serve whence this smell proceeds, of which the Beloved thus speaks in such a high strain of commendation. The smell of thy garments-w, shalmthika, from, shalm, the word for peace, and the root of Solomon's name; probably because of, and in allusion to, that gracious act of Jehovah Aleim, the Lord God making coats of skins (whatever these were) to clothe the first offenders'; and in that emblematical way restoring them to his peace and favour. This is the first time we find any thing done for man under the idea of cloathing or garments; and keeping in our minds the general sense of it, (whatever disputable interpretations it may bear), as an immediate act of divine goodness, would be of great use to us in many of our pious meditations; It would let us see the propriety of the advice, I counsel thee to buy of me-white 'raiment, (Maria, garments), that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do 'not appear.' And buying, we know, (especially in the 'prophet's style 3, without money and with• out price,' which is all the buying we are capable of in this case), is always a sign of peace between the parties. It would give us a just idea of the wedding-garment in the parable, about which so much has been said, and the want of which was so fatal: And it would discover to us the particular beauty 1 Gen. iii. 21. 2 Revel. iii. 18. 4 St Matth. xxii, 12. beauty of that part of the prodigal son's reception', where the father, as the first testimony of his taking back the poor penitent into his peace, says to the servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on ' him,' y son y gwny, the robe, the first one, the robe of God's making, the robe of peace, mercy, and pardon, that man was first clothed and covered with, in his shamefully naked state. We We may learn from all this, what the church's garments are, and whence to be had; not of her own providing, any more than the clothing of the first church was; but prepared and bestowed by the same hand, by him who was anointed to give the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, by him who ' clothes his church with the garments of salvation, and covers her with the robe (xTwα, LXX. coat) ' of righteousness 5. Of what righteousness? Not her own; for that, by her own confession, is but 'filthy rags;' neither sufficient for covering, nor of agreeable odour, nor of decent appearance; but the righteousness of him who is Jehovah our righteousness, who is made unto us-righteousness, even Jesus Christ the righteous, the garments from his wardrobe have a fragrant and delightful smell. 6 The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. I St Luke xv. 22. 2 See Ezek. xvi, 1—13. 3 Isaiah lxi. See the application, St Luke iv. 18. 4 Ver. 3. Isaiah 1xiv. 6. SI Cor. i. 30. 5 Ver. 10. 7 Jerem. xxiii. 6. 91 St John ü. 1. How How is this to be understood? Let Moses explain Solomon': 'Isaac smelled the smell of Jacob's raiment, and blessed him; and said, See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed,' &c. This is a most important (may I be permitted to say, much mistaken) business; and moral philosophy has censured both Jacob and his mother for their conduct in it. But a look from Amana, an eye of faith, will perceive a secret direction of divine counsel in the whole process of it; and Moses has given us a key to discover the direction which the mother was under, in what share she took in carrying it on 3: Esau hated Jacob-and Esau said in his heart-and these words of Esau were told to Rebekah,' &c. I again ask, as above in the case of Noah, who could have told Rebekah this, but he who knows the secrets of all hearts? and who, we may therefore conclude, had put it into her heart to do all she had done in the matter. I could adduce other similar instances, where such apparently little insertions, like the fine lines of a picture that are often overlooked in our admiration of the capital strokes, will, upon a nearer survey, be found the discriminating features to point out the beauty, and ascertain the design of the whole piece. terious transaction where Isaac smelled the smell of his son's raiment, let us examine it, in all the circumstantials attending it, and we shall see how explicatory it is of the noble simile we have under consideration, and how instructive in many particulars worthy of our notice. The raiment upon Jacob, of which Isaac, the blesser, (one of the ancestors, and in this affair an eminent type, of him in whom all nations were to be blessed'), was so well pleased with the smell, was not Jacob's own, but was borrowed of set purpose. Rebekah took 'goodly raiment,' (n, bagdi ehhamdth, TM 50λY TYY xaλny, LXX. the fair robe,' vestes concupiscibiles, garments of desire, the Desire, ♫, hhamdath, of ' all nations *'), 'goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, and put them upon Jacob.' Esau was a first-born, entitled in that character of primogeniture, to singular privileges; and to this character we find his father Isaac, from natural impulse at first, paying particular regard. The garments therefore were Esau's, not his ordinary, or hunting dress, for he was abroad in that dress at the time, but what we might call his sacerdotals, robes of dignity and office, and his mother had the keeping of them they were with her in the house 3' These old typical mothers had great prerogatives, and were much employed in many of the then solemnities of the divine œconomy. VOL. II. 2 E I Gen. xxii. 18. Gal. iii. 8. 16. They often gave 2 Hag. ii. 7. compare Psalm xlv. 8. 3 Ver. 15. gave significant names to their sons, and assigned significant reasons for so doing. Hence the spiritual intendment of Honour thy father and 'thy mother,' (not the least difference marked), and of Solomon's direction still more particular', My son, hear the instruction of thy fa❝ther, and forsake not the law of thy mother.' It was the law (, ture, disposition, appointment) of the mother here", Obey my voice, and go,' that procured the blessing to Jacob, by her disposal (from divine impulse) of the garments to which it belonged. These robes of the first-born seem to have had certain marks of distinction, which Rebekah believed, as it turned out in the event, the father would perceive, and act accordingly. It was the raiment, therefore, or the son under the raiment, the raiment of the first-born 3, that Isaac irreversibly blessed, from the smell, and that smell described by a most apposite and edifying parallel'the smell of a field that the Lord hath blessed ;' not inherent in, or naturally belonging to, the field, but communicated to it, and impressed upon it, by the blessing of Jehovah. From all which joined together, and taken in the principal and effective view of the whole affair, we cannot miss, as individuals, to draw this useful, however much neglected, lesson, that unless we appear before our hea venly I Prov. i. 8. 2 Gen. xxvii. 13. 3 See Rom. viii. 29. Col. i. 15. Heb. i. 6. xii. 23. Exod. iv. 22. referred to by Hosea xi. 1. and applied by St Matth. ii. 15. |