heart, as he does by the pen of our bard', 'My

son, give me thy heart;' and that not only from sovereign or paternal authority, but even upon the footing of equity and gratitude, when by the same. pen here, he declares his own heart to be so warmly affected, and wrought upon by our weak and imperfect expressions! Is not this dealing with us as rational beings, possessed indeed of dignified faculties, and, in prophetic style, literally drawing us with cords of love, and bands of a man * ?” Can the most philosophic reason wish for more?

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

A similar address occurs in the beginning of our Song; and though there coming from the mouth of the fair one, and here from the Beloved, the same explication will serve for both. The wine and the ointments are the Beloved's free gift; and from that gratuitous donation, become the spouse's property, exciting, augmenting, and adding value to her loves; (7717, dudike, thy loves, plural), her various displays of it in faith, obedience, dependance, gratitude, and rendering all acceptable to him from, or because of, the merit, not of her faint though sincere exertions, but of his own powerful and holy impressions.

VOL. II.

I Prov. xxiii. 26.

2 D

2 Hosea ix. 4.

VER.

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

We have seen what the lips mean, and what their functions are. They are here exhibited in a character somewhat different from the former description of them, but as from the same hand, so we may believe with the same view. Here they are said to drop honeycomb, (as is not in the original, and neither the LXX. Jerom, nor the Vulgate have it). The word metonymically rendered honeycomb is

6

naphth, from, nuph, the root always used for what is called, in the Levitical dispensation, the Wave-offering, on which so much stress is laid'. This naphth, in the sacred intendment of it, the lips drop teṭhaphne, ( will drop, or let them drop'), from, neph, drop or distil, which is frequently applied to speech. And so from the typical use of the naph, and the metaphorical application of the dropping,' the office assigned to the lips here, may be analogous to what is said of them3, as above, and the one text will explain and

con

1 Exod. xxix. 24. 27. Levit. x. 15. Numb. vi. 20, &c. and is applied, in the general sense of offering, to gold, Exod. xxxv. 22. xxxviii. 24. and to brass, xxxviii. 29.

2 Job xxix. 22. my speech dropped upon them.' Ezek. xx. 46. xxi. 2. Set thy face and drop (thy word) towards, &c. Micah ii. 11. I will prophecy,' Heb. drop- he shall even be the prophet,' Heb. dropper, &c.

3 Heb. xiii. 15.

confirm the other, Honey and milk are under thy tongue-, leshunke, lingua tua, the organ that frames the words, and is often, as here, joined with, and in distinction from, the lips. The delectable nutritive qualities of honey and milk are well known, and flowing with milk and honey' is the current peculiar recommendation of the promised land.' The prophet Ezekiel makes an addition to this, the land that I had espied for them, (had given them, v. 15.) flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: Which, if predicated of the milk and honey, as our connection of the clause runs, and as perhaps is commonly understood, would enhance the value, both real and emblematical, of the milk and honey, by such a lofty epithet. Yet from the construction in the Hebrew, *, tzebi cia, ornamentum decor ipsa, there is more ground to attribute it to the land itself, the holy land, which is meant under this word tzebi, by Jeremiah *, the tzebi, glory, beauty of 'the hosts of nations;' and by Daniel 3, toward the pleasant land;' and, the glorious land,' and 5, the glorious holy mountain";' and which indeed might very justly be stiled the glory of all lands,' as it was long honoured with the residence of the , Chabod Jehovah, the typical glory in the midst of it, and at last had the glory of having the

2 Chap. iii. 19.

4 Chap. xi. 16. 41.

6 Compare Psalm xlviii. 2.

real

real glory, the King of Glory', the glory of Israel, born in it, and from thence dispersing the glory of his light to all lands3. However, as this land, so eminently typical of good things to other lands, is further characterised with the distinction of flowing with milk and honey, gevσav yada naι μɛλı, LXX. 'flowing milk and honey,' actively as it were, we may conclude, that the milk and honey, the copious product of that glorious land, have also a typical meaning: And what that meaning is, as connected here with the tongue, we have scripture in figurative style pointing out to us 4.

The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. It cannot escape the notice of the least attentive reader of scripture, how repeatedly, and in what strong terms, the act, (if we must not call it sense) of smelling, is attributed to Jehovah, and that too in as literal language as could be said of man. The very organ of this sense is given by the sacred writers to Jehovah, E, aph, aphim, nose, nostrils, and in such strong terms of application, that we find the darling attribute in Deity, on which man's comfort is mainly built, his longsuffering, always expressed in conformity, as it were, to the common observation of physiognomists,

1 Psalm xxvii. 10. Te Deum.

3 St Luke ii. 29-32.

2 St John i. 14.

4 Psalm xix. 11. cxix, 103. Prov. xvi. 24. Isaiah Iv. i. 1 St Peter ii, 2. 1 Cor. iii. 2. Heb. v. 12, &c.

5 Exod. xv. 8. 2 Sam. xxii. 9.

mists, by a compound word from this root, NOTIN, ark-aphim, longis naribus, long-nosed, slow to

anger'? As early as the flood, we meet with accounts of Jehovah's smelling. Noah built an altar 'to Jehovah, and offered burnt-offerings on the al'tar, and Jehovah smelled a sweet savour,' (Heb. , rihh enihhe, alluding to Noah's name, ♫3, nahh, rest, literally, a smell of rest'), and Jehovah said in his heart 3,' &c. After this first mention of it, we find it so often occurring, either affirmatively or negatively, that it would be superfluous to quote all the 4.' passages The smell here in the Song is said to be like the smell of Lebanon.' So says Hosea of Israel, his beauty as the olive

6

tree, and his smell as Lebanon ;' which, from the proper signification of Lebanon, is easily explained. But what principally concerns us at present, is to ob

serve

I Exod. xxxiv. 6. Num. xiv. 18. Psal. lxxxvi. 15. ciii. 8. Joel'ii. 13, &c. 2 Gen. viii. 20. 21.

3 Here, by the bye, I would ask, Who could tell Moses what Jehovah said in his heart, but Jehovah himself? And is not this inspiration? So more than tradition, by which some would be calculating that Moses might have had all his knowledge of past things.

4 See, inter alia, Exod. xxix. 18. Levit. i. 9. iv. 31. vi. 15. Numb, &c. a sweet savour to Jehovah;' and negatively, Levit, xxvi, • I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.'

xv. 3,

31.

Amos v. 21. 'I will not smell in your assemblies.' Compare Isaiah i. 11. Jerem. vi, 20, &c. And in this typical acceptation it is applied by St Paul to the Passion of Christ-Ephes. v. 2. to the preaching of the gospel-2 Cor. ii. 15. to the offices of Christian charity-Philip. iv. 18. orun svadias, as the LXX. always render the Hebrew.

5 Chap. xiv. 6.