Song of Solomon 3 commentary

It was hard to the Old Testament church to find Christ in the ceremonial law; the watchmen of that church gave little assistance to those who sought after him. The night is a time of coldness, darkness, and drowsiness, and of dim apprehensions concerning spiritual things. At first, when uneasy, some feeble efforts are made to obtain the comfort of communion with Christ. This proves in vain; the believer is then roused to increased diligence. The streets and broad-ways seem to imply the means of grace in which the Lord is to be sought. Application is made to those who watch for men's souls. Immediate satisfaction is not found. We must not rest in any means, but by faith apply directly to Christ. The holding of Christ, and not letting him go, denotes earnest cleaving to him. What prevails is a humble, ardent suing by prayer, with a lively exercise of faith on his promises. So long as the faith of believers keeps hold of Christ, he will not be offended at their earnest asking, yea, he is well pleased with it. The believer desires to make others acquainted with his Saviour. Wherever we find Christ, we must take him home with us to our houses, especially to our hearts; and we should call upon ourselves and each other, to beware of grieving our holy Comforter, and provoking the departure of the Beloved.

A wilderness is an emblem of the world; the believer comes out of it when he is delivered from the love of its sinful pleasures and pursuits, and refuses to comply with its customs and fashions, to seek happiness in communion with the Saviour. A poor soul shall come up, at last, under the conduct of the Comforter; like a cloud of incense ascending from the altar, or the smoke of the burnt-offerings. This signifies pious and devout affections, and the mounting of the soul heaven-ward. The believer is filled with the graces of God's Spirit; his devotions now are very lively. These graces and comforts are from the heavenly Canaan. He, who is the Peace of his people, the King of the heavenly Zion, has provided for the safe conveyance of his redeemed through the wilderness of this world. The bed, or palanquin, was contrived for rest and easy conveyance, but its beauty and magnificence showed the quality of its owner. The church is well guarded; more are with her than are against her: believers, when they repose in Christ, and with him, though they have their fears in the night, are yet safe. The chariot here denotes the covenant of redemption, the way of our salvation. This is that work of Christ, which makes him loved and admired in the eyes of believers. It is framed and contrived, both for the glory of Christ, and for the comfort of believers; it is well ordered in all things and sure. The blood of the covenant, that rich purple, is the cover of this chariot, by which believers are sheltered from the wind and storms of Divine wrath, and the troubles of this world; but the midst of it is that love of Christ which passes knowledge, this is for believers to repose upon. Christ, in his gospel, manifests himself. Take special notice of his crown. Applying this to Christ, it speaks the honour put upon him, and his power and dominion.

CHAPTER 3

So 3:1-11.

1. By night--literally, "By nights." Continuation of the longing for the dawn of the Messiah (So 2:17; Psa 130:6; Mal 4:2). The spiritual desertion here (So 2:17; 3:5) is not due to indifference, as in So 5:2-8. "As nights and dews are better for flowers than a continual sun, so Christ's absence (at times) giveth sap to humility, and putteth an edge on hunger, and furnisheth a fair field to faith to put forth itself" [Rutherford]. Contrast So 1:13; Psa 30:6, 7.

on ... bed--the secret of her failure (Is 64:7; Jr 29:13; Am 6:1, 4; Ho 7:14).

loveth--no want of sincerity, but of diligence, which she now makes up for by leaving her bed to seek Him (Psa 22:2; 63:8; Is 26:9; Joh 20:17). Four times (So 3:1-4) she calls Jesus Christ, "Him whom my soul loveth," designating Him as absent; language of desire: "He loved me," would be language of present fruition (Re 1:5). In questioning the watchmen (So 3:3), she does not even name Him, so full is her heart of Him. Having found Him at dawn (for throughout He is the morning), she charges the daughters not to abridge by intrusion the period of His stay. Compare as to the thoughtful seeking for Jesus Christ in the time of John the Baptist, in vain at first, but presently after successful (Lu 3:15-22; Joh 1:19-34).

found him not--Oh, for such honest dealings with ourselves (Pr 25:14; Jude 12)!

2. Wholly awake for God (Lu 14:18-20; Ep 5:14). "An honest resolution is often to (the doing of) duty, like a needle that draws the thread after it" [Durham]. Not a mere wish, that counts not the cost--to leave her easy bed, and wander in the dark night seeking Him (Pr 13:4; Mt 21:30; Lu 14:27-33).

the city--Jerusalem, literally (Mt 3:5; Joh 1:19), and spiritually the Church here (He 12:22), in glory (Re 21:2).

broad ways--open spaces at the gates of Eastern cities, where the public assembled for business. So, the assemblies of worshippers (So 8:2, 3; Pr 1:20-23; He 10:25). She had in her first awakening shrunk from them, seeking Jesus Christ alone; but she was desired to seek the footsteps of the flock (So 1:8), so now in her second trial she goes forth to them of herself. "The more the soul grows in grace, and the less it leans on ordinances, the more it prizes and profits by them" [Moody Stuart] (Psa 73:16, 17).

found him not--Nothing short of Jesus Christ can satisfy her (Job 23:8-10; Psa 63:1, 2).

3. watchmen--ministers (Is 62:6; Jr 6:17; Eze 3:17; He 13:17), fit persons to consult (Is 21:11; Mal 2:7).

found me--the general ministry of the Word "finds" individually souls in quest of Jesus Christ (Ge 24:27, end of verse Ac 16:14); whereas formalists remain unaffected.

4. Jesus Christ is generally "found" near the watchmen and means of grace; but they are not Himself; the star that points to Beth-lehem is not the Sun that has risen there; she hastens past the guideposts to the goal [Moody Stuart]. Not even angels could satisfy Mary, instead of Jesus Christ (Joh 20:11-16).

found him--(Is 45:19; Ho 6:1-3; Mt 13:44-46).

held him, &c.--willing to be held; not willing, if not held (Ge 32:26; Mt 28:9; Lu 24:28, 29; Re 3:11). "As a little weeping child will hold its mother fast, not because it is stronger than she, but because her bowels constrain her not to leave it; so Jesus Christ yearning over the believer cannot go, because He will not" [Durham]. In So 1:4 it is He who leads the bride into His chambers; here it is she who leads Him into her mother's. There are times when the grace of Jesus Christ seems to draw us to Him; and others, when we with strong cries draw Him to us and ours. In the East one large apartment often serves for the whole family; so the bride here speaks of her mother's apartment and her own together. The mention of the "mother" excludes impropriety, and imparts the idea of heavenly love, pure as a sister's, while ardent as a bride's; hence the frequent title, "my sister--spouse." Our mother after the Spirit, is the Church, the new Jerusalem (Joh 3:5-8; Ga 4:19, 26); for her we ought to pray continually (Ep 3:14-19), also for the national Jerusalem (Is 62:6, 7; Ro 10:1), also for the human family, which is our mother and kindred after the flesh; these our mother's children have evilly treated us (So 1:6); but, like our Father, we are to return good for evil (Mt 5:44, 45), and so bring Jesus Christ home to them (1Pe 2:12).

5. So So 2:7; but there it was for the non-interruption of her own fellowship with Jesus Christ that she was anxious; here it is for the not grieving of the Holy Ghost, on the part of the daughters of Jerusalem. Jealously avoid levity, heedlessness, and offenses which would mar the gracious work begun in others (Mt 18:7; Ac 2:42, 43; Ep 4:30).

Canticle III.--(So 3:6-5:1)--The Bridegroom with the Bride.

Historically, the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth.

6. New scene (So 3:6-11). The friends of the Bridegroom see a cortege approach. His palanquin and guard.

cometh out--rather, "up from"; the wilderness was lower than Jerusalem [Maurer].

pillars of smoke--from the perfumes burned around Him and His bride. Image from Israel and the tabernacle (answering to "bed," So 3:7) marching through the desert with the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night (Ex 14:20), and the pillars of smoke ascending from the altars of incense and of atonement; so Jesus Christ's righteousness, atonement, and ever-living intercession. Balaam, the last representative of patriarchism, was required to curse the Jewish Church, just as it afterwards would not succumb to Christianity without a struggle (Nu 22:41), but he had to bless in language like that here (Nu 24:5, 6). Angels too joyfully ask the same question, when Jesus Christ with the tabernacle of His body (answering to "His bed," So 3:7; Joh 1:14, "dwelt," Greek "tabernacled," Joh 2:21) ascends into heaven (Psa 24:8-10); also when they see His glorious bride with Him (Psa 68:18; Re 7:13-17). Encouragement to her; amid the darkest trials (So 3:1), she is still on the road to glory (So 3:11) in a palanquin "paved with love" (So 3:10); she is now in soul spiritually "coming," exhaling the sweet graces, faith, love, joy, peace, prayer, and praise; (the fire is lighted within, the "smoke" is seen without, Ac 4:13); it is in the desert of trial (So 3:1-3) she gets them; she is the "merchant" buying from Jesus Christ without money or price (Is 55:1; Re 3:18); just as myrrh and frankincense are got, not in Egypt, but in the Arabian sands and the mountains of Palestine. Hereafter she shall "come" (So 3:6, 11) in a glorified body, too (Php 3:21). Historically, Jesus Christ returning from the wilderness, full of the Holy Ghost (Lu 4:1, 14). The same, "Who is this," &c. (Is 63:1, 5).

7. In So 3:6 the wilderness character of the Church is portrayed; in So 3:7, 8, its militant aspect. In So 3:9, 10, Jesus Christ is seen dwelling in believers, who are His "chariot" and "body." In So 3:11, the consummation in glory.

bed--palanquin. His body, literally, guarded by a definite number of angels, threescore, or sixty (Mt 26:53), from the wilderness (Mt 4:1, 11), and continually (Lu 2:13; 22:43; Ac 1:10, 11); just as six hundred thousand of Israel guarded the Lord's tabernacle (Nu 2:17-32), one for every ten thousand. In contrast to the "bed of sloth" (So 3:1).

valiant--(Jos 5:13, 14). Angels guarding His tomb used like words (Mr 16:6).

of Israel--true subjects, not mercenaries.

8. hold--not actually grasping them, but having them girt on the thigh ready for use, like their Lord (Psa 45:3). So believers too are guarded by angels (Psa 91:11; He 1:14), and they themselves need "every man" (Ne 4:18) to be armed (Psa 144:1, 2; 2Co 10:4; Ep 6:12, 17; 1Ti 6:12), and "expert" (2Co 2:11).

because of fear in the night--Arab marauders often turn a wedding into mourning by a night attack. So the bridal procession of saints in the night of this wilderness is the chief object of Satan's assault.

9. chariot--more elaborately made than the "bed" or travelling litter (So 3:7), from a Hebrew root, "to elaborate" [Ewald]. So the temple of "cedar of Lebanon," as compared with the temporary tabernacle of shittim wood (2Sa 7:2, 6, 7; 1Ki 5:14; 6:15-18), Jesus Christ's body is the antitype, "made" by the Father for Him (1Co 1:30; He 10:5), the wood answering to His human nature, the gold, His divine; the two being but one Christ.

10. pillars--supporting the canopy at the four corners; curtains at the side protect the person within from the sun. Pillars with silver sockets supported the veil that enclosed the holy of holies; emblem of Jesus Christ's strength (1Ki 7:21), Margin, "silver," emblem of His purity (Psa 12:6); so the saints hereafter (Re 3:12).

bottom--rather, "the back for resting or reclining on" (Vulgate and Septuagint) [Maurer]. So the floor and mercy seat, the resting-place of God (Psa 132:14) in the temple, was gold (1Ki 6:30).

covering--rather, "seat," as in Le 15:9. Hereafter the saints shall share His seat (Re 3:21).

purple--the veil of the holiest, partly purple, and the purple robe put on Jesus Christ, accord with English Version, "covering." "Purple" (including scarlet and crimson) is the emblem of royalty, and of His blood; typified by the passover lamb's blood, and the wine when the twelve sat or reclined at the Lord's table.

paved--translated, like mosaic pavement, with the various acts and promises of love of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Zep 3:17; 1Jo 4:8, 16), in contrast with the tables of stone in the "midst" of the ark, covered with writings of stern command (compare Joh 19:13); this is all grace and love to believers, who answer to "the daughters of Jerusalem" (Joh 1:17). The exterior silver and gold, cedar, purple, and guards, may deter, but when the bride enters within, she rests on a pavement of love.

11. Go forth--(Mt 25:6).

daughters of Zion--spirits of saints, and angels (Is 61:10; Zec 9:9).

crown--nuptial (Eze 16:8-12), (the Hebrews wore costly crowns or chaplets at weddings), and kingly (Psa 2:6; Re 19:12). The crown of thorns was once His nuptial chaplet, His blood the wedding wine cup (Joh 19:5). "His mother," that so crowned Him, is the human race, for He is "the Son of man," not merely the son of Mary. The same mother reconciled to Him (Mt 12:50), as the Church, travails in birth for souls, which she presents to Him as a crown (Php 4:1; Re 4:10). Not being ashamed to call the children brethren (He 2:11-14), He calls their mother His mother (Psa 22:9; Ro 8:29; Re 12:1, 2).

behold--(2Th 1:10).

day of his espousals--chiefly the final marriage, when the number of the elect is complete (Re 6:11).

gladness--(Psa 45:15; Is 62:5; Re 19:7). Moody Stuart observes as to this Canticle (So 3:6-5:1), the center of the Book, these characteristics: (1) The bridegroom takes the chief part, whereas elsewhere the bride is the chief speaker. (2) Elsewhere He is either "King" or "Solomon"; here He is twice called "King Solomon." The bride is six times here called the "spouse"; never so before or after; also "sister" four times, and, except in the first verse of the next Canticle [So 5:2], nowhere else. (3) He and she are never separate; no absence, no complaint, which abound elsewhere, are in this Canticle.

By night on my bed I sought him - It appears that the bridegroom only saw the bride by night: that on the night referred to here he did not come as usual. The bride troubled on the account, rose and sought him, inquired of the city guards, and continued to seek till at last she found him, and brought him to her apartment, Sol 3:2-4.

Into my mother's house - The women in the East have all separate apartments, into which no person ever attempts to enter except the husband. We find Isaac bringing Rebecca into his mother's tent, when he made her his wife, Gen 24:67. What is here related appears to refer to the third night of the nuptials.

I charge you - The same adjuration as before, Sol 2:7.

Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness - Going to Egypt was called descending or going down, coming from it was termed coming up. The bride, having risen, goes after her spouse to the country, and the clouds of incense arising from her palanquin seemed like pillars of smoke; and the appearance was altogether so splendid as to attract the admiration of her own women, who converse about her splendor, excellence, etc., and then take occasion to describe Solomon's nuptial bed and chariot. Some think that it is the bridegroom who is spoken of here. With this verse the third night is supposed to end.

Threescore valiant men - These were the guards about the pavilion of the bridegroom, who were placed there because of fear in the night. The security and state of the prince required such a guard as this, and the passage is to be literally understood.

They all hold swords - They are swordsmen. Every man has a sword, and is well instructed how to use it.

Of the wood of Lebanon - Of the cedar that grew on that mount. It is very likely that a nuptial bed, not a chariot, is intended by the original word אפיון appiryon. Montanus properly translates it sponsarum thalamum, a nuptial bed. It may, however, mean a palanquin.

The pillars - of silver - The bedposts were made of silver, or cased with wrought silver plates, like the king's chairs brought from Hanover, now, in one of the staterooms in Windsor Castle.

The bottom thereof of gold - This may refer to cords made of gold thread, or to the mattress, which was made of cloth ornamented with gold.

The covering - of purple - Most probably the canopy.

The midst - paved with love - The counterpane, a superb piece of embroidery, wrought by some of the noble maids of Jerusalem, and, as a proof of their affection, respect, and love, presented to the bride and bridegroom, on their nuptial day. This is most likely to be the sense of the passage, though some suppose it to refer to the whole court.

