The virgin bridegroom, having been praised by the virgin bride, in turn praises the virgin bride and says to her, How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O daughter of Aminadab, which is, being interpreted, a people that offers itself willingly. For virginity is voluntary, and therefore the steps of the church in the beauty of chastity are praised. This is not the time for me like a commentator to explain all the mysteries of virginity from the Song of Songs. I have no doubt that the fastidious reader will turn up his nose at what has already been said.

In every way, then, [the beauty of her feet] seems to me to be understood to follow the first fruits of praise in this people who are imitators of the footsteps of those who follow Christ to heaven by dying in the [steps of the] blessed prince of the apostles. Thus does this people, through its earthly works in the example of blessed Peter, by mortifying its flesh, migrate to heaven, just as it also comes into the light from the shadows of ignorance by following Christ the Head.

Small, too, are the navel and belly of the soul that ascends to Christ. Therefore it is praised in the words of the spouse, who says, Your navel is like a round bowl never wanting wine, your belly is like a heap of tiny wheat among lilies. It is polished by all kinds of learning, and it is a spiritual draught never failing in fullness and in the knowledge of heavenly secrets. The belly of the soul is mystic, like the navel, and it receives not only strong food to strengthen hearts but sweet and fragrant food by which it is delighted. Perhaps Moses meant that this sacrilege^[1] needs to be atoned for by many pious prayers.

Your navel is like a round bowl, not wanting tempered wine. Your belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are a pool in Heshbon. The good navel of the soul, capable of receiving all virtues, is like a bowl, fashioned by the author of faith himself.^[1] For in a bowl wisdom has mixed her wine, saying, Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.^[2] This navel, therefore, fashioned with all the beauty of the virtues, does not lack mixed wine. His belly also was filled not only with the wheaten food of justice, as it were, but also with that of grace, and it bloomed with sweetness like a lily.^[3]

The hair of your head like purple, a king caught in its tresses. Your hair was previously loose and hence was compared with the flocks of goats emerging in Gilead, whereas now it is caught up, and not only caught up but also wondrously dyed, resembling a king clad in purple and hastening in all directions. By the comparison of her fastened hair to royal purple he refers to the teaching proposed in orderly fashion and colored with the blood of Christ. A king clad in purple is not so resplendent as the teacher of religion who carefully composes the proclamation of the knowledge of God and offers it to the devotees of truth.

The church is beautiful in [those recently baptized]. So that God the Word says to her: You are all fair, my love, and there is no blemish in you, for guilt has been washed away. Come here from Lebanon, my spouse, come here from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith you will pass through and pass on,^[1] because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ. And again, God the Word says to her, How beautiful and sweet are you made, O love, in your delights! Your stature is become like that of a palm tree, and your breasts like bunches of grapes.

I will offer my beloved praise, and his turning^[1] will be toward me. What it calls his turning is either the second advent or the conversion of the Jewish people.

The laurel and palm are emblems of victory. The heads of victors are crowned with laurel; the palm adorns the victor’s hand. Hence the church, too, says, I said: I will go up into the palm tree, I will take hold of the heights thereof. Seeing the sublimity of the Word and hoping to be able to ascend to its height and to the summit of knowledge, he says, I will go up into the palm tree. So he may abandon all things that are low and strive after things that are higher, to the prize of Christ, in order that he may pluck its fruit and taste it, for sweet is the fruit of virtue.

Imitate the palm, so that it may be said also to you, Your stature is like a palm tree. Preserve the verdure of your childhood and of that natural innocence of youth which you have received from the beginning, and may you possess the fruits, prepared in due time, of what was planted along the course of the waters—and may there be no fall to your leaf! . . .

Remain, therefore, planted in the house of the Lord so as to flourish like a palm in his halls, whence the grace of the church may ascend for you and the odor of your mouth may be like apples and your throat like the best wine, so that you may be inebriated in Christ.^[1]

Actually, what has always been condemned by the church is the perverse opinion of those who dare to dissolve the unity of marriage. Listen again to the voice of holy church: Come, my brother, let us go forth into the fields, and lodge in the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards, and see whether the vines have budded. A field may produce many fruits, but the best field is one richly productive of both fruits and flowers. The church is a field of this sort, fecund in diversity.

The old things according to the flesh have passed away; all have become new. If the scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven knows not these things, he is like the householder who brings from his treasure new things and old, not old without new, or new without old.^[1] So the church says, The new and the old I have kept for you. The old have passed away, that is, the hidden mysteries of the law have all been made new in Christ.