Sermons on the Song of Songs

Digitized by Google 437 hearts are said to be one, and many souls one, as it is written : The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul (Acts iv. 32). This, then, as regards unity. 8. But what is that unity which does not come into being by the act of uniting, but which is from all eternity? Nor is it, like the other, produced by an act of mutual manducation, because it is not produced at all, but simply exists. It does not admit of conjunction, nor composition, nor any such thing, which is inconsistent with a perfect unity. To the Father and the Son, Nature, Essence, and Will, are not only one, but the same. For Nature, Essence, and Will, are Their Being and Substance. It must not, then, be said that the Unity, in which the Father and the Son are One, is a consequence following from their Natures, their Substances, or their Wills ; it can in no sense be said to be caused or to come into existence, but it simply exists ; in a word, it is not factitious, but original.]] The Father and the Son are the One in the Other. They are, in a manner which is not only ineffable, but also incomprehensible, capable of containing and being contained, but if They are capable of containing Each Other it is without Their being divisible ; and if They are capable of being contained, it is without participation.

For, as the Church sings in a hymn : ' In the Father the Son is wholly, and in the Word is the Father wholly.'1 The Father is in the Son, in whom He is always well pleased ; and the Son is in the Father, of whom He is always the Begotten, and from whom He is never separated. Now it is by charity that man is in God and God in man, as says S. John : He that dwelleth in love dweUeth in God^ and God in him (1 John iv. 16). It is by this consent and oneness of will that they are two in one spirit, or, rather, are one spirit Do you perceive the distinction ? It is not the same thing to be consubstantial, that is, of the same substance, and consenting, that is, concurring in the same will. Although, if you notice carefully, that difference in their unity is sufficiently indicated to you by the words unus and unum, since the former does not apply to the union of the Father and the Son, nor the latter to that between God and man.

The Father and the Son cannot be said to be one [only], since the One is Father, and the Other is Son ; yet They are declared to be, and are, one and the same Substance, because it is common to Both, nor has Each His singular Substance, On the contrary, God and man have not the same substance or nature, and, therefore, cannot be said to be unum. And yet, if they are attached to each other by the tie of love, they may, with perfect truth, be said to be one spirit.

But that unity is brought about rather by the concurrence of wills than by the union of essences. 9. There is now made sufficiently clear (if I do not mistake) not only the diversity, but also the disparity, of these unities, the one existing in the same essence, and the other in diverse essences. What can differ more between themselves than the unity which exists between Digitized by 438 things of different kinds and between those of the same kind ? The words unus and unum, as I have already said, mark the difference between the two kinds of unities, since by the word unum the essential unity between the Father and the Son is designated, and by unus, not this, but a mutual consent of affections and of will between God and man is so referred to. Nevertheless, it may very well be said that the Father and the Son are / one ' (unus), with the addition of some defining word ; as, for example, one God, one Lord ; and generally, with regard to all that relates equally to Each and not to One in particular.

For Their Godhead or Their Majesty is no more diverse in Each than is Their Substance or Essential Nature ; and all these, if you consider piously the matter, are not diverse in Them or divided, but are one. I have said too little : they are one and the same with Them. What shall we say of that unity in which, as we read, many hearts and many souls are one ? I think that it does not merit the name of unity when compared with this, since it does not unite many things, but marks them singly as being one. Therefore that Unity, which is not brought about by any unifying act, but which exists from all eternity, is unique and supreme. Nor is it the effect of that spiritual manducation of which mention was made before, because it is not brought about, but it exists. Much less is it to be considered as due to any conjunction whatsoever of Essences or consent of Wills, for there is in it neither plurality of the one nor of the other. In Them, as has been said, there is one Essence and one Will ; and where these are one there cannot be consent, nor composition, nor conjunction, nor any such thing. There must be at least two wills to unite in a common consent, and similarly there must be two essential existences for that consent to produce union. There is nothing like this in the Father and the Son, since there is in Them neither two Essences nor two [divergent] wills. These two things are in them but one, or, as I remember that I said before, these two things make but one in Them and with Them; and inasmuch as They abide Each in the Other, in a manner unchangeable1 as it is incomprehensible, they are truly and uniquely One. Yet if anyone wishes to say that between the Father and the Son there is consent, I do not contest this, provided it be understood, not of a union of Wills, but of a unity of Will. 10. And yet we think that God and man abide each mutually in the other, but in a manner far different from that just referred to, because their substances and their Wills are distinct, and they abide each in the other in a manner far different; that is, they are not blended as to substances, but consentaneous as to wills. And this union is to them a communion of wills and a conformity in charity.

Happy is this union if you have had experience of it, even though, compared with that more perfect union just referred to, it seem to be nothing at all. It was the saying of one who had experienced this : // is good for me to draw near to God (Ps. lxxiii. 28). It is indeed a Digitized by Google 439 great good if you hold fast wholly to Him. Who, then, is it who perfectly does this except the person who, abiding in God as being loved by God, nevertheless draws God into himself by a reciprocal affection ? Therefore, when God and man are mutually and perfectly attached (which is the case when they are mutually incorporate by close affection), I may without doubt say that by this God is in man and man in God. But man is indeed in God from all eternity, since he is beloved by God from all eternity, if, that is to say, he is of those who assert that He hath loved and accepted us in His dear Son before the foundation of the world (Eph. i. 4-6). But God is in man from the time that He is beloved by man. And, if this be the case, man indeed is in God even when God is not in man ;

but God is not in the man who is not in God. For although perhaps he loves for a time, he is not able to remain in the love of God if he is not loved of God ; nor even, though loved, is he yet able to love Him. Otherwise, how shall that saying stand good: He first loved us? (1 John iv. 19). But when he who was loved before begins also to love, then man is in God and God in man. But he who never loves has plainly never been loved, and it is thus certain that he is not in God, nor is God in him. All this has been said to show the difference between that bond by which the Father and the Son are One, and that by which a soul which attaches itself to God is one spirit with Him, lest perhaps, when we read of the man who abides in love, that he abides in God and God in him, and also of the Son, that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, it should be thought that an adopted son of God enjoys the same prerogative as the Only Begotten. 11. These truths, then, having been made clear, let us return to Him who feedeth among the

lilies^ for it was from that point that we started to make this digression ; whether it has been of interest and value it is for you to judge. I have already, as it seems to me, given two explanations of this passage. I have said that the Bridegroom, who is Himself the virtue and Brightness [of His Father], finds nourishment in the virtues of those upon whom He has shed the brightness of sanctity ; and also that he receives sinners to penitence in His Body, which is the Church ; and that it was to unite them with Himself that He was Himself made sin, who did no sin, that the body of sin might be destroyed in which sinners had once been incorporated, and that they might become righteousness in Him, being justified freely by His grace. 12. A third explanation which occurs to me I proceed to lay before you, and I think that it will suffice, not only for the explanation of the passage, but for the ending of this sermon. The Word of God is truth, and this is the Bridegroom. This you know ; listen, then, to what remains. When a person hears this [Truth] and does not obey it, it remains empty and, so to speak, barren ; it is sorrowful, and

complains that it has been brought forward to no good purpose. But if the hearer has obeyed it, will it not seem to you that the Word has grown and taken to itself a body, because action is joined to word, Digitized by Google 440 inasmuch as it is strengthened and reinforced by the fruits of obedience and the harvest of righteousness ? Thence it is that He says in the Apocalypse : 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 (Rev. iii. 20). It seems that the Lord gives approval to this explanation where He says in a prophet that His word shall not return unto Him void, but shall prosper, and accomplish that whereto He has sent it (Is. lv. 12). 77 shall not return^ He says, unto Me void or barren, but as succeeding in all things ; it shall be filled with the good actions of those who shall obey it in love.

For, according to the usual manner of speaking, a word is said to be fulfilled when it has produced the effect intended by it ; while, until it has done this, it is called empty and meagre and, so to speak, famishing. 13. But hear with what food the Word Himself declares that He is nourished. My meat, He says, is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work (John iv. 34). This is the utterance of the Word Himself, and declares plainly that every good work is His nourishment; and, furthermore, that He finds it among the lilies, that is, among the virtues. That which is to be found, if it be so, beyond those limits, He who feedeth among the lilies will not touch, even though it seem to be, so far, good of its kind. For example, He will not accept alms from the hand of a robber or a usurer ; nor, again, from the hand of a hypocrite who, when he bestows alms, causes a trumpet to be sounded before him that he may obtain the praise of men. He will by no means accept the prayer of him who loves to pray at the corners of the streets that he may be seen of men (Matt, vi. 2, 5). For the prayer of the ungodly will be abominable to Him (Prov. xxviii. 9). Without avail, also, will it be for one to offer his gift before the altar who is conscious that his brother has some cause of complaint against him (Matt. v. 23, 24). He had not respect unto the offerings of Cain, for the very reason that he was not well inclined towards his brother (Gen. iv. 5). As is testified by a holy prophet, He delighted not in the sabbaths and new moons and sacrifices of the Jews, so that He protested openly that they were abhorrent to Him, and asked : When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand ? (Is. i. 12). I believe that those hands had not the fragrance of lilies, and for that reason He who was wont to feed, not among thorns, but among lilies, disdained the gifts they proffered.

Were not those hands filled with thorns of which He said : Your hands are full of blood f The hands of Esau were bristly, as if they had been covered with thorns, and therefore they were not admitted to minister to one who was holy. 14. I fear that there may be some among us also whose gifts the Bridegroom does not accept, because they have not the fragrance of the lilies. For if my own self-will is found, for instance, in the fasts which I make, the Bridegroom will not accept such fasting as that, because it savours not of the lily of obedience, but of the sin of my own self-will. The same thing is to be said, not only of fasting, but Digitized by Google of silence, of vigils, of prayer, of reading, of manual labour, and, in short, of every observance of the monastic life, where there is found in it, not obedience to a superior, but the prompting of our own selfwill. I should consider that those observances, although good in themselves, are not to be numbered among lilies, that is, among virtues ; but that the man whose services are of such a kind would hear from the Prophet the question : ' Is it such a service as this that I have chosen ? saith the Lord ' (Is. lviii. 3-5) ; and he adds : ' In the day of your fast ye find pleasure/ Self-will is a great evil, since it causes your good works not to be good for you. Such works need to [be altered, and] become lilies ; for He who feedeth among the lilies will not taste of anything which is defiled with self-will. Wisdom is everywhere ; she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness, nor can any defiled thing fall into her (Wisd. vii. 24, 25).

