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The similitude we have now before us is like pil'lars of smoke.' Smoke, we are told, was a frequent attendant on the manifestations of Jehovah. So it was in that great transaction with Abraham':' So at the descent on Mount Sinai : So in Isaiah's vision of the Lord in glory 3: So in the embleınatical language of the Psalmist *, and particularly in the very words before us by the prophet Joel, cited and applied by St. Peter 5, blood and fire, and 'pillars of smoke". It is true, the word smoke, in our acceptation, conveys a disagreeable idea, and in scripture often implies terror and wrath, where it is said, the jealousy of the Lord shall smoke against that man,' &c. But here it is sweetened, and the signification limited, by the addition in the context-perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant. There was a typical

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its favour, reverse this specious hypothesis, and suppose the scripturestyle, with its finely expressive similitudes, which Jehovah had exhibited to the understandings, and infused into the pens of his ready writers,' (Ps. xlv. 1.) to have been the original standard of imitation to those, who could steal the form, though they knew nothing of the design, and could, and did pervert both the style and the subject of the true God's revelations, to serve the ruinous purposes of the old deceiver?

I Gen. xv. 17.

2 Exod. xix. 18. 4 Psalm xviii. 8. cxliv. 5. 6 Joel ii. 30.

3 Isaiah vi. 4.

5 Acts ii. 17. 19.

7 Deut xxix. 20.

3 Perfumed-nupp, mequthert: It is this feminine termination that has led the LXX. to give the whole a feminine turn, and which our translators, if our language had had the feminine signs, seem to have adopted. But the particle n, mem, in the beginning of the word, may

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action instituted under the same word', Take ⚫ unto thee sweet spices, with pure frankincense, ' and thou shalt make a perfume.' And, that this perfume was to represent, not the virtues of the of ferer, but the merits of CHRIST, his love, obedience, or sweet savour, we may gather from the particular exclusive care expressed about it. "Ye shall not • make to yourselves after the composition thereof; ' it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord; whosoever shall make like unto it, to smell thereto, shall be cut off from his people.' There was a holy ointment likewise appointed to be made, of myrrh and other ingredients, for anointing the sacred furniture, and under the same restrictive penalty. Here we see the use, intent, and application of myrrh and frankincense, as principal ingredients, in conjunction with other sweet spices, expressed here by all powders of the merchant. The word for powders is pas, from pas, abaq, the word for that action of the Divine appearance with Jacob, which we render wrestling; and so, from its junction here with myrrh and frankincense, points out its pertinency to the object of this description." From

be not the He-emantic formative of the participle, but the preposition, from, or with, as in what follows, npax han, mecol abequt, with or from all powders, &c. So the meaning will be, that the pillars, spires, vapour (as in the LXX. of Joel, and in the Acts) of smoke, arise myrrh and frankincense,' &c.

from the fumes of

2 Ver. 37.

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From all which we may, I think, justly enough conclude, that this passage exhibits to us a representation of the beloved in some of the characters of his assumed humanity, to which the ointment and perfume, and wrestling powders, did, by promise and œconomy, more immediately belong. And on what part of this wonderful character can we more readily and consistently fix our eye, than on his mighty resurrection and glorious ascen'sion? His resurection, I say, from the , the grave, hell, state of the dead, that wilderness, midbar, desolate land of silence', to which his body went down with an embalmment of myrrh and aloes, and where he wrestled with, and triumphed ' over him that had the power of death? Whether Nicodemus had, or had not a view to the antecedent types in this preparation of his, we need be under no difficulty to call it a fulfilling of the scriptures, when we remember, that upon a certain piece of behaviour in the soldiers, who certainly knew no more of these things than Nicodemus did, the same Evangelist tells us, All these things 'were done that the scripture might be fulfilled.' Let us likewise take in, as I said, his subsequent ascension, since we have St Peter's warrant, quoted above, for bringing in the prophet Joel's 'pillars of smoke,' upon an occasion, which was consequent upon, and the effect of, this ascension; and since the

Psalm lxxxviii. 19, LÍ, 12. 3 Heb. ii. 14.

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St John xix. 39. 4 St John xix. 36.

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the psalmist foretels this ascension, under the same word used here, y, thou hast gone up. To strengthen which application, it may be observed, that both the Psalmist and Apostle mention gifts ' unto men,' along with this ascension; and the writer of our Song, in what follows, as we shall see when we come to it, speaks in the same strain. So then, if the Psalmist looks forward, as it is acknowledged he in many places does, to the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, why may we not believe that Solomon, if under the same inspiration, does so too; when in words, which, by scripture usage, have a manifest relation that way, and which no boldness of metaphor can make sense of otherwise, he puts the question, no matter into what mouth, Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness?"

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VER. 7.-Behold his bed, "which is Solomon's, threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiants of Israel.

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

Although the explication I am offering neither requires nor supposes a regular chain of connexion between the various parts of this admirable Song,

1 Psalm 1xviii. 18.

2 So applied by St Paul, Ephes. iv. 8.

yet

yet I cannot help perceiving something, if not of connexion, at least of reference here, to what had gone before, though not indeed so apparent from the general run of the translations, Who is this

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'that cometh up,' &c. Behold his which is Solomon's, &c.-Our translation calls this a bed; and some paraphrasts, seeing the incongruity of this with what follows, would have it to be a bridal раvilion, conveyed upon wheels, though without any authority for the one more than for the other. There is something spoken of belonging to Solomon, and described too with all the pomp of military attendance. But that it should be either a common bed or royal pavilion, I see nothing either in the word, or in the context, to make us infer. The word is D, in regimine, from , mathe, the same as that, upon which Jacob worshipped', upon which he strengthened himself and sat2; and into which he gathered up his feet when he died': In all which places our translation calls it bed; though in the first of these texts, the LXX. have given it a different rendering, which an apostle has sanctioned, by saying, that Jacob worshipped upon the top of his STAFF.' This indeed is the radical and most common signification of our present word,, mathe, rod, staff, and by metaphor from the twelve rods, tribe.' In this radical

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VOL. II.

1 Gen. xlvii. 31.

3 Chap, xlix. 33.

of his STAFF.'

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5 Numb. xvii. 2.

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2 Chap. xlviii. 2.
4 Heb. xi. 21.

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