Chapter IX.
Other passages from the Song of Songs are considered
with relation to the present subject, and St. Ambrose exhorting the
virgin to seek for Christ, points out where He may be found. A
description of His perfections follows, and a comparison is made
between virgins and the angels.
44. , then, O
Virgin, the wings of the Spirit, that you may fly far above all vices, if you wish to attain to Christ: “He dwelleth on high, but beholdeth lowly things;” and His appearance is as that of a cedar of Lebanon, which has its foliage in the clouds, its roots in the earth. For its beginning is from heaven, its ending on earth, and it produces fruit very close to heaven. Search diligently for so precious a flower, if perchance you may find it in the recesses of your breast, for it is most often to be enjoyed in lowly places.
45. It loves to grow in gardens, in which
Susanna, while walking, found it, and was ready to die rather than it
should be violated. But what is meant by the gardens He Himself
points out, saying: “A garden enclosed is My sister, My
spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed;” because in gardens of this kind the water of the pure fountain shines, reflecting the features of the image of God, lest its streams mingled with mud from the wallowing places of spiritual wild beasts should be polluted. For this reason, too, that modesty of virgins fenced in by the wall of the Spirit is enclosed lest it should lie open to be plundered. And so as a garden inaccessible from without smells of the violet, is scented with the olive, and is resplendent with the rose, that religion may increase in the vine, peace in the olive, and the modesty of consecrated virginity in the rose. This is the odour of which the patriarch Jacob smelt when he heard his father say: “See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which is full.” For although the field of the holy patriarch was full of almost all fruits, the other brought forth its crops with greater labour, the latter flowers.
46. To work, then, O Virgin, and if you wish
your garden to be sweet after this sort, enclose it with the precepts
of the prophets: “Set a watch before thy mouth, and a door
to thy lips,” that you, too, may be able to say: “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. In His shadow I delighted and sat down, and His fruit was sweet to my palate. I found Him Whom my soul loved, I held Him and would not let him go. My beloved came down into His garden to eat the fruit of His trees. Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the field. Set me as a signet upon Thine heart, and as a seal upon Thine arm. My Beloved is white and ruddy.” For it is fitting, O Virgin, that you should fully know Him Whom you love, and should recognize in Him all the mystery of His Divine Nature and the Body which He has assumed. He is white fittingly, for He is the brightness of the Father; and ruddy, for He was born of a Virgin. The colour of each nature shines and glows in Him. But remember that the marks of His Godhead are more ancient in Him than the mysteries of His body, for He did not take His origin from the Virgin, but, He Who already existed came into the Virgin.
47. He Who was spoiled by the soldiers, Who
was wounded by the spear, that He might heal us by the blood of His
sacred wounds, will assuredly answer you (for He is meek and lowly of
heart, and gentle in aspect): “Arise, O north wind, and
come, O south, and blow upon My garden, that My spices may flow
out.” For from
all parts of the world has the perfume of holy religion increased, and
the limbs of the consecrated Virgin have glowed. “Thou art
beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem.” So it is not the beauty of the perishable body, which will come to an end with sickness or old age, but the reputation for good deserts, subject to no accidents and never to perish, which is the beauty of virgins.
48. And since you are worthy to be compared
not now with men but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on
earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe: “Set Me as a signet upon thine heart, and as a seal upon thine arm;” that clearer proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ the