Song of Solomon 8 commentary

The church wishes for the constant intimacy and freedom with the Lord Jesus that a sister has with a brother. That they might be as his brethren, which they are, when by grace they are made partakers of a Divine nature. Christ is become as our Brother; wherever we find him, let us be ready to own our relation to him, and affection for him, and not fear being despised for it. Is there in us an ardent wish to serve Christ more and better? What then have we laid up in store, to show our affection to the Beloved of our souls? What fruit unto holiness? The church charges all her children that they never provoke Christ to withdraw. We should reason with ourselves, when tempted to do what would grieve the Spirit.

The Jewish church came up from the wilderness, supported by Divine power and favour. The Christian church was raised from a low, desolate condition, by the grace of Christ relied on. Believers, by the power of grace, are brought up from the wilderness. A sinful state is a wilderness in which there is no true comfort; it is a wandering, wanting state: There is no coming out of this wilderness, but leaning on Christ as our Beloved, by faith; not leaning to our own understanding, nor trusting in any righteousness of our own; but in the strength of him, who is the Lord our Righteousness. The words of the church to Christ which follow, entreat an abiding place in his love, and protection by his power. Set me as a seal upon thine heart; let me always have a place in thine heart; let me have an impression of love upon thine heart. Of this the soul would be assured, and without a sense thereof no rest is to be found. Those who truly love Christ, are jealous of every thing that would draw them from him; especially of themselves, lest they should do any thing to provoke him to withdraw from them. If we love Christ, the fear of coming short of his love, or the temptations to forsake him, will be most painful to us. No waters can quench Christ's love to us, nor any floods drown it. Let nothing abate our love to him. Nor will life, and all its comforts, entice a believer from loving Christ. Love of Christ, will enable us to repel and triumph over temptations from the smiles of the world, as well as from its frowns.

The church pleads for the Gentiles, who then had not the word of God, nor the means of grace. Those who are brought to Christ themselves, should contrive what they may do to help others to him. Babes in Christ are always seen among Christians, and the welfare of their weak brethren is an object of continual prayer with the stronger believers. If the beginning of this work were likened to a wall built upon Him the precious Foundation and Corner-stone, then the Gentile church would become as a palace for the great King, built of solid silver. If the first preaching of the gospel were as the making a door through the wall of partition, that door should be lasting, as cased with boards of durable cedar. She shall be carefully and effectually protected, enclosed so as to receive no damage. The church is full of care for those yet uncalled. Christ says, I will do all that is necessary to be done for them. See with what satisfaction we should look back upon the times and seasons, when we were in his eyes as those that find favour. Our hearts are our vineyards, which we must keep with all diligence. To Christ, and to his praise, all our fruits must be dedicated. All that work for Christ, work for themselves, and shall be unspeakable gainers by it.

These verses close the conference between Christ and his church. He first addresses her as dwelling in the gardens, the assemblies and ordinances of his saints. He exhorts her to be constant and frequent in prayers, supplications, and praises, in which he delights. She replies, craving his speedy return to take her to be wholly with Him. The heavens, those high mountains of sweet spices, must contain Christ, till the times come, when every eye shall see him, in all the glory of the better world. True believers as they are looking for, so they are hastening to the coming of that day of the Lord. Let every Christian endeavour to perform the duties of his station, that men may see his good works, and glorify his heavenly Father. Continuing earnest in prayer for what we want, our thanksgivings will abound, and our joy will be full; our souls will be enriched, and our labours prospered. We shall be enabled to look forward to death and judgment without fear. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

CHAPTER 8

So 8:1-14.

1. He had been a brother already. Why, then, this prayer here? It refers to the time after His resurrection, when the previous outward intimacy with Him was no longer allowed, but it was implied it should be renewed at the second coming (Joh 20:17). For this the Church here prays; meanwhile she enjoys inward spiritual communion with Him. The last who ever "kissed" Jesus Christ on earth was the traitor Judas. The bride's return with the King to her mother's house answers to Ac 8:25, after the mission to Samaria. The rest spoken of (So 8:4) answers to Ac 9:31.

that sucked ... mother--a brother born of the same mother; the closest tie.

2. Her desire to bring Him into her home circle (Joh 1:41).

who would instruct me--rather, "thou wouldest instruct me," namely, how I might best please thee (Is 11:2, 3; 50:4; Lu 12:12; Joh 14:26; 16:13).

spiced wine--seasoned with aromatic perfumes. Jesus Christ ought to have our choicest gifts. Spices are never introduced in the song in His absence; therefore the time of His return from "the mountain of spices" (So 8:14) is contemplated. The cup of betrothal was given by Him at the last supper; the cup or marriage shall be presented by her at His return (Mt 26:29). Till then the believer often cannot feel towards, or speak of, Him as he would wish.

3-4. The "left and right hand," &c., occurred only once actually (So 2:6), and here optatively. Only at His first manifestation did the Church palpably embrace Him; at His second coming there shall be again sensible communion with Him. The rest in So 8:4, which is a spiritual realization of the wish in So 8:3 (1Pe 1:8), and the charge not to disturb it, close the first, second, and fourth canticles; not the third, as the bridegroom there takes charge Himself; nor the fifth, as, if repose formed its close, we might mistake the present state for our rest. The broken, longing close, like that of the whole Bible (Re 22:20), reminds us we are to be waiting for a Saviour to come. On "daughters of Jerusalem," see on So 7:10.

Canticle V.--(So 8:5-14)--From The Call of the Gentiles to the Close of Revelation.

5. Who is this--Words of the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the churches of Judea; referring to Paul, on his return from Arabia ("the wilderness"), whither he had gone after conversion (Ga 1:15-24).

I raised thee ... she ... bare thee--(Ac 26:14-16). The first words of Jesus Christ to the bride since her going to the garden of nuts (So 6:9, 10); so His appearance to Paul is the only one since His ascension, So 8:13 is not an address of Him as visible: her reply implies He is not visible (1Co 15:8). Spiritually, she was found in the moral wilderness (Eze 16:5; Ho 13:5); but now she is "coming up from" it (Jr 2:2; Ho 2:14), especially in the last stage of her journey, her conscious weakness casting itself the more wholly on Jesus Christ (2Co 12:9). "Raised" (Ep 2:1-7). Found ruined under the forbidden tree (Ge 3:22-24); restored under the shadow of Jesus Christ crucified, "the green tree" (Lu 23:31), fruit-"bearing" by the cross (Is 53:11; Joh 12:24). "Born again by the Holy Ghost" "there" (Eze 16:3-6). In this verse, her dependence, in the similar verse, So 3:6, &c., His omnipotence to support her, are brought out (De 33:26).

6. Implying approaching absence of the Bridegroom.

seal--having her name and likeness engraven on it. His Holy Priesthood also in heaven (Ex 28:6-12, 15-30; He 4:14); "his heart" there answering to "thine heart" here, and "two shoulders" to "arm." (Compare Jr 22:24, with Hag 2:23). But the Holy Ghost (Ep 1:13, 14). As in So 8:5, she was "leaning" on Him, that is, her arm on His arm, her head on His bosom; so she prays now that before they part, her impression may be engraven both on His heart and His arm, answering to His love and His power (Psa 77:15; see Ge 38:18; Is 62:3).

love is strong as death--(Ac 21:13; Ro 8:35-39; Re 12:11). This their love unto death flows from His (Joh 10:15; 15:13).

jealousy ... the grave--Zealous love, jealous of all that would come between the soul and Jesus Christ (1Ki 19:10; Psa 106:30, 31; Lu 9:60; 14:26; 1Co 16:22).

cruel--rather, "unyielding" hard, as the grave will not let go those whom it once holds (Joh 10:28).

a most vehement flame--literally, "the fire-flame of Jehovah" (Psa 80:16; Is 6:6). Nowhere else is God's name found in the Song. The zeal that burnt in Jesus Christ (Psa 69:9; Lu 12:49, 50) kindled in His followers (Ac 2:3; Ro 15:30; Php 2:17).

7. waters--in contrast with the "coals of fire" (So 8:6; 1Ki 18:33-38). Persecutions (Ac 8:1) cannot quench love (He 10:34; Re 12:15, 16). Our many provocations have not quenched His love (Ro 8:33-39).

if ... give all the substance ... contemned--Nothing short of Jesus Christ Himself, not even heaven without Him, can satisfy the saint (Php 3:8). Satan offers the world, as to Jesus Christ (Mt 4:8), so to the saint, in vain (1Jo 2:15-17; 5:4). Nothing but our love in turn can satisfy Him (1Co 13:1-3).

8. The Gentile Church (Eze 16:48). "We," that is, the Hebrew Church, which heretofore admitted Gentiles to communion, only by becoming Judaic proselytes. Now first idolatrous Gentiles are admitted directly (Ac 11:17-26). Generally, the saint's anxiety for other souls (Mr 5:19; Joh 4:28, 29).

no breasts--neither faith nor love as yet (see on So 4:5), which "come by hearing" of Him who first loved us. Not yet fit to be His bride, and mother of a spiritual offspring.

what shall we do--the chief question in the early Church at the first council (Ac 15:23-29). How shall "the elder brother" treat the "younger," already received by the Father (Lu 15:25-32)? Generally (2Sa 15:15; Joh 9:4; Ac 9:6; Ga 6:10).

In the day ... spoken for--that is, when she shall be sought in marriage (Jud 14:7), namely, by Jesus Christ, the heavenly bridegroom.

9. wall ... door--the very terms employed as to the Gentile question (Ac 14:27; Ep 2:14). If she be a wall in Zion, founded on Jesus Christ (1Co 3:11), we will not "withstand God" (Ac 11:17; 15:8-11). But if so, we must not "build" (Ac 15:14-17) on her "wood, hay, stubble" (1Co 3:12), that is, Jewish rites, &c., but "a palace of silver," that is, all the highest privileges of church communion (Ga 2:11-18; Ep 2:11-22). Image from the splendid turrets "built" on the "walls" of Jerusalem, and flanking the "door," or gateway. The Gentile Church is the "door," the type of catholic accessibleness (1Co 16:9); but it must be not a mere thoroughfare but furnished with a wooden framework, so as not merely to admit, but also to safely enclose: cedar is fragrant, beautiful, and enduring.

10. The Gentile Church's joy at its free admission to gospel privileges (Ac 15:30, 31). She is one wall in the spiritual temple of the Holy Ghost, the Hebrew Church is the other; Jesus Christ, the common foundation, joins them (Ep 2:11-22).

breasts ... towers--alluding to the silver palace, which the bridal virgins proposed to build on her (So 8:9). "Breasts" of consolation (Is 66:11); faith and love (1Th 5:8); opposed to her previous state, "no breasts" (So 8:8; 2Th 1:3). Thus Eze 16:46, 61 was fulfilled, both Samaria and the Gentiles being joined to the Jewish gospel Church.

favour--rather, "peace." The Gentile Church too is become the Shulamite (So 6:13), or peace-enjoying bride of Solomon, that is, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace (Ro 5:1; Ep 2:14). Reject not those whom God accepts (Nu 11:28; Lu 9:49; Ac 15:8, 9). Rather, superadd to such every aid and privilege (So 8:9).

11. The joint Church speaks of Jesus Christ's vineyard. Transference of it from the Jews, who rendered not the fruits, as is implied by the silence respecting any, to the Gentiles (Mt 21:33-43).

Baal-hamon--equivalent to the owner of a multitude; so Israel in Solomon's day (1Ki 4:20); so Is 5:1, "a very fruitful hill" abounding in privileges, as in numbers.

thousand pieces--namely, silverlings, or shekels. The vineyard had a thousand vines probably; a vine at a silverling (Is 7:23), referring to this passage.

12. "mine" by grant of the true Solomon. Not merely "let out to keepers," as in the Jewish dispensation of works, but "mine" by grace. This is "before me," that is, in my power [Maurer]. But though no longer under constraint of "keeping" the law as a mere letter and covenant of works, love to Jesus Christ will constrain her the more freely to render all to Solomon (Ro 8:2-4; 1Co 6:20; Ga 5:13; 1Pe 2:16), after having paid what justice and His will require should be paid to others (1Co 7:29-31; 9:14). "Before me" may also mean "I will never lose sight of it" (contrast So 1:6) [Moody Stuart]. She will not keep it for herself, though so freely given to her, but for His use and glory (Lu 19:13; Ro 6:15; 14:7-9; 1Co 12:7). Or the "two hundred" may mean a double tithe (two-tenths of the whole paid back by Jesus Christ) as the reward of grace for our surrender of all (the thousand) to Him (Ga 6:7; He 6:10); then she and "those that keep" are the same [Adelaide Newton]. But Jesus Christ pays back not merely two tithes, but His all for our all (1Co 3:21-23).

13. Jesus Christ's address to her; now no longer visibly present. Once she "had not kept" her vineyard (So 1:6); now she "dwells" in it, not as its owner, but its superintendent under Jesus Christ, with vinedressers ("companions"), for example, Paul, &c. (Ac 15:25, 26), under her (So 8:11, 12); these ought to obey her when she obeys Jesus Christ. Her voice in prayer and praise is to be heard continually by Jesus Christ, if her voice before men is to be effective (So 2:14, end; Ac 6:4; 13:2, 3).

14. (See on So 2:17). As she began with longing for His first coming (So 1:2), so she ends with praying for His second coming (Psa 130:6; Php 3:20, 21; Re 22:20). Moody Stuart makes the roe upon spices to be the musk deer. As there are four gardens, so four mountains, which form not mere images, as Gilead, Carmel, &c., but part of the structure of the Song: (1) Bether, or division (So 2:17), God's justice dividing us from God. (2) Those "of leopards" (So 4:8), sin, the world, and Satan. (3) That "of myrrh and aloes" (So 4:6, 14), the sepulchre of Calvary. (4) Those "of spices," here answering to "the hill of frankincense" (So 4:6), where His soul was for the three days of His death, and heaven, where He is a High Priest now, offering incense for us on the fragrant mountain of His own finished work (He 4:14, 7:25; Re 8:3, 4); thus He surmounts the other three mountains, God's justice, our sin, death. The mountain of spices is as much greater than our sins, as heaven is higher than earth (Psa 103:11). The abrupt, unsatisfied close with the yearning prayer for His visible coming shows that the marriage is future, and that to wait eagerly for it is our true attitude (1Co 1:7; 1Th 1:10; Tit 2:13; 2Pe 3:12).

O that thou wert as my brother - The bride, fearing that her fondness for her spouse might be construed into too great a familiarity, wishes that he were her little brother; and then she might treat him in the most affectionate manner, and kiss him even in the streets without suspicion, and without giving offense to any one.

Would - bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me - She would teach me how to conduct myself towards thee, as she would how to nurse a young child.

To drink of spiced wine - Wine rendered peculiarly strong and invigorating. The bride and bridegroom on the wedding day both drank out of the same cup, to show that they were to enjoy and equally bear together the comforts and adversities of life.

His left hand - See on Sol 2:6 (note).

With the fourth verse the Sixth night of the marriage week is supposed to end.

That cometh up from the wilderness - Perhaps the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, who, seeing the bride returning from the country, leaning on the arm of her beloved, are filled with admiration at her excellent carriage and beauty.

I raised thee up under the apple tree - The original of this clause is obscure, and has given birth to various translations. The following is nearly literal: "Under the apple tree I excited thee (to espouse me): there, thy mother contracted thee; - there, she that brought thee forth contracted thee (to me). Or it may be understood of the following circumstance: The bridegroom found her once asleep under an apple tree, and awoke her; and this happened to be the very place where her mother, taken in untimely labor, had brought her into the world." And here the bridegroom, in his fondness and familiarity, recalls these little adventures to her memory.

The Vulgate gives this an abominable meaning.

Sub arbore malo suscitavi te: ibi corrupta est mater tua; ibi violata est genetrix tua; "I raised thee up under the apple tree: it was there that thy mother was corrupted; it was there that she who brought thee forth was violated." Spiritually, all this is applied to Eve losing her purity by sin; and Jesus as the promised seed raising her up by the promise of mercy, through the blood of his cross. But the text says nothing of this.

Set me as a seal upon thine heart - It was customary in the Levant and other places to make impressions of various kinds upon the arms, the breast, and other parts. I have seen these often: some slight punctures are made, and the place rubbed over with a sort of blue powder that, getting between the cuticle and cutis, is never discharged; it continues in all its distinctness throughout life. The figures of young women are frequently thus impressed on the arms and on the breasts. If the bride alludes to any thing of this kind, which is very probable, the interpretation is easy. Let me be thus depicted upon thine arm, which being constantly before thy eyes, thou wilt never forget me; and let me be thus depicted upon thy breast, the emblem of the share I have in thy heart and affections. Do this as a proof of the love I bear to thee, which is such as nothing but death can destroy; and do it to prevent any jealousy I might feel, which is as cruel as the grave, and as deadly as fiery arrows or poisoned darts shot into the body.

A most vehement flame - שלהבתיה shalhebethyah, "the flame of God;" for the word is divided שלהבת יה shalhebeth Yah, "the flame of Jehovah," by one hundred and sixteen of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and by one hundred and fourteen of those of De Rossi. It may mean the lightning; or, as our text understands it, a most vehement or intense fire.

Many waters - Neither common nor uncommon adversities, even of the most ruinous nature, can destroy love when it is pure; and pure love is such that nothing can procure it. If it be not excited naturally, no money can purchase it, no property can procure it, no arts can persuade it. How vain is the thought of old rich men hoping to procure the affections of young women by loading them with presents and wealth! No woman can command her affections; they are not in her power. Where they do not rise spontaneously, they can never exist. "If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned." Let the old, as well as the gay and the giddy, think of this.

We have a little sister - This young girl belonged most probably to the bride.

She hath no breasts - She is not yet marriageable.

What shall we do for our sister - How shall we secure her comfort and welfare?

In the day when she shall be spoken for? - When any person shall demand her in marriage.

If she be a wall - All these expressions, says Calmet, show that it was necessary to provide a husband for this young sister. For a woman without a husband is like a wall without towers, and without defense; is like a gate or door without bar or lock; and like a city without walls. They must therefore provide for their sister a rich, powerful, and illustrious man; qualities here figured by towers or palaces of silver, and doors of cedar. As it is customary to build towers upon a wall, and to put bolts and bars upon a door in order to secure it, so the expressions may point out the defense, protection, and guardianship which they imagined this young woman to require.

I am a wall, and my breasts like towers - I am become marriageable, and I stood in need of the defense I have now in my beloved; and as soon as I was so, and became pleasing in the eyes of my beloved, I was given to him in marriage, and have ever since found favor in his sight. As soon then as my sister is in my state, let a proper match be sought out for her. These expressions show the solicitude which the bride felt for her sister, and in her favor she wishes to interest her spouse.

Solomon had a vineyard - Calmet translates and paraphrases the Hebrew of these two verses thus: "Sol 8:11 : Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon: he has let it out to keepers, each of whom for the fruit of it was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. Sol 8:12 : As for me, my vineyard is before me; that is, it is my own; I am its proprietor. Keep thyself, O Solomon, thy thousand pieces of silver, and let those who dress (thy vineyard) have two hundred for their trouble. I neither envy thee thy vineyard, nor them their profits. I am satisfied with my own. My beloved is my vineyard - my heritage; I would not change him for all the riches of the universe."

Some suppose that there is a reference here to some property which Pharaoh had given to Solomon with his daughter. See Harmer's Outlines, where this subject is considered at large.

Thou that dwellest in the gardens - This is supposed to refer to the bridegroom asking permission of his spouse early in the morning to retire, as was his usual custom. He intimates the companions were waiting to hear, and he wished to hear it in the way of permission to depart.

