of ous bands
trial and temptation. Others see two degrees of suf- Hugo Vic-
fering, as martyrdom and confessorship, or two degrees torin.
of temperance, as continence and abstinence.
With all the chief spices. That is, as they for the Tres Patr.
most part explain, the spiritual gifts of the Hony Hee
Guost. Or, with 8. Gregory Nyssen, all the great torin.
doctrines of the Church, pure from any heresy or adul-
teration. Or, yet again, as Cassiodorus aptly puts Cassiod.
it: “ After myrrh and aloes fitly come the chief spices,
because after continence of the flesh comes that true
love which is Gop Himself, and whereby Gop is loved
above all things. For they who are changed by the
love of the world, that is, who still delight in pleasures
and allurements, cannot be partakers of this love.”
And having gone through the list of the chief plants
in that Paradise of Gop, let us hear how S. Bernard aa -
applies the whole parable to the Religious Life : “Count 3 Convers.
not this paradise of inner delight to be any tangible place. ad Clericos,
Not the feet, but the affections enter here. It is no °?: 13:
orchard of earthly trees which is set before thee, but
The Hymn,
Heer Jesus
heeft een
Hofken,
190 A COMMENTARY ON (IV. 15.
a sweet and lovely park of spiritual virtues. A garden
inclosed, where the sealed fountain is parted into four
heads, and from one source of wisdom virtue goes forth
in a fourfold stream. There the glittering lilies bloom,
and when the flowers appear, the voice of the turtle is
heard. There the spikenard of the Bride sendeth forth
its most fragrant smell, and the other spices flow out,
as the south wind breathes, when the north has fled
away. There, in the midst, is the Tree of Life, that
apple-tree of the Canticles, fairer than all the trees of
the wood, whose shadow refreshes the Bride, whose
fruit is sweet to her taste. There the whiteness of
continence and the gaze on truth undefiled irradiate
the eyes of the heart, and the soft voice of inward
consolation gives joy and gladness to the hearing.
There the pleasant odour of that rich field which the
Lorp hath blessed reaches the nostrils of hope. There
the peerless cates of love are eagerly tasted, and there
the soul, anointed with the unction of mercy, rests
happily with a clean conscience, when the briars and
thorns, which once pricked her, have been cut down.”
And in the same spirit runs that mystical old Dutch
hymn, written by one of those Brethren of the Com-
mon Life who sat at the feet of Thomas 4 Kempis.
Our Master hath a garden which fair flowers adorn,
There will I go and gather both at eve and morn;
Nought’s heard therein but Angel-hymns with harp and lute,
a trumpets, and bright clarions, and the gentle soothing
ute.
The lily white that bloometh there is Purity,
The fragrant violet is surnamed Humility.
The lovely damask rose is there called Patience,
The rich and cheerful marigold Obedience.
One plant is there with crown bedight, the rest above,
With crown imperial, and this plant is Holy Love;
But still of all the flowers the fairest and the best
Is Jesus Curist, the Lorp Himself, His Name be blest;
O Jusu, my chief good and sole felicity,
Thy little garden make my ready heart to be;
So may I once hear Angel-hymns with harp and lute,
on uempel) and bright clarions, and the gentle soothing
ute.
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living
waters, and streams from Lebanon.
IV. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 191
They agree, for the most part, in explaining this
fountain to denote, first, either Holy Scripture itself,
or the Church as the preacher and expounder thereof. Z
It is a fountain of gardens, because it irrigates not
only the various local Churches which are derived from
the one centre, but also all holy souls, which are
Gon’s pleasances. It is a fountain, again, by reason g. ambros.
of its ready accessibility, because its stream of love de Isaac. 4.
breaks out so freely that man can drink of it as he
stoops, or can turn its fertilizing channels among the
beds of his garden to water his fruits. But it is also
a well, because of its profound depth and the hidden
mysteries it contains, which have to be searched out
with toil, and drawn forth with humility. For Holy pnito carp.
Writ is a stormy sea to the proud, and a fordable river
to the humble, and sometimes appears as the tiniest
rill to water the unlearned and simple, while it is,
nevertheless, deepest in the spots which seem to mark
the easiest fords; so, as a Saint has truly said, an S.Greg. M.
elephant needs to swim where a lamb can ford easily.
It is a fountain of living waters, because it flows Cassiodor.
from the perennial source of Divine wisdom, not like
the teaching of heretics, stored in tanks of human
construction, and sure to dry up when the sun is
hot. Of these the Prophet saith, “They have for- Jer. ii. 13,
‘saken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water.” But of him who hearkens to the voice of the 2°4*
Lorp Jxsus is said: ‘“‘ Whosoever drinketh of the ePyahi ive
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the 14.
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life.” This is He
of whom the Psalmist saith: “Thou shalt give them ; a
drink of Thy pleasures, as out of the river. For with ** ***”" ®
Thee is the well of life: and in Thy light shall we see
light.” And as He, the Eternal Wisdom, is the Source
of both well and fountain, they are rightly called
streams from Lebanon. He is Lebanon, the mountain
which fills the earth, the stone cut out without hands, Lue: Abb.
“whiteness” in His absolute holiness and purity, “in- Ricard. Vict.
cense” in His atoning Sacrifice and perpetual inter-
cession. His Bride is Lebanon too, washed white by pee
Him in His own Blood, and from her pour down those “488!04°r-
waters of Baptismal grace and Apostolic teaching,
which descended with irresistible power upon the §: Gree. M.
earth, so that the rivers of the flood thereof make glad ps, xivi. 4,
192 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 15.
the city of Gop. And observe the gradual magnifying
of the one idea, how the fountain deepens into a well,
and the well widens into streams, denoting the continual
Coceeius, growth and advance of Gon’s grace in the Church and
in the soul, so that the latter things are greater than
Ecclus.xxiv. the former. And so it is written, ‘I also came out as
30. a brook from a river, and as.a conduit into a garden.
T said, I will water my best garden, and will water
abundantly my garden bed: and lo, my brook became
a river, and my river became a sea.” This is what
Ezekiel beheld in vision, when the waters issued from
Ezek. xlvii. the temple eastward and grew into.a mighty torrent
1—12. swarming with fish, and bordered with green and
fruitful trees.
Ricard.Vict. The devout soul is a fountain which glides and flows,
and which ever springs up anew, because. it is renewed
in Gop. It never ceases to bubble forth, and break out
in love for Him, to swell for its own needs, and to
expand itself in affection for its neighbour. It is also
a well of living waters, because it contains the deep
grace and knowledge of the Hony Spirit, enough to
supply itself and to pour forth again for others. This
is the third well which Isaac dug, and which he called
Gen. xxvi. “Room,” because the Lorp has spread it over the
22. earth. For man is spread over the earth when he
arrives at the perfection of grace, and having passed
over servile fear, ascends from the beginning of love to
the affection of a son. Man digs the first well when he
casts earth, that is, earthly sins, out of himself through
fear of punishment. He digs the second when he avoids
sin not only through fear, but also through love of
good. He digs the third when he abandons evil and
does good from love alone. And while digging the
two former ones, he endures the slanders and enmity
of the herdsmen of Gerar, that is, the evil spirits who
behold our “ sojournings,” while we are strangers and
pilgrims on earth, and who strive to encourage carnal
passions in us. But when we attain to perfect charity
and spiritual fervour, the inner struggle and the outer
attack of evil spirits cease, because they are no longer
a match for us in the fight. Then the soul expands
so much in love and grace, and is so enriched with
their fulness, that it can pour forth its streams on
others also.
They take the Religious Life also to be the fountain,
Hugo Card. watering the garden of many a famous, Order, Bene-
IV. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 193
dictines, Cistercians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and the
like. And each such Order in its turn is a fountain Gillebert™
watering the gardens of the various devout souls ga- Serm. 37.
thered in them. Each Society is one garden, because
of its unanimity, many gardens by reason of the vary-
ing gifts and graces of its members. And note, that
before any one member can be truly called a garden,
he must cultivate more than one grace or virtue, for
that is no garden which contains but one flower, how-
ever lovely. ‘Follow, then, after the wells of hea-
venly delights, the wells of faithful and of living
waters which pour in a flood from Lebanon. Be a
flower in the garden, and that garden inclosed, that
thou be not plucked, and thou shalt see how the Lorp
will make fountains and streams spring up for thee.
Dwell in the garden, that thou too mayest perchance
become a well, and out of thy belly living waters may
flow. O that one would give me these waters for
my little garden, the well of gladness to my heart.
‘Cleanse me, O Lorp, from my secret faults, keep Ps, xix. 12.
Thy servant also from presumptuous sins.’ Make me
to be Lebanon, ‘ Wash me, and I shall be whiter than Ps, ii. 7.
snow. ‘So shall I be undefiled and innocent from Ps. xix. 13.
the great offence. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be alway acceptable in
Thy sight.’ Make me Lebanon, and I shall ever pour
these streams forth to Thee.”
And finally, they take the verse to denote the Blessed Rupert.
Virgin, as the earthly source or fountain, whence the Alaiues
Divine River of Mercy (as the Holy Eastern Church Ord. Ol
ealls her Kternal Son,) went forth to water the earth, sanct. -
parted into the four sacramental channels of His Guise.
Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Parv.
without the confession of which our paradise can-
not exist, without which the world cannot be saved.
And yet she is not the first source of these sacred
waters. They flow from a height far above her lowly
garden, from Lebanon itself, the mysterious height
of Godhead, pure, majestic, awful, clothed in shadowy Cantacu-
darkness. pene
16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou
south; blow upon my garden, that the spices
thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come
into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
3 o
Theodoret.
Tsaaxivels:
Jer. i. 14;
iV10s
Joel ii. 20.
Hab. iii. 3.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Hom. 10.
Ps. exlvii.18.
S. Paulin.
S. Just. Org.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
194 A COMMENTARY ON (IV. 16.
Throughout Holy Scripture, the north, as the region
of darkness and cold, is typical of the powers of evil,
according as it is written of Lucifer, “Thou hast said
in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of Gop, I will sit also upon
the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north.” And twice in Jeremiah, ‘‘ Out of the north
an evil shall break forth upon the inhabitants of the
land ;” and again, “I will bring evil from the north,
and a great destruction.” So too, when the Lorp
promises mercy, He saith, “I will remove far off from
you the northern army.” And accordingly a frequent
exposition of this verse by the Fathers is that it is a
summons to the powers of evil to begone from the
garden, and a prayer to the Hoty Spirit, denoted by
the moist and warm south wind, to enter in instead.
For it is said in Habakkuk, ‘‘Gop came from Teman,”
which is “‘ the south.” §. Gregory Nyssen reminds us
also that the north is on the right hand of him whose
back is towards the east, and who is journeying west-
ward, and so Satan is friendly to those only who turn
away from the Day-spring from on high, and set them-
selves towards the sunset, where the powers of darkness
prevail. Also, the second clause, the prayer which
was answered when the rushing mighty wind came
down on the disciples at Pentecost, notes the great
change which then passed over the Church of Gop,
when the prophetic streams of waters of the Old Testa-
ment, of which we read, ‘“‘ He bloweth with His wind,
and the waters flow,” were changed into the more
glorious streams of fragrant spices, diffused throughout
the world in such channels as the mighty S. Paul, or
the Evangelist 8. John, both of them a good odour of
CuRISsT.
Others, however, take both winds to be diverse ope-
rations of the same Hoty Spirit, the north bringing
coolness to the fevered, the south softening the hard
and frozen. And because these two are but one Spirit,
the verb is singular, not plural. Again, the north and
south may be taken to denote the nations of different
parts of the earth, alike invited to enter the garden
inclosed, and the north, signifying the more distant
lands, is therefore bidden to awake from its sleep, to
arise from the dead, that CHrist may give it light.
Further, they take the two winds to be various forms
of trial, for which the Church prays, that she may be
IY. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 195
tested for her Lorp. For when the virtues of ,the Cassiodor.
Church have been counted up under the name of —
spices ; the Lorp, Who is the Bridegroom and Re-
deemer of His Church, knowing that it would be in-
creased by persecution, afterwards, as it were, directs
that persecution to come, not enjoining, but permitting
it. The north and south winds signify troubles and
persecutions raging against the Church. The north is
_ avery cold wind, the south a warm one, and therefore
terrors and threats are denoted by the north, and
guileful flatteries by the south, by both which kinds of
trial the Church is proved. And in saying, Awake, O
north wind, and come, thou south, He does not com-
mand nor urge wicked men to do evil, but permits
them, and gives them power to rage against the Church,
that it may be tested by their malice, and they be the
more severely punished. For the more cruelly the
Church is smitten, the greater fragrance of holiness
does she give forth.
Others differ so far as to see the bane and antidote Luc. Abb.
summoned together, the north wind of sorrow and
trial, the south wind of grace and comfort to refresh
and restore the Church or soul wearied with its com-
bat. But the north wind is not suffered to stay long.
_ When it has sufficiently exercised its chilly power, Ric. Vict.
then the south comes, and not only blows, but blows
through (so, correctly, LX X. and Vulg.) the garden,
occupying the whole of it, so that no sorrow can abide
there, but all the spices flow out together in abundance
and gladness. And in this sense 8S. Anselm tersely
comments: ‘ The north wind, shaking the trees, makes S.Ans.Laud.
them bud, that the south which follows may cause
them to bear fruit. And so persecution, followed by
the fervour of charity, makes the Church bear fruit
through the grace of the Hony Guost.”
Rupert, diversely, following the view which identifies Rupert.
the north wind with Satan, holds that the verse is a
challenge to him to arise from his secret ambush, and
to advance to do battle with the south wind of the
Hoty Spirit for possession of the garden. And it
has been taken, not only of the Pagan persecutions, and
of the struggles of heretics to overthrow the Faith,
but also of the last great effort of Antichrist, when ponorius.
Gop will permit him to awake against the Church, but
will ere long send His refreshing and warm wind to
restore the lapsed, and to Eng new strength and beauty
O
Corn. a Lap.
The Hymn,
Imperatrix
gloriosa.
Keble,
Christian
Year.
Philipp.
Harveng.
196 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 16.
to His enfeebled and mourning garden. It should
be observed that while the majority of the Fathers
take the words to be the Bridegroom’s, dealing with
the garden and the winds as their absolute Lorp, some
few, amongst whom are Theodoret and 8. Gregory
Nyssen, will have it, that it is the prayer of the Bride.
The application of the verse to the Blessed Virgin is
twofold; first, that she was guarded from evil, repelled
from her by the grace of her perfect obedience and
purity, and that she was filled with the Holy Spirit,
whereby not only her virtues flowed forth in beauty,
but He came forth from her, Who is the source of all
beauty and holiness. And so runs the hymn:
Auster levis te perflavit,
Et perflando fecundavit,
Aquilonem qui fugavit,
Sua cum potentia ;
Florem ergo genuisti,
Ex quo fructum protulisti,
Gabrieli dum fuisti
Paranympho credula.
That soft south-wind, through thee going,
And thus fruitfulness bestowing,
Put to flight the north-wind’s blowing,
With his breath of greater might ;
Therefore thou hast borne the Flower,
Yielding fruit within thy bower,
When to Gabriel, in that hour,
Thou didst hearken with delight.
And again; no life ever so mingled joy and sorrow as
hers did, none ever felt such woe and desolation, nor
yet such consolation and rejoicing, as she who knelt by
the cradle of the Most High, and who stood later by
His Cross.
Thou wept’st, meek Maiden, Mother mild,
Thou wept’st upon thy sinless Child,
Thy very heart was riven,
And yet, what mourning matron here
Could deem thy sorrows bought too dear
By all on this side heaven ?
Even against her, His Mother, He permitted the evil
one to rage, to threaten, to storm, either through the
means of the evil Jews, or through the sufferings which
she could not but share with her Son, but He knew
well what would be her victory and her crown, what
will yet be the triumph and the reward of those who
IV. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 197
take her for their pattern, and bear the chilling blast
with patience, knowing that, cold as it is, it will clear
the sky, and drive away the clouds which hide the sun, Cocceius.
and then the warm breeze will spring up, and the heart
be gladdened to its inmost core.
Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His
pleasant fruits. These words of the Bride are as-
signed by the present copies of LX X. and Vulgate to
_ the following chapter, with which they have a closer
connection. But the juxtaposition of the A. V. is
also that which some Greek Fathers and not a few
Westerns have accepted: And the first thing to be
observed is that one phrase in this address of the Bride
seems to prove that all the earlier part of the verse is
uttered by the Bridegroom. She says, “Let my Be-
loved come into His garden.” She does not say my Philo Carp.
garden, as the previous speaker does, because she
_ knows that she herself and all that she has are utterly
and entirely His, and not her own. On the other
hand; if the words be taken as the Bride’s, this varia-
tion of language will denote that in her humility she
calls the garden hers, so long as the bleak, dry, nipping
north wind is blowing, and no sign of fertility is visi-
ble, but the moment that endurance has been crowned,
-and the spices begin to flow out, then, because the
garden is productive and beautiful, she calls it His.
Next; the LXX. and Arabic version read, Let my
Beloved come down into His garden, which the Syriac
amplifies further, Let Him come through my garden
into His garden. And on the LXX. rendering, S.
Gregory Nyssen observes, that as the Bride cannot tee
reach the Most High unless He condescend to her low- ~***
liness ; she, while soaring to the utmost limit of her
power, intreats Him to meet her, by coming down
from His majesty to earth. She calls Him all the
more, because hearing that He is going to try her by
persecution, she cannot rest till He is in the midst of
her, to support her in her struggle, and to be the glad
spectacle of the holy deeds she means to do for love of
Him. ‘The Church invites Him also to see the chil-
dren she has brought up for Him, the newly-baptized
converts won to Him from unbelief. These are, ac-
cording to the LXX. rendering, fruits of nuts, because
safely closed in by the strong shell of His command-
ments. Or, as S. Ambrose, writing of and to Virgins,
? Sad 2
says, following the same text, the Worp of Gop is poe Port
Cassiodor.
S. Ambros.
Tres Patr.
De Virgin. 3.
Luc. Abb.
Philo Carp.
S. John iv.
Rupert.
Delrio.
Card. Hail-
grin,
Beda.
Hugo Vict.
Gillebert.
Hab. iii. 3.
198 A COMMENTARY ON [IV. 16.
invited into the garden of nuts, wherein is the fruit of
the study of prophecy, and the grace of the priestly
office, compared to a nut, because bitter at first with
trial and sorrows, then hardened by toil, and finally
fruitful in hidden virtues. And this verse is more
directly applied to the virginal life by another, follow-
ing the Western rendering, apples. The Bride invites
Curist to hallow for Himself, as the firstlings of good
works, the produce of the fruits of virginity, that He,
Who proceeded from a Virgin, may taste thereof, and
may send by the hands of angels into heaven that fruit
of penitential joy which He receives from the Church.
He hath said of Himself, ““ My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent Me, and to finish His work ;” and there-
fore He tastes His pleasant fruits whenever He visits
and enters any holy soul to see its progress in sanctity.
And He was especially invited by 8S. Mary, when she
said, ‘“ Behold the handmaid of the Lorp, be it unto
me according to thy word.” Eve offered her bride-
groom an apple which was none of hers to give, nor
of his to accept, but Mary called her Gop to eat His
own fruits, that is, to unite and incorporate His elect
with Himself, calling Him into herself, His garden,
because while fields or plains often lie fallow or barren
as the seasons change, a garden has always some fruit
or flower to please its master’s eye, and she was not
merely a Saint as others, but full of grace. And whereas
Rupert goes on to represent the words as those of the
Virgin Mother desiring her Son to call her from the
world to Himself; so too some of the commentators
have seen here the cry of every soul which longs to
flee away and be at rest, to be dissolved and be with
Curist, that He may enter the garden, and bear its
fruit away with Him to Paradise. And it is all
summed up in the one petition of the Our FatueEr, “Thy
kingdom come.” Let Him come then. Why does He
invite the south wind to come? Let Him come to me
Himself, and it is enough. He is my south wind, He
is my fragrance. He is my south wind, He is my Love.
Gop cometh from the south, and the south wind comes
with Him. And then He is full of grace and truth.
Truly He is my south wind, Who brightly shines, Who
softly glides upon me. My Curisr is my south wind,
He blows through my garden, He eats my fruit.
V. 1.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 199
CHAPTER V.
1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my
spouse; | have gathered my myrrh with my
spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my
honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk:
eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly,
O beloved.
The Bride has scarcely formed her wish, scarcely , a
uttered her prayer, before it is heard and answered, Naess
according to that saying, “Thou shalt call, and the Tea
Lorp shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, ©
Here Lam.” For Gop did come into His garden, the
ereature, took flesh of the Virgin, and was made man.
The Body He took was mortal, but ‘united with the 8. Athan.
fragrance of the All-Holiest Worp. They dwell, too,
in another way on the myrrh, as denoting suffering,
and say with S. Cyril of Jerusalem, as he tells his Sat. Myst.
-eatechumens of the place where the Lorp was cruci-
fied, “‘ Of this garden I sang long ago in the Canticles
to My Bride, and I said thus to her, I have come into
My garden, My sister, My spouse. ‘ Now in the place S. Jonn xix.
where He was crucified there was a garden.’ And 4!-
what thence drawest thou? Ihave gathered My myrrh,
when He drank the wine and vinegar mingled with
myrrh, and having received it, said, ‘It is finished.’ ’’ §- John xix.
And on this a Spanish writer says very well: As Adam |,”
committed his sin in the garden of Paradise, so CuRIsT,
the Atoner for that guilt, willed to enter the garden of
Gethsemane, and there He prayed for Adam and all
his posterity, there too He willed to be taken, bound,
dragged away, and smitten by the servants of the
chief priests. Also, as Adam stretched out his hands
to the tree and seized the forbidden fruit, therefore
Curist stretched out His hands and arms on the Tree
of the Cross, and there was nailed by hands and feet,
and pierced with a spear. Moreover Adam ate the
fruit which was sweet to the taste, but Curist drank
the bitter vinegar mingled with myrrh on the Cross.
Parez.
Keble, Lyra
Innocent,
Luc. Abb.
Philo Carp.
S. Just. Org.
Rupert,
Cassiodor.
Beda.
Theodoret.
Delrio.
Ricard. Vict.
Dion. Carth.
200 A COMMENTARY ON [Vk
And though that Passion was as the bitterest myrrh
to Curist, to us it was as the sweetest honey in effect,
and fragrant as all restorative spices, intoxicating as
wine, nourishing as milk. Yet, as one of our own
poets has taught us, the first interpretation is deeper
than the second one.
And surely not in folds so bright the spotless winding-shéet
Inwrapt Him, nor such fragrance poured the myrrh and aloes
sweet
As when in that chaste bosom, His awful bed, He lay,
And Mary’s prayer around Him rose, like incense, night and
day.
He gathered His myrrh too in another fashion, by
converting the fierce thief upon the cross, as He had
gathered His spices a little before when He drew the
sinful woman to Him. He gathered His myrrh and
His spice when He was borne dead into the garden
where Joseph’s new tomb was, and when they wrapped
Him in fine linen with myrrh andaloes. He gathered
myrrh indeed in His death, but when He went into
that other garden of His, in Hades, He gathered
thence His spice, when He brought back into the light
of Paradise the spirits that were in prison. And this
coming is not all past and over. Daily He comes still
into His garden, daily does He visit His Church and
every soul that loves Him, to gather fruits for Him-
self. He gathers myrrh in His martyrs, spice in His
other Saints, myrrh in all who mortify their carnal
passion, spice in all who yield the odour of devotion
and good works. Myrrh denotes the Baptism whereby
we are buried with Him, spice the graces of the Hony
Spirit which He breathes on His disciples. And thus
He speaks to the soul unto whose garden He comes :
“Thou hast borne, O My spouse, the sorrow of pe-
nance; the strife, the trial, the toil of correction, and
thou hast come to the harvest of perfection in virtue,
from the life of toil to the calmer state of contemplation.
Therefore have I gathered in the myrrh with spice,
because the spices of virtue have been prepared and
perfected in thee with the bitterness of toil, and wis-
dom hath made progress through keeping the com-
mandments. For when fleshliness and self-will have
been mortified, then the spices of holiness flow out,
and by the fulfilment and triumph of this toil the sum-
mit of perfection is reached.” And why is He said
pale. treat
V.1, THE SONG OF SONGS. 201
to gather His myrrh, instead of letting it grow still in
the garden? Why, but that He may give it as a posy
to His Bride, that bunch which lies all night between
her breasts, for her delight and refreshment.
f have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. And
this He did when He stored the golden sweetness of
His Godhead in the frail, pure shrine of His human
Body. He hath eaten the honeycomb, that is, taken
it to Himself, in raising it to Heaven by His Ascen-
sion. And in precisely the same sense is it added, I
have drunk My wine with My milk, wherein the hy-
postatic union of the Two Natures in His Person is
similarly shadowed forth. But as the phrases eating
and drinking denote bodily refreshment, they are more
usually explained of the pleasure which Curist de-
rives from the holiness of His Saints. By the honey-
comb and wine, comments Cassiodorus, holy preachers
are figured, and by honey and mzlk devout hearers.
For preachers are honeycombs who bring forth the
secret and hidden mysteries of Scripture like honey
out of the comb, when they disclose them to others by
preaching. And devout hearers are the honey, because
they delight to receive eagerly and to be fed plea-
santly with the sweetness of Gop’s Word. The same
preachers who are honeycomb are also wine, because
‘they declare the mighty Sacraments of the Scriptures.
The hearers, as weaker, are milk, in that they need
the mysteries to be explained and simplified for them.
And whereas all these spend their lives in different
ways, the Redeemer is fed and gladdened with the
holy resolutions of them all, and thus does, as it were,
eat His honeycomb with His honey, and drink His
wine with His milk. And we may refer it also to the
death of the elect, whom the Lorp eats, when He calls
them by death to eternal life, and unites them to His
Body, that is, to the fellowship of the elect who already
rejoice in that heavenly bliss. And if we do so take it
of the death of the Saints, we should understand them
by wine whose souls now are exulting in heavenly
bliss, and by honeycomb those who rejoice both in body
and soul in that blessedness, such as they who arose
together with the Lorp. Again, He accepts all kinds
of holiness,—that which is solid, denoted by the comb ;
that which is sweet, signified by the honey ; that which
is strong and vigorous, typified by wine; that which
comes from weak and imperfect Christians, shadowed
S. Athan.
Rupert.
Cassiod.
Theodoret.
Luc. Abb.
Irimbert.
Hugo Card.
Ricard. Vict.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Philo Carp.
S. Ambros.
de Sacr. v. 3.
Corn. a Lap.
202 A COMMENTARY ON ‘vei
forth by milk. Another will have it that the honey-
comb with its honey fitly signifies those Saints who
delight in the study of Holy Writ, and who make
their hearts and memories the cells wherein they, like
bees, store up the sweet food drawn from all the
flowers of Law and Prophet, Psalm and Gospel. And
another writer reminds us that we too may eat and
drink in this wise in imitation of our Lorp, when we
digest not merely the outward letter of Holy Serip-
ture, which is the comb, but its inner spiritual sense,
which is the honey; when we drink not only the
stinging and powerful wine of compunction, but the
soothing milk of trust in the mercy of Gop. He
drinks His wine too in another manner, the new wine
of His kingdom, in His delight in those of His Saints
who have kept the faith and finished their course, and
come to Him where He no longer weeps for Lazarus,
where He is no more sorrowful unto death, where He
drinks not vinegar and gallagain. He drinks His milk
in His love for His Saints yet militant and imperfect,
who are still in the way, and need daily refreshment
and food. He eats His honeycomb when He delights
in the inner capacities of the soul for good. He adds
His honey to that feast when those capacities develope
into action, like the comb pouring out its golden
streams. He drinks wine and milk when He looks on
a soul delightedly contemplating Him in His double
aspect of perfect Godhead and glorified Manhood.
And the soul too eats and drinks in its turn, nay, in
the’ same order. For amended ways and good works
must come before the grace of contemplation is be-
stowed. A various reading of the LXX. and Arabie,
bread for honeycomb, has pointed more directly a fur-
ther sense also latent here, and thus some of the Fa-
thers have bidden us see here a prophecy of the Holy
Eucharist, that Food which is all sweetness and strength.
And Cornelius aptly notes that it was the custom of
the primitive Ghireh to give the Blessed Sacrament
to the newly-baptized, and immediately thereafter,
honey and milk, typical of the gentleness, sweetness,
and simplicity of the Law of Curist. And as He is
not only Lorp of the feast spread upon His Altar
daily, but fellow-guest, in that His own members are
they who feed there, He is said to share in the repast,
as He did on that first Maundy Thursday amongst
His Apostles.
203
Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O be-
loved. The first question they ask here is, Who are
these friends? And the Targum helps us to the an-
swer. As it takes the invitation of the Bride to be the
invocation of Gop unto His Temple, and His reply to
denote His sending down fire to consume the oblations,
so it explains this clause of His summons to the
priests to draw near in order to eat their share of the
sacrifices, which He leaves for them. And thus we
shall see here Curtst’s invitation to those Apostles
whom He then called no more servants, but friends,
saying, ‘‘ Come, eat of My Bread, and drink of the
Wine which I have mingled.” And not only they,
but all Christians of whatever degree, who are in a
sense His priests, are called to that same banquet.
Drink abundantly. The marginal reading, more ex-
actly, with LX X. and Vulgate, Be drunken. For, as
a great Saint and Martyr teaches us, the intoxication
of the Lorp’s Chalice and Blood is not like that of
this world’s wine, therefore the Hoty GuHost when
saying in the Psalm, “ My inebriating chalice,” addeth,
** How good it is!’? because, no doubt, the Lorp’s
Chalice in such wise inebriates those who drink of it,
as to make them sober, and recall their souls to spi-
ritual wisdom, so that each may turn from the savour
of the world to taste the knowledge of Gop: and just
as the mind is relaxed, the soul loosened, and all sor-
row cast aside by means of ordinary wine; so when
we drink the Blood of the Lorp and the Cup of Salva-
tion, the memory of the old man is laid aside, forget-
fulness of our former conversation comes upon us, and
the sad and mourning heart, which just now was op-
pressed with torturing sins, is freed by the gladness
of Gop’s merciful pardon. Accordingly that ancient
morning hymn, once daily used in the Western Church,
but now for many centuries restricted to the Lauds of
Monday, runs :
V..1J THE SONG OF SONGS.
1 The word o'y, friends, is
the same which is translated
im‘the A. V. of Ps. exxxix. 17;
as ‘‘thoughts,’’ and in the
Prayer Book as ‘counsels,’
whereby the force of its ancient
use and beautiful Antiphon,
as employed in the Common of
Apostles, ‘‘ How dear are Thy
friends unto me, O Gon,” is
lost.
2 This is the LXX. and Vul-
gate reading of Ps. xxiii. 5,
where the A. V. translates (as
do modern critics) ‘‘my cup
runneth over.”
Targum.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
S. Ambros.
S. John xv.
15.
Prov. ix. 5.
S. Cyprian.
Ep. 63 ad
Ceecilium,
S. Ambros.
The Hymn,
Splendor
Paterne
Glorie.
Cassiod.
S. Luke
xv. 6.
Philo Carp.
S.Ans. Laud.
S. Greg. M.
Ric. Vict.
204: A COMMENTARY ON [V.-1.
And CuristT shall be our daily Food,
Our daily drink His Precious Blood,
And thus the Srrrit’s calm excess!
Shall fill our souls with holiness.
But this is only one out of a variety of expositions.
One Father tells us that it is an invitation to all Gop’s
faithful and loving servants to behold and imitate the
examples of His Saints, and that if we interpret the
passage of Saints departed, then the friends called on
to rejoice are the angelic spirits, delighting in seeing
the elect translated from this life to the rest of ever-
lasting blessedness, according to that parable of the
Gospel, “Rejoice with Me, for I have found My
sheep which was lost.” Another sees in the friends
called on to eat, the Patriarchs and Prophets, sum-
moned to share in the Word of Life and in the Passion
of the Lorp, and in the stream of the Hoty Guost;
and the beloved, called to drunkenness, the Apostles,
so inebriated with the torrent of the Hoty Guost
poured on them from heaven, that they were thought
to be full of new wine, while preaching the wonder-
ful works of Gop. §. Anselm of Laon tells us that
preachers are called on to eat, that is, to incorporate
sinners into the body of the Church with pains and
care, by converting their hearers, and to drink, in
the case of those who are more readily won over
and quickly give in adhesion, while the term be
drunken denotes their zealous pleasure in their work,
and their heedlessness of all temporal things so long
as they may carry it on. Not very dissimilarly, S.
Gregory the Great, taking the banquet to be Holy
Scripture, says that they eat of it and are Curist’s
friends, who, though not attaining perfection, do yet
strive after holiness in their degree; but His beloved,
who are drunken with its delights, are those who have
cast away all thoughts of earth in their eagerness to
quaff His cup. And this is true also of divine con-
templation, wherein Gop feeds His friends, but more
abundantly refreshes His beloved, though both receive
in that banquet spiritual consolation, as they are fed
with the love of Curist, are enlightened in faith, com-
forted in hope, kindled in charity, gladdened with
righteousness, truth, purity, and all other graces.
And finally, they take it of the summons to the un-
1 “¢ Sobriam ebrietatem.”’
Veory THE SONG OF SONGS. 205
ending festival of heaven. There, exclaims Gilbert ,..
of Hoyland, there all are friends, all beloved. All ee oc
drink, and all are inebriated. Not so in this vale of
tears, not so, but there are many friends, few beloved ;
many drink, not all are inebriated, and they who are
so, become sober again. For a moment they pass
forth in eestasy, and then return again to the wonted
soberness. There it is different:
Ever full, yet ever craving, they desire, and yet possess, S. Pet. Dam.
But their fulness brings no loathing, and their hunger no distress, aa Hymn,
Eagerly they eat for ever, eyer eat in joyfulness. be belies
And with this last interpretation we may couple that
other version of the clause, Be drunken with love, with
all the unspeakable gladness of the Home of eternal
joy.
21 sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the
voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,
Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my
undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and
my locks with the drops of the night.
Here begins another main division of the song, the
- fourth in order, and marking the central time of the
action. It typifies, as some of the commentators tell
us, the trials of the Bride after her union with the
Bridegroom ; her failure, yearning, and search for Him
after He had again withdrawn Himself for her better
probation. It is thus taken of the Church after she Hon. Aug.
relaxed in her first love and zeal, after the days of
Pagan tyranny were over, and of the soul which yields
to spiritual negligence even after true conversion to
Gop. The Chaldee paraphrase is quite in keeping Targum.
with this view, in that it explains the sleep of the Bride
to be the seventy years’ captivity in Babylon, whence
Israel was wakened by the voice of the Hoty Guost,
warning them by the Prophets, and rousing them from
the slumber of their heart. And similarly one or two 8S. Greg.
are found who explain this sleep of the Bride to denote Nyssele
a season of negligence and indevotion, soon to be shaken
off, and prevented from working fatal results because
her Heart, her Love, her Bridegroom, is watching
over her slumbers, and guarding her from all fear of
the enemy, according to that saying, ‘‘ Behold, He that Ps. xxi. 4.
Gillebert.
Tres Patr.
Theodoret.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros,
Exhort. ad
Virg.
S. Greg.
M. Moral.
Vv. 22,
S, August.
Tract. 57 in
Johann,
Ecclus.
XXXVlii. 24.
S. Mat. x.
27.
S. Luke ii.
19.
S. Ambros.
de Virg.
lib. ii.
Brev. Sarisb.
206 A COMMENTARY ON (veo
keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” But
the great majority take the words in a good sense.
Her Lorp has just given her His inebriating chalice,
which closes her eyes to all earthly cares and anxieties,
and she now slumbers in the deep repose of perfect
trust, and divine contemplation, while her heart is
waking in eagerness of love for Him. She sleeps, be-
cause sleep is a type of death, and she has learnt to
die to the world and its affections, whilst she wakes in
contemplation of heavenly things. And therefore S.
Ambrose thus addresses a Virgin, “ Let thy flesh sleep,
let thy faith wake, let the allurements of the body
slumber, let the prudence of the heart keep watch, let
thy members breathe the odour of Curist’s Cross and
grave, that slumber bring no heat, and arouse no pas-
sions.” And this mingled condition of sleep and wake-
fulness involves, 8S. Gregory warns us, a perpetual
struggle, that contemplation may not sink into torpor,
nor evil passions take possession of the soul whence
secular occupations have been banished. How this
struggle is to be carried on, another Saint will tell us:
What means, I sleep, but my heart waketh, save that I
so rest that I may hear? My repose is not devoted to
encouraging sloth, but to acquiring wisdom. I sleep
and my heart waketh, I have time for thought, and I
see that Thou art the Lorp, for “the wisdom of a
learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure ; and he
that hath little business shall become wise.” TI sleep,
and my heart waketh ; I rest from the cares of busi-
ness, and my mind is busy with divine affection, but
while the Church is peacefully delighting in them who
thus sweetly and humbly rest, behold One knocketh
Who saith, “* What I tell you in darkness, that speak
ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach
ye upon the housetops.”’
And in this sense of peaceful contemplation of the
pure and untrammelled soul, they delight to recall her
who “kept all these things and pondered them in her
heart.” Desire for sleep came not on her, says a great
Saint, before its need, and yet when her body was at
rest, her mind was waking, busy even in dreams in re-
calling what she had read, continuing in sleep what
had been interrupted, or carrying out plans, or else
declaring what should be carried out. And in imita-
tion of her the ancient English Church prays in one
of her Compline hymns and antiphons :
¥. 29 THE SONG OF SONGS. 207
O let our eyes due slumber take, The Hymn,
Our hearts to Thee for ever wake! CurisTE,
Qui lux es et
And again ; ‘‘ Save us watching, O Lorp, and guard us ae
sleeping, that we may watch with Curist, and sleep
in peace.” This we may do, observes S. Cyprian, by S. Cypr. de
being earnest in prayer, for he who recites prayer Ft. Dom.
carelessly, wakes with his body, but sleeps with his
heart. Cassiodorus tells us that the words are those Cassiod.
of the Church, saying that she sleeps, because she is
enjoying comparative peace, and not suffering the per-
secutions endured by the primitive Church, and there-
fore her heart waketh because she is able to devote
herself to the love of her Bridegroom in greater secu-
rity than before. But as she errs in supposing this
time to be one of peace, rather than of toil and strife,
she is quickly roused by His voice, calling her to
labour and striving to spread His kingdom. Again;
the words have been taken to denote the condition of
the faithful departed, sleeping indeed bodily in the
grave, but with the affections alive and active in wor-
ship of Gop and intercession for the loved on earth.
And in this sense they form the noble motto over the
tombs of the kings of Spain in the Escorial.
There is a further interpretation of the words, as- Hugo Vict.
cribing them to the Bridegroom. And first; they Ps*!¥s-
take it of His sleep in the grave, where His Body
rested, but His Godhead was ever wakeful, and, as
another adds, His soul was even then engaged in har- Philo Carp.
rowing hell, and spoiling it of its prey. Again; He
sleeps in the sense of His perfect rest in the bosom of S. Greg. M.
His Farner, and yet labours there that all who love
Him may come to Him. And thus He, as it were,
sleeps in bodily absence, while He watches over us in
ever-present and loving Godhead. Once more, He
sleeps, so far as all outward sign of life is concerned,
in the great Sacrament of His love, where He is
hidden under the forms of Bread and Wine, but His vieyra.
heart waketh there in the love wherewith He gives
Himself to be our Food.
Luc, Abb.
I rise from dreams of time,
And an Angel guides my feet,
To the sacred Altar-throne,
Where Jesus’ heart doth beat.
The lone lamp softly burns,
And a wondrous silence reigns,
S. August.
Tract. 57 in
S. Joann.
Cassiodor.
Honorius
Augustod.
S. August.
loc. cit.
208 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 2.
Only, with a low still voice,
The Holy One complains:
‘Long, long I’ve waited here,
And though thou heed’st not Me,
The Heart of Gop’s own SON
Beats ever on for thee.”’
In the womb of Mary meek,
In the cradle, on the Tree ;
Heart of pure, undying love,
It lived, loved, bled for me.
Ever pleading, day and night,
Thou canst not from us part,
O veiled and wondrous Son,
O love of the Sacred Heart!
It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh. And
this knocking, as 8. Augustine told us but just now,
is that the Church may rise to the life of action from
that of contemplation, may understand that it is her
duty to go forth and compel the multitude of the Gen-
tiles to come in. The words, observes a Western divine
of alater age, denote Curtst’s anxiety for the neglectful
and erring, that they may be corrected by spiritual
persons, and imply at the same time the eagerness
of the Church in contemplation, and the irksomeness
to her of external activity. The Voice of CHrist
knocking at the door of the faithful is this: O Church,
My sister, because through Me co-heir of My kingdom,
My friend (Vulg.) because through Me versed in hea-
venly mysteries ; My dove, filled by Me with the Hoty
Guost; My undefiled, because cleansed by Me from
sin ; Open to Me by exhortation the door of their hearts,
who have fastened it with the bar of wicked works,
and who have become like the drops of the night, that is,
members of the evil spirits, and thou shalt be My sister,
if thou make those now disinherited through sin, My
fellow-heirs through grace; thou shalt be My friend,
if thou make them, now Mine enemies through unbe-
lief, My friends in steadfastness of faith ; thou shalt
be My dove, if thou make the double-hearted simple ;
and thou shalt be My undefiled, if thou make those
stained with guilt undefiled through virtues. For
how, (as S. Augustine puts it,) shall I enter into them
who have shut the door against Me, unless there be
some one to open? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? He knows full well that He is setting
V.:2.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 209
her a task which seems hard to her; that He is, for
once, telling Mary to leave His feet and her own better
part, and go forth to help Martha in her service, and
therefore He heaps up all loving epithets, that she may
be well assured that it is from no slackening of His
affection that she is summoned from her secret con-
verse to the troubles of the world. She would fain say
with Peter on Mount Tabor, “ Lorp, it is good to be
here,” but she must go down to the plain, from the glory
of the Transfiguration to the group around the strug-
gling demoniac, from the vision of Gop to the strife
with Satan. And she, who had barred herself in lest
the prowling wolf should enter the fold, hearing the
words of love, each title of affection being afresh knock
at the door of her heart, knows the Voice of the Good
Shepherd, and exclaims, even before she sees Hin,
“My Lorp and my Gop,” for she is aware that He only
ean call her sister, who is her Brother by His Incar-
nation, His Jove, Who gave Himself for her; His dove,
to whom He gave the seven-fold gifts of the Sprrit;
His undefiled, whom He washed in the waters of Bap-
tism. One writer suggests that the unsheltered con-
dition of the Bridegroom tells us of His rejection by
the Jews, and that this is an appeal to the Gentile
Church to receive and house Him.
And as He is still in truth despised and rejected of
men, as too often He wanders in this world not finding
where to lay His head, so in the chill night of spiritual
coldness and darkness, He knocks at the door of the
faithful soul, asking that there at least He may be shel-
tered. Open, He says, My sister, thy heart to Me,
Who have opened My side for thee by My Passion,
and heaven by My Ascension. And on this S. Gre-
Philo Carp.
Corn. 4 Lap.
S. Just. Org.
Gillebert.
Henr.
Harphius.
S. Greg.
gory Nyssen comments at much length, bidding us Nyss-
notice four points in particular. First: Gop presents
Himself to him who sleeps to the world and watches to
om. 11.
Gop, heeding that saying of the Gospel, “ Be ye your- oe Luke xii.
selves like unto men that wait for their Lorp, when
He returns from the wedding; that when He cometh
and knocketh, they may open to Him immediately.”
Next; although Gop has often opened to the Bride,
yet as she never can arrive at full knowledge of Him,
she delights in every fresh opportunity of gaining some
fresh knowledge, of beholding some new manifestation,
and therefore she exults in hearing His voice asking for
admittance. Thirdly; that this longing of hers makes
P
S. Ambros.
de Isaac. 6.
Exhort. ad
Virgines.
Serm. 12, in
Ps. cxix.
Theodoret.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodor,
Beda.
210 A COMMENTARY ON r¥..2.
her advance both in knowledge and love of Gop, for
she first hears merely the knock, but does not recog-
nize it, till she is informed by the tones of His voice.
Fourthly ; that the door which He calls her to open
is that of inquiring search after divine mysteries, and
contemplation of them; and as she has no power to
open this of herself, He gives her four keys, signified
by the four titles He bestows on her, as though saying,
Tf thou desire that thy door should be opened and thy
gates lifted up, that the King of Glory may come in,
thou must first become My sister, by doing the will of
My Faruer Which is in heaven; thou must draw
near the truth, and thus be so exactly My nearest
(LXX.) that there may be no interval or barrier be-
tween us; thou must have in thy nature the perfect-
ness of a dove, and be full of all innocence and purity.
Again; you may take the door to be devotion, as S.
Ambrose teaches: “ Even though thou be sleeping,
yet if Crist do but know the devotion of thy soul,
He comes and knocks at its door, and saith: Open to
Me, My Sister, for the spiritual bridal of the Worp
and the Soul is come. Open to Me, but shut the door
to strangers, shut it to the world; nor yet come forth
thyself to those earthly concerns, nor quit thine own
light to seek another’s. Open thyself to Me, be not
straitened, but expanded, and I will fill thee.” And
the same Saint tells us elsewhere that the soul has
other doors too, at any of which her Lorp may knock.
He may choose the door of prayer, and desire to have
it opened that He may hear her voice uttering His
praise in a psalm, or confessing His grace and Passion
in the Creed. Or He comes in by the door of faith,
or by that of righteousness. A Greek Father tells us,
truly enough, that our bodily senses are doors of the
soul, and by these we may admit CuRIsT, just as we
may also admit His foe, if we keep them not barred
with due custody. However it be taken, at any rate,
we can be sure of this, that the knock, whenever and
wherever given, is a call to greater exertion, contem-
plative or active. Whoso obeys Gop and zealously
keeps His commandments, feels himself daily sum-
moned to the door of his heart, and ever urged to ac-
complish better and loftier works of charity, which
the very knocks denote. And He knocks in another
fashion, at the hour of death, when He calls on the
faithful soul to arise and follow Him. ‘Then we open
V. 2.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 211
at once to Him, if we accept death gladly, and fear
not to be led before His judgment-seat, because we
remember that we have striven to please Him, and
have ever had Him in honour. And, as 8. Gregory
aptly tells us, every sickness which tells us that the
hour of death is drawing near, is one of these knocks
of the Bridegroom at the door.
S. Bernard, preaching on the Incarnation, tells us
that the words may well denote the call made to the
Blessed Virgin to signify her assent to that mystery
when revealed to her by the Archangel, whom the
Saint represents as saying in effect: “ Open, O Blessed
Virgin, thy heart to faith, thy lips to confession,
thy womb to the Creator. Behold, the Desire of all
nations knocks without at thy door. O,if He should
pass by through thy delay, and thou shouldest again
begin with sorrow to seek for Him whom thy soul
loveth! Arise, haste, open. Arise by faith, haste by
devotion, open by confession.” Another writer, keep-
ing more closely to the first explanation given, takes
this as an appeal to the Mother of Gop after her Son’s
Resurrection not to withdraw, as her own desires would
prompt her, into secret retirement and contemplation,
where only the Angels would be her companions, but
to remember that He was still shelterless, rejected by
the Synagogue, and not yet accepted by the Gentiles,
and that she therefore should open her mouth to con-
firm the teaching of the Gospel, and thus help to find
Him a home in the hearts of men. But it is not to
His Church alone, nor to His Saints, nor yet to His
Mother only that He thus speaks. To all, even to
sinners, He addresses these words: “ Behold, I stand
at the door, and knock ; if any man hear My voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup
with him, and he with Me.” When Curist, the Lover
of all souls, sees any soul at ease, busied with carnal
pleasures, allowing entrance for the devil at the heart,
and being fenced round with the snares of the enemy ;
then He comes back in the dead of the night, that is,
by hidden compunction, and knocks at the door of her
understanding, that, roused from her fatal sleep, she
may see that she is beset with perils, and implore His
aid. And the doors by which He then seeks entrance
are repentance and faith, as He came into the heart of
S. Thomas, when he doubted concerning the Resur-
rection. So He calls to us in the night, that we may
P2
S. Greg. M.
Hom. 13, in
Evang.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 4,
sup. Missus.
Rupert.
Rev. iii. 20.
Luc. Abb,
Cassiodor,
Philo Carp.
212 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 2.
open and take Him in ere the dawning of the Great
Day.
Kynaston. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand,
There are signs in the heaven, and signs on the land,
In the wavering earth, and the drouth of the sea—
But He stands and He knocks, sinner, nearer to thee.
His night-winds but whisper until the day break
To the Bride, for in slumber her heart is awake :
He must knock at the sleep where the revellers toss,
With the dint of the nails and the shock of the Cross.
Look out at the casement ; see how He appears,
Still weeping for thee all Gethsemane’s tears,
Ere they plait Him earth’s thorns, in its solitude crowned,
With the drops of the night and the dews of the ground.
Will you wait? Will you slumber until He is gone,
Till the beam of the timber cry out to the stone, —
Till He shout at thy sepulchre, tear it apart,
And knock at thy dust, Who would speak to thy heart?
For My head is filled with dew, and My locks with
the drops of the night. This is the reason which the
Bridegroom gives why the door should be quickly
opened to Him; and it may therefore be taken di-
versely, according as it is understood to be an appeal
to the Bride’s compassion for His forlorn state, or a
promise of the reward which her compliance will bring
to her. There is no reason why both interpretations
may not hold, for the Lorp Jxsus blessed those who
wrought a good work on Him during His earthly life
in ministering to His bodily needs. The woman of
Samaria who gave Him drink, the sinful woman who
anointed Him, the publican who made Him a feast, all
Rete obtained from Him rich payment for their care. Let
S. Joan. us then take first the Man of sorrows, before we kneel
to the rewarding King. He saith then: Open to Me,
My sister, My spouse, My dove, My undefiled, for My
head is full of dew, and My locks with the drops of
the night, as though He implied, Thou art at ease, and
the door is shut against Me, thou art careful for the
repose of a few, and because iniquity prevails, the
love of many waxes cold. For night denotes iniquity,
and its dew and drops are they who grow cold and
fall, and chill the Head of Curist, that is, cause that
Gop, Who is Curist’s head, should not be loved.
And these are carried in the locks, that is, they are
admitted to outer Sacraments, but they do not reach
the inward meaning. He knocks, therefore, that He
V. 2.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 2138
may rouse the restful Saints from their repose, and
cries, Open to Me, preach Me. Cassiodorus, agreeing Cassiodor.
with nearly all this exposition, differs on one point.
He takes the Jocks adorning Curist the Head to be
His Saints, filled with the drops of the night when
persecuted by cold and unloving and unbelieving souls.
Or again; the locks adhering to the head, yet full S- Greg. M.
of dew, may well denote those who yield a partial
obedience to Curist, who believe in His Godhead, 8. Just. Org.
and have faith so far, but not love, in that they are full §-4™5-1244.
of darkness and iniquity. And in this sense other
writers have limited the phrase more particularly to
eareless and ignorant bishops and clergy, who do not
preach Curis? of sincerity. On this there is a legend
recorded by S. Thomas of Cantipré, that a Cistercian S. Thomas
monk in Brabant once saw the Lorp Jusvus in the oun’s,
form of a little child shivering in the snow, and crying 1, 13.
with cold and pain. When asked the cause, He re-
plied, trembling all over, “ Alas, alas, why should I
not weep? why should I not wail? Lo, thou seest that
I sit needy, alone, and in the cold, and there is no one to
take Me in, and give Me shelter.” Hereupon the monk
took Him up, and set Him on his horse, but the Child,
leaping from his arms, suddenly disappeared, darting a
great pang of suffering and love into his heart. This
‘quaint legend (and indeed the whole verse) receives a
curious illustration from a poem of a heathen bard :
Once at the midnight tide, Pseudo-
While swept along the Bear Anacreon,
Bootes’ hand beside, Mecovuktiois
And when, worn out with care, m9 dipais.
iy all the tribes of men :
ove reached my door, and there
He plied the knocker then.
Who knocks so loud, I said,
And drives my dreams away ?
** A child, be not afraid,
But ope the door, I pray,
For I am wet in plight,
And I have lost my way
In this dark moonless night,’’
With pity at his cry,
I light my lamp, and so
I open, and descry
A winged child with a bow
And quiver, near me stands:
Close by my fire’s glow,
I seat him, chafe his hands,
§. Ambros.
de Isaac. 6.
Id. Serm., 12,
in Ps. cxix.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Luc. Abb.
Tres Patr.
S. Ambros.
de Virgin. 3.
Ric. Vict.
Targum.
S. Paulinus,
Ep. 4, ad
Severum.
214 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 2.
And from his hair the rain
In dewy drops I wring,
But he, when warm again, ‘
Cries, ‘‘ Let us try the string,
Lest wet have hurt my bow.’’
He drew it, and the sting
Sent through my heart its blow.
He laughed with merry voice,
And, leaping with a bound,
Cried, ‘‘ Host, with me rejoice,
My bow is safe and sound,
No harm its horn hath ta’en,
But, as for thee, thy wound
Will give thy heartstrings pain.”’
Again, the dew and drops of the night typify sorrow
and trouble, which the Lorp endures even still through-
out the world, finding no place of rest. But it is just
then, when His Body is suffering in this wise, and
when He, as the Head, shares its affliction, that He
knocks at the door to visit those who are in distress,
lest they should faint and yield, if not sustamed by
His Presence.
But it is now time to turn to the other school of inter-
preters, who see here the blessings which the Bridegroom
brings with Him as He enters. First, taking the locks
of His head to denote His chief Saints, whether Angels,
Apostles, or Prophets, they explain the drops of dew
to be the holy doctrines which they possess and impart
to men, lofty and glorious indeed, as being on the head,
and seeming to us very rivers and seas of knowledge,
yet only drops when compared with the abysmal ocean
of Divine wisdom. Then, the dew may be explained
of heavenly grace, moistening the dry heart during
the darkness of the world, to make it glad and fertile.
Or, again, it is mercy falling on the darkness of human
sin and blindness. And this may be coupled with the
view of the Targum, that the drops in the locks of the
Lorp are the tears of repentant sinners. And another,
reminding us how the dew-drops glitter in a clear night,
says that these shining drops amidst the locks of the
Bridegroom denote the starry virtues with which His
Saints were decked, when the full moon of the Church
shone down on the conversion of the Gentiles. Finally,
the Bridegroom’s Head filled with dew, typifies His
Resurrection very early in the morning, while those
locks of His, wet with the drops of night, signify the
souls of His redeemed and the nations won over to the
Vesey — THE SONG OF SONGS. 215
Faith, but still in the cold of their sins and the dark-
ness of imperfect knowledge, soon to be lightened and
warmed by the life and teaching of their pastors,
through the grace of the Hoty GuHost.
8 I have put off my coat; how shall I put
it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I
defile them ?
On this verse also there is a great discrepancy of
exposition. That which is the most obvious meaning
also has on its side the names of highest authority, to
wit, that the Bride, lately so eager for her Bridegroom’s
presence, has now relaxed in her zeal, is resting in
ease and comfort, and is reluctant to put herself to the
inconvenience of rising, dressing, and opening the door.
In the spirit of the man asked at midnight for the loan
of three loaves, she answers her Lorp, “ Trouble me
not; the door is now shut: I cannot rise and give
Thee.” She has, of course, some excuse to put for-
ward as a cloak for her ingratitude and sloth, and she
pleads the difficulty and unpleasantness of compliance.
She says, “ J have washed my feet,” not knowing that
her Lorp saith, “‘ If I wash thee not, thou hast no part
in Me,” much less asking Him, as S. Peter did, to
wash her hands and her head also. The coat she had
put off, is, as some will have it, the very bridal robe
given her but now as a marriage present, whose smell
was like Lebanon, denoting the love of Gop, which, as
involving self-denial, she now postpones to love of self.
And then we know what must follow,—that terrible
warning to a once faithful and toiling Church, “I have
somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come
unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out
of his place, except thou repent.” 8S. Augustine, taking
the words to denote the lull in the missionary zeal and
vigilance of discipline which overtook the Church after
its establishment under Constantine, represents her
Philo Carp.
S. Luke xi.7.
Sanchez.
Luc. Abb.
S. Greg. M.
Hom. 38 in
Evang.
Rev. ii. 4.
excusing herself in this fashion: ‘“‘O Curist, Thou s. august.
biddest me, Thy Church, to soften and open for Thee
the hearts of men, harder than rock, and I would
gladly do it, but I have no fit workmen; at any rate,
I do not yet clearly know what they can endure, and
what they will refuse. The former ones, whom I knew
Tract. 57 in
S. Joan.
Cassiodor,
S. Mat.
xxiv. 18.
Ric. Vict.
S. Leo.
Hon. Aug.
216 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 3.
to be competent, whom I sent boldly into the fight, the
late storm of hostile wrath, the past violence of Maxi-
mian, Maxentius, Diocletian, and the almost ceaseless
cruel persecution by Licinius, have swept away. These
my warriors, closely united to me, hemmed me in,
sheltered me, and veiled me like an inner robe; and,
whilst obeying Thee, and sparing not my champions,
I have been, and remain, all but stripped and naked.
Of those who remain, some are broken down by age
and toil, others by wounds and tortures, and the youth-
ful residue, by whose zeal Thou willest that I should
speed, as on feet, through the world, being but lately
washed [in baptism, ] are yet but tender, and I there-
fore fear lest they faint under the burden, or lest they
should again be soiled, and I be thus once more de-
filed in my feet.” Or it may, as several others repre-
sent, denote an undue exaltation of the contemplative
life over the active, when the Church, or any individual
soul, pleads its own spiritual advantage as a reason for
refraining from the task of converting others. Thus
Cassiodorus says: ‘‘ I have stripped myself of the cares
and occupations of this world, without which the task
of preaching can scarcely or not at all be carried on,
and how can it be that I should return again to what
I have abandoned? For he who sets himself to un-
dertake the office of preaching, must also see to the
temporal needs of those placed under him, which can-
not be done without much anxiety. And that the
coat does signify the anxiety and cares of the world,
the Lorp shows in the Gospel, saying, ‘ Neither let
him that is in the field return back to take his clothes,’
which means, that he is not again to be entangled in
the things of the world. Therefore the Church or
any faithful soul, which has stripped off this coat, fears,
when resting in contemplation of its Creator, lest it
should be clad in it again, and busied in secular con-
cerns.” But Gop is not willing that souls should perish
for any such cause as this, and therefore He compels
His Bride to bestir herself, and to act on that saying
of a Saint, “It is needful that even religious hearts
should be defiled with earthly dust.” And therefore,
though she has washed her feet, those affections of her
heart which guide its path, with penitential tears, and
dreads to soil them again, she must needs leave her
bed, and tread the floor a second time. There is,
however, a good sense in which the Bride may utter
V. 3.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 217
these words, and that sense is pressed by many of the
Fathers. They take it to be a resolution against any
relapse into sin, that having put off the old man and Col. ili. 9.
his deeds, and washed herself in the Blood of the S. Greg.
