Sermons on the Song of Songs

Examine, my brethren, every verse of this epithalamium, from the very first to that now under discussion, and see if you can discover amongst all the visitations and colloquies which have been recorded, anyone wherein the Bridegroom has given Himself to His Bride so unreservedly as here; anyone wherein she has been allowed to hear from His lips, not alone so many but also such sweet words. She who has thus satisfied her desire with good things, as the Psalmist says, ought we to be surprised that she expresses her feelings rather by eructation than by speech? And if she seems to you to utter words, believe them to be the belchings of satiety, unadorned and unpremeditated. For the Spouse “thinks it not robbery” to appropriate to herself the language of the Royal Prophet, where he says, “My heart hath eructated a good word,” because she is filled with the same Spirit Who inspired him. “My Beloved to me, and I to Him.” There is no apparent connection between these words: the sentence is incomplete. But what matter? It is not the expression of thought, but the eructation of love. And why would you seek in such a spontaneous outburst for the grammatical arrangement and sequence of words, or for the rules and ornaments of rhetoric? Do you yourselves lay down laws and regulations for your own eructations? No, for they defy your authority, and reject your control, and consult neither your convenience nor your pleasure. Of themselves they break forth from your interior, anticipating both your will and your knowledge, and are rather forced from you than freely emitted. Nevertheless, eructations possess an odour, pleasant or offensive, according to the various qualities of the vessels whence they proceed. For “a good man out of a good treasure bringeth forth good things,” and an evil man out of an evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. A good vessel is the Spouse of my Lord, and good also is the odour she exhales.

I give thanks to Thee, Lord Jesus, for that Thou hast, in Thy condescension, permitted me to enjoy even so much as the sweetness of her fragrance; because “the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.” To me, I confess, the eructation of Thy beloved Spouse yields a pleasant odour; and glad am I to be admitted to any participation, however small, of her plenitude. She “eructates” for me “the memory of the abundance of Thy sweetness”; and in a certain mysterious manner, I seem to scent, as it were, something ineffable of Thy gracious kindness and love in the words, “My Beloved to me and I to Him.” Let her, as she deserves, “feast and rejoice in Thy sight and be delighted with gladness.” But let her, like the Apostle, be so “transported in mind” that she may be “sober” for us. Let her, I say, “be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house,” and “make her drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure.” But when she has been filled and satisfied, let her not forget, I implore of Thee, to favour my poor soul with at least a slight scent of her eructation. Moses too has eructated to my advantage, and I can perceive a pleasant odour of the Creator’s almighty power in his eructation, namely, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” The Prophet Isaias again has benefited me by his belching, and exhales the most sweet odour of redeeming mercy, where he thus breaks out, “He hath delivered His Soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked; and He hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors,” that they might not perish. Where else can you find so rich a perfume of mercy? Equally excellent is the odour given out by the eructation of Jeremias, and of him who says, “My heart hath eructated a good word.” For every one of these was full of the Holy Ghost, and, belching from satiety, “filled all things with good.” But you desire to hear the eructation of Jeremias? I have not forgotten it. I was about to invite your attention to it. Here it is: It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God.” These are his words, if I mistake not. Take them and inhale their perfume. Does not the delicious fragrance of remunerating justice which they diffuse surpass the sweetness of balsam? He tells me to be patient for justice sake and to await my reward in the future, not to accept it in the present life; because the reward of justice is not the prosperity of this world but the “salvation of the Lord.” “If it make any delay,” says another Prophet, “wait for it.” And lest I should begin to murmur, I am reminded that “it is good to wait with silence” Therefore, I will follow the Prophet’s advice. With Micheas, “I will wait for God my Saviour.”

But I am only a sinner and have yet a long way to go, because “salvation is far from sinners.” However, I will not complain. I will try meantime to find my consolation in its odour. “The just shall rejoice in the Lord,” enjoying the taste of that good which I am only suffered to smell. That which the just already contemplates, the same is the object of the sinner’s hope, and it is by hope that he inhales the odour thereof. “For the expectation of the creature waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God.” On the other hand, to contemplate is to “taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” But perhaps it would be more true to say that hope belongs to the just man and fruition to the blessed, since it is written that “the expectation of the just is joy.” As for the sinner, he has no expectation. Indeed he is a sinner for no other reason than because he is not only taken up with, but is also content with, the goods of time, and hopes for nothing hereafter, turning a deaf ear to the voice which calls out to him, “Expect Me, saith the Lord, in the day of My resurrection that is to come.” Hence a just man was Simeon, because he had expectation, and already, in the Spirit, caught the fragrance of Christ, before it became his privilege to adore Him in the flesh. And not only just, but blessed also, since by the odour of expectation he was brought to the taste of contemplation. He has told us this himself where he says, “And my eyes have seen Thy Salvation.” Abraham too was a just man, for he also hoped that he might see the day of the Lord; and he was not “confounded in his expectation,” because he “saw it and was glad.” And the apostles were just, since to them it was said, “And you yourselves (be) like to men who wait for their Lord.”