Book 1

Commentary on the Song of Songs — Book One

BOOK ONE

» Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. «

We must recall what we noted beforehand in the preface, namely that this little book, having the appearance of a wedding-song, is written in the manner of a drama. And we said that a drama is where fixed characters are introduced who speak, while others sometimes come on the scene, and others withdraw, or draw near, and thus the whole is carried forward through the changes of the characters. This, then, will be the character of the whole book, and according to it, so far as we are able, a historical exposition will be fitted by us. But the spiritual understanding is directed, no less according to what we indicated in the preface, either to the Church in relation to Christ under the title of bride or bridegroom, or to the union of the soul with the Word of God. Now, then, there is introduced under the form of the narrative a certain bride who has received, under the title of a betrothal and dowry, most worthy gifts from a most noble bridegroom; but since the bridegroom delays for a very long time, she is stirred by the longing of her love for him, and lies pining in her house, doing everything so that she may at some time see her bridegroom and enjoy his kisses. And since she sees that her love can neither be put off, nor that she is able to obtain what she desires, she turns herself to prayer and makes supplication to God, knowing that he is the Father of her bridegroom. Let us consider her, then, lifting up holy hands without anger and dispute, in modest attire with reverence and sobriety, adorned with the most worthy ornaments with which it is fitting for a noble bride to be adorned, but burning with desire for the bridegroom, and agitated by the inner wound of love, pouring out, as we said, her prayer to God, and saying concerning her bridegroom: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. These are the things that the historical explanation, composed in the manner of a drama, contains. But let us see whether the inner meaning can be fittingly adapted in this way. Let the Church be the one desiring to be united to Christ. And understand the Church as the assembly of all the saints. Let this Church, then, be as it were the single person of all, who speaks and says: I have all things, I am filled with the gifts which I received before the nuptials under the title of betrothal or dowry. For long ago, when I was being prepared for marriage to the son of the King, the firstborn of all creation, his holy angels obeyed and ministered to me, bringing to me the law in place of a betrothal gift. For the law is said to have been ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. The prophets also ministered to me. For they too spoke all those things by which they might not only show and point out to me concerning the Son of God — to whom they desired to betroth me by these things which are called pledges and dowry-gifts — but also, that they might kindle me into love and desire of him, they announced to me with prophetic voices concerning his coming, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, they preached to me of his innumerable powers and his immense works. His beauty too, and his fairness, and his gentleness they described, so that by all these things I was inflamed beyond endurance to love of him. But since the age is now nearly at its end, and yet his own presence is not granted to me, but I see only his ministers ascending and descending to me, for this reason I pour out my prayer to you, the Father of my bridegroom, and I beseech you that at last, taking pity on our love, you would send him; that he may now speak to me no longer through his ministers alone, the angels and the prophets, but that he himself may come in his own person, and kiss me with the kiss of his mouth — that is, may pour the words of his own mouth into my mouth, that I may hear him himself speaking, that I may see him himself teaching. For these are the kisses of Christ which he extended to the Church, when in his coming Christ himself, set in the flesh, proclaimed to her the words of faith and charity and peace, according to what Isaiah had promised, and being sent ahead to the bride had said: "Not a legate, nor an angel, but the Lord himself will save us."

But in the third place of exposition let us introduce the soul, whose whole zeal is to be joined and united to the Word of God, and to enter within the mysteries of his wisdom and knowledge as into the bridal chambers of the heavenly bridegroom; and to this soul too there have been given, as gifts, the very presence of the bridegroom — under the name, that is, of a dowry. For just as the dowry of the Church was the volumes of the law and the prophets, so to this soul let there be reckoned as dowry-gifts the law of nature, and rational sense, and the freedom of the will. And having these gifts of her dowry, let there be for her the teaching of a first instruction, coming down from admonishers and teachers. But since in these things there is not for her the full and perfect fulfillment of her desire and of her love, let her pray that her mind, pure and virginal, may be illumined by the very illuminations and visitations of the Word of God. For when the mind is filled with divine perceptions and understandings through the ministry of no man or angel, then let it believe that it is receiving the very kisses of the Word of God. For the sake, therefore, of these and suchlike kisses let the soul, praying to God, say: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. For while she was incapable of grasping the pure and solid teaching of the Word of God himself, she received the necessary kisses, that is, perceptions, from the mouth of teachers; but when of her own accord she has now begun to discern obscure things, to unravel what is perplexed, to loose what is entangled, and to explain parables and riddles and the sayings of the wise along the fitting lines of understanding, then let her believe that she has now received the kisses of her bridegroom himself, that is, of the Word of God. And he set "kisses" in the plural, that we may understand that the illumination of each obscure meaning is a kiss of the Word of God conveyed to the perfect soul. And according to this, perhaps, the prophetic and perfect mind was saying: I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit. But by the mouth of the bridegroom we understand the power of God, by which he illumines the mind, and, as if by a certain discourse of love addressed to it — if indeed it is worthy to receive the presence of so great a power — he makes manifest whatever things are unknown and obscure to it; and this is the truer and nearer and holier kiss, which is said to be offered by the bridegroom, the Word of God, to the bride, that is, to the pure and perfect soul. The image of this thing is that kiss which in the Church, at the time of the mysteries, we give to one another. As often, therefore, as we find in our heart, without admonishers, something that is sought concerning the divine doctrines and meanings, so often let us believe that kisses have been given to us by the bridegroom, the Word of God. But when, seeking something concerning the divine meanings, we are unable to find it, then, taking up the affection of this prayer, let us ask of God the visitation of his Word, and let us say: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. For the Father knows the capacity of each soul, and knows at what time, to which soul, he ought to offer the kisses of his Word — in understandings, that is, and perceptions.

