Song of Solomon 4 commentary

If each of these comparisons has a meaning applicable to the graces of the church, or of the faithful Christian, they are not clearly known; and great mistakes are made by fanciful guesses. The mountain of myrrh appears to mean the mountain Moriah, on which the temple was built, where the incense was burned, and the people worshipped the Lord. This was his residence till the shadows of the law given to Moses were dispersed by the breaking of the gospel day, and the rising of the Sun of righteousness. And though, in respect of his human nature, Christ is absent from his church on earth, and will continue to be so till the heavenly day break, yet he is spiritually present in his ordinances, and with his people. How fair and comely are believers, when justified in Christ's righteousness, and adorned with spiritual graces! when their thoughts, words, and deeds, though imperfect, are pure, manifesting a heart nourished by the gospel!

Observe the gracious call Christ gives to the church. It is, 1. A precept; so this is Christ's call to his church to come off from the world. These hills seem pleasant, but there are in them lions' dens; they are mountains of the leopards. 2. As a promise; many shall be brought as members of the church, from every point. The church shall be delivered from her persecutors in due time, though now she dwells among lions, Ps. 57:4. Christ's heart is upon his church; his treasure is therein; and he delights in the affection she has for him; its working in the heart, and its works in the life. The odours wherewith the spouse is perfumed, are as the gifts and graces of the Spirit. Love and obedience to God are more pleasing to Christ than sacrifice or incense. Christ having put upon his spouse the white raiment of his own righteousness, and the righteousness of saints, and perfumed it with holy joy and comfort, he is well pleased with it. And Christ walks in his garden unseen. A hedge of protection is made around, which all the powers of darkness cannot break through. The souls of believers are as gardens enclosed, where is a well of living water, John 4:14; 7:38, the influences of the Holy Spirit. The world knows not these wells of salvation, nor can any opposer corrupt this fountain. Saints in the church, and graces in the saints, are fitly compared to fruits and spices. They are planted, and do not grow of themselves. They are precious; they are the blessings of this earth. They will be kept to good purpose when flowers are withered. Grace, when ended in glory, will last for ever. Christ is the source which makes these gardens fruitful; even a well of living waters.

The church prays for the influences of the blessed Spirit, to make this garden fruitful. Graces in the soul are as spices in these gardens, that in them which is valuable and useful. The blessed Spirit, in his work upon the soul, is as the wind. There is the north wind of conviction, and the south wind of comfort. He stirs up good affections, and works in us both to will and to do that which is good. The church invites Christ. Let him have the honour of all the garden produces, and let us have the comfort of his acceptance of it. We can invite him to nothing but what is his own already. The believer can have no joy of the fruits, unless they redound some way or other to the glory of Christ. Let us then seek to keep separate from the world, as a garden enclosed, and to avoid conformity thereto.

CHAPTER 4

So 4:1-16.

1. Contrast with the bride's state by nature (Is 1:6) her state by grace (So 4:1-7), "perfect through His comeliness put upon her" (Eze 16:14; Joh 15:3). The praise of Jesus Christ, unlike that of the world, hurts not, but edifies; as His, not ours, is the glory (Joh 5:44; Re 4:10, 11). Seven features of beauty are specified (So 4:1-5) ("lips" and "speech" are but one feature, So 4:3), the number for perfection. To each of these is attached a comparison from nature: the resemblances consist not so much in outward likeness, as in the combined sensations of delight produced by contemplating these natural objects.

doves'--the large melting eye of the Syrian dove appears especially beautiful amid the foliage of its native groves: so the bride's "eyes within her locks" (Lu 7:44). Maurer for "locks," has "veil"; but locks suit the connection better: so the Hebrew is translated (Is 47:2). The dove was the only bird counted "clean" for sacrifice. Once the heart was "the cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Grace makes the change.

eyes--(Mt 6:22; Ep 1:18; contrast Mt 5:28; Ep 4:18; 1Jo 2:16). Chaste and guileless ("harmless," Mt 10:16, Margin; Joh 1:47). John the Baptist, historically, was the "turtledove" (So 2:12), with eye directed to the coming Bridegroom: his Nazarite unshorn hair answers to "locks" (Joh 1:29, 36).

hair ... goats--The hair of goats in the East is fine like silk. As long hair is her glory, and marks her subjection to man (1Co 11:6-15), so the Nazarite's hair marked his subjection and separation unto God. (Compare Jud 16:17, with 2Co 6:17; Tit 2:14; 1Pe 2:9). Jesus Christ cares for the minutest concerns of His saints (Mt 10:30).

appear from--literally, "that lie down from"; lying along the hillside, they seem to hang from it: a picture of the bride's hanging tresses.

Gilead--beyond Jordan: there stood "the heap of witness" (Ge 31:48).

2. even shorn--the Hebrew is translated (1Ki 6:25), "of one size"; so the point of comparison to teeth is their symmetry of form; as in "came up from the washing," the spotless whiteness; and in "twins," the exact correspondence of the upper and lower teeth: and in "none barren," none wanting, none without its fellow. Faith is the tooth with which we eat the living bread (Joh 6:35, 54). Contrast the teeth of sinners (Psa 57:4; Pr 30:14); also their end (Psa 3:7; Mt 25:30). Faith leads the flock to the washing (Zec 13:1; 1Co 6:11; Tit 3:5).

none ... barren--(2Pe 1:8). He who is begotten of God begets instrumentally other sons of God.

3. thread--like a delicate fillet. Not thick and white as the leper's lips (type of sin), which were therefore to be "covered," as "unclean" (Le 13:45).

scarlet--The blood of Jesus Christ (Is 6:5-9) cleanses the leprosy, and unseals the lips (Is 57:19; Ho 14:2; He 13:15). Rahab's scarlet thread was a type of it (Jos 2:18).

speech--not a separate feature from the lips (Zep 3:9; Col 4:6). Contrast "uncircumcised lips" (Ex 6:12). Maurer and Burrowes translate, "thy mouth."

temples--rather, the upper part of the cheek next the temples: the seat of shamefacedness; so, "within thy locks," no display (1Co 11:5, 6, 15). Mark of true penitence (Ezr 9:6; Eze 16:63). Contrast Jr 3:3; Eze 3:7.

pomegranate--When cut, it displays in rows seeds pellucid, like crystal, tinged with red. Her modesty is not on the surface, but within, which Jesus Christ can see into.

4. neck--stately: in beautiful contrast to the blushing temples (So 4:3); not "stiff" (Is 48:4; Ac 7:51), as that of unbroken nature; nor "stretched forth" wantonly (Is 3:16); nor burdened with the legal yoke (La 1:14; Ac 15:10); but erect in gospel freedom (Is 52:2).

tower of David--probably on Zion. He was a man of war, preparatory to the reign of Solomon, the king of peace. So warfare in the case of Jesus Christ and His saints precedes the coming rest. Each soul won from Satan by Him is a trophy gracing the bride (Lu 11:22); (each hangs on Him, Is 22:23, 24); also each victory of her faith. As shields adorn a temple's walls (Eze 27:11), so necklaces hang on the bride's neck (Jud 5:30; 1Ki 10:16).

5. breasts--The bust is left open in Eastern dress. The breastplate of the high priest was made of "two" pieces, folded one on the other, in which were the Urim and Thummim (lights and perfection). "Faith and love" are the double breastplate (1Th 5:8), answering to "hearing the word" and "keeping it," in a similar connection with breasts (Lu 12:27, 28).

roes--He reciprocates her praise (So 2:9). Emblem of love and satisfaction (Pr 5:19).

feed--(Psa 23:2).

among the lilies--shrinking from thorns of strife, worldliness, and ungodliness (2Sa 23:6; Mt 13:7). Roes feed among, not on the lilies: where these grow, there is moisture producing green pasturage. The lilies represent her white dress (Psa 45:14; Re 19:8).

6. Historically, the hill of frankincense is Calvary, where, "through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself"; the mountain of myrrh is His embalmment (Joh 19:39) till the resurrection "daybreak." The third Canticle occupies the one cloudless day of His presence on earth, beginning from the night (So 2:17) and ending with the night of His departure (So 4:6). His promise is almost exactly in the words of her prayer (So 2:17), (the same Holy Ghost breathing in Jesus Christ and His praying people), with the difference that she then looked for His visible coming. He now tells her that when He shall have gone from sight, He still is to be met with spiritually in prayer (Psa 68:16; Mt 28:20), until the everlasting day break, when we shall see face to face (1Co 13:10, 12).

7. Assurance that He is going from her in love, not in displeasure (Joh 16:6, 7).

all fair--still stronger than So 1:15; So 4:1.

no spot--our privilege (Ep 5:27; Col 2:10); our duty (2Co 6:17; Jude 23; Jas 1:27).

8. Invitation to her to leave the border mountains (the highest worldly elevation) between the hostile lands north of Palestine and the Promised Land (Psa 45:10; Php 3:13).

Amana--south of Anti-Libanus; the river Abana, or Amana, was near Damascus (2Ki 5:12).

Shenir--The whole mountain was called Hermon; the part held by the Sidonians was called Sirion; the part held by the Amorites, Shenir (De 3:9). Infested by the devouring lion and the stealthy and swift leopard (Psa 76:4; Ep 6:11; 1Pe 5:8). Contrasted with the mountain of myrrh, &c. (So 4:6; Is 2:2); the good land (Is 35:9).

with me--twice repeated emphatically. The presence of Jesus Christ makes up for the absence of all besides (Lu 18:29, 30; 2Co 6:10). Moses was permitted to see Canaan from Pisgah; Peter, James, and John had a foretaste of glory on the mount of transfiguration.

9. sister ... spouse--This title is here first used, as He is soon about to institute the Supper, the pledge of the nuptial union. By the term "sister," carnal ideas are excluded; the ardor of a spouse's love is combined with the purity of a sister's (Is 54:5; compare Mr 3:35).

one--Even one look is enough to secure His love (Zec 12:10; Lu 23:40-43). Not merely the Church collectively, but each one member of it (Mt 18:10, 14; Lu 15:7, 24, 32).

chain--necklace (Is 62:3; Mal 3:17), answering to the "shields" hanging in the tower of David (So 4:4). Compare the "ornament" (1Pe 3:4); "chains" (Pr 1:9; 3:22).

10. love--Hebrew, "loves"; manifold tokens of thy love.

much better--answering to her "better" (So 1:2), but with increased force. An Amoebean pastoral character pervades the Song, like the classic Amoebean idylls and eclogues.

wine--The love of His saints is a more reviving cordial to Him than wine; for example, at the feast in Simon's house (Lu 7:36, 47; Joh 4:32; compare Zec 10:7).

smell of ... ointments than all spices--answering to her praise (So 1:3) with increased force. Fragrant, as being fruits of His Spirit in us (Ga 5:22).

11. drop--always ready to fall, being full of honey, though not always (Pr 10:19) actually dropping (So 5:13; De 32:2; Mt 12:34).

honeycomb--(Pr 5:3; 16:24).

under thy tongue--not always on, but under, the tongue, ready to fall (Psa 55:21). Contrast her former state (Psa 140:3; Ro 3:13). "Honey and milk" were the glory of the good land. The change is illustrated in the penitent thief. Contrast Mt 27:44 with Lu 23:39, &c. It was literally with "one" eye, a sidelong glance of love "better than wine," that he refreshed Jesus Christ (So 4:9, 10). "To-day shalt thou be with Me (compare So 4:8) in Paradise" (So 4:12), is the only joyous sentence of His seven utterances on the cross.

smell of ... garments--which are often perfumed in the East (Psa 45:8). The perfume comes from Him on us (Psa 133:2). We draw nigh to God in the perfumed garment of our elder brother (Ge 27:27; see Jude 23).

Lebanon--abounding in odoriferous trees (Ho 14:5-7).

12. The Hebrew has no "is." Here she is distinct from the garden (So 5:1), yet identified with it (So 4:16) as being one with Him in His sufferings. Historically the Paradise, into which the soul of Jesus Christ entered at death; and the tomb of Joseph, in which His body was laid amid "myrrh," &c. (So 4:6), situated in a nicely kept garden (compare "gardener," Joh 20:15); "sealed" with a stone (Mt 27:66); in which it resembles "wells" in the East (Ge 29:3, 8). It was in a garden of light Adam fell; in a garden of darkness, Gethsemane, and chiefly that of the tomb, the second Adam retrieved us. Spiritually the garden is the gospel kingdom of heaven. Here all is ripe; previously (So 2:13) it was "the tender grape." The garden is His, though He calls the plants hers (So 4:13) by His gift (Is 61:3, end).

spring ... fountain--Jesus Christ (Joh 4:10) sealed, while He was in the sealed tomb: it poured forth its full tide on Pentecost (Joh 7:37-39). Still He is a sealed fountain until the Holy Ghost opens it to one (1Co 12:3). The Church also is "a garden enclosed" (Psa 4:3; Is 5:1, &c.). Contrast Psa 80:9-12. So "a spring" (Is 27:3; 58:11); "sealed" (Ep 4:30; 2Ti 2:19). As wives in the East are secluded from public gaze, so believers (Psa 83:3; Col 3:3). Contrast the open streams which "pass away" (Job 6:15-18; 2Pe 2:17).

13. orchard--Hebrew, "a paradise," that is, a pleasure-ground and orchard. Not only flowers, but fruit trees (Joh 15:8; Php 1:11).

camphire--not camphor (So 1:14), hennah, or cypress blooms.

14. calamus--"sweet cane" (Ex 30:23; Jr 6:20).

myrrh and aloes--Ointments are associated with His death, as well as with feasts (Joh 12:7). The bride's ministry of "myrrh and aloes" is recorded (Joh 19:39).

15. of--This pleasure-ground is not dependent on mere reservoirs; it has a fountain sufficient to water many "gardens" (plural).

living--(Jr 17:8; Joh 4:13, 14; 7:38, 39).

from Lebanon--Though the fountain is lowly, the source is lofty; fed by the perpetual snows of Lebanon, refreshingly cool (Jr 18:14), fertilizing the gardens of Damascus. It springs upon earth; its source is heaven. It is now not "sealed," but open "streams" (Re 22:17).

16. Awake--literally, "arise." All besides is ready; one thing alone is wanted--the breath of God. This follows rightly after His death (So 6:12; Ac 2:1-4). It is His call to the Spirit to come (Joh 14:16); in Joh 3:8, compared to "the wind"; quickening (Joh 6:63; Eze 27:9). Saints offer the same prayer (Psa 85:6; Ha 3:2). The north wind "awakes," or arises strongly, namely, the Holy Ghost as a reprover (Joh 16:8-11); the south wind "comes" gently, namely, the Holy Ghost as the comforter (Joh 14:16). The west wind brings rain from the sea (1Ki 18:44, 45; Lu 12:54). The east wind is tempestuous (Job 27:21; Is 27:8) and withering (Ge 41:23). These, therefore, are not wanted; but first the north wind clearing the air (Job 37:22; Pr 25:23), and then the warm south wind (Job 37:17); so the Holy Ghost first clearing away mists of gloom, error, unbelief, sin, which intercept the light of Jesus Christ, then infusing spiritual warmth (2Co 4:6), causing the graces to exhale their odor.

Let my beloved, &c.--the bride's reply. The fruit was now at length ripe; the last passover, which He had so desired, is come (Lu 22:7, 15, 16, 18), the only occasion in which He took charge of the preparations.

his--answering to Jesus Christ's "My." She owns that the garden is His, and the fruits in her, which she does not in false humility deny (Psa 66:16; Ac 21:19; 1Co 15:10) are His (Joh 15:8; Php 1:11).

Thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks - Perhaps this refers rather to a sort of veil worn by many of the Eastern women, but especially in Egypt. It is a species of black cloth made of the hair of some animal, probably the black goat; is suspended from the head by silken cords, one of which comes from the crown of the head, down the forehead, to the upper part of the nose, just under the eyes, at which place the veil begins; for the forehead and the eyes are uncovered, except the cord above mentioned, which is ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones, according to the circumstances of the wearer. This partial veil not only covers all the face, the eyes and forehead excepted, but the neck also, and hangs loosely down over the bosom. One of them, lately brought from Egypt, now lies before me.

But the clause, within thy locks, מבעד למתך mibbaad letsammathech, is not well translated, either by ourselves or by the versions. Jerome's translation is an indication of the meaning: Absque eo quod intrinsecus latet; without that, or independently of that, which lies hidden within. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have, besides thy silence. Calmet contends that none of these gives the true meaning, and that the word tmu tsemath has not the meaning of hair or locks wherever it occurs, and has quite a different meaning in Isa 47:2. St. Jerome on this place expresses himself thus: Nolentibus gui interpretati sunt transferre nomen quod in Sancta Scriptura sonat turpitudinem - Ergo Ktmu tsammathech, quod Aquila posuit, verenda mulieris appellanatur cujus etymologia apud eos sonat sitiens tuus. Calmet translates: Vous etes toute belle, won amie; vous etes toute belle: vos yeux sont des yeux de colombe; sans ce que la pudeur et la modestie tiennent cache. I leave the translation of these to the learned reader. See another description under Sol 4:7 (note).

As a flock of goats - Because it was black and sleek, as the hair of the goats of Arabia and Palestine is known to be; which, with its fine undulation, is supposed to bear some resemblance to the curls or plaits of a woman's tresses. The mountains of Gilead were beyond Jordan, on the frontiers of Arabia Deserta.

Thy teeth are like a flock - This comparison appears to be founded on the evenness, neatness, and whiteness of the newly shorn and newly washed sheep.

Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet - Both lips and cheeks were ruddy; sicut fragmen mali punici - Vulgate. Like the section of a pomegranate, that side cut off on which is the finest blush. This is a good and apt metaphor. But the inside may be referred to, as it is finely streaked with red and white melting into each other. She had beautiful hair, beautiful eyes, beautiful cheeks and lips, and a most pleasing and dulcet voice.

Within thy locks - See on Sol 4:1 (note), and Sol 4:7 (note).

Thy neck is like the tower of David - It is certain that bucklers were frequently hung about towers, both for their ornaments, and to have them at hand when their use was required; see Eze 27:10. But the allusion here may be to those pillars which are often seen in armouries on which weapons of various kinds are hung, formed into a great variety of shapes and very splendid. Whoever has seen the armoury in the tower of London, or such like places, has most probably seen something very similar to that of which the poet speaks.

Thy two breasts are like two young roes - I have met with many attempts to support this similitude, or rather to show that there is a similitude; but I judge them unworthy of citation. The poet speaks the language of nature; and in a case of this kind, where the impassioned lover attempts to describe the different perfections of his bride, language often fails him, and his comparisons and similitudes are often without strict correctness. In love songs we have heard ladies' necks compared to that of the swan, not only for its whiteness, but also for its length! The description here shows more of nature than of art, which I consider a high recommendation.

Feed among the lilies - It may be the nipples especially, which the poet compares to the two young roes; and the lilies may refer to the whiteness of the breasts themselves.

Until the day break - Until the morning breeze. See Sol 2:17.

The shadows flee away - Till the sun sets.

Mountain of myrrh - Probably the same as the mountains of Bether, Sol 2:17. Mountains where the trees grew from which myrrh and incense were extracted.

Thou art all fair - there is no spot in thee - "My beloved, every part of thee is beautiful; thou hast not a single defect." The description given of the beauties of Daphne, by Ovid, Metam. lib. 1: ver. 497, has some similarity to the above verses: -

Spectat inornatos collo pend ere capillos.

Et, quid si comantur? ait. Videt igne micantes

Sideribus similes oculos; videt oscula, quae non

Est vidisse satis. Laudat digitosque, manusque,

Brachiaque, et nudos media plus parte lacertos.

Si qua latent meliora putat.

Her well-turn'd neck he view'd, (her neck was bare),

And on her shoulders her disheveled hair.

O, were it comb'd, said he, with what a grace

Would every waving curl become her face!

He view'd her eyes, like heavenly lamps that shone,

He view'd her lips, too sweet to view alone;

Her taper fingers, and her panting breast.

He praises all he sees; and, for the rest,

Believes the beauties yet unseen the best.

Dryden.

Jayadeva describes the beauty of Radha in nearly the same imagery: "Thy lips, O thou most beautiful among women, are a bandhujiva flower; the lustre of the madhuca beams upon thy cheek; thine eye outshines the blue lotos; thy nose is a bud of the tila; the cunda blossom yields to thy teeth. Surely thou descendedst from heaven, O slender damsel! attended by a company of youthful goddesses; and all their beauties are collected in thee." See these poems, and the short notes at the end.

The same poet has a parallel thought to that in Sol 4:5, "Thy two breasts," etc. The companions of Radha thus address her: "Ask those two round hillocks which receive pure dew drops from the garland playing on thy neck, and the buds on whose tops start aloft with the thought of thy beloved."

My spouse - The כלה callah which we translate spouse, seems to have a peculiar meaning. Mr. Harmer thinks the Jewish princess is intended by it; and this seems to receive confirmation from the bridegroom calling her sister, Sol 4:9, that is, one of the same stock and country; and thus different from the Egyptian bride.

Mr. Harmer's opinion is very probable, that Two Queens are mentioned in this song: one Pharaoh's daughter, the other a Jewess. See his outlines. But I contend for no system relative to this song.

Look from the top of Amana, etc. - Solomon, says Calmet, by an admirable poetic fiction, represents his beloved as a mountain nymph, wholly occupied in hunting the lion and the leopard on the mountains of Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon. As a bold and undisciplined virgin, who is unwilling to leave her wild and rural retreats, he invites her to come from those hills; and promises to deck her with a crown and to make her his bride. Thus the poets represent their goddess Diana, and even Venus herself: -

Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur

Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianae;

Hortaturque canes; tutaeque animalia praedae,

Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum,

Aut agitat damas: at fortibus abstinet apris.

MET. lib. x., ver. 535.

Now buskin'd like the virgin huntress goes

Through woods, and pathless wilds, and mountain snows.

With her own tuneful voice she joys to cheer

The panting hounds that chase the flying deer.

She runs the labyrinth of the fearful hares,

But fearless beasts and dangerous prey forbears.

Mount Libanus separates Phoenicia from Syria. Amanus is between Syria and Silicia. Shenir and Hermon are beyond Jordan, to the south of Damascus and Mount Libanus, and northward of the mountains of Gilead. Hermon and Shenir are but different parts of the same chain of mountains which separates Trachonitis, or the country of Manasses, from Arabia Deserta. For these places, see 2Kgs 5:12, and Deu 3:9, where they are probably meant.