Make haste, my beloved - These appear to be the words of the bride giving permission, but entreating him to speed his return. What these mountains of spices were, we cannot particularly tell; but they must have been thus named from their producing the trees on which the spices grew. They might have been the same as the mountains of Bether, Sol 2:17 (note), or the mountains of myrrh, Sol 4:6 (note); where see the notes.

Here ends the seventh night of the marriage week.

Thus ends this most singular book; the oldest pastoral in the world, if it may be ranked among this species of writing. To whatever species of composition it belongs, it is, beyond all controversy, the finest, the most sublime for imagery and colouring, that ever came from the pen of man.

In the preceding notes I have carefully avoided all attempts to spiritualize this song. My reasons I have already given in the introduction; and in the course of writing these short notes I have seen no cause to alter my opinion. Any man may allegorize it; that is an easy matter; for when he once considers it to be an allegory, his own creed will furnish him with enough to say, write, or preach, upon the spiritual meanings of every part, which will be an exhibition of his own confession of faith! But when he has finished his work, the question will recur, By what authority do you give it these meanings? And till the day of judgment none shall be able to say, "I have the authority of God for my exposition."

O that - The church here expresses her desire of a stricter union, and closer communion with Christ. Without - In the open streets.

Instruct me - Or, where she did instruct or educate me. I would - My gifts and graces should all be employed to serve and glorify thee.

Who - This and the next clause are the words of the bridegroom, who proposes the question, that he may give the answer following. Her beloved - He speaks of himself in the third person, which is usual in the Hebrew language. I raised - When thou wast dead in trespasses and in the depth of misery. Under - Under my own shadow; for she had compared him to an apple tree, and declared, that under the shadow of the tree she had both delight and fruit, chap.2:3, which is the same thing with this raising up. There - Under that tree, either the universal or the primitive church, did conceive and bring thee forth.

Set me - These are undoubtedly the words of the bride. Let thy heart be constantly set upon me. He seems to allude to the engraven tablets which are frequently worn upon the breast, and to the signet on a man's arm or hand, which they prized at a more than ordinary rate, and which are continually in their sight. For love - My love to thee. Jealousy - Or, zeal; my ardent love to thee. Cruel - Heb. hard, grievous and terrible, and sometimes ready to overwhelm me; therefore have pity upon me, and do not leave me. Fire - It burns and melts my heart like fire.

Many waters - My love to thee cannot be taken off, either by terrors and afflictions, which are commonly signified in scripture by waters and floods; or by temptations and allurements. Therefore, give me thyself, without whom, and in comparison of whom, I despise all other persons and things.

I am - These seem to be the words of the Jewish church. O Lord, by thy grace I am what thou wouldst have my sister to be, and therefore humbly hope, according to thy promise to her in that case, thou wilt build upon me a palace of silver. Towers - Which stand out from and above the wall, and are an ornament and defence to it. Then - When by his grace I was made a wall, he was well - pleased with me, and with his own workmanship in me.

Baal - hamon - A place not far from Jerusalem. A thousand - Whereby he signifies both the vast extent of the vineyard which required so many keepers, and its singular fertility.

My vineyard - My church, which is here opposed to Solomon's vineyard. Possibly we may ascribe the first clause to Christ, and the latter to the spouse: such interlocutions being familiar in this book. Mine - This repetition is very emphatical, to shew that Christ had a more eminent title to his vineyard, the church, than Solomon had to his vineyard, because it was purchased not by his money, but by his blood. Before me - Is under my own eye and care. Thou - These words are the church's return to Christ, who is here called Solomon, as he was chap.3:9, 11, as elsewhere he is called David. Dost thou, O Christ, keep thine own vineyard, which Solomon did not? Then surely it is meet that thou shouldst receive as large a revenue from thy vineyard, as he did from his. Two hundred - Though the chief revenue is justly given to thee, yet thy ministers, who serve thee in thy vineyard, are allowed by thee to receive some encouragement for their service.

Thou - Christ speaks here to his spouse. The gardens - Not in the wilderness of the world, but in the church, the garden of God. He saith, gardens, because of the many particular congregations, into which the church is divided. Companions - The friends of the bride and bridegroom. Hearken - Diligently observe all thy words towards me. Cause me - When I am gone from thee, let me hear thy prayers, and praises, and the preaching of my gospel in the world.

Make haste - Seeing we must part for a time, make haste, O my beloved bridegroom, and speedily finish the work which thou hast to do in the world, that so thou mayest take me to thyself, that I may live in thine everlasting embraces.

1 O That thou wert as my brother that sucked the breasts of my mother ; when I should find thee without , I would kiss thee , yea, I should not be despised .

Most intimate, and free, and familiar with me, as Brethren and Sisters commonly are.

That came out of the same womb, and sucked the same breasts, and consequently were Brother and Sister by Father and Mother too; for such are most dear to one another. See Gen. 43. 29. Deut. 13. 6. Heb. Sucking the breasts, &c. So she wisheth that he were as a little sucking Brother, with whom she might innocently and inoffensively delight her self, as Sisters do with such a Brother. The Church here expresseth her passionate desire of a stricter Union, and closer Communion with Christ than yet she had attained. And in particular, these may be the breathings of the ancient Jewish Church after Christs Incarnation, whereby he was to be their Brother, Rom. 8. 29. Heb. 2. 11, 12. and a sucking Infant.

In the open streets; I might then express my Affections to thee, and kiss thee openly without any scandal or contempt. Or, without, i. e. come forth from the Fathers bosom into the World, Ioh. 16. 28.

I would demonstrate my Reverence, and Subjection, and Affection to thee, of all which kissing was a token in those times and places, as hath been oft observed in divers foregoing Texts.

Then should I not be ashamed or censured, as if I had done an indecent or immodest action, because such Expressions of Love are usual amongst persons so nearly and dearly related.

Marginal references: Heb. they should not despise me.

2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mothers house , who would instruct me : I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomgranate .

With joy and triumph, as the Bridegroom was usually brought to the Brides house. See Psal. 45. 15, 16.

Either 1. My Mothers in Law, my Husbands Mother, as the custom was, Gen. 24. 67. Iudg. 12. 9. Or 2. My own Mothers; to shew her extraordinary Respect and Affection to him. In the mystical sense both come to one; for the universal Church was in some sort both his and her Mother.

To wit, how I should behave my self towards thee. Or, where she did instruct or educate me.

I would give thee the best entertainment which the House affords. My Gifts and Graces should all be employed to serve and glorifie thee.

Marginal references: Or, thou houldest.; Prov. 9. 2.

3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me .

The same expressions are used, ch. 2. 6. The sense is, He would not despise me for my forwardness in shewing my affections to him, as men commonly do in like cases, but would kindly accept of my Love, and return Love for it.

Marginal references: Ch. 2. 6.

4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love until he please .

This verse is here repeated again from ch. 2. 7. & 3. 5. where see the Explication of it.

Marginal references: Ch. 2. 7. & 3. 5.; Heb. why should ye stir up, or why, &c.

5 ( Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness , leaning upon her beloved ?) I raised thee up under the apple-tree ; there thy mother brought thee forth , there she brought thee forth that bare thee.

These words are repeated from ch. 3. 6. of which see the notes there. This and the next clause are the words either 1. Of the Daughters of Ierusalem, or the Friends of the Bride and Bridegroom, admiring and congratulating this happy conjunction: Or 2. Of the Bridegroom, who proposeth the Question, that he may give the Answer here following.

Which implies both great freedom and familiarity, and fervent affection, and dependance upon him. If these be the Bridegrooms words, he speaketh of himself in the third Person, which is usual in the Hebrew Language.

When thou wast falln, and laid low, and wert dead in trespasses, and in the depth of misery, I revived thee.

Under my own shadow; for she had compared him to an apple-tree, and declared, that under the shadow of that Tree she had both delight and fruit, Cant. 2. 3. which is the same thing with this raising up.

Under that Tree, either the Universal or the Primitive Church did conceive and bring thee forth.

Marginal references: Ch. 3. 6.

6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm : for love is strong as death , jealousie is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire , which hath a most vehement flame.

These are undoubtedly the words of the Bride. The sense is, Let thy Mind and thy heart be constantly set upon me, let me be engraven upon the Tables of thine Heart. He seems to allude to the engraven Tablets which are frequently worn upon the Breast, and to the signet on a mans arm or hand, which men prize at a more than ordinary rate, as appears from Ier. 22. 24. Hag. 2. 23. and which are continually in their sight.

My Love to thee, from whence this desire proceeds.

Which conquers every living thing, and cannot be resisted nor vanquished.

Or, zeal; my ardent Love to thee, which also fills me with Fears and Jealousies, lest thou shouldest bestow thine affections upon others, and cool in thy Love to me, or withdraw thy, Love from me: for true Believers are subject to these passions.

Heb. hard, grievous and terrible, and somtimes ready to overwhelm me, and swallow me up; and therefore have pity upon me, and do not leave me.

It burns and melts my heart like fire.

Marginal references: Heb. hard.; Heb. flame of the Lord.

7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned .

It is the nature of Love in general, and of my Love to thee, that it cannot be taken off, neither by Terrors and Afflictions, which are commonly signified in Scripture by waters and floods, Psal. 32. 6. & 42. 7. and elsewhere; nor by temptations and allurements. Nothing but the presence and favour of the beloved person can quiet and satisfie it. And therefore do not put me off with other things, but give me thy self, without whom, and in comparison of whom I despise all other persons and things.

Marginal references: Pro. 6. 35.

8 We have a little sister b, and she hath no breasts : what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for ?

These are manifestly the words of the Bride, still continuing her speech. The present Church, which was that of the Jews, speaks of another future Church, which was to consist of the Gentiles, which she calls little, because she was the younger Sister, and then scarce had a being; and she calls her her Sister, partly because she was so in the purpose of God, their common Father, though at present she was a stranger to him; and partly to intimate that the Gentile-Church should be admitted to the participation of the same priviledges with that of the Jews.

No grown and full Breasts, as Virgins have when they are ripe for Marriage, Ezek. 16. 7. This signifies the present doleful estate of the Gentiles, which as yet were not grown up into a Church Estate, and wanted the milk or food of Life, as for itself, so also for its Members.

Teach us to know and perform our duty to them, which is to embrace them with sincere and fervent affections, to promote their coming in to Christ, and to rejoice in it, and not to envy it, and murmur at it, as the Jews did in the days of Christ, and of his Apostles.

To wit, for bringing her into the state of Matrimony: when Christ, and his Apostles, and others the first Ministers of the Gospel, who were Members of the Jewish Church, did speak and act for the conversion of the Gentiles.

9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar .

This seems to be Christs Answer to the foregoing question of the Jewish Church concerning their Sister Church of the Gentiles, for which they were very solicitous. Christ therefore engageth himself to take care of her, and to provide for her, as the matter doth require, and as suits best with her condition. If the Gentiles when they are converted shall be like a Wall, strong and firm in Faith, stedfast against all Assaults and Temptations, for a Wall in Scripture use signifies strength, Isa. 26. 1. Ier. 15. 20. and elsewhere; We, my Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost, as the principal Builders, and my Ministers as workers with, and under us, will build upon her a palace of silver, will add more strength and beauty to her, will enlarge and adorn her, make her more amiable in mine Eyes, and more visible and glorious in the Eyes of the World: And if she be as a Door, which is weaker than a Wall, and where the Enemy doth or may break in upon her, if she be weak in Faith, and somtimes overcome by the tempter, yet we will not therefore reject and forsake her, but we will enclose or (as many others render the word) strengthen or fortifie her with Boards of cedar, which are not only beautiful, but also strong, and durable. If she be sincere, and open the door of her Heart to me, though she be weak, I will come into her, and make her stronger.

10 I am a wall , and my breasts like towers : then was I in his eyes, as one that found favour .

These seem to be the words of the Jewish Church to Christ, O Lord, by thy Grace I am what thou wouldst have my Sister to be, a Wall, and therefore do humbly beg and hope, that according to thy promise to her in that case, thou wiltst build upon me a Palace of Silver.

Which stand out from and above the Wall, and are an ornament and defence to it. Of the Churches Breasts see before, ch. 4. 5. & 7. 3, 7.

When by his Grace I was made a wall, he was well-pleased with me, and with his own workmanship in me.

Marginal references: Heb. peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon , he let out the vineyard unto keepers: every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver .

A place not far from Ierusalem, where Solomon had, as it seems, a noble vineyard.

Whereby he signifies both the vast extent of the Vineyard which required so many keepers, and its singular fertility which afforded so great a Rent.

12 My vineyard which is mine , is before me : thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand , and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred q.

My Church, which is oft compared to a vineyard, and is here opposed to Solomons▪vineyard. It is much doubted and disputed whether this verse be spoken by Christ or by the Spouse; the first clause seems to agree best to the former, and the following clause to the latter. Possibly the difficulty may be reconciled by ascribing the first clause to Christ, and the latter to the Spouse: such interlocutions being familiar in this Book, and in other Writings of this kind.

This Repetition is not idle, but very emphatical, to shew that Christ had a more eminent and special title to his Vineyard, the Church, than Solomon had to his Vineyard, because it was purchased not by his Money, but by his Blood, and because it was his, not only for the short time of this present Life, as Solomons was, but to all eternity.

Is under my own Eye and Care, and is not wholly committed to the Care and Management of others, as Solomons was; I the Lord do keep it night and day, as we read Isa. 27. 3. I am with it to the end of the world, Mat. 28. 20.

These are the Churches return to Christ, who is here called Solomon, as he was, ch. 3. 9, 11. as elsewhere he is called David. Dost thou, O Christ, keep thine own Vineyard, which Solomon did not? Then surely it is meet that thou shouldst receive, and thou shalt receive as large a Revennue from thy Vineyard, as he did from his.

p Though the chief Revennue belongeth, and is justly given to thee, yet thy Ministers, who serve thee in thy Vineyard, shall have, and are allowed by thee to receive; some encouragement for their service. See 1 Cor. 9. 7.

13 Thou that dwellest , in the gardens , the companions hearken to thy voice : cause me to hear it .

The Hebrew word is of the feminine gender, which plainly sheweth that Christ speaks here to his Spouse, being about to depart from her for a season, as the next verse sheweth.

Not in the Wilderness of the World, for Believers are chosen, or called out of the World, Joh. 15. 19. but in the Church, the Garden of God, which God hath fenced and appropriated to himself. He saith, Gardens, because of the many particular Congregations, into which the Church is divided.

The friends of the Bride and Bridegrom.

Diligently observe all thy words and carriages towards me, and all the transactions between thee and me.

When I am gone from thee, let me hear thy Prayers, and praises, and the preaching of my Gospel to the World.

Marginal references: Ch. 2. 14.

14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices .

Seeing we must part for a time, make haste, O my beloved Bridegroom, and speedily finish the work which thou hast to do in the World, that so thou maist take me to thy self, that I may live in thine everlasting embraces. The words of this verse are borrowed from ch. 2. 17. where they are explained.

Marginal references: Heb. flee away.; Rev. 22. 17, 20.

Sol 8:1-2

If Solomon now complies with her request, yields to her invitation, then she will again see her parental home, where, in the days of her first love, she laid up for him that which was most precious, that she might thereby give him joy. Since she thus places herself with her whole soul back again in her home and amid its associations, the wish expressed in these words that follow rises up within her in the childlike purity of her love: 1 O that thou wert like a brother to me,    Who sucked my mother’s breasts!    If I found thee without, I would kiss thee;    They also could not despise me. 2 I would lead thee, bring thee into my mother’s house;    Thou wouldest instruct me -    I would give thee to drink spiced wine,    The must of my pomegranates.

Solomon is not her brother, who, with her, hung upon the same mother’s breast; but she wishes, carried away in her dream into the reality of that she wished for, that she had him as her brother, or rather, since she says, not אח, but כּאח (with כּ, which here has not, as at Psa 35:14, the meaning of tanquam, but of instar, as at Job 24:14), that she had in him what a brother is to a sister. In that case, if she found him without, she would kiss him (hypoth. fut. in the protasis, and fut. without Vav in the apodosis, as at Job 20:24; Hos 8:12; Psa 139:18) - she could do this without putting any restraint on herself for the sake of propriety (cf. the kiss of the wanton harlot, Pro 7:13), and also (גּם) without needing to fear that they who saw it would treat it scornfully (ל בּוּז, as in the reminiscence, Pro 6:30). The close union which lies in the sisterly relationship thus appeared to her to be higher than the near connection established by the marriage relationship, and her childlike feeling deceived her not: the sisterly relationship is certainly purer, firmer, more enduring than that of marriage, so far as this does not deepen itself into an equality with the sisterly, and attain to friendship, yea, brotherhood (Pro 17:17), within. That Shulamith thus feels herself happy in the thought that Solomon was to her as a brother, shows, in a characteristic manner, that “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” were foreign to her. If he were her brother, she would take him by the hand,Ben-Asher punctuates אנהגך. Thus also P. rightly. Ben-Naphtali, on the contrary, punctuates אנהגך. Cf. Genesis (1869), p. 85, note 3. and bring him into her mother’s house, and he would then, under the eye of their common mother, become her teacher, and she would become his scholar. The lxx adds, after the words “into my mother’s house,” the phrase, καὶ εἰς ταμεῖον τῆς συλλαβούσης με, cf. Sol 3:4. In the same manner also the Syr., which has not read the words διδάξεις με following, which are found in some Codd. of the lxx. Regarding the word telammedēne (thou wouldest instruct me) as incongruous, Hitzig asks: What should he then teach her? He refers it to her mother: “who would teach me,” namely, from her own earlier experience, how I might do everything rightly for him. “Were the meaning,” he adds, “he should do it, then also it is she who ought to be represented as led home by him into his house, the bride by the bridegroom.” But, correctly, Jerome, the Venet., and Luther: “Thou wouldest (shouldest) instruct me;” also the Targ.: “I would conduct thee, O King Messiah, and bring Thee into the house of my sanctuary; and Thou wouldest teach me (וּתאלּף יתי) to fear God and to walk in His ways.” Not her mother, but Solomon, is in possession of the wisdom which she covets; and if he were her brother, as she wishes, then she would constrain him to devote himself to her as her teacher. The view, favoured by Leo Hebraeus (Dialog. de amore, c. III), John Pordage (Metaphysik, III 617 ff.), and Rosenmüller, and which commends itself, after the analogy of the Gîtagovinda, Boethius, and Dante, and appears also to show itself in the Syr. title of the book, “Wisdom of the Wise,” that Shulamith is wisdom personified (cf. also Sol 8:2 with Pro 9:2, and Pro 8:3; Pro 2:6 with Pro 4:8), shatters itself against this תלמדני; the fact is rather the reverse: Solomon is wisdom in person, and Shulamith is the wisdom-loving soul,Cf. my Das Hohelied unter. u. ausg. (1851), pp. 65-73.  - for Shulamith wishes to participate in Solomon’s wisdom. What a deep view the “Thou wouldest teach me” affords into Shulamith’s heart! She knew how much she yet came short of being to him all that a wife should be. But in Jerusalem the bustle of court life and the burden of his regal duties did not permit him to devote himself to her; but in her mother’s house, if he were once there, he would instruct her, and she would requite him with her spiced wine and with the juice of the pomegranates. הרקח יין, vinum conditura, is appos. = genitiv. יין הרקח, vinum conditurae (ἀρωματίτης in Dioscorides and Pliny), like יין תּר, Psa 6:5, לחץ מים   1Ki 22:27, etc., vid., Philippi’s Stat. Const. p. 86. אשׁקך carries forward אשּׁקך in a beautiful play upon words. עסיס designates the juice as pressed out: the Chald. עסּי corresponds to the Heb. דּרך, used of treading the grapes. It is unnecessary to render רמּני as apoc. plur., like מנּי, Psa 45:9 (Ewald, §177 a); rimmoni is the name she gives to the pomegranate trees belonging to her, - for it is true that this word, rimmon, can be used in a collective sense (Deu 8:8); but the connection with the possessive suff. excludes this; or by 'asis rimmoni she means the pomegranate must (cf. ῥοΐ́της = vinum e punicis, in Dioscorides and Pliny) belonging to her. Pomegranates are not to be thought of as an erotic symbol;Vid., Porphyrius, de Abstin. iv. 16, and Inman in his smutty book, Ancient Faiths, vol. I 1868, according to which the pomegranate is an emblem of “a full womb.” they are named as something beautiful and precious. “O Ali,” says a proverb of Sunna, “eat eagerly only pomegranates (Pers. anâr), for their grains are from Paradise.”Vid., Fleischer’s Catal. Codd. Lips. p. 428.

