Sermons on the Song of Songs

to consist in the choice among different kinds of food, which should be taken first and which afterwards, and in what manner each should be taken ? For although all kinds of food, since God created them, must be good, yet you may certainly render them evil [to you] if you do not observe the proper manner and sequence in partaking of them. Apply, then, what I say of the food of the body to the various kinds of knowledge, which are food to the mind. 3. But it is better to send you at once to the Master, for this teaching comes not from us, but from him ; or, rather, it is ours, because it is the word of Truth. If any man, he says, think that he knouteth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know (1 Cor. viii. 2).

You see that he does not praise the person who knows many things if he is still ignorant of the right manner to know them, and that it is in that very point he places the fruit and usefulness of knowledge. What, then, does he understand by the manner of knowing ? What else can he mean by it than in what order, with what degree of eagerness, and with what intention and object we ought to acquaint ourselves with all things? In what order? that is to say, so as to acquire first that which is more fitted to the work of our salvation. With what degree of eagerness ? by which we learn that we ought to apply ourselves with the greatest ardour and vehemence to make progress in that which excites us the most strongly to the love of God. And lastly, with what intention and object ? not to learn, that is to say, in order to satisfy vainglory, to indulge curiosity, or any motive like that, but only for our own edification or that of our neighbour.

For there are those who wish to learn merely in order that they may know,1 and such curiosity is blamable. There are others who wish to learn for no other reason than that they may be looked upon as learned, which is a ridiculous vanity ; and these will not escape the censure which a satiric poet levels against them when he says : 4 To know a thing *is nothing in your eyes, unless some other person is learning by curiosity, others by the desire to be accounted learned, or even by motives of self-interest. There are very few who pursue study in a disposition of charity or humility, to instruct themselves or to be of service to others' (*Polycraticus,' Bk. vii c. 15).

Digitized by Google 236 aware of your knowledge 9 (Persius, Satire /, 27). And others, again, desire to learn only that they may make merchandise of their knowledge, for example, in order to gain money or honours ; and such trafficking is ignoble. But there are those who desire to learn that they may edify others ; that is charity. And, lastly, there are some who wish to learn that they may be themselves edified ; and that is prudence. 4. Of all these the two last are the only learners who do not fall into an abuse of knowledge ; since they wish to know only that they may do good. Says the Psalmist : A good understanding have all they that do His commandments (Ps. cxi. 10). But let all the others note what is said by the Apostle : To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (James iv. 17) ; as if he had said by a metaphor : * To take food, and not to digest it, is injurious to the health. For food badly cooked and ill-digested generates unhealthy humours, and injures the body instead of nourishing it. So also much knowledge stuffed into the memory, which is, as it were, the stomach of the soul, if it is not digested by the fire of charity, and transfused into the limbs, that is, into the actions and habits, so that it is made the means of good actions through the good that is known, shall not that knowledge be counted for sin, like food turned into bad and injurious humours?' Is not sin, in fact, as a bad humour in the soul ? and are not bad tendencies and habits as depraved humours ? He who knows the good, and does it not, will his conscience not suffer from inflammations and torturing pains?

Will it not return in itself a response of condemnation and death, as often as that Divine saying comes into the memory : That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes ? (Luke xii. 47).

It is perhaps the cry of such a soul to which the Prophet gives utterance, when he says : My boiucls, my bowels I Jam pained at my very heart ( Jer. iv. 1 9). Except that perhaps the very repetition seems to point to a double sense in the words, and obliges me to look for some other than that I have given. I think that the Prophet may have spoken this in regard to himself, inasmuch as being full of knowledge and of charity, and earnestly desiring to communicate that knowledge, he could find no one who cared to listen to him, and thus his know ledge was, as it were, a burden to him, since he was unable to communicate it. Therefore the pious teacher of the Church laments, both for those who scorned the opportunity of learning their duty, and for those who, knowing it, yet lived evil lives. And on this account he repeats the word. 5. Do you observe with what emphatic truth the 'Apostle asserts that knowledge puffeth up? I wish, then, that the soul should first of all commence by acquiring a knowledge of itself, as is required both by natural order and by that of usefulness. The natural order, because we are to ourselves the first and nearest fact ; but

also that of usefulness, since the knowledge of ourselves does not puff us up, Digitized by Google KNOWLEDGE OF LITERATURE IS GOOD FOR OUR INSTRUCTION 237 but rather humbles us, and prepares us for edification. For certainly the spiritual edifice cannot stand except on the firm foundation of humility. Now, the soul can find no motive more effective or more powerful for humility than a thorough knowledge of itself as it really is, only it must be honest in purpose and without guile, and standing in presence of itself, must ignore nothing that it beholds. When it views itself thus in the clear light of truth, it will find itself far different from what it had believed itself to be ; and sighing at the sight of its truly miserable state, will it not cry to the Lord with the Psalmist : In Thy truth T/wu hast humbled me? (Ps. cxix. 75, Douay). For how can it be otherwise than humbled, in obtaining this true knowledge of itself, when it beholds itself laden with sins, heavily burdened with its mortal body, involved in earthly cares, infected with the corruption of carnal desires, blind, bent earthwards, weak, entangled with many errors, exposed to a thousand perils, trembling with a thousand fears, struggling with a thousand difficulties, the subject of a thousand

suspicions and a thousand distressing necessities, prone to vices, but to virtues slow and backward ? How, after that revelation of himself to himself, can he lift up his eyes and walk with head erect ? Will he not rather be converted at the sight of so many miseries, at the sharp pang of the 4 thorn which is fastened ' [into it] ? (Ps. xxxi. 4, Vulg.). He will be converted, I say, to tears, to sighs and groans ; he will be converted to the Lord, and in deep humility will cry to Him : Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee (Ps. xli. 4). And then, when converted unto the Lord, it shall receive consolation, because He is the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation. 6. As for me, as long as I look at myself, I see only one subject after another for bitter regret. But if I look up, and lift up my eyes towards the help of the Divine compassion, the joyful sight of God tempers at once the bitter revelation of myself, and I say to Him : My soul is troubled within me, therefore will I remember Thee (Ps. xlii. 6). Nor is that vision of God of small avail, in which we have experience of His

kindness and readiness to be entreated. For He is in truth good and merciful, so much better than we are evil, as to prevail over our ill (Joel ii. 13). His Nature is goodness, and to Him it belongeth to have mercy always and to spare. Through such an experience, and in such an order of events, then, does God make Himself known to us, and to our great benefit ; that is to say, after man has become aware of the deplorable condition in which he is, and has cried unto the Lord, the Lord hears and helps him, declaring: I will deliver thee, and thou slialt glorify Me (Ps. 1. 15).

Thus, the knowledge of thyself will be a step to the knowledge of God: He will become visible in His image, which is renewed in thee ; whilst thou, beholding with confidence as in a glass the glory of the Lord, art changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. iii. 18). 7. But now notice, finally, how each of these kinds of knowledge Digitized by is necessary to your salvation, so that if you are wanting in one or in the other, you cannot be saved. For if you do not know yourself, you will not have the fear of God in you, and therefore you will have no humility. What ground, then, you can possibly have to hope for salvation, without the fear of God and without humility, you can see for yourself. You have done well to show me by that little murmur that you do not nourish any such vain expectation, or rather that your belief is entirely opposite to it ; and therefore we need not linger upon a question which is clear in itself. But listen to what remains— or had we better stop here, on account of those who are weighed down by sleep ? I thought that I would include in one sermon what I had promised respecting the two kinds of ignorance, and I would do so, only that I should seem to be excessively lengthy to those whom this sermon wearies and disgusts. For I see some yawning, and others are asleep. Nor is that strange ; the Vigils1 of the preceding night (which were, indeed, very long) are their excuse. But what shall I say to those who slept then, and yet are sleeping now all the same ? But I do not wish to put them to shame farther ; it is sufficient to have mentioned the fact I think that henceforth they will keep awake better, and fear to be again remarked. In that hope I pass over the matter for this time, and in consideration for them will divide what remains to be said, and make an ending, where the end really was not. May the indulgence shown to them bring them to render glory with us to the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

OF THE TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE TWO KINDS OF IGNORI THINK that there is no need to-day to urge you not to yield to sleep, because the exhortation given to you so recently as yes terday will doubtless be still in your minds, and being addressed to you in a kindly spirit has, I hope, produced a good effect. You remember, then, that you agreed with me in holding that no one is saved without a knowledge of himself, because from that knowledge is born humility, which is the mother of salvation, and the fear of the Lord which, as it is the beginning of wisdom, so it is the beginning of salvation. No one, I say, is saved without that knowledge; at least, no one who is of an age and capability to have it This exception is made to cover the case of young children and of those wanting in the powers of reason, to whom another principle applies. of St. Benedict (Mabillon's note). Digitized by Google TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND TWO KINDS OF IGNORANCE 239 But if you have not the knowledge of God, could there be a hope of salvation for you without that knowledge ? No, not even a hope.

For you cannot love One whom you do not know, nor have eternal happiness in the possession of One whom you do not love. Attain, then, to the knowledge of yourself, that you may fear God ; and attain to the knowledge of Him, that you may love Him also. In the one is the beginning of wisdom, in the other is the consummation of it, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. cxi. 10), and love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. xiii. 10). So great reason is there for your guarding against both the one and the other kind of ignorance, since without the fear and the love of God salvation is not possible. Other things are indifferent ; the knowledge of them does not ensure salvation, nor does ignorance of them prevent it. 2. Yet I must not be understood to say that the knowledge of literature is either to be neglected or despised, since it both instructs and adorns the soul, and renders it capable of instructing others.