Lamb, she determines that nothing shall draw her *¥**
back to her former conversation. She casts off that
coat of skins, type of dead works, which clothed Adam Gen. iii. 21.
after his fall, and she puts on Curist Himself for her
raiment. She will not keep both together, for she
remembers the precept given to the Apostles, “ Nei- g. mat. x.
ther two coats;’’ nor will she endeavour to blend them 10.
into one, for the Lorp hath also said, ‘‘ No man seweth S. Mark ii.
apiece of new cloth on an old garment.” And she ?!-
has washed her feet, too, in the laver of Baptism and tres patr.
the grace of the Hoty Guost, from the defilement of
earth, loosing from them those shoes of dead hides
that she may do so. So Moses put off his shoes at
the burning bush, and Holy Scripture nowhere tells
that he resumed them; so, in all the elaborate vesture
of the High Priest, there is no mention of shoes; so
too, the Apostles were directed to provide no shoes for
their journey. And that because there is neither dust
nor mire on the Way to our Country, paved as it is
with portions of the Rock, according to that saying,
“He brought me out of the horrible pit, out of the Ps. x1. 2.
mire’ and clay, and set my feet upon the Rock, and
ordered my goings.” And again, the words are taken Hen. Harph.
of that voluntary poverty in spirit and body, when
the Bride is eager to strip herself of everything which
may entangle her in her race and delay her approach
to the goal where the Bridegroom awaits her with
the first of His beatitudes. For they who imitate
by voluntary poverty His suffering life are intrusted
with the special privilege of judicial power, as saith
the Lorp to them who had forsaken all, ‘‘ Ye which S. Mat. xix.
have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son ?*
of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes
of Israel.” And that because in being conformed and
united to Him Who is Truth and Righteousness, there
is nothing left in their judgment to swerve from justice,
and thus they are fitted for the office. The Targum, Targum.
taking the words I have put off my coat as spoken by
the congregation of Israel, doubtful how to repent and
clothe itself again with the garment of obedience to
Gov’s Law, ascribes the second clause to Gop Himself,
Philo Carp.
Rev. xxi.
4, 5.
Irimbert.
Rev. xxi. 27.
Eusebius.
Theodoret.
218 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 4.
Who asks the guilty nations in turn how He can defile
His feet by walking amongst them as of yore. Andone
Christian writer applies the whole verse to the Bride-
groom, when He stripped off the mortality and passi-
bility of His Flesh, and passed in His Ascension from
the narrow limits of earth to the boundless regions of
heaven, where death hath no more dominion over Him.
There too, where the Body follows the Head, and has
attained the “ blessed necessity of sinlessness,”’ she may
say in thankful adoration, I have put off my coat of
corruption, how shall I put it on? for here is no more
death and all things are new. J have washed my feet,
which stand now on the golden pavement of the hea-
venly Jerusalem, and how shall I defile them? seeing
a ff eee shall in no wise enter into it anything that
efileth.”
4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of
the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
Although the words of the door are not in the He-
brew text, nor in the early versions, yet this gloss is
supplied by several Rabbinical authorities, and many
commentators. This hole is variously taken to be the
orifice left for raising the latch from the outside,
whether with the hand or a key, or else as a grille or
wicket in the door, designed as a look-out, and for the
transmission of small articles without opening the
whole gate. Else, it may be taken, as by S. Ambrose
and by some modern critics, to denote a window in
the wall of the cottage of the Bride. This seems
somewhat less probable, as we should in that case find
one of the several words denoting window or lattice,
instead of a term not elsewhere employed in this
sense.! Coming to the mystical import, the hand is the
symbol of power in operation, and the hole, contrasted
with the wide opening of the entire door, denotes the
partial and imperfect glimpse which the soul can ob-
tain of Gop when she puts any barrier between herself
and Him. So we read that when He came to His own
1 The reference to thisopen- | miraculously causesa breach in
ing as a definite and familiar | the wall, through which He
one, the hole, is alone enough to | shows His hand, in warning to
dispose of Bishop Wordsworth’s | the Bride that it is impossible
theory, that the Bridegroom, | to exclude Him if He wills to
refused admittance at the door, | enter.
V. 4. THE SONG OF SONGS. 219
country, Nazareth, typically the house of His sister,
“He did not many mighty works there, because of S. Mat. xiii.
their unbelief.” Some works He did, but not many. °*
ne showed them His hand, so to speak, but not His
ace.
The Incarnation, whereby the Eternal Worp, the
Right Hand of the Farner, was revealed to mankind,
is denoted, as more than one ancient commentator
urges, in this place. He is said to be manifested 8S. Greg.
through the hole, just as in another part of Holy Writ Benge toy
we are said to see Him “in a glass darkly,” because , Cor. xiii.
He emptied Himself of His glory, and though incom- 12.
prehensible, narrowed Himself within the bounds of
a human body; nay, passed through the yet narrower
strait of His Passion, making in the Rock that hole
where His dove should have her nest. In this same
body too He stretched out His hand in a series of
miracles, all performed within the narrow area of
Palestine. And this manifestation of His power is
intended to encourage His Bride to rise, as knowing
that He is strong enough to help her in all perils, nay, Fare oe
that even in peace there is no safety unless He be? ~”
near. In this manner He usually arouses a slumbering
Church or soul. It is not by any startling display of
_ His might, any full disclosure of His presence, that
He commonly operates, but by secretly moving the
understanding and will, by the secret mission of the
Hoty Sprrit. The hole through which He does this, tres patr.
according to one, is our outward sense, whereby we
perceive the working of His power; or as another tTheodoret.
takes it, the memory of His Passion endured for our
sakes; or, yet again, the lower creation, testifying His cassiodor.
goodness and power. And it may be also taken of the Ger
partial measure of grace vouchsafed to stir the soul Nyss.
up to more vigorous action. So Richard of 8S. Victor p:.. vice.
explains it: When the holy soul dreads to be en-
tangled in worldly concerns if she undertake the bur-
densome care of her neighbours, and devote herself
to promoting their salvation, then the Beloved, Who
had urged her to the task, comforts her, and visits her
heart, penetrating it with additional grace. Which g ans raua.
visitation of grace the Bride describes as the putting
of His hand through the hole, because Crist infuses
grace as through a fissure, when He does not flood the
entire soul, but visits with a certain measure of grace,
and does not, when so visiting, fully illuminate. And
Hugo Card.
220 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 5.
Hon, Aug. there is much force in that suggestion of Honorius,
that He gives this grace by showing His hand, that is,
the finished work of His own obedience,—how finished,
the scar in its wounded palm may tell—that she may
be roused to like zeal for accomplishing the work as-
S. Just. Org. signed her. He stretches His hand through the hole
in yet another way when He makes His Bride pass
through trouble and persecution. If she will not open
to Him when He knocks, He will punish her by means
of suffering, calling her back to Himself by famine, and
pestilence, and war, letting her feel, but not see, His
Philo Carp. corrective hand. Philo would have us remember how
He drew the doubting and incredulous to Himself
S. John xx. through the hole, when He spoke to Thomas, ‘“ Reach
27. hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side, and be
not faithless, but believing.”
And my bowels were moved for Him. Here they all
substantially agree that the mingled awe and delight of
the Bride’s heart are described; awe at His presence,
because of her own unworthiness and sense of recent
failure, and delight, because where His right hand is,
there pleasures must be. And accordingly the holy
Rupert. Abbat of Deutz recounts a vision granted to a name-
less person, supposed to have been himself, telling
us: “The Beloved appeared plainly in a vision of
the night, and wondrously put His hand, as through a
hole, into the man’s breast, and laid hold of his heart
within, and held it for some time, pressing it gently,
and that heart rejoiced with gladness unspeakable,
leaping and bounding within the clasp of that Hand.”
Cantacu. Lastly, the passage is explained of the rejoicing of the
zene, hallowed womb of the Virgin Mother when He, the
Dion. Carth. Richt Hand of Gop, came to her at the Annunciation
in secret and mysterious wise, finding her all pure,
free from every garment of sin, resolute in her spot-
less maidenhood, with no speck of the earth on which
she dwelt defiling her feet.
Luc. Abb.
5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my
hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with
sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the
lock.
We open to the Beloved not merely when we receive
Him coming, but when we preach Him to others, and
V. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 221
cause them, who had formerly barred their breast with
sin, now converted by our preaching, to open the door
of their heart to Curist. And it is well said in the
first place I rose up, and afterwards to open to my
Beloved. For he who wishes to open the hearts of
others to Curist by preaching, must first rise up, that
is, be alert in zeal for good works, and fulfil in deed
what he preaches, lest perchance when he has preached
to others, he himself should ‘‘ be a castaway.’ Where-
fore also Luke saith of the Lorp, “ All that Jesus be-
gan both to do and to teach.”” He mentions do first,
and then teach. And I rose up to a more toilsome
and holy task, that by many a labour, and by mortifica-
tion of the flesh, I might open a wider door of medita-
tion, and so take in the Bridegroom Whom I could not
receive before. J rose up to strive after Divine con-
templation, roused by the touch of His hand, that I
might be ready for the full bestowal of celestial grace.
For if His touch moved me, what will His embrace
be P if a drop from His hand had such effect, what
will be the overflowing of His bounty ? if His whisper
was sweet, what will be His open speech? So then,
the Bride rises up to open to her Beloved when,
having obtained some grace, she is the more fired to
. Win it again, to love more fervently, and to devote
herself more earnestly to the care and the salvation
of her neighbours. For even ere she had opened to
her Beloved, she is more eager for Him, and for toil-
ing in works of charity. She trains herself then in
the love of Gop, or in contemplation ; she labours in
works of mercy for the profit of her neighbours ac-
cording as their need requires and the occasion de-
mands. She prays for some, she comforts others, she
gives wholesome counsel to some more, and she prepares
herself to undertake the task of ruling or of preaching,
if the occasion demand it, when she is thus visited
with grace, and endeavours to answer the call of that
grace, and to conform herself to it. It is no labour to
open the door for Curist, when once the Bride is
erect and ready, but it may be toilsome enough to rise
and make the needful preparation, shaking off slumber,
and removing any obstacles that lie between her and
the door.
And my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers
with sweet-smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the
lock. This is the order of the sentence, according to
Cassiodor.
1 Cor. ix. 27.
Acts i. 1.
Tres Patr,
Thom. Verc.
Ric. Vict.
Cocceius.
Guider-
racius.
Nannius.
Corn, a Lap.
Delrio.
Lud.Legion.
Lucret. iv.
1173.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros.
Luc. Abb.
Ricard. Vict.
Theodoret.
S. Greg. M.
222 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 5.
the Masoretic pointing, the Syriac, Arabic, and LXX.
The Vulgate, on the other hand, stops at the second
myrrh, and begins a new sentence, I opened the bolt of
the door for my Beloved. The first question they ask
is, Whence came this myrrh? And various answers
are suggested. Someurge that the Bride had anointed
herself for the reception of her Bridegroom, to which
it is very reasonably objected that she makes no men-
tion of this herself, and that it is inconsistent to sup-
pose her to have so prepared, and then refuse to open
the door. Others suppose that she may have carried
with her to the door a box of unguent ready to anoint
the dank tresses of the Bridegroom, and broken it in
her haste, so as to spill the contents. Thirdly, and
best, the myrrh comes from the Bridegroom, and is
the trace of His recent presence and of His touch when
He put in His hand through the hole, and tried the
lock. And so Lucretius may tell us:
At lacrymans exclusus amator limina sepe
Floribus et sertis operit, postesque superbos
Unguit amaracino.
The tearful lover, shut without, oft clothes
With blooms and wreaths the threshold, and anoints
The stately jambs with marjoram.
They agree in taking myrrh to be, as usual in Scrip-
ture, the type of repentance and voluntary mortifica-
tion, though supposing it to flow spontaneously from
the Bride herself, as a result of that sudden yearning
produced in her by the apparition of the Bridegroom’s
hand. But it is better, on all accounts, to take this
motion of grace as proximately derived from Himself,
and that, by recalling His Passion. Moreover, it ac-
cords exactly with His own words a little before, ‘“ I
have gathered My myrrh,” and He now gives her of
that which He has so collected. Observe next that
not only the hands of the Bride, but her separate
Jingers are said to drop withmyrrh. That is, the effect
produced upon her was not merely general, but par-
ticular. Hach virtue of her soul was separately af-
fected, each detail of her conversation, and not merely
the general scope of her life, was influenced. For as
several fingers exist separately in one hand, so in one
holy life or conversation divers virtues are indepen-
dently discerned. Jor liberality is one kind of virtue,
V..5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 228
frugality another. Humility is one task, frank rebuke
another. We practise one when we speak for our
neighbour’s advantage ; another, when we keep silence
for our own edification. And the fingers are said to
be full of the choicest (Vulg. probatissima) myrrh,
because it is essential in all our actions that mortifica-
tion of fleshliness hold a place. The myrrh is rightly
called choicest, when in the case of every prompting
of the Enemy, carnal pleasure is kept from admission.
When this is so, all the hardness of the soul is melted,
and an ingress is provided that the Bridegroom may
enter the heart. The myrrh is twofold, an ordinary
kind, and sweet-smelling, or rather, with the margin
of A. V. passing, that is fluid myrrh (LX X. wafpn)
dropping naturally from the tree, and not forced out
by incision or other artificial means. And this denotes
the progress of the soul in grace. The first and in-
ferior myrrh, is that penitence which comes from fear
of punishment, or after actual chastisement at Gon’s
hand. The second, and more acceptable, is the over-
flowing of a softened heart, melted by the love of
Gop, and streaming forth its tears naturally and easily
under the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. And ob- Guilielmus.
serve too that it is the hands and fingers of the Bride,
not her mouth, which is said to drop myrrh, teaching
us thereby that an austere and self-denying life, car-
ried out in all details of action, is more important than
eloquent preaching on the part of those who are en-
gaged in the conversion of sinners. The myrrh drops
upon the handles of the lock. That is, the repentance Tres Patr.
of the Bride is first directed to the particular act, habit,
or temper of mind which is ¢he barrier, the besetting
sin which keeps the Bridegroom out. And the myrrh,
falling on the stiff or rusted bolt, makes it easy to
draw it back, showing that amendment of life and the
reception of divine grace must be preceded by contri-
tion. A further sense is well put by Cocceius: ‘The Cocceius.
lock, whereby our heart is opened to Curist, or by
which Curist is shut up within the heart, is faith.
Its bolt is withdrawn when our heart is expanded, so
that Curist can always come to us, with all His re-
tinue, and in every array. The bolt of this lock is
shot by fulness and pleasure. And it is very properly
shot against other desires, but not against the kingdom
of Curist, to prevent it from flowing into us wholly.
The fulness which shuts out everything save CHRIST,
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
S.Ans.Laud.
Ric. Vict.
Parez.
Gillebert.
Serm. 44.
1 Kings vi.
31.
224 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 6.
is from the Hoty Guost, but that which checks any
desire for Him is of the flesh. Besides, the Bride
hints that she found the myrrh on the lock, that is,
the effectual working of the Hoty Guost when she
desired to open her heart. And if we desire to press
the parable further, she finds this fragrant ointment
on her hands and fingers, that is in her toil and action,
which she has begun in the fear of Gop.”
6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved
had withdrawn himself, and was gone; my
soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but
I could not find him; I called him, but he
gave me no answer.
The Latin Fathers, reading in the first clause of this
verse (as noted above) I opened the bolt of the door for
my Beloved, discuss here the nature of this bar or bolt.
And first, they take it to denote worldly pleasure,
which shuts Gop out of the heart. S. Anselm of Laon,
looking at the verse as descriptive of the Church’s
missionary work, takes it to be ignorance and blind-
ness, which preachers remove when they proclaim the
Gospel to hee hearers. And Richard of S. Victor
aptly points out that a lock is but small, though it
keep a great door fast, and its bolt is but a small part
even of it, whence he draws the conclusion that in the
spiritual life it is small negligences and defects which
are the surest barriers between the soul and grace, so
that it is needful to amend and withdraw them before
the Beloved can enter in to the soul. And Parez, ac-
cording to his wont, treating the Canticles as the his-
tory of the Church under both the Old and New
Covenants, remarks that after the Bridegroom’s Incar-
nation, the Bride withdrew the bolt of ceremonial
usages, and threw open those doors of the Law which
hid the sanctuary of Curist from sight, and barred the
access of the Gentiles. J opened. Fitly do anointed
hands open the door for Curist, Who takes His title
from anointing. It may be that He cannot enter save
through an anointed door. Wherefore in the Temple
there were little doors (Vulg. ostiola) made of olive-
tree, through which was the entrance into the Holy
of holies. For this is the kind of tree which yields
the anointing fluid. They are called little doors, and
V. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 225
the olive-wood entrance is narrow, but thou canst glide
In easily in the fatness of grace, where the understand-
ing is subtilized, and the mystery secret. Ingress
will not be toilsome, if thou wilt but use the oil of de-
votion and charity as a door. And it seems to me
that a suitable testimony is produced as to the temple.
‘For the Temple of Gop is holy, which temple ye are.’
Have therefore in thy temple doors through which
the High Priest alone may enter the inmost chamber
of thine heart. Shut the door, draw the bolt, save
when thy Beloved knocks, desiring to enter. If there
be no door, there will be free entrance for every passer-
by. Ifthe door be shut, but not secured with a bolt,
it will readily yield, and give way to pressure, having
no surer fastening. Have both, the door of watchful-
ness, and the bar of firmness. Keep a watchful look-
out, resist firmly. Let not forgetfulness and ignorance
creep in, let not wickedness break in. And if thou
wantest a more precise definition, let anxious fore-
thought be the door, and prayer its bolt. Fastened
with such a bar, thy door will yield to no hostile push.
1 Cor. ili. 17.
‘ He hath made fast,’ saith the Psalmist, ‘ the bars of thy ps. extvii.
gates. In the bars and gates dost not thou think that 13.
thou hearest of the door and bolt? Both are needful,
but only against the enemy. "When thou hearest the
voice and knock of the Beloved, when thou feelest the
light touch of His hand through the hole, draw back
the bolt, open the door, let every barrier give way ;
if it may be, pull down the whole mid-wall, that thy
Beloved may pour Himself freely upon thee. Let thy
carefulness against the snares of evil spirits be turned
into security, and at the presence of the Bridegroom
change caution in keeping off the foe into plenteous-
ness of enjoying the Beloved. He knew that he had
opened the door, who said, ‘O Gop, my heart is Ps. cviii.1.
ready, my heart is ready.’ But how is it that Jusus
needs a door, Who saith in the Gospel, ‘I am thes. John x.9.
door?’ Itis astrange thing. He is the Door, and
yet He knocks at the door. He, by Whom ‘if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and
out and find pasture,’ Himself desires to enter. There
is a great diversity of doors. There is the door of
natural religion, the door of Church Sacraments, the
door of experimental grace. In that first door of
natural religion, wisdom becomes known to us by
reasoning on it as it operates in the works of creation,
Q
Cassiodor.
Eccles. vii.
23.
Ricard. Vict.
Ps. cxlv. 18.
226 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 6.
and we gain access to a certain measure of truth, we
gather some knowledge of the Deity, but not of the
personal character of Gop. At this door there is no
distinction of persons, no bestowal of grace. And
therefore no one ought to be a very frequent or eager
knocker at this door. By the second, through which
we are initiated into the Sacraments of salvation, we
enter into the unity of the Church, the Communion of
Saints. At the second door, men are in such wise
within as to be in fact without, until they come to the
third ; which we explain to be familiar access, by the
emotions of love, to a certain abundant fruition and
contemplation of the Beloved. This secret and inner-
most door is not open to all, but yields entrance to the
Bridealone. Itmakes but little difference whether thou
enter in to Him, or He to thee, save that thou seemest
as the entering one when thou art as it were the first to
come, and to petition Him ; and He comes first to thee
when He anticipates thee, knocks at thine affections,
glides in unexpectedly, and raises thee looking for no
such thing, with His touch of undefiled sweetness.”
But my Beloved had withdrawn Himself and was
gone. And very often, when we are anxious to handle
spiritual things, the more acutely we essay them, the
more the heart’s edge is beaten back and blunted,
whence Solomon observes: “I said, I will be wise,
but it was far from me.” For the more one lifts up his
heart by purification of the flesh to divine contempla-
tion, the more unattainable does he find that which he
seeks to be. The Bridegroom withdraws and goes
away from His Spouse, not removing to a distance, but
merely turning aside. For He is at her right hand, that
she may not be removed from her good beginning, but
He does not show her His face. ‘‘ He is nigh unto all
them that call upon Him faithfully.’”’ She desires to
look on Him, and to talk with Him face to face, as a
man talketh with his friend. But He hides His face,
while abiding with her, and in her, though she per-
ceives not His presence. And in this wise, though He
hath truly taken up His lodging with her, He with-
draws from her, and goes away, lest she become up-
lifted, and ascribe the fulfilment of her wishes to her
own merit. Even when she has shown herself more
worthy of receiving Him, He does not give Him-
self to her as she desires, but withdraws from her, to
keep her in humility, to whet her desire more sharply,
V. 6.) THE SONG OF SONGS. — 227
to gratify it more fully. How brief too were the
Lorp’s appearances after His Resurrection, how sud-
den, how soon cut short! Scarcely was He recog-
nized by a few of His disciples, when He vanished.
Some He does not suffer to touch Him. He glides
in amongst others through closed doors, needing no
opening of the valves. When we think that we hold
Him, He robs us, as it were, of His dear presence,
coming secretly and going secretly. For the joy of
contemplation is but an instant. It swiftly departs,
and utterly surpasses all the power of human under-
standing, and where it goes, we cannot, in this flesh,
follow it with equal step. Yes, adds a devout com-
mentator, so that there is silence for but half an hour
in the heaven of the pious heart. He withdrew Him-
self also, when He departed out of the world to His
Farner, though He hath not abandoned His Spouse,
nor left her children orphans, but comes again and
again in Sacraments and inspiration to visit and con-
sole her. And whereas the Vulgate instead of gone
reads passed through (transierat), they dwell on the
special meaning of the Latin word as conveying fresh
lessons. ‘‘ He passed through me, through all my
powers, through myself. For the Worp of Gop is a
sword, Jesus is a sword of fire, passing without delay
or difficulty, through the soul, which melts at His pas-
sage, and cannot bar His way.’ And so, as another
and earlier writer reminds us, He was Himself that
sword which pierced the heart of His own dear Mo-
ther, that the secrets of many hearts should be re-
vealed. Whence, as they explain her rising up to
denote the alacrity of her service, and the droppings of
myrrh in her case to be her incorruption, humility and
self-denial, so they take the withdrawal of the bolt to
be her breaking her wonted silence that she might
preach her Son; though Honorius will have it that the
bolt denotes sin, and that we are hereby taught that
she opposed no obstacle of the kind to the Most Holy
when He would enter in.
My soul failed when He spake. The Vulgate reads,
My soul melted, while the LXX., closer to the ori-
ginal, has, My soul went forth. That is, remarks S.
Ambrose, it followed the Worp of Gop, and went
forth from the body, lifting itself out of its taber-
nacle, and makes, as the same Saint observes in
another place, a good exit, when, coming to Him, it
Q 2
Gillebert.
Hugo Card.
Philo Carp.
Gillebert.
S. Ambros,
in Ps. cxix.
Td. de Isaac,
cap. 6.
Guilielmus.
Rupert.
Honorius,
S. Ambros.
de Isaac, 6,
Id. de
Virgin, 3,
Cassiod.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Ps. cxxi. 8.
S. Greg. M.
Mor. iv. 30.
Dan. viii. 27.
Philo Carp.
Wisd. ix. 15.
Bern.
Cluniac.
Rhythmus.
228 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 6.
passes from sin to holiness, and, despising earthly
things, melts with the love of heaven. Whatever is
hard and frozen in the heart softens and melts under
the fire of Gonp’s love, and pours out in a stream of
penitence and longing. The Beloved passed by, but
He did not therefore abandon the soul, but rather
drew her to Himself, and that by His word. O happy
going forth! ‘The Lorp preserve thy going out and
thy coming in.” The going out is from that wherein
we are now placed; the coming in is to those good
things which are above us. She goes forth to the
oRD, because the Bridegroom saith, ““I am. the
door, by Me if any man enter in, he shall go in and
out,’’ so as never to cease going in and out, but ever
go in to greater things, and go out from lesser ones.
And taking the reading of the A. V., Wy soul failed,
let us hear a Western Doctor: ‘‘ Did she not feel her-
self exhausted in her strength who said, My soul
melted, because when the mind, in its strongest condi-
tion, is touched with the inspiration of secret speech,
it melts with the very desire in which it is swallowed
up, whence it finds itself utterly wearied out, because
it sees the height to which it would fain ascend be-
yond its strength. Hence the Prophet, when he tells
how he saw the vision of Gop, adds, ‘I fainted, and
was sick certain days.’’’ And Philo, uniting all the
ideas together, notes, The Bride declares that she went
forth and fainted at the speech of the Bridegroom,
because she cannot, while still prisoned in the body,
long endure the power of Jesus Curist’s love, Who
pours Himself into the longing soul by the Hoty
Guost, “‘ For the corruptible body presseth down the
soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the
mind that museth upon many things,” and the soul
fired with divine love is often caught up in contem-
plation to those eternal joys, but cannot abide there
long, because laden with the burden of the flesh, but
falls back after going forth, drowned in tears, and yet
in gladness. And so the Cluniac :
Jerusalem the only,
That look’st from heaven below,
In thee is all my glory,
In me is all my woe.
And though my body may not,
My spirit seeks thee fain,
Till flesh and earth return me
To earth and flesh again.
V. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 229
Wherefore it fitly follows: I sought Him, but I could
not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no
answer. For although the soul have passed out of S. Greg.
her own nature, so as not to be hindered by anything N¥*:
in her consciousness, yet she still seeks, still calls, and
finds not. How could she find that which nothing
that is known can show us? She sought Him by
reasonings and meditations, but He is beyond them
all, evading the grasp of the mind. She called, that
is, she devised countless phrases to denote His good-
ness unspeakable, it surpassed them all. So David,
after he had said, “Thou, O Lorp Gop, art full of ps, ixxxvi.
compassion and mercy, longsuffering, plenteous in 15;_
goodness and truth, my strength, the horn of my sal- *”""?:
vation,’ and so forth, at length confesses that he is
at a loss for words, and marvelling cries out, ‘‘ How Ps. viii. 1.
excellent is Thy Name!” But why is it that Gop Hugo Vict.
seeks when He is not sought, that He comes when He o ome
is not called, and that when He is sought He with- ~°*”7'™*
draws, and flees when He is called? If He does not
love, why does He come? and if He does love, why
does He flee? He does love, and therefore He comes ;
but He does not love here, and therefore He flees.
What do I mean by saying that He does not love
here? I mean in this world, in this land, in this
country, in this exile. But He calls us to His own
Land, for such love as His befits not a land like ours,
and the pleasantness of His Country is a bulwark to
our love. A happy love seeks a pleasant spot, and
therefore He praises His Land to us, saying, ‘‘ The Cant. ii. 12.
flowers appear on the earth, the vines with the tender
grape give a good smell, the voice of the turtle is
heard in-our land,” that we may desire such a region,
long for such a country, and follow Him. There He
loves us; there He desires to enjoy our love; there He
asks for our embrace; there He no longer flees from
them who follow Him, but awaits them as they come.
But the words are also spoken in terrible warn-
ing to the Church or soul which neglects to hear and
obey the call of the Lorp, so that He, the Eternal
Wisdom, cries in the streets, ‘‘ Because I have called, Prov. i. 24,
and ye refused ; I have stretched out My hand, and **
no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all My
counsel, and would none of My reproof; I also will
mock at your calamity. Then shall they call upon Me,
but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but
Luc. Abb.
S. John vii.
34,
Ghislerius.
Delrio.
Corn, 4 Lap.
Luc. Abb.
Ps. cxix.
145,
Theodoret.
Targum.
Theodoret,
230 A COMMENTARY ON [¥.
they shall not find Me.” And what He spake thus
aforetime in prophecy, He said again to the Jews who
rejected Him. “Ye shall seek Me, and not find Me,
and where I am, thither ye cannot come.” Again and
again has it been true in Christian history, in that
slackness of zeal which preceded the outbreak of Arian-
ism, which left the East a prey to Mohammed, which
caused the great schism of Europe three centuries ago.
Again and again is it true of souls which Gop has in-
vited, and which, turning away to their farm or their
merchandise, or their domestic pleasures, are finally
excluded from the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And
one commentator points his note with the homely old
saw :
He who will not when he may,
When he will, he shall have nay.
For even that will is imperfect, because the careless soul
cannot say with David, even when it does call for the
passing Bridegroom, “‘I call with my whole heart,”
since if it did, He could not choose but answer.
7 The watchmen that went about the city
found me, they smote me, they wounded me;
the keepers of the walls took away my veil
from me.
Whence we may learn to what mischief sloth gives
birth, and what toil comes of indolence. For whereas
the Bride excuses herself, and is not willing to open
at once to the Bridegroom, she is forced a little later
not merely to go as far as the door, but even to tra-
verse the city, and to go about the streets, and to fall
in with the watchmen, by whom she is wounded, and
even so scarcely finds her desired Spouse. But if she
had obeyed at once, she would have escaped all this
trouble. The meaning of the verse differs according
to the interpretation given to the word city, whether
it be Babylon or Sion, the world or the Church. The
Targum, explaining these watchmen to be the Chal-
dean besiegers of Jerusalem who took it in the reign
of Zedekiah, so far blends the two ideas as to take the
city in a good, and the watchmen in a bad sense. But
the Christian expositors keep the ideas distinct. Thus,
Theodoret will have it that the watchmen of the city
V. 7.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 231
are the magistrates, rulers, and tyrants of the Pagan
Roman Empire, who persecuted the Church, and
stripped the Martyrs of that outer veil of flesh which
covered their souls, and that in the streets, because of
the bold and public preaching whereby the early mis-
sionaries of the Faith exposed themselves to peril.
Or, as S. Justus comments, the veil denotes all the
external helps of religion, taken away, when the priests
were imprisoned, the altars levelled, and the Scriptures
burnt. Another, taking the city in a yet wider sense,
as the whole world, explains the watchmen to be the
evil spirits, who prowl about the earth, seeking whom
they may devour, wound, and strip of their faith,
smiting them with words of false doctrine, and tearing
from their souls its baptismal purity. Whence S. Je-
rome draws the practical lesson that it is wise for
Christian virgins to remain sheltered in their home,
of domestic or Religious life, and not to go forth even
to search for Curist. Could he have looked down
the ages at the history of that Common Life whose
infancy he aided in fostering, he would have seen the
world and the cloister engaged in perpetual strife.
S. Just. Org.
Luc. Abb.
S. Hieron.
Ep. 22,
ad Eustoch.
Ep. 7, ad
eetan.
Again and again would he have observed the spirit of Titelman.
laxity and secularity, fostered by evil rulers within
the Church, untrustworthy watchmen of her walls,
forcing its way into Houses of the strictest rule, strip-
ping them of the true religious character, and needing
the strenuous efforts of reformers such as S. Coletta,
S. Teresa, and Angelique Arnauld, to restore it as
before. Or he would have seen the civil power in one
country after another, laying unhallowed hands on the
patrimony of the poor, and driving Religious forth,
bare of everything save their faith, from the cloister
into the streets and highways. And a yet more literal
fulfilment of the type would have presented itself in
the many glorious martyrdoms which the convent
ielded in its passive resistance to the sword of unbe-
lief as in those English nuns who disfigured their faces
with terrible scars a thousand years ago during the
invasion of Inguar and Hubba, that they might not
be a prey to the evil passions of the heathen, who then
massacred them in rage and disappointment; or in
their French sisters nine centuries later, who went to
the scaffold singing the Te Deum, continuing it with
undiminished numbers as each consecrated head fell,
until the Abbess died last, with the closing words of the
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros.
de Isaac, 6,
de Virg. iii.
Tres Patr.
Psellus.
Henry
Vaughan,
Cock-
crowing.
Acts ii. 37;
vii. 54.
Parez.
232 A COMMENTARY ON Lv: 2
Gloria in excelsis on her lips. In the other interpre-
tation there is a diversity, according as the Angels or
the great earthly Saints and teachers are regarded as
the watchmen of the city. S. Gregory Nyssen and
S. Ambrose are in agreement in taking the verse to
denote the share of the Guardian Angels in the con-
version and salvation of the soul entrusted to their
care. They smite her with the sword of the Word
of Gop, and with tribulations, after she has come out
of the dwelling of her old conversation, and wound
her with increased love for divine things, and taking
from her the veil, (be it a token of widowhood or. a
type of bodily thoughts and habits obscuring the free
vision of the mind, or else an emblem of mere human
reason, impeding faith,) that her beauty may be more
perfectly discerned, and that she may see more clearly
the mysteries they present to her view.
Only this veil which Thou hast broke,
And must be broken yet in me,
This veil, I say, is all the cloak
And cloud which shadows me from Thee.
This veil Thy full-eyed love denies,
And only gleams and fractions spies.
O take it off! make no delay ;
But brush me with Thy light, that I
May shine unto a perfect day,
And warm me at Thy glorious eye!
O take it off! or till it flee,
Though with no lily, stay with me!
S. Gregory Nyssen draws a further corollary from the
verse, that it betokens progress in grace. ‘The Bride
had laid aside her tunic or coat, she had no thought of
removing her veil also, but the Angels take even this
from her, because the soul, as it advances, divests
itself by degrees of all that checks its speed in the race
of salvation. A more widely accepted interpretation,
however, is that which sees here the task of the
preachers of the Gospel in the conversion of sinners.
And first, the Apostles and Evangelists found the
Jewish Church seeking vainly for Curist, smote their
hearers. with powerful words, and wounded them, so
that they were “ pricked and cut to the heart,” and
took away from them that veil of the ceremonial law
which lay upon their hearts and hid the light of Gon’s
countenance from them. Of which veil the Apostle
233
writes, saying, “ Not as Moses, which put a vail over
his face, that the children of Israel could not stead-
fastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But
their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth
the same vail untaken away in the reading of the
Old Testament; which vail is done away in CuRIst.
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail
is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lorp, the vail shall be taken away.”?
Next, applying the words to the individual soul,
they tell us that the Church’s watchmen, those watch-
men set upon the walls of Jerusalem, be they Apostles,
Martyrs, Prelates, or preachers, are said to find her,
because they seek her out for instruction, they smite
and wound her with the arrows of divine love, with
their counsels of mortification, with their injunctions
to repentance, with their wholesome discipline, and
take from her the veil of ignorance and blindness, by
teaching her how she may abandon her evil habits,
and serve Gop truly. Their sword, wherewith they
inflict the wound, is the Word of Gop, and her veil
of earthly thoughts and affections is taken from her
for her own good, as Joseph left his mantle behind
when he fled away from sin, and Elijah cast his to
earth when he ascended in the chariot of fire. It is
not singular, therefore, that some should here see an
exact type of the Sacrament of Penance. ‘The watch-
men of the city, who know that they must needs give
account for the souls therein, find one such soul wan-
BH) THE SONG OF SONGS.
1 The force of this argument
of the Apostle is somewhat ob-
scured to English readers, by
an error of the A.V. in Exodus
xxxiv. 33, which reads, ‘“‘ And
till Moses had done speaking
with them, he put a vail on
his face.’’ This, taken in con-
junction with verse 35, is com-
monly understood to mean that
the veil was intended to pre-
vent the Israelites from be-
ing dazzled with the radiance.
The LXX. and Vulgate, more
correctly, have ‘‘ When he had
done speaking,’ &c. That is,
the light was gradually fading
from his face after he left
Gop’s presence, and the veil
was merely intended to hide
that fact from the people. On
returning to Gop’s presence,
he withdrew the veil, that his
face might again be illumi-
nated. Hence S. Paul’s rea-
soning is, that the outer cere-
monial Law, as practised by
the Jews in his day, only served
to conceal from the people the
loss of true spiritual enlighten-
ment on the part of the priests,
and to prevent the rays of
Gon’s grace from shining on
them ; so that the abolition of
that Law was now a necessary
reliminary to any true know-
edge of divine things,
2 Cor. iii. 13.
Philo Carp.
Cassiod.
Beda.
Gillebert.
Van Neer-
cassel, Amor
Penitens,
2S XIXs5 1's
De Ponte.
Prov. xxiii.
13.
1 Kings xx.
35—37.
234 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 8.
dering in error and darkness. They smite with the
warnings and threats of Gop’s Word, they wound, by
enjoining sharp, but needful penances, they take away
the veil, when they urge the sinner to full confession
of hidden guilt; and when, by wise ghostly counsel,
they show the true deformity of sin to a conscience
which had lost the power of seeing it as it is. Thus
Cardinal Frederick Borromeo, the worthy successor of
his kinsman, 8. Charles, when urging his clergy in
Milan to careful discharge of the duties of the Confes-
sional, told them of a noble and wealthy lady, living
in sin, who made a merely formal confession, and was
met by the priest with a stern injunction to abandon
her evil habits, and all occasions which might lead to
their repetition, before daring to approach the altar.
She, who had been accustomed to a laxer discipline,
angrily exclaimed : “ Sir, if you had been wise enough
to do as I asked you, there is not a stone of you
church I would not have covered with gold and silver.”
To which he replied, in the words of the Prince of
the Apostles, “ Miserable sinner, ‘thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of
Gop may be purchased with money.’ ” Happy, ex-
claims the great Cardinal, happy is the church or con-
vent which has such a faithful pastor as this was, not
afraid to strike where a blow was needed. And that
too remembering the saying of the Wise Man, “If
thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou
shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul
from hell.’”” And we may learn from another place
the deadly peril of those priests who, from sloth or
unbelief, are slack to use the Power of the Keys for
penitents who seek them. “And a certain man of the
sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the
word of the Lorn, Smite me, I pray thee. And
the man refused to smite him. Then said he unto
him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the
Lorp, behold, as soon as thou art departed from
me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was de-
parted from him, a lion found him, and slew him.
Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I
pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smit-
ing he wounded him.”
8 I charge you, O daughters of J erusalem,
Vv. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 235
if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I
am sick of love.
Here we have set before us the Communion of pnilo carp.
Saints in the bond of intercessory prayer. Great is
the confidence, observes Philo, of the Bride, be she
Church or faithful soul, in the purity of her life and
works, when she is bold to declare to her Spouse
Curist Jesus, by the hand of her chaste and holy
daughters, as herself their honoured mother, how she
glows with love of Him. For she calls upon the
Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs (to whom their mo-
ther the Church ceases not to commend herself) that
as they were, next after CHRIST, the authors of her
faith and salvation, she may have them also as her
defenders, continual guardians, and perfectors of her
hope with the same Heavenly Spouse, beside Whom
those happy spirits now stand in bliss as watchmen of
the heavenly Jerusalem, and intercede for the Bride
militant here, still veiled in mortal flesh, but eagerly
longing to reach her divine Bridegroom. And there-
fore burning with love and devotion, she does not
merely ask the Apostles and her other most faithful
patrons for their prayers on her behalf with Gop, but
binds them, as it were, with an oath. So too an old
English poet takes the passage :
Ye holy virgins, that so oft surround
Me : f Francis
mite vt i seed walls Vaan sory feet Quarles!
pearly paths of sacred ground, Emblems,
And trace the New Jerusalem’s jasper street ; v. 1.
‘Ah! you whose care-forsaken hearts are crowned
With your best wishes; that enjoy the sweet
Of all your hopes; if e’er you chance to spy
My absent Love, O tell them that I lie,
Deep wounded with the flames that furnaced from His eye.
I charge you, virgins, as you hope to hear
The heavenly music of your Lover’s voice ;
I charge you, by the solemn faith you bear
To plighted vows, and to that loyal choice
Of your affections, or if aught more dear
ou hold, by Hymen, by your marriage joys ;
I charge you, tell Him that a flaming dart
Shot from His eye, hath pierced my bleeding heart,
And I am sick of love, and languish in my smart.
And the Bride is fitly said to be sick of love, when
smitten and wounded with the sword of the Spirit, she Beda.
Cassiodor.
Col. iii. 3.
Gal. vi. 14.
S. Greg. M.
Ric. Vict.
Hugo Card.
S. John ii. 3;
xi. 34,
Gillebert.
Serm. 46.
Rupert.
236 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 8.
strips off the veil of fleshly desire, because, in propor-
tion as the holy soul grows strong in Gop, so she
becomes feeble and weak in worldly affection. Nor is
it any marvel if the perfect soul be called sick to
worldly things, seeing that the Apostle does not hesi-
tate to call those dead who have fully abandoned the
world, “‘ For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Curist in Gop,” and of himself he says, ‘ The world is
crucified to me, and I unto the world.” The daughters
of Jerusalem are the citizens of the heavenly country,
who are partly in their pilgrimage on earth,-and partly
now reigning in heaven. But here, when saying, [f
ye find my Beloved, she seems rather to address that
part which is still on earth, and has not yet at-
tained to the full vision of the Lorp, but which never-
theless often finds Him, when receiving Him in the
heart by love. And we make this adjuration when-
ever we reveal our thoughts to Gon’s Saints, either
by asking their prayers on our behalf, or by disclosing
to them our hidden longings after divine grace. And
it is the usual order of devout persons, advancing in
holiness, first to seek Gop themselves, and to busy
themselves in purging their heart, and then to consult
skilful advisers as to their condition and their hidden
dangers, to ask the prayers and seek the intimacy of
the godly. Note too, the brevity of her message.
She does not say, “Tell Him to come to me, to visit
me, to heal me.” She knows all that may be safely
left to Him, to His wisdom and love. She asks only
that He may know that she is sick. So too His Mo-
ther, when at Cana, said to Him, “ They have no
wine,” but did not say, Work a miracle for them.
So Martha and Mary, when weeping for their dead
brother, said to their Master, “ Lorp, come and see ;”
they did not say, Raise up Lazarus. And yet He an-
swered in each case the unspoken prayer. Zell Him,
then, that I am sick of love. My love is not sick, but
I, who love, am sick. Where love is strong, there
sickness is strong too, if the loved one be absent.
What is this sickness, but a yearning for the absent
Beloved, slaying the lover? "Tell Him, then, that I
am sick with love, through my great longing to see His
face, now that He is gone from me, that I am weary
of life, and scarcely endure the lingering of my exile
here. Some take the words as specially applying to
the Blessed Virgin’s yearning for the presence of her
V. 9.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 237
Divine Son after His Ascension into Heaven, and that p,.,
not as implying that He needed to be told of her love, Babvenet
but that she might ease her longing by giving expres- Cantacu-
sion to it. In us, alas, there are many other sick- Hin. carth.
nesses,—the sickness of fear, of weariness, of sorrow,
because of past sins, possible relapses, and the toil of
pilgrimage. Speak the word only, O Lorn, and we Ginebert.
shall be healed of these disorders. But whereas such
ailments as these are told to the physician, that He
may heal them, that of love is told to the Beloved,
not that He may remove, but that He may renew and
increase it, for though it is begotten by His absence,
yet it is made far stronger by His presence, which is
the one thing for which the fainting Bride yearns and
strives, the one thing she cherishes in her bosom, the g, ampros.
one thing she fears to lose, saying as she does to Him, in Ps. cxix.
«« My soul hath longed for Thy salvation.” LAS
9 What is thy beloved more than another
beloved, O thou fairest among women? what
is thy beloved more than another beloved, that
thou dost so charge us?
This question is asked whenever any believer con- Cassiodor.
verses with a believing brother, and they mutually
suggest words of heavenly desires, to increase their
affection for things above. ‘Tell me, who now long and
desire to arrive at the vision of my Creator, what is
thy Beloved, that is, how CuristT ought to be loved. Beda.
Long since I have begun to fear Him, but now that
love is casting out fear, I wish to hear words whereby
I may be kindled to His love. Thou, who art even
now seeking Him in love and art sick with that love,
tell me, what is thy Beloved. They who take the
daughters of Jerusalem to be the Saints, glorified or
militant, see in this address of theirs to the Bride, only
their desire to increase her love for the absent Bride-
groom by giving her an opportunity of dwelling on all
His graces. But they who, with Theodoret, suppose
that the weaker and yet untried believers in the Faith
are meant, hold that the question is asked in real de-
sire to be instructed, to be told, when so many false Ainsworth.
Christs are to be found, what are the marks whereby “°°°""*
the true one may be known, lest if they know Him not
here, He may refuse to know them in the Day of Philo Carp,
Corn. a Lap.
Nic. Argent.
1 fSk, Rte rR ab.
12.
S.Ans.Laud.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
Ricard. Vict.
Cocceius.
Tres Patr.
238 A COMMENTARY ON. [V. 9.
Judgment. And if the words be ascribed to the An-
gels, they ask the Bride to tell them how much she
has been able to learn of her Spouse, so as to love Him
so tenderly, seeing that even they, who behold Him
face to face, cannot fathom the depths of His glory,
nor know Him as He is. Further; as they do not
know Him at all by sympathy, but only by love
and worship, since He is not of their nature, they
are eager to learn from her who suffers with and for
Him somewhat of that mystery of sorrow which is
one of those “things which the Angels desire to look
into.”
The literal Hebrew of the first clause is, What is
thy Beloved before a beloved? and the LXX. and Vul-
gate, endeavouring to keep as closely as may be to
this, read, thy Beloved from a beloved. And the com-
mentators dwell much and variously on this repetition.
It denotes, says the Scholastic Doctor, the twofold na-
ture of Curist, beloved in His Manhood, and beloved
in His Godhead too. It means, remark several others,
His eternal generation from His Farner, in that He
is Gop of Gop, Light of Light, Very Gop of Very
Gop, and he who loveth the Son loveth the FatHER
also, even as he who seeth the Son seeth the Farner
also. They ask her this question because she is the
fairest among women, and they gather that the chosen
Bridegroom of one so lovely must be Himself a marvel
to look upon. That is, it is only by superior holiness
of life and conversation that the Church, thereby rising
above all schools of philosophy and all sects of heresy,
can so attract seekers after Gop as to make them in-
quire from her, rather than from any other, where and
how to find Him. And that precisely because she is
fairest only because of her nearness to Him, whereby
His beauty is reflected in her face. They ask her,
therefore, By what signs shall we know Him in con-
templation, lest, taking falsehood for truth, we should
instead of Him, receive that one who pretends to be
light, when he is darkness itself? How, too, is He
to be known in action, lest we should take evil for
good here also, carried away by excitement in well-
meant zeal, and deceived by the prospering of our
plans? All this we ask of thee, because, having ad-
jured us, thou hast kindled in us the fire of love
towards Him, and forced us to seek until we find
im.
V. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 239
10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the
chiefest among ten thousand.
“A strange mingling of colours,’—these are the Gillebert.
last words of teaching spoken by Gilbert of Hoyland Sem. 48.
ere he died—‘ which are found blended in one by
divine operation only in the Person of the Lorp Jxsvs, Tres Patr.
not so as to be themselves one, but to be together in 52304
one. O gracious and lovely Bridegroom, in Whom
shines divine, and blushes human generation! For He
is the brightness of eternal light, and He, though not S. Johni.
born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the !*
will of man, yet was sprung from His Mother’s blood,
and there is in Him nought of that ruddiness whereof
Isaiah saith: ‘ Though your sins are red like crimson,
yet shall they be as wool.’ The whiteness of wool and
the- redness of crimson agree not together, nor can
unite. But there is another redness which is found
together with whiteness in the raiment of JEsus.
‘ Wherefore,’ asks Isaiah, ‘ art Thou red in Thine ap- Isa. lxiii. 2.
parel?’ The apparel of the Lorp Jzsvs, naturally
white by reason of His Virgin birth, shining with
purity and the innocence of holiness, is yet more beau-
tiful with the ruddy hue of His voluntary Passion,
‘whereby He glows in the affections of His faithful.
What is that redness which lacks not the power of
whitening? ‘They have washed their robes,’ saith Rev. vii. 14.
He, ‘and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.’
This ruddiness found the whiteness already in my
JESUS; it creates it in us, and does not find it. This
ruddiness, laid upon the tint of our blood-stained na-
tivity and personal sin, turns its redness into white-
ness, purifying our hearts by faith. For we are jus-
tified by faith in the Blood of Jesus. Happy for thee
is the ruddy glow of His out-poured Blood, if it kindle
in thy mind a longing for a change. Happy is its
glow for thee, if the mighty love of Gop shines for.
thee in the Blood shed for thy sake. For Jesus so
loved His Bride as to wash her in His own Blood.
Love is like flame, and this makes the Lorp JEsus
ruddy tome. In Him truth is white to me and love
isred. My Beloved is white and ruddy. Why should
He not be white? For Gop is light, and in Him is
no darkness at all. Why should He not be ruddy?
For Gop is a fire, and He hath come to send fire upon
the earth. If He bestow on thee the light of under-
Isa. i. 18.
Hugo Card.
S. Luke
Segebl, jk.
Psellus.
Rev. i. 13.
Rev. xix. 13.
S. Hieron.
in Esa. Ixiii.
S. Hieron.
Epit. Paulee.
240 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 10.
standing, He is white to thee, but unless He kindle
thy soul with love, thou dost not feel Him to be ruddy.
He is both in Himself, but He is not so unto thee,
unless thou feelest the working of both within thee.
If thou be His Bride, strive after this blending of the
twin colours; ask it of thy Bridegroom, that thou too
mayest be white and ruddy, that is, sincere and fervent.
For as He hath the power of calming, so also hath He
that of kindling, and whoso draweth nigh unto Him,
draweth nigh to the fire.” So too, He gave us a type of
this His twofold character, when He suffered Himself
to be arrayed by Herod in a white robe, and by Pilate
in a purple one. So, in His Passion itself, both blood
and water issued together from His side. So, again,
He showed Himself to the beloved Disciple, clothed in
the sweeping alb of His everlasting Priesthood, and
also in the “ vesture dipped in blood,” which pertains
to His victorious royalty. And He was white not
only in His Nativity, but also in His Resurrection,
when He was indeed the chiefest among ten thousand,
as the First-born from the dead. And note, further,
how our Beloved keeps this twofold nature of His,
Godhead and Manhood, Virginity and Passion, purity
and love, light and fervour, before our eyes in that
most dear pledge wherein He gives Himself to us
under the Sacramental veils, white in the form of
hallowed Bread, ruddy in the chalice of mystic wine.
And so runs an old Eucharistic hymn:
Ave CHRISTI corpus verum,
Ave dulce rubens merum,
Caro cibus, sanguis potus,
Et ubique Curistus totus.
Hic est Sponsus candidatus,
Dilectus et rubricatus,
Castus ortus hunc albavit,
Sanguis fluens rubricavit.
Hail, O Flesh of Curist divine,
Hail, O sweet and ruddy wine,
Blood the cup, and Flesh the meat,
And in each is CuRIsT complete.
This is He, the Bridegroom, dight
In His vesture red and white:
White, for Him a Virgin bore,
Red, for He His Blood did pour.
White and ruddy is He too, because He gives the
prizes of peace as well as those of war to the con-
V. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 241
querors. White in His love and gentleness to Saints pion. Carth.
and penitents, ruddy in His terrible anger against the
ungodly and reprobate. White and ruddy is He Who g. gernard.
is girt round with the roses of Sharon and the lilies of Serm. 28, in
the valleys, the choirs of Virgins and of Martyrs, Him- ©"*
self the Virgin of Virgins and Martyr of Martyrs in
their midst.
O, what are these roses bright, Dora
That in Thy garland blow > Greenwell,
These roses red as blood, Carmina
These roses white as snow ? Crucis.
These blood-red roses grew
On a field with battle dyed ;
These snow-white roses strew
A path that is not wide;
None seek that path but they who seek
Him Who was crucified !
And note this, further, that He only is perfect and un-
changeable in His whiteness and ruddiness. Others
have been white and ruddy too, whether local Churches,
Religious Orders, or individual souls, but they have Gillebert.
failed in the grace of perseverance, and have lost their S°™: 47:
beauty through sin. And accordingly it is written by the
Prophet, ‘‘ Her Nazarites were purer than snow ; they Lam. iv. 7.
were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in
body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire.
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known
in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is
withered, it is become like a stick.” Thus the only
white in which we can trust is the fine linen of His Ricard. Vict.
righteousness, the only redness which will abide in our
cheeks is that which He bestows from His own Blood.
And observe herein, that a further mystery lies hid under
the word ruddy, which is DYTN, adom, denoting the Cocceius.
same thing as Adam, so that He Who is the Bright-
ness of the FatueEr’s glory, Whose countenance is as Heb. i. 3.
the sun shineth in his strength, is also the Second Rev: i+ 16
Adam, the Man from heaven, Who hath come to repair
the loss we sustained by the fall of the first Adam.
And, therefore, too, because He hid that shining of His
celestial garments, “‘ exceeding white as snow, so as no S. Mark ix.
fuller on earth can white them,” under those robes *°
which tell of the conflict and suffering of our human ‘
nature, the Prophet asks in wonder, ‘* Who is this that 184. 1xiii. 1.
cometh from Edom with dyed garments ?” For Edom,
R
S. Just. Org.
Ric. Vict.
Dan. vii. 10.
Philo Carp.
Gesenius.
Weissbach.
Isa, xi. 10.
S. John xii.
32.
1 Cor. xi. 3.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Luc. Abb.
242 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 11.
which is ved, denotes also that first-born Who lost His
birth-right, and became an exile from His home, that
His younger brother might have the inheritance.
The chefest among ten thousand. The LXX. and
Vulgate, differing slightly in phrase, but not in mean-
ing, from this version, read severally elect from ten
thousands, and elect from thousands. There is but
little diversity in the expositions, as they all dwell on
Curist being the Only-begotten Son of the Farumr,
the only Virgin-born Son of a mother, as alone without
sin, as the single High Priest of Gop, and as the One
Saviour of mankind, fairer than the children of men,
and excelling those thousand thousands who minister
unto Him, and the ten thousand times ten thousand
that stand before Him. Philo gives two mystical
reasons for the number ten thousand; one, that He
Who is perfection (denoted by a thousand,) came after
the ten precepts of the Law, or that He came into the
world, after passing over the nine choirs of the Angelic
hierarchy, from the womb of the Virgin, as a bride-
groom from his chamber. The margin of the A. V.,
translating “‘ standard-bearer,” is hardly accurate, for
though the word 737, dagul, here used, is connected
with O27, degel, a standard, yet it is a passive parti-
ciple, and means not standard-bearer, but lifted up like
a standard, and therefore conspicuous. It is a pro-
phecy of Him concerning whom Isaiah foretold, “In
that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gen-
tiles seek ;” because, as He Himself hath said, “I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
et
11 His head is as the most fine gold, his
locks are bushy and black as a raven.
“The Head of Curist is Gop.” So speaks the
Apostle, and the Fathers agree, for the most part, in
explaining this clause of the verse, dwelling on the
purity and costliness of gold, the king of metals, as a
aint type of the pre-eminence of the Lorp Almighty.
And the Godhead of the Eternal Worp is also the
Head of the Man Curist Jusus, in Whom shone the
brightness of Deity. Gop alone, says a Western di-
vine, is to be loved above all things of which we can
V. il] THE SONG OF SONGS. 243
think, with all the heart, with all the soul, and with
all the strength, even as the head is more cared for
than the other members; and as gold is known to be
loved by covetous princes, who fear not to die for its
sake. And the thinner the sheets are into which gold
is drawn out, the more it shines and increases in duc-
tility. Just so, the more searchingly we endeavour to
investigate the majesty of divine power, 80 much the
more boundlessly does the ocean spread. And as the
substance of gold, by reason of its softness, 1s ductile
in any direction that you draw it; so the unchanging
goodness of Gop’s majesty, however mocked by the
ungodly, is never broken. 8S. Gregory Nyssen, how- S. Greg.
ever, refers the verse to Curist’s Humanity alone, in Le
that He is Head of the Church; golden indeed, as sin-
less, and because in Him dwelt all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. Whereon another observes, “‘ His s. Paulin.
head is as paz, that is, pure gold, for this gold is the ap: iv. ad
form of the Saints, who shine as lights in the head of eG
the body, and are gold tried in fire by Gop, because
He, having tested them by suffering when melted in
the furnace of this world, found them, as it is written,
worthy of Him, and stamped upon them the sacred
impress of His image, printing the word of His truth
- on their hearts and lips, and making them His money-
ers, that they might stamp, according to His pattern,
sterling coins for the Lorp, and having defaced the
image of Czsar in us, should mint the living medal of
the everlasting King, that we, inscribed with the spirit
of redemption, with necks freed from the yoke, and
with foreheads guarded by the superscription of sal-
vation, might sing ‘The light of Thy countenance is Ps. iv. 7,
signed upon us.’ Let us strive, then, with all our Vuls.
might so to prepare ourselves, that we may attain to be
the locks and gold of our Divine Head, which, by
Gon’s grace, CHRIST is to us.”
The Hebrew term here for ine gold is TD ons
kethem paz, and the existing copies of the LXX. read,
by a curious error, gold of Cephaz, xpuolov xépat.) It
would be unnecessary to refer to the erroneous reading,
were it not that it has led to a singular interpretation, Philo Carp.
that of Philo, who, taking the head of CHRIsT’s mys-
tical Body, the Church, to be the most eminent Saints,
supposes this text to denote S. Peter, as Prince of the
1 The text Theodoret and the Three Fathers used, had épare.
R 2
S. Hieron.
Ep. ad
Marcell.