» For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices. «

Understand first, as though in the drama of the narrative, that the bride with hands lifted up to God has poured out a prayer to the Father, and has prayed that the bridegroom might now come to her, and that he himself might pour upon her the kiss of his own mouth. And while she prays these things to the Father, in the very prayer in which she said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," she prepares also to add other words of prayer, and to say that in this very beginning of her speech the bridegroom was present, and stood beside her as she prayed and revealed his own words, and that this same bridegroom stood anointed with wondrous ointments, and with such as it befitted a bridegroom to be fragrant with. But the bride, when she saw present the one for whom she was praying that he might be present, and that while she was still speaking there was granted to her what she was praying for, and that there were given to her by him the kisses she had begged for, being made glad on this account, and moved by the beauty of his breasts and by the odor of his fragrance, turns the discourse of the prayer she had set out upon toward the presence of the bridegroom who was there; and when she had said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," she adds after these words, addressing the bridegroom now present, saying: "Your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." These things for the present according to the historical understanding, which we have said is woven in the manner of a drama. But now let us inquire what the inner meaning holds.

We find that the ruling faculty of the heart is called by diverse names in the divine Scriptures, which names are wont to be fitted according to the causes and matters that are being treated. For sometimes it is called the heart, as: "Blessed are the pure in heart"; "With the heart it is believed unto righteousness." But if it be the time of a banquet, according to the manner and arrangement of those reclining, it is called either the bosom or the breast: just as John in the Gospel relates concerning a certain disciple whom Jesus loved, that he reclined in his bosom or upon his breast; he, assuredly, to whom Simon Peter, beckoning, said: "Ask, who is this of whom he speaks." And then, reclining upon the breast of Jesus, he says to him: "Lord, who is it?" For in these things it is certain that John is said to have rested in the ruling faculty of the heart of Jesus and in the inner senses of his teaching, there seeking and searching out the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which were hidden in Christ Jesus. But also that the bosom of Christ should be taken in the place of holy doctrines, I think does not seem unfitting. In diverse ways, therefore, as we had begun to say, the ruling faculty of the heart is designated in the holy Scriptures, as also nonetheless in Leviticus, where, concerning the sacrifices, the little breast of separation and the arm are set apart for the priests; and in this little breast and arm set apart and separated, surpassing other men, he wills there to be in the priests the ruling faculty of the heart and the beauty of works. Concerning which we have expounded more fully in the book of Leviticus, as the Lord deigned to grant. According to these things, therefore, also in the present passage, since the drama that is enacted appears to be one of love, let us understand in the breasts the ruling faculty of the heart, so that what is said may seem to be of this sort: "Your heart, O my bridegroom" — that is, the teachings which are within you, or the grace of doctrine — "surpasses all wine," which is wont to gladden the heart of man. For just as in those things of which it says, "For they shall see God," the heart seems fittingly to have been named, while among those reclining the bosom and the breast are set down, on account, without doubt, of the posture of those reclining and the form of the banquet; and again, as among the priests the little breast and the arm are designated by mystical utterances, so also I think in the present passage, where the posture and the conversations of lovers are described, this same ruling faculty of the heart is most agreeably called by the name of breasts. Good, therefore, are the breasts of the bridegroom, since in them are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And these breasts the bride compares to wine, but she so compares them that she prefers them. And by wine are to be understood those teachings and doctrines which, through the law and the prophets, the bride had been accustomed to receive before the coming of the bridegroom.

But now, considering this teaching which flows from the breasts of the Bridegroom, she marvels and is astonished, seeing it far more excellent than that with which she had been gladdened before the coming of the Bridegroom—as though from the spiritual wine that the holy fathers and prophets ministered, they who also planted vineyards of this kind, as Noah first, and Isaiah "on a horn, in a fruitful place," and cultivated them. Seeing, then, that there now dwells in the Bridegroom a great eminence of doctrines and of knowledge, and that a teaching far more perfect than there was among the ancients flows forth from him, she says: "Your breasts are better than wine"—better, that is, than that teaching with which I was gladdened by the ancients. For it is of this wine of the ancients that Ecclesiastes must be understood to speak, where he says: "I said in my heart: Come, and I will test you with gladness, and I will see in good." And again, speaking of the same vineyards, the same Ecclesiastes says: "I magnified my work, I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself, I made for myself gardens and paradises," and the rest. But there are also of this vineyard certain mystical ministers, who are called pourers of wine. For so the same one says: "And I made for myself male singers and female singers, and in the gladness of the sons of men, pourers of wine and pouresses of wine." See, therefore, whether we can, both in other passages and also in this, understand the Savior mingling the new streams of his breasts with the old wine, when Mary and Joseph, seeking him, "found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, and hearing and questioning them," when also "all were marveling at his answers." But perhaps too the likeness of this figure is fulfilled there, where, going up onto the mountain, he taught the crowds, and said: "It was said to the ancients: You shall not kill; but I say to you: Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable"; and: "It was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you: Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Insofar, then, as this teaching of his surpasses that ancient one, in that same measure the Bride understands and declares that his breasts are better than wine.