But it is needful and expedient that those two things, in which, as we have said above, consist the essentials of salvation, should precede that knowledge. Did not the Prophet have that order in view, and intend to inculcate it, when he said : Sow to yourselves righteousness, reap the hope of life ? And then, after that, light for yourselves, he says : the light of knowledge.1 He has placed knowledge the last, as it were a picture, which cannot be drawn on the .empty air; and he has set in the first place the two things which form, so to speak, the solid substance upon which the picture is to be superposed. I may, then, apply myself in all security to gaining knowledge if I have previously received good assurance of life by the blessing of hope. You have, then, sown for yourself to righteousness if you have learned, from a true knowledge of yourself, to fear God ; if you have humbled yourself, wept sincerely for your sins, given liberal alms, and done other works of piety ; if you have afflicted your body with fasts and vigils and your breast with blows ; if, finally, you have wearied heaven with your prayers. This is indeed to sow to righteousness.

Good works, pious pursuits, tears of penitence — these are the seeds. Going, they went, says the Psalmist, and wept, easting their seeds. But what, shall they weep always ? By no means. They shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves (Ps. cxxvi. 6). Rightly is it said with jcyfulness, since they bring back fruits of glory, as it were, sheaves of that I can discover has anything like this reading. The nearest is the LXX. : ffireipart IclvtoIq €if SiKaioevvTjv, rpvyri<rarE €t'c Kapwbv Zwijc, 0wrt<rare lavroXc £u>c yvu<rtu>c, etc. The Vulgate version (and those founded on it) take quite a different tum here. St. Bernard may have had in his mind the following from St. Ambrose {Comm. in Ps. cxix., octon. prim.): ' Seminate vobis ad justitiam, vindemiate ad fructum vita, illuminate vobis lumen cognitionis : non prius illuminate, $ed seminate* etc. The sentiment is a common and favourite one with St. Bernard. See parallel passages in * Con vers, ad Clericos,' c. 15, and * Serm. de St. Benedicto.'— Ed.

Digitized by 240 grain. But that, you say, shall be in the resurrection at the last day ; and that is a very long time to await. But be not discouraged, do not in mere failure of heart lose hope ; in the meantime you have the first-fruits of the Spirit, which, even at the present time, you reap with joy. Sow to yourselves righteousness ; reap the hope of life. He does not merely put you off to the last day, when the object desired shall be possessed, not hoped for : but he speaks of the present Our joy, no doubt, and exultation shall be very great indeed when [eternal] life shall come to be in our actual possession. 3. But shall the hope of so great a joy be itself without joy ? Rejoicing in hope , says the Apostle (Rom. xii. 12). And David said, not that he should rejoice, but that he did rejoice, because he hoped to go into the house of the Lord (Ps. cxxi. 1). He did net yet possess [eternal] life, but he had attained the hope of life; and he experienced in himself the truth of that saying of Scripture that not only the reward, but the hope itself, of the righteous shall be gladness (Prov. x. 28). That gladness

is produced in the soul of him who has sown to himself righteousness, by the assurance that his offences are pardoned, provided that the efficacy of the grace which he has received to live more holily for the future attests for him the certitude of that pardon. Everyone among you who feels this working in himself knows what saith the Spirit, whose words and whose working are never contrary the one to the other. That which is heard outwardly with the ears is felt inwardly by the heart, and therefore it is that the teachings of the Spirit are understood with full sympathy. For it is one and the same Spirit who speaks in us and who works in you, dividing to every man severally as He will (1 Cor. xii. 11); giving to some the grace to speak, to others the grace to do that which is good. 4. Whosoever, then, of you, after the first stages (so bitter and full of tears) of his conversion, has the happiness to breathe freely in hope, and to be raised as upon the wings of grace into the peaceful air of heavenly consolations, is even now reaping the harvest and receiving the fruit of the tears which for a time he shed ; he has attained to see God, and has

had the happiness to hear Him say : Give to [him] of the fruit of his hands (Prov. xxxi. 31). For how can it be that he who has tasted and seen how sweet the Lord is (Ps. xxxiv. 8) has not seen God ? How full, O Lord Jesus, of sweetness and kindness has that soul felt Thee to be who has not only received of Thy bounty pardon for sins, but also the gift of holiness !

Nor is even that all, for, as if to load him with blessings, there has been added to it the promise of eternal life. Happy is he who has already reaped as much as this, and who has in the meantime his fruit unto holiness, and in the end eternal life ! It was with good ground that he who wept and lamented at the sight of himself as he really was, rejoiced when he had seen the Lord, since to the sight of that marvellous mercy he owed it that he returned home bearing sheaves of glory so great : remission, sanctification, most of all the hope of [eternal] life. How true is the prediction which we read in Digitized by Google TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND TWO KINDS OF IGNORANCE 24 1 the Psalm : They that sow in tears shall reap in joy (Ps. cxxvi. 5).

In it is briefly referred to each kind of knowledge : the one the knowledge of ourselves, which causes us to sow in tears ; the other the knowledge of God, which enables us to reap in joy. 5. If, then, we begin with this twofold experience — the knowledge of God and of ourselves — any knowledge which we may be able afterwards to add to this will not make us vainglorious, inasmuch as any worldly gain or honour which it can possibly bring us is far below the hope which we have conceived and the joy which that hope brings to us, and which is profoundly rooted in the soul. And that hope maketh not ashamed, because the lo7>e of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given u?ito us (Rom. v. 5). It makes us not to be ashamed, because it fills the heart with an assured and settled conviction [of the mercy of God]. By this the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. viii. 16).

What, then, can come to us from any knowledge of our own, however great it be, which is not far below this glory, to be counted among the sons of God ? That is indeed too little to say, for the whole earth and all that it contains, if it were possible to put that into the possession of each one of us, would not deserve to be put into comparison with a gift so precious. But if we be ignorant of God, how is it possible for us to hope in One whom we know not ? And if we be ignorant of ourselves, how can we be humble, since we think ourselves to be something, while we are nothing ? But we know well that neither those who are proud, nor those who are without hope in God, have any part or lot in the inheritance of the saints. 6. Consider, then, now with me with what care and solicitude we ought to repel from us both these kinds of ignorance, of which the one produces the beginning, the other the consummation, of every kind of sin ; just as, on the contrary, of the two corresponding kinds of knowledge, the one is the beginning of wisdom, and the other its perfection — that is to say, the

one produces the fear of the Lord, the other the love of Him. But with regard to these two kinds of knowledge, we have explained above ; let us now consider the two kinds of ignorance. Now, just as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ecclus. i. 14), so pride is the beginning of every sin (Ecclus. x. 13) ; and as the love of God is justly considered as the perfection of wisdom, so despair [of His love and mercy] is both the startingpoint and completion of malice. And in like manner, as from the knowledge of thyself is caused in thee the fear of God, and equally from the knowledge of God the love of Him, so, on the contrary, from ignorance of thyself comes pride, and from ignorance of God despair. For ignorance of yourself produces in you pride, inasmuch as your mind, being at the same time deceived and deceiving, causes you to think yourself better than you really are. In this way pride is the beginning of all sin, since you are greater in your own eyes than in the eyes of God, or than you are in fact and reality. And therefore the Scripture, speaking of him who first committed this Digitized by 242 great sin (I mean the devil),

declares that he abode not in the truths but was a liar from the beginning? inasmuch as he was not in truth what he was in his own imaginations. But suppose that he had erred from truth in thinking himself lesser and lower than he really was, what then ? Doubtless ignorance would then have been an excuse for him ; he would have escaped the snare of pride, and, instead of being brought into disgrace by [this] his iniquity, would perhaps have been brought back into grace and favour by his humility. For if we could know clearly the condition in which each of us individually is before God, we might have an opinion of ourselves which should be neither too high nor too low, but which should conform in all respects closely to the truth.2 But since it has pleased God that this should be hidden from us, so that no man knows whether he be worthy of love or of hatred (Eccles. ix. i), it is assuredly both more fitting and more safe to choose for ourselves the lowest place, according to the advice of the Truth Himself ; from this we may afterwards be transferred to a higher, and that with honour, instead of being obliged to cede with shame the higher place to another (Luke

xiv. 10). 7. There is, then, no danger, howsoever much you may humble yourself, that you will regard yourself as much less than you really are — that is to say, than truth holds you to be. But it is a great evil and a peril to be guarded against, to exalt yourself even in a small degree more than the truth, or in your own thoughts to prefer yourself even to one person whom, perhaps, the Truth regards as equal to you, or, perhaps, even superior. To explain this by a familiar illustration : when you pass through a low doorway you have nothing to fear from stooping, however low you may stoop ; but if you raise your head higher than the doorway, though it were but by the breadth of a finger, you will strike against the frame and injure yourself by the blow. So also with the soul : there is nothing to be feared from humbling yourself, to however great an extent, but much to be apprehended from even the least presumptuous self-exaltation. Therefore beware, O man, of comparing yourself either with those who are greater than you, or those who are less ; with many or with one. For how do you know whether that very one, whom you perhaps regard as the vilest

and most miserable of mankind, at whose life you shudder as being infamous and defiled with crimes beyond all others; whom you think is to be scorned therefore, not only in comparison with yourself, who are living, as you confidently think, in temperance, righteousness, and piety, but even in comparison with other criminals, as being of all the ungodly the worst; how do you know, I say, whether he may not one day be made, by an exertion of the power of the Most High, to be better than you, and than those whom you prefer to him, or whether he is not so even now in the sight of God ?

