Chapter 116

3:1. In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

In my bed by night, etc.... The Gentiles as in the dark, and seeking in heathen delusion what they could not find, the true God, until Christ revealed his doctrine to them by his watchmen, (ver. 3,) that is, by the apostles, and teachers by whom they were converted to the true faith; and holding that faith firmly, the spouse (the Catholic Church) declares, ver. 4, That she will not let him go, till she bring him into her mother’s house, etc., that is, till at last, the Jews also shall find him.

3:2. I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

3:3. The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

3:4. When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

3:5. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please.

3:6. Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?

3:7. Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surrounded the bed of Solomon?

3:8. All holding swords, and most expert in war: every man’s sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.

3:9. King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus:

3:10. The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple: the midst he covered with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.

3:11. Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart.

Canticle of Canticles Chapter 4

Christ sets forth the graces of his spouse: and declares his love for her.

4:1. How beautiful art thou, my love, how beautiful art thou! thy eyes are doves’ eyes, besides what is hid within. Thy hair is as flocks of goats, which come up from mount Galaad.

How beautiful art thou.... Christ again praises the beauties of his church, which through the whole of this chapter are exemplified by a variety of metaphors, setting forth her purity, her simplicity, and her stability.

4:2. Thy teeth as flocks of sheep, that are shorn, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them.

4:3. Thy lips are as a scarlet lace: and thy speech sweet. Thy cheeks are as a piece of a pomegranate, besides that which lieth hid within.

4:4. Thy neck, is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men.

4:5. Thy two breasts like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

Thy two breasts, etc.... Mystically to be understood: the love of God and the love of our neighbour, which are so united as twins which feed among the lilies: that is, the love of God and our neighbour, feeds on the divine mysteries and the holy sacraments, left by Christ to his spouse to feed and nourish her children.

4:6. Till the day break, and the shadows retire, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

4:7. Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee.

4:8. Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus, come: thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.

4:9. Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes, and with one hair of thy neck.

4:10. How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse! thy breasts are more beautiful than wine, and the sweet smell of thy ointments above all aromatical spices.

4:11. Thy lips, my spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments, as the smell of frankincense.

4:12. My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.

My sister, etc., a garden enclosed.... Figuratively the church is enclosed, containing only the faithful. A fountain sealed up.... That none can drink of its waters, that is, the graces and spiritual benefits of the holy sacraments, but those who are within its walls.

4:13. Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of the orchard. Cypress with spikenard.

4:14. Spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of Libanus, myrrh and aloes with all the chief perfumes.

4:15. The fountain of gardens: the well of living waters, which run with a strong stream from Libanus.

4:16. Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow.

Canticle of Canticles Chapter 5

Christ calls his spouse: she languishes with love: and describes him by his graces.

5:1. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees. I am come into my garden, O my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh, with my aromatical spices: I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved.

Let my beloved come into his garden, etc.... Garden, mystically the church of Christ, abounding with fruit, that is, the good works of the elect.

5:2. I sleep, and my heart watcheth: the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights.

5:3. I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?

5:4. My beloved put his hand through the key hole, and my bowels were moved at his touch.

My beloved put his hand through the key hole, etc.... The spouse of Christ, his church, at times as it were penned up by its persecutors, and in fears, expecting the divine assistance, here signified by his hand: and ver. 6, but he had turned aside and was gone, that is, Christ permitting a further trial of suffering: and again, ver. 7, the keepers, etc., signifying the violent and cruel persecutors of the church taking her veil, despoiling the church of its places of worship and ornaments for the divine service.

5:5. I arose up to open to my beloved: my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh.

5:6. I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved: but he had turned aside, and was gone. My soul melted when he spoke: I sought him, and found him not: I called, and he did not answer me.

5:7. The keepers that go about the city found me: they struck me: and wounded me: the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

5:8. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish with love.

5:9. What manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved, O thou most beautiful among women? what manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved, that thou hast so adjured us?

5:10. My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands.

