The love of the church to Christ: his love to her.
8:1. Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my
mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may
despise me?
8:2. I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother's house:
there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and
new wine of my pomegranates.
8:3. His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.
His left hand, etc... Words of the church to Christ. His left hand,
signifying the Old Testament, and his right hand, the New.
8:4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor
awake my love till she please.
8:5. Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights,
leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there
thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.
Who is this, etc... The angels with admiration behold the Gentiles
converted to the faith: coming up from the desert, that is, coming from
heathenism and false worship: flowing with delights, that is, abounding
with good works which are pleasing to God: leaning on her beloved, on
the promise of Christ to his Church, that the gates of hell should not
prevail against it; and supported by his grace conferred by the
sacraments. Under the apple tree I raised thee up; that is, that Christ
redeemed the Gentiles at the foot of the cross, where the synagogue of
the Jews (the mother church) was corrupted by their denying him, and
crucifying him.
8:6. Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love
is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire
and flames.
8:7. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it:
if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall
despise it as nothing.
8:8. Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our
sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?
Our sister is little, etc... Mystically signifies the Jews, who are to
be spoken to: that is, converted towards the end of the world: and then
shall become a wall, that is, a part of the building, the church of
Christ.
8:9. If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she
be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.
8:10. I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in
his presence as one finding peace.
8:11. The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let
out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a
thousand pieces of silver.
8:12. My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable,
and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.
8:13. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me
hear thy voice.
8:14. Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young
hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.