Book 3

Commentary on the Song of Songs — Book Three

BOOK THREE

» Behold, you are beautiful, my neighbor; and behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves' «

Now for the second time the bridegroom joins with the bride in word and conversation. And in his first discourse he invited her to this, that she should come to know herself, telling her that she was indeed good among women, but that unless she came to know herself, she would suffer certain things. And, as one who has swiftly run to the recognition of herself by sense and understanding, he compares her to his horses, or to the cavalry, with which he overthrew the chariots of Pharaoh. At the same time he also compares her cheeks, on account of their remarkable modesty and the swiftness of her manner of life, to turtledoves, and her neck to the fillets of ornaments. But now he already professes her to be beautiful, and beautiful not as before merely among women, but as one who is near to himself; and he raises the title of her praise still higher, and affirms that she is beautiful not only when she is near to him, but also that, if it should happen to her to be absent, even so she is beautiful. For this is indicated in that, when he had said, "Behold, you are beautiful, my neighbor," he adds after this, absolutely and without any qualification, "Behold, you are beautiful." But in what went before he had not praised her sight, I believe because her spiritual understanding had not yet advanced to contemplation; now therefore he says, "Your eyes are doves'." Her great progress in this is shown, that she who before was called only beautiful among women is now called beautiful as one near to him, receiving without doubt the splendor of her comeliness from the bridegroom himself, so that, having once taken her beauty from him, even if it should befall her to suffer a little the bridegroom's absence, she nonetheless remains beautiful. But that her eyes are compared to doves — this surely comes about because she now understands the divine Scriptures not according to the letter but according to the spirit, and beholds in them the spiritual mysteries. For the dove is a token of the Holy Spirit. To understand the law and the prophets in a spiritual sense, then, this is to have the eyes of a dove. And here indeed her eyes are called doves' eyes, whereas in the Psalms a soul of this kind desires that the wings of a dove be given to her, so that she may be able to fly into the understanding of spiritual mysteries and to rest in the courts of wisdom. But also, if anyone can sleep — that is, be settled and rest in the midst of the lots, and understand the reason, and know the cause of the divine judgment — not only are the wings of a dove, by which she may fly amid spiritual understandings, promised to her, but wings covered with silver, that is, with the ornaments of word and reason. Her shoulder-blades too are said to become like gold, where the constancy of faith and the stability of the doctrines of the perfect is indicated. Therefore, if Christ is said to be the head, I think nothing seems absurd if the eyes also of those who according to the inner man understand spiritually and judge spiritually are said to be the Holy Spirit. And on this account perhaps in the law, just as a lamb was appointed, by whose sacrifice the people might be purified at the Pascha, so also doves were appointed, by which a man is purified upon entering this world. But to speak now of this too, and to discuss the qualities of the sacrifices, seems too long a digression, and by no means suited to the work proposed. Let it suffice, however, to have recalled these things, for what the present discourse contains: "Your eyes are doves'." As if he were saying: your eyes are spiritual, seeing spiritually, understanding spiritually. It can perhaps still be understood by a deeper mystery, that what he said, "Behold, you are beautiful, my neighbor," is understood to be said of the present age, because the Church is beautiful even here, when she is near to Christ and when she imitates Christ. But that he said again, "Behold, you are beautiful," can pertain to the age to come, where now she is fair and beautiful not only by imitation but by her very own perfection; so that there he says her eyes are doves, that by the name of the two eyes the two doves may be understood to be the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. And do not wonder if they are called doves together, since each of them is likewise called an advocate, as John the evangelist declares, calling the Holy Spirit indeed the Paraclete, which is "advocate"; and of Jesus Christ he says nonetheless in his Epistle that he himself is an advocate with the Father for our sins. But also in Zechariah the prophet the two olive trees placed at the right and at the left of the lampstand are believed nonetheless to designate the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit.

» Behold, you are good, my kinsman, and indeed comely; our couch is shady «

Now for the first time the bride seems to have looked more attentively upon the beauty of her bridegroom, and to have considered, with those eyes which were said to be a dove's, the splendor and comeliness of the Word of God. For in truth one cannot first perceive or recognize how great is the magnificence in the Word, unless one first receives eyes like a dove's, that is, spiritual understanding. But by the couch which she says she has in common with the bridegroom, there seems to me to be indicated this body of the soul, in which, while still set there, she has been held worthy to be taken up into fellowship with the Word of God. And she calls it shady, inasmuch as it is not dry but fruitful, and, as it were, wooded with the denseness of good work. But these things the bride says—the soul, that is, which already has a dove's eyes. Those, however, who merely believe the bridegroom, yet have not been able to perceive how great is the beauty in the Word of God, say: "And we saw him, and he had no comeliness nor beauty, but his form was unsightly and wanting beyond the sons of men." But she who has profited well and has surpassed the rank of the maidens and the eighty concubines and the sixty queens, that soul can say: "Behold, you are comely, my kinsman, and indeed beautiful." But also, if, while still set in the body, I understand the denseness of the spiritual senses and the understanding of the divine Scriptures woven together with such frequent shade that the more scorching heat—which is wont to burn up and dry the fruits of many—cannot nevertheless darken me, nor can any force of temptations dry up the seed of faith in me, then I can say that "our couch is shady." But when she says "our couch," indicating, as it were, that the place of her own body is common to her with the bridegroom, understand it to be said after that likeness by which Paul also said that "our bodies are members of Christ." For when he says "our bodies," he shows the body to be, as it were, the bride's. But when he mentions "the members of Christ," he indicates that these same bodies are also the bridegroom's body. If, then, these bodies are shady, as we said above, filled, that is, with good works and heaped with the denseness of spiritual senses, of such as these it can be said: "By day the sun shall not burn you, nor the moon by night." For the sun of temptation does not scorch the just man who rests under the shade of the Word of God. For that sun which scorches the just man is not damnable; but rather that one which transfigures itself into an angel of light. Good, therefore, and comely is the kinsman called; and the more he can be gazed upon with spiritual eyes, so much the more beautiful and fair is he found; because not only will his own comeliness and beauty appear wondrous, but also to the one gazing and looking upon him there will arise a great splendor and a new and wondrous beauty of form, according to that which the Apostle, gazing upon the beauty of the Word of God, says: "For though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Rightly, therefore, does such a soul have its body as a couch in common with the Word. For the divine power reaches even to the grace of the body, when it places in it either the gift of chastity, or of continence, and the grace of the other good works. Consider indeed whether perhaps that body also which Jesus assumed can be named a couch common to him with the bride, since indeed through it the Church seems to be joined to Christ and to have been able to receive a share of the Word of God, according to which he is called the mediator of God and men, and according to which the Apostle says: "For in him we have access through faith into the hope of the glory of God."

» The rafters of our houses are cedars, our beams are cypresses «

The bridegroom seems to be replying graciously to those things which had earlier been spoken by the bride, so as to teach her of what sort these shared dwellings are, and what kind of framing material is found in them. This is what the literal narrative holds. But the Church seems to be described by Christ — the Church which is a spiritual house, the house of God, as Paul teaches when he says: "But if I tarry long, that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." If, then, the Church is the house of God, since all things that the Father has are the Son's, the Church is the house of the Son of God. But frequently they are also called "Churches" in the plural, as he says in that place: "We have no such custom, neither the Churches of God." And again, Paul writes to the Churches of Galatia, and John to the seven Churches. So then, whether it be the Church or the Churches, they are the house of the bridegroom and of the bride, or the house of the soul and of the Word, in which the rafters are of cedar. We read also of certain "cedars of God," over which the vine that was brought over from Egypt is said to have stretched out its shoots, or its branches, as it says in the Psalms: "Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God." Evidently, therefore, through these words certain persons in the Church are named "cedars of God." When, then, the bridegroom says, "The rafters of our houses are cedars," we ought to understand that those who roof over the Church are cedars of God, and that some of these, the stronger ones, are called beams. And I think that fittingly those who administer the episcopate well in the Church can be called beams, by which the whole building is supported and covered, whether from the ruin of the rains or from the burning heat of the sun. But in the second place after these, I think the presbyters are called rafters; and the beams indeed are called cypresses, in which there is both a more robust strength and a scent of sweetness, whereby he designates the bishop as both solid in works and fragrant in the grace of doctrine. But similarly he also called the rafters cedars, so that by this he might indicate that the presbyters ought to be full of the virtue of incorruption and of the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ.

» I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys: as the lily among the thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters «

He who is the Bridegroom and the Word and Wisdom seems to be speaking of himself and of the Bride to his friends and companions. But according to the order of the exposition we have set forth, Christ is to be understood as speaking these things about the Church, and to be saying that he himself is the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys. A field is the term for a level stretch of earth, to which cultivation is applied and which is tilled by farmers. The valleys, on the other hand, indicate places that are rather rocky and untilled. But we can also understand that field to be the people that was cultivated through the prophets and the law, and the rocky and untilled valley to be the place of the Gentiles. This Bridegroom, then, was a flower among the people of the Jews; but since the law brought no one to perfection, for that reason the Word of God could not in that people advance to flower and arrive at the perfection of its fruits. Yet in that valley of the Gentiles he became a lily. But what kind of lily? Such, without doubt, as he himself in the Gospels says the heavenly Father clothes. And: "Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these." So the Bridegroom becomes a lily in this valley, in that the heavenly Father clothed him with such a garment of flesh as not even Solomon in all his glory could possess. For Solomon did not have flesh that was immaculate and in no way whatever subject to sin, apart from the desire of a man and the embrace of a woman. But he also seems to show the reason why he who had been a flower in the field willed to be a lily in the valleys. For although he had been a flower in the field for a long time, he says that no flower came forth from that field itself in imitation and likeness of himself. But once he had become a lily in the valleys, straightway by his near imitation there is likewise made a lily; so that it was worth the effort, since he himself became a lily, that also what is near to him — that is, each soul that draws near to him and follows his example and imitation — should become a lily. Therefore, when he says, "As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my beloved in the midst of the daughters," we shall take it as said of the Church of the Gentiles, either because she has emerged, as it were from thorns, out of the midst of the unfaithful and unbelieving, or because she is said to be set in the midst of thorns on account of the bitings of heretics clamoring around her. And this will seem the more likely from the fact that he says: "So is my beloved in the midst of the daughters." For he would not have called those souls "daughters" who had never at all come to believe. All heretics, therefore, first come to belief, and after this they turn aside from the way of faith and from the truth of the doctrines. Just as the apostle John also says in his Epistle: "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us." But we can also refer this to each individual soul, and say that for the soul which, on account of its simplicity and its levelness or evenness, can be called a field, the Word of God becomes a flower and teaches the beginnings of good works. But for those who now seek deeper things and search out things more profound, as it were in the valleys, he becomes a lily, whether on account of the brightness of chastity or the splendor of wisdom, so that they too may become lilies bursting forth from the midst of thorns — that is, fleeing the thoughts and worldly cares that in the Gospel are compared to thorns.

» Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons. In his shadow I longed to be and I sat down, and his fruit is sweet in my throat «

It was fitting indeed that the bridegroom should speak also of himself, of what he was in the field, and also of what he was in the valleys; and of the bride, of who she was and of what sort she was held to be among the other daughters. But it was not fitting that the bride, in answering these things, should say anything of herself, but rather that she should be wholly moved toward admiration of the bridegroom and should cling to his praises. She therefore compares him to an apple tree. But lest, from the resemblance of the word, some of the simpler folk should think the apple tree (arbor mali) to be an evil tree and named from evil (malitia), let us say "the tree of meli," using indeed a Greek word, but one better known to any of the simpler Latin speakers than "mali." For it is better that we offend the grammarians than that we place some stumbling-block before the readers in the explanation of the truth. She compares him, then, to a meli tree, and his companions to the rest of the trees of the wood. But she says the bridegroom is so like this meli tree that she even says she longed to sit beneath his shadow, and she declares that his fruit has been made sweet to her in her throat. And she seems to speak these things to the young maidens, just as the bridegroom too spoke earlier to his companions. But let us now consider, according to the mystery, whom the bride calls "sons," among whom she asserts that the bridegroom excels, like a meli tree, the rest of the trees of the wood; and see whether we can, according to the things we expounded in a twofold way above concerning the daughters and the thorns, so here too understand that the "sons" are said to be either those who once were and are not, or the multitude of the heavenly ministers. For to all men in the beginning belongs that which is written: "I said: You are gods and all of you sons of the Most High." But a difference intervened through this which he says: "But you shall die as men, and shall fall like one of the princes." And this too has regard to that matter: "For who among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord? or who shall be likened to him among the sons of God?" As therefore the meli tree is among the rest of the trees of the wood, so is the bridegroom among the sons, having a fruit which excels all not only in taste but also in fragrance, and which refreshes two senses of the soul alike, that is, both taste and smell together. For with varied provisions Wisdom prepares her table for us. On it she not only sets the bread of life, but also sacrifices the flesh of the Word; and she not only mixes wine in her bowl, but also applies apples fragrant enough and sweet, which render sweetness not only in the mouth and on the lips, but, delivered to the inner throat, preserve their sweetness. And we can take the trees of the wood to be those angels who have been seen to have arisen as the authors and abettors of each heresy, so that the Church seems, comparing the sweetness of the doctrine of Christ to the harshness of the heretical dogmas and their barren and unfruitful teaching, to say: that the ecclesiastical dogmas, which are proclaimed in the Church of Christ, are indeed pleasant and sweet apples; but that the trees of the wood are those things which are affirmed by the various heretics. And of these unfruitful trees of the wood it will seem to be said, what is written in the Gospel: "Behold, now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." The bride's kinsman, then, is like a meli tree in the Church of Christ; but the other heresiarchs, like the unfruitful trees of the wood, are by the divine judgment, as by an axe, to be cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore in the shadow of this meli tree the bride longs to abide — or the Church, as we said, in the protection of the Son of God, or the soul fleeing all the remaining doctrines and clinging to the one Word of God alone, whose sweet fruit she also has in her throat, that is, by meditating unceasingly on the law of God, and by always ruminating upon it like a clean animal. But concerning the naming of this shadow, beneath which the Church says she longed to sit, I do not think it absurd, if we bring forward into the midst those things which we can find in the divine Scriptures, so that it may be recognized more worthily and more divinely what the shadow of this meli tree is. Jeremiah says in the Lamentations: "The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions, to whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the nations." You see, then, how the prophet, moved by the Holy Spirit, says that life is furnished to the nations from the shadow of Christ; and how should his shadow not furnish us with life, when even at the conception of his body it was said to Mary: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you." If therefore there was an overshadowing of the Most High at the conception of his body, deservedly shall his shadow give life to the nations. And deservedly does his bride, the Church, long to sit beneath the shadow of the meli tree, without doubt that she may become a partaker of the life which is in his shadow. But the shadow of the remaining trees of the wood is such that whoever sits beneath it seems to sit in the region of the shadow of death. But still, that the passage which we have in hand may be rendered more and more plain, let us inquire how the Apostle too says that the law has a shadow of the good things to come, and mentions that all the things which were written either concerning the feast days, or the sabbaths, or the new moons, are a shadow of the good things to come — namely in those things which were performed according to the letter; and how he declares that all the worship of the ancients is an example and shadow of the heavenly things. And if this is indeed so, all those whoever were under the law are shown to have sat beneath the shadow of the law, and to have had rather a shadow of the true law. But we are strangers to their shadow, since we are not under the law, but under grace. Yet although we are not under that shadow which the letter of the law made, we are nevertheless under a better shadow. For in the shadow of Christ we live among the nations. And there is a certain advancement to come from the shadow of the law to the shadow of Christ; so that, because Christ is life, and truth, and the way, we may be made first in the shadow of the way, and in the shadow of life, and in the shadow of truth, that we may comprehend in part, and in a mirror and in an enigma, so that after these things, if we walk along this way, which is Christ, we may be able to arrive at this, that we may comprehend face to face those things which before we had seen as though in a shadow and in an enigma. For no one will be able to arrive at those things which are true and perfect, unless he has first desired and longed to abide in this shadow. But Job too says that all the life of men is a shadow upon the earth; I believe because of the fact that the soul in this life is overshadowed by the veil of this dense body. All those, then, who are in this life must of necessity be in a certain shadow. But some indeed are sitting in the region of the shadow of death — those assuredly who do not believe in Christ. But the Church says with confidence: "In the shadow of the bridegroom I longed to be and I sat down"; although certainly there was a time when one, abiding beneath the shadow of the law, could be defended from the harshness of the burning and heat. But that time has passed; one must now come to the shadow of the meli tree; and although one may make use of a different shadow, nevertheless every soul, so long as it is in the present life, seems to have a shadow necessary for it, because of that burning of the sun, I believe, which, when it has risen, straightway the seed that is not sunk with a deep root withers and perishes. But the shadow of the law wards off this burning only slightly, whereas the shadow of Christ, in which we now live among the nations — that is, the faith in his incarnation — will turn it away utterly and extinguish it. For he who scorched those walking beneath the shadow of the law was seen, at the time of Christ's passion, to have fallen like lightning from heaven; although even the time of his shadow will be completed at the end of the age, because, as we said, after the consummation of the age we shall no longer see the truth through a mirror, nor in an enigma, but face to face. I think that also similar is that which is written: "Under the shadow of your wings I shall rejoice." But also in what follows in this little book the bride says thus: "My kinsman is mine, and I am his, who feeds among the lilies until the day breathes, and the shadows are removed," teaching through this that a time will come when all shadows will be removed, and the truth alone will remain. And as for what she says: "And his fruit is sweet in my throat," this is for that soul to say which has nothing dead, nothing insensible in its throat, and is in nothing whatever like those of whom it is said: "Their throat is an open sepulchre." For whoever bring forth words of death and destruction from their throats, their throats are called sepulchres: such as are all those who either speak against the true faith, or bring forth something against the discipline of chastity, and justice, and sobriety. These, then, are they whose throats are sepulchres and places of death, from which words of death are brought forth. But the just man says: "How sweet are your words to my throat!" And another, who taught the words of life, says thus: "Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged." And another too, who opened his mouth to the Word of God, says: "I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit."

» Bring me into the house of wine «

These are still the words of the bride, but they are directed, as I think, to the friends and intimates of the bridegroom, from whom she seems to ask that they bring her into the house of gladness, where wine is drunk and a banquet is prepared. For she who had already seen the royal chamber now desires also to enter the royal banquet and to enjoy the wine of gladness. We have already said above that the friends of the bridegroom are to be understood as the prophets and all who have ministered the word of God from the beginning of the world, to whom the Church of Christ, or the soul cleaving to the Word of God, may rightly say that they bring her into the house of wine, that is, where wisdom has mingled her wine in the mixing-bowl, and beseeches through her servants everyone foolish and lacking in sense, saying: "Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." This is the house of wine, and the house of the banquet, in which banquet all who come from the east and the west shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. To this house and to this banquet the prophets lead the souls — those, at least, who hear and understand them. But so also do the holy angels and the heavenly powers who are sent in ministry, on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation. This is the wine to which are inscribed those psalms which are entitled "for the winepresses." This is the wine gathered from that vine which says: "I am the true vine"; which the heavenly Father, the husbandman, has pressed out. This is the wine which those branches brought forth, which remained in Jesus not only on earth but also in heaven. For thus do I hear that which is said, that "every branch which does not remain in me cannot bear fruit." For no one produces the fruit of this wine except him who remains in the word, and in wisdom, and in truth, and in justice, and in peace, and in all the virtues. This is the wine with which even to be inebriated is deemed desirable by the just and by every holy person. This wine, I think, Noah too was even then contemplating in the spirit when he is said to have been inebriated; and David, marveling at the cup of this banquet, says: "And your cup which inebriates, how excellent it is!" To this house of wine, therefore, the Church, or each soul desiring to enter into the things that are perfect, and to enjoy fully the doctrines of wisdom and the mysteries of knowledge, as with the sweetness of a banquet and the gladness of wine. It must indeed be known that, just as there is this wine which, pressed from the doctrines of truth, is mingled in the mixing-bowl of wisdom, so also there is a contrary wine, when sinners are wickedly inebriated, and those who receive the pernicious doctrines of false knowledge. Concerning whom Solomon says in Proverbs: "But these eat the food of impiety, and are inebriated with the wine of iniquity." Concerning this same wine of iniquity we also read written thus in Deuteronomy: "From the vine of the Sodomites is their vine, and their branch from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, and their cluster is one of bitterness for them; the fury of dragons is their wine, and the incurable fury of asps." But that wine which proceeds from the true vine is always new. For always, through the advances of those who learn, the recognition of divine knowledge and wisdom is renewed. And therefore Jesus said to his disciples that "I will drink that new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father." For the recognition of secret things and the revelation of hidden things is always renewed through the wisdom of God, not only to men, but also to the angels and the heavenly powers.

