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much fuller comprehension. The root is P, tzitz, to blossom or flourish, as on our margin, flourishing.' Hence comes the noun tzitz, for the 'golden plate,' the same with the holy nazar, 'crown' on Aaron's forehead' On himself, on David, the beloved, shall his crown, nazara, (LXX. To 'ayıασμa, sanctification), itziz, LXX. εğavno, flourish;' and it has affinity with natz, to shoot out in sparks, or points, to sparkle, glitter, &c. So the harkim, lattice, from which he flourishes and sparkles, may, as parallel to the windows, be another description of his prefigurative appearances in their consequences or effects, as both warming and comforting the heart with a soft and quickening heat; similar to what, we read, was actually the case in the days of his conversation upon earth. Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talk*ed to us by the way, and opened, divorysy, to us the scriptures? Do we not find the Beloved on this occasion, literally, as it were, carrying into act the present emblematical representation of him, ‘looking through the windows, flourishing, sparkling, through the lattice,' as introductory, by the explication I have given, of what follows.

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VER. 10.-My Beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.

From this, to the 15th verse inclusive is the Beloved's

Lev. viii. 9. tranferred Psalm cxxxii. 18. 2 St Luke xxiv. 32.

loved's speech from the church's mouth; not by way of dialogue, as if he were personally present, but a monody or soliloquy of her own, rejoicing in, and publishing, under a flow of beautiful allusion, his gracious call and invitation to her. The beginning of it, in this verse, needs little or no comment : only I cannot help taking notice of the way and manner, in which that gracious call is here said to be given; not by a bare inward impulse, or a fancied impression on the imagination, as is too often pretended, but described in the same terms, and under the same form with the authoritative dictates and communications which we call 'revela'tion,' as God spake unto Noah, unto Abraham, 'unto Moses, &c. saying;' so here, my Beloved spake and said unto me.' The language is the same; let the same doctrine be drawn from it. Rise up, my love, &c.-Rising, we know, denotes a change of posture, and implies that a previous falling, sitting, or lying, had taken place. The calls of the Beloved oft begin with this: so Isaiah lx. 1. ́ Arise, (p, kumi), shine,' &c. which St Paul thus enlarges upon', Awake, thou that sleepest, and a• rise from the dead.' So said Jesus to the dead Damsel arise.' This not

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girl, Talitha kumi, only points out the meaning of the call, but likewise shews the power given of obedience to it. Of this we have a similar instance, in common life, when we observe a call to, or, as we properly

term

1 Ephes. y. 14.

2 St Mark v. 41.

term it, upon, a person in sleep, working an effect which we see is felt, but can hardly be described. So is the case with the Beloved's call upon the church, and upon every believer. It infuses life, motion, power; not only commands, but enables us to arise. There can be no rising without this call, from sin, security, or the grave. We may slight or reject it', even when we are forced to hear it. The sluggard hears the awakening call; he cannot keep from hearing it, so far it works irre'sistibly' upon him; but his slothful desire after ‘ a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little * more folding of the hands to sleep",' hinders him from complying with it, as does the willing, active, industrious labourer, when awakened from his sleep. We see this hold in things natural, and it does so in things spiritual. There is a difference between hearing and hearkening; the former is an impression on the organs, and must go first, the latter is an operation of the will, and must follow, to produce effect. So is it with the Beloved's call, we may refuse to hearken to it, but we cannot be without hearing it. Rise up and come away— »», leki, leka, come along, the usual Hebrew phrase in such cases. So says our Lord, Come unto me," deure, as we usually say come,' to one another, by way of invitation, not necessarily implying locomotion, or action, in those to whom it is addressed; but,

I Prov. i. 24. Isaiah lxv. 12, &c.

2 Prov. vi. 10.

3 St Matth. xi. 28.

but, (as in the Psalm),

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O come,, leku, deute, ⚫ venite, let us sing; thus exciting, encouraging, prompting, and from the Beloved's mouth, in a peculiar manner, quickening, strengthening, and porting. This dete,Come, ye that labour, and ' are heavy laden,' if from a deep sense of our weak and impotent condition, we attend to, and rejoice in, and comply with it now, will in the end bring us to the joyful sound of that truly powerful and attracting SEUTE, Come-ye blessed of my Father".

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VER. 11.-For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.

There is little occasion for, and less edification by, guessing from such particularities as this, in what season of the year this poem was written; especially as we know, that our seasons do not correspond with those in the land of Judea. In the spiritual view, all that is said here might have been said at any time, as our Saviour's parable of the sower going out to sow,' does not fix the time of The allusions made use of

it to the sowing season.

here are easily interpreted. Winter, we know, is a time of cold and indolence; the face of the earth frozen and chilled, all vegetation stopped, and whatever depends on light, heat, and warmth, in a languishing state. Put all this in a spiritual dress, and it will readily appear what we ought to make

N n

of

VOL. II.

1 Psalm xcv. I.

2 St Matth. xxv. 34.

of it. The church has witnessed, every believer has felt, what the word for winter imports. It seems to come from ♫, sath, to irritate, to stir up, mostly in a bad sense'; so denotes the time of troubles, temptations, rough boisterous assaults; a time ugly and unpleasant in itself, and dangerous in its consequences. The rain is over and gone.-The original word here marks a change of condition, such as is wrought by the call of the Beloved, when the Sun of righteousness dispels the dark, dead, winter state of the soul, dries up the overflowing rains, the black, lowering, uncomfortable face of things, changes it to a pleasant, delightful, vivifying condition; as it follows

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

The earth, in the abstract, as here used, stands in scripture for all nations, all lands, mankind in general, and often for the wicked in distinction. At the time of which the Beloved here speaks, at the voice of his call, the flowers (, hanatznim, the shoots, sparkles, glancings, as above noticed) appear, or are seen upon the earth: not, as in nature, from, or out of, the earth, as its own production, but upon it, as an extraneous induction, adorning and beautifying the face of it. Something of

this

› 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. 1 Kings xxi. 25.

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