But the fact that the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker," this too has a bearing on the matter. Such, I think, was that wine also in Cana of Galilee which was being drunk at the wedding feast; and when it ran short, He made yet another wine, to which the steward of the feast bore witness that it was exceedingly good and far more excellent than the wine that had already been served, when he said: "Every man sets out the good wine first, and when they have become drunk, then that which is worse; but you have kept the good wine until now." And Solomon too, who because of the wisdom he had received from God was an object of admiration to the queen of Sheba, who had come to test him with questions in which that same queen might examine him and marvel at him — hear the Scripture recounting it: "And the queen of Sheba," it says, "saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, the provision of his banquet, and the seating of his servants and the order of his ministers, and his garments, and his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he offered in the house of God, and she was astonished," and so on. In these things, then, note how she who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon marvels, among the rest, also at the food of his banquet, or at his cupbearers, and is said to have been amazed at these things. Now I do not know whether we should suppose the queen to have been so foolish that, having come for this reason from the ends of the earth — that she might hear the wisdom of Solomon — she should marvel at bodily foods, and at that common wine, and at the pourers of wine in the king's service. For what in these things would seem worthy of a queen's admiration, seeing they are common to almost all men? But it seems to me that she marveled at the foods of his teaching and the wine of the doctrines which were being proclaimed by him through divine wisdom. This was that wine also which is reported through Jeremiah concerning the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab, who at that time when the sins of the people had grown strong, and captivity was threatening on account of the iniquities of the populace, were called together to drink wine, and they said that their father Jonadab had commanded them that neither they nor their sons should drink wine forever, nor build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, but should dwell in tents all the days of their life. And God embraces them because they had kept their father's precept and had refused to drink wine. For then, on account of the sins of the people and their iniquities, their vine was of the vine of Sodom, and their branches of Gomorrah, their grape a grape of gall, and a cluster of bitterness; the venom of asps and the fury of dragons was their wine. For this reason, therefore, the sons of Jonadab are held praiseworthy, who refused to drink and to receive such wine — that is, poisoned doctrines and doctrines foreign to the faith of God. For this reason, perhaps, God smote the vines of the Egyptians, as is written in the psalm, lest they should make such wine. Therefore, if we have understood the differences of wine, and have perceived that they consist in the diversity of doctrines, then when the bride here says, "For your breasts are good above wine," by "wine" let us of course understand good wine, not bad. For the bridegroom's doctrines are preferred as compared with good doctrines, not bad. For she had first tasted good wine in the law and the prophets; and having, as it were, been prepared beforehand by it to receive gladness of heart, and to make herself ready so that she might be able also to take in that gladness which was to come through the breasts of the bridegroom himself — the teaching more excellent and more eminent than all — she says: "Your breasts are good above wine."

And see whether we can still fit to this figure that parable of the Gospel which says: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which when a man has found, he hides it, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field." This treasure, then, is hidden not in some desert place, nor in the woods, but in a field. And it is surely possible that that field has vineyards too, which yield wine, and has also the treasure for the sake of which, when he had sold everything, the man who had found the treasure there bought that field. He, then, who bought the field can say that the treasure which is in the field is good, more than the wine that is in it. So, then, the bridegroom too and the breasts of the bridegroom, which like a treasure lie hidden in the law and the prophets, are good, more than the wine that is in them — that is, more than that teaching which is open and gladdens the hearers. Good, therefore, are the breasts of the bridegroom. For the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him; and when these have been opened and revealed to the eyes of the bride, they will seem to her far more excellent than was before that wine of the law and of the prophetic teaching. But if we ought also to understand a third exposition, concerning the perfect soul and the Word of God, we can say that anyone, so long as he is little and has not yet offered himself wholly to God, drinks the wine which that field yields — the field which has within itself also the hidden treasure — and drinking, he is gladdened by the wine. But when he has offered and devoted himself to God, and has become a Nazirite, and has found the hidden treasure, and has come to the very breasts and fountains of the Word of God, he will no longer drink wine and strong drink, saying to the Word of God itself concerning those treasures which are stored up in him of knowledge and wisdom: "For your breasts are good above wine."