» Set charity in order within me «

These are the words of the same bride to the same persons, except that perhaps the apostles of Christ may also be reckoned among those to whom these things are addressed. Now what she says—"Set charity in order within me"—has this sense. Without doubt all men love something, and there is no one who has come to that age at which he is now able to love and does not love something: as we also showed sufficiently in the preface of this work. But this love, or this charity, in some indeed proceeds fittingly arranged according to its own order, but in very many against order. And charity is said to be against order in someone when either he loves that which he ought not, or he loves that which he ought, but loves it more than is right, or less than is right. In such persons, then, charity is said to be disordered; but in those—whom I judge to be very few, namely those who walk along the way of life and do not turn aside, neither to the right nor to the left—in these alone is charity ordered and keeps its own order. And its order and measure is of this kind, for example: to love God there is no manner, no measure, save this alone, that you offer to Him all that you have. For in Christ Jesus God is to be loved with the whole heart, and the whole soul, and with all one's strength. In this, then, there is no measure. But to love one's neighbor is already a certain measure. "You shall love," it says, "your neighbor as yourself." If therefore either in the love of God you do something less than you can and than is in your power; or between yourself and your neighbor you do not preserve equity, but have some difference; then charity is not ordered in you, nor does it keep its own order. But since our discourse is about the order of charity, let us inquire more diligently through the particulars, both whom it is fitting to love, and how much it is fitting to love. For if, as the Apostle says, we are members one of another, I think that we ought to have this affection toward our neighbors, that we love them not as bodies foreign to us, but as our own members. According to this, then, that we are members of one another, it will be fitting to have an equal and like love toward all. But according to this, that there are in the body certain members more honorable and more comely, while others are less comely and inferior, I think that again, according to the merits and honor of the members, the measure of love too ought to be weighed. If therefore anyone proposes to do all things reasonably and to temper his acts and affections according to the Word of God, I think that toward each of these he ought both to know and to hold the order of charity. But that what we say may become clearer, let us make use of somewhat more evident indications. If someone, for example, labors in the Word of God and instructs and enlightens our souls, teaches the way of salvation, and hands down the order of living, does he not seem to you to be indeed a neighbor here too, yet much more to be loved than that other neighbor who has done none of these things? For although that other is indeed to be loved, in that we are members of one body and of one substance; yet this one much more, who, though he also has with us the right of a neighbor which other men also have, nevertheless gives this greater cause of charity toward himself, that he shows the way of God, and confers the salvation of the soul by the enlightenments of the divine Word. But if someone should call me back, when erring and set upon the precipice of a womanly sin, to the light of piety, and should snatch me from destruction itself and draw me back to salvation, and rescue me from the very jaws of eternal death, does it not seem to you that he, if it can be, is to be loved with that very fullness of charity with which we love God—after God? And lest you think that we presume thus of ourselves, hear the apostle Paul saying of those who labor in the Word of God: "That you may hold superabundantly in charity those who are such, on account of their work." Let us see yet another order of charity, that at least which is seen to be held toward neighbors. If there be someone who indeed does not have the grace of teaching or instructing, nor of preaching the word of the Lord, but is nevertheless a man of holy life, innocent, immaculate, and one who walks in the justifications and commandments of God without reproach, does such a man seem to you to be reckoned in the same order of charity as that one who does none of these things?—since either is called a neighbor. Should not this one too, on account of his work and the merit of his life, according to the Apostle's saying, likewise as that one who labors in the Word of God, be held superabundantly in charity on account of the work of his life? There is still another order of charity. For we are commanded to love even our enemies. But let us see whether even in them there will be one single manner of love, or whether that saying which says, "Set charity in order within me," will have its place there. I think, then, that in these there is an order of charity, for example: there is a certain enemy of mine, who nevertheless in other respects acts well, is chaste, sober, keeping the commandments of God for the most part, yet erring in some things, as a man. There is another who is indeed likewise an enemy to us, yet is an enemy of his own life and soul, prepared for crimes, headlong into disgraceful deeds, counting nothing holy, nothing religious: does it not seem to you that even among enemies themselves a certain diversity of charity is to be held? I think indeed that from these things it has become sufficiently plain that the force of charity is one, yet it has many causes, and many orders of loving, and that on this account the bride now says, "Set charity in order within me," that is, teach me the diverse orders of charity. But if it still seems that something is to be added to these, we can also bring forward that which the Apostle says: "Husbands, love your wives as your own bodies, as Christ loved the Church." What then? Ought husbands indeed to love their wives, but ought they not at all to love other women in all chastity and holiness? Or will not these too seem to be among neighbors? But love is indeed to be bestowed either on a spouse, or on a mother, or on a sister, provided they be faithful, cleaving to God; and toward another woman is no love to be bestowed by us, according to that by which she herself is called a neighbor? But if this seems absurd, and chaste love ought, according to the order of the commandment, to be shown even toward them, then assuredly, among the very persons of women to whom love is to be bestowed, an order in charity and a fitting distinction must certainly be held. And with the greater honor is love to be shown to a mother; but in the next degree, with a certain reverence nonetheless, to sisters also. But with a proper and, from these, a set-apart manner is charity to be shown to spouses. And after these persons, according to merits and causes also, love is to be bestowed on each one in all chastity, as we have said. And according to these things we shall observe also concerning a father, or a brother, and other kinsfolk. But toward the holy ones who have begotten us in Christ, and also pastors and bishops, or the presbyters who preside over the Word of God, or those who minister well in the Church, or those who excel the rest in faith—how shall not, according to the merits of each one, an affection of charity be weighed out far more eminent than can be held toward those who have done either none of these things or not fully? But also between faithful parents and unfaithful, and faithful brothers and unfaithful, and sisters, can it come about that a diverse order of charity is not held toward these individuals? Beholding these diversities, and seeing that concerning all these things the knowledge of these matters seems necessary to the soul tending toward perfection, that it may be able to hold the measures of charity for each place and order, the bride says to the friends of the bridegroom, namely to those who minister the Word of God: "Set charity in order within me," that is, teach me and hand down to me how through each of these I ought to preserve the order of charity. For all men, as we have already said, according to this that they are like to us, are to be loved alike: nay, every rational creature is to be loved equally by us, inasmuch as we are rational. Yet something is to be added in charity to each one, in respect of this that he is a man, and of this that he is rational; if, for example, either in morals, or in work, or in purpose, or in pursuits he excels the rest; and for each of these, according to each one's own merit, to the general love there is to be added also something special of charity. But that a greater authority may be had concerning these things, let us take our example from God Himself. For He loves all things that are, equally, so that He hates none of the things He has made; for neither did He make anything that He would hold in hatred: not however for this reason did He love the Egyptians alike as the Hebrews, and Pharaoh as Moses and Aaron. Nor again did He love the rest of the sons of Israel alike as Moses and Aaron and Miriam; nor again did He love Aaron and Miriam alike as Moses, although it be true what is said to Him: "But You spare all, because they are Yours, O Lord, lover of souls; for the spirit of incorruption is in all things"; nevertheless He who disposed all things by measure and number and weight, according to the measure without doubt of each one tempers the balance also of His love. Shall we suppose that Paul was not loved by Him alike when he was persecuting the Church of God, and when he was loved while he himself was bearing persecutions and torments for her, and was saying that there was in him the solicitude of all the Churches? It is much now that among these orders of charity we should insert even the affection of hatred, which seems contrary to this affection of charity; because the Lord also says: "I will be an enemy to your enemies and I will oppose your adversaries." And again: "If you stand by a sinner, and by him whom the Lord hates, you are his friend." Which indeed have this same solution as that which was said: "Honor your father and your mother"; and again: "He who does not hate father and mother," and the rest, in which assuredly the excess of charity toward God seems to generate a contrary affection toward those who are adversaries, since there can be no concord of light with darkness, and of Christ with Belial, nor the same portion for the faithful with the unfaithful. These things, then, concerning the orders of charity having been set forth as we could, it is plain for the understanding what it is that the bride, that is the Church, or the soul tending toward perfection, asks to be granted to her by the friends of the bridegroom; since indeed she had asked to be brought into the house of wine, where without doubt she had understood that, among all those things which she had seen, the grace of charity is preeminent and surpassing, and she had learned that charity itself is the greatest of all, and alone is the charity that never falls: therefore she demands that she may learn its order, lest perchance, doing something disordered, she should receive some wound from it, as is said in the later passages: "I am wounded with charity." But whether we take these things to be said by angels, from whom she asks to be instructed and fortified, nothing absurd will appear; according to that which is said of the people of God: "Rejoice, O nations, with His people, and let all the angels of God strengthen them." And as is said elsewhere: "The angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear Him, and will deliver them." And again elsewhere: "Do not despise one of these least ones who are in the Church, for their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." But also in the Apocalypse of John the Son of God gives testimony to the angel of Thyatira for the charity which the angel himself ordered in the Church committed to him. For thus it is written: "I know your works and your charity, and your faith and ministry, and your patience, and your latter works greater than the former." But even if we refer these things to the prophets, who ministered the Word of God before the coming of the bridegroom, so that through their teaching the Church may be seen to wish to learn the order of charity, that is, to be instructed by the prophetic volumes, it will not appear absurd. But also all the saints who have departed from this life, still having charity toward those who are in this world—if they be said to bear care for their salvation, and to help them by their prayers, and by their intervention with God—it will not be unfitting. For it is written thus in the books of the Maccabees: "This is Jeremiah the prophet of God, who always prays for the people." But also that these things are said to the apostles, as I have already said above, will not seem foreign: for through these all the Church of God, or the soul seeking God, is brought into the house of wine, as we said above, and is filled with aromatic spices and odors, and is composed unto the better, as we read in the later passages, and we are taught the order and reason of charity.