And for these reasons it is that the Lord has willed us to take our place, not in the midmost ranks, not in the lower, nor even among Digitized by Google TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND TWO KINDS OF IGNORANCE 243 the lowest, but has said : Sit down in the lowest place (Luke xiv. 10) — that is to say, alone and last of all ; and do not presume, I say not to prefer yourself to any, but even to put yourself in comparison with one. See what great evil is caused by ignorance of ourselves, since it produces the sin which is that of the devil, and is the beginning of all others— namely, pride. What is produced by ignorance of God we will see on another occasion. For, as we assembled today a little late, the shortness of the time will not permit of more now. Let it suffice on this occasion for each of us that he is warned against ignorance of himself ; warned, not merely by this discourse, but by the condescension and goodness of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

HOW FROM IGNORANCE OF GOD COMES DESPAIR: AND HOW THE HAT, then, comes from ignorance of God ? For, as you remember, it was at this point we left off yesterday, and we have to take up our subject here. What, then, comes of it ? Despair, as I have already said ; but in what manner we have now to consider. A man perhaps, returning to a right frame of mind,1 and sincerely condemning himself for all the evil actions which he has done, proposes to reform, and to retire from the evil road on which he is, and from his sensual thoughts and actions. But if he is ignorant how good and merciful God is, how gentle and favourable to the penitent, and how willing to forgive, will not his carnal reason accuse him, and say : ' What are you doing ? do you wish to lose this life as well as the future life ? Your sins are too many and too great If you were even to cut the skin off your bones,2 you could not make satisfaction for offences so numerous and aggravated. Your constitution is delicate ; you have lived in comfort, and you will not easily alter the habits of a life.' And the unhappy man, rendered desperate by these and similar arguments, returns to his former errors, not knowing how easily the Almighty Goodness, who willeth not that any should perish, would break through all those obstacles [for him].

Then follows [a settled state of] impenitence, which is the worst of all crimes, and is indeed that blasphemy which cannot be forgiven (Matt, xii. 31). He is deeply agitated, and swallowed up by excessive sadness, and by a profound melancholy, so that he refuses to emerge from it, or to receive any consolation. It is with him as it is said in s Excories, a Low Latin word, not classical. — Ed.

Digitized by Google 244 Scripture : The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sins, contemns [them] (Prov. xviii. 3). Or, at least, he shuts his eyes to.his miserable state, and, flattering himself with some plausible reasoning, throws himself again, and irrevocably, into the business and the pleasure of the world, to enjoy and to profit by all its good things to the utmost of his power. But when he [and those like him] shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, like travail upon a woman with child : and they shall not escape (1 Thess. v. 3). Thus it is that from ignorance of God comes the consummation of all evil, which is despair. 2. The Apostle says that some have not the knowledge of God (1 Cor. xv. 31) ; but I say that all those who are unwilling to be converted to God are without the knowledge of Him. For, doubtless, they are not reluctant to do so for any other reason except that they imagine Him to be rigorous and* severe who is good and kind; hard and implacable, who is full of mercy ; cruel and terrible, who is most to be loved — and iniquity deceives itself, imagining an idol in place of that which He really is. O ye of little faith, wherefore do ye fear ? Because you think He is unwilling to forgive your sins ? But when His Hands were nailed to the Cross He nailed your sins to it also with them. Because you are delicate, and nursed in habits o( luxury? But He knoweth the clay of which we are made. Because you are accustomed to evil, and bound by habits of sinning as by iron chains ? But the Lord looseth them that are fettered (Ps. cxlvi. 7).

Are you perhaps afraid that He is enraged because of the number and greatness of your crimes, and will be slow to extend to you a helping Hand ? But you have the assurance that where sin abounded, there grace did much more abound (Rom. v. 20). Are you careful and anxious about food and clothing, and other things necessary for your body, and on that account are reluctant to give up your property?

Your Heavenly Father knoiveth that ye have need of all these things (Matt. vi. 32). What more can you wish ? or what still holds you back from salvation ? But this is the very thing I say : you are ignorant of God, and you are not willing to believe that which I tell you of Him. I could wish that you would believe those at all events who tell you what they have themselves experienced ; for unless you believe you will not have true understanding. But that faith is not given to all. 3. May God grant us never to suffer from such ignorance as this, that is to say, respecting God, which the Bride is warned to avoid ; she on whom has been bestowed, not merely knowledge, but friendship and familiarity with Him who is as well her Bridegroom as her God, to whom is the favour of continual communion and conversation with Him, and who asks here with fearless directness : Tell me where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon. In which she asks to be shown to her, not Himself, but the place where His glory dwelleth ; although, in truth, His place and His glory are no other than Himself. But He thinks fit to reprove her

for preDigitized by Google 245 sumption, and warns her to know her own self, and to consider by what limitations she is restrained, since she has regarded herself as fit for so great a Vision, whether because the excess [of her love] hindered her from considering that she was still in the body, or that she hoped, but fruitlessly, to be able to attain, even while remaining in the body, to that Brightness which is inaccessible. Therefore she is forthwith recalled to herself, is convicted of ignorance, and corrected for presumption. If thou know not, go forth. The Bridegroom thunders terribly against His beloved, not as Bridegroom, but as Master ; not as being angry, but because He desires to purify her by terror, so that being purified she may be rendered fit for that Vision to which she aspires. For that Vision is reserved for the pure in heart. 4. It is with great beauty that, instead of calling her simply ' beautiful, ' He styles her fairest among women ; that is to say, beautiful, with a qualification, and in this way to humble her still more, that she may learn in what she is deficient. For I think that in this passage, under the name of * women,' He speaks of carnal and worldly souls, which have

in them no manly force, displaying nothing constant or generous in their actions, but of which the whole life and character is soft, remiss, and, in a word, womanish. Now, although the soul that is spiritually minded is already beautiful, inasmuch as it walks, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, yet, because it is still in a mortal body, it still falls short of perfect beauty. Thus, it is not beautiful absolutely, but beautiful 1 among women that is, among worldly souls, which are not spiritually minded as she ; but not among Angelic Beatitudes, not among Virtues, Powers, and Dominations. For as among the Patriarchs one was formerly said to be just in his generation (Gen. vi. 9), that is, beyond all of his time and his generation ; and as Tamar was asserted to be righteous by Judah, that is to say, beyond 'Judah (Gen. xxxviii. 26) ; and as in the Gospel the Publican is declared to have gone down to his house justified, indeed, but justified rather than the Pharisee (Luke xviii. 14) ; and as that great Saint John [the Baptist] was once commended as having no superior, yet only ' among those who are born of women ' (Luke vii. 28), not among the choirs of the blessed and heavenly

spirits, so also is it here said of the Bride that she is fairest, but only among women, not among the blessed spirits of heaven. 5. Let the soul, then, desist henceforth, as long as she is on the earth, from searching out with too eager a curiosity the things which are in heaven, lest in seeking to view too nearly the majesty [of God], she should be overwhelmed by His glory. Let her desist, I say, as long as her lot is cast among women, from inquiring into the events which take place among those Powers which are on high, which are intelligible to them alone, and with which, because they are heavenly, it is lawful to heavenly beings alone to concern themselves. i That Vision,' He declares, * which you ask, O My Bride, to be permitted to behold, is far above your powers ; nor are you now capable of sustaining the blinding splendour of that Glory, as of the noonday Digitized by Google 246 sun, in which I dwell. For you have said : Tell me where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon. But to be borne upon the clouds, to penetrate into the fulness of Light, to burst into the abysses of Glory, to dwell in the Light which none

can approach unto, for this the present is not the time, nor is your mortal body capable of sustaining it That felicity is reserved for you at the last, when I shall have caused you to appear before Me in a condition full of glory, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Do you not know that as long as you remain in your present body, you are exiled from the Light? How can you, who have not yet attained the full beauty of heaven, suppose yourself capable of beholding the Source of all beauty ? How, finally, can you, who do not yet know yourself; seek to know Me in My Glory ? For if you had known yourself more fully, you would be aware that your corruptible body is not capable of lifting its eyes to that blinding Splendour upon which the Angels desire to look, much less of fixing them upon it. The time will come when I shall appear [to judge], and then you shall be wholly fair, even as I am now ; then you shall be like Me, inasmuch as you shall see Me as I am (1 John iii. 2). Then you shall hear the words: Thou art all fairf my love : there is no spot in thee (Cant. iv.

7). But now, though you are like unto Me in part, yet in part you are still unlike; therefore be content to know [Me] only in part Have regard to your own powers ; seek not things too high for you, nor try to penetrate those that are too hard (Ecclus. iii. 21). Otherwise,^ thou knowest not [thyself], O thou fairest among women ; for I do not call you simply 'fairest/ but 'fairest among women/ that is, in part; but when that which is perfect shall have come, then that which is in part shall be done away (1 Cor. xiii. 10). If, then, thou knmvest not thyself; but the words which follow have been noted, and it is not needful that they should be repeated. I had promised myself to say something that might be useful respecting the two kinds of ignorance; if, nevertheless, I seem not to have fulfilled this promise, forgive me; it has not been for want of goodwill. For to will is present with me ; but how to perform I find not, except in so far as Our Lord Jesus Christ shall of His goodness deign to bestow upon me [grace] for your edification. He is the Bridegroom of the Church, over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen. Digitized by Google 247