So, then, the Bridegroom loves to feed among the lilies, that is, in pure and clear hearts. But how long shall this be ? Until the day break and the shadows flee away. This passage is full of shadows and of difficulties ; let us not enter into the thick wood of this profound mystery, except in the full light of day. But now, as my sermon has been unusually prolonged, the day has drawn to a close, and we are obliged unwillingly to withdraw from these lilies. I have not hesitated to expatiate at greater length than usual, because the fragrance of these flowers prevents anyone from being wearied or annoyed. There seems but little remaining of the verse before us ; but of that little the meaning is deeply hidden, as is the case with all other parts of this poem. But He who reveals mysteries will come to our help, as I trust, when we shall have begun to knock [at the door] ; nor will He shut the mouths of them that speak of Him. Rather is He wont to open those that are closed. He is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

the meaning of the words 'the day breaks and the shadows flee away.' the various days in the lives of men expounded, that the righteous live in light, and that a brighter day awaits them ; but that the wicked, who are devoted to works of darkness, can look forward only to eternal night. ' My Beloved is Afine, and I am His : He feedeth among the lilies : until the day break and the shadows flee away J — Cant. ii. 16, 17.

THE last part only of these clauses remains to be treated, and I am in doubt, in entering upon it, to which of the two preceding ones it ought to be joined, for I may connect it indifferently with either. For whether you say, My Beloved is mine, and I am Hisy Digitized by Google 442 until the day break and the shadows flee away, interposing only, Be feedeth among the lilies, or following the literal order, He feedeth among the lilies, until the day break and the shadoivs flee away, you have in either case a sense perfectly good. There is only this difference, that if you join the ' until ' to the former sentence, the day is included in the sense ; but if to the latter, the day is excluded from it. Are we to suppose that, in intimating that the Bridegroom will cease to feed among the lilies when the day shall have dawned, it is intended to declare that He will also cease to belong to the Bride and she to Him ? By no means. Their relation shall endure for ever, with the sole difference that it shall then be as much happier as it shall be stronger, and as much stronger as it is freer and less impeded. It is necessary, then,

to understand this word * until ' in the same way as that passage in the Gospel of St. Matthew where it is said that Joseph knew not Mary until she had brought forth her firstborn Son (Matt i. 25). For he knew her not afterwards. Or, as in that verse of a Psalm : Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us (Ps. cxxiil 2) ; but not that they should be turned away from Him when He has begun to have mercy. Or, again, as that saying of our Lord to His Apostles : Lo, I am with you alway% even unto1 the end of the world, for He will not cease to be with them after that event has taken place. But now see how this word until is to be understood if you connect it with the words, My Beloved is mine, and I am His. For if you refer it to He feedeth among the lilies, another sense must be put upon it. Now, there will be a good deal of difficulty in showing in what manner the Beloved ceases to feed among the lilies when the day begins to break. Is the day spoken of that of the Resurrection ? But, then, why should it not please

Him much more to pasture among the lilies, seeing that there is then a much greater abundance of them ? So much as relates to the connection of the clauses. 2. Consider, now, with me, how, although (after the consummation of all things), the Bridegroom is in the midst of a Kingdom which is glorious with lilies, in which He takes the greatest joy and delight, yet it is not said that He feeds [among] them, as He had been accustomed to do up to that time. For where, then, are those sinners whom Christ makes one with Himself, having, so to speak, ground and masticated them with the teeth of an austere discipline, that is to say, with affliction of the flesh and heartfelt contrition ? Nor, again, will the Bridegroom, who is the Word, any longer require for Himself the food of various works or actions of obedience, where the only action will be to enjoy repose, and the occupation [of the blessed] to contemplate God and be fully satisfied in Him. His food is, indeed, to do the will of His Father ; but this refers to the present state, not to the future : for how can He be engaged in doing that which is fully done ? And it is clear that then it will

be complete and perfected.

It is in that state that all the saints will know clearly what Digitized by Google 'the day breaks and the shadows flee away' 443 is that Will of God which is good, and acceptable, and perfect (Rom. xii. 2). And assuredly nothing remains to be done of that which is fully perfected. The occupation that is left is to find enjoyment in it, not to bring it about ; to experience it, not to carry it into effect ; to live in that Divine Will, not to exercise one's self in accomplishing it Is it not of that very Will that we are taught of the Lord to pray earnestly that it may be done, as in heaven, so in earth (Matt. vi. 10), so that the carrying it out may not be a labour to us, but the fruits of it be then a delight ? So, then, the Bridegroom, the Word, will no longer require the food of good works, because there every work will necessarily cease where all are filled with the abundance of wisdom.

For they who are less in action shall receive wisdom (Ecclus. xxxviii. 25). 3. But let us now see if what we say is capable of standing with that sense of the words ' He feedeth among the lilies ' in which some interpret them ; namely, that He rejoices in the excellence, and, so to speak, in the whiteness of virtues. For we, too, have not passed over that sense among others. Shall we say, then, either that there are no virtues, or that the Bridegroom does not take pleasure in them ? Either alternative is altogether extravagant. But see whether He does not take delight in them in any other manner ; and if, instead of their being food to Him, they do not perhaps, and so to speak, serve Him as drink. During this life, and in this mortal body, there is no virtue of ours which is so purified from mortal frailty, and rendered so pure and sweet as to serve for the use of the Word in this way. But He who wills that all men shall be saved overlooks many things, and devotes His efforts, as it were, with pains and skill, to extract from that which cannot be used as a beverage somewhat agreeable and worthy to be food. A time shall come when virtue shall be capable of being pure and clear, so that instead of being masticated with labour abd fatigue, or, rather, instead of wearying the eater, it shall give to him delight without weariness, but it is no longer as food that is eaten, but as a draught that is swallowed. It is that which the Lord promises in the Gospel : / will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Fathers Kingdom (Matt. xxvi. 29). And He makes no mention of food We read also in a Psalm : Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine (Ps. lxxviii. 65) ; but here also food is not mentioned.

The Bride is, then, conscious of this mystery when, having found and declared that her Beloved feedeth among the lilies, she names a time until which He deigns to do this, or, rather, has recognised and stated the time already fixed, saying, until the day break, and the shadows flee away. For she knew that after, He would rather drink (so to speak) of virtues than feed upon them. That, it may be said, agrees with the usual custom, that drink should follow food. He, then, who takes food here on earth shall taste of drink in heaven, and with as much greater sweetness as security ; inasmuch as then He shall drink with ease, while now He partakes of them with labour, and, as it were, eats of them but in morsels. Digitized by Google 444 4. Let us now set ourselves to consider what is that day and what are those shadows of which the Bride speaks : in what manner the one breaks, that is, appears, and by what power the others flee away.

The expression here used is significant and singular, for it is only in this passage, I believe, that you will find the day spoken of as breathing.1 For the winds are said to breathe, not the times. Man breathes, other animals breathe ; and it is the air continually breathed which enables them to live. And what is this but wind ? The Holy Spirit also breathes, and hence His Name. In what way, then, is the day, which is not a spirit, nor a wind, nor, indeed, a living creature at all, said to breathe ? Although it is not, indeed, said to breathe, but, which is still more remarkable, to aspire [spirans ; aspirans\ Nor is it less extraordinary that it is said, and the shadows flee away% since, at the rising of this visible and material light the shadows do not flee away, but are dissipated. The explanation of these things is to be sought outside the sphere of things corporeal. If we shall be able to find a spiritual day and spiritual shadows, then what is meant by the aspiration of one and the \ fleeing away of the other will become clearer.

If it be considered that the day of which the Psalmist says : A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand (Ps. lxxxiv. 10), is a literal one, I know not what ought not to be understood in a literal sense. There is a day also which is taken in an evil sense, and which is named with malediction by the Prophets (Job iii. 3 and Jer. xx. 14). But let us by no means think that it is one of those visible days which the Lord has made. It is a day in a spiritual sense. 5. Who can doubt also that the shadow which rested upon Mary when she conceived (Luke i. 35) was a spiritual one? And so was it with that which is thus mentioned in the Prophet : Under His shadow we shall live among the heathen (Lam. iv. 20). But I think, nevertheless, that in this place by 4 shadows* is meant those hostile powers which are called not * shadows ' only, but 4 darkness ' by an Apostle, where he speaks of the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. vi. 12) ; and that they designate also those of our race who are attached to these ; who are children of the night, not of light, nor of the day. For when the day shall appear, these shadows shall not be entirely destroyed, while we see that material shadows not only disappear from the presence of the light of this world, but perish altogether.

They shall not, then, be entirely destroyed, but shall be more miserable than if they were. They shall exist, but in a state degraded and subdued. Thus the Psalmist saith (and no doubt he refers to the prince of these shadows) 4 he will crouch and fall when he shall have power over the poor ' (Ps. ix. 10, Douay). His nature shall not, then, be annihilated, but his power taken away ; his substance shall not perish, but the hour of darkness and its power shall pass. They are cast down that they may not see the glory of God ; they are not blotted out of existence, that they may dwell for ever in the flame. Shall not the shadows be laid prostrate when the mighty Digitized by Google are cast down from their seat, and have been made a footstool ?

Speedily shall that come to pass. It is the last time : the night is far spent, the day is at hand. The day shall wax, the night wane1 (Rom. xiii. 12). The night signifies the devil, the angel of Satan, though he transform himself into an angel of light. The night is Antichrist, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His Mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. ii. 8). And is not the Lord the day ? Evidently He is the Day, which breathes and brightens, which puts to flight the shadows ty the Breath of His Mouth, and destroys the phantoms [of the night] by the brightness of His coming. Or if you prefer to take the phrase 4 flee away ' in the sense of ' to be extinguished,' I do not oppose this. We see that the dark sayings and figures of Scripture are shadows ; so also are those ambiguous modes of speaking, those subtle phrases, and involved arguments, which obscure the light of truth rather than discover it.

For in part we know, and in part we prophesy. But when the day breaks the shadows shall flee away ; for when the fulness of light is occupying every place, there is no spot left where shadows may linger.