Now there are certain ointments of the Bridegroom, in whose fragrance the Bride has taken delight, and she says: "The scent of your ointments is above all aromatic spices." Aromatic spices are kinds of perfumed substances. But the Bride had a certain acquaintance with, and knowledge of, aromatic spices — that is, of the words of the Law and the prophets — by which, before the coming of the Bridegroom, she seemed to be instructed, though only in a moderate way, and trained for the worship of God, being as yet a little girl, and living under guardians and stewards and tutors; for "the Law was our tutor unto Christ." Now all these had been aromatic spices, in which she was seen to be nourished and prepared for her Bridegroom. But when the fullness of times came, and she had grown up, and the Father sent His Only-begotten, anointed with the Holy Spirit, into this world, the Bride, having smelled the fragrance of the divine ointment, and perceiving that all those aromatic spices which she had earlier seemed to use are far inferior in comparison with the sweetness of this new and heavenly ointment, says: "The scent of your ointments is above all aromatic spices." Since the same Christ is called both Bridegroom and high priest — high priest indeed according to this, that He is the mediator of God and men and of every creature, for which He also became a propitiation, offering Himself a victim for the sin of the world; but Bridegroom according to this, that He is joined to the Church, which has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing — consider whether perhaps that priestly ointment which in Exodus is commanded to be compounded by the art of the perfumer holds the meaning of this ointment which the Bride now, having smelled it, admires; and you will see that those aromatic spices of which the ointment seemed to be compounded, with which Aaron was anointed, since they were earthly and of bodily matter, but this ointment, with which she now saw the Bridegroom anointed, is spiritual and heavenly — therefore she says: "Because the scent of your ointments is above all aromatic spices." Let us then see how that ointment was compounded: "And the Lord spoke," it says, "to Moses, saying: Take for yourself the flower of choice myrrh, five hundred shekels, and sweet cinnamon, two hundred and fifty shekels, and sweet cane, two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels according to the holy shekel, and oil from olives, a hin, and you shall make of it the oil of holy anointing, an ointment by the art of the perfumer." Now these things the Bride had heard reported in the Law, but she now discerns their meaning and truth. See then that these four kinds of that ointment held the pattern of the incarnation of the Word of God, which took a body compacted of four elements — in which body the myrrh preserves the tokens of His death, which He undertook either as high priest for the people or as Bridegroom for the Bride. But that it is written not simply "myrrh," but "the flower of myrrh," and "of choice myrrh," indicated not only His death, but also that He would be the firstborn from the dead, and that those who had been planted together in the likeness of His death would be not only called, but chosen. But the cinnamon is called immaculate, doubtless on account of the Church, which, purified by the washing of water, He made immaculate, having no spot or wrinkle or anything of this kind. But the cane too is taken up, because "His tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly," designating by the perfumes of sweetness the grace of doctrine. Cassia also is employed, a kind said to be most hot and most burning: in which is shown either the fervor of the Holy Spirit, or the pattern of the coming judgment by fire. And the number of five hundred, or of two hundred and fifty shekels, either holds the mystery of the five senses in Him made perfect a hundredfold, or the number of fifty, being the number of pardon, set down fivefold, signifies the remission of sins given through Him. But all these are gathered together with pure oil, through which is shown either that it was for the sake of mercy alone that He who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, or that those things which had been assumed from material substance in Christ were, through the Holy Spirit, reduced into one, and made into one form, which is the person of the mediator. That material oil, then, could in no way be called the oil of gladness. But this oil — that is, the ointment of the Holy Spirit, with which Christ was anointed, and of which the Bride, now perceiving its scent, has marveled — is rightly called the oil of gladness, because "the fruit of the Spirit is joy": with which God anointed Him who "loved justice and hated iniquity." For therefore it is said: "The Lord your God anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows." And therefore the scent of His ointments is above all aromatic spices. But we use a similar exposition even if this discourse is transferred to each individual soul set in the love and desire of the Word of God, one who has run through all the branches of teaching in order, in which, before the knowledge of the Word of God, she is seen to have been exercised and educated, whether descending from the moral schools or from the natural. For all those were to her certain aromatic spices, inasmuch as in these a commendable instruction and a correction of morals is acquired, in these the vanity of the world is detected, and the false wonders of perishable things are rejected. All these, then, were to her as aromatic spices and certain fragrant perfumes of the soul. But when it came to the knowledge of the mysteries and the science of the divine doctrines, when access was gained to the very gates of wisdom — and wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world who are brought to nothing, but to that very wisdom of God which is discoursed among the perfect, and when the mystery which was not known to former generations was revealed to the sons of men — when, I say, the soul has ascended to the knowledge of so great a secret, she rightly says: "The scent of your ointments" — namely the spiritual and mystical understanding — "is above all aromatic spices" of moral and natural philosophy. But let it not escape us that in certain copies, in place of what we read, "Because your breasts are good above wine," we find written, "Because your utterances are good above wine"; which, although they may seem to have signified more evidently those very things which we have discoursed by spiritual interpretation, nevertheless we in all things keep to the writings of the Seventy Translators, being certain that the Holy Spirit willed that the forms of the mysteries lie hidden within the divine Scriptures, and not be held openly and in plain view.