Sol 8:3-4

Resigning herself now dreamily to the idea that Solomon is her brother, whom she may freely and openly kiss, and her teacher besides, with whom she may sit in confidential intercourse under her mother’s eye, she feels herself as if closely embraced by him, and calls from a distance to the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb this her happy enjoyment: 3 His left hand is under my head,    And his right doth embrace me: 4 I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,    That ye awake not and disturb not love    Till she please!

Instead of   תּהת ל, “underneath,” there is here, as usual, תּהת (cf. Sol 8:5). Instead of אם ... ואם in the adjuration, there is here the equivalent מה ... ומה; the interrogative מה, which in the Arab. ma becomes negat., appears here, as at Job 31:1, on the way toward this change of meaning. The per capreas vel per cervas agri is wanting, perhaps because the natural side of love is here broken, and the ἔρως strives up into ἀγάπη. The daughters of Jerusalem must not break in upon this holy love-festival, but leave it to its own course.

Sol 8:5 5 a Who is this coming up out of the wilderness,      Leaning on her beloved?

The third Acts; Sol 3:6, began with a similar question to that with which the sixth here commences. The former closed the description of the growth of the love-relation, the latter closes that of the consummated love-relation. Instead of “out of the wilderness,” the lxx has “clothed in white” (λελευκανθισμένη); the translator has gathered mit|chauweret from the illegible consonants of his MS before him. On the contrary, he translates מתחוּרת correctly by ἐπιστηριζομένη (Symm. ἐπερειδομένη, Venet. κεκμηκυῖα ἐπί, wearily supporting herself on ...), while Jerome renders it unsuitably by deliciis affluens, interchanging the word with מתפּנּקת. But התרפּק, common to the Heb. with the Arab. and Aethiop., signifies to support oneself, from רפק, sublevare (French, soulager), Arab. rafaḳa, rafuḳa, to be helpful, serviceable, compliant, irtafaḳa, to support oneself on the elbow, or (with the elbow) on a pillow (cf. rafîk, fellow-traveller, rufḳa, a company of fellow-travellers, from the primary idea of mutually supporting or being helpful to each other); Aethiop. rafaḳa, to encamp for the purpose of taking food, ἀνακλίνεσθαι (cf. Joh 13:23). That Shulamith leant on her beloved, arose not merely from her weariness, with the view of supplementing her own weakness from his fulness of strength, but also from the ardour of the love which gives to the happy and proud Solomon, raised above all fears, the feeling of his having her in absolute possession. The road brings the loving couple near to the apple tree over against Shulamith’s parental home, which had been the witness of the beginning of their love. 5 b Under the apple tree I waked thy love:      There thy mother travailed with thee;      There travailed she that bare thee.

The words, “under the apple tree I waked thee,” עוררתּיך, might be regarded as those of Shulamith to Solomon: here, under this apple tree, where Solomon met with her, she won his first love; for the words cannot mean that she wakened him from sleep under the apple tree, since עורר has nowhere the meaning of הקיץ and העיר here given to it by Hitzig, but only that of “to stir, to stir up, to arouse;” and only when sleep or a sleepy condition is the subject, does it mean “to shake out of sleep, to rouse up” (vid., under Sol 2:7). But it is impossible that “there” can be used by Shulamith even in the sense of the shepherd hypothesis; for the pair of lovers do not wander to the parental home of the lover, but of his beloved. We must then here altogether change the punctuation of the text, and throughout restore the fem. suffix forms as those originally used: עוררתּיך, חבּלתך אמּך,חבּלתך, penult. accented, and Lamed with Pathach in P. This is certainly right. Michlol 33 a adduces merely ילדתך of the verse as having Kametz, on account of the pause, and had thus in view חבּ, with the Pathach under Lamed. But P. has also יל, with Pathach under Daleth, and so also has H, with the remark בּ פתחין (viz., here and Jer 22:26). The Biblia Rabbinica 1526 and 1615 have also the same pointing, Pathach under Daleth. In the printed list of words having Pathach in pause, this word is certainly not found. But it is found in the MS list of the Ochla veochla, at Halle. and ילדתך (cf. שׁו, Isa 47:10), in which we follow the example of the Syr. The allegorizing interpreters also meet only with trouble in regarding the words as those of Shulamith to Solomon. If התפיח were an emblem of the Mount of Olives, which, being wonderfully divided, gives back Israel’s dead (Targ.), or an emblem of Sinai (Rashi), in both cases the words are more appropriately regarded as spoken to Shulamith than by her. Aben-Ezra correctly reads them as the words of Shulamith to Solomon, for he thinks on prayers, which are like golden apples in silver bowls; Hahn, for he understands by the apple tree, Canaan, where with sorrow his people brought him forth as their king; Hengstenberg, rising up to a remote-lying comparison, says, “the mother of the heavenly Solomon is at the same time the mother of Shulamith.” Hoelemann thinks on Sur. 19:32 f., according to which 'Isa, Miriam’s son, was born under a palm tree; but he is not able to answer the question, What now is the meaning here of the apple tree as Solomon’s birthplace? If it were indeed to be interpreted allegorically, then by the apple tree we would rather understand the “tree of knowledge” of Paradise, of which Aquila, followed by Jerome, with his ἐκεῖ διεφθάρη, appears to think, - a view which recently Godet approves of;Others, e.g., Bruno von Asti († 1123) and the Waldensian Exposition, edited by Herzog in the Zeit. für hist. Theol. 1861: malum = crux dominica. Th. Harms (1870) quotes Sol 2:3, and remarks: The church brings forth her children under the apple tree, Christ. Into such absurdities, in violation of the meaning of the words, do the allegorizing interpreters wander. there Shulamith, i.e., poor humanity, awakened the compassionate love of the heavenly Solomon, who then gave her, as a pledge of this love, the Protevangelium, and in the neighbourhood of this apple tree, i.e., on the ground and soil of humanity fallen, but yet destined to be saved, Shulamith’s mother, i.e., the pre-Christian O.T. church, brought forth the Saviour from itself, who in love raised Shulamith from the depths to regal honour. But the Song of Songs does not anywhere set before us the task of extracting from it by an allegorizing process such far-fetched thoughts. If the masc. suff. is changed into the fem., we have a conversation perfectly corresponding to the situation. Solomon reminds Shulamith by that memorable apple tree of the time when he kindled within her the fire of first love; עורר elsewhere signifies energy (Psa 80:3), or passion (Pro 10:12), put into a state of violent commotion; connected with the accus. of the person, it signifies, Zec 9:13, excited in a warlike manner; here, placed in a state of pleasant excitement of love that has not yet attained its object. Of how many references to contrasted affections the reflex. התע is capable, is seen from Job 17:8; Job 31:29; why not thus also עורר?

With שׁמּה Solomon’s words are continued, but not in such a way as that what follows also took place under the apple tree. For Shulamith is not the child of Beduins, who in that case might even have been born under an apple tree. Among the Beduins, a maiden accidentally born at the watering-place (menhîl), on the way (rahîl), in the dew (ṭall) or snow (thelg), is called from that circumstance Munêhil, Ruhêla, Talla, or Thelga.Vid., Wetstein'sInschriften (1864), p. 336.

The birthplace of her love is not also the birthplace of her life. As התפוח points to the apple tree to which their way led them, so שׁמה points to the end of their way, the parental home lying near by (Hitzig).

The lxx translates well: ἐκεῖ ὠδίνησέ σε ἡ μήτηρ σου, for while the Arab. ḥaḅida means concipere, and its Pi., ḥabbada, is the usual word for gravidam facere, חבּל in the passage before us certainly appears to beThe Arab. ḥabilat, she has conceived, and is in consequence pregnant, accords in the latter sense with ḥamilat, she bears, i.e., is pregnant, without, however, being, as Hitzig thinks, of a cognate root with it. For ḥamal signifies to carry; הבל, on the contrary, to comprehend and to receive (whence also the cord, figuratively, the tie of love, liaison, as enclosing, embracing, is called ḥabl, הבל), and like the Lat. concipere and suscipere, is used not only in a sexual, but also in an ethical sense, to conceive anger, to take up and cherish sorrow. The Assyr. ìáä, corresponding to the Heb. בן, is explained from this Arab. ḥabl, concipere. On the supposition that the Heb. had a word, חבל, of the same meaning as the Arab. ḥabl, then חבּל might mean concipiendo generare; but the Heb. sentence lying before us leads to the interpretation eniti. a denom. Pi. in the sense of “to bring forth with sorrow” (חבלי היּלדה). The lxx further translates: ἐκεῖ ὠδίνησέ σε ἡ τεκοῦσά σε, in which the σε is inserted, and is thus, as also by the Syr., Jerome, and Venet., translated, with the obliteration of the finite ילדתך, as if the reading were ילדתּך. But not merely is the name of the mother intentionally changed, it is also carried forward from the labour, eniti, to the completed act of birth.

Sol 8:6-7

After Solomon has thus called to remembrance the commencement of their love-relation, which receives again a special consecration by the reference to Shulamith’s parental home, and to her mother, Shulamith answers with a request to preserve for her this love. 6 Place me as a signet-ring on thy heart,    As a signet-ring on thine arm!    For strong as death is love;    Inexorable as hell is jealousy:    Its flames are flames of fire,    A flame of Jah. 7 Mighty waters are unable to quench such love,    And rivers cannot overflow it.    If a man would give    All the wealth of his house for love, -    He would only be contemned.

The signet-ring, which is called חותם (חתם, to impress), was carried either by a string on the breast, Gen 38:18, or also, as that which is called טבּעת denotes (from טבע, to sink into), on the hand, Jer 22:24, cf. Gen 41:42; Est 3:12, but not on the arm, like a bracelet, 2Sa 1:10; and since it is certainly permissible to say “hand” for “finger,” but not “arm” for “hand,” so we may not refer “on thine arm” to the figure if the signet-ring, as if Shulamith had said, as the poet might also introduce her as saying: Make me like a signet-ring (כּחותם) on thy breast; make me like a signet-ring “on thy hand,” or “on thy right hand.” The words, “set me on thy heart,” and “(set me) on thine arm,” must thus also, without regard to “as a signet-ring,” express independent thoughts, although שׂימני is chosen (vid., Hag 2:23) instead of קחני, in view of the comparison.Of the copy of the Tôra, which was to be the king’s vade-mecum, it is said, Sanhedrin 21 b: עושה אותה כמין קמיע ותולה בזרוע, but also there the amulet is thought of not as fastened to the finger, but as wound round the arm.

Thus, with right, Hitzig finds the thought therein expressed: “Press me close to thy breast, enclose me in thine arms.” But it is the first request, and not the second, which is in the form עכל־זרועך, and not על־זרועתיך (שׁימני), which refers to embracing, since the subject is not the relation of person and thing, but of person and person. The signet-ring comes into view as a jewel, which one does not separate from himself; and the first request is to this effect, that he would bear her thus inalienably (the art. is that of the specific idea) on his heart (Exo 28:29); the meaning of the second, that he would take her thus inseparably as a signet-ring on his arm (cf. Hos 11:3 : “I have taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms”), so that she might lie always on his heart, and have him always at her side (cf. Psa 110:5): she wishes to be united and bound to him indissolubly in the affection of love and in the community of life’s experience.

The reason for the double request following כּי, abstracted from the individual case, rises to the universality of the fact realized by experience, which specializes itself herein, and celebrates the praise of love; for, assigning a reason for her “set me,” she does not say, “my love,” nor “thy love,” but אהבה, “love” (as also in the address at Sol 7:7). She means love undivided, unfeigned, entire, and not transient, but enduring; thus true and genuine love, such as is real, what the word denotes, which exhausts the conception corresponding to the idea of love. קנאה, which is here parallel to “love,” is the jealousy of love asserting its possession and right of property; the reaction of love against any diminution of its possession, against any reserve in its response, the “self-vindication of angry love.”Vid., my Prolegomena to Weber’s Vom Zorne Gottes (1862), p. 35 ss.

Love is a passion, i.e., a human affection, powerful and lasting, as it comes to light in “jealousy.” Zelus, as defined by Dav. Chyträus, est affectus mixtus ex amore et ira, cum videlicet amans aliquid irascitur illi, a quo laeditur res amata, wherefore here the adjectives עזּה (strong) and קשׁה (hard, inexorable, firm, severe) are respectively assigned to “love” and “jealousy,” as at Gen 49:7 to “anger” and “wrath.” It is much more remarkable that the energy of love, which, so to say, is the life of life, is compared to the energy of death and Hades; with at least equal right ממּות and משּׁאול (might be used, for love scorns both, outlasts both, triumphs over both (Rom 8:38.; 1Co 15:54.). But the text does not speak of surpassing, but of equality; not of love and jealousy that they surpass death and Hades, but that they are equal to it. The point of comparison in both cases is to be obtained from the predicates. עז, powerful, designates the person who, being assailed, cannot be overcome (Num 13:28), and, assailing, cannot be withstood (Jdg 14:18). Death is obviously thought of as the assailer (Jer 9:20), against which nothing can hold its ground, from which nothing can escape, to whose sceptre all must finally yield (vid., Ps 49). Love is like it in this, that it also seizes upon men with irresistible force (Böttcher: “He whom Death assails must die, whom Love assails must love”); and when she has once assailed him, she rests not till she has him wholly under her power; she kills him, as it were, in regard to everything else that is not the object of his love. קשׁה, hard (opposed to רך,   2Sa 3:39), σκληρός, designates one on whom no impression is made, who will not yield (Psa 48:4; Psa 19:4), or one whom stern fate has made inwardly stubborn and obtuse (1Sa 1:15). Here the point of comparison is inflexibility; for Sheol, thought of with שׁאל, to ask (vid., under Isa 5:14), is the God-ordained messenger of wrath, who inexorably gathers in all that are on the earth, and holds them fast when once they are swallowed up by him. So the jealousy of love wholly takes possession of the beloved object not only in arrest, but also in safe keeping; she holds her possession firmly, that it cannot be taken from her (Wisd. 2:1), and burns relentlessly and inexorably against any one who does injury to her possession (Pro 6:34 f.). But when Shulamith wishes, in the words, “set me,” etc., to be bound to the heart and to the arm of Solomon, has she in the clause assigning a reason the love in view with which she loves, or that with which she is loved? Certainly not the one to the exclusion of the other; but as certainly, first of all, the love with which she wishes to fill, and believes that she does fill, her beloved. If this is so, then with “for strong as death is love,” she gives herself up to this love on the condition that it confesses itself willing to live only for her, and to be as if dead for all others; and with “inexorable as hell is jealousy,” in such a manner that she takes shelter in the jealousy of this love against the occurrence of any fit of infidelity, since she consents therein to be wholly and completely absorbed by it.

To קנאה, which proceeds from the primary idea of a red glow, there is connected the further description of this love to the sheltering and protecting power of which she gives herself up: “its flames, רשׁפיה, are flames of fire;” its sparkling is the sparkling of fire. The verb רשף signifies, in Syr. and Arab., to creep along, to make short steps; in Heb. and Chald., to sparkle, to flame, which in Samar. is referred to impetuosity. Symmachus translates, after the Samar. (which Hitzig approves of): ἁι ὁρμαὶ αὐτοῦ ὁρμαὶ πύρινοι; the Venet., after Kimchi, ἄνθρακες, for he exchanges רשׁף with the probably non.-cogn. רצפה; others render it all with words which denote the bright glancings of fire. רשׁפּי (so here, according to the Masora; on the contrary, at Psa 76:4, רשׁפּי) are effulgurations; the pred. says that these are not only of a bright shining, but of a fiery nature, which, as they proceed from fire, so also produce fire, for they set on fire and kindle.The Phoen. Inscriptions, Citens. xxxvii., xxxviii., show a name for God, רשפי חץ, or merely רשף, which appears to correspond to Ζεὺς Κεραύνιος on the Inscriptions of Larnax (vid., Vogué’s Mélanges Archéologiques, p. 19). רשפי are thus not the arrows themselves (Grätz), but these are, as it were, lightnings from His bow (Psa 76:4).

Love, in its flashings up, is like fiery flashes of lightning; in short, it is שׁלהבתיה,Thus in the Biblia Rabbinica and P. H. with the note מלהחדא ולא מפיק. Thus by Ben-Asher, who follows the Masora. Cf. Liber Psalmorum Hebr. atque Lat. p. 155, under Psa 118:5; and Kimchi, Wörterb., under אפל and שלהב. Ben-Naphtali, on the other hand, reads as two words, שׁלהבת יהּ. [Except in this word, the recensions of Ben-Asher and Ben-Naphtali differ only “de punctis vocalibus et accentibus.” Strack’s Prolegomena, p. 28.] which is thus to be written as one word with ה raphatum, according to the Masora; but in this form of the word יה is also the name of God, and more than a meaningless superlative strengthening of the idea. As להבה is formed from the Kal להב to flame (R. לב, to lick, like להט, R. לט, to twist), so is שׁלהבת, from the Shafel שׁלהב, to cause to flame; this active stem is frequently found, especially in the Aram., and has in the Assyr. almost wholly supplanted the Afel (vid., Schrader in Deut. Morg. Zeit. xxvi. 275). שׁלהבת is thus related primarily to להבה, as inflammatio to (Ger.) Flamme; יה thus presents itself the more naturally to be interpreted as gen. subjecti. Love of a right kind is a flame not kindled and inflamed by man (Job 20:26), but by God - the divinely-influenced free inclination of two souls to each other, and at the same time, as is now further said, Sol 8:7, Sol 8:7, a situation supporting all adversities and assaults, and a pure personal relation conditioned by nothing material. It is a fire-flame which mighty waters (רבּים, great and many, as at Hab 3:15; cf. עזּים, wild, Isa 43:16) cannot extinguish, and streams cannot overflow it (cf. Psa 69:3; Psa 124:4) or sweep it away (cf. Job 14:19; Isa 28:17). Hitzig adopts the latter signification, but the figure of the fire makes the former more natural; no heaping up of adverse circumstances can extinguish true love, as many waters extinguish elemental fire; no earthly power can suppress it by the strength of its assault, as streams drench all they sweep over in their flow - the flame of Jah is inextinguishable.