For when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away (1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10). 6. That would suffice, if the Scripture said simply that the day 'breathes/ and not that it 'aspires.'2 But now I think it needful to add a few words to explain the reason of this small addition, and of the distinction which it indicates. For I, to speak truly, have long been persuaded that in the sacred and precious text of the Scripture not the smallest particle is without meaning and importance. Now, we are accustomed to make use of this word, to express the seeking something with eager desire, as, for example, when we say that such and such a person ' aspires ' to this honour, or that dignity. There is denoted, then, by this word a marvellous abundance and power of the Holy Spirit to be manifested hereafter in that day when not only our souls, but even our bodies shall become spiritual, according to their manner, and when those who shall be found worthy shall be inebriated with the fulness of the House of the Lord, and shall drink to the full of the river of His pleasures. 7. There is still another way in which this passage may be taken.

The sanctified day has already shone upon the holy Angels, breathing upon them, like a mighty wind, the sweetly flowing secrets of the eternal Divinity. For the Psalmist says : The river of the flood thereof makelh glad the City of God (Ps. xlvi. 4) ; but he refers to that City, to which it is said : Like as the habitation of all that rejoice is in thee (Ps. lxxxvii. 7). But when that day shall have breathed upon us also who dwell on the earth, it shall be not only a day of breathing, but also a day of aspiring, because it shall, as it were, open its bosom and admit us also. Or rather (that we may go farther back and treat of the course of events more at length) after the Creator had Digitized by Google 446 made man of the dust of the earth, He, as the truthful history narrates, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. ii. 7). That then became for him a day of inspiration. But, lo, an envious night, pretending to be light, dashed against this day, for in promising to man a light of knowledge far more brilliant than he had, it enveloped our first parents, by the perfidious counsel given to them, with sudden darkness, with a

deep and terrible obscurity. Woe ! woe to them ! they have not known nor understood ; they walk on ignorantly in obscurity, taking darkness for light, and light for darkness. For the woman ate of the tree which the serpent had suggested (dederat) to her, which God had forbidden, and gave of it to her husband, and a new day, as it were, began to shine for them. For then the eyes of them both were opened, and that day became for them a day of conspiring, which destroyed the day of inspiration, and substituted for it an expiring day. Assuredly the subtlety of the serpent, the blandishments of the woman, and the weakness of the man, conspired and assembled together against the Lord, and against His Christ. Wherefore also the Lord and His Christ spake together : Behold, the man is become as otie of us (Gen. iii. 22), because he had assented to the enticements of sinners, to the injury of each. 8. In this day we all are born. We all bear, in fact, impressed upon us as by cautery, the brand of that ancient conspiracy : Eve still lives in our flesh, and the serpent strives without ceasing, through the concupiscence which we derive from birth, to make us consenting parties to his rebellion. It

is for that reason, as I have said, that the saints of the ancient law cursed that day, wishing that it might be short, and speedily turned to night, because it is a day of contention and contradiction, in which the Mesh does not cease to revolt against the spirit, and during which the contrary law which abides in our members is in continual and unwearied contradiction to the law of our spirit. That is why it has become an expiring day. For then and thenceforth, what man is there who shall live and never see death ? (Ps. lxxxix. 48). Let anyone say that pleases, that this is an effect of the wrath of God ; I should nevertheless say that it is the effect of His mercy ; so that the elect, on account of wliom all things are done, should not so long be tormented by a contradiction full of trouble by which they also are led captive by the law of sin, which is in their members. For they abhor and endure with great reluctance that shameful captivity, that melancholy contradiction. 9. Let us hasten, then, to respire free from that old and injurious conspiration, because the days of man are few and brief (Job xiv. 1).

Let the day of free respiration receive us and enlighten us, before a night of deep horror (suspirans) swallow us up, wrapping around us the thick glooms of the outer and everlasting darkness. Do you ask to what does this phrase (of respiration) refer, and in whom is it found ? It consists in this, that the spirit begins in turn to mortify the deeds of the flesh. If you feel repugnance to these, you are breathing ; if you are mortifying them by the spirit ; if you crucify Digitized by Google the flesh with its affections and lusts, you have breathed. / keep under my body, says St. Paul, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1 Cor. ix. 27). That is the utterance of a man who is breathing the free breath of the spirit ; yea, rather who had already done so. Go thou, and do likewise (Luke x. 37), that you may show that you have breathed this inspiring air, and know that this day of inspiration has shone upon you. The night of death shall not prevail against this day of revival ; it shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. This light of life shall not fail even when life departs, and I think that to no one more fitly, than to him who dies thus, can these words be assigned : Even the night shall be light about me (Ps. cxxxix. 11). Why should he not see more clearly,, being delivered from the shadow, or rather from the corruption of the body ?

When freed from corporeal bonds, he will doubtless be as free among the dead, and as one who sees among the blind. For like as once in former times, when throughout Egypt none could see clearly, the people of Israel alone had light amid the universal gloom, and beheld [the great work of] God ; for the Scripture says : All the children of Israel had light in their dwellings (Exod. x. 23), so the righteous shall shine among the sons of darkness, and in the midst of the thick shadow of death, and shall have so much the clearer power of vision, as they are delivered from the shadows of the body. But as for those who have not previously breathed that inspiring air, nor sought for the light of that day, and on whom, therefore, the Sun of Righteousness has not risen ; they shall pass from these shadows into deeper shadows still, so that those who are in darkness shall be in darkness still ; while those who see, shall see more and more. 10. To this may be applied, not unfitly, the words spoken by Our Lord, that whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath

(Matt. xiii. 12). Thus it is also in death : for new light is added to those who already see, while from those who do not see is taken away the little which they seemed to have. For in proportion as the one class see less and less, so do the other see more and more clearly, until the night of sighs receives the one, and the day of light and aspiration the other ; and these are the two extremes ; that is, total blindness, and perfect sight Then there will be nothing more to be taken away from those who have already been emptied of all, nor anything to be added to those who are filled ; unless, indeed, the latter may expect to receive something more even beyond fulness, according to the promise made to them by the Saviour : Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom (Luke vi. 38). Does it not appear to you that the vessel which runs over must be something more than full? But you will hear calmly of this fulness superabounding, when you remember that you have read : [The Lord shall reign] for ever and beyond (Exod. xv. 18). He then shall be the Digitized by Google 448 increase and crown

of the day of aspiration. That day shall add, I say, to the measure of the fulness inspired, as to the abundance of the day inspiring ; working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, so that the superabounding addition of honour should redound upon bodies also. For this cause it is, and to signify this, that the Holy Spirit has said, not ' spirans,1 but ' aspirans,1 adding the proposition ' ad,' because those whom that day enlightens inwardly, it also adorns outwardly, and clothes them with a robe of glory. n. I believe that will be sufficient by way of giving a reason for the word 1 aspiring.' And if you wish to know, the day of aspiration is the Saviour Himself, for whom we wait; who shall change the body of our humility, that it may be fashioned like unto the Body of His glory (Phil. iii. 20, 21). He is also the day of inspiration, and by His operation makes us to respire previously in the light which He inspires, so that we also may be in Him a day of respiration, inasmuch as our inward man is renewed from day to day, and is renewed in the spirit of its mind according to the likeness of Him who created it, becoming

day from the day and light from the light. There are, then, two days, one succeeding the other, in us : the day of inspiration, which is for the life of the body, and that of respiration, which is the sanctification by grace ; and there remains a third, which shall be in the glory of the resurrection : it is manifest that the great mystery of the Divine goodness, which has been accomplished in the Head, shall be accomplished also sometime in the members of His Body, and the testimony of the prophet shall be fulfilled, who says : After two days will He revive us ; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight ; then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord (Hosea vi. 2, 3). It is He whom the Angels desire to contemplate, the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

HOW CHRIST SHALL COME TO JUDGE IN HUMAN FORM, THAT HE MAY APPEAR DELIGHTFUL TO THE ELECT j AND HOW HE IS LESS • Return, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart upon the numntains of Bether.'—QanX. iii. 17. WHAT ? He is but just now gone, and you call Him back ?

What sudden need has arisen in so short a time ? Have you forgotten anything? Yea, truly, the Bride has forgotten everything which is not He, even her own self. And though she is not devoid of reason, yet sometimes she seems for the moment Digitized by Google to be deprived of it. Nor does it even appear that she retains in her feelings that modest self-restraint, which is always apparent in her actions. It is the violence of her love which occasions this. It is the same which in its triumph puts to silence every feeling of timidity, every consideration of fitness, or of deliberation ; it causes her even to neglect times and seasons. For, as you see, the Bridegroom has scarcely left her side, than she calls upon Him eagerly to return. She entreats him even to hasten, to run with all the speed of the swiftest animals, such as the roe or the young hart. This is the literal meaning of the words, and this is the portion of the Jews. 2. But I will, as far as I have received from the Lord, seek out the spirit and the life in the deep and mysterious meaning of the sacred text ; this is the portion which belongs to me, as a believer in Jesus Christ. Why should I not extract the sweet and salutary nourishment of the Spirit from the barren and tasteless mass of the letter, as I separate grain from chaff, the kernel from its shell, or marrow from the bone ? With this mere letter, which, when tasted, savours only of the flesh, and when swallowed, brings death, I do not desire to have anything to do, but only with that teaching from the Holy Ghost which is hidden in it. For as the Apostle declares, The Spirit speaketh in a mystery (i Cor. xiv. 2); but Israel, in place of the mystery, which is veiled, takes the veil which covers the mystery.

Why is this, except that a veil is still upon their heart ? #Thus the literal meaning of the text is theirs, but its inner signification is mine ; and thus there is to them a ministration of death in the letter, but to me life in the Spirit. For it is the Spirit which quickeneth (John vi. 64), inasmuch as it gives understanding ; and is not understanding life? Give me understanding and I shall live, is the Psalmist's prayer to the Lord. Understanding does not remain on the surface of things, it is not superficial, it does not handle the outside with uncertain touch, like a blind man; but it penetrates to their depths, and often brings up from thence treasures of truth with eager grasp, as did the Psalmist when he said unto the Lord : / rejoice at Thy word as one that findeth great spoil (Ps. cxix. 144, 162).

