CHAPTER  VII
THE  SEVENTH  IMAGE

THE  SUPERNAL  EVIL,  OR  THE  EVIL  ABOVE  US

Finally,  let  us  lift  up  our  hearts,  and  ascend  with  the  Song  of
Bride  into  the  mountain  of  myrrh.     This  is  Jesus  Christ       ° "  '^'^
the  Crucified,  Head  of  all  saints,  and  Prince  of  all  sufferers;
of  Whom  many  have  written  many  things,  and  all  all  things,
as  it  is  meet.^    His  memory  is  commended  to  the  Bride,
when  it  is  said,  "Set  Me  as  a  seal  upon  thine  heart,  as  a  Song  of
seal  upon  thine  arm."     The  blood  of  this  Lamb,  signed  e^.^^j-?
upon  the  threshold,  wards  off  the  destroying  angel.     By     13
Him  is  the  Bride  praised,  because  "the  hair  of  her  head  is  as  song  of
the  king's  purple";  that  is,  her  meditation  glows  red  with     ^°'-  ^-s
the  remembrance  of  the  Passion  of  Christ.     This  is  that  £^  ^
tree  which  Moses  was  commanded  to  cast  into  the  waters     23  ff.
of  Marah  (that  is,  the  bitterness  of  suffering),  and  they  were
made  sweet.    There  is  nothing  that  this  Passion  cannot
sweeten,  not  even  death  itself;  as  the  Bride  saith,    "His  Song  of
lips   are   liUes,   dropping   sweet-smelHng  myrrh."    What     ^-^-^^
resemblance  is  there  between  lips  and  hlies,  since  lips  are
red  and  lilies  white?     But  she  says  this  in  a  mystery,  sig-
nifying that  the  words  of  Christ  are  most  fair  and  pure,
and  that  there  is  in  them  naught  of  blood-red  bitterness  or
guile;  nevertheless,  in  them  He  drops  precious  and  chosen
myrrh,  that  is,  the  bitterness  of  death.     These  most  pure
lips  and  sweet  have  power  to  make  the  bitterest  death  sweet
and  fair  and  bright  and  dear, — death  that,  like  precious
myrrh,  removes  at  once  all  of  sin's  corruption.
