6 schemes; and therefore, though undoubtedly the effect of some cause, yet as being still dark and obscure, may be referred to the old solution of occult qualities: And if this shall be found the case in things natural, how much more so in what is the present object of our notice, things spiritual? Sure I am, there is a conclusion of this kind drawn by One who, though not a professed philosopher, yet knew as much about nature as any one else ever did, or ever will know: and he thus argues, The wind (To μ, the spirit) bloweth where it listeth, (he willeth), and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it (he) cometh, nor whether it (he) goeth; so is every one that is born ' (Ex TY TYEUμLAT) of the spirit'.' Here, whatever shall become of the trite analogy thought to be in this text, but to be found only in our English way of rendering the same word, and with the article too, by wind, in the beginning of the verse, and by spirit in the end of it, which indeed forms a sort of analogy, we have an effect ascertained, and the efficient assigned, but the manner of the operation declared to be unknown and occult. May not this lead to a discovery of the spouse's tzephun, occult agent, who works when, and where, and how he willeth, acting in his assumed character of m, rukk, TVμa, spiritus, ventus, spirit, wind, blowing, breathing and inspiring. We have two prophetic allusions pointing this way, which it may be useful to take I St John iii. 8. ανεμοι, 6 take notice of. In that grand vision exhibited to Ezekiel, he tells us, he looked and behold a whirlwind, ( 17, ruhh sode, von Bia, a rushing mighty wind'), came out of tzephun, the north,' and ushered in the appearance of the four cherubic living creatures '.' The other is in Zechariah *, ‘These are the four spirits (Heb. ruhhuth, LXX. Jerom and the marg. ' winds'), of 'the heavens, " &c. behold these that go toward 'the north country have quieted my spirit (enihhu ́ath ruhhi, Heb. avetauσav LXX. requiescere fece ́runt, Lat. made my spirit rest) in the north coun• try, aretz trephun, the land of the tzephun :' Which happy land, the northern parts of the earth, in these prophetic times, occult, as it were, and not reached to by the Sun of righteousness, now blessed with the spirit of Jehovah resting in them, have long distinguishingly been, still are, and may they by his blessing long continue to be ! But before proper application can be made of the explication I have offered, we must take a look at the other branch of this call. Awake, tzephun, come thou south, p, timn, from imn, the right hand. I have already said enough about the importance of the right hand, which may serve to elucidate the junction here, not as addressing or in I Ch. i. 4. 3 Rev. v. 6. 8, &c. 5 Ver. 8. 2 Acts ii. 2. invoking two opposite winds at one time, which in fact would be impossible, and therefore absurd in wish, but as describing the same agent, blower, breather, ruhh, spirit, wind, under different appellations, and in what we might call different attitudes, yet all with the same view, and to the same gracious effect. There is something serviceable to our purpose, as relative to this second appellation in Zachariah's vision, where the four ruhhuth are said to go forth from standing py, ol adun3, before, or by the Lord of the whole earth,' the Adoni, to whom Jehovah said, Sit thou on my right hand. Accordingly this Adon, (or made Lord 3), tells his disciples, that he will send to them, the Comforter, the spirit of truth, the ruhh, who to execute his undertaken office in the concerted scheme of mercy, proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Ruhh Tzephun, the occult agent, who coming from, and in co-operation with the timn, the influences of the , aish, the man, person of the right hand, silently and where not wilfully resisted, effectually, epihh5, TV, spirat, breathes in and upon the garden of the church, collectively and individually, to exhale and sweeten the fragrancy of his own infused odours, and thereby prepare an agreeable entertainment, a savour of " rest,' VOL. II. 1 Compare Gen. xviii. 2. 3 Acts ii. 36. 2 H 2 Psalm cx. 1. lxxx. 18. 4 St John xv. 26. xvi. 7. 5 See this explained above, chap. ii. 3. 17. rest,' for the spirit of her beloved Adon, in the midst of her'. It is well known how necessary and effective the occult qualities (occult still to the most piercing eye of philosophic investigation) of the material ruhh, air, spirit, wind, are to produce, ripen, and perfect flowers, spices, or aromatic shrubs, and to inspire into them the delicious smells, tastes and flavours, for which they are severally in such esteem; and the attentive christian will readily discover a parallel in the spiritual system. We have a grand exemplification of the force and influence of this agent in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, So I prophesied as I was 'commanded3, and the breath (, ruhh, wind) came into them, and they lived. This same prophet gives us a beautiful conjunction of the two capital parts of the description before' us*, • Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you'-' and I will put a new spirit within you. • St Matth. xviii. 20. ' 2 Chap. xxxvii. 3 Ver. 10. 4 Chap. xxxvi. 25. 26. 5 St John iii. 5. CHAP. CHAP. V. VER. 1.-I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O Beloved. THE division of the chapters here is no advantage to the poem: The last verse of the fourth, and this first of the fifth, might have made a short chapter like the 117th Psalm. This verse is a gracious answer from the Beloved to the spouse's affectionate invitation, and expressed much in the same language. No further explication, therefore, being necessary, I shall only offer a few observations. The spouse, in her call to the winds, had named the garden her own, blow upon my garden, but in her address to the Beloved, she calls it his garden, and he adopts the specification, I am come into my garden. Does not this change of style suggest the propriety, if not the necessity, of the Spirit's (the ruhh, wind) antecedent breathing or blowing, to fit and prepare the church for becoming the property, the peculium of her Beloved, thus |