» Strengthen me with perfumes, surround me with apples, for I am wounded by love «

In the Greek, indeed, it reads: "Strengthen me with myrrhs"; and by naming "myrrh" a certain kind of tree, which the Latins, supposing it to be so called, rendered as "myrrha," they interpreted it as "perfumes." The sequence of the discourse, then, is of this sort: after the bride had heard the words from the mouth of the bridegroom himself, and had entered the chamber of the king, and the house of wine and the place of the banquet and of wisdom, and had beheld therein the victims and the mixing-bowl blended with his sacred mysteries, then, as if stupefied in admiration of all these things, and wounded, she nonetheless asks of these same friends and companions of the bridegroom that she be strengthened, and, as though fainting, be supported, leaning a little upon the myrrh-tree or the ash-tree. For, struck by the wound of love, she seeks out the solace of trees and of woodlands. These things according to the letter. But that we may be able to pursue from these the spiritual understanding, we have need of that grace which Solomon himself deserved to obtain from God, who learned the natures of all the roots and trees and shrubs that are God's, so that we too might know both what the property and what the nature of the myrrh-tree is, from which a spiritual exposition may fittingly be drawn. Now this is the only thing that could reach us concerning the knowledge of this tree: that it has a sweet fragrance only, yet bears no fruit. But the ash-tree is known to all as one that not only bears fruit, but bears fruit most sweet and most agreeable. All men, therefore, are called trees, whether good or evil, and fruitful or unfruitful, as the Lord also says in the Gospel: "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad"; and: "Every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." Three distinctions, then, seem to exist among men. There are certain ones who bear no fruit at all, and others who do bear fruit. But among those who bear fruit, the fruits are either bad or good. Here, therefore, the bride, that is, the Church of Christ, asks to be strengthened, and indeed to be made to recline upon a single ash-tree bearing good fruits: and rightly and fittingly. For upon these the Church is strengthened and surrounded, namely upon those who bear fruit and grow in good works. But what does it mean that she wishes to be strengthened among the myrrhs, that is, among unfruitful trees that delight in fragrance alone? I think that those who delight in fragrance alone, and do not yet bear the fruits of faith, are those whom Paul names in writing to the Corinthians, whom he calls: "Those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours." Insofar, then, as they call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, they have within themselves a certain sweetness of fragrance from the very invocation of the name. But insofar as they do not approach the faith with all confidence and freedom, they bear no fruits of faith. In this passage we may understand the catechumens of the Church, upon whom the churches are in some part strengthened. For they too have within themselves no little confidence and very much hope that they also may one day become fruit-bearing trees and be planted in the paradise of God by the Father himself, the husbandman. For it is he who plants trees of this sort in the Church of Christ, which is the paradise of delights: as the Lord also says, "Every planting which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up." The Church, therefore, is surrounded among the ash-trees and rests upon them. And what ash-trees are those souls to be reckoned which are daily renewed unto the image of him who created them. For because through their renewal the sons of God restore the image, deservedly they too are called ash-trees, since their bridegroom himself was also said above to be "as an ash-tree among the trees of the wood." And do not wonder if this same one is called both the tree of life and various other things, since the same is also named the true bread, and the true vine, and the Lamb of God, and many other things. For the Word of God becomes all these things to each one, according as the measure or the desire of the partaker demands: even as the manna also, though it was a single food, yet rendered to each one the flavor of his own desire. He offers himself, then, not only as bread to the hungry and wine to the thirsty, but also, to those who wish to take delight, he presents himself as fragrant fruits. Therefore the bride, as though now refreshed and well fed, asks to be supported among the ash-trees, knowing that in the Word there is for her not only every food, but also every delight: and among these especially she ranges to and fro, while she feels herself wounded by the darts of love. If there is anywhere anyone who has ever burned with this faithful love of God, if there is anyone who, as the prophet says, has received the sweet wound and the blow of his chosen dart, if there is anyone who has been pierced by the lovely spear of his knowledge, so that he sighs for him with longings by day and by night, is able to speak of nothing else, is unwilling to hear anything else, knows not how to think of anything else, and finds no pleasure in desiring or coveting or hoping for anything besides him: that soul deservedly says, "I am wounded by love"; and I received the wound from him of whom Isaiah says, "And he set me as a chosen dart, and in his quiver he hid me." With such a wound does it befit God to strike souls, with such darts and spears to transfix them, and to wound them with saving wounds: so that, because God is love, they too may say, "For I am wounded by love." And indeed in this, as it were, love-drama the bride says that she has received the wounds of love: but likewise a soul fervent toward the wisdom of God can say, "I am wounded by wisdom," namely that soul which was able to gaze upon the beauty of his wisdom. And another soul, beholding the magnificence of his power and admiring the might of the Word of God, can say, "I am wounded by his power." Such a one, I believe, was she who said, "The Lord is my light and my savior, whom shall I fear?" But another soul too, fervent toward the love of his justice, and beholding the justice of his dispensations and of his providence, says without doubt, "I am wounded by his justice." And another, regarding the immensity of his goodness and mercy, speaks likewise. But this wound of love, by which the bride proclaims herself wounded, is the general one of all these. Yet it must be known that, just as there are these darts of God, which inflict upon the soul that has a desire of good things the wound of salvation: so also there are the fiery darts of the evil one, by which the soul that is not protected by the shield of faith is wounded unto death. Of these the prophet says: "Behold, the sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared their arrows in their quiver, to shoot in the dark the upright of heart." Here he calls the invisible demons "sinners shooting from concealment," and they are the ones who have certain darts of fornication, others of covetousness and avarice, by which very many are wounded. They also have shafts of boastfulness and vainglory: but these are exceedingly subtle, so that the soul scarcely feels itself transfixed and wounded by them, unless it is clothed with the armor of God and stands watchful and immovable against the wiles of the devil, covering itself on every side with the shield of faith, and leaving absolutely no part of the body bare of faith. But however many weapons the demons may fashion, if they find the mind of a man fortified with faith, even though they be fiery, even though they burn with the flames of lusts and the conflagrations of vices, faith when full extinguishes them all.

» His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me «

This is indeed the description of a love-drama hastening toward the marriage of bridegroom and bride, and it runs its course, as it were, in rather more openly bodily terms of the body. But turn yourself more swiftly to the life-giving Spirit, and, fleeing from bodily terms, look closely at what the left hand of the Word of God may be, what the right hand, and also what the head of his bride — that is, of the perfect soul, or of the Church — and do not let a carnal and passible understanding sweep you away. For here this is the right hand and left hand of the bridegroom, which is spoken of concerning Wisdom in the Proverbs, where it says: "For length of life is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and glory." And just as here you will not therefore suppose Wisdom to be some woman because she seems to be called by a feminine name, so neither in this case, because the Word of God as bridegroom is spoken of in the masculine gender, ought you to understand his left hand or his right hand in a bodily way, or to perceive the embraces of the bride according to the feminine gender of the "soul"; but the Word of God — although among the Greeks it is uttered in the masculine, and among us in the neuter gender — is nevertheless to be conceived, in these matters of which we speak, as being above the masculine and neuter and feminine gender, and above absolutely everything that has regard to this: and not only the Word of God, but also his Church, and the perfect soul, which is likewise named the bride. For so also the Apostle says: "For in Christ there is neither male nor female, but we are all one in him." Now these things are set down, on account of men who cannot hear otherwise except by these words which are in common use, after the manner of human speech in the divine Scripture: so that we may hear them indeed by known and customary words, yet may understand them with that meaning which is worthy of divine and incorporeal realities. For just as he who says that he is a lover of the beauty of wisdom shows this — that he has transferred the natural affection of love which is in him to the pursuits of wisdom — so also here the bride, whether the soul or the Church, demands that her bridegroom, who is the Word of God, may with his left hand support her head, and with his right hand embrace and hold fast all the rest of her body. Now the left hand is that in which Wisdom is said to contain riches and glory. But what riches has the Church, and what glory, except those which she has received from him who, though he was rich, was made poor, that by his poverty the Church might be made rich? And what is the glory? That, without doubt, of which he says: "Father, glorify thy Son" — designating, without doubt, the glory of the Passion. Therefore faith in the Passion of Christ is the glory and riches of the Church, which are contained in his left hand. And the left hand of the Word of God I think ought to be understood in this way: since indeed there are in him certain dispensations enacted before the Incarnation, and there are also some enacted through the Incarnation. That part of the Word of God which was accomplished in the dispensations before the assumption of flesh can be seen as the right hand; but this which was accomplished through the Incarnation may be called the left hand. Whence too the left hand is said to have riches and glory. For through the Incarnation he sought riches and glory — namely, the salvation of all. But in the right hand is said to be length of life: by which, without doubt, is indicated that part of him which in the beginning was with God, God the Word — its everlastingness. This left hand, then, the Church, whose head is Christ, desires to have under her head, and to have her head fortified by faith in his Incarnation; but to be embraced by his right hand — that is, to acknowledge and to be instructed in those things which, even before the time of this dispensation carried out through the flesh, are held in secret and hidden places. For there all things are to be thought of as being the right hand, where nothing is contained of the miseries of sins, nothing of the fall of frailty. But the left hand is where he healed our wounds and bore our sins, being himself made sin and a curse for us. All which things, although they support the head and the faith of the Church, will nevertheless rightly be called the left hand of the Word of God. In which he is also recorded to have endured certain things beyond that nature which is wholly the right hand, and wholly light, splendor, and glory.