OF THE CHARIOTS OF PHARAOH, THAT IS, THE DEVIL ; AND OF THE /HA VE compared thee, O my love, to my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots (i. 9). In the first place we recognise willingly in these words that the Church has been prefigured in the Patriarchs of the ancient Law, and that the mysteries of our salvation have been foreshown [in them]. In the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt, in that twofold wonder at the Red Sea, the giving passage to the people of God, while at the same time vengeance was executed upon their enemies, the grace of Baptism is clearly typified, inasmuch as it saves men and submerges offences. All our fathers^ says the Apostle, were under the cloud, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. x. 1, 2). But it is needful to notice, according to our custom, the succession of words [in our text], and to show the connection between the former ones and those which follow them, and so to draw, if we can, some sweet and profitable lesson from them to bear upon our practice. So, then [the Lord], after having repressed the presumption of the Bride with grave and severe reproof, not wishing that she should remain in too great dejection,

recalls to her memory some of the blessings which she has already received, and promises to her others which have not yet beer granted ; He also gives testimony that she is beautiful, and even calls her ' love.' 1 If 1/ says the Bridegroom, * have spoken to thee harshly and severely, O my love, do not suppose that it was from mistrust of thee, from hatred, or bitterness of feeling. For the gifts which I have lavished upon thee are unmistakable proofs of my affection. Nor is it in my mind to take away from thee these honours and adornments, but rather to add more and greater ones/ Or the words may be thus understood : * Do not take it ill, O my love, that you do not receive instantly all that you ask, for you have already received very great gifts from Me, and shall receive still greater if you walk in My precepts, and persevere in My love.' Thus much with respect to the connection of the words. 2. Now let us see of what nature are the gifts which He mentions that He has given. First of all is this, that He has rendered her like unto His army among the chariots of Pharaoh, in freeing her from the yoke of sin by the

destruction of all the works of the flesh, in like manner as the people of Israel was freed from slavery to Egypt, and the chariots of Pharaoh were overturned and submerged in the Red Sea (Exod. xiv. 28). That was indeed a very great mercy, and I shall not be wrong if I desire to glory in having received it. It is a great truth that I declare. I confess, and will confess, that.

Digitized by Google 248 unless the Lord had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelt in hell (Ps. xciii. 17, Douay). I am not ungrateful; I am not forgetful; / will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever (Ps. lxxxix. 1). Let us leave there the resemblance which the Bride bears to my soul. For the rest, after she has been liberated by that unexampled condescension and goodness, she is taken by Him to be His dear friend, endued with glory and beauty as the Bride of the Lord ; but as yet her ornaments are only upon neck and cheeks. For there are promised to her jewelled necklaces for adornment, and golden earrings of price inlaid with silver for an added beauty. Who will not be pleased with the order itself of these gifts ? First, she is mercifully freed ; then condescendingly loved ; thirdly, with kindness cleansed and purified; lastly, she receives the promise of ornaments the richest and most precious. 3. I do not doubt that there are some among you who feel already in themselves the truth of what has been said, and, indeed, anticipate it, because they are forewarned by their own experience. But it is for me to be mindful of that verse of a Psalm : The entrance of Thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the simple (Ps. cxix. 1 30).

And for their sakes it is that I think it advisable to explain these things at greater length, for loving is the Spirit of wisdom (Wisd.i.6). And it pleases Him that a teacher should be loving and diligent, and that, while desirous to satisfy the intelligent and learned, he should so proceed as to make allowance for those who are of slower comprehension.

Wisdom herself says : They that explain me shall have life everlasting (Ecclus. xxiv. 31, Douay), and I should be unwilling to be deprived of that recompense. Furthermore, even in those things which appear plain there are often hidden meanings, and those of such a character that it is not superfluous to explain them with great care, even to those of the most capacious and swiftly-apprehensive minds. 4. But consider the comparison drawn from Pharaoh and his army and from the horsemen of the Lord. The comparison is not of the two armies between themselves, but of each with a third thing. For what concord hath light with darkness ? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel ? (2 Cor. vi. 15). The Bridegroom compares, no doubt, the holy and spiritual soul to the horsemen of the Lord ; and, again, Pharaoh to the devil, and the army of the one to the army of the other. You will not wonder that one soul is likened unto horsemen, who are a multitude, if you consider the array [as it were an army] of virtues which are found in that single soul which is holy.

What order and regularity in its affections, what discipline in the use of all its faculties, what an armoury of strength in its prayers, what unshrinking resolution in its actions, how formidable is its zeal, what constancy in the combats it sustains with the enemy of souls himself, and how numerous the triumphs it obtains over him ! There fore, it is that we read of it in a later verse : Terriole as an army with banners (Cant. vi. 4). And, again : What will ye see in the Shulamitet Digitized by Google 249 As it were, the company of two armies (vii. 1). Or if that explanation does not please you, know that a pious soul is never without a guard of Angels, who vie with each other in watching over it with a care truly Divine, that they may keep it for Him to whom it belongs, and present it as a chaste virgin to Christ Do not say in your heart : saw them, and obtained at his petition that his servant [Gehazi?] should see them too.1 If you do not see them it is because you are not a Prophet, nor the servant of a Prophet. The Patriarch Jacob saw them, and said : This is God's host (Gen. xxxii. 2). The Apostle and Doctor

of the Gentiles saw them too, and said of them : Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? (Heb. L 14). 5. Therefore the Bride, being in all her ways protected by Angelic ministries and attended by a bodyguard of Angels, is rightly compared to the horsemen of the Lord ; to that army which on a former occasion, in the midst of the chariots of Pharaoh, triumphed over them by an astonishing miracle of Divine assistance. For if you notice with attention, you will find that all those circumstances in that former incident which you regard with wonder and admiration are to be discovered here, and to be admired no less. Indeed, it may well be thought that here the triumph is more magnificent still, since the former had to do with material things only ; but here the type is spiritually fulfilled. Does it not appear to you, in fact, that there is far more of glory as of bravery in overcoming the devil than Pharaoh, and in conquering the powers of the air than in overturning the chariots of Pharaoh? There the combat is against flesh and blood ; but here against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against

spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. vi. 12). Follow out with me the details of this comparison.

There it is a people delivered from Egypt, here man drawn away from the world ; there Pharaoh is overcome, here the devil ; there the chariots of Pharaoh are overthrown, here carnal and worldly desires which war against the soul are destroyed ; those in the billows, these in floods of tears ; billows of the sea in one case, floods of bitter regret in the other. I believe that when the demons encounter such a soul as this they cry out, as did the Egyptians of old : Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighiethfor them (Exod. xiv. 25). Do you wish now that I should point out some of the chiefs of Pharaoh's army by their own names, and that I should describe some of his chariots, so that you may in a similar manner find out others for yourselves? Learn, then, that one of the great captains of the spiritual and invisible king of Egypt is Malice, another is Sensuality, and a third is Avarice. These princes each possess under their king provinces bounded by such limits as are assigned to them by him. was probably not Gehazi, who had been before this period rendered unfit for service by leprosy (2 Kings v. 27).— Ed.

Digitized by 250 For Malice rules in the region of injuries and crimes; Sensuality presides over all uncleanness of the flesh; and Avarice over the province of rapine and fraud. 6. Listen also and learn of what kind are the chariots which Pharaoh has prepared for his princes that they may pursue the people of God. Malice has a chariot standing on four wheels, and these are cruelty, impatience, presumption, impudence. Swift is that chariot to shed blood ; it is not stayed by innocence, nor retarded by patience, nor restrained by fear, nor kept back by shame. It is drawn by two horses extremely vicious, and ready for any injury to others — worldly Power, and temporal Ostentation.

This car of Malice advances with great rapidity, since on the one side it has Power to accomplish the malicious designs of its occupier, and on the other, Ostentation to approve and applaud them when completed; so that the saying is fulfilled which is written: The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous (Ps. x. 3) ; and also another Scripture : This is your hour, and the power of darkness (Luke xxii. 52). Over these two rule two drivers: Arrogance urges Pomp, and Jealousy Power. For the heart that is swelling with vanity is borne swiftly to the love of the pomps of the devil ; while that, on the contrary, which is restrained by fitting fear, which gravity renders modest, humility sincere, and purity healthy and clearsighted, will certainly not be borne lightly away by the wind of vainglory.

In the same way is not the horse of worldly Power directed by Jealousy, and urged on with the two spurs of envy, I mean the apprehension of failing, and the uneasy fear of being surpassed. One of these is felt by him who is successful, the other by him who is trying to succeed ; and by one or the other of these the powers of the world are constantly galled. So much as to the car of Malice. 7. The car of Sensuality also rolls upon four wheels : the Gluttony of the belly, the Lust of sexual passion, the Luxury of dress and adornment, and the Languor of sloth. It also is drawn by two steeds, Prosperity in life, and Abundance of goods ; and directed by two drivers, Ease shameful and inglorious, and treacherous Security.

For an abundance of all things easily produces sloth, and according to Scripture the prosperity of fools shall destroy them (Prov. i. 32), and assuredly for no other reason than this, that it infuses into them an unfounded sense of security; for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cotneth upon them (1 Thess. v. 3). Now, these have no spurs, nor whip, nor anything of that kind ; instead of these they make use of a net of gauze1 to give them shade, and of a fan to give them a cooling breeze. The gauze net may stand for Dissimulation, which casts a kind of shadow over the soul, and enables it to escape the heat and labour of cares. It is the mark of an effeminate and weak soul to seek to avoid even necessary cares for fear of feeling the anxiety and uneasiness of them ; and for that * parvulo papilione? which in the MSS. is a marginal note. — Ed.

Digitized by Google object to conceal itself under the shadow of dissimulation. And the fan is Prodigality, which produces the breeze of adulation. For the luxurious are wont to be prodigal, and to purchase with their gold the breath of the mouth of flatterers ; but enough upon this subject. 8. Avarice also is drawn upon a chariot of which the four wheels are: Pusillanimity, Inhumanity, Disregard of God, and Forgetfulness of death. It is drawn by Stubbornness and Rapacity as steeds, and these have but one driver, Eagerness for gain. Avarice is content with one servant only ; he is not willing to bear the expense of more.

