Sermon 23 on the Song of Songs — Bernard of Clairvaux
On the Three Modes of Contemplation Concerning God, Under the Figure of Three Storerooms
1. "The king has brought me into his storerooms." Behold whence the fragrance, behold whither one runs. She had said that one must run, and in what one must run; but whither one must run, she had not said. Therefore to the storerooms one runs, and one runs in the fragrance which proceeds from them, the bride with her accustomed sagacity perceiving it beforehand and desiring to be brought into the fullness thereof. But what ought we to think concerning these storerooms? Let us consider them meanwhile as certain fragrant places belonging to the bridegroom, full of aromatics, filled with delights. For in a storehouse of this kind, the choicer things from a garden or from a field are stored away to be preserved. Thither, therefore, they run together. Who? Souls fervent in spirit. The bride runs, the maidens run; but she who loves more ardently runs more swiftly, and arrives sooner. Arriving, she suffers not, I say, repulsion, but not even delay. Without delay it is opened to her, as to one of the household, as to a most beloved one, as to one specially cherished and singularly pleasing. But the maidens, what of them? They follow from afar; for since they are still weak, they cannot run with the same devotion as the bride, nor altogether imitate her desire and fervor; and therefore, arriving later, they remain outside. But the charity of the bride does not rest, nor does it grow insolent, as is customary, with her successes, so that she should forget them, but rather consoles and exhorts them to patience, that they might bear with equanimity both their own rebuff and her absence. And so she announces to them the joy she has received, for no other reason, truly, than that they might rejoice with her, while they trust that whatever grace has come to the mother will by no means be alien from them. For she does not so attend to her own advancement as to neglect the care of them; nor does she think her own progress should be furthered by their loss. To whatever heights, therefore, she is raised above them by the prerogative of merits, by charity without doubt and by devoted solicitude she must always be with them. Indeed she ought to imitate her bridegroom, who both seeks the heavens and nonetheless promises that he will be on earth with his own even to the consummation of the age. So also she, however much she advances, however far she is promoted, in care, in providence, and in affection is never removed from those whom she has begotten in the Gospel, never forgets her own offspring.
2. Let her therefore say to them: Rejoice, take confidence. The king has brought me into his storerooms [or, chamber]: consider that you also have been brought in together. I seem to have been brought in alone; but it will not profit me alone. All my progress is the progress of you all: I advance for you, I will share with you whatever more I may have merited beyond you. Do you wish to know without doubt that she spoke in this sense and with this affection? Hear what they respond. "We will exult and rejoice in you." In you, they say, we will exult and rejoice: for in ourselves we do not yet deserve it. And they add, "Mindful of your breasts," that is, we bear it patiently until you come, knowing that you will return to us with breasts full. Then we trust we shall exult and rejoice, mindful meanwhile of your breasts. What they add, "more than wine" (Song 1:3), signifies that they are still indeed, on account of their imperfection, assailed by the memory of carnal desires, which are designated by wine; yet that these same desires are overcome by the memory of the abundance of sweetness which they have already experienced flowing from the breasts. I would speak about the breasts, if I did not remember having said enough above (Sermon 9). Now indeed you see how they presume upon the mother, how they reckon her gains and joys as their own, consoling the injury of their own repulsion by her introduction. They would by no means so confide, unless they recognized her as a mother. Let prelates hear this, who always wish to be a terror to those committed to them, rarely a benefit. "Be instructed, you who judge the earth." Learn that you ought to be mothers to your subjects, not masters; strive rather to be loved than feared: and if severity is sometimes needed, let it be paternal, not tyrannical. Show yourselves mothers by cherishing, fathers by correcting. Be gentle, put aside fierceness; suspend the rod, bring forth the breasts; let your hearts be rich with milk, not swollen with pride. Why do you make your yoke heavy upon those whose burdens you ought rather to bear? Why does the little one bitten by the serpent flee from the conscience of the priest, to whom he ought rather to run as to the bosom of a mother? If you are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness; "each one considering himself, lest he also be tempted" (Gal 6:1). Otherwise that one will die in his sin: "but his blood," he says, "I will require from your hand" (Ezek 3:20). But these things belong elsewhere.