It is thus that the kingdom of truth suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matt. xi. 1 2). But that elder brother in the Gospel (Luke xv. 25-30) who returned from the field is the type of that ancient and earthly-minded people which has learned to labour for an earthly heritage only, and groans with careworn and furrowed brow under the heavy yoke of the Law, which it bears throughout the burden and heat of the day. This people, I say, because it has no understanding, stands without even to the present time, and will not, even when invited by the Father, enter into the house of banqueting, thus depriving himself hitherto of any share in the music, and the dancing, and the fatted calf. Unhappy that he is, he refuses to make experience how good and joyful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. All this has been said to show the distinction between the portion of the Church and that of the synagogue ; 29 Digitized by that the blindness of the one and the prudence of the other might be made more evident ; and the happiness of the one be made more plain by contrast with the pitiable folly of the other. 3. Let us now examine the words of the Bride, and endeavour so to expound the chaste sentiments of her sacred love, that there may appear nothing that is contrary to reason in the sacred text, nor anything importunate or unbecoming. And if we bear in mind that hour when the Lord Jesus (for He is the Bridegroom) passed from this world unto the Father (John xiii. 1), and at the same time the state of mind in which the Church, His newly-wedded Bride, necessarily was when she saw herself deserted and left as a desolate widow, deprived of her only hope (I refer to the Apostles who had left all and followed Him, and had continued with Him in His temptations) ; if, I say, we consider these things, it will appear to us, I think, that it is not unreasonable nor unaccountable that the Bride should be so inconsolable for His departure, nor so urgent for His return, when she is left so solitary and in such distress.

The affection that she feels for Him, and the need that she has for Him, forms, then, a twofold reason for thus appealing to Him ; that since He cannot but ascend up where He was before, He will at least hasten His promised return. For that she desires and entreats that He^would be like unto certain animals, and those the animals which are of greatest speed, is an indication of the eagerness of her desire, for which no return would be sufficiently prompt Does she not ask for this daily when she prays, Thy kingdom come (Matt vi. 10)? 4. Yet I think that she desires to point not less significantly to weakness as well as to speed, and that as well of sex in the roc as of age in the young hart. She desires, then, as it seems to me, that when returning to judgment He should appear, not in the Form of God, but in that Human Form in which He was not only born, but born as a little Child, and born only from that female sex which is the weaker of the two. Why is this ? It is in order that from both the one and the other there may be a reminder to be gentle towards the weak even in the day of His wrath, and in the time of judgment to exalt mercy above judgment. For if He shall be strict to search out offences, who even of the elect shall stand in His presence {Ps. cxxx. 2) ? The stars are not pure in His sight, and in His Angels He finds pravity (Job iv. 18 ; xxv. 5). Listen, then, to him who is elect and holy ; hear what he says to God : Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto Thee, in a time when Thou mayest be found (Ps. xxxii. 5, 6). Even the saints, therefore, need to entreat pardon for their sins, that they may be saved by the mercy of God, and must not trust in their own righteousness ; for all have sinned, and all need mercy. In order, then, that when He is angry He may remember mercy, the Bride entreats of Him to appear in the garb of mercy, that is, in the Form of which the Apostle says : Being found in fashion as a man (Phil. ii. 7).

Digitized by Google HOW CHRIST SHALL COME TO JUDGE IN HUMAN FORM 45 1 5. And, indeed, it is very necessary for us that it should be thus ; for if, even with this moderating influence, so great is His equity in judgment, so awful the severity of the Judge, so lofty His majesty, and so changed the very appearance of all things, that, according to the Prophet, the day of His Coming does not bear to be thought upon (Mai. iii. 2, Douay), what would it be, do you imagine, if He who is a consuming fire (I mean the Almighty God) should come in all that immensity, and power, and purity of His Godhead, to put forth His power against a leaf (so to speak) which the wind driveth away, and to pursue the dry stubble (Job xiii. 25)? He is Man also, and who, says the Prophet, shall behold Him? Who shall stand when He appearethl (Mai. iii. 2). How much less, then, could any among men endure the sight if He should manifest Himself to us without His Humanity : as God, unapproachable in His Glory, unattainable in His loftiness, incomprehensible in the greatness of His Majesty ?

But now, when His wrath is kindled but a little (Ps. ii. 12), how welcome and sweet towards the children of grace shall appear a glimpse of His Humanity ! How it shall be to them a confirmation of faith, a strength to their hope, an increase in their confidence, because His grace and mercy is with His saints, and He hath respect unto His chosen (Wisd. iv. 15) ! In fact, God the Father Himself hath given the power of judgment unto His Son ; and not because He is His Son, but because He is the Son of Man (John v. 27). O truly He is the Father of mercies ! He wills that men should be judged by a Man, in order that amid fear and apprehension of evils so great confidence might be given to the elect by the resemblance of nature. Holy David had predicted this formerly, in words which were equally a prayer and a prophecy : Give the King Thy judgments, O Lord : a fid Thy righteousness unto the King's son (Ps. lxxii. 1). To the same effect is the promise made by the Angels to the Apostles when, after Jesus had been taken up into heaven, they spake to the latter thus : This same Jesus, which is taken up from

you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven (Acts i. 11) ; that is to say, in that very form and substance of body. 6. It is very clear, from all these things, that the Bride had a certain access to the Divine plan, and that she was not ignorant of the mystery of God's supreme Will, which [hath chosen] the weak and harmless things of the world (1 Cor. i. 27) ; inasmuch as she indicates, in the spirit of prophecy, and in the words of one who utters prayer, that the nature which is weaker, or rather that which is lower (for then it shall no longer be weak), shall be set on high to judge ; insomuch that He who shall shake heaven and earth by His power, while girded with power against the sinful and impenitent, shall yet show Himself gentle and kind, and, as it were, harmless, towards the elect. To this it may be added that, in order to discern the one from the other, He will need not only, as it were, the agility of the roe, but the piercing sight of the hart, so as to be able to discern, in so vast a multitude, and at the moment of so great a

change Digitized by 45* of condition, whom to fix upon, and whom to pass over, that He may not crush the righteous instead of the wicked, when He shall tread down the peoples in His wrath. For as to the wicked, it is necessary that the prophecy of David, or rather the word of the Lord speaking by his mouth, should be fulfilled ; that / will beat them small as the dust before the ivind: I will cast them out as the clay in the streets (Ps. xviii. 42, Vulg.) ; and also that another word, which He had spoken before by another prophet, should be accomplished, when, returning towards the Angels, He shall say [of the wicked] : I have trampled on them in My indignation, and have trodden them down in My wrath (Is. lxiii. 3, Vulg.). 7. But if anyone thinks that it would be preferable to understand the words of the Bride in this sense, that our fawn should pass over the wicked, and choose out the good in His bounds, I do not contest this, provided that discrimination is understood to be thus made between the evil and the good. For, if I remember rightly, such was also the sense which I put upon the words when I was expounding this verse in a

former discourse (Sermon LIV.). But there that One is said to leap as a fawn upon some, and to pass over others, according to the dispensation of grace, and by the secret, though just, judgment of God; while here it is according to the final and varying recompense of merits. And perhaps the last words of the verse, which I had, indeed, almost forgotten, may seem to support that sense ; for after having said, Be Thou, my Beloved, like a roe or a young hart, she adds, upon the mountains of Bet/iel. Now, in 'the House of the Lord' (which is the meaning of the word Bethel1) there are no mountains which are evil. Therefore the Bridegroom, leaping as a fawn upon them, does not crush and trample them, but causes them to rejoice, that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says : The mountains and the hills shall break out before God into singing.2 There are, indeed, mountains which, according to the Gospel, faith, though it be as a grain of mustard seed, is able to remove (Matt. xvii. 20), but these are not the mountains of Bethel : and whichsoever these latter are, faith does not at all remove them, but renders them fruitful. 8. If by the mountains of Bethel be meant the Principalities and Powers,

and all other bands of the blessed Spirits, as it is of them that we are to understand what is said, Her foundations are upon the holy mountains (Ps. lxxxvii. 1), this One, who appears as a fawn upon mountains so excelling in dignity, is assuredly not of small account or to be despised, being made so much better than the Angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they ( Heb. i. 4).

For what if we do read in a Psalm that He is made a little lower than the Angels (Ps. viii. 5) ? That He is in a lower place does not conBet her, ' House of division, or separation ; but most commentators treat them as identical. The latter word is not found elsewhere in Scripture. See the discussion in Corn, a Lapide, in loc. — Ed. Digitized by Google flict at all with His being better than they ; nor have the Apostle and the Psalmist spoken in opposite senses, since they were animated by the same Spirit. For it was by His condescension, and not by any necessity, that He was made lower than the Angels ; and far from that rendering His goodness less, it, on the contrary, renders it greater. Nor does the Psalmist say that He is less than the Angels, but that He is rendered lower than they ; he extols the grace of His goodness without depreciating His greatness. For His Nature does not permit that He should be less than the Angels : and the cause of His being set below them explains and excuses that descent. He was, in fact, set below them by His own will, and on account of our necessity.

Thus that abasement is but the effect of the compassion which He felt for us. What loss, then, is there by this humiliation ? For His clemency and goodness has gained whatsoever His dignity may seem to have lost. Nor has the Apostle passed over in silence this great mystery of such extreme goodness, but says : We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour (Heb. ii. 9). 9. Let this suffice in explanation of the comparison which the Bride makes of the Bridegroom to a fawn, and to show that she does thereby no injury to His dignity. Why do I say without injury to His dignity, when not even His weakness has remained without honour ? He is [called] a fawn, He was a little Child He is spoken of as like unto a roe, inasmuch as He was made of a woman : and yet He is upon the mountains of Bethel, yet He is made higher than the heavens (Heb. vii. 26). He does not say, 'who is* or 'who exists'1 in the Heavens, but he says, made higher than the heavens, that it might not be thought that this was spoken of that Nature in which He is that which He

is. But where he represents Him as preferred to the Angels, he does not say that He 'remains7 or 'exists,' but that He is made better than they. From which it appears that not only according to that which He is from all eternity, but also according to that which He is in time, He is exalted far above all Principalities and Powers, and being the Firstborn of every creature, He is above every created being. Therefore the foolishness of God is wiser than men : and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor. i. 25). That the Apostle indeed asserts; but it seems to me that it would not be wrong to extend the assertion to the strength and the wisdom of the Angels. So, then, the present passage may conveniently be applied to the universal Church. 10. Now, as far as relates to the individual soul (for even one soul, if it love God dearly, wisely, and with passion, is the Bride), whosoever is spiritual may notice in himself what his own experience teaches upon this subject As for me, I do not fear to make known to you Horst and others have martens. Thus you have ens in Sermon LXXV., n. 11, for which the editors have inserted sedens. Yet here (Sermon LXXIII. 9)

is read a little farther on in the MSS., mancns vel existens.

