venly Father in the garments of our elder brother, described as above, and these garments put upon us by our spiritual mother, who has the keeping of them, we have no title to ask or expect our heavenly Father's blessing. Upon the whole, let us carry all these typical circumstances of this historical fact, into spiritual application, and it will appear how pertinent they are to the church, in every point of view, and what light they throw upon the Beloved's rapturous declaration here in the Song-the smell of thy garments, like the smell of Lebanon,

VER. 12. A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

A new run of similes here, and every one of them highly descriptive and proper. A garden enclosed,, gan noul, Heb. uηãos xenλeloμevos, LXX. hortus obseratus, Latin. It is well known what a figure garden, both name and thing, makes in sacred history, and in heathen mimickry. In the sacred page indeed, almost coeval with creation, The Lord God planted a (gan) garden in Eden ' eastward.' Justly therefore may it be said of this original garden, as is said in another application', This was Jehovah's doing,' and (we may warrantably add) marvellous in the first eyes that beheld it.' We have from an inspired pen, an elegant, (though not fully understood) description

2E 2

of

Psalm cxviij. 23.

of this marvellous and mystical inclosure, and of Adam's connexion with it, which we read' was 'to dress it and keep it,' but rather, as the words by grammar may, and every thing considered, must, in propriety bear,' to serve (Jehovah) and observe (his will) there,', lobde uleshamre, servire et servare ibi, colere et studere in ea,' to 'worship and study in it.' It is in vain now to look for the local situation of this delicious spot, whatever extent it might have had; as every attempt that way must fail, and can be of no use. One thing seems plain, and will be generally acknowledged, that, from this early original, are derived all the fanciful imitations, the gardens of the Hesperides, of Alcinous, &c. which we meet with in fabulous antiquity: And it would appear that the old serpent, who first broke into Jehovah's plantation, and wrought such mischief in it, had carried off a plan of it, and taught his deluded followers to copy it under his direction, and pervert it to his service. For we find grievous complaints in scripture of this diabolical abuse, and severe threatenings against it': But Jehovah reclaims it, both in name and design, to himself, as the first inventor, and consequently the rightful 'proprietor of it. And the Beloved here, in its emblematical intendment, and under the idea of protection or defence, (which in its verbal form it is

fre

r Gen. 1. 15.

Isaiah i. 29. lxv. 3. lxvi, 17. &c.

frequently used to denote '), applies it to the church. The Mosaic account of the first garden, in its most conspicuous parts, will discover to us the rationale of this application. But there is a restriction, and a very necessary one, added-a garden inclosed, not left open by way of common, but shut, closed in, and secured, as by bolts and bars, which the word noul signifies, or, as it is rendered in the next chapter, lock. So the church is a sacred plantation for religious service and devout observance, divided and separated from the common of the world by hedges and fences3, secured by bolts and bars from violent or cunning intruders, and to be entered in no other way than by one proper door*,

A garden inclosed, a spring shut up- (inclosed, noul, the same word as before): A spring, 72, gel, rather a flowing, rolling, (like the Latin, fluctus,' from fluo '), so, in application to the church, may signify a continuance of succession and rolling on, as the poet describes his river, in omne volubilis ævum, rolling on to the end of time. A fountain sealed-a fountain, fons, LXX. Heb. v, moin, from ry, eye of water, or as our vulgar call a well-eye. Under this word of the Song, we have two gracious promises With joy shall ye draw

oin, the

eye; so the

water

12 Kings xix. 34. xx. 6. Isai. xxxi. 5. Zech. ix. 15. xii. 8.

2 Ver. 5.

3 Psalm 1xxx. 12. Isaiah v. 2. 5, St Matth. xxi. 33. St Mark xii. 1.

4 St John x. 1-9.

Isaiah xii. 3.

pro

'water out of the (moinuth) wells of salvation;' and "a fountain (moin) shall come forth of the house of 'the Lord.' Under another word for fountain, P, mequur, Jehovah describes himself, They • have forsaken me, the (mequur) fountain of liv'ing waters.' So says the Psalmist 3, With thee ' is the fountain (mequur) of life.' And so the phet*, * In that day there shall be a fountain (mequur) opened to the house of David:' Both words meaning the same thing, but conveying that meaning in a different form, though to the same purpose, as is usual in the Hebrew language. The word belonging to Jehovah, mequur, from P, quur, to dig, may signify the reservoir that contains the water. The word attributed to the church here, moin, from oin, the eye, may denote the coming out, appearance, visibility, of the water, from the mequur of Jehovah. This moin, fountain, is here said to be sealed,, hhathum, εσgayoμe, LXX. obsignatus, Latin. There is none of all the metaphors taken from civil use, or the knowledge of things natural, that is more closely or emphatically applied to things spiritual, than this of sealing; and the seals ' of the covenant,' however much misunderstood, is common, and in one sense very proper style, Every one knows the import of sealing in the affairs of this life, especially in confirming a deed, and establishing a property. The Old-Testament part of scrip

* Joel iii. 18.

3 Psalm xxxvi. 9« ́

2 Jerem. ii. 13. xvii. 13,

4 Zech. xiii. I,

scripture affords repeated instances of both its design and antiquity, and the New Testament is full and frequent in accommodating it to the case before us. It is there applied to Christ, the Head of his spouse, the church, in his assumed character of Son of man'. St Paul applies it, and by the samé operation, to the church, He who stablish⚫eth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, (paywaμ), and

given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.' So again, In whom after that ye believed, ye were • sealed (εPayne) with that holy Spirit of promise4;' and ', ' Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, by whom ye are sealed (aye) to the day ' of redemption.' The beloved disciple had a visionary exhibition of this emblematical action", Sealing the servants of God in their foreheads." Upon the warrant therefore of so much scripture authority, the truly primitive church had a practice (founded upon apostolic institution, and continued to this day) of representing this benedictive act, by the solemn laying on of the hands of the Bishop, the angel of the apocalypse"; which sacred rite, in the Greek part of the church was, in conformity to scripture style, called (opgayoμa), sealing; and in the Latin part to the same sense, obsignatio, till by degrees,