Thou hast ravished my heart - לבבתני libbabtini, "Thou hast hearted me," i.e., taken away my heart; as we say, "He has barked the tree," i.e., he has stripped it of its bark; "He has fleeced the flock," i.e., deprived them of their wool.

With one of thine eyes - באצד מעיניך beachad meeynayich. This has been thought a harsh expression, and various emendations have been sought. The Masoretes have put באצת beachath, "at once," in the margin; and this is confirmed by twenty of Kennicott's MSS. but De Rossi does not notice it. It is scarceiy necessary; the sense to me is clear and good without it. "Even one of thine eyes, or one glance of thine eyes, has been sufficient to deprive me of all power; it has completely overcome me;" for glance may be understood, and such forms of speech are common in all languages, when speaking on such subjects. If even taken literally, the sense is good; for the poet may refer to a side glance, shot in passing by or turning away, where only one eye could be seen. I think this a better sense than that which is obtained from the Masoretic emendation.

With one chain of thy neck - Probably referring to the play of the cervical muscles, rather than to necklaces, or ringlets of hair.

How much better is thy love - דדיך dodayich; Hebrew. mastoi sou; Septuagint. Ubera tua; Vulgate. "Thy breasts." And so all the versions, except the Chaldee.

Smell of thine ointments - Perfumes.

Thy lips - drop as the honey-comb - Thy words are as delicious to my heart as the first droppings of the honey-comb are to the palate.

Honey and milk are under thy tongue - Eloquence and persuasive speech were compared among the ancients to honey and milk.

Thus Homer, Iliad, lib. i., ver. 247: - Τοισι δε Νεστωρ Ηδυεπης ανορουσε, λιγυς Πυλιων αγορητης. Του και απο γλωσσης μελιτος γλυκιων ῥεεν αυδη.

Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill'd,

Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd.

But the figure is common to all writers and languages. A similar expression will be seen in the Gitagovinda.

A garden enclosed - a spring shut up, a fountain sealed - Different expressions to point out the fidelity of the bride, or of the Jewish queen. See the outlines. She is unsullied, a chaste, pure virgin. None has ever entered into this garden; none has yet tasted of this spring; the seal of this fountain has never been broken. Among the Athenians, the interior part of the house, called the women's apartment, was not only locked but sealed; so Aristophan., Thesmoph. ver. 422: - Ειτα δια τουτον ταις γυναικωνιτισιν Σφραγιδας εμβαλλουσιν ηδη και μοχλους.

And on this account, to the women's apartment

They place seals as well as bolts.

And seal, as applicable to chaste conduct, is a phrase well known to the Greeks. Aeschylus, in the Agamemnon, praises a woman, σημαντη ριον ουδεν διαφψειρασαν, who had not violated her seal of conjugal faith. But Nonnus, lib. ii., uses the form of speech exactly as Solomon does with reference to a pure virgin; he says, Αψαυστον ἑης σφρηγιδα κορειης; "She had preserved the seal of her virginity untouched." All this is plain; but how many will make metaphors out of metaphors!

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates - This seems to refer to the fecundity of the bride or Jewish queen; to the former it would be a prediction; to the latter, a statement of what had already taken place. The word פרדס pardes, which we translate an orchard, is the same which has given birth to our paradise, a garden of pleasure. The other expressions, in this and the following verse, seem to refer wholly to matters of a connubial nature.

A fountain of gardens - Perhaps גנים gannim, "gardens," was originally ציים chaiyim, "lives," a living fountain, a continual spring. See Houbigant. But this is expressed afterwards; though there would be nothing improper in saying, "a living fountain, a well of living waters, and streams from Mount Lebanon." A fountain of gardens may mean one so abundant as to be sufficient to supply nany gardens, to water many plots of ground, an exuberant fountain. This is the allusion; the reference is plain enough.

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south - It is granted that the south wind in Palestine, in the summer, is extremely hot and troublesome; therefore, another interpretation of this passage has been proposed by Mr. Harmer; who thinks בואי boi, which we render come, signifies enter into thy repositories; and, therefore, supposes the true interpretation of the words to be as follows: "Arise, thou north wind, (and retire, thou south), blow upon my garden; let the spices thereof flow forth, that my beloved may come into his garden, invited by the coolness and fragrancy of the air, and may eat his pleasant fruits; for, if the south wind blow, the excessive heat will forbid his taking the air, and oblige him to shut close the doors and windows of his apartments." Others think that he wishes the winds from all directions to carry throughout the land the fume of his spices, virtue, and perfections.

Let my beloved come into his garden - This is the invitation of the bride: and if we look not for far-fetched meanings, the sense is sufficiently evident. But commentators on this song sometimes take a literal sense where the metaphor is evident; at other times they build an allegory upon a metaphor. The Gitagovinda has an elegant passage similar to this. See the place, Part VII, beginning with Enter, sweet Radha.

The whole of this chapter is considered to be unconnected with any particular time of the marriage ceremonies.

Behold - These words are evidently spoken by the bridegroom. Fair - Being clothed with my righteousness, and adorned with all the graces of my spirit. Fair - He repeats it both to confirm his assertion, and to shew the fervency of his affection. Dove's eyes - Whereas the beauty of the spouse is here described in her several parts, we need not labour much about the application of each particular to some distinct grace of the church, this being the chief design of the description to shew that compleatness and absolute perfection which the church hath in part received, and shall more fully receive in the future life. Goats - Which in these parts was of extraordinary length, and softness, and comeliness. Mount Gilead - A very fruitful place, fit for breeding all sorts of cattle, and especially of goats, because it was an hilly and woody country.

A flock - Numerous, and placed in due order. Even - Smooth and even, as also clean and white. Twins - Which seems to denote the two rows of teeth. Barren - Not one tooth is lacking.

Thy speech - Which is added as another ingredient of an amiable person; and to explain the foregoing metaphor. The discourse of believers is edifying and comfortable, and acceptable to God, and to serious men. Temples - Under which he comprehends the cheeks. Pomegranate - In which there is a lovely mixture of red and white.

Thy neck - This may represent the grace of faith, by which we are united to Christ, as the body is to the head by the neck. By which Christians receive their spiritual food, and consequently their strength and ability for action. The tower - Upright, firm, and strong; and moreover adorned with chains of gold or pearl, or the like ornaments. Of David - Some tower built by David, when he repaired, and enlarged his royal city, and used by him as an armory. Bucklers - Such as are reserved for the use of mighty men. A thousand is put indefinitely for a great number.

Lillies - In the fields where lillies grow.

Until - These words are uttered by the bride, chap.2:17, and here returned by the bridegroom as an answer to that request. And this place may be understood of the day of glory, when all shadows and ordinances shall cease. To the hill - To my church upon earth, which was typified by the mountain of Moriah and the temple upon it. This in prophetic writings is called a mountain, and may well be called a mountain of myrrh and frankincense, both for the acceptable services which are there offered to God, and for the precious gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which are of a sweet smelling savour to God and men. Thus Christ directs believers, where they may find him, namely in his church and ordinances.

Come - Unto the mountains of myrrh. Look - To the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high mountains thou mayest easily behold. Of Leopards - From these or other mountains, which are inhabited by lions and leopards. This seems to be added as an argument to move the spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was, were not only barren, but also dangerous.

My sister - So he calls her to shew the greatness of his love, which cannot sufficiently be expressed by any one relation. With one - With one glance. One chain - With one of those other graces and perfections wherewith thou art adorned.

Fair - How amiable and acceptable to me. Ointments - Of the gifts and graces of God's Spirit, wherewith thou art anointed.

Thy lips - Thy speeches both to me in prayer and praises, and to men for their edification, are highly acceptable to me. Milk - Words more sweet and comfortable than honey or milk. Garments - Of that righteousness wherewith I have adorned thee. Lebanon - Which was very sweet and grateful in regard of the great numbers of sweet - smelling spices and trees which grow on that mountain.

A garden - For order and beauty, for pleasant walks, and flowers, and fruits. Inclosed - Defended by the care of my providence: and reserved for my proper use. Shut up - To preserve it from all pollution, and to reserve it for the use of its owner, for which reason, springs were shut up in those countries where water was scarce and precious.

Plants - Believers, which are planted in thee, are like the plants or fruits of an orchard, which are pleasant to the eye, and delicious to the taste or smell, whereby he signifies the variety and excellency of the gifts and graces in the several members of the church. Spikenard - Which he mentions here with camphire, and in the next verse with saffron, because it is mixed with both these, and being so mixed, yields. the more grateful smell.

All trees - Such trees as produce frankincense.

Living water - Though my spouse be in some sort a fountain shut up, yet that is not so to be understood as if she kept her waters to herself, for she is like a fountain of living or running water, which flows into gardens, and makes its flowers and plants to flourish. The church conveys those waters of life which she receives from Christ to particular believers. Streams - Like those sweet and refreshing rivers which flow down from mount Lebanon, of which Jordan is one.

North wind - These winds may signify the several dispensations of God's spirit. My garden - This verse is spoken by the spouse. And he calls the garden both hers and his, because of that oneness which is between them, chap.2:16. May flow - That my graces may be exercised. Let - Let Christ afford his gracious presence to his church. And eat - And let him delight himself in that service which is given him, both by the religious worship, and by the holy conversation of his people.

1 BEhold , thou art fair , my love, behold, thou art fair , thou hast doves eyes within thy locks : thy hair is as a flock of goats , that appear from mount Gilead .

These and the following words are evidently spoken by the Bridegroom to, and concerning, his Spouse.

Not in thy self, but by my beauty, being cloathed with my Righteousness, and adorned with all the Graces of my Spirit, which I acknowledg to be in thee.

He repeats it both to confirm the Truth of his Assertion, and to shew the sincerity and fervency of his Affection to her.

Thou art harmless, chaste, &c. as appears by thine Eyes, which commonly discover the temper of the Mind or Person. See more of this Phrase Ch. 1. 15. And whereas the beauty of the Spouse is here described in her several parts, we need not labour much about the Application of each particular to some distinct Member or Grace of the Church, this being the chief design of this description of a Bride which is beautiful in all points, to shew that compleatness and absolute perfection which the Church hath in part received, and shall more fully receive from Christ in the future Life. Yet because the Church is a Body, consisting of divers Members, and enriched with variety of Gifts and Graces, I know no reason, but the several parts of this description may have a more special regard to one or other of them. And so her Eyes may here note either 1. Her Teachers, who are instead of Eyes to her, as the Phrase is, Num. 10. 31. whence they are called Seers and Guides, &c. Or 2. The disposition of her Mind or Heart, which is compared to the Eye, Mat. 6. 22, 23. and is oft discerned in the Eye.

Which being decently composed make the Eyes appear more amiable, withal this intimates the modesty of her Looks: her Eyes are not wanton, and wandring, or lofty, but sober, and humble, and confined within their proper bounds, looking directly upon her Husband, not looking asquint upon other Lovers, nor minding other Gods or Christs. If the Eyes signifie Teachers, the Locks may note the People assembled together to hear their Teachers, to whom they are a great Ornament when they thrive by his Teaching.

The Hair of thine Head, which is a great Ornament to the Female Sex, 1 Cor. 11. 15. This Hair may signifie either 1. The inward Thoughts and Meditations: Or rather 2. The outward Conversation, and visible fruits of Holiness, which do greatly adorn the Professors and Profession of Religion, as Hair doth the Head, as is implied 1 Tim. 2. 9, 10. 1 Pet. 3. 3, 4, 5.

Which are comely and orderly in going, Prov. 30. 29, 31. and afford a goodly prospect. Or rather, as the hair (which word is here to be understood, as appears both from the comparison itself, and from divers places where Goats are put for goats hair; as it is in the Hebrew Text, Exod. 25. 4. & 26. 7. & 35. 26.) of a flock of goats, which in these parts was of extraordinary length, and thickness, and softness, and comeliness, and much more like to the Hair of a Man or Woman than the Hair of our Goats is, as is evident both from Scripture, as Gen. 27. 16. 1 Sam. 19. 13. and from the Testimony of other ancient Writers, as Apuleius, Martial, &c.

That feeding there, or coming down thence, or going up thither, shew themselves evidently to those who stand below it, or near them. Or, as it is rendred in our margent, and by others, that eat, or graze of, or upon.

Which he mentions as a very fruitful place, and fit for the breeding of all sorts of cattle, as is manifest from Num. 32. 1. Ier. 50. 19. Mich. 7. 14. and especially of Goats, partly because it was an hilly and woody country, and partly because it abounded with rosinous, and oily, and gummy Trees, as appears from Gen. 37. 25. Ier. 8. 22. & 46. 11. wherewith the Goats are much delighted, as Dioscorides observes. And some affirm that the Hair of these Goats was commonly of a yellow colour, as may seem probable from 1 Sam. 19. 13, 16. compared with 1 Sam. 16. 12. and from Cant. 7. 5. which also was in ancient times esteemed a beauty in Men or Women, as the Learned know.

Marginal references: Ch. 1. 15. & 5. 12.; Ch. 6. 5, 6.; Or, that [illegible: 1 word] of, &c.

2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn m, which came up from the washing: whereof every one bear twins , and none is barren among them .

Numerous and placed in due order.

Which is here fitly supplied out of Cant. 6. 6. where it is expressed. Smooth and even, as also clean and white, whereas unshorn sheep retain much filth in their wool, even after their washing.

Which seems to note the two rows of Teeth, like Twins, one directly answering to the other; which is a great part of the Beauty or comeliness belonging to the Teeth. Nor let any wonder to hear of sheep bearing Twins; for that there were many such in the Eastern Countries is apparent, not only from holy Scripture, but also from the express Testimony of Aristotle, and other ancient Writers.

Not one Tooth is lacking. By the Teeth some understand the Teachers, which may be compared to Teeth, because they prepare, and as it were chew spiritual Food for the People, and to such Teeth as are here described for their great number and excellent order, and for that purity and fruitfulness which is required of them: others understand some gracious qualification or action of the faithful, either their Faith, which is compared to eating, Ioh. 6. 41, &c. and elsewhere, which also purifies the Heart and Life, and produceth good works in abundance; or their Meditation or study of God, and of his word, whereby, like the clean Beasts under the Law, they chew the cud; which also much promotes their purity and fertility. But, as I said on the first verse, there is no need of a distinct Application of every particular, as it is in Parables where many things are added for decency, which belong not to the main scope, and therefore are neglected in the interpretation of them. The scope of this place is onely to set forth the Churches perfection and beauty by the resemblance of a beautiful Woman, and one part of beauty consists in the colour and order of the teeth.

3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet , and thy speech is comely : thy temples are like a piece of a pomgranate within thy locks .

Fine, and smooth, and soft, and round, and red, in which the beauty of the Lips consisteth.

Which is added partly as another ingredient of an amiable Person; and partly to explain the foregoing Metaphor. The Communication or Discourse of Believers is edifying, and comfortable, and acceptable to God, and to serious men. Compare Psal. 45. 2. Col. 4. 6.

Under which doubtless he comprehends the cheeks, which are joined to them, and in which a great part of beauty lies, which therefore would not have been omitted in this description.

In which there is a lovely mixture of red and white. This may note both the Churches beauty, and her modesty, which sheweth itself by blushes in those parts when she hath falln into any sin, as the highest Believers in this World somtimes do.

A further evidence both of beauty and modesty. See on v. 1.

Marginal references: Ch. 6. 7.

4 Thy neck is like the tower of David built for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men .

This may seem to represent the Grace of Faith, by which we are united to Christ, as the Body is to the Head by the Neck, and through which Christians receive their spiritual Food, and consequently their strength and ability for Action.

Round, and smooth, and white, long, and streight, and upright, firm, and strong; and moreover adorned with chains of Gold or Pearl, or the like Ornaments. All which things as they set forth the beauty of the Neck, so they may signifie the various excellencies and uses of Faith. By this Tower he understands either 1. The strong hold of Sion, of which see 2 Sam. 5. 9. Or rather 2. Some other Tower built by David, when he repaired, and enlarged, and fortified his Royal City, 1 Chr. 11. 8. and used by him as an Armory. See Neh. 3. 19, 25, 26, 27.

Either 1. Such as are fit and reserved for the use of mighty Men. Or 2. Such as had been used either by themselves, or by their Enemies, from whom they took them by force, and were hung up there as Trophies or Monuments of Victory. Which is added to shew that the Church is not only beautiful and glorious, but also strong and victorious over all her Enemies, and to intimate the great power and exploits of Faith, of which read Heb. 11. and which is compared to a shield, Eph. 6. 16. A thousand is here put indefinitely for a great number.

5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lillies .

Another part in which beauty consists, Ezek. 16. 7. By which some understand the two Testaments, or the two Sacraments: but these are rather Christs than the Churches Breasts. Others, the Churches servent Love to Christ, and to all the Saints, for the Breasts signifie Love, Prov. 5. 19. Cant. 1. 13. Others her fruitfulness, both in good Works, and in bringing up Children unto Christ, like a Nurse with her Breasts. But the following similitude seemeth not to respect the use of the Breasts, or the Love which is signified or manifested by them, but their comeliness. And therefore this is generally to be understood of the Churches Beauty in all parts, as hath been said.

i. e. In the fields where Lilies grew, as is evident both from Mat. 6. 28. where they are called the Lillies of the field, and from other Scriptures, and from the Testimony of other Writers. The Lillies being white and swelling, and the Roes of a reddish colour, and their Bodies being hid from sight by the Lillies, their Heads only appearing above them, bear some resemblance to the red nipples appearing in the top of the lillie white Breasts. But we must remember that this Book is a sacred Pastoral, and the Bridegroom is represented as a Shepherd and the Bride as a country▪Maid, and therefore such similitudes are used as are agreeable to Persons of that Quality, and such are usual in prophane Writers of this kind, as the learned have observed. They are compared to Roes for their loveliness, of which see Prov. 5. 19. to young ones for their smallness, which in breasts is a beauty; to Twins for their exact likeness.

Marginal references: Ch. 7. 3.

6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away , I will get me to the mountain of myrrhe, and to the hill of frankincense .

These words are uttered by the Bride, Ch. 2. v. 17. and here returned by the Bridegroom as an Answer to that Request. And this place may be understood either 1. Of the day of the Gospel, when all legal shadows shall vanish: Or 2. Of the day of Glory, or of the general Resurrection, when all manner of shadows and Ordinances shall cease. Till which time either the Spouse feeds among Lillies, as was now said, v. 5. or the Bridegroom gets him to the mountains, &c. as it follows. For the words are by most joined with the foregoing, and by some with the following clause.

Either 1. To the Temple at Ierusalem, which is oft and fitly expressed by the name of a mountain or hill, because it was built upon a Mountain, and which may be called a Mountain of Myrrhe and frankincense, because of the abundance of Myrrhe and Frankincense which was there used and offered; in which place the Church was to feed, and Christ would continue his presence until the dawning of the Gospel-day. Or 2. To my Church upon Earth, which was typified by the Mountain of Moriah, and the Temple upon it, and which in Prophetical Writings is called a Mountain, as Isa. 2. 2, 3. Mich. 4. 1, 2. & elsewhere, & which may well be call'd a Mountain of Myrrhe & Frankincense, both for the acceptable services which are there offered to God, and for the precious Gifts, and Graces, and Comforts of the Holy Spirit, which are of a sweet smelling savour to God and Men, and which there, and there only, are poured sorth. Thus Christ directs his Bride, to wit, particular Believers, where they may find and enjoy him, namely in his Church and Ordinances.

Marginal references: Ch. 2. 17.; Heb. breath.

7 Thou art all fair , my love, there is no spot in thee .

It is needless to mention the several beauties of all thy parts, for in one word thou art wholly beautiful, and it may be said more truly of thee than it was of Absalom, 2 Sam. 14. 25. that from the sole of thy Foot to the crown of thy Head there is no blemish in thee.

Which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, as if the People of God were really perfect, and free from all sin, but either 1. Comparatively, no such spot or blemish as is in wicked Men, or, as is inconsistent with true Grace, of which Moses speaks, Deut. 32. 5. Or 2. In regard of Gods gracious acceptation, in which respect he is said, not to behold iniquity in Jacob, Num. 23. 21. God doth not look upon them with a severe Eye, as they are in themselves, but in and through Christ, in whom he accepts them as if they were perfect, partly because it is their chief design, desire, and endeavour to be so, and partly because Christ hath undertaken to make them so, Eph. 5. 25, 27. and they shall one day be such.

Marginal references: Eph. 5. 27.

8 Come with me from Lebanon , my Spouse , with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana , from the top of Shenir and Hermon , from the lions dens, from the mountains of the leopards .

Unto the Mountains of Myrrhe, &c. mentioned v. 6.

A known Mountain in the North of Canaan, which is somtimes mentioned as a pleasant and glorious place, as Cant. 5. 15. Isa. 35. 2. Hos. 14. 6, &c. in regard of its goodly Cedars; and somtimes as a barren Wilderness, as Isa. 29. 17. and seat of Wild-Beasts, as 2 Ki[illegible: 1+ letters]. 14. 9. Which latter sense seems more agreeable, both to the opposition which is here tacitly made between this Mountain and the mountain of myrrhe, and to the quality of the other mountains here joined with Lebanon, and to the last clause of the verse.

This is the first time that Christ gives her this name, which he now doth both to encourage and oblige her to go with him.

To the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high Mountains thou maist easily behold, the sight of which will certainly enflame thee with desire to go thither. He alludes to Moses his beholding the promised Land from mount Pisgah.

Not that Amana which divided Syria from Cilicia, which was too remote from these parts, but another of that name not far from Lebanon.

Which may be the names of two tops of the same Mountain, as Horeb & Sinai seem to have been. Or, Shenir, or (the copulative, and, being put disjunctively for or, as it is in many places, which have been observed before) Hermon, for this Mountain is called both Shenir and Hermon, Deut. 3. 9. and the latter name, Hermon, may be added to the former, as being better known to the Israelites.

From these or other such like Mountains, which are inhabited by Lions and Leopards. Which seems to be added as an Argument to move the Spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was, were not only barren, but also dangerous, as being the Habitations of Tyrants and Persecutors, and wild or salvage People, who are oft described by the names of wild Beasts, whose natures they have, and whose practices they imitate.

Marginal references: Deut. 3. 9.

9 Thou hast ravished my heart , my sister , my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy eyes , with one chain of thy neck .

I am overcome with thy beauty, and therefore am so desirous of thy company.

So he calls her, partly because both he and she had one and the same Father, to wit, God, yea, and Mother too, being both at this time born in and of the Commonwealth and Church of Israel; and partly to shew the greatness of his Love to her, which is such as cannot be sufficiently expressed by any one Relation, but must borrow the Perfections and Affections of all to describe it.