» I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field, that you lift up and awaken love, until it please «

The bride still speaks to the young maidens, urging them and exhorting them, indeed even adjuring them by those things which she knows to be dear and lovely to them, so that if perhaps they have begun to lift up love — which lies, as it were, dormant within them — and to rouse it, being still asleep among them, they may lift it up and rouse it up only so far as the bridegroom shall will, and may do nothing in it less than his will allows. For this is the perfection of the loving bride: that she wills that nothing be done by anyone contrary to the mind and will of him whom she loves. And that they may do this neither negligently nor sluggishly, they are adjured by the powers of the field — that is, by the seedlings and shrubs that are in the field — and by its strengths, doubtless by the things that have been sown in it. In such an order and such a composition of words is the text of the historical drama set forth. Now, then, let us seek out what secret it conceals within. Every soul is, above all, a daughter of Jerusalem, one that has a certain field of its own, which has been conferred upon it by a certain secret allotment of merits through Jesus. Such was also that field of Jacob, by whose sweetness the patriarch Isaac, moved, said in mystical utterances: "Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field, which the Lord has blessed." Each soul, therefore, as we have said, has its own field; for so also is its manner of life, which is its field. In this field the soul which is loving and zealous for the Word labors much and strives to plant good perceptions, and to cultivate all the virtues of the mind — and not only the virtues of the mind, but also the strengths of works, by which, namely, the ministries of the commandments may be fulfilled. There is therefore, as we have said, to each soul its own field which it cultivates and plants and sows according to those things which we have said. But there is also of all the daughters of Jerusalem together one certain and common field, of which Paul says: "You are God's husbandry." Let us take this field to be the common exercise of ecclesiastical faith and manner of life, in which it is certain that there are heavenly powers, the strengths of spiritual graces. For each single soul which is here now called a daughter of Jerusalem, knowing that it has for its mother the heavenly Jerusalem, must needs contribute something toward the cultivation of this field, and desire that it be made worthy of a heavenly possession. In the powers, then, of this field, the Church declares that the love of Christ is lifted up and roused by the young maidens who have the beginnings of faith, and she says to them: If you lift up and rouse love until it please; that is, if you have now come to this, that you begin to be led not by the spirit of fear but by that of adoption, and have so advanced in this that perfect love within you casts out fear, and so that you lift up and exalt love within you and rouse it — then lift it up for so long, and exalt it for so long, as the son of love himself shall will, nay rather, as he himself shall will who is of God, love itself; lest perchance, thinking that the measures of human love suffice, you should do toward God, in the love of God, something less than is worthy. For this alone is the measure of love: that one be loved only as much as he himself wills; but the will of God is always the same, and is never changed. Never, therefore, is any change, or any end, admitted in the love of God. It is indeed to be noted that she did not say, if you receive love, but if you lift it up — as being something that is indeed within you, but lies and is not yet raised up. And she did not say, if you find, but if you rouse love — as being something that is indeed within, but lies and sleeps in them, until it finds one to awaken it. This same love, I believe, Paul too was awakening, then still sleeping in the disciples, when he said: "Rise up, you who sleep, and you shall touch Christ."

» The voice of my kinsman «

It is fitting that we frequently remind ourselves that this little book is woven together in the manner of a drama. For the present little verse that we have set before us indicates something of this kind: that whereas the bride's speech had been addressed to the young maidens, the daughters of Jerusalem, suddenly, as though from afar, she perceived the voice of the bridegroom speaking with certain others, and, breaking off the speech she was making to the maidens, the bride turned her ear to the sound that had reached her, and said: The voice of my kinsman. Now understand the bridegroom to have been recognized by the bride at first, before he appeared to her eyes, by his voice alone; but after this to have appeared also to her sight, leaping upon certain mountains near to that place in which the bride was staying, and passing over the hills and mountains with certain great strides—or rather not so much strides as bounds—in the manner of a stag or a goat, and thus coming to his bride with all haste. But when he arrived at the house within which the bride was dwelling, understand that he stood for a little while behind the house, in such a way that he was indeed perceived to be present, yet did not yet wish to enter the house openly and evidently, but first, as under the guise of a lover, wished to gaze upon the bride through the windows. Understand further that certain nets and snares had been set near the bride's house, so that if perchance she herself, or any of her companions among the daughters of Jerusalem, should at some time go out, she might be caught. And it is certain that the bridegroom came to these nets: and since he could not be caught by them, but, being made stronger than they, he tore the nets themselves apart, and, treading upon them, passed over; and after he had accomplished this work, he says: Arise, come, my near one, my bride; and this he says in order that by the very deed he may show her how she ought with confidence to despise the nets which the enemy had stretched out for her, and not to seek out those which she had already seen to be torn asunder by him. And still further, to rouse the bride the more to hasten to him, he says to her: Since all the time that seemed burdensome has passed, and the winter which seemed to have arisen as a cause of trouble for her has departed, and the useless rains have gone away, and now the time of flowering has come, delay not at all to set out upon the journey of coming to me. For behold, the farmers too, because the springtime has now smiled forth, are tending the vines; and the sound now of other birds, now also the pleasing note of the turtledove in springtime, is heard. But the fig tree also, in the sure mildness of spring, has put forth its bud; and the vines indeed so little doubt the calm of the season that they now dare to bring forth their flowers and their fragrance. These things indeed let him say to the bride concerning the calm of the season, that she may dare with greater confidence to seize the journey of proceeding to the bridegroom. But he also describes to her the place in which he wishes her to rest with him; and he says that by the covering of a certain rock which is adjacent to the wall itself, or serves in place of a wall, a most shady place is formed; and to this place he wishes her to come, and, the covering being removed, there to behold her unveiled face, so that face to face she may become known to her bridegroom, and that the bridegroom may not only see her face unveiled and clear, but may there also hear her voice, being now assured both that her face is beautiful and that her voice is sweet and delightful. These things we have joined together by anticipation, lest we should seem to interrupt the order of the drama and the thread of the narrative. But by anticipating a little we have carried forward the order of the story up to that place where he says: For your voice is sweet, your face is comely. Now therefore, taking it up again, let us see first what it is that he says: The voice of my kinsman. By his voice alone Christ is first recognized by his Church. For first he sent forth his voice beforehand through the prophets, and though he was not seen, yet he was heard. And he was heard through those things which were announced concerning him: and for so long the bride, that is, the Church which was being gathered together from the beginning of the age, heard his voice alone, until she should see him with her own eyes, and say:

» Behold, here he comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills «

For he was leaping upon the prophetic mountains and the holy hills — those, that is, who in this world bore his image and form. But even if you place him among the apostles, as one already leaping upon the mountains and towering above all men, and upon the hills, it will nonetheless be not unfitting to apply it to those who were chosen and sent by him in the second rank. For among these he is made "like a roe and a fawn of the harts": like a roe, because his voice excels all sight; and like a hart, because he comes for the destruction of the serpent. But every single soul — if indeed there be any that is bound fast by love of the Word of God — whenever it is set within a debate of discourse, as everyone knows who has experienced how it is when one is brought into a tight place and hemmed in by the straits of propositions and questions; whenever the riddles or the obscure sayings of the Law and the prophets shut it in, then, if perchance the soul should feel him present and receive from afar the sound of his voice, it is at once lifted up; and when he begins more and more to draw near to its senses and to illuminate the things that are obscure, then it sees him leaping upon the mountains and hills — suggesting to it, that is, the lofty and exalted meanings of understanding: so that this soul may with good reason say, "Behold, here he comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills." Now we say this not forgetting that already in the preceding passages he has spoken to the bride while set present before her: but because, as we have often said, this little book contains the form of a drama, some things are now said as to one present, and some also as to one absent; and thus the interchange of persons is carried on, so that either order may be seen fittingly to proceed. For although the bridegroom promises and says to his bride — that is, to those who are his chosen disciples — "Behold, I am with you all the days even unto the consummation of the age"; yet again through parables he says that "a householder called his servants, and distributed to each one money for the sake of trading, and set out on a journey." And again he says, "That he went away to seek for himself a kingdom." And again it is said as of an absent bridegroom, that "at midnight a cry arose of those who said that the bridegroom cometh." Thus, therefore, now the bridegroom is present and teaches, now he is said to be absent and is longed for; and each will aptly suit either the Church or the soul. For when the Church is permitted to suffer persecutions and tribulations, he seems to her to be absent. And again, when she advances in peace and is established in faith and good works, he is understood to be present. But the soul too, when it seeks some meaning and desires to recognize the obscure and hidden things, so long as it cannot find them, the Word of God is without doubt absent from it. But when what is sought comes to meet it and appears, who doubts that the Word of God is present, and illuminates the mind and affords it the light of knowledge? And again we feel him withdrawn from us and again present, through each of the several things that are either opened or closed within our senses. And this we endure up to the point at which we are made such that he deigns not only to visit us again, but even to remain with us — according to what he answered when asked by a certain disciple who said: "Lord, how is it that thou beginnest to manifest thyself to us, and not to this world?" The Savior replied: "If any man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him." If therefore we too wish to see the Word of God and the bridegroom of the soul leaping upon the mountains and exulting over the hills, let us first hear his voice; and when we have heard him in all things, then we shall also be able to see him, according to those things whereby the bride in the present passage is described as having seen him. For she too, although she had also seen him before, had nevertheless not seen him as now, leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills, nor bending down through her windows, nor looking forth through the lattices, but rather it seems that she had seen him before in the time of winter. For now she says to him for the first time, "That the winter is past." Therefore, as it indicates, he appears to the bride even through the winter — that is, in the time of tribulations and temptations. But there is also that other visitation, in which she is visited a little, and again forsaken, that she may be proved, and again is sought, that her head may be sustained, and that she may be wholly embraced, lest perchance she either waver in faith, or her body be weighed down by the burden of temptations. And therefore it seems to me that that was the time of winter, when she was begging that her head — that is, the summit of faith — be held up by the bridegroom's left hand, and that his right hand embrace her whole body. But now this vision, which appears from the mountains and hills, designates, I think, the heights and powers of spiritual graces. And that he is said to look forth through the windows seems to me to afford light to the senses. And the nets which he breaks apart and shatters, I think, indicate the diabolical snares, inasmuch as it is now, as it were, when the winter of temptations is over and done. There are shown also the signs of spring and summer, as it is said in the Psalms: "The summer and the spring, thou hast made them." Thence at last the Church has also brought forth the flowers of the perfect, the temptations being overcome, and the dispensation of pruning being accomplished, as will be shown in its own places when we come to discourse upon these things.