Thom.
Vercell.
Hugo Card.
Prov. viii.
19.
Tres Patr.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros.
de Spir.
Sanct. lib. 2.
S. Paulinus.
Ep. 4 ad
Severum.
24.4, A COMMENTARY ON [V. 11.
Apostles, and eminent in wisdom; a view which had
not long to wait for refutation, as it called up S. Je-
rome in defence of the truer interpretation, which sees
here Curist, and Him only. The contemplative
writers see in the golden head an emblem of the inex-
haustible ‘treasures of divine illumination, vouchsafed
to the Saints who strive after perfect knowledge of
Gop ; and therefore, too, some take it of that unsearch-
able wisdom of Curist, whereof He saith in the Pro-
verbs, “ My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine
gold ;” while a further explanation is that the faith,
and still better, the love of the Church, as her principal
grace, is symbolically this head, as being that which is
most like her true Head and Spouse.
His locks are bushy. Rather, as in margin, curling.
The older versions translate, like palm-buds, which
cluster like a bunch of grapes. This has been accepted
as the true rendering by Rosenmiiller, De Wette, and
Gesenius ; and the former aptly cites an ancient Arab
love-song in illustration. “The tresses which adorn
her back are black, like a coal, thick, twining like the
clusters of the palm.” Hitzig and Weissbach, how-
ever, demur, and translate, with no practical difference
of result, grape-clusters, and like hills upon hills.
These locks, as before, are taken to denote the Saints
who are nearest to the Head, such as the Angels, Apos-
tles, Martyrs, and others eminent in holiness. S. Gre-
gory Nyssen, who however prefers to translate like
pines, takes the simile to denote the stately height at-
tained by the Apostles, and the manner in which they
increase the Bridegroom’s beauty when they are moved,
like foliage or tresses, by the wind of the Hoty Srrrir.
S. Ambrose, taking the same meaning, draws from it
the further simile that the Saints are like the pine-built
ships of Tarshish, floating over the waves of the world,
and providing a sure life-boat (tutwm remigiwm salutis)
for all mankind. And another Saint works out the
idea more fully still, commenting thus: ‘‘ The Saints
are like flowering palms, and branching cedars, and
\ éAdrat, elate palmarum. the tree in the sense of ‘ shoot-
The Greek word is more com- ing upwards,”’ and in that of
monly used of the pime, and | the buds of ‘pushing forth”
thence is sometimes taken to out of the sheath. All these
denote an oar, or even a ship, | ideas will be found dwelt on by
made of that tree. The root the earlier commentators cited
is €Aatvvw, used in the case of , in the text.
V. 11.J THE SONG OF SONGS. 245
they are also like pines, black and good, because they
are conspicuous on the heights of their merits in the
Church, the mount of Gop, like pines upon the moun-
tains, and as those trees are suited for ship-building,
so too these princes of the people, cut down from the
Mount of the Law, as from Lebanon, framed the Ark or
ship of the Lorp,—that is, the Church, intended to sail
over this world’s floods,—from the Gentiles, hewn with
the Word of Gop, and taught therein, closely knit to-
gether in the framework of charity by the bond of
faith, to plough their way in safety over the billows of
this world.” The elate of palm-trees are, notes Cas- Cassiodor.
siodorus, their longer and more prominent branches,
sometimes of a golden hue, curling, always tending
upwards, and never losing their verdure. And some
allege that the words mean an aromatic pine, used for
making unguents, but not the great tree employed as
timber for ships and houses. To these elate, then,
the locks of the Bridegroom are compared, because
the company of the faithful rejoice in their evergreen
faith, are lifted up to a longing for eternal things, and
taste the sweetness of heavenly bliss. The palm, ob- ricara.vict.
serves another, is rough near the ground, and confined
within a very narrow bark, but above it is beautiful
and spreading to the sight, and abundant in fruit. So
the members of Curist in lower things fare hardly,
and suffer tribulation, whilst above they are fair and
fruitful in the eyes of Gop; for they purify them-
selves through bodily hardships, and shoot upwards
into beauty of soul and spiritual loftiness, and attain,
by the grace of Gop, to that victory whereof the palm
is anemblem. The close bark below denotes the many
troubles whereby they are straitened here, the green
and spreading foliage above the abundant reward
which awaits them on high. Again, they take these Theodoret.
locks of the Bridegroom to be the Divine graces and Cassiodor.
attributes wherewith He is adorned, and as it were, pisses
clothed; or else as the lofty truths contained in Holy Rupert. ~
Scripture.
And black as a raven. The literal sense here is to
denote the youthful vigour and prime of the Bride- Delrio.
groom, Who is untouched by age or weakness, and
thus has no sprinkling of white hairs upon His head.
The mystical interpretations are various. Taking the cassiodor.
locks, as before, to denote the Saints, they are called Philo Carp.
black, say many of the Fathers, to denote their hu- * S"¢s: ™-
Nic. Argent.
Rev. i. 14.
Dan. vii. 9.
Hugo Card.
Isa. liii. 2.
Tres Patr.
Rupert.
Thom. Verc.
Cantacu-
zene,
Ps. xviii. 11.
Psellus.
Ric. Vict.
Cassiod.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
16,
246 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 12.
mility. The blackness of good men, remarks one of
themselves, is that they count themselves to be sin-
ners, and carry in their faces that shame for their sins,
for they choose contempt, they cheerfully endure to be
despised, they desire menial tasks, and poor apparel,
knowing that in their lowliness lies hid the precious
treasure of Curist. Or, as another puts it, the very
Angels and Saints are black and sinful in comparison
with the golden glory of the Head whence they de-
pend. And, confining the reference to the Person of
Curist Himself, we are struck at once with the con-
trast between this verse and that of the Apocalypse,
where we read, ‘“‘ His head and His hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow,” even as Daniel beheld six
centuries before. And they explain it very well, say-
ing that the vision in Patmos describes Him in the
pure holiness of His virgin life, whereas He was black
in His Passion, when His flesh was scorched with the
fire of pain and suffering in the furnace of the Cross,
so that there was no form or comeliness left in Him.
And, finally, if we see here either the Divine attributes
or the mysteries of Holy Scripture implied, they are
called black, because hidden from us in impenetrable
darkness, according to that saying of the Psalmist, ‘‘ He
made darkness His secret place, His pavilion round
about Him with dark waters, and thick clouds to
cover Him.”
12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the
rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
His eyes under the Old Testament were the Pro-
phets, or Seers. His eyes now are the Prelates and
Doctors of His Church, éricxoro, or Overseers. Or, as
another will have it, the contemplative Saints who are
ever looking to Gop. They are compared to doves
because of the graces of innocence and simplicity
which should characterize them, and they abide by the
rivers of waters, both as having been cleansed in the
laver of Baptism, and as dwelling close to those streams
of Holy Scripture whence they ever drink, and_mir-
rored in ghieb they can see themselves and any hawk
or other enemy which approaches them. They are
washed with milk, because, as one Saint observes, the
Lorp baptizes in milk, that is, in sincerity. And they
V. 12.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 247
are truly baptized in milk who believe without guile
and maintain a pure faith and put on unspotted
grace, so that the Bride ascends in white robes to
Curist. S. Gregory Nyssen dwells on the plural
form, rivers of waters, and sees in them the divers
virtues of holiness, whereby the contrary vices of the
soul must be washed away. Again, as the Saints are
like doves’ eyes by reason of the gifts of the Hony
Spirit, so the words may be taken of Curisr alone,
as possessed of all His gifts in their fulness, as it is
written: “I beheld, and lo, in the midst of ‘the throne
and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of
the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits
of Gop sent forth into all the earth.” These gifts and
graces are fitly said to dwell by the rivers of waters,
because the Hoty Guost delights in pure and sincere
hearts. And they are washed with milk, because those
heavenly graces are not kept for the strong and vi-
gorous alone, but are freely given to the Church’s little
ones, as milk to babes. The literal reference is to the
clear white of the eye-ball, which contrasts with, and
sets off, the more beautiful and coloured pupil, whence
we gather that the passive graces of purity and inno-
‘cence are insufficient of themselves for the perfection of
the holy soul, but are meant as the frame in which the
active powers of saintliness must be set. And in that
they are said to dwell by rivers, not by lakes or ponds,
we are led back in thought to the Source, hidden and ex-
haustless, whence these waters ever flow, not stagnant,
nor collected by the work of any human skill. Again,
following the clue given by the Chaldee paraphrast,
who sees here the unceasing watch of Gon’s providence
over Jerusalem, we too may see here the perfection
of Curist’s wisdom, human and Divine. For in it
are the eyes of Godhead, according as it is written,
“The eyes of the Lorp are over the righteous,” and
in another place, ‘The eyes of the Lorp are ten thou-
sand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the
ways of men, and considering the most secret parts.”
These eyes are the understanding and wisdom of Gop,
or the glance of His loving-kindness, and they may be
compared to doves’ eyes, because of their perfect sin-
gleness and purity, most alien from all evil. And also
the inner eyes of Curist’s Humanity were the reason
and understanding, wisdom and knowledge poured into
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Philo Carp.
Rev. v. 6.
Cassiod.
Gene-
brardus.
Beda.
Targum,
Dion. Carth.
Ps. xxxiv.
15.
Ecclus.
XXili, 19.
Theodoret.
Cassiod.
S. Greg. M.
Rupert.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Philo Carp.
Theodoret.
Euchol.
Greec.
Isa, xi. 2.
248 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 13.
Him, shining with dovelike simplicity and full of all
sincerity, testified by the clear, pure, and candid aspect
of His bodily eyes also.
And fitly set. Literally, resting in fulness. The
metaphor is taken from a gem skilfully set in the bezel
of a ring, so as to be exactly centred, and to shine most
brilliantly. Hence the mystical meaning is that the
Saints are fixed in the golden circle of Gop’s law and
discipline, so as not to vary to the right hand or the
left, and thereby they attain greater beauty and value,
just as clear and limpid eyes, which are free from all
distortion, are the chief beauty of a lovely face, while
any irregularity in them is the greatest of deformities.
But the Vulgate reading, amplified from the LXX., is
dwelling by the fullest of streams. Theodoret will have
it that the words denote the manner in which Curis?
is, as it were, always waiting anxiously by the waters
of Baptism to receive fresh souls into His Church, and
that these waters are called fullest, to warn us thatthe
bare external rite with no inward correlation of will,
cannot satisfy Him, as was shown in the case of Simon
Magus, who came to that Sacrament unrepentant and
unconverted. Others take these fullest streams to be
the Holy Scriptures, abundantly supplying the spiritual
thirst of the soul, and overflowing with heavenly mys-
teries. Here it is, then, observes a Saint, that we must
sit, and not by the waters of Babylon, where our eyes
will be dim with weeping, rather than washed in that
milk which, as it reflects no image nor shadow, denotes
the perfect truth which suggests no deceitful phantasm
to the eyes of the soul. Or again, Love is the fulfil-
ling of the Law, and it is on this fulness of love in the
multitudes of the Church, who are the waters in that
channel, that the Holy Dove vouchsafes to rest. And
yet once more, as Curist is He in Whom dwells all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily, so it was upon Him
that the mystic Dove hovered at the streams of J ordan,
upon Him Who is the perennial River of the mercy of
Gop. And so the Prophet foretold, “The Sprerr of
the Lorp shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lorp.”
13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as
sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping
sweet smelling myrrh.
V. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 249
The LXX., Vulgate, and modern critics all vary in
the interpretation of the earlier part of this verse so
widely, that it is necessary to give their several ver-
sions before proceeding to comment on them. In the
first place, the LXX. has His cheeks are as vials of
spice giving out unguents. That is, observes Theodoret, Theodoret.
the doctrine of Curist supplies the preachers of His
Word with all the arguments and counsels which they
need for making that salve which they prepare for the
benefit of wounded and sin-sick hearts. Philo, differ- Philo Carp.
ing a little in the version he follows, (reading, as he
does, the text of Symmachus, which is zpaciat, beds,)
takes nearly the same view, that Holy Writ is the
store-house of those wholesome medicines which drive
away all spiritual diseases ; herein agreeing substan-
tially with the Targum, which explains the cheeks as
the two tables of the Law. The Vulgate reads His
cheeks are like beds of spices planted by the ointment-
makers. And these cheeks some will have to be the g. Greg. m.
Martyrs, because as the ruddiness of the cheeks is Ric. Vict.
an especial beauty of the face, so the blood of the
Martyrs, shed for Curist, is a glory to His Name.
They are planted by the ointment-makers, in that the
earlier Martyrs were cheered on to their conflict by
‘the counsels of holy preachers, and the later ones by
the examples of their predecessors, brought before
them by preachers too. And they are beds of spices
because the sweet and restorative fragrance of their
lives and deaths perfumes the garden of Gop. Again, s. Greg.
some will have it that not the Martyrs but the Doctors Byss.
and teachers of the Church are intended, as the cheeks '*°!'"*
clothe the jaws which prepare food for the stomach ;
and these are beds, carefully tilled ground, bringing
forth the spices of prayer and good works, planted by s.Ans.Laud.
those skilled ointment-makers, the Apostles and Pro-
phets of Gop. Or, if you will, you may take these
spice-beds to be individual Churches, rich in Saints
and in good works, planted by the missionary zeal of pike
the Apostles and their successors. And, turning toa
different class of exposition, several Fathers take the eae
SS10d.
Targum.
cheeks of the Bridegroom to be the outward bearing 5255
and demeanour of the Lorp Jxsvus, according as He Rupert.
showed Himself gentle, stern, or sad. One will have
it that the union of the Two Natures in One Person,
bringing Gop and man together, is here intended. ppijipy,
Wherefore, he says, these cheeks are compared to Harveng.
Rosen-
miiller.
De Wette.
Weissbach.
Cocceius.
Targum.
S. Ambros.
S. Greg. M.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Just. Org.
Luc. Abb.
250 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 13.
beds, that is, to little gardens, whence aromatic herbs
and spices are produced, cultivated with benevolent
skill by those ointment-makers who are learned and
busied in the art of medicine for healing the sick.
For after Gop had borne with the world for thousands
of years as it was perishing in sin, and no man nor
Angel was strong enough to drive sin out, at length
the Ointment- Makers chose out in wisdom certain beds,
whence they gathered aromatic medicines and healing
spices. For they joined together the Divine and hu.
man natures, to which, in mysterious counsel, they
added a certain joint power of cure; and on them,
united in One Person, as cheeks are joined in one face,
they concentrated spices, and restored the fainting
world with the blessing of health. Nor were these
Ointment-Makers other than the F ATHER, Son, and
Hoty Guost. The view of modern critics is to be
found in their explanation of the literal Hebrew of
that clause where the A. V. reads, as sweet Jlowers.
The margin, more exactly, is towers of perfumes, And
this is explained as most probably meaning pyramidal
or conical flower-beds in a garden, so planted as to
present to the eye a rising and unbroken mound of
sweet flowering shrubs. The metaphor seems to de-
note the growth of beard upon the cheeks of the
Bridegroom, and therefore, as they tellus, the Saints
who draw all their life and being from Him are here
designated, towering upward in their aim at heavenly
things, and planted so closely together in unity of spirit
and doctrine, as to leave no void space where weeds
may spring.
Lis lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.
The lips of the wise, who toil in the Law, says the
Chaldee paraphrast, flow with decision on all points,
and the words of their mouth are like choice myrrh.
And this is very nearly the sense given by most Chris-
tian expositors, taking the verse, as they do, to de-
note the preachers of Curist’s Gospel, pure in life,
fragrant in doctrine, and proclaiming first of all the
Lorp’s death, then the passions of His Martyrs, and
finally the duty of mortification, patience in suffering,
and readiness to endure death for the Lorp’s sake.
Or, with a more restricted application, it may be taken
of those Confessors who exercise the power of the
keys in binding and loosing, righteously binding the
impenitent by condemnation, loosing righteously the
V. 14.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 251
penitent from the bond of condemnation by reconcil-
ing them to Gop. To the wise they are Jilies in fra-
grance, bringing them gladness and healing, to the
foolish they have the bitter savour of myrrh ; but even
these, when healed, themselves praise the remedy which
has brought them cure of present suffering, and pro-
tection from future corruption. Theodoret, looking to
the Master, and not to His servants, says that His
lips may well be compared to lilies, because the Divine
sayings have their own glorious beauty, though devoid
of humanornament. Forasthe Lorp Himself teaches,
the lilies toil not, neither do they spin, yet the Hea-
venly Faruer clothes them. Since then the Divine
sayings are destitute of all human wisdom, and have
only their own Divine beauty, it is well said His
lips are like lilies dropping full myrrh, for they
teach mortification in this present life. For such as
these is that teaching of the Lorp: “If any man
come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And
whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me,
cannot be My disciple.” And again: “If thou wilt
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor.” Therefore His lips drop full myrrh. And
others, also explaining the words of Curist’s sayings,
tell us that the comparison to lilies denotes His pro-
mise of eternal brightness, and His counsels of purity
and cleanness, both typified by the white flower.
There are not wanting some who remind us that
we are not to understand here the white lily or nar-
cissus, but the purple one, as better figuring the rud-
diness of the lips; but there is one most true sense
in which we may prefer to keep the snowy flower
in our minds, thinking of Him in His dying hour,
when with pale and bloodless lips He dropped that
sweet-smelling myrrh of the Seven Words, which
has since healed many and many a sorely-wounded
heart, for, as our own poet says:
The nails and bleeding brows,
The pale and dying lips, are the portion of the Spouse.
14 His hands are as gold rings set with the
beryl ; his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with
sapphires.
Theodoret.
S. Luke xiv.
26.
S. Mat. xix.
Pile
Ghislerius.
Tauler,
De Passione.
Keble, Lyra
Innocent.
Rosen-
miller.
De Wette.
Cocceius.
Hitzig.
Weissbach.
Esth. i. 6.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
Ric. Vict.
252 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 14.
Here again in the first clause the ancient translations
are utterly at variance with the A.V. The LXX.and
Vulgate read in the first clause, His hands are cylin-
drical (ropvevral, tornatiles, literally, turned in a lathe)
golden, full of Tharsis (LXX.) or of jacinths, (Symma-
chus and Vulgate.) And modern critics are divided,
some accepting the interpretation of the A. V. and
then explaining with Cocceius that the hand, when
curved to grasp anything, resembles a ring ; and others
preferring the Vulgate reading, on the ground that
the specific word ae) caph, always employed in He.
brew for the closed or hollowed hand, is not that found
in the text here. They differ, too, as to the phrase, se¢
with the beryl ; agreeing that the word does not imply
that the stone is set in the gold, but that the gold is
fixed in the stone. And they give two equally ingenious
explanations,—one that the finger-nails, in which the
hand terminates, are the beryl, chrysolite, topaz, ja-
cinth, or Tarshish stone, (so variously is the gem de-
scribed) referred to,—compare the Greek name for one
well-known jewel, onyz, “a nail,”—the other argued
with much ingenuity by Weissbach, that the hand itself
is intended, being the costly socket in which those
slender golden pillars, the fingers, are firmly rooted,
illustrating the argument with a reference to the rich
tesselated pavement in which stood the pillars for
the hangings in the palace of Ahasuerus. The hands,
then, of Curist’s mystical Body are the stewards and
dispensers of His grace, golden, even as their Head is
of gold, turned in a lathe, because rid of everything
external and superfluous, full of Tharsis-stone, because
the outer crust of sin which hid the jewel has been cut
away by the lapidary’s skill, and thus only the clear
radiance remains. The hands of the Beloved, says
the Prior of 8. Victor, are the works of the godly,
which are turned, because they are regular and perfect.
For as turners’ work is regularly and smoothly cir-
cular, and admits of no interruption or inequality, so
the godly do nothing blameworthy, nor aught whereby
their neighbour may be offended or weakened. The
energy of the godly is therefore regular and polished,
because they seek only heavenly things, swerving
neither to right nor left, but keeping to the King’s
highway. Wherefore it is said that they are golden
because they shine with divine wisdom, and are not
V1] THE SONG OF SONGS. 253
darkened by sin or ignorance. And these works shine
before men unto the glory of their FaraHer Which is in
heaven, unclouded with sins or lack of judgment, and
are all performed for Gov’s sake and with a single
mind. Therefore it is added that they are full of 70-
cinths, because they are done from pure hope and
longing for heavenly things, for the jacinth is a stone
of the colour of the sky, with a greenish shade in it.
Again, the hands of the Beloved, when referred to the
Person of Curist Himself, denote His works and
miracles, twrned, because of the ease and rapidity of
His operation, golden, by reason of the manifestation
of Divine power, full of jacinths, because arousing
men to hope of heavenly things. They were turned,
too, because of their completeness and perfection. And
His bodily hands were turned in yet another sense,
when fastened on that cruel lathe of the Cross, there
to be fashioned for us into an instrument of salvation ;
Sull of jacinths, truly, when gemmed with the ruddy
drops of His most Precious Blood. Others are found
to take the word tornatiles in an active sense, and to
explain it as the hands of a turner. And then the
whole clause is taken of the creative power of Gop,
shaping all things, as a turner does, with no pattern
before Him, but only by force of will and steadiness
of hand. And as a cup or a sphere is potentially
hidden within the block out of which it is to be turned,
so all things, say they, pre-existed in the mind of Gon,
and they had no independent being or place till He,
so to speak, put them outside Himself, removing from
them all that was not of their essence. And it is
added that these hands are golden, because “ Gop saw
everything that He had made, and behold, it was very
ood.”
: Passing now to the A. V. reading, it remains to be
seen what its mystical import is. And first, it is to be
noted that the verse in no case can imply that the
hands of the Bridegroom are adorned with rings, but
that they themselves are in some way like rings, pos-
sibly, as suggested above, when curved, and with
henna-dyed nails for jewels. The ring, under the
Law, as containing the signet, is the token of authority,
and is so given by Pharaoh to Joseph, and by Aha-
suerus to Haman. Under the Gospel the ring is the
symbol of marriage. Thus the Bride sees in Curist
at once her King and her Bridegroom. Here onearth
Cassiodor.
Theodoret,
Cassiodor,
Philo Carp.
Beda.
Nic. Argent.
Gen. i, 31.
Gen. xli. 42,
KEsth., iii, 1¢
Hos. ii. 16.
Ps. xxxi. 6;
Cxix. 73;
XCil. 4,
Exod. xxviii.
20.
The Hymn,
Cives ce-
lestis patria,
Ayguan.
S. Mechthil-
dis Revelat.
tik, 1h.
254 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 14.
and under the Old Covenant, when the fear of Him is
the beginning of her wisdom, He is Baalz, ‘‘ My Lord,”
to her. Under the Law of Grace in our Country, when
perfect love hath cast out fear, He will be called by
her, Ishi, “‘ My Husband.” Into His hands she com-
mends herself, by those hands she confesses that she
is made and fashioned, for the operations of those
hands she rejoices in giving praise. If those hands
seem to press hardly on her at times, she recognises
that it is only that the imprint of the Everlasting
Name may be set upon her forehead, and when they
support her in time of weariness and sorrow, she feels
in them the loving clasp of her Bridegroom. They
are set with the beryl. And it is enough to say briefly
that in the great vagueness of all translators in ex-
plaining the Hebrew names of precious stones, no
trust can usually be given to their versions. But as
to this stone, the tarshish, first in the fourth row of
the High Priest’s breastplate, it is now for the most
part agreed that the Oriental topaz, the stone called
by the ancients chrysolite,| the seventh foundation of
the Heavenly City, is intended. And on this let us
hear the mystic comment of Marbod of Rennes:
The golden-coloured chrysolite
Flashes forth sparkles in the night :
Its mystic hues the life reflect
Of men with perfect wisdom decked,
Who shine in this dark world like gold,
Through that blest Sprrir sevenfold.
Or, as the great Carmelite writer on the Psalms alleges,
“The chrysolite shines as gold in the day; as fire in
the night. By the day, the good; by the gold, their
crown, are represented; by the night, the wicked ;
and by the jire, their punishment.” Hence the stone
typifies their final separation, and thus the seventh
article of the Creed, ‘“‘ From thence He shall come to
judge the quick and the dead.” And thus the jewels
which adorn the hands of the King and Bridegroom
are His Wisdom and Justice. Here too may fitly be
cited a vision, which helps to explain the meaning of
the ring: ‘And she saw the most Blessed Virgin
Sa at her right hand, giving her a golden ring,
which she at once offered to the Lorp, and the Lorp,
1 By a curious interchange, | lite, thestone anciently known
modern lapidaries call chryso- | as topaz.
V. 14] THE SONG OF SONGS. 255
graciously accepting it, placed it on His finger. Then,
pondering within herself, she said, O if it might but
e that He would give me His ring in token of be-
trothal! And it seemed to her that it would be enough
if the Lorp would vouchsafe to send her a pain in the
ring-finger, that she might bear it all the days of her
life in memory that she was betrothed to Currsrt.
To whom the Lorp: I give thee a ring, gemmed with
seven stones, which thou canst recall in the seven
joints of thy finger. In the first joint, thou mayest
remember that divine love, which bowing Me down
from the FarHer’s bosom, made Me serve in many
toils for thirty-three years, seeking thee. And when
the marriage-time drew nigh, I was sold, by the love
in My own heart, to obtain the price of the bridal-
feast, and I gave Myself for Bread, and Flesh, and
Chalice. And at that feast I was harp too, and organ,
by the sweet words of My mouth. In the second
joint, remember how I in My beauty led forth the
bridal throng to the martial dance after that banquet,
and thrice leaping, I fell thrice to the ground, and
shed forth drops of bloody sweat. And I clothed My
fellow-soldiers in the dance with triple robes, when I
granted them remission of sins, sanctification of their
‘souls, and My own divine glory. Thirdly, recollect
the love of My humility for the Bride’s kiss, when the
traitor drew near and kissed Me; in which kiss M
Heart felt such love, that had his soul repented, I should
have taken him, by that kiss, into the person of the
Bride. In the fourth, recall what were the marriage-
songs My ears heard from the Bride’s love, when I
stood before the Judge and so many false testimonies
were adduced. In the fifth, remember how beauteously
Iclothed Myself for love of thee, when Iso often changed
My vesture, white, red, purple, and wore a garland
of roses, to wit, the crown of thorns. In the sixth, be
mindful how I embraced thee when I was bound to
the pillar, and there took on Myself for thee all the
darts of thine enemies. In the seventh, be mindful
how I entered the bridal chamber of the Cross. And
then I stretched out My hands by those hard nails
for thy sweet embraces, singing in that chamber of
love seven songs of marvellous sweetness. And then
I opened My Heart that thou mightest enter in, when
dying on the Cross, I slept the sleep of love with
thee.”
Theodoret.
Philo Carp.
Tres Patr.
S. Greg,
Nyss.
2 Cor. iii. 3.
256 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 14,
Lis belly is as bright wory overlaid with sapphires.
Here it is necessary to premise that the word NW)
esheth, translated bright in the A. V., is passed over by
the Vulgate, is explained by box or a tablet (rvittov) in
the LX X., and is held by modern critics to mean a
work of art. There is this further difference, that the
Vulgate agrees with the A. V. in taking the sapphires
as set in the ivory, while the LXX. reverses this no-
tion, reading an ivory box (or tablet) on a sapphire
stone. Theodoret, taking zvttoy to be a box or vessel,
comments thus: The depth of His mysteries, and the
storehouse of His knowledge, where are hid all the
treasures of His wisdom, are an ivory box to those who
are worthy of His revelation. They are naturally in-
comprehensible, and therefore they are said to be upon
a sapphire stone, which signifies the hidden depth of
divine things. Philo explains the belly of the Bride-
groom to be the Law, wherein the oracles, prophecies,
and types of CHRIsT were inclosed, as in a box, like
the records of princes. This box was ivory on sapphire,
because as ivory is opaque and of trifling cost com-
pared with the transparent and precious sapphire, dyed
with the hue of heaven, so the Old Covenant is altoge-
ther inferior to the Gospel of Crist, just as a picture
or a flower ranks below a fruit or a living creature.
Or, as the same Father adds, we may understand here
the choir of the Saints, pure and shining, like an ivory
box, having no spot or defilement. In this spiritual
box lie the documents of wisdom and the title-deeds
which will confer no earthly possession, but a heavenl
kingdom. And this rests upon a sapphire stone, ae
may be referred to the Communion of the Saints, their
love, and their glory. Taking mutiov to be a tablet for
writing, the Three Fathers beautifully interpret it of
the Book of Nature, the visible creation, firm and
lovely, and written by the hand of Gop, resting on
that which is yet firmer and lovelier, His unseen
Almightiness and heavenly wisdom, figured by the
sapphire stone. And S. Gregory Nyssen takes the
tablet to be any pure human heart on which Gop
writes “not with ink, but with the Sprrrr of the living
Gop ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of
the heart.” It is white with holiness, it rests on
sapphire, because its whole longing is bent on heavenly
things. Turning to the Latin Fathers, we read first.
V. 14] THE SONG OF SONGS. 257
“In the members of the human body nothing is
weaker or more delicate than the belly, and therefore
the frailty of Curist’s assumed Humanity is thereby
denoted. It was ivory, because it had no spot or cor-
ruption, for ‘He did no sin, neither was guile found
in His mouth.’ It was studded with sapphires, be-
cause of the heavenly graces and powers with which
Curist’s Manhood was endowed, since the sapphire,
having the colour of a clear sky, signifies Gop’s Ma-
jesty, as it is written, ‘And they saw the Gop of
Israel, and there was under His feet as it were a paved
work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of
heaven in his clearness.’” Another, applying the
words to Curist’s mystical Body, says that the belly
denotes those who bring forth spiritual children in
faith ; nay, that the ivory belly itself may not unfitly de-
note the baptismal font, as the pure white ivory is taken
from a dead animal, for the Apostle saith, “‘ Know ye
not that so many of us as were baptized into Jusus
Cuxist were baptized into His death? Wherefore
we are buried with Him in baptism unto death, that
like as Curist was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Farusr, even so we also should walk
in newness of life.” And this font is studded with
sapphires because of the great Saints, glorious in their
confession, who have issued from it. A third takes
it of the contemplative Saints, not actively busy in
external work, like hands and feet, nor yet employed,
like the lips, in preaching the Word, but silently re-
ceiving into themselves the food of the Hoty GHosz,
and.adorned with tokens of true holiness, and thereby
profiting the whole body to which they belong. There
is yet another sense, applying the words to the human
Person of Curist. His Body, in its perfect purity and
beauty, is ivory, the stripes and weals inflicted on Him
in His Passion, studded it with sapphires. Even yet
the mysteries of the sapphire are not exhausted. ‘It,
like the beryl, gleamed on Aaron’s breastplate; it is
the promised foundation of the afflicted Church ; it is }°
the second jewel in the base of the New Jerusalem.
The azure light of Sapphire stone
Resembles that celestial Throne :
A symbol of each simple heart
That grasps in hope the better part :
Whose life each holy deed combines,
And in the light of virtue shines.
8
Cassiodor,
18. Pet. ii.
2.
bo
Exod. xxiv.
10.
S. Just. Ore.
Rom. vi. 3.
Luc. Abb.
Thom.
Vercell.
Cocceius.
Exod. xxviii.
Isay livedlls
Rev. xxi. 19.
Marbod.
The Hymn,
Cives ce-
lestis patrie.
Exod. xxv.
4; Xxvi.l;
XXvili. 5;
XXViii. 31.
Numb.
XV. 38.
S. Mat. ix.
20.
S. Epiphan.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
S. Ambros.
Psellus.
1 Cor. iii. 11.
Philo Carp.
S. Mark xvi.
15.
S. Just. Org.
Rom. xv. 1.
Rom, xv. 4.
S.Ans.Laud.
Eph, ii. 20.
258 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 15.
And therefore the blue of sky and sea, typifying the
height and depth, and length and breadth of the wisdom
and love of Gop, was reproduced mystically in the
Temple of old, and in the robes of Aaron, along with
the purple of Curist’s royalty and the scarlet of His
Blood, while the sacred ephod was all of blue. There-
fore too, the children of Israel were enjoined to put a
‘‘ribband of blue” upon the fringe that bordered their
garments, to remind them of Gop’s commandments ;
and it was this blue ribbon which formed the hem of
that white robe of CHrist, whose touch healed the
woman with an issue of blood.
15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon
sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Le-
banon, excellent as the cedars.
By reason of the title “ pillars” given to SS. Peter,
James and John, by their colleague 8. Paul, several
of the Fathers take the legs here to mean the Apostles
in general. They are marble, because of their firm-
ness and solidity, especially S. Peter, whose own name
denotes a rock ; they are set on golden sockets, because
they rest on the base of which is written, ‘‘ Other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Curist.” And the Apostles are in a sense the
legs of Curist, not merely because they bore at first
the whole weight of His mystical Body the Church,
but because Curist Himself passed in and on them
into the whole world to proclaim the Faith to the Gen-
tiles, when He commanded them, ‘‘ Go ye into all the
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The
words are applied to other Saints also, besides those
chief and earliest ones. All the righteous who support
others by their charity, and prop them with the conso-
lations of Scripture, are such, as the Apostle writes :
«“ We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of
the weak, and not to please ourselves.’ And the bases
on which such Saints rest may well be Holy Writ, for
it follows soon after, ‘‘ Whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have
hope.” Or, the examples of the great Saints of old
are the bases which support later ones, as it is written,
“Ye are built upon ae foundation of the Apostles
and Prophets.”
“an
V. 15.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 259
Again, applying the words to Curist Himself, they s. Greg.
give divers explanations. One is that the two precepts Nyss-
of love to Gop and love to our neighbour, firm as
marble in their claim on our faith, and based on the Tres Patr.
golden foundations of Gop’s truth and love, are, as it
were, the legs wherewith Curist enters the building
of the faithful soul. Or you may take the Bridegroom’s Cassiodor.
legs to be the journeyings of the Saviour, undertaken
for our salvation: His coming down from heaven to
become Man, His descent into the grave, His Resur-
rection and Ascension. They are marble, for all the
ways of the Lorp are straight and strong. Of His
strength the Psalmist saith, “ He rejoiceth as a giant Ps. xix. s.
to run His course, His going forth is from the utter-
most part of the heaven.” Of His. straightness else-
where, * All the paths of the Lorp are mercy and Ps, xxv. 19.
truth.” These legs are set upon sockets of gold, be-
cause all things which were to be done by CuristT or
in Curist, were foreordained and appointed before the
foundation of the world. Wherefore the Prophet ex-
claims, “O Lorp, Thou art my Gon; I will exalt Isa. xxv.1.
Thee, I will praise Thy Name; for Thou hast done
wonderful things ; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth.” And that we might be assured in type zeaa.
how unchangeable these counsels for our salvation are,
the Lorp did not suffer His legs to be broken upon
the Cross, as were those of the malefactors ; just as He
signified the unity of His Church in preserving the
seamless robe from being rent. But if you will have
it, that only two journeyings can be signified by the
two legs, you may take them to be the first and the "8° “4.
second. Advent; the first for redemption, the second
for judgment and salvation.
His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the
cedars. Lebanon, towering and white, is taken as the
type of Him Who was fairer and purer than the children
of men, and of Whom that first King of Israel was a
mystical type, of whom it is written: “There was not 1 Sam. ix. 2.
among the children of Israel a goodlier person than
he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than
any of the people.” Theodoret, translating Lebanon Theodoret.
by “incense,” bids us see in it the Divinity which
we worship, and in the cedars, the Man Who is in- pue. app.
corrupt. And a Western writer, accepting the same
idea of incense, explains it that CurisT is so entitled,
as at once Priest and Victim in the One Great Sacri-
s 2
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
Ricard. Vict.
Rupert.
Beda.
Rupert.
S. Ambros.
de Virgin.
3,
260 A COMMENTARY ON [V. 15.
fice. Others, dwelling on the version “ whiteness,” see
Him who washes away the sins of His people, making
them white as snow. And the Virgins of the Church
are said to be the countenance of Curist, white as Le-
banon, for because of the chaste purity of their life,
and because they are free from stain of pollution, they
are nearest to the spotless Lamb. Rupert reminds us,
very aptly, that the great stones whereof the Temple
was built were hewn on the slopes of Lebanon, and
that as that Temple, to which Curist compares Him-
self, was the head, and glory, and Holy of holies of the
earthly Jerusalem, so is CHrist the Head, and glory,
and Holy of holies in the heavenly Jerusalem, and
every stone in that building made without hands is a
Saint of Gop, part of Lebanon itself, as a member of
the Body of Curist. Haxcellent as the cedars. Where
note, that the same Beloved is compared to Lebanon,
which produces mighty trees, and to the cedar which
amongst others, Lebanon produces, because He, one
and the same, brings forth and carries the trees, and is .
Himself brought forth and carried amongst the trees
by Himself. For our Lorp Jesus Cunist, while bring-
ing forth to life and nourishing by His Divine grace
all His elect from the beginning till the end of the
world, bears Himself also amongst men, in willing to
be made Man, and filled that Man with the grace of
His own Sprrit, albeit far more than all others. The
Lorp then is excellent as the cedars, because He tran-
scends in His sole and singular dignity all the trees of
that wood of the Holy Church wherein He was born.
His countenance is as Lebanon, which produces the
cedar also amongst its other noble trees, because, when
He willed to become Man, He created Himself as the
Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, just as a painter
might depict himself with fitting colours, in the midst
of a group. He was elect, or excellent as the cedars,
because He bore a likeness to all those great Patri-
archs, His forefathers, and united in Himself every
virtue and grace which they separately possessed.
And as the cedar seems to tower up to the sky, while
its roots go deep and firmly into the earth, so the
Divinity of Curist reaches to the Heaven of heavens
where He dwells, and yet His Incarnation binds Him
closely to the children of men.
16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is al-
V. 16.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 261
together lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
By the mouth of Curist they understand, as by His S. Greg.
lips, the preachers of His Word, and in especial the $°F%:, 0,
first of them, the Baptist Forerunner. Or, applied to Pselius. o
Himself, it will denote His own words. For what,
asks Theodoret, can be sweeter than the sayings of Theodoret.
Gop? Wherefore holy David saith, ““O how sweet Ps. cxix.
are Thy words unto my throat: yea, sweeter than !°-
honey unto my mouth ;” and again, “‘ More to be de- Ps, xix. 10.
sired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:
sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb.” There-
fore, also, the officers of the chief priests, who were
sent to the Lorp, fascinated and attracted by longing
_ for the sweetness of His words, said, ‘‘ Never man S. John vii.
spake like this Man.” And, seeing that the whole 4°
New Testament is His utterance, we may well under-
stand it by the mouth (or throat, as LX X. and Vulgate Tres Patr.
read) of the Bridegroom, especially by reason of the 7°“:
' sweetness of reading and meditating on its heavenly
sayings. And S. Anselm of Laon reminds us that as aro
it is not the outer letter, but the inner spirit, which is
profitable, so the hidden speaking of Curist to the
_ heart is the sweetest of all, by reason of the loving-
kindness which is His utterance. And whereas the
margin of the A. V. reads palate, so there are not Ricard. Vict.
wanting those who tell us that here is meant the in-
ternal savour of Curist and His spiritual consolation,
which are so sweet to those who taste them. The
more this sweetness is preserved, the more it is longed
for. It hath hunger, not satiety, in this life: it hath
refreshment, not fulness. It is so sweet as to be ever
desired; it is so vast, as never to be fully compre-
hended. The Bride calls the throat most sweet, and Rupert.
we are not told how sweet, nor yet what it is like.
Some comparison is given us in all the other cases,
as that the head is fine gold; the locks like palm-buds ;
the eyes like doves’ eyes by the waters; the cheeks
beds of spices; the lips lilies; the hands cylindrical,
golden, full of jacinths; the belly, ivory studded with
sapphires; the legs pillars of marble with golden sock-
ets. But the Bride calls the throat only most sweet,
and gives no simile, that thereby you may ponder
how unspeakable and priceless is that divine inner
sweetness, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
262
neither hath entered into the heart of man, but which
Gop hath prepared for them that love Him. Yea, He
A COMMENTARY ON [V. 16.
1 Cor. ii. 9.
as altogether lovely. Or, as all the ancient versions
Plato. read, desirable. Anda heathen philosopher will tell
Phedrus, us how desirable, in those marvellous words whereby
64. he forecasts the Beatific Vision-as shadowed in trance
and communion, and the attractive power of the Incar-
nation: ‘ We cannot, in mere similitudes here, be-
hold the glory of Righteousness and temperance, and
those other things that are precious to our souls; nay,
scarce even a very few, reaching with their imperfect
organs to the images thereof, beheld what kind of things
it is which is pictured. But it was then permitted to
gaze on resplendent beauty, when, together with the
choir of the blest, we attained, with Gop, to the blissful
vision and contemplation ; and others too beheld, and
were initiated into that mystery which may well be
called the happiest of all; which we celebrated, purely,
and free from all the passions which abode in us in
the later time.2 And so initiated, and admitted as be-
holders, we, pure and spotless, and freed from the body
which we bear about with us like a shell, beheld those
perfect, simple, unwavering, and blissful visions in
light unsullied. And all this is a delight to memory,
wherefore has it now been spoken of at length, through
longing for it once more. And that beauty, as we
have said, shone forth, coming with them,® and we,
reaching this point, perceived its clearest shining by
the clearest of our senses. For sight is the most acute
of our bodily senses, and yet wisdom cannot be seen
by it, for wisdom would excite the most eager love,
if any like image of it could appear, and show itself
to sight.” So when the Eternal Wisdom, the Beauty
uncreated, did show Himself to men, He inspired such
passionate yearning in them that they could not but
rise up, leave all, and follow Him, to poverty, exile,
shame, and death. Altogether lovely, because He is
lovely as Gop, and lovely as Man also. He is lovely
in Himself, and lovely in His Saints. Lovely was the
Cassiodor.
Ric. Vict.
1 The Syriac included; with
singular poverty, however, it
applies the epithet to the rai-
ment of the Bridegroom, not
to Himself.
2 It is not a forced interpre-
tation, using the passage as is
done here, to interpret this
latter time of the Fall, suc-
ceeding that earlier time of
man’s innocence.
8 So it is recorded of more
than one Saint, that the face,
after returning from Commu-
nion at the Altar, seemed to
shine with supernatural light
and beauty.
VI. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 263
vision of His Humanity upon earth, but lovelier by far
will be His glorified Humanity in heaven ; lovely is that
Countenance which the whole company of the heavenly
citizens desires, most lovely of all the contemplation
of His Godhead, to which all that can be desired may
not be compared. He is altogether lovely, because the S. Pet. Dam.
mystery of His Humanity kindles such universal long- OO ee
ing in the souls of His elect, that not merely the glory
of His Resurrection calls them forth, but even the
ignominy of His Passion invites them to imitate His
example. Altogether lovely, because the more He is Rupert.
possessed, the more He is longed for; we desire to
behold Him, and when we behold Him, we desire Him
more ardently than before.
O Jesu, King of wondrous might, S. Bernard.
O Victor, glorious from the fight, Rhythm.
Sweetness that may not be expressed, Jubil.
And altogether loveliest!
This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters Cassiodor.
of Jerusalem. He is my Beloved, because I cling to
Him by faith and love; He is my Friend, because He
vouchsafed to redeem me from the bond of sin, to
make me His friend, and the sharer of His secrets, and
_ the more each one loves Him, the more worthy does
he become of His friendship. And observe that He
is called Beloved first, and then Friend, ‘ because He 1S. John iv.
first loved us,” and was united to us by that love even 1%
before He came upon earth to speak unto us face to Exod.xxxiil.
face, as a Man speaketh unto His friend. ey
One there is, above all others, John
Well deserves the name of Friend, Newton.
His is love beyond a brother’s,
Costly, free, and knows no end;
They who once His kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love.
CHAPTER VI.
1 Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest
among women? whither is thy beloved turned
aside ? that we may seek him with thee.
Tres Patr.
Psellus.
Ps. xxiv. 8.
Cassiodor.
Honorius.
Beda.
Numb. xi,
25.
Honorius.
Hugo Card.
Cassiodor.
Card. Baro-
nius.
Corn. 4 Lap.
264: A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 1.
The Three Fathers, assuming that the speakers here
are the Angels, represent the words as an attempt on
their part to penetrate the mystery of the Incarnation,
because they did not fully comprehend it until the
Ascension, as appears from their question when bid to
lift up their gates: “Who is the King of Glory P”
But the more general view is, that we have the weaker
and less-instructed believers, the Ecclesia discens, ask-
ing to be taught by the wiser and more perfect, the
Ecclesia docens, the history, as well as the beauties of
the Bridegroom, the place where He may be found, as
well as the marks whereby He may be known. Tell
us, then, they say, how it is that thou seekest Him as
absent, Whom thou preachest as everywhere present ?
If He be present, how may He be seen; and if He be
absent, how can He be found? And one answer to
this part of their inquiry is, that Gop never leaves
those whom He has once taken to Himself, that He
may go elsewhere to win others, but that the power of
the Divine presence is in such wise ubiquitous that it
goes, as it were, or turns aside, to attach others to it-
self, yet so as to keep that grace which has begun in
those whom it had already gathered, just as the put-
ting the Spirit on the seventy elders of Israel, took
nothing from the grace given to Moses, or as a candle
may light many other candles, with no diminution of
its flame. They dwell, too, on the double phrase, gone,
and turned aside; the one word denoting a distant
journey, the other a mere withdrawal to some place
close at hand, as, for instance, passing out of the sun
into the shade. Cunrisr is gone bodily into heaven by
His Ascension ; He has turned aside spiritually from
the Synagogue into the Church. He is gone, too, when
He altogether refuses to comply with any prayer; He
is but turned aside, when He delays a little when
sought, that He may excite more eager longing in the
soul which seeks Him. And the verse may be ex-
plained also of days of grievous scandals, coldness, and
laxity in the Church, times like those of Arian supre-
macy, or of Mohammedan conquest, or that dark and
sorrowful century of which the historian exclaims that
the Lorp appeared to be sleeping in the barque of
Peter. Then men anxiously inquire where may be
found the marks of true piety, where are the Con-
fessors of Curist’s Name. And once, the answer
would have been that He was in the deserts of the
VI. 2.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 265
Thebaid, with Paul, and Antony, and Pachomius; at
another time that He had passed from the Arian Kast
to His faithful in Gaul, where Hilary and Martin up-
held the standard of the Consubstantial ; and even in
the tenth century itself, great Houses like Cluny, re-
forming Saints like Dunstan, and missionary triumphs
in Norway, Bohemia, Russia, and Pomerania, testified
to the presence of Curist in the outskirts of His
Church, when those who looked for Him in the midst
could nowhere see Him. Again; the verse has been
explained of all those mysterious journeyings of the
Lorp, of His passage from heaven to the womb of
the Virgin, of His dealings in Hades between His Pas- Card. Hail-
sion and Resurrection, of the intervals between those °"
sudden and intermittent visits granted to the Apostles
during the Great Forty Days, intervals of which Holy
Scripture tells us nothing. And, lastly, the question Cassiodor.
is asked by every devout seeker after Curist, that he 8.Ans-Laud.
may know who those true Saints are in whose hearts
He rests, that imitating their example, he too may
find Him. This seeking must be twofold, in action S. Greg.
and in contemplation, in faith also and prayer, and the he ae
finding is in holiness of life. Wherefore is added,
That we may seek Him with thee, because they who
seek for Curist outside the Church, and without her
aid, are scarcely likely to find Him. And remember,
after all, what one of those who first sought Him vainly
outside the Church, and at last found Him, as few have
found so truly and closely, within it, has said, ‘‘ Let us g, august.
seek Him while He is yet to be found; let us seek in S. Joann.
Him even when we have found Him. He is hidden
that He may be sought when not yet found, and_that
He may still be sought when He has been found He
is incomprehensible.” .
Cassiodor.
2 My beloved is gone down into his garden,
to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens,
and to gather lilies.
The Chaldee paraphrase explains this verse in a Targum.
very remarkable manner of the Captivity : ‘The Ruler
of the world willingly received their prayer, and de-
scended into Babylon, to the council of the wise men,
and gave His people rest, and led them out of their
captivity by the hand of Cyrus, and Ezra, and Nehe-
miah, and Zorobabel son of Salathiel, and the elders
Ghislerius.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Hom. 15.
S. Luke x.
30.
1 Cor. iii. 9.
Ps, 1xxx. 13.
Theodoret.
Philo Carp.
Cassiod.
4
266 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 2.
of the Jews. And they built the House of the Sanc-
tuary, and set priests over the oblations, and Levites
over the guardianship of the Word of holiness. And
He sent fire from heaven, and willingly received their
oblation and the incense of spices, and as a man reareth
up his son in pleasant things, so tenderly did He nourish
them; and as aman gathereth roses out of the valleys,
so did He assemble them together out of Babylon.”
And, not dissimilarly, the Fathers take it of the special
aid which Curist gives His Church in time of need,
going down into it, that it may goup unto Him. And
though this time of need may be variously understood,
yet there can be little doubt that S. Gregory Nyssen
is right in understanding it first and chiefly of the first
Advent of Curist in the flesh, when the whole creation
was groaning and travailing in pain, and looking for
the promised Deliverer. He went down, for the sake
of that man who going down from Jerusalem to Je-
richo, fell among thieves ; down from His unspeakable
majesty to our lowly nature. He came into His garden,
as the True Gardener and Husbandman, to plant it
anew; for we men, as saith the Apostle, “are Gop’s
husbandry.” Seeing then that it was He Who tilled in
Paradise at the beginning of the world the garden of
human nature which the Heavenly Fatuer planted,
and that the wild boar and singular beast preyed
on that garden, to wit, ourselves, and rooted up the
field of Gop, He came down to deck that garden once
more by planting virtues there, and by sending through
it, by the channels of His Word, the pure and holy
fount of doctrine, to cherish the plants. He comes
not merely to the garden generally, but in especial to
the beds of spices, in that He seeks in preference those
souls where there is no mere desert, barren of virtues,
but where the spices and odours of holiness abound.
It is said, too, that He comes into His garden, which
is one, to feed in the gardens, which are many; and
that because the Church Universal, which is His gar-
den, contains within it many local and _ particular
Churches, and each such Church many devout souls
which He delights to visit; and to gather lilies, that
is, to take away for Himself out of this world those
holy souls which by maturity in sanctification have
attained to perfect whiteness, that He may cause them
to rejoice evermore with Him in eternal blessedness.
And that He might do all this, He went down into
oe
==
VI. 2.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 267
that garden where they laid Him in Joseph’s new
tomb, and there too, by appearing to Mary Magdalen,
He consecrated the first-fruits of the Church. He
went also into that other garden of His when He de-
scended into hell, to those beds of spices, the holy
Fathers and Patriarchs who awaited His coming, to
Abel and Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Job,
David and other great Saints before and under the
Law. He entered Paradise also in triumph after He
had pierced down to hell. And Gop Himself is our
witness to this fact, in that He mercifully replied to
the thief upon the Cross, who devoutly commended
S. John xix.
41
Philo Carp.
himself to Him; ‘‘ To-day shalt thou be with Me ins. Luke
Paradise ;” that is, thou shalt see and behold My Di- *x1il. 43.
vine glory, Myself, and My garden of delights (for
_ such is the meaning of Paradise,) and there thou shalt
feed and rejoice for ever, where no weariness or satiety
cancome. Hence it is, pursues the Bishop of Carpasia,
that in the fragrant gardens of human souls, glowing
throughout the world with Christian faith and charity,
Gop Himself feeds ; and thence He gathers, to deck
His bridal chamber, the white and perfumed garlands
of His lilies, the Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs and
all Saints. Had He not first gone down into His garden
~ to overcome the sharpness of death, never could He
have delighted Himself with His holy feeding in the
gardens, that is, in the many Churches of the faithful
throughout the world. And when He was gone and
turned aside from the unbelieving Jews, to whom it was
necessary that the Word of Gop should first be spoken,
He. turned to the Gentiles, because those to whom
He came judged themselves unworthy of everlasting Acts xiii. 46.
life. And thus He went down into His garden to the
beds of spices. For out of the Gentile nations, and out
of the fanes and temples, He made for Himself beds of
eae and a fruitful garden, casting out thence the fil-
thiness of idolatry, that He might feed in those gardens
and gather thence lilies, Virgins and Martyrs, Con-
fessors and Doctors, and just persons, both men and
women; and be fed there with the food of worship, of
sacrifice, oblations, and prayer. And He is said to
have gone down from the Jewish people to the Gen-
tiles, as from the more worthy, which worshipped Gop,
to the less worthy, which worshipped idols. He came,
in His Incarnation, into His garden the Church, but
He came first to the choicest spot of all that garden,
Parez.
S. Just. Org.
S. Hieron.
Com. in
Zachar.
Dora Green-
well, Car-
mina Crucis.
Cocceius.
Jer. ii. 2.
Hos. ii. 14.
S. Greg.
Nyssen.
268 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 3.
the bed where the most fragrant spices grew, to the
spotless Maiden at Nazareth, where He might gather
the white lilies of purity and holiness as nowhere
else. And there is another garden besides those of
the Church and the soul, where He comes to meet
His Bride, which is the reading of Holy Scripture,
whence He gathers for her lilies, violets, roses, and
divers spices, to fill the beds of believing souls, and
to pluck thence abundantly lilies of the Lorp.
‘*O what are these lilies tipped
With fire, that sword-like gleam ?
O what are these lilies dipped
As in the pale moon-beam,
That quiver with unsteadfast light,
And shine as through a dream >”
‘These fiery spirits passed
From earth through sword and flame ;
These quiet souls at last
Through patience overcame ;
These shine like stars on high, and these
Have left no trace nor name;
I bind them in one wreath, because
Their triumph was the same.”’
38 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is
mine: he feedeth among the lilies.
After her fall, and her repentance, the Bride, return-
ing to her first love, is enabled once more to speak of
Him as in the days of her earliest fervour. Her Lorp
called upon her by the memory of that happy time,
saying, “‘ I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth,
the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after
Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Israel was holiness to the Lorp, and the first-fruits of
His increase.” And as it was in the trials and suffer-
ings of the wilderness that she first learnt to know
Him, so it is by trials and suffering that He purifies
her, and brings her to Him again; as it is written
in another place: ‘‘ Behold, I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope, and she’shall sing
there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day
when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” Thus, as
S. Gregory Nyssen teaches, she has become so like her
Beloved by conforming herself absolutely to His will,
VI. 3.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 269
that all who behold her feel as the spectators of a skil-
fully painted portrait, or as those who look on an image
reflected in a mirror, that they see not a mere repre-
sentation, but the very original itself. Nay, the Bride
herself, irradiated with the light of Gop’s glory, wherein
she beholds shadowed His wondrous attributes of §. Thomas
beauty, goodness, wisdom, and love, is tranced at the aucneeand
sight, and so absorbed in Him that she has no heed Q-175,art.2.
for aught else, and neither sees nor hears anything
which pertains to earth. J for my Beloved, she says, cassiodor.
prepare the food He loves. My Beloved for me will
provide the grace of perfection, the reward of eternal
life. I for My beloved prepare a mansion in myself. yonorius.
My Beloved is mine because He dwells in me, an
- makes me dwell in Him, as He says Himself in the
Gospel, ‘‘ Ye in Me, and I in you.” a John xiv.
Nor time, nor place, nor chance, nor death can bow Francis
My least desires unto the least remove ; Quarles.
. He’s firmly mine by oath; I His by vow; Emblems,
He’s mine by faith, and I am His by love; Vv. 3.
He’s mine by water; I am His by wine;
Thus I my best Beloved’s am, thus He is mine.
He is my Altar, I His holy place ;
I am His guest, and He my living Food;
I His by penitence; He mine by grace ;
I His by purchase; He is mine by Blood;
He’s my supporting elm; and I His vine;
Thus I my best Beloved’s am, thus He is mine.
He gives me wealth, I give Him all my vows;
I give Him songs; He gives me length of days;
With wreaths of grace He crowns my conquering brows;
And I His temples with a wreath of praise ;
' Which He accepts; an everlasting sign
That I my best Beloved’s am, that He is mine.
And observe the change in the order of the words from
that earlier passage where the same Divine truth was
enunciated. Before, it was said, “‘ My Beloved is mine, ii. 16.
and Lam His,” “ because He first loved us.’’ Now, she 1S. John iv.
has learned to love Him, not as perfectly as He deserves, '%
nor as He loves her, but yet in such wise that she can
feel that she is not merely taken possession of by Him, perro,
but that she willingly and joyfully gives herself up to
Him for ever. This, then, is the full promise of the
marriage bond. The Bridegroom has made His vows,
and plighted His troth to her already, and now she is Henr.
asked to plight hers in turn, that as He promises to ah kagt
Hos. ii. 19.
Prov. xXili.
26.
Ps. Ixxiil. 25.
Col. iii. 14.
Lev. xxi. 13.
DIC OVAX1 2s
270 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 3.
love her, comfort her, honour her, keep her in sickness
and in health, and endow her with all His goods, so
she in her turn promises loving obedience and steadfast
faith to Him. ‘This is the fulfilment of that which He
spake unto her by the Prophet, “I will betroth thee
unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me
in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kind-
ness, and in mercies. Iwill even betroth thee unto
Me in faithfulness ; and ‘thou shalt know the Lorp.”
And as the essence of marriage consists in mutual
consent, CuristT the Bridegroom asks for the heart of
His Bride, saying, “Give Me thine heart, and let
thine eyes observe My ways.” For there is none
other to whom she may so profitably, happily, and
honourably give it, since it is well to bestow the heart
on such a Bridegroom as can alone be sufficient for the
heart, as the Bride herself saith. with the Psalmist,
“Gop is the strength of my heart, and my portion for
ever.” Only the love of Gop, then, which is the union
of a fitting Bridegroom with a suitable Bride, makes
spiritual marriage. For charity, which, according to
the Apostle, ‘is the bond of perfectness,” makes us
agree perfectly with Gop, and therefore establishes
perfect marriage between Gop and the soul, binding
Gop to the heart and the heart to Gop by a spousal
bond, and knitting it so closely to Him, that whoso
thus clings to Gop is made one spirit with Him.