My beloved, etc.... In this and the following verses, the church mystically describes Christ to those who know him not, that is, to infidels in order to convert them to the true faith.

5:11. His head is as the finest gold: his locks as branches of palm trees, black as a raven.

5:12. His eyes as doves upon brooks of waters, which are washed with milk, and sit beside the plentiful streams.

5:13. His cheeks are as beds of aromatical spices set by the perfumers. His lips are as lilies dropping choice myrrh.

5:14. His hands are turned and as of gold, full of hyacinths. His belly as of ivory, set with sapphires.

5:15. His legs as pillars of marble, that are set upon bases of gold. His form as of Libanus, excellent as the cedars.

5:16. His throat most sweet, and he is all lovely: such is my beloved, and he is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.

5:17. Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou most beautiful among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside, and we will seek him with thee?

Canticle of Canticles Chapter 6

The spouse of Christ is but one: she is fair and terrible.

6:1. My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

My beloved is gone down into his garden.... Christ, pleased with the good works of his holy and devout servants labouring in his garden, is always present with them: but the words is gone down, are to be understood, that after trying his Church by permitting persecution, he comes to her assistance and she rejoices at his coming.

6:2. I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies.

6:3. Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem terrible as an army set in array.

6:4. Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Galaad.

6:5. Thy teeth as a flock of sheep, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them.

6:6. Thy cheeks are as the bark of a pomegranate, beside what is hidden within thee.

6:7. There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number.

6:8. One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed: the queens and concubines, and they praised her.

One is my dove, etc.... That is, my church is one, and she only is perfect and blessed.

6:9. Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?

Who is she, etc.... Here is a beautiful metaphor describing the church from the beginning. As, the morning rising, signifying the church before the written law; fair as the moon, shewing her under the light of the gospel: and terrible as an army, the power of Christ’s church against its enemies.

6:10. I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valleys, and to look if the vineyard had flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

6:11. I knew not: my soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab.

6:12. Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee.

Canticle of Canticles Chapter 7

A further description of the graces of the church the spouse of Christ.

7:1. What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but the companies of camps? How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince’s daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, that are made by the hand of a skilful workman.

How beautiful are thy steps, etc.... By these metaphors are signified the power and mission of the church in propagating the true faith.

7:2. Thy navel is like a round bowl never wanting cups. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.

7:3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

7:4. Thy neck as a tower of ivory. Thy eyes like the fishpools in Hesebon, which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, that looketh toward Damascus.

7:5. Thy head is like Carmel: and the hairs of thy head as the purple of the king bound in the channels.

Thy head is like Carmel.... Christ, the invisible head of his church, is here signified.

7:6. How beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest, in delights!

7:7. Thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

7:8. I said: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof: and thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine: and the odour of thy mouth like apples.

7:9. Thy throat like the best wine, worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate.

7:10. I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me.

7:11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.

7:12. Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish: there will I give thee my breasts.

7:13. The mandrakes give a smell. In our gates are all fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee.

Canticle of Canticles Chapter 8

The love of the church to Christ: his love to her.

8:1. Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?

8:2. I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates.

8:3. His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

His left hand, etc.... Words of the church to Christ. His left hand, signifying the Old Testament, and his right hand, the New.

8:4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till she please.

8:5. Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.

Who is this, etc.... The angels with admiration behold the Gentiles converted to the faith: coming up from the desert, that is, coming from heathenism and false worship: flowing with delights, that is, abounding with good works which are pleasing to God: leaning on her beloved, on the promise of Christ to his Church, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it; and supported by his grace conferred by the sacraments. Under the apple tree I raised thee up; that is, that Christ redeemed the Gentiles at the foot of the cross, where the synagogue of the Jews (the mother church) was corrupted by their denying him, and crucifying him.

8:6. Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.

8:7. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

8:8. Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?

Our sister is little, etc.... Mystically signifies the Jews, who are to be spoken to: that is, converted towards the end of the world: and then shall become a wall, that is, a part of the building, the church of Christ.