» Behold, here he comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills «

We have already followed out the historical sense; but now we must consider how Christ, in coming to the Church, leaps upon the mountains and bounds over the hills. For "bounding" rather than "passing over" belongs more properly to the sense of the passage before us. Isaac, indeed, as he walked and advanced, kept growing greater, until he became very great. But Paul made his progress no longer by walking, but by running, when he says: "I have finished the course." Yet our Savior, the Bridegroom of the Church, is said neither to walk nor to run, but to leap and to bound over these things. For if you consider how in a brief span of time the Word of God ran through a world held captive by false superstitions, and recalled it to the acknowledgment of the true faith, you will understand how he leaps upon the mountains — surmounting, that is, by his leaps whatever great kingdoms there are, and bending them to receive the knowledge of the divine religion; and how he bounds over the hills, when he swiftly subdues even the lesser kingdoms and brings them to the piety of true worship; and thus, passing from place to place, from kingdom to kingdom, from province to province by the illumination of his preaching — through him who said that "from Jerusalem round about even unto Illyricum he had filled up the Gospel of God" — you will understand how he comes leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills. But it can also be understood in another way, as we have already said above, since indeed Moses wrote of him, and the prophets likewise proclaimed him. Yet this proclamation, in the reading of the Old Testament, has a veil laid over it: but where, for the bride — the Church, that is, once she has turned to him — the veil has been removed, she suddenly sees him leaping upon those mountains, namely the volumes of the Law, and upon the hills of the prophetic Scripture, not so much appearing as bounding forth into evident manifestation; as if, for example, unrolling the several pages of the prophetic reading, she were to find Christ bounding forth out of them, and, the veil by which he was before covered being now at last removed, through the several passages of the readings she might behold him bubbling up and emerging and now breaking forth into evident manifestation. For this reason, I believe, Jesus himself, when he came to be transfigured, was not in any plain or valley, but climbed a mountain, where he was also transfigured; that you may know that he always appears on mountains or on hills, and that he may teach you not to seek him anywhere save on the mountains of the Law and the prophets. And that the saints, each of them, are called mountains, you will find indicated in many places of Scripture, as it says in the Psalms: "His foundations are in the holy mountains." And again: "I have lifted up my eyes unto the mountains, whence help shall come to me." For in tribulations we take our help from the meanings of the divine Scriptures. We may still further take the mountains upon which the Word of God is said to leap, and, as it were, to be borne along more freely, to be the New Testament; but the hills, from which, as though long pent up and concealed, he bounds forth, to signify the volumes of the Old Testament. Moreover, in Jeremiah too the hunters and fishers who are sent to catch men unto salvation are said to catch them on the mountains and hills; for thus he says: "Behold, I send many fishers, and many hunters, and they shall catch them upon every mountain and upon every hill." Which I think is rather to be fulfilled in the time to come, at the consummation of the age, so that when the angels have been sent, according to the Gospel parable, at the time of harvest to separate the wheat from the tares, whoever is of a loftier life and of a more eminent conversation may be found either on the mountains or on the hills. He will not be found in low and abject places, lest there he seem to be mingled with the tares: but placed among the loftier meanings, and in the eminence of faith, ever cleaving to the Word of God as it leaps upon the mountains and bounds upon the hills. And this very thing is said, likewise by another parable but with the same meaning, in the Gospel: "He that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of the house." This most rich saying of the present verse can still suggest yet another sense to us. For it is possible that everyone also who believes in God with full faith may be called either a mountain or a hill, according, that is, to the quality of his life and the greatness of his understanding; and even if he was at some time a valley, as Jesus advances in age, and wisdom, and grace, "every valley shall be filled." But all the proud and lofty, like mountains and hills, shall be humbled: since "whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled, and whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted." For of these it is said: "They that trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion," and of Jerusalem it is said: "The mountains are round about it." Whence I think that with good reason our Savior also — since he too is called "a stone cut out of a mountain without hands," and is said to have become "a great mountain," even as King of kings and High Priest of high priests — may also be called Mountain of mountains. But that a third exposition too may have its place, let the word be directed to each individual soul. If there be any who are more capable of receiving the word of God, who have drunk of the water given them by Jesus, and it has become in them "a fountain of living water springing up unto life eternal" — in those, namely, in whom the word of God bubbles up with frequent and abundant meanings, as with perennial streams; in these, made worthily mountains and hills of life and knowledge and doctrine, the word of God is most fittingly said to leap and to bound, having become in them, by the affluence of doctrine, "a fountain of living water springing up unto life eternal."

» My brother is like a roe, and to the fawn of the stags upon the mountains of Bethel «