But that servant performs what is commanded him with promptness and unwearied industry; he urges on the steeds which draw his master's car with a whip of double thong — the Craving to acquire, and the Fear to lose. 9. The king of Egypt has other captains besides with their chariots, who serve their master in his wars : as Pride, who is one of his chief princes ; Impiety, the enemy of the faith, who holds a chief place in the household and realm of Pharaoh ; there are also lords and knights of lower rank in the army, whose number is very great, and I leave it to you to seek out the names and the offices, the arms and the equipment of these, to occupy you in these studies. It is thus that the invisible Pharaoh, full of confidence in the prowess of his captains and the strength of their chariots, charges to and fro, here, there, and everywhere, and as a cruel tyrant, wreaks his rage to the utmost of his power against the whole of the Lord's household, and pursues even at this very day Israel escaping from Egypt. The people of God are indeed neither clad in armour, nor borne onward in chariots ; nevertheless [His army] is rendered strong by the Hand of the Lord alone, and sings aloud in cheerful confidence: I will sing unto the Lor^ for He hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea (Exod. xv. 1) ; and again: Some put their trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God (Ps. xx. 7). All this bears on the comparison of the horsemen of the Lord, and the chariots of Pharaoh. 10. The Bride is called by the Bridegroom his Love. For she was beloved by Him, even before she was set free ; He would not have set free one whom He did not love. But as for her, she was drawn to love Him, because of the priceless blessing of freedom which He had conferred upon her. Hear, in fact, the confession which she herself makes : We love Him, because He first loved us (1 John v. 19).

Now recall to your minds the history of Moses and the Midianite (CEthiopissa) woman, and you will see that in it is prefigured the mystical union of the Word with the soul of a sinner ; and distinguish, if you can, what it is, in the consideration of that most sweet of all mysteries, which gives you most heartfelt consolation and pleasure. Is it the benignant condescension of the Word, all too great as it is ? is it the priceless glory accruing to the soul ? or is it the sudden and unhoped for faith of the sinner ? But Moses was not able to change the skin of his Midianite wife ; while Christ is able to change the Digitized by complexion of the soul which He loves and saves. For He goes on to say : Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle dove's (Cant. i. 9, 10, Douay). But this is reserved for another sermon, so that we may take with eagerness and avidity the viands which are set out for us upon the table of the Bridegroom ; and may burst forth (eructemus) to His praise and glory who is Jesus Christ our Lord, God blessed lor ever. Amen.

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE FACE OF THE SOUL ; WHAT CONSTITUTES ITS BEAUTY OR ITS DEFORMITY, ITS SOLITUDE AND ITS MODESTY. ^J^HY cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-dove's. Tender and sensijf tive is the modesty of the Bride, and I think that at the reproof of her Bridegroom her whole face was suffused with one blush, and its beauty made so strikingly apparent as to draw from Him the praise: Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-dove's. But, nevertheless, that is not to be understood in an outward and carnal sense, as if He spoke of the flush due to the blood coursing in the veins, mounting into the countenance, and mingling there swiftly with the pearl-white tints of the complexion. That causes, indeed, a beauty momentary and perishable, varying from one moment to another, as the bright colour now flames upon the cheeks, and now sinks into paleness ; but it is not of this that He speaks. For the substance of the soul, which is incorporeal and invisible, is neither portioned into limbs and organs, nor shadowed with visible colours.

Try, then, to reach, in a spiritual way, the conception of a substance wholly spiritual, and in order to estimate justly the comparison made by the Bridegroom, for the face of the soul understand the intention of the mind. For it is by that you judge of the rectitude of an action, just as it is by the face that you judge of the beauty of the body.

Understand, then, by the colour which mounts into the cheeks, modesty, which is, more than any other, the quality which beautifies the soul, and adds grace to it. Thy cheeks, then, are beautiful as the turtle-dove's. He was able to describe her beauty as that of the face, according to the ordinary phrase, in which one, whose beauty is praised, is said to have 1 a sweet or beautiful face 9 ; but I know not what could have been the intention in speaking of 1 cheeks' in the plural, yet I do not at all think that it was without an object. For it is the Spirit of wisdom who is speaking, and it is not permissible to attribute to Him a single word spoken in a faulty or even objectless way. There is undoubtedly some reason, then, whatever it may be. wherefore He preferred to speak of 'cheeks ' in the plural, rather than of ' face ' in the singular ; and if you have nothing better to propose. I will explain my idea of what it is.

Digitized by Google 2. In an intention or purpose, which we have said to be the countenance of the soul, there are two elements necessarily required, namely, the act of the will, and the reason of that act ; that is, the thing that you intend, and the reason why you intend it. And it is by these two that you form an opinion of the excellence (that is, the moral beauty) or the defect of that soul. So that one in whom these two things are correct and pure may rightly and truthfully be addressed as here : Thy cheeks are beautiful as a turtle-doves. But if any is wanting in one or the other of these qualities, this cannot be said of her, because of the want of symmetry which that defect causes.

Much less is this praise due to her in whom both of these excellences are wanting. This will appear more plainly by examples. If, for instance, a person applies his mind to the discovery of truth, and does that from the love of the truth alone, does it not seem to you that the purpose, and the reason of it, are alike honourable, and that such a soul may rightly apply to itself what is said here : Thy cheeks are beautiful as a turtle-dove's ? since on neither of them does a speck (navus) of blame appear? But if it seeks the truth, not from a pure desire of truth, but for vainglory, or in order to obtain some temporal advantage, whatever it may be, then, although on one side it may appear fair, yet you will not hesitate, I think, to pronounce that on the other it is deformed, since it is disfigured by the faultiness of the motive. But if you see a man who does not devote himself to any honourable pursuits at all, but is entangled in the nets of sensual pleasures, and given up to gluttony and self-indulgence, such as they are whose god is their belly, and wfiose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things (Phil. iii. 19), what of that man? will you not declare that he is wholly foul, and evidently condemned for both intention and act ? 3. To have not God but the world for the motive and end is then the sign of a worldly mind, and it is to have none at all of this spiritual beauty. But to have a degree of regard for God, yet not to act wholly for the sake of God, is evidently the mark of a soul that is insincere. Although it has a fair appearance on one side, because it has a certain degree of regard and care for God, yet this insincerity not only destroys such beauty as there is in this, but spreads foulness over the whole countenance. If, again, the intention is directed towards God wholly or chiefly because of the necessities of the present life, that is not indeed insincerity, but it is a mark of lowness and poorness of heart which is far from being acceptable to Him.

Further, to direct the mind towards some other object than God, though it be for the sake of God, is not the repose of Mary, but the care and trouble of Martha. I would by no means assert that a soul doing this has anything of deformity in it, yet I could not declare that it has reached the perfection of beauty, since, inasmuch as it is careful and troubled about many earthly things, it cannot help being covered, by the continual agitation in which earthly things continually exist, with some grains of the dust they scatter everywhere.

Digitized by 254 No doubt these will be quickly and easily blown off again in the hour of a holy death by the breath of a pure intention and the answer of a good conscience towards God. Therefore, to seek only God, and that for Himself alone, is to have a countenance perfectly fair upon either side, and that because both of the intention and the act ; and this it is which is the special quality and prerogative of the Bride by which she merits these words : Thy cheeks are beautiful as a turtle-dove's, 4. But why as a turtle-dove's ? That bird is modest, and is said to consort not with many companions, but to lead its life with a single mate, so that, if it should lose that mate, it does not seek another, but thenceforth lives solitary. You, then, who listen to these words, and who wish to profit by these things which are written for your behoof, and which we are dwelling on and discussing now for your edification, you, I say, if you feel within you the urgings of the Spirit of God, and are earnestly desiring so to act that you may make your soul to become the Bride of Christ (Dei), do you make it your study that the two sides

of your intention — the act and the motive of it — should alike be beautiful; be like that bird so modest and chaste ; sit alone and keep silence, as says the Prophet, because thou hast laid it upon thee ? (Lam. iii. 28). It is indeed an aim altogether above you to be espoused to the Lord of the Angels. Is it not above you to be joined to God, and to be one spirit with Him ? Sit, then, solitary as the turtle-dove. Have nothing to do with crowds, nothing to do with the masses of mankind ; forget, also, thine own people and thy father's house ; so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty (Ps. xlv. 10, n). O holy soul, remain alone, so as to preserve thyself for Him alone, whom thou hast chosen to thyself from among all others. Avoid appearing in public, shun even those who dwell in the house with you, withdraw yourself from friends and intimates, yea, even from him who ministers to you. Do you not know that you have a Bridegroom who is diffident, and not willing to honour you with His presence when others are present? Withdraw thyself, therefore ; I do not mean in body, but withdraw in mind, in intention, in devotion, in spirit.

For the Lord Christ, who presents Himself to you, is a Spirit, and He requires solitude of spirit, not of body, although this last is sometimes not without its uses when you are able to maintain it, and especially in the time of prayer. You thus observe the precept of the Bridegroom and the practice He advises : Thou, when thou pray est, enter into thy closet \ and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray (Matt. vi. 6). And what He has said, that He Himself did. He would wear away the night alone in prayer, withdrawing Himself not only from the crowds which followed Him, but also from the company of His disciples and familiar friends (Luke vi. 12, 13).

He had indeed taken with Him three of His Apostles when He was hastening of His own accord to meet death, yet He withdrew Himself even from them when He desired to pray (Matt. xxvi. 36-39). Do you, then, do likewise when you wish to pray. Digitized by Google 255 5. For the rest, the only solitude prescribed to you is solitude of mind and spirit You are alone if you are not thinking of common things, if you are not interested in things present to you, if you think little of that which many estimate highly, if you despise what all others desire, if you avoid disputes, do not take to heart losses, nor bear injuries in mind. Otherwise you are not really alone, though there be no one with you.1 Do you not perceive that it is possible for you to be alone when you are in the company of many persons, and to be in company with many persons when you are alone?