With one glance of one of thine Eyes. By which Phrase he intimates the Modesty and Humility of the Church, which was ashamed or afraid to look fully and directly upon the Bridegroom with both her Eyes, and withal alludes to the ancient custom of Virgins, who used to cover their Faces with a veil, and to look out only with one of their Eyes for the direction of their steps. By this one Eye he seems to mean that fundamental Grace of Faith, by which Christians look upon Christ, and discern his beauty, and which is precious in the sight of God and of Christ.

With one of those other Graces and Perfections wherewith thou art adorned. How then should I be ravished if thou didst discover both thine Eyes, and thy whole Countenance, and all thine excellent Gifts and Graces!

Marginal references: Or, taken a[illegible: 1+ letters] way my [illegible: 1 word]

10 How fair is thy love , my sister, my spouse.! how much better is thy love than wine ! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

How amiable and acceptable to me.

I do not disdain thy love, as I might do, but take it kindly, and prise it highly.

Of which see on, ch. 1. 2, 4.

Of the Gifts and Graces of Gods Spirit, wherewith thou art anointed. Compare Isa. 61. 1. 1 Ioh. 2. 20, 27.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 1. 2.

11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb : honey and milk are under thy tongue , and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon .

Thy Speeches both to me in Prayer and Praises, and to men for their Edification, are highly acceptable to me.

Words more sweet and comfortable than Honey or Milk.

By which Phrase he may possibly intimate, that her words were not uttered in Hypocrisie, or with evil design, as many fair and smooth Speeches are, but proceed from her very Heart which is under her Tongue, as mischief is said to be under his Tongue, Psal. 10. 7. who devised it in his Heart.

Of that Righteousness wherewith I have cloathed and adorned thee. Christ and the Graces of the Spirit are oft compared to Garments, as Rom. 13. 14. Eph. 4. 24. 1 Pet. 5. 5.

Which is also mentioned and commended Hos. 14. 6. which must needs be very sweet and grateful in regard of the great numbers of sweet-smelling Spices and Trees which grew in that Mountain.

12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse: a spring shut up , a sountain sealed .

For Order and Beauty, for pleasant Walks, and Flowers, and Fruits.

Either 1. Defended by the care of my Providence: Or 2. Reserved for my proper use. She will not admit of other Lovers, either false Teachers, or worldly Lusts, but keeps herself close for me. She is chast, and pure, and modest, as Virgins are or should be.

Either 1. For others, sending forth the wholsom streams of saving Doctrine, for the refreshing, and healing, and cleansing of those who receive it. Or 2. Within her self, being well watered, i. e. replenished with spiritual Graces and Blessings, which are frequently compared to waters, both in the Old and New Testament, as Isa. 44. 3. Ioh. 4. 10. & 7. 38. for which the Church is compared to a watered Garden, or Spring of water, Isa. 58. 11.

Either 1. To preserve it from all pollution, or injury: Or 2. To reserve it for the use and service of its owner, for which reason Springs were shut up in those Countries where water was scarce and precious, as Gen. 29. 3.

The same thing is here repeated in other words.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word].

13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomgranates, with other pleasant fruits, camphire with spikenard .

The plants of thy Garden, Believers which are planted in thee.

Are like the plants or fruits of an Orchard, which are pleasant to the Eye, and delicious to the taste or smell, such as are here mentioned in the following words. Whereby he signifies the variety and excellency of Gifts and Graces in the several members of the Church.

Which he mentions both here with camphire or cypress, and in the next verse with saffron, because it is mixed with both these, and being so mixed, yieldeth the more grateful smell.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ [illegible: 1 word].

14 Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense , myrrhe and aloes, with all the chief spices.

Such Trees as produce Frankincense. Or, as others, both ancient and modern, render it, Trees of Lebanon, such sweet smelling Trees and Plants as grew in Lebanon, of which see above on v. 11.

15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters , and streams from Lebanon .

These are the words either 1. Of the Bride, who returns this Answer to the Bridegroom. Thou callest me a Fountain, but in truth thou only art that Fountain from whence I derive all my streams of comfort: Or rather 2. Of the Bridegroom, who hath hitherto been speaking to and of the Church, and still continues his Speech. He seems to add this by way of correction to, or exposition of what he said v. 12. Though my Spouse be in some sort a Fountain shut up or sealed, yet that is not so to be understood as if she kept her Waters to her self, for she is like a Fountain or Well of living or running water, which floweth into Gardens, and maketh its Flowers and Plants to grow and flourish. The Church conveyeth those Waters of Life which she receiveth from Christ unto particular Believers and Congregations.

Like those sweet and refreshing Rivers which flow down from Mount Lebanon, of which Iordan is one.

16 Awake , O north-wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden , that the spices thereof may flow out : let my beloved come into his garden , and eat his pleasant fruit .

Or, Arise, either 1. To be gone, as being commonly hurtful to Plants and Gardens: Or rather 2. To come, as the next clause explains it: For both the North-wind and the South-wind have their several uses in Gardens, the for[illegible: 1+ letters]er to purge and cool the Air, and to bring fair weather, the [illegible: 1 word] to [illegible: 1 word] and moisten the Earth, and cherish the Plants. And th[illegible: 1+ letters]se Winds may signifie the several Dispensations either of Gods Providence, or rather of his Spirit, which is compared to the wind, Ioh. 3. 8. whereby the following effects are produced.

This verse is spoken by the Spouse, as appears from the last clause of it. And the calls the Garden both hers and his, because of that oneness which is between them, ch. 2. 16. whereby they have a common Interest one in anothers person and concerns.

Th[illegible: 1+ letters]t my Graces may be exercised to thy Glory, the Edification of others, and my own comfort.

Let Christ afford his gracious presence more and more to his Church.

And let him delight himself in that Service and Glory which is given to him, both by the religious Worship, and by the holy conversations of his People.

Sol 4:1 1a Lo, thou art fair, my friend! yes, thou art fair!      Thine eyes are doves behind thy veil.

The Gr. Venet. translates, after Kimchi, “looking out from behind, thy hair flowing down from thy head like a mane.” Thus also Schultens, capillus plexus; and Hengst., who compares πλέγμα, 1Ti 2:9, and ἐμπλοκὴ τριχῶν, 1Pe 3:3, passages which do not accord with the case of Shulamith; but neither צמם, Arab. ṣmm, nor ṭmm signifies to plait; the latter is used of the hair when it is too abundant, and ready for the shears. To understand the hair as denoted here, is, moreover, inadmissible, inasmuch as מבעד cannot be used of the eyes in relation to the braids of hair hanging before them. Symm. rightly translates צמה by κάλυμμα veil (in the Song the lxx erroneously renders by σιωπήσεως behind thy silence), Isa 47:2. The verb צמם, (Arab.) ṣmam, a stopper, and (Arab.) alṣamma, a plaid in which one veils himself, when he wraps it around him.Regarding this verbal stem and its derivatives, see Theé’s Schlafgemach der Phantasie, pp. 102-105.

The veil is so called, as that which closely hides the face. In the Aram. צמם, Palp. צמצם, means directly to veil, as e.g., Bereshith rabba c. 45, extr., of a matron whom the king lets pass before him it is said, פניה צימצמה. Shulamith is thus veiled. As the Roman bride wore the velum flammeum, so also the Jewish bride was deeply veiled; cf. Gen 24:65, where Rebecca veiled herself (Lat. nubit) before her betrothed. בּעד, constr. בּעד, a segolate noun, which denotes separation, is a prep. in the sense of pone, as in Arab. in that of post. Ewald, sec. 217 m, supposes, contrary to the Arab., the fundamental idea of covering (cogn. בגד); but that which surrounds is thought of as separating, and at the same time as covering, the thing which it encompasses. From behind her veil, which covered her face (vid., Bachmann, under Jdg 3:23), her eyes gleam out, which, without needing to be supplemented by `עיני, are compared, as to their colour, motion, and lustre, to a pair of doves.

From the eyes the praise passes to the hair. 1b Thy hair is like a flock of goats      Which repose downwards on Mount Gilead.

The hair of the bride’s head was uncovered. We know from later times that she wore in it a wreath of myrtles and roses, or also a “golden city” (עיר שׁל זהב), i.e., an ornament which emblematically represented Jerusalem. To see that this comparison is not incongruous, we must know that sheep in Syria and Palestine are for the most part white; but goats, for the most part, black, or at least dark coloured, as e.g., the brown gedi Mamri. (Note: Burns, the Scottish poet, thinking that goats are white, transfers the comparison from the hair to the teeth: “Her teeth are like a flock of sheep,

With fleeces newly washen clean,

That slowly mount the rising steep;

And she’s twa glancin', sparklin' een.”)

The verb גּלשׁ is the Arab. jls, which signifies, to rest upon; and is distinguished from the synon. q'd in this, that the former is used of him who has previously lain down; the latter, of one who first stands and then sits down.Ḳ'ad cannot be used of one who sits on the bed farash; in jalas lies the direction from beneath to above; in ḳ'ad (properly, to heap together, to cower down), from above to beneath.

The nejd bears also the name jals, as the high land raising itself, and like a dome sitting above the rest of the land. One has to think of the goats as having lain down, and thus with the upper parts of their bodies as raised up. מן in מהר is used almost as in מדּלי מר, Isa 40:15. A flock of goats encamped on a mountain (rising up, to one looking from a distance, as in a steep slope, and almost perpendicularly), and as if hanging down lengthwise on its sides, presents a lovely view adorning the landscape. Solomon likens to this the appearance of the locks of his beloved, which hang down over her shoulders. She was till now a shepherdess, therefore a second rural image follows:

Sol 4:2 2 Thy teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep    Which comes up from the washing    All bearing twins,    And a bereaved one is not among them.

The verb קצב is, as the Arab. shows, in the sense of tondere oves, the synon. of גּזז. With shorn (not to be shorn) sheep, the teeth in regard to their smoothness, and with washed sheep in regard to their whiteness, are compared - as a rule the sheep of Palestine are white; in respect of their full number, in which in pairs they correspond to one another, the one above to the one below, like twin births in which there is no break. The parallel passage, Sol 6:6, omits the point of comparison of the smoothness. That some days after the shearing the sheep were bathed, is evident from Columella 7:4. Regarding the incorrect exchange of mas. with fem. forms, vid., under Sol 2:7. The part. Hiph. מתאימות (cf. διδυματόκος, Theocr. i. 25) refers to the mothers, none of which has lost a twin of the pair she had borne. In “which come up from the washing,” there is perhaps thought of, at the same time with the whiteness, the saliva dentium. The moisture of the saliva, which heightens the glance of the teeth, is frequently mentioned in the love-songs of Mutenebbi, Hariri, and Deschami. And that the saliva of a clean and sound man is not offensive, is seen from this, that the Lord healed a blind man by means of His spittle.

Sol 4:3

The mouth is next praised: 3a Like a thread of crimson thy lips,      And thy mouth is lovely,

As distinguished from red-purple, ארגּמן, שׁני (properly, shining, glistening; for this form has an active signification, like נקי, as well as a passive, like עני) - fully, שׁני תּולעת - signifies the kermes or worm-colour; the karmese, the red juice of the cochineal. מדבּרך (מדבּריך) is translated by the lxx “thy speech;” Jerome, eloquium; and the Venet. “thy dialogue;” but that would be expressed, though by a ἁπ. λεγ., by מדבּר דבּוּרך is here the name of the mouth, the naming of which one expects; the preform. is the mem instrumenti: the mouth, as the instrument of speech, as the organ by which the soul expresses itself in word and in manner of speech. The poet needed for פּיך a fuller, more select word; just as in Syria the nose is not called anf, but minchâr (from nachara, to blow, to breathe hard).

Praise of her temples. 3b Like a piece of pomegranate thy temples      Behind thy veil. רקּה is the thin piece of the skull on both sides of the eyes; Lat., mostly in the plur., tempora; German, schläfe, from schlaff, loose, slack, i.e., weak = רק. The figure points to that soft mixing of colours which makes the colouring of the so-called carnation one of the most difficult accomplishments in the art of painting. The half of a cut pomegranate (Jer. fragmen mali punici) is not meant after its outer side, as Zöckler supposes, for he gives to the noun rǎkkā, contrary to Jdg 4:21; Jdg 5:26, the meaning of cheek, a meaning which it has not, but after its inner side, which presentsThe interior of a pomegranate is divided by tough, leather-like white or yellow skins, and the divisions are filled with little berries, in form and size like those of the grape, in the juicy inside of which little, properly, seed-corns, are found. The berries are dark red, or also pale red. The above comparison points to the mixing of these two colours. a red mixed and tempered with the ruby colour, - a figure so much the more appropriate, since the ground-colour of Shulamith’s countenance is a subdued white.The Moslem erotic poets compare the division of the lips to the dividing cleft into a pomegranate.

Up to this point the figures are borrowed from the circle of vision of a shepherdess. Now the king derives them from the sphere of his own experience as the ruler of a kingdom. She who has eyes like doves is in form like a born queen.

Sol 4:4 4 Like the tower of David thy neck,    Built in terraces;    Thereon a thousand shields hang,    All the armour of heroes.

The tower of David, is, as it appears, “the tower of the flock,” Mic 4:4, from which David surveyed the flock of his people. In Neh 3:25. it is called the “tower which lieth out from the king’s high house,” i.e., not the palace, but a government house built on Zion, which served as a court of justice. But what is the meaning of the ἁπ. λεγ. תּלפּיּות? Grätz translates: for a prospect; but the Greek τηλωπός, of which he regards תל as the Heb. abstr., is a word so rare that its introduction into the Semitic language is on that account improbable. Hengst. translates: built for hanging swords; and he sees in the word a compound of תּל (from תּלה, with which forms such as יד = jadj, שׁד = shadj, שׁל, 2Sa 6:7, are compared) and פּיּות; but this latter word signifies, not swords, but edges of the (double-edged) sword; wherefore Kimchi (interpreting תּל as the constr. of תל, as אל, in בּצלאל, is of צל) explains: an erection of sharp-cornered stones; and, moreover, the Heb. language knows no such nmm. comp. appellativa: the names of the frog, צפרדּע, and the bat, עטלּף (cf. the Beth in [Arab.] sa'lab, fox, with the added Pe), are not such; and also tsalmāveth, the shadow of death, is at a later period, for the first time, restampedCf. regarding such double words belonging to the more modern Semitic language, Jesurun, pp. 232-236. as such from the original tsalmuth (cf. Arab. zalumat = tenebrae). Gesen. obtains the same meanings; for he explains לתל by exitialibus (sc.,, armis), from an adj. תּלפּי, from תּלף = Arab. talifa, to perish, the inf. of which, talaf, is at the present day a word synon. with halak (to perish); (Arab.) matlaf (place of going down) is, like ישׁמון, a poetic name of the wilderness. The explanation is acceptable but hazardous, since neither the Heb. nor the Aram. shows a trace of this verb; and it is thus to be given up, if תלף can be referred to a verbal stem to be found in the Heb. and Aram. This is done in Ewald’s explanation, to which also Böttcher and Rödig. give the preference: built for close (crowded) troops (so, viz., that many hundreds or thousands find room therein); the (Arab.) verb aff, to wrap together (opp. nashar, to unfold), is used of the packing together of multitudes of troops (liff, plur. lufuf), and also of warlike hand-to-hand conflicts; תלף would be traced to a verb לפה synon. therewith, after the form תּאניּה. But if תלף were meant of troops, then they would be denoted as the garrison found therein, and it would not be merely said that the tower was built for such; for the point of comparison would then be, the imposing look of the neck, overpowering by the force of the impression proceeding from within. But now, in the Aram., and relatively in the Talm. Heb., not only לפף and לוּף occur, but also לפי (Af. אלפי), and that in the sense of enclosure, i.e., of joining together, the one working into the other, - e.g., in the Targ.: of the curtain of the tabernacle (בּית לופי, place of the joining together = חברת or מחבּרת of the Heb. text); and in the Talm.: of the roofs of two houses (Bathra 6 a, לוּפתּא, the joining)The Arab. lafa, vi., proceeding from the same root-idea, signifies to bring in something again, to bring in again, to seek to make good again..

Accordingly לתלף, if we interpret the Lamed not of the definition, but of the norm, may signify, “in ranks together.” The Lamed has already been thus rendered by Döderl.: “in turns” (cf. לפת, to turn, to wind); and by Meier, Mr.: “in gradation;” and Aq. and Jerome also suppose that תלף refers to component parts of the building itself, for they understandVid., also Lagarde’s Onomastica, p. 202: Θαλπιὼθ ἐπάλξη (read εἰς) ἤ ὑψηλά. pinnacles or parapets (ἐπάλξεις, propugnacula); as also the Venet.: εἰς ἐπάλξεις χιλίας. But the name for pinnacles is פּנּהּ, and their points, שׁמשׁות; while, on the contrary, תלף is the more appropriate name for terraces which, connected together, rise the one above the other. Thus to build towers like terraces, and to place the one, as it were, above the other, was a Babylonian custom.Vid., Oppert’s Grundzüge der Assyr. Kunst (1872), p. 11.

The comparison lies in this, that Shulamith’s neck was surrounded with ornaments so that it did not appear as a uniform whole, but as composed of terraces. That the neck is represented as hung round with ornaments, the remaining portion of the description shows. מגן signifies a shield, as that which protects, like clupeus (clypeus), perhaps connected with καλύπτειν and שׁלט, from שׁלט = (Arab.) shalita, as a hard impenetrable armour. The latter is here the more common word, which comprehends, with מגן, the round shield; also צנּה, the oval shield, which covers the whole body; and other forms of shields. המּגן אלף, “the thousand shields,” has the indicative, if not (vid., under Sol 1:11) the generic article. The appositional כּל שׁלטי הגּ is not intended to mean: all shields of (von) heroes, which it would if the article were prefixed to col and omitted before gibborim, or if כּלם, Sol 3:8, were used; but it means: all the shields of heroes, as the accentuation also indicates. The article is also here significant. Solomon made, according to 1Ki 10:16., 200 golden targets and 300 golden shields, which he put in the house of the forest of Lebanon. These golden shields Pharaoh Shishak took away with him, and Rehoboam replaced them by “shields of brass,” which the guards bore when they accompanied the king on his going into the temple (1Ki 14:26-28; cf. 2Ch 12:9-11); these “shields of David,” i.e., shields belonging to the king’s house, were given to the captains of the guard on the occasion of the raising of Joash to the throne, 2Ki 11:10; cf. 2Ch 23:9. Of these brazen shields, as well as of those of gold, it is expressly said how and where they were kept, nowhere that they were hung up outside on a tower, the tower of David. Such a display of the golden shields is also very improbable. We will perhaps have to suppose that 4 b describes the tower of David, not as it actually was, but as one has to represent it to himself, that it might be a figure of Shulamith’s neck. This is compared to the terraced tower of David, if one thinks of it as hung round by a thousand shields which the heroes bore, those heroes, namely, who formed the king’s body-guard. Thus it is not strange that to the 200 + 300 golden shields are here added yet 500 more; the body-guard, reckoned in companies of 100 each, 2Ki 11:4, is estimated as consisting of 1000 men. The description, moreover, corresponds with ancient custom. The words are עליו תּלוּי, not בּו תּלוּי; the outer wall of the tower is thought of as decorated with shields hung upon it. That shields were thus hung round on tower-walls, Ezekiel shows in his prophecy regarding Tyre, Eze 27:11; cf. 1 Macc. 4:57, and supra foris Capitolinae aedis, Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 3; and although we express the presumption that Solomon’s imagination represented David’s tower as more gorgeous than it actually was, yet we must confess that we are not sufficiently acquainted with Solomon’s buildings to be able to pass judgment on this. These manifold inexplicable references of the Song to the unfolded splendour of Solomon’s reign, are favourable to the Solomonic authorship of the book. This grandiose picture of the distinguished beauty of the neck, and the heightening of this beauty by the ornament of chains, is now followed by a beautiful figure, which again goes back to the use of the language of shepherds, and terminates the description:

Sol 4:5 5 Thy two breasts are like two fawns,    Twins of a gazelle,    Which feed among lilies.

The dual, originating in the inner differ. of the plur., which denotes in Heb. not two things of any sort, but two paired by nature or by art, exists only in the principal form; שׁדים, as soon as inflected, is unrecognisable, therefore here, where the pair as such is praised, the word שׁני is used. The breasts are compared to a twin pair of young gazelles in respect of their equality and youthful freshness, and the bosom on which they raise themselves is compared to a meadow covered with lilies, on which the twin-pair of young gazelles feed. With this tender lovely image the praise of the attractions of the chosen one is interrupted.

If one counts the lips and the mouth as a part of the body, which they surely are, there are seven things here praised, as Hengst. rightly counts (the eyes, the hair, teeth, mouth, temples, neck, breasts); and Hahn speaks with right of the sevenfold beauty of the bride.

Sol 4:6

Shulamith replies to these words of praise: 6 Until the day cools and the shadows flee,    I will go forth to the mountain of myrrh    And to the hill of frankincense.