» Your name is an ointment poured out. Therefore the maidens have loved you and have drawn you after them. In the fragrance of your ointments we will run. «

The historical exposition here is indeed the same as in the preceding passages, and it runs on through the present place too until some change of persons occurs, since this is what is demanded by the order of the drama that we have adopted in this exposition. Yet there may well be seen in these words a certain prophecy uttered from the person of the bride concerning Christ — that at the coming of our Lord and Savior it would come to pass that his name should be so diffused throughout the whole earth and through the entire world that it would become a fragrance of sweetness in every place, just as the Apostle too said: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ in every place; to some indeed a fragrance from death unto death, but to others a fragrance from life unto life." For if to all he had been a fragrance from life unto life, she would surely have said here too: "All have loved you and drawn you." But she says that now, when your name has become an ointment poured out, they have loved you — not those aged souls, souls clothed with the old man, having wrinkles and spots, but the maidens, that is, souls set in the growth of youth and beauty, souls that are ever being made new and are renewed from day to day, putting on the new man who has been created according to God. Therefore for the sake of these maidens, souls set amid advances and increases of life, he who was in the form of God emptied himself, that his name might become an ointment poured out; that he might no longer dwell only in the unapproachable light and remain in the form of God, but that the Word might be made flesh, whereby these maidens, these souls set amid advances of progress, might not only love him but also draw him to themselves. For each soul draws and takes to itself the Word of God according to the measure of its capacity and its faith. And when the souls have drawn the Word of God to themselves and have grafted him into their senses and understandings, and have felt his sweetness and the pleasantness of his fragrance, when they have taken in the perfume of his ointments — that is, when they have come to know the reasons for his coming, the causes of his redemption and his passion, and the love wherewith for the salvation of all he, the immortal one, went even to the death of the cross — then the maidens, invited by all these as by the fragrances of a certain divine and unspeakable ointment, that is, souls made full of vigor and eagerness, run after him, and hasten to the fragrance of his sweetness not with a slow step nor with tardy paces, but with rapid course and all speed, even as did he who said: "So I run that I may lay hold."

But as to what she says: "Your name is an ointment poured out, therefore the maidens have loved you, and have drawn you after them; in the fragrance of your ointments we will run" — the maidens draw Christ to themselves, if indeed it be understood of the Churches, which is one when it is perfect. But the maidens are many, while they are still being instructed and are making progress. These, then, draw Christ to themselves through faith, because Christ, when he shall have seen two or three gathered together in the faith of his name, goes thither, and is in the midst of them, drawn by their faith and summoned by their unanimity. But if, by the third exposition, these things ought to be understood of the soul that follows the Word of God, then whatever soul has first been schooled in moral matters and secondly has also been exercised in natural matters, through all those things which we have shown above to be taught in these disciplines, that very correction of morals, and the erudition in things, and the uprightness of learning draws the Word of God to itself, and he is willingly drawn; for he comes most gladly to erudite souls, and indulgently allows himself to be drawn by them, and graciously grants it. But I truly ask: if his name alone, because it has become an ointment poured out, has wrought so great a work, and has so roused up the maidens that first they drew him to themselves, and, having him with them, took in the fragrance of his ointments, and straightway ran after him — if all these things, I say, have been effected by his name alone, what do you suppose his very substance will do? What of virtue, what of vigor will these maidens receive from it, if in some way they should ever be able to attain to that very incomprehensible and unspeakable substance of his? For my part I think that, if they should ever attain to this, they will no longer walk nor run, but, bound by certain bonds of his love, will cleave to him, so that no place for any further movement may remain in them any more, but they may be with him one spirit, and there may be fulfilled in them that which is written: "As you, Father, in me, and I in you are one, so may these also be one in us."