A Turkish couch is made of wooden lattices painted and gilded; the inside is painted with baskets of flowers and nosegays, intermixed with little mottoes according to the fancy of the artist. Solomon's couch may have been of the same kind, and decorated in the same way; and the paving with love may refer to the amatory verses worked either on the counterpane, hangings, or embroidered carpet. And as this was done by the daughters of Jerusalem, they might have expressed the most striking parts of such a chaste history of love as Halaly's Leely and Mejnoon on the different parts. I see that Dr. Good is of this opinion. It is sufficiently probable.

Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion - This is the exhortation of the companions of the bride to the females of the city to examine the superb appearance of the bridegroom, and especially the nuptial crown, which appears to have been made by Bathsheba, who it is supposed might have lived till the time of Solomon's marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh. It is conjectured that the prophet refers to a nuptial crown, Isa 61:10. But a crown, both on the bride and bridegroom, was common among most people on such occasions. The nuptial crown among the Greeks and Romans was only a chaplet or wreath of flowers.

In the day of the gladness of his heart - The day in which all his wishes were crowned, by being united to that female whom beyond all others he loved.

Here the third day is supposed to end.

By night - When others compose themselves to sleep, my affections were working towards him. I sought - I sought for Christ's gracious and powerful presence. I sought - This repetition denotes her perseverance and unweariedness in seeking him. Found him not - For he had withdrawn the manifestations of his love from me, either because I had not sought him diligently, or because I had abused his favour.

The city - The city of God, the church in which Christ resides. Broadways - Not finding him in private prayer, and meditation, I sought him in the places of public assemblies and ordinances. Found not - He saw fit still to delay the discoveries of his grace.

The watch - men - The ministers of Christ, and rulers of the church. Go about - To prevent disorders and dangers. Him - She does not name him, because she thought it needless, as supposing a person of such transcendent excellency could not be unknown to men in that capacity. Their answer is not mentioned, either because they gave her no satisfactory answer, or because by their silence she gathered that they were unable to inform her; and being eager in the pursuit, she would not lose time.

Found him - Christ met me, and manifested his love to me. Mother's house - As the spouse here, signifies particular believers, so her mother is the universal church, or the true Jerusalem, which hath its rise from above, which is the mother of us all, Gal 4:26, in which Christ and believers are united, and have sweet communion together in holy ordinances, into which believers are said to bring Christ, by faith and prayer. Conceived me - Christ is as it were the father that begets, and the church the mother that conceives and brings forth believers.

Who - The persons speaking seem to be the daughters of Jerusalem, who upon occasion of the bride's speech to them, make this reply. The person spoken of is the spouse. Wilderness - Believers were to be called, not only out of the holy land, which was as the garden of God, but also out of the Gentile - world, which in prophetical writings is frequently described under the notion of a wilderness. Pillars - Being conducted out of the wilderness as by a pillar of smoak going before them, as the Israelites were led through the wilderness to Canaan, by a pillar of cloud and fire. Perfumed - The spouse is said to be thus perfumed, for her excellent virtues and religious services which are pleasant and acceptable to God, and for the merits and graces of Christ, which are a sweet savour to God, wherewith she is enriched and beautified. Of merchants - Which are fetched by the merchants from Arabia, or other remote parts.

Behold - The bride - men continue their speech, and from the admiration of the bride, proceed to the admiration of the bridegroom. Bed - The bed seems to denote the church, which is comely through Christ's beauty, and safe by his protection, in which Christ is glorified, and believers enjoy sweet fellowship with him. Solomon's - Which is the bed, not of an ordinary man, but of a great king, whom Solomon typifies, and who is greater than Solomon. Threescore - Very many, the certain number being put for an uncertain. He alludes to Solomon's guard, whereby he designs all those creatures, whether angels, princes, ministers, or others, whose ministry God uses for the protection of his church.

Every man - Is prepared and ready to fight, to prevent those dangers which are frequent in the night season. The night may denote the whole time of this life, which may well be called night in respect of that ignorance and error wherewith it is attended, (as the future life is compared to day) this life being the only time wherein such a guard is necessary.

A chariot - In which the royal bridegroom and bride might ride together in state. By this chariot he seems to understand the word of Christ dispensed by his ministers, whereby Christ rides triumphantly in the world, and believers are carried into heavenly glory. Of Lebanon - Of cedars, which wood being incorruptible, doth fitly signify the word of the gospel, which endureth forever, 1Pet 1:25.

He made - There is no necessity that either this or the following particulars should be distinctly applied to several things in the gospel; this in the general may suffice, that as all the particulars are added to shew the perfection and beauty of the chariot, so they do imply that Christ's word is every way amiable and perfect. The bottom - The under and lower part. Whereby he may seem to understand the foundation of the word and promises, which is either God's covenant, or Christ's mediation, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. Covering - The uppermost part of it. Midst - The inward parts. Paved - Covered and adorned. Love - The love of Christ to the sons of men. For the daughters - For their delight and comfort, who all bear a part in this marriage.

Go - The church bids particular believers go forth to see this sight. Solomon - The Messiah, of whom Solomon was an illustrious type. The crown - Which being applied to Solomon, may design that garland or crown which was usually worn in nuptial solemnities: but being applied to Christ, it denotes the honour that was given him, which though principally done by his Father, yet is here ascribed to his mother, the universal church, which in respect to his humanity may be called his mother, because he was born in, and of her, and one of her members. In the day - When the church is married to him, which is done when the covenant is confirmed between them, or when persons are converted to Christ, and more compleatly when they are received by Christ into his immediate fellowship in the kingdom of glory. Gladness - When he rejoiceth over his bride.

1 BY night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him , but I found him not .

Either 1. In a time of Tribulation. which is commonly signified by the Night, and somtimes by a Bed, as Revel. 2. 22, Or 2. When I expected to find him; for the Husband who by his occasions is oft forced to be absent from his Wife in the day time, but at night returns to her, and beds with her. Or 3. When others compose themselves to rest and sleep, my Thoughts were troubled, and my Affections were working towards him, and I was very desirous to enjoy him.

I sought for Christs gracious and powerful Presence, in, and by, the Word, and Prayer, and Meditation.

This repetition notes her perseverance and unweariedness in seeking him.

For he had withdrawn himself, and the manifestations of his Love from me, either because I had not sought him diligently, or because I had abused his favour, or to try and exercise my Faith, and Patience, and Love, and other Graces.

2 I will rise now , and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways , I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not .

I will immediately apply my self to seek him, without whom my bed can give me no rest nor comfort.

The City of God, the Church in which Christ resides.

Not finding him in private Prayer, and Meditation, I sought him in the places of publick Assemblies, and Ordinances; for the People frequently met together in the streets, not only for civil, but for religious ends, 2 Chron. 32. 6. Neh. 8. 1, 3, 16. Prov. 1. 20. 21. Luk. 13. 26.

He saw fit still to delay the discoveries of his Grace, partly to chastise my former folly, partly to try my sincerity and constancy, and partly that he might be more welcome when he came to me.

3 The watch-men that go about the city , found me : to whom I said , Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ?

The Ministers of Christ, and Rulers of the Church, who are oft called Watchmen, as Isa. 62. 6. Ezek. 3. 17. and elsewhere.

To prevent disorders and dangers by night.

Whilest they walked round about the City, according to their duty.

Without either fear or shame, as being transported and wholly swallowed up with Love.

She doth not name him, because she thought it needless, as supposing that a Person of such transcendent excellency could not be unknown to men in that publick capacity. Their answer is not mentioned, either because they gave her no answer, at least no satisfactory answer, or because by their silence she gathered that they were unable, or unwilling to inform her; and being eager in the pursuit of her beloved, she would not lose time in impertinent discourses with them.

Marginal references: Ch. 5. 7.

4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go , until I had brought him into my mothers house , and into the chamber of her that conceived me .

Christ met me, and manifested his Love to me, according to his Promise made to those that seek him constantly and diligently, Prov. 8. 17. Mat. 7. 7. &c.

Being taught by my late experience how doleful a thing it was to lose him, and how hard it was to find and recover him when he was lost.

That there I might entertain and embrace him, and gain my Mothers consent, and so proceed to the consummation of the Marriage. She saith her Mothers, rather than her Fathers, House, because the Men and the Women had several and separated apartments in the House. For the mystical meaning which is the principal sense intended in this Book, as the Spouse here, and in many other places in this Book, signifies particular Believers, so her Mother is the universal Church, or the true Ierusalem, which hath its rise from above, which is the Mother of us all, Gal. 4. 26. in which Christ and Believers are united, and have sweet communion together in holy Ordinances, into which Believers are said to bring Christ by Faith, and Prayer, and the preparation of their Hearts for him, whereby they invite and in some sort ingage Christ to go with them into the publick Assemblies, and there to give them his Loves, although otherwise it is Christ who properly brings Believers into the Church. But all particulars in Allegorical Scriptures, are not to be strictly urged, as all learned Interpreters agree, many being added only for the decency of the Allegory.

Christ is as it were the Father that begets, and the Church the Mother that conceiveth and bringeth forth Believers.

5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love till he please .

This verse is repeated from Ch. 2. 7. where it is explained. The Spouse exhorts her self, and all her fellow-Members to be very circumspect, lest by any unkind or provoking carriage, they should give Christ any cause to depart from them. He is supposed to allude to the custom of awakening the Bridegroom and Bride by Songs and musical instruments.

Marginal references: Ch. 2. 7. & 8. 4.

6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoak , perfumed with myrrhe and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant ?

The persons speaking seem to be the Daughters of Ierusalem, who upon occasion of the Brides Speech to them, make this reply, or the Friends of the Bridegroom: The person spoken of is the Spouse or Bride.

From the Country, which in comparison of Cities, is oft called a Wilderness, as Isa. 42. 11. Luk. 1. 80. & 3. 2. and elsewhere, from whence we little expected to see so beautiful and glorious a Bride to come, such Persons being usually bred in Courts or noble Cities. This Phrase implies that Believers were and were to be called out of the World, which for its barrennes[illegible: 1+ letters], and disorder, and replenishment with wild Beasts, may fitly be compared to a Wilderness, and not only out of the Holy Land, which was as the Garden of God, but also out of the Gentile-World, which in Prophetical Writings is frequently described under the notion of a Wilderness, as Isa. 35. 1. & 43. 19, 20. Withal he seems to allude to the People of Israel, which to the wonder and astonishment of all those parts came up out of the Wilderness into Canaan.

To which the Church may not unfitly be compared, partly for its excellent order and comely proportions, partly for its direct and constant motion towards Heaven, and partly to imply that though she was really and inwardly glorious, yet she was outwardly obscure and despicable in the eyes of the World. Possibly the words may be rendred thus, as with (which particle is very frequently understood, as hath been shewed in divers foregoing Texts) Pillars or a Pillar (for the plural number is oft put for the singular) of smoak. And so the sense may be either 1. Being conducted out of the Wilderness as by a Pillar of smoak going before them, as the Israelites were led through the Wilderness to Canaan, by a Pillar of Cloud and Fire, Exod. 13. 21, 22. Or rather 2. Attended with many Prayers and Praises, and other holy performances, which are perpetually ascending from her, and offered by her unto God. So he alludes to those Pillars of smoak which all the day long ascended from those numerous Sacrifices which were offered in the Temple, which also was a Type of the Prayers of the Saints offered by Christ unto his Father, as may be gathered from Rev. 8. 3, 4, 5. But this I only propose.

This doth not belong to the Pillars, as appears by the difference of the numbers in the Hebrew words, the Pillars being plural, and this word singular, but to the Person, to wit, the Spouse, who is said to be thus perfumed; partly for her good Name or Renown, which is compared to perfumes, Eccl. 7. 1. partly for her excellent Virtues and religious Services which are pleasant and acceptable to God, and to Angels, and Men; and partly for the Merits and Graces of Christ, which are a sweet savour to God, Eph. 5. 2. and wherewith she is enriched and beautified.

Which are setched by the Merchants from Arabia, or other remote parts of the World for the use of perfuming.

Marginal references: Ch. 8. 5.

7 Behold, his bed , which is Solomons , threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel .

These are the words either 1. Of the Bridemen, who spake v. 6. and here continue their speech, and from the admiration of the Bride proceed to the admiration of the Bridegroom. Or 2. Of the Spouse, who being admired by the Bridemen, turns their Eyes and Thoughts to the Bridegroom, and directs them to the study of his excellencies, and intimates that all her comfort and safety is from him. The Bed, the place of rest and conjugal converse, seems to denote the Church, which is comely through Christs Beauty, and safe by his Protection, in which Christ is glorified, and Believers enjoy sweet fellowship with him, both here in the Church militant, and especially hereafter in the Church triumphant.

Which is the Bed, not of an ordinary Man, but of a great King, whom Solomon represents or typifies, and who is greater than Solomon. Nor is it hard to understand the Messias under the name of Solomon, his Type and Progenitor, seeing he is, upon the same reason, called David, Ier. 30. 9. Ezek. 34. 23. and elsewhere, especially considering that this whole Book is by the confession both of Jewish and Christian Interpreters to be mystically understood.

i. e. very many, the certain number being put for an uncertain, as is frequent.

He alludes to Solomons Guard, or Watchmen, whereby he designs all those Creatures, whether Angels, Princes, Ministers, or others, whose Ministry God useth for the Protection of his Church.

8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh , because of fear in the night .

Is prepared and ready to fight, as this Phrase notes, Ex. 32 27. Psal. 45. 3.

To prevent those dangers and mischiefs which are most frequent, and most dreadful in the night season. The night may note either 1. The time of Tribulation, Temptation, or Desertion; Or 2. The whole time of this Life, which may well be called night in respect of that ignorance and Errour, and other kinds of Darkness wherewith it is attended, as the future Life is compared to a day, this Life being the only time wherein such a Guard is necessary.

9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon .

In which the Royal Bridegroom and Bride might ride together in state, as the manner was in the nuptial solemnities of such Persons. By this Chariot he seems to understand the Word of Christ dispensed by his Ministers in the Church, whereby both Christ is exalted and rides triumphantly in the World, conquering his Enemies, and subduing the World to the Obedience of the Gospel, and all Believers are carried with safety and comfort through this present evil World into those blessed Mansions of heavenly Glory.

i. e. Of Cedars, for which Lebanon was famous: which wood being incorruptible doth fitly signifie the Word of the Gospel, which endureth for ever, 1 Pet. 1. 25. and is called the everlasting Gospel, Rev. 14. 6. in opposition to the Legal institutions which were to continue onely until the time of reformation, as we read, Heb. 9. 10.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. b[illegible: 1+ letters]d.

10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple ; the midst thereof being paved with love , for the daughters of Jerusalem .

Whereby the Chariot is either supported or adorned. Which may signifie either 1. Ministers, who are called Pillars, Gal. 2. 9. and that of silver, because they are, or should be, pure and precious like silver. Or 2. The firmness and certainty of Christs Word, both of his Doctrines and Promises, which also are pure as silver, Psal. 12. 6. Although there is no necessity that either this or the following particulars should be distinctly applied to several things in or about the Gospel; but this in the general may suffice, that as all these particulars are added to shew the perfection and Beauty of the Chariot, so they do imply that Christs word is every way amiable, and perfect, and able to make the man of God perfect.

Either 1. The couch or seat, which was made of, or covered with cloath of Gold. Or 2. The under and lower part, which was at least covered with pure Gold. Whereby he may seem to understand the foundation of the Word and Promises, which is either Gods Covenant, or Christs Mediation, in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen.

Either 1. The curtains whereby Persons in the Chariot are covered or hid from the sight of the People. Or rather 2. The uppermost part of it, either in the outside or the inside of it. Some render the word, the seat or seats.

Which represents Christs Blood, which is our Propitiatory or covering to shelter us from Gods Wrath.

The inward parts, especially those between the upper and lower parts, which have been already mentioned.

Covered and adorned.

