Cânticos 4
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Cânticos 4:1
We are not to administer rebukes until we have removed from our eye the beam of envy or malice or pretense, so that we may have clear vision to cast out the speck from a brother's eye. For we shall then see that speck with the eyes of the dove, the kind of eyes that are commended [as belonging to] the spouse of Christ, the glorious church which God has chosen for himself, the church which has neither spot nor wrinkle, that is, the church which is pure without guile. — SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2:19.66
Cânticos 4:2
He says to the church, his spouse, "Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them." By this twin offspring the twofold object of love is meant, namely, God and the neighbor: "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." — LETTER 149
Cânticos 4:2
The teeth of the church are those through whom she speaks. Of what sort are your teeth? "Like a flock of sheep that are shorn." Why "that are shorn"? Because they have laid aside the burdens of the world. Were not those sheep, of which I was a little before speaking, shorn, whom the bidding of God had shorn when he said, "Go and sell what you have, and give to the poor; and you shall find treasure in heaven: and come and follow me"? They performed this bidding: shorn they came. And because those who believe in Christ are baptized, what is there said "which come up from the washing" means they have come up from cleansing. "Whereof every one bears twins." What twins? Those two commandments, whereupon hang all the law and the prophets. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 95:9
Cânticos 4:2
"Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes." What do shorn ewes mean? Those who lay aside secular burdens. What does shorn mean? Those who lay aside their fleeces, like the load of secular burdens. Those persons were your teeth, about whom it is written in the Acts of the Apostles that "they sold all their possessions and laid the proceeds at the feet of the apostles, so that distribution might be made to each, as there was need." You have received the fleeces of your shorn ewes. That flock has come up from the washing of holy baptism. All have given birth, because they have fulfilled the two commandments. — SERMON 313B.3
Cânticos 4:12
Taking all these things, therefore, into consideration, I think that I am not rash in saying that there are some in the house of God after such a fashion as not to be themselves the very house of God, which is said to be built upon a rock. [The church] is called the one dove, which is styled the beauteous bride without spot or wrinkle, and a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, a well of living water, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits. [This] house also received the keys, and the power of binding and loosing. — ON BAPTISM 7:51.99
Cânticos 4:12
I think that we have sufficiently shown, both from the canon of Scripture and from the letters of Cyprian himself. [Thus] bad people, while by no means converted to a better mind, can have, and confer, and receive baptism, of whom it is most clear that they do not belong to the holy church of God, though they seem to be within it. [But] they are covetous, robbers, usurers, envious, evil thinkers, and the like; while [the church] is one dove, modest and chaste, a bride without spot or wrinkle, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, with all similar properties that are attributed to her. — ON BAPTISM 6:3.5
Cânticos 4:12
This account can be even better read as an allegory of the church, prophetical of what was to happen in the future. Thus the garden is the church itself, as we can see from the Canticle of Canticles; the four rivers are the four Gospels; the fruit-bearing trees are the saints, as the fruits are their works; and the tree of life is, of course, the Saint of saints, Christ. — City of God 13.21