All those interpreters who suppose these to be a continuation of Solomon’s words, lose themselves in absurdities. Most of them understand the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense of Shulamith’s attractions, praised in Sol 4:5, or of her beauty as a whole; but the figures would be grotesque (cf. on the other hand Sol 5:13), and אל לי אלך prosaic, wherefore it comes that the idea of betaking oneself away connects itself with לו הלך (Gen 12:1; Exo 18:27), or that it yet preponderates therein (Gen 22:2; Jer 5:5), and that, for לי אלך in the passage before us in reference to Sol 2:10-11, the supposition holds that it will correspond with the French jè m'en irai. With right Louis de Leon sees in the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense names of shady and fragrant places; but he supposes that Solomon says he wishes to go thither to enjoy a siesta, and that he invites Shulamith thither. But we read nothing of this invitation; and that a bridegroom should sleep a part of his marriage-day is yet more unnatural than that, e.g., Wilh. Budäus, the French philologist, spent a part of the same at work in his study. That not Solomon but Shulamith speaks here is manifest in the beginning, “until the day,” etc., which at Sol 2:17 are also Shulamith’s words. Anton (1773) rightly remarks, “Shulamith says this to set herself free.” But why does she seek to make herself free? It is answered, that she longs to be forth from Solomon’s too ardent eulogies; she says that, as soon as it is dark, she will escape to the blooming aromatic fields of her native home, where she hopes to meet with her beloved shepherd. Thus, e.g., Ginsburg (1868). But do myrrh and frankincense grow in North Palestine? Ginsburg rests on Florus’ Epitome Rerum Rom. iii. 6, where Pompey the Great is said to have passed over Lebanon and by Damascus “per nemora illa odorata, per thuris et balsami sylvas.” But by these thuris et balsami sylvae could be meant only the gardens of Damascus; for neither myrrh nor frankincense is indigenous to North Palestine, or generally to any part of Palestine. Friedrich (1866) therefore places Shulamith’s home at Engedi, and supposes that she here once more looks from the window and dotes on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, “where, at the approach of twilight, she was wont to look out for her betrothed shepherd.” But Shulamith, as her name already denotes, is not from the south, but is a Galilean, and her betrothed shepherd is from Utopia! That myrrh and frankincense were planted in the gardens of Engedi is possible, although (Sol 1:14) mention is made only of the Al-henna there. But here places in the neighbourhood of the royal palace must be meant; for the myrrh tree, the gum of which, prized as an aroma, is the Arab. Balsamodendron Myrrha, and the frankincense tree, the resin of which is used for incense, is, like the myrrh tree, an Arab. amyrid. The Boswellia serrata,Lassen’s Ind. Alterthumskunde, I 334. indigenous to the East Indies, furnishes the best frankincense; the Israelites bought it from Sheba (Isa 60:6; Jer 6:20). The myrrh tree as well as the frankincense tree were thus exotics in Palestine, as they are in our own country; but Solomon, who had intercourse with Arabia and India by his own mercantile fleet, procured them for his own garden (Ecc 2:5). The modest Shulamith shuns the loving words of praise; for she requests that she may be permitted to betake herself to the lonely places planted with myrrh and frankincense near the king’s palace, where she thinks to tarry in a frame of mind befitting this day till the approaching darkness calls her back to the king. It is the importance of the day which suggests to her this לי אלך, a day in which she enters into the covenant of her God with Solomon (Pro 2:17). Without wishing to allegorize, we may yet not omit to observe, that the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense put us in mind of the temple, where incense, composed of myrrh, frankincense, and other spices, ascended up before God every morning and evening (Exo 30:34.). המּור הר is perhaps a not unintentional accord to הר המּוריּה (2Ch 3:1), the mountain where God appeared; at all events, “mountain of myrrh” and “hill of frankincense” are appropriate names for places of devout meditation, where one holds fellowship with God.

Sol 4:7

This childlike modest disposition makes her yet more lovely in the eyes of the king. He breaks out in these words: 7 Thou art altogether fair, my love,    And no blemish in thee.

Certainly he means, no blemish either of soul or body. In Sol 4:1-5 he has praised her external beauty; but in Sol 4:6 her soul has disclosed itself: the fame of her spotless beauty is there extended to her would no less than to her external appearance. And as to her longing after freedom from the tumult and bustle of court life, he thus promises to her:

Sol 4:8 8 With me from Lebanon, my bride,    With me from Lebanon shalt thou come;    Shalt look from the top of Amana,    From the top of Shenir and Hermon,    From dens of lions,    From mountains of leopards.

Zöckl. interprets אתּי in the sense of אלי, and תּשׁוּרי in the sense of journeying to this definite place: “he announces to her in overflowing fulness of expression that from this time forth, instead of the lonely mountainous regions, and the dangerous caves and dens, she shall inhabit with him the royal palace.” Thus also Kingsbury. But the interpretation, however plausible, cannot be supported. For (1) such an idea ought to be expressed either by תב אלי or by תשׁבי ואתּי תב, instead of אתּי תּב; (2) Shulamith is not from Lebanon, nor from the Anti-Libanus, which looks toward Damascus; (3) this would be no answer to Shulamith’s longing for lonely quietness. We therefore hold by our explanation given in 1851. He seeks her to go with him up the steep heights of Lebanon, and to descend with him from thence; for while ascending the mountain one has no view before him, but when descending he has the whole panorama of the surrounding region lying at his feet. Thus תשׁ is not to be understood as at Isa 57:9, where it has the meaning of migrabas, but, as at Num 23:9, it means spectabis. With מר the idea of prospect lies nearer than that of descending; besides, the meaning spectare is secondary, for שׁוּר signifies first “to go, proceed, journey,” and then “going to view, to go in order to view.” Sêr in Arab. means “the scene,” and sêr etmek in Turkish, “to contemplate” (cf. Arab. tamashy, to walk, then, to contemplate). Lebanon is the name of the Alpine range which lies in the N.-W. of the Holy Land, and stretches above 20 (German) miles from the Leontes (Nahr el-Kasmîe) northwards to the Eleutheros (Nahr el-Kebîr). The other three names here found refer to the Anti-Libanus separated from the Lebanon by the Coelo-Syrian valley, and stretching from the Banis northwards to the plain of Hamâth.Amana denotes that range of the Anti-Libanus from which the springs of the river Amana issue, one of the two rivers which the Syrian captain (2Ki 5:12) named as better than all the waters of Israel. These are the Amana and Pharpar, i.e., the Baradâ and A'wadsh; to the union of the Baradâ (called by the Greeks Chrysorrhoas, i.e., “golden stream”) with the Feidshe, the environs of Damascus owe their ghuwdat, their paradisaical beauty.

Hermon (from חרם, to cut of; cf. Arab. kharom and makhrim, the steep projection of a mountain) is the most southern peak of the Anti-Libanus chain, the lofty mountains (about 10, 000 feet above the level of the sea) which form the north-eastern border of Palestine, and from which the springs of the Jordan take their rise.

Another section of the Anti-Libanus range is called Senir, not Shenir. The name, in all the three places where it occurs (Deu 3:9; 1Ch 5:23), is, in accordance with tradition, to be written with Sin. The Onkelos Targum writes סריון; the Jerusalem paraphrases, טורא דמסרי פירוי (the mountain whose fruits become putrid, viz., on account of their superabundance); the Midrash explains otherwise: שהוא שובא הניר (the mountain which resists being broken up by the plough), - everywhere the writing of the word with the letter Sin is supposed. According to Deu 3:9, this was the Amorite name of Hermon. The expression then denotes that the Amorites called Hermon - i.e., the Anti-Libanus range, for they gave the name of a part to the whole range - by the name Senîr; Abulfeda uses Arab. snîr as the name of the part to the north of Damascus, with which the statement of Schwarz (Das h. Land, p. 33) agrees, that the Hermon (Anti-Libanus) to the north-west of Damascus is called Senîr. נמרים, panthers, to the present day inhabit the clefts and defiles of the Lebanon, and of the Anti-Libanus running parallel to it; whereas lions have now altogether disappeared from the countries of the Mediterranean. In Solomon’s time they were to be met with in the lurking-places of the Jordan valley, and yet more frequently in the remote districts of the northern Alpine chains. From the heights of these Alps Solomon says Shulamith shall alone with him look down from where the lions and panthers dwell. Near these beasts of prey, and yet inaccessible by them, shall she enjoy the prospect of the extensive pleasant land which was subject to the sceptre of him who held her safe on these cliffs, and accompanied her over these giddy heights. If “mountain of myrrh,” so also “the top of Amana” is not without subordinate reference. Amana, proceeding from the primary idea of firmness and verification, signifies fidelity and the faithful covenant as it is established between God and the congregation, for He betrothes it to Himself b'mwnh (“in faithfulness”), Hos 2:22 [20]; the congregation of which the apostle (Eph 5:27) says the same as is here said by Solomon of Shulamith. Here for the first time he calls her כלה, not כּלּתי; for that, according to the usus loq., would mean “my daughter-in-law.” Accordingly, it appears that the idea of “daughter-in-law” is the primary, and that of “bride” the secondary one. כּלה, which is = כּלוּלה, as חלּה, a cake, is = חלוּלה, that which is pierced through (cf. כּלוּלות, being espoused; Jer 2:2), appears to meanL. Geiger’s Ursprung d. Sprach. p. 227; cf. 88. (cf. what was said regarding חתן under Sol 3:11) her who is comprehended with the family into which, leaving her parents’ house, she enters; not her who is embraced = crowned with a garland (cf. Arab. qkll, to be garlanded; tēklîl, garlanding; iklil, Syr. kelilo, a wreath), or her who is brought to completion (cf. the verb, Eze 27:4, Eze 27:11), i.e., has reached the goal of her womanly calling. Besides, כּלה, like “Braut” in the older German (e.g., Gudrun), means not only her who is betrothed, but also her who has been lately married.

Sol 4:9

All that the king calls his, she now can call hers; for she has won his heart, and with his heart himself and all that is his. 9 Thou hast taken my heart, my sister-bride;    Thou hast taken my heart with one of thy glances,    With a little chain of thy necklace.

The Piel לבּב may mean to make courageous, and it actually has this meaning in the Aram., wherefore the Syr. retains the word; Symm. renders it by ἐθάρσυνάς με. But is it becoming in a man who is no coward, especially in a king, to say that the love he cherishes gives him heart, i.e., courage? It might be becoming, perhaps, in a warrior who is inspired by the thought of his beloved, whose respect and admiration he seeks to gain, to dare the uttermost. But Solomon is no Antar, no wandering knight.A specimen of Böttcher’s interpretation: “What is more natural than to suppose that the keeper of a vineyard showed herself with half of her head and neck exposed at the half-opened window to her shepherd on his first attempt to set her free, when he cried, 'my dove in the clefts of the rocks,' etc., and animated him thereby to this present bold deliverance of her from the midst of robbers?” We pity the Shulamitess, that she put her trust in this moonshiny coward.

Besides, the first effect of love is different: it influences those whom it governs, not as encouraging, in the first instance, but as disarming them; love responded to encourages, but love in its beginning, which is the subject here, overpowers. We would thus more naturally render: “thou hast unhearted me;” but “to unheart,” according to the Semitic and generally the ancient conception of the heart (Psychol. p. 254), does not so much mean to captivate the heart, as rather to deprive of understanding or of judgment (cf. Hos 4:11). Such denomin. Pi. of names of corporeal members signify not merely taking away, but also wounding, and generally any violent affection of it, as זנּב, גּרם, Ewald, §120 c; accordingly the lxx, Venet., and Jerome: ἐκαρδίωσάς με, vulnerasti cor meum. The meaning is the same for “thou hast wounded my heart” = “thou hast subdued my heart” (cf. Psa 45:6). With one of her glances, with a little chain of her necklace, she has overcome him as with a powerful charm: veni, visa sum, vici. The Kerı̂ changes באחד into בּאחת; certainly עין is mostly fem. (e.g., Jdg 16:28), but not only the non-bibl. usus loq., which e.g., prefers רעה or רע עין, of a malignant bewitching look, but also the bibl. (vid., Zec 3:9; Zec 4:10) treats the word as of double gender. ענק and צוּרנים are related to each other as a part is to the whole. With the subst. ending ôn, the designation of an ornament designed for the neck is formed from צוּאר, the neck; cf. שׂהרון, the “round tires like the moon” of the women’s toilet, Isa 3:18. ענק (connected with אחד ענק, cervix) is a separate chain (Aram. עוּנקתא) of this necklace. In the words ענק אחד, אחד is used instead of אחד, occurring also out of genit. connection (Gen 48:22; 2Sa 17:22), and the arrangement (vid., under Psa 89:51) follows the analogy of the pure numerals as נשׁים שׁלשׁ; it appears to be transferred from the vulgar language to that used in books, where, besides the passage before us, it occurs only in Dan 8:13. That a glance of the eye may pierce the heart, experience shows; but how can a little chain of a necklace do this? That also is intelligible. As beauty becomes unlike itself when the attire shows want of taste, so by means of tasteful clothing, which does not need to be splendid, but may even be of the simplest kind, it becomes mighty. Hence the charming attractive power of the impression one makes communicates itself to all that he wears, as, e.g., the woman with the issue of blood touched with joyful hope the hem of Jesus’ garment; for he who loves feels the soul of that which is loved in all that stands connected therewith, all that is, as it were, consecrated and charmed by the beloved object, and operates so much the more powerfully if it adorns it, because as an ornament of that which is beautiful, it appears so much the more beautiful. In the preceding verse, Solomon has for the first time addressed Shulamith by the title “bride.” Here with heightened cordiality he calls her “sister-bride.” In this change in the address the progress of the story is mirrored. Why he does not say כּלּתי (my bride), has already been explained, under Sol 4:8, from the derivation of the word. Solomon’s mother might call Shulamith callathi, but he gives to the relation of affinity into which Shulamith has entered a reference to himself individually, for he says ahhothi callaa (my sister-bride): she who as callaa of his mother is to her a kind of daughter, is as callaa in relation to himself, as it were, his sister.

Sol 4:10-11

He proceeds still further to praise her attractions. 10 How fair is thy love, my sister-bride!      How much better thy love than wine!      And the fragrance of thy unguents than all spices! 11 Thy lips drop honey, my bride;      Honey and milk are under thy tongue;      And the fragrance of thy garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

Regarding the connection of the pluralet. דּודים with the plur. of the pred., vid., at Sol 1:2. The pred. יפוּ praises her love in its manifestations according to its impression on the sight; טבוּ, according to its experience on nearer intercourse. As in Sol 4:9 the same power of impression is attributed to the eyes and to the necklace, so here is intermingled praise of the beauty of her person with praise of the fragrance, the odour of the clothing of the bride; for her soul speaks out not only by her lips, she breathes forth odours also for him in her spices, which he deems more fragrant than all other odours, because he inhales, as it were, her soul along with them. נפת, from נפת, ebullire (vid., under Pro 5:3, also Schultens), is virgin honey, ἄκοιτον (acetum, Pliny, xi. 15), i.e., that which of itself flows from the combs (צוּפים). Honey drops from the lips which he kisses; milk and honey are under the tongue which whispers to him words of pure and inward joy; cf. the contrary, Psa 140:4. The last line is an echo of Gen 27:27. שׂלמה is שׂמלה (from שׂמל, complicare, complecti) transposed (cf. עלנה from עולה, כּשׂבּה from כּבשׂה). As Jacob’s raiment had for his old father the fragrance of a field which God had blessed, so for Solomon the garments of the faultless and pure one, fresh from the woods and mountains of the north, gave forth a heart-strengthening savour like the fragrance of Lebanon (Hos 4:7), viz., of its fragrant herbs and trees, chiefly of the balsamic odour of the apples of the cedar.

Sol 4:12

The praise is sensuous, but it has a moral consecration. 12 A garden locked is my sister-bride;      A spring locked, a fountain sealed. גּן (according to rule masc. Böttch. §658) denotes the garden from its enclosure; גּ (elsewhere נּלּה ere), the fountain (synon. מבּוּע), the waves bubbling forth (cf. Amo 5:24); and מעין, the place, as it were an eye of the earth, from which a fountain gushes forth. Luther distinguishes rightly between gan and gal; on the contrary, all the old translators (even the Venet.) render as if the word in both cases were gan. The Pasek between gan and nā'ul, and between gal and nā'ul, is designed to separate the two Nuns, as e.g., at 2Ch 2:9; Neh 2:2, the two Mems; it is the orthophonic Pasek, already described under Sol 2:7, which secures the independence of two similar or organically related sounds. Whether the sealed fountain (fons signatus) alludes to a definite fountain which Solomon had built for the upper city and the temple place,Vid., Zschocke in the Tübinger Quartalschrift, 1867, 3. we do not now inquire. To a locked garden and spring no one has access but the rightful owner, and a sealed fountain is shut against all impurity. Thus she is closed against the world, and inaccessible to all that would disturb her pure heart, or desecrate her pure person.Seal, חותם, pers. muhr, is used directly in the sense of maiden-like behaviour; vid., Perles’ etymol. Studien (1871), p. 67.

All the more beautiful and the greater is the fulness of the flowers and fruits which bloom and ripen in the garden of this life, closed against the world and its lust.

Sol 4:13-14 13 What sprouts forth for thee is a park of pomegranates,      With most excellent fruits;      Cypress flowers with nards; 14 Nard and crocus; calamus and cinnamon,      With all kinds of incense trees;      Myrrh and aloes,      With all the chief aromatics.

The common subject to all down to Sol 4:15 inclusive is שׁלחיך (“what sprouts for thee” = “thy plants”), as a figurative designation, borrowed from plants, of all the “phenomena and life utterances” (Böttch.) of her personality. “If I only knew here,” says Rocke, “how to disclose the meaning, certainly all these flowers and fruits, in the figurative language of the Orient, in the flower-language of love, had their beautiful interpretation.” In the old German poetry, also, the phrase bluomen brechen to break flowers was equivalent to: to enjoy love; the flowers and fruits named are figures of all that the amata offers to the amator. Most of the plants here named are exotics; פּרדּס (heaping around, circumvallation, enclosing) is a garden or park, especially with foreign ornamental and fragrant plants - an old Persian word, the explanation of which, after Spiegel, first given in our exposition of the Song, 1851 (from pairi = περί, and dêz, R. diz, a heap), has now become common property (Justi’s Handb. der Zendsprache, p. 180). מגדים פּרי (from מגד, which corresponds to The Arab. mejd, praise, honour, excellence; vid., Volck under Deu 33:13) are fructus laudum, or lautitiarum, excellent precious fruits, which in the more modern language are simply called מגדים (Shabbath 127 b, מיני מגדים, all kinds of fine fruits); cf. Syr. magdo, dried fruit. Regarding כּפר, vid., under Sol 1:14; regarding מר, under Sol 1:13; also regarding נרדּ, under Sol 1:12. The long vowel of נרדּ corresponds to the Pers. form nârd, but near to which is also nard, Indian nalada (fragrance-giving); the ē is thus only the long accent, and can therefore disappear in the plur. For נרדים, Grätz reads ירדים, roses, because the poet would not have named nard twice. The conjecture is beautiful, but for us, who believe the poem to be Solomonic, is inconsistent with the history of roses (vid., under Sol 2:1), and also unnecessary. The description moves forward by steps rhythmically. כּרוכם is the crocus stativus, the genuine Indian safran, the dried flower-eyes of which yield the safran used as a colour, as an aromatic, and also as medicine; safran is an Arab. word, and means yellow root and yellow colouring matter. The name כּרוכם, Pers. karkam, Arab. karkum, is radically Indian, Sanscr. kunkuma. קנה, a reed (from קנה, R. qn, to rise up, viewed intrans.),In this general sense of “reed” (Syn. arundo) the word is also found in the Gr. and Lat.: κάνναι (κάναι), reed-mats, κάνεον κάναστρον, a wicker basket, canna, canistrum, without any reference to an Indo-Germ. verbal stem, and without acquiring the specific signification of an aromatic plant. viz., sweet reed, acorus calamus, which with us now grows wild in marshes, but is indigenous to the Orient. קנּמנן is the laurus cinnamomum, a tree indigenous to the east coast of Africa and Ceylon, and found later also on the Antilles. It is of the family of the laurineae, the inner bark of which, peeled off and rolled together, is the cinnamon-bark (cannella, French cannelle); Aram. קוּנמא, as also the Greek κιννάμοομον and κίνναμον, Lat. (e.g., in the 12th book of Pliny) cinnamomum and cinnamum, are interchanged, from קנם, probably a secondary formation from קנה (like בּם, whence בּמה, from בּא), to which also Syr. qenûmā', ὑπόστασις, and the Talm.-Targ. קנּוּם קונם, an oath (cf. קים), go back, so that thus the name which was brought to the west by the Phoenicians denoted not the tree, but the reed-like form of the rolled dried bark. As “nards” refer to varieties of the nard, perhaps to the Indian and the Jamanic spoken of by Strabo and others, so “all kinds of incense trees” refers definitely to Indo-Arab. varieties of the incense tree and its fragrant resin; it has its name fro the white and transparent seeds of this its resin (cf. Arab. lubân, incense and benzoin, the resin of the storax tree, לבנה); the Greek λίβανος, λιβανωτός (Lat. thus, frankincense, from θύω), is a word derived from the Pheonicians. אהלות or אהלים (which already in a remarkable way was used by Balaam, Num 24:6, elsewhere only since the time of Solomon) is the Semitized old Indian name of the aloe, agaru or aguru; that which is aromatic is the wood of the aloe-tree (aloëxylon agallochum), particularly its dried root (agallochum or lignum aloës, ξυλαλόη, according to which the Targ. here: אלואין אכסיל, after the phrase in Aruch) mouldered in the earth, which chiefly came from farther India.Vid., Lassen’s Ind. Alterthumsk. I 334f. Furrer, in Schenkel’s Bib. Lex., understands אהלות of the liliaceae, indigenous to Palestine as to Arabia, which is also called aloë. But the drastic purgative which the succulent leaves of this plant yield is not aromatic, and the verb אחל “to glisten,” whence he seeks to derive the name of this aloe, is not proved. Cf. besides, the Petersburg Lex. under aguru (“not difficult”), according to which is this name of the amyris agallocha, and the aquilaria agallocha, but of no liliaceae. The name Adlerholz (“eagle-wood”) rests on a misunderstanding of the name of the Agila tree. It is called “Paradiesholz,” because it must have been one of the paradise trees (vid., Bereshith rabba under Gen 2:8). Dioskorides says of this wood: θυμιᾶται ἀντὶ λιβανωτοῦ; the Song therefore places it along with myrrh and frankincense. That which is common to the lily-aloe and the wood-aloe, is the bitter taste of the juice of the former and of the resinous wood of the latter. The Arab. name of the aloe, ṣabir, is also given to the lily-aloe. The proverbs: amarru min eṣ-ṣabir, bitterer than the aloe, and es-sabr sabir, patience is the aloe, refer to the aloe-juice. עם, as everywhere, connects things contained together or in any way united (Sol 5:1; cf. Sol 1:11, as Psa 87:4; cf. 1Sa 16:12). The concluding phrase וגו כּל־ר, cum praestantissimis quibusque aromatibus, is a poet. et cetera. ראשׁ, with the gen. of the object whose value is estimated, denotes what is of meilleure qualité; or, as the Talm. says, what is אלפא, ἄλφα, i.e., number one. Ezek; Eze 27:22, in a similar sense, says, “with chief (ראשׁ) of all spices.”

Sol 4:15

The panegyric returns now once more to the figure of a fountain. 15 A garden-fountain, a well of living water,      And torrents from Lebanon.