With beautiful and lovely Ornaments, such as curious Embroidery, enriched with Gold and precious stones: Love being here put for lovely Objects, as Fear is oft put for terrible things, as hath been oft noted. Whereby we may understand the Love of Christ to the Sons of Men, or his lovely Life, and Death, and Resurrection, &c. which is the most amiable part and matter of the Word or Gospel.

For their delight and comfort, who are all concerned, and bear a part in this Marriage.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. from [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

11 Go forth , O ye daughters of Zion , and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals , and in the day of the gladness of his heart .

The Bride, to wit, the Church, bids particular believers go forth to see this sight. Whereby is implied, that Christians must go out of the World, to wit, in affection, and out of themselves, by denying themselves, and putting off the old man, their corrupt Nature, if they desire to see and enjoy Christ.

The same with daughters of Ierusalem; for Zion and Ierusalem are oft times promiscuously used in Scripture.

Looking in and through him upon the Messias, who is the King of Peace, and of whom Solomon was an illustrious Type.

Which being applied to Solomon, may design either 1. The Crown Royal, wherewith his Mother, Bathsheba, is said to have crowned him, because Solomon was crowned by David's Order upon her suggestion, and by vertue of his Promise confirmed by an Oath to her, 1 Kin. 1. 16, &c. Or 2. That Garland or Crown which was usually worn in nuptial solemnities, as may be gathered from Ezek. 16. 12. and is expresly affirmed by divers ancient Writers. But being applied to Christ, it notes that Honour and Glory which was given to him, which though principally done by his Father, yet is here ascribed to his Mother, i. e. to the universal Church, or Congregation of Believers, which in respect of his Humanity may be called his Mother, partly because he was born in, and of, her, and one of her Members, and therefore was subject to her Institutions, whence she is represented as a Woman in travel, bringing sorth a Man-child, to wit, Christ, Rev. 12. 1—5. and partly because in a Spiritual sense she is said to conceive and bring forth Christ in particular Believers, Gal. 4. 19. And this Mother may be said to crown Christ, both because it is the great design and business of the Church to advance Christs honour in the World, and because she brings forth Believers, whom Christ esteems as his Crown and Glory, as God calls them, Isa. 62. 3.

When the Church is betrothed or married to him, Ier. 2. 2. Hos. 2. 19. 2 Cor. 11. 2. which is done when the Covenant is made or confirmed between them, or when faithful persons are converted and united to Christ, and more compleatly when they are received by Christ into his more full and immediate fellowship in the Kingdom of Glory.

When he rejoiceth over his Bride, as the Phrase is used, Isa. 62. 5. So this is the same thing expressed in other words. The Conversion and Salvation of sinners is the joy of Christ, as appears from Isa. 53. 11. Luk. 15. 32. and many other places of Scripture.

Sol 3:1 1 On my bed in the nights    I sought him whom my soul loveth:    I sought him, and found him not.

She does not mean to say that she sought him beside herself on her couch; for how could that be of the modest one, whose home-bringing is first described in the next act - she could and might miss him there neither waking nor sleeping. The commencement is like Job 33:15. She was at night on her couch, when a painful longing seized her: the beloved of her soul appeared to have forsaken her, to have withdrawn from her; she had lost the feeling of his nearness, and was not able to recover it. לילות is neither here nor at Sol 3:8 necessarily the categ. plur. The meaning may also be, that this pain, arising from a sense of being forgotten, always returned upon her for several nights through: she became distrustful of his fidelity; but the more she apprehended that she was no longer loved, the more ardent became her longing, and she arose to seek for him who had disappeared.

Sol 3:2 2 So I will arise, then, and go about the city,    The markets, and the streets;    I will seek him whom my soul loveth! -    I sought him, and found him not.

How could this night-search, with all the strength of love, be consistent with the modesty of a maiden? It is thus a dream which she relates. And if the beloved of her soul were a shepherd, would she seek him in the city, and not rather without, in the field or in some village? No; the beloved of her soul is Solomon; and in the dream, Jerusalem, his city is transported close to the mountains of her native home. The resolution expressed by “I will arise, then,” is not introduced by “then I said,” or any similar phrase: the scene consists of a monologue which dramatically represents that which is experienced. Regarding the second Chatef-Pathach of ואס, vid., Baer’s Genesis, p. 7. שׁוקים is the plur of שׁוּק (= shavḳ), as שׁורים of שׁוּר (= shavr); the root-word שוק (Arab. shaḳ) signifies to press on, to follow after continuously; (Arab.) suwaḳ designates perhaps, originally, the place to which one drives cattle for sale, as in the desert; (Arab.) sawaḳ designates the place to which one drives cattle for drink (Wetzst.). The form אבקשׁה is without the Daghesh, as are all the forms of this verb except the imper.; the semi-guttural nature of the Koph has something opposing the simple Sheva.

Sol 3:3

Shulamith now relates what she further experienced when, impelled by love-sorrow, she wandered through the city: 3 The watchmen who go about in the city found me:    “Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth?”

Here also (as in Sol 3:2) there is wanting before the question such a phrase as, “and I asked them, saying:” the monologue relates dramatically. If she described an outward experience, then the question would be a foolish one; for how could she suppose that the watchmen, who make their rounds in the city (Epstein, against Grätz, points for the antiquity of the order to Psa 127:1; Isa 62:6; cf. Isa 21:11), could have any knowledge of her beloved! But if she relates a dream, it is to be remembered that feeling and imagination rise higher than reflection. It is in the very nature of a dream, also, that things thus quickly follow one another without fixed lineaments. This also, that having gone out by night, she found in the streets him whom she sought, is a happy combination of circumstances formed in the dreaming soul; an occurrence without probable external reality, although not without deep inner truth:

Sol 3:4 4 Scarcely had I passed from them,    When I found him whom my soul loveth.    I seized him, and did not let him go    Until I brought him into the house of my mother,    And into the chamber of her that gave me birth. כּמעט = paululum, here standing for a sentence: it was as a little that I passed, etc. Without שׁ, it would be paululum transii; with it, paululum fuit quod transii, without any other distinction than that in the latter case the paululum is more emphatic. Since Shulamith relates something experienced earlier, אחזתּי is not fitly rendered by teneo, but by tenui; and ארפּנּוּ dna ;iune לאו, not by et non dimittam eum, but, as the neg. of וארפנו, et dimisi eum, - not merely et non dimittebam eum, but et non dimisi eum. In Gen 32:27 [26], we read the cogn. שׁלּח, which signifies, to let go (“let me go”), as הרפּה, to let loose, to let free. It is all the same whether we translate, with the subjective colouring, donec introduxerim, or, with the objective, donec introduxi; in either case the meaning is that she held him fast till she brought him, by gentle violence, into her mother’s house. With בּית there is the more definite parallel חדר lellar, which properly signifies (vid., under Sol 1:4), recessus, penetrale; with אמּי, the seldom occurring (only, besides, at Hos 2:7) הורה, part.f. Kal of הרה fo la, to conceive, be pregnant, which poetically, with the accus., may mean parturire or parere. In Jacob’s blessing, Gen 49:26, as the text lies before us, his parents are called הורי; just as in Arab. ummâni, properly “my two mothers,” may be used for “my parents;” in the Lat. also, parentes means father and mother zeugmatically taken together.

Sol 3:5

The closing words of the monologue are addressed to the daughters of Jerusalem. 5 I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,    By the gazelles or the hinds of the field,    That ye awake not and disturb not love    Till she pleases.

We are thus obliged apparently to think of the daughters of Jerusalem as being present during the relation of the dream. But since Shulamith in the following Act is for the first time represented as brought from her home to Jerusalem, it is more probable that she represented her experience to herself in secret, without any auditors, and feasting on the visions of the dream, which brought her beloved so near, that she had him by herself alone and exclusively, that she fell into such a love-ecstasy as Sol 2:7; and pointing to the distant Jerusalem, deprecates all disturbance of this ecstasy, which in itself is like a slumber pervaded by pleasant dreams. In two monologues dramatically constructed, the poet has presented to us a view of the thoughts and feelings by which the inner life of the maiden was moved in the near prospect of becoming a bride and being married. Whoever reads the Song in the sense in which it is incorporated with the canon, and that, too, in the historical sense fulfilled in the N.T., will not be able to read the two scenes from Shulamith’s experience without finding therein a mirror of the intercourse of the soul with God in Christ, and cherishing thoughts such, e.g., as are expressed in the ancient hymn:Quando tandem venies, meus amor? Propera de Libano, dulcis amor! Clamat, amat sponsula: Veni, Jesu, Dulcis veni Jesu!

Sol 3:6 6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness    Like pillars of smoke,    Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,    With all aromatics of the merchants?

It is possible that זאת and עלה may be connected; but עני זה, Psa 34:7 (this poor man, properly, this, a poor man), is not analogous, it ought to be העלה זאת. Thus zoth will either be closely connected with מי, and make the question sharper and more animated, as is that in Gen 12:18, or it will be the subject which then, as in Isa 63:1; Job 38:2, cf. below Sol 7:5, Jon 4:11, Amo 9:12, is more closely written with indeterminate participles, according to which it is rightly accented. But we do not translate with Heiligst. quid est hoc quod adscendit, for mī asks after a person, mā after a thing, and only per attract. does mī stand for mā in Gen 33:8; Jdg 13:17; Mic 1:5; also not quis est hoc (Vaih.), for zoth after mi has a personal sense, thus: quis (quaenam) haec est. That it is a woman that is being brought forward those who ask know, even if she is yet too far off to be seen by them, because they recognise in the festal gorgeous procession a marriage party. That the company comes up from the wilderness, it may be through the wilderness which separates Jerusalem from Jericho, is in accordance with the fact that a maiden from Galilee is being brought up, and that the procession has taken the way through the Jordan valley (Ghôr); but the scene has also a typical colouring; for the wilderness is, since the time of the Mosaic deliverance out of Egypt, an emblem of the transition from a state of bondage to freedom, from humiliation to glory (vid., under Isa 40:3; Hos 1:11; Psa 68:5). The pomp is like that of a procession before which the censer of frankincense is swung. Columns of smoke from the burning incense mark the line of the procession before and after. תּימרות (תּים) here and at Job 3 (vid., Norzi) is formed, as it appears, from ימר, to strive upwards, a kindred form to אמר; cf. Isa 61:6 with Isa 17:6, Psa 94:4; the verb תּמר, whence the date-palm receives the name תּמר, is a secondary formation, like תּאב to אבה. Certainly this form תּימרה (cf. on the contrary, תּולדה) is not elsewhere to be supported; Schlottm. sees in it תמּרות, from תּמרה; but such an expansion of the word for Dag. dirimens is scarcely to be supposed. This naming of the pillars of smoke is poet., as Jon 3:3; cf. “a pillar of smoke,” Jdg 20:40. She who approaches comes from the wilderness, brought up to Jerusalem, placed on an elevation, “like pillars of smoke,” i.e., not herself likened thereto, as Schlottm. supposes it must be interpreted (with the tertium comp. of the slender, precious, and lovely), but encompassed and perfumed by such. For her whom the procession brings this lavishing of spices is meant; it is she who is incensed or perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. Schlottm. maintains that מקטּרת cannot mean anything else than “perfumed,” and therefore he reads מקּטרת (as Aq. ἀπὸ θυμιάματος, and Jerome). But the word mekuttěrěth does not certainly stand alone, but with the genit. foll.; and thus as “rent in their clothes,” 2Sa 13:31, signifies not such as are themselves rent, but those whose clothes are rent (Ewald, §288 b, compare also de Sacy, II §321), so וגו מקט can also mean those for whom (for whose honour) this incense is expended, and who are thus fumigated with it. מר .t, myrrh, (Arab.) murr (vid., above under Sol 1:13), stands also in Exo 30:23 and Psa 45:9 at the head of the perfumes; it came from Arabia, as did also frankincense levōnā, Arab. lubân (later referred to benzoin); both of the names are Semitic, and the circumstance that the Tôra required myrrh as a component part of the holy oil, Exo 30:23, and frankincense as a component part of the holy incense, Exo 30:34, points to Arabia as the source whence they were obtained. To these two principal spices there is added ממּל (cf. Gen 6:20; Gen 9:2) as an et cetera. רוכל denotes the travelling spice merchants (traders in aromatics), and traders generally. אבקה, which is related to אבק as powder to dust (cf. abacus, a reckoning-table, so named from the sand by means of which arithmetical numbers were reckoned), is the name designating single drugs (i.e., dry wares; cf. the Arab. elixir = ξηρόν).

Sol 3:7-8

The description of the palanquin now following, one easily attributes to another voice from the midst of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7 Lo! Solomon’s palanquin,    Threescore heroes are around it,    Of the heroes of Israel, 8 All of them armed with the sword, expert in war.    Each with his sword on his thigh,    Against fear in the nights.

Since אפּריון, 9 a, is not by itself a word clearly intelligible, so as to lead us fully to determine what is here meant by מטּה as distinguished from it, we must let the connection determine. We have before us a figure of that which is called in the post-bibl. Heb. כּלה הכנסת (the bringing-home of the bride). The bridegroom either betook himself to her parents’ house and fetched his bride thence, which appears to be the idea lying at the foundation of Ps 45, if, as we believe, the ivory-palaces are those of the king of Israel’s house; or she was brought to him in festal procession, and he went forth to meet her, 1 Macc. 9:39 - the prevailing custom, on which the parable of the ten virgins (Matt 25) is founded.Weigand explains the German word Braut (bride) after the Sanscr. prauḍha, “she who is brought in a carriage;” but this particip. signifies nothing more than (aetate) provetca.

Here the bride comes from a great distance; and the difference in rank between the Galilean maid and the king brings this result, that he does not himself go and fetch her, but that she is brought to him. She comes, not as in old times Rebecca did, riding on a camel, but is carried in a mittā, which is surrounded by an escort for protection and as a mark of honour. Her way certainly led through the wilderness, where it was necessary, by a safe convoy, to provide against the possibility (min in mippahad, cf. Isa 4:6; Isa 25:4) of being attacked by robbers; whereas it would be more difficult to understand why the marriage-bed in the palace of the king of peace (1Ch 22:9) should be surrounded by such an armed band for protection. That Solomon took care to have his chosen one brought to him with royal honours, is seen in the lavish expenditure of spices, the smoke and fragrance of which signalized from afar the approach of the procession, - the mittā, which is now described, can be no other than that in which, sitting or reclining, or half sitting, half reclining, she is placed, who is brought to him in such a cloud of incense. Thus mittā (from nāthā, to stretch oneself out), which elsewhere is also used of a bier, 2Sa 3:21 (like the Talm. ערס = ערשׂ), will here signify a portable bed, a sitting cushion hung round with curtains after the manner of the Indian palanquin, and such as is found on the Turkish caiques or the Venetian gondolas. The appositional nearer definition שׁלּשׁ, “which belonged to Solomon” (vid., under 6 b), shows that it was a royal palanquin, not one belonging to one of the nobles of the people. The bearers are unnamed persons, regarding whom nothing is said; the sixty heroes form only the guard for safety and for honour (sauvegarde), or the escorte or convoie. The sixty are the tenth part (the élite) of the royal body-guard, 1Sa 27:2; 1Sa 30:9, etc. (Schlottm.). If it be asked, Why just 60? we may perhaps not unsuitably reply: The number 60 is here, as at Sol 6:8, the number of Israel multiplied by 5, the fraction of 10; so that thus 60 distinguished warriors form the half to the escort of a king of Israel. חרב אחזי properly means, held fast by the sword so that it goes not let them free, which, according to the sense = holding fast = practised in the use of the sword; the Syr. translation of the Apoc. renders παντοκράτωρ by 'he who is held by all,” i.e., holding it (cf. Ewald, §149 b).This deponent use of the part. pass. is common in the Mishna; vid., Geiger’s Lehrbuch zur Sprache der Mishna, §16. 5.

