then, “O thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest down in the midday;” who are the wise and faithful in whom Thou dost specially rest, lest by chance as in blindness I fall upon the flocks, not Thy flocks, but the flocks of Thy companions. For thou didst not say to Peter, “Feed thy sheep,” but, “Feed My sheep.”4154 8. Let then the “good Shepherd,” and, “the Comely in form above the sons of men,” make answer to this beloved one; make answer to her whom He hath made beautiful from among the children of men. Hear ye what He answereth, and understand, beware of that wherewith He alarmeth, love that which He adviseth. What then doth He answer? How free from soft caresses, yea, to her caresses He returneth severity! He is sharp that He may bind her closely, that He may keep her. “If thou know not thyself,” saith He, “O thou fair one among women:”4155 for however fair others may be by the gifts of thy Spouse, they are heresies, fair in outward ornament, not within:4156 fair are they without, and outwardly they shine, they disguise themselves by the name of righteousness; “but all the beauty of the King’s daughter is within.”4157 “If” then “thou know not thyself;” that thou art one, that thou art throughout all nations, that thou art chaste, that thou oughtest not to corrupt thyself with the disordered converse of evil companions. “If thou know not thyself,” that in upright- ness, “he hath espoused thee to Me, to present you a chaste Virgin to Christ;”4158 and that in uprightness thou shouldest present thine own self to Me, lest by evil converse, “as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds too should be corrupted from my purity.”4159 “If,” I say, “thou know not thyself” to be such, “go thy way; go thy way.” For to 526 others I shall say, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”4160 To thee I shall not say, “Enter in;” but, “Go thy way;” that thou mayest be among those, who “went out from us.” “Go thy way.” That is, “if thou know not thyself,” then, “go thy way.” But if thou know thyself, enter in. But, “if thou know not thyself, go thy way by the footsteps of the flocks, and feed thy kids in the tents of the shepherds. Go thy way by the footsteps,” not “of the Flock,” but, “of the flocks, and feed,” not as Peter, “My sheep,” but, “thy kids; in the tents,” not “of the Shepherd,” but, “of the shepherds;” not of unity, but of dissension; not established there, where there is One flock and One Shepherd. The beloved one was confirmed, edified, made stronger, prepared to die for her Spouse and to live with her Spouse. 4154 John xxi. 17. 4155 Cant. viii. Sept. 4156 Visceribus. 4157 Ps. xlv. 13. 4158 2 Cor. xi. 2. 4159 2 Cor. xi. 3. 4160 Matt. xxv. 21. 1086 On the words of the Gospel, John x. 14, ‘I am the good shepherd,’ etc. Against…