The tertium compar. in Sol 4:12 was the collecting and sealing up; here, it is the inner life and its outward activity. A fountain in gardens (גּנּים, categ. pl.) is put to service for the benefit of the beds of plants round about, and it has in these gardens, as it were, its proper sphere of influence. A well of living water is one in which that which is distributes springs up from within, so that it is indeed given to it, but not without at the same time being its own true property. נזל is related, according to the Semitic usus loq., to אזל, as “niedergehen” (to go down) to “weggehen” (to go away) (vid., Pro 5:15); similarly related are (Arab.) sar, to go, and sal (in which the letter ra is exchanged for lam, to express the softness of the liquid), to flow, whence syl (sêl), impetuous stream, rushing water, kindred in meaning to נזלים. Streams which come from Lebanon have a rapid descent, and (so far as they do not arise in the snow region) the water is not only fresh, but clear as crystal. All these figures understood sensuously would be insipid; but understood ethically, they are exceedingly appropriate, and are easily interpreted, so that the conjecture is natural, that on the supposition of the spiritual interpretation of the Song, Jesus has this saying in His mind when He says that streams of living water shall flow “out of the belly” of the believer, Joh 7:38.

Sol 4:16

The king’s praise is for Shulamith proof of his love, which seeks a response. But as she is, she thinks herself yet unworthy of him; her modesty says to her that she needs preparation for him, preparation by that blowing which is the breath of God in the natural and in the spiritual world. 16 Awake, thou North (wind), and come, thou South!      Blow through my garden, cause its spices to flow -      Let my beloved come into his garden,      And eat the fruits which are precious to him.

The names of the north and south, denoting not only the regions of the heavens, but also the winds blowing from these regions, are of the fem. gender, Isa 43:6. The east wind, קדים, is purposely not mentioned; the idea of that which is destructive and adverse is connected with it (vid., under Job 27:21). The north wind brings cold till ice is formed, Sir. 43:20; and if the south wind blow, it is hot, Luk 12:55. If cold and heat, coolness and sultriness, interchange at the proper time, then growth is promoted. And if the wind blow through a garden at one time from this direction and at another from that, - not so violently as when it shakes the trees of the forest, but softly and yet as powerfully as a garden can bear it, - then all the fragrance of the garden rises in waves, and it becomes like a sea of incense. The garden itself then blows, i.e., emits odours; for (פּח = the Arab. fakh, fah, cf. fawh, pl. afwâh, sweet odours, fragrant plants) as in היּום רוּח, Gen 3:8, the idea underlies the expression, that when it is evening the day itself blows, i.e., becomes cool, the causative הפיחי, connected with the object-accus. of the garden, means to make the garden breezy and fragrant. נזל is here used of the odours which, set free as it were from the plants, flow out, being carried forth by the waves of air. Shulamith wishes that in her all that is worthy of love should be fully realized. What had to be done for Esther (Est 2:12) before she could be brought in to the king, Shulamith calls on the winds to accomplish for her, which are, as it were, the breath of the life of all nature, and as such, of the life-spirit, which is the sustaining background of all created things. If she is thus prepared for him who loves her, and whom she loves, he shall come into his garden and enjoy the precious fruit belonging to him. With words of such gentle tenderness, childlike purity, she gives herself to her beloved.

The Beauty of the Church.

1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. 2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. 3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. 4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. 5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies. 6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. 7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

Here is, I. A large and particular account of the beauties of the church, and of gracious souls on whom the image of God is renewed, consisting in the beauty of holiness. In general, he that is a competent judge of beauty, whose judgment, we are sure, is according to truth, and what all must subscribe to, he has said, Behold, thou art fair. She had commended him, and called all about her to take notice of his glories; and hereby she recommends herself to him, gains his favour, and, in return for her respects, he calls to all about him to take notice of her graces. Those that honour Christ he will honour, 1 Sam. ii. 30.

1. He does not flatter her, nor design hereby either to make her proud of herself or to court her praises of him; but, (1.) It is to encourage her under her present dejections. Whatever others thought of her, she was amiable in his eyes. (2.) It is to teach her what to value herself upon, not any external advantages (which would add nothing to her, and the want of which would deprive her of nothing that was really excellent), but upon the comeliness of grace which he had put upon her. (3.) It is to invite others to think well of her too, and to join themselves to her: "Thou art my love, thou lovest me and art beloved of me, and therefore thou art fair." All the beauty of the saints is derived from him, and they shine by reflecting his light; it is the beauty of the Lord our God that is upon us, Ps. xc. 17. She was espoused to him, and that made her beautiful. Uxor fulget radiis mariti—The spouse shines in her husband's rays. It it repeated, Thou art fair, and again, Thou art fair, denoting not only the certainty of it, but the pleasure he took in speaking of it.

2. As to the representation here made of the beauty of the church, the images are certainly very bright, the shades are strong, and the comparisons bold, not proper indeed to represent any external beauty, for they were not designed to do so, but the beauty of holiness, the new man, the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible. Seven particulars are specified, a number of perfection, for the church is enriched with manifold graces by the seven spirits that are before the throne, Rev. i. 4; 1 Cor. i. 5, 7.

(1.) Her eyes. A good eye contributes much to a beauty: Thou hast doves' eyes, clear and chaste, and often cast up towards heaven. It is not the eagle's eye, that can face the sun, but the dove's eye, a humble, modest, mournful eye, that is the praise of those whom Christ loves. Ministers are the church's eyes (Isa. lii. 8, thy watchmen shall see eye to eye); they must be like doves' eyes, harmless and inoffensive (Matt. x. 16), having their conversation in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity. Wisdom and knowledge are the eyes of the new man; they must be clear, but not haughty, not exercised in things too high for us. When our aims and intentions are sincere and honest, then we have doves' eyes, when we look not unto idols (Ezek. xviii. 6), but have our eyes ever towards the Lord, Ps. xxv. 15. The doves' eyes are within the locks, which area as a shade upon them, so that, [1.] They cannot fully see. As long as we are here in this world we know but in part, for a hair hangs in our eyes; we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness; death will shortly cut those locks, and then we shall see all things clearly. [2.] They cannot be fully seen, but as the stars through the thin clouds. Some make it to intimate the bashfulness of her looks; she suffers not her eyes to wander, but limits them with her locks.

(2.) Her hair; it is compared to a flock of goats, which looked white, and were, on the top of the mountains, like a fine head of hair; and the sight was more pleasant to the spectator because the goats have not only gravity from their beards, but they are comely in going (Prov. xxx. 29), but it was most pleasant of all to the owner, much of whose riches consisted in his flocks. Christ puts a value upon that in the church, and in believers, which others make no more account of than of their hair. He told his disciples that the very hairs of their head were all numbered, as carefully as men number their flocks (Matt. x. 30), and that not a hair of their head should perish, Luke xxi. 18. Some by the hair here understand the outward conversation of a believer, which ought to be comely, and decent, and agreeable to the holiness of the heart. The apostle opposes good works, such as become the professors of godliness, to the plaiting of the hair, 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10. Mary Magdalen's hair was beautiful when she wiped the feet of Christ with it.

(3.) Her teeth, v. 2. Ministers are the church's teeth; like nurses, they chew the meat for the babes of Christ. The Chaldee paraphrase applies it to the priests and Levites, who fed upon the sacrifices as the representatives of the people. Faith, by which we feed upon Christ, meditation, by which we ruminate on the word and chew the cud upon what we have heard, in order to the digesting of it, are the teeth of the new man. These are here compared to a flock of sheep. Christ called his disciples and ministers a little flock. It is the praise of teeth to be even, to be white, and kept clean, like sheep from the washing, and to be firm and well fixed in the gums, and not like sheep that cast their young; for so the word signifies which we translate barren. It is the praise of ministers to be even in mutual love and concord, to be pure and clean from all moral pollutions, and to be fruitful, bringing forth souls to Christ, and nursing his lambs.

(4.) Her lips; these are compared to a thread of scarlet, v. 3. Red lips are comely, and a sign of health, as the paleness of the lips is a sign of faintness and weakness; her lips were the colour of scarlet, but thin lips, like a thread of scarlet. The next words explain it: Thy speech is comely, always with grace, good, and to the use of edifying, which adds much to the beauty of a Christian. When we praise God with our lips, and with the mouth make confession of him to salvation, then they are as a thread of scarlet. All our good works and good words must be washed in the blood of Christ, dyed like the scarlet thread, and then, and not till then, they are acceptable to God. The Chaldee applies it to the chief priest, and his prayers for Israel on the day of atonement.

(5.) Her temples, or cheeks, which are here compared to a piece of a pomegranate, a fruit which, when cut in two, has rich veins or specks in it, like a blush in the face. Humility and modesty, blushing to lift up our faces before God, blushing at the remembrance of sin and in a sense of our unworthiness of the honour put upon us, will beautify us very much in the eyes of Christ. The blushes of Christ's bride are within her locks, which intimates (says Mr. Durham) that she blushes when no other sees, and for that which none sees but God and conscience; also that she seeks not to proclaim her humility, but modestly covers that too; yet the evidences of all these, in a tender walk, appear and are comely.

(6.) Her neck; this is here compared to the tower of David, v. 4. This is generally applied to the grace of faith, by which we are united to Christ, as the body is united to the head by the neck; this is like the tower of David, furnishing us with weapons of war, especially bucklers and shields, as the soldiers were supplied with them out of that tower, for faith is our shield (Eph. vi. 16): those that have it never want a buckler, for God will compass them with his favour as with a shield. When this neck is like a tower, straight, and stately, and strong, a Christian goes on in his way, and works with courage and magnanimity, and does not hang a drooping head, and he does when faith fails. Some make the shields of the mighty men, that are here said to hang up in the tower of David, to be the monuments of the valour of David's worthies. Their shields were preserved, to keep in remembrance them and their heroic acts, intimating that it is a great encouragement to the saints to hold up their heads, to see what great things the saints in all ages have accomplished and won by faith. In Heb. xi. we have the shields of the mighty men hung up, the exploits of believers and the trophies of their victories.

(7.) Her breasts; these are like two young roes that are twins, v. 5. The church's breasts are both for ornament (Ezek. xvi. 7) and for use; they are the breasts of her consolation ( Isa. lxvi. 11), as she is said to suck the breasts of kings, Isa. lx. 16. Some apply these to the two Testaments; others to the two sacraments, the seals of the covenant of grace; others to ministers, who are to be spiritual nurses to the children of God and to give out to them the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, and, in order to that, are themselves to feed among the lilies where Christ feeds (ch. ii. 16), that they may be to the babes of the church as full breasts. Or the breasts of a believer are his love to Christ, which he is pleased with, as a tender husband is with the affections of his wife, who is therefore said to be to him as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, because her breasts satisfy him at all times, Prov. v. 19. This includes also his edifying others and communicating grace to them, which adds much to a Christian's beauty.

II. The bridegroom's resolution hereupon to retire to the mountain of myrrh (v. 6) and there to make his residence. This mountain of myrrh is supposed to signify Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built, where incense was daily burnt to the honour of God. Christ was so pleased with the beauty of his church that he chose this to be his rest for ever; here he will dwell till the day break and the shadows flee away. Christ's parting promise to his disciples, as the representatives of the church, answer to this: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Where the ordinances of God are duly administered there Christ will be, and there we must meet him at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Some make these to be the words of the spouse, either modestly ashamed of the praises given her, and willing to get out of the hearing of them, or desirous to be constant to the holy hill, not doubting but there to find suitable and sufficient succour and relief in all her straits, and there to cast anchor, and wish for the day, which, at the time appointed, would break and the shadows flee away. The holy hill (as some observe) is here called both a mountain of myrrh, which is bitter, and a hill of frankincense, which is sweet, for there we have occasion both to mourn and rejoice; repentance is a bitter sweet. But in heaven it will be all frankincense, and no myrrh. Prayer is compared to incense, and Christ will meet his praying people and will bless them.

III. His repeated commendation of the beauty of the spouse (v. 7): Thou art all fair, my love. He had said (v. 1), Thou art fair; but here he goes further, and, in review of the particulars, as of those of the creation, he pronounces all very good: "Thou art all fair, my love; thou art all over beautiful, and there is nothing amiss in thee, and thou hast all beauties in thee; thou art sanctified wholly in every part; all things have become new (2 Cor. v. 17); there is not only a new face and a new name, but a new man, a new nature; there is no spot in thee, as far as thou art renewed." The spiritual sacrifices must be without blemish. There is no spot but such as is often the spot of God's children, none of the leopard's spots. The church, when Christ shall present it to himself a glorious church, will be altogether without spot or wrinkle, Eph. v. 27.

The Love of Christ to the Church.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! 11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, 14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

These are still the words of Christ to his church, expressing his great esteem of her and affection to her, the opinion he had of her beauty and excellency, the desire he had of, and the delight he had in, her converse and society. And so ought men to love their wives as Christ loves the church, and takes pleasure in it as if it were spotless and had no fault, when yet it is compassed with infirmity. Now, observe here,

I. The endearing names and titles by which he calls her, to express his love to her, to assure her of it, and to engage and excite her love to him. Twice here he calls her My spouse (v. 8, 11) and three times My sister, my spouse, v. 9, 10, 12. Mention was made (ch. iii. 11) of the day of his espousals, and, after that, she is called his spouse, not before. Note, There is a marriage-covenant between Christ and his church, between Christ and every true believer. Christ calls his church his spouse, and his calling her so makes her so. "I have betrothed thee unto me for ever; and, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." He is not ashamed to own the relation, but, as becomes a kind and tender husband, he speaks affectionately to her, and calls her his spouse, which cannot but strongly engage her to be faithful to him. Nay, because no one relation among men is sufficient to set forth Christ's love to his church, and to show that all this must be understood spiritually, he owns her in two relations, which among men are incompatible, My sister, my spouse. Abraham's saying of Sarah, She is my sister, was interpreted as a denying of her to be his wife; but Christ's church is to him both a sister and a spouse, as Matt. xii. 50, a sister and mother. His calling her sister is grounded upon his taking our nature upon him in his incarnation, and his making us partakers of his nature in our sanctification. He clothed himself with a body (Heb. ii. 14), and he clothes believers with his Spirit (1 Cor. vi. 17), and so they become his sisters. They are children of God his Father (2 Cor. vi. 18) and so they become his sisters; he that sanctifies, and those that are sanctified, are all of one (Heb. ii. 11); and he owns them, and loves them, as his sisters.

II. The gracious call he gives her to come along with him as a faithful bride, that must forget her own people and her father's house, and leave all to cleave to him. Ubi tu Caius, ibi ego Caia—Where thou Caius art, I Caia will be. Come with me from Lebanon, v. 8.

1. It is a precept; so we take it, like that (ch. ii. 10, 13), Rise up, and come away. All that have by faith come to Christ must come with Christ, in holy obedience to him and compliance with him. Being joined to him, we must walk with him. This is his command to us daily: "Come with me, my spouse; come with me to God as a Father; come with me onward, heavenward; come forward with me; come up with me; come with me from Lebanon, from the top of Amana, from the lions' dens." These mountains are to be considered, (1.) As seemingly delightful places. Lebanon is called that goodly mountain, Deut. iii. 25. We read of the glory of Lebanon (Isa. xxxv. 2) and its goodly smell, Hos. xiv. 6. We read of the pleasant dew of Hermon (Ps. cxxxiii. 3) and the joy of Hermon (Ps. lxxxix. 12); and we may suppose the other mountains here mentioned to be pleasant ones, and so this is Christ's call to his spouse to come off from the world, all its products, all its pleasures, to sit loose to all the delights of sense. All those must do so that would come with Christ; they must take their affections off from all present things; yea, though they be placed at the upper end of the world, on the top of Amana and the top of Shenir, though they enjoy the highest satisfactions the creature can propose to give, yet they must come away from them all, and live above the tops of the highest hills on earth, that they may have their conversation in heaven. Come from those mountains, to go along with Christ to the holy mountain, the mountain of myrrh, v. 6. Even while we have our residence on these mountains, yet we must look for them, look above them. Shall we lift up our eyes to the hills? No; our help comes from the Lord, Ps. cxxi. 1, 2. We must look beyond them, to the things that are not seen (as these high hills are), that are eternal. From the tops of Shenir and Hermon, which were on the other side Jordan, as from Pisgah, they could see the land of Canaan; from this world we must look forward to the better country. (2.) They are to be considered as really dangerous. These hills indeed are pleasant enough, but there are in them lions' dens; they are mountains of the leopards, mountains of prey, though they seem glorious and excellent, Ps. lxxvi. 4. Satan, that roaring lion, in the prince of this world; in the things of it he lies in wait to devour. On the tops of these mountains there are many dangerous temptations to those who would take up their residence in them; and therefore come with me from them; let us not set our hearts upon the things of this world, and then they can do us no hurt. Come with me from the temples of idolaters, and the societies of wicked people (so some understand it); come out from among them, and be you separate. Come from under the dominion of your own lusts, which are as lions and leopards, fierce upon us, and making us fierce.

2. It may be taken as a promise: Thou shalt come with me from Lebanon, from the lions' dens; that is, (1.) "Many shall be brought home to me, as living members of the church, from every point, from Lebanon in the north, Amana in the west, Hermon in the east, Shenir in the south, from all parts, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," Matt. viii. 11. See Isa. xlix. 11, 12. Some from the tops of these mountains, some of the great men of this world, shall give themselves to Christ. (2.) The church shall be delivered from her persecutors, in due time; though now she dwells among lions (Ps. lvii. 4), Christ will take her with himself from among their dens.

III. The great delight Christ takes in his church and in all believers. He delights in them,

1. As in an agreeable bride, adorned for her husband (Rev. xxi. 2), who greatly desires her beauty, Ps. xlv. 11. No expressions of love can be more passionate than these here, in which Christ manifests his affection to his church; and yet that great proof of his love, his dying for it, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, goes far beyond them all. A spouse so dearly bought and paid for could not but be dearly loved. Such a price being given for her, a high value must needs be put upon her accordingly; and both together may well set us a wondering at the height and depth, and length and breadth, of the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that love in which he gave himself for us and gives himself to us. Observe, (1.) How he is affected towards his spouse: Thou hast ravished my heart; the word is used only here. Thou hast hearted me, or Thou has unhearted me. New words are coined to express the inexpressibleness of Christ's surprising love to his church; and the strength of that love is set forth by that which is a weakness in men, the being so much in love with one object as to be heartless to every thing else. This may refer to that love which Christ had to the chosen remnant, before the worlds were, when his delights were with the sons of men (Prov. viii. 31), that first love, which brought him from heaven to earth, to seek and save them at such vast expense, yet including the complacency he takes in them when he has brought them to himself. Note, Christ's heart is upon his church; so it has appeared all along. His treasure is in it; it is his peculiar treasure (Exod. xix. 5); and therefore there his heart is also. "Never was love like unto the love of Christ, which made him even mindless of himself, when he emptied himself of his glory, and despised all shame and pain, for our sakes. The wound of love towards us, which he had from eternity in himself, made him neglect all the wounds and reproaches of the cross;" so Bishop Reynolds. Thus let us love him. (2.) What it is that thus affects him with delight. [1.] The regard she has to him: Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy eyes, those doves' eyes, clear and chaste (which were commended, v. 1), with one glance of those eyes. Christ is wonderfully pleased with those that look unto him as their Saviour, and through the eye of faith dart their affections to him, above any rival whatsoever, and whose eyes are ever towards him; he is soon aware of the first look of a soul towards him and meets it with his favours. [2.] The ornaments she has from him, that is, the obedience she yields to him, for that is the chain of her neck, the graces that enrich her soul, which are connected as links in chain, the exercise of these graces in a conversation which adorns both herself and the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which she professes to believe (as a gold chain is an ornament to persons of quality), and an entire submission to the commanding power of his love. Having shaken off the bands of our neck, by which we were tied to this world (Isa. lii. 2), and the yoke of our transgressions, we are bound with the cords of love, as chains of gold, to Jesus Christ, and our necks are brought under his sweet and easy yoke, to drawn in it. This recommends us to Jesus Christ, for this is that true wisdom which, in his account, is an ornament of grace unto the head and chains about the neck, Prov. i. 9. [3.] The affection she has for him: How fair is thy love! how beautiful is it! Not only thy love itself, but all the fruits and products of it, its working in the heart, its works in the life. How well does it become a believer thus to love Christ, and what a pleasure does Christ take in it! Nothing recommends us to Christ as this does. How much better is thy love than wine, than all the wine that was poured out to the Lord in the drink-offerings! Hence the fruit of the vine is said to cheer God and man, Judges ix. 13. She had said of Christ's love, It is better than wine (ch. i. 2), and now Christ says so of hers; there is nothing lost by praising Christ, nor will he be behindhand with his friends in kindness. [4.] The ointments, the odours wherewith she is perfumed, the gifts and graces of the Spirit, her good works, which are an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God, Phil. iv. 18. The smell of thy ointment is better than all spices, such as the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon, camel-loads of them (1 Kings x. 2), or, rather, than all the spices that were used in compounding the holy incense which was burned daily on the golden altar. Love and obedience to God are more pleasing to Christ than sacrifice or incense. The smell of her garments too, the visible profession she makes of religion, and relation to Christ, before men, and wherein she appears to the world, this is very grateful to Christ, as the smell of Lebanon. Christ having put upon his spouse the white raiment of his own righteousness (Rev. iii. 18), and the righteousness of saints (Rev. xix. 8), and this perfumed with holy joy and comfort, he is well pleased with it. [5.] Her words, both in her devotion to God and her discourses with men (v. 11): Thy lips O my spouse! drop as the honeycomb, drop that which is very sweet, and drop it freely and plentifully. If what God speaks to us be sweeter to us than the honey and the honeycomb (Ps. xix. 10), what we say to him in prayer and praise shall also be pleasing to him: Sweet is thy voice. And if out of a good treasure in the heart we bring forth good things, if our speech be always with grace, if our lips use knowledge aright, if they disperse knowledge, they then, in Christ's account, even drop the honeycomb, out-drop it. Honey and milk (the two staple commodities of Canaan) are under thy tongue; that is, in thy heart, not only reserved there for thy own use as a sweet morsel for thyself, but ready there for the use of others. In the word of God there is sweet and wholesome nourishment, milk for babes, honey for those that are grown up. Christ is well-pleased with those that are full of his word.