Nor can this love be bought; any attempt to buy it would be scorned and counted madness. The expressions is like Pro 6:30 f., cf. Num 22:18; 1Co 13:3. Regarding הון (from הוּן, (Arab.) han, levem esse), convenience, and that by which life is made comfortable, vid., at Pro 1:13. According to the shepherd-hypothesis, here occurs the expression of the peculiar point of the story of the intercourse between Solomon and Shulamith; she scorns the offers of Solomon; her love is not to be bought, and it already belongs to another. But of offers we read nothing beyond Song Sol 1:11, where, as in the following Sol 8:12, it is manifest that Shulamith is in reality excited in love. Hitzig also remarks under Sol 1:12 : “When the speaker says the fragrance of her nard is connected with the presence of the king, she means that only then does she smell the fragrance of nard, i.e., only his presence awakens in her heart pleasant sensations or sweet feelings.” Shulamith manifestly thus speaks, also emphasizing Sol 6:12, the spontaneousness of her relation to Solomon; but Hitzig adds: “These words, Sol 1:12, are certainly spoken by a court lady.” But the Song knows only a chorus of the “Daughters of Jerusalem” - that court lady is only a phantom, by means of which Hitzig’s ingenuity seeks to prop up the shepherd-hypothesis, the weakness of which his penetration has discerned. As we understand the Song, Sol 8:7 refers to the love with which Shulamith loves, as decidedly as Sol 8:6 to the love with which she is loved. Nothing in all the world is able to separate her from loving the king; it is love to his person, not love called forth by a desire for riches which he disposes of, not even by the splendour of the position which awaited her, but free, responsive love with which she answered free love making its approach to her. The poet here represents Shulamith herself as expressing the idea of love embodied in her. That apple tree, where he awaked first love in her, is a witness of the renewal of their mutual covenant of love; and it is significant that only here, just directly here, where the idea of the whole is expressed more fully, and in a richer manner than at Sol 7:7, is God denoted by His name, and that by His name as revealed in the history of redemption. Hitzig, Ewald, Olshausen, Böttcher, expand this concluding word, for the sake of rhythmic symmetry, to שׁלהבתיה שׁלהבת יהּ its flames are flames of Jah; but a similar conclusion is found at Psa 24:6; Psa 48:7, and elsewhere. “I would almost close the book,” says Herder in his Lied der Lieder (Song of Songs), 1778, “with this divine seal. It is even as good as closed, for what follows appears only as an appended echo.” Daniel Sanders (1845) closes it with Sol 8:7, places Sol 8:12 after Sol 1:6, and cuts off Sol 1:8-11, Sol 1:13, Sol 1:14, as not original. Anthologists, like Döpke and Magnus, who treat the Song as the Fragmentists do the Pentateuch, find here their confused medley sanctioned. Umbreit also, 1820, although as for the rest recognising the Song as a compact whole, explains Sol 8:8-14 as a fragment, not belonging to the work itself. Hoelemann, however, in his Krone des Hohenliedes Crown of the Song, 1856 (thus he names the “concluding Act,” Sol 8:5-14), believes that there is here represented, not only in Sol 8:6, Sol 8:7, but further also in Sol 8:8-12, the essence of true love - what it is, and how it is won; and then in Sol 8:13 f. he hears the Song come to an end in pure idyllic tones.

We see in Sol 8:8 ff. the continuation of the love story practically idealized and set forth in dramatic figures. There is no inner necessity for this continuance. It shapes itself after that which has happened; and although in all history divine reason and moral ideas realize themselves, yet the material by means of which this is done consists of accidental circumstances and free actions passing thereby into reciprocal action. But Sol 8:8 ff. is the actual continuance of the story on to the completed conclusion, not a mere appendix, which might be wanting without anything being thereby missed. For after the poet has set before us the loving pair as they wander arm in arm through the green pasture-land between Jezreel and Sunem till they reach the environs of the parental home, which reminds them of the commencement of their love relations, he cannot represent them as there turning back, but must present to us still a glimpse of what transpired on the occasion of their visit there. After that first Act of the concluding scene, there is yet wanting a second, to which the first points.

Sol 8:8

The locality of this scene is Shulamith’s parental home. It is she herself who speaks in these words: 8 We have a sister, a little one,    And she has no breasts:    What shall we do with our sister    In the day when she will be sued for?

Between Sol 8:8 and Sol 8:7 is a blank. The figure of the wanderers is followed by the figure of the visitors. But who speaks here? The interchange of the scene permits that Shulamith conclude the one scene and begin the other, as in the first Act; or also that at the same time with the change of scene there is an interchange of persons, as e.g., in the third Act. But if Shulamith speaks, all her words are not by any means included in what is said from Sol 8:8 to Sol 8:10. Since, without doubt, she also speaks in Sol 8:11 f., this whole second figure consists of Shulamith’s words, as does also the second of the second Acts; Sol 3:1-5. But there Shulamith’s address presents itself as the narrative of an experience, and the narrative dramatically framed in itself is thoroughly penetrated by the I of the speaker; but here, as e.g., Ewald, Heiligst., and Böttch. explain, she would begin with a dialogue with her brothers referable to herself, one that had formerly taken place-that little sister, Ewald remarks under Sol 8:10, stands here now grown up she took notice of that severe word formerly spoken by her brothers, and can now joyfully before all exclaim, taking up the same flowery language, that she is a wall, etc. But that a monologue should begin with a dialogue without any introduction, is an impossibility; in this case the poet ought to have left the expression, “of old my mother’s sons said,” to be supplemented by the reader or hearer. It is true, at Sol 3:2; Sol 5:3, we have a former address introduced without any formal indication of the fact; but it is the address of the narrator herself. With Sol 8:8 there will thus begin a colloquy arising out of present circumstances. That in this conversation Sol 8:8 appertains to the brothers, is evident. This harsh entweder oder (aut ... aut) is not appropriate as coming from Shulamith’s mouth; it is her brothers alone, as Hoelemann rightly remarks, who utter these words, as might have been expected from them in view of Sol 1:6. But does Sol 8:8 belong also to them? There may be two of them, says Hitzig, and the one may in Sol 8:9 reply to the question of the other in Sol 8:8; Shulamith, who has heard their conversation, suddenly interposes with Sol 8:10. But the transition from the first to the second scene is more easily explained if Shulamith proposes the question of Sol 8:8 for consideration. This is not set aside by Hitzig’s questions: “Has she to determine in regard to her sister? and has she now for the first time come to do nothing in haste?” For (1) the dramatic figures of the Song follow each other chronologically, but not without blanks; and the poet does not at all require us to regard Sol 8:8 as Shulamith’s first words after her entrance into her parental home; (2) but it is altogether seeming for Shulamith, who has now become independent, and who has been raised so high, to throw out this question of loving care for her sister. Besides, from the fact that with Sol 8:8 there commences the representation of a present occurrence, it is proved that the sister here spoken of is not Shulamith herself. If it were Shulamith herself, the words of Sol 8:8, Sol 8:9 would look back to what had previously taken place, which, as we have shown, is impossible. Or does Sol 6:9 require that we should think of Shulamith as having no sister? Certainly not, for so understood, these words would be purposeless. The “only one,” then, does not mean the only one numerically, but, as at Pro 4:3, it is emphatic (Hitzig); she is called by Solomon the “only one” of her mother in this sense, that she had not one her equal.

Thus it is Shulamith who here speaks, and she is not the “sister” referred to. The words, “we have a sister ... ,” spoken in the family circle, whether regarded as uttered by Shulamith or not, have something strange in them, for one member of a family does not need thus to speak to another. We expect: With regard to our sister, who is as yet little and not of full age, the question arises, What will be done when she has grown to maturity to guard her innocence? Thus the expression would have stood, but the poet separates it into little symmetrical sentences; for poetry present facts in a different style from prose. Hoelem. has on this remarked that the words are not to be translated: we have a little sister, which the order of the words וגו אחות ק would presuppose, Gen 40:20; cf. 2Sa 4:4; 2Sa 12:2 f.; Isa 26:1; Isa 33:21. “Little” is not immediately connected with “sister,” but follows it as an apposition; and this appositional description lays the ground for the question: We may be now without concern; but when she is grown up and will be courted, what then? “Little” refers to age, as at 2Ki 5:2; cf. Gen 44:20. The description of the child in the words, “she has no breasts,” has neither in itself nor particularly for Oriental feeling anything indecent in it (cf. mammae sororiarunt, Eze 16:7). The ל following מה־נּעשׂה is here not thus purely the dat. commodi, as e.g., Isa 64:3 (to act for some one), but indiff. dat. (what shall we do for her?); but מה is, according to the connection, as at Gen 27:37; 1Sa 10:2; Isa 5:4, equivalent to: What conducing to her advantage? Instead of בּיּום, the form בּיום lay syntactically nearer (cf. Exo 6:28); the art. in בּיּום is, as at Ecc 12:3, understood demonst.: that day when she will be spoken for, i.e., will attract the attention of a suitor. בּ after דּבּר may have manifold significations (vid., under Psa 87:3); thus the general signification of “concerning,” 1Sa 19:3, is modified in the sense of courting a wife, 1Sa 25:39. The brothers now take speech in hand, and answer Shulamith’s question as to what will have to be done for the future safety of their little sister when the time comes that she shall be sought for:

Sol 8:9 9 If she be a wall,    We will build upon her a pinnacle of silver;    And if she be a door,    We will block her up with a board of cedar-wood.

The brothers are the nearest guardians and counsellors of the sister, and, particularly in the matter of marriage, have the precedence even of the father and mother, Gen 24:50, Gen 24:55; Gen 34:6-8.. They suppose two cases which stand in contrast to each other, and announce their purpose with reference to each case. Hoelem. here affects a synonymous instead of the antithetic parallelism; for he maintains that אם (ואם) ... אם nowhere denotes a contrast, but, like sive ... sive, essential indifference. But examples such as Deu 18:3 (sive bovem, sive ovem) are not applicable here; for this correl. אם ... אם, denoting essential equality, never begins the antecedents of two principal sentences, but always stands in the component parts of one principal sentence. Wherever ואם ... אם commences two parallel conditional clauses, the parallelism is always, according to the contents of these clauses, either synonymous, Gen 31:50; Amo 9:2-4; Ecc 11:3 (where the first ואם signifies ac si, and the second sive), or antithetic, Num 16:29 f.; Job 36:11 f.; Isa 1:19 f. The contrast between חומה (from חמה, Arab. ḥaman, Modern Syr. chamo, to preserve, protect) and דּלת (from דּלל, to hang loose, of doors, Pro 26:14, which move hither and thither on their hinges) is obvious. A wall stands firm and withstands every assault if it serves its purpose (which is here presupposed, where it is used as a figure of firmness of character). A door, on the contrary, is moveable; and though it be for the present closed (דלת is intentionally used, and not פּתח, vid., Gen 19:6), yet it is so formed that it can be opened again. A maiden inaccessible to seduction is like a wall, and one accessible to it is like a door. In the apodosis, Sol 8:9, the lxx correctly renders טירת by ἐπάλξεις; Jerome, by propugnacula. But it is not necessary to read טירת. The verb טור, cogn. דור, signifies to surround, whence tirah (= Arab. duâr), a round encampment, Gen 25:16, and, generally, a habitation, Psa 69:25; and then also, to range together, whence תּוּר, a rank, row (cf. Arab. thur and daur, which, in the manifoldness of their meanings, are parallel with the French tour), or also tirah, which, Eze 46:23 (vid., Keil), denotes the row or layer of masonry, - in the passage before us, a row of battlements (Ew.), or a crown of the wall (Hitz.), i.e., battlements as a wreath on the summit of a wall. Is she a wall, - i.e., does she firmly and successfully withstand all immoral approaches? - then they will adorn this wall with silver pinnacles (cf. Isa 54:12), i.e., will bestow upon her the high honour which is due to her maidenly purity and firmness; silver is the symbol of holiness, as gold is the symbol of nobility. In the apodosis 9b, על צוּר is not otherwise meant than when used in a military sense of enclosing by means of besieging, but, like Isa 29:3, with the obj.-accus., of that which is pressed against that which is to be excluded; צור here means, forcibly to press against, as סגר, Gen 2:21, to unite by closing up. ארז לוּח is a board or plank (cf. Eze 27:5, of the double planks of a ship’s side) of cedar wood (cf. Zep 2:14, ארזה, cedar wainscot). Cedar wood comes here into view not on account of the beautiful polish which it takes on, but merely because of its hardness and durability. Is she a door, i.e., accessible to seduction? They will enclose this door around with a cedar plank, i.e., watch her in such a manner that no seducer or lover will be able to approach her. By this morally stern but faithful answer, Shulamith is carried back to the period of her own maidenhood, when her brothers, with good intention, dealt severely with her. Looking back to this time, she could joyfully confess:

Sol 8:10 10 I was a wall,      And my breasts like towers;      Then I became in his eyes      Like one who findeth peace.

In the language of prose, the statement would be: Your conduct is good and wise, as my own example shows; of me also ye thus faithfully took care; and that I met this your solicitude with strenuous self-preservation, has become, to my joy and yours, the happiness of my life. That in this connection not אני חומה, but חומה אני has to be used, is clear: she compares herself with her sister, and the praise she takes to herself she takes to the honour of her brothers. The comparison of her breasts to towers is suggested by the comparison of her person to a wall; Kleuker rightly remarks that here the comparison is not of thing with thing, but of relation with relation: the breasts were those of her person, as the towers were of the wall, which, by virtue of the power of defence which they conceal within themselves, never permit the enemy, whose attention they attract, to approach them. The two substantival clauses, murus et ubera mea instar turrium, have not naturally a retrospective signification, as they would in a historical connection (vid., under Gen 2:10); but they become retrospective by the following “then I became,” like Deu 26:5, by the historical tense following, where, however, it is to be remarked that the expression, having in itself no relation to time, which is incapable of being expressed in German, mentions the past not in a way that excludes the present, but as including it. She was a wall, and her breasts like the towers, i.e., all seductions rebounded from her, and ventured not near her awe-inspiring attractions; then (אז, temporal, but at the same time consequent; thereupon, and for this reason, as at Psa 40:8; Jer 22:15, etc.) she became in his (Solomon’s) eyes as one who findeth peace. According to the shepherd-hypothesis, she says here: he deemed it good to forbear any further attempts, and to let me remain in peace (Ewald, Hitz., and others). But how is that possible? מצא שׁלום בעיני is a variation of the frequently occurring מצא חן בעיני, which is used especially of a woman gaining the affections of a man, Est 2:17; Deu 24:1; Jer 31:2 f.; and the expression here used, “thus I was in his eyes as one who findeth peace” is only the more circumstantial expression for, “then I found (אז מצאתי) in his eyes peace,” which doubtless means more than: I brought it to this, that he left me further unmolested; שׁלום in this case, as syn. of חן, means inward agreement, confidence, friendship, as at Psa 41:10; there it means, as in the salutation of peace and in a hundred other cases, a positive good. And why should she use שׁלום instead of חן, but that she might form a play upon the name which she immediately, Sol 8:11, thereafter utters, שׁלמה, which signifies, 1Ch 22:9, “The man of peace.” That Shulamith had found shalom (peace) with Shelomoh (Solomon), cannot be intended to mean that uninjured she escaped from him, but that she had entered into a relation to him which seemed to her a state of blessed peace. The delicate description, “in his eyes,” is designed to indicate that she appeared to him in the time of her youthful discipline as one finding peace. The כ is כ veritatis, i.e., the comparison of the fact with its idea, Isa 29:2, or of the individual with the general and common, Isa 13:6; Eze 26:10; Zec 14:3. Here the meaning is, that Shulamith appeared to him corresponding to the idea of one finding peace, and thus as worthy to find peace with him. One “finding peace” is one who gains the heart of a man, so that he enters into a relation of esteem and affection for her. This generalization of the idea also opposes the notion of a history of seduction. מוחאת is from the ground-form matsiat, the parallel form to מוצאת,   2Sa 18:22. Solomon has won her, not by persuasion or violence; but because she could be no other man’s, he entered with her into the marriage covenant of peace (cf. Pro 2:17 with Isa 54:10).

Sol 8:11-12

It now lies near, at least rather so than remote, that Shulamith, thinking of her brothers, presents her request before her royal husband: 11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon;      He committed the vineyard to the keepers,      That each should bring for its fruit      A thousand in silv. 12 I myself disposed of my own vineyard:      The thousand is thine, Solomon,      And two hundred for the keepers of its fruit!

The words לשׁ היה כּרם are to be translated after כרמוגו,   1Ki 21:1, and לידידי ... , Isa 5:1, “Solomon had a vineyard” (cf. 1Sa 9:2; 2Sa 6:23; 2Sa 12:2; 2Ki 1:17; 1Ch 23:17; 1Ch 26:10), not “Solomon has a vineyard,” which would have required the words לשׁ כרם, with the omission of היה. I formerly explained, as also Böttcher: a vineyard became his, thus at present is his possession; and thus explaining, one could suppose that it fell to him, on his taking possession of his government, as a component part of his domain; but although in itself לו היה can mean, “this or that has become one’s own” (e.g., Lev 21:3), as well as “it became his own,” yet here the historical sense is necessarily connected by היה with the נתן foll.: Solomon has had ... , he has given; and since Solomon, after possession the vineyard, would probably also preserve it, Hitzig draws from this the conclusion, that the poet thereby betrays the fact that he lived after the time of Solomon. But these are certainly words which he puts into Shulamith’s mouth, and he cannot at least have forgotten that the heroine of his drama is a contemporary of Solomon; and supposing that he had forgotten this for a moment, he must have at least once read over what he had written, and could not have been so blind as to have allowed this היה which had escaped him to stand. We must thus assume that he did not in reality retain the vineyard, which, as Hitzig supposes, if he possessed it, he also “probably” retained, whether he gave it away or exchanged it, or sold it, we know not; but the poet might suppose that Shulamith knew it, since it refers to a piece of land lying not far from her home. For המון בּעל, lxx Βεελαμών, is certainly the same as that mentioned in Judith 8:3, according to which Judith’s husband died from sunstroke in Bethulia, and was buried beside his fathers “between Dothaim and Balamoon”This is certainly not the Baal-meon (now Maïn) lying half an hour to the south of Heshbon; there is also, however, a Meon (now Maïn) on this the west side of Jordan, Nabal’s Maon, near to Carmel. Vid., art. “Maon,” by Kleuker in Schenkel'sBibl. Lex. (probably, as the sound of the word denotes, Belmen, or, more accurately, Belmaïn, as it is also called in Judith 4:4, with which Kleuker in Schenkel’s Bibl. Lex., de Bruyn in his Karte, and others, interchange it; and חמּון, Jos 19:28, lying in the tribe of Asher). This Balamoon lay not far from Dothan, and thus not far from Esdräelon; for Dothan lay (cf. Judith 3:10) south of the plain of Jezreel, where it has been discovered, under the name of Tell Dotan, in the midst of a smaller plain which lies embosomed in the hills of the south.Vid., Robinson’s Physical Geogr. of the Holy Land, p. 113; Morrison’s Recovery of Jerusalem (1871), p. 463, etc.

