Matthew Poole and continuators on Song of Solomon 1:7

7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth , where thou feedest , where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon : for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions ?

Notwithstanding all these Discouragements and Afflictions which I suffer for thy sake, and for my Love to thee. Being reproached and persecuted by others, I flee to thee, O my only Refuge and Joy, and I beg direction and help from thee.

Understand thy flock, as Gen. 29. 7. & 37. 16. Seeing false Teachers and Churches bear thy Name, Mark 13. 21, 22. and thy true Church sometimes lies hid, Rev. 12. 14. discover to me which is thy true Church, and which are those Assemblies and People where thou art present, and where thine Ordinances are dispensed in purity and power, and where thou dost and wiltst command the blessing, even Life for evermore, as it is expressed, Psal. 133. 3. that I may join my self to them. This is the request of particular Believers. For it must be minded, as that which will be useful to explain many difficulties in this Book, that the Church in this Book is somtimes considered, and speaketh, or is spoken of, as one entire Body, and somtimes with respect unto, and in the name of her particular Members, and that promiscuously; and, in which of these capacities each place is to be understood, is left to the prudent and diligent Reader to gather out of the words and Context.

In the heat of the day, when the Shepherds in those hot Countries used to carry their flocks into shadowy places. Whereby he means the time of hot persecution, when it is hard to find and discover the true Church, partly because she is deformed by it, and partly because she is obscured and driven into the Wilderness, as is said, Rev. 12. 14.

i. e. Be really one, the particle, as, being here a note of truth, as it is in many other places. Why wiltst thou by withdrawing thy self from me, and denying thy direction to me, suffer me, or give occasion to me to be such a one.

Or, a wanderer, or vagaboad, like a neglected and forlorn Creature exposed both to censure and danger, from both which it belongs to thee, my Husband, to protect and save me.

Or, about, or towards, as this particle is elsewhere used.

The assemblies of corrupt and false Teachers and Worshippers, by which I am like to be ensnared, if thou dost forsake me. These he calls Christs Companions, partly because they profess the name of Christ, and their con[illegible: 1+ letters]unction with him in Gods Worship; and partly because they set themselves up in Christs stead, and usurp his Power in delivering and imposing their own Laws and Doctrines upon mens Consciences, and behave themselves like his equals or companions, not as becometh his Subjects.

Marginal references: Or, as one that is [illegible: 1 word]. 2 Sam. 15. 30.