2. As in a pleasant garden. And well may a very great delight be compared to the delight taken in a garden, when the happiness of Adam in innocency was represented by the putting of him into a garden, a garden of pleasure. This comparison is pursued, v. 12-14. The church is fitly compared to a garden, to a garden which, as was usual, had a fountain in it. Where Solomon made himself gardens and orchards he made himself pools of water (Eccl. ii. 5, 6), not only for curiosity and diversion, in water-works, but for use, to water the gardens. Eden was well watered, Gen. ii. 10; xiii. 10. Observe, (1.) The peculiarity of this garden: It is a garden enclosed, a paradise separated from the common earth. It is appropriated to God; he has set it apart for himself; Israel is God's portion, the lot of his inheritance. It is enclosed for secresy; the saints are God's hidden ones, therefore the world knows them not; Christ walks in his garden unseen. It is enclosed for safety; a hedge of protection is made about it, which all the powers of darkness cannot either find or make a gap in. God's vineyard is fenced (Isa. v. 2); there is a wall about it, a wall of fire. It has a spring in it, and a fountain, but it is a spring shut up and a fountain sealed, which sends its streams abroad (Prov. v. 16), but is itself carefully locked up, that it may not by any injurious hand be muddied or polluted. The souls of believers are as gardens enclosed; grace in them is as a spring shut up there in the hidden man of the heart, where the water that Christ gives is a well of living water, John iv. 14; vii. 38. The Old-Testament church was a garden enclosed by the partition wall of the ceremonial law. The Bible was then a spring shut up and a fountain sealed; it was confined to one nation; but now the wall of separation is removed, the gospel preached to every nation, and in Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew. (2.) The products of this garden. It is as the garden of Eden, where the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, Gen. ii. 9. Thy plants, or plantations, are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, v. 13. It is not like the vineyard of the man void of understanding, that was all grown over with thorns and nettles; but here are fruits, pleasant fruits, all trees of frankincense, and all the chief spices, v. 14. Here is a great plenty of fruits and great variety, nothing wanting which might either beautify or enrich this garden, might make it either delightful or serviceable to its great Lord. Every thing here is the best of the kind. Their chief spices were much more valuable, because much more durable, than the choicest of our flowers. Solomon was a great master in botany as well as other parts of natural philosophy; he treated largely of trees (1 Kings iv. 33), and perhaps had reference to some specific qualities of the fruits here specified, which made them very fit for the purpose for which he alludes to them; but we must be content to observe, in general, the saints in the church, and graces in the saints, are very fitly compared to these fruits and spices; for, [1.] They are planted, and do not grow of themselves; the trees of righteousness are the planting of the Lord (Isa. lxi. 3); grace springs from an incorruptible seed. [2.] They are precious and of high value; hence we read of the precious sons of Zion and their precious faith; they are plants of renown. [3.] They are pleasant, and of a sweet savour to God and man, and, as strong aromatics, diffuse their fragrancy. [4.] They are profitable and of great use. Saints are the blessings of this earth, and their graces are their riches, with which they trade as the merchants of the east with their spices. [5.] They are permanent, and will be preserved to good purpose, when flowers are withered and good for nothing. Grace, ripened into glory, will last for ever.

The Love of the Church to Christ.

15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

These seem to be the words of the spouse, the church, in answer to the commendations which Christ, the bridegroom, had given of her as a pleasant fruitful garden. Is she a garden?

I. She owns her dependence upon Christ himself to make this garden fruitful. To him she has an eye (v. 15) as the fountain of gardens, not only the founder of them, by whom they are planted and to whom they owe their being, but the fountain of them, by which they are watered and to which they own their continuance and well-being, and without whose constant supplies they would soon become like the dry and barren wilderness. To him she gives all the glory of her fruitfulness, as being nothing with out him: O fountain of gardens! fountain of all good, of all grace, do not thou fail me. Does a believer say to the church, All my springs are in thee, in thee, O Zion? (Ps. lxxxvii. 7), the church transmits the praise to Christ, and says to him, All my springs are in thee; thou art the well of living waters (Jer. ii. 13), out of which flow the streams of Lebanon, the river Jordan, which had its rise at the foot of Mount Lebanon, and the waters of the sanctuary, which issued out from under the threshold of the house, Ezek. xlvii. 1. Those that are gardens to Christ must acknowledge him a fountain to them, from whose fulness they receive and to whom it is owing that their souls are as a watered garden, Jer. xxxi. 12. The city of God on earth is made glad with the river that flows from this fountain (Ps. xlvi. 4), and the new Jerusalem has its pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, Rev. xxii. 1.

II. She implores the influences of the blessed Spirit to make this garden fragrant (v. 16): Awake, O north wind! and come, thou south. This is a prayer, 1. For the church in general, that there may be a plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon it, in order to its flourishing estate. Ministers' gifts are the spices; when the Spirit is poured out these flow forth, and then the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, Isa. xxxii. 15. This prayer was answered in the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Acts ii. 1), ushered in by a mighty wind; then the apostles, who were bound up before, flowed forth, and were a sweet savour to God, 2 Cor. ii. 15. 2. For particular believers. Note, (1.) Sanctified souls are as gardens, gardens of the Lord, enclosed for him. (2.) Graces in the soul are as spices in these gardens, that in them which is valuable and useful. (3.) It is very desirable that the spices of grace should flow forth both in pious and devout affections and in holy gracious actions, that with them we may honour God, adorn our profession, and do that which will be grateful to good men. (4.) The blessed Spirit, in his operations upon the soul, is as the north and the south wind, which blows where it listeth, and from several points, John iii. 8. There is the north wind of convictions, and the south wind of comforts; but all, like the wind, brought out of God's treasuries and fulfilling his word. (5.) The flowing forth of the spices of grace depends upon the gales of the Spirit; he stirs up good affections, and works in us both to will and to do that which is good; it is he that makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us. (6.) We ought therefore to wait upon the Spirit of grace for his quickening influences, to pray for them, and to lay our souls under them. God has promised to give us his Spirit, but he will for this be enquired of.

III. She invites Christ to the best entertainment the garden affords: "Let my beloved then come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits; let him have the honour of all the products of the garden (it is fit he should), and let me have the comfort of his acceptance of them, for that is the best account they can be made to turn to." Observe, 1. She calls it his garden; for those that are espoused to Christ call nothing their own, but what they have devoted to him and desire to be used for him. When the spices flow forth then it is fit to be called his garden, and not till then. The fruits of the garden are his pleasant fruits, for he planted them, watered them, and gave the increase. What can we pretend to merit at Christ's hands when we can invite him to nothing but what is his own already? 2. She begs he would visit it, and accept of what it produced. The believer can take little pleasure in his garden, unless Christ, the beloved of his soul, come to him, nor have any joy of the fruits of it, unless they redound some way or other to the glory of Christ, and he will think all he has well bestowed upon him.

CHAP. IV. Verſ. 1. Behold thou art fair, my Love, behold thou art fair.]

THou art, thou art, and I am much taken with it, ſo that I cannot but ſet an Ecce admirantis upon it, I am ſo rapt and raviſhed: yea I would that others alſo ſhould behold it, and bee enamoured with it. As the Church called upon her Daughters of Zion, in the laſt verſe of the former chapter, to go forth and ſee her Bridegroom in all his bravery, and to help to crown him:Ezek. 16.14 ſo here interchangeably, Chriſt calls upon all ſorts to contemplate his beautiful Bride in all the comelineſs that hee hath put upon her, and that Crown of twelve Stars that hee hath ſet upon her head, Rev. 12.1. ſo that in every thing ſhee is enriched by him, and cometh behind in no gift, 1 Cor. 1.5, 7.

Thou haſt Doves eyes] Particularly Chriſt commendeth her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, temples, neck and breaſts. Hee that would praiſe another, is careful to take in whatſoever of him may bee thought praiſe-worthy. Chriſt onely is able to give his Church her due commendation; becauſe hee onely knows all men; And needeth not that any ſhould teſtifie of man, for hee knoweth what is in man, John 2.24, 25. All others that ſhall undertake ſuch a buſineſs, had need ſay as Mr. Bradford the Martyr ſaith of that Peerleſs King Edward the Sixth.Serm. of Repent. 37 So many things are to bee ſpoken in commendation of Gods graces in this childe (who yet was but one of thoſe many that make up the Church, but yet ſuch an one, that as hee was the chifeſt, ſo I think the holieſt and godlieſt in the Realm of England, Pictores pulchram abſolutamque faciem raro niſi in pejus effingunt. ſaith the ſame bleſſed Bradford,) that as Saluſt writeth of Carthage, I had rather ſpeak nothing, than too little, in that too much is too little. An exact face (ſaith Pliny) is ſeldome drawn but with great diſadvantage: how much more when a bungler hath it in hand? In which regard Alexander the Great forbade his pourtraiture to bee painted by any other than Apelles, or to bee carved by any other but Lyſippus, men famous in thoſe faculties. Behold here one that goes far beyond them both, (the greateſt Artiſan in the world) penſilling out to the life, and ſetting forth a complete Character of his deareſt Spouſe, whom hee had in his heart to dye, Exod. 28.29 2 Cor. 7.3 2 Cor. 11. and to live with, as the High-Prieſt had the twelve Tribes, and St. Paul his Corinthians, though the more hee loved, the leſs hee was beloved. But to come to her particular praiſes, Thou haſt Doves eyes, that is, fair, full, clear, chaſt. See the Note on chap. 1.15. Eyes the true Church hath, and thoſe both opened and enlightened, Act. 26.18. Shee cries not up ignorance as the Mother of Devotion, neither doth ſhee ſend forth blind guides, to require blind obedience, as the Popiſh Padres do with their novices; to put out the eyes of thoſe poor miſ-lead and muzzled Ignoramuſſes, and to lead them blind-fold into the midſt of their deadly enemies, as Eliſha did the Syrians into Samaria. The Church here deſcribed, hath (as Solomons wiſe man) her eyes in her head: yea, ſhee hath two eyes, when the reſt of the world hath but one, (as the Chinois vainly brag of themſelves) a praiſe proper to the Church of Chriſt,Deſcription of the world, chap. of China. Shee lifteth not up her eyes unto Idols, Ezek. 18.6. but to the Holy One of Iſrael, Iſa. 17.7. her eyes are Doves eyes. Every childe of Chriſts Church hath a ſpiritual eye-ſight, an inſight into the Myſtery of Chriſt, communication of Chriſts ſecrets, the mind of Chriſt, 1 Cor. 2.15. Shee hath no blind children: for though born blind, yet Chriſt hath anointed them with his eye-ſalve, Rev. 3.18. and given both light and ſight. But by eyes here wee are chiefly to underſtand Paſtours and Miniſters, thoſe Seers (as they were called of old, 1 Sam. 9.9.) thoſe lights of the world,John 5. Mat. 5.14, 15, 16. burning and ſhining lights, as the Baptist was called, whoſe Office is to bee to Gods people, inſtead of eyes, Numb. 10.31. and to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkneſs to light, and from the power of Satan to God, &c. Act. 26.18. And theſe are to have Doves eyes, ſeeking to preſent unto Chriſt every man chaſt and pure in the ſimplicity of the Goſpel, 2 Cor. 11.2, 3.

Within thy locks] Seemly tied up and covered (as the word imports) without pride or affectation, not laid out, as the manner is, of vain and unſhame-faced women, but thick, fair, and modeſtly made up: to ſhew the Churches modeſty and humility, which is the knot of every virtue, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and ornament of every grace, as St. Peters word holds it forth, 1 Pet. 5.5.

Their hair is as a flock of Goats, &c.] They are fat and well-liking; and ſo their hair lay ſmooth, ſlick, and ſhining: By the Churches hair here, may bee meant the community of true Chriſtians, that, being as the hair innumerable, do adhere to Chriſt, as to their head; and have a promiſe that not one hair of that ſacred head ſhall fall to the ground: and that if any ſon of Belial ſhall offer to ſhear or ſhave them,2 Sam. 10. hee ſhall anſwer it as dearly as the Ammonites did the like abuſe done to Davids Embaſſadours.

Verſ. 2. Thy teeth are like a flock of ſheep, &c.] Handſome teeth ſet forth a woman very well: and they are then held handſome, when they are 1. Even and well matcht; 2. Fair and white; 3. Thick and full. All this wee have here daintily ſet forth in an allegory. And by teeth the Chaldee Paraphraſt will have meant (and I diſſent not) the Prieſts and Levites of the Law, the Paſtours and Preachers, think I, of the Church: who as they muſt bee eyes to ſee, ſo they muſt bee teeth in another regard, viz. 1. To chew, 2. To bite. Firſt, they muſt champ and chew the childrens meat for them as good Nurſes: ſuch as Paul was, 1 Theſ. 2.7. and before him, Iſaiah, chap. 28.9. Whom ſhall hee teach knowledge, and whom ſhall hee make to underſtand? Not the wiſe and prudent, not conceited perſons, that make Divinity onely a matter of diſcourſe, or come to hear, onely to exerciſe their Criticks, and to ſit as Judges, on their Miniſters gifts: But ſuch as are weaned from the Milk, and drawn from the Breaſts. And how will hee do to deal with ſuch, and to divide the word aright to them? Hee will praemanſum cibum in os indere, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. 2 Tim. 2.25 mollifie their harder meat for them, that it hurt not the tender toothleſs gumms of theſe weanlings, weaklings. Precept, ſaith hee, ſhall bee upon Precept, Precept upon Precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little. They ſhall have it as they can take it, neither will hee put that upon them, that is not fit for them. They ſhall have Milk, and not ſtrong meat, or if they have, it ſhall bee ready chewed for them. Our Saviour ſpake, as the people could hear, and not as hee could have ſpoken.Mark 4.33 If wee have ſpoken to you (ſaith hee) of earthly things, (that is, of ſpiritual matters under earthly ſimilitudes borrowed from wind, water, &c.) and yee beleeve not, how ſhall yee beleeve, John 3.12. if I tell you of heavenly things? that is, of more ſublime matters and myſteries of eternal life: Miniſters muſt ſtoop to their hearers capacities, and not bee up in their Altitudes; or deliver their diſcourſes in an high language, in a Roman Engliſh, &c. For what is that but to beat the air, to loſe their labour, and to bee as Barbarians to their hearers, &c? Non oratorum filii ſumus, ſed piſcatorum: nec verborum [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſed Spiritus [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſaid that great Divine to Libanius the Rhetorician. Wee are not Oratours, but Preachers: neither come wee with excellency of words, but with evidence of the Spirit, and of power, and by manifeſtation of the Truth, commending our ſelves to every mans conſcience in the ſight of God, 1 Cor. 2.4. 2 Cor. 4.2. This is preaching: the Art whereof plus operis habet quam oſtentationis (as Quintillian ſaith of the Art of Grammar) is not a matter of ſhew, but of ſervice: And to the ears of that which St. Peter calls the hidden-man of the heart, the plain ſong alwaies makes the beſt muſick.

But (ſecondly) As Miniſters muſt maſticate the childrens meat, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Cuttingly. and make it fit for their eating, ſo they are bound to bite, that is, to rebuke ſharply thoſe that are unſound in their Faith, or enormous in their practice, Tit. 1.13. to gore their very ſouls with ſmarting pain, and to ſting their conſciences to the quick, with the forked arrows of biting reproofs, and unqueſtionable convictions. Thine arrows art ſharp in the hearts of the Kings enemies, whereby the people fall under thee, Pſal. 45.5. Miniſters muſt not onely whet their teeth againſt the wicked (as Boars do their tusks when provoked) but ſet their teeth in the ſides of thoſe Boars that root up the Vineyard, and thoſe Foxes that deſtroy the Grapes. Thus the antient Prophets prickt and peirced the hearts of their hearers: ſo did the holy Apoſtles, St. Peter for inſtance, Act. 2. hee ſo handled the matter, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. that they were punctually prickt at heart, Act. 2.37. they felt the nails wherewith they had crucified Chriſt, ſticking faſt in their own ſpirits, and driven home to the head by that Maſter of the Aſſembly, Eccleſ. 12.11. Penitency and pain are words of one derivation, and are very near of kin. Hardly will men bee made to repent, till toucht to the quick, till the Preacher do mordaci radere vero, Horat. deal plainly and roundly with them, ſtab them to the heart with the menaces of the Law, and lay them for dead at Chriſts feet, that hee may revive them, as the Pellican doth her young ones with her blood.O[illegible: 1 letter]iand. hiſt. Eccleſ. Cent. 5. l. 1. c. 6. It is ſaid of Chryſoſtome, that hee took the ſame liberty to cry down ſin, that men did to commit it. Of Mr. Bradford, that as hee did earneſtly perſwade to a godly life, and ſweetly preach Chriſt crucified, ſo hee did ſharply reprove ſin, and zealouſly impugn errours. Of Mr. Perkins, that [illegible: 1 letter]ee came ſo cloſe in his Applications, that hee was able almoſt to make his hearers hearts fall down, and their hairs to ſtand upright. This was preaching indeed, preaching in the life of it. I know well, that moſt men are ſick of a Noli me tangere, and are apt to hate him that reproveth in the gate. As loth they are to bee ſearched, as Rachel, when ſhee ſate upon the Idols; to have their luſts mortified, as David was to have Abſalom executed: Handle him gently, for my ſake, &c. Cannot Preachers meddle onely with toothleſs truths, ſay they, as Balak bade Balaam neither curſe, nor bleſs at all. But why hath Chriſt given his Miniſters teeth, but to bite and bee bitter againſt ſin and wickedneſs? perſonal invectives indeed proceeding from private grudge hee allows not. Spiritus Chriſti nec mendax, noc mordax. The Rule here is, Parcere nominibus, dicere de vitiis.

Of Eraſmus it is ſaid, that hee was Mente & dente potens, ſharp with diſcretion. Every Miniſter ſhould bee ſo: and his Doctrine ſhould diſtill as hony, as the property whereof is to purge wounds, but to bite Ulcers, it cauſeth pain to exulcerate parts, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Alex. Aphrod. Probl. though of it ſelf ſweet and medicinable.

That are even ſhorn] The commendations of a ſet of teeth, whereof before. 1. Even they muſt bee and well matcht: ſo ſhould Miniſters bee like-minded, having the ſame love, being of one accord, and of one mind, Phil. 2.2. ſerving the Lord with one ſhoulder, Zeph. 3.9. not ſhouldering one another, and ſtriving for precedency, but content with a parity, and in giving honour going one before another. The ſix branches in the golden Candleſtick joyned all in one; and the Cherubims in the Temple looked one toward another: which ſome think ſignified the agreement and oneneſs that ſhould bee between the Miniſters of the Goſpel.

Which came up from the waſhing] 2. Fair and white: waſhed in the Kings Bath of Chriſts blood, famous and eximious for their extraordinary and exemplary holineſs. It is their office to bee fullones animarum, to make and keep white the fleeces of their flocks, the peoples ſouls. And therefore themſelvs had need bee as Jeruſalems Nazarites were, Lam. 4.7. Purer than Snow, whiter than Milk, &c.

Whereof every one bears Twins] Gemelliparae. It muſt bee Miniſters care to bring many to God, whom they may one day preſent with, Here am I, and the children whom thou haſt given mee. Aarons ſonnes by generation, are ſaid to bee Moſes his ſonnes by inſtitution and inſtruction, Numb. 3.1. See Gal. 4.19. 1 Cor. 4.15. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.

Verſ. 3. Thy lips are like a threed of Scarlet] Which hath two comely properties, Small and Ruddy. A thin lip is a ſign of eloquence, Job 12.20. Pitho ſits upon it: as on the other ſide, a thick lip is an uncircumciſed lip Exod. 6.12. a polluted lip, Iſa. 6.5. Scarlet or Coralline lips are counted a great grace, as white, black, blewiſh lips are held no ſmall deformity. The Churches lips are her Chriſtian confeſſions, whether to God or men. To God, when ſhe acknowledgeth his favours, (and ſo covereth his Altar with the calves of her lips) or confeſſeth her ſins with all the aggravations, bringing them forth as they did the veſſels of the Sanctuary, Ezra 8.34. by tale and by weight; bewailing and begging pardon of all their tranſgreſſions in all their ſins, as the words are, Levit. 16.21. To man ſhee confeſſeth, when ſhee makes a wiſe and bold profeſſion of the truth; not afraid with any amazement, 1 Pet. 3.6. but ready to reſiſt even unto blood, Heb. 12.4. The Tabernacle was covered over with Red (and the Scarlet Whore would fain perſwade us, that ſhee takes up that colour for the ſame intent) to note that wee muſt ſtand to the profeſſion of the truth, even to effuſion of blood: This confeſſion of the mouth, Rom. 10.10. is ſet forth here by lips red as Scarlet, becauſe it muſt be lively, not fady or frigid, but full of Faith, and died in Chriſts blood. It is alſo deſcribed by a threed of Scarlet, becauſe (as a threed) it muſt bee drawn out to the full length, and not cut off, ſo long as life laſteth, for any fear, or other by-reſpect whatſoever. Surely as Auſtin ſaid of the feaſt of Pentecoſt, Gaudet produci haec ſolennitas, ſo may wee ſay of Chriſtian confeſſion, It rejoyceth to bee held out to the laſt breath. And as the ſilk-worm ſtretcheth forth her ſelf before ſhee ſpin, and ends her life in her long wrought clew: ſo is it with the faithful Confeſſour.

And thy ſpeech is comely] Becauſe grave and gracious, framed in Scripture-phraſe as much as may bee: and therefore comly and delectable. Loquamur verba Scripturae, utamur ſermone Spiritus Sancti, &c. ſaid that incomparable man Peter Ramus, Let us ſpeak the very words of Scripture, let us make uſe of the language of the Holy Ghoſt, and for ever abominate thoſe Logodaedali, learned Aſſes, that prophanely diſdain at the ſtately plainneſs of Gods bleſſed Book; and that think to correct the Divine Wiſdome and eloquence with their own infancy and ſophiſtry. It is the Church onely that ſpeaks handſomely, becauſe holily, and as the Oracles of God, 1 Pet. 4.11. Shee is (as one well ſaith of Baſil) ſuaviter gravis, & graviter ſuavis, nihil habens affectatae loquacitatis, ſweetly grave, and gravely ſweet, neither troubleſomely talkative, nor ſinfully ſilent: verborum parca, Caſaub. ſententiarum dives (as another ſaith of Livy) few words, but full of matter.

Thy Temples are like a peece of a Pomegranate] A Pomegranate hath many grains within his caſe, and a little round circle or Crown without, upon his head. Now theſe grains being ſweet in taſte, and red in colour, are orderly ſet one by another, and point up, and as it were look up altogether unto the Crown. To intimate thus much (ſay Beda and Haimo) that the children of the Church muſt grow on ſtill toward the mark, not onely when they enjoy the ſweet taſte of pleaſant proſperity, but alſo when they bear the red colour of bloody perſecution. And conſenting in a kinde of conformity and perfect peace, they muſt point up all together with the finger of Faith, to Chriſt, and look up continually with the eye of love to their head Chriſt, who being firſt croſſed, is now come to be crowned with honour and glory. Some do explain this peece of a Pomegranate when it is cut, to ſignifie the reverend and modeſt countenance of the Church; as fearing and taking heed leſt ſhee ſhould ſpeak or do amiſs; or bluſhing, if ſhee hath failed. Others expound it of the good works of Gods people (compared verſ. 9. to an Orchard of Pomegranates) beautiful, and comely, but yet imperfect: like as there is no Pomegranate that hath not one rotten grain in it.