The ancients, since Aquila, Symm., Targ., Syr., and Jerome, make the name of the place Baal-hamon subservient to their allegorizing interpretation, but only by the aid of soap-bubble-like fancies; e.g., Hengst. makes Baal-hamon designate the world; nothrim [keepers], the nations; the 1000 pieces in silver, the duties comprehended in the ten commandments. Hamon is there understood of a large, noisy crowd. The place may, indeed, have its name from the multitude of its inhabitants, or from an annual market held there, or otherwise from revelry and riot; for, according to Hitzig,Cf. also Schwarz' Das heilige Land, p. 37. there is no ground for co-ordinating it with names such as Baal-gad and Baal-zephon, in which Baal is the general, and what follows the special name of God. Amon, the Sun-God, specially worshipped in Egyptian Thebes, has the bibl. name אמון, with which, after the sound of the word, accords the name of a place lying, according to Jer. Demaï ii. 1, in the region of Tyrus, but no אמון. The reference to the Egypt. Amon Ra, which would direct rather to Baalbec, the Coele-Syrian Heliupolis, is improbable; because the poet would certainly not have introduced into his poem the name of the place where the vineyard lay, if this name did not call forth an idea corresponding to the connection. The Shulamitess, now become Solomon’s, in order to support the request she makes to the king, relates an incident of no historical value in itself of the near-lying Sunem (Sulem), situated not far from Baal-hamon to the north, on the farther side of the plain of Jezreel. She belongs to a family whose inheritance consisted in vineyards, and she herself had acted in the capacity of the keeper of a vineyard, Sol 1:6, - so much the less therefore is it to be wondered at that she takes an interest in the vineyard of Baal-hamon, which Solomon had let out to keepers on the condition that they should pay to him for its fruit-harvest the sum of 1000 shekels of silver (shekel is, according to Ges. §120. 4, Anm. 2, to be supplied). יבא, since we have interpreted היה retrospectively, might also indeed be rendered imperfect. as equivalent to afferebat, or, according to Ewald, §136 c, afferre solebat; but since נתן = ἐξέδοτο, Mat 21:33, denotes a gift laying the recipients under an obligation, יבא is used in the sense of יבא (אשׁר) למען; however, למען is not to be supplied (Symm. ἐνέγκη), but יבא in itself signifies afferre debebat (he ought to bring), like יע, Dan 1:5, they should stand (wait upon), Ewald, §136 g. Certainly נארים does not mean tenants, but watchers, - the post-bibl. language has חכר, to lease, קבּל, to take on lease, chikuwr, rent, e.g., Mezîa ix. 2, - but the subject here is a locatio conductio; for the vine-plants of that region are entrusted to the “keepers” for a rent, which they have to pay, not in fruits but in money, as the equivalent of a share of the produce (the ב in בּפר is the ב pretii). Isa 7:23 is usually compared; but there the money value of a particularly valuable portion of a vineyard, consisting of 1000 vines, is given at “1000 silverlings” (1 shekel); while, on the other hand, the 1000 shekels here are the rent for a portion of a vineyard, the extent of which is not mentioned. But that passage in Isaiah contains something explanatory of the one before us, inasmuch as we see from it that a vineyard was divided into portions of a definite number of vines in each. Such a division into mekomoth is also here supposed. For if each “keeper” to whom the vineyard was entrusted had to count 1000 shekels for its produce, then the vineyard was at the same time committed to several keepers, and thus was divided into small sections (Hitzig). It is self-evident that the gain of the produce that remained over after paying the rent fell to the “keepers;” but since the produce varied, and also the price of wine, this gain was not the same every year, and only in general are we to suppose from Sol 8:12, that it yielded on an average about 20 per cent. For the vineyard which Shulamith means in Sol 8:12 is altogether different from that of Baal-hamon. It is of herself she says, Sol 1:6, that as the keeper of a vineyard, exposed to the heat of the day, she was not in a position to take care of her own vineyard. This her own vineyard is not her beloved (Hoelem.), which not only does not harmonize with Sol 1:6 (for she there looks back to the time prior to her elevation), but her own person, as comprehending everything pleasant and lovely which constitutes her personality (4:12-5:1), as îøê is the sum-total of the vines which together form a vineyard.

Of this figurative vineyard she says: לפני שׁלּי כּרמי. This must mean, according to Hitzig, Hoelem., and others, that it was under her protection; but although the idea of affectionate care may, in certain circumstances, be connected with לפני, Gen 17:18; Pro 4:3, yet the phrase: this or that is לפני, wherever it has not merely a local or temporal, but an ethical signification, can mean nothing else than: it stands under my direction, Gen 13:9; Gen 20:15; Gen 47:6; 2Ch 14:6; Gen 24:51; 1Sa 16:16. Rightly Heiligst., after Ewald: in potestate mea est. Shulamith also has a vineyard, which she is as free to dispose of as Solomon of his at Baal-hamon. It is the totality of her personal and mental endowments. This vineyard has been given over with free and joyful cordiality into Solomon’s possession. This vineyard also has keepers (one here sees with what intention the poet has chosen in Sol 8:11 just that word נארים) - to whom Shulamith herself and to whom Solomon also owes it that as a chaste and virtuous maiden she became his possession. These are her brothers, the true keepers and protectors of her innocence. Must these be unrewarded? The full thousands, she says, turning to the king, which like the annual produce of the vineyard of Baal-hamon will thus also be the fruit of my own personal worth, shall belong to none else, O Solomon, than to thee, and two hundred to the keepers of its fruit! If the keepers in Baal-hamon do not unrewarded watch the vineyard, so the king owes thanks to those who so faithfully guarded his Shulamith. The poetry would be reduced to prose if there were found in Shulamith’s words a hint that the king should reward her brothers with a gratification of 200 shekels. She makes the case of the vineyard in Baal-hamon a parable of her relation to Solomon on the one hand, and of her relation to her brothers on the other. From מאתים, one may conclude that there were two brothers, thus that the rendering of thanks is thought of as מעשׂר (a tenth part); but so that the 200 are meant not as a tax on the thousand, but as a reward for the faithful rendering up of the thousand.

Sol 8:13

The king who seems to this point to have silently looked on in inmost sympathy, now, on being addressed by Shulamith, takes speech in hand; he does not expressly refer to her request, but one perceives from his words that he heard it with pleasure. He expresses to her the wish that she would gratify the companions of her youth who were assembled around her, as well as himself, with a song, such as in former times she was wont to sing in these mountains and valleys. 13 O thou (who art) at home in the gardens,      Companions are listening for thy voice;      Let me hear!

We observe that in the rural paradise with which she is surrounded, she finds herself in her element. It is a primary feature of her character which herein comes to view: her longing after quietness and peace, her love for collectedness of mind and for contemplation; her delight in thoughts of the Creator suggested by the vegetable world, and particularly by the manifold soft beauty of flowers; she is again once more in the gardens of her home, but the address, “O thou at home in the gardens!” denotes that wherever she is, these gardens are her home as a fundamental feature of her nature. The חברים are not Solomon’s companions, for she has come hither with Solomon alone, leaning on his arm. Also it is indicated in the expression: “are listening for thy voice,” that they are such as have not for a long time heard the dear voice which was wont to cheer their hearts. The חבר are the companions of the former shepherdess and keeper of a vineyard, Sol 1:6 f., the playmates of her youth, the friends of her home. With a fine tact the poet does not represent Solomon as saying חבריך nor חברינוּ: the former would be contrary to the closeness of his relation to Shulamith, the latter contrary to the dignity of the king. By חברים there is neither expressed a one-sided reference, nor is a double-sided excluded. That “for thy voice” refers not to her voice as speaking, but as the old good friends wish, as singing, is evident from השׁמיעני in connection with Sol 2:14, where also קולך is to be supplied, and the voice of song is meant. She complies with the request, and thus begins:

Sol 8:14 14 Flee, my beloved,      And be thou like a gazelle,      Or a young one of the harts,      Upon spicy mountains.

Hitzig supposes that with these words of refusal she bids him away from her, without, however, as “my beloved” shows, meaning them in a bad sense. They would thus, as Renan says, be bantering coquetry. If it is Solomon who makes the request, and thus also he who is addressed here, not the imaginary shepherd violently introduced into this closing scene in spite of the words “(the thousand) is thine, Solomon” (Sol 8:12), then Shulamith’s ignoring of his request is scornful, for it would be as unseemly if she sang of her own accord to please her friends, as it would be wilful if she kept silent when requested by her royal husband. So far the Spanish author, Soto Major, is right (1599): jussa et rogata id non debuit nec potuit recusare. Thus with “flee” she begins a song which she sings, as at Sol 2:15 she commences one, in response to a similar request, with “catch us.” Hoelem. finds in her present happiness, which fills her more than ever, the thought here expressed that her beloved, if he again went from her for a moment, would yet very speedily return to his longing, waiting bride.Similarly Godet: The earth during the present time belongs to the earthly power; only at the end shall the bridegroom fetch the bride, and appear as the heavenly Solomon to thrust out the false and fleshly, and to celebrate the heavenly marriage festival.

But apart from the circumstance that Shulamith is no longer a bride, but is married, and that the wedding festival is long past, there is not a syllable of that thought in the text; the words must at least have been אלי בּרח, if ברח signified generally to hasten hither, and not to hasten forth. Thus, at least as little as סב, Sol 2:17, without אלי, signifies “turn thyself hither,” can this בּרח mean “flee hither.” The words of the song thus invite Solomon to disport himself, i.e., give way to frolicsome and aimless mirth on these spicy mountains. As sov lecha is enlarged to sov demeh-lecha, Sol 2:17, for the sake of the added figures (vid., under Sol 2:9), so here berahh-lecha (Gen 27:43) is enlarged to berahh udemeh (udǎmeh) lecha. That “mountains of spices” occurs here instead of “cleft mountains,” Sol 2:17, has its reason, as has already been there remarked, and as Hitzig, Hoelem., and others have discovered, in the aim of the poet to conclude the pleasant song of love that has reached perfection and refinement with an absolutely pleasant word.

But with what intention does he call on Shulamith to sing to her beloved this בּרח, which obviously has here not the meaning of escaping away (according to the fundamental meaning, transversum currere), but only, as where it is used of fleeting time, Job 9:25; Job 14:2, the sense of hastening? One might suppose that she whom he has addressed as at home in gardens replied to his request with the invitation to hasten forth among the mountains, - an exercise which gives pleasure to a man. But (1) Solomon, according to Sol 2:16; Sol 6:2 f., is also fond of gardens and flowers; and (2) if he took pleasure in ascending mountains, it doubled his joy, according to Sol 4:8, to share this joy with Shulamith; and (3) we ask, would this closing scene, and along with it the entire series of dramatic pictures, find a satisfactory conclusion, if either Solomon remained and gave no response to Shulamith’s call, or if he, as directed, disappeared alone, and left Shulamith by herself among the men who surrounded her? Neither of these two things can have been intended by the poet, who shows himself elsewhere a master in the art of composition. In Sol 2:17 the matter lies otherwise. There the love-relation is as yet in progress, and the abandonment of love to uninterrupted fellowship places a limit to itself. Now, however, Shulamith is married, and the summons is unlimited. It reconciles itself neither with the strength of her love nor with the tenderness of the relation, that she should with so cheerful a spirit give occasion to her husband to leave her alone for an indefinite time. We will thus have to suppose that, when Shulamith sings the song, “Flee, my beloved,” she goes forth leaning on Solomon’s arm out into the country, or that she presumes that he will not make this flight into the mountains of her native home without her. With this song breaking forth in the joy of love and of life, the poet represents the loving couple as disappearing over the flowery hills, and at the same time the sweet charm of the Song of Songs, leaping gazelle-like from one fragrant scene to another, vanishes away.

The Love of the Church to Christ.

1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. 2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. 3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. 4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

Here, I. The spouse wishes for a constant intimacy and freedom with the Lord Jesus. She was already betrothed to him, but, the nuptials being yet not solemnized and published (the bride, the Lamb's wife, will not be completely ready till his second coming), she was obliged to be shy and to keep at some distance; she therefore wishes she may be taken for his sister, he having called her so (ch. v. 1), and that she might have the same chaste and innocent familiarity with him that a sister has with a brother, an own brother, that sucked the breasts of the same mother with her, who would therefore be exceedingly tender of her, as Joseph was of his brother Benjamin. Some make this to be the prayer of the Old-Testament saints for the hastening of Christ's incarnation, that the church might be the better acquainted with him, when, forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he should also himself likewise take part of the same, and not be ashamed to call them brethren. It is rather the wish of all believers for a more intimate communion with him, that they might receive the Spirit of sanctification, and so Christ must be as their brother, that is, that they might be as his brethren, which then they are when by grace they are made partakers of a divine nature, and he that sanctifies, and those that are sanctified, are both of one, Heb. ii. 11, &c. It becomes brethren and sisters, the children of the same parents, that have been nursed at the same breast, to be very loving to and tender of one another; such a love the spouse desires might be between her and her beloved, that she might call him brother. 2. She promises herself then the satisfaction of making a more open profession of her relation to him than at present she could make: "When I should find thee without, any where, even before company, I would kiss thee, as a sister does her own brother, especially her little brother that is now sucking the breasts of her mother" (for so some understand it); "I would use all the decent freedom with thee that could be, and should not be despised for it, as doing any thing unbecoming the modesty of my sex." The church, since Christ's incarnation, can better own him than she could before, when she would have been laughed at for being so much in love with one that was not yet born. Christ has become as our brother; wherever we find him, therefore, let us be ready to own our relation to him and affection for him, and not fear being despised for it, nor regard that any more than David did when he danced before the ark. If this be to be vile, I will be yet more vile. Nay, let us hope that we shall not be despised so much as some imagine. Of the maid-servants of whom thou hast spoken I shall be had in honour. Wherever we find the image of Christ, though it be without, among those that do not follow him with us, we must love it, and testify that love, and we shall not be despised for it, but catholic charity will gain us respect. 3. She promises to improve the opportunity she should then have for cultivating an acquaintance with him (v. 2): "I would lead thee, as my brother, by the arm, and hang upon thee; I would show thee all the house of my precious things, would bring thee into my mother's house, into the church, into the solemn assemblies (ch. iii. 4), into my closet" (for there the saints have most familiar communion with Christ), "and there thou wouldst instruct me" (so some read it), as brethren inform their sisters of what they desire to be instructed in. Those that know Christ shall be taught of him; and therefore we should desire communion with Christ that we may receive instruction from him. He has come that he might give us an understanding. Or, "My mother would instruct me when I have thee with me." It is the presence of Christ in and with his church that makes the word and ordinances instructive to her children, who shall all be taught of God. 4. She promises him to bid him welcome to the best she had; she would cause him to drink of her spiced wine and the juice of her pomegranate, and bid him welcome to it, wishing it better for his sake. The exercise of grace and the performance of duty are spiced wine to the Lord Jesus, very acceptable to him, as expressive of a grateful sense of his favours. Those that are pleased with Christ must study to be pleasing to him; and they will not find him hard to be pleased. He reckons hearty welcome his best entertainment; and, if he have that, he will bring his entertainment along with him. 5. She doubts not but to experience his tender care of her and affection to her (v. 3), that she should be supported by his power and kept from fainting in the hardest services and sufferings (His left hand shall be under my head) and that she should be comforted with his love—His right hand should embrace me. Thus Christ laid his right hand upon John when he was ready to die away, Rev. i. 17. See also Dan. x. 10, 18. It may be read as it is ch. ii. 6, His left hand is under my head (for the words are the same in the original) and so it expresses an immediate answer to her prayer; she was answered with strength in her soul, Ps. cxxxviii. 3. While we are following hard after Christ his right hand sustains us, Ps. lxiii. 8. Underneath are the everlasting arms. 6. She charges those about her to take heed of doing any thing to interrupt the pleasing communion she now had with her beloved (v. 4), as she had done before, when he thus strengthened and comforted her with his presence (ch. ii. 7): Let me charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, and reason with you, Why should you stir up, and why should you awake, my love, until he will? The church, our common mother, charges all her children that they never do any thing to provoke Christ to withdraw, which we are very prone to do. Why should you put such an affront upon him? Why should you be such enemies to yourselves? We should thus reason with ourselves when we are tempted to do that which will grieve the Spirit. "What! Am I weary of Christ's presence, that I affront him and provoke him to depart from me? Why should I do that which he will take so unkindly and which I shall certainly repent of?"

The Church's Dependence on Christ; The Love of the Church to Christ.

5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee. 6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

Here, I. The spouse is much admired by those about her. It comes in in a parenthesis, but in it gospel-grace lies as plain, and as much above ground, as any where in this mystical song: Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Some make these the words of the bridegroom, expressing himself well pleased with her reliance on him and resignation of herself to his guidance. They are rather the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom she spoke (v. 4); they see her, and bless her. The angels in heaven, and all her friends on earth, are the joyful spectators of her bliss. The Jewish church came up from the wilderness supported by the divine power and favour, Deut. xxxii. 10, 11. The Christian church was raised up from a low and desolate condition by the grace of Christ relied on, Gal. iv. 27. Particular believers are amiable, nay, admirable, and divine grace is to be admired in them, when by the power of that grace they are brought up from the wilderness, leaning with a holy confidence and complacency upon Jesus Christ their beloved. This bespeaks the beauty of a soul, and the wonders of divine grace, 1. In the conversion of sinners. A sinful state is a wilderness, remote from communion with God, barren and dry, and in which there is no true comfort; it is a wandering wanting state. Out of this wilderness we are concerned to come up, by true repentance, in the strength of the grace of Christ, supported by our beloved and carried in his arms. 2. In the consolation of saints. A soul convinced of sin, and truly humbled for it, is in a wilderness, quite at a loss; and there is no coming out of this wilderness but leaning on Christ as our beloved, by faith, and not leaning to our own understanding, nor trusting to any righteousness or strength of our own as sufficient for us, but going forth, and going on, in the strength of the Lord God, and making mention of his righteousness, even his only, who is the Lord our righteousness. 3. In the salvation of those that belong to Christ. We must go up from the wilderness of this world having our conversation in heaven; and, at death, we must remove thither, leaning upon Christ, must live and die by faith in him. To me to live is Christ, and it is he that is gain in death.

II. She addresses herself to her beloved.

1. She puts him in mind of the former experience which she and others had had of comfort and success in applying to him. (1.) For her own part: "I raised thee up under the apple tree, that is, I have many a time wrestled with thee by prayer and have prevailed. When I was alone in the acts of devotion, retired in the orchard, under the apple-tree" (which Christ himself was compared to, ch. ii. 3), as Nathanael under the fig-tree (John i. 48), "meditating and praying, then I raised thee up, to help me and comfort me," as the disciples raised him up in the storm, saying, Master, carest thou not that we perish? (Mark iv. 38), and the church (Ps. xliv. 23), Awake, why sleepest thou? Note, The experience we have had of Christ's readiness to yield to the importunities of our faith and prayer should encourage us to continue instant in our addresses to him, to strive more earnestly, and not to faint. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, Ps. xxxiv. 4. (2.) Others also had like experience of comfort in Christ, as it follows there (Ps. xxxiv. 5), They looked unto him, as well as I, and were lightened. There thy mother brought thee forth, the universal church, or believing souls, in whom Christ was formed, Gal. iv. 15. They were in pain for the comfort of an interest in thee, and travailed in pain with great sorrow (so the word here signifies); but they brought thee forth; the pangs did not continue always; those that had travailed in convictions at last brought forth in consolations, and the pain was forgotten for joy of the Saviour's birth. By this very similitude our Saviour illustrates the joy which his disciples would have in his return to them, after a mournful separation for a time, John xvi. 21, 22. After the bitter pangs of repentance many a one has had the blessed birth of comfort; why then may not I?

2. She begs of him that her union with him might be confirmed, and her communion with him continued and made more intimate (v. 6): Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm. (1.) "Let me have a place in thy heart, an interest in thy love." This is that which all those desire above any thing that know how much their happiness is bound up in the love of Christ. (2.) "Let me never lose the room I have in thy heart; let thy love to me be ensured, as that deed which is sealed up not to be robbed. Let nothing ever prevail either to separate me from thy love, or, by suspending the communications of it, to deprive me of the comfortable sense of it." (3.) "Let me be always near and dear to thee, as the signet on thy right hand, not to be parted with (Jer. xxii. 24), engraven upon the palms of thy hands (Isa. xlix. 14), be loved with a peculiar love." (4.) "Be thou my high priest; let my name be written on thy breast-plate, nearer thy heart, as the names of all the tribes were engraven like the engravings of a signet in twelve precious stones on the breast-plate of Aaron, and also on two precious stones on the two shoulders or arms of the ephod," Exod. xxviii. 11, 12, 21. (5.) "Let thy power be engaged for me, as an evidence of thy love to me; let me be not only a seal upon thy heart, but a seal upon thy arm; let me be ever borne up in thy arms, and know it to my comfort." Some make these to be the words of Christ to his spouse, commanding her to be ever mindful of him and of his love to her; however, if we desire and expect that Christ should set us as a seal on his heart, surely we cannot do less than set him as a seal on ours.

