Matthew Poole and continuators on Song of Solomon 2:12

12 The flowers appear on the earth , the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land .

This and the following clauses are here alledged as evidences of the Spring time, which, in the mystical and principal sense, seems to signifie the day of Grace, or the glad tidings of Salvation proposed to [illegible: 1+ letters]nners in the time of the Law, by Types, and Shadows, and Promises, but much more clearly and fully in the Gospel, and all the discoveries and communications of Gods Grace to Mankind in holy Ordinances, in the Gifts, and Graces, and Comfor[illegible: 1+ letters]s of the Holy Spirit, vouchsafed unto, and appearing in Believers, as Buds and Blossoms do in the Spring time.

When Birds sing most [illegible: 1+ letters]reely and sweetly, as they do in the Spring. Or, as the ancient Translators render it, of cutting or cropping, not Trees, which agrees not with that season, but the flowers last mentioned, for Nos[illegible: 1+ letters]gays, or other uses.

Which changeth its place according to the season, as is observed, Ier 8. 7. and by all other Writers, who affirm that it disappears in Winter, and appears in the Spring, as some others Birds also do; but this seems particularly to be mentioned, because it doth not only give notice of the Spring, but also doth aptly represent the Spirit of God, which even the Chaldee Paraphrast understands by this Turtle, which appeared in the shape of a Dove, and which worketh a Dove-like Meekness, and Chastity, and Faithfulness, in Believers.

In Immanuels Land, as Canaan is called, Isa. 8. 8. in the Church.