Digitized by 454 the experience of this kind which God has deigned to bestow upon me. For although it may perhaps appear trifling and worthless when heard, that does not affect me at all, because he who is spiritual wfll not despise me, while he who is not so will not understand me. But let me reserve this subject to another sermon, and perhaps there will not be wanting some who will be edified by that which the Lord, in answer to prayers, shall deign to inspire me with. For He is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

OF THE VISITATIONS OF THE BRIDEGROOM, THE WORD, TO THE HOLY SOUL, AND THE SECRECY WITH WHICH THEY ARE MADE. GREAT HUMILITY AND MODESTY, FOR THE EDIFICATION OF HIS SHE says, Return. It is manifest that He, whom she thus recalls, is not present ; and yet that He had been present, not long before, since she seems to call Him back, in the moment of His departure. A recall which appears so untimely is a sign of the great love of the one, and of the great charm of the other.

Who are they who are such followers after charity, whose affection is so devoted and so untiring, that it allows neither intermission nor rest in the pursuit of it ? I remember that I promised to apply this verse to the Word and to the soul ; but I confess that I have great need of the help of the Word Himself in order that this may be done with ever so little an approach to a worthy treatment of the subject Certainly this task would have befitted one who had more experience and a fuller knowledge of the secrets of Divine love than I ; but I cannot allow myself to be wanting in what my office requires of me, nor do I wish to refuse your earnest requests. I see the danger before me ; but you oblige me, so that I cannot avoid it You oblige me (to use the words of the Psalmist) to exercise myself in great matters, and in things too high for me (Ps. cxxxi. 1). Alas ! I fear that it may be said to me : ' Wherefore dost thou relate My delights, and take My mysteries into thy mouth ?' Yet listen to me, for though I tremble to speak, I am unable to be silent. Perhaps my apprehension itself will be an excuse for my boldness, especially if it tend to your edification ; and perhaps God will have regard to these tears also. Return, says the Bride. It is well. He departed ; He is recalled. Who shall discover to me the mystery of this mutability ?

Who shall explain to me worthily the going and the returning of the Digitized by Google Word? Surely there cannot be inconstancy in the Bridegroom? Whither can He go, or whence return, He who fills all things ? Or what movement locally in space can there be for Him who is Spirit ? Or what movement of any kind whatsoever can be attributed to Him who is God ? For He is absolutely immutable. 2. Let him comprehend these things who is capable of so doing.

But let us in the exposition of this sacred and mystical discourse proceed carefully and with simplicity of purpose, and follow the example of the Scripture itself, which declares the hidden wisdom in our human words, indeed, but in a mystery ; and which, in order to make God known to our powers of apprehension, makes use of figurative language, and imparts to human minds those precious truths, the unknown and invisible things of God, by means of similitudes drawn from things apparent to the senses, and, so to speak, proffers the draught of truth in cups formed of a material of little value. Let us, then, follow the example of this discourse ; let us say that th^WoRD of God, who is God, and the Bridegroom of the soul, comes and goes to and from the soul as it pleases Him, provided only that we bear in mind that these events take place by the inward sense of the soul, not by the movements of the Word.

For example, when the soul feels the influence of grace, it recognises that the Word is present ; and when it does not feel this influence, it complains of His absence, and asks Him to return again, saying with the Psalmist : My heart said unto Thee, Thy Face, Lord, will I seek (Ps. xxvii. 8). And how should the soul do otherwise than seek Him, inasmuch as when that Spouse so dearly loved by her is withdrawn, it is not possible for her, I do not say to wish for, but even to think of, any other. Nothing then remains to her but to seek Him earnestly when He is absent, to recall Him when He departs.

Thus, then, the Word is recalled ; namely, by the earnest longing of the soul ; that is to say, of the soul which has once had the happiness to taste how sweet is His goodness. Is not an earnest desire a voice? It is indeed, and a powerful one. For the Lord, says the Psalmist, has heard the desire of the humble (Ps. x. 17). When, then, the Word departs, the one and constant cry of the soul, its single desire, its one and continual demand, is as it were a constantly repeated Return, until He come. 3. Show me now a soul that the Bridegroom-Word is wont frequently to visit, to whom intimate knowledge of Him has given boldness, in whom tasting has caused hunger, and contempt for all things repose, and I shall instantly assign to it the voice and the name of Bride, and apply to it the words that we are here considering. Such is, in fact, she who is here introduced as speaking. For she gives sufficient proof, in recalling the Bridegroom, that she has merited His presence, although not the full abundance of His graces. For otherwise it would be a call, not a recall, that she would give. That it is here a recall is marked by the word Return, and perhaps He withdrew Himself for that very reason, that He might be recalled with the \ Digitized by Google greater eagerness, and clasped the more firmly. For when He sometimes makes it appear that He would depart to a greater distance, it is not that He desires to do so, but to hear : Lord, abide with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent (Luke xxiv. 28, 29).

And, again, on another occasion, when He was walking on the sea, and the Apostles were in a boat and toiling hard in rowing, He made as though He would have passed by them, though He did not indeed desire to do so, but rather to prove their faith and draw forth their prayer. For as the Evangelist declares : They were troubled, and cried out, supposing that it had been a spirit (Mark vi. 49, 50). That pious simulation, or rather that salutary dispensation, which the Word, then in the body, sometimes made use of, the same Word, who is Spirit, does not cease to employ, but in a spiritual manner, with a soul that is devoted to Him. When He would pass away, He desires to be detained, and, when absent, to be recalled ; for He, who is the Wrord of God, is not irrevocable. He goes and returns according to His good pleasure, He visits a soul at the breaking of the day, and suddenly puts it to proof by withdrawing Himself. If He come into a soul, it is the effect of His free and spontaneous grace ; if He retire from it, it is similarly according to His will ; but both the one and the other depend upon His judgment, and of this He alone knows the ground and reason. 4. It is, then, quite evident that changes take place in the soul by the going and returning of the Word. For He says : I go away, and come again to you (John xiv. 28); and again : A little while and ye shall not see Me, and again a little while and ye shall see J/*(John xvi. 16).

O truly a little while I but how long a little while may be ! O kind and loving Lord, how canst Thou call the time in which I do not behold Thee 1 a little while '? Saving the deference due to my Lord's word, it seems to me a long time, and even excessively long. Yet each of these estimates is true, for it is short if our merits be con sidered, but long if measured by our desires and prayers. You have each of these senses in that saying of the Prophet : Though He tarry, wait for Him, because He shall surely come, He shall not tarry (Hab. ii. 3). How can it be that He shall not tarry, and yet shall make delay, except that though He come with sufficient quickness, if our deservings be considered, He does not come quickly enough for our desires ? Now, the soul that loves the Lord is carried away by the fervour of its prayers, is led on by its eager longing, forgets altogether the smallness of its merits, shuts its eyes to the majesty of the Bridegroom, and opens them only to the happiness which it hopes to enjoy ; regards only His saving grace, and acts confidingly in that.

Finally, without fear and without shame, it recalls the Word, and confidently asks for its former delights, calling Him with its habitual freedom, not Lord, but Beloved. Return, she says, my Beloved ; and adds : Be Thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. But of this more hereafter. 5. But now bear with my foolishness for a little. I wish to tell Digitized by Google you, as I have promised, how such events have taken place in me. It is indeed a matter of no importance. But I put myself forward only that I may be of service to you, and if you derive any benefit I am consoled for my egotism ; if not, I shall have displayed my foolishness.

I confess, then, though I say it in my foolishness, that the Word has visited me, and even very often. But although He has frequently entered into my soul, I have never at any time been sensible of the precise moment of His coming. I have felt that He was present. I remember that He has been with me ; I have sometimes been able even to have a presentiment that He would come; but never to feel His coming, nor His departure. For whence He came to enter my soul, or whither He went on quitting it, by what means He has made entrance or departure, I confess that I know not even to this day ; according to that which is said : Thou canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth (John iii. 8). Nor is this strange, because it is to Him that the Psalmist has said in another place : Thy footsteps are not known (Ps. lxxvii. 19). It is not by the eyes that He enters, for He is without form or colour that they can discern ; nor by the ears, for His coming is without sound ; nor by the nostrils, for it is not with the air but with the mind that He is blended ; nor has He merely acted upon the air, but produced it (infecit, fecit) ; nor, again, does it enter by the mouth, not being of a nature to be eaten or drunk ; nor, lastly, is it capable of being traced by the touch, for it is intangible. By what avenue, then, has He entered ? Or perhaps the fact may be that He has not entered at all, nor indeed come at all from outside. For not one of these things belongs to outside.

Yet it has not come from within me, for it is good, and I know that in me dwelleth no good thing (Rom. vii. 18). I have ascended higher than myself, and lo ! I have found the Word above me still.