3. Now since the sequence of the letter is manifest from what we have set forth, let us see what we ought to understand spiritually concerning the storerooms. In what follows mention is made also of the garden and of the chamber, both of which I now join to these storerooms and take up in the present discussion: for treated together they will become better known from one another. And let us seek, if you please, these three things in the Holy Scriptures: the garden, the storeroom, the chamber. For in these the soul thirsting for God gladly dwells and lingers, knowing that there without doubt she will find him whom she thirsts for. Let the garden, therefore, be the plain and simple history; let the storeroom be the moral sense; let the chamber be the hidden place of contemplative vision.
4. And first indeed I think that history is not undeservedly assigned to the garden, because in it are found men of virtue, like fruit-bearing trees in the garden of the bridegroom and in the paradise of God, from whose good deeds and characters you pluck as many fruits as you take examples. Or perhaps someone doubts that a good man is a planting of God? Hear what holy David sings of the good man. "He shall be," he says, "like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither" (Ps 1:3). Hear Jeremiah singing in concert with the same spirit, and in almost the same words. "He shall be like a tree," he says, "planted by streams of water, which sends its roots toward the moisture, and does not fear when heat comes" (Jer 17:8). Likewise the Prophet: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall be multiplied like the cedar of Lebanon" (Ps 91:13). And of himself: "But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God" (Ps 51:10). History is therefore a garden, and it is itself threefold. For contained in it are the creation of heaven and earth, the reconciliation, and the restoration. Creation indeed, as the sowing or planting of the garden. Reconciliation, as the sprouting of the seeds or plantings. For in its time, when the heavens dropped dew from above and the clouds rained down the righteous one, "the earth opened and brought forth the Savior" (Isa 45:8), through whom the reconciliation of heaven and earth was made. For "he himself is our peace, who made both one" (Eph 2:14), "making peace through his blood between the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven" (Col 1:20). Furthermore, the restoration will be at the end of the age. For there will be "a new heaven and a new earth," and the good will be gathered from the midst of the evil, like fruit from a garden, to be stored in the storehouses of God. In that day, as it is written, "the branch of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be sublime" (Isa 4:2). You have, therefore, three times in the garden of the historical sense.
5. In moral discipline likewise three things are to be noticed, as it were three cells in one storeroom. And perhaps for this reason she said storerooms in the plural, and not storeroom, thinking of this number of cells. Further on, indeed, she glories in having been brought into the "wine cellar" (Song 2:4). We therefore, because we read, "Give occasion to a wise man, and he will become wiser" (Prov 9:9), having the occasion from the name which the Holy Spirit saw fit to impose on this cell, let us impose names also on the other two: "aromatic" on one, and "ointment" on the other. The reasons for these names we shall see afterward. Now however observe that all things with the bridegroom are found to be healthful, all things sweet: wine, ointments, spices. Wine, as Scripture attests, "gladdens the heart of man" (Ps 103:15). No less does one read that the face is made cheerful by oil (ibid.), in which indeed the powder of spices is infused to make ointments. Spices are not only pleasing by the sweet fragrance of their scent, but also useful by their healing power. Rightly does the bride exult that she has been brought in there, where so great an abundance of grace overflows.
6. But I have also other names bearing, I think, a more evident reason of themselves. And that they may be named in their proper order, I would call the first the cell of discipline; the second, of nature; the last, of grace. In the first you learn, according to the reasoning of the ethical part, to be inferior; in the next, equal; in the latter, superior: that is, under another, with another, over another; or thus: to be subject, to coexist, to preside. First, therefore, you learn to be a disciple; second, a companion; third, also a master. And indeed nature has brought forth all men as equals. But since the good of nature was corrupted in morals by pride, men became impatient of equality, striving against one another to be set above, and each desiring to surpass the other, and desirous of vainglory, "envying one another, provoking one another": first of all in the first cell, the insolence of character must be tamed by the yoke of discipline, until the self-willed and obstinate will is humbled and healed, worn down by the harsh and prolonged rules of the elders, and the good of nature which it had lost through pride it may recover through obedience; so that now by natural affection alone, not by fear of discipline, it has learned to keep itself peaceably and quietly, as far as lies within it, with all the companions of its nature, that is, with all men, then at last passing into the cell of nature and experiencing what is written: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the ointment on the head" (Ps 132:1-2). To disciplined character, as to ground spices, the oil of gladness is added, the good of nature; and a good and pleasant ointment is made. By which, as if anointed, a man is rendered gentle and mild, a man without complaint, circumventing no one, harassing no one, harming no one, exalting or preferring himself above no one, and moreover gladly sharing in the matter of giving and receiving.