3. To enforce this petition, she pleads the power of love, of her love to him, which constrained her to be thus pressing for the tokens of his love to her.

(1.) Love is a violent vigorous passion. [1.] It is strong as death. The pains of a disappointed lover are like the pains of death; nay, the pains of death are slighted, and made nothing of, in pursuit of the beloved object. Christ's love to us was strong as death, for it broke through death itself. He loved us, and gave himself for us. The love of true believers to Christ is strong as death, for it makes them dead to every thing else; it even parts between soul and body, while the soul, upon the wings of devout affections, soars upward to heaven, an even forgets that it is yet clothed and clogged with flesh. Paul, in a rapture of this love, knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body. By it a believer is crucified to the world. [2.] Jealousy is cruel as the grave, which swallows up and devours all; those that truly love Christ are jealous of every thing that would draw them from him, and especially jealous of themselves, lest they should do any thing to provoke him to withdraw from them, and, rather than do so, would pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand, than which what can be more cruel? Weak and trembling saints, who conceive a jealousy of Christ, doubting of his love to them, find that jealousy to prey upon them like the grave; nothing wastes the spirits more; but it is an evidence of the strength of their love to him. (3.) The coals thereof, its lamps, and flames, and beams, are very strong, and burn with incredible force, as the coals of fire that have a most vehement flame, a flame of the Lord (so some read it), a powerful piercing flame, as the lightning, Ps. xxix. 7. Holy love is a fire that begets a vehement heat in the soul, and consumes the dross and chaff that are in it, melts it down like wax into a new form, and carries it upwards as the sparks towards God and heaven.

(2.) Love is a valiant victorious passion. Holy love is so; the reigning love of God in the soul is constant and firm, and will not be drawn off from him either by fair means or foul, by life or death, Rom. viii. 38. [1.] Death, and all its terrors, will not frighten a believer from loving Christ: Many waters, though they will quench fire, cannot quench this love, no, nor the floods drown it, v. 7. The noise of these waters will strike no terror upon it; let them do their worst, Christ shall still be the best beloved. The overflowing of these waters will strike no damp upon it, but it will enable a man to rejoice in tribulation. Though he slay me, I will love him and trust in him. No waters could quench Christ's love to us, nor any floods drown it; he waded through the greatest difficulties, even seas of blood. Love sat king upon the floods; let nothing then abate our love to him. [2.] Life, and all its comforts, will not entice a believer from loving Christ: If a man could hire him with all the substance of his house, to take his love off from Christ and set it upon the world and the flesh again, he would reject the proposal with the utmost disdain; as Christ, when the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them were offered him, to buy him off from his undertaking, said, Get thee hence, Satan. It would utterly be contemned. Offer those things to those that know no better. Love will enable us to repel and triumph over temptations from the smiles of the world, as much as from its frowns. Some give this sense of it: If a man would give all the substance of his house to Christ, as an equivalent instead of love, to excuse it, it would be contemned. He seeks not ours, but us, the heart, not the wealth. If I give all my goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it is nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 1. Thus believers stand affected to Christ: the gifts of his providence cannot satisfy them without the assurances of his love.

Concern for the Gentiles; Privileges and Duties of the Church.

8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? 9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. 10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. 11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. 12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

Christ and his spouse having sufficiently confirmed their love to each other, and agreed it to be on both sides strong as death and inviolable, they are here, in these verses, like a loving husband and his wife, consulting together about their affairs, and considering what they should do. Yoke-fellows, having laid their hearts together, lay their heads together, to contrive about their relations and about their estates; and, accordingly, this happy pair are here advising with one another about a sister, and a vineyard.

I. They are here consulting about their sister, their little sister, and the disposing of her.

1. The spouse proposes her case with a compassionate concern (v. 8): We have a little sister and she has no breasts (she has not grown up to maturity); what shall we do for this little sister of ours in the day that she shall be spoken for, so as that we may do well for her? (1.) This may be understood as spoken by the Jewish church concerning the Gentile world. God has espoused the church of the Jews to himself, and she was richly endowed, but what shall become of the poor Gentiles, the barren that has not borne, and the desolate? Isa. liv. 1. Their condition (say the pious Jews) is very deplorable and forlorn; they are sisters, children of the same fathers, God and Adam, but they are little, because not dignified with the knowledge of God; they have no breasts, no divine revelation, no scriptures, no ministers, no breasts of consolation drawn out to them, when they might suck, being strangers to the covenants of promise, no breasts of instruction themselves to draw out to their children, to nourish them, 1 Pet. ii. 2. What shall we do for them? We can but pity them, and pray for them. Lord, what wilt thou do for them? The saints, in Solomon's time, might know, from David's psalms, that God had mercy in store for them, and they begged it might be hastened to them. Now the tables are turned; the Gentiles are betrothed to Christ, and ought to return the kindness by an equal concern for the bringing in of the Jews again, our eldest sister, that once had breasts, but now has none. If we take it in this sense, the unbelieving posterity of these pious Jews contradicted this prayer of their fathers; for, when the day came that the Gentiles should be spoken for and courted to Christ, instead of considering what to do for them they plotted to do all they could against them, which filled up the measure of their iniquity, 1 Thess. ii. 16. Or, (2.) It may be applied to any other that belong to the election of grace, but are yet uncalled. They are remotely related to Christ and his church, and sisters to them both, other sheep that are not of this fold, John x. 16; Acts xviii. 10. They have no breasts, none yet fashioned (Ezek. xvi. 7), no affection to Christ, no principle of grace. The day will come when they shall be spoken for, when the chosen shall be called, shall be courted for Christ, by the ministers, the friends of the bridegroom. A blessed day it will be, a day of visitation. What shall we do, in that day, to promote the match, to conquer their coyness, and persuade them to consent to Christ and present themselves chaste virgins to him? Note, Those that through grace are brought to Christ themselves should contrive what they may do to help others to him, to carry on the great design of his gospel, which is to espouse souls to Christ and convert sinners to him from whom they have departed.

2. Christ soon determines what to do in this case, and his spouse agrees with him in it (v. 9): "If she be a wall, if the good work be once begun with the Gentiles, with the souls that are to be called in, if the little sister, when she shall be spoken for by the gospel, will but receive the word, and build herself upon Christ the foundation, and frame her doings to turn to the Lord, as the wall is in order to the house, we will build upon her a palace of silver, or build her up into such a palace; we will carry on the good work that is begun, till the wall become a palace, the wall of stone a palace of silver," which goes beyond the boast of Augustus Cæsar, that what he found brick he left marble. This little sister, when once she is joined to the Lord, shall be made to grow into a holy temple, a habitation of God through the Spirit, Eph. ii. 21, 22. If she be a door, when this palace comes to be finished, and the doors of this wall set up, which was the last thing done (Neh. vii. 1), then we will enclose here with boards of cedar; we will carefully and effectually protect her, that she shall receive no damage. We will do it; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all concur in contriving, carrying on, and crowning, the blessed work when the time comes. Whatever is wanting shall be set in order, and the work of faith shall be fulfilled with power. Though the beginnings of grace be small, the latter end shall greatly increase. The church is in care concerning those that are yet uncalled. "Let me alone," says Christ; "I will do all that which is necessary to be done for them. Trust me with it."

3. The spouse takes this occasion to acknowledge with thankfulness his kindness to her, v. 10. She is very willing to trust him with her little sister, for she herself had had great experience of his grace, and, for her part, she owed her all to him: I am a wall, and my breasts like towers. This she speaks, not as upbraiding her little sister that had no breasts, but comforting her concerning her, that he who had made her what she was, who had built her up upon himself and made her to grow up to maturity, could and would do the same kindness for those whose case she bore upon her heart. Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. See, (1.) What she values herself upon, her having found favour in the eyes of Jesus Christ. Those are happy, truly happy, and for ever so, that have the favour of God and are accepted of him. (2.) How she ascribes the good work of God in her to the good-will of God towards her: "He has made me a wall and my breasts as towers, and then, in that instance more than in any thing, I experienced his love to me." Hail, thou that art highly favoured, for in thee Christ is formed. (3.) What pleasure God takes in the work of his own hands. When we are made as a wall, as a brazen wall (Jer. i. 18; xv. 20), that stands firmly against the blast of the terrible ones (Isa. xxv. 4), then God takes delight in us to do us good. (4.) With what joy and triumph we ought to speak of God's grace towards us, and with what satisfaction we should look back upon the special times and seasons when we were in his eyes as those that find favour; these were days never to be forgotten.

II. They are here consulting about a vineyard they had in the country, the church of Christ on earth considered under the notion of a vineyard (v. 11, 12): Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon, had a kingdom in the possession of a multitude, a numerous people. As he was a type of Christ, so his vineyard was a type of the church of Christ. Our Saviour has given us a key to these verses in the parable of the vineyard let out to the unthankful husbandmen, Matt. xxi. 33. The bargain was that, every one of the tenants having so much of the vineyard assigned him as would contain 1000 vines, he was to pay the annual rent of 1000 pieces of silver; for we read (Isa. vii. 23) that in a fruitful soil there were 1000 vines at 1000 silverlings. Observe, 1. Christ's church is his vineyard, a pleasant and peculiar place, privileged with many honours; he delights to walk in it, as a man in his vineyard, and is pleased with its fruits. 2. He has entrusted each of us with his vineyard, as keepers of it. The privileges of the church are that good thing which he has committed to us, to be kept as a sacred trust. The service of the church is to be our business, according as our capacity is. Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. Adam, in innocency, was to dress the garden, and to keep it. 3. He expects rent from those that are employed in his vineyard and entrusted with it. He comes, seeking fruit, and requires gospel-duty of all those that enjoy gospel-privileges. Every one, of what rank or degree soever, must bring glory and honour to Christ, and do some service to the interest of his kingdom in the world, in consideration of what benefit and advantage they enjoy by their share of the privileges of the vineyard. 4. Though Christ has let out his vineyard to keepers, yet still it is his, and he has his eye always upon it for good; for, if he did not watch over it night and day (Isa. xxvii. 1, 2), the watchmen, to whom he has let it out, would keep it but in vain, Ps. cxxvii. 1. Some take these for Christ's words (v. 12): My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; and they observe how he dwells upon his property in it: It is my vineyard, which is mine; so dear is his church to him, it is his own in the world (John xiii. 1), and therefore he will always have it under his protection; it is his own, and he will look after it. 5. The church, that enjoys the privileges of the vineyard, must have them always before her. The keeping of the vineyard requires constant care and diligence. They are rather the words of the spouse: My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. She has lamented her fault and folly in not keeping her own vineyard (ch. i. 6), but now she resolves to reform. Our hearts are our vineyards, which we must keep with all diligence; and therefore we must have a watchful jealous eye upon them at all times. 6. Our great care must be to pay our rent for what we hold of Christ's vineyard, and to see that we do not go behind-hand, nor disappoint the messengers he sends to receive the fruits (Matt. xxi. 34): Thou, O Solomon! must have 1000, and shalt have. The main of the profits belong to Christ; to him and his praise all our fruits must be dedicated. 7. If we be careful to give Christ the praise of our church-privileges, we may then take to ourselves the comfort and benefit of them. If the owner of the vineyard have had his due, the keepers of it shall be well paid for their cares and pains; they shall have 200, which sum, no doubt, was looked upon as a good profit. Those that work for Christ are working for themselves, and shall be unspeakable gainers by it.

Mutual Love of Christ and the Church; Expectation of the Glory to Be Revealed.

13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it. 14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

Christ and his spouse are here parting for a while; she must stay below in the gardens on earth, where she has work to do for him; he must remove to the mountains of spices in heaven, where he has business to attend for her, as an advocate with the Father. Now observe with what mutual endearments they part.

I. He desires to hear often from her. She is ready at her pen; she must be sure to write to him; she knows how to direct (v. 13): "Thou that, for the present, dwellest in the gardens, dressing and keeping them till thou remove from the garden below to the paradise above—thou, O believer! whoever thou art, that dwellest in the gardens of solemn ordinances, in the gardens of church-fellowship and communion, the companions are so happy as to hear thy voice, cause me to hear it too." Observe, 1. Christ's friends should keep a good correspondence one with another, and, as dear companions, speak often to one another (Mal. iii. 16) and hearken to one another's voice; they should edify, encourage, and respect one another. They are companions in the kingdom and patience of Christ, and therefore, as fellow-travellers, should keep up mutual freedom, and not be shy of, nor strange to, one another. The communion of saints is an article of our covenant, as well as an article of our creed, to exhort one another daily, and be glad to be exhorted by another. Hearken to the voice of the church, as far as it agrees with the voice of Christ; his companions will do so. 2. In the midst of our communion with one another we must not neglect our communion with Christ, but let him see our countenance and hear our voice; he here bespeaks it: "The companions hearken to thy voice; it is a pleasure to them; cause me to hear it. Thou makest thy complaints to them when any thing grieves thee; why does thou not bring them to me, and let me hear them? Thou art free with them; be as free with me; pour out thy heart to me." Thus Christ, when he left his disciples, ordered them to send to him upon every occasion. Ask, and you shall receive. Note, Christ not only accepts and answers, but even courts his people's prayers, not reckoning them a trouble to him, but an honour and a delight, Prov. xv. 8. We cause him to hear our prayers when we not only pray, but wrestle and strive in prayer. He loves to be pressingly importuned, which is not the manner of men. Some read it, "Cause me to be heard; thou hast often an opportunity of speaking to thy companions, and they hearken to what thou sayest; speak of me to them; let my name be heard among them; let me be the subject of thy discourse." "One word of Christ" (as archbishop Usher used to say) "before you part." No subject is more becoming, or should be more pleasing.

II. She desires his speedy return to her (v. 14): Make haste, my beloved, to come again, and receive me to thyself; be thou like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of spices; let no time be lost; it is pleasant dwelling here in the gardens, but to depart, and be with thee, is far better; that therefore is what I wish, and wait, and long for. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Observe, 1. Though Jesus Christ be now retired, he will return. The heavens, those high mountains of sweet spices, must contain him till the times of refreshing shall come; and those times will come, when every eye shall see him, in all the pomp and power of the upper and better world, the mystery of God being finished and the mystical body completed. 2. True believers, as they are looking for, so they are hastening to, the coming of that day of the Lord, not that they would have him make more haste than good speed, but that the intermediate counsels may all be fulfilled, and then that the end may come—the sooner the better. Not that they think him slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but thus they express the strength of their affections to him and the vastness of their expectations from him when he comes again. 3. Those only that can in sincerity call Christ their beloved, their best beloved, can, upon good grounds, desire him to hasten his second coming. As for those whose hearts go a whoring after the world, and who set their affections on the things of the earth, they cannot love his appearing, but dread it rather, because then the earth, and all the things of it which they have chosen for their portion, will be burnt up. But those that truly love Christ long for his second coming, because it will be the crown both of his glory and their bliss. 4. The comfort and satisfaction which we sometimes have in communion with God in grace here should make us breathe the more earnestly after the immediate vision and complete fruition of him in the kingdom of glory. The spouse, after an endearing conference with her beloved, finding it must break off, concludes with this affectionate request for the perfecting and perpetuating of this happiness in the future state. The clusters of grapes that meet us in this wilderness should make us long for the full vintage in Canaan. If a day in his courts be so sweet, what then will an eternity within the veil be! If this be heaven, O that I were there! 5. It is good to conclude our devotions with a joyful expectation of the glory to be revealed, and holy humble breathings towards it. We should not part but with the prospect of meeting again. It is good to conclude every sabbath with thoughts of the everlasting sabbath, which shall have no night at the end of it, nor any week-day to come after it. It is good to conclude every sacrament with thoughts of the everlasting feast, when we shall sit down with Christ at his table in his kingdom, to rise no more, and drink of the wine new there, and to break up every religious assembly in hopes of the general assembly of the church of the first-born, when time and days shall be no more: Let the blessed Jesus hasten that blessed day. Why are his chariot-wheels so long a coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots? <<<

PREFACE

CHAP. VIII. Verſ. 1. O that thou wert as my Brother]

HEb. Who will give thee for a Brother to mee] q. d. Men may give mee many other things, but God alone can give mee thy brother-hood, love, and communion, which I wiſh above all, ſaith the Bride here.Epheſ. 1.3. Spiritual bleſſings in heavenly things in Chriſt are chiefly to bee deſired and indeavoured after. Quaerito primum bona animi, ſaith Philoſophy, Seek firſt the good things of the minde. Quarito primum regnum Dei, ſaith Divinity, Seek yee firſt the Kingdome of God, and his righteouſneſs: and then other things ſhall ſeek you, ſhall bee caſt into the bargain, as it were. Let the Many ſay, Who will ſheir any good? David prefers one caſt of Gods countenance before all the worlds wealth,Aug. de pec. mort. l. 1. c. 11. Pſal. 4.7. Oh that Iſhmael might live in thy ſight, ſaid Abraham, Oh that hee might bee written among the living in Jeruſalem, bee an heir of life truly ſo called, for, Aeterna vita vera vita! The Lord make his face to ſhine upon you, ſaid the Prieſts to the people, Numb. 6. Grace bee to you, and peace, ſaith Paul; what ever elſe be wanting. Covet earneſtly the beſt things, ſaith hee, 1 Cor. 12.13. With all thy getting get underſtanding, ſaith Solomon, Prov. 4.7. Hee deſired wiſdome above wealth: and diſpatcht the Temple in ſeven years ſpace, when as hee was thirteen years ere hee finiſhed his own houſe; as holding it a work of leſs haſte and care. Eliſha begs a double portion: the Spouſe (chap. 2. of this Book) calls for whole flagons: nothing leſs would content her. The Prophet Iſaiah chides men for laying out their mony on that which is not bread,Iſa. 55.1, 2. or but panis lapidoſus, bread made of gravell: And our Saviour bids, labour not for the meat that periſheth, but for the meat that endureth to eternal life, John 6.27. Mors privare poteſt opibus, non operibus: theſe dye not with us, (as Hortenſiu his orations did with him) but follow us to heaven when wee dye, and ſhall be found to praiſe, honour and glory, at that day, 1 Pet. 1.7. Hence the Church ſo earneſtly deſireth here to have more cloſe conjunction and conſociation with Chriſt as a brother: yea, as a moſt natural and kinde-hearted brother, that had ſucked the breaſts of her mother, that had been her collactaneus, and ſo, more inwardly affected toward her, as Joſeph was toward his brother Benjamin, Gen. 43.29, 30, 34. In ſum: ſhee wiſheth that ſhee may feel Chriſt dwelling in her heart: that hee would remove all impediments of their happy conjunction, and haſten the accompliſhment thereof in heaven.

When I ſhould finde thee without (or at the door) I would kiſs thee] As the Bride was wont to do the Bride-groom, receiving and welcoming him with all comely familiarity and ſweetneſs. Kiſs the ſon, and covet his kiſſes, Pſal. 2.12. Cant. 1.2. Bee not aſhamed or afraid to perform all duties of an holy love, and ſound obedience toward him. Hee was not aſhamed of [illegible: 1 word] when wee had never a rag to our backs, Ezek. 16. Hee ſtretcht the ski[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 word] love over us, and ſaid unto us, Live: when hee might well enough have loathed to look on us, ib. verſ. 6.