But now, for the moment, as it seems, the bride, having joined to herself many maidens — of whom it is said in what follows that there is no number — being seized by one sense alone, that is, by smell only, records that she runs into the fragrance of the ointments of the bridegroom; whether because she herself still has need of running and of progress, or because she indeed is perfect, but on behalf of these maidens who still have need of running and of progress she too confesses that she runs; just as that man also, when he himself was not under the law, nevertheless became under the law, that he might gain those who are under the law; and again, though he is under the law of Christ, yet to those who are without law he too became without law, that he might save those who are without law. And this comes to pass, as we have said, while as yet only her sense of smell has received him. What do you suppose they will do when the Word of God has occupied their hearing also, and their sight and touch and taste, and has furnished to each several sense the powers proper to it, according to their nature and capacity? — so that the eye, if it has been able to see his glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, may no longer wish to see anything beyond, nor the hearing to hear anything other than the Word of life and salvation. But also the one whose hand has handled of the Word of life will handle nothing further that is material, nothing fragile and perishable; nor, when the taste has tasted the good Word of God, and his flesh, and the bread which came down from heaven, will it endure to taste anything else after these. For in comparison with his sweetness and pleasantness every remaining savor will seem to it rough and bitter, and therefore it will feed on this alone. For whatever sweetness it may desire, it will find in this; for he renders himself apt and suited to all things. In short, to those who are regenerated from incorruptible seed he becomes rational and guileless milk; but to those who are weak in anything he offers himself as vegetables, for the friendship and grace of hospitality. But to those who, according to their capacity of receiving, have senses exercised to the discernment of good and evil, he offers himself as solid food. But if there are any who have gone out of Egypt, and, having followed the pillar of fire and cloud, have come into the wilderness, he descends to them from heaven, furnishing them a minute and subtle food, like to that of the angels, so that man eats the bread of angels. He has also in himself many other and innumerable differences of foods, which meanwhile one clothed with skin, with flesh and bones and sinews, cannot receive. But whoever has been worthy to return and to be with Christ, and whoever, being found faithful in a little, shall be set over many things, he will taste and receive the delight of the Lord, being brought to a certain place which, on account of this abundance and variety of foods, is named the place of delights. For which reason it is also said to be situated in Eden, which signifies delights. For there it will be said to him: "Delight yourself in the Lord." And he will delight not in the one sense of eating and tasting only, but he will also delight in hearing and in sight and in touch and in smell. For he will run into the fragrance of his ointment. And thus he who has come to the summit of perfection and of blessedness will delight with all his senses in the Word of God. Wherefore we too, being set in these passages, entreat the hearers of these things that they mortify their carnal senses, lest they take up anything of what is said according to the motions of the body, but that they present those more divine senses of the inner man for the receiving of these things; even as Solomon also teaches us, saying: "But you shall find the divine sense." And as Paul too writes to the Hebrews concerning the perfect, as we mentioned above, that they have senses exercised to the discernment of good or evil; showing that there are in man, besides these bodily senses, five others no less, which are sought by exercise, and are called exercised, namely when they examine the understanding of things with a keener sharpness. For not perfunctorily and carelessly is that to be heard which the Apostle says concerning the perfect, that they have senses exercised to the discernment of good or evil.

That this may shine forth more clearly, let us take, if it seems good, an example from these bodily senses, and so at last we shall presently come to those divine senses of the inner man which Scripture names. For if the bodily eye have the exercise of sight, with no obstacle hindering it, it will apprehend either the colors of bodies, or their magnitudes and qualities, wholly and without any falsity. But if the sight be hindered either by a mist, or by some other weakness, and it think the red to be white, and the green to be black, or that something is straight when it is crooked and twisted, without doubt the judgment of the mind will be thrown into confusion, and one thing will be taken for another. So, then, the inner sight also, unless it be trained by instruction and diligence, whereby through much experience it may have discernment of good and evil, but ignorance and inexperience fall upon its eyes like a mist, or even the languor of some malice come upon it as upon bleary eyes, can in no way behold the distinction of good or evil: and thence it comes to pass that it does evil things as though they were good, and spurns good things as though they were evil. And according to this pattern which we have treated concerning the sight of the body and of the soul, consequently also concerning hearing, and taste, and smell, and touch, by referring the several powers of each kind of the bodily senses to the senses of the soul, you will clearly recognize what exercises ought to be applied in each, and what amendment ought to be prepared. But we have pursued these things with a somewhat broad digression, wishing to show that the smelling of the bride and of the maidens, whereby they smelled the odor of the bridegroom's ointments, is spoken not of the sense of the body, but of that divine and inner odor of him who is called the inner man. This sense of smelling, therefore, insofar as it is sound and whole, having received the odor of Christ, leads from life unto life. But if it be not sound, having received this odor, it casts down from death into death, according to him who said: "For we are the good odor of Christ, to some indeed of life unto life, but to others an odor of death unto death." Finally, those too who have understanding of herbs and skill in spices report that there are certain spices, of which, if certain animals catch the odor, they straightway perish; but others are refreshed by the same odor, and receive life. And now, therefore, in these very expositions and discourses which we have in hand, there seems to be for some life out of life, but for others death out of death. For if the man who is called animal, who cannot perceive and understand the things that are of the Spirit of God, hear these things expounded in this way, without doubt he will mock, and will pronounce these things to be foolish and empty, saying that dreams are being treated rather than the causes of things and divine doctrines. For these men, therefore, this odor of the Song of Songs becomes death unto death, that is, from the death of unbelief unto the death of judgment and condemnation. But to those who follow the spiritual and subtle sense, and who understand that there is greater truth in the things that are not seen than in the things that are seen, and that the invisible and spiritual things are held to be truer with God than the visible and bodily ones, this kind of understanding will without doubt seem worthy to be embraced and followed. For they recognize that such is the path of the truth to be understood by which one comes to God. But if he who judges these things foolish and to be mocked be a stranger to the faith, it is no wonder. But if there be any one of those who seem to believe, and to receive the authority of the Scriptures, and yet does not receive this form of spiritual exposition, but mocks and disparages it, let us try from other places of the Scriptures to instruct and persuade him. And if perhaps he can thus come to his senses, let us say some such things as these to him: it is written, "The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes." Let him tell us, then, what are the eyes that are enlightened by the light of the commandment. And again: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." What are these ears, which he who has them, he alone is said to hear the words of Christ? And again: "For we are the good odor of Christ unto God"; and in another place: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." And what does another say: "Our hands have handled of the word of life." Do you think that in all these things he will not be moved to observe that all these things are spoken not of the bodily senses, but of those which we have taught to be present in each one according to the inner man? — unless he who is of this sort be driven by the vice of contentiousness and boasting. Since by these vices both that inner sight is blinded, and the sense of smell is stopped up, and the hearing is hardened, deservedly he can neither see the things that are spiritual, nor hear, but neither can he catch that odor of Christ, whereby, now that it has been received, the maidens themselves, in whom this sense was well sound and vigorous, run after him into the odor of his ointments, and running they do not fail, nor grow weary, because, refreshed by the sweetness of that odor which is from life unto life, they continually grow strong.