However large be the throng of men in which you find yourself, you are alone, if only you take care not to listen eagerly to the conversation around you, nor to judge of it rashly. Even if you are witness of a bad action, do not judge your neighbour, but rather make excuses for him. Excuse the intention if you cannot the action ; suppose that it was done in ignorance, or by surprise, or by accident.

If the case is so clear that there is no room to palliate it, yet strive to persuade yourself that there was some excuse, and say to yourself : ' The temptation was very strong, and it prevailed. What should I have done if I had been similarly tried ?' Now, remember that it is to the Bride I have said all this, not to the friend of the Bridegroom, who has another reason for being careful and observant not to commit sin, as also to examine whether he has failed in his duty, and to amend his conduct if in any respect he has done so. But the Bride is free from any such necessity ; she lives for herself alone and for Him whom she loves, who is at once her Bridegroom and her Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

OF THE GREAT CONSOLATION WHICH THE BRIDE FEELS FROM THE ^T^HYneck is as chains of gold (i. 10). It is the custom to adorn the neck with necklaces, not to compare it to them. But those who load themselves with jewels are they who seek to obtain from external ornaments the beauty which they do not find in themselves. But in the case of the Bride, the neck is so beautiful and becoming in itself, as it was formed by nature, that nothing could be added to it by outward ornaments. For what need is there to adorn with borrowed hues that of which the natural and, as it were, innate beauty suffices, insomuch that it is fully equal to the soft splendour of the pearls which are so sought for in order to adorn

Digitized by Goo Digitized by Google but this grace is reserved for another season. For the present we bestow upon you these ornaments, to be both a consolation to you in the meantime, and a preparation for the glory which you crave.' It is as though they spoke to her those words of the Psalmist : Hearken^ O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear (Ps. xlv. 10). You desire to behold ; but first hearken. Hearing is the step by which you reach sight Therefore listen, and incline thine ear to the ornaments which we devise for thee, so that by the obedience of hearing thou mayest come to the glory of vision. Upon thine hearing we bestow joy and gladness. As for that Vision (in which is fulness of joy, and the fulfilment of all thy desire), it is not ours to give, but His alone whom thy soul loveth. It is for Him to show Himself to thee, so that thy joy may be full ; He shall make thy joy perfect with His countenance. In the meantime, do thou receive at our hand these jewelled pendants for a consolation; but in His Right Hand are delights for evermore. 3. We must now consider what are the pendants which they offer.

Pendants of gold, it is said, and studs of silver. Now, gold denotes the splendour of Divinity, and the wisdom which is from above. It is this gold which the celestial workers, to whom that ministry is committed, promise to fashion into glittering signs and tokens (so to speak) of truth, and to insert them into the inward ears of the soul.

That signifies, I believe, nothing else than to construct the similitudes of certain spiritual realities, and to bring the purest intuitions of the Divine wisdom before the perception of the soul absorbed in contemplation, so that it may behold, at least darkly and as in a glass, what it is not yet equal to beholding face to face. These things are wholly Divine, and are known only to those who have had experience of them ; they alone know how, while yet in this mortal body, while yet in the state of faith, while the real substance of Light perspicuous and lucid is not yet made manifest, it may nevertheless come about that contemplation of the pure truth may sometimes already mark out within us the outline of its form, at least in part, so that he from among us who is so happy as to have received that gift from on high may say with the Apostle : Noiv I know in part ; and again : Now we know in part, and we prophesy in part (1 Cor. xiii. 12, 9). But when the spirit, coming forth, as it were, out of itself, and rapt in ecstasy, beholds somewhat of the more Divine and sacred Truth, which flashes before its vision with the rapidity of lightning, then, either

in order to temper the exceeding brilliance of a light too penetrating to be endured, or to render us capable of communicating the substance of it to others, forthwith, I know not whence, there present themselves to our imagination images and figures of lower (that is, earthly) things, to which the truths revealed from above are accommodated, which veil in a certain sense that most pure and splendid ray of truth, and render it more supportable by the mind, and more able to be communicated to others. These are, I think, formed in our minds by the ministry of good angels, as, on the other hand, there is no doubt 17 Digitized by that those other [images] which are evil, are produced by the agency of evil spirits. 4. And perhaps this is that very mirror [of the imagination] through which, as I have said, the Apostle saw darkly (1 Cor. xiii. 12), which is formed, so to speak, by the hands of Angels, and from which come gleams of pure light, beautiful and heavenly ideas and images. This, indeed, gives us the knowledge of God, who is discerned as pure Being, and without any phantasy of bodily semblance, and we must attribute to this Angelic ministry that similitude of supreme excellence which affords to us an idea of Him

who is clad in majesty so awfuL There is another version which seems to express this more strikingly still : We [artificers] will make for thee images of gold, with [badges or] distinctions of silver.1 One says with badges of silver, [the other] with studs of silver. . In which are signified, as it seems to me, not only that the inward images are suggested to our minds by the Angels, but also that the grace and eloquence of their outward clothing [of words] is ministered to us by the Angels also, so that by their fitting and graceful expression they are more easily received, and more fully enjoyed, by the hearers. If you shall say, What relation or likeness is there between words spoken and silver, the Psalmist replies to you : The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a fumaa (Ps. xii. 6). Thus, then, it is that those heavenly and ministering spirits fashion for the Bride, while she is a pilgrim here on earth, pendants of gold with studs of silver. 5. But notice how, while desiring one thing, she receives another.

She sighs for the repose of contemplation, and the labour of preaching is laid upon her ; and while she is thirsting for the presence of the Bridegroom, the care of bringing forth children for Him and of nourishing them is entrusted to her. Nor is this the only occasion when this was so ; for once before, as I remember, when she was sighing for the presence and affection of her Bridegroom, the reply to her was : Thy breasts are better than wine (i. 1), so that she might recall that she was a mother, and be reminded of her duty to impart milk to her little children and nourishment to her sons. Perhaps you may remark the same thing in other passages of this Canticle if you will take the trouble to seek them out. Was not the same truth once prefigured in the holy patriarch Jacob when he was defrauded of the nuptials with Rachel, which he had desired and long waited for, and instead of a wife who was barren, though beautiful, he received against his will, and even without his knowledge, one who was fertile though dim-eyed? (Gen. xxix. 23-25). So, also, it is now; the Bride, inquiring and longing to know where the Bridegroom feedeth, where He maketh His flock to rest at

noon, receives, instead of that knowledge, pendants of gold with studs of silver — that is, wisdom with eloquence, without doubt for the work of preaching. 6. From this we are taught that it is often needful to leave spiritual contemplation, however sweet, for the sake of the practical labours Digitized by Google 259 which give nourishment, and that no one must live for himself alone, but for the good of all.1 Woe to those who have received the grace to think and to speak worthily of God, if they make a gain of Godliness ; if they turn into a reason for vainglory that which they had received that they might win souls to the glory of God ; if, having lofty and noble thoughts, they have not also lowly personal feelings. Let them listen in fear and trembling to that which the Lord speaks by the mouth of His prophet : I gave her . . . silver and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal (Hosea ii. 8, Douay). Do you, then, hear what the Bride replies, having received on the one hand a reproof, and on the other a promise ; for she is not exalted by promises, not angered by a repulse, but practises that which is written : Rebuke a wise

man, and he will love thee (Prov. ix. 8) ; and also that which relates to gifts and promises : The greater thou art, the more humble thyself (Ecclus. iii. 18), which will appear the more clearly in her reply. But the consideration of that we will defer, if you please, to the commencement of another sermon ; and for what has been said let us render glory to the Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

OF TWO KINDS OF HUMILITY : THE ONE BORN OF TRUTH, THE HEN the King sitteth at His table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof "(i. 12). These are the words of the Bride, which we have deferred till to-day to speak of; this is the reply which she makes when reproved by the Bridegroom ; yet it is not made to Him, but to His companions ; the words themselves make this clear. For she does not say, as if addressing Him : ' O King, when Thou sittest at Thy table/ but When the King sitteth; and it is clear that she speaks not to Him, but of Him. Thus, imagine that the Bridegroom, after having (as it appeared) reproved or repulsed the Bride, seeing by her blushes that she was covered with confusion, retired from the spot, that in His absence she might express her feelings more freely \ and that if, as was commonly the case, she yielded too much to depression and grief, the consolations of His companions might raise her up again ; which, nevertheless, He does not neglect to do Himself when He considers it the right time. For, to show clearly how much she pleased Him, even during the reproof given to her, because she received it with becoming vivendum* Digitized by 260 humility and submission, He wished, before leaving her, to express the praises of her which burst forth, there is no doubt, from the fulness of the heart, and extolled her as beautiful in cheek and neck.

Therefore, those who remain with her, knowing the will of their Lord, speak to her courteously, and offer her gifts. It is to them, therefore, that her reply is addressed. So much as to the purpose and connection of the words of the text. 2. But before beginning to extract the kernel of spiritual meaning from this outer shell {testa), I will make one brief reflection. Happy is he by whom reproofs are as well received as those of which we have here a pattern. Would that it were never necessary to reprove anyone, that would be better still ! But since in many things we offend all, it is not permitted to me to be silent ; my duty obliges me to censure those who do wrong, and charity urges me still more strongly to discharge it. But what if, in the discharge of my duty, I thus censure someone, and the reproof does not effect at all its intended purpose, does not accomplish that wherefor it is sent, but returns to me empty, like a javelin which strikes without piercing and recoils, with what feelings am I affected, do you think, brethren?

