Sermons on the Song of Songs

use (as far as in her lies) terms of affection to Him whom she loves; while at the same time she imposes respect upon her maidens, who require the bond of discipline, by the use of a term of dignity which inspires reverence.

2. The King has brought me into His banqueting house. Of what is meant by the banqueting house I forbear to speak now, because I remember that I have treated of it before. (Sermon XXIII.) But if the term is to be understood of the Church, when the disciples, being filled with the Holy Spirit, were thought by the people to be full of new wine, then we must remember that St. Peter, answering on behalf of the Bride, as a friend of the Bridegroom, declared: These are not filled with wine, as ye suppose (Acts ii. 15). Notice that he denied, not that they were inebriated, but that they were inebriated in the manner, and from the cause, that the people supposed. Inebriate they were, yet not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. And as if they had wished to testify to the people that they had been, in truth, brought into the King's banqueting house, St Peter, speaking still for them all, went on to say: This is that which was spoken bythi Prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Does it not seem to you that the banqueting hall was that house in which the disciples were assembled, 7vhen suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind (Spiritus), and it filled all the house where t/iey were si/ting, and thus accomplished the prophecy of Joel? And was not each of them, going forth inebriated with the abundance of good things received in that house, and having, as it were, drunk deep of the rushing torrent of its pleasures, able to say with good reason: The King hath brought me into His banqueting house?

3. You also, if you shall enter into the House of prayer in solitude and collectedness of spirit, if your mind be thoughtful and free of worldly cares, and if standing in the Presence of God before some altar, you shall touch, as it were, the portal of heaven with the hand of holy aspiration and longing; if, having been brought among the choirs of the saints by the fervour of your devotion (for the prayer of the righteous soul can scale even the heights of heaven), you deplore before them, in deep humility, your spiritual troubles and miseries, you plead your necessities with frequent sighs and groans too deep for utterance, and entreat earnestly their compassion; if, I say, you act thus, I have full confidence in Him who said: Ask, and ye shall receive (Matt. vii. 7), and I believe that if you persevere in knocking earnestly at that door, it shall certainly be opened to you, and you shall not go away empty. And when you shall return to us full of grace and love, and are unable, in the fervency of your spirit, to conceal the gift which you have received, and which you will without jealousy impart to others; thus you will be, not merely acceptable to all, but perhaps even the object of their admiration, on account of

the grace which has been bestowed upon you, and you will be able to declare with truth: The King hath brought me into His banqueting house. Only be cautious that you glory, not in yourself, but in the Lord But I would not assert that every spiritual gift conies forth from this cellar here mentioned. The Bridegroom has also other cellars and storehouses, and in these are laid up divers gifts and graces, according to the riches of His glory. But of these, too, as I remember, I have already spoken. (Sermon XXIII.) Are not these things stored up with Me% saith the Lord, and sealed up in My treasures! (Deut xxxii. 34, Douay). Therefore the division of graces is made according to the diversity of storehouses, and the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. And although to one person is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another prophecy, to another the gifts of healing, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, and other gifts similar to these to other persons, yet it does not follow that any one of those who receive gifts of this kind should therefore be able to say that he has been brought into the banqueting house. For it may have been from other storehouses that his gifts have been drawn.

4. But if anyone, while in prayer, should obtain the grace to be drawn out of himself, as it were, and into the sphere of the Divine glory, from whence he returns after a time fired with an ardent love of God, inflamed with a burning zeal for righteousness, and also filled with extreme fervour in the pursuit of all spiritual occupations and studies, so that he can say: My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned (Ps. xxxix. 3), that soul will evidently have a not unfounded claim to say that he has been brought into the banqueting house, because out of the abundance of his charity he has begun to manifest and utter the effects of that inebriation which, unlike every other, is in the highest degree salutary and good. For there are two kinds of ecstasy in holy contemplation: one of the understanding, the other of the heart; one in the light of the understanding, the other in the fervour of the affections; the one a blaze of discernment, the other a rapture of devotion; and the glow of piety, the heart aflame with holy love, the access of sublime adoration, are all derived from the banqueting house of the King, equally with the clear vision of the eager spirit; and everyone, whosoever he may be, who rises from prayer endowed with the fulness of these priceless gifts, may say with truth, The King hath brought me into His banqueting house.

5. Then the Bride goes on to say: He set in order charity in me (Douay). This was absolutely necessary, because zeal without knowledge is insupportable. Where zeal is eager, there discretion, which is the rule of charity by order, is most of all indispensable. Without knowledge zeal is found to be always less useful and less effectual; and most often it is even very dangerous. The more fervent is zeal, the more eager the temper, the more profuse the charity; the more need is there of a watchful knowledge, which moderates zeal, tempers the warmth of the disposition, and regulates the gushings of charity. That is the reason why the Bride, lest the impetuosity of spirit, brought, as it might appear, from the banqueting house, should be excessive and ungovernable, as she fears especially for the souls of the young, adds here that she has received also the orderly regulation of charity — that is, discretion. For discretion assigns to every virtue its due place; arid order produces moderation, due proportion and fitness, and therefore never-failing continuance. Therefore the Scripture saith: By Thine ordinance the day continues (Ps. cxix. 91) calling virtue 1 the day.' Discretion, then, is not so much a single virtue, as a certain moderator and conductor of all the virtues, a director of the affections, and a teacher of all the conduct of life. Without it, even virtue degenerates into vice, and the natural impulses themselves are changed into passions which disturb and destroy nature. He set in order charity in me. This is what took place in the Church, when [the Lord] gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints (Eph. iv. 11, 12). But it is necessary that the same charity should bind all these together into the unity of the Body of Christ, which it cannot in anywise do, unless it be guided and regulated. For if each person allows himself to be carried away by the warmth and impetuosity of his spirit to do indifferently everything that occurs to him, following rather his own preference than the dictates of reason, it is plain that there will no longer be unity, but confusion and disorder; for no one will be content with the ministry confided to him, but will be busying himself indiscriminately with that of others.

