Sermons on the Song of Songs

k HIS depends upon the preceding verse. The Bride now com-

! pares to a roe or a young hart Him whom she had just described as advancing with rapid leaps. The comparison is an apt one, since those animals are swift of foot and agile in leaping. She speaks, then, of the Bridegroom, and the Bridegroom is the Word. And the Psalmist says of God that His Word runneth very swiftly (Ps. cxlvii. 15), which exactly agrees with this passage, in which the Bridegroom, who is the Word of God, is described as

leaping and traversing swiftly the mountains in the manner of a roe or young hart. This is the ground of the comparison made. To this add, that not even the smallest ground of similarity may be wanting, that the roebuck is remarkable not only for its headlong swiftness, but also for the keenness of its sight. Which last quality has special reference to this part of the narrative, since the Bridegroom is described as not only leaping on some mountains, but as overleaping others, and unless His sight were keen and piercing He would not be able to distinguish, especially during the rapid speed of His course, those on which He should alight from those which He should pass over. Otherwise, to mark simply His speed, it would have sufficed to compare Him to a young hart, for that animal is noted for its swiftness. But because the Bridegroom, though the ardour of His affection is carrying Him with exceeding swiftness to the meeting with His beloved, yet does not omit to direct His steps, or rather His bounds, with prudence and circumspection, and to take heed where He ought to set His foot, therefore it was expedient to compare Him to a roe as well as to a young hart, as if to express as well by the one His strong desire to save, as by the other His discerning and careful choice. For Christ is just as well as merciful; He is Judge as well as Saviour. Because He loves men He desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (i Tim. ii. 4), and because He has the office of judgment He knoweth them that are His (2 Tim. il 19) and whom He hath chosen [from the beginning] (John xiii. 18).

2. Let us, then, in the meantime recognise that these two transcendent attributes of the Bridegroom — namely, mercy and judgment — are commended to us by the Holy Spirit under the types of these two animals, so that for a testimony of the uprightness and perfectness of our faith we may imitate the Psalmist, and sing with him unto the Lord of mercy and judgment (Ps. ci. 1). But I do not doubt that those who are instructed and inquiring in such subjects will be able to point out other points of likeness of a similar kind which may fitly and usefully be applied to the Bridegroom; but these may, I think, suffice here as giving a reason for the comparison. Yet there is one more point of beautiful significance in this similitude here instituted by the Holy Spirit between the Bridegroom and (not a stag, but) a. young hart. For in that is recalled at once the memory of the Fathers (of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came) and the Infancy of the Saviour. For the Child who unto us is born (Is. ix. 6) came into the world weak and poor, and, as it were, as a young fawn. But thou who desirest the coming of the Saviour, do thou hold in salutary fear the scrutiny of the Judge; fear His piercing glance; fear Him who by the mouth of the prophet declares: // shall come lo pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles1 (Zeph. i. 1 2). Piercing is His sight; His eye shall leave nothing unexamined. He shall try the hearts and reins (Ps. vii. 9), and the 1 In lucernisy Vulgate.

very thoughts of men are open and confessed to Him (Heb. iv. 13). If Jerusalem shall undergo a scrutiny so searching, who shall be safe in Babylon? For I think that in this passage the Prophet refers, under the name of Jerusalem, to those who in this world lead a religious life; who imitate, as far as they are able, by their regulated and honourable conduct, the condition and mode of existence in that heavenly Jerusalem, and who are not as those who belong to Babylon, and whose life is full of disorders and crimes. For their sins are manifest, going before to judgment (1 Tim. v. 24); and require, not examination, but punishment. But as for me, who appear to be a monk and a citizen of Jerusalem, my sins are covered and, as it were, cloaked under the monastic habit and name; and on that account there will be need of strict and exact inquiry (of the bringing of lanterns, so to speak), and throwing light upon what is now in the darkness.

3. I may bring forward something more from one of the Psalms to confirm what is said about the judging of Jerusalem. For the Psalmist, speaking in the Name of God, says: When I shall take a time, J will judge righteousnesses (Ps. lxxv. 2). By this He means, if I do not mistake, to say that He will discuss and examine the ways and the actions of the righteous. We have great reason to fear that when subjected to a scrutiny so vigorous, many of our actions which we believe to be praiseworthy will be shown to be veritably sins. But there is one resource: that if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged (1 Cor. xi. 31). Good for me is that judgment, which withdraws me and hides me from the Divine judgment, which is so terribly severe. I fear and tremble to think of falling into the hands of the living God; I would be brought before the countenance of His anger already judged, and not for judgment. He who is spiritual judge th all things, yet he himself is judged of no man (1 Cor. ii. 15). I will judge, then, the evil which is in me, and I will judge also the good. 1 will take care to correct the evil by better actions, to wash it away by tears, to punish it by fasts and other actions of holy discipline. I will think humbly of any good qualities I have, and, according to the precept of the Lord, will count myself an unprofitable servant, who has done only that which it was his duty to do (Luke xvii. 10). I will make it my endeavour not to offer Him tares for grain, nor yet chaff mingled with the grain. I will examine closely my ways and my purposes, so that He who will search Jerusalem with lanterns may find nothing in me unexamined or unsifted. For He will not judge the same thing twice over.