Am I not pained and angered ? And, to press into my service some words of a Master [in Israel], because of my own wisdom I am unequal [to express my meaning as well], I am in a strait between two, and what I shall choose I know not (Phil. i. 23, 22) : whether to feel any pleasure in what I have said, because I have performed what was my duty, or whether to experience any regret regarding it, inasmuch as I have not attained the result I wished for. For I desired that an enemy should perish and a brother be delivered, and this I have not succeeded in, but the event has been precisely the contrary : I have wounded his soul and increased his fault, since scorn has been added to it. They will not hearken unto thee, says the prophet, for they will not hearken unto Me (Ezek. iii. 7). You see what Majesty it is that is in this case contemned. You think that it is I only that have been scorned. But it is the Lord that has spoken [unto you through me] ; and what He said to the Prophet He said also to His Apostles : Ht that despiseth you despiseth Me (Luke x. 16). I am not a prophet, 1

am not an apostle, and yet I am bold to say I am fulfilling the duty of both the prophet and the apostle ; though I am far from approaching their merits, I am charged and burdened with their cares. Though it be to my great confusion, though it be even to my extreme danger, yet I do, in fact, sit in the seat of Moses, though I am far from claiming that my life is such as his, or the grace committed to me equal to that he enjoyed. But what then? Is not respect to be shown to that seat of authority because it is filled by an unworthy occupant ? Even when it was occupied by the Scribes and Pharisees, of them the Lord said : Whatsoever they bid you observe, that obserife and do (Matt, xxiii. 2, 3). 3. Very often impatience also is joined to disrespect, so that a person, when blamed, does not only take no care to correct himselt Digitized by Google 261 but shows irritation against his reprover, and, like one who is raving in insanity, repels the hand of the physician. Strange is that perversity ! He is angry with the man who is anxious to cure his wounds, but for the enemy who pierces him with the shafts of temptation

he has no anger ! For there is one who shoots his arrows against those who are upright in heart (Ps. xi. 2), who has now wounded you even unto death, and yet against him you are not angry ! Your indignation is wholly against me, who desire to see you cured. Be ye angry and sin not, says the Apostle (Eph. iv. 26).

If you are angry on account of [your own] sin, not only do you commit no sin, but you root out the sin which you had committed. But now you retain the sin in rejecting the remedy, and you heap sin upon sin by being angry without reason ; this is indeed to sin beyond measure. 4. Sometimes even impudence is added to this ; not only reproof is borne impatiently, but the fault reproved is impudently defended ; and this is mere madness. Thou hadst, saith the Lord, a harlot's forehead: thou woultfst not blush (Jer. iii. 3, Douay); and He says, My jealousy shall depart from thee, I will be no more angry (Ezek. xvl 42). I tremble at the very hearing of the words. Do you feel what a perilous and horrible and fearful thing it is to attempt to defend sin ?

For He says again : As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten (Rev. iii. 19). If, then, the anger [of God] has deserted you, so also has His love ; nor can you think yourself worthy of His love, if you do not think yourself worthy of His chastisements. You see, then, that it is when God shows no anger with the wicked that He is the more angry with them. Let favour be showed to the wicked, He saith, yet will he not learn righteousness (Is. xxvi. 10). May such indulgence be far from me. To be thus spared appears to me more terrible than the most violent anger, because it closes up to me the ways of righteousness. Far better is it for me, according to the counsel of the Psalmist, to embrace the severity of discipline, lest the Lord be sometime angry with me, and so I perish from the right way (Ps. ii. 12). I desire that Thou wouldst be angry with me, O Father of mercies ; but with that anger wherewith Thou dost correct one who wanders from the way, not that with which Thou dost exclude such an one from it That censure of Thine is the utterance of a compassion merciful and blessed for us ; but that concealment of Thy wrath is what we have to fear most of all. It is not when Thy wrath is concealed from me. but when it is displayed and felt by me that I have most trust in Thy coming favour ; for it is especially in Thy anger that Thou rememberest mercy. Thou, says the Psalmist, wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions (Ps. xcix. 8). He speaks of Moses and Aaron, and of Samuel, whom He had sent before Him ; and he regards it as an instance of God's favour and goodness that He did not spare their faults and failings. After that, will you still go on defending your faults, and showing anger when reproved for them, and thus shutting Digitized by 262 against yourself for ever the door of the mercy of God ? Is not that, in fact, calling evil good, and good evil? Will not that odious impudence speedily produce impenitence, which is the mother of despair? For who repents for that which he considers not to be wrong ? Woe to them, says the Prophet And that woe is eternal.

It is one thing for a person to be drawn away from the right and enticed by his own concupiscence; and quite another and very different to seek out evil of free will, as if it were good, and thus in a false confidence to draw near to death as if it were to life. For this very reason, I assure you, I have sometimes preferred to hold my peace, and take no notice in words of an evil which I have observed, rather than to give occasion for so great a mischief in reproving it. 5. You will perhaps say to me that, in such a case, the good of my action would return to me again ; that I have delivered my soul, and am clean from the blood of that man to whom I have spoken, and have warned him to turn from his evil way that he may live.

But although you should add an infinity of such reasons, they would still be no comfort to me while I am apprehending the spiritual ruin of a soul Tinder my pastoral charge. As if I had sought only my own acquittal from blame in speaking to him, and not rather his good! For what mother is there who, when she has diligently nursed her child, and lavished upon him every care in her power, will be able to restrain her tears if she shall find that all her labours and pains were inefficacious, and that her child was dying in spite of them ? And she would feel this only with regard to the death of the body ; how much more ought I to weep and lament for the eternal death of a son of mine, even if I am conscious that I have left nothing undone to warn or to help him ? You see also from how great evils he escapes himself, and also delivers me, who, when reproved, replies with gentleness, acquiesces with modesty, avows his fault humbly, and obeys with submission. To such a soul I profess myself a debtor in all things ; I am his minister and servant, as to a soul which is a most worthy Bride of my Lord, and which is able to say with truth : When the King sitteth at His table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof 6. The odour of humility is excellent, since, rising up from this vale of tears, it is diffused everywhere around, and fills even the chamber of the King with grateful fragrance. Spikenard is a humble plant, which those who have studied with care the nature of herbs say is of a warm nature ; and therefore it may be taken here not unfitly, as it seems to me, to denote that virtue of humility which glows with the ardour of Divine love. I say this because there is a kind of humility which truth produces in us, and which is without warmth, as there is also another kind, which is produced and warmed by charity.

The one has its seat in knowledge, the other in the affections. If, in fact, you look into yourself under the light of truth and without dissimulation, and judge unflatteringly of yourself, there is no doubt that you will be humbled, even in your own eyes, and that this true knowDigitized by Google 263 ledge of yourself will render you more vile in your own sight, although, perhaps, you cannot as yet endure that this should be the case in the sight of others. You will then be humble, but as yet only by the working of truth, and not at all by the inpouring of love ; for if you had been, in addition to the working of truth, which has shown you to yourself in a manner veracious and salutary, affected equally by love, you would without doubt have wished, as far as in you was, that others should have the same opinion of you as you know that the Truth has.

I should say that He is nevertheless in you, for it is often inexpedient that all which we know ourselves should be known to others, and we are forbidden by the love of truth itself, as also by the truth of love, to wish to discover to another that which would do him injury. But if you are restrained by self-love, and induced to keep hidden the judgment which truth has formed of you, who can doubt that your love of the truth is imperfect, since you make it subordinate to your own interest or your own reputation ? 7. You see clearly, then, that it is not the same thing whether a man, being constrained by light and knowledge, has a lowly opinion of himself, and whether he is assisted by the grace of charity, and accepts a humble position with willingness ; for the one is enforced, the other voluntary. He emptied Himself says the Apostle, and took upon Him the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7), thus giving to us a perfect form and model of humility. He emptied Himself, He humbled Himself, not from any necessity of fact or judgment, but by charity towards us. He was able to appear vile and despicable in the eyes of men without thinking Himself so, because He knew

Himself well. He was, then, voluntarily humble, and not because He was judged to deserve so to be ; He presented Himself as if He had been such, as He knew Himself not, in fact, to be ; but though He was not unmindful that He was the Highest, yet He preferred to be regarded as the least of all. He said, in fact : Learn of Me% for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matt. xi. 29). He says 'in heart,' in the feeling of the heart — that is, in the will ; and in saying this He excludes all idea of necessity, for although I or you find ourselves, in truth, worthy of disgrace and contempt, worthy of the lowest rank and of the worst treatment, worthy even of stripes and punishment, yet it was not thus, it was far otherwise with Him ; yet He endured all these things, and as one humble in heart, because He chose so to do —that is to say, He was humble with the humility which was prompted by the kindness of His heart, not enforced by the verdict of truth. 8. For this reason I have said that this kind of voluntary humility is not produced in us by the logical force of truth, but is created within

us by the inpouring of charity, because it comes of the heart, the affections, the will ; whether I have spoken rightly you must judge. Consider also whether I have been right in attributing it to the Lord, inasmuch as it is clear that it was charity which led Him to empty Himself, to become a little lower than the Angels, to be subject to [those who were supposed His] parents, to bend His head under the Digitized by Google 264 hands of the Baptist, to endure the weaknesses of the flesh, to submit at length to death, and that the ignominious death of the Cross. I submit to your judgment again, whether I have been right in deciding that this humility, thus warmed by charity, is denoted by spikenard, which is a herb unassuming in appearance and of a warm nature. And if you assent to both these opinions, which I think you will do, as they are supported by very plain reasons, then, if you feel yourself humbled by that forced humility which the Truth, who searcheth the very hearts and reins, produces in the senses of a soul that is watchful, make a virtue of this necessity, and add to your humility a glad and willing acquiescence, since there is no true virtue without the assent of

the will.1 That will be the case if you are unwilling to appear otherwise to the outward eye than you find yourself to be inwardly. Otherwise you may well fear lest that which you read in a psalm shculd apply to you : He flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful (Ps. xxxvi. 2). And again : Divers weights and divers measures both of them are alike abomination to the Lord (Pro v. xx. 10).