Sol 3:9-10

Another voice now describes the splendour of the bed of state which Solomon prepared in honour of Shulamith: 9 A bed of state hath King Solomon made for himself    Of the wood of Lebanon. 10 Its pillars hath he made of silver,      Its support of gold, its cushion of purple;      Its interior is adorned from love      By the daughters of Jerusalem.

The sound of the word, the connection and the description, led the Greek translators (the lxx, Venet., and perhaps also others) to render אפּריון, by φορεῖον, litter palanquin (Vulg. ferculum). The appiryon here described has a silver pedestal and a purple cushion - as we read in Athenaeus v. 13 (II p. 317, ed. Schweigh.) that the philosopher and tyrant Athenion showed himself “on a silver-legged φορεῖον, with purple coverlet;” and the same author, v. 5 (II p. 253), also says, that on the occasion of a festal procession by Antiochus Epiphanes, behind 200 women who sprinkled ointments from golden urns came 80 women, sitting in pomp on golden-legged, and 500 on silver-legged, φορεῖα - this is the proper name for the costly women's-litter (Suidas: φορεῖον γυναικεῖον), which, according to the number of bearers (Mart. VI 77: six Cappadocians and, ix. 2, eight Syrians), was called ἑξάφορον (hexaphorum, Mart. II 81) or ὀκτώφορον (octophorum, Cicero’s Verr. v. 10). The Mishna, Sota ix. 14, uses appiryon in the sense of φορεῖον: “in the last war (that of Hadrian) it was decreed that a bride should not pass through the town in an appiryon on account of the danger, but our Rabbis sanctioned it later for modesty’s sake;” as here, “to be carried in an appiryon,” so in Greek, προιέναι (καταστείχειν) ἐν φορείω. In the Midrash also, Bamidbar rabba c. 12, and elsewhere, appiryon of this passage before us is taken in all sorts of allegorical significations in most of which the identity of the word with φορεῖον is supposed, which is also there written פּוּרון (after Aruch), cf. Isa 49:22, Targ., and is once interchanged with פאפליון, papilio (parillon), pleasure-tent. But a Greek word in the Song is in itself so improbable, that Ewald describes this derivation of the word as a frivolous jest; so much the more improbable, as φορεῖον as the name of a litter (lectica) occurs first in such authors (of the κοινή) as Plutarch, Polybuis, Herodian, and the like, and therefore, with greater right, it may be supposed that it is originally a Semitic word, which the Greek language adopted at the time when the Oriental and Graeco-Roman customs began to be amalgamated. Hence, if mittā Sol 3:7, means a portable bed, -  is evident from this, that it appears as the means of transport with an escort, - then appiryon cannot also mean a litter; the description, moreover, does not accord with a litter. We do not read of rings and carrying-poles, but, on the contrary, of pillars (as those of a tent-bed) instead, and, as might be expected, of feet. Schlottm., however, takes mittā and appiryon as different names for a portable bed; but the words, “an appiryon has King Solomon made,” etc., certainly indicate that he who thus speaks has not the appiryon before him, and also that this was something different from the mittā. While Schlottm. is inclined to take appiryon, in the sense of a litter, as a word borrowed from the Greek (but in the time of the first king?), Gesen. in his Thes. seeks to derive it, thus understood, from פּרה, cito ferri, currere; but this signification of the verb is imaginary.

We expect here, in accordance with the progress of the scene, the name of the bridal couch; and on the supposition that appiryon, Sota 12 a, as in the Mishna, means the litter (Aruch) of the bride, Arab. maziffat, and not torus nuptialis (Buxt.), then there is a possibility that appiryon is a more dignified word for 'ěrěs, Sol 1:17, yet sufficient thereby to show that פּוּריא is the usual Talm. name of the marriage-bed (e.g., Mezia 23 b, where it stand, per meton., for concubitus), which is wittily explained by שׁפרין ורבין עליה (Kethuboth 10 b, and elsewhere). The Targ. has for it the form פּוּרין (vid., Levy). It thus designates a bed with a canopy (a tent-bed), Deu 32:50, Jerus; so that the ideas of the bed of state and the palanquin (cf. כילה, canopy, and כילת חתנים, bridal-bed, Succa 11 a) touch one another. In general, פוריא (פורין, as is also the case with appiryon, must have been originally a common designation of certain household furniture with a common characteristic; for the Syr. aprautha, plur. parjevatha (Wiseman’s Horae, p. 255), or also parha (Castell.), signifies a cradle. It is then to be inquired, whether this word is referable to a root-word which gives a common characteristic with manifold applications. But the Heb. פּרה, from the R. pr, signifies to split,Vid., Friedr. Delitzsch’s Indogerman.-semit. Studien, p. 72. to tear asunder, to break forth, to bring fruit, to be fruitful, and nothing further. Paaraa has nowhere the signification to run, as already remarked; only in the Palest.-Aram. פּרא is found in this meaning (vid., Buxt.). The Arab. farr does not signify to run, but to flee; properly (like our “ausreissen” = be tear out, to break out), to break open by flight the rank in which one stands (as otherwise turned by horse-dealers: to open wide the horse’s mouth). But, moreover, we do not thus reach the common characteristic which we are in search of; for if we may say of the litter that it runs, yet we cannot say that of a bed or a cradle, etc. The Arab. farfâr, species vehiculi muliebris, also does not help us; for the verb farfar, to vacillate, to shake, is its appropriate root-word.The Turkish Kâmûs says of farfâr: “it is the name of a vehicle (merkeb), like the camel-litter (haudej), destined merely for women.” This also derives its name from rocking to and fro. So farfâr, for farfara is to the present day the usual word for agiter, sécouer les ailes; farfarah, for légèreté; furfûr, for butterfly (cf. Ital. farfalla); generally, the ideas of that which is light and of no value - e.g., a babbler-connect themselves with the root far in several derivatives.

With better results shall we compare the Arab. fary, which, in Kal and Hiph., signifies to break open, to cut out (couper, tailler une étoffe), and also, figuratively, to bring forth something strange, something not yet existing (yafry alfaryya, according to the Arab. Lex. = yaty bal'ajab fy 'amalh, he accomplishes something wonderful); the primary meaning in Conj. viii. is evidently: yftarra kidban, to cut out lies, to meditate and to express that which is calumnious (a similar metaphor to khar'a, findere, viii. fingere, to cut out something in the imagination; French, inventer, imaginer). With this fary, however, we do not immediately reach פּוּריא, אפּריון; for fary, as well as fara (farw), are used only of cutting to pieces, cutting out, sewing together of leather and other materials (cf. Arab. farwat, fur; farrā, furrier), but not of cutting and preparing wood.

But why should not the Semitic language have used פּרה, פּרא, also, in the sense of the verb בּרא, which signifiesVid., Friedr. Delitzsch’s Indogerm.-sem. Stud. p. 50. We are now taught by the Assyr. that as בן goes back to בנה, so בר (Assyr. nibru) to ברה = ברא, to bring forth. to cut and hew, in the sense of forming (cf. Pih. כּרא, sculpere, Eze 21:24), as in the Arab. bara and bary, according to Lane, mean, “be formed or fashioned by cutting (a writing-reed, stick, bow), shaped out, or pared,” - in other words: Why should פרה, used in the Arab. of the cutting of leather, not be used, in the Heb. and Aram., of the preparing of wood, and thus of the fashioning of a bed or carriage? As חשּׁבון signifies a machine, and that the work of an engineer, so פּריון signifies timber-work, carpenter-work, and, lengthened especially by Aleph prosthet., a product of the carpenter’s art, a bed of state. The Aleph prosth. would indeed favour the supposition that appiryon is a foreign word; for the Semitic language frequently forms words after this manner, - e.g., אמגּוּשׁא, a magician; אסמּרא, a stater.Vid., Merx’s Gramm. Syr. p. 115.

But apart from such words as אגרטל, oddly sounding in accord with κάρταλλος as appiryon with φορεῖον, אבטּיח and אבעבּעה are examples of genuine Heb. words with such a prosthesis, i.e., an Aleph, as in אכזב and the like. אפּדן, palace, Dan 11:45, is, for its closer amalgamation by means of Dag., at least an analogous example; for thus it stands related to the Syr. opadna, as, e.g., (Syr.), oparsons, net, Ewald, §163 c, to the Jewish-Aram. אפרסנא, or אפּרסנא; cf. also אפּתם, “finally,” in relation to the Pehlv. אפדוּם (Spiegel’s Literatur der Parsen, p. 356).אּפוּריא, quoted by Gesen. in his Thes., Sanhedrin 109 b, is not applicable here, it is contracted from אד־פוריא (on the bed).

We think we have thus proved that אפּריון is a Heb. word, which, coming from the verb פּרה, to cut right, to make, frame, signifiesThis derivation explains how it comes that appiryon can mean, in the Karaite Heb., a bird-cage or aviary, vid., Gottlober’s ס בקרת, p. 208. We have left out of view the phrase אפריון נמטיי ליה, which, in common use, means: we present to him homage (of approbation or thanks). It occurs first, as uttered by the Sassanidean king, Shabur I, Mezia 119 a, extr.; and already Rapoport, in his Erech Millîn, 1852, p. 183, has recognised this word appiryon as Pers. It is the Old Pers. âfrîna or âfrivana (from frî, to love), which signifies blessing or benediction (vid., Justi’s Handb. d. Zendsprache, p. 51). Rashi is right in glossing it by חן שׁלנו (the testimony of our favour). a bed, and that, as Ewald also renders, a bed of state. רפידה (from רפד, R. רף, to lift from beneath, sublevare, then sternere) is the head of the head of the bed; lxx ἀνάκλιτον; Jerome, reclinatorium, which, according to Isidore, is the Lat. vulgar name for the fulchra, the reclining (of the head and foot) of the bedstead. Schlottmann here involuntarily bears testimony that appiryon may at least be understood of a bed of state as well as of a litter of state; for he remarks: “The four sides of the bed were generally adorned with carved work, ivory, metal, or also, as in the case of most of the Oriental divans, with drapery.” “Nec mihi tunc,” says Porpertius, ii. 10, 11, “fulcro lectus sternatur eburno.” Here the fulcrum is not of ivory, but of gold. מרכּב (from רכב, to lie upon anything; Arab. II componere; Aethiop. adipisci) is that which one takes possession of, sitting or lying upon it, the cushion, e.g., of a saddle (Lev 15:9); here, the divan (vid., Lane, Mod. Egypt, I 10) arranged on an elevated frame, serving both as a seat and as a couch. Red purple is called ארגּמן, probably from רגם = רקם, as material of variegated colour. By the interior תּוך of the bed, is probably meant a covering which lay above this cushion. רצף, to arrange together, to combine (whence רצפה, pavement; Arab. ruṣafat, a paved way), is here meant like στορέννυμι, στόρνυμι, στρώννυμι, whence στρῶμα. And רצוּף אה is not equivalent to רצוּף אה (after the construction 1Ki 22:10; Eze 9:2), inlaid with love, but is the adv. accus of the manner; “love” (cf. hhesed, Psa 141:5) denotes the motive: laid out or made up as a bed from love on the part of the daughters of Jerusalem, i.e., the ladies of the palace - these from love to the king have procured a costly tapestry or tapestries, which they have spread over the purple cuchion. Thus rightly Vaihinger in his Comm., and Merx, Archiv. Bd. II 111-114. Schlottmann finds this interpretation of מן “stiff and hard;” but although מן in the pass. is not used like the Greek ὑπό, yet it can be used like ἀπό (Ewald, sec. 295 b); and if there be no actual example of this, yet we point to Ps 45 in illustration of the custom of presenting gifts to a newly-married pair. He himself understands אהבה personally, as do also Ewald, Heiligst., Böttcher; “the voice of the people,” says Ewald, “knows that the finest ornament with which the invisible interior of the couch is adorned, is a love from among the daughters of Jerusalem, - i.e., some one of the court ladies who was raised, from the king’s peculiar love to her, to the rank of a queen-consort. The speaker thus ingeniously names this newest favourite 'a love,' and at the same time designates her as the only thing with which this elegant structure, all adorned on the outside is adorned within.” Relatively better Böttcher: with a love (beloved one), prae filiis Hierus. But even though אהבה, like amor and amores, might be used of the beloved one herself, yet רצוף does not harmonize with this, seeing we cannot speak of being paved or tapestried with persons. Schlottm. in vain refers for the personal signification of אהבה to Sol 2:7, where it means love and nothing else, and seeks to bring it into accord with רצוף; for he remarks, “as the stone in mosaic work fills the place destined for it, so the bride the interior of the litter, which is intended for just one person filling it.” But is this not more comical, without intending to be so, than Juvenal’s (i. 1. 32 s.):Causidici nova cum veniat lectica Mathonis Plena ipso ... .

But Schlottm. agrees with us in this, that the marriage which is here being prepared for was the consummation of the happiness of Solomon and Shulamith, not of another woman, and not the consummation of Solomon’s assault on the fidelity of Shulamith, who hates him to whom she now must belong, loving only one, the shepherd for whom she is said to sigh (Sol 1:4), that he would come and take her away. “This triumphal procession,” says Rocke,Das Hohelied, Erstlingsdrama, u.s.w. The Song, a Primitive Drama from the East; or, Family Sins and Love’s Devotion. A Moral Mirror for the Betrothed and Married, 1851. “was for her a mourning procession, the royal litter a bier; her heart died within her with longing for her beloved shepherd.” Touching, if it were only true! Nowhere do we see her up to this point resisting; much rather she is happy in her love. The shepherd-hypothesis cannot comprehend this marriage procession without introducing incongruous and imaginary things; it is a poem of the time of Gellert. Solomon the seducer, and Shulamith the heroine of virtue, are figures as from Gellert’s Swedish Countess; they are moral commonplaces personified, but not real human beings. In the litter sits Shulamith, and the appiryon waits for her. Solomon rejoices that now the reciprocal love-bond is to find its conclusion; and what Shulamith, who is brought from a lowly to so lofty a station, experiences, we shall hear her describe in the sequel.

Sol 3:11

At the close of the scene, the call now goes forth to the daughters of Zion, i.e., the women of Jerusalem collectively, to behold the king, who now shows himself to the object of his love and to the jubilant crowd, as the festal procession approaches. 11 Come out, yet daughters of Zion, and see      King Solomon with the crown      With which his mother crowned him      On the day of his espousal,      And on the day of the gladness of his heart.

The women of the court, as distinguished from the Galilean maiden, are called “daughters of Jerusalem;” here, generally, the women of Zion or Jerusalem (Lam 5:11) are called “daughters of Zion.” Instead of צאנה (since the verb Lamed Aleph is treated after the manner of verbs Lamed He, cf. Jer 50:20; Eze 23:49), צאינה, and that defect. צאנה,Without the Jod after Aleph in the older ed. Thus also in J and H with the note לית וחסר [= nonnisi h. l. et defective] agreeing with the MS Masora Parna. Thus also Kimchi, Michlol 108 b. is used for the sake of assonance with וּראינה;The Resh has in H Chatef-Pathach, with Metheg preceding. This, according to Ben-Asher’s rule, is correct (cf. Psa 28:9. וּר). In the punctuation of the Aleph with Tsere or Segol the Codd. vary, according to the different views of the punctuation. J has Segol; D H, Tsere, which latter also Kimchi, Michlol 109 a. elsewhere also, as we have shown at Isa 22:13, an unusual form is used for the sake of the sound. It is seen from the Sota (ix. 14) that the old custom for the bridegroom to wear a “crown” was abolished in consequence of the awful war with Vespasian. Rightly Epstein, against Grätz, shows from Job 31:36; Isa 28:1; Psa 103:4, that men also crowned themselves. בּעטרה (with the crown) is, according to the best authorities, without the art., and does not require it, since it is determined by the relat. clause following. חתנה is the marriage (the word also used in the post-bibl. Heb., and interchanging with חפּה, properly νυμφών, Mat 9:15), from the verb חתן, which, proceeding from the root-idea of cutting into (Arab. khatn, to circumcise; R. חת .R ;, whence חתך, חתם, חתר), denotes the pressing into, or going into, another family; חתן is he who enters into such a relation of affinity, and חטן the father of her who is taken away, who also on his part is related to the husband.L. Geiger (Ursprung der Sprache, 1869, p. 88) erroneously finds in R. חת (חתם, etc.) the meaning of binding. The (Arab.) noun Khatan means first a married man, and then any relation on the side of the wife (Lane); the fundamental idea must be the same as that of Khatn, circumcidere (cf. Exo 4:25), viz., that of penetrating, which חתת, percellere, and נחת, descendere (cf. e.g., ferrum descendit haud alte in corpus, in Livy, and Pro 17:1), also exhibit.