My curiosity has led me to descend below myself also, and yet I have found Him still at a lower depth. If I have looked without myself, I have found that He is beyond that which is outside of me ; and if within, He was at an inner depth still. And thus I have learned the truth of the words I had read : /// Him we live and move and have our being (Acts xvii. 28) ; but blessed is the man in whom He is, who lives for Him, and is moved by Him. 6. You will ask, then, how, since the ways of His access are thus incapable of being traced, I could know that He was present ? But He is living and full of energy, and as soon as He has entered into me He has quickened my sleeping soul, has aroused and softened and goaded my heart, which was in a state of torpor, and hard as a stone. He has begun to pluck up and destroy, to plant and to build, to water the dry places, to illuminate the gloomy spots, to throw open those which were shut close, to inflame with warmth those which were cold, as also to straighten its crooked paths and make its rough places smooth, so that

my soul might bless the Lord, and all that is within me praise His Holy Name. Thus, then, the Bridegroom-Word, though He has several times entered into me, has never made His Digitized by Google 45» coming apparent to my sight, hearing, or touch. It was not by His motions that He was recognised by me, nor could I tell by any of my senses that He had penetrated to the depths of my being. It was, as I have already said, only by the revived activity of my heart that I was enabled to recognise His Presence ; and to know the power of His sacred Presence by the sudden departure of vices and the strong restraint put upon all carnal affections. From the discovery and conviction of my secret faults I have had good reason to admire the depth of His wisdom ; His goodness and kindness have become known in the amendment, whatever it may amount to, of my life ; while in the reformation and renewal of the spirit of my mind, that is, of my inward man, I have perceived, in a certain degree, the excellency of the Divine beauty, and have been rapt in wonder and amazement at His greatness and majesty, as I meditated upon all these things. 7. But when the Word

withdrew Himself, all these spiritual powers and faculties began to droop and languish, as if the fire had been withdrawn from a bubbling pot ; and this is to me the sign of His departure. Then my soul is necessarily sad and depressed until He shall return and my heart grow warm within me, as it is wont, which indeed is the indication to me that He has come back again. After having, then, such an experience of the happiness derived from the indwelling Word, what wonder that I should adopt for my own the language of the Bride, who recalls Him when He has departed, since I am influenced by a desire, not indeed as powerful, but at least similar to hers? As long as I live that utterance shall be in my mind, and I will employ, for the recalling of the Word, that word of recall, which I find here in the word Return. And as often as He shall leave me, so often shall He be called back by my voice ; nor will I cease to send my cries, as it were, after Him as He departs, expressing my ardent desire that He should return, that He should restore to me the joy of His salvation, the life-giving Presence of Himself. I confess to you,

my children, that I take pleasure in nothing else in the meantime, until He is present who is alone pleasing to me. And this I pray, that He will not return empty, but full of grace and truth (John i. 14) as it is His wont to do, and as He did yesterday and the day before it. In which it seems to me that He will be like unto a roe or a young Aart, for His truth has the piercing eyes of the one, and His grace the joy and lightsomeness of the other. 8. Each of these is necessary to me : truth, that I may not be able to hide myself before Him ; and grace, that I may not desire to do so.

If the one be not accompanied by the other, then either His severity is burdensome without His gladsomeness, or that may seem unmeasured without the gravity of the former, and thus the visitation of the Word will be imperfect For truth is bitter, if it be not seasoned with grace ; and the fervour of devotion is sometimes un measured and tends to lightness, if it be not restrained by the bond Digitized by Google of truth. How many are there whom it has not profited to have received grace, because they have not accepted at the same time the regulating and restraining power of truth? They have taken too much pleasure in the enjoyment of grace ; they have not sufficiently regarded the claims of truth ; they have not imitated the gravity (as it were) of the roe, but have given themselves wholly to the lightsomeness of the young hart. Thence it has come about that they have been deprived of the grace which they had desired to enjoy by itself, and it has been possible to say to them, but too late : Go ye and learn what that meaneth, Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice 7vith trembling (Ps. ii. 11). For the holy soul which had said in its day of prosperity, I shall never be moved (Ps. xxx. 6), when it suddenly feels the Face of the Word turned away from it, is not only moved, but grievously troubled, and thus learns by its affliction that with the gift of piety and devotion, it has need also of the steadying weight of truth. Therefore the fulness of grace consists not in grace alone, but also not in truth alone. What does it profit you to know what you ought to do, if there is not bestowed upon you also the will to do it ? What does it profit you even to have the will, if you have not the ability ? How many have I known to whom the knowledge of the truth was a cause of added sorrow, because, as they knew what the Truth required of them, they could not find an excuse in their ignorance when they did not do it ? 9. This being the case, neither gift is sufficient without the other.

Nor is this all, for it is not even an advantage to receive one without the other. How do we know this ? We learn it from the Scripture : To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (James iv. 17); and, again: That servant, which knew his Lord's Will . . . and did not according to His Will, shall be beaten with many stripes (Luke xil 47). That is, as regards truth. Now, as regards grace, it is written : After the sop Satan entered into him (John xiii. 27). This speaks of Judas, who, after he had received a gift of grace, because he did not walk in truth and sincerity with the Master of truth, gave place in himself to the devil. Listen, again : He fed them with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock He satisfied them.1 Whom ? * The enemies of the Lord have lied unto Him1 (Ps. lxxxi. 16, 15). Those whom He had nourished with honey and with wheat lied unto Him and became His enemies, because they did not join truth to grace. Of whom it is said in another place: The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted in their path (Ps. xviii. 45, Douay). How could they do otherwise than halt, seeing that they were content to support themselves on one foot, that of grace, and not to use the other, that is, of truth ? Therefore their time [of punishment] shall endure for ever (Ps. lxxxi. 15) with that of their prince, who also himself abode not in the truth, but was a liar from the beginning (John viii. 44), and therefore it was said to him : Thau hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy beauty (Ezek.

Digitized by Google 460 xxviii. 17). I am unwilling to allow beauty in one who deprives me of wisdom. ful ? It is the beauty which is thine. Perhaps you do not understand me when I say this, and I will put it in plainer language. It is the beauty which is of a personal and individual kind. We do not blame the gift of God, but the use which is made of it. For if you notice, it is not said that Lucifer lost wisdom by reason of beauty, but of his beauty. And if I do not mistake, the beauty of an angel is the same as that of a soul, that is, it is wisdom. For what is either the one or the other without wisdom, but a shapeless heap of unorganized matter ? But with wisdom, either is not only formed and organized, but is full of beauty. But when it is appropriated in a selfish manner, it is forthwith lost, so that when it is said that he has lost wisdom by reason of his beauty, it is meant that he lost wisdom by his own wisdom. For when it is thus appropriated it is instantly lost Because he was wise in his own eyes, because he did not give the glory to God, because he did not render back grace for grace, because he did not walk in grace and use it according to truth, but abused it according to his own will ; that is the reason why he lost it, or rather that constitutes the loss of it For to appropriate it thus is, in fact, to lose it. If Abraham^ says the Apostle, were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory >, but not before God (Rom. iv. 2). And thus it is with me. I am not in safety, because I have lost whatever I do not possess in God. What can there be, in fact, so completely lost as that which does not rest in God as its security ? What is death, but the deprivation of life ? And in the same way everlasting loss (perditio) is nothing else than alienation from God Woe unto you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight! (Is. v. 2 1 ) ; of you it is said : / will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent (1 Cor. L 19).

They have lost wisdom, because their wisdom has caused them to be lost. How could they help losing all who were themselves lost?

And how could those be otherwise than lost whom God knows not [as His own] ? 11. Assuredly the foolish virgins, which are not, as I think, otherwise foolish, than as, believing themselves to be wise, they became foolish, these, I say, are doomed to hear from God, / know you not (Matt xxv. 12). And also those who assumed glory to themselves because of the grace [to work] miracles which had been bestowed upon them, shall, notwithstanding these wonderful works, hear the same declaration, / never knew you (Matt. vii. 23). So that it is plainly evident, from all that has been said, that grace does not profit the individual when it is not accompanied by truth and sincerity of intention, but is rather a hindrance to him. Each of these is assuredly found in the Bridegroom. Grace and truth, says John the Baptist, came by Jesus Christ (John i. 17). If, then, the Lord Jesus Christ (who is the Word of God, the Bridegroom of the soul) knocks at the Digitized by Google GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT IN DUE TIME, PLACE, AND MANNER 46 1 door of my soul with only one of these two qualities, He will enter, not as Bridegroom, but as Judge. May God grant that this may never be the case with me ! May He not enter into judgment with His servant ! May He enter with peace, with joy and gladness ; yet may He entef with aspect grave and serious, so as by the severe gravity of His look to repress any forwardness in me, and to purify the joy which I feel. May He enter with the agility of the roe and the piercing sight of the hart, so, as it were, to leap over my offences and to view them only with pity and forgiveness. May He enter as if descending from the mountains of Bethel, full of glory and of joy ; as if coming forth from the Father, sweet, and full of goodness, so that He does not disdain to become and to be called the Bridegroom of the soul which seeks for Him : He who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT IN DUE TIME, PLACE, AND MANNER. THAT NOW IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME, IN WHICH ANYONE MAY FIND GOD FOR HIMSELF BY GOOD WORKS, AND MAY WORK OUT HIS HE Bridegroom has not returned at the voice and according to the prayer of her who is recalling Him. Wherefore ? It is that the yearning for Him may increase, that the affection may be proved, that the faculty of love may be exercised. It is not indignation, then, that actuates Him, but a concealment of love.

But since, when called, He has not come, it remains that He should be sought, if, haply, He may be found. According to the words of the Lord, He that seeketh findeth (Matt. vii. 8). The words used to recall Him were, as you remember, such as these : Return, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart. When the Word did not return at this call, for the reasons above given, the loving Bride became still more desirous of His presence, and set herself with increased earnestness to the task of seeking Him. First, she seeks Him on her bed, but finds Him not. Then she rises, makes a circuit of the city, goes and comes through the streets and squares, but she neither meets Him nor beholds Him at a distance. She questions those whom she meets, but learns no assured tidings of Him. It is not through one street only, or during one night, that she continues this search, and experiences this failure ; for she says, ' I sought Him by night (per noctes).' What desire, and what ardour must she feel, that she does not blush to rise and appear in the night, to traverse the city, to interrogate openly and repeatedly all those she meets

Digitized by Google 462 about her Beloved, not to be turned by any reason from following His footsteps, nor daunted by any difficulty ; not to be held back by the love of ease and repose, by the sensitive modesty of a bride, nor by the terrors of the night ! And, notwithstanding all this, the object of her wishes has not as yet been attained. Why is this ? What can be the cause of a withdrawal so obstinate and so prolonged, which nourishes weariness, causes suspicions, is as a torch to enkindle impatience, as a stepmother to love, but a mother to desperation ? If it is still a concealment of love on the part of the Bridegroom, that concealment is but too painful. 2. Granted that such concealment was useful and even kind in the meantime, until the Bride had set herself seriously to call upon Him, or to recall. But now, when she is thus seeking Him and calling for Him, what can be the object of any longer concealment ? If the question here were of carnal spouses and of dishonourable loves, as the literal sense of the text seems at first to suggest, and such incidents should occur in them, I leave such matters to those whom they concern, for they do not concern me. But if it is my duty to respond to, and to satisfy, as far as my poor powers extend, the wishes and the needs of souls that seek the Lord, I ought to draw from the Holy Scripture, in which they trust that they have the word of life, something spiritual and life-giving, that they who are the poor of Christ may eat and may be satisfied, and that their hearts may find life.

