Sermons on the Song of Songs

You now understand, my brethren, the signification of the names. Let us consider next the difference between the cellars. For it is a truth of experience that we do not possess the same ease and capacity for living at peace with our companions, united in the bonds of spontaneous affection, and for repressing with the fear of the master, and restraining with the sharp curb of discipline, the petulance and inconstancy of the senses, and the inordinate desires of the flesh. It is one thing to live a well-ordered life under the government of a watchful superior, and quite another to exercise charity habitually in our dealings with our brethren, solely in obedience to the promptings of our own wills. And surely no one would say that it is a matter of equal merit and of equal virtue to live in peace and harmony with our equals, and to govern wisely and with advantage to the governed. How many there are who lead a quiet life under the eye of a superior, yet whom, if released from the yoke of subjection, you would find incapable of repose, incapable even of keeping themselves from doing harm to their brethren! How many also do you behold conversing with their equals sincerely and without offence, who, if raised to the rank of superior, would show themselves to be not only useless, but devoid of good sense, and even wanting in probity! Persons of this description have in their own place all that they require, and so should find contentment in that mediocrity of goodness which God has bestowed upon them as their measure of grace. They do not indeed any longer need the watchful supervision of a master, but neither are they qualified to act as the masters of others. Hence, they surpass in moral excellence those who belong to the first class or cellar, and are still subject to discipline, but they are themselves surpassed by those of the third class, by those, that is, who possess the qualities requisite in a superior. Such as these, who know how to govern well and wisely, have received the promise that they shall be set over all the goods of their Lord. It is indeed a fact that there are but few who can govern with advantage to their subjects, and fewer still who can govern with humility. Nevertheless, that superior shall easily fulfil these two conditions of good government, ruling with profit to his inferiors without spiritual loss to himself, that superior, I say, who, after perfectly acquiring the virtue which is mother of all the others, that is, the virtue of discretion, is furthermore inebriated with the wine of charity, to the extent of despising his own glory, and forgetting himself and his personal interests.

It is only in the wine-cellar this wine can be obtained, and only under the admirable direction of the Holy Ghost. Without the fervour of charity, discretion is unfruitful and sluggish; whilst, unless tempered with discretion, the impetuosity of fervour easily induces precipitation. Worthy of admiration, therefore, is he to whom neither of these virtues is wanting, so that discretion is enlivened by fervour, and fervour held in check by discretion. Such, my brethren, is the character which superiors ought to possess. In my opinion, he has completely attained to the perfection both of morals and of discipline, to whomsoever it has been granted to pass through and around all these cellars without hindrance. I mean, he who in no particular either resists his superiors, or envies his equals; who governs without pride and without neglect of his subjects; who is obedient to those over him, condescending and useful to those under him, and agreeable to his equals. The glory of such perfection I have not the slightest hesitation in attributing to the Spouse. Nay, she even implicitly claims it for herself, when she boasts that “The King hath brought me into His storerooms.” For here she does not assert that she has been introduced into this or that particular storeroom; but simply says, speaking in the plural, “into His storerooms,” which must be taken to mean all.

Let us come now to the bedchamber. What does it symbolise? And am I so presumptuous as to imagine I can comprehend its meaning? Far be it from me to make pretensions to so sublime an experience, or to boast of a prerogative which belongs exclusively to the happy Spouse. According to the counsel of the Greek philosopher, I take care to know myself, that, with the Prophet, “I may also know what is wanting to me.” And yet if I knew nothing about the bedchamber, I surely could say nothing. What knowledge I have, I will not begrudge nor withhold from you. And as to that whereof I am ignorant, may He instruct you “Who teacheth knowledge to man.” I have observed, if you recollect, that it is in the privacy of loving contemplation we must look for the King’s bedchamber. And in speaking of the ointments, I remember to have said that the Bridegroom possesses many and various unguents, and that all these are not equally accessible to all, but his own to each, according to the diversity of merits. In the same way, I think that the King has not one but several bedchambers. For certainly there are more than one queen, there are many wives (concubinœ) and an innumerable throng of young maidens. Each of these has her own place for private intercourse with the Bridegroom, and says, “my secret to myself, my secret to myself.” Not all are permitted to enjoy in the same chamber the delightful and secret presence of the Beloved, but each in that only which has been prepared for her by the Father. For it is not we that have chosen Him, but He hath first chosen us and appointed us our several places. And wheresoever each has been put by Him, there he ought to remain. Thus, to one contrite woman was given a place at the Feet of the Lord Jesus. Another, if indeed another and not the same, enjoyed the fruit of her devotion at His Head. St. Thomas obtained the grace of this secret in the Saviour’s Side, St. John on His Breast, St. Peter in the Father’s Bosom, St. Paul in the third heaven.

Which of us, my brethren, is competent to distinguish accurately these varieties of merits, or rather of rewards? Lest, however, we should seem to have passed over that which we do know, I say that the first woman sought her repose in the security of humility, the second in the seat of hope, St. Thomas in the solidity of faith, St. John in the breadth of charity, St. Paul in the profundity of wisdom, St. Peter in the light of truth. Thus, therefore, has the Bridegroom many mansions, and every soul, whether a queen, or a wife, or one of the young maidens, obtains there the place and the limit proportionate to her merits, until it be permitted her to ascend higher by contemplation, to enter into the joy of her Lord, and to search out all the delightful secrets of her Beloved. This I will endeavour to explain more clearly in its proper place, according as the Spirit shall condescend to inspire me. Meantime, let it suffice us to know that none of the young maidens, none of the wives, none even of the queens, can have any access to that secret bedchamber, which, alone of its kind, the Bridegroom has reserved to His “beautiful dove,” His “perfect one.” Hence, I have no reason to complain of not being admitted thither, especially since I know that the Spouse herself cannot, as yet, attain to every secret she would wish to discover. For she demands to be informed “where He feedeth, where He lieth in the mid-day.”