8:9. If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.

8:10. I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace.

8:11. The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.

8:12. My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.

8:13. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.

8:14. Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.

THE BOOK OF WISDOM

This Book is so called, because it treats of the excellence of WISDOM, the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces. It is written in the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it is uncertain who was the writer. It abounds with instructions and exhortations to kings and all magistrates to minister justice in the commonwealth, teaching all kinds of virtues under the general names of justice and wisdom. It contains also many prophecies of Christ’s coming, passion, resurrection, and other Christian mysteries. The whole may be divided into three parts. In the first six chapters, the author admonishes all superiors to love and exercise justice and wisdom. In the next three, he teacheth that wisdom proceedeth only from God, and is procured by prayer and a good life. In the other ten chapters, he sheweth the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice.

Wisdom Chapter 1

An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, and desireth not our death.

1:1. Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart:

1:2. For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him.

1:3. For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise:

1:4. For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.

1:5. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.

1:6. For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit the evil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins, and he is a true searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

1:7. For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and that which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice.

1:8. Therefore he that speaketh unjust things, cannot be hid, neither shall the chastising judgment pass him by.

1:9. For inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly, and the hearing of his words shall come to God, to the chastising of his iniquities.

1:10. For the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the tumult of murmuring shall not be hid.

1:11. Keep yourselves, therefore, from murmuring, which profiteth nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction, for an obscure speech shall not go for nought: and the mouth that belieth, killeth the soul.

1:12. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye destruction by the works of your hands.

1:13. For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.

1:14. For he created all things that they might be: and he made the nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.

1:15. For justice is perpetual and immortal.

1:16. But the wicked with works and words have called it to them: and esteeming it a friend, have fallen away and have made a covenant with it: because they are worthy to be of the part thereof.

Wisdom Chapter 2

The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just, especially the Son of God.

2:1. For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell:

2:2. For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke: and speech a spark to move our heart,

2:3. Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof:

2:4. And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works.

2:5. For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth:

2:6. Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.

2:7. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments: and let not the flower of the time pass by us.

2:8. Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered: let no meadow escape our riot.

2:9. Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us every where leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this our lot.

2:10. Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor honour the ancient grey hairs of the aged.

2:11. But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

2:12. Let us, therefore, lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life.

2:13. He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God.

2:14. He is become a censurer of our thoughts.

2:15. He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, and his ways are very different.

2:16. We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his father.

2:17. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be.

2:18. For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies.

2:19. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness, and try his patience.

2:20. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words.

2:21. These things they thought, and were deceived: for their own malice blinded them.

2:22. And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice, nor esteemed the honour of holy souls.

2:23. For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him.

2:24. But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:

2:25. And they follow him that are of his side.

Wisdom Chapter 3

The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked.

3:1. But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.

3:2. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery:

3:3. And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace.

3:4. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.

3:5. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself.

3:6. As gold in the furnace, he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust, he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them.

3:7. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds.

3:8. They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

3:9. They that trust in him shall understand the truth: and they that are faithful in love, shall rest in him: for grace and peace are to his elect.

3:10. But the wicked shall be punished according to their own devices: who have neglected the just, and have revolted from the Lord.

3:11. For he that rejecteth wisdom, and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and their labours without fruit, and their works unprofitable.

3:12. Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked.

3:13. Their offspring is cursed, for happy is the barren: and the undefiled, that hath not known bed in sin, she shall have fruit in the visitation of holy souls.

3:14. And the eunuch, that hath not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wicked things against God for the precious gift of faith shall be given to him, and a most acceptable lot in the temple of God.

3:15. For the fruit of good labours is glorious, and the root of wisdom never faileth.

3:16. But the children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and the seed of the unlawful bed shall be rooted out.

3:17. And if they live long, they shall be nothing regarded, and their last old age shall be without honour.

3:18. And if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor speech of comfort in the day of trial.

3:19. For dreadful are the ends of a wicked race.

Wisdom Chapter 4