Sermons on the Song of Songs

“To My company of horsemen, in Pharao’s chariots, have I likened thee, O My love.”

“To My company of horsemen, in Pharao’s chariots, have I likened thee, O My love.” From these words, my brethren, I gladly infer, in the first place, that the patriarchs of old were a type of the Church, and had foreshadowed to them the sacraments of our redemption. Thus, in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, that astounding miracle, whereby the sea rendered the people of the Lord the double service of affording them a passage and wreaking vengeance on their enemies, evidently prefigured the grace of baptism, by which our souls are saved and our sins submerged. “All,” says the Apostle, “were under the cloud, and all were baptised in the cloud and in the sea.” But in the first place it is necessary, according to my custom, to show the sequence of the words, and the connection between the foregoing and the following. Then I shall proceed, if I can, to draw from them some consoling truths which may be useful for our moral instruction. The Bridegroom, therefore, after checking the presumption of His Spouse with a harsh and cutting reproof, lest she should abandon herself to excessive sadness, now recalls to her mind some of the favours she has already received, and promises others not yet enjoyed. He even calls her “beautiful” and His “love.” As if He should say, “Do not think, O My love, that it is from any feeling of dislike or ill-will I have spoken to thee with such severity. For in the gifts with which I have honoured and adorned thee, thou hast received evident proofs of My regard. Nor have I now any intention to take them back, but rather to add other and more precious favours.” Or we may fancy Him speaking thus, “Do not take it ill, My cherished Spouse, that thou hast not obtained thy present request, because thou hast already received many favours of Me and shalt receive still greater, provided thou continuest faithful in My love.” So much for the verbal sequence.

Now, let us see, my brethren, what are those gifts referred to by the Bridegroom, as having been bestowed by Him upon His Spouse. The first is that He has likened her to His company of horsemen in the chariots of Pharao. This He did by delivering her from the yoke of sin, and destroying in her all “the works of the flesh,” just as the chosen people were set free from the servitude of Egypt, all Pharao’s chariots being overthrown and submerged. That in truth was the greatest of mercies. And if, like the Apostle, “I should have a mind to glory” in it, “I shall not be foolish; for I will say the truth”—that “unless the Lord had been my Helper, my soul had almost dwelt in hell.” I am not ungrateful; I am not unmindful. “The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever.” So much have I in common with the Spouse. As for the rest, she, by an incommunicable privilege, has been raised, after her deliverance, to the rank and dignity of His only beloved, and, as the Spouse of the Lord, has been adorned with beauty, but for the present only in her cheeks and neck. Moreover, she has been promised necklaces for ornaments, and they are to be of gold to make the gift more precious, and inlaid with silver to enhance their beauty. Who can help admiring the wonderful order in which these favours are bestowed? First, she is mercifully liberated; secondly, she is condescendingly loved; thirdly, she is kindly cleansed and purified; lastly she receives a promise of the most magnificent ornaments.

I have no doubt, my brethren, that some amongst you can already recognise in their own spiritual histories the realities which I am endeavouring to express in words, and, instructed by their own inner experience, anticipate in their thoughts the slowness of my remarks. Nevertheless, remembering what the Psalmist says, “The declaration of Thy words giveth light, and giveth understanding to little ones,” I think it worth while, for the sake of these “little ones,” to explain what I have been saying somewhat more fully. “For the Spirit of wisdom is benevolent,” and is pleased with the benevolent and diligent instructor, who strives his best to satisfy the educated and intelligent, without neglecting to bend to the capacity of others less gifted. Again, as you know, Wisdom Itself, says “They that explain Me shall have life everlasting,” and I am unwilling to lose that reward. And besides, even in matters that seem to be plain enough, mysteries may sometimes lie concealed, a more careful discussion of which will not be without profit even to such as are endowed with superior intelligence and quickness of apprehension.

Let us now examine the similitudes of Pharao and his host and of the Lord’s “company of horsemen.” The comparison is not between the two armies, but only taken from them. For “what fellowship hath light with darkness? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” But there is an evident analogy or ground for comparison between a holy and spiritual soul and the “horsemen” of the Lord, and between Pharao and Lucifer, and between the host of Egypt and the host of hell. Nor will you wonder, my brethren, that one soul is likened to a multitude of horsemen, if you bear in mind how many battalions of the virtues may be marshalled in a single soul, provided she has real sanctity, what orderly disposition she exhibits in her affections, what perfect discipline in her morals, what effective engines of war in her prayers, what energy in her actions, what power to inspire terror in her zeal, what constancy in her combats with the enemy, and, finally, what frequency in the succession of her triumphs. So, in a following verse, the Spouse, or the holy soul, is represented to be “terrible as an army set in array.” And again we read, “What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but the companies of camps?” But if this explanation fails to satisfy you, remember that the holy soul is never without a bodyguard—so to speak—of angels, who are jealous of her “with the jealousy of God,” desirous to preserve her for the Bridegroom and to “present her as a chaste virgin to Christ.” And let no one say in his heart, “Where are these protecting angels? Who has ever seen them?” For the Prophet Eliseus saw them, and by prayer obtained for his servant Giezi that he, also, should see them. If, then, you do not see them, it is because you are neither prophets nor the servants of a prophet. They were also seen by the Patriarch Jacob, when he exclaimed, “These are the camps of God.” And by the Doctor of nations, who said, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?”