Consider then, O soul, if thy love is yet to give,
where thou canst better fix it than on Him Who is
fairer than the children of men, in Whom are all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid. If thy love
is for sale, does not He buy it at the great price of
His own Blood, lovingly forestalling thee, and faith-
fully ransoming thee P Moreover, this Bridegroom is a
Virgin, and the Child of a Virgin, Who desires to have
a virgin Bride. And according to the Law, it is ruled
that the High Priest “shall take a wife in her vir-
ginity ;” wherefore the Apostle saith, ‘‘ I have espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Curist.” Yet fear not, O soul, for so often
as thou art cleansed by grace, thou art counted as a
virgin; art freed from the corruption of sin, pure
through love, asking, seeking, and desiring one thing,
and that the one thing needful. And this is the great
difference between earthly and spiritual marriage, that
in the former a virgin ceases to be such, but in the
VI. 3.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 271
latter a soul which has been stained is made a virgin ;
whence blessed Agnes saith, ‘‘ Whom when I love, I
am pure, when I touch, I am undefiled, when I re-
ceive, | ama virgin.” The beginning of this bridal is
by faith in Baptism, it is confirmed by progress in
holiness, it is consummated in glory, when the soul is
inseparably joined to Curist. And there are three
blessings attached to this spiritual marriage, as to all
true and loving marriages of earth, mutual faith, off-
spring, and indissoluble union. The spiritual offspring
of the soul and Gop, of Divine grace and free-will, is
threefold, active pursuit of good, passive avoidance of
evil, patient endurance of suffering; the inseparable
bond which shall unite them in glory is also a triple
cord, conformity in holiness, identity of will, perfect- . jy omas .
ness of inward love. And as fire melts two masses of Aquinas.
metal into one, so the fervour of this love melts the
soul, and causes it to flow into Gop, and thus be united
with Him, thenceforward to be parted from Him never-
more. Further, as all marriage is sealed with a solemn
pledge, so it is in the vows of the Religious Life that
this bridal of the soul and Gop is most frequently seen.
Not but that countless great Saints in other vocations
have been firmly knit to Him, but that nevertheless .
the saying of the Apostle holds, and must always hold
good in the main, “‘ He that is unmarried careth for the 1 Cor. vii.
things that belong to the Lorp, how he may please 32.
the Lorp; but he that is married careth for the things
that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin.
The unmarried woman careth for the things of the
Lorp, that she may be holy both in body and spirit:
but she that is married careth for the things of the
world, that she may please her husband.” And as in g, Hieron.
the discharge of our obligations there is more accept- ad Pollent.
ability in giving that which we are not bound to pay,
but which we do pay for love’s sake, therefore it is
that such especial honour is yielded to the Religious
Life. Wherefore a great Saint speaks thus of the s. Basil. M.
Brides of Curist, those lilies among which the Be- ™ Ps x!v-
loved feeds: ‘“‘ With joy and gladness shall they be
brought, and enter into the King’s palace.’ Not they
who have submitted to virginity by compulsion, not
they who have adopted a celibate life from sorrow or
necessity, but they who with joy and gladness delight
in this good thing, these shall be brought unto the
J. M. Neale,
The Hymn,
Christ’s own
Martyrs.
Prov. iii. 13,
Wee,
272 A COMMENTARY ON
[VI. 4.
King, and be brought into no common places, but into
the King’s temple. (LXX.) For the sacred vessels,
which no human use has defiled, may be carried into
the Holy of holies, and are permitted entrance into
that shrine where no profane feet may tread.”
Curist’s dear Virgins, glorious lilies,
Tell us how ye kept unstained
Snowiest petals through the tempest,
Till eternal spring ye gained :
Snowiest still, albeit with crimson
Some more precious leaves were stained ?
‘Tn the place where He was buried
There was found a garden nigh ;
In that garden us He planted,
Teaching us with Him to die,
Till to Paradise He moved us,
There to bloom eternally.”’
4. Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah,
comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with
banners.
The word Tirzah,) implying “‘ pleasantness,” has not
been translated as a proper name by the LXX. and
“Vulgate, which severally read cddoxta and suavis. But
taking it first as we have it here in the A. V., the mys-
tical import is that the life of the Bride, even as mili-
tant in this world, (of which the northern kingdom,
with its capital Tirzah, is a type) has a beauty and
attractiveness which rivals all earthly bliss, besides
that yet greater loveliness which belongs to her in her
triumph when she has reached her Country, and at-
tained to the Vision of Peace. And that, because she
has now been conformed to her Bridegroom, the Eternal
Wisdom, of Whom Solomon elsewhere saith, ‘‘ Happy
is the man that findeth Wisdom.... her ways are
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
1 The juxtaposition of these
two names supplies an item of
internal evidence as to the date
of the Song of songs. Tirzah
became the first capital of the
northern kingdom, after the
revolution of the ten tribes
under Jeroboam I., (1 Kings
xiv. 17.) The wars, jealousies,
and religious differences which
thenceforward divided Israel
and Judah, make it all. but
certain that no southern poet
would have praised Tirzah, and
no northern one Jerusalem, at
least so as to couple them.
Thus the actual reign of Solo-
mon is the most probable era
of the composition.
VI. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 273
Accordingly, the Lorp Himself tells His Apostles :
‘Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath S. Mark x.
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, 39:
or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake and the
Gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred-fold more in
this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mo-
thers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and
in the world to come eternal life.” Those Fathers,
however, who explain the verse of the Church, do not
contrast here the Militant and Triumphant divisions
of it, but the Gentile and Jewish. ‘The Worp, re- S. Athan.
marks §. Athanasius, beholding and approving the 5/70Ps!s:
faith of the Gentiles, saith, Zhou art beautiful, My
love, as approval, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as
forces in array. For they who are come from the
Gentiles ought not to be unlike Jerusalem, that there
may be but one people, for this is so when we honour
the Law and believe in Curist. For the Gop of the
Law and of the Gospels is One, and whoso is not
made like to Jerusalem, does not become the Bride-
groom’s friend. So too S. Gregory the Great: “The ¢ Greg.
Synagogue is called beautiful, and love, sweet, and “eh
comely as Jerusalem, because when converted, she will
follow the four Holy Gospels as does the Church.
Hence she derives beauty of conduct, so as to please,
she gathers training in holy action, that she may abide
in love; she learns the sweetness of meekness, that
she may persevere; she exhibits the comeliness of fair
conversation, that she may attract by her example.” Hugo Card.
This Church of the Lorp is terrible to heretics, un-
believers, and evil spirits, by reason of the number
and valour of her warriors, their long training in arms,
their loyalty, zeal, and unanimity in battle; because
of the alliance of the Angels; and yet more, in that
she is aided by the presence of the mightiest of
Kings, ready to protect His subjects. And so it is
written: “The shout of a king is among them,” and as Numb. xxiii.
Captain of the Lorp’s host is He come. As an army *™
in array, for in the foremost line is the King Himself meen hE
with His generals the Apostles; in the second, the
army of Martyrs; in the third, the company of the
Confessors.
Let angelic armies
Guard us on each side,
But Thyself as Leader
First in battle ride ;
fs
Targum.
Numb. ii. 2.
S. Ven. Fort.
The Hymn,
Vexilla Re-
gis.
Numb. ii. 3.
Corn. 4 Lap.
Luc, Abb.
274: A COMMENTARY ON (VI. 4.
Thou Whose Name is Faithful,
Thou Whose vesture glows
White with perfect pureness,
Red with blood of foes.
Again, the Church is beautiful in the devout lives of
her Saints; she is the Bridegroom’s love in those to
whom by holy love His secrets are disclosed; sweet
in those who are busied in works of mercy ; comely
in her contemplative and hermit Saints; terrible as
an army in array, by reason of her Religious Orders,
militant under rule, and each company under its own
chief, or spiritual Superior. And following that other
version, as an army with banners, we are reminded by
the Targum of the twelvefold array of the children of
Israel in their march through the wilderness, every
man pitching “ by his own standard, with the ensign
of their father’s house.” In the vanguard is the vic-
torious standard of the King Himself:
The Royal Banners forward go,
The Cross shines forth in mystic glow ;
even as it is written, “On the east side, toward the
rising of the sun, shall they of the standard of the
camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies,” but
behind it clusters many a banner and pennon of the
inferior chieftains of the host. There is the ruddy
Rose of the Martyrs, the candent Lily of the Virgins,
the golden Chain of the Doctors, the starry Crown of
the Confessors. There too—as in ancient Rome, where
every especial type of military valour had its own ap-
propriate crown, one like the beaks of ships for a
naval victory, one like the battlements of a city for
him who first scaled the enemy’s wall, one like the
palisades of a camp for the leader in storming the
intrenchments—gleam the ensigns which tell of the
armorial bearings won by each champion in his hardest
fight. There is the lion which sent Ignatius to his
reward; there are the anchor of Clement, the grating
of Laurence, the fiery chair of Blandina, the arrowy
sheaf of Edmund the King, and countless other tokens
of victory in many a well-fought field, once tossed to
and fro by the stormy breezes of earth, now hung up
for ever in the peaceful calm of heaven, yet not so
high but that we may see them still. And all this is
true in its degree of every holy soul which makes one
in the ranks of that great army, beautiful, because of
VI. 5.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 2793
her gentle ways ; sweet, in pureness of heart ; comely as
Jerusalem, from its love of peace; terrible, with the
arms of truth and purity. Comely as Jerusalem, also Theodoret.
because imitating here the life of the Angels, ponder-
ing on earth the thoughts of heaven, following after
the prize of her high calling, seeking the things which
are above, where Curist sitteth at the right hand of
Gop. And not only comely, but terrible to beholders,
because of her set array, having nothing irregular,
uncertain, confused, but all things in due order and
judgment. For, as Philo and S. Gregory aptly say, Philo Carp.
it is well known to the experienced that soldiers, when sg, Greg. M.
advancing in array against the enemy, if they march
in close order and keep step together, are feared by
the foes that come against them, because they see no
gap in the ranks whereby they may pierce them. So
too, in our war against evil spirits, the unity of faith,
the cheerfulness of hope, the bond of charity, are what
make us terrible, since, if there be discord and schism
as a body, itis no hard task for the enemy to rout
it. tn array, not only because of the orderly regula-
tion of all the facultion, powers, and habits of Herat pads
within itself, but by reason of each soldier in the great truco Vict.
army of Gop having his own appointed place in its Erad. Theol.
ranks, according to his order and calling, and thus by #*}-
faith and obedience being sweet to man, comely to the Beli
Angels, terrible to evil spirits. And finally, they apply 4!@s-
the verse fitly to S. Mary, beautiful in her holiness, ha ier
sweet in gentle meekness ; comely as Jerusalem, be- ”\"”
cause in her peace was made between Gop and man,
when she became the abode of the Prince of peace,
and palace of the King; terrible as an army in array,
because compassed by the ranks of the Angels.
5 Turn away thine eyes from me, for they
have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of
goats that appear from Gilead.
Overcome me. The LXX. and Vulgate, with little
difference, have given me wings, or made me fly away.
The beauty of thine eyes, the contemplation of thy
vision, and the clearness of thy mental sight have
drawn Me to thy love, but gaze not steadfastly on Me
beyond measure, lest thou shouldst suffer some harm
thence. For I am past Repnching out, and incompre-
vi
Theodoret,
Cassiod.
Exod, xxxiii.
20.
S. John xiv.
OATS
S. Luke xi.
9.
Dion. Carth.
Parez.
S. Just.Org.
Luc. Abb.
276 A COMMENTARY ON (VI. 5.
hensible, not only by men, but by angels; and if thou
shouldst pass the bounds, and vainly occupy thyself
with matters above thy powers, not only wilt thou fail
in thy search, but thou wilt make thine eye dimmer
and feebler. For such is the nature of light that just
as it illuminates the eye, so it punishes with hurt its
insatiability. Therefore twrn away thine eyes from
Me: search not out things that are too hard, seek not
that which is too mighty for thee, but ponder evermore
upon that which is enjoined thee. I have given thee
doves’ eyes, wherewith thou mayest behold Me, and
penetrate most keenly the hidden things of Scripture,
but beware lest thou shouldst direct them to look on
Me now, for whilst thou art in this present life, thou
canst not, “ for there shall no man see Me, and live.”
But, when freed from the fetters of the body, thou
shalt attain to Me, then thou shalt behold Me in open
vision, and that shall be fulfilled which is promised in
the Gospel, “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My
Farner, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself
to him.” In that it is said, for they have made Me
fly away, it is not to be supposed that Gop deserts
those who seek Him and departs from them, seeing
that He Himself commands, “ Seek and ye shall find ;”
but it is rather to be understood that the more any one
aims at searching out Gon’s divine majesty, the more
clearly he understands how unsearchable and incom-
prehensible it is. Again, they take the words as de-
noting fervent love, and not any warning. Turn away
thine eyes of prayer and meditation from Me for a
little, since they have forced Me to so much, have
made Me ly away from My throne in heaven to the
manger on earth, have made Me fly away from the
unbelieving Jewish people to the faithful Gentile
Church. Turn away thine eyes from My bodily pre-
sence, not always desiring to see Me in the flesh,
Whom thou mayest see better in the Spirit by faith.
For therefore 1 ascended into heaven, that 1, Who
fill all things with My divine presence, might not al-
ways seem to thee tied to place, Who am everywhere,
Who contain all things, and am uncontained in any
place. Turn away not merely thy fleshly eyes from
Me, but eyes clouded with sin, since they make Me
fly away, but look on Me with the eyes of holy con-
templation, and I will draw near. The marginal read-
ing of A. V., they have puffed Me up, is nearly that
VI. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 277
adopted and commented on by S. Ambrose, as though ¢ aypros
CuRisT were saying to the soul, If thou be perfect, de Isaac. 8.
yet there are other souls remaining for Me to redeem
and prop up, wherefore turn away thine eyes from Me,
for they lift Me up, but I came down to lift all up.
And he explains this somewhat obscure comment
more clearly by adding that a teacher who wishes to
lecture on a difficult subject to an audience, however
learned and eloquent he may be, yet lowers himself to
the standard of those who are uninstructed, and uses
simple language, that he may be understood. Hence
the words are an injunction to preachers and Christian
Saints in general to withdraw at times from contem-
plation and from discussing the darker mysteries of
the Faith, that they may teach the babes in CuRist,
and appeal to them with the simplest language of the
Gospel and the plainest object-lessons of good works.
There is yet another rendering, found both in some Targum.
ancient writers and in modern critics. Turn thine eyes Woicicn,
towards Me, for they encowrage Me. And then it may
be explained of the devotion of those few faithful ones
who clung ever to their Lorp, even at the Cross itself,
as being the one and only help His human nature had
in bearing up against all the sorrows of His life and
Passion. And especially when His dear Mother stood
by His Cross, gazing on Him with sorrowful eyes, the
thought that He was dying for her salvation braced
Him to endure unto the end. There are not wanting
those who, following this version, put the words into
the mouth of the Bride, and make her ask that those Psellus.
blessed eyes may look on her, to strengthen her for
the battle; or, following in part the other render-
ing, to give her wings that she may flee away from
the world, may direct her flight into the hole of the
rock, and there, in the wounded Side, be in safety
and at rest.
Ainsworth.
I heard the voice of JESUS say, Bonar.
‘‘T am this dark world’s Light,
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy day be bright.”’
I looked to Jnsus, and I found
In Him my Star, my Sun,
And in that light of life ?11 walk
Till travelling days are done.
Thy hair is as a flock of goats. Here begins a re-
petition of some of the words of praise with which the
Cassiodor.
Beda.
Gen. xli. 32.
S. Greg.
Nyss.
Rom. xii. 1.
Hugo Card.
Delrio.
278 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 6.
fourth chapter opens, on which 8. Beda, expanding
Cassiodorus, observes, “‘ These verses, a8 well as the
succeeding ones, have occurred before, and have been
fully explained so far as we had understanding to do
it. But we ought not to be weary of repeating in ex-
position what the author of the sacred poem was not
weary of repeating in composition ; either that we may
recall to mind what has been said before, or, by the
help of divine grace, may produce something fresh
and profitable. For when these, and countless other
passages in Scripture, already uttered, are repeated, it
is a token of firmness, that it is indeed the Word of
Gop, and will truly be fulfilled, as the Patriarch Jo-
seph testifies when explaining the dream of the king.”
We are told, then, of additional reasons for comparing
the Saints to goats. The goat was constantly offered
in sacrifice, and the devout offer, by penitence for their
sins, of which the goat is also a type, their “ bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Gop.” Goats,
preferring steep and rocky places, up which they bound
with swift but silent footfall, are types of those who
deliberately choose a hard and austere life, and pass
their time chiefly in silent ascent of the steep Way of
perfection. And in that it is said a flock of goats, we
are taught the need of union in the Church and in
Religious Orders, for as there is no beauty in the hair
if it consist of but a few scanty threads, neither is
there beauty in that Church or community which is
rent asunder by schisms and disputes. And R. Ishaki
goes at length into the various sacred uses to which
both sheep and goats were put, to enforce the lesson
that every act and faculty of a devout soul can be
pressed into the service of Gop. The fleece and hairs
were woven into curtains for the sanctuary, the flesh
was offered in sacrifice, the horns were made into trum-
pets, the leg-bones were used for flutes, the entrails for
stringing harps, the skin for covering drums; whereas
no part of the dog could be applied to any holy pur-
pose, just as the entire life of a sinner is displeasing to
the Lorp. |
6 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which
go up from the washing, whereof every one
beareth twins, and there is not one barren among
them.
VI. 7.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 279
These teeth, says Cassiodorus, are the words of the
Church, pure and clean, firm and strong; ¢wins in
uttering the twofold law of love to Gop and to our
neighbour. They are the Saints purified by regene-
ration, which bear twins, observes S. Epiphanius, be-
cause each soul goes down alone into the font of Bap-
tism, and comes back joined by the Hoty GHostT, so
that they two go overon dry ground. They are twins,
in the double guard over soul and body, in the arms
of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, in
the promises of Gop for this life and for that which is
to come. Cocceius, agreeing with some others in
taking these verses to refer to a later period of the
Church’s history than the earlier panegyric does, bids
us observe the absence of the epithet even or shorn,
which occurs in the parallel passage in. the fourth
chapter, and thence argues that some inferiority of the
Church of the latter days to that of the primitive age
is implied, chiefly in the more relaxed discipline, which
permits irregularities and errors which would have
been sternly repressed in the era of martyrdom.
7 As a piece of a pomegranate are thy
temples within thy locks.
Here too they have little to add. Aponius takes
the cheeks here to be those who have fallen into post-
baptismal sin, and who, washed anew with tears of
repentance, beautify the face of the Church with the
ruddy blush of shame. And they are compared to the
rind of the pomegranates (Vulg.,) itself not ruddy,
which encloses the bright colour, because their ex-
ample restrains others from falling into like sin, albeit
those others know nothing of the roughness and hard-
ness of penance. Philo of Carpasia sees the mingled
glow of faith and hope in every holy soul that serves
the Lorp, besides that which lies hid within (LXX..,)
the numerous seeds of good works and devout thoughts,
hidden within the rough rind of the fruit, but one day
to be disclosed by the Bridegroom Who alone knows
them now. Cardinal Hugo, explaining the words of
the preachers of the Church, likened to pomegranates
because of the firm rind and the many seeds, calls their
_ purity and fervour the red and white which vie in the
cheeks, and that without the hidden things (Vulg.,)
meaning either that even their outer life is holy, with-
Cassiodor.
S. Epipha-
nius.
2 Kings ii, 8.
Beda.
Cocceius.
Luc. Abb.
Philo Carp.
Hugo Card.
280 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 8.
out taking into account the more precious inner devo-
tion, or else that their venial sins of ignorance are not
5. Just, Ore, CROUgh to mar their spiritual beauty. And these verses
ou" are repeated, observes S. Justus of Urgel, because Gop
is foretelling, with the fruit of His twofold love, the
conversion of both Jews and Gentiles, and describing
the glory and merits of the Martyrs in these two por-
tions of His Church.
8 There are threescore queens, and fourscore
concubines, and virgins without number.
That these several titles denote three classes of be-
lieving souls is the view of most commentators, although
there is some diversity in their explanation. The
Origen. queens, according to Origen, are the perfect souls ; the
Hom.2. concubines, wives of the same royal husband, but of
inferior rank, and without right of succession to the
throne for their children, are those which are progress-
ing, and the virgins those only beginning the way of
holiness, and still outside the King’s palace, though
S.Greg. within the royal city. 8S. Gregory Nyssen and others,
NYS. et, not very dissimilarly, take the queens to be those who
Tres Patr. serve Gop for love; the concubines, those who do so
Rupert. through fear; the virgins, imperfect believers, looking
nevertheless for salvation. And 8. Justus of Urgel,
S. Just. Org. accepting this view, explains the application of the
_ __ titles, saying that the first are called queens, because
2 Cor. iil. 17. they are not the servants of sin, for “ where the Spirit
of the Lorp is, there is liberty ;”’ the concubines are
those who receive the seed of the Word of Gop, but
bring forth carnal, not spiritual fruit; and the virgins
without number are that great multitude which is al-
ways willing enough to listen to good and holy things,
but is by no means equally ready to carry what it
hears into action, and so has no spiritual offspring as
Philo Carp. yet. Philo gives a different interpretation, seeing in
the queens those who led righteous lives before the
Law and under it; in the concubines, those Gentiles
who lived only by the law of nature, and fell into
grievous sin of idolatry, but were at last united to
Curist by conversion; and in the virgins, the general
mass of Christian believers, not distinguished by any
Cont. Her. remarkable graces. And S. Epiphanius, agreeing that
a: the queens denote the Patriarchs from whom Cuxist
Luc. Abb.
VI. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 281
descended, takes the concubines to be the heretical
sects of Christendom, and the virgins to be the count-
less schools of heathen philosophy. Others will have
it that the queens are the Doctors of the Church (with
which agrees the curious comment of S. Epiphanius in
his gloss on the Canticles, that the threescore queens
are the souls of the threescore valiant men who guard
Solomon’s bed,) admitted to the bed of Crist by faith
and knowledge, and bringing forth spiritual children
for Him; while the concubines are those who preach
Curist indeed, but not of sincerity, and only for tem-
poral gain or popular applause. These too bring forth
spiritual children, but are themselves alien from the
crown of the everlasting kingdom. And the virgins
are those souls regenerate in Curist, which have laid
aside the old man and are renewed, but are not as yet
fitted for the nuptials of the King, nor able to preach
Curist at all. And now, before coming to the mys-
Cassiod,
Beda.
S.Ans.Laud.
tical explanation of the numbers, the remark of S. Au- gs. August.
gustine may be referred to, that the discrepancy be- Cont. Faus-
tween this passage and that wherein it is written that
Solomon “had seven hundred wives, princesses, and
three hundred concubines,’ gives evidence that the
Song of songs dates at an early period of his reign,
before the sins of his old age.
tum Mani-
cheum,
1 Kings xi.
Se
The queens are threescore, say they, for these rea- Cassiod.
sons, because they fulfil the ten moral precepts of the Theodoret.
Law in the six days of mortal work, or because they
govern their five senses by the teaching of the twelve
Apostles. Another, and still quainter exposition, is that pyc. app.
of Aponius, who sees here the union of the Churches
of the Old and New Covenant, the Saints of each being
thirty, because the number ten, denoting fulfilment of
Gop’s commandments, was multiplied thrice before the
coming of Curist, by the law of nature, the ordinance
of circumcision given to Abraham, and the Law of Mo-
ses ; while after the preaching of the Gospel this same
number ten is found repeated in the baptized, the peni-
tent, and the Martyrs. The concubines are fowrscore,
says Theodoret, because they differ from the queens Theodoret..
in their motive for serving Gop. For whereas the
queens fulfil Gop’s commandments during the six
working days, looking to the seventh, which is rest,
the concubines think ofthe eighth day, that awful Day
of Judgment, the first of the new creation, and are
Cassiod.
Hugo Card.
Luc. Abb.
S. Greg. M.
2 Tim. ii. 19.
S. John xiii.
18.
Guilielmus.
Josh. xxiv.
15; 1 Kings
Xviili. 21.
Cassiod.
Eph. iv. 5.
282 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 9.
obedient, only because they fear condemnation.! Much
less happy than this, because abandoning the recog-
nised mystical meaning of the number eight—the new
birth of creation, one more than the seven days of the
week, whence the octagonal form of medizval fonts—
is the interpretation which sees here worldly com-
pliance with Gov’s Law, eight being supposed to de-
signate the world, ruled by four seasons in its four
quarters. Better than this, though not working clearly
out, is that other suggestion that here are intended
souls striving by obedience to obtain even the smallest
blessing of some one of those eight beatitudes which
are all granted to the perfect. The virgins are without
number, because they have not yet been entered on the
roll of the elect. For if they were so entered, their
number would be known, as the Apostle saith, “The
Lorp knoweth them that are His; and as the Lorp
Himself saith, “I know whom I have chosen.” But
if they were on the other muster-roll, that of Ba-
bylon, their number would be known too, and there-
fore their lot is not yet fixed, till they hear that saying,
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,” and elect
between the Lorp and Baal.
9 My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is
the only one of her mother, she is the choice
one of her that bare her. The daughters saw
her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the
concubines, and they praised her. |
That is, notes Cassiodorus, there is but one Catholic
Church diffused throughout the world, which, though
consisting of queens and virgins, has also concubines
in it, that is, such as are Christians or teachers in name
only. The Church is one, because she does not admit
of rending and schism, but as there is ‘“‘ One Gop, one
faith, one baptism,” so there is one Church Universal,
which is also rightly called a dove, because she is be-
trothed and hallowed to Curist by the dowry of the
Hony Spirit, Who appeared in the form of a dove.
1 This is a very forcible way | teenth century, that mere ser-
of putting that view which was”| vile dread of hell is no true
universally held by theologians | motive to holiness, and is of
till the lax days of the six- | the nature of sin.
VI. 9.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 283
The Church is one before the Law, under the Law, Hugo Card.
and under grace. One, because created for the “ one S. Luke x.
thing needful,” that one thing which she hath desired wale jam,
of the Lorn ; one, because the Bride of one Husband. phito Carp,
The only one of her mother. That is, as some have it,
the sole representative on earth of the Heavenly Je- CSS0%
rusalem, the Mother of us all; or, as others say, the
one true lineal successor of that primitive Apostolic
Church from which all local Churches spring. Or, S.Ans.Laud.
again, they take it of the Synagogue, which has never 1™°: A>».
had any other spiritual offspring than Christianity. A pnito Carp.
yet deeper view than any of these interprets the mother S. Greg. M.
tobe divine grace, which bore the Church in the font of
regeneration, through the means of Incarnate Wisdom.
One Latin Father will have it that the pure and spot- pyc. ab.
less Humanity of Curist is here intended, the only
offspring of His Virgin Mother, the choice, elect One
of His mother the Synagogue, elect as the One Sacri-
fice, the One Mediator between Gop and man. Spoken Tres Patr.
of the holy soul, the verse tells of her perfect and
steadfast union with Gop, her advance in sanctifica-
tion of the Spirit, her election from amongst the
daughters, hirelings, and servants, to a share, through
grace, in the throne of Godhead itself. And she is
one, because endowed with the spirit of peace and
unity, single in heart, and not made up of warring and
dissonant elements, but simple, harmonious, and at S. Ambros.
rest. It is true of Our Lady, notes Psellus, purer
than cherubim and seraphim, the only one of earthly Psellus.
Saints who is the true likeness of the Heavenly Jeru-
salem, the one elect daughter of her mother the an-
cient Church, of Patriarchs, Kings, and Prophets, the
only one, for neither before nor since was there, nor can
there be any such ; His dove, because full of grace ;
elect, because not merely saved, but the bringer-forth
of salvation.
The daughters saw her and blessed her. In this col-
location we have at once the fulfilment of her own pro-
phecy, ‘‘ For, behold, from henceforth all generations S. Luke i.
shall call me blessed.” But applying the words to the 4°:
Church, Philo says very well: By the daughters of
Sion (LXX.) those holy men of old, the souls of the
Patriarchs and all the Prophets, are intended who be- ppijo Carp.
held afar off this Bride as yet to come in the Bride-
groom Who was to be born, and the Apostles by their
preaching united her to the Heavenly Bridegroom.
Rupert.
S. Mat. xiii.
17.
Hugo Card.
Ps. xlv. 14.
Prov. Xvii.
24.
S. Just. Org.
Luc. Abb.
Honorius.
284: A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 10.
And this He Himself plainly declares, when He
teaches that they were mindful and thankful for so
great a blessing, saying, “ Many prophets and righ-
teous men have desired to see those things which ye
see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things
which ye hear, and have not heard them.” And the
words may also be applied to Churches and any faith-
ful souls, which look with longing at that Church as
they see her triumphing in this mortal life, and are
thereby lifted up daily more and more from this mili-
tant and pilgrim state unto life everlasting. And
blessed her. The Vulgate reads, called her most blessed.
Blessed in her spiritual wealth, more blessed in her
numerous children, most blessed in the bridal and em-
braces of the Bridegroom. And note that it is said
that the daughters saw her and blessed her, whereas
it is said of the queens and concubines that they praised
her, without adding that they saw her. It is because
“the King’s daughter is all glorious within,” and only
those holy souls which are truly Gop’s children can
see that inner beauty, since they look for the Kingdom
of Gop, while “the eyes of a fool are in the ends of
the earth.” The queens and concubines, types now
of the outer world, do not bless the Church, for they
have no desire for her prosperity, but they are com-
pelled, in their own despite, to praise her, to extol the
valour of her Martyrs and the purity of her Virgins.
Aponius, taking the words of Curist's Humanity, ex-
plains that the heavenly host, citizens of Jerusalem on
high, when they saw that holy Body, united to the
Farumr’s love, born upon earth, wrapped in swaddling
clothes, and yet resplendent with glorious majesty,
called Him most blessed, bursting out with their song,
«Glory to Gop in the highest.” Most blessed, truly,
for only in that One Person did all the Beatitudes
meet, one of which alone is enough to make others
blessed in their degree.
10 Who is she that looketh forth as the
morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,
and terrible as an army with banners?
Here is set forth for us the gradual progress of the
Church or of the holy soul, as it goes on in holiness,
advancing to the perfect day. Honorius of Autun,
recognizing the identity of the Church of Gop through
VI. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 285
all the phases of its existence, tells us that the morning
signifies the Patriarchal dispensation; the moon the
Mosaic Law, drawing its light from the unseen sun,
and gradually crescent to the full, while the sun de-
notes the full light of the Gospel revelation. Or, if the
words be limited to the Christian Church, they may be
taken of its small beginnings in Judea, when it was
hidden from the world at large, and then was fair as
the moon, indeed, but pale with the light of suffering,
terror, and martyrdom during the Ten Persecutions,
till under Constantine it became like the sun, visible in
faith and glory through the world, and terrible as an
army, because then began its active career against
heresy and Paganism, which it had combated before
only with the passive weapons of endurance. Another
_view, but partially different from this one, is accepted
by several Fathers, who put these words into the mouth
_ of the repentant Synagogue at the end of the world,
or else into that of the Angels who attend the Bride-
groom. The Church looketh forth as the morning, in
passing from the clouds of darkness, and beginning to
shine with the light of truth; sheis fair as the moon
in this life, borrowing all her brightness from the Sun
of Righteousness, and crescent or waning according
as she is in prosperity or adversity; clear as the sun,
in the world to come, when radiant with the open
vision of her Creator. And the words may be taken
not only of the Church Universal at three epochs of
her existence, but of the three classes of beginners,
who are leaving their sins behind and making their first
steps towards hight; of progressing Christians, setting
a good example to sinners, like the moon shining in the
night; and of Saints, who serve as patterns even for
the good, and are therefore like the swn, shining in
broad day. And S. Bernard, limiting the reference
further to the Religious Life, sees here the three prin-
cipal virtues which befit a community; humility, which
is the dawn or morning, driving away the darkness and
heralding the light, because it is the line of distinction
between the righteous and the sinner; chastity, de-
noted by the moon, and charity, which resembles the
sun, and makes the Common Life the terror of evil
spirits.
~ Spoken of the faithful soul during the progress of
her sanctification, Philo notes that she is fitly com-
pared to the dawn, because as the dawn brings a slight
Corn. 4 Lap.
Cassiodor.
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
Hexaém.
iv. 8.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 60,
ex parvis.
Philo Carp.
2 Sam. xxiii.
4,
Milton,
Par. Reg.
iv. 426.
Neale.
Philo Carp.
286 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 10.
chill with it, and the arising of the light of heaven, so
too every faithful soul and spouse that turns to righ-
teousness from an evil life, begins to contemplate
the first rays of the light of Salvation, and to feel
the restful lowering of the heat of sin by that cold
which checks it. And there are some, moreover,
who when carefully pondering what punishments and
grievous torments are prepared for the ungodly, and
those everlasting, begin to examine their lives and
habits strictly, and so minutely to review themselves,
and all their words and deeds, as to cast away at once
the works of darkness and put on the armour of light,
making themselves radiant with acts of righteousness
and holiness, and thus are said to arise as the dawn
from the darkness. Notas He arises, Who is the Day-
spring from on high, for of Him it is written, “ He
shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun
ariseth, even a morning without clouds.” She has to
make her way slowly and painfully through the mists
of error and clouds of temptation, and her first turning
to Gop will appear sombre and chill enough, for it has
been usually true of Gon’s greatest Saints that a time
of struggle and comparative darkness preceded their
fuller knowledge of Him, that—
morning fair,
Comes forth with pilgrim steps in amice grey.
But, as the advancing sun turns the black clouds into
purple, and the white into gold, so the very trials and
difficulties of the soul become, through Gop’s grace,
new beauties, royal apparel for her, His Bride.
Fair as the moon is she too, because whatever divine
light she possesses she receives from the Sun of Righ-
teousness, steadfast and divine, what time she places
herself meekly before Him ; and, like the moon, she
now seems to decrease and wane through temptation
and sufferings, and again to become new and crescent
when her cruel enemies have been routed. Or else
because she will one day fail altogether in bodily death,
and at the last arise again with all the righteous to
everlasting glory, never more to pass through phases
of change, but to abide immortal and most blessed.
Thus the second comparison exhibits progress, but two
things are yet lacking, the steadfastness which knows
no change, the light which is not merely clear, but
warm and quickening. Faith has broken through the
VI. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 287
clouds of night; Hope, even in the night of this world,
yields a calm radiance, telling of something more glo- Dion. Carth.
rious and genial, teaching the world what must be that
splendour of which she is but the faint shadow:
Soon as the evening shades prevail, Addison,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale, The Hymn,
And nightly to the listening earth The spacious
Repeats the story of her birth. firmament.
And 8. Gregory dilates on this theme as follows: The S. Greg. M.
moon, as she illuminates the earth, shows to clouded eyes
the path by which man should go. So the soul which ,
parts the clouds, and puts itself forth to holy activity,
sheds light on darkened eyes while setting its neigh-
bours an example of good work. For while sinners
see any good thing done and set themselves to do the
same, they are like wanderers in the night returning
to the road by the light of the moon, There is another Dion. Carth.
cause of likeness too, for if the moon suffer aught to
come between her and the sun, she is straightway
eclipsed and darkened. Last comes that perfect like- Philo Carp.
ness to Curist Himself, attained by conformity to His
_ Passion and His will, and perfect trust looking to Him
alone, which make the soul, now flooded with divine
light, and glowing with the fervour of the Spirit, clear
as the sun. Then, too, as it is written of the wild
beasts, ‘The lions roaring after their prey, do seek Ps. civ. 21.
their meat from Gop: the sun ariseth, and they get
them away together, and lay them down in their dens ;”
so when the glory of holiness is visible in any Chris-
tian soul, and it arises to resist the devil, he must
needs flee, for then she is terrible as an army with
banners, and that because she comes not to the battle
alone, but with the examples and miracles of the
Saints, and the alliance of the Angels, on her side, so
that she may say with the Prophet to all timid wae
verers: “ Hear not, for they that be with us are more 78s vi.
than they that be with them.” Rupert explains the Rupert.
verse of the Mother of Gop, saying, “‘ When thou wast
born, O Blessed Virgin, then the true Dawn arose on
us, the Dawn which heralds the eternal Day; for as
each day’s dawn is the end of the past night and the
beginning of the following day, so thy nativity, of the
seed of Abraham, from the illustrious race of David, to
whom Gop made with an oath the promise of blessing,
was the end of sorrows, and the beginning of consola-
Keble.
George
Herbert.
288 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 10.
tion, the end of sadness and the beginning of our joy.
Then we pass from dawn to morn. For when the
Hoty Guost came upon thee, and thou, a Virgin,
didst conceive a Son, and bring Him forth in Virgin-
birth, then, and thenceforward thou wast fair with
divine fairness; fair, I say, not in any wise, but as the
moon; for as the moon shines and illuminates with
light which is not her own, but derived from the sun,
so thou, O most blessed one, hast not of thyself, that
thou art so bright, but of grace divine, that thou
art full of grace. Lastly, we pass from the moon to
the sun. For when thou wast taken up out of this
world, and translated to the heavenly hall, then, and
thenceforward thou wast elect as the sun, elect, iD
say, for us, for as we adore and worship the Son of
Gop, sprung from thee, the True Sun, the eternal
Sun, as Very Gop; so we honour and venerate thee,
as the Mother of Very Gop, knowing that all honour
paid to the Mother, doubtless redounds to the honour
of the Son.”
What glory thou above hast won,
By special grace of thy dear Son,
We see not yet, nor dare espy
Thy crownéd form with open eye:
Rather beside the manger meek,
Thee bending with veiled brow we seek,
Or where the Angel in the thrice great Name
Hailed thee, and Jesus to thy bosom came.
Henceforth, Whom thousand worlds adore,
He calls thee Mother evermore ;
Angel nor Saint His face may see
Apart from what He took of thee ;
How may we choose but name thy name,
Echoing below their high acclaim,
In holy creeds? since earthly song and prayer
Must keep faint time to the dread anthem there.
And she is terrible as an army with banners. How an
army, one of the sweetest of English poets tells us in
his quaint anagram of the name Mary,
Flow well her name an army doth present,
In whom the Lorn of Hosts did pitch His tent!
With banners; since where the King’s pavilion is,
there will be the royal standard. And accordingly 8.
Ambrose says:
VI. 11.) THE SONG OF SONGS, 289
The Lorp a Maiden’s womb doth fill,
But keeps her stainless Maiden still,
The banners there of virtue shine,
Where Gop is present in His shrine.
Aponius, continuing his reference to Curist’s Hu-
manity, says that Jesus came as the dawning after the
darkness of ignorance to His Baptism in Jordan, that
He advanced as the moon by His miraculous works,
and shone as the Sun after His Resurrection. And He
will appear on the Judgment Day to the righteous
with the calm beauty of the moon, to the Angels in
the fuller glory of Divine majesty, whilst to sinners,
doomed to eternal fires, He will be terrible as an army
with banners.
11 I went down into the garden of nuts to
see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether
the vine flourished, and the pomegranates
budded.
There is some variance here as to the speaker. The
Targum, followed by the great majority of the Fathers,
ascribes the words to the Bridegroom; while a small
“minority, agreeing with some later critics, puts them
into the mouth of the Bride. Taking the former view,
and interpreting, as several have done, the garden of
nuts to be the Synagogue, Philo says, Behold, the
Heavenly Bridegroom first went down into the Syna-
gogue of the Jews, to the priests and Scribes, by the
Manhood which He took on Him of their seed, accord-
ing to the oath and promise which He had sworn to
Abraham and David. By the garden of nuts Jerusalem
and the priesthood are rightly signified. For the rod of
Aaron held the dignity of royal priesthood. And the
nut is an apt symbol of the Mosaic Law, for as the nut-
tree has bitter and trifoliated leaves, and produces its
fruit covered with an exceedingly bitter rind called the
hull, and a yet harder dry shell, within which is con-
tained a pleasant kernel divided fourwise by a wooden
cartilage, or a thin membrane while it is green; so
that Law, written by the finger of Gop, seemed to
consist of those carnal sacrifices and ceremonies, as the
nut-tree with its bitter leaves, though mystically signi-
fying the Triune Gov. And the Law was covered
over with a meaning hard to be understood, and mys-
U
S. Ambros.
The Hymn,
Veni, Re-
demptor
Gentium.
Luc. Abb.
Philo Carp.
S. Epipha-
nius,
Philo Carp.
Ps. CX. 7.
Ps. cxxiv.
3, LXX.
Isa. V. 2.
290 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 11.
tical, like a harsh rind, and yet held veiled within it
that sweetest and most wholesome fruit CurisT JESUS
Himself, Who should come down from heaven, to be
made openly known through the four quarters of the
globe by the fourfold sense of the Gospel, and yet only
for those who could take Him fitly and reverently out
of that shell, and eat Him in the holiest manner.
Down to this garden came the Bridegroom to look into
the plants of the torrent (LXX.)' that is, at the time
appointed for His death (of which I hold that David
was thinking when he said, “He shall drink of the
torrent in the way ;” and again, “ Our soul had passed
through the torrent,” that is, had endured most cruel
scourges, painful tortures, and death,) to see ¢f the nut
itself and the vine flourished. O wondrous mercy of
Gop! Ounspeakable goodness! It was not enough
for Thee to have given the Law, to have sent so many
eminent Prophets and Kings, famous in learning and
holiness, but Thou wouldest come Thyself to see and
act for Thy garden of nuts and Thy vineyard, and that
in the plants of the torrent, that is, in the mortality and
death of our flesh which Thou didst take, that Thou
mightest gather some fruit thence. But, alas, an un-
grateful and wretched Hebrew people, after slaying
the servants and messengers of the Lorn’s vineyard,
dared to cast the heir, His Only Son, shamefully out
of the vineyard (that is, Jerusalem and the Synagogue,)
and to slay Him most cruelly. So when He came first to
the garden of nuts He gathered no fruit there, but only
thorns ; wherefore He passed to the Gentiles, for whom
He made ready faithful Churches for Himself, and let
out His vineyard to them, having ruined and destroyed
those former vinedressers whom He had graciously
called out of Egypt. He found that the wie did not
flourish with them, for He Himself saith, ‘“‘ He looked
that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth
wild grapes.” Nor had the pomegranates budded, but
now they blossom in the Christian Church, where the
1 So too the Arabic version. {| hills, dry in summer, and a
The meaning is the same as | rapid stream in winter. The
the A.V., because commonly
in the Semitic languages, and
notably in Arabic, the same
word stands for ‘‘ valley’’ and
‘river,’ or rather ‘‘ water-
course,’ a deep cleft in the
second of these meanings has
left its mark in Spanish, where
the Arabic wady enters into
the names of several rivers, as
Guadiana, Guadalquivir, Gua-
dalavier.
VI. 11.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 291
multitudes of the people of Gop lie enclosed as pure
white seeds in the mystical body, washed and ruddy
with the Blood of Jusus Curtist, and full of the good-
ness of divine grace and the juice given by the hea-
venly Spirit; and with these fruits the Spouse gives
holy gladness daily to the Bridegroom. Aponius
varies somewhat from the latter portion of this expo- Luc. Abb.
sition of Philo, taking the valley to be this world, the
JSruts of the valley to be the tears of the righteous,
shed because of their exile and prison, and for the sins
of men, and the visit as intended to see whether in
Israel the wine of devout thought, leading to repent-
ance, flourished, whether the pomegranates, the mystical
teaching of the Prophets, budded, in producing other
Saints besides that one Baptist Forerunner.
They also explain the garden of nuts to be that Honorius.
garden inclosed of which we have already heard, the rte
hallowed womb of the Virgin Mother, into which the
Lorp went down, she who kept her sweet purity shel-
tered in firm resolve, where the Bridegroom found
Sruits of the valley in her lovely humility, and saw that
vine which bore Him, the True Vine, flourishing in
beauty, as it conceived Him, and the pomegranates of
_ her charity to all men, as they were budding forth.
_A further sense for the pomegranates is suggested by Lyranus. _
the fact that this fruit was embroidered on the hem of £X°% **¥4-
the High Priest’s robe, thus typifying the inferior
priests or Levites, who derived their office from him.
And therefore the words will here denote the visitation
of the Christian Church, to see whether the prelates
and clergy, vicars of the One High Priest, are fulfilling
their duties, and bringing forth fruits to Gop.
And, applying the words to Curist’s visitation of
souls, 8. Gregory tells us that the garden of nuts sig- s. Greg. M.
nifies the hearts of the Saints, who retain divine wis-
dom in their bodies, like a kernel in a fruit-shell, for
there are many in the Church, constantly busied in the
study of Holy Writ, tasting how sweet the Lorp is,
desiring to taste Him more, chewing the cud of sacred
joy in their heart, and thereby growing ever stronger ;
and yet to those without, who know them not, they
seem valueless, because that sweet food which they
bear within them is unknown. But why is He said
to come to the garden of nuts, not to see nuts but
apples? (poma, Vulg.) Because He comes first to
His perfect Saints, that ob may visit the weaker
U
Dion. Carth.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
S. Athan.
S. August.
Serm. de
Temp. Dom.
IV. Adv.
Col, i, 20.
292 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 11.
ones through their ministry, and so be manifested to
them.
The vines flourish when children are brought up in
the Church in faith, and are trained to a holy life as
to firmness of fruit. The pomegranates bud when the
perfect edify their neighbours by their example, and
invite them to new and holy conversation by preaching
and the exhibition of good works. Or, as another
takes it, the vines flourish when local Churches and
congregations are healthy and abundant in holy medi-
tations and prayers, the pomegranates bud when pre-
lates and contemplative Religious, who should be
ruddiest with charity and zeal, give forth beauty and
fragrance to adorn the Church. Cassiodorus and
Beda, albeit ascribing the verse to the Bride, vary
little from the interpretation of S. Gregory, represent-
ing her as watching the progress of the various classes
of Saints in this life. Happier than this is the ex-
planation of S. Athanasius, followed by 8. Justus of
Urgel, that the garden of nuts is Holy Scripture,
which exhibits one thing in the outer letter or rind,
and another in the inner spirit or kernel; though the
latter agrees with the authors already cited in seeing
lowly Saints figured in the frutts of the valley, and
Martyrs in the pruned vines and ruddy pomegranates.
What the especial nut is which the Bride seeks there
S. Augustine will tell us: The nut has three sub-
stances united in itself, the hull, the shell, and the
kernel. In the hull the flesh, in the shell the bones,
in the kernel the inner soul, have their types. The
hull of the nut denotes the flesh of the SavIouR,
which had in itself the harshness and roughness of the
Passion. The kernel denotes the inner sweetness of
His Godhead, which made the covenant with us, and
gives us the help of light.1 The shell signifies the
transverse wood of the Cross, which did not separate
that which was within from that without, but by the
interposition of its mediating wood allied earthly things
and heavenly, as the blessed Apostle saith, “ Having
made peace by the Blood of His Cross, by Him to
reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether they
be things in earth or things in heaven.” Similarly,
with his wonderful knowledge of Scripture and of
theology, sings Adam :
1 The Saint is referring to the nut-oil, anciently used for
lamps.
VI. 12.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 293
Nux est CHRISTUS, cortex nucis Adam. Vict.
Circa carnem poena crucis, The Se-
Testa corpus osseum, quence,
Carne tecta Deitas apie
Et CuristTi suavitas figura.
Signatur per nucleum.
Curist the nut, the hull His Passion
Closing round His human fashion,
And His bones and frame the shell :
Hid in flesh, Divine completeness
And Curist Jesus’ perfect sweetness,
In the kernel mark ye well.
Seeking Him, then, in the time of His utter humilia-
tion, when He was in truth the fruit of the valley, she
desires to know if that True Vine can possibly be
flourishing after the beast of the field and the wild
boar have done their worst upon it, if the ruddy
pomegranate of the Passion shows any promise of
succeeding produce. So too, each soul has to go down
into the garden of its own heart, where the Loxp is
hidden in the shell of reticent affection, to see if the
vine-branch He has planted be thriving, if the graces
which spring from His Passion are showing signs of
_ spiritual fruit to come. And she need be at no loss
what to do with these fruits and flowers when she
finds them. She will say, as once said a faithful Bride
of Curtst, “ And now, O only Beloved of my soul, I s. Mechthil-
offer Thee my heart, as a blooming rose, whose beauty @S Revel:
may daily attract Thine eyes, and its fragrance delight"
Thy Heart. And I also offer Thee my heart, that
Thou mayest use it as a cup, to drink Thine own
sweetness with all Thou hast done to-day for me.
Further, I offer Thee my heart, as a pomegranate of
choice flavour, fit for Thy royal banquet, that eating
it, Thou mayest so take it unto Thyself, that it may
rejoice in feeling itself thenceforth within Thee.”
12 Or ever I was aware, my soul made me
[like] the chariots of Ammi-nadib.’
The LXX. and Vulgate, in the first clause, read
correctly, with the margin of A. V., I knew not. The
1 The italic like, unneces- misleading, and is therefore
sarily inserted after “‘me” in | bracketed.
the A. V., is superfluous and
Weissbach.
2 Kings ii.
12; xili, 14,
Cassiodor.
Beda.
S. Greg. M.
Rupert.
294: A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 12.
ancient versions, for the most part, oscillate in the
second clause between the rendering of the A. V., as
given above, and its marginal reading: My soul set
me on the chariots of my willing Lor princely] people.
Symmachus and the Vulgate, however, read My soul
troubled me, [or, was perplexed | because of the chariots,
&e. This most difficult verse has given rise to a great
variety of interpretations, and there is no more agree-
ment as to the speaker, whether it be Solomon, the
Bride, or one of the queens and concubines acting as
mouthpiece to the rest. The latest view of modern
critics is that the words are an exclamation of wonder
at the dazzling beauty of the Bride. She had been
compared, a little before, to an army with banners,
and now the speaker declares that she is stately and
ornate as the war-chariot of the king, so that to be
near her is like being set upon it. And it is easy to
see the mystical force of such an interpretation, if we
put the speech into the mouth of the Gentile world,
noting the progress of the Church. It had already
recognized her beauty, as Solomon’s Jitter (iii. 9, 10,)
in her peaceful holiness and passive endurance of suf-
fering, saying, ‘‘See how these Christians love one
another.” Now it was to see her as the war-chariot
of the Great King, to confess the resistless might
of her conquering advance, and to exclaim, in the
words of Elisha, echoed later by Joash, “ My father,
my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof.” And this comes very near to the explana-
tion of several Fathers, who ascribe the verse to the
Synagogue. Thus Cassiodorus comments: I knew not,
O Bride of Curist, that such grace and such gifts of
spiritual power had been given thee by thy Bride-
groom, and I am troubled with great anxiety of soul
because of this sudden preaching of the Gospel. For
I knew that the Law and the Prophets were divinely
given, and therefore when all of a sudden I saw the
Gospel preached, I was troubled because of the cha-
riots of Amminadab. Amminadab was great grandson
of Judah, through whom Curist’s genealogy is de-
rived. And the name is interpreted ‘ The willing one
of my people,” and consequently denotes Curist,
Who was the willing One of His people, because,
being Gop, He voluntarily was made Man, and being
Creator and Maker of the world, of His loving-kind-
ness alone He was made a part of His people. And
VI. 12.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 295
the sense is this: I am troubled because of the sudden
preaching of the Gospel, which has suddenly sped
through the whole world like a very swift chariot.
Rupert dwells on the phrase, My soul troubled me, as
meaning something different from J was troubled, and
explains it that the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Pha-
risees, who were the soul of the Jewish people, guiding
them in their religious and social matters, did nothing
but perplex and trouble them, instead of giving them
wise counsel, when the preaching of the Gospel began.
The Latin Fathers also lay stress on the Vulgate word
here used for chariots, guadrigas, or four-horse cars, and
interpret it for the most part as mystically referring
to the Four Gospels; though Rupert gives the further
explanation that the four principal mysteries of the
Gospel itself, the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection,
and Ascension, are indicated. Of this chariot CHRIsT
Himself is the Charioteer, and He is most fitly desig-
nated, as the Abbat of Deutz continues, by the name
of Amminadab, because it was from that descendant
of Judah that the royal and priestly lines were both
derived, inasmuch as his daughter EHlisheba was wife
of Aaron, and mother of Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar,
and Ithamar, from whom all the High Priests were
sprung, while Amminadab himself was ancestor in the
direct line of David, and thereby of Him Who is
King of Israel and a High Priest for ever after the
order of Melchizedek. There is also an ancient Jewish
tradition that when the Israelites reached the Red Sea,
all the tribes hung back, till Amminadab, prince of the
house of Judah, seizing his standard, advanced boldly
between the walls of water, and won thereby the im-
mediate honour of leading the vanguard of the march,
and the later one of the kingdom for his posterity.
Tt is needless to dwell on the type this yields of CHRiIstT
as the Leader and Standard-bearer of His people in
their pilgrimage and warfare.
De LyrA, also ascribing the verse to the Synagogue,
explains it very differently. He interprets Ammi-
nadab to mean My ruling people, and thus para-
phrases: I knew not Govs Law, but was ignorant
and as a beast before Him. My own self-will led me
into the sin of idolatry, and thereupon I was punished
by the Captivity, which made me like the mere chariot
_ of the conquering Assyrians and Babylonians, who be-
came my ruling people, with power to drive me whither-
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
Rupert.
Dion. Carth.
Lyranus.
Philo Carp.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
S. Ambros.
de Naboth.
15.
Id. de
Virgin.
Theodoret.
Henr. Har-
phius.
296 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 12.
soever they pleased. Applied to the devout soul, the
earliest interpretation we meet is closely akin to one
already given; saying that every faithful soul is borne
by the four steeds of the Four Gospels, swift and
strong, throughout the world, as they are driven by
the Hoty Spirit. And this in order that the Bride
may be happily borne in this chariot of fire, which
she has ascended in faith, to heaven itself. It is to
be carefully noted, too, that the Bride and faithful souls
are not merely said to be set on the chariots, but that
the Church herself is made these chariots, that she
may understand herself to be the holy car whereby
multitudes are to be borne to their country. For as
they who are conveyed in chariots, cars, and carts are
lifted up above the inconveniences of the road, such as
mire, ruts, stones, and the like, and are often quite
free from them, so Christians, borne in the heavenly
chariot of faith, and cherished in the holy bosom of
their loving mother the Church, are preserved safely
for the kingdom of heaven. And thus she is made the
chariot of the Prince of the people, that she may bear
Him, by means of her preachers, into the hearts of
men. He so deals with her when she has gone down
from the heights of mystic contemplation into the gar-
den of active work, to see if she could find Him in the
lives and hearts of His people, but failing to see Him
there, she says, Z knew not, and her zeal at once hurries
her into missionary toils. If the soul be His chariot,
comments 8. Ambrose, beware lest the flesh be the
horse, but let vigour of mind be the driver, to guide
and check the flesh and its passions, like steeds, with
the reins of wisdom. But, as he says more forcibly in
another place, Curist, the true Amminadab, drives
the soul of the righteous like a chariot, and guides it
from His seat with the reins of the Word, lest it
should be hurried down the steep by the violence of
untamed steeds.. For its four passions are its horses,
anger, desire, pleasure, and fear, and when these run
away, the soul, as she begins to be hurried along, does
not know herself. There is another interpretation,
akin to that of De Lyra, explaining Amminadab as the
prince of this world, oppressing the Church and en-—
slaving her, returning evil for good, and interfering
with the freedom of her operations. Or again, the
soul says, J knew not, I was ignorant and blind, and so
I became the mere chariot of my own unrestrained
VI. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 297
will, which hurried me away at its pleasure, until Gop
called me to return.
The view which takes the Bridegroom as the speaker
has the authority of the Chaldee paraphrase on its
side, which interprets the verse of Gop promising to
change His dealings with His people, now repentant,
and instead of chastening them further, to set them as
on the chariot of aking. Very few Christian expositors
have followed in this track, and the only noteworthy
comment is far-fetched and strained. The evil spirits,
says Aponius, as created by Gop to test the endurance
of the Saints, are, in a sense, His people. They are
His free-willing people, because they have refused His
service, and have chosen to follow their own wicked
devices. These spirits sit like drivers on the necks of
sinners, forcing them to accomplish crimes. And they
made Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, and their companions,
chariots on which Curist was carried to His death
with shouts of “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” where-
fore He was troubled, as He Himself has said, ‘‘ My
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” And
He begins the sentence by protesting His innocence,
saying, J knew not, for in truth He knew no sin.
13 Return, return, O Shulamite; return,
return, that we may look upon thee. What
will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the
company of two armies.
The first question to be settled here is the meaning
of the name Shulamite. One literalist view is that it is
a local appellation from a supposed place Shulem,
formed by the same analogy as Shunammite from
Shunem. And in fact the LX X. does read Sunamitis,
and the Vulgate did read it, so that a reference to
Abishag has been seen here by some ancient writers,
and Abishag herself by some modern ones. Another
opinion is that the name is strictly a proper one, the
personal name of the Bride, akin, perhaps, to She/o-
mith, the feminine form of the name Solomon. And
this brings us closer to the mystical view, which takes
the word as an adjective, and explains it variously as
“belonging to Solomon,” or ‘‘ daughter of Salem,” or
“ nerfect ;” or again, most satisfactorily, as “‘ Peaceful,”
iol last is supported by the authority of Aquila, who
Targum.
Luc. Abb.
S. Mat. xxvi.
38.
S. Just. Org.
S. Just. Org.
Rupert.
Dion. Carth.
Smith’sDict.
Rosen-
miiller.
Targum.
Lyranus.
Ezra ii. 1.
Vale W/-
Nehem. ii.
aU Ii
1 Macc. iv.
So:
Rupert.
Rom. iv. 3.
Luc. Abb.
Hugo Card.