7. I think, if you have rightly understood the properties of each cell, you will attest that I have not unfittingly called this one the ointment cell, and that one the aromatic cell. In that one, indeed, just as the violent crushing of the pestle extracts and forces out the powers and fragrance of the spices, so the force of instruction and the strictness of discipline in a certain way elicits and expresses the natural power of right character. In this one, however, the pleasing gentleness of voluntary and, as it were, inborn affection runs forth spontaneously to serve, clearly in the manner of ointment which is on the head, descending and flowing through the whole at the light touch of warmth. And so in the cell of discipline, the dry and simple species of spices, as it were, are contained, and hence I thought it should be called the aromatic cell. In the one that is called of nature, since ointments, already as it were compounded, are stored and preserved, it likewise received its name from the thing itself, so as to be called the ointment cell. For as for the wine cellar too, I judge it to bear no other reason for its name than that in it is stored the wine of zeal fervent in charity. And no one at all who has not yet merited to be brought into it ought to preside over others. He who presides over others must absolutely burn with this wine, just as the Teacher of the Gentiles was burning when he said: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn?" (2 Cor 11:29). Otherwise you quite improperly desire to preside over those whose good you do not seek; and you far too ambitiously claim for yourself the subjection of those for whose salvation you are not zealous. This cell I have also named of grace; not that anyone can obtain even the other two entirely without grace, but on account of the fullness which is singularly perceived in this one. For indeed "the fullness of the law is charity," and "he who loves his brother has fulfilled the law" (Rom 13:10, 8).
8. You have seen the reason for the names; see also the difference between the cells. For it is not of equal ease or of the same ability to restrain wanton and wandering senses and the intemperate appetite of the flesh by the fear of a master and to hold them in check by the rigid censure of discipline, and to agree well with companions by spontaneous affection; to live with corrected morals under the rod, and by the sole guidance of the will to maintain a pleasing manner with equals. For neither would anyone say that it is of one merit or of one virtue both to live in community and to preside usefully. How many, indeed, live quietly under an instructor, whom, if you release them from the yoke, you would see unable to be at rest, nor in any way to keep themselves harmless among equals? And likewise you will see countless people living simply and without complaint among brethren, who above brethren are not only useless but also foolish and harmful. Those who are of this sort are content with a certain good mediocrity, as God has apportioned to them the measure of grace; by no means needing a master, nor yet fit for mastery. The latter, therefore, though they surpass the former in character, are surpassed by those who know how to be superiors. And indeed those who preside well receive in promise that they will "be set over all the goods of their Lord" (Mt 24:48). But few indeed are those who preside usefully; fewer still, those who preside also humbly. Yet he easily fulfills both who has perfectly attained discretion, the mother of virtues, and is nevertheless inebriated with the wine of charity to the contempt of his own glory, to the forgetfulness of his very self, and not to seeking the things that are his own; which is obtained solely and wondrously by the instruction of the Holy Spirit within the wine cellar. For the virtue of discretion without the fervor of charity lies inert, and vehement fervor without the tempering of discretion falls headlong. And therefore laudable is the one who lacks neither, so that fervor may raise up discretion, and discretion may govern fervor. Therefore the one who presides ought to be of such a character. But I would say that the best in character, and the one who has perfectly grasped the summit of this discipline, is the one to whom it is given to traverse and go through all these cells without stumbling: who in nothing at all either resists his superiors, or envies his equals, or is lacking to his subjects in care, or rules over them in pride; obedient to those set above him, agreeable to his companions, usefully condescending to his subjects. This mark of perfection I would without hesitation assign to the bride. The very word she spoke implies this also, because "The king has brought me into his storerooms," since she shows herself brought not into some one cell, but into storerooms, in the plural.