4. Who will give me grace to find out and search clearly all my defaults to their very lowest grounds, so that I may have no need to fear those keen eyes (caprece), nor to blush when the light of those lanterns is thrown upon me? Now I am seen, but I do not see. The eye of Him to whom all things are open and manifest is present, though He Himself is not visible. There will be a time when I shall know, even as also I am known; but now I know only in part, though it is not in part, but wholly and entirely that I am known. I fear the sight of that Divine Observer who stands, as it were, behind a wall. For this is what the Scripture adds respecting Him whom, for the keenness of His sight, it has compared to a hart: Behold, He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, skewing Himself through the lattice (ii. 9). But we will explain that in its place. Him I fear, the hidden Observer of hidden things. But the Bride fears nothing, because she is conscious of no wrong. What has she, in fact, to fear, who is His beloved one, His dove, His undefiled? (vi. 9). Also you read farther on: My Beloved spake unto me. He speaks, and that is why I fear to behold him, because I have not His testimony that I am His. But thou, O Bride, what is it that thou hearest Him say of thee? What to thee dost thy Beloved say? Rise up, He says. My love, My fair one, and come away. But this we must defer to the beginning of another sermon, so as not to limit too much that which requires to be treated at length, lest perhaps I be found faulty in this matter, if you do not find that you are edified and built up in the knowledge and love of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God that sins and vices are as walls interposing between god

* Behold, He stattdeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windavs, shewing Himself through the lattice* — Cant. ii. 9.

CCORDING to the letter the Bride seems to say that He whom she descried from afar, approaching with leaps and bounds, has now drawn near to her dwelling, and stands behind the wall gazing earnestly through the windows and other openings, and modestly not presuming to enter. But, according to the Spirit, it is to be understood that He has indeed drawn near, but after another manner worthy to be adopted by that Heavenly Bridegroom, and to be described by the Holy Spirit. For the true and spiritual understanding will admit nothing which is not becoming to Him who is described as acting, or to Him who records what is done. The Bridegroom, then, has drawn near to the wall, because He has united Himself to human flesh. The wall is human nature, and the drawing near of the Bridegroom is the Incarnation of the Word. The windows and the lattices by which He is said to look out are as, I think, the senses of the flesh, and the human affections and feelings by which Christ gained an experimental knowledge of human necessities. For He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Is. liii. 4).

He has, then, made use of the human feelings and bodily senses as windows and openings, so to speak, by which, being a man, He might know by personal experience the miseries of men, and so become compassionate. He no doubt knew them also before, but after another manner. Being the Lord of virtues, He well knew the virtue of obedience; and yet, according to the statement of the Apostle, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Heb. v. 8). In this manner also He learned mercy, though the mercy of God is from all eternity. The Doctor of the Gentiles also teaches the same thing, when he asserts that the Saviour was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, that He might be merciful (Heb. iv. 15). Do you see, then, how that was done which was already the fact, and how He learned that which He already knew; how He sought out for Himself, as it were, windows and openings in our nature by which He might become more intimately acquainted with our troubles and miseries? He has found as many gaps in the walls of our nature, ruinous and full of fissures as they are, as He has had experiences in His own person [during His sojourn upon earth] of our infirmity and our corruption.

2. This, then, is how the Bridegroom, standing behind the wall, looks through the lattices and windows. Well is He represented as standing, since He alone who, being in the flesh, yielded in nothing to the sins of the flesh, can be said truly to have stood. We may also understand with confidence that, though He took upon Him the weakness of flesh, He stood firm in the power of His Divinity; and we know that He Himself once said [of others]: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. xxvi. 41). I think, also, that this interpretation is supported by what holy David, who was a prophet of the Lord, said of this mystery, speaking prophetically and of the Lord, though the subject he mentioned was Moses. For He is the true Moses, who came indeed by water; and not by water only, but by water and blood. For this is what that Psalmist says: He said that He would destroy them (he refers to God the Father): had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, to turn aivay His wrath, lest He should destroy them (Ps. cvi. 23). But in what manner, let me ask, did Moses stand in the breach? and, similarly, how could he stand, if he were broken down? or, in the other alternative, how could he be broken down if he stood P1 But I will show you, if you will, who it was that truly stood in the breach. I know of no one who was able to do this except Jesus our Lord, who assuredly lived in death, who, though in Body broken (fractus) and shattered; who in His Divinity stood erect with the Father, in the one supplicating, as being one with us; in the other, propitiating, as being one with the Father. He stood, then, behind the wall, since that in Him which was in [the likeness of] fallible flesh (jacebat) was manifested in the flesh, and that in Him which stood [and was not fallible], was hidden, as it