298 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 13.
translates it eipnvetovoa. One other suggested meaning
is that of Symmachus, who, deriving the epithet from
Dw , Shalal, spoliavit, views it as equivalent to ‘ plun-
dered,” or “‘captive,” éoxvaevuévn. Either of these
last-given meanings will suit the Synagogue, to which
the Targum applies the verse, paraphrasing thus:
“ Return to Me, O congregation of Israel, return to
Jerusalem, return to the House of My Law, return to
receive prophecy from the Prophets who prophesy in
the Name of the Word of the Lorp. Israel heard
and obeyed the call, notes De Lyra, and returned at
four several times after the Captivity ;) first, under
Zorobabel and Ezra, in the reign of Cyrus; secondly,
in the next migration headed by Ezra in the seventh
year of Artaxerxes; thirdly, under Nehemiah; and,
fourthly, when Judas Maccabeus cleansed and restored
the profaned sanctuary. The We, then, Who desire
to look upon the Shulamite, and therefore call her
back, may best be taken, as many of the Fathers do
take it, of the Most Hoty Triniry, calling the wan-
dering Church, Jewish or Christian, or the soul which
has gone astray, back to its true home, to the presence —
of the Divine Countenance. It is, notes Rupert, the
Voice of Amminadab Himself as He sits upon His
chariot, saying, Thou, O Shulamite, that is, captive or
depised, thou, O faith, O dignity of the true Priest-
hood (wellnigh given up to oblivion through carnal
ceremonies, so that the Synagogue knows not, and
thinks not that her father Abraham was justified by
thee, and not by the Law, as it is written, “ Abraham
believed Gop, and it was counted unto him for righte-
ousness,”) return, and again I say, return, and a third
time I say, return, and a fourth time I say, return, one
call for each horse of My chariot. For I was born
and I suffered to this end, that thou mightest return,
and rise again, and ascend into heaven to Me, and
therefore till thou dost return I cease not My calling
upon thee. |
Aponius, closely agreeing with this view, adds that
our merciful Lorp calls the Synagogue daily to re-
pentance by the four voices of the four Gospels, and
that, in order that We may look on thee, that the Image
of Gop may be reflected in thee, as in a mirror, when
thou art cleansed by penitence and Baptism, and con-
fessest the Trinity. Return to the true faith, return
VI. 13.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 299
to brotherly peace, return to acknowledgment of thy
Redeemer, return to perfection in good works. Return, Greg. at
too, from the four quarters of the world, mhithersthouws oan
hast been scattered, for thy sins, among the Gentiles.
And the call will continue till that happier cry is raised,
Rise, Sion, rise, and looking forth, S$ John Dam.
Behold thy children round thee, Golden
From east and west, and south and north, Canon, Ode
Thy scattered sons have found thee! Mee
And in thy bosom CuRIsT adore,
For ever and for evermore !
There is less beauty and force in the common inter- Cassiodor.
pretation, which ascribes the words to the Christian roe ef
Church, typified by the daughters of Jerusalem, and s.Ans.Laud.
makes her, not Gop, address the Synagogue. That
we may look on thee, standing to do penance for thy s. Greg. M.
sins, and acknowledging thy crime in slaying and cru-
cifying thy King, as one will have it; that we may see
thy beauty and purity, as others, more gently, interpret.
Spoken of the soul, the words may be variously taken.
If addressed to a perfect one, then it may be the voice
of Gop calling the preacher back from peaceful con-
_templation to the harder task of converting sinners,
psine His aid in all time of weakness, but not the
ess summoning him to descend from the Mount Gi rrresi Pair.
Transfiguration to the plain of the demoniac, or it may
be a cry for help from weaker Christians, asking to be
taught how to bridle the four passions of their souls,
for which reason they call four times. Return, that
we may be cleansed with thy purity, return, that we Thom. Verc.
may be kindled with thy fire, return, that we may be
illuminated with thy light, return, that we may be per-
fumed with thy fragrance.
Tf, on the other hand, it be an erring soul which Gop is
recalling to the right way ; then, as S. Ambrose teaches, s. Ambros.
He saith well, as a driver to his chariot, Return, O Shula- de Isaac. 8.
mite, that is, Peaceful, for the soul which is peaceful turns
herself quickly, and corrects herself, even though she
sinned before, and Curis all the more readily ascends,
and vouchsafes to guide her, as is said to Him, “ Ride nab. iii. s.
upon Thine horses, and Thy chariots were salvation.”
And His reason for four times calling back the soul s. Bernard.
on which He looks, is perhaps that it may not abide in Se™. 3,
the habit of sin, nor in consciousness of offences, nor Jrissus.
yet in the lukewarmness and sloth of ingratitude, nor in
Cassiodor.
Beda.
Theodoret.
Tdem.
Serm. 58,
de parvis.
Hugo Vict.
Miscell, ii.
2, 24.
Henr.
Harphius.
De Obit.
Valent.
Tres Patr.
Theodoret.
~ question, and of whom P
300 A COMMENTARY ON [VI. 13.
the blindness of conceit. Return, He says, first from
vain joy; secondly, from useless sorrow; thirdly, from
empty glory; fourthly, from hidden pride. The Lorp,
says one of the profoundest of mystical writers, four
times calls her to return, as though He would say,
Return from what is Mine, because it is wonderful ;
return from thine own, for it is evil; return from thy-
self, because all flesh is grass; return to Me, for I am
the Supreme Good. Thou canst not see Me unless We
first look upon thee. Thou hast some spot upon thy
face, thou art foul, and bearest another image than
Mine, cleanse it, therefore, that We may look on thee.
Return, as a handmaid to her master, as an erring —
daughter to her father, as a patient to her physician,
as a sinful wife to her husband. Return through in-
fusion of divine grace, through direction of thy free-
will to faith and love for Gop, of that same free-will
to hatred of sin, and through the expulsion and remis-
sion of sin itself. Return too, by the four stages of
true repentance, knowledge of sin, sorrow for it, con-
fession, and satisfaction. Or, as 8. Ambrose once ex-
plains it of the holy soul departing out of the world,
return from the exile of earth to thy home in heaven.
What will ye see in the Shulamite? Who asks the
They reply, for the most
part, that the Bridegroom addresses the daughters of
Jerusalem, and tells them of the aspect which the
Synagogue will present when it has returned to the
faith. The Three Fathers alone suppose that the
Shulamite herself both puts the question and answers
it. As it were the company of two armies. The
ancient versions and the English one have each lost
something in translating this verse. The latter, by
rendering nny mecholath, merely company, has
missed the true force of the word, which is dancing
company, preserved in the yopot of the LX X. and the
choros of the Vulgate. On the other hand, these ver-
sions have omitted to take notice of the dual form
Mahanaim, found here as in Gen. xxxii. 2, and have
turned it merely as camps, with no mark of number.
There appears at first sight, says Theodoret, an incon-
sistency between the words choirs and camps, for the
one has to do with feasting, and the other with war.
But as the Bride is made up of many Saints, she is
like to camps because of her valiant soul and warlike
VI. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 301
panoply, and she is at the same time the choir which
as in its mouth the praises of Gop. And after show- Ps. cxviii.
ing how David tells us of the Church’s song and 5S. }%.°7-
Paul of her weapons and conflict, the good Bishop ph ge
continues: That the Saints are not merely like camps,
but like choirs also, let us hear the Lorp telling:
«Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto s. Mat. xxv.
ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went out to!:
meet the Bridegroom.” He says well, then, What will
ye seein the Shulamite, who cometh like choirs of camps?
(LXX.) He does not say, “camps of choirs,” but
choirs of camps. For the choirs are gathered out of
the camps, since when brave soldiers in camps have
been victorious, they return singing the pean, and
chanting in the dance the song of triumph. So the
old Western hymn for All Saints :
Spouse of CuRIsT, in arms contending, The Hymn,
O’er each realm beneath the sun, Sponsa
Blend with prayers for help ascending, CuristTI.
Notes of praise for triumphs won.
What will ye see? Nothing else save these mili- Rupert.
tary choirs? No blood of victims, no rite of circum-
cision? No, all is gone save combat and praise, be-
cause ‘‘it seemed good to the Hoty Guosr to lay upon Acts xv. 28.
you no greater burden than these necessary things.”
‘And observe, that as in choirs it is necessary that the Cassiodor.
singers and dancers should keep time together, we
have here a type of the need of harmony and union in
the Church. And if we dwell on the phrase dancing,
we shall remember how the women of Israel went out p.04 xy
after Miriam with timbrels and dances, when sheoo. —
sang of the overthrow of the Egyptians; how the
Psalmist bids the children of Sion praise their King in pg, oxtix. 3;
the dance and with the cymbals; how the saddest of cl. 4. ;
Prophets can yet declare that in the day of the Lorp’s
redemption “the virgin shall rejoice in the dance.” Jer. xxxi.13.
But this dance, as Theodoret has already told us, is
not merely one of girls, nor yet of peaceful priests,
such as David shared in when he danced before the 2 Sam. vi.
ark. It is one of tried warriors, whose swords and !*
shields make the music to which they keep step; and
itis of two armies, not met in deadly rivalry, but in
close and perfect alliance, met in her who is the
Peaceful, the Church Triumphant, where the two bands
move beneath Jacob’s staff, Jew and Gentile in the Philo Carp.
Dion. Carth.
Rev. xv. 3.
Silius
Italicus, ii.
595.
S. John
Cassian.
Ep. i. 11.
Bern.
Cluniac.
Rhythmus.
302 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 1.
Church Militant on earth, men and Angels in the
Church Triumphant in heaven. Until the great day
of the last battle against the hosts of evil shall dawn,
these two choirs join in the mingled Song of Moses
and the Lamb, but the time will come when the Song
of Moses, with its echoes of war, shall be forgotten,
and only the new Song of eternal peace shall be heard
from the lips of the Peaceful as she sings the praises
of the Prince of Peace, her Spouse.
Pax optima rerum
Quas homini novisse datum est, pax una triumphis
Innumeris potior,
Peace, best of things
Granted for man to know, peace, which alone
Excelleth countless triumphs.
For, as a great Saint has said, it is for the glory of the
Prince, if peace be loved by all. For what can better
proclaim the ruler’s virtues than a tranquil people, a
united council, and the whole commonweal clothed in
dignity of character P
Yes, peace! for war is needless,—
Yes, calm! for storm is past,—
And goal from finished labour,
And anchorage at last.
That peace—but who may claim it?
The guileless in their way,
Who keep the ranks of battle,
Who mean the thing they say.
And they will truly be Mahanaim, the two heavenly
armies of the Lorp of Hosts, for the ranks of the
celestial hierarchies, long broken since the fall of the
rebels under Lucifer, shall be filled up with ransomed
men, now “like the Angels which are in heaven.”
CHAPTER VII.
1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O
prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs are
hike jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning
workman,
VIL. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 303
There are three views as to the speaker and the Tres Patr.
person lauded here. Some hold that the virgins are
celebrating the loveliness of the Bride, but the majority
ascribe the words to the Bridegroom, varying, however,
in explaining the Bride here either as the Christian
Gentile Church, or as the converted Synagogue. The
Chaldee paraphrast comments thus: ‘‘ Solomon in the Targum.
spirit of prophecy said before the face of the Lorn,
How beautiful are the feet of Israel, when they go up
to appear before the Lorp thrice yearly with their
sandals of yew, and offer their vows and free-will ob-
lations.” A more literal rendering of the Hebrew
than that of the A. V. is found in both LXX.and Vul- _.
gate, which read, How beautiful are thy steps (or goings) ete?
in sandals. And they agree, for the most part, in ex- Cassiodor.
plaining the words of the proclamation of the Gospel §. Just. Org.
to distant lands. Her goings are commended, but if
her feet stood still, their beauty would win no praise.
They cite, too, in illustration, the language of the
Prophet Isaiah, ‘‘ How beautiful upon the mountains /sa. lii. 7.
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings of good,
that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy
Gop reigneth!” on which the Apostle gives a com-
“ment, saying, “Stand, therefore, having your feet PPh. vi. 14
shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.” So ~
shod, her goings are straight, and keep to the King’s
highway alone. There is much diversity, however, in Theodoret.
explaining what the sandals are with which the Bride
hastens on her way. A favourite view is, that they Cassiodor.
denote the examples of departed Saints, typified by
the skins of dead animals, of which the sandals are
made. Another cognate interpretation is, that mor- S.Ans.Laud.
tification of the flesh is intended, which is not very far s. Hieron. in
from 8. Jerome’s view that voluntary promises of Jovin.
chastity are the shoes of the Bride. 8. Ambrose, how- §- Ambros.
ever, taking a somewhat wider view, tells us that the j, aed
soul which subdues the flesh, and keeps it under, using 5.
it as a sandal, taking good care also not to defile it
with mire nor to plunge it in the waters of sin, is truly
beautiful in its progress towards its Country.
And §S. Gregory supplies us with yet another inter- s. Greg. M.
pretation, saying, that the Church, in her task of
preaching, is said to be shod, when she is strengthened
by the death of Curist to endure the evils which rise thom, vere.
up against her; while another, confining the words to
S. Greg. M.
Durand.
Ration. tii.
8.
S. Mat. x.
14.
Ps. cxix. 18.
Ordo Com-
munis.
Renaudot.
Lit. Orient,
Hugo Card.
Trimbert.
Luc. Abb.
304 A COMMENTARY ON [VIl. 1.
the faithful soul, teaches that the delight she feels in
drawing nearer to Gop preserves her feet from being
wounded by the thorns and stones of the steep way of
perfection as she climbs. Durandus enters at much
length into the mystical signification of the episcopal
sandals of the Western Church, saying, amidst much
else, that the sole is solid and continuous, and the
upper leather of open-work, to denote that the steps
of the preacher ought to be guarded below, lest they
be defiled by earthly things, according to the Lorp’s
saying, “Shake off the dust of your feet ;” while they
are open above, to receive the revelation of heavenly
mysteries, as it is written, “ Open Thou mine eyes,
that I may see the wondrous things of Thy law.” Nor
does the East come behindhand in this symbolism, as
the prayers of the priests of the Syriac rite testify
while they vest for the Liturgy. Putting on the left
sandal, they say, ‘‘ Shoe me, O Lorp, with the prepara-
tion of the Gospel of peace, that I may tread upon
serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy,
for evermore. Amen.” And then with the right
sandal, ‘* Put down, O Lorp Gop, under the footstool
of my feet every high thing that lifteth up itself against
Thy knowledge, that through Thy help I may crush
the passions of the flesh for evermore.’ Observe too,
that whereas the Bride began the praises of her Bride-
groom with His head, and thence passes gradually to
His legs ; here, on the contrary, the first commendation
of the Bride is for her feet, and the last is her head.
And the reason is, because the Bride desires to extol
the humility and love of the Incarnate Worp, in that
He vouchsafed to descend from His majestic throne to
dwell amongst mankind, while He, on the other hand,
wills to teach her how He intends to raise her from
her present lowly condition to everlasting glory. He
begins with the feet in shoes, says one, because the
beginning of spiritual life is the trampling the flesh
under foot, as we enter on the way of salvation and
put away our evil works. He begins with the feet,
the lowest members of the body, because the Gospel
was first preached to the poor and ignorant, not to the
mighty and wise of this world.
And as Moses was commanded to put off his shoes
when he drew near the holy ground of the burning bush,
so the time will come when the Saints, as they enter the
borders of the Land of Promise, will not merely do as
VII. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 305
Jews were wont, when reaching Palestine again after
a journey into Gentile regions, shake off the heathen
dust back on its own soil, not suffering it to pass the
frontier, but will cast out the very shoe of mortality
over Edom, and tread barefooted those streets of gold
where is no mire or defilement.
Our feet be shod, as pilgrims, W. C. Dix.
With bands of Gospel peace, The Hymn,
Till life’s long march be ended, O Christ,
And strife and struggle cease : Thou Son of
Till on the ground most holy, Mary, for 8.
Our shoes from off our feet Crispin.
We put, with holy gladness,
The pilgrimage complete.
O prince’s daughter. What Prince can this be, tTheodoret.
save the Hoty Guost, the Comforter, Who says in S. Ambros.
the forty-fifth Psalm, “ Hearken, O daughter, and give p, yy. 1
ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s = = =
house: so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty,
for He is the Lorp thy Gop.” Others tell us that wugo cara,
Curist, the Prince of Peace, is meant, in His myste- Dion. Carth.
rious relation to the Bride, at once her Father, be-
cause she has been born to Him anew in the water of
‘Baptism, when “of His own will begat He us with g. jamesi.
the Word of truth,’ and her Bridegroom, the nearest 18.
and dearest to her. And this close blending of dis-
similar ties in One to Whom all obedience as well as
all love is due has been figured for us in the pathetic
words of a loving wife, as described by the greatest of
heathen poets :
~ "Extop, ardp ob pot eoo) mathp Kal méTvLAa WAT NP, Hower
He kaolyvntos, cv 5é por Oarepds wapaxolrys. 429,
Hector, to me thou father art, and mother dear,
And brother too, who art my gallant spouse.
The Hebrew for prince here is app nadib, which Cassiodor.
also means “noble” or “generous.” And several of , ,_,
the ancient commentators, dwelling on the LXX. read- Sim. era
ing, daughter of Nadab, refer us back to the Ammi- Ps. cxix.
nadab of whom we heard just now, telling us that she
is called His daughter, because it is only of His free-
will and loving-kindness, not of right, that she has
been adopted. Theodoret boldly compares her to that Theodoret.
Nadab, son of Aaron, who died for offering strange Lev. x.1.
x
y
Numb. iii. 4.
S. Luke xii.
49.
2 Cora Viel /<
306 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 1.
fire before the Lorp. For the Bride bore no legal
fire into the sanctuary of Gop, but a new fire which
she received from her Spouse, that of which He spake
Himself: “Iam come to send fire upon the earth,
and what will I if it be already kindled?” The Bride
bearing this new fire of the New Testament into the —
Divine tabernacle, crieth out and saith, “ Old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new.”
- And others tell us that in her title, “daughter of the
Cocceius.
§. Ambros.
de Inst. Virg.
c. 14.
S. John i. 27.
Isa. lili. 8.
Alanus.
Guilielm.
generous one,” we may read her own liberality and
nobleness. Observe, too, that as her Bridegroom in
this Song is both King and Shepherd, she, that she may
be a fitting consort for Him, is shepherdess and prin-
cess too.! The whole context is also explained by 8.
Ambrose and many who have followed him as applying
especially to that princess of the House of David, that
elect daughter of Gop, who was beautiful with the
shoes of that pure body whence the Redeemer took
His flesh, the sandals which bore His Godhead in its
pilgrimage through the world, in that mystery of the
Incarnation of which the Baptist said, ““ Whose shoe’s
latchet I am not worthy to unloose;” that is, I cannot
solve the secret of His birth. For so the Prophet
had foretold, saying, “‘ Who shall declare His genera-
tion?” “Thy goings, O glorious Virgin,” exclaims
the Universal Doctor, “are thy noble race, thy purity
of body and soul, thy fruitfulness in offspring. Thy
shoes are thy thoughts in meditation, thy results in
working, thine advance in longings, thy trances in joy.
For thou art the princely daughter of that Prince
Who is Gop, Prince of princes and Lorp of lords,
Who begat thee specially by grace, and specially
formed thee, so that thou, art as truly daughter of
Gop as thou art stainless Mother.” It was by no
swiftness of foot, but by purity of affections, observes
another, that she went from strength to strength till
she beheld the Gop of Gods in Sion, uniting in herself
the innocence of Abel, the obedience of Abraham, the
meekness of Moses, the lowliness of David, the pa-
tience of Job, and the purity of Daniel. It is recorded
of S. Francis Xavier that he cited these words to
1 This term, prince’s daugh- | pains has beenemployed, some-
ter, is one of the most difficult | whatineffectually, to explain it
things in the Song to square | away, by the upholders of that
with the literalist interpreta- | view.
tion, and accordingly no little
VII. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 307
Queen Katharine of Portugal, wife of King John III., vieyra.
and sister of the Emperor Charles V., to induce her Serm. de S.
to forego a large sum paid annually from the Indian pln ¢
revenue to her privy purse, under the name of slipper-
money, that he might devote it to missionary purposes,
assuring her that she. would enter more easily into
heaven shod with the sandals of the prayers of the
poor than with the royal buskins which the tribute
was intended to provide. And this sense may be not
inaptly illustrated by the rude old Border dirge, ad-
dressed to the departing spirit, now setting out on its
dread journey:
If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon, Scott.
Every night and alle; Minstrelsy.
Lyke-wake
Sit thee down and put them on,
And Curist receive thy saule. Dirge.
If hosen and shoon thow ne’er gavest nane,
Every night and alle;
The whinnes shall pricke thee to the bare bane,
And CuRisT receive thy saule.
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels. Instead of
jomts, we should rather have roundings, denoting the
‘graceful form of the limb; and so the LXX., which
has pv0u0i unpav, explained by Theodoret as typifying Theodoret.
the practical virtues which carry out the intentions of
the will, just as the thighs bear us along upon our
journeys; or, as another Greek Father takes it, the pnito carp.
harmonious outlines of a life guarded by temperance fyimpert.
and holiness; or, as a Western writer says, the two
thighs are lowliness and purity, the twin supports of
sanctification. But the Vulgate, agreeing with the
A. V., is usually interpreted in a different fashion.
Following the Targum, which explains the clause of Targum.
the children of the congregation, sprung from the
thigh (a frequent type of parentage in Holy Writ), Exod. i.5,
and like the precious studs in Aaron’s mitre, they take ™“"*:
the thighs of the Church to be her spiritual offspring, Sgt
born of the word of preaching and the laver of re- Ss. Just. Ore.
generation ; while the joints refer to the union of two
natures, Jew and Gentile, in one faith.
Like jewels. The UXX. and Vulgate, with more g. gree. wu,
exactness, like necklaces. And that because as gems
shine set in gold, so these good works, done in
wisdom, are beautiful to look on; and further, as they
are not done independently of each other, but con-
x 2
Hugo Card.
Cassiodor.
Honorius.
Targum.
S. Greg. M.
S. Epiph.
Philo Carp.
Cf. S. Cyp-
rian. Ep. ad
Ceecilium.
308 A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 2.
tinuously and regularly, so they are united with the
bond of charity, which joins the separate jewels into
the necklace which adorns the Bride. And this orna-
ment is the work of no human hands, but of that cun-
ning workman, the Almighty Lorp Himself. And
applying the words to the motherhood of the Blessed
Virgin, they bid us think on that costly jewel, the
pearl of great price, the glorious ornament of every
believing soul, Curist Jesus Himself, Begotten, not
made, as Gop, but made as Man by the FarHeEr in
the mystery of the Incarnation.
2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which
wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap
of wheat set about with lilies.
Here, as so often, the Chaldee strikes the key-note,
and gives an explanation which, with but slight change,
is that of many Christian Fathers. It paraphrases
the first clause thus: “The Prince of thy school,’ by
whose merit all the ages are ruled, as the unborn child
is nourished in its mother’s womb by the navel, is
resplendent in the Law, like the round disk of the
moon, when he comes to purify and to make unclean,
and to justify and condemn: and the words of the
Law never fail from his mouth, as the waters of the
river fail not when it goes forth from Paradise.” Very
close to this is the comment of 8S. Gregory the Great:
The navel is the order of holy preachers, fitly styled
a goblet, because when the people are taught from its
mouth, they are filled with spiritual wine by its mi-
nistry. It is round, because the preachers’ tongue
must needs go round all subjects, according to the
character of all classes of men. It wanteth not miz-
ture, because it must drink more abundantly than
others that which it offers to them as a draught, and
contain more than it gives. S. Epiphanius and Philo
agree in holding that the Priesthood is here intended,
compared to a goblet with mixture (i.e. wine and water),
because of the mystery of the Sacrament of the Body
and Blood of Curist, whereof it has charge, and with
which the people are mingled by faith and love. The
Priesthood, as in the centre of the Church, reconciling
1 President of the Rabbinical | the Sanhedrim after the fall of
College which took the place of | Jerusalem.
_ VII, 2.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 309
the people to Gon, is the navel ; it isa goblet because
it gives them to drink of the love of Gop ; 1t is round,
because all its angles have been smoothed away ac-
cording to the will of Gop, that His Hand may find
no inequality in it. The womb of Mary, observés S.
Ambrose, was in truth a round goblet, wherein was
Wisdom, Who mingled that wine, the grace of unfail-
ing and loving knowledge of Him, the fulness of His
Godhead. As the navel is the weakest part of all
the body, it may not unfitly typify a heart conscious
of its own weakness, holding, as in a goblet, the me-
mory of former sins, which memory, by acting as the
cutter of a lathe to remove all that is superfluous,
vain, and evil, makes the goblet round. It wants
not liquor, because it is full of the tears of compunc-
tion for its past offences. And so the Wise Man saith,
“ Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lorp, and
depart from evil; it shall be health to thy navel, and
marrow to thy bones.” As the navel is the centre of
the body, so temperance is the mean of life. It is a
round goblet, full of liquor, because it is rounded by
circumspection, and is red in wisdom. And as drink
assuages thirst, and gladdens the heart, so temperance
- quenches the heat of sin, and checks unruly zeal in
better things.
Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with
“ilies. The Targum, carrying on its paraphrase, tells
us that this denotes the seventy members of the San-
hedrim, gathered round their Prince, and enriched
with all the tithes, oblations, and free-will offerings
set apart for them by Ezra, Zorobabel, and other
chiefs of the Great Synagogue. The belly denotes
the multitude of the faithful, say the Fathers, because
the womb signifies fruitfulness, and these are here
denoted, begotten in the Gospel, and born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of Gop. This multitude is compared to a
heap of wheat, because the Lorn saith of the fruit of
the Bride: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.” It is a heap, and not a
quantity of scattered grains, because as a heap is piled
up with many grains, so the one Church of all the
faithful is formed by the union of many natures,
one in the communion of one Baptism and the Sacra-
. ment of the Body and Blood of Curist. And as a
S. Just. Org.
S.Ans.Laud.
S. Ambros.
de Inst.
Virg. 14.
Irimbert.
Luc. Abb.
Prov, iii. 7.
Honorius,.
Targum.
Dion. Carth.
Philo Carp.
S. John xii.
24,
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
S. Mat. xiii.
30.
S. Just. Org.
Luc. Abb.
Hugo Card.
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
in Ps. cxix.
Trimbert.
Hon. Aug.
Guilielmus.
S. Ambros.
de Inst.
Virg. 14.
Ps, lxv. 14.
310
heap is wide at the base, growing smaller towards the
summit, so in the Church there are many who live
self-indulgently, and but few who aim at the height
of perfection ; as, for instance, there are many more
found who will give alms of their goods to the poor
than will leave all their possessions for Gop. This
heap is set about with lilies, because all the good works
which the Saints do are for the sake of heavenly sweet-
ness and light. Or, as another Father puts it, the
heap of wheat, while awaiting here removal to the
eranaries of the Lorp, is fenced on all sides by the
bright and lovely examples of the Saints. Philo takes
the lilies to be the good works to which all Christians
are bound to devote themselves, and the holy dis-
courses which should fit them for their dwelling in
heaven. Others take the heap of wheat, pure, whole-
some, and nutritious, to be those divines who are versed
in Holy Scripture, and by their teaching win over
many not merely to purity, but to vows of perpetual
chastity. And with this latter view agrees that expla-
nation of Cardinal Hugo, that the Lhes which fence
the wheat are the cloistered Orders in the Church.
They teach us also that memory is the belly of the
soul, containing the food which is her support, those
hidden mysteries whereof we can here but just discern
the beauty and fragrance. Or, more precisely, the heap
of wheat may symbolize the words of Holy Scrip-
ture stored up in the mind, and the lilies the pure and
lovely thoughts which they supply for meditation. And,
spoken of 8. Mary, they do not fail to remind us how she
bore within her that wheat elected which was ground
in the mill of the Passion that it might be made into
the Bread of Life, and how He was fenced around by
the lilies of her spotless virginity. In the Virgin's
womb, comments S. Ambrose, there were at the same
time the heap of wheat and the blooming lily-flower,
because she bore Him Who is the corn of wheat and
the Lily too: The corn of wheat, according to that
Scripture: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone.” Butin thatthe single grain became a heap
of wheat, that prophecy was fulfilled, ‘‘The val-
leys shall be thick with corn,” for that grain dying
brought forth much fruit. This grain also filled all
men with the perpetual food of heavenly gifts, and
thereby that other speech of the Prophet's mouth
A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 2.
VII. 3, 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 811
which the same David uttered, was brought to pass:
“He fed them also with the finest wheat-flour, with Ps. 1xxxi.
honey out of the stony rock did He satisfy them.” '”
And the Divine oracles testify that a Lily too was in
this seed, for it is written, “‘I am the flower of the Cant. ii.1, 2.
plain, and the lily of the valleys, as the lily among
thorns.” Ourist was the lily among thorns, when
He was in the midst of the Jews.
3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes
that are twins.
_ There is but little to add here to the expositions
cited on the previous occurrence of these words.
Taking them, as before, to refer to the preachers of
the Church, twofold, as Jew and Gentile, or as deriving
their teaching from both Testaments, or, again, as in-
culcating the two great precepts on which hang all the
Law and the Prophets, they have yet a word or two
of counsel. Thus, we are reminded that preaching, Hugo Card.
to be useful to the hearers, must come from those who
draw their lessons from a living source, and have not
merely got up a single sermon for each occasion by
_ borrowing, or by learning the subject of the day apart
from all its true context; a style of preaching often
hurtful to the hearers, as the milk given to Sisera out
of the bottle was the prelude of his death. Had Jael
fed him from her breast, she could not have slain him.
Judg. iv. 19.
4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine
eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate
of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of
Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
Already the neck of the Bride has been likened to Chap. iv. 4.
a tower, but here the materials of which that tower is
formed are first mentioned. Those officers of the Cassiodor.
Church, whether preachers, through whom comes the
voice of doctrine, or priests, by whose ministry the
Body and Blood of Curist pass to the people for their Philo Carp.
spiritual food and drink, or Martyrs, because they put Luc- Abb.
their necks under the yoke of Curist, and never with-
draw them, are all compared to ivory because of its
whiteness and purity, while the word tower serves to
remind us that the grace of purity is found allied with
S. Just. Org.
Philo Carp.
Irimbert.
Cassiodor.
2 Chron. iv.
2, 6.
Philo Carp,
Targum.
Aquila,
312 A COMMENTARY ON [VIL. 4.
strength rather than with weakness. Note, too, that
as only that part of ivory which is uncovered by flesh
is valuable, and suited for the adornment of a king, so
the Martyrs, by putting off their fleshly covering, be-
came a tower of beauty in the City of Gop; and sim1-
larly, all those who here mortify the flesh and live,
while in the body, as though out of it, are more pre-
cious than their fellows. The knowledge of Scripture,
observes a Saint, is also the spiritual neck of the Bride,
and it is styled a tower of ivory, because they who oc-
cupy themselves with Gop’s Word rise daily higher
in spiritual progress, in shining righteousness. The
soul has its ivory neck too, that pure and shining ob-
servance of the unsullied precepts of Gop, that perfect
righteousness and holy bond, which is the means of
union between the faithful soul and Curist, her Head.
Another tells us that as the neck is the channel of
speech, so we may here understand penitent confes-
sion of sins, compared to a tower because it needs
strong and steadfast resolution to acknowledge our
transgressions, not shrinking back and cowering in
shame. And this tower is zvory, because confession
makes the soul white, firm, and clean. Thine eyes like
the fishpools in Heshbon. The eyes of the Church,
says Cassiodorus, are her Doctors, who watch for the
whole body, and point the way it should go. ‘These
eyes are compared to fishpools built at the gate of the
city of Heshbon, because holy teachers wash in the
bath of life the people who believe in Curist, and re-
fresh them with the draught of saving doctrine. These
pools are by the gates, because none Can enter the
Church unless he be first washed in the water of Bap-
tism, and have been given to drink of the fount of
saving doctrine. This was typified. by the brazen sea
which Solomon placed in the porch of the Temple,
that the priests, when about to enter the Temple and
to sacrifice victims, might wash themselves there.
The gate at which it stands is that of Bath-rabbim,
“daughter of a multitude,’ because the Church is
rightly so named, as daily gathering in the multitude
of the Gentiles. This explanation is closely allied to
the Chaldee paraphrase, which interprets the clause of
the scribes, full of wisdom and. calculation, signified
by Heshbon, because one of their main duties was to
compute the occurrence of the great festivals, and
their post was at the door of the Great Council of the
VII. 4.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 313
people. The spiritual eyes of the soul are also, they
tell us, like fishpools in Heshbon; like fishpools, be-
cause containing the water of heavenly wisdom, ever
full of tears for their own sins and those of others, in
Heshbon, because of the depth of thought with which
she ponders in clear and pure meditation, and thus
by the gate of the daughter of a multitude, because she
draws the springs of thought from many lips and
various sources. Again, the eyes of devout meditation
need to be at the gate, at the very entrance of the
soul, to guard against all access of foes, to catch the
first glimpse of the King as He draws near. And a
truly devout soul is called the daughter of a multitude,
because in her lowliness she is content to class herself
as but one of the meanest of Gop’s countless elect, and
not to claim any pre-eminence as hers by right.
Amidst the happy chorus
A place, however low,
Shall show Him us, and showing,
Shall satiate evermo.
Although a few of the Latin commentators rightly
follow the Greek in explaining Heshbon as “ thought’
or “‘contemplation,” yet the majority of them prefer
to interpret it as “girdle of mourning,”! and thus
dwell much on penitential sorrow as a special grace of
the Bride. There are several reasons assigned for the
likeness of the eyes of the devout soul to fishpools.
The chief are as follows. First, that as fish is kept
alive in these pools, so devout thoughts and affections
are retained in the meditations of the heart. They
might well add that the fish, from its Greek name,
ix@ds, is the familiar symbol of the Ancient Church for
her Lorp, as the several letters of the word are the
initials of ’Incots Xpiords Ocod Tis Swrhp, J ESUS CuRIsT,
Son of Gop, Saviour, and that Heis the living tenant
of all her thought. Next, these pools are clear and
limpid, and reflect images, as the soul, when contem-
plating Gop, should receive His image in her bosom.
Thirdly, as fishpools are deep and full of water, so
abundant tears of devotion and contrition flow from
* There is a word awn, ci7- | the supposed root of the termi-
gulum, from the same root | nation. The etymon is thus
awn as Heshbon, and perhaps not so utterly wild as it looks
ad ’
; at first.
Tax, “uit, may be assumed as
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
Serm. 16, in
PS EOxNs
Philo Carp.
Dion. Carth.
Hugo Card.
Bern. Clun,.
Rhythmus.
Corn. 4 Lap.
Philo Carp.
Cassiod.
1 Cor, xii.
10.
S. Just. Org.
Luc. Abb.
314 _A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 4.
holy souls. Fourthly, as these pools are at the gates
of the daughter of multitude, so meditation and con-
templation are by the gates of Paradise, where is the
innumerable company of the elect. Fifthly, as the
water in such pools is still, and therefore calm and
peaceful, so meditation quiets and tranquillizes the
soul.
Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh
toward Damascus. Because with the nose we distin-
guish between fetid and fragrant odours, the same
holy teachers are rightly understood to be the nose
of the Church, as they know how to discern skilfully
the sweet teaching of the Catholic Faith, and the
deadly stench of heretical error. For among the di-
vine gifts of which distribution is made by the Hoty
Guost, it is said, ‘To another is given by the Spirit
discerning of spirits.’ This nose of the Church is
compared to the tower of Lebanon, because holy teachers
occupy the highest place in the Church, and stand,
as it were, on Mount Lebanon, to guard the Church
from the assaults of evil spirits. This tower is said
to be toward Damascus. Damascus is the chief city
of Syria, which once, under very powerful and cruel
kings, warred against the children of Israel. And Da-
mascus is interpreted, “a draught of blood” or “ an
eye of blood.”! They say that Abel was slain there,
and it therefore denotes the powers of this world, who
thirst after blood, because they delight in the pleasures
and allurements of flesh and blood. It also signifies
the powers of the air, who thirst for our blood. There-
fore this tower is against Damascus, because those for-
tified by the help of Curist, always resist the devil
and his members. Another, slightly varying from this
interpretation, takes the nose to denote all those Saints
who perceive the sweet savour of righteousness which
is in Curist, and transmit it to the body, and who are
likened to the tower of Lebanon because of their emi-
nence and purity. And if we take the tower of Le-
banon, as a third does, to denote the Manhood of
Curist, holding Lebanon
1 The true meaning is pro-
bably ‘‘ red land,’’ contrasting
aptly enough with the white-
ness of Lebanon, and sufli-
ciently suggestive of the colour
of blood. If the Arabic ety-
to mean ‘“ frankincense,”
mology, ‘‘swiftly built,’ be
preferred, we may then see
another contrast, that between
the hasty, unsubstantial build-
ings of man, and the ‘ ever-
lasting hills’’ of Gop.
VII. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 315
then those will be like Him who are filled with earnest
zeal and ardent faith, and, shining with virtues, over-
throw the devil-worship of the Gentiles among whom
they dwell. Yet another view sees here the Guardian
Angels, keeping ceaseless watch against the enemies
of mankind. The nose of the holy soul is also her
power of discerning between good and evil spirits, like
a lofty tower on the summit of Lebanon, looking to-
wards Damascus, to watch for the approach of any
enemy against Israel. It looks towards Damascus in
another sense also, taking that word still as implying
blood, in that its gaze of contemplation is ever fixed
on the Passion of Jesus, and His bloodshedding on
the ‘red ground” of Gethsemane and Calvary. And
this is the view taken by S. Jerome, saying of S. Mary
Magdalene, ‘* She weeps at the Cross, she makes ready
the ointment, she seeks in the tomb, she questions the
gardener, she recognizes the Lorp, she proceeds to
the Apostles, she tells what she had found ; they doubt,
but she is trustful. Truly towered is she, truly a
tower of whiteness and Lebanon, which looks towards
the face of Damascus, that is, the Blood of the Saviour,
calling her to holy penitence.” And another, apply-
ing the words to a greater than the Magdalen, ex-
claims: Thou, O Lady, art that fair nose, of which
the Bridegroom saith, ‘“‘ Thy nose is as the tower of
Lebanon.” The nose hath two orifices, through which
it emits the breath from the head; so thou, O Lady,
by thy virginity and lowliness drewest down the Son
of Gop from heaven, Curist the Lorp, Whom the
Prophet calls “the breath of our nostrils,” for He
warms us unto charity, and cools our desire, urges us
to will what is good, justifies us by faith. Thou there-
fore art the nose of the Church, and like to a tower;
lofty in thy dignity, strong in thy sedateness. Thou
art the tower of Lebanon, for Mount Lebanon, which
is interpreted whiteness, signifies thine innocence, ex-
alted above all others.
5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and
the hair of thine head like purple; the king is
held in the galleries.
Following the Targum, which interprets this head
as the King, several of the Fathers tell us that Curist
Hugo Card.
Tres Patr.
Irimbert.
S. Hieron-
Ep. 140, ad
Principiam.
Pseudo-
Bernard.
Serm. 4, sup.
Salve Re-
gina.
Lam. iv. 20.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Isa. li. 2.
S. Just. Org.
Aerie aahey pn
marg.
Philo Carp.
316 A COMMENTARY ON
(VII. 5.
is the Head here promised. They accept also, for the
most part, the reason assigned by the Chaldee para-
phrase for the comparison, which is a reference to the
history of Elijah. But whereas the Jewish expositor
dwells on the slaughter of the prophets of Baal, the
Christians.prefer to remember the descent of the ferti-
lizing rain on the parched and thirsty ground. CHRIST,
comments 8. Gregory, is the Head of the Church, and
is well said to be like Carmel, because He was exalted
unto the Farner by the Passion He endured. Of
which is written, “ And it shall come to pass in the
last days, that the mountain of the Lorn’s house shall
be established in the top of the mountains.” For
Elijah, praying on Carmel, obtained rain, and we,
raying on Carmel, ask for rain, when, believing in
HRIST, we long for CHRIst, and obtain from the
Fatuer the bestowal of the grace for which we intreat.
And as Elijah and Elisha, Saints of the Old Covenant,
often found a refuge on Carmel, so too the dwelling
of the righteous is in the Lorp Jzsus Curist, the
Head of His Church, frém Whom the multitude of
the people derive their food. The intellect or reason
is also, as many of them add, the head of the soul, as
ruling and guiding it, and this is like Carmel, the
“ fruitful,’ because, as Theodoret adds, it is filled with
all good things. For Gop, when rebuking by His
Prophet the ingratitude of the Jews, saith, “ T brought
you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof,
and the goodness thereof.” Thine head, then, saith He,
is like Carmel, bringing forth all kinds of good things,
and producing every fruit for Me, its Husbandman.!
Lhe hair of thy head like purple; the King is bound
in the galleries. This version, which follows the Ma-
soretic pointing, is practically that of the LXX., save
that there, instead of galleries, we find Tmapadpomais,
verandahs, running round the lower story of a house.
This hair of the Bride, observes the Bishop of Car-
1 The majority of the Fathers
interpret Carmel as ‘‘know-
ledge of circumcision,”’ and ob-
serve that the Head or ruling
part of the Church knew cir.
cumecision literally under the
Law, and spiritually under the
Gospel. The marginal read-
ing of A. V., * crimson,’ is an
error, as old as Abenezra, and
arises out of confounding 279
and 5192. But it is probable
that the reference to purple
which follows was suggested
to the poet by the resemblance
of these two words.
|
VIES.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 317
pasia, is the innumerable company of the Christian
people, which adorns the Church as abundant tresses
are the glory of a woman’s head. And the epithet
purple bears a reference to the prophecies and oracles —
of the coming death of the Bridegroom Himself and
of the Martyrs, for as purple resembles the colour of
blood, so the Bride, who is the multitude of the faith-
ful, was first washed and dyed with the Blood of
Jesus Curist, her divine Spouse, and then was further
increased and stablished by the death of the Martyrs.
This is His royal apparel, of which Jacob prophesies
to his son Judah (of whom the Bridegroom was born
after the flesh) saying, “He washed His garments in Gen. xix.
wine, and His clothes in the blood of grapes.” For is
the Holy Church is the robe and garment of Curist. pesatgtatl it
Theodoret, dwelling on the word mAdmov, “ twined” or
‘‘plaited” hair, and explaining the word to denote the
doctrine and teaching of the Church, says that it is so
described to point the contrast between the orderly
sequence of Christian dogma and the dishevelled
opinions of Gentilism, while he agrees with Philo in
holding that the purple tinge comes from the Precious
Blood. Both fail us in the last clause, Theodoret,
_ because he passes over it altogether, and Philo, be- Philo Carp.
cause he adopts a reading peculiar to himself (at least
found now in no extant text,) The King is terrible
in His goings-forth ; words which he explains, with
eloquence and fervour, of the Incarnation, Passion, ;
Resurrection, and Ascension of Curist. Ainsworth, Ainsworth.
however, may supply the lacuna, suggesting as the
spiritual interpretation of the A. V. that the King is
so tied with the cords of love to the dwelling of His
Bride, that He cannot, so to speak, leave it if He
would; according to His own saying by the mouth of
the Psalmist: ‘‘ The Lorp hath chosen Sion to be an 5. Qysii
habitation for Himself: He hath longed for her. This 14, :
shall be My rest for ever: here will I dwell, for I
have a delight therein.” But it is to be noted that
the Hebrew word here found, DO) rehatim, means,
in the only other places in the Bible where it occurs, oo fae
gutters or troughs for cattle to drink at, and therefore Exod. ii. 16.
the Vulgate rendering is here to be preferred. As @
King’s purple, bound in the conduits (canalibus.) That
is, as they variously explain it, laid in the dye-troughs, Se
and thus in the first freshness of its colouring, before Leo Juda. —
Tres Patr.
Rosen-
miiller.
De Wette.
Ewald.
Hitzig.
Cassiodor,
Targum.
S. Ambros,
Rupert. in
Gen. xxx,
318
aught has dimmed it; or else, newly washed in run-
ning water, and so clean and bright, and shining in
the sun. Before passing to the interpretation of this —
version, the other views proposed may be stated. One
is that the word zapadpou) or canalis does not mean a
literal water-trough, but a gold or silver stripe, bind-
ing, and yet running like a bright stream across, the
purple robe, so that the comparison is then made with
the jfillets wherewith the Bride’s dark tresses are
bound.’ The other opinion, which is that of most
modern critics, is that the flowing curls of the Bride
are metaphorically intended, and that the King is
caught and tangled in them, as in a net, Mystically,
says Cassiodorus, the conduits signify the lowliness of
the Saints, in which the purple of the Everlasting
King is dyed, when those Saints, by imitating the
lowlmess of their Redeemer, aim at being conformed .
to His Passion, that they may be changed into the
dignity of purple, that is, working for Curist may
attain to be crowned and to reign with Curist. And
this purple is said to be bound, because the hearts of
the Saints are fixed and stablished in the fear and love
of their Saviour, so that they can never be separated
from His love. The poor of the people, remarks the
Chaldee paraphrast, who surround the Prince, because
of their need, will one day be clothed with purple, as
Daniel was in Babylon and Mordecai in Susa, for the
sake of Abraham’s merit, whom Gop made a king, and
for Isaac’s righteousness, who was bound by his father,
and for Jacob’s dignity, who peeled the rods at the
water-troughs. And so, rendering the words in a
Christian sense, it is the weakest and lowliest of
Curistr’s members who shall inherit the kingdom, and
are made true kings for His sake Who is the Friend of
Gop, the Father of Nations; for His Who was bound
on the Cross for us; for His, the Prince with Gop,
Who stripped the Tree of Life, in part at least, of
the pee or outer letter, that we might see the wood
itself.
A COMMENTARY ON [ VII. 5.
1 And in support of this view
two facts may be cited. One
is that the Talmud actually
uses the word prom to denote
the ribbons used in decorating
the Paschal Lamb, (Talmud,
de Agno Paschali, c. 3;) and
the other is that the technical
name in the modern Greek
Church for the wavy stripes
on acope is ToTapol, “rivers,”
(Goar. Eucholog.)
VII. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 319
And observe, that either of the meanings given to
the conduits or ducts yields a spiritual lesson. If
they be the actual dye-troughs, then we learn that the
first true beauty of the Saints must be derived from
conformity with the Passion of Jrsus, and that the
fairest loveliness of all is martyrdom for His sake. If
the reference be to water in which the purple, after
being dyed, is washed to make it clean and bright,
then we have the font of Baptism for the first such
washing, and the tears of penitence to cleanse subse-
quent defilement. There is a variant of the Vulgate,
joined with canals (juncta canalibus,) which is ex-
plained to mean either Holy Scripture, or the secret
counsels of Gop which decreed the Passion and royalty
of Curist, or else those wise prelates and teachers,
who form as it were the ducts for the streams from
the Heavenly Jerusalem by which the precious Blood
of CuHRIsT is supplied to the people, that they may be
truly a kingly robe for Him, and not, as too often, a
prickly hair-cloth on His sacred form; or, yet again,
as the rules and ordinances, especially of the Religious
Life, which are the outer troughs in which we are placed,
that the costly dye may saturate us. Or, again, the
examples of the Saints are not inaptly called canals,
because the effect of the Lorp’s Passion does not con-
fine itself to them alone, and sink, as it were, into the
ground through them, but the stream passes on after
dyeing them, to perform the like office for others, in
that they become agents of conversion in their turn.
Note, too, that the praise of the Bride’s loveliness is
directed to ten beauties of her person successively, de-
noting thereby that the fairness of the Church consists
in fulfilling the commandments of Gop. And, apply-
ing the verse to the Blessed Virgin, they tell us how
when the nails and spear had made the white Beloved
ruddy with the purple of His Passion, then the sword of
Simeon’s prophecy pierced His mother’s heart, so that
all her thoughts were dyed inthe purple of her com-
passion, as it lay bound by her perfect obedience in
those conduits of Gon’s grace which flowed abundantly
upon her in that time of suffering, whereby she was
crowned as Queen of Martyrs, and therefore fitly clad
in royal apparel. It remains only to mention the
curious variant found in the Syriac and Arabic ver-
sions. Thy hair is like a kingly purple awning spread
above a theatre (Arab.) or race-course (Syr.) And the
Cassiodor.
Trimbert.
Dion. Carth.
S. Greg. M.
Rupert.
Hugo Card.
Gerson,
S. Just. Org.
Guilielmus.
Card. Hail-
grin,
Heb. xii. 1.
Cassiodor.
Rupert.
Dion. Carth.
Targum.
Theodoret.
820 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 6.
most obvious mystical import of this seems to be that
the examples of the triumphant Saints, the witnesses
of our struggle in the arena, serve to alleviate the
burning heat of our trial, that we may endure to the
end, and conquer.
6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O
love, for delights !
Fair in her faith, pleasant in her works. Above she
was called “ fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible
as an army with banners;’’ here she is said to be fair
and pleasant in delights. There seems a contradic-
tion in this, for to be terrible as an army in array
and to be in delights are incompatible, since de-
lights enervate the valour of soldiers. But the Holy
Church can be both, arrayed as an army in resisting
unbelievers, heretics, and evil spirits, to whom she
is terrible by her holiness and perfection: and in de-
lights, because with her mental palate she ever tastes
the dulcet savour of heavenly sweetness, and amidst
the troubles of the world seeks to attain those delights
and to be ever satisfied therewith. And she who is
like this, is rightly said to be dearest (Vulg.) to the
Bridegroom. She is fair and pleasant in delights also
in that she possesses meekness and deep lowliness of
heart in the abundance of grace. And all the gifts of
grace, and the understanding of the Scriptures, are
true delights, while lowliness is true beauty, a pleasant
thing, and a virtue loved by Gop. The Carthusian,
urging that the Church is never so fair and pleasant
in the Bridegroom’s eyes as when she is thinking
of Him only, and bearing tribulation not merely pa-
tiently, but gladly, for His sake, reproduces the Chal-
dee interpretation, which is, ‘‘ Solomon the king said,
How fair art thou, O congregation of Israel, in the
time when thou bearest the yoke of my kingdom, in
the time when I correct thee with sufferings because
of thy sins, and thou receivest them in love, and they
seem delights unto thee.” The LXX. rendering, as
A. V., love instead of dearest, gives rise to a slightly
different type of exposition. Thou art made fair, com-
ments a Greek Father, which thou wast not before,
and whereas thou wast full of all unpleasantness, now
thou hast at once become pleasant, and this thou hast
gained because thou delightest in love, for, loving the
Yn) THE SONG OF SONGS. 821
Bridegroom who loves thee, and counting His affection
thy one delight, thou hast slighted all things besides,
and art fair and pleasant. And if so even here, what
shall be her beauty in the delights of everlasting bless- Honorius.
edness? They apply the verse also to the Virgin
Mother, fair in her maternity, pleasant in her virginity,
dearest to Gop in both, as He graced her with the
delights of tending her Divine Son, and of meditating
on her own marvellous destiny. ©
7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and
thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
Guilielmus,
Card. Hail.
grin.
‘The stature of the Church is the uprightness of her Beda.
good works, because, despising to be bent down towards
the desires of earth, she lifts her whole form upwards
to attain heavenly things; of which the Apostle coun-
sels, saying, ‘‘ Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit
you like men.” Of which the Lorp also saith, ‘I am
the Lorp your Gop, Which brought you forth out of the
land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen ;
and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made
you go upright.” And, besides, the hand of a con-
-queror was decked with palm, and also, amongst the
ancients, the victors in a contest were crowned with
palm. Therefore the stature of the Bride is likened
to a palm-tree, when all the intention of the faithful
stands erect in love for heavenly things, and mean-
while ponders, when standing in the ranks of battle,
that prize which shall be the conqueror’s meed when
the struggle is over. Moreover, because the'palm is
rough in its lower portion, but displays its beauty and
the sweetness of its fruit at the summit, the stature of
the Church or of any faithful soul is fitly likened to it,
which bears upon earth harsh troubles for the Lorp’s
sake, but hopes to receive from that Lorn a precious
reward in heaven. The palm is rough near the ground,
because the elect suffer persecution for righteousness’
sake. It is fair and sweet at the top, because they
1 Cor. xvi.
13.
Lev. xxvi.
Uist
rejoice and are glad in their afflictions, knowing that _
their reward is great in heaven. And as the palm is
clothed with enduring foliage, and retains its leaves
without intermission ; who does not see that it presents
a type of the stature of faith, which, amidst the varying
conditions of the shifting world, keeps ever to the same
words of true confession, as leaves which will never be
‘4
S. Greg. M.
Mor. xix.
16.
Idem in loc.
De Wette.
Theodoret.
Ps. xcii. 11.
Cassiodor.
1 Cor. iii. 1.
aCor zi. Ge
Philo Carp.
Luc. Abb.
822 A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 7.
renewed nor fall, and that it preserves unharmed in
its elect unto the end of the world that perfection of
works which began from its first origin, just as the
palm retains its beauty P
Further, the palm tree is slender below and expands
above, and similarly the holy soul begins in the depths
with small things, and growing slowly up to that which
is greater, at last branches out into the full beauty of
divine love. It is elastic, and springs up under any
weight which may be laid on it; it grows in a dry and
thirsty soil. And by the palm we may understand also
the Cross of Curist, for it grows to a great height, and
bears sweet fruit, just as the Cross of Curist prepared
heavenly food for us; and the stature of the Bride is
likened to this, because any one who truly loves and
imitates Curist, does not hesitate to die for Him.
And thy breasts to clusters of grapes. Or rather,
more peabably! clusters of dates, as continuing the
reference to the palm tree. And so Theodoret takes
it: ‘Tall and exalted as thou art, reaching to the
height of heaven, yet thou bowest down to the feeble,
and yieldest the breast of thy teaching to those who
are in need of teaching. For the palm tree has clus-
ters which hang downwards. And the Hoty GuHost
signifies this by blessed David, saying, ‘The righteous
shall flourish as a palm tree.’” The breasts of the
Church, adds Cassiodorus, are, as has been said already,
holy teachers, who nourish with the milk of simple
doctrine them who are born again in CuHrist. But
these breasts are likened to clusters of grapes when
these same teachers proclaim more perfect things to
the perfect. And so the Apostle, when speaking to
the less instructed, said, ‘1 could not speak unto you
as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Curist. I have fed you with milk, and not
with meat.’ These are breasts full of milk, which
breasts were turned into clusters of grapes when he
said, ‘“‘ Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that
are perfect.” The two breasts are also the two Testa-
ments, the two precepts of love, and the active and
contemplative lives of Christianity, all of them yielding
sweet and gladdening wine to cheer the heart of those
who imitate Curist. And as He hung, Himself, as the
bunch of grapes upon the pole which the spies brought
from the Land of Promise, so the Martyrs, who are
close to His heart, and are most like to Him, are fit-
VIL. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 323
tingly styled the breasts of His Bride. Spoken of Guilielmus.
the Blessed Virgin, one devout writer bids us look
to that verse of the Gospels, ‘ Now there stood by the
S. John xix,
Cross of Jesus His Mother,” and ponder whether, as 25:
she stood beside that palm tree, her stature was not
indeed likened to it, nay, whether she was not herself
a very cross of suffering then. Another, working out alanus.
the simile at greater length, comments: Her outer
bark was rough, in that she was weak in worldly
honour, poor in temporal riches, but yet she possessed
vigorous strength in her constancy of soul. She was
erect in stem, because shooting upwards to heaven in
the resolution of her mind; firm at the summit, by
reason of her exalted virginity and lowliness ; lovely
in flower, because with no thought of sin she conceived
the. Flower of the plain, the Lily of the valley ; sweet
in her fruitfulness, because she painlessly bore the Re-
deemer of the world. She is set before us as an em-
blem of victory; that as she overcame the world, the
flesh, and the devil, so we too may overcome according
to our power. The breasts of Mary are her virginity
and lowliness, wherein Curist delights, and they are
set before us for our learning and instruction, that we
should follow her footsteps. They are compared to
clusters of grapes, because the grape yields perfume
in flower and sweetness in fruit. It warms and re-
freshes, and so too the Maiden’s virginity and lowli-
ness are fragrant with the savour of devout thought,
warm with love, and refreshing with spiritual fulness.
And it is well to sum up all this description of the
Bride’s comeliness with the frequent comment of Cor-
nelius 4 Lapide, that all the eulogy may be interpreted
of the Humanity of Curist Jzsvus, that Sacred Body
which was, in a sense, the Bride to whom the Eternal
Worp united Himself for ever.
8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I
will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also
thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and
the smell of thy nose like apples:
It is more than merely going to the palm tree, and
Corn, 4 Lap.
S. Cyprian,
the words denote a harder and higher task; Z wif] Serm. de
climb up into the palm tree, high enough to reach the
fruit which hangs near its summit. Who then is the
Tao
Pass,
Henr.
Harph.
Cassiodor.
Honoris.
Rupert.
Gretser et
Lipsius de
Cruce,
Suarez,
824 _A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 8.
speaker, and when were the words said? J said, quoth
the Lorp, from all eternity, when I determined to die,
of My perfect love and free-will. I said, by the mouth
of My prophets, that I would go up to the palm tree,
that is, the Cross, itself formed in part of palm-wood,
and exalted on high like a palm, that Jzsus, lifted up on
it, might draw all unto Him. Of old, too, victory was
denoted by the palm, which victory CHRIsT won glo-
riously, as He triumphed upon the Cross. J said, unto
My Farner, before all worlds, that I would go up to
the palm tree and conquer the tyrant there. And that
is the reason why thy stature, in thy perseverance, is
like to a palm tree, because I went up to the palm tree
for this one thing, and drew thee after Me to victory.
I went up to this palm tree by the hands of the sol-
diers, who ignorantly fought against My divine ma-
jesty. As regards them, they crucified a man to die
by a miserable death, as regards Me, 1 ascended the
palm tree as a King about to triumph. And the Jews,
unknowing the decrees of Gop, bid Me come down
from it, saying, If He be the King of Israel, let Him
come down from the Cross. I had gone up to the
palm tree, and therefore I willed not to come down
while the fruits were not yet formed—the palm tree
had already flowered when they so spake to Him—but
when, after tasting the vinegar, I said, “ It is finished,”
and bowing My head, gave up the ghost, then, the
fruits of redemption were upon the palm. This verse
has originated, or at least encouraged, two opinions
in the Church. One is the tradition that the Cross
was made of four kinds of wood: cedar, cypress, olive,
and palm, and that this last formed the transverse
beam to which the sacred Hands were nailed. So runs
the distich :
De cedro est truncus, corpus tenet alta cupressus,
Palma manus retinet, titulo letatur oliva.
Cedar the trunk, tall cypress holds His frame,
Palm clasps His hands, and olive boasts His Name.