That the roe and the stag are reckoned among the clean animals is plainly shown by what is written in Deuteronomy, for it is written in this manner: "For these are the animals which you shall eat: the calf, and the lamb from the flocks, and the he-goat from among the goats, the stag and the roe, and the buffalo and the tragelaph, and the ibex, the camel and the leopard." But that a holy person is also compared to a stag is found in many passages of divine Scripture, as in the Psalm, where it says: "As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." Yet in the words which we have taken from Deuteronomy, this too seems worthy of no careless consideration: what dignity of order he observed in enumerating the clean animals, that first he should write of the calf, second the lamb, third the he-goat. But among those which, according to the same Moses, are not offered at the altar, he names first the stag, second the roe; and so after these he describes the remaining animals in order. The reason for these things will become clear and evident to those to whom a more abundant spiritual grace has been granted in the gift of knowledge through the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, since it now falls to us in the exposition of the present verse to speak of the stag and the roe, it seems fitting to gather together, so far as we are able, from the divine Scriptures the things that are related of these animals — of which the same Moses, when he was speaking of the flesh that might be eaten in every desire of the soul, not offered at the altar, said, "like the roe and the stag." And the twenty-eighth Psalm says something excellent, where, writing in order of the powers and efficacy of the voice of God, it says of the stag in this manner: "The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags," that is, making the stags perfect, "and he will reveal the thickets." For just as the voice of the Lord is said to cut through the flame of fire, and to shake the desert, so it is recorded to perfect the stags and to reveal the thickets. But in Job also we find it related thus of the stag, where the Lord, speaking to Job through the whirlwind and the cloud, says: "Or have you observed the bringing forth of the stags, or numbered their months full unto the birth, and loosed their pains, or nourished their young, or will you send forth their offspring without pains? Their young will break away, and be multiplied in birth; they will go out, and not return?" To these must also be joined those things which we read in the Proverbs in this manner: "The stag of friendships, and the foal of graces, speaks to you." These, for the present, are the things concerning the stag that could come to us as written. Which we have taken up for this purpose, that we may speak not in the teaching of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And therefore let us call upon God the Father of the Word, that he may manifest to us the mysteries of his Word, and remove our understanding from the teaching of human wisdom, and exalt and lift it up to the teaching of the Spirit, so that we may speak not those things which carnal hearing perceives, but those things which the will of the Holy Spirit contains. Paul the apostle teaches us that the invisible things of God are understood from the visible things, and that those things which are not seen are contemplated by reason and likeness from those things which are seen; showing by this that this visible world teaches concerning the invisible, and that this earthly arrangement contains certain patterns of the heavenly things; so that from these things which are below we may be able to ascend to those which are above, and from those things which we see on earth may perceive and understand those things which are held in the heavens. To some likeness of these, that through them the diversities might more easily be gathered and perceived, the Creator gave a likeness of the creatures which are on earth. And perhaps, just as God made man to his own image and likeness, so also he founded the other creatures by likeness to certain other heavenly images; and perhaps each single thing that is on earth has so much of an image and likeness in the heavenly things, that even the grain of mustard seed, which is least of all seeds, has something of an image and likeness in the heavens; and this — that such a certain alternation of nature is compounded for it, that though it be the least of all seeds, it becomes greater than all herbs, so that the birds of heaven can come and dwell in its branches — bears a likeness not only of some heavenly image, but of the very kingdom of heaven itself. So then it is possible that the other seeds too which are on earth may have something of likeness and reason in the heavenly things. But if the seeds, then without doubt the shrubs too; and if the shrubs, then without doubt the living creatures too, whether of the winged, or the creeping, or the four-footed. But this also can further be understood: that just as the grain of mustard seed holds not one single likeness of the kingdom of heaven and of the dwelling of the birds in its branches, but has also another likeness or image, namely of the perfection of faith — so that if anyone should have faith like a grain of mustard seed, he may say to the mountain, "Remove yourself," and it will remove — so it is possible that the others too may bear the appearance and image of the heavenly things not in some one respect, but in many. And whereas there are, for example, several powers in the grain of mustard seed which hold images of heavenly things, that is its last and furthest use which is held among men in bodily service. So also may it be understood in the rest, whether seeds, or shrubs, or roots of herbs, or even in living creatures; that they indeed provide bodily service and use to men, but have the forms and images of incorporeal things by which the soul may be taught, and instructed to contemplate those things also which are invisible and heavenly. And this, perhaps, is what that writer of divine wisdom says: "For he himself gave me the true knowledge of the things that are, so that I might know the substance of the world, and the powers of the elements, the beginning, and the end, and the middle of the times, the changes of the vicissitudes, and the conversions of the seasons, and the circles of the year, and the positions of the stars, the natures of animals, and the rages of beasts, the violences of the winds, and the thoughts of men, the differences of shrubs, and the powers of roots; and whatsoever things are hidden and manifest, I have known." See therefore whether from these words of Scripture we may be able to gather more lucidly and evidently the things which we have proposed to examine. For this writer of divine wisdom, when he had enumerated each single thing, said at the last that he had received the knowledge of the hidden and the manifest things: showing without doubt that each one of those things which are in the manifest is referred to some one of those things which are in the hidden; that is, that each single visible thing has something of likeness and reason to the invisible things. Since therefore it is impossible for a man living in the flesh to know anything of the hidden and invisible things, unless he has conceived some image and likeness from the visible things; for this reason I think that he who made all things in wisdom so created each single kind of visible things on earth, that in them he might place a certain teaching and knowledge of the invisible and heavenly things; whereby through these the human mind might ascend to spiritual understanding, and might seek the causes of things in the heavenly places, so that, taught through the wisdom of God, it might itself also be able to say: "The things that are in the hidden, and the things that are in the manifest, I have known." According to these things also it knows the substance of the world, not only this visible and corporeal one, which is open to view, but also that incorporeal and invisible one which is in the hidden. It knows also the elements of the world, not only the visible, but also the invisible, and the powers of both. But also the beginning which it speaks of, and the end, and the middle of the times: it speaks indeed of the beginning of the visible world, which Moses designates as no beginning before six full thousands of years; the middle also according to the reckoning of times, and that end which is hoped for when heaven and earth shall pass away. But according to the knowledge of the hidden things, it speaks of that beginning which he understands whom the wisdom of God shall teach, which no times, no ages, can comprehend. And the middle, those things which now are; but the end, those things which are to come, that is, the perfection and consummation of the universe, which nevertheless can be conjectured and understood from these visible things. But also the changes of the vicissitudes, and the conversions of the seasons, the circle of the year — from those things which are seen it refers to the invisible changes and vicissitudes of corporeal things. The circles too of the temporal and present years it refers to certain more ancient and everlasting years, according to him who said: "And I had the eternal years in mind." But also the positions of the stars he did not hesitate to refer from those things which are openly seen to those things which are in the hidden — of which hidden and manifest things he merited the knowledge; and he says that there is a certain race of holy ones which descends especially from the stock of Abraham, like the stars of heaven. But also he declared that the glory of the future resurrection is stars, according to the knowledge of the hidden things, following him who said: "One is the glory of the sun, and another of the stars. For star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead." Unless these things were understood according to this, that which he says — "The natures of animals, and the rages of beasts" — the Savior would never have said in the Gospels, "Tell that fox," nor would John have said of certain men, "Serpents, generation of vipers," nor again would the prophet say of some that they "became stallion horses," and likewise another: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts of burden, and was made like unto them." But he too diligently knew the rages of beasts who said: "Their fury is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp, and stopping its ears." This will be the reasoning also concerning that which he says, "the violences of the winds": speaking visibly indeed of winds, and of the blasts of the air, but invisibly of the violences of unclean spirits, which Paul too named "winds of doctrine." After these it follows that he should know the thoughts of men: corporeally indeed those which proceed from the human heart, but invisibly he should understand those who cast into men evil and most wicked thoughts, as it is written in the Gospel: "When the devil had put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord." And in the Proverbs it is said: "If the spirit of one having power should rise up against you, do not forsake your place, for soundness restrains great sins." But there is also some author of good thoughts: on account of which I think it is written in the Psalms too: "Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord; he has disposed ascents in his heart." And again: "The thought of man shall confess to you, and the remnants of thought shall keep a feast day to you." Thus therefore all things, according to those things which we have said before, can be referred from the visible to the invisible, and from the corporeal to the incorporeal, and from the manifest to the hidden, so that the very creature of the world may be understood to have been founded by a certain dispensation through the divine wisdom, which by the very things and examples may teach us the invisible from the visible, and transfer us from the earthly to the heavenly. But these reckonings are not only held in all creatures, but the divine Scripture too has been written with a certain such art of wisdom. For on account of certain hidden and mystical things, the people is visibly led out of Egypt, and makes its way through the earthly deserts, where there was the biting serpent, and the scorpion, and where there were no waters, and the other things which are related to have been done in these places. All which things, as we have said, hold the forms and images of certain hidden things. And not only in the scriptures of the ancients, but also in the deeds of our Lord and Savior which are related in the Gospels, will you find this. Therefore, if all things which are in the manifest are, according to those things which we have approved above, referred to certain things which are in the hidden, it follows without doubt that this visible stag, or roe, which is written of in the Song of Songs, is, according to the reckoning of its nature which they bear corporeally, referred to certain causes of incorporeal things, so that to those hidden and invisible stags it may seem able to apply what was said: "The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags." For what perfection comes from the voice of the Lord to these visible stags? Or what teaching ever descended to them from the voice of the Lord? But if we seek spiritual stags, whose form and image that corporeal animal holds, you may find that they can be led to the height of perfection from the voice of the Lord. But also of what stags it was fitting that the Lord should guard the young, and that it was proper for him to stand by, as one providing the offices of healing, to the ones giving birth, until they should bring forth such offspring as would oppose and persecute the race of serpents — as is worthy already of the divine majesty, we ought to observe of what sort of stags it befits God to guard the young, lest they fall into miscarriage; but also to number their months full unto the birth, and to keep their labors and pains, so that their generations may not fall in vain, but that their birth may be perfect, and that they may travail so long until Christ be formed in them. The young of stags of this kind the Lord nourishes — of those, that is, who cast their thought upon the Lord, that he himself may nourish them, and he himself may guard the pains of their birth, when out of the fear of God they have conceived in the womb, and travailed, and brought forth the spirit of salvation. The pains of birth of this kind the Lord himself guards and cares for. But he also sends forth their pains, that going they may go, and weep bearing their seeds, and be in the pains of men and be scourged with men, lest perhaps pride hold them. These same stags also break away, as he says, their young. For those whom they have begotten through the Gospel, they break away from the bonds of sins, and from the snares of the devil, that they may no longer be held bound to their will. These too shall be multiplied, and, as he says, shall not return. For they will not imitate the wife of Lot, they will not go back behind. For they know that he who puts his hand to the plow, if he looks back, will not be fit for the kingdom of heaven; but they always forget the things that are behind, and reach forth to the things that are before them. For such stags the voice of the Lord makes to be perfect. Which voice of the Lord, but that which is held in the law and in the prophets, and reached even unto John, who was the voice of one crying in the desert? For the very voice of John, who said, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God," made stags perfect, that they might be perfect in the same understanding and in the same knowledge. For he who is such rightly says: "As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." And who else will the stag of friendships seem to be but he who slew that serpent which had seduced Eve, and, pouring into her the poisons of sin by the blasts of his speech, had infected all the offspring of posterity with the contagion of transgression: and had come to loose in his own flesh the enmities which the harmful mediator had wrought between God and man? But the foal of graces can be taken as the Holy Spirit, from whom those thirsting and desiring God obtain spiritual graces and heavenly gifts. But all these things have been said by us so that the cause might become more manifest by which the bride seems to compare her brother to the fawn of stags. But if this too must be inquired — why he is compared not, as elsewhere, to a stag, but to the fawn of stags — consider this: that though he was in the form of God, a son was given to us, and a child was born to us, whose power is upon his shoulder. Therefore, then, the fawn of stags, because a little child was born. And perhaps the stags can be taken as all the holy ones, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and Solomon, and all from whose seed Christ descended according to the flesh. Which stags the voice of the Lord makes perfect, and theirs is this fawn, who was born from them according to the flesh as a child. That also moves me which is written in the hundred and third Psalm, where it says: "The high mountains for the stags." And indeed of the stags we have already said above that all the holy ones are taken, who for this reason came into this world, that they might destroy the poisons of the serpent. But let us see what the high mountains may be, as being those which seem set apart for the stags alone, and to which none unless he be some stag can ascend. I think that he called the persons of the Trinity the high mountains, to whose capacity none ascends unless he be made a stag. But those same which here are called "high mountains" in the plural, are in other places called "a high mountain" in the singular; as Isaiah says: "Ascend upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion. Lift up your voice in strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem." For the same which there is a Trinity on account of the distinction of the persons, is here understood as one God on account of the unity of substance. Let these things suffice concerning the fawn of stags. Now let us see how the brother is also compared to the roe or the little doe. This animal, as far as the Greek words are concerned, has obtained its name from seeing and from looking forth more clearly. And who is there who so sees as Christ sees? For he alone is the one who sees, that is, who knows the Father. For even if those who are pure of heart are said to be about to see God, they will see him, without doubt, by his own revealing, since the roe too has in its nature that it not only itself sees and beholds most keenly, but also provides sight to others. For those who have skill in medicine assert that there is within the entrails of this animal a certain humor which drives away the dimness of the eyes, and sharpens the more dull sights. Rightly therefore is Christ compared to the roe or the little doe, because he not only himself sees the Father, but also makes him to be seen by others, whose sight he himself has cured. But observe, lest hearing that the Father is seen, you should perceive something corporeal, and think God visible. The sight by which God is seen is not of the body, but of the mind, and of the spirit. Which the Savior himself also, distinguishing it in the Gospel by its proper word, said: "No one sees the Father except the Son." Finally, to those also whom he makes to see God, he gives the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of wisdom, that through that spirit they may see God. And therefore he said to the disciples that "he who sees me, sees the Father also." And surely we will not be so foolish as to think that whoever saw him according to the body also saw the Father: otherwise the Scribes too, and the Pharisees, and the hypocrites, and Pilate who struck him with scourges, and all the people who cried, "Crucify, crucify him," seeing Jesus according to the flesh, would also have seen God the Father. Which surely seems to be not only absurd, but also impious. For just as, when the crowds were pressing him as he went with the disciples, none of those who pressed and crushed him is said to have touched him, except that woman alone who came suffering a flow of blood and touched the fringe of his garment, and to her alone he bears testimony, saying, "Someone touched me, for I felt power go forth from me"; so also, when there were many who saw him, none is said to have seen him, except he who knew that he is the Word of God and the Son of God: in whom, surely, the Father is said at once to be known and to be seen. But let this also not escape us, that first he is compared to the roe, and now to the fawn of stags, though surely the stag seems a larger animal than the roe. But consider whether rather this reckoning is to be held in these things: that since the salvation of believers consists in two ways, through the knowledge of faith and the perfection of works, the reckoning of faith — which, as we have said, is compared to the roe on account of the gaze and inspection of contemplation — is held to be the first grade of salvation; but in the second place is recorded the perfection of works, which holds the form of the stag conquering and destroying the poisons of serpents, that is, the diabolical arts. If therefore the bride says that her brother is like a roe, or the fawn of stags, upon the mountains of Bethel — and Bethel is interpreted "house of God" — then the mountains which are in the house of God can be taken as the volumes of the law and the prophets, but also the evangelical and apostolic ones, in which both the faith of God is perfected and contemplated, and the perfection of works is spoken of and fulfilled.

