ming 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.

THE BOOK OF WISDOM

This Book is so called, because it treats of the excellence of WISDOM,
the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces. It is written
in the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it is
uncertain who was the writer. It abounds with instructions and
exhortations to kings and all magistrates to minister justice in the
commonwealth, teaching all kinds of virtues under the general names of
justice and wisdom. It contains also many prophecies of Christ's coming,
passion, resurrec