9. Now let us come to the chamber. What is this too? And do I presume to know what it is? By no means do I claim for myself the experience of so great a thing, nor do I glory in a prerogative which is reserved for the blessed bride alone, cautious according to that saying of the Greeks, to know myself; that I may know also with the Prophet "what I lack" (Ps 38:5). Yet if I knew nothing at all, I would say nothing. What I know, I do not begrudge you, nor withhold: what I do not know, may he teach you "who teaches man knowledge" (Ps 93:10). I have said, and you remember, that the king's chamber is to be sought in the hidden place of contemplative vision. But just as I know I said about the ointments, namely that there are many and diverse ointments with the bridegroom, and not all are available to all, but particular ones are granted to particular people according to the diversity of their merits: so too I think there is not one chamber for the king, but several. For neither is there one queen indeed, but several: and concubines are many, and of maidens there is no number. And each one finds her own place of privacy with the bridegroom and says, "My secret is mine, my secret is mine" (Isa 24:16). Not to all is it given to enjoy in one place the beloved and secret presence of the bridegroom, but as is prepared for each by his Father. For we have not chosen him, but he has chosen us and placed us; and where each has been placed by him, there he is. And indeed one woman, pricked in heart, found her appointed place at the feet of the Lord Jesus (Lk 7:38), while another found the fruit of her devotion at his head (Mt 26:7), if indeed she was another. Furthermore, Thomas in the side, John on the breast, Peter in the bosom of the Father, Paul in the third heaven obtained the grace of this secret place.
10. Which of us could worthily distinguish these varieties of merits, or rather of rewards? Lest, however, we should seem to have entirely passed over what we ourselves know [or: what stirs us]; the first woman made her bed in the safe place of humility; the latter, on the throne of hope; Thomas, on the solid ground of faith; John, in the breadth of charity; Paul, in the innermost place of wisdom; Peter, in the light of truth. Thus, therefore, with the bridegroom there are many mansions, and whether it is a queen, or a concubine, or even one from the number of the maidens, each receives a fitting place and limit according to her merits, as to how far it is permitted to her to advance in contemplation and to enter into the joy of her Lord, and to search the sweet secrets of the bridegroom. This I will attempt to demonstrate more distinctly in its proper place, insofar as he himself shall deign to suggest. But now let it suffice to know this: that to none of the maidens, to none of the concubines, to none even of the queens is the approach entirely open to that secret of the chamber which the bridegroom reserves for that dove of his, his beautiful one, his perfect one, his only one. Whence neither do I indeed take it amiss that I am not admitted to it, especially since it is certain to me that not even the bride herself has yet attained to every secret she desires. For indeed she entreats that it be shown to her "where he feeds, where he lies down at noon" (Song 1:6).
11. But hear how far I have attained, or think myself to have attained. For it ought not to be imputed to boasting, what I lay open for your advancement. There is a place with the bridegroom from which he decrees his judgments and arranges his counsels, he who is the governor of the universe, establishing laws for every creature, weight and measure and number. And this place is high and secret, but by no means quiet. For even though he, as far as he is concerned, disposes all things sweetly, he nevertheless disposes; and he does not permit the one contemplating, who may perhaps have reached that place, to be at rest; but wondrously, though delightfully, he wearies the one who searches and marvels, and renders him restless. Beautifully the bride expresses both these things in what follows, namely the delight of this kind of contemplation and the restlessness, where she confesses both that she sleeps and that her heart watches (Song 5:2). For in the sleep of most sweet amazement and placid wonder she signifies that she feels rest; but in the wakefulness of no less restless curiosity and laborious exercise she signifies that she suffers weariness. Hence blessed Job: "If I sleep," he says, "I say, When shall I rise? and again I await the evening" (Job 7:4). Do you perceive in these words a holy soul wishing at times to decline, in a certain way, a burdensome sweetness, and again to desire the same sweet burden? For he would not have said, "When shall I rise?" if the repose of his contemplation had altogether pleased him: but also if it had altogether displeased him, he would not again have awaited the hour of rest, that is, the evening. This place, therefore, is not the place of the chamber, where by no means is there rest in every way.