6. He set in order charity in me. Oh that the Ix>rd Jesus would, of His grace, set in order in me somewhat of the charity which He has bestowed, so that I might have such care of all things which are His, and relate to Him, as to put before all other things, to the utmost of my power, the duties of the office entrusted to me, yet so as, though these be put first, I may have a reserve of interest and sympathy for matters which are beyond my especial charge, for it is not always the case that those things should be the most loved which have to be the first cared for, for though they come before others in the care they require, they are frequently far behind them in usefulness, and therefore also in the approval and affection they command- Thus it is frequently the case that the thing which, according to a command binding on us, is preferred to another, should, by the dictate of reason, come after it j1 and that which in the judgment of truth is of the greater importance, the order of charity, requires to be adopted with the greatest caution. Has there not, for example, been laid upon me by authority the care of you all? Now, whatsoever I might perhaps set before lhat task, or which might prevent my acquitting myself of the full discharge of it, according to my powers, even though I might seem to be actuated by a motive of charity to do it, yet the reason of the Order would not allow of its being done. Yet if I apply myself wholly to this [my first] work, in preference to all others, as I ought, but do not rejoice still more in greater services to God, which I may perceive to be done, perhaps, by some other person, then it is evident that I observe the order of charity only in part and not wholly. But if I occupy myself chiefly with that which is my particular charge, yet do not omit to show sympathy with other and greater work, then I shall be found to have fulfilled on both sides the order of charity, and there is nothing to hinder my saying: He has set in order charity in me.

7. If you say that it is difficult to rejoice more in the good work done by another, though it be great, than in a smaller good brought about by oneself, you will notice the more from this the excellence of the grace bestowed upon the Bride, and how it is not given to every soul to say: He has set in order charity in me Wherefore have the countenances of some among you fallen at this discourse? For those deep sighs are a sign of sorrow of soul and depression of conscience. It is because, when we compare ourselves with ourselves, we feel by our own experience our imperfection, and how rare a virtue it is not to envy the good of another, but, on the contrary, to rejoice in it, and to be the more willing to praise another's goodness in preference to our own the more we feel ourselves surpassed in virtue. There is still some light in us, brethren, when we feel thus about ourselves. Let us walk while we have the light, lest darkness come upon us (John xil 35). To walk is to make progress. The Apostle was making progress when he said: / count not myself to have apprehended; and adds: This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and, reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark (Phil. iv. 13, 14). VVhat does he mean by this one thing? It is to say, There is one thing remaining to me which is at once a remedy, a hope, and a consolation. And what is that? It is the forgetting the past and pressing forward to fresh endeavours in the future. It is a great ground for confidence that even the great man who was c a chosen vessel ' did not regard himself as perfect, but earnestly desired to make a farther advance towards perfection. The danger, then, for us is that we should be surprised by the shadows of death when we are not in progress towards good, but are motionless and inert. And who is thus motionless except he who does not make any effort to advance? Take heed of this, and then, if you shall be surprised by death, you will be in a state of gradual amelioration (re/rigerio). You will say to God: Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; nevertheless, continues the Psalmist, all are written in Thy book (Ps. cxxxix. 16). Wherefore all t Doubtless those who are found in earnest desire for progress in good, for there follows: * The days shall be formed, and none of them/ that is to say, shall perish. We must understand by 4 the days ' those who are making spiritual progress, and these, if they are surprised by death, shall be perfected in those merits which are wanting in them. They shall be rendered wholly complete; not one of them shall be left unformed or imperfect.

8. And how, you ask again, can I make any spiritual progress, seeing that I envy that of my brother? If you lament that you envy him, though you feel the envy, you do not consent to it. It is, so to speak, an illness to be cured, not an action to be condemned. Only you must not allow yourself to settle down into an habitual envy, meditating evil designs upon your bed, nursing, as it were, and fostering your disease, satisfying your evil feelings, persecuting the innocent, speaking evil of his good actions, impeding, perverting, and corrupting them. But that jealousy, if it be not yielded to, does not injure a soul which is in motion and stretching forward to better things, because, then, it is not he that does the wrong, but sin that dwelleth in him (Rom. vii. 20). Condemnation, therefore, is not for him who is far from giving his members as instruments unto iniquity; neither his tongue to detraction, nor any other part of his body to the injury or wrong of his neighbour in any way whatsoever; who, on the contrary, is ashamed to be of an evil disposition, who makes vigorous efforts to expel the deep-seated vice by confessing and bewailing it in prayer; and if he does not succeed in doing so, is on that account more gentle towards others and more humble in himself. Who is the wise man who would condemn a soul like this, which has learned from the Lord to be meek and lowly in heart (Matt. xi. 29)? God forbid that there should be found to come short of salvation anyone who is a follower of the Saviour, the Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

OF TWO KINDS OF CHARITY — NAMELY, THAT OF FEELING AND THAT OF ACTION — AND HOW THEY ARE CO-ORDINATED.

A 70U are perhaps expecting, my brethren, that I should go on to treat of the words next following in the Canticle, as the

A words of the preceding verse were completed in the last Sermon. But I have another object; and there are still some fragments that remain, as it were, of our banquet yesterday, which I had collected that nothing might be lost, and which I mean to set before you now. They will perish if not given to any for food; while, if I keep them for my own use alone, I shall myself perish. I am most unwilling to deprive you of those spiritual dainties, your hunger for which I know so well, especially as they are out of the basket of