aspect than if no such figure were drawn from the sacred books,
38 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II.
good men members of its own body; men who, as good and true servants of God, liave come to tlie baptismal font laying down the burdens of the world, and who rising thence do, through the implanting of the Holy Spirit, yield the fruit of a twofold love, a love, that is, of God and tlieir neighbour ; how is it, I say, that if a man says this, he does not please his hearer so much as when he draws the same meaning from that passage in Canticles, where it is said of the Church, wlien it is being praised under the figure of a beautiful woman, " Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which came up from the washing, whereof every one bears twdns, and none is barren among them " ? ^ Does the hearer learn anything more than when he listens to the same thought expressed in the plainest language, without the help of this figure ? And yet, I don't know why, I feel greater pleasure in contemplating holy men, when I view them as the teeth of the Church, tearing men away from their errors, and bringing them into the
Church's body with all their harshness softened down, just as if they had been torn off and masticated by the teeth. It is w^ith the greatest pleasure, too, that I recognise them under the figure of sheep that have been shorn, laying down the burthens of the
like fleeces, and coming up from the washing, i.e. from baptism, and all bearing twins, i.e. the twin commandments of love, and none among them barren in that holy fruit. ^ 8. But why I view them with greater delight under that aspect than if no such figure were drawn from the sacred books, though the fact would remain the same and tlie knowledge the same, is another question, and one very difficult to answer.
Nobody, however, has any doubt about the facts, both that it is pleasanter in some cases to have knowledge communicated through figures, and that what is attended with difticulty in the seeking gives greater pleasure in the finding. For those who seek but do not find suffer from hunger. Those, again, who do not seek at all because they liave what tliey require just beside them often grow languid from satiety. Now weakness from cither of these causes is to be avoided. Accordingly the Holy Spirit has, with admirable wisdom and care for our welfare, so arrangedthe Holy Scriptures as by the plainer passages to satisfy our
» Cant. iv. 2.