What ! do you at the bottom of your heart think lowly of yourself because you weigh yourself in the balance of truth, and yet outwardly you wish to deceive, to be regarded as of greater value, and to sell yourself at a higher price than that at which the truth values you ?

Have regard to the judgment of God; do not by any means commit this most discreditable action of exalting yourself by your own selflove, while the truth requires you to be abased, for this is to resist the truth ; this is even to fight against God. Rather acquiesce in the Divine conclusion. Let your will be rendered submissive to truth, and not merely submissive, but willingly and devotedly so. Shall not my soul, says the Psalmist, be subject to God f (Ps. lxi. 1, Douay). 9. But it is not enough to be subject to God, unless you are subject also to every human creature for the sake of God ; whether to the Abbot, as to the superior of all, or to the Priors, as authorities constituted by him. I say even more than this : I say, subject to your equals, and even to those who are inferior to you. For thus it becometh us, says the Lord Himself, to fulfil all righteousness (Matt, iii. 15). If, then, you wish to be perfect in righteousness, make the first step towards him who is less than you ; defer to your inferior, show respect towards your junior. For in doing this you shall make the words of the Bride apply to you : My spikenard sendeth forth the

smell thereof. That perfume is devotion ; it is the holy and saintly reputation which you obtain with all persons, so that you are a good odour of Jesus Christ in every place, visible to all, and by all regarded with affection. He whom truth alone obliges to be humble can never reach this degree of perfection, since his humility is only for himself, and does not flow forth to reach and delight others. It has, in fact, no odour, because it has no devotion, inasmuch as such humility is not voluntary and spontaneous, but enforced. But the humility of the Bride is like sweet perfume, and diffuses its fragrance, warm Digitized by Google 265 with love and devotedness, and redolent of sweetness to all. The humility of the Bride is spontaneous, constant, fruitful, and it is as unaffected by severity as by praises. To her it had been said : Thy cheeks are beautifid as those of a turtle dove, thy neck as a string of pearls. She had received also the promise of golden ornaments, and yet she replies with humility ; the more she is raised up, the more humble she is in all respects. She does not boast of her merits, nor in the midst of the praises of herself which she receives is she at

all forgetful of humility, which, indeed, she frankly avows, speaking of it under the name of spikenard. She speaks in the language of the Blessed Virgin Mary : 'I am conscious of no merit deserving of so great a condescension, except that God hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden ' (Luke i. 48). For what is the signification of these words, My spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof except this, * My humility hath found favour in His sight ' ? 4 Not my wisdom,' she says, in effect, ' not my nobleness, not my fairness, for these in me were nothing worth, but my humility, the only quality which was mine, it was this which gave forth its odour ' ; that is to say, that odour which was customary to it. Humility is accustomed to please God, and the Lord, who is high above all, is wont, according to His custom, to regard those things which are humble. Therefore when the King sitteth at His table, that is, when He is in His lofty habitation, the odour of humility ascends thither. He dwelleth on high, saith the Psalmist ; He humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth (Ps. cxiii. 5, 6). 10. When, then, the King is in His

habitation, the spikenard of the Bride gives forth its odour. The habitation of the King is the Bosom of the Father, for the Son is always in the Father. Doubt not, then, that this King is ever merciful, since His abiding-place continually is the home of Fatherly goodness. It is no wonder that the cry of the humble, rising up, reaches Him, who dwells always in the fountain-head of mercy, to whom gentleness and goodness are familiar, are natural, yea, are consubstantial with Him, who derives all that He is from the Father, so that the trembling glance of the humble penitent, looking up to Him. sees nothing in Him which is not fatherly. Therefore it is that for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord (Ps. xii. 6).

This the Bride knows, because she is of the household of the Lord and is His beloved; she believes that her poorness in merits will not exclude1 her from the Bridegroom's grace, and she puts her confidence in humility alone. She calls Him 'the King/ for she is terrified by the reproof she has received, and does not venture to call Him her Bridegroom. Nevertheless, though she confesses that He dwells in a high and lofty place, her humility does not lose confidence. 11. It is possible to apply this discourse, and that with much fitness, to the Primitive Church. If you recall the days in which the Digitized by 266 Lord ascended up where He was before, and sat on the Right Hand of the Father, in His ancient, august, and glorious dwelling-place, you remember how the disciples assembled with one accord in one place, continuing in prayer with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren (Acts i. 13, 14). Does it not seem to you that in truth that was a time when the Bride, though so young and so fearful as yet, gave forth the odour of her spikenard? Again, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they

were sitting (Acts ii. 2), could she not, though so poor and undistinguished, have taken into her lips these words : When the King sitteth at His table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof 1 Assuredly it appeared to all who abode in that place, how sweet and how acceptable was that fragrance of humility which ascended to heaven, since it was immediately replied to with gifts so copious and so magnificent as a response. And she was not ungrateful for such a benefit. For listen how in her fervour of gratitude she shows herself to be prepared to suffer all possible evils for the Name of Jesus, for what words follow ? A bundle of myrrh is my Well-beloved unto me ; He shall lie behvixt my breasts. But my weakness, which you know, does not permit me to go on longer. This only I add, that by the mention of myrrh she denotes that for affection to her Beloved she is prepared to endure bitter trials and persecutions. The rest of the verse we will finish another time ; if, that is to say, you obtain for me by your intercessions the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to enable me to understand and to interpret the words of the Bride, which He Himself, by His holy inspiration,

has originated, and to grant unto me words befitting the praises of Him of whom He is the Spirit : I mean the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

HOW MEDITATION ON THE SUFFERINGS AND THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST ENABLES THE BRIDE, THAT IS, THE FAITHFUL SOUL, A BUNDLE of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me : He shall lie between my breasts. Before He was called 1 the King,' now He is called 'well-beloved before he was in His royal banqueting-room, now He is abiding willingly with the Bride. Great is the virtue of humility, since the majesty of Godhead itself so easily condescends to it. A name of reverence is quickly changed into a term of friendship, and he who was afar off was in a brief time Digitized by Google THE BRIDE MEDITATES ON THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS CHRIST 267 brought near. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me. Myrrh, which is bitter, signifies the hard and rigorous facts of trouble and sorrow. The Bride, foreseeing that she is about to endure these for the sake of her Beloved, says these words with a feeling of gladness, trusting that she will endure bravely all that is laid upon her. As it is said of the Apostles : They departed from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name (Acts v. 41). Wherefore, also, she speaks of Him, not as a great or weighty mass, but as a small bundle *} in order to convey that whatever labour and grief threatens her, she regards it as light for the sake of His love. She has well called it small and light, for He is a little Child who is born to us (Is. ix. 6). Again, it is a bundle small and light, since the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom. viii. 18).

And the same Apostle says that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. iv. 17). That, then, which is now a little bundle of myrrh shall at some future period be to us a weight of glory exceeding great. Is it not a little bundle [we have to bear], since His yoke is easy and His burden is light 7 (Matt. xi. 30). It is not that it is light in itself, since the severity of suffering and the bitterness of death are not light, but that to the loving heart it seems a light thing to endure them. And for that reason the Bride does not say merely : My Beloved is a bundle of myrrh, but she adds unto me — that is to say, 'to me who love Him.' So, also, she calls .Him her 'wellbeloved/ meaning to declare that her love has force to overcome the bitterness of all troubles, and that it is strong as death (viii. 6). And that you may know that she does not glory in herself, but in the Lord, and relies, not upon her own strength and bravery, but upon the help of the Lord, she declares that He shall lie between my breasts,

and on that account she can say to Him in a Psalm with the fullest confidence : Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me (Ps. xxiii. 4). 2. I remember that in one of my former Sermons2 I explained these as signifying sympathy in joy with others, and sympathy with them also in sorrow, according to the precept of St. Paul : Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep (Rom. xii. 15). But because, as she lives between prosperity and adversity, she is aware that there is danger upon either side, she desires to have her Beloved upon her breast and near her heart, so that by His protection she may be continually strengthened against both the one danger and the other, and neither be unduly lifted up in time of rejoicing nor cast down in time of sorrow. You, also, if you are wise, will imitate the wisdom of the Bride ; you will not allow that bundle of myrrh, which you hold so dear, and which is the fellowship you have with the sufferings of your Master, to be torn away from your heart even for Digitized by Google 268 an hour ; you will retain always in your

memory all the bitter pains which He bore for you, and meditate upon them continually, so that you too may say with the Bride : A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me : He shall lie between my breasts. 3. As regards myself, I, brethren, from the beginning of my conversion, set myself, in place of all the merits in which I knew that I was wanting, to bind up this little bundle of myrrh for my individual needs, collected from all the cares and bitter experiences of my Lord, and to keep it always close upon my breast ; in the first place, of the privations of His infant years ; then of the labours He underwent in preaching, His fatigues in journeying to and fro, His watchings in prayer, His fastings and temptations, His tears of compassion, the snares laid for Him in discourse ; and, lastly, of His perils among false brethren, of insults, spitting, blows, abuse, scorn, piercing by nails, and other such things, which He suffered for the salvation of our race, which in the (Jospel history, as in a wood, may abundantly be gathered. And, among so many branches of that fragrant myrrh, I think that cannot be passed over, of which He tasted when upon the Cross, nor that wherewith He

was embalmed in the sepulchre.