SOLOMON'S CANTICLE OF CANTICLES.

This book is called by this title as the most excellent of all canticles. It is a song or hymn written by Solomon, in which, under the symbols of earthly love, is expressed the mutual love of Christ and His spouse Church.* As the prophets continually represent the love of God for His people under the image of earthly love, so the Fathers abound in quotations from this book to picture out the love, 'strong as death,' that God has for His elect, and that holy souls have for Him. It is especially applied to the Blessed Virgin, and some of the mystic titles given to her are taken from this book.

SECT. CXXX. THE LOVE OF CHRIST AND HIS SPOUSE.

I AM the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. As Canticles the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As IL 1-17. the apple-tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired : and his fruit was sweet to my palate. He brought me into the cellar of wine, he directed his love to me. Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that ye stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please. The voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart. Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices. Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come the voice of the turtle is heard in our land: the fig-tree hath put forth her green figs: the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come: my dove, in the clifts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely. Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines: for our vineyard hath flourished. My beloved to me, and I to him who feedeth among the lilies, till the day

*So S. Paul speaks of Christ's love for the Church, Ephes. v.: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it:... that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. And S. John in the Apocalypse: And I John saw the holy city the new Jerusa lem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Chap. xxi.

III. 1-6.

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break and the shadows retire. Return: be like, my beloved, to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. Canticles In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him and found him not. I will rise, and will go about the city in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, and I found him not. The watchmen who keep the city found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth? When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please. Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?

Proverbs 1.

THE PROVERBS.

This book bears the name of Solomon, to whom it is ascribed by the general tradition of both Jews and Christians. It is thought to have been composed by him before he fell away from God by sin, although some have reckoned it among the fruits of his repentance. Proverbs here denote wise maxims or mysterious sayings, directed especially to guide man in the path of duty, and guard him against the seductions of vice (KENRICK). The Proverbs are quoted or referred to in the New Testament, principally in the Epistles.

SECT. CXXXI. THE USE AND END OF THE PROVERBS. AN EXHORTATION
TO FLEE THE COMPANY OF THE WICKED, AND TO HEARKEN TO THE
VOICE OF WISDOM.

THE parables* of Solomon, the son of David, king of 1-33. Israel,

To know wisdom and instruction :

To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:

To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.

A wise man shall hear and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth shall know how to govern.

He shall understand a parable and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

* Abridged comparisons, sententious sayings. KENRICK.

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.

My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.

If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.

We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.

Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.

My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of birds.

And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.

So the ways of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.

Wisdom crieth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets: At the head of multitudes she crieth out; in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:

O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?

Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will show you my words.

Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.

You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reproofs.

I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.

When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:

Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and shall not find me:

Because they have hated instruction, and received not the fear of the Lord,

Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices.

The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

But he that shall hear me shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.

Proverbs

SECT. CXXXII. THE ADVANTAGES OF WISDOM. THE EVILS FROM WHICH
IT DELIVERS.

MY SON, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my 11. 1-22. commandments with thee,

That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: incline thy heart to know prudence.

For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:

If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:

Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God:

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Because the Lord giveth wisdom and out of His mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.

He guardeth the salvation of the righteous, and protecteth them that walk in simplicity,

Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.

Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

If wisdom enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:

Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee, That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:

Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:

Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:

Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.

That thou mayst be delivered from the strange woman, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words;

And forsaketh the guide of her youth,

And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.

None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life.

That thou mayst walk in a good way, and mayst keep the paths of the just.

For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.

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But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.

SECT. CXXXIII, AN EXHORTATION TO THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE.

MY SON, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my com- Proverbs mandments.

For they shall add to thee length of days, and years of life and peace.

Let not mercy and truth leave thee: put them about thy neck, and write them in the tables of thy heart:

And thou shalt find grace and good understanding before God and men.

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart; and rely not upon thy own prudence.

In all thy ways think on Him, and He will direct thy steps.

Be not wise in thy own conceit: fear God, and depart from evil:

For it shall be health to thy navel,* and moistening to thy bones.

Honour the Lord with thy substance, and give Him of the first of all thy fruits:

And thy barns shall be filled with abundance; and thy presses shall run over with wine.

My son, reject not the correction of the Lord and do not faint when thou art chastised by Him:

For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth: and as a father in his son, He taketh complacency.

Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom and is rich in prudence :

The purchasing thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and her fruit than the chiefest and purest gold:

She is more precious than all riches and all the things that are desired are not to be compared with her.

Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand. riches and glory.

Her ways are beautiful ways; and all her paths are peaceable.

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her and he that shall retain her is blessed.

III. 1-35.

* That is, to thy body.