Here also the seduction fable is shattered. The marriage with Shulamith takes place with the joyful consent of the queen-mother. In order to set aside this fatal circumstance, the “crown” is referred back to the time when Solomon was married to Pharaoh’s daughter. Cogitandus est Salomo, says Heiligst., qui cum Sulamitha pompa sollemni Hierosolyma redit, eadem corona nuptiali ornatus, qua quum filiam regis Aegyptiorum uxorem duxeret ornatus erat. But was he then so poor or niggardly as to require to bring forth this old crown? and so basely regardless of his legitimate wife, of equal rank with himself, as to wound her by placing this crown on his head in honour of a rival? No; at the time when this youthful love-history occurred, Pharaoh’s daughter was not yet married. The mention of his mother points us to the commencement of his reign. His head is not adorned with a crown which had already been worn, but with a fresh garland which his mother wreathed around the head of her youthful son. The men have already welcomed the procession from afar; but the king in his wedding attire has special attractions for the women - they are here called upon to observe the moment when the happy pair welcome one another.

The Love of the Church to Christ.

1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3 The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. 5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

God is not wont to say to the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain; and yet here we have the spouse for a great while seeking her beloved in vain, but finding him at last, to her unspeakable satisfaction. It was hard to the Old-Testament church to find Christ in the ceremonial law, and the types and figures which then were of good things to come. Long was the consolation of Israel looked for before it came. The watchman of that church gave little assistance to those who enquired after him; but at length Simeon had him in his arms whom his soul loved. It is applicable to the case of particular believers, who often walk in darkness a great while, but at even time it shall be light, and those that seek Christ to the end shall find him at length. Observe,

I. How the spouse sought him in vain upon her bed (v. 1); when she was up and looking about her, grace in act and exercise, though her beloved was withdrawn, yet she could see him at a distance (ch. ii. 8), but now it was otherwise. She still continued her affection to him, still it was he whom her soul loved, that bond of the covenant still continued firm. "Though he slay me, I will trust in him; though he leave me, I will love him. When I have him not in my arms, I have him in my heart." But she wanted the communion she used to have with him, as David when he thirsted for God, for the living God. She sought him, but, 1. It was by night on her bed; it was late and lazy seeking. Her understanding was clouded; it was by night, in the dark. Her affections were chilled, it was on her bed half asleep. The wise virgins slumbered in the absence of the bridegroom. It was a dark time with the believer; she saw not her signs, and yet she sought them. Those whose souls love Jesus Christ will continue to seek him even in silence and solitude: their reins instruct them to do so, even in the night season. 2. She failed in her endeavour. Sometimes he is found of those that seek him not (Isa. lxv. 1), but here he is not found of one that sought him, either for punishment of her corruptions, her slothfulness and security (we miss of comfort because we do not seek it aright), or for the exercises of grace, her faith and patience, to try whether she will continue seeking. The woman of Canaan sought Christ, and found him not at first, that she might find him, at length, so much the more to her honour and comfort.

II. How she had sought him in vain abroad, v. 2. She had made trial of secret worship, and had gone through the duties of the closet, had remembered him on her bed and meditated on him in the night-watches (Ps. lxiii. 6), but she did not meet with comfort. My sore ran in the night, and then I remembered God and was troubled, Ps. lxxvii. 2, 3. And yet she is not driven off by the disappointment from the use of further means; she resolves, "I will rise now; I will not lie here if I cannot find my beloved here, nor be content if he be withdrawn. I will rise now without delay, and seek him immediately, lest he withdraw further from me." Those that would seek Christ so as to find him must lose no time. "I will rise out of a warm bed, and go out in a cold dark night, in quest of my beloved." Those that see Christ must not startle at difficulties. "I will rise, and go about the city, the holy city, in the streets, and the broad-ways;" for she knew he was not to be found in any blind by-ways. We must seek in the city, in Jerusalem, which was a type of the gospel-church. The likeliest place to find Christ is in the temple (Luke ii. 46), in the streets of the gospel-church, in holy ordinances, where the children of Zion pass and repass at all hours. She had a good purpose when she said, I will arise now, but the good performance was all in all. She arose, and sought him (those that are in pursuit of Christ, the knowledge of him and communion with him, must turn every stone, seek every where), and yet she found him not; she was still unsatisfied, uneasy, as Job, when he looked on all sides, but could not perceive any tokens of the divine favour (Job xxiii. 8, 9), and the Psalmist often, when he complained that God hid his face from him, Ps. lxxxviii. 14. We may be in the way of our duty and yet may miss the comfort, for the wind bloweth where it listeth. How heavy is the accent on this repeated complaint: I sought him, but I found him not! like that of Mary Magdalen, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him, John xx. 13.

III. How she enquired of the watchmen concerning him, v. 3. In the night the watchmen go about the city, for the preservation of its peace and safety, to guide and assist the honest and quiet, as well as to be a check upon those that are disorderly; these met her in her walks, and she asked them if they could give her any tidings of her beloved. In the streets and broad-ways of Jerusalem she might meet with enough to divert her from her pursuit and to entertain her, though she could not meet her beloved; but she regards none in comparison with him. Gracious souls press through crowds of other delights and contentments in pursuit of Christ, whom they prefer before their chief joy. Mary Magdalen sees angels in the sepulchre, but that will not do unless she see Jesus. Saw you him whom my soul loveth? Note, We must evince the sincerity of our love to Christ by our solicitous enquiries after him. The children of the bride-chamber will mourn when the bridegroom is taken away (Matt. ix. 15), especially for the sin which provoked him to withdraw; and, if we do so, we shall be in care to recover the sense of his favour and diligent and constant in the use of proper means in order thereunto. We must search the scriptures, be much in prayer, keep close to ordinances, and all with this upon our heart, Saw you him whom my soul loveth? Those only who have seen Christ themselves are likely to direct others to a sight of him. When the Greeks came to worship at the feast they applied to Philip, with such an address as this of the spouse to the watchmen, Sir, we would see Jesus, John xii. 21.

IV. How she found him at last, v. 4. She passed from the watchmen as soon as she perceived they could give her no tidings of her beloved; she would not stay with them, because he was not among them, but went on seeking, for (as Ainsworth observes) the society neither of brethren, nor of the church, nor of ministers, can comfort the afflicted conscience unless Christ himself be apprehended by faith. But soon after she parted from the watchmen she found him whom she sought, and then called him him whom my soul loveth, with as much delight as before with desire. Note, Those that continue seeking Christ shall find him at last, and when perhaps they were almost ready to despair of finding him. See Ps. xlii. 7, 8; lxxvii. 9, 10; Isa. liv. 7, 8. Disappointments must not drive us away from gracious pursuits. Hold out, faith and patience; the vision is for an appointed time, and, though the watchman can give us no account of it, at the end it shall itself speak and not lie; and the comfort that comes in after long waiting, in the use of means, will be so much the sweeter at last.

V. How close she kept to him when she had found him. She is now as much in fear of losing him as before she was in care to find him: I held him, held him fast, as the women, when they met with Christ after his resurrection, held him by the feet, and worshipped him, Matt. xxviii. 9. "I would not let him go. Not only, I would never do any thing to provoke him to depart, but I would by faith and prayer prevail with him to stay, and by the exercise of grace preserve inward peace." Those that know how hard comfort is come by, and how dearly it is bought, will be afraid of forfeiting it and playing it away, and will think nothing too much to do to keep it safe. Non minor est virtus quam quærere parta tueri—As much is implied in securing our acquisitions as in making them. Those that have laid hold on wisdom must retain her, Prov. iii. 18. Those that hold Christ fast in the arms of faith and love shall not let him go; he will abide with them.

VI. How desirous she was to make others acquainted with him: "I brought him to my mother's house, that all my relations, all who are dear to me, might have the benefit of communion with him." When Zaccheus found Christ, or rather was found of him, salvation came to his house, Luke xix. 9. Wherever we find Christ we must take him home with us to our houses, especially to our hearts. The church is our mother, and we should be concerned for her interests, that she may have Christ present with her and be earnest in prayer for his presence with his people and ministers always. Those that enjoy the tokens of Christ's favour to their own souls should desire that the church, and all religious assemblies in their public capacity, might likewise enjoy the tokens of his favour.

VII. What care she was in that no disturbance might be given him (v. 5); she repeats the charge she had before given (ch. ii. 7) to the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up or awake her love. When she had brought him into her mother's house, among her sisters, she gives them a strict charge to keep all quiet and in good order, to be very observant of him, careful to please him, and afraid of offending him. The charge given to the church in the wilderness concerning the angel of the covenant, who was among them, explains this. Exod. xxiii. 21, Beware of him and obey his voice; provoke him not. See that none of you stir out of your places, lest you disturb him, but with quietness work and mind your own business; make no noise; let all clamour and bitterness be put far from you, for that grieves the Holy Spirit of God, Eph. iv. 30, 31. Some make this to be Christ's charge to the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb or disquiet his church, nor trouble the minds of the disciples; for Christ is very tender of the peace of his church, and all the members of it, even the little ones; and those that trouble them shall bear their judgment, Gal. v. 10.

The Love of the Church to Christ.

6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

These are the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom the charge was given, v. 5. They had looked shily upon the bride because she was black (ch. i. 6); but now they admire her, and speak of her with great respect: Who is this? How beautiful she looks! Who would have expected such a comely and magnificent person to come out of the wilderness? As, when Christ rode in triumph into Jerusalem, they said, Who is this? And of the accession of strangers to the church she herself says, with wonder (Isa. xlix. 21), Who has begotten me these? 1. This is applicable to the Jewish church, when, after forty years' wandering in the wilderness, they came out of it, to take a glorious possession of the land of promise; and this may very well be illustrated by what Balaam said of them at that time, when they ascended out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, and he stood admiring them: From the top of the rocks I see him. How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! Num. xxiii. 9; xxiv. 5. 2. It is applicable to any public deliverance of the church of God, as particularly of Babylon, the Old-Testament and the New-Testament Babylon; then the church is like pillars of smoke, ascending upwards in devout affections, the incense of praise, from which, as from Noah's sacrifice, God smells a sweet savour; then she is amiable in the eyes of her friends, and her enemies too cannot but have a veneration for her, and worship at her feet, knowing that God has loved her, Rev. iii. 9. Sometimes the fear of the Jews was upon their neighbours, when they saw that God was with them of a truth, Esth. viii. 17. 3. It is applicable to the recovery of a gracious soul out of a state of desertion and despondency. (1.) She ascends out of the wilderness, the dry and barren land, where there is no way, where there is no water, where travellers are still in want and ever at a loss; here a poor soul may long be left to wander, but shall come up, at last, under the conduct of the Comforter. (2.) She comes up like pillars of smoke, like a cloud of incense ascending from the altar or the smoke of the burnt-offerings. This intimates a fire of pious and devout affections in the soul, whence this smoke arises, and the mounting of the soul heaven-ward in this smoke (as Judges xiii. 20), the heart lifted up to God in the heavens, as the sparks fly upward. Christ's return to the soul gives life to its devotion, and its communion with God is most reviving when it ascends out of a wilderness. (3.) She is perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. She is replenished with the graces of God's Spirit, which are as sweet spices, or as the holy incense, which, being now kindled by his gracious returns, sends forth a very fragrant smell. Her devotions being now peculiarly lively, she is not only acceptable to God, but amiable in the eyes of others also, who are ready to cry out with admiration, Who is this? What a monument of mercy is this! The graces and comforts with which she is perfumed are called the powders of the merchant, for they are far-fetched and dear-bought, by our Lord Jesus, that blessed merchant, who took a long voyage, and was at vast expense, no less than that of his own blood, to purchase them for us. They are not the products of our own soil, nor the growth of our own country; no, they are imported from the heavenly Canaan, the better country.

The Love of the Church to Christ.

7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. 8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. 10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

The daughters of Jerusalem stood admiring the spouse and commending her, but she overlooks their praises, is not puffed up with them, but transfers all the glory to Christ, and directs them to look off from her to him, recommends him to their esteem, and sets herself to applaud him. Here he is three times called Solomon, and we have that name but three times besides in all this song, ch. i. 5; viii. 11, 12. It is Christ that is here meant, who is greater than Solomon, and of whom Solomon was an illustrious type for his wisdom and wealth, and especially his building the temple.

Three things she admires him for:—

I. The safety of his bed (v. 7): Behold his bed, even Solomon's, very rich and fine; for such the curtains of Solomon were. His bed, which is above Solomon's, so some read it. Christ's bed, though he had not where to lay his head, is better than Solomon's best bed. The church is his bed, for he has said of it. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell. The hearts of believers are his bed, for he lies all night between their breasts, Eph. iii. 17. Heaven is his bed, the rest into which he entered when he had done his work. Or it may be meant of the sweet repose and satisfaction which gracious souls enjoy in communion with him; it is called his bed, because, though we are admitted to it, and therefore it is called our bed (ch. i. 16), yet it is his peace that is our rest, John xiv. 27. I will give you rest, Matt. xi. 28. It is Solomon's bed, whose name signifies peace, because in his days Judah and Israel dwelt safely under their vines and fig-trees. That which she admires his bed for is the guard that surrounded it. Those that rest in Christ not only dwell at ease (many do so who yet are in the greatest danger) but they dwell in safety. Their holy serenity is under the protection of a holy security. This bed had threescore valiant men about it, as yeomen of the guard, or the band of gentlemen-pensioners; they are of the valiant of Israel, and a great many bold and brave men David's reign had produced. The life-guard men are well armed: They all hold swords, and know how to hold them; they are expert in war, well skilled in all the arts of it. They are posted about the bed at a convenient distance. They are in a posture of defence, every man with his sword upon his thigh and his hand upon his sword, ready to draw upon the first alarm, and this because of fear in the night, because of the danger feared; for the lives of princes, even the wisest and best, as they are more precious, so they are more exposed, and require to be more guarded than the lives of common persons. Or, because of the fear of it, and the apprehension which the spouse may have of danger, these guards are set for her satisfaction, that she may be quiet from the fear of evil, which believers themselves are subject to, especially in the night, when they are under a cloud as to their spiritual state, or in any outward trouble more than ordinary. Christ himself was under the special protection of his Father in his whole undertaking. In the shadow of his hand he hid me (Isa. xlix. 2); he had legions of angels at his command. The church is well guarded; more are with her than against her. Lest any hurt this vineyard, God himself keeps it night and day (Isa. xxvii. 2, 3); particular believers, when they repose themselves in Christ and with him, though it may be night-time with them, and they may have their fears in the night, and yet safe, as safe as Solomon himself in the midst of his guards; the angels have a charge concerning them, ministers are appointed to watch for their souls, and they ought to be valiant men, expert in the spiritual warfare, holding the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and having that girt upon their thigh, always ready to them for the silencing of the fears of God's people in the night. All the attributes of God are engaged for the safety of believers; they are kept as in a strong-hold by his power (1 Pet. i. 5), are safe in his name (Prov. xviii. 10), his peace protects those in whom it rules (Phil. iv. 7), and the effect of righteousness in them is quietness and assurance, Isa. xxxii. 17. Our danger is from the rulers of the darkness of this world, but we are safe in the armour of light.

II. The splendour of his chariot, v. 9, 10. As Christ and believers rest in safety under a sufficient guard, so when they appear publicly, as kings in their coaches of state, they appear in great magnificence. This chariot was of Solomon's own contriving and making, the materials very rich, silver, and gold, and cedar, and purple. He made it for himself, and yet made it for the daughters of Jerusalem, to oblige them. Some by this chariot, or coach, or chaise (the word is nowhere else used in scripture), understand the human nature of Christ, in which the divine nature rode as in an open chariot. It was a divine workmanship (A body hast thou prepared me); the structure was very fine, but that which was at the bottom of it was love, pure love to the children of men. Others make it to represent the everlasting gospel, in which, as in an open chariot, Christ shows himself, and as in a chariot of war rides forth triumphantly, conquering and to conquer. The pillars, the seven pillars (Prov. ix. 1), are of silver, for the words of the Lord are as silver tried (Ps. xii. 6), nay, they are better than thousands of gold and silver. It is hung with purple, a princely colour; all the adornings of it are dyed in the precious blood of Christ, and that gives them this colour. But that which completes the glory of it is love; it is paved with love, it is lined with love, not love of strangers, as Solomon's was in the days of his defection, but love of the daughters of Jerusalem, a holy love. Silver is better than cedar, gold than silver, but love is better than gold, better than all, and it is put last, for nothing can be better than that. The gospel is all love. Mr. Durham applies it to the covenant of redemption, the way of our salvation, as it is contrived in the eternal counsel of God, and manifested to us in the scriptures. This is that work of Christ himself wherein the glory of his grace and love to sinners most eminently appears, and which makes him amiable and admirable in the eyes of believers. In this covenant love is conveyed to them, and they are carried in it to the perfection of love, and, as it were, ride in triumph. It is admirably framed and contrived, both for the glory of Christ and for the comfort of believers. It is well ordered in all things, and sure (2 Sam. xxiii. 5); it has pillars that cannot be shaken, it is made of the wood of Lebanon, which can never rot; the basis of it is gold, the most lasting metal; the blood of the covenant, that rich purple, is the cover of this chariot, by which believers are sheltered from the wind and storms of divine wrath, and the troubles of this world; but the midst of it, and that which is all in all in it, is love, that love of Christ which surpasses knowledge and the dimensions of which are immeasurable.

III. The lustre of his royal person, when he appears in his greatest pomp, v. 11. Here observe,

1. The call that is given to the daughters of Zion to acquaint themselves with the glories of king Solomon: Go forth, and behold him. The multitude of the spectators adds to the beauty of a splendid cavalcade. Christ, in his gospel, manifests himself. Let each of us add to the number of those that give honour to him, by giving themselves the satisfaction of looking upon him. Who should pay respects to Zion's king but Zion's daughters? They have reason to rejoice greatly when he comes, Zec. ix. 9. (1.) Behold him then. Look with pleasure upon Christ in his glory. Look upon him with an eye of faith, with a fixed eye. Here is a sight worth seeing; behold, and admire him, behold, and love him; look upon him, and know him again. (2.) Go forth and behold him; go off from the world, as those that see no beauty and excellency in it in comparison with what is to be seen in the Lord Jesus. Go out of yourselves, and let the light of his transcendent beauty put you out of conceit with yourselves. Go forth to the place where he is to be seen, to the street through which he passes, as Zaccheus.

2. The direction that is given them to take special notice of that which they would not see every day, and that was his crown, either the crown of gold, adorned with jewels, which he wore on his coronation-day (Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, though she did not procure that for him, yet, by her seasonable interposal, she helped to secure it to him when Adonijah was catching at it), or the garland or crown of flowers and green tied with ribbons which his mother made for him, to adorn the solemnity of his nuptials. Perhaps Solomon's coronation day was his marriage-day, the day of his espousals, when the garland his mother crowned him with was added to the crown his people crowned him with. Applying this to Christ, it speaks, (1.) The many honours put upon him, and the power and dominion he is entrusted with: Go forth, and see king Jesus, with the crown wherewith his Father crowned him, when he declared him his beloved Son, in whom he was well-pleased, when he set him as King upon his holy hill of Zion, when he advanced him to his own right hand, and invested him with a sovereign authority, both in heaven and in earth, and put all things under his feet. (2.) The dishonour put upon him by his persecutors. Some apply it to the crown of thorns with which his mother, the Jewish church, crowned him on the day of his death, which was the day of his espousals to his church, when he loved it, and gave himself for it (Eph. v. 25); and it is observable that when he was brought forth wearing the crown of thorns Pilate said, and said it to the daughters of Zion, Behold the man. (3.) It seems especially to mean the honour done him by his church, as his mother, and by all true believers, in whose hearts he is formed, and of whom he has said, These are my mother, my sister, and brother, Matt. xii. 50. They give him the glory of his undertaking; to him is glory in the church, Eph. iii. 21. When believers accept of him as theirs, and join themselves to him in an everlasting covenant, [1.] It is his coronation-day in their souls. Before conversion they were crowning themselves, but then they begin to crown Christ, and continue to do so from that day forward. They appointed him their head; they bring every thought into obedience to him; they set up his throne in their hearts, and cast all their crowns at his feet. [2.] It is the day of his espousals, in which he betroths them to him for ever in lovingkindness and in mercies, joins them to himself in faith and love, and gives himself to them in the promises and all he has, to be theirs. Thou shalt not be for another, so will I also be for thee, Hos. iii. 3. And to him they are presented as chaste virgins. [3.] It is the day of the gladness of his heart; he is pleased with the honour that his people do him, pleased with the progress of his interest among them. Does Satan fall before them? In that hour Jesus rejoices in spirit, Luke x. 18, 21. There is joy in heaven over repenting sinners; the family is glad when the prodigal son returns. Go forth and behold Christ's grace toward sinners, as his crown, his brightest glory.

CHAP. III. Verſ. 1. By night on my Bed I ſought him whom my ſoul loveth.]

SHee had not a name good enough for him: ſhee therefore makes uſe of this powerful Periphraſis. Before hee had been her Beloved, but now the love of her ſoul, becauſe now hee had withdrawn himſelf. It was night with her now; ſhee walked in darkneſs, and had no light, as Iſa. 50.10. and, as before day break, the darkneſs is greateſt: ſo was it now with the woful Spouſe. Shee was indeed upon her bed of eaſe, but to her in this caſe it was a little-eaſe, a bed of unreſt, her ſoul was toſſed and troubled with ſolitary ſeeking, longing and looking after him whom her ſoul loved. By night therefore, or night after night, ſundry nights together (as ſome read it) Shee ſought and ſought, being conſtant, inſtant and indefa[illegible: 1 letter]igable in the ſcarch, ſhee ſought him early and earneſtly, with utmoſt attention and affection, with her whole heart and ſoul, Jer. 29.13. according to the meaſure of her love to him, which was modus ſine modo, as Bernard hath it. Now whatſoever a man loves, that hee deſires, and what hee deſires, that hee ſeeks after; eſpecially if hee apprehend ſome ſingular worth in it. In Chriſt are hid all the treaſures of wiſdome and knowledge, Col. 2.3. Hee is better than Rubias, ſaith Solomon, and all the things that may bee deſired are not to bee compared unto him, Prov. 8.11. Hence the good ſoul ſeeks him, as eagerly as the Mammoniſt ſeeks ſilver, the Ambitioniſt honour, the affamiſhed man bread, the condemned priſoner a pardon, or as one that ſeeks for a loſt Jewel, hee over-looks all till hee hath found it; Chriſt I muſt have, ſaith ſhee, whatever it coſt mee: this gold cannot bee bought too dear. Shee longeth ſore, as David did, ſaying, Oh that one would give mee of the water of the Well of Bethlehem! 1 Chron. 11.17. Oh for a bleſſed arm-full of the Babe of Bethlehem! ſuch as Simeon once had; Give mee Chriſt, or elſe I die. None but Chriſt, none but Christ. All is but dung and droſs to Chriſt.Phil. 3. God offered Moſes an Angel to go along with them in the wilderneſs: Hee would have no Angel, nor ſtir a ſtep unleſs God himſelf would conduct them. Barak would not march without Deborah; &c.

I found him not] i. e. I had not ſo full a preſence, nor ſo faſt hold of him as I deſired, hee had got behinde the wall or the window, as in the former chapter, and (Joſeph-like) concealed his love out of increaſement of love; as alſo that hee may ſtir up ſtrong affections after him in the hearts of his people: for hee well enough knows how to commend his mercies to us, as Laban did his daughter Rachel to Jacob, by holding us off, by ſuſpending us for a ſeaſon. Even barren Leah, when unloved and unlookt on, becomes fruitful: and the drowſie Spouſe, when ſhee miſſeth her Beloved, becomes reſtleſs till ſhee have recovered him. In their affliction they will ſeek mee early, Hoſ. 5.15. Affliction excites devotion; and makes the Saints ſeek again with a redoubled diligence, as here. See Pſal. 78.34, 35. It fares with the beſt ſometimes, as it did with Saint Paul and his company in the ſhipwrack, Act. 27.20. when they ſaw neither Sun nor Stars for divers daies and nights together. In this diſmal and diſconſolate condition, if they can but caſt anchor and pray ſtill for day, Chriſt will appear (as here, verſe 3.) and all ſhall clear up, the day will dawn, and the day-ſtar appear in their hearts. Mourning laſteth but till morning, Pſal. 30. and the viſion is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it ſhall ſpeak and not lye, it will ſurely come, it will not tarry, Hab. 2.3. But what ſhall wee do in the mean while, may ſome ſay? how ſhall wee ſuſtain our ſpirits? ſith hope deferred makes the heart ſick? Though it tarry, wait for it, ſaith the Prophet, Have patience, and learn to live by Faith, The juſt ſhall live by his Faith, verſ. 4. Wee are uſually too haſty, and do antedate the promiſes: neither will any reaſon ſatisfie us, unleſs wee may have all Chriſts ſweetneſs at once, and at preſent. Excellent is that diſcourſe that Mr. Bradford the Martyr makes in a conſolatory letter to a good woman, that was troubled in conſcience. You are not content, ſaith hee, to kiſs Chriſts feet,Act. and Mon. 1490. with Magdalen, but you would bee kiſſed even with the kiſſes of his mouth. You would ſee his face with Moſes, forgetting how hee biddeth to ſeek his face, Pſal. 27. yea and that for ever, Pſal. 105. which ſignifieth no ſuch ſight as you deſire to ſee in this preſent life, which would ſee God now face to face: whereas hee cannot bee ſeen but covered under ſomething, yea ſometime in that which is clean contrary unto God, as to ſee his mercy in his anger, &c. How did Job ſee God, but as yee would ſay under Satans cloak? &c. You know that Moſes when hee went to the Mount to talk with God, hee entred into a dark cloud. And Elias had his face covered when God paſſed by. Both theſe dear friends of God heard God, but ſaw him not. But you would bee preferred before them. See now, my dear heart, how covetous you are. Ah bee thankful, bee thankful! But God bee thanked your covetouſneſs, is Moſes covetouſneſs. Well, with him you ſhall bee ſatisfied. But when? forſooth when hee ſhall appear, &c. God would have his people diſcontentedly contented with what meaſures of grace and feelings they have attained unto, and to know that Tota vita boni Chriſtiani ſanctum deſiderium eſt, Bern. the whole life of a good Chriſtian is an holy deſire after more: and that thoſe very pantings, inquietations and unſatisfiableneſſes cannot but ſpring from truth of grace, and ſome taſte of Chriſt.

Verſ. 2. I will riſe now and go about the City, &c.] The holy City Jeruſalem, whither the Tribes went up, the Tribes of the Lord unto the Teſtimony of Iſrael, Pſal. 122.4. There was the likelieſt place to finde Chriſt; there his Parents found him once after three daies ſearch (Luk. 2.46.) ſitting in the Temple: there hee dwelt amongſt men, there hee gave gifts unto men, and there-hence hee went forth abroad the whole world conquering, and to conquer, Rev. 6.2. Here therefore the Spouſe ſeeks him amongſt the people of God, and in his Word and Ordinances. Shee knew well that hee fed his flock among thoſe Lillies, uſed to go down into that his garden of ſpices, Cant. 6.1, 2. to take a turn amidſt thoſe golden Candleſticks, Rev. 1.13. to take a view of his Wedding gueſts, Mat. 22.11. yea to eat and drink in their preſence, and to teach in their ſtreets, Luk. 13.26. Abroad ſhee gets therefore, and that preſently.

I will riſe now] Saith ſhee, leſt I loſe mine opportunity: for if ſo, I may ſeek it with tears, and go without it with ſorrow. Men may purpoſe, promiſe, and expect a time of healing, and curing, when they ſhall bee deceived, and finde a time of trouble, Jer. 14.17. Many, I ſay unto you, ſhall ſeek to enter, and ſhall not bee able, Luk. 13.24. yea they ſhall go with their flocks; and with their herds, to ſeek the Lord; but they ſhall not finde him, hee hath withdrawn himſelf from them, Hoſ. 5.6. They came too late belike; they ſought not the Lord while hee was to bee found (vel ſero, vel certe non ſerio quaerebant) they called not upon him while hee was near, they ſtayed till hee was out of call, Prov. 1.28. till hee was reſolved to return either no anſwer at all, or ſuch a ſad anſwer as the Jews had from him, becauſe they ſtood out their day of grace, Yee ſhall ſeek mee, and ſhall not finde mee: and where I am, thither yee cannot come, John 7.34. And again, I go my way, and yee ſhall ſeek mee, and ſhall dye in your ſins, John 8.21. Oh dreadful ſentence! The Church her ſelf here, though never ſo dear to Chriſt, ſeems to ſome to bee guilty of ſloth and ſlackneſs in ſeeking after Chriſt, and doing it in her bed (as loth at firſt to diſeaſe her ſelf) or in holding him while ſhee had him, if whilſt ſhee was ſleeping, hee ſlipt away from her ſide. The wiſe Virgins alſo were napping and nodding, Mat. 25. and holy Auſtin confeſſeth, that hee could not anſwer that clear text, whereby hee was called out of his ſinful courſe,Confeſſ. lib. 8. cap. 5. Awake thou that ſleepeſt, and ſtand up from the dead, &c. but onely by that wiſh of the ſluggard, Modo & ecce modo, Sinite paululum, &c. A little more ſleeps, a little more ſlumbers, &c. little and yet ſleeps in the plural. Thus Modo & Modo non habent modum, & Sinite paululum ibit in longum, as that Father hath it. Somewhat it was ſurely that makes the Church reſolve, as here, I will riſe now, or Let mee riſe now; I will ſtir up the gift of God that is in mee, I will ſtir up my ſelf to take better hold of Chriſt. Here is a tacit taxing her ſelf for ſome former ſlackneſs, after her former enjoyments, and familiar entercourſe with Chriſt. Wee are too ready, after wee have run well, to lye down and take cold, which may cauſe a conſumption: to pleaſe our ſelves in unlawful liberties, when wee have pleaſed the Lord in lawful duties. Hezekiah, after his notable ſervice both of prayer and thankſgiving, fondly over-ſhoots himſelf to the Babyloniſh Embaſſadors. Jonah after his Embaſſage faithfully diſcharged to the Ninivites, breaks forth into anger againſt the Lord. Peter being commended by Chriſt for the profeſſion of his Faith,Mat. 16. fell preſently ſo far wide, that hee heard, Get thee behinde mee Satan.