Yet I ſhould not bee despiſed] Heb. they ſhould not deſpiſe mee. Or if they did, yet they ſhould not diſhearten mee from duty.2 Sam. 6.22. If this bee to be vile, I will be yet more vile, ſaid David to his mocking M[illegible: 1 letter]chal. Wee may not ſuffer our ſelves to bee mocked out of our Religion. Barren Michal hath too many ſons, that ſcorn the holy habit and exerciſes; but they ſhall bee plagued, as their mother was with continual fruitleſneſs, they ſhall alſo one day (viz. when they are in hell) behold thoſe with envy, whom now they behold with ſcorn: as the ſcoffers of the old world, from the tops of the mountains that could not ſave them, behold Noahs Ark floating upon the waters. It is as impoſſible to avoid, as neceſſary to contemn the laſh of lewd tongues, whether by bitter ſcoffes or ſcurrilous invectives; as full of ſcorn commonly as the wit of malice can make them. The Church here reſolveth ſo to deport her ſelf, as that none ſhall have cauſe to contemn her: or if they do, bravely to ſlight all contumelies and contempts for her conſcience; taking them as crowns and confirmations of her conformity to Chriſt.

Verſ. 2. I would lead thee and bring thee] With ſolemnity and joy. Shee ſpeaks it twice, as fully reſolved to do it; and hereby to binde her ſelf more ſtraightly to a performnce; I would not onely kiſs thee at the door, but bring thee into the houſe. Many are ſtrict abroad, and in company, but too too looſe at home, and in their own houſes: follow theſe ſtage-players to their crying rooms where they diſ-robe themſelves, and you ſhall ſoon ſee what they are. Heed muſt bee taken, ſay the very Heathen, Aedibus in propriis quae prava aut recta gerantur. Religion admits not of that diſtinction between a good man and a good Governour. If you will be for the publique, bee good in private: bear your own fruit, work in your own hives, reform your own hearts, and houſes, man your own Oars, and make good your own ſtanding. Cato could ſay,Plut. Dio. Gen. Joſh. 24.14. Curam exegeris, non curationem. Bern. that hee could pardon all mens faults but his own: And Auguſtus going about to redreſs ſome abuſes in the State, was upbraided with his own domeſtical diſorders. Abraham had a well ordered family: ſo had Joſhua, David, Pſal. 101. And although his houſe were not ſo with God, yet that was all his deſire, 2 Sam. 23.5. and he well knew that it was the care, not the cure of his charge that hee ſtood charged with. Noah may bring the Lord Chriſt into his houſe, and labour to ſet him up in the hearts of his children, ſpeaking perſwaſively to that purpoſe: But when all's done, God muſt perſwade Japheth, and ſpeak to his heart. Now this the Lord doth, Monendo potius quam minando, docendo quam ducendo. Hence the Church in the next words cryes out,

Thou ſhalt inſtruct mee] For ſo the Text is to be rendred. Thou who art the Arch-Prophet, a Teacher ſent from God, anointed and appointed for the purpoſe to put Divine learning into us, Thou ſhalt inſtruct or learn us. Now, quando Chriſtus magiſter: quam cito deſcitur quod docetur? ſaith Auſtin. Chriſt is a quick teacher; and all his ſcholars are very forwardly. [non-Latin text not transcribed] John 6.45. Neſcit tarda molimina gratia Spiritus Sancti, ſaith Ambroſe. Gods people muſt needs be well taught, becauſe they are all taught of God.

I would cauſe thee to drink of ſpiced wine] Such as wee call Ipocras, which, beſides the nature and ſtrength of the wine it ſelf, hath by the mixture of many ſpices with it, great power and pleaſantneſs, to the comforting of the heart, and ſatisfying of the ſmell. And this was the [non-Latin text not transcribed] Minerval, recompenſe, that Chriſt ſhould have for teaching her: ſhee reſolveth to teſtifie her thankfulneſs by her obedience: rendring unto him ſuch fruits of faith and holineſs, as ſhould bee ſweetned and ſpicened with his own Spirit in her, and ſhould exceedingly delight him. Contrary to theſe [non-Latin text not transcribed], theſe dainty and goodly fruits, are thoſe naſty and naughty ones,Rev. 18.14. Iſa. 5.4. that (beſides their ſtench) are ſo offenſive to the taſte, that they cannot bee eaten, they are ſo naught, Jer. 24.2. Wicked mens grapes are of gall, and their Wine is venome, Deut. 32.32, 33. both their natures and practices are abominable.

Verſ. 3. His left hand ſhould bee under my head] Or prayer-wiſe, Let his left hand, &c. Conſcious and ſenſible of her own inability, ſhee begs the benefit of both Chriſts hands, and all little enough: his whole power and providence to ſupport and relieve her.

Ʋna eſt in tenui mihi re medicina, Jehova Cor patrium, os verax, omnipotenſque manus.

See the Note on chap. 2.6.

Verſ. 4. I charge you, O daughters of Jeruſalem] See the Note on chap. 2.7.

Why ſhould you ſtir up] What ſhall you get by it? or what reaſon can yee give for it? But luſt is head-long, and conſiders not what an evill and bitter thing ſin is. Beſides, it ſo blears the underſtanding,Jer. 2.19. that a man ſhall think hee hath reaſon to bee mad, and that there is great ſenſe in ſinning.

Verſ. 5. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderneſs] See the Note on chap. 3.6. There are continual aſcenſions in the hearts of Gods people, whiles here. And whereas the men of this world, which have their portion here, (Pſal. 17.14.) animas etiam incarnaverunt, as Bernard complaineth, and are born downward to hell by their own weight; the Saints of God are ever aſpiring, and do groan being burdened; as knowing that whileſt they are at home in the body, (ſuch an home as it is) they are abſent from the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.4, 6. from their heavenly home. Either Egypt was not Moſes his home, or but a miſerable one: and yet in reference to it, hee called his ſon born in Midian, Gerſhom, i. e. a ſtranger there. If hee ſo thought of this Egyptian home, where was nothing but bondage and tyranny, what marvell though the Saints think of that home of theirs above, (and haſten to it in their affections) where is nothing but reſt and bleſſedneſs?

Leaning upon her Beloved] For otherwiſe ſhee could not aſcend, as unable to ſuſtain her ſteps, Jer. 10.23. The Church, as the Vine, is the moſt fruitful, but the weakeſt of all trees, and muſt have a ſupporter: hence ſhee leans upon her Beloved: Brightman. Sunt qui exponunt Delicians. which phraſe, beſide recumbency, denotes a more than ordinary familiarity, qua ſolent amantes inſinus amaſiorum ſc projicere, like as Lovers throw themſelves ſometimes into their ſweet-hearts arms or boſomes. Now thus to lean upon Chriſt, is an act of faith, of the faith of Gods Elect. Others ſeem to lean upon Chriſt, but it is no otherwiſe than as the Apricock which leaneth againſt the walls, but is faſt rooted in the earth. So theſe lean upon Chriſt for Salvation, but are rooted in the world, in pride, filthineſs, &c. and though they make ſome aſſaies, yet like the door upon the hinges, they will not come off. See the folly and confidence of theſe wretched men, (the ſame Hebrew word ſignifies both; and may both waies be taken, Pſal. 49.13.) graphically deſcribed by the Prophet, Mich. 3.11. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the Prieſts thereof teach for hire, and the Prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and ſay, Is not the Lord among us? none evill can come upon us. Theſe men periſh by catching at their own catch, hanging on their own fancy, making a bridge of their own ſhadow: they will not otherwiſe believe but that Chriſt is their ſweet Saviour, and ſo doubt not but they are ſafe, when it is no ſuch matter. They grow aged and crooked with ſuch falſe conceits, and can ſeldome or never bee ſet ſtraight again. Theſe muſt know, that to rely upon Chriſt, is to bee utterly unbottomed of a mans ſelf, and of every creature: and ſo to lean upon Chriſt alone, that if hee fail, thou ſinkeſt; if hee ſet not in, thou art loſt for ever. Papiſts think, that as hee that ſtandeth on two firm branches of a tree is ſurer than hee that ſtandeth upon one: ſo hee that truſteth to Chriſt and his own works too. But it muſt bee conſidered, firſt, that hee which looketh to bee juſtified by the law, is fallen from grace: Chriſt is of no effect unto him, Gal. 5.4. Hee will not mingle his purple-blood with our puddle-ſtuff, his rich robes with our tattered rags, his Eagles feathers with our Pigeons plumes. There can bee but one Sun in heaven (Sol quaſi Solus) and they ſet up ruſh candles to the Sun, that joyn other Saviours to this Sun of righteouſneſs. Secondly, hee that hath one foot on a firm branch, another on a rotten one, ſtands not ſo ſure, as if wholly on that which is ſound: Away then with all ſuch mock-ſtays: See the fruit of creature-confidence, Job 6.17. & 8.15. and know, that no man truſts Chriſt at all, that truſts him not alone. Hee that ſtands with one foot on a rock, and another foot on a quick-ſand, will ſink and periſh as certainly, as hee that ſtandeth with both feet on a quick-ſand. See Pſal. 6.2.2.5, 6.

I raiſed thee up under the Apple-tree, &c.] Here the Bride anſwereth to the Bridegrooms queſtion, Who is this, or What woman is this that cometh up from the Wilderneſs, &c? that goes in a right line to God, leaning on her Beloved? that will not break the hedge of any commandment to avoid any peece of foul way? I am ſhee, ſaith the Church, even the very ſame that raiſed thee up under the apple-tree, &c. viz. by mine earneſt prayers. When thou waſt aſleep under the apple-tree, and I had ſtraightly charged the Damoſels of Jeruſalem not to diſquiet thee by their ſins, yet I took the boldneſs to arouſe thee, and ſay, as Pſal. 44.23. Awake, why ſleepeſt thou, O Lord? ariſe, caſt us not off for ever; and with thoſe drowning Diſciples, Maſter, eareſt thou not that wee periſh? Sometimes (ſaith one) God ſeems to loſe his mercy, and then wee muſt finde it for him, as Iſa. 63.10. ſometimes to ſleep, and then wee muſt waken him, quicken him, Pſal. 40.17. Iſa. 62.7. God will come, but he will have his peoples prayers lead him, Dan. 10.12. I come for thy Word. Chriſt himſelf is the apple-tree here mentioned, as Cant. 2.3. Though there are that interpret it of the Croſs, that tree whereon hee bare our ſins in his own body, 1 Pet. 2.24. Others better, of the tree of offence, the forbidden fruit, Gen. 2. And that when Eve taſted of that fruit (which they here-hence conclude to have been an apple, though the word bee more general, Nux enim pomum dicitur) then, as Chriſts mother, ſhee brought him forth by believing the promiſe there made unto her, that Meſſiah of her ſeed ſhould break the Serpents head. Look how the Virgin Mary conceived Chriſt when ſhee yielded her aſſent: When the Angel ſpake to her, what ſaid ſhee preſently? Be it as thou haſt ſaid, Let it bee even ſo, ſhee yielded her aſſent to the promiſe, that ſhee ſhould conceive a ſon, and ſhee did conceive him: So Eve believed the promiſe of pardon and ſalvation, ſhee ſaw it afar off, was perſwaded of it, and embraced it, Heb. 11.13. and is therefore ſaid here to bear and bring forth Chriſt, yea, to travell of him with ſorrow, as the word ſignifies: for as there is no other birth without pain, ſo neither is the new birth. Thoſe that have paſſed through the narrow womb of repentance, and been born again, will ſay as much, See Iſa. 26.17. If God brake Davids bones, and the Angels back (ſaith one) hee will break thy heart too, if ever hee ſave thee. No ſound heart ever went to heaven as (in another ſenſe) none but ſound could ever come thither. Cor integrum cor ſciſſum. Rent your hearts, &c.

Verſ. 6. Set mee as a ſeal upon thine heart] i. e. Bee thou as a merciful and faithful High-Prieſt in things pertaining to God, Heb. 2.17. with Exod. 28.21, 29. Remember mee for good, and make mention of mee to thy Father. Have mee alſo in pretious eſteem, as great men have the ſignets upon their right hands; and as whatſoever is ſealed with a ſeal, that is excellent in its own kinde, as Iſa. 28.25. hordeum ſignatum, excellent barly. Chriſt wears his people as a ſignet, or as great men wear their jewels, to make him glorious in the eyes of men; neither will hee bee plundered of them by the Churches enemies: to touch them,Zech. 2.8. is to touch the apple of his eye, that tendereſt piece of the tendereſt part. The Proverb is, Oculus & fama non patiuntur jocos, The eye and the good name can bear with no jeſts. As the Saints are in Chriſts heart, ad commoriendum & convivendum, ſo they are alſo upon his arm, ſo that if they do but come and ſay in any danger or difficulty, Awake, awake, put on ſtrength, O arm of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days, &c. Iſa. 51.9. hee will redeem his people with his arm, Pſal. 77.15. yea, with his out-ſtretcht arm, Exod. 6.6. that is, with might and open manifeſtation of his love: hee will awake as one out of ſleep, and like a man that ſhouteth by reaſon of wine, Pſal. 78.65.

For love is ſtrong as death] And yet death is ſo ſtrong, that it paſſeth over all men, Rom. 5.12. and devoureth them as ſheep, Pſal. 49.14. as a rot it over-runneth the whole flock, having for its Motto, Nulli cedo, I yield to none: Onely love is strong as death, nay, ſtronger. Jonathan would have died for the love of David, David of Abſolom. Arſinoe interpoſed her ſelf between the Murtherers weapons ſent by Ptolomy her brother, to kill her children. Priſcilla and Aquila for St. Pauls life laid down their own necks, Rom. 16.4. Paul was in deaths often for Jeſus ſake. Thoſe primitive Martyrs loved not their lives unto the death, Rev. 12.11. Certatim glorioſa in certamina ruebatur, ſaith Sulpitius, they were prodigal of their deareſt lives, and even ambitious of Martyrdome; that thereby they might ſeal up their entire love to the Lord Jeſus. If every hair of mine head were a man,Act. & Mon. fol. 1438. I would ſuffer death in the opinion and faith that I am now in, ſaid John Ardley Martyr to Biſhop Bonner. Ignis, crux, beſtiarum conflictationes, oſſium diſtractiones, &c. Let mee ſuffer fire, croſs, breaking of my bones, quartering of my members, cruſhing of my body, and all the torments that men or devils can deviſe, ſo I may enjoy my Lord Jeſus Chriſt, ſaid holy Ignatius; whoſe Motto was, Amor meus crucifixus, my love was crucified. Love is it ſelf a paſſion, and delights to ſhew it ſelf in ſuffering for the party beloved; yea, though it were to paſs through a thouſand deaths for his ſake. And this is here yielded as a reaſon why the Spouſe firſt awakened Chriſt, and now deſires to bee ſo nearly knit unto him, to bee ſet as a ſeal upon his hand, yea, upon his heart, the love of Chriſt conſtrained her, and lay ſo hard upon her, that ſhe could do no leſs than beg ſuch a boon of him, than covet ſuch a courteſie, as a compenſation of her deareſt love to him. And ſurely to account Chriſt precious as a tree of life, although wee bee faſtned to him as to a ſtake to bee burned, this is love; and this our labour of love cannot be in vain in the Lord.

Jealouſie is cruel as the grave] Or, zeal is hard as hell. This follows well upon the former,Contra Adamant. c. 13. for, Non amat qui non zel[illegible: 1 letter]t, ſaith Auguſtine. Zeal is the extream heat of love and other affections for and toward any whom wee eſteem: burning in our love to him, deſire of him, delight in him, indignation againſt any that ſpeak or do ought againſt him. The object of zeal is, either Man, as 2 Cor. 7.7. Coloſſ. 4.17. Baſil venturing himſelf very far for his friend, and by ſome blamed for it, anſwered, Ego aliter amare non didici, I cannot love a man, but I muſt do mine utmoſt for him. Or (Secondly) God, as John 3.17. 2 Cor. 7.11. Rev. 3.19. And here out love will be, and muſt appear to be fervent, deſire eager, delights raviſhing, hopes longing, hatred deadly, anger fierce, fear terrible, grief deep, deeper than thoſe black deeps, (a place ſo called) at the Thames-mouth, whereinto Richard the third cauſed the dead bodies of his two ſmothered Nephews to be caſt, Speed 935. being firſt cloſed up in lead, &c.

The coals thereof are coals of fire] Or, fiery darts that ſet the ſoul all on a light fire, and turn it into a coal or lump of love to Chriſt. The word here uſed is elſewhere taken for fiery thunderbolts, Pſal. 78.48. and for braſs-headed arrows, that gather heat by motion, Pſal. 76.4. alſo for a carbuncle, or burning feaver, Deut. 32.24. The Church had ſaid before, more than once, that ſhee was ſick of love: here ſhee feels her ſelf in a feaver as it were, or as if her liver were ſtruck through with a love-dart, by that spirit of judgement, and of burning, (Iſa. 4.4.) kindling this flame of God, as ſhee calls it here, upon the ha[illegible: 1 letter]h of her heart. The word ſignifies the conſuming flame of God: and zeal may be very fitly ſo called; For as it comes from above, even from the father of lights, (as the fire of the Altar did) ſo it tends to him, and ends in him; it carries a man up, as it were, in a fiery Chariot, and conformes his corruptions by the way: It quencheth alſo thoſe fiery darts of the devill, (as the Sun-beams will put out the kitchin fire) and ſets the tongue a work, as the Holy Ghoſt ſet on fire the Apoſtles tongues, Act. 2. (when as wicked mens tongues, full of deadly poyſon, are yet further ſet on fire from hell, Jam. 3.6.) yea, the whole man a work for God and his glory, as Elias with his Zelando zelavi. (hee ſucked in fire with his mothers breaſt, as ſome have legended) St. Paul is mad for God (ſo ſome misjudged him, 2 Cor. 5.13.) as ever hee had once been againſt him, Act. 26.11. Peter was a man made all of fire, walking amongſt ſtubble, ſaith Chryſoſtome. And of one that deſired to know what manner of man Baſil was, it is ſaid, there was preſented in a dream a pillar of fire with this Motto, Talis eſt Baſilius, ſuch an one is Baſil. Such alſo was Savanarola, Farel, Luther, Latimer, that bold Tell-troth; who when hee was demanded the reaſon why there was ſo much preaching, and ſo little practiced, anſwered roundly, deeſt ignis, the flame of God is wanting in mens hearts.

Verſ. 7. Many waters cannot quench love] Water was proved long ſince to be above fire, in that ancient conteſt between thoſe two Nations, about the precedency and precellency of their Gods: the one worſhipping Fire, and the other Water. But though there be Gods many, and Lords many, yet to the Church there is but one Lord; and to him ſhee will go thorow thick and thin, thorow fire and water. Her love to him is ſuch as no good can match it, no evill over-match it: it cannot be quenched with any calamity; nay, it is much kindled by it, as fire in the ſmiths-forge, or as lime that is the hotter, for the water that is caſt upon it. Elias would have water poured on the ſacrifice, (covered therewith) that the power of God might the more appear in the fire from heaven. Semblably Chriſt ſuffers the ſhip of his Church to be covered ſometimes with waves of perſecutions, and afflictions, that the ſtrength of their love to him may bee the more manifeſted, and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed, Luk. 2.35. It is eaſie to ſwim in a warm bath, and every bird can ſing in a ſummers day, but to ſwim to heaven (as Queen Elizabeth did to her throne) through a ſea of ſorrows, to ſing, (as ſome birds will do in the ſpring) moſt ſweetly, then when it rains moſt ſadly, that's a true trial indeed. Many will imbark themſelves in the Churches cauſe in a calm, that with the Mariners in the Acts, will flee out of the ſhip in a ſtorm. Many will own a proſpering truth, a bleſſing Ark, but hee is an Obed-Edom indeed, that will own a perſecuted, toſſed, baniſhed Ark, an Ark that brings the plague with it. God ſets an high price on their love that ſtick to him in affliction;2 Sam. 15.18 as David did on thoſe men that were with him at Gath (thoſe Cherethites and Pelethites that ſtuck to him when Abſalom was up.) And notwithſtanding their late mutiny at Ziklag, hee takes them to Hebron with him (where hee was to bee crowned) that as they had ſhared with him in his miſery, ſo they might partake of his proſperity. Lo thus likewiſe deals our heavenly David with all his fellow-ſufferers: Hee removes them at length from the aſhes of their forlorn Ziklog, to the Hebron of heaven. And at the general judgement, in that great Amphitheater of Men and Angels, Chriſt will ſtand forth, and ſay, Ye are they that continued with me in my temptations: and I appoint unto you a Kingdome, &c. Luke 22.28, 29.