And what is the life of human hearts but my Lord Jesus Christ, of whom one who lived in Him said : When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory (Col. iii. 4) ? Let Him come, then, into the midst of us, so that it may be possible to say truly to us also : There standeth One among you whom ye know not (John i. 26). Though I do not know how the Bridegroom, who is Spirit, can fail to be recognised by spiritual men, who have made such progress in the life of the spirit, as to be able to say with the Prophet, The Anointed of the Lord is a Spirit before our face (Lam. iv. 20) ; and with the Apostle, Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more (2 Cor. v. 16). Is it not He whom the Bride was seeking? He is, in truth, the Bridegroom, both loving and lovable. He is, I say, the Bridegroom, as His Flesh is meat indeed, and His Blood drink indeed (John vi. 56) ; and all that He is He is in truth, for He is Himself no other than the Truth. 3. But why is it that this Bridegroom is not found when He is sought, especially when sought with so great and unwearied care, now on the couch, now in the city, or even in the streets and open places?

Does not He Himself say, Seek, and ye shall find ; and, He who secketh findeth (Matt. vii. 7, 8) ? To Him also speaks a Prophet : The Lord is good . . . to the soul that seekeih Him (Lam. iii. 25) ; and also holy Isaiah saith, Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found (Is. lv. 6). How, then, shall the Scriptures be accomplished ? For she who here seeks the Lord is not of those to whom He says : Ye shall seek Afe, and Digitized by Google GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT IN DUE TIME, PLACE, AND MANNER 463 shall not find Me (John vii. 34). But take note of three causes which occur to me, wherefore seekers are wont to be hindered in finding Him, namely, that they seek Him either not at the fitting time, or not in the fitting manner, or not in the fitting place. For if every time is proper to seek Him, why does the Prophet say : Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found ? There will, then, without doubt, be a time when He may not be found, and therefore he adds, Call upon Him while He is near, because it will come to pass that He will not be near. By whom will He not be sought then ? Unto Me, He saith, every knee shall bow (Is. xlv. 24). And yet He shall not be found by the wicked, whom the avenging Angels shall hinder from finding Him, and shall take them away, that they may not behold the glory of God. The foolish virgins shall complain, but to no purpose ; for the door is shut, and He shall not go forth to them (Matt. xxv. 10).

Let them take for themselves that which is said : Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me. 4. But now is the acceptable (acceptabile) time, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. vi. 2); it is the time of seeking, and of calling upon, the Lord ; for oftentimes, even before He is called, He is felt to be near. Hear, in fact, what He promises. Before they call, He says, / will answer (Is. lxv. 24). Nor does the Psalmist speak less decisively as to the acceptableness of the time present, for he says : Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble : Thou wilt prepare their heart, Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear (Ps. x. 17). If God is being sought by good works, then, while we have time, let us do good unto all men (Gal. vi. 10), especially since the Lord plainly warns us that the night cometh, when no man can work (John ix. 4).

Do you expect to find in the ages to come some other time to seek God, some other opportunity to do that which is right, besides that which God has appointed for you, and in which He will be mindful of you ? And, therefore, this is the day of salvation, because it is in it that God, who is our King before all the ages, has worked salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. lxxxiv. 12). 5. Go, then, and await in the midst of hell the salvation which is already worked in the midst of the earth.1 What profit will be to you those dreams of pardon, among the everlasting fires, when the season for pity shall have passed ? There is no victim left to atone for your sins, when you shall be dead in sins. The Son of God is not crucified a second time : once He died, and now He dieth no more (Rom. vi. 9). His Blood, which was poured out upon the earth, does not descend into hell. All the sinners of the earth have drunk of it ; there is none left for the demons to claim, that the flames which prey upon them may be quenched ; nor for men who are the companions of demons. The Soul of the Saviour once descended into that place, but not His Blood ; and this was the portion of passage ; just as St. Bernard notes other errors of the same writer in Sermon XXXIV., De Diversis, and Sermon LIV., n. 3, in Cantica.

Digitized by Google * 464 those spirits who were in prison (1 Peter iii. 19). That was His one visitation to them, which was made then by the presence of His Soul, while His Body hung lifeless upon the Cross, on the earth.

His Blood watered the earth, steeped it and made it glad; His Blood re-established peace on the earth, and also in the heavens ; but hell had no part in that reconciliation. The Soul of the Saviour, as I have said, descended there once, and there worked redemption in part ; so that it was not even that brief time without works of charity,1 but to that He will add nothing. It is now, then, a fit and acceptable time to seek Him, in which he who seeks shall evidently find Him ; if, that is to say, he seeks in the fitting manner, and place. For this is one cause which hinders those who seek the Bridegroom from finding Him ; namely, that they do not seek at a fitting time. But this does not hinder the Bride, since she seeks Him and calls upon Him at the time which is fit She seeks Him also neither with lukewarmness nor negligence, nor in a perfunctory manner, for she seeks Him with ardent and untiring earnestness, as she evidently ought to do. 6. There remains, then, the third obstacle, namely, that He is sought for in an unsuitable place. On my little bed (lectulo) I sought Him whom my soul loveth. But perhaps He for whom the whole world is

too narrow should not be sought upon a ' little ' bed, but upon a bed ? Nevertheless, the little bed does not displease me, for I know that the Saviour was made a little Child. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee (Is. xii. 6). But the same Lord, who is great in Zion, is found among us little, and weak ; He has need to lie down, and even upon a bed that is little. Is not His tomb a little bed ? or His cradle ? or the womb of His Virgin-Mother ? For the Bosom of His Father, who is so great, is not little, but great ; and of it He speaks to the Son: From the womb, before the Daystar, I begot Thee (Ps. ex. 3, Douay). Though perhaps it may be thought more worthily that this womb is not a bed, and for rest, but a throne, and for rule. For abiding in the Father, He rules all things with the Father. Finally, faith undoubted teaches us that He does not recline, but sits, at the Right Hand of the Father ; that Heaven is His throne, not His couch (Is. lxvi. 1), so that you may learn that

among his own, that is, among the dwellers in heaven, He has the ensigns of power, not the solaces of weakness. 7. Rightly, then, does the Bride, when speaking of a little bed, call it hers ; for it is manifest that whatever of weakness may appear in God [our Saviour] is not proper and natural to Him, but comes from us. He has taken from us all that He has suffered on our behalf : to be born, to be nourished with milk, to die, to be buried.

The mortality of His Birth comes from me, the weakness of His Childhood comes from me, the pains of His Crucifixion, and His chari talis* Digitized by Google GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT IN DUE TIME, PLACE, AND MANNER 465 sleep in death come all from me. The former things have passed away, and behold ! all things have become new. By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul lovelh. What ! did you seek Him in that which is yours, who had already been received again into that which is His own ? Had you not seen the Son of Man ascending up where He was before ? In exchange for the stable, in exchange for the Tomb, He has taken possession of Heaven ; and you seek Him still in your little bed ? He is Risen ; He is not here. Why do you seek in a bed Him who is strong, in a little bed Him who is great, in a stable Him who is pure and spotless ? He has entered into [the exercise of] the powers of the Lord ; He is clothed with beauty and with strength : and, behold, He who once lay under the stone of a sepulchre, now is enthroned above the Cherubim. He no longer reclines, He is sitting; and are you preparing for Him the comforts, as it were, of one who lies prone ? To speak quite accurately, He is either seated to judge, or standing to help us. 8. For whom, then, I pray you, O holy women, do ye keep vigil ?

For whom do ye buy perfumes and make provision of fragrant oils ? If ye knew how great He is, how free among the dead is that dead Man whom ye are going to anoint, you would perhaps petition that He should rather drop perfumes upon you. Is it not He whom His God hath anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows ? (Ps. xlv. 7). Blessed shall ye be if, when returning, you are able to make your boast, and say : Of His fulness have all we received (John i. 16). For it was in fact thus ; and those holy women who had gone to anoint Him returned anointed themselves. How could they be otherwise than, as it were, anointed by the joyful and fragrant news of His Resurrection ? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things I (Rom. x. 15).

When sent by the Angel, they do the work of an Evangelist ; they are made apostles to the Apostles themselves, and while hastening in the early morning to announce the mercy of the Lord, they say : 4 We run in the fragrance of Thy perfumes.' From that time and thenceforth it was in vain that the Bridegroom was sought in that little bed, because, although the Church had known Him according to the flesh, that is, according to the weakness of the flesh, yet henceforth it knows Him [thus] no more. It is true that He was sought in this manner by Peter and John at the sepulchre, but they found Him not. Do you see with what singular fitness and suitableness each of them would be able to say : In my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth : I sought Him, but I found Him not. For the Flesh of the Son of God, which was not of the Father, before going to the Father, put off, through the glory of the Resurrection, every trace of weakness ; it was girded about with power, it was clad with light as it were with a garment, and adorned with all the glory and beauty which was befitting it, to present itself before the Father. 9. With great beauty also does the Bride say, not * Him whom I love,' but 4 Him whom my soul loveth/ because that affection belongs 30 Digitized by Google 466 truly and properly to the soul alone, with which anything spiritual is loved : as, for example, God, or an Angel, or a soul similar to itself.

Of the same kind also is the love of righteousness, truth, piety, wisdom, and other virtues. For when a soul loves, or rather desires, somewhat according to the flesh, for example, food, clothing, property, or other things corporeal or earthly of that kind, that love should be considered as belonging rather to the flesh than to the soul I say this to explain what the Bride says, in a manner somewhat unusual, though none the less appropriate, that her soul loves the Bridegroom, indicating clearly by this that He is a spirit, and is loved by her with an affection not carnal, but spiritual. So, also, it is well said that she has sought Him each night For if, according to the Apostle, they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night (i Thess. v. 7), so it may, as I think, be not unfitly, said that those who are ignorant of the truth are so in the night, and, in consequence, those who seek it seek it in the night.

