pleasure'. These daughters she divides into two classes; the first, such as already under that title were, , in ministration or attendance at the door of the tabernacle, so within the pale, the Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption and the glory3: The second class, including those who were in time to be cloathed with that title, but at present were, ¬¬, among the extraneous things of the Gentile field, those whom the apostle describes as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,' wandering among ailuth, vanities, idols, nothings, unprofitables, &c. These the church, the common mother, teaches, exhorts, charges to look for, and depend upon the rising, awakening of his love, brings it into their view for their instruction, (as by the sound of revelation and early tradition going through all lands, Psalm xix. 4. applied Rom. x. 18.), to prepare and ripen them against the happy time, when the beloved, the desire of all nations, should come, that fulness of time, when these strangers should be made fellow-citizens with the saints,' when the Gentiles should receive the adoption of sons',' and thereby that prophecy of Jeremiah", which I referred to above, should be fulfilled, where he speaks of the hosts of the nations,, sabaoth guim, when the guim, the nations nations shall become sabaoth, ministrators to, attendants upon, worshippers of, the God of Israel'. The words of the Song, then, may be received as a call upon all the faithful members of the church of Christ, to be still waiting for, and relying upon the influences of his love, and communications of his grace; whether they be such as, like the, rose in Sharon, are fresh and blooming, rich in faith and good works, and blest with a more immediate enjoyment of his favour and presence, as at the door of this tabernacle; or such as, like the lily among thorns, are entangled with lusts, passions, and temptations, removed as it were out of his sight, at a kind of distance from him, bewildered among, and grappling with, the ailuth, strong, but fleeting, vain creatures of the shadah, the field, the as yet not fully subdued field, of wild and corrupt nature. In either of these situations, they are here charged to remember the Beloved, to trust to the refreshments of his love, in his own time and way, to wait his pleasure with full assurance of hope, and to go on in his strength, making mention of his righteousness, even of his only *' I have been the longer on this verse, though not too long, I hope, both because of the impor 6 tance 1 The LXX. here seem to have had something like this in view, by their rendering what we read a goodly heritage of the host of na • tions, by κληρονομίαν Θεα παντοκρατορ@ έθνων, * the inheritance of the tance of the subject, as delivered in terms not hitherto, I humbly think, sufficiently explained, and because the words, by the repetition of' them', appear to be not so much in strictness of connexion, as by way of what we would call a chorus in this truly joyful Song, an abrupt exclamation from the rapturous emotions and sensibilities of a touched and warm heart. Many such instances we have in the other songs of inspiration; and some very parallel to the present case 3. These repetitions surely are not for ornament only, or to set off the discourse; but like the well-known Selah, so frequently made use of, to excite contemplation, and fix the attention on the matter in hand- My heart is fixed, O God, (says the Psalmist $) my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.' So says the church here, I charge you, O ye daugh 'ters,' &c. VER. 8. The voice of my beloved; behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. The voice of my beloved-present he was not, yet she heard his voice. There is no need of trope or figure to adjust this to the laws of poetry. The Beloved has a voice of his own, and makes it heard how, Ll VOL. II. I Chap. iii. 5. viii. 4. 2 See Psalm xlvi. 3. 11. lvi. 4. 10. 11. lxxx. 7. 19. and 3 Psalm cvii. 8. 15. 21. 31. 4 MD, dixfarux, LXX. 5 Psalm lvii. 7. and when, and where he pleaseth. It was early heard by the poor trembling offenders, the then church, them, shehurah, in the blackened, grey, duskish, morning state, after the black, grievous night of fellowship with the prince and works of darkness.' They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool (Heb. m, ruhh, the spirit) of day. It is well known, that the Targums, Talmudists, and all the Rabbins interpret this of the *, mimra, the Logos, the church's beloved. This , spirit (marg. wind) is his usual attendant in his walkings- Who walketh upon the wings of the "wind. This wind 3, Toμ, the spirit, bloweth το πνεύμα, where it listeth, '78 Jλ, where he willeth (1 Cor. xii. 11.) and thou hearest the sound, army, voice, thereof,' and none but the Nicodemuses, the unconverted, are in doubt how that can be. It was this voice that made so strong an impression on the great Elijah*. He had stood the wind, when the voice came not: He had stood the earth-quake and the fire: But when the still small voice' came, it was so, that he wrapt his face in his man⚫tle, and went out.' This voice St Paul', calls Xenμatis, the answer,' the oracular answer, of God. The church prays for this voice, and extols the mighty operations of it. And it is carried to 6 her 1 Gen. iii. 8. 2 Psalm civ. 3. See Ezekiel's description of his visions of God,' in his 1st, 3d, and 10th chapters. 3 St John iii. 8. 5 Rom. xi. 4. 4 1 Kings xix. II, 12, 13. Psalm xxix. Psalm lxviii. 33, &c. her (as in matter by the material agent, the air, so in spirituals) by the conveyance of the concomitant spirit. Hence the sacred and significant phrase, word and spirit: The Beloved emits the voice, the spirit transmits it. There is no hearing any voice without air, no hearing of the Beloved's voice but by the assistance of the Spirit: So by means of this communication the church hears the voice of her Beloved, even while leaping upon the mountains, 'skipping upon the hills.' A strange metaphor this, with all the wildness of pastoral poetry' for its excuse, but in divine' compositions, neither unusual nor unmeaning. How beautiful upon 'the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth 'good tidings, that publisheth peace'.' • Oh! * that thou wouldst come down, that the moun'tains might flow down at thy presence.' Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down, touch 'the mountains, and they shall smoke 3. Why, ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, ye hills like young sheep: Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of (, alue) the God of Jacob.' These and such like quotations both justify and help to illustrate the expression before us. The coming, or advent, of a divine person was always the church's faith and prayer. And the old church, in her emblematical L12 Isaiah lii. 7. Nahum i. 15. applied Rom. x. 15. 3 Psalm cxliv. 5. 2 Isaiah lxiv. 1. lan |