Neither can the floods drown it] ſurgit hic afflictio, Neh. 1.9. This is not a vain repetition: but ſerves to ſhew, that no perſecution, tribulation, anguiſh, though never ſo grievous, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. (though the devil ſhould caſt out of his mouth water enough to carry us down the ſtream, as Rev. 12.15.) ſhall be able to ſeparate the Saints from the love of Chriſt. Rom. 8.35.

If a man would give all the ſubſtance of his houſe, &c.] i. e. To buy this love of me, or to get it from me, I ſhould cry out with Peter, Thy money periſh with thee, or with Luther, Contemptus eſt à me Romanus & favor & furor, I care neither for Romes favour nor fury. When they offered to make him a Cardinal if he would be quiet, hee replied, No not if I might be Pope. And when they conſulted about ſtopping of his mouth with money, one wiſer than the reſt cryed out, Hem! Germana illa beſtia non curat aurum, Alack, that German beaſt cares not for money. Galeacius Caracciolus, His Life by Mr. Craſhaw. that noble Italian Convert, left all for the love of Chriſt, and went to live a poor obſcure life at Geneva. Where, when hee was tempted to revolt for money, hee cried out, Let their mony periſh with them, who eſteem all the gold in the world worth one daies ſociety with Jeſus Chriſt and his holy Spirit. And curſed bee that religion for ever, that by ſuch baits of profit, pleaſure, and preferment, ſeeks to draw men aſide from the way of truth and holineſs. The Papiſts propoſe rewards to ſuch as ſhall relinquiſh the Proteſtant religion, and turn to theirs: as in Ausborough, where they ſay, there is a known price for it, of ten Florens a year. In France, Spec. Europ. where the Clergy have made contributions for the maintenance of runagate Miniſters. Stratagema nunc eſt Pontificum ditare multos ut pii eſſe deſinant, ſaith one that was no ſtranger to them:Joh. Bapt. Gell. dial. 5. It is a cunning trick that the Popes have taken up, to enrich men, that they may rob them of their religion. And though Luther would not ſwallow that hook, yet there are thoſe that will, not a few. Tell men a tale of Utile, promiſe them preferment, and you may perſwade them to any thing. Fac me Pontificem, & ero Chriſtianus, ſaid one Pammachius an Heathen once to the Pope; Make mee a Biſhop, and I'le turn Chriſtian. But, as one ſaid of Papiſts, that they muſt have two converſions ere they come to heaven; one from Popery, and another from prophaneneſs (like as corn muſt be firſt threſhed, and then winnowed) ſo this money-merchant, this preferment-proſelyte might have been a Chriſtian at large, had hee had his deſired Biſhoprick: but Chriſt never favoured any ſuch ſelf-ſeeking followers. See Mat. 8.20. John 6.26. their love hee knows to be no better than meretricious and mercenary. It is a ſad thing that any Auguſtine ſhould have cauſe to complain, Vix diligitur Jeſus propter Jeſum, that ſcarce any man loves Chriſt, but for his rewards; like the mixt multitude, that came up with Iſrael out of Egypt, for a better fortune: Or thoſe Perſians, that in Mordecai's daies, for ſelf-reſpects became Jews. All Gods people ſhould bee like thoſe Medes in Iſaiah, that regarded not ſilver, and as for gold they delighted not in it, chap. 13.17. Chriſts love ſhould bee better to them than wine, Cant. 1.2. and when in exchange for it, the devill doth offer them this worlds good, they ſhould anſwer him as the witch of Endor did Saul, 1 Sam. 28.9. Judg. 9.11. Wherefore laieſt thou a ſnare for my ſoul to cauſe mee to dye? or as the vine and fig-tree in Jonathans Parable, anſwered the reſt of the trees, Should I leave my fatneſs and ſweetneſs, derived unto mee from Chriſt, and ſo go out of Gods bleſſing into the worlds warm Sunne? God forbid that I ſhould part with my patrimony, as Naboth ſaid; take an apple for paradiſe, as Adam did, loſe the love of Chriſt for the worlds blandiſhments, &c.

Verſ. 8. Wee have a little ſiſter] Thou, Lord, and I have ſuch a ſiſter, ſc. the Church of the Gentiles, known to thee, and fore-appointed to converſion, (as James ſpeaketh in that firſt Chriſtian counſell, Act. 15.18.) from the beginning of the world; unknown to mee (more than by hear-ſay from the holy Prophets,1 Pet. 1.10. who prophecied of the grace that ſhould come unto her) but not unloved, or undeſired. Now therefore as a fruit of my true love unto thee (ſuch as no floods of troubles can quench or drench, no earthly commodity can compaſs or buy off) I deſire not onely to deliberate with thee about the enlargement of thy Kingdome by the acceſſion of the elect Gentiles thereunto, but alſo by making (as I may ſay) large and liberal offers, ſet forth my care and ſtudy for their eternal ſalvation. See the like affection in St. Paul toward his country-men the Jews, proceeding from that full aſſurance that hee found in himſelf, Rom. 8.38, 39. with chap. 9.1. And learn wee to pray as earneſtly for their converſion, as they have done for ours; longing after them from the very heart-root in Jeſus Chriſt, as Philipp. 1.8. and turning to the Lord, that they may the ſooner finde compaſſion. It is Hezekiah's reaſon, and a very remarkable one, 2 Chron. 30.9.

And ſhee hath no breaſts] i. e. Shee is not yet Nubilis apta viro, marriageable and fit for Chriſt, to bee preſented as a chaſte Virgin unto him: ſhee wanted ſuch paranymphs as Paul was, to do it for her, 2 Cor. 11.2. Shee had not a ſtabliſhed Miniſtry to nurſe up her children withall. And at this ſame paſs was the old Church at firſt, not onely ſmall, but unſhapen, Ezek. 16.7, 8. A ſociety of men without the preaching of the Word, is like a mother of children without breaſts. All the Churches children muſt ſuck and bee ſatisfied, Iſa. 66.11. they muſt deſire the ſincere milk of the Word, and grow thereby, 1 Pet. 2.2. not like the changeling Luther ſpeaks of, ever ſucking, never batling. Such ſhall be made to know, that their mother hath verbera as well as ubera, rods as well as dugges. Their father will alſo repent him, as once David did of his kindneſs to Nabal; and take up his old complaint, Iſai. 1.2. I have nouriſhed and brought up children, and they have rebelled againſt me. The ox knoweth his owner, &c. the moſt ſalvage creatures will bee at the beck and check of thoſe that feed them: diſobedience therefore (under means of grace eſpecially) is againſt the principles of nature. It is to bee like the horſe and mule, yea, like the young mulet, which hath no ſooner done ſucking her dammes teats, but ſhee turns up her heels, and kicks her.

What ſhall wee do for our ſiſter] Love is not more cogitative than operative: and delights to bee doing for the beloved. I love the Lord, &c. What ſhall I render unto him? I will pay my vows, &c. Pſal. 116. Jonathan will diſrobe and ſtrip himſelf even to his ſword and girdle for David, becauſe hee loved him as his own ſoul, 1 Sam. 18.3, 4. Shechem will do all that can be done for his beloved Dinah. The Macedonians will over-do for their poor brethren: Pauls love to the Jews was like the Ivy; which if it cleave to a ſtone or an old wall, will rather die than forſake it, Rom. 9.3. He tells his Hebrews of their labour of love, Heb. 6. all love is laborious.

In the day when ſhee ſhall bee ſpoken for] Or, wherein ſpeech ſhall he had, concerning her, viz. for an husband for her: how wee may beſt prefer her in marriage. The care of diſpoſing young people to fit yoke-fellows, lay upon their parents, and other kindred. The Church (as an elder-ſiſter) ſhews her ſelf ſolicitous, and propounds the matter to Chriſt, as the onely beſt husband for her, the partition-wall being broken down.

Verſ. 9. If ſhee be a wall, wee will build upon her, &c.] Chriſt anſwers, If ſhe be, as ſhe ought to be, ſtrong and well-grounded in the faith, able to bear a good weight laid upon her, as a wall, pillar, and ground of truth, not ſinking or fainting under the heavieſt burden of theſe light afflictions, which are but for a moment; but patient and perſeverant in the faith unto the death; then will I do all for her that may bee done, to make her happy. This ſpeech is ſomewhat like that of Solomon concerning Adonijah, 1 King. 1. If hee ſhew himſelf a worthy man, &c.

We will build upon her a palace of ſilver] The whole bleſſed Trinity will have an hand in building the Church of the Gentiles upon the foundation of the Apoſtles and Prophets, Jeſus Chriſt himſelf being the chief corner-ſtone,Iſa. 51.16. John 6.44. Eſth. 2.20. God plants the heavens, and laies the foundation of the earth, that hee may ſay to Zion, Thou art my people. None can come to Chriſt except God the Father draw him. Chriſt the ſecond perſon is both Authour and Finiſher of our faith, Heb. 12.2. The Holy Ghoſt is the ſame Spirit of faith in David and Paul, 2 Cor. 4.13. and is received by the hearing of faith, Gal. 3.2. Hee is the God of all grace, 2 Pet. 1.19. antecedent, concomitant, ſubſequent: We have nothing of which any of us can ſay, Mihi ſoli debeo, I am not bound to God for it.

And if ſhee be a door, &c.] As ſhee is the houſe of God, and gate of heaven, Gen. 28.17. If ſhee will open the everlaſting doors to the King of glory, Pſal. 24.7. and open a great door and effectual to his faithful Miniſters, 1 Cor. 16.9. who come to build her for an habitation of God through the Spirit, Eſther 2.22. If ſhee open the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in, Iſa. 26.2. then will the Lord Chriſt incloſe her,] board her, and beautifie her with fair, ſweet, and ſtrong cedars, as with curious and coſtly weinſcot, which ſhall be monimentum, munimentum, ornamentum, &c. But all this is promiſed upon condition, that ſhee bee a wall and a door, that is, that ſhee receive and retain Chriſt with her; for otherwiſe ſhee can claim nothing. Hee may deſert her without breach of Covenant, as hee did the old Church, and many particular Churches of the New Teſtament now under the Turk for their perfidy and Apoſtaſie. The Church of Rome, though utterly revolted, yet laies ſtrong claim to Chriſt ſtill; and concludes, I ſit as a Queen, and ſhall ſee no ſorrow. Therefore ſhall her plagues come in one day, &c. For, ſtrong is the Lord God who judgeth her, Rev. 18.7, 8. See the Note there. About the year of grace 1414. Theodoricus Urias an Auguſtine-Frier in Germany, ſaid,Jac. Revius de vit. Pontif. pag. 229. that the Church of Rome was (even ſo long ſince) become ex aurea argenteam, ex argentea ferream, ex ferrea terream, ſupereſſe ut in ſtercus abiret, of gold ſilver, of ſilver braſs, of braſs iron, of iron clay: there remains nothing now, but that of clay ſhee become dung, to be ſwept out of doors with the beeſome of deſtruction.

Verſ. 10. I am a wall; and my breaſts like towers] If ſhee be a wall, ſaith Chriſt; I am a wall, ſaith this Church of the Gentiles: I will carefully keep the Doctrine of truth committed unto me, I will ſtand firm in the faith, being founded upon the rock of ages. And whereas lately I was looked upon as breaſtleſs, verſ. 8. Now my breaſts are faſhioned, Ezek. 16.7. yea, they are grown far greater than thoſe of mine elder ſiſters; ſo that they look like towers. The Church of the Gentiles, though little at firſt, and ſcarce conſiderable, yet after Chriſts aſcenſion, was marvelouſly increaſed and multiplied: ſo that ſhee her ſelf ſtood amazed to ſee her children come from far, flying to her as a cloud, moſt ſwiftly; and in ſuch flocks, as if a whole flight of Doves, driven by ſome hawk, or tempeſt, ſhould ſcour into the columbary, and ruſh into the windows, Iſa. 60.8.

Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour] Heb. peace, even as that Jeruſalemy-Shulamite; nothing inferiour to the old Church: yea, before her in this, that ſhee for preſent is fallen off, and through her fall, Salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealouſie, Rom. 11.11. But when God ſhall have united theſe two ſticks, Ezek. 37.19. and made way for thoſe Kings of the Eaſt, Rev. 16.12. then it ſhall be ſaid of Jacob and Iſrael, What hath God wrought! Numb. 23.23.

Verſ. 11. Solomon had a Vineyard in Baal-hamon] So hath Chriſt in a very fruitful hill, Iſa. 5.1. Solomons Vineyard muſt needs be of the beſt: for hee abounded both with wealth and wit, to make it ſo. Hee let it alſo to farm for a very great rent: which ſheweth the fruitfulneſs of it, ſo many vines ſet for ſo many ſilverlings, Iſa. 7.23. But Solomons Vineyard falls far ſhort of Chriſts (wherewith it is here compared in many reſpects.) For as it is nothing ſo fruitful, ſo hee was fain to let it out to Vine-dreſſers. Hee could not dreſs and manure it himſelf, keep it in his own hands, (as his Father David his, 1 Chron. 27.27.) neither could hee take all the fruit; for the tenants alſo muſt live, and reaſon good: If Solomon have a thouſand, the poor labourers may well have two hundred. But I, ſaith Chriſt here, neither let out the Church my Vineyard, but look to it my ſelf, though I have a great deal of pains with it: nor ſuffer any part of the profits to go from mee; So jealous I am of mine inheritance, being ever in the midſt of it.

Verſ. 12. My Vineyard which is mine, &c.] And therefore moſt dear unto mee:Seneca. for ownneſs makes love. Patriam quiſque amat: non quia pulchram, ſed quia ſuam. Every man loves his own things beſt. The Church is Chriſts own by a manifold right; by donation, conqueſt, purchaſe: not with ſilver and gold: but with the deareſt and warmeſt blood in all his heart, 1 Pet. 1.18. No wonder therefore though ſhee be alwaies before him; though hee look carefully to her that coſt him ſo dear; that hee truſt not others with her (as Solomon was forced to do) but whomſoever hee employs about her (for wee are labourers together with God, ſaith the Apoſtle, Yee are Gods husbandry, 1 Cor. 3.9.) himſelf is ever one: Ipſe adeſt & praeeſt, hee is preſent and preſident: Feed my ſheep, ſaid hee to Peter, but do it for mee, as the Syriack Tranſlatour (reſpecting the ſenſe) addes there, John 21.15. Take not unto thee the inſtruments of a fooliſh ſhepheard, Zech. 11.11. that is, forcipes & mulctram, (as an Ancient ſaith) like thoſe that are more intent, attonſioni gregis quam attentioni, fiſco quam Chriſto. Peter muſt not do any of this: much leſs muſt hee Lord it over Gods inheritance, as his pretended ſucceſſors do; with whoſe carcaſſes therefore Chriſt ſhall ſhortly dung his Vineyard, and water the roots of his vines with their blood: Hee muſt look to lip-feeding, and, when himſelf is converted, ſtrengthen his brethren: neither muſt hee intervert or take to himſelf any part of the fruits, as Solomons farmers did. Hee may not ſeek his own things, but the things of Jeſus Chriſt. Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but, ſith it is God that gives the increaſe, let God reap all the glory: they ſhall alſo reap in due ſeaſon, if they faint not, if they grow not weary of well-doing, Gal. 6.9. See the Note on verſ. 11.

Verſ. 13. Thou that dwellest in the Gardens] i. e. O thou Church univerſal, that dwelleſt in the particular Churches, frequently called Gardens in this book. The French Proteſtants at Lions called their meeting-houſe, Paradiſe.

The companions hearken to thy voyce] The Angels, (ſo ſome interpret it) learn of the Church, and profit in the knowledge of the manifold wiſdome of God in mans redemption, Epheſ. 3.10. 1 Cor. 11.10. 1 Pet. 1.10. Or rather, thy Fellow-Chriſtians, thine obedient children, that will hearken to their mothers counſell: No ſooner can ſhee ſay, Hear and give ear, bee not proud, for the Lord hath ſpoken it, but they give glory to the Lord their God, as Jer. 13.15, 16. glorifie his Word, Acts 13.48. ſet to their ſeals, John 3.33. diſpute not Chriſts commands, but diſpatch them; Illi garriant, nos credamus, ſaid Auguſtine of hereticks that would not bee ſatisfied. The Philoſophers called the Chriſtians, Credentes, Believers, by way of reproach: becauſe they believed God upon his bare word. Wee believe and know, ſaith Peter, John 6.69. And wee believe and ſpeak, ſaith Paul after David, 2 Cor. 4.13. And wee believe and practice, as Noah, and thoſe other Worthies did, Heb. 11.7. laying faith for a foundation of all their doings and ſufferings in and for the Lord, like as Ezra 6.4. the foundation of the Temple was laid with three rows of great ſtones, and a row of new timber. This is the guiſe of the Churches children; they are ſoon perſwaded to beleeve and obey their mother, whom they look upon as the pillar and ground of truth.

Cauſe mee to hear it] See the Note on chap. 2.14. Tremellius renders it, Fac ut me andiant, Cauſe them to hear mee: deliver nothing to them for truth, but what is conſonant to my Word of truth; let all thy doctrines bear my ſtamp, come forth cum privilegeo, carry mine authority. What ſaid Auſtin to an adverſary (it was Fauſtus the Manichee, I trow) what matter is it, what either thou ſaieſt, or I ſay to this or that point? Audiamus ambo quid dicit Dominus, Let us both hear what God ſaith, and ſit down by it.

Verſ. 14. Make haſte my beloved] Heb. Flee or ſpeed thee away, as Amaziah ſaid to Amos, Go flee thee away into the land of Judah, Amos 7.12. And as a Senatour of Hala in Suevia wrote to Brentius, Fuge, fuge, Brenti, cito citius citiſſime, make all poſſible ſpeed, haſte, haſte, haſte: So the Church is at it here, with her Come Lord Jeſus, come quickly—O mora! Chriſte veni. Thus,Auguſtine. as this Book began with a wiſh, ſo it ends. Tota vita boni Chriſtiani ſunctum deſideriumeſt. The whole life of a good Chriſtian is an holy wiſh. Hee loves, and longs, and looks for Chriſts ſecond appearance: and even ſpends and exhales himſelf in continual ſalleys and egreſſions of affection unto him in the mean while. Hee hath taken ſome turns with Chriſt upon thoſe mountains of ſpices (ſo heaven is called, for its unconceiveable height and ſweetneſs) he hath taſted of the grapes of this celeſtial Canaan: hence he is as eager after it,Plut. in vita. Camilli. as once the Gauls were after Italy, when they had once taſted of the ſweet wine of thoſe grapes that grew there. The old character of Gods people, was, they waited for the conſolation of Iſrael, Chriſts firſt comming; [non-Latin text not transcribed] Vide Iſa. 16.5. Septu. Now they long as much for his ſecond, as the eſpouſed maid doth after the marriage, as the Apprentice for his freedom, the captive for his ranſom, the traveller for his Inn, the mariner for the haven, &c. looking for, and haſting the coming of that day of God, 2 Pet. 3.12.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.