The other view based on this passage is that CuRist
literally went up to the Tree, that is, that it was fixed
erect in the ground before He was nailed to it, as the
more painful and degrading mode of execution; an
opinion followed by SS. Gregory Nazianzen, Bernard,
Bonaventura, and Birgitta. But the view more gene-
VII. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 325
rally accepted is, that He was laid down upon the
Cross while it was still flat upon the ground, and even
then the going-up may be well interpreted of the weary
journey by the Way of Sorrows to the hill of Calvary.
There is a secondary meaning of the words, as applied
to the Redeemer, inferior to this alone. The palm ;
tree, observes Cassiodorus, signifies the Church, or even ©ssiodor.
the soul of any faithful believer, who is mindful of the ;
Lorp his Gop, Who saith, “ Be of good cheer, I have Bee as
overcome the world.” For she aims to be victorious
over allsin and unrighteousness. He is well said then
here to go up to the palm tree, of Whom we read before
that He went down into the garden. The garden and
the palm are the same, to wit, the one same Church.
The Lorp both goes down into it, and goes up into it;
down, when sending the abundance of that grace from
heaven; up, by increasing His gifts to her, and lifting
her up to higher things, by progressive advances, as
though by steps.
LI will take hold of the boughs thereof. That is, as
the Vulgate, with a justifiable paraphrase, reads, of the
Sruits thereof, hidden amongst the heights (LX X.) of
the tree. And the fruits which the Lorp gathered Henry Har-
. there were, first, the salvation of mankind, and then, PhiUs-
as regarded Himself, the glorification of His Body, the
hastening of His Resurrection, the splendid pomp of
His Ascension, the manifestation of His Name, and
the acquisition of authority as Judge. But, though
these words belong primarily to the Bridegroom, yet
His Spouse, because He endows her with all He pos-
sesses, can take them on her lips also. She can say, I
will go up to the palm tree, to the Cross, by ever bearing
Curist’s Passion in mind, by sharing in His sorrows,
by keeping them alive within me, by imitating them
faithfully. And that “because Curist also suffered 1g. pet. ii.
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow 21; iv.1.
His steps,” and “ arm yourselves likewise with the same
mind.” She can also be like Zaccheus, ascending above
the worldly crowd to see her Lorp Who is hidden from
such as refuse the Cross. And take hold of the fruits
thereof, not only those fruits of our redemption, by being
grateful and giving thanks, but also the faite of practi-
cal perfection, by faithfully imitating that perfection of
all virtues. Iwill go up, she saith to her Bridegroom, by Tres Patr.
imitation in holiness to the perfection of Thy teaching,
and will take hold of its heights by contemplation.
Ps. lxiii. 2.
Hugo Vict.
de Inst.
Mon. i, 20.
Lev. xxiii.
40.
Neh. viii. 15.
2 Macc. x. 7.
1 Mace. Xiii.
51.
Giles
Fletcher,
Christ’s Tri-
umph, XXil.
326 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 8.
Or, yet more deeply, interpreting the palm tree, tall
and stately, bearing luscious fruit, and growing best
in the sands of the “barren and dry land where no
water is,” to be Curist Himself, the Tree of Life, let
us hear Hugh of 8. Victor: “The toil of the climber
is lessened, when he perceives the fragrance of the
fruit upon the tree, for the sweetness of its taste does
away with the difficulty of the ascent. The palm tree
is Curist; His fruit salvation; the hope of salvation
is in the wood of the Cross. Ascend therefore into
the palm tree, that is, give heed to the victory of the
Cross, for by the stair of the Cross thou shalt go up
to the throne of the victor.” Keeping to the literal
Hebrew, I will take hold of the boughs, we have two
further meanings which the verse bears in the mouth
of the Bride, besides that of promised conformity to
the Passion. Palm-branches were amongst the green
boughs commanded for use by the Jews in token of
rejoicing at the feast of ingathering of the harvest,
and also at the feast of tabernacles, in token of rest
in the fertile Land of Promise after the weary march
through the barren wilderness. They were used also,
as by the Greeks and Romans, in token of victory, as
when Judas Maccabeus took the citadel of Jerusalem,
and when Simon dedicated the sanctuary, and thus
they typify a more glorious triumph of Curist than
that entry into the earthly Jerusalem on Palm Sunday,
namely, the true feast of ingathering, of tabernacles,
of dedication, and of victory, when the Lorp’s harvest
shall have been gathered by His reapers, the Angels,
into His garners, when the tents of the great army
of heaven shall encamp round the pavilion of their
victorious Leader, when the true Land of Promise has
peony won by the people of Gop under their greater
oshua.
Here may the band that now in triumph shines,
And who (before they were invested thus)
In earthly bodies carried heavenly minds,
Pitch round about, in order glorious,
Their sunny tents, and houses luminous :
All their eternal day in songs employing ;
Joy is their end, without end of their joying,
While their Almighty Prince destruction is destroying.
And, again, it was the wont amongst the Jews, until
after the fall of their city, to use palm-branches as well
as nuptial crowns in bridal rejoicings, and therefore
VIL. 8.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 327
the Bride may well declare how she will prepare her-
self and her companions for the glad procession of
that great day when “the marriage of the Lamb is Rev. xix. 7,
come, and His wife hath made herself ready,” and
when the great multitude, which no man can number,
of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues,
stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands. And
that, because they have “come out of great tribula-
tion,” for by the palm which the Bride ascends may be
understood the plain of combat and victory, and as
CuristT ascended the Cross to fight for us against the Parez.
devil, and gathered from that Tree the fruits of re-
demption and salvation, so the Church went up into
her battle-field to fight against tyrants and unbelievers
for the faith of Curis, and also to war against the
flesh, the world, and false brethren. Thus there were
four armies that went up to the palm tree for the
combat. First went the choir or army of Martyrs, to
fight against tyrants, princes, and unbelievers. Se-
condly, the army of Virgins went up to war against
the flesh. Thirdly, the army of Contemplative and
Monastic Saints went up to war against the world and
its pomp. Fourthly went up the army of Doctors to
fight against heretics. And because these four bat-
talions so went up to the palm tree as to a battle-field,
the Church was said above to be “ terrible as an army
in array.”
Now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine.
“For as the clusters of the vine, when trodden and Philo Carp.
pressed, yield the pleasant juice of wine to their hus-
bandman and vine-dresser, so righteous and holy men
of Gop, when afflicted and tortured like grapes, bring
forth and produce from themselves, through their vic-
tory of salvation, heavenly gladness to Gop their Hus-
bandman, and to Jesus Curist, and to the Bride; and
by the fragrance of their holiness and virtue attract and
draw on others to be imitators of Curis in like manner,
for which reason it follows suitably, And the smell of thy
nose like apples: denoting thereby most plainly the
perfume of unconquered faith and hope and glowing
charity, according to that saying of the Apostle, ‘We 9 cor, ii. 15.
are a sweet savour of CHRIsT in them that are saved,
and in them that perish; to the one we are the savour
of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life
unto life’ everlasting. The nose denotes the Orthodox
Rev. vii. 9.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
S. Luke
OOS EYL
Acts ii. 13.
S. Luke vy.
38.
Rupert.
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
Cassiod.
Beda.
328 A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 8.
Church, which inhales the perfume of virtues with
both nostrils, that is, the two Testaments. So too,
though there is but one nose, to wit, one spirit, one
faith, one baptism, one life everlasting, one and the ©
same Gop, the goal of the blessed, yet there are two
Churches, divided in name, not in fact, in race, not in
faith, by distance of place, not by ultimate aim, to wit,
Greek and Latin, Eastern and Western ;! or, if I mis-
take not, the Synagogue and the Church may be here
understood, derived from the one Author, the Sprrit
of distribution and of unity. And for all this reason,
the Bride is compared to apples, because as apples
yield both food and drink, both which they contain, so_
the sweet odour of the Church in true faith and love
unfeigned possesses the mystic drink and food of the
Body and Blood of Curtst, and gives them to others.”
It is by the Cross, observes S. Gregory, that the
breasts of the Bride become like clusters of grapes,
because in the death of Curist the powers of the
soul received the two precepts of charity, and when
the soul is nourished by them, she is inebriated, so as
to forget what is behind, and to reach forward to what
is before. Yes, continues Beda, expanding this thought,
since the first Doctors of the Church, that is, the A pos-
tles, obtained far more knowledge of the doctrines of
salvation when the Passion and Resurrection were ful-
filled, than they had before; when He, appearing to
them after His Resurrection, opened to them the Scrip-
tures that they might understand, and sending down
the Sprrir upon them, gave them knowledge of all
languages, that time when it was falsely said ‘“‘ These
men are full of new wine.” But they were in truth
made like clusters of the vine, because they were re-
freshed with the grace of spiritual gifts, when that
saying was truly brought to pass, “ New wine must be
put into new bottles, and both are preserved.’ That,
observes Rupert, was the autumn, when men eat of
the grapes, and the sweet perfume is everywhere dif-
fused. They do not fail to remind us also of that True
Vine, from which these clusters hang which yield the
wine of salvation for mankind. The Vulgate reads
the smell of thy mouth, and the Latin Fathers accord-
ingly explain the clause as denoting the preaching of
+ This statement ofan exter- | Eastern and Western Churches
nal severance, not incompa- | in the fourth century is note-
tible with internal unity, ofthe | worthy,
- VII. 9.J THE SONG OF SONGS. 329
the Word ; and 8. Gregory, who supposes the apples s. Greg. M.
to be pomegranates, dwells, as before, on their ruddy
hue, as typifying the Martyrs, chief preachers of the
Church either in word or example. Honorius, taking Honor.
the whole verse of the final glory of the redeemed, ““8"*”
comments thus: “The Church Triumphant ascends
the palm tree, because by the victory of the Cross she
reaches the Tree of Life, of which is written, ‘ To him rev. ii. 7.
that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the Paradise of Gov.’ She
hath already taken hold of its fruit, whereof whoso
eateth shall never die. Her breasts are as clusters of
grapes, because the joys wherewith she is inebriated
in return for her sufferings in the world, are like the
joys of Curist when He was pressed out upon the
Cross. For He is the cluster of the vine, the drink
of the Church, the fount of life, wherewith she shall
be inebriated, when it shall be said unto her, ‘ Enter Sala
thou into the joy of thy Lorn.’ Then shall her smell
be like apples, that, is, her delights shall be as those
of the Angels; and her throat like the best wine, that
is, her praise shall be as the praise of them that feast.”
9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best
wine, for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly,
causing the lips of those that are asleep to
speak.
For roof of the mouth or palate the LX X. and Vul-
gate read throat. But the inner meaning, that of the Heiligstedt.
speech of the Bride, is alike. The preaching of the Cassioa.
Church is like the best wine, because it exhibits its
great power to the hearers. And whereas the perfume
of apples is best when they are new, and that of wine
when it is old, this signifies that the preaching of the
Church possesses all sweetness and grace alike in its
beginning and in its perfection. And wine, pleasant
to the taste, and beautiful in colour, denotes also
cheerful and devout praise of Gop by His Saints, of Guilielmus.
whom is written, ‘‘ Let the praises of Gop be in their Ps. cxlix. 6.
mouth.” Philo urges that Curist Himself is the throat Philo Carp,
or palate of the Bride, because it is only through Him
that she can taste how sweet He is in His own Sacra-
ment of love, wherein He gives her the best wine.
But the Bride, hearing Him thus speak, can no longer cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
Rupert.
Cassiodor.
IST 5
Theodoret.
Tres Patr.
Cassiodor.
S. Greg. M.
330 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 9.
contain herself, and catching up His words, adds, For
my Beloved. It is, as the Vulgate adds, worthy for
Him to drink, for the preaching of the Gospel to the
world can be effected by Him only, and by no other;
for it is fitting that the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven should not be disclosed to the world by any
save the ‘‘ Mediator between Gop and man.”
That goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of them
that are asleep to speak. In this. passage there is
much divergence amongst the renderings, and it will
be most convenient to take them in order. The
LXX. reads, Going to my Beloved unto straightness,
sufficient for my lips and teeth. That is, as Theodoret
paraphrases it, the doctrine which flows from thy
throat, preferable to any perfumed wine or to all the
pleasures of this life, is that which Thou givest, my
Beloved, to guide aright the souls which believe in
Thee. And this Thy teaching is enough and sufficient
for me, that I should in part disclose it and proclaim
it, using the organ of my lips; and partly guard and
hide it, using my teeth as a barrier to encompass it.
It is sufficient, say others, for my lips, in readily satis-
fying my desires, sufficient for my teeth also, in sup-
plying difficult problems for my understanding, needing
much careful mastication before they can be assimilated
as spiritual food. The Vulgate reads the whole clause
thus: Worthy for my Beloved to drink, for His lips
and teeth to ruminate. The idea here is the slow
tasting of very choice wine, sipping it gradually, and
allowing it to remain some time in the mouth, in order
to perceive its full bouquet and flavour; and they ex-
plain it, accordingly, of sedulous meditation in the
precepts of the Gospel, in order to extract their full
meaning and beauty. And on this S. Gregory says
very well: ‘Such is the wine of the Bride, that it is
worthy for her Beloved to drink, because while Holy
Church preaches the true faith, and rouses her hearers
to holy works, and shows them by word and deed how
good it is to love, imitate, and embrace Curist alone,
what else does she do but make the wine worthy of
her Beloved, that it may taste sweet in the Bride-
groom’s mouthP And on this act it is to be noted,
that all drink, but only the lips and teeth ruminate,
because while the Church preaches by her Saints, all
hear, but not all perceive the whole force of the say-
ings which are uttered. The lips and teeth ruminate,
VII. 9.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 331
since the more perfect, after hearing, recall the words
to their memory while pondering in earnest thought
what they have heard, as those animals which bring
again into the mouth the food they have received,
taste the full flavour of that food they had eaten.
Therefore it is written in the Law that animals which
do not ruminate are not clean, implying that any one
who does not ponder again on good things which he
hears or reads, by not being occupied with holy
thoughts, necessarily collects unclean ones.” And S.g an. Mag.
Albert, in a similar spirit, aptly applies the text to
meditation after Communion of the Blessed Sacrament.
The A. V. reading, Causing the lips of those that
are asleep to speak, may be explained in two ways, Delitzsch.
either that the sweet wine of the Gospel breathed a Henssten-
é . ; g.
new meaning into the dark sayings of the dead Seers
and Prophets of the Old Testament, and gave a living
force to seemingly inert types and oracles, so that the
whole meaning of such mysteries as the sacrifice of
Melchizedek, the offering of Isaac, the burning bush,
the brazen serpent, and the fleece of Gideon ; the inner
sense of prophecies like Balaam’s, Joel’s, and Isaiah’s,
were revealed, just as sympathetic ink, heretofore
hidden from the eye, stands out in relief under the
influence of heat; and thus it might be said of each
old Seer that “ he, being dead, yet speaketh,” in bearing Heb. xi. 4.
witness to Curist. The other meaning is the revival
of souls dead asleep in the lethargy of sin, roused by
the Voice of Curist, the sweet wine going down as a
medicine straightly, in the direct simplicity of the a. v. Marg.
Gospel message, to tell the sinner, “‘‘I say unto thee, 8S. Luke vii.
Arise;’ and he that was dead sat up, and began to !*
speak, and He delivered him to his mother.”” And this
interpretation, which is supported by the Targum, here Targum.
citing the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, and the awak-
ing of the dry bones which Ezekiel saw, is in the spirit
of that ancient hymn in honour of the Cross:
O branches rich and passing fair, O sweet and noble Tree! S. Venant.
What new and precious fruit is that which hangs for all on thee? Fortunat.
Whose fragrance breathes the breath of life into the silent dead, aS tha
Gives life to them from whom, long since, earth’s pleasant light gj4g
had fled !
Two other renderings are suggested by modern critics, pritzig,
gliding gently over the lips of sleepers, which seems to
mean that the wine has a gently lulling effect, gradu-
Weissbach.
S. Ambros.
de Isaac, 8.
Chap. ii. 16.
Chap. vi. 3.
Theodoret.
332 A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 10.
ally bringing a peaceful slumber, which may then be
interpreted of the tranquillizing influence of the Word ;
or, with another version, causing the lips of sleepers to
taste it, meaning that the wine which was so good at
the banquet as to go down straightly (because men not
only made no difficulty about swallowing it, but bent
back the head to drain the cup,) left the memory of
its flavour so clear, that the banqueters seemed to taste
it again in dreams. And then, it will come to much
the same meaning as 8. Gregory’s explanation of ru-
minating, to wit, the contemplation in time of rest of
all that has been said or done for Gop in the time of
action.!
10 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is to-
ward me.
This is the third time that the close union and mu-
tual affection of the Bridegroom and Bride is men-
tioned in the Song. And there is, observes S. Ambrose,
a threefold diversity in the manner of expression, to
denote the three stages of the Bride’s progress in the
love of Gop, to wit, her beginning, advance, and per-
fection. She said, at first, ‘‘ My Beloved is mine, and
Iam His; He feedeth among the lilies until the day
break, and the shadows flee away,” because when she
is beginning to learn, the Bride still sees the shadows,
not yet disturbed by the approach of the Worp, as, in
fact, the Gospel day did not shine upon the Church at
her origin. In the second place she says, “I am my
Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine; He feedeth among
the lilies,” for in her progress He gathers her sweet
perfumes, untroubled by clouds. And thirdly, in this
place she says, “Iam my Beloved’s and His desire
(LX X. and Vulgate turning) is toward me,” because, -
now made perfect, she makes herself a resting-place for
the Worp, that He may turn-towards her, and lay
His head upon her, and take His rest. And that, ob-
serves Theodoret, because she can say, I have con-
1 The considerable variants | ory» “sleepers,” and the erro-
ae renderings uy a es neous derivation of 35$7, ag
cult verse are mainly reducible | 4, fies acetht
. F ough connected with 127 Jo.
Lost ro Gaueesy tite tbereading suis est, instead of the true
on) ‘and teeth”? instead of etymon 4 repsit.
, -7F
VII. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 333
secrated myself to Him, and have looked with loathing
on the common fellowship of Gentiles, Jews, and here-
tics. For He hath preferred me to all others, and
turned unto me, and whereas He once had not where
to lay His head, He hath now found a place to lay it.
I will now, comments another, be the servant of the
Son of Gop, and He will reward me abundantly when
He shall descend at His second coming to sit as Judge
of all. But we must be turned to Him first, as it is
written, ‘Turn ye unto Me, saith the Lorp of Hosts,
and I will turn unto you.” And Henry Harphius,
understanding the word turning to denote turning in
to dwell in a place, tells us here how the Bride should
prepare herself to become the kingdom, temple, and
abode of Curist, adorned with that love in the midst
of which He is ever pleased to tarry. Ofsuch love a
Saint has wisely said: Love divine is fire, light, honey,
wine, and sun. Fire, in that it purifies in meditation
the soul from all uncleanness. Light, in prayer, illu-
minating the soul with the radiance of holiness.. Honey,
in thanksgiving, sweetening the soul with the sweet-
ness of Gop’s bounties. Wine, in contemplation, ine-
briating the soul with sweet and pleasant delight.
Sun, in eternal bliss, giving splendour to the soul in
unclouded light, gladdening it with the genial heat of
unspeakable joy and everlasting jubilation. He turned
to us here long ago in taking our flesh upon Him; He
turns again and again in answering our prayers. He
loved us sweetly, wisely, strongly. Sweetly, in cloth-
ing Himself with flesh; wisely, in being pure from sin ;
Philo Carp.
Zech, i. 3.
Henr.
Harph.
S. Hrabanus
Maurus.
Cassiodor.
S. Just. Org.
Dion. Carth.
S. Bernard.
Serm. 20
strongly, in undergoing death. Therefore, O Christian, jy cant.
learn from Curist how to love Curist; learn to love
Him sweetly, that we fail not when enticed; wisely,
that we be not deceived; strongly, that no force can
make us yield. And where love is, there is no toil.
But if, you will have the other rendering, His
desire is toward me, the Psalmist can tell us how
it has been attracted: ‘‘Hearken, O daughter, and
consider, incline thine ear, forget also thine own people,
and thy father’s house, so shall the King greatly desire
thy beauty.” Hear the Word of Gop with attention,
obey it with alacrity, leave behind all former evil con-
versation ; leave, if need be, country, and home, and
closest ties of kindred, and follow Curist, and He
will desire thee, and with desire will eat His Passover
with thee, feeding thee with His own Body and Blood.
Idem,
rm. 86.
Ps. xlv. 11.
Ayguan,
in loc,
Honorius.
S. Ambros.
Serm. 19
in Ps. cxix.
S. Greg. M.
Cassiodor.
S. Ambros.
de Isaac, 8.
834 A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 11.
And when even Sacraments shall vanish, the Bride
will turn to her Beloved as she passes from the world
to heaven, and He will turn to her, welcoming her into
the fellowship of the Angels.
11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into
the field; let us lodge in the villages.
There are three main interpretations of these words
of the Bride. And first; it is a prayer for the In-
carnation. Observe, comments 8. Ambrose, how the
Bride invites the Worp of Gop to come unto the earth,
and to take away the sins of the world. This field
was once desert, rough with the brambles of our
sins, bristling with thorns. It was the village whither
Adam was banished, and where he bound his heirs and
posterity in perpetual exile. Thither the Church leads
Curist to set Adam free; and when the exiles were
loosed, the field of this world began to have competent
tillers, and though it once was barren, it became
fruitful with the everlasting plantation of the Vine.
Or, as 8. Gregory more briefly puts it, the Bridegroom
goes into the field with the Bride when the Worp is
manifested to the world in the flesh which He took in
the chamber of the Virgin. He lodges in the villages
when He visits the Gentiles by that faith which He
bestows on them that receive Him.
Secondly ; the invitation is to convert the heathen.
The field, says Cassiodorus in his Master’s words, is
the world. Let us go forth into the field, that is, let
us preach to the world. Let us lodge in the villages,
that is, let us proclaim faith in Thee even to the Pa-
gans. For every one knows that Pagan is derived
from pagus, a village, and Pagans are fitly so named
because they are far from the City of Gop. Come,
saith the Bride, my Beloved. Thou hast already raised
Thine assumed Manhood to the heavens by the mystery
of Thine Ascension, yet come, visiting me often with
the presence of Thy divine Majesty. Let ws lodge in
the villages, not merely passing through them as we
preach, but tarrying there till we make the Pagans
Catholics, and the aliens Thine own.
Thirdly; they take it of the field of the Church, into
which the Bridegroom is called, that He may note the
progress of the faithful; and as 8. Ambrose aptly
points out, see not only flowers and spices, as in the
VII. 11.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 339
garden, but the firm and solid produce of wheat and
barley, denoting the more vigorous kinds of holiness.
Theodoret varies somewhat from this view, saying, Theodoret.
The Bride urges the Bridegroom to undertake the cure Oneen
of souls as yet poor and lowly, which, as being lowly ,
and insignificant, she typically calls by the names of
field and villages. For she does not say, Let us go
into the City, but into the field. And so Hugh of Hugo Vict.
S. Victor takes it also: The soul goeth forth from con- eres
templation to look round about her; she goeth forth ;
from care for herself to care of her neighbour, to com-
fort the feeble, to rebuke the restless, that the field,
once full of brambles and thorns, may be full of virtues.
And she saith, Let us lodge in the villages, to wit, in
them who are villeins; that is, clowns, and slow in
understanding the rules of Curist’s royal court. Let Tres Patr.
us go forth, showing them our spiritual union in holy
principles expressed by action. Let ws lodge in those
souls, which, as villages, have given up all their inhabi-
tants, faculties, and senses, to Thee. Make there a
dwelling for Thyself in the Hoty Sprrit, and I will
give myself to them as an example that they may learn
to please Thee. And in this sense, let us hear what a
_ holy writer of another land and age has to tell us:
“Weare made so to abound and be more than full, that aoe
we ought to flow out with Jzsus over all creation, that Solteewes
Gop may be all in all. And we should desire this to Ignit.
be brought to pass no less in every one else than in our-
selves, because we ought to have as hearty a desire,
longing, and good will that all should have everything
which is good as Gop Himself has. And thus we
make all good things which belong to others our very
own, an easy and facile matter for them that love,
since wherever true love is, it is impossible for it not
to flow out and love, for there is nought so like and so
peculiar to the Image of Gop, as to flow forth ever-
more and to share with all. There is no clearer mark
and sign of union with the Worp, than thus without
any straitening of internal breadth to converse in
common love, giving all things, filling all things with
Jxsvs, that nothing may remain which hath not its
rightful share. Thus, so far as in us lies, we can fill
heaven and earth, and all that therein is, with our
love, which is Gop.” Another interpretation sees here Parez.
the Church in the days of persecution, driven out of
the cities where the tribunals of the heathen judges
Acts viii. 1.
Honorius,
Francis
Quarles,
Emblems,
1Ve 7.
Philo Carp.
S. Greg. M.
336 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 12:
were set up, and forced to withdraw into. desert
places, as the Thebaid, or, as we read in far earlier
times, ‘‘ And there was a great persecution against the
Church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all
scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and
Samaria.” Wherefore, the Bride, cut off from the
visible fellowship of the Saints and from the solem-
nities of public worship, prays her Beloved not to leave
her, but to go with her in her exile. And finally, the
Church here in the pilgrimage with Curist desires to
go with Him into that flowery jield, the Paradise of
delight, and to lodge in the villages formed of the many
mansions in His FatHEr’s House. So our own poet:
Our country mansion, situate on high,
With various objects still renews delight;
Her archéd roof’s of unstained ivory,
Her walls of fiery sparkling chrysolite ;
Her pavement is of hardest porphyry,
Her spacious windows are all glazed with bright
And flaming carbuncles; no need require
Titan’s faint rays, or Vulcan’s feeble fire,
And every gate’s a pearl, and every pearl entire.
12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let
us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender
grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth :
there will I give thee my loves.
The Bridegroom had lodged during the night in the
villages, where up to the night of His death He was
a pilgrim, despised and hated, in the clownish souls,
the hard and obstinate minds of the Jews, and when
He lay in the grave for two nights, and on the third
day before the light got up early to the vineyards of
His disciples and the Gentiles who should believe, and
when He called us and His Bride from the darkness
of ignorance of Gop and from blindness of mind, from
the night of sin and the worship of devils, to His mar-
vellous light, and to the true and saving Faith. He
rises early to the vineyards, because, sitting after His
Resurrection in the glory of the Farnmr, He defends
the Churches which He has founded. He sees if the
vine flourish, because He tests with strict examination
every progress of the Church. He sees whether the
Jlowers are bringing forth fruits (Vulg.) because He
looks to see what progress the weak and imperfect are
VII. 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 337
making. He sees also whether the pomegranates bud
JSorth, because He looks to the perfect also, and sees
what profit they are to their neighbours, as though
looking for the fruit of a tree amongst its flowers. In cassiodor.
the early morning of the new Gospel light, He marks
the first rudiments of faith in the healthy growth of
the vine, its progress in the appearance of the young
fruit, its maturity in the likeness to His Passion in
the ruddy pomegranate, fit emblem of His Martyrs.
And note, though He says, Let ws get up early ; yet, Angelomus
however soon she may be at the sepulchre, her Lorp “™*°V-
forestalls her, and she finds the stone rolled away ;
however early she is at the vineyard, the Gardener is 8-Just- Org.
there awaiting her, lest any delay in the Resurrection
should weaken her faith.
I got me flowers to straw Thy way, George
I got me boughs off many a tree; Herbert.
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.
Honorius, agreeing in other respects with the inter- Honorius.
pretation already given, differs in one particular. He
takes the night to be the time of Antichrist’s persecu-
tion of the Church, and the early morning the begin-
ning of the new age, when the Synagogue shall be con-
verted, and Curist and the Bride will visit the new
Churches formed out of her.
The same commentator agrees with several others s.Ans.Laud.
in explaining the verse of the faithful soul, which gets
up early, that is, exhibits diligence and zeal, because,
as is well said by one annotating this passage, “ they Hugo Vict.
who wish to urge others to rise to their tasks must get de Claustr.
up early themselves, not sluggishly, but taking the 4U™™®: 7:
lead in example and activity.” Harly,in the dawning
of life, as it is written, “It is good for a man that he ram. ii. 27,
bear the yoke in his youth;” early, because the manna
must be gathered in the cool of the morning, since
“when the sun waxed hot, it melted ;” early, because Exod. xvi.
Joshua must beset Ai before its inhabitants are aware, Tn et
must come suddenly, by a forced march all night, on 10; x.9.
the unprepared forces of the confederate kings ; early,
in the most literal sense, that the first-fruits of the day
may be offered to Gop.
When first thine eyes unyeil, give thy soul leave
To do the like; our bodies but forerun
Z
Henry
Vaughan,
Rules and
Lessons.
Tres Patr.
Angelomus,
Philo Carp.
Tres Patr.
Cassiodor.
S. Just. Org.
Honorius.
Idem.
338 A COMMENTARY ON [VII. 13.
The spirit’s duty. True hearts spread and heave
Unto their Gop, as flowers do to the sun.
Give Him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou keep
Him company all day, and in Him sleep,
Yet never sleep the sun up. Prayer should
Dawn with the day. There are set, awful hours
*Twixt heaven and us. The manna was not good
After sun-rising; far-day sullies flowers.
Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut,
And heaven’s gate opens when this world’s is shut.
Then, in quiet self-examination, it is possible to learn
whether the True Vine is flourishing in the soil of our —
hearts, if the flower promise fruit in the formation of
character, if the pomegranate of outward self-restraint
and inward fervour be developing within us, if purity
of life and true confession of faith be ours.
There will I give Thee my loves. Or, with LXX. and
Vulgate, my breasts. In the field, in the scene of la-
bour, not in the palace of rest, is it that my love and
devotion will be chiefly kindled, there only can I bring
forth children to suckle and bring up for Thee, there
only shall I be able to train them for martyrdom.
Or, taking the vineyards, with Honorius, to denote
the cloisters of the Religious Life, there, apart from
the disturbances of the city, in the still quiet of the
field, will the love of Gop be best nourished in the
soul. And there comes a time too when this world’s
night is ended, and the Bride rises early to the vine-
ards, lifting herself up to the Churches on high.
he Day of Judgment is the morn of that everlasting
day, which is better than a thousand years; or, you
may take it that man’s life is the night, and the life
to come is the morning, in which morning each of the
faithful gets up to the vineyards when he arrives after
death at the Heavenly Churches. There he beholds
the flowers of the vineyard, the fruits of these flowers,
and the buds of the pomegranates, that is, the reward
for the faithful and righteous, given to those who la-
bour diligently, and the wages which shall be paid to
the Martyrs. And there the Church will give Curist
her breasts, because she will, in eternal glory, present
to Him the teachers of the Old and New Law.
13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our
gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new
VII. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 339
and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my
beloved.
The mandrake, or love-apple, a narcotic fruit, was
-supposed to have the powers of a philtre, to excite
love and to produce fruitfulness ; and for this latter
reason Rachel asks Leah to give her the mandrakes
which Reuben had gathered. The root is also said
to resemble a headless human body, and these two
opinions about the plant have influenced much of the
exposition of this passage. Theodoret, confining him-
self to the notion of an opiate,! holds that the words
here imply a further progress in grace beyond that last
stage of the previous verse, and denote deadness to the
world and sin, and tranquil sleep, free from all dis-
turbance and passion, attained by quafling the chalice
of holy doctrine. 8S. Gregory, also holding to the view
that advance in religious perfection is here intended,
refers, following Cassiodorus, to the medicinal use of
the mandrake, and takes the plant here to denote those
more perfect Saints who are not merely fruitful in
good works themselves, but are able to heal others
with the wholesome odour of their good example. He
does not, however, dwell on the special use which 56
Cassiodorus ascribes to the mandrake, that of being
given as an anesthetic to persons about to undergo
severe surgical operations, which, he hints, signifies
the power of faith in overcoming the tortures of mar-
tyrdom. Philo sees in the shape of the mandrake’s
root, the buried Saints of the Old Testament, hidden
from the glory of Gop, but yielding a sweet savour
until the early morning of Curist’s Resurrection,
when they received the reward of their fragrance in
the gift of everlasting life. The Vulgate couples this
clause with the succeeding one thus, The mandrakes
give a smell at our gates. These gates, says Cassio-
dorus, are the Apostles and their successors, because
no one enters the Church, which is the City of Gop,
save he who has been regenerated in Baptism and
taught the doctrine of life by holy teachers. Of these
gates the Psalmist said, ‘‘ The Lorp loveth the gates
1 “‘Not poppy, nor mandra- | Shall ever medicine thee to
gora, that sweet sleep
Nor all the drowsy syrups of | Which thou ow’dst yesterday.”
the world, Othello, Act iii., sc. 3.
z2
Gen. xxx.
14,
Theodoret.
S. Greg. M.
S. August.
in Faust.
Man. xxii.
50.
Cassiodor.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodor.
Ps. lxxxvii.
Rupert.
Isa. liv. 1.
340 A COMMENTARY ON —_s[ VI. 13.
of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” The
mandrakes denote the perfume of holiness, and thus
the mandrakes gave a smell at the gates of the Church
when the Apostles and their successors spread far and
wide the fame of their sweet teaching, the fragrance of
their holiness. And Rupert, who accepts the view
that the mandrake produces fruitfulness, adds: The
reason why they give a smell in our gates is because
that is now at hand to be fulfilled which the spirit of
prophecy spake to the yet barren Gentile race: “ Re-
Gal. iv.27. joice, thou barren that bearest not, break forth and
cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath
* many more children than she which hath an husband.”
In our gates, while we are still within our own borders,
in the land of the Jews, we smell this odour. The
Ethiopian eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship
and was returning sitting in his chariot and reading
Esaias the Prophet, when, lo, the Hoty Spratt, smell-
Acts viii.29; Ing the odour, said unto Philip, “ Go near, and join
xX. 4.
thyself to this chariot.” We were even then in our
gates when the alms of Cornelius the Centurion gave
their smell in the sight of Gop. And to this smell
too belongs that vision which appeared in the night to
Acts xvi.9. one of the Bridegroom’s friends, “There stood a man
Luc. Abb.
Honorius.
of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over
into Macedonia, and help us.” In these and other
like ways the mandrakes gave a smell at our gates,
denoting fruitfulness where sterility had been. And
the resemblance to a headless body is dwelt on by
more than one commentator. The mandrakes, says
an early writer, were the Gentiles, living by the law
of nature, and so far like natural men, but without the
head of faith. These, not in the field, but at our gates,
at the very utmost limit of our tenure, that is, near the
end of the world, will be converted to Gop, and yield
their perfume to Him. Another, not dissimilarly,
tells us that in the evil times of the latter days, Anti-
christ will be for a time the visible head of the faithful,
but when he has been smitten off, when the body lies
as it were headless, then the Bride will call on her
Beloved to go with her again for a new preaching
of the Gospel and the new foundation of Churches
amongst the helpless people lying at her gates. And
S.Ans.Laud. S. Anselm of Laon reproduces this idea, confining it,
however, to the Jews, as lacking Curist their true
Head, but who will give a pleasant smell at our gates
———
VIL. 13.) _ THE SONG OF SONGS. 341
when they exhibit signs of conversion, and seek ad-
mission by faith into the Church.
At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new
and old, which I have laid up for Thee, O my Beloved.
There is a general agreement here that the substantial
unity of the Church under the Law and the Gospel is
intended, and that the Bride tells her Beloved that
she will bring Him her children, the Saints of both
covenants, that she will preserve the types and pro-
mises of the Old Testament along with the fulfilment
of them in the New. There are, however, some ad-
ditional meanings which they draw from the words.
One reminds us that the Church offered her Lorp His
sacrifices without distinction of sex or age, that child-
martyrs like Agnes and Cyriac, young maidens as
Lucy and Agatha, and aged prelates such as Polycarp,
Urban, and Marcellinus, alike were given as choice
fruits for the Master’s garners. Another interpreta-
tion sees here the comparison made, by co-ordinate
study, of secular literature and natural religion along
with the teachings of the Gospel, that the superiority
of the latter may be clearly manifested, and the soul
may profit by all. And a modern commentator wisely
adds that the Church has not merely to keep in mind
the records of former achievements of the Saints and
the imitation of their examples, but also to employ new
methods, and to practise duties formerly neglected or,
at any rate, not brought into prominence. At our
_ gates. Many are these gates of the Bride, whether
Church or soul, where the fruits must be piled as an
offering for her Bridegroom and King as He enters
His own City in triumph, that He may accept her
service and laud her devotion, according to that say-
ing, “ Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her
own works praise her in the gates.” These are the
gates of faith, hope, and charity ; the gates of the Sa-
craments ; the teaching of Holy Scripture and of the
Saints; the eight Beatitudes; the two low and narrow
gates, through which few are to enter, of patient suf-
fering and of perfect meditation on Gop alone. There
are, besides, the five senses, gates through which
thoughts pass from the body to the soul. At all these
the Bride Jays up, in the recesses of a devout and
thankful heart, fruits for her Beloved, since she knows
not where He may choose His place of entrance, and
she brings new and old alike, all the works she once
Theodoret,.
S. Greg. M.
Beda.
Honorius,
Parez.
Tres Patr.
Thrupp.
Prov. xxxi.
31.
Nic, Argent.
Hugo Card,
Vieyra.
Beda.
S. Mat.
xiii, 52.
Cassiodor.
S. Athan.
S. Ambros.
S. Epiphan.
Philo Carp,
Theodoret,
342 A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 1.
did for Gop in fear, and all those she now does in love,
all those of her early life and those of her later years,
and she lays them up not for herself, but for Him, not
because He is her Lorn, but because He is her Be- .
loved, and all that she has done, all the fruits she has
stored, come from Him and are perfected in Him.
One and all, they illustrate their expositions by citing
those words of the Redeemer: ‘Every scribe which
is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto
a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth
out of his treasures things new and old.”
CHAPTER VIII.
1 O that thou wert as my brother, that
sucked the breasts of my mother! when I
should find thee without, I would kiss thee ;
yea, I should not be despised.
Cassiodorus justly remarks that the expression of
this wish, so inconsistent with the conditions of earthly
love and marriage, is an incidental proof of the spiritual
intention of the Song. Accordingly, the usual expo-
sition of the verse is that it is the prayer of the Syna-
gogue for the Incarnation of Curist. There is, how-
ever, no little variety in the details of this interpretation.
Thus 8. Epiphanius and his pupil Philo agree in alleg-
ing that the mother of the Bride is eternal Wisdom,
and her brother the Lorp Jzsus Curist in the human
form which He took and bore; and that when Curis?
comes to the newly-baptized, as though to the infants
of the Church, by the grace of His visitation, then He
is said to suck the breasts, while, in their persons, He
begins, as it were, to know Gop and taste heavenly
things, that is, to suck the two breasts of the Old and
New Testament and of the twin precepts of love.
And Theodoret points out that the Lorp condescended
even more than in this wise, since He did not merely
learn in the persons of those with whom He was
pleased to identify Himself, but that He “grew, and
VII. 1.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 343
waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom,” that He S. Luke ii.
‘increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with 4% °”
Gop and man.” Thou wast willing to suck the same
breasts as I, that in this also thou mightest avouch
Thy brotherhood. Thou didst suck, not because Thou
neededst it, but to teach me how I should suck, and
from what breast I might draw grace. Therefore, too,
Thou camest to Baptism, not to wash away the stain
of sins, for Thou didst no sin, nor was guile found in 1S. Pet. ii.
Thy mouth, nor that Thou mightest receive the grace 7”:
of the All-holy Srrrit, for Thou wast full thereof, but
to show me wnat are the gifts of Baptism, and how I
might suck the grace of the Sprrir. Others take the Cassiodor.
mother of the Bride to imply the substance of human Beda.
nature, and give a literal turn to the clause, as denot-
ing a longing for the nativity of the Infant Saviour.
And only the mother is named, because it is only
through the Blessed Virgin’s flesh that the Redeemer Rupert.
is our Brother, since by the FatHeEr’s side He is
Almighty Gop. Another view, however, is that the tres Patr.
mother of whom the Bride speaks is neither the Syna-
gogue, nor human nature, nor yet 8S. Mary, but the
Heavenly Jerusalem, ‘‘the mother of us all,” and Gal. iv. 26.
._ that her breasts, which CHRrist is prayed to suck, are
that new wine which He has promised to drink with §-Mat.xxvi.
us in His Kingdom, so that the prayer is for the has- :
tening of His second Advent. With this agrees the Luc. Abb.
view of several commentators, that we are to look in ue eee
this place not to the original proclamation of the Gos- Rupert.”
pel, but to the final conversion of the Jews. ;
I should find Thee without. Where? Some take §; Epiphan.
it literally, outside Jerusalem, and remind us that Potaa he
‘*‘ Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with nen. xiii.12.
His own Blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go
forth therefore unto Him, without the camp, bearing
His reproach.” Or, as S. Ambrose prefers to explain S. Ambros.
it, He was within from all eternity, in the bosom of the oe eee
Faruesr, without, when He was manifest to the world, pion. Carth.
coming to seek us, heal us, and be again within us ; weth-
out, ruling among the Gentiles, Who was once within
the Jewish people only. Again, He was within, when
hidden under the types and prophecies of the Old Tes-
tament, without, nee the veil was withdrawn and the Hugo Card.
types fulfilled. Or, once more, I should find Thee
without this world, myself quitting the flesh in order to g, ambros.
find Thee; either spiritually, as S. Ambrose, in another de Isaac, 8.
Corn. a Lap.
Lyranus,
Dion. Carth.
S. Epiphan,
S.Ans.Laud.
Rupert.
Ghislerius.
S.Ans.Laud.
Dion. Carth.
Philo Carp.
344, A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 1.
place, observes: That soul is happy, which is without,
that the Worp may be within; without the body, that
the Worp may dwell within us; or else literally, pass-
ing without the body through the gates of the grave,
that the spirit may flee away and be with Curist. I
would find Thee without, publicly honoured, and openly
worshipped, as when peace was at last granted to the
Church, no longer within, hidden in the secret rites of
the catacombs and other lurking-places. I would fain
find Thee without, even in all my external actions, and
the active occupations of my life, being ever mindful of
Thee, and doing all for Thee, and unto Thee. TI would
gladly find Thee without, in all Thy visible creation,
contemplating Thee as the glorious Maker of all, mar-
velling at Thy wisdom, maj esty, and honour. I would
see Thee in the beauty of the order of the universe, in
flowers, and shrubs, and trees, In grass, and in jewels,
in the fruitfulness of the earth, in the vastness of the
ocean, in the wide expanse of air, in the blaze of fire, in
founts, and rivers, and seas, in sky, and stars, and pla-
nets, and in all living things, fain would I contemplate
with pure heart Thy boundless excellence, reverence it
fitly, love it fervently, praise it devoutly, and ever
honour it with all my might, and so be caught away to
inner things, and kiss Thee, my Bridegroom, clasping
Thee to my heart, embracing Thee with the fondest love.
L would kiss Thee, reaching up to Thy lips upon the
Cross, to receive that parting kiss of peace and love
which Thou didst offer when, bowing the head, Thou
gavest up the ghost; kiss Thee, in intimate fellowship
with Thy Humanity ; kiss Thee, in bearing Thy re-
proach ; kiss Thee, in loving reception of Thy Sacra-
ments; kiss Thee, with the mystical kiss of everlasting
peace in the heavenly Country.
L should not be despised. “If the words be those of
the Synagogue, they mean that the contumely which
has for nineteen centuries been the lot of the J ewish
race will be turned into honour when their conversion
to the Gospel has taken place ; if the speech be ascribed
to the Church, she, in like manner, looks from her time
of depression and suffering to the first ingathering of
the Gentiles by the conversion of the Roman Empire,
and the later and more ample one yet to come, which
will shut the mouths of unbelievers. Applied to the
faithful soul, the words are variously taken. Philo
Supposes the meaning to be that the Angels will no
|
:
VIII. 2.] THE SONG OF SONGS. © 845
longer regard her with contempt, when they see how
great a Deliverer has condescended to interest Himself
in her salvation. But Theodoret takes a deeper view,
which also avoids the unsuitableness of ascribing such
a feeling to the heavenly host. He represents the
Bride as saying, “‘ Intoxicated with love for Thee, not
only in my chamber, nor in the portico of my dwelling,
but in the market-place and publicly I would find
Thee, embrace Thee, and kiss Thee, nor would the
spectators blame me for.it, when they knew the ardour
of my love.” And in this wise the words may be
aptly taken of those pure virgins who were not ashamed
to confess their Lorp in the arena, stripped before the
gaze of myriad spectators, and lying gladly down
_ upon the bridal-bed of martyrdom. There is yet ano-
ther sense in which the faithful soul utters the words,
O that thou wert as my brother. She desires not
merely union with her Lorp, but likeness to Him;
she asks not merely for His love, but for the perfect
interchange of thought, the unclouded intimacy, which
can come only of unbroken fellowship from childhood ;
the thorough familiarity which, born of kindred, has
grown through the advancing years. ”
**O seek My FaTHER’S court with Me,
For there are greater wonders there.’’
And o’er the hills, and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
Beyond the night, across the day,
Through all the world she followed Him.
Hugo Card.
Parez.
Tennyson,
The Day-
dream.
Targum.
Honorius.
Guilielmus.
Card. Hail-
grin.
Hymn. in
Assumpt.
B.V.M.
Theodoret.
Chap. ii. 3.
Cassiodor.
352 A COMMENTARY ON ‘VIII. 5.
The Targum, which explains the passage to mean
the resurrection of the dead of Israel, coming forth
from the valley of Jehoshaphat and passing through
the opened Mount of Olives, abounding in delights
through the mercy of Gop, finds a parallel in the Chris-
tian view that the migration of the holy soul from the
wilderness of earth to the full enjoyment of the glories
of heaven is here intended, viewed with loving admira-
tion by the choirs of Angels. And it has been espe-
cially applied to the passage of the Blessed Virgin to
her home in a happier world. So runs the mediaeval
hymn:
Affluens deliciis
David regis filia,
Sponsi fertur brachiis
Ad cceli sedilia,
Et amica properat
Sponsum, quo abierat,
Queerens inter lilia,
She, abounding in delights,
Child of David’s kingly line,
Borne to the celestial heights
In the Bridegroom’s arms divine,
Hastes to seek Him, as His love,
Thither, where He passed above,
Where the mystic lilies shine.
I raised thee up under the apple tree. It will be
easy for us, observes Theodoret, to understand these
words, if we remember what the Bride said in the
earlier part of this Book. For she said to the Bride-
groom, ‘As the apple tree among the trees of. the
wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down
under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit
was sweet to my taste.” For when we, believing
the preaching concerning our Saviour, have come to
Holy Baptism, so coming, we receive regeneration,
wherefore is added, There thy mother brought thee
JSorth, for it is the grace of the Hoty Guost which
hath borne us. But the general consent of the Latin
Fathers takes the words differently, following also, as
they do, the Vulgate reading in the second clause,
There thy mother was defiled, there was she forced
that bare thee.! By the apple tree, notes Cassiodorus,
we should understand the Lorp’s Cross, under which
* Perhaps reading man for qnoar.
VII. 5.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 353
tree the Synagogue was raised up, because she was
redeemed by the Cross of Curist from the rebellion
of original sin, and from the power of the devil; she
was raised up, who had been dead in sin. J raised Guilielmus.
thee wp, saith the Bridegroom, for My redeeming
Blood poured on thee in five streams from My Body
as it hung upon the Tree. And as the LXX. and
Arabic read, There thy mother bore thee with pangs, a
Greek Father adds, The Church was brought forth pnitlo Carp.
with pangs of heart and body on the Cross; for the
Flesh of Curist, suffering the torture of the Cross,
brought forth a Bride for itself redeemed with His
Blood, regenerated and washed with the water from
His side, united and bound to Him, and to His abid-
ing Godhead, by the Hoty Guost.
When we remember how He sought His love, the
Church, while she was still under the rule of her mo-
ther the Synagogue, how He made His first visit to pepio.
woo her when He went up to Jerusalem at twelve years com. a Lap.
of age, and sat in the midst of the doctors in the Temple,
and how He died by the sin of His people, we may see
the aptness of that citation from a heathen poet which
several of the later commentators adduce :
- Sepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala Virg. Eclog.
(Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem, viii. 37.
Alter ab undecimo tum me jam ceperat annus ;
Jam fragiles poteram a terra contingere ramos,
Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error!
I saw thee, yet a child,
(Myself your leader) by our garden hedge
Plucking the dewy apples with thy mother,
Then my twelfth year of life was just attained,
And I could reach the frail boughs from the ground,
I saw, I died, ill error wrought me woe.
Another interpretation, closer to the Hebrew text, Ainsworth.
ascribes the words to the Bride, who is here represented
as it were in travail with Curist, and therefore an
especial type of His Mother. She raises her Beloved Lyranus.
up under the apple tree when she invokes Him to aid
her, in the words, ‘ By Thy Cross and Passion, Good
Lorp, deliver us.”” And under that Tree His dear
Mother was outraged, when the cruelty of the Jews
caused the sword of Simeon’s prophecy to pierce her
virgin heart. The Vulgate rendering of the latter
clause finds its interpretation in that the Synagogue
AA
354. A COMMENTARY ON [VIII. 5.
Cassiodor. was defiled and deflowered under the Tree by her own
S. Greg. M. sin in crucifying her Lorp, and imprecating the curse
S. Ambros, Of His Blood on herself and her children. S. Ambrose,
de Isaac, 8. taking the whole verse in a slightly different sense,
understands by the apple tree public confession of
Curist’s Passion and triumph, and by the mother
who there brings forth the devout soul, the Church,
S,Johni.4s. or divine grace. And as the Lorp saw Nathaniel
under the fig tree, so, he adds, happy is that soul
which rests beneath a fruitful and fragrant tree, for if
Nathaniel was good, in whom was no guile, and who was
seen under a fig tree, doubtless that soul is good which
is raised up under the apple tree by the Bridegroom,
for it is a greater thing to be raised up than to be
seen, and greater still that the raiser should be the
Bridegroom. §. Anselm of Laon will have it that
the Cross is called an apple tree, to remind us of that
tree of knowledge in Paradise whereby our first pa-
rents sinned, and he recounts the twofold legend that
the Cross was actually made of wood sprung from a
bough of that tree, and that it was set up on the very
spot where Adam lay buried. And though we may
not receive the legend itself, yet there is no need to
turn away from the allegory it contains:
S.Ans.Laud.
Doone: We think that Paradise and Calvary
zene Curist’s Cross and Adam’s tree, stood in one place ;
S Look, Lorp! and find both Adams met in me:
As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam’s Blood my soul embrace,
So in His purple wrapped, receive me, Lorp!
By these His thorns give me His other crown ;
And as to others’ souls I preached Thy Word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own;
Therefore, that He may raise, the Lorp throws down.
But, whereas the all but universal consent of the Fa-
thers ascribes the verse to the Bridegroom, the He-
brew text, as now read, makes the suffixes masculine,
and therefore holds that the Bride is the speaker,
Delitzsch. though many scholars have urged that the points
‘ ought to be changed, as the sense clearly makes for
the traditional interpretation. If, however, the pre-
sent pointing stand, there are not wanting expositions.
Canta- T raised Thee up, that is, I brought Thee forth, that
cuzenee Thou mightest in turn bring forth the fruit of life; I
raised Thee up under the apple tree, because my sin
Corn. a Lap.
7
VIII. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 355
in eating of the forbidden fruit was the cause of Thy
death upon the Cross. Or, I raised Thee up, myself Tigurinus.
being under Thy Cross, crying to Thee in prayer to
help me in my need, that the Cross might be to me
for pardon, grace, and salvation.
Vatablus.
6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a
seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as
death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals
thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most
vehement flame.
There is in this verse also a diversity of opinion as
to the speaker. The Hebrew points ascribe it to the
Bride, the great majority of the Fathers to the Bride-
groom. Taking these views in their order, we find,
in the first place, that the Targum paraphrases thus: Targum.
‘* The children of Israel will say in that day unto their
Lorp: I pray Thee, set us as the graving of a ring
upon Thine heart, and as the graving of a ring upon
Thine arm, that we may be exiles no longer.”
_ The Bride desires to be ever close to her Bride-
_ groom’s person, to be His peculiar property, to bear
upon herself the inscription of His Name, to be the
means wherewith He stamps and marks the sheep of
His pasture. Signets were worn upon the breast or
upon the arm, amongst the ancient Hebrews and
Kgyptians, suspended by a cord, as well as set in
rings for the finger, and it is to this custom that the
verse refers. And the force of the metaphor is clearly
brought out iv. one passage of Holy Writ, “As I live, Jer. xxii. 24.
saith the Lorn, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim,
King of Judah, were the signet upon My right hand,
yet would I pluck thee thence.” . Another meaning of Ainsworth.
the petition may refer to the ‘ breastplate of judg-
ment” worn by the High Priest, with its twelve jewels
‘* with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, ac- ExOaeren
cording to their names, like the engravings of a signet,” 91, *
that he might never forget them when pleading the
sacrifices before Gop, as is written in another place,
“ Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My 4.5. xix. 16.
hands, thy walls are ever before Me.” The Bride
therefore implores the love of her Spouse and Priest,
signified by His heart, and His power, denoted by His
arm, to aid her and commemorate her unceasingly in
AA2
Rupert.
Philo Carp.
S. Mat. xvi.
24.
Theodoret.
Exod. xxix,
27.
Cassiodor,
S. Just. Org.
Luc. Abb.
356 A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 6.
the perpetual mediation of His everlasting Priesthood
before the golden altar in heaven. The one old com-
mentator who takes the words as spoken by the Bride
gives, however, a different explanation from this. “O
my Beloved,” says he, speaking in the person of the
Bride, ‘what is Thy heart in this world, and what
Thine arm, save the Scriptures of truth, which are
written after Thine own heart, and the record of Thy
wondrous works, whence is known how great and
mighty is Thine arm? Set me as a seal upon that
heart of Thine, set me as a seal upon that arm of
Thine. Wherefore? Because of the triple rage which
lifts its voice against me, Jewish, pagan, heretical. I
am ready, I am prepared, | am sworn, on my part, to
defend that heart of Thine, to guard that Thine arm
as Thine imperial signet, as Thy faithful testimony,
with wondrous vigour, with wondrous hardness, which
no man can break through.” But the more usual
view has been copiously illustrated by the Fathers,
and that with sufficient diversity. It is, one of the
earlier commentators on the Song of Songs tells us, the
seal and sign of the Cross which needs to be impressed
first on the heart, and then on the arm of the Bride,
that we may learn to imitate our Head, so far as may
be, by giving up our own will and all desire of earthly
things beyond mere necessaries, as the Bridegroom
Himself has taught us, saying, ‘* If any man will come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me.” The heart is the contemplative, the
arm the active portion of the soul, which is the reason
why the breast and the shoulder of sacrifices were set
apart for the priests from the offerings of the people.
Our Saviour therefore desires that we should have
Him impressed as a seal upon all our thoughts and
reasonings, and to stamp His mark upon our words
and deeds. For so shall they be royal medals, and no
false coin, but bearing the image of the King. Cas-
siodorus, less forcibly, explains the words merely of
keeping Cunist’s benefits to us in our memories ; but
another gives fresh point to the idea, by comparing
the impress on the heart to the private watchword
given by a general to his soldiers, by which to distin-
‘guish friend from foe, and the seal on the arm to be
an outer badge of his service, that none may in error
wound his fellow-soldier. And the soul needs to have
as the seal on her heart the devout belief that Curist
VIII. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 3907
is the Wisdom of Gop, upon her arm the not less deep
certainty that He is the Power of Gop too. Again,
as one use of a seal is to protect secrets from prying
eyes, so Curist, as the Bridegroom, gives His spouse
a signet whereby she may seal up the treasures of
their house, which are intrusted to her charge. And
He is Himself this seal, set upon our heart, when the
mysteries of the Faith are committed to our charge,
in such wise that when the enemy sees that our hearts
are sealed with faith, he dares not attempt to force
them open by temptation. We are then to keep our
dear Lorp as a seal upon both heart and arm, by re-
membering that all His words and all His actions are
alike secrets and mysteries, belonging to Divine Wis-
dom, and given to us to ponder and imitate. Also, as
a seal gives authenticity and force to a deed, so we
have Curist set as a seal upon our heart and arm,
when we accept and follow His commandments as
the sure pledges of the reward He prepares for us.
Crist, observes a Western Father, is a seal on our
foreheads, a seal on our heart. On the forehead, that
we may ever confess Him; on the heart, that we may
ever love Him; anda seal on our arm, that we may
ever work for Him. And as the seal is also a mark of
ownership, another Saint paraphrases thus: “Set Me
as the ruler of thy heart and thoughts, that My friends
may plainly see that thou holdest My secrets, and
Mine enemies may as plainly know that the secrets
thou possessest are closed to them, and that thou hast
Me as thy guide in all thy works.” The power which
presses down this seal, so that it leaves its stamp
indelibly upon heart and arms is, they wisely tell
us, love. ‘Be thou printed by Me, as by a seal,
clinging to Me closely by love, that thou mayest
receive Mine image as from a seal, and derive likeness
unto Me from that clearly-cut impression. And as
forcible as is the impress of love, so distinct will be
the expression of likeness, and the more eagerly thou
clingest to Me by love, the more like Me shalt thou
be. The more forcibly thou pressest thyself against
Me, the more clearly shall I, Curist, be formed in
thee, and thou be transformed and reformed in Me.”
So S. Jane Frances de Chantal branded the Holy
Name upon her heart, that she might never forget her
Lorp, but ever ponder upon His marvellous grace,
and on the yet more painful graving of our names on
S. Clem,
Alex.
Peedag. iii.
Ze
S. Greg. M.
Mor. xxix. 4.
Beda.
Ss. Ambros,
de Isaac, 8.
S.Ans. Laud.
Guilielmus.
Cassiod,
Dion. Carth.
Hupton,
The Hymn,
Come, ye
Faithful.
S. Ambros.
Serm. 15 in
Ps, Cxix.
S. Greg. M.
Col, iii. 3.
Philo Carp.
358 A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 6.
-His Heart and arms, by the nails of the Cross and the
spear of the soldier.
For love is strong as death. Whose love? We
may take it in two ways,—the love of Gop towards
man, or the love of man towards Gop. The love of
Curist for us was strong as death, because it made
Him, though immortal and impassible in His divine
nature, endure bitter pangs and death for our redemp-
tion.