For who seeks that of which he has possession openly ? Now, the day makes manifest that which the night conceals, so that in the day you may find what in the night you had sought It is, then, night for the soul as long as the Bridegroom is being sought, for if it were day He would be plainly seen in the midst, and would not be sought at all. And that is sufficient on this subject, except for the observation that though the Bride says she seeks Him not ' by night,' but * by nights/ nothing is signified by the mere number. 10. It seems to me, however, if you have no better cause to suggest, that the reason may be something of this kind. That world has its nights, and they are many. What do I say ? Not only has it nights, but it is itself almost an entire night, and is enveloped wholly in shadows. The unbelief of the Jews is a night ; the ignorance of the Heathen, the obstinate error of heretics, even the carnal and animal mode of living of Catholics, each of these is a night. Is it not a darkness as of night when the things which are of the Spirit of God are not even perceived ? So,

also, as many sects as there are of heretics and schismatics, so many nights are there. To no purpose do you seek the Sun of Righteousness and the light of Truth, that is, the Bridegroom, through the gloom of these nights, for light hath no fellowship with darkness. But someone objects that the Bride is not so blind, nor so foolish, as to seek light in the darkness, or to expect to find her Beloved among those who know Him not nor love Him. What she says is, not that she is seeking Him now, but that she has sought Him ; not 4 1 am seeking/ but By night I sought Him whom my soul loveth. And the meaning of these words is that when she was young she had but the thoughts and sentiments proportioned to the weakness of her age ; that she sought the truth where it was not, wandering and not finding it, according as it is said in a Psalm : I have gam astray like a lost sheep (Ps. cxix. 1 76). In fact, she states that she was still, as it were, in a little bed, because she was of immature age and undeveloped intelligence. \ Digitized by Google GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT IN DUE TIME, PLACE, AND MANNER 467 not,

that is to say, ' I have sought on my bed,' but * being on my bed I have sought'; that is, 'While I was still weak and incompetent, altogether unfitted to follow the Lamb whithersoever He should go, or to pursue the steep and arduous paths by which He ascended to the height of glory, I fell among many persons who, knowing my earnest desire, said to me : Lo, here is Christy or Zo, He is there (Mark xiii. 21), and He was neither in the one place nor the other.

Nevertheless, I do not regret to have fallen among them. For the more nearly I approached them and the more diligently I examined them, the more assured I became that the truth was not in them. For I sought it and did not find it, and what they falsely called day proved to be in truth but night. 12. Then I said in myself : 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. Now, you will observe that she must be reclining who says, / will rise. And this is said with much fitness, for how can she do otherwise than rise when she has heard of the Resurrection of her Beloved? But if thou, O blessed one, art risen with Christ, it behoves thee to seek those things which are above, and not to seek Christ here below, but to seek Him on high, where He sitteth at the Right Hand of the Father (Col. iii. 1). But she says : / will go about the city. To what purpose ? For it is the wicked who do that.

Leave that to the Jews, of whom their own Psalmist predicted : They shall suffer hunger like dogst and shall go round about the city (Ps. lix. 7, Douay). If you shall enter into the city, then, according to another prophet, behold them that are sick with famine (Jer. xiv. 18), which doubtless would not have been the case if there had been in them the bread of life. He has arisen from the heart of the earth, but He has not remained upon the earth, for He has ascended up where He was before. For He who descended is the same who also ascended, the Living Bread who came down from heaven, the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Digitized by Google 468

OF THE GLORY OF THE BRIDEGROOM, IN WHICH HE SITS AT THE HOW CAREFUL, WATCHFUL, AND DISCREET GOOD PASTORS OUGHT TO BE IN FEEDING THE SOULS GIVEN INTO THEIR CHARGE. ' In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul fove/A.J— Cant. iii. 2.

HE thinks still as a child. I believe that she has supposed that immediately He came forth from the tomb, He presented ' Himself in public to teach the people as He was wont, and heal the sick, and thus to show forth His glory in Israel, to see if they would receive Him rising from the dead, who promised that they would receive Him if He would come down from the Cross. But He had finished the work which the Father had given Him to do : which she ought to have understood, indeed, from the words which He had spoken when hanging on the Cross, and about to give up His spirit (John xix. 30) : // is finished. It was not for Him to show Himself anew to the masses of the people, who would not perhaps even thus have believed in Him. And He hastened to His Father, who would say to Him : Sit Thou at My Right Hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool (Ps. ex. 1). For when He should have been lifted up from the earth, He would draw all things unto Him more powerfully as well as more Divinely. But she, in thinking that He was to be sought in the streets and open spaces, was influenced by an eager

desire to enjoy His presence, and did not know that mystery ; therefore, when having again failed, she repeats : I sought Him, but I found Him not (iii. 2), that the word might be fulfilled which He spake : Ye shall not see Me . . . because I go to the Father (John xvi. 16). 2. But perhaps the sense of her words is this : ' How shall they believe in Him whom they will not behold ?' As if faith cometh from sight, and not rather by hearing ! What marvel is it that you should believe that which you have seen ? and what praise does it deserve not to disbelieve one's own eyes ? But if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience ; and patience is a merit. Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed (John xx. 29). So, then, that He may not deprive her of the merit of faith, He withdraws Himself from sight, affording place for this virtue. Besides this, it is time now that He should betake Himself to His own place. You ask, What is His own place ? It is the Right Hand of the Father. For as He is in the Form of God, He

will think it not robbery to be equal with God (Phil. ii. 6). The place, then, of the Only Begotten is one in which He is out of the reach of every kind of outrage. There, indeed, let Him sit, not below the Father, but beside Him, that all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father. In this shall Digitized by Google 469 appear His equality of dignity, if He is considered neither inferior nor posterior, to the Father. But the Bride has, in the meantime, regard to none of these things ; she is, as it were, inebriated by her affection ; She runs hither and thither, and seeks with her eyes for Him who is not now discernible by the eyes, but by faith. She does not think that Christ ought otherwise to enter into His glory than as having previously manifested the glory of His Resurrection openly to all the world, that impiety may be thereby confuted, the faithful made to rejoice, the disciples to glory, the peoples to be converted ; so that after His Presence and His Resurrection shall have shown clearly the truth of His predictions, He shall at length be glorified by all. But you deceive yourself, O Bride. All these things must needs be fulfilled, indeed ; but in

their due time. 3. But now, in the meantime, see if it be not more in agreement with the supreme Righteousness, and more worthy of it, not to give that which is holy to dogs, nor to cast pearls before swine : if, according to the Scripture, the wicked should rather be taken away, and not behold the glory of God (Is. xxvi. 10) ; if faith should be not deprived of its merit, since that is assuredly more displayed and approved in believing that which is not seen ; if thus that which is hidden from the unworthy is reserved for those who are worthy of it \ if those who are filthy are filthy still, and those who are righteous become still more so (Rev. xxii. n) if they do not sleep through weariness. Let the heavens and the heavens of heavens pass away and be confounded in their expectation rather than that the Almighty Father should be longer hindered from attaining the desire of His Heart, or the Only Begotten Son delayed longer (which would be a consummation in the highest degree unworthy) from entering into His glory. What is all the glory of mortals, thinkest thou, however great it may be, to be able to detain Him, for ever so small a time, from that glory

which has been prepared by His Father from all eternity ? Add to this that it is not fitting that the petition of the Son Himself should wait longer for its fulfilment. Do you ask, What was that petition ? It was that in which He said : Father, glorify Thy Son (John xvii. 1). And yet I feel that He asked this, not as a suppliant, but as prescient of that which was to be. That is freely asked which it is in the power of Him who asks to receive. Therefore the request of the Son was the effect of providence, not of necessity, since He, with the Father, gives that which He from the Father receives. 4. It is proper here to remark that not only does the Father glorify the Son, but also the Son glorifies the Father : so that no one should say that the Son is less than the Father as receiving glory from the Father, inasmuch as He also glorifies the Father. For He Himself says : Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.

But perhaps you still think that the Son should be considered inferior to the Father, because He seems, as if less glorious, to receive the glory of the Father, which He renders to the Father again. But hear that it is not so, for He says : O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Digitized by Google 47° own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the uwrld was (John xvii. 5). If, then, the glory of the Son is not later than that of the Father, since it exists from eternity, it is plain that the Father and the Son are equally glorified. This being so, where is the Primacy of the Father ? There is evidently Equality where there is Coeternity.

And the Equality is to such a degree that the glory of Both is but one glory, as They Themselves are One. On that account, as it seems to me, it was that He says again : Father, glorify Thy Name ; and in so doing requests, in fact, nothing else than to be glorified Himself, since it is, beyond doubt, in Him, and through Him, that the Name of the Father would be glorified ; and He received a reply from the Father : I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again (John xii. 28). And this reply of the Father is in itself no small glorifying of the Son.

But He was glorified more highly and more amply still at the stream of Jordan, both by the testimony of John the Baptist, the pointing Him out by the Dove, and by the Voice of the Father, who said : This is My Beloved Son (Matt. iii. 14, 16, 17). And, most of all, He was glorified and exalted on Mount Tabor before the three disciples, both by that same Voice which was heard from Heaven, and also by the wonderful and unexampled transfiguration of His Body, and the witness that was borne to Him by the two Prophets who appeared in the same place talking with Him (Matt. xvii. 2-5). 5. It remains, then, that, according to the promise of the Father, He should be glorified yet once again, and that with the fulness of glory to which nothing more can be added. But where shall that glory be bestowed? It will not be, as the Bride supposed, in the streets and open places, unless, perhaps, in those of whom it is said : The streets [of Jerusalem] shall be paved with white and clean stones : and Alleluia shall be sung in its streets (Tobit xiii. 22, Douay). For it is in those that the Son has received from the Father a glory so great that its equal

cannot be found, even among the dwellers in heaven. For to which of the Angels said He at any time, Sit on My Right Hand ? (Heb. i. 13). Not only among the Angels, but also in the loftiest orders of the Blessed, none is found fit to receive this glory which superexcels all things. To not one of them has that announcement of singular and exceptional glory been made, to not one of them has it been given to see it realized in himself. The Thrones, the Dominations, the Principalities, the Powers, desire, without doubt, to contemplate it in Him ; but to compare themselves with Him they do not presume. It is, then, to my Lord only that it has been spoken, and upon Him only that it has been conferred by the Lord, that He should sit upon the Right Hand of His Glory as being coequal with Him in glory, Consubstantial in Essence, Like unto Him by Generation, not unequal in Majesty or in Eternity. It is there, it is there that he who seeks Him shall find, and shall behold His Glory : not glory as of one among others, but assuredly the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father (John i. 14). 6. What doest thou, then, O Bride ? Dost thou