Verſ. 4. Thy neck is like the Tower of David] i. e. Fair and forcible, erectum & celſum, upright and lofty. It betokeneth the invincible courage, and comfortable carriage of the Church, not giving place to her enemies by ſubjection, no not for an hour, Gal. 2.5. Many a time have they afflicted mee from my youth, may Iſrael now ſay, yet never have they prevailed againſt mee, &c. Pſal. 129.1, 2, &c. Neither ſhall the gates of Hell ever do it: Shee ſhall ſet her feet in the necks of her enemies, but her neck (as the horſes, Job 39.19.) ſhall bee cloathed with thunder, ſo long as with ſtretcht-out neck, ſhee looks up unto the Hills from whence cometh her help, Pſal. 121.1. Even thoſe everlaſting Hills, Gen. 49.26. where her David (the Lord Chriſt) dwells as in a Tower, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and from thence ſuccours her, as the people ſaid once to David, 2 Sam. 18.3. Beſides the freſh ſupply of his free Spirit, Phil. 1.19. fortifying their hearts againſt the tyranny of ſin, and terrour of hell, hee hath furniſhed for her a moſt admirable Armory, viz. the Sacred Scriptures, with armour that is poliſhed and prepared for moſt neceſſary uſes.Juſtin. So that the Saints are thoſe true Argyraſpides (as Alexanders old ſouldiers were called) for defence they have (beſides that privy armour of peace with God, Phil. 4.7. and joy in the Holy Ghoſt, Nehem. 8.13.) the breaſt-plate of righteouſneſs, the girdle of truth, the ſhield of faith, and ſhooes of patience. And for offence, they have the ſword of the Spirit, and darts of Prayer, Epheſ. 6, 14, 15, 16.

All weapons of mighty men] Meet for ſuch, and not for mean men: and all to bee fetcht out of the Armoury of the Scriptures, by our Saviours own example, Mat. 4.4. The Word of God hath a Power in it to quail and quell all our ſpiritual enemies, far better than that wooden dagger, that leaden ſword of the Papiſts, their holy waters, croſſings, Medals, Reliques, &c. This the Devil knows, and therefore ſets his Antichriſtian inſtruments on work, to take away this Armoury from the common people (as the Philiſtims took away all weapons from the Iſraelites) and to give this wicked advice (as Briſtow did) to get Hereticks out of their weak and falſe Tower of holy Scriptures, Motive. 48. into the plain field of Councils and Fathers, &c. Which if they ſhould do, as wee truſt they never ſhall,Whitak. in Campian. yet wee dare bee bold to ſay with learned Whitaker, Patres in maximis ſunt noſtri, in multis varii, in minimis veſtri: The Fathers in moſt material points are for us, and not them. As for the Papiſts, wee know how diſdainfully they reject the Fathers,De Chriſto, lib. 1. cap. 9. when they make againſt them. Bellarmine ſaith, to Irenaeus, Tertullian, Euſebius and Luther, I anſwer, Omnes manifeſti haretici ſunt, They are all manifeſt Hereticks. When any thing in Gregory or other Antients pleaſeth them not, the Gloſs upon that ſaith, Hoc non credo, or ſets Palea upon it, or Hoc antiquum eſt, and happened in illo tempore. And Cornelius Mus, on Rom. 3. ſpeaks out the ſenſe of the whole rabble of them, Plus uni Pontifici crederem, quam mille Auguſtinis, I would ſooner beleeve one Pope,Quaeſt. An Papa ſit ſup. concil. than a thouſand Auguſtines. How much better that learned Picus Mirandula (a Papiſt too) Simplici potius ruſtico & infanti & aniculae magis quam Pontifici Maximo & mill[illegible: 1 letter] Epiſcopis credendum eſt, ſi iſti contra Evangelium, il[illegible: 1 letter]i pro Evangelio faciant, wee ſhould ſooner and rather beleeve a plain Country-man, an infant, or an old wife, than the Pope, and a thouſand Biſhops, if the former ſpeak or do according to the Scripture, the latter againſt it. And what a ſtrong neck had Luther, ſcorning to ſtoop to Antichriſts yoke, when hee profeſſeth, that if the Pope (as Pope) ſhould command him to receive the communion in both kinds, hee would but receive in one kind (though hee were otherwiſe very earneſt to have it adminiſtred in both, according to the Goſpel) leſt hee ſhould ſeem to receive the mark of the beaſt?

Verſ. 5. Thy two Breaſts are like two young Roes, &c.] From the neck hee deſcendeth to the breaſts: and by theſe deſcriptions of beauty in all parts (for the reſt are to bee underſtood, though not here ſpecified) is ſignified, that the Spirit of Regeneration worketh upon the whole man in all manner of virtue. Holineſs in the heart, as the Candle in the Lanthorn, appears in the body,1 Theſ. 5.23. and every member thereof. Spirit, ſoul and body are ſanctified throughout: like as the moſt holy place, the Sanctuary, and the outer Court of Solomons Temple were filled with the cloud. The Churches breaſts here are ſaid to bee fair, full, and equally matcht. Hereby ſome underſtand the two Teſtaments, thoſe breaſts of conſolation, Iſa. 66.11. fair and full ſtrutting with ſincere milk, that her children may all ſuck and bee ſatisfied, viz. batten, grow up and increaſe with the increaſe of God, to a full ſtature in Chriſt, 1 Pet. 2.2. Theſe breaſts are alſo ſuitable and equal, as twins: the two Teſtaments are ſo in ſundry reſpects. For as the Old Teſtament hath four ſorts of Books, viz. Legal, Hiſtorical, Sapiential, Prophetical, ſo hath the New in a due proportion. Anſwerable to the Legal are the Evangelical, to the Hiſtorical are the Acts of the Apoſtles, to the Sapiential or Dogmatical are the Epiſtles (wherein, as St. Paul principally preſſeth Faith, ſo St. Peter Hope, and St. John Charity) and to the Prophetical, Apocalyps, ut ſic mira ſit conformitas, (ſaith Bonaventure) non ſolum in continentia ſenſuum, ſed in quadriformitate partium, ſo that there is a wondrous conformity of one Teſtament to another, not onely in the ſameneſs of ſenſe, but in the quadriformity alſo of parts. And this was myſtically ſet forth, ſaith hee, by Ezekiel in his Viſion of the wheel with four faces, and this wheel within a wheel, implying the Old Teſtament in the New, and the New Teſtament in the Old.

Verſ. 6. Until the day break, and the ſhadows flee away] i. e. Till that laſt and great day of the Lord dawn, that day of refreſhing, Bemicha[illegible: 1 letter]a, Iſa. 35.10. Act. 3.19. that day of Conſolation, as the Syriack hath it, John 11.24. When everlaſting joy ſhall bee upon the heads of all beleevers; they ſhall obtain joy and gladneſs, and ſorrow and ſighing ſhall flee away. Till that bleſſed time Chriſt (in anſwer to his Spouſes requeſt, chap. 2.17.) promiſeth to get him to the mountains of myrrhe, that is, not to Heaven (as ſome ſenſe it) but to his Church Militant, frequently called Gods Holy Mountain, and here Mountains of Myrrhe, and Hills of Incenſe] as in alluſion to Mount Moriah, whereon the Temple was builded, ſo eſpecially in reference to the prayers and good works of the Saints, thoſe Evangelical Sacrifices wherewith God is well pleaſed. Some there are, that comparing this with chap. 2.17. make theſe to bee the Churches words: that as there ſhee requeſted ſpeedy help of Chriſt in the time of her ſorrow; ſo here in like temptation ſhee fleeth for refuge to the mount of myrrhe, and hell of frankincenſe, to the holy Ordinances where ſhee hopeth for comfort.

Verſ. 7. Thou art all fair my Love] Chriſt having graciouſly anſwered his Spouſes Petition with a Promiſe of his gracious preſence with her, and providence over her, proceeds in her commendation. A perfection of parts hee here grants her (though not of degrees) a comparative perfection alſo in regard of the wicked, whoſe ſpot is not the ſpot of his children, Deut. 31.5. Hee calls her his Spouſe in the next verſe: Calab of Calol to profit. the Hebrew word imports that being dreſſed in all her Bride attire, ſhee is all fair, and hath perfection of beauty, Jer. 2.32. and is all glorious within and without, not having ſpot, wrinckle, or any ſuch thing but holy and ſpotleſs, Epheſ. 5.26, 27. Fair hee called her before, verſ. 1. but now

All fair] And therefore the faireſt among women, a meet Mate for him who is fairer than all the children of men, Pſal. 45.2. Not but that ſhee hath whiles here, her infirmities and deformities, as the Moon hath her blots and blemiſhes: but theſe are ut naevi in vultu Veneris, theſe ſerve as foils to ſet off her ſuperexcellent beauty, or rather the ſuperaboundant grace of Chriſt, who ſeeth no ſin in Jacob; that is, imputeth none: but freely accepteth of his own work in his people, and ſweetly paſſeth by whatſoever is amiſs in them: Perfection is that they breathe after, and that which is already begun in them: they have the firſt-fruits of the Spirit, and all their ſtrife is to attain to the Reſurrection of the dead, that is, to that perfection of holineſs that accompanieth the State of the Reſurrection, Phil. 3.11.

There is no ſpot in thee] i. e. None in mine account, none ſuch as the wicked are full of, Deut. 32.5. (See the Note there) no Leopard ſpots that cannot bee waſhed away with any water. Eubhorm. James 3 Faults will eſcape the beſt man betwixt his fingers: Nimis Anguſta res eſt nuſquam errare: In many things wee offend all: But as David ſaw nothing in lame Mephiboſheth, but what was lovely, becauſe hee ſaw in him the features of his friend Jonathan; ſo God beholding his offending people in the face of his Son, takes no notice of any thing amiſs in them; they are, as that tree of Paradiſe, Gen. 3. fair to his eye, and pleaſant to his palat: or as Abſalom, in whom there was no blemiſh, from head to foot: ſo are they irreprehenſible, and without blemiſh before the Throne of God, Rev. 14.5.

Verſ. 8. Come with mee from Lebanon, &c.] Or, Thou ſhalt come with mee, &c. by way of promiſe. And it is doubled for more certainty, q. d. Nothing ſhall hinder thee, but thou ſhalt indeed come with mee, and enjoy my continual preſence. This ſhee had begged hard for, in the former chapters, and this ſhee is now ſweetly aſſured of, with a new largeſſe of love ſealed up in the kindeſt compellation, Spouſe: which ſignifieth the wife married, and already joyned to her husband. Yea in the next verſe hee calleth her both Sister and Spouſe. The neareſt affinity is Spouſe, and the neareſt conſanguinity Siſter. Thus Chriſt is better to his people than their prayers, better than their hopes. Hezekiah asked one life, God gave him two; adding fifteen years to his daies.Pſal. 21.4 John 16.24 David asked life, and God gave him life for ever and ever. Hitherto yee have asked mee nothing, ſaith Chriſt: that is, nothing to what I am ready to give you. Hee ſtands diſpoſed to his ſuiters, as Naaman did toward Gehezi, 2 King. 5. Gehezi asked but one talent: nay take two, ſaith Naaman: one is too little, take two. And hee preſſed him, and heaped them upon him.2 King. 4 God deals with his ſervants, as the Prophet did with that widow, when hee bade her borrow veſſels, and the cruſe never ceaſed running till there was no room. Or as hee dealt with the Shunamite in the ſame chapter: when hee bade her ask what ſhee needed, and ſhee found not any thing to requeſt at his hands, hee ſends for her again, and makes her a free promiſe of that which ſhee moſt wanted and deſired, and tells her that God would give her a Son.

From Lebanon, Look from the top of Amana] Or Abanah, as the River running under it was called,Strabo, lib. 14 2 King. 5.12. And Strabo ſaith, that it was a Mountain forcibly poſſeſſed by many tyrants. Of Shenir and Hermon, ſee Deut. 3.9. Theſe all were haunted with wilde beaſts, even Lebanon alſo, 2 King. 14.9. though otherwiſe a pleaſant and plentiful place, Deut. 3.25. Hereby is ſignified, that the Lord Chriſt from all parts will call and collect unto himſelf a people: and although hee finde them Lions and Leopards, (as here) untameable and untractable, hee will ſoon ſubdue them to the obedience of the Faith; ſo that the Lion ſhall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard lie down with the Kid, Iſa. 11.6. all bloodineſs and rapine ſhall bee laid aſide, as it was with the wilde beaſts in Noahs Ark. Thus Paul, that ravening Wolf of the Tribe of Benjamin, (Gen. 49.27.) is made to preach the Faith, which once hee deſtroyed, Gal. 1.23. Thus the Antient Britains our Forefathers, though like that Demoniack in the Goſpel, fierce above meaſure, and inhoſpital Salvages, ſo that the Romans could not come at them, Chriſto tamen ſubditi, ſaith Tertullian, Bond in Horat. Carm. lib. 3. od. 3. Act. and Mon. 924. & 1555. Ibid. Anno 1755 yet they were eaſily ſubdued by Chriſt: and then ſenſim evanuit feritas indies, exulavit immanitas, corruit crudelitas, ſaith one, they were ſuddenly and ſtrangely altered; not civilized onely, but ſanctified. So was Juſtin Martyr, Cyprian, Auſtin, Vergerius, Latimer, Julius Palmer, that Popiſh Prieſt of Canterbury, who ſaid Maſs on one day, and the next day after came into the Pulpit, and made a long Sermon againſt it, deſiring the people to forgive him, Speed. 761 for hee had betrayed Chriſt, &c. As long before him in Wickliffes daies, and by his means, one that was the Popes Chaplain renounced him, profeſſing that hee came out of his Order,Act. and Mon. 1565. as out of the Devils neſt, &c. And although not a Scholar in Oxford would look upon the good Biſhops Ridley and Cranmer priſoners in Bocardo, Speed. Ibid. but generally ſet againſt them, yet the whole body of that Univerſity gave a glorious teſtimony under their publick ſeal of Wickliffes religious life, profound learning, Orthodox opinions, exquiſite writings, all furtheſt from any ſtain of Hereſie. See what Chriſt can do where hee pleaſeth to come in by his mighty Spirit.

Verſ. 9. Thou haſt raviſhed mine heart, &c.] Thou haſt caught it, and carried it from mee; ſo that I am leaſt Maſter of it: for Animus eſt potius ubi amat, quam ubi animat, The heart is where it loves, and not where it lives.Auſtin. The Hebrew is, Thou haſt be hearted mee, (as wee ſay, one is beheaded, behipt, &c.) Thou haſt robbed mee of my heart, and laid thy ſelf in the room: thy love is fixed in the Table of my heart, ſo the Chaldee expoundeth it.Greg. in Rev. 3 Excellently ſpake hee, who called the holy Scripture, Cor & animam Dei, the heart and ſoul of God: and another Father is bold to ſay, Cor Pauli, Chryſoſt. eſt cor Christi, Chriſt and Paul had exchanged hearts, as it were. For, wee have the mind of Chriſt, ſaith hee, communication of Chriſts ſecrets.1 Cor. 2.16 And ſurely when the Saints hide Chriſts words in their hearts, as his Mother Mary did,Col. 3.16 when they give themſelves wholly up to it, as the Macedonians did, ſo that the word of Chriſt indwelleth richly in them in all Wiſdome, and hee, by his Spirit putteth his Laws into their minds, ſo that they aſſent unto them,Heb. 8.10 and into their hearts, ſo that they conſent unto them, and have the comfort, feeling and fruition of them, then is his heart raviſhed with his own handy work: then is hee ſo far in love with ſuch a ſoul, as that, Eſther-like, ſhee may have any thing of the King. The King is not hee that can do any thing againſt you: Jer. 38.5 Chriſt ſaith ſeriouſly ſo. His heart is become a very lamp of love toward his Siſter, as neareſt unto him in conſanguinity, his Spouſe is neareſt alſo in affinity, Sanctior eſt copula cordis, quam corporis. Chriſt is indeared to his people in all manner of neareſt relations. For whoſoever ſhall do the will of his Father, the ſame is his Brother, and Siſter, and Mother, Mat. 12.50.Act. 10.35 And in every Nation hee that feareth God, and worketh righteouſneſs, is accepted of him.

With one of thine eyes] With that ſingle eye of thine, Mat. 6.22. that looks on mee ſingly abſtracted from all other things, and affects thine heart with pure love to mee for my ſelf, more than for my love-tokens; that eye of Faith that looks up to my Mercy-ſeat, yea that peirceth Heaven, as St. Stephens bodily eye did, (hee being full of the Holy Ghoſt, looked up ſtedfaſtly into Heaven, and ſaw Jeſus ſtanding on the right hand of C[illegible: 2 letters], Act. 7.55.) Heaven is ſo high above the Earth, that it is a juſt wonder that wee can look up to ſo admirable an height, and that the very eye is not tired in the way. But Faith hath a viſive faculty peculiar to it ſelf, it is the evidence of things not ſeen, Heb. 11.1. whiles it looks not at the things which are ſeen, ſcil. with the eye of ſenſe, but at the things that are not ſeen, viz. but by the eye of Faith,2 Cor. 4.18. whereby Moſes ſaw him who is inviſible, Heb. 1[illegible: 1 letter].27. Let as many as would behold the King in his beauty, ſtudy Moſes his Opticks, get a Patriarchs eye, ſee Chriſts day afar off, as Abraham did, and ſet him at their right hand, as David, Pſal. 16. So ſhall the King greatly deſire their beauty, yea ſet them at his right hand with the Queen his Spouſe, in gold of Ophir, Pſal. 45.9, 11. But then Chriſt muſt ſee their chain of obedience, as well as their eye of Faith, even the whole chain of ſpiritual graces linked one to another. Theſe are the daughters of Faith, and good works, the products of them, are the fruits of Faith. As chains adorn the neck, ſo do true virtues a true Chriſtian: theſe as chains are viſible and honourable teſtimonies of a lively Faith, which works by love. Theſe make the true Manlii Torquati, See the Notes on chap. 1. verſ. 10.

Verſ. 10. How fair is thy love] Heb. Loves in the plural, noting, not onely their multitude, but excellency alſo, ſuch as do far praeponderate all carnal affections. Theſe are ſaid to bee inexpreſſibly fair and lovely (noted by the exclamation and repetition here uſed, as if words were too weak to utter it) becauſe it is undiſſembled. A man may paint fire, but hee cannot paint heat. A man may diſſemble actions in Religion, but hee cannot diſſemble affections. 2. It is rare, and in reſpect of common Chriſtians it may bee ſaid, as Epheſ. 3.18. to paſs knowledge: ſith moſt have little of the life of it in their breaſts, leſs of the light and luſtre of it in their lives.

How much better is thy love than Wine] This ſame ſhee had ſaid of him, chap. 1.2. Now hee returns it upon her as is uſual among Lovers. Hee had confeſſed himſelf raviſhed with her love, verſ. 9. Now here hee ſhews why hee was ſo. Hee found her not lovely onely, but loving: hee had made her ſo, and now takes ſingular delight and complacency in his own work, as once hee did in his work of Creation. Hee well perceived that hee had not loſt his love upon his Church, as David did upon his Abſalom, as Paul did upon his Corinthians, (of whom hee complains, that the more hee had loved, the leſs hee was beloved) as Job upon his miſerable comforters, whom hee compares to the Brooks of Tema, Job 6. that in a moiſture ſwell, in a drought fail. But Chriſt findes no ſuch fickleneſs or falſe-heartedneſs in his Beloved, hee had love for love: and as hee had been a ſweet friend to her, ſo was ſhee to him. Her love was better than the beſt Wine (which yet is both coſtly and comfortable) yea than all the delights that this life can afford; ſo much is implied by Wine here, and ſo hee is pleaſed to eſteem it. Unworthy ſhee of ſo kind acceptance of that little ſhee can do this way, if ſhee do not her utmoſt: if ſhee cry not out with her ſon David, I will love thee dearly, or entirely, with mine utmost bowels, (with the ſame tenderneſs of affections as is in Mothers towards the fruit of their bodies, ſo the Hebrew word ſignifies) Pſal. 18.1. And again, I love! (ſo hee abruptly expreſſeth himſelf by a paſſionate pang of love) becauſe the Lord hath heard the voice of my ſupplications, &c. Pſal. 116.1. Hee ſaw (and wee may all ſee) ſo much cauſe to love the Lord, as that hee muſt needs bee a monſter, and not a man, that loves not the Lord Jeſus Chriſt in ſincerity. It was a miracle that thoſe Worthies in Daniel ſhould bee in the midſt of a fiery furnace, and not burn. It is no leſs that men ſhould bee in the midſt of mercies on all hands, and not love Chriſt. It would bee as great a wonder men ſhould fail here, as for a River to run backwards. I have drawn them by the bands of love, by the cords of a man, Hoſ. 11.4. that is, with reaſons and motives of love befitting the nature of a man, of a rational creature.Oculis in utram partem fluat judicari non poteſt. Caeſar. de bello. Gal. lib. 1. But moſt men, alaſs! (and thoſe that profeſs to bee the children of the Church too) move like the River Araris; backward or forward, who can tell? This is to give Chriſt Vinegar for Wine: this is as lukewarm water to his nice and nauſeating ſtomack, Rev. 3.16. There is a Propheſie reported in Teleſphorus, that Antichriſt ſhall never overcome Venice, nor Paris, nor London. But wee have a more certain word, and let us take heed, leſt for our lukewarmneſs Chriſt ſpues us out of his mouth. What hath been the opinion and fear of ſome not inconſiderable Divines, that Antichriſt, before his abolition, ſhall once again overflow the whole face of the Weſt, and ſuppreſs the whole Proteſtant Churches for a puniſhment of their loſs of their firſt love, I pray Chriſt to avert.

And the ſmell of thine Oyntments, than all ſpice!] That is, of thy ſweet graces actuated and exerciſed. See Pſal. 89.20. John 2.20, 27. It was an aggravation of the fall of Saul, that hee fell as though hee had not been anointed, 2 Sam. 1.21. So for the Saints to fall from their firſt love, or from their own ſtedfaſtneſs. Such a dead fly will cauſe their once-ſweet Ointments to ſend forth a ſtinking ſavour, Eccleſ. 10.1. Corruptio optim[illegible: 1 letter] eſt peſſima.