Ere He raised the lofty mountains,
Formed the sea, or built the sky,
Love eternal, free and boundless,
Forced the Lorp of Life to die,—
Lifted up the Prince of princes
On the throne of Calvary.
And man’s love to Him, though falling infinitely short
of His, may yet be as strong as death, and that in two
ways, by the mortification of sin, and by the endurance
of martyrdom. Love, observes 8S. Ambrose, (taking
the former of these views,) is strong as death, for love
slays guilt and every sin; love destroys the blows of
death. And, besides, we die to our vices and to sin
when we love Gop’s commandments. Gop is love,
love is the Worp of Gop, which “is quick, and power-
ful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
the joints and marrow.” And so too another Saint,
working the idea out further: That which death ef-
fects m the bodily senses, love does in the desires of
the mind. For there are some who so love Gop as
to take no heed of any visible things, and while strain-
ing in soul towards that which is eternal, they become
almost insensible to all temporal matters. In such as
these, without doubt, love is strong as death, because
as death destroys all the natural properties and desires
of the outward bodily senses, so love in men of this
stamp, forces them to despise all earthly inclinations,
and to keep the thought fixed elsewhere. To those
who are dead and yet alive in this way the Apostle
saith, “‘ Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Curist
in Gop.” And in the other sense they remind us
of the joy with which the Martyrs faced torture
and death for the sake of their Lorn, not merely bear-
ing, but welcoming the pangs which were bringing
them to Him. So in many of their Acts, so in many
of the hymns which commemorate them. There is a
VIII. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 309
third reason why love is strong as death, common to g 4... sana
Gop and man; namely, its constraining might, for“
Gon’s love compels man’s salvation, man’s love wins an-
swer from Gop to prayer. And therefore the Doctor
of Grace, summing up all these, observes, ‘ Love is 8. August.
rightly called strong as death, either because no one mee
can conquer it, any more than death, or because in
this life the measure of love is until death, as the Lorp , 5),
saith, ‘ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man j3, raprties (
lay down his life for his friends,’ or rather, that as
death forces the soul away from the bodily senses, so
does love force it from carnal desires.” That great
light of the Church of France, who earned by learning
and holiness the title of the Most Christian Doctor,
closing his life, like S. Gregory Nyssen, 8. Bernard,
Gilbert of Hoyland, and 8. Thomas of Villanova, while
labouring on the Song of Songs, repeated these words
over again and again in his last sickness, as he medi-
tated on the Passion which had ransomed him, and fell
asleep at last, saying, “ Love is strong as death.”
Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The word hard, as
given in the margin of A. V., is better than erwel, and
agrees with the LXX. and Vulgate. The varying
- meaning of the first word in the two great versions has
led to different treatment by the Eastern and Western
Fathers. The LXX. Aros is usually explained as zeal,
the Vulgate emulatio as rivalry or as envy. Taking
the former, we observe,further that the LXX. correctly
renders the Hebrew ?)NW sheol, which means the
lace of all departed spirits, by Hades. Neither the
ulgate infernus, which in Christian language denotes
the place of punishment, nor the A. V. grave, which
goes no further than the idea of sepulture, is at all so
exact as this. Two widely different interpretations
are found in two nearly contemporary Greek Fathers.
One tells us that the zeal for Gop which we ought to polychro-
feel and display against sin, should be as relentless as nius.
death, and like that of Phinehas and Elijah, who slew
the rebels against Gop, a view not very unlike that of
Rupert, who explains the words of Ecclesiastical cen- Rupert.
sures and excommunication. Another, in a far more Philo Carp.
loving spirit, tells us that zeal is hard as Hades, for
that just as Hades itself formed no obstacle to the
‘Bridegroom, when He descended thither to deliver the
souls of them who had gone down there before His
Dion. Carth.
S. Just. Org.
Cassiodor.
Rom. viii.
Doe
S,Ans.Laud.
S. Teresa,
TheRhythm,
Vivo, sin
vivir in me.
360 A COMMENTARY ON (VII. 6.
Advent, so it is no barrier now to our prayers, which
we can still offer for the faithful departed, who are
there undergoing the purification which is to fit them
for their dwelling in heaven. The same Father shows
that our zeal may be as strong as Hades in another
way, that as those who pass into the unseen world are
stripped thereby of all their earthly possessions, so too
such as are inspired with true zeal for Curist are
ready to give up father and mother, wife and brethren,
houses and lands, for His sake and the Gospel’s, and
to follow Him with neither staff, nor scrip, nor purse,
a thing which is, as a Western writer notes, hard as
hell to those who do not truly love Gop. Akin to this
is one Latin exposition, which says that as rivalry
is hard as hell, so the Saints, imitating Curist, do not
hesitate to undergo suffering and death in loving emu-
lation of Him. His rivalry with hell in contending
for man’s redemption was hard as it, for as hell never
yields up those it has once received, so Curtst’s love
never lets go those it has ever embraced; wherefore
the Apostle saith, “Who shall separate us from the
love of CuristP shall tribulation, or distress, or per-
secution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword P”
And as hell knows not pity, nor any alleviation of the
pains of sufferers, so CHrist’s love can never cease to
be merciful, nor can it be wrenched from the love of
mankind by any wickedness on the part of those that
persecute Him. Again; the yearning of the devout
soul for Gop is hard as hell, because of the pain and
restlessness it occasions, knowing no satiety in doing
and giving all for the Beloved. And so S. Teresa:
Oh, what a bitter life is this,
Deprived of Gop, its only bliss ;
And what though Love delicious be,
Not so is Hope deferred :
Ah then, dear Lorp, in charity,
This iron weight of misery
From my poor soul ungird.
For evermore I weep and sigh,
Dying because I do not die.
Absent from Thee, my Saviour dear,
I call not life this living here,
But a long dying agony,
_ The sharpest I have known ;
And I myself, myself to see
On such a rack of misery,
For very pity moan,
And ever, ever, weep and sigh,
Dying because I do not die,
VIII. 6.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 361
And in that other sense of envy, they explain this jea- cassiodor.
lousy to denote the bitter hostility with which the
Synagogue pursued the Lorp and His disciples, per-
secuting them even unto death; an envy manifested
still by false Christians in the relentless hatred they 1% 4°».
bear to the Church, the Bride of the Lamb. The coals
thereof are coals of fire.’ For coals, (more properly
glowings) the Vulgate reads lamps, and the LXX., per-
haps having regard to the rapid flashings of fire, or to
the whirling of sparks, reads wingings round, weptrrepa.
And this the Greek Fathers interpret as meaning that Philo Carp.
love of Gop serves as wings to the Bride to lift her Theodoret.
above the world and waft her to heaven. And S. Am- s. Ambros.
brose, following the same reading, adds, “ Good is that de Isaac, 8.
love which has burning wings of fire, whereon it flies
through the hearts of the Saints, scorching up what-
ever material or earthly is there, and tries whatever is
genuine, purifying what it touches with its flame. This
is the fire which Jksus sent upon earth, and therewith
faith glowed, devotion was kindled, love enlightened,
and righteousness made glorious. And with this fire
He inflamed the hearts of His Apostles, as Cleophas
beareth witness, saying, ‘Did not our heart burn §. Luke
within us, while He opened to us the Scriptures?’ ” **'Y" *”"
Following the Vulgate reading, Her lamps are lamps Cassiodor.
of fire and flames, we find the more usual exposition to
be that which sees here a type of the Saints. The
lamps of love are the hearts of the Saints, in which
love dwells, as though in vessels. These lamps are of Beda.
jire. and flames; of fire, because they glow in hearts
through love; of flames, because they shine outwardly
in their works. It is the Lorn’s will that they should
do so, for He said to us, “‘ Let your light so shine be- s. Mat. xxv.
fore men that they may see your good works.” ‘These !:.
are the lamps which the virgins must have when the
Bridegroom cometh, and they are to enter with Him
into the chamber of His everlasting kingdom. These
virgins have set His love and fear on their hearts and
arms, that is, have put all their thoughts and deeds
under His commands. Then are the lamps of the
foolish virgins extinguished, because the works which
they seemed to do before men shall be darkened, when
the inward Judge shall appear and make manifest the
secrets of all hearts, because they did their good works yuec. Abb.
for the sake of human praise. The fire with which the
true lamps shine is the glow of the Hoty Guost, Who
‘$. Just. Org.
S. John v.
35, AvXVOS.
The Se-
quence,
Alleluia
mune de-
cantet, in
S. Greg. M.
Ainsworth.
Cocceius.
S. Mat. iii.
12.
Bianco
da Siena,
The Hymn,
Discendi
Amor santo,
362 A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 6.
makes them bright in precept and example, and es-
pecially in the fervour of chastity, inasmuch as flame
is always pure. And in this sense the title of lamps
is given to eminent Saints, as to the Baptist in Holy
Scripture, and to the Apostles in ancient offices of the
Church, as, for instance, in the hymn,
These are lamps, with splendour shining
In the Face of Gop most High,
These the nobles of the Monarch,
Who is throned above the sky,
Salt of earth and light of mortals,
Stars that beam eternally.
And if, following the Targum, jealousy be here taken
in a bad sense, of the hostility of unbelievers to the
people of Gop, 8. Gregory will tell us what its lamps
are, “As fire consumes what it kindles, so their envy
destroyed all the power of faith in the Jews. ‘This fire
of envy shot forth flames when, by the examples of
those amongst whom it was kindled, it spread through
all the world, even amongst the Gentiles, to the mar-
tyrdom of Christians.” Which hath a most vehement
flame. This clause is practically omitted by the LXX.
and Vulgate, because they both take it as no more
than an amplification of the word fire, occurring just
before. Nor does the A. V. do it much more justice.
The whole passage should run, “ The glowings thereof
are glowings of fire, a flame of Janu.” This is the one
solitary place in the Song where the Great Name
occurs, and then only in a compound word, for it
would be a violation of the strict laws of allegory to
unite type and antitype in the one composition. The
flame of His love, then, which melted the hard hearts
of men, purging away the dross and leaving the pure
gold behind; the flame of His love, which descended
in tongues of fire on the Apostles; the flame of His
jealousy, burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire ;
are alike divine, eternal, the emanation of His justice
and His mercy. A devout servant of Gop has coupled
these two ideas together in a hymn to the Holy
Paraclete :
Come down, O Love divine,
Seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it, with Thine own ardour glowing ;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.
VIII. 7.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 363
O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming ;
And let Thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming,
And therefore it follows most fitly:
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither
can the floods drown it: if a man would give
all the substance of his house for love, it would
utterly be contemned.
The waters and floods might perchance quench the Hugo Card.
lamps, but they cannot quench the exhaustless fountain
of heavenly fire at which those lamps are kindled, for
that fountain and stream of fire is Curist Himself.
The Targum here again gives the tone to the most Targum.
usual patristic interpretations. In it the many waters
are the nations of the world gathered together against
Israel, and the floods are the kings of the earth, en-
deavouring to uproot the chosen people, but alike un--
. able to overcome the mercy of Gop. So the Christian Cassiodor.
teachers tell us that the waters and floods are the &°™
fierce threats of persecutors, or even their flatteries,
whereby they endeavour to separate the Saints from
the love of Gop. And of these threats the Lorp saith
in the Gospel touching the man who built his house
on a rock: “The floods came, the winds blew, and §. Mat. vii.
beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded oe
upon a rock.” The holy Martyrs, comments S. Gre- S. Greg. M.
gory the Great, burned so with charity as to blaze
forth marvellously in love of Gop and their neigh-
bours. Many waters could not quench this love, be-
cause ‘their sufferings, how great soever, could never
change them into hatred. For this would have been
the quenching of love, if by the sufferings heaped
upon them, they could have been lowered so far as to
hate Gop or their neighbours. And Theodoret gives Theodoret.
another part of the same picture to our view, by citing
the troubles through which the Saints of the Old
Covenant, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Joshua,
Samuel and David, Elijah and Elisha, Daniel and the
Three Children passed. The last example is also cited
by S. Ambrose, showing that the miracle wrought in S. Ambros.
Dan. iii. 25.
Hugo Card.
Isa. xliii, 2.
Ps, lxix. 1,2.
Honorius.
Guilielmus.
Ss. Leo M.
Henr. Har-
phius.
Wisd. xvi.
7s
Hugo Card.
S. Mat.
RX Vises
Targum,
Cassiod.
364 A COMMENTARY ON [VIII. 7.
the fiery furnace is the exact converse of the spiritual
marvel here described, and identical with it in mean-
ing. It is the same thing if fire fail to burn and if
waters fail to quench. And the reason is the same in
both cases, because beside the sufferer stands the Form
of the Son of Gop, Who saith, “ When thou passest
through the waiters, I will be with thee; and through
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned ;
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” And we
know that we can trust His promise, for His love was
not quenched nor overwhelmed when that was fulfilled
which He spake by the Psalmist: ‘‘The waters are
come in, even unto My soul; I am come into deep
waters, so that the floods run over Me.” And as
they distinguish between waters and floods, as noting
severally temptations and persecutions, striving to put
out the fire of love, so they distinguish also between
quenching and overwhelming, as the first is effected when
the light of holiness flickers, wanes, and goes out, ut-
terly exhausted, through the allurements of sin; and
the second when terror or violence from without over-
throws the lamp, leaving it dark and useless for the
time within the heart, the mere corpse of itself, but
capable of being rekindled, as it was in S. Peter after
his fall. Not only do the waters and floods fail to
quench love, but “ which is most to be wondered at,
the fire had more force in the water, that quencheth
all things, for the world fighteth for the righteous.”
Cardinal Hugo, with a certain aptness, reminds his
readers of the Greek fire used in the warfare of his
days, which was said to burn fiercely in water, and to
be extinguishable by vinegar alone; whence he draws
the lesson that though temptation and suffering cannot
hurt love, yet hatred, which is the vinegar put to
the lips of the dying Saviour, can quench it, and there-
sack “when He had tasted thereof, He would not
rink.”
Lf aman were to give all the substance of his house
Sor love, tt would utterly be contemned. Once more
the Chaldee paraphrase will help us. ‘If a man give
all the substance of his house, that he may gain wis-
dom in the Captivity, I will render him twofold in the
world to come, and all the spoil which he shall take in
the camp of Gog, shall be his.” The verse, says Cas-
siodorus, needs no explanation, for no worldly sub-
VIII: 7.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 365
stance and no riches are aught in comparison with
love. We read that the Saints gave up all for the
love of Curist, and yet they seemed to themselves to
give up nothing in comparison with that love which
was so dear to them. Wherefore the Apostle, when
he had not only given up worldly possessions, but the
traditions of his fathers, for Curist, said, ‘I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Curist Jesus my Lorp; for Whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung
that I may win Curist.” “O love,” exclaims a holy
writer of a later time, “if I knew thy worth, I should
be ready to pay the price. But it may be that thou ex-
ceedest my narrow means, and thy price is not in. my
power. YetI will give that I have, and all that I have,
and will barter all my house for thee, and when I have
given all, I will count it as nothing. All the pleasures of
my flesh, all the enjoyments of my heart, I will cheer-
fully give up for thee, that I may possess thee alone.
Thou alone art dearer to me, thou alone more valuable,
sweeter, more pleasant, more delighting, more satis-
fying, preserving more safely, protecting more hap-
pily.” It needs not, adds another, taking up this
saying, that thou shouldest doubt, O man; for He
wills that all should be satisfied with this love, Who
graciously invites us all to this fountain of life, say-
ing, “ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy,
and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price.” But we must buy the
pearl of great price with our own money, not with
that which is the Lorp’s, Whose is the earth and
the fulness thereof, to wit, all things temporal, bo-
dily, spiritual, and eternal. The price of this pearl
lies hid within ourselves, and we must therefore open
our purse, and produce our own money. Our purse
is our heart, in which lies hid our money, that is,
our faults and sins, which, paid out by lowly con-
trition and true confession, the Lorp and Fount of
Love willingly accepts as the price of love. Hear
David paying this price, “I said, I will confess my
sins unto the Lorp.” Hear him receiving the pear
of Divine love, “ And so Thou forgavest the wicked-
ness of my sin.” O boundless sea of love, what doest
Thou, what dost Thou endure? O height of the wis-
dom of Gop, which passest all understanding, how
Phil. iii. 8,
Hugo Vic-
torin.
Henr.
Harph.
Isa: lv. 1.
Ps, xxxii. 6.
Theodoret.
1 Cor. iv. 12.
Tres Patr.
S. Ambros.
Ser. 21in Ps.
cxix.
Philo Carp.
Theodoret.
366 A COMMENTARY ON [VIII. 8.
Thou seemest as though made foolish by love, gladly
receiving the coins of our sins, and mercifully bestow-
ing the plenteous gift of Thy love, to make us blest
therewith for evermore!
The LXX. reading somewhat differs from the Vul-
gate and A. V., and runs, Jf a man give all his sub-
stance in love, they will contemn him with contempt.
That is, says Theodoret, whoever gives away all his
goods in charity, will be despised by those who are
not charitable, as the Apostle saith: “ Being reviled,
we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being de-
famed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the
world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this
day.’ The Three Fathers say that those who will so
despise the liberal giver are the evil spirits. S. Am-
brose sorrowfully adds, that such mockers will be
found even in the Church of Gop, and among the
followers of the Crucified. And no marvel, as another
observes, for CHrisT Himself, the Head, fared no
better than His members, when He counted all the
substance of His house, all the Divine glory of His
Godhead, all the time of His mortal sojourn, as no-
thing, but gave up all for love, and was despised and
mocked, spitted on, scourged and crucified by the
as Priests and Pharisees, who utterly contemned
im.
8 We have a little sister, and she hath no
breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the
day when she shall be spoken for?
There is a variance as to the speaker here. The
Targum and some of the Greek Fathers take the verse
as uttered by the Bride, the majority of Latins will
have it that it is the Bridegroom’s, and S. Ambrose
gives it to the daughters of Jerusalem, agreeing therein
with Theodoret, who assumes the Saints of the Old
Testament to be the speakers. There is no real an-
tagonism between the first and second of these views,
since at this part of the Song the Bridegroom and
Bride are represented as so united that their posses-
sions are in common. Hence, whichever speaks, says
we, not I have a sister. here is complete agreement
in the next point, which is that the condition of an
imperfect Chureh or soul, not yet fitted for spiritual
VIII. 8.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 367
bridal, incapable of producing offspring, or supplyin
milk to babes, is Heke aaVelised! iBut tho Showa
again diverge as to the particular object intended. :
The most satisfactory view is also one of the oldest, pe
that the Gentile Church, in its lowly beginnings, when”
it depended onthe Apostles and other Jewish teachers
for all instruction in Divine things, is represented
under this figure of an immature maiden. Another Tres Patr.
view sees here the Synagogue, converted at the close Hevorne
of the world, a younger sister of the Church, as but
recently born again in Baptism; Jittle, because few in
number and weak in faith and steadfastness, and with-
out breasts, as having few or no preachers of her own
nation, and rather leaning on the aid of the elder
sister to teach her children. She is Curist’s sister Guilielmus.
too, not only because of His descent from Abraham,
but because she will come in the latter days to the full
glory of being so entitled by Himself. The soul which Luc. Abb. ~
is just beginning to believe in Curist and to be fed
with the milk of faith, but is yet uninstructed in the
two Testaments and in the two great precepts of the
Gospel, is also a little sister of the more advanced and
perfect Christians, and is not rejected, but permitted
_ and encouraged to pray for increase of knowledge and
charity.
What shall we do for our sister in the day when she
shall be spoken for? That is, in the day when she cCocceius.
shall be asked in marriage, as may be seen by com- Ainsworth.
paring that other text, ‘““And David sent and com- 1 Sam, xxv.
muned (lit. “ spake concerning”’) with Abigail, to take 39
her to him to wife ;” and the difficulty proposed is that
which so long disturbed the early Church, as to the
relations which were to exist between the new Gentile
communities and the race and polity which gave them
their doctrines and laws; whether the new Churches
of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy were to be retained
in a sort of tutelage under Jewish supremacy, like the
proselytes of the old Law, or to be given full powers
of self-government, and exempted from the ceremonial
recepts of the Mosaic dispensation. But the Hebrew,
ie a little vague in expression, may be rendered
also, when speech shall be made of her, whether for or
against; or even in her. The former of these is the
Chaldee explanation, which represents the Angels as Targum.
asking what shall be done for Israel in the day when
the Gentile nations shall speak together of warring
Philo Carp.
Rupert.
Hugo Card.
Dion. Carth.
Cassiodor,
S. Greg. M,
Philo Carp.
Ainsworth.
Honorius.
368 A COMMENTARY ON [VIII. 9.
against her. And not unlike this is the explanation
of some Latin writers, though following the Vulgate
rendering, when she shall be spoken to; namely, that
the words refer to the interrogation put by Nero and
other Pagan rulers to the Church, asking her concern-
ing her belief and practice. And when the question
was first put, in the earliest persecution at Rome, the
Gentile Church was indeed little, and without breasts,
in that she had no native teachers and but small ac-
quaintance with the Law out of which the Gospel had
sprung. Another view is that the little sister is spoken
to when Gop addresses the Church or any faithful
soul either by secret inspiration or by outward preach-
ing, and that the Hoty Trinity debates, as it were,
whether she is to be intrusted with only the minor
precepts of the Faith, or, to the end that she may be-
come great, with the deeper mysteries of heavenly
secrets. And in this sense the day in which she was
so spoken to was that Day of Pentecost, when Curis?
sent the Hoty Guost on the Apostles, and speaking
to them inwardly, taught them all the languages of
the world. And Philo, explaining the LXX. reading,
in the day wherein if it be spoken in her, as though it
stood for when she hath spoken within herself, inter-
prets the words as denoting that stage of spiritual pro-
gress which leads to careful self-examination and to
calls for the aid of the brethren of the young sister,
those teachers of the Church whose task it is then
to assist her with counsel and prayer. There are
yet two other interpretations; one somewhat resem-
bling this, namely, that the words are those of long-
established Churches, considering what is to be done
to help and encourage a newly-planted one, in the day
when its progress and good works are such as to cause
it to be spoken of and praised for its zeal. The other,
conversely, takes the day to be that of temptation and
trial, when the adversary is speaking against the youth-
ful maiden, and there is need that she should be de-
fended against his craft by older and wiser friends,
so that nothing may hinder her from being, in good
time, the Bride of her Beloved.
9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her
a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we
will inclose her with boards of cedar.
VIII. 9.) THE SONG OF SONGS. 369
The Bride of Curist, whether Church or soul, is
both wall and door, and therefore fitted to receive the
costly decorations promised by the speakers, whether
these be the Blessed Trinity, the Angels, (as the
Targum holds) or the daughters of Jerusalem. The
Church, comments S. Ambrose, is a wall, which has
twelve Apostolic gates, through which access into the
City is afforded to the nations. But even though a
wall include the circuit of the entire city, yet it is all
the stronger, if it have battlements (LXX. and Vulg.)
prepared, whence the garrison can safely keep a look-
out. Yet as this city is rational, and all its hope is in
Gop, it needs not iron battlements, but silver ones,
since it is more wont to repel the attacks of the enemy
with the sacred writings than with bodily pleasures.
Defended with such a bulwark, shining with such splen-
dour, she is counted fitter for union with CHrist. And
since Curist is the Door, Who saith, “ By Me if any
man enter in, he shall be saved,” so the Church also
is called a door, because through her there is a way
made to salvation for the people. Lest this door
should be eaten away by the moths and worms of
heretics, the daughters of Jerusalem, or the Angels,
_ or the souls of the righteous, say, We will inclose her
with boards of cedar, that is, the sweet perfume of a
lofty faith, which neither worm nor moth can injure.
Cassiodorus prefers to divide, instead of blending, the
two metaphors, and will have it that the wall de-
notes the abler and more learned disciples won over
by Apostolic teaching, to whom, as capable of defend-
ing others as well as themselves, the custody of Holy
Writ is assigned. The door represents the weaker
converts, unable to resist any powerful attack, but
useful in their degree, as teaching the easier and sim-
pler doctrines of the Faith, and admitting fresh disciples
by Baptism and the other Sacraments into fellowship
with the Church. These are to be fortified with the
examples of the Fathers who preceded them, who, like
cedars with their incorruptible timber, have works
which fade not, and who are broad like boards in the
width of their knowledge and charity. For the width
of the boards denotes the width of the heart (wherein
there ought to be width of charity and knowledge,) as
the Psalmist saith, “I have run the way of Thy com-
mandments, when Thou didst widen mine heart.”
With these boards of cedar, then, we inclose this door,
BB
S. Ambros.
Serm, 22,
in Ps. cxix.
S. John x. 9.
Cassiodor.
Ps. cxix. 32,
Vulg.
S. Just. Org.
Delrio.
Philo Carp.
Ps. xcii. 11.
Sanchez.
Corn. a Lap.
Rosen-
miiller,
Hitzig, &c.
Renan.
Guilielmus.
Card. Hail-
grin.
Hugo Card.
Cantacu-
zene.
Ezek. xliv.
OF
Sv0- A COMMENTARY ON [VIII. 10.
that is, with the examples of the Saints, that by imi-
tating them, there may be a gate or door of entrance
opened for others into the Church. Another ingenious
explanation of the door is, that as a door is opened and
shut only when wanted, so those members of the
Church who know when to speak and to be silent are
doors too, and are inclosed with boards of cedar when
they are taught to glory only in the Cross of the Lorp
Jzesus Curist. Again, as the wall denotes firmness
and constancy, so the door is the type of docility and
obedience, admitting only the Master of the house and
His friends, while excluding all others, wherefore the
one is adorned with the pure and shining virtues of
holiness, and the other with the incorruption of that
practical life of devotion whereof is written, “ The
righteous shall spread abroad like a cedar in Liba-
nus.”
So far it is obvious that all the ancient commenta-
tors have taken the twofold clauses of this verse as
parallel, not as antithetical. But a theory was sug-
gested in the seventeenth century that the two sets of
ideas are opposed to one another, and that the mean-
ing is, If our sister remain pure, and resist all tempta-
tion, we will reward her with great gifts, but if she
allow ready access to every one, and yield to pressure,
then we will punish her by confining her closely. This
view has been adopted by most of the modern literalists,
but rejected by others on the very sufficient ground
that the silver battlements and cedar panels answer to
one another as costly decorations, and are not opposed
in any way as rewards and punishments, independently
of the tameness and obscurity of this new idea thus
introduced into the Song. It only remains to point
out the further meaning, that as some commentators
have seen in the preceding verse the Angels discussing
what should be done for the Blessed Virgin, in the
face of her vow of perpetual purity, on the day when
she should be.addressed by Gabriel’s greeting, so they
see here the pledge of those graces of shining and
constant faith and of incorruptible purity of soul and
body wherewith she was endowed, who was that temple
through whose gate the King alone had passage.
10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers ;
then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
VIII. 10.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 371
The younger sister, be she the Gentile Church, the
newly-converted Synagogue, or the elect soul, makes
joyous and thankful reply to the doubts expressed by
her elder, and declares the strength and increase she
has obtained through the Bridegroom’s love. Z am a
wall, because I am founded upon a sure Rock, and
cemented with the mortar of divine love. I am a wail,
because built up of living and elect stones, the Saints
of Gop; and my breasts like towers, because I have
those within me who are able to nourish others with
spiritual instruction, and defend and guard them like
towers, and who stand eminent, like towers on a high
wall, amongst my other members by virtue of their
learning and godliness. And this I have not of my
own merit or free-will, but by the gift and grace of my
Bridegroom, for then, from the time when He shed His
Blood for me, and propitiated the Farner on my behalf,
L was in His eyes as one that findeth peace, (LXX.,
Vulg., A.V. marg.,) for He put an end to the enmity
between Gop and man, and made peace for me with
heaven. And so the Apostle saith, “ Being justified
by faith, we have peace with Gop through our Lorp
Jesus Curist.” The wall of the Church, -observes
another, is the Manhood of Curist; the towering
breasts, supported on that wall, and containing within
them the arms of the garrison, are the Apostles, whose
example and teaching are the weapons of our Christian
warfare. Philo, applying the words to the holy soul,
represents her as saying: I am now fortified in faith
and filled with charity, and my breasts (I call them
mine, for they are given to me and to all who do after
them,) namely, the two Testaments and the two pre-
cepts of love, and moreover the two kinds of life, active
and contemplative, are tested by the workings of righ-
teousness. And these, under the guidance of divine
grace, have raised me like a tower to the highest grade
of approval, and there I have begun to be a stranger to
all anxiety, disquiet, and care for human things, and to
take my rest. And Iwas in His eyes as one that findeth
peace, for He who foreknew me also foreordained me,
and knowing that I should seek peace and ensue it,
and ensuing, obtain it, called me then Peaceful, and
Shulamite, and made me an impregnable wall, terrible
to the enemy; and lifted on high my breasts, that
is, my moral and theological teaching, and made them
like a tower, that warring cgi I might repel the
BB
Cassiodor,
Rom. v. 1.
Luc. Abb.
Philo Carp.
Theodoret,
S. Ambros.
Philo Carp.
S. John xiv.
27.
Honorius.
S. Hieron.
Ep. 7, ad
Leetam.
S. Ambros.
de Virg.
lib. 1.
Philipp.
Harveng.
Honorius.
S. Luke ii.
14,
S. John xx.
19.
372 A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 10.
Bridegroom’s foes. indeth peace, as the LXX. and
Vulgate more correctly read, for, as a Saint tells us,
we are here only searching for it. We know where it
is, but so long as we are in this world, we cease not
from all kinds of sin, and so long as we are in sin, we
do not yet enjoy perfect peace with Him Who lived
in the flesh without sin. When we do find peace, it
is only as His gift Who said, “ Peace I leave with you,
My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth,
give | unto you.” The verse has also been applied
to various classes of Saints, and especially to Religious.
3. Jerome bids Virgins take it on their lips when
temptation assails them, and 8. Ambrose had already
taught them how the Church had been their bulwark
and nurse through all the days of persecution, until
peace was at last granted to the people of Gop. This
peace, however, is not perfect. It is merely truce from
outer suffering, peace from sin, peace in grace, peace
from the noise of carnal nature, not the peace of the
Vision, not the peace of an abiding mansion in eternal
glory. But that will come too. “ For the Church
Triumphant, when she sees herself built up with living
stones as a dwelling-place for Gop, and that she has
been chosen to repair the angelic tower of the Hea-
venly Jerusalem, says exulting, J am a wall, and my
breasts towers. Lam built up by Curist the Builder,
of the elect of mankind, a wall of stone to compass the
Heavenly Jerusalem, as a wall in the circuit of a city ;
and my breasts, that is, my Doctors, who yielded me
the milk of instruction, are erected like towers in the
place of the angels who fell thence ; and so the City
began to be built by skilled workmen, the Apostles
and their successors, from that time when I was in
His sight as one that findeth peace. Mankind had no
peace with Gop and the Angels after it transgressed
by its first parent the commandment of Gop in Para-
dise, but if was as one that found peace with Him
when it believed in Curist, Who is Very Peace. This
is the Peace of which the choir of Angels sang to men
of good will, when Curist the Prince of Peace came
from the heavenly hall into the prison of this world.
This is the Peace which He left His disciples when
He ascended hence. This is the Peace which He
brought back to the children of peace, the peace-makers,
when, after conquering death and overthrowing the
devil, who is the author of wars, He said, ‘ Peace be
VIII. 11.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 373
unto you.’ This is the Peace wherewith the Church
ever desired to be reconciled to Gop, saying, ‘ Let Him
kiss me with the kisses of His mouth,’ that is, let Him
restore me, through Curist, that peace which I have
lost. This peace she now hath in hope, and after shall
have it in deed, when she shall see face to face CHRIST
Who is Peace itself, and when all the borders of Jeru-
salem shall have peace.”
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon ;
he let out the vineyard unto keepers ; every one
for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand
pieces of silver.
That is, the Church, which is the spiritual vineyard Tres patr.
of the faithful, was planted by the Peaceful King in
the multitude of the nations, for such is the meaning of
Baal-hamon. He let out the vineyard unto keepers,
that is, He intrusted the Church to the Apostles and
Doctors, who keep it vigilantly, that the multiform
sects which arise against it may not lay it waste, and
_ divide its unity into divers opinions. Every one for
the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
A man (Heb., LXX., and Vulg.) shall bring this rent,
that is, every one who is of the number of the perfect,
who is a teacher of holiness, a hearer and doer of the
law, and who has put away, in his bringing, the things ; Cor. xii.
of a child, will bring a thousand pieces of silver, that 11.
is, all the saving fulness of Gop’s law and command-
ments, pure and shining, with him in his hand as his
reward in his Country, where he will eat in eternal rhe
life and perpetual blessedness of the fruit of his hands. wr
Or, if you prefer it, you may take it that it is we who 8. Just. Org.
must bring the fruit, and that the Man Who will give
a thousand pieces of silver for it, is the Lorp of the
vineyard Who rewards the labourers, at the close of
their toil, with the perfect gift of wisdom and love. trimbert.
Again, that man who spends his goods upon the poor, Cassiodor.
and gives his whole substance in charity, leaving all
1 $0 AquilaandSymmachus, { meaning is, ‘‘ Lord of the
severally reading év é@yovrT: | multitude.’ And so reads a
mwAnOn and év Katoyh SxAov, | Variant of the LXX., ev r¢
both close to the Vulgate, Que | Seamdtn Tov byAov,
habet populos. But the strict
S. Mat. xiii.
44,
Corn. a Lap.
S. Greg. M.
Luc. Abb.
Isa. Vv. 7.
Theodoret.
Cocceius.
Thom. Verc.
Nic. Argent.
S. Mat.
XXViii. 20.
Hugo Card.
Prov. xxiv.
Ole
Isa. Vii. 23,
S. Mat.
XVlil, 34.
374: A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 11.
that he possesses, that he may obtain the fruit of the
heavenly vineyard, brings a thousand pieces of silver
for it, according to the Lorp’s parable in the Gospel.
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in
a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth,
and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field.” In that the vineyard is said to
be in that which hath peoples, we are taught that the
whole Church, uniting the nations of Jew and Gentile,
is here depicted, though some of the Fathers prefer to
see the Synagogue alone here, because of that saying,
«The vineyard of the Lorp of Hosts is the house of
Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant.”
And the holy soul also, which is Solomon’s vineyard
in the midst of a gainsaying world, (for the full mean-
ing of Baal-hamon is the “Lord of the multitude,” the
Prince of this world,) is intrusted to keepers, earthly
ones, who are the priests of His Church; heavenly
ones, who are the guardian Angels; and yet He Him-
self is the chief husbandman and keeper, ever present
with His vineyard, as He promised, saying, “ Behold,
T am with you, even to the end of the world.” It is
not said to whom the man will bring the thousand
pieces of silver, but it is doubtless to Him Who in-
trusted the vineyard to him, and thus, if Curist be
the Man spoken of, He will bring His elect Saints,
purified seven times in the fire, and stamped with His
image and superscription, to His Farner, that they
may be stored in the heavenly treasury ; and we shall
bring the fulness of our works to CuRIsT, in return for
what He has given us, that at His coming, He may
receive His own with usury. His own, for it is Solo-
mon’s vineyard, and we are not more than keepers.
And being keepers, it behoves us to remember that
the rent is fixed beforehand, at a thousand pieces of
silver, the perfection of a pure life. If we be neglect-
ful, if we allow His vineyard in our hands to be as
that of a man of no understanding, and the stone wall
thereof to be broken down, then, “‘it shall come to
pass in that day, where there were a thousand vines
at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briars
and thorns.” Then, too, we shall be debtors, unable
to pay what is due, and must abide what followed in a
like ease: “ His lord was wroth, and delivered him
to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due
unto him.” Nor shall we prosper more, if, while cul-
VIII. 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 375
tivating the vineyard sedulously, we desire to keep all
the fruits for ourselves, and not to pay the King His
dues. For then we shall be like those husbandmen
who beat, slew, and stoned the servants, and even the
Son of their Lorp, when He came to receive the
fruits. And that because a life of selfishness does, as
it were, kill the Lorp Jesus within us, and cast Him
out of our hearts, that His inheritance, our nature,
may be ours to employ as we please. Wherefore the
doom which follows is: ‘‘ He will miserably destroy
those wicked men, and will let out His vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render Him the fruits
in their seasons.” ;
12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before
me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand,
and those that keep the fruit thereof two hun-
dred.
My vineyard, that same vineyard which of old I had
not kept, is mine, because the Peaceful One has given
it back to me, and with it the thousand pieces of silver
which I brought Him, because His sole reason for de-
manding the fruit is His desire for my salvation. Or,
as others prefer to take it, this vineyard is distinct
from that in Baal-Hamon, belonging to Solomon, which
typifies the Synagogue, whereas this one is the Church,
called hers, because she is given a co-ordinate share in
its management, such as was not permitted to the
Church of the elder dispensation, bound down as it
was by a special and immutable code received from
the Lorp of the vineyard. It is, she says, mine, not
only because of its freedom from any other owner but
Curist, but by reason of the Communion of Saints,
which is so perfect that each elect soul can truly say of
all that the entire body possesses, It is mine ; for every
grace, every blessing, every promise, every interces-
sion, every thanksgiving made by any one member of
the Church belongs to all the rest, and the aggregate
of that which the whole enjoys or effects, is the special
property of each single partner in that great firm,
alike in this world and the next. Wherefore is added,
is before me, to denote the common vigilance, interest,
and care felt by all alike in tending that mystic vine-
yard whose fruits are common to all without excep-
S. Mat. xxi.
33, 41.
Theodoret.
Corn. a Lap.
Cocceius.
The Hymn,
Ad perennis
vite fontem.
Cassiodor.
Beda.
Tres Patr.
S. Mat.
XXVili. 20.
S. Just. Org.
Ps, xxxiy.
15.
Tres Patr. ©
Theodoret.
376 A COMMENTARY ON (VIII. 12.
tion. And so S. Peter Damiani sings of the unity of
the Church Triumphant :
They know Him Who. knoweth all things, nothing from their
ken may flee,
And the thoughts of one another in the inmost heart they see ;
One in choosing and refusing, one are they in unity.
And though each for divers merits there hath won a various
throne
Yet their love for one another maketh what each loves his own,
Every prize to all is common, yet belongs to each alone.
The more usual interpretation of the Latin Fathers,
however, assigns these words to the Bridegroom, and
represents them as a reply to the remark-of the Bride
that He had let out His vineyard to keepers. It is
true that He has so done, but He is nevertheless con-
stantly present with His vineyard Himself, according
to His own saying already cited, ‘‘ Behold, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world,” so that
He says, My vineyard which is Mine. He ever super-
intends all that is done therein, for “the eyes of the
Lorp are over the righteous, and His ears are open
unto their prayers,” and therefore He adds, is before
Me. And it is not only before Him here, but in the
world to come it will be before Him in another and
yet more blessed sense, because of the open vision of
Him which the Saints will enjoy.
Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those
that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. This, say the
Three Fathers, is the Bride’s reply to the King’s claim
to be the true Lorp and Husbandman of His vine-
yard. Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, be-
cause perfection is Thy gift, Who art the beginning
and end of all things, Who art Peace itself, and the
bestower of peace. And they that keep the fruit
thereof two hundred. For the renewal of our nature
is effected by the keeping Thy commandments, which
is the fruit of the Church. And this renewal is de-
noted by the number two hundred, because it is made
up of twenty, the product of four and five, (signifying
human nature, endowed with five senses and formed
of four elements) multiplied by ten, the number of the
moral commandments. The Latin Fathers have nearly
all mistaken the meaning of this passage, by reason of
an ambiguity inthe Vulgate rendering, which is, Mille
VIII, 12.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 377
tui pacifici et ducenti his qui custodiunt fructus ejus.
This should be read with the second and third words
in the genitive case singular, thus: A thousand are of
Thee, the Peaceful One. But as these same words
may, so far as form goes, be the nominative plural, the
Westerns have mostly supposed the meaning to be,
Thy peaceful ones are a thousand. Cassiodorus, seeing
plainly enough that the thousand must have reference
to the pieces of silver mentioned in the preceding verse,
and yet failing to note the true construction of the
sentence, gives the very forced explanation that the
thousand silverlings are the reward and gifts of peace
which certainly await the faithful soul; and that the
two hundred silverlings are also the peaceful reward
of those who have earned a double prize for that per-
fection which a hundred denotes, either by holiness in
faith and works, or by personal devoutness of life and by
the conversion of others through preaching. And this g grep.
double remuneration is implied by the Lorp, saying, s.ans.Laud.
“Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath 8. Mark x.
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake and the
Gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in
this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mo-
thers, and children, and lands, with persecutions ; and
in the world to come eternal life.” A hundredfold is
promised to all who take up the Cross, and it will be
doubled for them that persevere. Others, going yet
further from the literal construction, suppose that the
numbers refer to persons, not to coins, and explain it
as though it were, Thy peaceful Saints are a thousand, nic, Argent.
that is, attain to the perfection of bliss which the mysti-
cal number denotes ; and very nearly the same meaning
comes out of another construction, Thy peaceful ones
shall have a thousand. Yet again, there are some of
the Latin Doctors who see the true form of the sen- Hugo Card.
tence, though failing to supply the right word after @ pion. Carth.
thousand; and interpret either, They who are a thou-
sand, who have reached perfection of life and holiness, Cocceius.
are Thine, O Peaceful One; or, closest of all to the
genuine sense of the passage, A thousand fruits, that
is, all good things done in the vineyard of the Church,
shall be Thine, O Peaceful One, because every such
good thing does as it were return to Crist, whence
it flowed out, and rewards Him; and two hundred
fruits, the far less perfect, though yet superabundant
Theodoret.
S. Ambros.
Sern 22,
in Ps, cxix.
S. Mat. xxv.
34,
Cassiodor,
378 A COMMENTARY ON [VIIL. 13.
glory, shall be given to His servants, the keepers,
whether they have been, like prelates and pastors, set
over the charge of great tracts in His vineyard, or
merely placed to tend the single vine of an individual
soul.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the
companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to
hear it.
The LXX. and Vulgate are at variance here in the
Hebrew text which they have severally followed. The
LXX., reading the first verb in the masculine form,
takes the Bridegroom to be the dweller in the gardens,
Whose voice the Bride desires to hear. The Vulgate,
conversely, following the present reading of the He-
brew, makes the Bridegroom the speaker, and the
Bride the person addressed. Taking the former view,
Theodoret paraphrases thus: “O my Bridegroom,
Thou Who restest in Thy spiritual and Thy visible
creation, planted, like gardens, with them that do Thy
will, there are others besides us, who gaze unceasingly
on Thee, because not drawn aside by the fetters of the
body, namely, the ranks of the Angels, altogether im-
material. But I, who am bound by this chain, am in
dread of change, and therefore, eagerly looking for
Thy second Advent, I beseech Thee, make me to hear
that desirable voice, ‘ Come, ye blessed of My Fatuer,
inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.’’” But the
Vulgate reading, which is also that of the Chaldee, of
Aquila, and of Symmachus, is to be preferred. Itis, says
Cassiodorus, the voice of the Beloved, addressing the
Bride, that is, the Church: O Church, that dwellest in
the gardens, which art busied in cultivating the plants
of holiness, cause Me to hear thy voice, that is, preach
the Gospel to all thou canst, declare the precepts of
My law, and also the promise of heavenly rewards.
And the companions hear thee, for the angelic spirits
delight to listen to thy voice, they whom I made thy
companions by the shedding of My own Blood, whom
I have appointed as thy helpers and guardians against
evil spirits. And those other thy companions, the
spirits of the just, whom I have taken out of thy con-
gregation to Myself in heaven, they hear thy voice’
also, for they delight in thy preaching and in the sal-
vation of their brethren. Others will have it that the
VIII. 13.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 079
gardens in which the Bride dwells are those of Holy Rupert.
Scripture, and of delight in holiness; or, as the Kastern
Fathers tell us, the churches for public worship, the Tres Patr.
shrines of the Martyrs, the convents of ascetic life.
And Holy Scripture itself is divided into four gardens, Hugo Card.
—that of herbs, which is the literal sense; that of
apples, which is the moral interpretation ; that of nuts,
denoting the difficult, yet sweet lessons of allegory ;
that of spices, which is anagoge, the foretaste of
heavenly things. And the Religious Life also has
this same fourfold classification of its gardens. Its
kitchen-garden of pot-herbs denotes the temporal ad-
ministration of the house, and the supply of necessa-
ries for its inmates, especially the sick. And this
garden is to be kept small. No vineyard is to be de-
stroyed, as Naboth’s was by Ahab, to widen it. The
apples, comely and fragrant, denote ready and cheerful
obedience. The nuts, hard without and sweet within,
are the austerities of the rule ; and the spices the joys
of devout contemplation. In all these gardens dwells
the truly cloistered soul.
And observe that there are two distinct and co-
ordinate methods of interpreting the verse. It may
‘imply that the Bride is entirely silent, or that she
is speaking to the companions only, and not to the
Beloved. In the former case, the meaning is, that Philo Carp.
she is commanded to preach, because she, and she x Gree: ons
only, is sure to be listened to by those who are “’8°0""™
willing to love and obey Gop. She is not to spend
her time, as she would prefer, in silent meditation
and prayer, but must occupy herself for the benefit
of her companions. The other sense, conversely, is
that in the zeal of active life and the work of bring-
ing in neophytes to the fold, she has forgotten the |
care of her own vineyard. She has been speaking, Aimsworth.
earnestly and devoutly enough, in teachings and warn-
ings, to the multitudes: she has failed in her more
directly personal service to her Beloved, in prayer,
praise, and thanksgiving. Make Me hear thy voice.
He then saith, Let Martha leave her serving for a time,
and sit down with Mary at My feet. And therefore
the vow of elect souls must be that which the Apostles
made, “ We will give ourselves continually to prayer, Acts vi. 4.
and to the ministry of the Word.” And He calls on
her to speak for yet another reason. He it is Who nic, argent.
has made her to dwell in those pleasant gardens where
Esth. v. 3.
Philo Carp.
Cassiodor.
Nic. Argent.
S. John xvi.
7s
Beda.
Targum,
Rupert.
S. Luke v. 8.
S. Mat. viii.
8.
380 A COMMENTARY ON [VIII. 14.
grow His lilies and spices, He has clothed her in royal
attire, He has made His companions, the Angels,
ministering spirits for her service. They are waiting,
watching, listening, to know what they are to do for her
next, and He wishes to heap yet more blessings upon
her. Make Me, then, to hear thy voice. “What wilt
thou, and what is thy request? it shall be even given
thee to the half of the kingdom.” And the Bride
makes answer at once:
14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou
like to a roe or to a young hart upon the
mountains of spices.
Make haste. The Hebrew is rightly given in the
margin, and by the old versions, Flee away. But why
does the Bride, who has all along been desiring the
presence of her Beloved, and union with Him, reply
thus to His invitation to speak? They give many
reasons, but the best of all seems that of Philo and Cag-
siodorus, which may be conveniently cited in the
words of Nicolas of Strasburg. The Primitive Church,
because of those words of Curist, “If I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you; and again,
“It is expedient for you that I go away,” desired her
Beloved, to flee away in His Manhood, that she might
more clearly comprehend Him according to His God-
head. And thus she was able to say: Since Thou
hast come, and hast kissed me by Thine Incarnation,
and hast tarried with me on earth, now Slee away again,
my Beloved, from me to the Faruer, that I may know
Thy Godhead, and one day be able to follow Thee
thither, where Thou hast ascended, since not till then
canst Thou hear my voice, for not till Thy earthly
work is ended, can I begin to preach Thee. And
this is curiously in accord with the Chaldee paraphrase :
“ At that time shall the elders of the congregation of
Israel say, Flee, O my Beloved, Lorp of the world,
from this unclean earth, and let Thy Majesty dwell in
the highest heavens.” Or it may be the voice of hu-
mility saying with Peter, “Depart from me, for I am
a sinful man, O Lorp;” and with the centurion,
‘‘Lorp, Iam not worthy that Thou shouldest come
under my roof.” Flee away, then, my Beloved, I seek
not for glory in this life, but I long for grace. I seek
not the renown of working miracles, but I desire the
VIII. 14.] THE SONG OF SONGS. 381
remission of my sins. Flee away also, that thou may-
est ever be incomprehensible, that Thou mayest always
be desired and desirable, that we may never know,
while in this body, how great is the abundance of Thy
goodness which Thou hast hidden for them that fear
Thee. Flee, flee, in Thy care and providence for us,
that we may never fancy while we live that we have
attained Thee, but that we may still follow in order to
attain, “‘ Draw me, we will run after Thee.” It is not
that she wishes Him to flee, observes a Saint, but that Beda.
she sees it to be His wont to do so, and her only will
is that His will may be done. Or, once more, as others
will have, flee away from hard and sinful hearts which
refuse to admit Thee, unto the hearts of the elect, open }.07°8- M-
to welcome Thee, flee from the unbelieving Synagogue
to the faithful Church. Flee away, too, by withdraw-
ing Thy visible dispensation, Thine earthly kingdom,
retiring, as it were, into the heights of heaven, on the
Day of Judgment, and drawing us with Thee from the C™ 4 Lap.
perishing world. And be Thou like to a roe or a young
hart. We have here again in the Greek that word 1480 Card.
dopxas, Meaning the ‘‘clear-eyed,” and therefore the
Bride asks her Beloved to flee away in such fashion as
nevertheless to see her, and not lose sight of her during
her toils, that she may be comforted with the thought
of His ever-watchful eyes. Though I be unfit for Thy Nic. Arg.
continual presence, yet show Thyself often and swiftly 720m.
to me on the mountains of spices, in moments of con- Alvarez.
templation, in the lives of those great Saints whom Thou ef veh a 3
visitest and inspirest ; mount, O Lorp, ever higher and ~"8° ©“
higher above the mightiest Angels, that I, though far
off, may behold Thee surpassing all, and perfect in
majesty, and myself haste after Thee to those true Lyranus.
mountains of spices, on Which the Heavenly Jerusalem
stands, and whence the incense of perpetual adoration.
ascends before the throne of Gop.
Theodoret.
Now, on those eternal mountains Hupton,
Stands the sapphire throne, all bright, nie eu po
: : ao
Where unceasing Alleluias faithful.
They upraise, the sons of light ;
Sion’s people tell His praises,
Victor after hard-won fight.
Bring your harps and bring your incense ;
Sweep the string, and pour the lay;
Let the earth proclaim His wonders,
King of that celestial day ;
~-
S. August.
Meditat.
cap. 22.
Lyranus,
Rev. xxii,
17, 20.
382 A COMMENTARY, ETC. (VIII. 14.
He the Lamb once slain, is worthy,
Who was dead and lives for aye.
“O truly blessed kingdom,” exclaims the Doctor of
Grace, “ free from death, having no end, where no sea-
sons follow one another for ever and ever, where the
perpetual day without night knows not time, where
the victorious warrior, united with the tuneful choirs of
Angels, sings to Gop unceasingly the Song of Songs of
Sion, while the crown evermore encircles his ennobled
brow!” Make haste, then, O my Beloved, for “the
Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And. let him that
heareth say, Come.” And Thou, O dear and wor-
shipped Lorp, art not deaf to the call, ““ He which tes-
tifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly ;
Amen. Even so, come, Lorp Jzusus.”
ee a a
J. MASTERS AND SON, PRINTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON.
*
*
Vol. I. Post 8vo., cloth, 10s. 6d.
A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS:
From Primitive and Medieval Writers; and from the Various Office
Books and Hymns of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican,
Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Rites.
By THE waTE Rev. J. M. NEALH, D.D.
Vol. II. 10s. 6d.
Completed by the Rev. R. F. LITTLEDALE, LL.D.
‘‘ Without any reference to different systems of Biblical exegesis, this Com-
mentary is, both theologically and devotionally, an immense advance upon
any Commentary upon any portion of Holy Scripture—not even excepting
Dr. Pusey’s Minor Prophets—which has yet been written.”—Church Review.
“To Clergymen who are willing to give time to its study it will prove in-
valuable for homiletical purposes, as an abundance of new trains of thought
will be suggested by the various texts incidentally introduced which will give
their sermons that freshness which is as unusual as it is desirable in pulpit
utterances. And no less a boon will it be to those of the laity who enjoy a
book which, without requiring any great amount of continuous reading, will
give food for meditation, and enable them to enter with more interest into
that book of Holy Scripture which they are probably more familiar with than
with any other.”’— Church Times.
London: J. Masters, Aldersgate Street.
rar Ey
September, 1869.
CLASSIFIED INDEX.
BIOGRAPHY. -
Autobiography ofJohn Brown . . , 2
Baines’ Life of Archbishop Laud “ nie?
Brechin’s (Bp. of) Memoir of HelenInglis. 4
Brett’s Doctrine of the Cross. “ SD
-——- Memorial of M. C. B. ° A eal’
Brownlow’s Memoir . “ s e 6
Heygate’s Memoir of Rev.J.Cook . .15
Life of Sister Rosalie . : * e - 33
Lives of Englishmen (4 Series) . fA - 20
Memoir of M. E. D.and G. E. D. 3 « 21
Memorial of Elizabeth A——. . o Awa
Newland’s Memoir . A é - - 25
Suckling’s Memoir . é ° ° - 35
Teale’s Lives of Eminent Divines . - 35
Walcott’s Life of Bishop Hacket. . - 15
Boo FOR THE SICK AND
ae AFFLICTED.
Brett’s Devotions for the Sick Room - 5
—— Companion for ditto . : . - §
—— Instructions and Prayers for Sic Ok
—— Leaflets for Sick and Dying < - 5
Few Words toa Christian Mourner . 2
Manual for Mourners . . . . - 21
Method of Assistingthe Sick . . + 21
Short Devotions from Prayer Book for do.. 29
Stretton’s Guide to Sickand Dying . . 34
FOR THE USE OF THE
BOOKS OR TREY H
Brechin (Bp. of) Memoriale Vitz Sacerdo-
talis . . ° ¢ c 5 : . 4
Brett’s Suggestions for Burial of the Dead 5
Devotional Aids forthe Clergy . - 10
Newland’s Essays on Confirmation
Paget’s Memoranda Parochialia . . - 26
Parish and the Priest - - A 5 PFE
Plenderleath’s Priest’s Visiting List . SPré
Priest’s Prayer Book . . : C . 30
—— Responsal to - 5 0
: 3
Questions for Self-Examination for Clergy 30
Sermons Register . . ° . . - 32
Thompson’s Concionalia , A 6 - 30
VisitatioInfirmorum . : z . - 9
CHISMS AND Cc -
CATE JAS WORKS ECHET!
Arden’s Catechietical Manual . 5 aL
Brechin’s (Bp. of) First Catechism . aed
Catechism on the Unity of the Church 6
Catechism ontheIncarnation . - awl?
Catechism of Theology ° 3 2 ond.
Chanter’s Exposition ofthe Catechism . 7
Catechism of the Chief Truths , n Ys
Church Catechism,illustrated , F, ang
Collects Catechetically Explained . . 9
Easy Catechism on the Old Testament -ll
Hicks’ Lectures on the Incarnation . - 15
Holden’s Anglican Catechist . ; - 16
Hyde’s Church Catechism with Notes oe. dys
— Catechism with Easy Explanations . 17
Johns’ Collects and Catechisings . . 18
Johns’ Questions on the Pentateuch . aL ys
Lea’s Catechisings onthe Prayer Book . 19
Malan’s Exposition ofthe Creed. . - 20
Phipps’ Catechism on the Holy Scriptures 27
Questions on Church Catechism : - 30
Questions on Christian Doctrine : - 30
Smith’s Church Catechism . ° . - 33
Stretton’s Church Catechismexplained . 34
Child’s Catechism . 5 . 3
— Catechism of First Truths . O - 34
—— Brief Catechism ofthe Bible . . 34
Watson’s Catechism on the Prayer Book . 37
West’s Questions and Answers on Chief
Truths 5 . é : . fa - 37
—— Questions for Higher Classes . anys
—— Catechism on the Church . oe ee!
CHRISTIAN MEMORIALS.
Carter’s Christian Gravestones . - °
Forsyth’s Monumental Designs. . - 13
Hallam’s Monumental Memorials . 215
Paget’s Tract upon Tombstones . : - 26
Stride’s Sketches for Christian Memorials. 34
Sunter’s Designs for Headstones, &c. - 35
CHURCH HISTORY,
Blackmore’s History of the Russian Church 3
Bookof Church History . . ° °
Brownlow’s History of the Church . .
Neale’s History of the Eastern Church . 24
— Voices from the East . 5 ° - 24
Popoff’s Council of Florence 4 Ps - 28
Pye’s Short Ecclesiastical History . - 30
Wilkins’ Lecture on Early Church History. 37
COMMENTARIES,
Acts of Apostles, Exposition of . . °
Book of Genesis, Exposition of . ° e
Brechin’s (Bp. of) Commentary on Litany 4
— on Te Deum 5 . 3 : o 4
— on Canticles A, 5 ° - 4
4
9
—— on Penitential Psalms 5) 22 °
Cottage Commentary . : 5 ° .
Deane’s Proper Lessons with Commentary 10
Ford’s Commentary onthe Gospels . +. 13
—— on Acts : ae Ree ° . - 13
— on Romans. 5 és 5 . - 13
Littledale’s Commentary on Song of Songs 19
Malan’s GospelofS.John . e - 20
Neale’s Commentary on the Psalms 4 - 24
—onHymnalNoted , C . » 25
Brechin’s SONFIRMATION. - .
Brett’s Guide to Confirmation ,
Certificate of Confirmation . OG - i
e
°
ay otf
li CLASSIFIED INDEX.
Confirmation Medal . ° : 5
Ellis’ Font to the Altar . . °
Helps for Confirmation and Communion
Illuminated Memorial of Confirmation
toying onief Hands). 5.2 os
Milman’s Meditations on Confirmation
Monro’s Preparation for Confirmation
—— Manuals and Prayers ditto .
Newland’s Confirmation and Communion
Pott’s Confirmation Lectures A .
Prynne’s Plain Instructions = .
Suckling’s Manual for Confirmation .
Tracts on Confirmation 5 5 e
., DEVOTIONAL BOOKS.
Avrillon onthe Hoty Spirit . = .