12. There is likewise a place from which, regarding the rational yet reprobate creature, the most secret and most severe judgment of the just Judge God watches immovably, "terrible in his counsels over the sons of men." He is discerned, I say, in this place by the God-fearing contemplator, God who, by his just but hidden judgment, neither washes away the evils of the reprobate nor accepts their goods; and moreover hardens their hearts, lest perhaps they grieve, and come to their senses, and be converted, and he should heal them. And this is not without a certain and eternal reason, which is so much the more fearful as it stands the more immovably fixed in eternity. Greatly to be dreaded is what we read in the prophet concerning such ones, where God speaking to his angels says thus: "Let us have mercy on the impious one." And when they trembled and asked, "Will he not then learn to do justice?" "No," he said; and adding the cause: "In the land of the saints he has done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord" (Isa 26:10). Let clerics fear, let ministers of the Church fear, who in the lands of the saints which they possess, do such wicked things that, not content with the stipends which ought to suffice, they impiously and sacrilegiously retain for themselves the surplus with which the needy should be sustained; and they do not scruple to consume the sustenance of the poor for the uses of their own pride and luxury, sinning assuredly with a twofold iniquity, because they both plunder what belongs to others and abuse sacred things for their own vanities and shameful purposes.
13. When it is perceived, therefore, that he spares and has mercy on such ones at present so that he may not spare them for eternity, he whose "judgments are a great deep," who would seek rest in this place? This vision holds the trembling [or, terror] of judgment, not the security of the chamber. "Terrible is this place," and devoid of all rest. I have shuddered all over, if ever I was caught up into it, turning over within myself with trembling that sentence: "Who knows whether he is worthy of love or of hatred?" (Eccl 9:1). Nor is it surprising if I totter there (I who am surely "a leaf carried by the wind and dry stubble" (Job 13:25)), where even that greatest contemplator confesses that his own feet were almost moved, his steps almost poured out; and he was saying: "I was jealous of the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners. Why? They are not in the labor of men," he says, "and with men they shall not be scourged; therefore pride has held them" (Ps 72:3-6), lest they be humbled unto repentance, but rather be damned for their pride with the proud devil and his angels. For those who "are not in the labor of men" shall surely be in the labor of demons, as the judge says: "Depart, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25:41). Yet this too is a place of God, clearly nothing other than the house of God and the gate of heaven. For here God is said to be feared; here his name is holy and terrible, and it is, as it were, an entrance to glory: "For the fear of the Lord is truly the beginning of wisdom" (Ps 110:9-10).
14. Let it not trouble you that I have assigned the beginning of wisdom to this last place and not to the former. For there, in a certain kind of auditorium of his, we hear Wisdom teaching about all things as mistress; here we also receive her. There we are instructed indeed, but here we are affected. Instruction makes the learned, affection makes the wise. The sun does not warm all those upon whom it shines; so Wisdom does not immediately kindle to action the many whom she teaches what ought to be done. It is one thing to know great riches, another also to possess them; nor does knowledge make one rich, but possession. Just so, just so, it is one thing to know God, and another to fear him; nor does knowledge make one wise, but fear, which also affects. Would you call him wise whom his own knowledge puffs up? Who but the most foolish would call those wise who, "when they had known God, did not glorify him as God, or give thanks"? I rather hold with the Apostle, who manifestly pronounces their heart "foolish" (Rom 1:21). And rightly is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom; because God first becomes savory to the soul when he affects it to fear, not when he instructs it to know. You fear the justice of God, you fear his power; and God, just and powerful, becomes savory to you, because fear is a savor. Moreover, savor makes one sapient, as knowledge makes one knowing, as riches make one rich. What then of the former place? It only prepares for wisdom. There you are prepared, that here you may be initiated. Preparation is the knowledge of things. But this is very easily followed by the swelling of elation, if fear does not check it, so that it is rightly said: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," which first opposes itself to the plague of foolishness. There, therefore, is a certain approach to wisdom; here is also the entrance. Furthermore, neither here nor there is rest perfect for the one who contemplates; because there God appears as though anxious, here as though disturbed. Therefore do not seek the chamber in these places, of which the one appears rather as the auditorium of one teaching, the other as the tribunal of a judge.
