[in the masculine4161] “my soul loveth.” Just as if it were said, “Tell me, O thou whom [in
the feminine4162] “my soul loveth;” we should understand that the Bridegroom spake these
words to His Bride; so when you hear, “Tell me, O thou whom” (in the masculine) “my soul
loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest down;” add to this, to her words belongs also
what follows, “In the midday.” I am asking, “where Thou feedest in the midday, lest by
chance I light as one veiled upon the flocks of Thy companions.” I consent entirely, I admit
what you understand of Africa; it is signified by “the midday.” But then as you understand
it, the Church of Christ beyond the sea is addressing her Spouse, in fear of falling into the
African error, “O Thou whom my soul, loveth, tell me,” teach me. For I hear that “in the
midday,” that is in Africa, there are two parties, yea rather many schisms.4163 “Tell me,”
then, “where Thou feedest,” what sheep belong to Thee, what fold Thou biddest me love
there, whereunto ought I to unite myself. “Lest by chance I light as one veiled.” For they
mock me as if I were concealed, they mock me as destroyed, as though I existed nowhere
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else. “Lest,” then, “as one veiled,” as if concealed, “I light upon the flocks,” that is, upon the
congregarious of the heretics, “thy companions; the Donatists, the Maximinianists, the
Rogatists and all the other pests who gather without, and who therefore scatter; “Tell me,”
I pray Thee, if I must seek my Shepherd there, that I fall not into the gulf of re-baptizing. I
exhort you, I beseech you by the sanctity of such nuptials, love this Church, be ye in this
holy Church, be ye this Church; love the good Shepherd, the Spouse so fair, who deceiveth
no one, who desireth no one to perish. Pray too for the scattered sheep; that they too may
come, that they too may acknowledge Him, that they too may love Him; that there may be
One Flock and One Shepherd. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.
4161 Quem.
4162 Quam.
4163 Concisiones.
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On the words of the Gospel, John x. 14, ‘I am the good shepherd,’ etc. Against…