I ſought him, but I found him not] For trial and exerciſe of her faith and conſtancy. Then ſhall yee know, if yee follow on to know the Lord, Hoſ. 6.3. So then ſhall wee finde, if wee follow on to ſeek Chriſt, fetching him out of his hiding-place, as the woman of Canaan did. For hee would have hid himſelf, ſaith the Text, but hee could not, For a certain woman, &c. Mark. 7.24, 25. And as ſhee ſet him out, ſo ſhee followed him cloſe; refuſing to bee either ſaid nay, or ſit down with ſilence or ſad anſwers. The like did Jacob, Gen. 32. hee wreſtled with might and ſlight, hee would have a bleſſing whether God would or no, as wee may ſay with reverence. Let men go, ſaith God, No, thou ſhalt not, ſaith Jacob. Let mee alone that I may deſtroy this people, No, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Propter improbitatem. by no means, ſaith Moſes. In ſeeking of Chriſt, faith is not onely importunate, but even impudent, Luk. 15.8. and threatens Heaven, as Nazianzen ſaid of his ſiſter Gorgonia. If hee have loſt his mercy, ſhee will finde it for him, Iſa. 63.15. If hee look ſtrange and ſtern, ſhee will both know him, and claim him amidſt all his auſterities. Verſ. 16. Art not thou our Father? Pſal. 63.8. If hee bee gone never ſo far, ſhee will follow hard after him, ſo Davids phraſe is, even as hard as her old leggs will carry (as Father Latimer ſaid) with Return for thy ſervants ſake. Wee are thine, &c. verſ. 17, 19. O Lord (faith the Church in Habakkuk) Art not thou from everlaſting, my God, and mine Holy One? It was a bold queſtion; but God aſſents to it in a gracious anſwer, ere hee went further. Wee ſhall not dye, ſay they abruptly, Hab. 1.12. Nay after two daies (for ſo long, it may bee, hee will hold us off, to try how wee will hold out ſeeking) hee will revive us, in the third day hee will raiſe us up, and wee ſhall live in his ſight, Hoſ. 6.2. Or if wee ſhould dye in this waiting condition, and in a ſpiritual deſertion, yet wee could not miſſe of Heaven, becauſe hee hath ſaid, Bleſſed are all they that wait for him, Iſa. 30.18.

Verſ. 3. The watchmen that go about the City found mee] i. e. The Angels, (who are Gods watchmen over the world, and are ſo called ſomewhere in Scripture) as alſo, Miniſtring Spirits, guardians of the Saints, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Dan. 4.10 Ezek. 33.2 &c. But here I conceive are meant either thoſe Princes of the world, ſtrangers to the myſtery of Chriſt, 1 Cor. 2.8. and therefore can tell no tale nor tidings of him. For why, they are of Gallio's Religion, which is no better than a meer irreligion, Act. 18.15. being de regione magis ſoliciti quam de religione, as one ſaith: Or elſe, the Officers and Miniſters of the Church, ſet as Watch-men upon Jeruſalems walls, with charge never to hold their peace, day nor night, Iſa. 62.6. But they alaſs prove too too oft blind watch-men, dumb doggs, ſleeping, lying down, loving to ſlumber, Iſa. 56.16. And ſuch it ſeems were theſe here, by the ſmall directions they gave the Church, or intelligence of her beſt Beloved. Howbeit, becauſe the Prieſts lips ſhould preſerve knowledge,Heb. 13.1 and they are given for Guides to God, however they prove, ſhee repairs to them, or rather, lighting upon them, enquires for Chriſt.

Saw yee him whom my ſoul loveth?] They that love Chriſt in ſincerity, are apt to imagine that others alſo do love him no leſs than they. So much worth they finde in him, that they wonder how any can do otherwiſe than affect and admire him. This made Mary Magdalen, who loved much, to ask the Gardener (for ſo ſhee took him to bee) what hee had done with the Lords body, John 20.15. Whereabout ſhee thought hee had been as ſolicitous as her ſelf. So the Church here, Have you ſeen him? When they perhaps were perfect ſtrangers to him. But bee they as they will, they ſhould have known and loved the Lord Jeſus Chriſt, upon pain of utter cutting off, 1 Cor. 16.22. and whether they do or do not, they ſhall know that ſhee loves him; Quis enim celaverit ignem? for who can hide fire in his boſome, or musk in his pocket? The love of Chriſt cannot poſſibly bee concealed. A man may as eaſily hide the wind with his fiſt, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth it ſelf, as Solomon ſpeaketh in another caſe, Prov. 27.16. Hee that beleeves with his heart, will confeſs with his mouth, Rom. 10.10. Chriſts true worſhippers are marked in their fore-heads, Rev. 7.3. Antichriſts limbs receive his mark in their hands, chap. 13.16. which they can cover or diſcover, as they ſee occaſion. Wee have alſo many politick Profeſſors amongſt us, who for want of true love to Chriſt, either run away in the plain field, Heb. 10. ult. and ſo incur the danger of Marſhal Law: or elſe (under a colour of diſcretion) fall back into the rereward; the battel is ſharp, and it is not good to bee too forward. But is this thy love to thy friend, as bee ſaid to Huſhai the Archite? Davids Parents and brethren came down to him to the cave of Adullam, though to their great danger, 1 Sam. 22.1. And Baſil being blamed for his forwardneſs to appear for his friend in danger, anſwered, Ego aliter amare non didici, a friend is made for the day of adverſity.

Verſ. 4. It was but a little that I paſſed from them] It is probable, that lighting upon theſe watch-men, ſhee promiſed her ſelf much counſel and comfort from them; but was diſappointed. It pleaſeth God many times to croſs our likelieſt projects, that himſelf alone may bee l[illegible: 1 letter]aned upon. The poor ſoul in diſtreſs is apt to knock at the creatures door for comfort, to ſhark abroad, and to look this way and that way, as David did, for help. Yea many uſe the means as Mediatours, and ſo fall ſhort of Chriſt. It is a good Note that one makes upon this Text, that ſhee was a little paſt the watchmen; Mr. Dud'y Fenner. which ſhews, ſaith hee, that the Lord delaies comfort, to draw his Church thorow all his means, from the loweſt to the higheſt, where ſhee findeth in ſhort ſpace comfort; but many times not till ſhee is paſt: that they might not attribute it to the excellency of the means, but unto God.

Ideo minatur, ut non punia[illegible: 1 letter]. Chryſ. But I found him whom my ſoul loveth] Chriſt, as hee therefore threatneth that hee may not bee put to puniſh, ſo hee therefore hides himſelf (otherwhiles) that hee may come in again to his people with more comfort: And his uſual time to come in to them, is, when they have well-nigh done looking after him (as hee dealt by thoſe two that were travelling to Emmaus, Luk. 24.13.) when they have hanged up their hopes, and their harps together, and are ready to caſt away their confidence, and to leave looking any longer, Luk. 18.8. When the ſon of man comes (viz. with an anſwer to his peoples prayers, which they have now even given up for loſt labour) ſhall hee finde Faith upon the earth? i. e. will anybody ever think, that having ſtayed ſo long, hee would yet come at laſt? Chriſt loves to comfort thoſe that are forſaken of their hopes, and to give a bleſſing to thoſe times and means, whereof wee deſpair. The pains cannot bee caſt away which wee reſolve to loſe for Chriſt.

I held him, and would not let him go] Shee held him with both hands earneſtly: for Faith hath two hands, one receiving Chriſt from God, the other giving the beleever to God. With both ſhee holds Chriſt (the King is held in her galleries by the bonds of love, by the cords of kindneſs, Cant. 7.5. hee is even held priſoner in her company) but eſpecially with the former. Shee holds him, as Jacob did, Gen. 32.26. though with much conflict: the Devil ſtrikes hard at her hand, and would make her looſe her hold. Hence Faith is fain to tugg and wreſtle, even till it ſweat again. And therefore Paul calls it, [non-Latin text not transcribed], the difficult work of Faith, 1 Theſ. 1.3. becauſe the beleever hath ſuch ado to hold his own. If hee cannot hold with his hands, hee will make uſe of his teeth (as it is ſtoried of Cynegirus that Noble Athenian, and of our Sir Thomas Challoner, A[illegible: 1 letter]lian. Camden. in the wars of Charls the fifth) any ſhift hee will make rather than part with Chriſt, whom his ſoul loveth: having faſtened on the tree of life, rather than drown, hee is reſolved to pull it up by the very roots. Let God fight againſt him with his own hand, and offer, as it were, to kill him, yet hee will hang on ſtill: hee will truſt in an angry God, in a killing God, as Job: and as Jacob, hee will wreſtle, and not let go, though alone, and in the night, and upon one leg. Loe this is the Generation of them that ſeek him, of them that ſeek thy face: this is Jacob, Pſal. 24.6. theſe bee Iſraelites indeed, John 1.47.

Until I had brought him into my Mothers houſe] That is, into my conſcience, ſay ſome, (where Faith dwelleth, and Chriſt by faith, Rom. 10.10. Gal. 4.19.) into the Synagogues of the Jews ſay others, or into the Congregations of the Gentiles. They do beſt that underſtand it of the Catholick Church, the ſupernal Jeruſalem, that mother of us all, figured by Sarah, Gal 4.24, 26. where Chriſt hath moſt delightful dwelling, a comfortable commoration, and as it were, conjugal cohabitation with his Spouſe, chamber-fellowſhip, Judg. 15.1.

Verſ. 5. I charge you, O yee daughters of Jeruſalem] As a further fruit of her revived faith, ſhee renews her conteſtation, and charge of ſanctification of life, ſuch as becometh the Goſpel; that Chriſt whom ſhee reſolves now to retain with her, bee not provoked by ſin to leave his people, Numb. 32.15. And in this vehement adjuration, no doubt, ſaith an Interpreter, but the Church had a ſpecial regard to the cuſtome uſed then, and yet even at this day uſed amongſt us: namely, that ſongs are ſung before the Bride-chamber, and certain noiſes of Inſtruments brought to wake the Bride and Bridegroom from ſleep. See the Note on chap. 2.7.

Verſ. 6. Who is this that cometh out of the wilderneſs] Who is this, ſay the Angels, thoſe friends of the Bridegroom (as ſome will have it) admiring the Churches high expreſſions, and continual aſcenſions in her affection to Chriſt? But I rather think it is the voice of the Bridegroom himſelf, raviſhed with the beauty and ſweetneſs of his Spouſe, and wondring at his own comelineſs put upon her; as well hee may; for quantum mutatur ab illa? Virg. Such a change hee hath wrought in her, as never was known in any. See Ezek. 16.6, 7, 8, &c. Moſes married an Ethiopian woman, and could not change her hiew. David married a ſcornful dame, a mocking Michol, and could not mend her conditions. Jobs wife continued to bee (as it is ſaid of Helena after the Trojan troubles cauſed by her) [non-Latin text not transcribed], the ſame woman ſtill, no changeling Shee: but the Church, and all her genuine children are ſtrangely altered and metamorphoſed (as the Apoſtles word is, Rom. 12.2.) and this change is not moral, formal, meerly mental, temporal, partial, but ſpiritual, real, univerſal, both in reſpect of ſubject and object: for it is an intire change of the whole man, from the whole ſervice of Satan, to the living and true God in ſincere obedience to the whole Law, the whole courſe of his life throughout. A change ſo conſpicuous, and ſo ſtupendious, that not onely ſtrangers take notice of it, ſtrange at it, 1 Pet. 4.4. and marvel much at the matter, ſaying, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Who is this? Mat. 21.10. What is come to the man of late, that now it is, Ego non ſum? but Chriſt himſelf ſtands wondring at his own work, as hee did once in Nathanael, Behold an Iſraelite indeed (an Iſhmaelite by nature, but an Iſraelite by grace, as Gether, 1 Chron. 7.17. 2 Sam. 17.3.) John 1.47. and as before that in Araunah, that famous Jebuſite, 2 Sam. 24.18. compared with Zach. 9.7.

That cometh out of the wilderneſs] ſcil. Of this world, fitly called a wilderneſs, for the paucity of good people in it (the wilderneſs of Judea, where John preached was ſo called, becauſe but thinly inhabited) and plenty of Bears, and Bores, Lions, and Leopards, and other wilde creatures, whereunto wicked men for their ſavageneſs are commonly compared in Scripture. This aſcending of the Church out of the world, as Iſrael did out of Egypt, and their orderly marching thorow the wilderneſs into the promiſed inheritance, is worthily called a wonderful ſeparation, Exod. 33.16. And as that Angel that appeared to Manoah, by aſcending up in the flame of the Altar, is ſaid to do wondrouſly, Judg. 13.19, 20. So do the Saints by their daily devotions, as ſo many pillars of ſmoke, elationibus fumi, aſpiring to eternity, and coming up, (as Cornelius his prayers and alms did) for a memorial before God, Act. 10.4. And albeit their beſt performances are as ſmoke, black and ſooty in regard of infirmities and imperfections, yet they have a principle in them to carry them upward: they have alſo the High-Prieſt of the New Teſtament, not to preſent them onely, but to perfume and becenſe them, as it is here, with myrrhe and frankincenſe, and ſweeteſt powders of the ſpice-merchant, that is, with the merit and mediation of his own moſt precious paſſion, Heb. 9.24. thoſe ſweet odours poured as out of Vials, into the prayers of Saints, Rev. 5.8. & 8.4. and ſo making both them and their ſervices acceptable to his Father. And as hee promiſed, John 12.32. that being lifted up himſelf by the croſs to the Kingdome, hee would draw all his to him; ſo wee ſee it fulfilled in the Saints, thoſe heavenly Eagles, ſoaring out of ſight: lowly in their ſpeeches, lofty in their actions, but eſpecially in their affections carried above all earthly objects, Col. 3.2. and not content till they are gotten home to Heaven; their commoration is here, their converſation above. Theſe heavenly Stars, though ſeen ſometimes in a puddle, though they reflect there, yet they have their ſituation in Heaven. Theſe birds of Paradiſe, though they may touch happily upon earth, yet they are moſtly upon the wing, and thoſe outward comforts and creatures are to them but ſcalae & alae, wings and wind in their wings, Zeph. 5.9. to carry them upward. Let ſhallow men wonder at worldly things, as the Diſciples did at the huge and fair ſtones of the Temple, Mat. 24. let them bee nailed faſt to the earth, as Siſera was by Jael, let them ever bow down-ward, as that woman in the Goſpel that had a ſpirit of infirmity, let them grovel and go upon their bellies, and feed upon earth, as the Serpent, Gen. 3. The Saints are of another alloy: their civil converſation is in Heaven, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Phil. 3.20. their politick bent, aim and fetch is for Heaven: They are immortalitatis candidati, as the Ancients called Henock and Elias, they do paradiſum mente deambulare, as Hierome bids the young Hermite, take a turn ever and anon in paradiſe: and, after ſome ſerious thoughts of that bleſſed place, they break out, as Monica, Auſtins Mother did, into a Quid hic facio? What make I here? why haſten I not home to mine own Country? They ſend up many pious ejaculations, many holy ſallies, and as it were egreſſions of ſoul, many an humble, joyful and thankful heart to God. Mittunt preces & lachrymas cordis legatos, as hee ſaith, pillars of prayers, vollyes of hearty wiſhes they ſend up continually; laying up treaſure in Heaven, and thinking long of the time or ere they get thither.

