Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

⁷ It seems obscure, obscure it is; for it is a mystery of the sacred marriage bed. For she says, “The King has brought me into His chamber.” Of such a chamber is this a mystery. But you who are not as profane kept off from this chamber, hear what you are, and say with her, if with her you love (and you do love with her, if you are in her); say all, and yet let one say, for unity says; “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loves. For they had one soul to Godward, and one heart. Tell me where You feed, where Thou liest down in the midday?”

What does the midday signify? “Great heat, and great brightness.” So then, “make known to me who are Your wise ones,” fervent in spirit, and brilliant in doctrine. “Make known to me Your Right Hand, and men learned in heart, in wisdom.” To them may I cleave in Your Body, to them be united, with them enjoy You. Tell me then, “tell me, where You feed, where Thou liest down in the midday;” lest I fall upon them who say other things of You, entertain other sentiments of You; believe other things of You, preach other things of You; and have their own flocks, and are Your companions; for that they live of Your table, and handle the sacraments of Your table.

For companions are so called, because they eat together, messmates as it were. Such are reproved in the Psalm; “For if Mine enemy had spoken great things against Me, I would surely have hidden Myself from him; and if he that hated Me had spoken great things against Me, I would surely have hidden Myself from him; but you a man of one mind with Me, My guide, and My familiar, who took sweet meats together with Me, in the house of God we walked with consent.” Why then now against the house of the Lord with dissent, but that “they have gone out from us, but they were not of us?” Therefore, “O Thou whom my soul loves,” that I may not fall upon such, Your companions, but companions such as Samson's were, who kept not faith with their friend, but wished to corrupt his wife. Therefore, that I may not fall upon such as these, “that I may not light upon them,” that is, fall upon them, “as one that is veiled,” as one that is concealed, that is, and obscure, not as established upon the mountain.

“Tell me” then, “O you whom my soul loves, where You feed, where Thou liest down in the midday;” who are the wise and faithful in whom Thou dost specially rest, lest by chance as in blindness I fall upon the flocks, not Your flocks, but the flocks of Your companions. For you did not say to Peter, “Feed your sheep,” but, “Feed My sheep.”