Verſ. 11. Thy lips, Oh my Spouſe, drop as an Hony-comb] Heb. drop the Hony-comb: So Chriſt calls the doctrines and prayers of the Church, her thankſgivings, confeſſions, conferences, &c. which are things moſt pleaſing to Chriſt, and do much comfort and edifie the faithful. That golden-mouthed Preacher did ſo pleaſe the people, that it was grown to a Proverb, Better the Sun ſhine not, than Chryſoſtome preach not. Bilney the Martyr, a little before hee was burned, entreated much on that Text, Iſa. 43.2. Fear not, when thou walkeſt thorow the fire, thou ſhalt not bee burnt, neither ſhall the flame kindle upon thee: ſo that ſome of his friends preſent took ſuch ſweet fruit thereby (ſaith Mr. Fox) that they cauſed the whole ſentence to bee fair written in Tables,Act. and Mon. 923. and ſome in their books: the comfort whereof in divers of them was never taken away from them to their dying day. Ibid. 1559. The ſame Author ſaith of Biſhop Ridley Martyr, that hee uſually preached every Sunday and Holyday: to whoſe Sermons the people reſorted, ſwarming about him like Bees, and coveting the ſweet juice of his heavenly doctrine. How pleaſant and profitable to Latimer was the private conference hee had with Bilney? and the like benefit had Ridley by Bradford, Luther by Stanpicius, G[illegible: 1 letter]leacius by Peter Martyr, Junius by a Country-man of his not far from Florence. Hom. [non-Latin text not transcribed].

Hony and Milk are under thy tongue] The language of Canaan is thy proper dialect: for Canaan was a Land that flowed with Milk and Hony, 1. With things both pleaſant and profitable. Yea I doubt not, (ſaith an Interpreter) but that under theſe tearms the Holy Ghoſt meaneth fit food as well for ſtrong men, as for weak ones in the Church. Milk moſt properly belongs to children, 1 Cor. 3.2. Heb. 5.12.13. and hony to them of more ſtrength, as examples of the word, and reaſon it ſelf teacheth ſufficiently in Jonathan, 1 Sam. 24.27. and John Baptiſt, Matth. 3.4. By theſe compariſons alſo may well bee underſtood the good Houſe-keeping that is in Chriſts Church. Hony and Milk ſhee hath ever at hand. And why hath hee put theſe proviſions under her tongue, but that ſhee ſhould look to lip-feeding? Prov. 10.22. Let our words bee alwaies with Grace, Col. 4.6. Mel in ore, verba lactis, this becomes the Churches children. Felin corde, fraus in factis, is for thoſe brats of fathomleſs perdition, that have Adders poiſon under their lips, Pſal. 140.3. that being in the gall of bitterneſs, and bond of perdition, ſhew themſelves by their words and actions to be the ſons of the ſorcereſs, the ſeed of the Adulterer, and of the Whore, whoſe lips alſo drop the hony-comb, but her end is bitter as wormwood, Prov. 5.3, 4. Iſa. 57.3.

And the ſmell of thy garments is like the ſmell of Lebanon] Which was paſſing pleaſant, by reaſon of the odoriferous, and ſweet-ſmelling trees, that grew there. Now what are theſe garments, but the Churches inward graces, ſay ſome, outward behaviour, ſay others, which is moſt gracious, amiable, and ſweet, as far above all worldly grace, as the ſmell of Lebanon is above the ſavour of common woods.

Verſ. 12. A Garden incloſed is my Siſter, my Spouſe] Fair and ſweet hee had before affirmed her: Now (becauſe Lis eſt cum forma magna pudicitiae)

Fair women have many that wiſh them, and lye in wait for them,Aul. Gell. [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſaid hee to his friend, diſſwading him from marriage. If ſhee bee fair, ſhee will lightly be common; Chriſt therefore here commends her for her purity and chaſtity, and ſhews that hee was ſo hedged and defenſed by Diſcipline and Government, that none could come at her to hazard her Virginity, no more than they could enter into a well-walled Garden. Shee openeth the gates, that the righteous Nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in, Iſa. 26.2. thoſe which ſubſcribe with their hands, unto the Lord, Iſa. 44.5. that (when hee ſhall ſay, Who is on my ſide? Who?) do heartily avouch him for their God, Deut. 26.17. that fly to her as a cloud,Iſa. 60.8. and flock to her as a flight of Doves. As for the unclean, or any thing that defileth ſhee hath her Porters on purpoſe to keep them out, 2 Chron. 23.19. Rev. 21.27. no dirty dogg ſhall trample on her golden pavement. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Plut. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. See Iſa. 5.2. & 35.8, 9, 10. & 62.8. 1 Cor. 5.11, 12, 13. It was not permitted to a dogg to enter into the Acropolis, or Tower at Athens, for his heat in Venery, and for his ill favour, ſaith Plutarch. Goats likewiſe, ſaith Varro, come not there, leſt they ſhould hurt the Olive. Iriſh Air will ſooner brook a Toad or Snake to live therein, than the true Church (if ſhee may freely exerciſe her power) ſcandalous and heretical perſons. Papiſts teach,Bell. lib. 3. cap. 2. de Eccleſ. Militan. that the Catholick Church conſiſteth of good and bad; and that a man may bee a true member thereof, though hee have no inward virtues. Wee confeſs that in all particular Congregations there are hypocrites, as appears in the parable of the Tares, of the Net, &c. But yet wee deny, that the holy Catholick Church mentioned in the Creed hath a mixture of good and bad: ſith ſhee is the chaſte Spouſe of Jeſus Chriſt, who owneth no wicked man or hypocrite in her: for how ſhould hee love ſuch, unleſs it bee with a common (not with a conjugal) love, ſo as hee loved that tame young man, Mark 10.21. whom hee pittied as a ſelf-deceiver, like as wee pitty moderate and devout Papiſts. In Chriſts Garden, as there is no ground but what is ſpecial good, ſet apart for the purpoſe, fit for him to ſit and walk in for his recreation,Iſa. [illegible: 1 letter].1. (My Well-Beloved hath his Orchard in a very fruitful hill, in a cornu-copia Country) ſo it is furniſhed and filled with the choiceſt fruits and flowers, plants of renown, and pleaſant trees, yeelding fruit according to their kind; and though all cannot bear Cinnamon and Balſam, yet (as in Spain there is ſaid to bee nihil infructuoſum, nihil ſterile, nothing barren or unfruitful, ſo) all that are planted in the houſe of the Lord, do flouriſh in the Courts of our God, they do ſtill bring forth fruit in old age, they are fat and flouriſhing, Pſal. 92.13, 14. they are both actuoſi, and fructuoſi, 2 Pet. 1.8. neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jeſus Chriſt. And indeed how can it bee otherwiſe with Gods Garden, when as hee himſelf keeps it, and watereth it every moment, leſt any hurt it, hee keepeth it night and day, Iſa 27.3. God fenceth it with his Omnipotent arm, keepeth it from the wilde Boar, and other devoratory evils (as Tertullian phraſeth it) better than the Garden of Eden was kept with the flaming Sword. And whereas the Church may ſeem to lye open to all incurſions, this verſe ſhews that it hath a Well within it, and a Wall without it: Yea himſelf is a Wall of fire round about Jeruſalem, Zach. 2.5. in alluſion to the cuſtome of thoſe Eaſt-countries, where, by reaſon of the great number of wilde-beaſts, ſhepherds and travellers guard themſelves by making great fires round about their night-lodgings to keep oft their approach.

A ſpring ſhut up, a fountain ſealed] A preciouſly-purling current of grace, a ſpring of water, whoſe waters fail not, Iſa. 58.11. and whereof whoſoever drinketh ſhall never thirſt, John 4.14. For which end it is carefully ſhut up, nay ſealed, that the ſtranger meddle not with his joy, and that the envious man ſtop not up this well-ſpring with earth, as the Philiſtims ſerved Iſaac: or caſt baggs of poiſon into it, as the ſpightful Jews did once in this Kingdome; and were therefore baniſhed hence for ever. It was wittily ſaid of Polydor Virgil, Regnum Angliae, Regnum Dei, the Kingdome of England, is the Kingdome of God. Hee meant, becauſe God ſeemed to take ſpecial care of it, as having walled it about with the Ocean, and watered it with the upper and nether ſprings; like that Land which Caleb gave his daughter: Hence it was called Albion quaſi Olbion, the happy Country: whoſe vallies are like Eden, (ſaith our Engliſh Chronicler) whoſe hills are as Lebanon, Speed. whoſe ſprings are as Piſgah, whoſe Rivers are as Jordan, whoſe walls is the Ocean, and whoſe defence is the Lord Jehovah: Forraign writers have tearmed our Country the Granary of the Western world, the fortunate Iſland, the Paradiſe of pleaſure, and Garden of God. All this may much more fitly bee applied to the Catholick Church. If Judea were called the glorious Land, becauſe of Gods preſence there, Dan. 11. and an Iſland (though part of the continent) becauſe ſurrounded with Gods powerful protection, Iſa. 20.6. and the Common-wealth of Iſrael, [non-Latin text not transcribed], by Joſephus, a Godlike polity, what ſhall wee think of that Jeruſalem above, that is the Mother of us all? of thoſe ſealed Saints, Rev. 7.3, 4. this ſealed fountain, ſealed up, as to keep it filth-free, that no Camels ſtir up the mud, nor great Hee-goats foul it with their feet, Ezek 34.18. ſo to denote an excellency (as Iſa. 28.25. hordeum ſignatum, is put for excellent Barly) and a propriety, 2 Cor. 1.22. who hath alſo ſealed us, and given the earneſt of the Spirit in our hearts. Like as the Merchant ſets his ſeal upon his goods, and marks them for his own.

Verſ. 13. Thy plants are as an Orchard of Pomegranat[illegible: 1 letter]s] By plants are to bee underſtood,Emiſſiones. propagines. either particular Churches, or ſeveral Saints; theſe are thoſe ſhoots or ſorouts that ſpread abroad Gods Paradiſe (that the word here uſed, and no where elſe in Scripture, ſave Eccleſ. 2.5. Neh. 2.8.) ſo called for the curious variety and excellency of all ſorts of pretious and pleaſant trees there growing: ſome for profit, as Pomegranates, which are known to bee healthful and preſervative: ſome for pleaſure; and theſe again were either more common and copious in Jury, as Camphires and Spikenards (plurals both in the Original, for the plenty of them in thoſe parts) or more rare and coſtly, as thoſe mentioned in the next verſe.

Verſ 14. Nard] called Mark 14.3. & Joh. 12.3. Spikenard very coſtly, [non-Latin text not transcribed], melius vero [non-Latin text not transcribed] ab oppido prope Babylonem Op[illegible: 1 letter] dicto. Scultet: ex Hartungi criticis. or rather (as ſome learned men wil have it) Nard of Opis, a town neer Babylon, where grew the moſt pretious Spikenard: and whence it was tranſported to other places. Of this plant ſee Pliny, Lib. 12. c. 11. as of Cypreſs or Camphire, Lib. 12. c. 14. of Saffron, ib. &c. 15. of Calamus, lib. 12. c. 23. of Cinnamon and Myrrhe, lib. 12. c. 23.19. For Pomegranates ſee the note on ver. 3. of this chapter. For Camphire ſee the Note on c. 1.14. Saffron is in the Hebrew Carcom: Shindler ſaith it ſhould be read Carcos with Samech; and ſo it will exactly agree with [non-Latin text not transcribed], crocus, the one, likely, comming of the other. Our Engliſh comes of the Arabick Zaphran; ſo called of the yellow colour. Calamus or ſweet Cane is a precious aromatical reed bought and brought out of far countreys,Gal. l. 1. Antidot. as appeareth by Jer. 6.20. Iſa. 43.24. Cinnamon was very rare in Galens time, and hard to be found, except in Princes Storehouſes. Pliny reports, that a pound of Cinnamon was worth a thouſand Denarii, that is, 150 Crowns of our money: As for thoſe trees of Frankincenſe, Myrrhe, and Aloes, &c. Brightman thinks they betoken tall and eminent Chriſtians, as Calamus and Cinnamon (ſhrubs of two cubits high or thereabouts) do Chriſtians of a middle ſtature: and Nard and Saffron, herbs that ſcarce lift up themſelves above the ground, repreſent thoſe of a lower rank, and leſſer degree of holineſs: Which yet have all of them their place in Gods garden, and their ſeveral ſweetneſſes: the Spirit of grace being magnus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis, as Auguſtine hath it, great in Gods greater children, and not little in the leaſt. And though there be diverſity of gifts, yet are they from one Spirit, as the diverſe ſmels of pleaſant fruits, and chief ſpices are from the ſame influence: and the divers ſounds in the Organs, from the ſame breath. The Spirit of grace are thoſe two golden pipes, Zach. 4. through the which the two Olive-branches empty out of themſelves the golden oyls of all pretious graces into the Candle-ſtick the Church. Hence grace is called the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5.22. Yea, Spirit, Verſe 17. And albeit, as the man is, ſo is his ſtrength, as they ſaid to Gideon: and God hath his children of all ſizes, babes, young men, old men, 1 John 2.13. yet Philadelphia with her little ſtrength may keep Chriſts Word, and not deny his Name; (which thoſe Churches that had more ſtrength are not ſo commended) and, in that little ſtrength, I have ſet open a door for thee, even the door of Heaven, wide enough; ſo that none could ſhut it, Rev. 3.8. Why then ſhould any deſpiſe the day of ſmall things? God who hath begun a good work, his hands ſhall finiſh it: and hee that hath laid the foundation, ſhall in due time bring forth the Topſtone thereof with ſhouting, crying Grace, Grace unto it, Zech. 4.7, 9, 10. An infant of daies ſhall proceed from degree to degree, till hee be like the Ancient of daies: and thoſe that bee planted in the houſe of the Lord, ſhall once flouriſh in the Courts of our God. They ſhall ſtill bring forth fruit in old age: they ſhall be fat and flouriſhing, Pſal. 92.13, 14. The ſeeds of the Cypreſs tree are ſo very ſmall, that they can ſcarce be ſeen with eyes, Plin. l. 11. c. 2. Heb. 5.14. & tamen in [illegible: 1 letter]is tanta eſt arbor, tamque procera, and yet in ſome one of them is potentially ſo large and ſo tall a tree. Deſpair not therefore of further meaſures, but aſpire ſtill to perfection, Phil. 3.12, 13. The bleſſing on man in the firſt creation, was, Increaſe and Multiply, in the ſecond, Grow in Grace, Iſa. 61.3, 11. And remember that growth is not alwaies to be meaſured by joy, and other acceſſory graces. Theſe ſweet blooms may fall off, when fruit comes on, &c.

Verſe 15. A fountain of gardens, a well, &c] Or, Oh fountain of the Gardens, &c. For they do beſt in mine opinion that make this to be the Churches ſpeech to Chriſt: grounded upon his former commendation of her. And it is as if ſhe ſhould ſay, Calleſt thou me, Lord, a Garden encloſed, a Spring ſhut up, a Fountain ſcaled? True it is, I am the garden which thine own right hand hath planted, walled, watered, &c. but for all that I am or have, the entire praiſe belongs to thee alone. All my plenty of ſpiritual graces, all my perennity of ſpiritual comforts, all my pleaſancy and ſweetneſs is derived from thee, no otherwiſe than the ſtreams of Jordan are from mount Lebanon, all my ſprings are in thee, as in their Well-head. Certum eſt nos facere quod facimus, ſed Ille facit, ut faciamus, ſaith Auguſtine. True it is that wee do what wee do; but it is as true, that Chriſt maketh us to do what wee do. For without him we can do nothing, John 15.5. In him is our fruit found, Hoſ. 14.8. It is hee that works all our works in us, Iſa. 26.12. Hence it is, that the Church is no where in all this book deſcribed by the beauty of her hands or fingers: becauſe hee alone doth all for her. The Church of Rome that will needs hammer out her own happineſs, (like the Spider climbing up by a threed of her own weaving, and boaſting with her in the Emblem, Mihi ſoli debeo) ſhews thereby of what Spirit ſhee is. That wretched Monk died blaſphemouſly, who ſaid, Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes, Pay mee heaven which thou oweſt mee. And what an arrogant ſpeech was that of Vega, Coelum gratis non accipiam, I will not have heaven of free-coſt? Haec ego feci, haec ego feci, ſhews men to be no better than meer Feces, ſaid Luther wittily. This I have done, and that I have done, ſpeaks them dregs, and dogges that ſhall ſtand without doors, Rev. 22.15. Hear a childe of our Church, ſpeaking thus of himſelf.

Georg. Fab. Chemnicenſis de ſcipſo.Fabricius ſtuduit bene de pictate mereri; Sed quicquid potuit, gloria, Chriſte, tua eſt.

This was Matriſſare, to be like his mother, whoſe Motto hath ever been, Non nobis Domine, Not unto us Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give the praiſe, Pſal. 115.1. If I be thy garden, Thou art my fountain; from whence unleſs I be continually watered, all will be ſoon withered, and I ſhall bee as one that inhabiteth the parched places in the wilderneſs, in a ſalt land and not inhabited,Abbot his Georg. 251. Jer. 17.6. In the Iſland of St. Thomas (on the back-ſide of Africa) in the midſt of it is an hill, and over that a continual cloud, wherewith the whole Iſland is watered. Such is the Lord Chriſt to his Church, Hoſ. 14.5, 6, 7. which therefore as Gideons Fleece muſt needs be wet and moiſt, when all the Earth beſides is dry and deſolate; as the mountains of Gilboah, or as St. Davids in Wales, which is ſaid to be a place, neither pleaſant, fertile, nor ſafe.

A well of living] Or, A pit of living and life-giving waters. Chriſtus & coelum non patiuntur hyperbolen: 2 Sam. 1.20. Godw: Catal. Giral. Camb. Puteus effoſſus ubi eſt aqua viva ſcaturiens & clara. Merc. A man cannot ſay too much in commendation of Chriſt, and his Kingdome: Hence the Church here cannot ſatisfie her ſelf. A Fountain ſhee calls him, a well, a ſtream, ſuch as makes glad the City of God, even that pure river of the water of life proceeding out of Gods Throne, Rev. 22.1. with Ezek. 47.6. Gregory makes this Fountain to bee the Scriptures; which bee ſaith, are like both to a Fountain, and to a pit. Some things in them are plain and open, and may be compared to a ſpring, which runs in an open and eminent place. Other things therein are dark and deep, and like unto a pit, that a man muſt dive into, and draw out with hard labour.

And streams from Lebanon] Watering the whole Church (as Jordan did the holy Land) and taſting, no doubt, of that ſweetneſs mentioned before, verſ. 11. Even as we ſee by experience, (ſaith one) that the waters that come out of the hills of ſome of the Iſlands of Molucca, taſte of the Cinnamon, cloves, &c. that grow there.

Verſe 16. Awake, O North winde, come thou South, &c.] Theſe windes ſhe ſuppoſeth to be aſleep, becauſe they blow not. Rupertus calls the windes Mundi ſcopas, the worlds Beeſomes: becauſe God makes uſe of them to ſweep out his large houſe, and to purge the air. The Spirit of God firſt purgeth, and then watereth the faithful, whom the Church here calleth her garden, (though indeed it bee Chriſts) by reaſon of the nigh conjunction that is between him and her, Epheſ. 5.30. ſo that they both make but one myſtical Chriſt, 1 Cor. 12.12. Now wee all know, that to a compleat Garden are neceſſary, 1 that it be well encloſed, 2 Well planted, 3 Well watered, 4 that it bee amaena coeli aſpiratione perflabilis, well ſituate for winde and air, 5 that it bee fruitful and profitable. The Churches Garden hath every of theſe good properties, as appears here: And for the fourth, Chriſt is all the diverſe windes both cold and hot, moiſt and dry, binding and opening, North and South, fit for every ſeaſon. What winde ſoever blows, it blows good to the Church, for Chriſt ſpeaks to them, as David did to his Captains; Do this young man no hurt, handle him gently for my ſake: The Sunne may not ſmite him by day,Pſal. 121. nor the Moon by night. The nipping North of adverſity, the cheriſhing South winde of proſperity muſt both make for him.

That the ſpices thereof may flow out] That I may be ſome way ſerviceable to God, and profitable to men. Shee knew that in Gods account, to be idle, is all one as to bee evil, Matth. 25.26. to bee unthankfull,Horat. is to bee wicked, Luke 6.35. Paulum ſepulta diſtat inertia, Celata virtus, could one Poet ſay, and another, Vile latens virtus: quid enim ſubmerſa tenebris Proderit, obſcuro veluti ſub remige puppis,Claudian. de Conſul. Honor. Vel lyra quae reticet, vel qui non tenditur arcus?

Chriſt had made his Church a garden of ſweeteſt ſweets. Her deſire is therefore that her fruits being rightly ripened, her graces greatned, and made mature by the benign breath of the Holy Ghoſt, (compared here, as elſewhere, to the ſeveral windes,) their ſweetneſs may bee diſpread, and conveyed to the noſtrils of ſuch as have their ſenſes habitually exerciſed to diſcern good and evil. Heb. 5.14. As for others, their heads are ſo ſtuffed with the ſtenches of the world (that great muck-hill) and themſelves ſo choaked up with earth, as Core and his complices were, that they cannot reſent or ſavour the things of the Spirit; but, as vultures, they hunt after cation carcaſes: and as Tygers, they are enraged with the ſweet ſmell of the Churches ſpices.

Let my Beloved come and eat his pleaſant fruits] For who plants a Vineyard or Orchard, and eats not of the fruit thereof? 1 Cor. 9.7. The Garden is Chriſts: the pretious graces of his Spirit, and all acts of grace, thoſe pleaſant fruits are all his. Hee alone is the true proprietary: for of him, Rom. 11.36. and through him, and to him are all things. Of him, as the efficient cauſe; Through him, as the adminiſtring cauſe; and to him, as the final cauſe. Well therefore may it follow, to whom bee glory for ever. Chriſt counts the fruits that wee bear to bee ours, becauſe the judgement and reſolution of will whereby we bear them, is ours. This he doth to encourage us. But becauſe the grace whereby wee judge, will, and work aright, comes from Chriſt, aſcribe wee all to him, as the Church doth in the former verſe:Gen. 43.11. Cedren. ad an. 32. Justin. and preſenting him with the beſt fruits (as they did Joſeph) ſay as David, and after him Juſtinian, [non-Latin text not transcribed], Of thine own have wee given thee, 1 Chron. 29.14.