Verſ. 7. Behold his bed which is Solomons, &c.] Or behold, the bed of Solomon, (as the Greek, explaining the Hebrew, hath it) Solomon was a famous figure of Chriſt: of his bed wee read nothing, but may well conceive, it was (as every thing elſe about him) ſtately and coſtly: And thereby is meant here Heaven, ſay ſome, whither the Church is brought in aſcending in the precedent verſe: and by the valiant Warders they underſtand the Angels, thoſe Mighties, Pſal. 103.20. But becauſe they are ſaid to bee valiant men of Iſrael, I rather aſſent to thoſe that think the godly Miniſters are here meant by the Mighties, and the Church, by Chriſts bed, where hee repoſeth and reſteth in his love, Zeph. 3.17. lodging betwixt her breaſts, Cant. 1.13. There is nothing more ſure, than that the bleſſed Angels do watch over the Church. What a guard by them had Jacob at Mehanaim, Gen. 32.1, 2 where they made a lane for him (as the word imports) to provide for his ſafety? the like wee may ſay of Eliſha at Dothan, and divers others. I doubt not, (ſaith one) but as the Angels waited at Chriſts ſepulchre, ſo for his ſake they watch alſo over our graves, called our beds, Iſa. 57.2. Howbeit here, underſtand wee it of the Miniſters of the word, that watch for mens ſouls, and are frequently called watch-men. Sixty of them they are ſaid to bee, becauſe a great number, as the Levites were ſcattered up and down the Tribes of Iſrael (as ſalt is ſtrawed thick upon fleſh to keep it from putrefying. Yee are the ſalt of the Earth, Mat. 5. &c.) And valiant they are ſaid to bee: for valour and courage invincible is neceſſary to a Miniſter, who ſhall bee ſure to bee put hard to it; and therefore had need to bee (as Athanaſius was) an Adamant for his reſolute ſtout carriage; and to partake with the Diamond in the High-Prieſts breaſt-plate for hardneſs and hardineſs in ſtanding to and for the truth. Iſraelites alſo they ought to bee; Jews inwardly, not ſcoffing Iſhmaelites, prophane Edomites, falſe Philiſtins, but the valiants of Iſrael, ſuch as Davids band of Worthies was, 1 Chron. 11, & 12. faithful and godly patterns of piety, ſuch as will take heed to themſelves, and to the flock, waiting upon the Lords work, and watching for mens ſouls, as they that muſt give account, &c. Heb. 13.17. It is a great matter to bee of Chriſts life-guard. Remember what David ſaid of Abner, 1 Sam. 26.15.

Verſ. 8. They all hold ſwords, being expert in war] They not onely bear arms,Judg. 8.20 [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Plutarch. but can handle them. Young Jether wore a ſword, but hee durſt not draw it, or ſtrike with it, when hee ſhould have killed Zeba, and Zalmunna. Themiſtocles ſaid of the Eretrians, a cowardly people, that they were like the Sword-fiſh, which hath a ſword indeed, but wants an heart. Such white-livered ſouldiers, ſuch faint-hearted ſword-men our Solomon hath no need of: Our Gideon will not employ them ſo far as to break a pitcher, or to bear a torch.Judg. 7. The fearful and unbeleeving ſhall never ſet foot in his Kingdome, much leſs bee Eſquires of his body; thoſe in that Office muſt hold faſt the faithful word (that ſword of the Spirit, that two-edged ſword) far beyond that of Goliah (and yet David ſaid, there was none to that) that they may bee able and apt by ſound doctrines, both to exhort the tractable, and to convince the gainſayer, Tit. 1.9. Thoſe that either cannot, or will not do thus, are no way fit to bee of Chriſts guard, becauſe they are more likely to betray him into the hands of his enemies, than to defend him from them; to act a Judas his part, than a Peters, who manfully cut off Malchus his ear, and choſe rather to be held temerarious, than timorous. Jeremy complains of the Paſtours of his time,Jer. 9.3. that they were not valiant for the truth, they had no ſpiritual metal in them: but as Harts and Stags have great horns and ſtrength, but want courage: ſo it was with theſe. St. Auſtin profeſſeth this was it that heartened him, and made him to triumph in his former Manichiſm, that hee met with feeble Opponents, and ſuch as his nimble wit was eaſily able to overturn. If gainſayers bee not powerfully convinced, how will they ſet up their creſts,Haeretici argumentis lapidandi. Hilar. and cry, victoria? If they bee not ſtoned with Arguments, how will they ſtart up, and outſtare the truth? There muſt bee therefore skill and will in all her Champions. They muſt alſo every man have his ſword upon his thigh, and bee ready for an aſſault. Seneca reports of Caeſar, that hee had quickly ſheathed his ſword, but never laid it off. And Suetonius tells us,Scilicet ut paratum & intentum momentis omnibus, &c. that hee would never fore-acquaint his ſouldiers of any ſet time of removal or onſet, that hee might never finde them unready. Chriſt expects the like care and courage in his Miniſters, leſt the Proverb bee verified on them, Ungirt, unbleſt.

And becauſe of fears in the night] Leſt evil ſhould befall Solomon, as it did Iſhboſheth, who was ſlain upon his bed by the ſons of Rimmon: leſt deeds of darkneſs bee done in a Land of light, and whilſt the watch-men ſlack their duty, the Rulers of the darkneſs of this world break in and play their pranks. Whilſt men ſlept, tares were ſown by the evil man, Mat. 13.

Verſ. 9. King Solomon made himſelf a Charriot] Hic locus lubricus est & difficilis. This is an hard Text, ſaith one. It had been eaſier (perhaps) if Commentatours had not made it ſo hard. The word rendred Charriot, is by others rendred a Bride-chamber, a Bed, a Throne, a Palace. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. The Hebew word is found in this place onely: it hath the name of fairneſs and fruitfulneſs. Rabbi Solomon ſaith it is, Thalamus honorificus, a bed-chamber of honour, whereby wee are to underſtand again the Church, as wee did by bed in the former verſe. Shee is oft compared to an houſe, here to a Bride-chamber, and Solomons Bride-chamber, which muſt needs bee ſuppoſed very trimme, and ſet forth to the beſt. It is further ſet forth here by the cauſes; efficient, Solomon himſelf; Material, Cedar, Silver, Gold, &c. Formal, payed with love; Final, for himſelf firſt, and then, for the daughters of Jeruſalem. Firſt, Solomon himſelf made it, though a King. Stupenda ſane dignatio, a wonderful condeſcenſion. The Church is Chriſts own workmanſhip, his artificial facture, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. or creature (as the Greek word ſignifieth, Epheſ. 2.10.) that Maſter-peece of his architecture, wherein hee hath ſhewed ſingular skill, by erecting that glorious fabrick of the New Man, that New Heaven, and New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteouſneſs, 2 Pet. 3.13. For hee planteth the Heavens, and layeth the foundations of the Earth, that hee may ſay to Zion, Thou art my people, that hee may rejoyce in the habitable part of Gods Earth, Prov. 8.31. that hee may ſay, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will bee their God, and they ſhall bee my people, 1 Cor. 6.16. Chriſt wrought the Centurions faith, as God, hee wondred at it, as man. God wrought, and man marvelled, hee did both, to teach us where to beſtow our wonder. Paul praies for his Epheſians, that their eyes might bee enlightened to ſee the power that wrought in them, Chap. 1.18.

Of the Wood of Lebanon] See the Note on chap. 1.17. The Saints are the Churches materials, Rom. 1.7. 1 Cor. 1.2. The precious ſons of Zion, are comparable to fine gold, Lam. 4.2. Her Nazarites are purer than Snow, whiter than Milk, more ruddy than Rubies, their poliſhing is of Saphire, verſ. 7. And yet Bellarmine is not aſhamed to ſay,Lib. 3. cap. 2. de Eccleſ. militante. Nos etiamſi credimus in Eccleſia inveniri omnes virtutes, &c. Although wee doubt not but that all virtues are found in the Church: yet that a man may bee abſolutely called a Member of that true Church ſpoken of in Scripture; we hold not that any inward virtue is required, but onely an external profeſſion of the Faith, and participation of the Sacraments.Cameron de Eccleſ. pag. 167. Belle hoc convenit Eccleſiae Romanae, ſaith a learned man. This deſcription ſutes very well with the Church of Rome. For certainly if there bee any virtuous perſons in that Church, id eis convenit per accidens, it is by meer accident, and not as they are in that Church, but as they diſſent from it: like as Cicero ſaith wittily of the Epicureans, that if any were good amongſt them, it was meerly from the goodneſs of their nature, for they taught and thought otherwiſe. And as Peter Moulin ſaid of many of the Prieſts of France, that they were for their loyalty not beholding to the Maxims of Italy, and yet Bellarmine hath the face to ſay,De notis Eccleſ. l. 4. c. 13 Sunt quidem in Eccleſia Catholica plurimi mali, ſed ex haeriticis nullus eſt bonus. Among Papiſts there are many bad men, but among Proteſtants, not one good man is to bee found.

Verſ. 10. Hee made the pillars thereof] i. e. The faithful Miniſters, called Pillars, Gal. 2.9. and that (Atlas-like) bear up the pillars of it, Pſalm 75.3. Thoſe that offer violence to ſuch, Sampſon-like, they lay hands upon the pillars to pluck the houſe upon their own heads. Yea they attempt to pull Stars out of Chriſts hand, Revelations 1. which they will finde a work not feiſable.

Of ſilver] For the purity of matter, and clearneſs of ſound: for their beauty, ſtability, and incorruption. Let Miniſters hereby learn, how they ought to behave themſelves in the houſe of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. 3.15.

The bottom thereof of gold] Underſtand it either of Gods Word, which is compared to the fineſt gold, or of that precious grace of Faith the root of all the reſt: whence it is laid by St. Peter, as the bottom and baſis, the foundation and fountain of all the following graces, 2 Epiſt. 1.5. Add to your Faith, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, &c. they are all in Faith radically: every grace is but Faith exerciſed: Hence wee read of the joy of Faith, the obedience of Faith, the righteouſneſs of Faith, &c. Shee is the Mother-grace, the womb wherein all the graces are conceived: Hence the bottom of Chriſts fruitful bed, the pavement of his glorious Bride-chamber the Church, is here ſaid to bee of gold, that is, of Faith, which is called gold, Rev. 3.17. compared with 1 Pet. 1.7. that the tryal of your Faith (or your well-tryed Faith, for it ſeems to bee an Hebraiſm) being much more precious than that of gold, &c. And here,Bern. Melius eſt pallens aurum quam fulgens aurichalcum, gold though paler, is better than glittering copper.Splendida peccata. The Faith of Gods Elect is far more precious than the ſhining ſins of the beautiful abominations of meer Moraliſts. Suppoſe a ſimple man ſhould get a ſtone, and ſtrike fire with it, and thence conclude it a precious ſtone. Why, every flint or ordinary ſtone will do that. So to think one hath this golden grace of Faith, becauſe hee can bee ſober, juſt, chaſt, liberal, &c. Why, ordinary Heathens can do this. True gold will comfort the fainting heart, which Alchymy gold will not. Think the ſame of Faith.

The covering of it of Purple] I am of their mind, that expound it of Chriſts blood, wherewith, as with a Canopy, or a kinde of Heaven over head, the Church is covered and cured, Rev. 5.16. & 7.14. Rom. 6.3, 4. Purple was a rich and dear commodity amongſt them; ſee Prov. 31.22. & 7.5. Mark 15.17. Luk. 16.19. The precious blood of Chriſt is worthily preferred before gold and ſilver, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19.

The midſt thereof being paved with love] For Chriſt loved us, and waſhed us with his blood, Rev. 1.5. Hee alſo fills his faithful people with the ſenſe of his love, who therefore cannot but finde a great deal of pleaſure in the waies of God, becauſe therein they let out their ſouls into God, and taſte of his unſpeakable ſweetneſs, they cannot alſo but reciprocate and love his love. So the bottom, the top, and the middle of this repoſing place are anſwerable to thoſe three Cardinal graces, faith, hope and love, 1 Cor. 13.

For the daughters of Jeruſalem] This Charret or Bridal-bed hee made for himſelf, hee made it alſo for the daughters of Jeruſalem: for all his is theirs; Union being the ground of Communion. As wee muſt do all for Chriſt (according to that, Quicquid agas propter Deum agas, and again, Propter te Domine, propter te; choice and excellent Spirits are more taken up with what they ſhall do for God, than what they ſhall receive from God) ſo Chriſt doth all for us, and ſeeks how to ſeal up his deareſt love to us in all his actions and atchievements. Chriſts death and bloodſhed (ſaith Mr. Bradford) is the great Seal of England, yea of all the world, for the confirmation of all Patents and Perpetuities of the everlaſting life, whereunto hee hath called us. —This death of Chriſt therefore look on as the very pledge of Gods love toward thee, &c. See, Gods hands are nailed, they cannot ſtrike thee;Serm. of Repent. 63 his feet alſo, hee cannot run from thee. His arms are wide open to embrace thee, his head hangs down to kiſs thee; his very heart is open, ſo that therein look, nay even ſpy, and thou ſhalt ſee nothing therein but love, love, love to thee. Hide thee therefore, lay thine head there with the Beloved Diſciple, joyn thee to Chriſts Charret, as Philip did to the noble Eunuchs. This is the cleft of the Rock wherein Elias ſtood. This is for all aking heads a pillow of Down, &c.

Verſ. 11. Go forth, O yee Daughters of Zion] i.e. All yee faithful ſouls which follow the Lord Chriſt, the Lamb that ſtands upon Mount Zion, Rev. 14.1, 4. Yee ſhall not need to go far (and yet far yee would go, I dare ſay, to ſee ſuch a gallant ſight as King Solomon in his Royalty: the Queen of Sheba did) behold hee is at hand, Tell yee the Daughters of Zion, behold thy King cometh, &c. Mat. 21.5. Go forth therefore, forth of your ſelves, forth from your friends, means, all, as Abraham did, and the holy Apoſtles, Confeſſours, and Martyrs, and as the Church is bid to do, Pſal. 45.10. forget alſo thine own people, and thy Fathers houſe. Good Nazianzen was glad that hee had ſomething of value (to wit, his Athenian learning) to part with for Chriſt. Horreo quicquid de meo eſt, ut meus ſim, ſaith Bernard. Hee that will come to mee, muſt go utterly out of himſelf, ſaith our Saviour. All Saint Pauls care was, that hee might bee ſound in Chriſt, but loſt in himſelf.Epiſt. ad Gabr. Vydym. Ambula in timore & contemptu tui, & ora Chriſtum, ut ipſe tua omnia faciat, & tu nihil facias, ſed ſis ſabbatum Chriſti, ſaith Luther, walk in the fear and contempt of thy ſelf, and reſt thy ſpirit in Chriſt; this is to go forth to ſee King Solomon crowned, yea this is to ſet the Crown upon Chriſts head.Camd. Eliſab. Anno 1585. When Queen Elizabeth undertook the protection of the Netherlands againſt the Spaniard, all Princes admired her fortitude: and the King of Sweden, ſaid that ſhee had now taken the Diadem from her own Head, and ſet it upon the doubtful chance of war. Hee that forſakes all for Chriſt, and puts himſelf by Faith under his protection, ſubmitting to the Scepter of his Kingdome, and ſending a Lamb to this Ruler of the Land, Iſa. 16.1. in token of homage and fealty, his eyes ſhall ſee the King in his beauty; and inſtead of a Vivat Rex, hee ſhall break forth into this glorious acclamation, The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Law-giver, the Lord is our King, and hee will ſave us, Iſa. 33.17.22. It was St. Augustines wiſh, that hee might ſee Romam in flore, Paulum in ore, & Chriſtum in corpore, Rome, as of old, flouriſhing, Paul, as hee did once, preaching, and Chriſt, as in the daies of his fleſh, going up and down doing good. There are that hold, that by Solomon crowned here is meant Chriſt incarnated, taking fleſh, as a Crown, of his Mother Mary: and that this was the day of his Eſpouſals, when the Word was made fleſh, and the day of the gladneſs of his heart, when hee rejoyced in the habitable part of Gods Earth, (that is, in the humane Nature, wherein the fulneſſe of the Godhead dwelt bodily) and his delights were with the ſonnes of men, Proverbs 8.31. Some underſtand it of the Crown of Thorns ſet upon him by his Mother the Synagogue. Others the Reſurrection,Phil. 2.9. and that Name above all Names that hee gat by his Death. I am of Mercers mind, who expounds it of that glory that Chriſt hath when hee is preached up as the ſole and abſolute Saviour, and ſo beleeved on in the world,1 Tim. 3.16. that the obedience of Faith is yeelded unto him. When Faith and Obedience make a perfect pair of Compaſſes, then Chriſts head is compaſſed with a Crown. Faith as the one foot is pitcht upon the Crown of Chriſts head, whiles Obedience as the other walks about in a perfect circle of good duties, whereby hee is made glad, Pſal. 45.8.