Thou?”4136 And observe how, by what transport this spiritual love is here animated. And
far better are they by this transport delighted, who have tasted ought of the sweetness of
this love. They hear this properly, who love Christ. For in them, and of them, doth the
Church sing this in the Song of Songs; who love Christ, as it seemed without beauty, yet the
Only Beautiful One. “For we saw Him,” it is said, “and He had neither beauty nor comeli-
ness.”4137 Such He appeared on the Cross, such when crowned with thorns did He exhibit
Himself, disfigured, and without comeliness, as if He had lost His power, as if not the Son
of God. Such seemed He to the blind. For it is in the person of the Jews that Isaiah said this,
“We saw Him, and He had no beauty nor comeliness.” When it was said, “If He be the Son
of God, let Him come down from the Cross. He saved others, Himself He cannot save.”4138
And smiting Him on the head with a reed, they said, “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who
smote Thee?”4139 Because “He had neither beauty nor comeliness.” As such did ye Jews see
Him. For “blindness hath happened in part to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles enter
in,”4140 until the other sheep come. Because then blindness hath happened, therefore did
ye see the Comely One without comeliness. “For had ye known Him, ye would never have
crucified the Lord of Glory.”4141 But ye did it, because ye knew Him not. And yet He who
as though without beauty bare with you, all Beauteous as He was, prayed for you; “Father,”
saith He, “forgive them, for they know not what they do.”4142 For if He were without
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comeliness, how is it that she loveth Him, who saith, “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul
loveth”?4143 How is it that she loveth Him? how is it that she burneth for Him? how is it
that she feareth so much to stray from Him? How is it that she hath so great delight in Him,
that her only punishment is to be without Him? What would there be for which He should
be loved, if He were not beautiful? But how could she love Him so, if He appeared to her as
He did to those blind men persecuting Him, and knowing not what they do? As what then
did she love Him? As “comely in form above the sons of men. Comely in form above the
sons of men, grace is poured abroad in Thy Lips.”4144 So then from these Thy Lips, “Tell
me, O Thou whom my soul loveth. Tell me,” says she, “O Thou whom,” not my flesh, but,
4136 Cant. i. 7.
4137 Isa. liii. 2, Sept.
4138 Mark xv. 31.
4139 Matt. xxvi. 68.
4140 Rom. xi. 25.
4141 1 Cor. ii. 8.
4142 Luke xxiii. 34.
4143 Cant. i. 7.
4144 Ps. xlv. 2.
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On the words of the Gospel, John x. 14, ‘I am the good shepherd,’ etc. Against…