» Behold, he stands here behind our wall, leaning over the windows, looking through the lattices. My kinsman answers, and says to me «

When I consider the difficulties of investigating the meanings in these words that are set before us in the words of Scripture, I see that I suffer something like what happens to a man who advances to track down his prey with the sharp scent of a keen-nosed hound: where sometimes it is the custom that, when the hunter, intent upon the tracks, has thought himself to be near the quarry hidden in its lurking-places, suddenly he is disappointed of the indications of the tracks, and again, fixing the scent more firmly, he retraces backward the very paths he had opened up, until he finds the place at which the quarry, shaking itself loose more deeply, secretly betook itself to another path; and when the hunter has found this, he pursues it more eagerly, more certain in the hope of the prey, and more secure by the firmness of the track. So therefore we too, when the tracks of the explanation we have set before us have in a manner slipped away from us, retracing the little way we have measured out, and pursuing an order of exposition plainer than it seemed before, we hope that the Lord our God may deliver into our hands the prey which, when we have prepared it, and seasoned it according to the knowledge of our mother Rachel with the salt of the rational word, we may deserve to obtain the blessings from our spiritual father Jacob. On which account it seems necessary, as we have said, briefly to repeat what has been said, and to re-weave the earlier explanation, so that whatever meaning is clearer may be opened up. It seems to me, then, that from the beginning of the drama set before us the bride is to be understood as standing outside at a crossroads, and, on account of her love for the bridegroom, looking this way and that in case perhaps he should come to her, in case perhaps he should appear; and she is unwilling to set out on any road while she does not know from which direction he is more likely to come, and she stands not at home but outside, and is driven by longing for him, and says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth"; but when the bridegroom comes, she says: "Your breasts are better than wine," and the rest, up to the place where she says: "We will run after you." After these things, being beloved and receiving from the bridegroom himself a return of love, she is led into his chamber, and says: "The king has brought me into his chamber." But also the rest of the things that are afterward written, she speaks placed within to the bridegroom, in the presence and attendance of the maidens of the bride and the companions of the bridegroom. Yet the bridegroom is to be understood, inasmuch as he is a man, as not always in the house, nor always sitting beside the bride placed within the house: but he goes out frequently, and she, as if anxious with love for him, seeks him when absent; but at times too he returns to her. On which account, throughout the whole little book, the bridegroom is seen at one time to be sought as though absent, at another time to speak as though present with the bride. But the bride herself, when she had seen through many and magnificent things in the bridegroom's chamber, asks that she too be brought into the house of wine. And when, having entered there, she had perceived that the bridegroom, inasmuch as he is a man, had not remained in the house, she again, driven about by love for him, went outside, and going around she wanders about the house as she enters, and looks out on every side for when the bridegroom may return to her; and behold, suddenly she sees him coming down to the house in which the bride, anxious with love for him, is aflame, surpassing the ridges of the neighboring mountains with immense leaps. But when the bridegroom reaches the wall of the house, he stands for a little while behind it, considering, as usually happens, something, and turning it over in his mind. But now, he too feeling something of love toward the bride, and using his own height, which reaches up to the windows of the house — which windows have some part of the work that is, as they say, of lattice — and then he leans indeed through the windows, but being taller than the windows, he reaches up to the upper parts of them, which are marked out, as we have said, with lattice-work, and looking out from there he addresses the bride, and says to her:

» Rise up, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove «

These are the matters which, as we indicated above, seemed to us to present the greatest difficulty both in setting the order straight and in opening up their meaning. And this, I think, our present renewed investigation of the words will have rendered clearer. But the spiritual interpretation in these passages is not held to be so laborious and difficult. For the soul, the bride of the Word, which abides in the royal house — that is, in the Church — is taught by the Word of God, who is her Bridegroom, whatever things have been laid up and stored away within the royal hall and the king's chamber. In this house, which is the Church of the living God, she learns also the cellars of that wine which has been gathered from the holy winepresses — cellars of wine not only new but also old and sweet, which is the teaching of the law and the prophets. And when she has been sufficiently trained in these, she may receive into herself Him who was in the beginning with God, God the Word — yet He does not always remain with her, for this is not possible for human nature; but at one time she is visited by Him, and at another she is abandoned, so that she may desire Him the more. And when she is visited by the Word of God according to the sense of the verse set before us, He is said to come to her leaping over the mountains — that is, revealing to her the lofty and elevated meanings of heavenly knowledge, so that He arrives even at the building up of the Church, which is the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth, and He stands beside the wall, or behind the wall, so that He is neither wholly hidden nor entirely out in the open. For the Word of God, and the discourse of knowledge, does not appear set out in public and openly, nor to be trampled underfoot; but when it has been sought, it is found, and it is found not, as we said, placed in the open, but covered over, and lying hidden as it were behind a wall. But the soul which is said to be in the Church is not understood to be set within buildings of walls, but placed within the defenses of faith and the buildings of wisdom, and covered over by the lofty summits of charity. Therefore a good resolve, and faith in right doctrines, makes the soul to be in the house of the Church; certain members of which house are called either the chamber, or the house of wine, or others of this kind, according, that is, to the grades of graces and the varieties of spiritual gifts. So then the wall too is now a certain part of this house, which can signify the firmness of doctrines; beneath which the Bridegroom is said to stand, and in which He is so great and so lofty that He rises above the whole building, and looks upon the bride, that is, the soul; and not yet indeed does He show Himself open and wholly manifest to her, but, as it were looking through the nets, He urges her on and provokes her not to sit within, sluggish, but to go out to Him without; and to strive so that now she may see Him not through windows and nets, nor through a mirror in a riddle, but going forth outside, face to face. For now, since she cannot yet gaze upon Him thus, He therefore stands not before her, but behind her and behind the wall. And He leans in through the windows, which without doubt lay open for the receiving of light to illuminate the house. Through these, then, the discourse of God, leaning in and looking through, provokes the soul to rise up and to come to Him. But we may understand the windows to be the bodily senses, through which either death or life enters into the soul; for so does it signify when the prophet Jeremiah speaks concerning sinners, saying: "Death has climbed up through your windows." How does death climb up through the windows? If the eyes of a sinner should look upon a woman, and he should commit adultery with her in his heart, thus death has entered into the soul through the windows of the eyes. But also when someone receives an empty hearing, and especially of the false doctrines of perverse knowledge, then through the windows of the ears death enters into the soul. But if the soul, beholding the adornment of the world, and from the beauty of creatures perceiving God the Maker of all, should marvel at His works, and praise the Creator of the works, then life enters into the soul through the windows of the eyes. And also when it inclines its hearing to the Word of God, and delights in the reasonings of His wisdom and knowledge, to this soul, through the windows of the ears, the light of wisdom enters. Through these windows, then, the Word of God looking through, and directing His gaze toward the soul His bride, exhorts her to rise up and to come to Him — that is, to leave behind bodily and visible things, and to hasten to the incorporeal and invisible and spiritual things. Since the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Thus also the Spirit of God is said to go about, and to seek out worthy souls, which can fittingly and rightly be made into a dwelling-place of wisdom. But that He is said to look through the nets of the windows, this without doubt signifies that, so long as the soul is placed in the house of this body, it cannot grasp the wisdom of God naked and open, but through certain examples and indications and images of visible things it contemplates those things which are invisible and incorporeal; and this is for the Bridegroom to look upon her through the nets of the windows. But if we should expound these things of Christ and the Church, the house in which the Church dwelt is the Scriptures of the law and the prophets. For there is the king's chamber, filled with all the riches of knowledge and wisdom. There too is the house of wine, that is, the teaching either mystical or moral, which gladdens the heart of man. Coming, then, Christ stood a little while behind the wall of the Old Testament. For He stood behind the wall, when He was not made manifest to the people; but when the time was at hand, and He began to appear through the windows of the law and the prophets — that is, through those things which had been foretold concerning Him — and to show Himself to the Church seated within the house, that is, within the letter of the law, He provokes her to go out from there, and to come outside to Him. For unless she goes out, unless she comes forth, and advances from the letter to the spirit, she cannot be joined to her Bridegroom, nor associated with Christ. He calls her, therefore, and invites her to come from carnal things to spiritual, from visible to invisible, from the law to the Gospels. And therefore He says to her: "Rise up, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove." And that we may also anticipate some of the things that are to be said afterward, fearing to lose the sense which presents itself in this place: for this reason perhaps He also says that to her, that "the winter too has passed, the rain has gone away," at the same time indicating also the time of His passion, that, the winter being past and the showers cast down, He Himself suffered; and at the same time signifying also this by spiritual understanding, that up to that time in which Christ suffered, there were showers upon the earth. For the Lord still commanded the showers — that is, the prophets — to rain the rain of the word upon the earth. But since up to John the Baptist the prophetic offices are brought to an end, rightly are the showers said to have gone away and departed. But the prophetic showers ceased not to the harm of believers, but for the greater gains of the Church. For what need is there of showers, where the river of God gladdens the city? where in the heart of each of the believers there becomes a fountain of living water springing up unto life eternal? What need of showers, where now the flowers have appeared in our land, and from the coming of the Lord the fig tree is no longer cut down, which before had brought forth no fruit? For now it has already put forth its unripe figs. But the vines too have given their fragrance. Whence also a certain one from that vineyard said: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ unto God in every place, among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing." But these things, as we indicated above, we have set forth before we presumed to come to the very passages of Scripture, lest perchance the sense which seemed to present itself at the moment should escape us: now let us take up again how He is said to look through the nets. It is written: "For not in vain are nets stretched out for the birds." And again: "The just man, if he should fall into sin, is bidden to flee, just as the roe from the snares, and the bird from the nets." Full, therefore, is the life of mortals of the snares of offenses, full of the nets of deceptions, which he stretches out against the human race who against the Lord is called the giant hunter Nimrod. For who is the true giant other than the devil, who also rebels against God? For the snares of temptations, and the traps of ambushes, are called the nets of the devil. And since the enemy had stretched out these nets everywhere, and had entangled almost all in them, there needed to be someone who should become stronger and more eminent than they, and should crush them, so that He might be able to open a way for those who follow Him. For this reason, therefore, the Savior too, before He came into wedlock and fellowship with the Church, was tempted by the devil, so that overcoming the nets of temptations He might look through them, and through them call her to Himself, showing her without doubt and teaching her that it was not through leisure and delights, but through many tribulations and temptations, that she must come to Christ. There was, therefore, no other who could overcome those nets. For all have sinned, as it is written. And again, as the Scripture says: "There is not a just man upon the earth who will do good, and will not sin." And again: "No one is clean from filth, not even if his life should be of one day." He alone, therefore, is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who committed no sin, but the Father made Him to be sin for us, in the likeness of the flesh of sin, that from sin He might condemn sin. He came, therefore, to those nets, but He alone could not be entangled in them: nay rather, having burst and crushed them, He gives to His Church confidence, so that she may now dare to make void the snares, and to pass through the nets, and with all eagerness to say: "Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the snare of the hunters; the snare has been crushed, and we have been set free." But who crushed the snares, except He who alone could not be held in them? Although He too was in death voluntarily, and not, as we, by the necessity of sin. For He alone it is who was free among the dead. And because He was free among the dead, therefore, having conquered him who held the dominion of death, He drew away the captivity which was held in death. And He not only raised Himself from the dead, but also those who were held in death He at the same time roused up, and at the same time made to sit in the heavenly places. For ascending on high He led captivity captive, not only leading forth souls, but also raising up their bodies, as the Gospel testifies that many bodies of the saints were raised up, and appeared to many, and entered into the holy city of the living God, Jerusalem. This exposition concerning the nets has been taken up by us in the second place. Let it indeed be the reader's judgment which of them cannot but be more worthily fitted to mystical utterances.