What he says can also still be understood in this way: "Your name is ointment poured out. Therefore the maidens have loved you." The only-begotten Son of God, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself and took the form of a servant. But he emptied himself, without doubt, of the fullness in which he was. Those, therefore, who say that "of his fullness we have all received," they themselves are the maidens who, receiving of that fullness out of which he emptied himself — and his name became an ointment poured out — say, "After you we will run in the odor of your ointments." For unless he had poured out the ointment, that is, the fullness of the divine Spirit, and humbled himself even to the form of a servant, no one could have grasped him in that fullness of divinity — except perhaps the bride alone, inasmuch as she seems to indicate that this ointment was poured out and gave the cause of love not to herself, but to the maidens. For thus she says: "Your name is ointment poured out; therefore the maidens have loved you." As if she were to say: The maidens indeed have loved you for this reason, because you emptied yourself of the form of God, and your name became an ointment poured out. But I have loved you not for the ointment poured out, but for the very fullness of the ointments. For this is what she indicates in that place where she says, "The odor of your ointments is above all spices." But as to the fact that she too says that, together with the maidens, she will run after him, I say this is the reason: that all who are perfect become all things to all, that they may gain all, as we have already explained above.

» The king has brought me into his chamber. Let us exult and rejoice in you. «

When the bride had made known to her bridegroom that the young maidens, captivated by his fragrance, were running after him, and that she too would run with them so as to offer them a pattern in all things, now, as though having already won the prize of her labor because she outran those who were running, she says that she has been brought in by the bridegroom king into his chamber, that there she might behold all the royal riches. In this, assuredly, she rightly rejoices and exults, inasmuch as she has now looked upon the secret and hidden things of the king. This is, according to the sequence of the drama proposed, as it were the historical sense. But since she whose case is here treated is the Church coming to Christ, or the soul cleaving to the Word of God, what other chamber of Christ and storehouse of God are we to believe there to be, into which he brings either the Church or the soul that cleaves to him, save that very hidden and recondite meaning of his, of which Paul too was speaking: "But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things that are given to us by God." These are those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him." When therefore Christ leads the soul into the understanding of his own meaning, she is said to be brought into the chamber of the king, in which are "the treasures of his wisdom and knowledge hidden." Now it seems not without significance that, whereas she could have said, "My bridegroom has brought me in," or "my brother," or something of this kind, as is her custom, now, because she was about to speak of a chamber, she has said the chamber of the king, and has set down no other name, in which perhaps someone even middling might be understood. But I think that in these words the king is named for this reason: that through this name the chamber might be shown to be exceedingly rich, being royal indeed and filled with many and immense riches. Wholly near to this man there seems to me to have been also that one who said that he had been caught up to the third heaven, and from there into paradise, and had heard "unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter." For what do you think those words were which he heard? Did he not hear them from the king? And did he not hear them being set in the chamber, and near the chamber? And those words were, I believe, some such as these: that they exhorted him to greater progress, and promised him that if he should persevere unto the end, he too might be able to enter the chamber, according to that which is also promised through the prophet: "I will give you dark treasures, hidden, invisible. I will open to you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God who have called your name Israel." The young maidens therefore run after him, and into his fragrance, yet each according to her strength — one indeed more swiftly, another a little more slowly, another even lower than the rest and in the last place, another in the first place. Nevertheless all of them run, but one is perfect, who runs in such a way as to arrive and alone receive the prize. For she alone it is who says: "The king has brought me into his chamber," whereas before she had said, not of herself alone, but of many: "After you, into the fragrance of your ointments, we will run." She is therefore brought into the chamber of the king, and is made a queen, and it is she of whom it is said: "The queen stood at your right hand in a gilded garment, girded about with variety." But concerning those young maidens who had been running after her, and had remained far behind her in the very courses of their running, it is said: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her, her companions shall be brought to you: they shall be brought in gladness and exultation, they shall be led into the temple of the king." But this too we ought to note in this passage, that just as the king has a certain chamber into which he brings his queen or his bride, so also the bride has her own chamber, into which she is admonished by the Word of God, when she has entered, to close the door, and so, with all those riches of hers shut up within that chamber, to pray to him who sees in secret, and looks upon how great the wealth — that is, the virtues of the soul — which the bride has stored within her chamber, so that, seeing her riches, he may grant her petitions. For "to everyone who has it shall be given."