Bourdaloue’s Spiritual Exercises : :
Brechin’s (Bp. of) Christian’s Converse .
— Nourishment of the Soul . ° e
—— Meditations from Pinart . ° e
— Mirror of Young Christians . .
—— Meditations on the Passion : 0
Brett’s Meditations on the Life of our Lonp
Brettingham’s Anniversaries ; ° .
Butler’s Meditations on the Life ofour Lorp
Clarke’s Watch Tower Book e
Daily Events of Holy Week °
Divine Master 4 ° F .
Edmonstone’s Portions of Psalms
Highty-fourth Psalm, Treatise on
Familiar Instructions on Prayer .
Footprints of the Lorp = A
Footsteps of the Holy Child 6
Gerhard’s Meditations. : ;
Great Truths of the Christian Religio
Heygate’s Evening of Life . .
—— Wedding Gift’ . °
Hidden Life’ . 4 owes
Holy Child Jesus 5 5
Holy Childhood of our Lorp
Kalendar of the Imitation .
Kempis’ Soliloquy of the Soul
—— Valley of Lilies . :
Ken’s Practice of Divine Love . .
Kettlewell’s Companion for the Penitent
Legenda Domestica . 5 5 .
Lowder’s Penitent’s Path . -
Malan’s Meditations on the Passion
—— Companion for Lent . A,
—— Meditations for Lent . .
Milman’s Voices of Harvest °
Monro’s Readings for Holy Week
Paget’s Christian’s Day
Pathway of Faith . 3 . é
Patrick’s Parable of the Pilgrim
Practice of the Presence of Gop.
Shipley’s Daily Meditations, °
—— Meditationsfora Month .
Skinner’s Heads of Christian Duty .
Spiritual Voices from the Middle Ageg
ECCLESIOLOGY.
coer e too e Hee ew ew eee
. °
.
e
°
e
©
.
.
e
e
.
.
e
e
°
.
°
e
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
e
.
.
e
e
°
.
°
Best’s Plea for Daily Worship. - a
Badger’s Nestorians and their Rituals a
Book of Common Prayer (Sealed Book) .
Ditto, Church of Scotland 5 2 :
Browne’s Lectureon Symbolism. ,. .
Chamberlain’s Chancel * one
Church Floral Decoration, . er yea alice
Dickinson’s List of Service Books . an
Directorium Scoticanum et Anglicanum .
Ecclesiastical Embroidery . — . . .
Ecclesiological Society’s Publications .
Ecclesiologist, the . . errtsry .
- Masters’ List of Daily Services .
Form of Consecration of Churches.
Form for Laying Foundation Stone ditto
Form of Consecrating Cemetery Chapels
Freeman’s History 0 chitecture .
Goodwin’s Art of Polychrome . .
Gresley’s Treatise on English Church
Handbook of Ecclesiology . .
Helmore’s Church Choirs . °
Hierurgia Anglicana . : .
Hopkins’ (Bp.) Law of Ritualism
Liturgies . .
eonweeee
Maunsell’s Church Bells and Ringing
Neale’s Introduction to Eastern Church
Ecclesiology of the Isle of Man
Church Tourists . : .
Organs,aShort Accountof. .
Poole’s Churches described .
Popoff’s Origin of Roman Liturgy
Practical Hints on Church Embroidery
Pratt’s Letters on Scandinavian Churches
Reverence due to holy places . .
Spelman’s History of Sacrilege . .
Sperling’s Church Walks in Middlese
Walcott’s Interior of a Gothic Minster
— Precinct ofa Gothic Minster .
—— Cathedralia. ° . e .
EDUCATIONAL.
Bezant’s Geographical Questions
Key to ditto . ° . . .
Chamberlain’s English Grammar.
Child’s New Lesson Book . S
Couper’s Hints on Management of Chi
Easy Lessons for younger children
Ditto, Questions on . .
Finchley Manuals of Industry
Hints on Early Education .
Hopwood’s School Geography
— Child’sGeography .
Johns’ Dictation Lessons .
Lessons for every day in the Week
Companion to ditto for Teacher
Lessons in Grammar for a Child .
Sankey’s Bible Exercises , a
— Ditto, Teacher's Copy 65
Sunday Alphabet . . e . ®
Wakefield’s Charades from History, &c.
MentalExercises . ° 5
Young Churchman’s Alphabet . :
EUCHARISTIC MANUALS.
Altar Book forthe Young . . ‘ - 9
Companion to Altar for Scottish Church . 9
Devotions for Choristers at Holy Commu-
oe ee
Om 012 CL OF 6.46 64> 6] 2 26 e7e 6 © © «6 @ © @ 0.0.0 ee @ ©
bo
cs
fe 2% @
—
dre
oocee ee
oe et ete oe © © & & 6
Ce rr
—
Dp
nion . a 4 5 fe e . > 10
Devotions for Holy Communion. ° - 10
Eucharistic Month 7 5 . . - 11
Form of Self-examination before Holy
Communion : 4 * P, ie . 8
Guide to the Eucharist 5 e b 2s
Holy Eucharist, a Manual, &c. . 16
Laurence’s Assistant at Holy Communion 19
Malan’s Prayers forHoly Communion . 20
—— Preparation for Holy Communion . 20
Manual for Communicants: . ° 5 .
Nelson’s Guide to the Holy Communion . 29
Prynne’s Eucharistic Manual , e =
Scottish Communion Office in Greek , - 4
Scudamore’s Stepsto the Altar , . . 34
Shipley’s Eucharistic Litanies . - 32
—— Eucharistic Meditations . - 32
—— DivineLiturgy ~- . , . 82
CLASSIFIED INDEX, ili
FAMILY PRAYERS. Five Tales of old Time caqitond, hye
5 7 Flower’s Classical Tales —. ° . - 13
Book le pela a! penis het Ye —— Tales of Faith and Providence... 13
3
: —— Widow and her Son, and other Tales 13
Consecration and Desecration
Douglas’ Mary and Mildred
Drop in the Ocean A Home Trials °
11 | Vidal’sEsther Merle | -
Dunster’s Stories from Chroniclers 18 Village Story for Village Maidens i 36
9 Trust -. : 3
Bowdler’s Family Prayers . p . : 5
Carter’s Family Prayers . ° ° ° e 36 paver ae Eeait a 0 h Gy le . © 2
Domestic Offices for the Use of Families . 11 Fox’s Ni aoa hed be tre: Pua 2 ee ting
Family Prayers by a Priest . : Se Hol Church? EET AP a ee ? 3 a
Family Prayers for Children of the Church 12 | progerick G re SOU 2 aks Ee tet a
Hooper’s Prayers for Family Worship .16 | @j rH rot * notte bee arth <2
Monsell’s Prayers and Litanies . é - 23 Gould? Path f the Jus as Sry a EP Mt
Morning and Evening Prayers for a Family 29 Br ate OF CRG rl Rha yoni % =i
—— Fora Household Sie ase pee ford ide Cloud eee ae om
Rose’s Family Prayers. . *.. . «81 Colt rG 6 MICIMONE wheel urine 428
Short Services for Families aot emcee Holiday Dales tatsteha aa i
been aes oh dik Sai Sauk haste des
Suckling’s iin eae 2 5 2 85 Heygate’s Godfrey Davenant . . . 18
+ =~ Ditto at College <) (ttusmuuets 4<19
Arnold’s HistoryofIreland . . .18 poner Claims Li c¥ sted Phen sevareichsels
- Baines’ History of England. ° ° - 2 ob Hours. * : c . - i4
Cranborne’s History of France. . .10 I ome for Christmas . . « « «16
Flower’s History of Scotland . . . 18 pepe Choir’ sais a Siew oP anes 0s 17
Fox’s History of Rome eee OFS 0 and Verena. nnni Abo ye tals .eeancldh
Haskoll’s History of France . . .18 ma SGentleInfluence . . . «19
Jenkins’ Annals of the Kings ofJudah .17 Mee Alice and her Sister. . . . 20
Johns’ History of Spain ~. cid Wh 18 Fresh of the Holy Night. . ° - 18
Lectures on History of England bennett) cre. ofanArm-chair . . . . 21
Moore’s Easy Readings on English History 23 orcy Downer of... *. Sseilar, Nomay
Neale’s English History 1g °| Minnie’sBirthday -. +, +. +. 199
—— History of Greece BORD hy cutie Mitchell’s Hatherleigh Cross . =. —. 22
— History of Portugal . A by 818 Monro’s Stories of Cottagers . . - 23
Poole’s Historyof England. . . .28 Footprintsinthe Snow . . . 22
Wilbraham’s KingdomofJudah. . . 387 aes = meee Yonemieio de a3
oa althe Pilgrim , . ° 2 2
HYMNS. —— Léila*.. *.
Hymns for Little Children... +. 1 | Neale’sChristianHeroim. 2 1 218
Hymns Descriptive and Devotional . . 1 —— ChristianEndurance. . . .18
Hymns for InfantChildren. . . .17 —— HeathenMythology . . . .18
Hymns on Scripture Characters. . “dw —— FollowersoftheLorp . . « 24
“Hymns ofthe Holy Feast . ; . - 17 —— LentLegends . 5 . ° - 24
Narrative Hymns for Schools . . . 1 —— Evenings at Sackville College . . 24
Neale’s MedievalHymns . ., . .24 —— Egyptian Wanderers © athe wach
— Hymns forthe Sick . ; 4 . 24 —— Afternoons atan Orphanage . . 24
— HymnsforChildren . . . 4.24 Old Court House Dy. ealedle) Sipleesaee ep
Raine’s Verses for Church Schools . . 30 Paget’s Hope of the Katzekopfs. . .18
Williams’ Hymnsonthe Catechism . . 38 — ie of VillageChildren. . 418
HYMNS FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP. | Paiste "?? 2 1 7 5 t38
Anthems, Wordsof .. . ° Perret | Pearson’s Stori the Beatitud es
Chamberlain’s Hymns for Minor Festivals 7 tse D.) Stories of Chelsea soy &e. a
Fallow’s Psalms and Hymns 3 Fi . 29 Poynings: a Tale of 1688 . “ a ‘ 18
HymnsandIntroits . . ° eae vf Prisoners of Craigmacaire ‘ , 30
People’s Hymnal . A ‘ ; g 97 Spee Mornings with Aunt Mabel z : 30
JUVENILE TALES. Sbarthistereseuiedien cues Uctercet
‘ v Roberts? Snowbound in Cleeberri
Archie’s Ambition ONS G2 Dehpitie deus 2 Root ofthe Matter . 3 cae aah 31
arte ve of the Empire ° ° . : Eh parieos A A . e . - 31
aptism ws . * . . . . } 3 N
ps babe Bile tet Toned &e. < shoe | Slone’eilles nieve z % d ; i aH
eginnings of Evi tell Swise ray egg Stories for Young Servants : , i
mee ee stehter . ose te . 4 py orics on the Ocakiendniente . . f io
Chapters on Plants bf F ‘ 4 M 44 Pecirye Holt tg &c. : ° . =
ae are Lae Sher meer 3 5 re moe Brothers . Bed a : : 18
( . < . 5 2 ales of my Duty towards my Neighb ;
road at Home mak Be Art ty o's eZ Tales to read to Myself ay 3 ide : =
eee - ream ne . e : - 8 Tales of a London Parish 4 pe:
ristmas Present for Children, . . 8 Thinking for Oneself . . 35
Early Friendship . ° : = 18 Vi t §
Eccles’ Midsummer Holydays . *, rat a | wouter
Fanny’s Flowers; or, Fun forthe Nursery , 12 Wilbraham’s Tales forBoys A
lV
Wilford’s Author’s Children 35 auta’l 137
=—— Wing of a. Day seem meena) « ete ah
Winter in the East 5 . ° . - 38
Yorke’s Cottage Homes . . ° - 38
MISCELLANEOUS.
Churchman’s Companion . ° war ate. 1c0
Macaulay’s Day at Nismes . . - 20
Malan’s Bethany : a Pilgrimage - - 20
—— Tyre and Sidon 5 e e - 20
Medizval Alphabets . = A e a 23!
Monro’s Schoolmaster’s Day . - - 23
Newland’s Lectures on Tractarianism - 25
Our Solar System 5 ° ° . =r
Plea for Industrial Schools . A a - 277
Presbyterian looking forthe Church. . 30
Raine’s Summer Wanderings . ° - 30
— Queen’s Isle . “ . e - 30
Reminiscences of Forty Years . 3 - 31
Roberts’ Rocks of Worcestershire . - 3l
Selections New and Old. . 4 - 32
Sentences from Sewell’s Works . . 32
Shipley’s Purgatory of Prisoners e - 32
Sisters of Charity 5 e . ° - 33
Whytehead’s College Life . e ° - 37
MUSIC.
Church Music a - nk s . e - 38
Sacred . 5 5 5 ° e . . 40
Secular . 6 5 ° . ° . - 42
PAROCHIAL AND CHURCH
BOOKS.
Book of Strange Preachers. . a et
Burial Service on Card : . ; - 6
Canticles pointed for Chanting . 4 - 6
— Ditto with Blank Staves. 4 70
Consecration Prayer for Altar Desk . iQ
District Visitor’s Memorandum Book - 10
Form for Foundation Stone of School . 13
Ditto ofaChurch . 5 E ° - 13
Form for opening a New School : - 13
Litany, 4to. rubricated. 4 5 e oe 19
Ministration of Baptism ° e . - 22
Prayers for Choirs in Vestry 5 e - 28
Register of Baptisms . : ° ° - 31
—- Burials : 5 ° e ; OL
— Persons Confirmed . . . - 31
Preachers, Sermons, &c. . 5 - 31
Sponsor’s Duty onCard . 5 5 . 34
OETRY.
Athanasius and other Poems 5 . «2
Benn’s Solitary . 5 ° . ° - 2
Bernard’s (S.) Sweet Rhythm . . - 2
Bourne’s Thoughts on Catholic Truths . 3
Braune’s Persone of a Toun : . 5b}
Chambers’ Lauda Syon 5 < . oye
Charton’s Lays of Faith and Loyalty . - 18
Cornish’s Sonnets and Verses . 6 - 33
Dakeyne’s Sword and the Cross . e - 10
Daily Life ofthe Christian Child © eat) 20
Echoes of Our Childhood . 5 5 «id
Evans’ (Archdeacon) Daily Hymns . Sr kl
Evans’ Pietas Puerilis . i > . ae}
Ford’s pA ace dace in Verse . 3 6 eo
Freeman’s (Archdeacon) Sunday oF one l4
Goodrich’s Claudia . 5 5 S - 14
Hawker’s Echoes from Old Cornwall 15
Hopkins’ Pietas Metrica . . e - 16
Intermediate State 2 . = Hi]
Ken’s (Bp.) Preparatives for Death . . 19
Last Sleep of the Christian Child 5 449
Loraine’s Lays of Israel . a 5 - 20
Lyra Sanctorum . . . ° . - 20
Magnay’s Pocms) (uo goa8 oueleu ce ieaeak
CLASSIFIED INDEX.
Monro’s Leila < ° ° .
Moral Songs . 5 ° . .
Morgan’s Gifts and Light . .
—— Ascension and other Poems
—— Churchin Babylon . -
Moultrie’s Martyrdom of S, Polycarp
—— Hymnsand Lyrics . .
Neale’s Songs and Ballads . °
Ogilvy’s Nun of Enzklosterle .
Original Ballads . ° . °
Orlebar’s Christmas Eve ° .
Paradise Kept. c 5 .
Poems on Old Testament Subjects
Poems. By C.A.M.W. . é
River Reeds . : A < e
Russell’s Lays of the Early Church
Thoughtsin Solitude . ° .
Tomlins’ Tonbridge School Chapel
—— S. Mary’s Home ° *
Tute’s Holy Times and Scenes .
— Champion of the Cross °
2 26 Ne © 6 °* 0 6 ©@ .@ :0'" 04,6 re
Verses and Pictures on Life of our Lonp
Verses for the Christian Year . °
Waring’s Annualsand Perennials .
Williams’ Altar . ° e e .
Winged Words
PRAYERS FOR SCHOOLS.
Liturgy for Village Schools .
Mouro’s School Prayers for a Week
Ditto for Ecclesiastical year
Prayers for Parochial Schools .
Simple Prayers for Village Schools .
West’s Prayers and Hymns for Children
PRIVATE PRAYERS.
Andrewes’ (Bp.) Private Devotions .
Brechin’s (Bp. of) Pious Churchman.
Brett’s Churchman’s Guide. . .
—— Christian’s Daily Guide .
—— Devotions for Schoolboys.
—— Devout Prayers on the Passion
—— Fervent Aspirations . 2
—— Offices for Sick and Dying
—— Prayers for Children . °
Butler’s Prayers for Working Men
Carter’s Private Prayers . .
—— Litanies . : ° .
——NightOffices . . .
Christian Servant’s Book of Devotion
Clergyman’s Manual of Private Prayers
Collects from Prayer Book . a Z
Cosin’s (Bp.) Private Devotions. A
Day Hours of the Church . . °
Supplement to ditto. ° 5 e
Dial of Meditation and Prayer . 5
Errington’s Prayers for Soldiers . .
Few Devotional Helps for the Seasons
Gray’s Christian’s PlainGuide . a
Heyyate’s Manual. . . . .
Ditto for General Use = 5 s
Horology, or Dial of Prayer.
Johnson’s (Dr.) Prayers and Meditations
Little Hours of the Day 3 e
Malan’s Pocket Book of Prayers .
Manual of Prayers for a Servant .
Manual for Sisters of Mercy °
Morning and Evening Exercises
Moultrie’s Primer 2 S .
—— Offices for Holy Week :
Order for Prime, Compline, &c..
Paget’s Sursum Corda. . .
—— Prayers forthe Church .
Pathway of Faith. . ogee
Ces 6 6 6. Ce ©. wo 6 8 8 6.8 0 oH 6 6 6 ES SO OMe oO ONO 6 0 © le ee F.-8 0
<)
Qe
DCOOWMDAAAAAMIAAAAT A
CLASSIFIED INDEX.
Pocket Manual of Prayers . wim - 27
Prayers and Maxims . ° - 28
he ers for Seven Canonical Hours 5 28
alter according to Sarum Use . ° - 30
erat secures Ecclesiz Catholice . mol
Short Devotions for the Seasons . = - 33
Smith’s Devout Chorister . . ° - 33
Stretton’s Scholar’s Manual “ ° » 34
Taylor’s (Bp. J.) Prayers . nr . 35
Young Churchman’s Manual . : - 29
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
Black’s Primer of Christian Worship .
—— Manual onthe Lorp’s Prayer .
Bowdler’s Few Words of Instruction.
Christian Servanttaught . ; .
Christian Duties . 5 . ; °
Churchman’s Library .
Church Doctrines proved by “the Bible
Companion tothe Sunday Services .
. Conversations with Cousin Rachel .
Cosin’s Sum of the Catholic Faith .
Edmonstone’s Christian’s Daily Walk
Erasmus’s Preparation for Death le
Evening Meetings,the. .
Explanation of Scriptural Terms
Fasts and Festivals of the Church
Few Words on Christian Seasons
Gopn’s Church on Earth 3
Great Truths of the Christian Religion
Husband’s Truths of the Catholic Religio
Litany Explained . ‘
Morning and Evening Prayer Explained
Poor Churchman’s Friend . e
Prynne’s Few Plain Words. : °
Readings onthe History of Joseph . + 30
Scenes in Lives of Christian Children °
Simple Words onthe Lorp’s Prayer. . 33
Stone’s Handbook to the Christian Year . 34
Tomline’s (Bp.) Holy Scriptures . - 36
’ West’s Figuresand Types . raz)
—— Reasons for being a Churchman way
“—— Tracts on Church Pere : . 37
What we are to Believe ° . - 19
REWARD BOOKS.
oe eee
SET E aS Po Ree
_
be
Packets of Books . e 3 . - 43
Penny ° ° ° ° . ° ° - 44
Twopenny . 5 Fs e e ° . 44
Threepenny . Cc A ° . - 45
Fourpenny . . . e ° . - 45
Sixpenny ° ; 5 c - 46
SCRIPTURE READINGS.
Brett’s Scripture History for the Young 115
Reading Lessons from Scripture History . 30
Readings from Holy Scripture . . - 30
Ditto, Second Series . . 30
Scripture Reading Lessons for Children - 32
Ditto, Second Series é A ‘ - 32
ERMONS.
Alsop’s Seteene E gos . .
Ashley’s Victory of the Spirit .
— Translation of Rossi’s Sermons
Baines’ Sermons . : ° .
Bingham’ s Easter Sermons ° .
Bowdler’s Sermons on Christianity .
Brechin’s (Bp.of) Are you beingConverted
—— Sermons on Amendment of Life
—- Waning of Opportunities .
— Grace of Gop and other subjects
Bright’s SermonsofS.Leo. . .
Browne’s Sussex Sermons . e .
Butler’s Sermons for Working Men .
Carter’s Sermons’. 9 <2.)
ee @© © © @ WH ee ew ew
AAD TA Ph Cobo bobo bo
Vv
Carter’s Imitation ofourLorp. . . 6
—— Life of Sacrifice . eG
— Passion and Temptation oft our Lorp 6
— Life of Penitence ; ( r . 6
Chambers’ Fifty-two Sermons . . © 7
Chamberlain’s Christian Worship . . 7
—— Seven ages of the Church . atlatnersE a7
Chanter’s Sermons a ih
Cheyne’s Teaching of the Christian Year . 7
—— Consolations ofthe Cross. . . 7
Codd’s Sermons . rb)
Comper’s Teaching of British Churches - 9
Cresswell’s Christian Life . . 6 - 10
Davies’ Benefit Club Sermons . 6 . 10
Deane’s OccasionalSermons . .- 10
Evans’ Christianity in its Homely Aspects 12
Flower’s Sermons of S. Bernard . °
Ford’s Sermons at Heayitree c
Translation of Segneri’s Sermons
Fowler’s Parochial Sermons : *
Freeman’s Advent Sermons . 5
Galton’s Lectures on the Revelation
— on Book of Canticles . °
Goodwin’s Cretian Church. °
Gresley’s Practical Sermons °
Sermons at Brighton . °
— Three Sermons on Rome
Hamilton’s Sermons . C
Hill’s Short Sermons .
Hopwood’s CuaxuistT in His Church
Hutchings’ Lent Lectures . A
Innes’ Five Advent Sermons e
Trons’ Lectures, Holy Catholic Church
— Lectures,Ecclesiastical Jurisdictio
— Preaching of CuristT. . °
—— Miracles of Curist . * .
Lea’sSermons . A - 5 .
Lee’s Advent Sermons. 4
ee ef ee e© © &© © ©
—— Message of Reconciliation . =
—— Miscellaneous Sermons .
Magnay’s Sermons, Practical & Suggestive 21
Michell’s Sermons c 5 ° °
— Churches of Asia e e
Mill on the Nature of Christianity .
—— Four Sermons at Cambridge .
Monro’s Old Testament Characters .
Mossman’s Sermons . ° °
Mountain’s Sermons for Seasons’ E5
Neale’s Readingsforthe Aged . °
—— Sermons for Minor Festivals .
eocececece Beem ecco e ea wees e ese
_
o;)
— Sermons in a Religious House
Newland’s Postils C .
Nugee’s Words from the Cross »
Ss SOUS He ce, le uw cS 916 « s
bo
w
—— Holy Women of the Gospel 2 25
Paget’s Duties of Daily Life . - 26
— Sermons on Saints’ Days . - 26
—— Sermons on Special Occasions - 26
Poland’s Earnest Exhortations . . 28
Polehampton’s Steps in the Christian’s Life 28
Poole’s Sermons on Holy Communion - 28
Pott’s Confirmation Lectures é = - 28
—— Village Lectures on Sacraments rs)
Prichard’s Sermons . 5 - 30
Prynne’s Plain Parochial Sermons . - 30
Skinner’s Revelation of Antichrist . ; iy
Smith’s (C. F.) Sermons .
—— (W.B.) Lent and Parochial Sermons ee
Smyttan’s Curist Slighted = - 33
Stretton’s Acts of S. Mary Magdalene - 34
Suckling’s Sermons . ° ° e - 35
Thompson’s Davidica . ° °
—— Concionalia A 3
—— The Sunday School .
ting 3
Tomlins’ Sermons for Seasons :
vl CLASSIFIED INDEX.
Tomlins’ Advent Sermons . ° a
Watson’s Seven Sayings on the Cross
—— Sermons on the Beatitudes
—— Sermons for Sundays.
West’s Parish Sermons 4
Wilkinson’s Mission Sermons
Wilmshurst’s Six Sermons .
Windsor’s Sermons for Soldiers
W oodford’s Sermons at Bristol
—— Occasional Sermons .
Wroth’s Sermons on Baptism
TALES AND ALLECORI
Adams’ Silvio 5 : 5 <
— Fallof Croesus .-
— (C.P.) Cressingham
Alice Beresford . .
Apple Blossom ° .
Bayliss’ Loving Service
Birthday, the . .
Cecil Dean . ; e °
Chilcren of the Chapel
Chorister Brothers 5
Chronicles of S. Mary’s
Cudlip’s (Mrs.) A Noble Aim
Curate of Holycross . .
Enthusiasm not Religion . =
Evans’ Tales of the British Church
Everley . 5 ae sg 5
Gertrude Dacre ~. . .
Gresley’s Forestof Arden .
Siege of Lichfield e
oe e © © aw oo ©
°
°
°
c
— ConistonHall ,
— Clement Walton.
— Charles Lever .
— Church Clavering °
— Frank’s Trip to the Continent
— Bernard Leslie . 5 :
PartII. . °
—— Portrait of an English Churchman
Henrietta’s Wish . °
aT
.
°
e
©
°
.
.
Se A aa ee ee FO Le nace 0 0 tye [re Mg Meare acres cle ewe lS oe PORE Soto He Fe
Heygate’s William Blake . . .
Hilary S.Mapna. . . Seale
Ion Lester . 5 e : . °
Ivon 3 3 . : ° ° °
Lord of the Forest and his Vassals .
Lucy and Christian Wainwright .
Macgregor’s Somerford Priory . .
— Deepdene Minster , ° °
Maiden Aunt’s Tales . “ 4 e
Mason’s Old Library andits Tales .
Meeting in the Wilderness . A °
Milman’s Waythroughthe Desert .
Monro’s Allegories ° A ° °
— Eustace . e ° ° °
— Claudian , ° . ° .
Basilthe Schoolboy . . 4,
— Walterthe Schoolmaster . .
— Leonard and Dennis . . °
—— Footprints in the Snow é .
My Birthday Eve . . . ee a
Neale’s Stories of the Crusades . »
— Duchenier . 4 . . *
Unseen World , rs » 5
—— TheodoraPhranza . . .
—— Tales onthe Apostles’ Creed .
Northwode Priory ° ° . °
One a by Two Authors, . .
Paget’s Curate of Cumberworth . .
— Lucretia 5 é ° ° .
— Milford Malvoisin 7 ° e
— S. Antholin’s - % .
— Owlet of Owlstone Edge . .
—— Talesof the Village . . 4,
Ss.
° © Se) Ko imp te. gle: be Se te ne Mente
—
ran
ee ete
—
>
oe ee
_
a
Pie Bet Re TaD. 10 BO GOED BO le fo XO eine Gp [0 to Cece tps oy te we te te ta fe
bo
bo
Paget’s Warden of Berkingholt. .
Parsons’ Life-at-Ease Incumbents
Pollard’s Avice . . 3 ° .
Reed’s Adventures of Olaf Tryggveson
Reformed Village . ° . . .
Rockstro’s Abbey Lands . .
S. Alban’s, or Prisoners of Hope s
Sand’s Sylvester Enderby . . °
— Voices of Christmas. . 5 °
Spencer’s Scenes of Suburban Life .
Stories for Christmas-tide . . .
Summerleigh Manor . . . °
Sunbeam, the 5 ° e ° .
Sydney’s Life’s Search SOF ae .
—— Chronicle of Day by Day . 5
Tales of Crowbridge Workhouse 5
Two Guardians ©. °. ° ° .
Wilford’s Play and Earnest . 4 >
— Master of Churchill Abbots .
Maiden of Our Own Day , °
Wynnes,the. . : 5 artery
THEOLOGICAL.
Atkins’ Three Essays . “ .
Black’s Messias and Anti-Messias =
Blackmore’s Doctrine of the Russian Church 3
—— Harmony of Anglican Doctrines
Blunt’s Atonement * ® S 5
—— Essayson Reformation .
Brechin’s (Bp. of) Primary Charge .
—— Theological Defence . . °
Britton’s Hore Sacramentales , .
Browne’s Mosaic Cosmogony , 3
Carter’s Doctrine of the Priesthood .
—— Doctrine of Confession , é
—— Doctrine of the Eucharist ,
Duke’s Analysis of Bp. Butler’s Analogy
Flower’s Three Books of Theophilus .
Fowle’s Epistle te the Hebrews , 3
Gresley’s Sophron and Neologus
—— Idealism Considered . *
—— Ordinance ef Confession .
Heygate’sEmberHours . ,
—— Catholic Antidotes . ~
Hicks’ General View of the Doctri
Baptismal Regeneration , 5
Houghton’s Rationalism 5
Pauline Theology . °
Incarnation, Tracts on 3 4 .
Irons’ Whole Doctrine of Final Causes
—— Judgments on Baptism . °
Laurence’s Essay on Confession. .
Malan’s Letters to a Missionary . 3
Milman’s Love of the Atonement :
oe 8 He ee oo
Mossman’s Glossary of Scripture Words
Moultrie’s Lecture on Family Prayer .
Murray’s Catena on Eucharist . .
e
or
AAA NH Cri ih i Oy ow
hE epe, Ae ge eel ae 4. Ge
—
ow
°
oe @€ 0? ©
_
“NI
eer!)
+ 22
- 23
- 23
. 24
Newland’s Confirmation and Communion . 25
Our New Lifein Curisr , : 5
Owen’s Dogmatie Theology . :
Palmer’s Dissertations. . . .
Perry’s Analogies . ° . . °
—— Declaration on Kneeling . .
Poole’s, Rev. A., Case, Statement of .
Priest in Absolution . ° » .
Revelation of Jzsus Carist explained
Shipley’s Treatise on Humility . .
—— Mysteries of the Faith Sei
—— Liturgies of 1549 and 1662 .
Saraviaonthe Eucharist . ° .
Spirit of the Church . » “ 4
Thorndike on the Eucharist . mn
West’s Treatise on the Holy Eucharist
Woodward’s Demoniacal Possession
» 26
- 30
- 81
WORKS PUBLISHED BY J. MASTERS.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, The. An Exposition of the
leading Events recorded in that Book. Cloth, 1s.
Ea The Rev. W.
ilvio. An Allegory. Chiefly from the MS. of the late Rev.
William Adams, Author of the ‘‘ Shadow of the Cross,” ‘* Old
Man’s Home,” &c. Edited by C. Warren Adams. 2s.
The Fall of Croesus: a Story from Herodotus. 2s. 6d.
ADAMS.—Cressingham ; or, the Missionary. By C.P.Adams. 1s.
ALEXANDER, Mrs. C. F.
Hymns for Little Children. 18mo., wrapper, 6d.; cloth, Is.;
morocco, 3s. 6d.
—-— Royal 32mo., wrapper, 3d.; cloth, 6d.
—— Set to Music by Dr. Gauntlett. Fcap. 4to., wrapper,
2s. 6d.; cloth, gilt edges, 4s.
— SettoMusicbyE.C.A.Chepmell. PartsI.andII.1s.each.
——- Fcap. 4to. Illustrated with Forty-one fullpage engravings,
by Messrs. Dalziel. Printed on toned paper, and handsomely
bound in cloth extra, giltedges. 8s. 6d.
Hymns, Descriptive and Devotional, for the use of Schools. Royal
32mo., 2d.
Moral Songs, with Thirty-nine Vignette Illustrations. 18mo.,
wrapper, 8d.; cloth, 1s.; morocco, 3s. 6d.
—— royal 32mo., wrapper, 3d.
Narrative Hymns for Village Schools. 18mo., wrapper, 3d.
Set to Music for one or two voices, by A. F. Fcap. 4to.,
wrapper, 2s. 6d.
Poems on Subjects in the Old Testament. Parts I. and II., each
6d., wrapper; 1s. cloth.
The Baron’s Little Daughter, and other Tales in Prose and Verse,
18mo., cloth, 2s. 6d.
The Lord of the Forest and his Vassals. An Allegory. 16mo.,
cloth, 3s.; boards, 2s.
ALICE BERESFORD; a Tale of Home Life. By the Author
’ of ‘‘ Tales of Kirkbeck,” &c. 2nd edit. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3s. 6d.
ALSOP.—Sermons on Faith and Practice. By the Rev. James R.
Alsop, B.A. Demy 8vo., 10s. 6d.
AMY, THE KING’S DAUGHTER. ATale. 1s., paper 6d.
ANDREWES (Bp.)—A Manual of Private Devotions, containing
Prayers for each Day in the Week, Devotions for the Holy Com-
munion, and for the Sick. 6d.; 9d.cloth; calf or morocco, 2s. 6d.
ANTHEMS, Words of, as used in Churches. Is,
APPLE BLOSSOM, The; or,a Mother’s Legacy. A Tale. By
Onyx Titian. 3s. 6d.
ARCHIE’S AMBITION. 18mo. cloth, Is.
ARDEN.—Manual of Catechetical Instruction, arranged by the
Rev. G. Arden. 2s.
A Supplemental Catechism on the Holy Catholic Church. 1d., or
Od. per doz.
2 WORKS PUBLISHED BY J. MASTERS,
ASHLEY, The Rev. J. M.
The Victory ofthe Spirit: a Course of Short Sermons by way of
Commentary on the Eighth Chapter of S. Paul’s Epistle to
the Romans. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 2s.
Thirteen Sermonsfrom the Quaresimale of Quirico Rossi. Trans-
lated from the Italian. Edited by J. M. Ashley, B.C.L.
Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d.
ATHANASIUS, and other Poems. By a Fellow of a College.
Fcap. &vo., 2s.
A'TKINS.—Three Essays on the Eternal Sonship of Curist; The
Kingdom of Heaven; and the Resurrection. By the late Rev.
W. 8B. Atkins, A.M. 3s. 6d.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN BROWN THE CORD-
WAINER;; with his Sayings and Doings in Town and Country :
showing what part he took in the spread of Church Principles
among the Working Classes. Edited by aClerical Friend. 12mo.
Price 2s.
BADGER.—The Nestorians and their Rituals. By the Rev. G. P.
Badger, M.A. 2 vols., with numerous illustrations and maps. 21s.
BAINES, The Rev. J.
Twenty Sermons preached at S. John’s, Haverstock Hill. 12m0., 7s.
Tales of the Empire, or Scenes from the History of the House of
Hapsburg. 1s. 6d., paper ls.
The Life of William Laud, Archbishop and Martyr. Fcap. 8vo.,
price 3s. 6d.
Conversations on the History of England, for the use of Childrer.
By C. A. B, Edited by the Rev. J. Baines. 18mo., 2s. 6d.
BAPTISMAL VOWS; or, the Feast of S. Barnabas. A Tale.
18mo., 1s.
BAYLISS.—Loving Service; or, a Sister’s Influence. By Eliza A.
Bayliss. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
BEGINNINGS OF EVIL, The: being Talesonthe Ten Com-
mandments. By H.M.R. 18mo., 2s. 6d.
BENN, Mary.
The Solitary; or, a Lay from the West. With other Poems in
English and Latin. 3s. 6d.
Lays of the Hebrews, and other Poems. Qs.
BEN NETT.—Tales of a London Parish, &c., by the author of
“‘Tales of Kirkbeck.’? Edited by the Rev. W. J. E. Bennett.
18mo. 2s. 6d.
S. BERNARD.—The Sweet Rhythm of S. Bernard on the Most
Holy Name of Jesus. Newly done into English. 2d.
BERESFORD HOPE.—The Celebrated Greek and Roman
Writers. 18mo. 2s
UL) De hey. 3.5.
Holy Times and Scenes. 3s. Second Series, 3s.
The Champion of the Cross: an Allegory. 2s. 6d.
TWHLINS, The; or, ‘Thy Will be done.’”? Price 8d.
TWO GUARDIANS, The; or, Home in this World. By the
Author of ‘‘ The Heir of Redclyffe.’? Third edition. 6s.
TWO FRIENDS, The: or Charley’s Escape. By the author
of ‘‘ Little Walter, the Lame Chorister,” &c. 6d.
VALLEY OF LILIES, The. By Thomas a Kempis. 44.,
cloth ; 8d., cloth gilt.
VERSES AND PICTURES, illustrating the Life of our Lorp.
A packet of Reward Cards for Children. 1s.
VERSES FOR THE SUNDAYS AND HOLIDAYS
OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By the Author of the
**Daily Life of the Christian Child,’’ &c., with Illustrations. 2s.
VICTORIA AND HER CONTEMPORARY SOVE-
REIGNS. 18mo., 6d.
VIDAL, Mrs. F.
Home Trials. 18mo., cloth, 2s.
Esther Merle, and other Tales. 1s. 6d.
A VILLAGE STORY FOR VILLAGE MAIDENS.
In Three Parts.. Susan, Esther, and Dorothy; or, the Three
Starts in Life. Three Parts, 9d. each, or One Vol. cloth 2s. 6d.
A VOYAGE TO THE FORTUNATE ISLES. An
Allegory of Life. 1s., cloth 1s. 6d.
WAKEFIELD, Eliza.
Charades from History, Geography, and Biography, 1s.6d.
Mental Exercises for Juvenile Minds. 2s.
WALCOTT, The Rev. M.E.C.
The Interior of a Gothic Minster. A Lecture delivered at the
Architectural Museum, South Kensington, April 26, 1864.
Demy 8vo, 1s.
The Precinct of a Gothic Minster. A Lecture delivered before
the Cambridge Architectural Society, 1864, and the Architec-
tural Museum, 1865. ls.
Cathedralia. A Constitutional History of Cathedrals of the West-
ern Church. 8Vvo., 5s.
ALDERSGATE ST., AND NEW BOND ST. 37
WARING.—Annuals and Perennials; or, Seed-time and Harvest.
By C. M. Waring. Demy 8vo., beautifully Illustrated, 5s.
WAS IT A DREAM? and THE NEW CHURCH-
YARD. By the Author of ‘‘ Amy Herbert.”’ 1s, 6d.; paper, 1s.
WATSON, The late Rev. A. ;
The Seven Sayings on the Cross. Sermons. 3s. 6d.
Jesusthe Giver and Fulfiller of the New Law. EightSermons
onthe Beatitudes. 3s. 6d.
Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, Fasts, &c. Edited by the late
Rev. A. Watson, M.A. 3s. 6d. each.
2nd Series, 3 vols.—1st Sunday in Advent to the 25th Sunday
after Trinity.
3rd Series, 1 vol.—Some occasional offices of the Prayer Book.
A Catechism on the Book of Common Prayer. 2s.
WEST, The Rev. J. R.
A Short Treatise on the Holy Eucharist. Fcap. 8vo., 2s. 6d.
Parish Sermons on the Chief Articles of the Christian Faith. 6s,
On the Figures and Types of the Old Testament. 1S. 6d.
Questions and Answers on the Chief Truths of the Christian
Religion, for the assistance of younger Teachers and Moni-
tors. lid. or 7s. per 100.
Questions on the Chief Truths of the Christian Religion, intended
for the use of higher classes. 3d.
‘¢ What mean ye by this Service?” Exodus xii. 26. Some Ac-
count of the Meaning of the Chief Service of the Christian
Religion. 4d.
Reasons for being a Churchman. Founded on the Holy Scrip-
tures. 4d.; cheap edition, for distribution, 14d.
Tracts on Church Principles. Nos. 1 to 12, cloth, 1s. 6d.
Prayers and Hymns for Sunday Schools, 2d.
Catechism onthe Church. 4d.
WHY TEHEAD.—College Life. Letters to an Undergraduate.
By the late Rev. T. Whytehead. New edit. Edited by the Rev.
W.N. Griffin, M.A. 2s. 6d.
WILFORD, Florence.
Play and Earnest. A Tale. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 5s.
The Master of Churchill Abbots, and his Little Friends, 3s. 6d.
A Maiden of Our Own Day. Fcap. 8vo., 6s.
An Author’s Children. 18mo., 1s.
The King of a Day; or Glimpses of French Life in the Fifteenth
Century. 18mo., 2s.
WILBRAHAM, Frances M.
The Loyal Heart, and other Tales for Boys. Translated from
the German. With Engravings. 2nd Edit. 2s. 6d. cloth; in
a packet, 2s.
History of the Kingdom of Judah, from the Death of Solomon
to the Babylonish Captivity. 18mo., cloth, 1s. 6d.
WILKINS.—Threescore Years and Ten. By thelateG. Wilkins,
D.D., Archdeacon of Nottingham. 2s. 6d.
WILKINS.—Early Church History. A Lecture delivered before
the Literary Society, Southwell, Notts, December 12, 1854. By
the Rev. J. M. Wilkins. 8d.
WILKINSON.—Mission Sermons. Twenty-five Plain Sermons
preached in London and Country Churches and Missions. By
John Bourdieu Wilkinson, B.A., Assistant Priest of 8. Peter’s,
Plymouth. Fcap. $vo., Second edition, 3s. 6d,
38 WORKS PUBLISHED BY J. MASTERS,
WILLIAMS, The late Rev. I. .
The Altar; or Meditations in Verse on the Holy Communion.
By the author of ‘‘ The Cathedral.”’ Qs. 6d.
Hymns on the Catechism. 6d., cloth ls.
WILMSHURST.—Six Sermons, by the Rev. A.T. Wilmshurst. 3s.
WINDSOR.—Sermons for Soldiers. Preached at Home and
Abroad. ByS. B. Windsor, M.A., Chaplain to the Forces. Fcap.
8vo., 3s. 6d.
WINGED WORDS. ByA.H. 2s. 6d.
A WINTER IN THE EAST, in Letters to the Children at
Home. By F.M. 18mo. 2s.
WOODFORD, The Rev. J. R. e
Sermons preached in various Churches of Bristol. Second Edition.
7s. 6d.
Occasional Sermons. Vol. I.,7s. 6d. Vol. II., 7s. 6d.
WOODWARD.—Demoniacal Possession, its Nature and Cessa-
tion. A prizeessay. By the Rev. T. Woodward, M.A. 2s.
WROTH.—Five Sermons on some of the Old Testament Types of
Holy Baptism. By the Rev. Warwick R. Wroth, B.A, Post 8vo.,
cloth, 3s.
WYNNES, The: or, Many Men, Many Minds. A Tale of every-
day life. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 5s.
YORKE.—Cottage Homes; or, Tales on the Ten Commandments.
By Miss H. Yorke. 18mo. cloth, 2s.; or the Tales separately, in
a packet, 2s.
YOUNG CHURCHMAN’S ALPHABET. By the Author
of ‘‘ The Grandfather’s Christmas Tale,’? &c. With Illustrations
of the chief events in our Lorp’s Life, drawn and engraved by
R.and H. Dudley. 6d.
CHURCH MUSIC.
BY RICHARD REDHEAD.
Book of Tunes adapted to “Hymns Ancient and Modern.”
One Hundred and Ninety-seven Hymn Tunes for the
several Seasons of the Christian Year. With an Appendix/and
Index of Tunes to ‘* Hymns Ancient and Modern.’ Demy 8Vvo.,
cloth, 4s. ; Vocal Score, 2s.
A Set of Ten Tunes for Advent, Epiphany, Lent
Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide, Fridays, and All
Saints, arranged from Dr. Tye (1553). Words interlined, 2s. 6d.
The Music of the Introits. Containing Introits for all the
Seasons from Advent to Advent, with the occasional Festivals. 6s.
Responses to the Commandments, Creeds, Offertory
Sentences, Sanctuses, and Glorias. Price 8s.
Music for the Office of the Holy Communion, (Second
Series) containing four Kyries ; two Sanctuses; the Lorp’s Prayer
(after the Communion) harmonized, founded on Merbecke ; four
Gloriasin Excelsis. 3s. 6d. .
The Offertory Sentences from the Book of Common
Prayer, The Music arranged from Merbecke. 358.6.
Pw.
ALDERSGATE ST., AND NEW BOND ST. 39
Two Offertory Anthems. 1s.
The Anthems for the Seven Days before Christmas,
and for Good Friday. 3s. 6d.
*°O My People, what have I done unto thee ?”? Anthem
for Good Friday. 1s.
Hymns and Canticles used at Morning and Evening
Prayer. Pointed and Set to the Ancient Psalm Tones. 2s. 6d.
** Who are these like starsappearing P”? Hymn for AllSaints’
Day. 2s. 6d.
Miserere mei, Deus. Psalm 51, as sung in the Commination
Service. 2d.
The Order for the Burial of the Dead. Printed from the
Book of Common Prayer: the Musical Notation (from Merbecke’s
Booke of Common Praier Noted, 1550) Harmonised. Intended
for the use of Choirs. 18S., 9S. per doz.
BY THE REV. T. HELMORE, M.A.
S. Mark’s Chant Book. (In daily use at S. Mark’s College
Chapel, Chelsea.) 4s. 6d.
Part I. The Chants in full for each Morning and Evening. 3s. 6d.
Part II. The Tabie of the Chants. 1s.
Hymnal Noted, or Translations of the Ancient Hymns of the
Church, set to their proper melodies. Cloth, 5s.
Accompanying Harmonies to the Hymnal Noted. Royal
8vo. 10s.6d. PartsI.and II. 6s. 6d.each.
Accompanying Harmonies to the Psalter Noted. 3s.
Accompanying Harmoniestothe Brief Directory of Plain
Song. ls. 6d.
The Canticles Noted. 4d. .
The Psalter Noted. 2s.6d.
Manual of Plain Song. The Canticles and Psalter together.
3s. 6d. cloth; antique calf, 7s. 6d.; royal 8vo., cloth, 9s.
BY H. J. GAUNTLETT, MUS. DOC.
The Psalter, or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung
in Churches, adapted to the Ancient Church Tones. Cloth, 1s.
The Canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer, with the
Creed of S. Athanasius, adapted to the Church Tones. 4d.
Choral Service of the Book of Common Prayer, as ap-
pointed to be sung. Part I. The CANTICLES, VERSICLES, and
RESPONSES for MoRNING and EvENING PRAYER. PartII. The
ATHANASIAN CREED, the LiTANy, and OrFIcE OF Hoty Com-
MUNION. In full score, suited to Cathedrals, Parish Choirs, &c.
Royal 8vo., bold music type, price 1s. 6d. each Part, or bound
together in cloth price 3s. 6d.
The Canticles in the Morning and Evening Services,
pointed correctly for chanting, with chants varied to suit the
character of the words. 4d., cloth 6d.
40 WORKS PUBLISHED BY J. MASTERS,
The Canticles arranged for Antiphonal Chanting accord-
ing tothe Anglican Use. Bythe Rev. R. F.Laurence, M.A.,
Vicar of Chalgrove, Oxon. The Verses printed alternately in red
and black. In two parts. Price ls.
Ancient English Choral Services of the Sixteenth Cen-
tury. Edited by the Rev. John Jebb, D.D. 1s.
I. Veniteexultemus. II. Communion Service by Thomas Caustun.
A very Easy Burial Service, for Village Choirs. By Frederick
_Helmore, Esq. 8vo., 6d.
Te Deum Laudamus, set to Short Chants. By Frederick Hel-
more. 2d.
Te Deum Laudamus, No. 2, Benedicite, and the Athana-
sian Creed, set to Short Chants. ‘By F. Helmore.
Burial Office Noted, for Parochial Use. 6d.
The Festival Psalter; being the Proper Psalms for the Four
Great Feasts adapted to Gregorian Tones. By the Rev. T. F.
Ravenshaw, and W.S. Rockstro, Esq. Cloth 1s. 4d., Wrapper 1s.
The Ferial Psalter; being the Daily Psalms adapted to Ancient
Ecclesiastical Tones. To which are added, Two Chants for the
Miserere and Four Festal Settings for the Magnificat. By Thomas
F. Ravenshaw, M.A., Rectory of Pewsey, Wilts; and W. S.
Rockstro, Honorary Precentor of All Saints, Babbicombe, Devon.
In Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
Accompanying Harmonies to the Ferial Psalter. By W.
S. Rockstro, Esq. In large 8vo. 3s. 6d.
Hymns of the Church, Pointed as they are to be Chanted;
together with the Versicles, Litany, Responses, &c., by T.
Tallis. Arranged by Mr. Pearsall. ls.
Kyrie Eleison; or, Responses to the Commandments. Compiled
from a Quintett by Winter. 4d.
The Prefaces in the Office of the Holy Communion, with
their Ancient Chant. Bythe Rey. J. L. Crompton, M.A. 2s. 6d.
Music as sung in the Church of 8. Paul, Newton Abbot,
Devon. Compiled from Merbeckeand other Authentic Sources,
and arranged in a simple form for Ordinary Days. By GeorgeQO.
Browne, Organist. Te Deum, 3d.: Kyrie Eleison, 2d.; Preces
and Responses, 4d.
Te Deum, Jubilate, Sanctus, Kyrie, Magnificat, and Nunc
Dimittis. Four Parts and Accompaniment. By T. L. Fowle,
Mus. Doc. 2s. 6d.
Ninety-five Chants, Ancient and Modern, appropriated to the
Canticles. By the Rev. C. S. Grueber, B.A. Fcap. 4to., 1s.
Te Deum, set to asimple chant for Village Choirs. By the Rev.
J.W. Rumsey. 2d.
Gregorian and other Chants, adapted to the Psalter and Can-
ticles, as pointed to be sung in Churches. 1s. 6d.
The Hight Gregorian Tones, with their several endings se-
parately. 4d.
Dies Ire, Translated into English metre, by W. J. Irons, D.D.,
with the Music, by Charles Child Spencer, Esq. 2s. 6d. English
Words, 3s. 6d. per 100. ~~
Dies Iree. Set to easy Music in short score by the Rev. H. E.
Havergal. 3d. Suited to Parish Choirs and Schools.
Hymns of the Holy Eastern Church. Setto Music for Four
Voices, by E. Sedding. Fcap.4to. 1s.
ALDERSGATE ST., AND NEW BOND ST. 41
S. Michael’s Hymns. Containing ‘‘O Paradise;” ‘The Land
beyond the Sea;”? ‘‘ Hoty Spirit, Lorp of Light.’? The Music
composed by Edwin Linter. Third edition. 6d.
Hymns of the Eastern Church, The Endless Alleluia, and
other Hymns. Set to Music and Dedicated to the Right Rev. the
Lord Bishop of Rochester, by Arthur Henry Brown, Organist of
Brentwood, Essex. 4to., 1s. *
** Jerusalem the Golden,” from the Rhythm of Bernarditle Mor-
eee to Musie in Four Parts, by Edmund Sedding. 2d. -
*©Sun of my Soul.”? From the ‘Christian Year.’? Set to Music
in Four Parts, by Edmund Sedding. 2d.
Hymn for the Opening of a New School. 1d.
Confirmation Hymn. 1d.
** Art thou Weary, art thou Languid ?”? Four Part Hymn,
Composed by Robert Parker. The Words from Dr. Neale’s “Hymns
of the Eastern Church.” 34d,
CAROLS.
Christmas Carols. In sets of Four, 6d. each set; or bound
together, 1s.6d. The Words alone, ld.
s*Tast Night I Lay a Sleeping.”? A Christmas Carol. The
Music by H. J. Gauntlett, Mus. Doc. 6d.
**Hark to the Merry Bells.”? A Christmas Carol, in Duet,
Chorus, and Solo. The Words and Music composed by T. L,
Fowle, Mus. Doc. ls.
The Poor Man’s Christmas Carol. On Card, with Music, 1d,
’ Divers Carols for Christmass and Sundry Tydes of Holy
hurch, with apt Notes to sing ’em withall, newly set forthin
fit and sober Composures. By Arthur Henry Brown. 1s. 6d.
‘6 When Christ was Born.” A Christmas Carol, from the Har-
leian MS. in the British Museum. Set to Music by A. H. Brown,
Dedicated to the Bishop of Oxford. ls.
A Carolfor New Year’s Day. Set to Music by A. H. Brown.
Dedicated to the Bishop of Brechin. ls.
An Epiphany Carol. Set to Music by A.H. Brown, Dedicated
to the Rev. Dr. Pusey. Is.
Haster Carol. Set to Music by A. H. Brown. Dedicated to the
Bishop of Salisbury. 1s. 6d.
*‘ Joyful Rise, O Christian People!’ Music by the Rev. G. H.
Curteis. Words by the Rev. A. H. Wyatt. ‘‘Waken, Christian
Children !?? Wordsand Melody bythe Rey. S.C. Hamerton. 4d.
66 Joy and Gladness.”’? AChristmasCarol. Written toan Ancient
=
Melody, by the Rev. J. M. Neale, M.A. Harmonized for Four
Voices, with or withoutaccompaniment, by the Rev. S. S. Great-
heed, M.A. Price 6d. ‘
A Collection of Ancient Carols for Christmas and other
Tides. Arranged for Four Voices. By Edmund Sedding,
Editor of ‘“‘ Ancient Christmas Carols,’? &c, 1s.6d. Words 14d.
Dives and Lazarus. A Christmas C written to an old melody
by the late Dr. Neale, not hitherto published, and arranged for
four voices. By Edmund Sedding. 2d.
‘*Tell again the olden Story.’’? A Christmas Carol, for Four
Voices. On toned paper, 14d.
42 WORKS PUBLISHED BY J. MASTERS.
An Easter Carol. The melody of a Sequence of the Thirteenth
Century, with Accompaniment; the words from two ancient
Carols. By the Rev. J. M. Neale. 3d.
** We have Risen very Early.?? Carolfor Mayday. The Words
from the “‘ Old Church Porch.” Composed and arranged for Four
Voices, by the Right Rev. H. L. Jenner, Bishop of Dunedin. 3d.
Hymns for Little Children. By Mrs. ©. F. Alexander, Set to
"Music by Dr: Gauntlett. Suitable for Schools or Families.
2s. 6d.; cloth 4s. ; 7
Hymns for Little Children. Setto Music by E. C. A. Chepmell.
Parts I.and If. 1s. each.
Morning and Evening Hymns. From the ** Hymns for Little
Children,’”? set to Music for the use of Schools and Families.
By Dr.Gauntlett. 3d. each.
Narrative Hymns for Village Schools. By Mrs. C. F. Alex-
ander. Set to Music for one or two voices by A. F. 2s. 6d.
Accompanying Tunes to the Hymns for Infant Children.
Edited by the Rev. J. B. Dykes, M.A., Mus. Doc. 1S.
The Child’s Grace before and after Meat. Set to simple
music, by Dr. Gauntlett. 3d.
Prose Hymn for Children. By the Rev. W. J.J enkins, Rector
of Fillingham. 7s. per 100.
“He is coming, He is coming.” Hymn for Advent. Words by
Mrs. C. F. Alexander. Music by the Rev. E. T. Codd, M.A.
3d., on card 6d.
Harvest Hymn, “0 sing the Song of Harvest.”’ By R. C., from
the Guardian. Set to Music for Four Voices, suitable for ordinary
Choirs. By the Rev. Henry E. Havergal, M.A. 4d.
Harvest Hymn. Words by the Rev. J. M. Neale. The Music
composed by Henry G. Duffield. 6d.
King Alfred’s Hymn, ‘As the Sun to brighter Skies.’”? Ar-
ranged to ancient music, by Dr. Smith. 6d.
«‘ The Threefold Heavens of Glorious Heigh 2? The words
from the ‘‘Cathedral.’? The Music by M.A.W. Is.
Songs of the Young Pilgrim, from “‘ Pascal the Pilgrim.’’ Set
to Music by W. Fox, with Introductory Remarks by the Rev. E.
Monro, M.A. 1S.
A Song for the Times. Words by the Rev. J. M. Neale. The
Music (arranged for Four Voices) by the Rev. J. W. Rumsey. 3d.
‘Dear is the Morning Gale of Spring.’’ A Sacred Song.
The Poetry from the ‘‘Christian Year.”? The Music by J. F. D.
Yonge, M.D. 2s.
To the Redbreast: a Song. The Words by the late Rev. G.
Cornish. The Musicby T. J.Jones. 2s.
‘‘FTere’s to the Cause, to that Good Cause.” The Words
py the Rev. J. M. Neale. Setto Music in Four Parts, by A. H.
Brown. 1s. :
“The Better Land.’? The Poetry by Mrs. Hemans. The Music
by R. Redhead. Dedicated to the Rev. W. U. Richards. 3s.
Collects for the Fou and Seventeenth Sundays after
Trinity. The Mu y Mrs. William Warren. Dedicated to
the Most Honourable the Marchioness of Lansdowne. Price 1s.
The Chorister’s Hymn. On Card, 4d.
Highty Short Exercises in Hight Lessons on the Major
Scale. By F. Helmore. 4d.
mi
hae tt foes
wh
5
LY
ra
rare e
Es ei7
ata
Mora gEeMinTc NEPTFCUTEDS PLS PaElP ae, ssePEES OU aeET, Ler tres Mega sfens SER] ee lPag er greeey Esai ieee tHate BAe lis TYFETTTEL TRS cy st ate Sears eoep ee gEVA TASTE Seton: festanl HEE eesteea stent saypn Cr saere REST Pe : t ah
Tu es
theta ity
Wate
8)
epaiaet hie
preter: 5 BY. : 4 } 28 ~ ‘ stite
‘ r itr eer hares H " : Ast ponte et
; thesia van . 4 piea ts, >
thetartti ee, ; : [eat i . Hy) SEAN
CaS atte “ i
rites
etot bebe irat eda fe)
Slides st
f : Haser st
peste Nsw , i . Dr aireeats i se
isan ity
ae Bi
ieee 4 bh i | ‘ : 2 ‘4 ; . thebeats ne
; dite , ate
yitt}
ced ia lece,
ard is:
dadiitiemny lout
on
We eesay
SU Tiere Rep ecies
wiiititeta
ete,
act,
.
a)
sh bw:
M4
u
baie
Fae
here
yok
Fete!
ateca at
pisveeattey a
oN
kal
foe
aie
Dd,
ai
Seu