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| Chapter IX. Other passages from the Song of Songs are considered with relation to the present subject, and St. Ambrose exhorting the virgin to seek for Christ, points out where He may be found. A description of His perfections follows, and a comparison is made between virgins and the angels.
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Chapter IX.
Other passages from the Song of Songs are considered
with relation to the present subject, and St. Ambrose exhorting the
virgin to seek for Christ, points out where He may be found. A
description of His perfections follows, and a comparison is made
between virgins and the angels.
44. Take, then, O
Virgin, the wings of the Spirit, that you may fly far above all vices,
if you wish to attain to Christ: “He dwelleth on high, but
beholdeth lowly things;”3202
and His
appearance is as that of a cedar of Lebanon, which has its foliage in
the clouds, its roots in the earth. For its beginning is from
heaven, its ending on earth, and it produces fruit very close to
heaven. Search diligently for so precious a flower, if perchance
you may find it in the recesses of your breast, for it is most often to
be enjoyed in lowly places.
45. It loves to grow in gardens, in which
Susanna, while walking, found it, and was ready to die rather than it
should be violated. But what is meant by the gardens He Himself
points out, saying: “A garden enclosed is My sister, My
spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed;”3203
because in gardens of this kind the
water of the pure fountain shines, reflecting the features of the image
of God, lest its streams mingled with mud from the wallowing places of
spiritual wild beasts should be polluted. For this reason, too,
that modesty of virgins fenced in by the wall of the Spirit is enclosed
lest it should lie open to be plundered. And so as a garden
inaccessible from without smells of the violet, is scented with the
olive, and is resplendent with the rose, that religion may increase in
the vine, peace in the olive, and the modesty of consecrated virginity
in the rose. This is the odour of which the patriarch Jacob smelt
when he heard his father say: “See the smell of my son is
as the smell of a field which is full.”3204
For although the field of the holy
patriarch was full of almost all fruits, the other brought forth its
crops with greater labour, the latter flowers.
46. To work, then, O Virgin, and if you wish
your garden to be sweet after this sort, enclose it with the precepts
of the prophets: “Set a watch before thy mouth, and a door
to thy lips,”3205
that you, too,
may be able to say: “As the apple-tree among the trees of
the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. In His shadow I
delighted and sat down, and His fruit was sweet to my palate.3206
I found Him Whom my soul loved, I
held Him and would not let him go. My beloved came down into His
garden to eat the fruit of His trees.3207
Come, my Beloved, let us go forth
into the field.3208
Set me
as a signet upon Thine heart, and as a seal upon Thine arm.3209
My Beloved is white and
ruddy.”3210
For it is
fitting, O Virgin, that you should fully know Him Whom you love, and
should recognize in Him all the mystery of His Divine Nature and the
Body which He has assumed. He is white fittingly, for He is the
brightness of the Father; and ruddy, for He was born of a Virgin.
The colour of each nature shines and glows in Him. But remember
that the marks of His Godhead are more ancient in Him than the
mysteries of His body, for He did not take His origin from the Virgin,
but, He Who already existed came into the Virgin.
47. He Who was spoiled by the soldiers, Who
was wounded by the spear, that He might heal us by the blood of His
sacred wounds, will assuredly answer you (for He is meek and lowly of
heart, and gentle in aspect): “Arise, O north wind, and
come, O south, and blow upon My garden, that My spices may flow
out.”3211
For from
all parts of the world has the perfume of holy religion increased, and
the limbs of the consecrated Virgin have glowed. “Thou art
beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem.”3212
So it is not the beauty of the
perishable body, which will come to an end with sickness or old age,
but the reputation for good deserts, subject to no accidents and never
to perish, which is the beauty of virgins.
48. And since you are worthy to be compared
not now with men but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on
earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe:
“Set Me as a signet upon thine heart, and as a seal upon thine
arm;”3213
that clearer
proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ
the
Figure of God may
shine, Who, equalling fully the nature of the Father, has expressed the
whole which He took of the Father’s Godhead. Whence also
the Apostle Paul says that we are sealed in the Spirit;3214
since we have in the Son the image of
the Father, and in the Spirit the seal of the Son. Let us, then,
sealed by this Trinity, take more diligent heed, lest either levity of
character or the deceit of any unfaithfulness unseal the pledge which
we have received in our hearts.
49. But let fear secure this for the holy
virgins, for whom the Church first provided such protection, who,
anxious for the prosperity of her tender offspring, herself as a wall
with breasts as many towers,3215
increases her
care for them, until, the fear of hostile attack being at an end, she
obtains by the care of a mother’s love peace for her vigorous
children. Wherefore the prophet says: “Peace be on
thy virtue, and abundance in thy towers.”3216
50. Then the Lord of peace Himself, after
having embraced in His strong arms the vineyards committed to Him, and
beholding their shoots putting forth buds, with glad looks, tempers the
breezes to the young fruits, as Himself testifies, saying:
“My vineyard is in My sight, a thousand for Solomon, and two
hundred who keep the fruit thereof.”3217
51. Above it is said: “Sixty
strong men round about its offspring, armed with drawn swords, and
expert in warlike discipline,”3218
here
there are a thousand and two hundred. The number has increased,
where the fruit has increased, for the more holy each is, the more is
he guarded. So Elisha the prophet showed the hosts of angels who
were present to guard him; so Joshua the son of Nun recognized the
Captain of the heavenly host. They, then, who are able also to
fight for us are able to guard the fruit that is in us. And for
you, holy virgins, there is a special guardianship, for you who with
unspotted chastity keep the couch of the Lord holy. And no wonder
if the angels fight for you who war with the mode of life of
angels. Virginal chastity merits their guardianship whose life it
attains to.
52. Why should I continue the praise of
chastity in more words? For chastity has made even angels.
He who has preserved it is an angel; he who has lost it a devil.
And hence has religion also gained its name. She is a virgin who
is the bride of God, a harlot who makes gods for herself. What
shall I say of the resurrection of which you already hold the
rewards: “For in the resurrection they will neither be
given in marriage, nor marry, but shall be,” He says, “as
the angels in heaven.”3219
That
which is promised to us is already present with you, and the object of
your prayers is with you; ye are of this world, and yet not in this
world. This age has held you, but has not been able to retain
you.
53. But what a great thing it is that angels
because of incontinence fell from heaven into this world, that virgins
because of chastity passed from the world into heaven. Blessed
virgins, whom the delights of the flesh do not allure, nor the
defilement of pleasures cast down. Sparing food and abstinence in
drink train them in ignorance of vices, seeing they keep them from
knowing the causes of vices. That which causes sin has often
deceived even the just. In this way the people of God after they
sat down to eat and drink denied God.3220
In this way, too, Lot knew not, and
so endured his daughters’ wickedness.3221
So, too, the sons of Noah going
backward covered their father’s nakedness, which he who was
wanton saw, he who was modest blushed at and dutifully hid, fearful of
offending if he too saw it.3222
How
great is the power of wine, so that wine made him naked which the
waters of the deluge could not.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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