But as for what she says, "Let us exult and rejoice in you," this seems to be spoken in the person of the young maidens, who desire and beg of the bridegroom that, just as the bride has attained what is perfect and exults, so they too may now deserve to complete their course and to arrive at the king's chamber, so that, having beheld and gazed upon all those things of which she boasts, they too may exult as she does, and rejoice in him. Or else it may be seen to be said to the bride by the young maidens who congratulate her and make promises and petitions, that they may become sharers in her exultation and gladness.

» We will love your breasts above wine. «

The bride indeed, after she had earned kisses from the very mouth of the bridegroom, and to receive and enjoy his breasts, says to him: "Good are your breasts above wine." But the maidens, who had not yet come to that degree of blessedness, nor received the summit of perfection, nor by practice and works fulfilled the fruit of perfect charity, so that they might, as it were from experience, declare of his breasts that they are good — yet seeing the bride delighted and refreshed by the breasts of the bridegroom, namely from the fountains of wisdom and knowledge that flow from his breasts, and taking up cups of heavenly doctrine as imitators of his perfection and desiring to walk in the same footsteps — they promise, and say: "We will love your breasts above wine," that is: We indeed have not yet ascended to that perfection, that we should now love your breasts more than wine, or at least your breasts which are above wine (for the sense will appear to stand in either way); yet we hold hope, being maidens, of advancing to that age wherein we may be able not only to be fed and nourished from the breasts of the Word of God, but also to love the one who nourishes. Now these maidens are, as we have often already said, the souls who seem to have been imbued with the first and initial instructions that are strong at the beginning, and gladdened as it were by a certain wine, only by the training of tutors and guardians and the pedagogue, being as it were little ones, who would indeed have it in their powers to love wine, but would not yet have it in their age, that they could be moved or stirred by the love of the bridegroom's breasts. But when the fullness of times comes, and Christ has advanced in them in age and wisdom, and they have now begun to perceive what the breasts of the bridegroom are, and what perfection of the Word of God is designated in them, and what fullness of spiritual doctrine, then they also promise that more than the wine which they now drink as little ones, they will love the breasts of the bridegroom; that is, they will be more inclined toward the perfect and, in all fullness, the established teachings of Christ than they were before seen to be, whether in common studies, or in the instructions of the Law and the prophets.

» Equity has loved you. «

This also the maidens seem to me to declare, as if making satisfaction for the fact that they had promised they would love the breasts of the bridegroom above wine, and do not yet love them in the present, nor show the entire force of charity. This voice, then, is as of those accusing themselves: as those who have not yet, having cast off all iniquity, arrived at equity, so that they might now be able to love above wine the breasts of the bridegroom, knowing it to be unfitting that anything of iniquity should still remain in one who has arrived at the perfection of spiritual or mystical doctrine. Since, therefore, the summit of perfection consists in charity, and charity admits nothing of iniquity, and where there is nothing of iniquity, there without doubt is equity, rightly then is she said to be equity who loves the bridegroom. And see whether it is not on this account that that saying too seems to have been spoken by the Savior in the Gospel: "If you love me, keep my commandments." If, therefore, he who loves Christ keeps his commandments, there is no iniquity in him, but equity remains in him; it is equity, therefore, which keeps his commandments and loves Christ. And again: If he who keeps the commandments himself loves Christ, and the commandments are kept in equity, then it is equity which loves Christ; he who does anything iniquitous neither keeps the commandments nor loves Christ. It will therefore be that, as much iniquity as is in us, so far are we from the love of Christ, and so much transgression of his commandments is held to be in us. And therefore let us set down equity to be a certain straight rule, so that if there is anything of iniquity in us, applying and drawing over it this straightedge of the commandments of God, whatever in us is crooked, whatever is twisted, may be cut off from the line of this rule, so that it may be said also of us: "Equity has loved you." But we can also take it in this way, so that what she said, "Equity has loved you," may seem to be similar as if she had said: Justice has loved you, and truth, and wisdom, and chastity, and each single virtue. Nor be surprised indeed if we say that it is the virtues which love Christ, since in other places we are accustomed to take Christ to be the very substance of the virtues themselves. And this too you will frequently find applied in the divine Scriptures according to places and occasions. For we find that he himself is called both justice, and peace, and truth. And again it is written in the Psalms: "Justice and peace have kissed"; and: "Truth has arisen from the earth, and justice has looked down from heaven." All of which, indeed, he himself is said to be, and again are said to embrace him. But he is likewise called the bridegroom, and the same is also named the bride, as it is written in the prophecy: "As on a bridegroom he has placed a mitre on me, and as a bride he has adorned me with an ornament."