15. But there is a place where God is truly seen resting and tranquil; a place entirely not of a judge, not of a teacher, but of a bridegroom: and which for me at least, for I do not speak of others, is plainly a chamber, if it should ever happen that I am brought into it. But alas, the hour is rare and the stay is brief! There it is clearly recognized that the mercy of the Lord is from eternity and unto eternity upon those who fear him. And happy is the one who can say: "I am a partaker with all those who fear you and who keep your commandments" (Ps 118:63). The purpose of God stands firm, the sentence of peace stands firm over those who fear him, both overlooking their evils and rewarding their goods: so that in a wonderful way not only good things, but even evil things work together for their good. O he alone is truly blessed to whom the Lord will not impute sin! (Ps 31:2). For no one will be without sin. For "all have sinned, and all fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). Who then shall bring a charge against the elect of God? (Rom 8:33). It suffices me for all righteousness to have him alone propitious to whom alone I have sinned. Whatever he himself shall have decreed not to impute to me, it is as though it had not been. Not to sin is the justice of God; the justice of man is the indulgence of God. I have seen these things, and I have understood the truth of that sentence: "Everyone who is born of God does not sin, because the heavenly generation preserves him" (1 Jn 3:9). The heavenly generation is the eternal predestination, by which God loved his elect and made them accepted in his beloved Son before the constitution of the world, thus appearing to himself in holiness, so that they might see his power and his glory, that they might be sharers of his inheritance, to whose image they also might appear conformed. These, therefore, I perceived as though they had never sinned; because even if they seem to have committed some offenses in time, these do not appear in eternity; because the charity of their Father covers the multitude of sins. And he declared "blessed those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered" (Ps 31:1); when suddenly so great a confidence concerning myself also arose within me, and so great a joy was infused, as certainly the fear in the place of horror, that is in the place of the second vision, had not preceded, so that I seemed to myself to be as it were one of those blessed ones. O if it had lasted! "Again and again visit me, O Lord, in your salvation, that I may see the goodness of your elect, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation" (Ps 105:4-5).
16. O place of true rest, and which I would not undeservedly judge worthy of the name of chamber! in which God is not seen as though disturbed by anger, nor as though distracted by care; but his will is proved in it to be good and well-pleasing and perfect. This vision does not terrify but soothes; it does not excite restless curiosity but calms it; it does not weary the senses but makes them tranquil. Here one truly rests. A tranquil God makes all things tranquil; and to behold him at rest is to rest. It is to see the king after the daily disputes of legal causes, as it were, having dismissed the crowds from himself, declining the burdens of cares, seeking a lodging at night, entering his chamber with those of peace whom he deigns worthy of this secret and this familiarity, resting certainly the more securely the more secretly; holding himself the more serenely the more placidly he looks upon those alone whom he loves. Into this hidden place and into this sanctuary of God, if it should happen that any of you at any hour is so caught up and so hidden, that he is by no means called away or disturbed either by a pressing sense, or a piercing care, or a biting guilt, or certainly those phantasms of bodily images that rush in and are more difficult to remove; such a one, when he returns to us, will indeed be able to glory and to say: "The king has brought me into his chamber" (Song 1:3). Yet whether it is the very same one of which the bride exults, I would not rashly affirm. It is nevertheless a chamber, and a chamber of the king; because indeed of the three places which we have assigned to the threefold vision, this alone has been made a place of peace. For as has been plainly shown, in the first there is perceived little rest, and in the second none: since both there, appearing as wonderful, he exercises curiosity in the zeal of searching; and here, becoming known as terrible, he shakes one's weakness. But in this third place, he deigns to appear not at all terrible, nor so much wonderful as lovable, serene and placid, sweet and mild, and "of great mercy to all who look upon him" [or, "who call upon him"].
17. Now, so that your memory may hold a summary of these things which have been discussed in a rather lengthy sermon concerning the storeroom, the garden, and the chamber, remember three times, three merits, three rewards, as it were. In the garden observe the times; the merits in the storeroom; the rewards in that threefold contemplation of the one seeking the chamber. And concerning the storeroom, let these things suffice. But if anything concerning the garden or the chamber needs to be added, or if other things than those which have been said should occur as needing attention, let us not pass them over in their proper place. But if not, let what has been said suffice, and let them by no means be repeated, lest ever those things which are brought forth for the praise and glory of the bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever, should ever come into weariness, which God forbid. Amen.
Translated from the Latin by AI. Source: Migne, Patrologia Latina 183.