My soul made me like-placed me, "w, nephshi, my soul, the affections, emotions, desires of the heart, of the whole frame, and which, from the connexion here, may pass for a counterpart to the fair one's repeated appellation, him whom my sout loveth. Something like this was predicted of him', where the prophet speaks of his making his soul ⚫ an offering for sin,' and 'pouring out his soul un'to death;' and which was realized, when he said3, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.' ८ Or ever I was aware, la idothi, oux ɛyvw, LXX. nescivi, Jerom, I did not know.' What we are to make of this I cannot say, unless, upon the footing of the explication I am offering, we may be allowed to refer it literally to the childhood of his humanity-state, as if meaning to express, that the ardency of his soul was not the mere result of deliberative knowledge, or of that wisdom in which he advanced as well as in stature was congenial with it, and originally impressed upon it; as he had before said by the pen of his type David, Thy law is within my heart,' (marg. in the midst of my bowels "). Now, let us put all this together; and, though we should not be able to fix any particular point of application, there will appear in general a hearty desire (it is the Belov but ed's Isaiah liii. 10. 3 St Matth. xxvi. 38. 5 Psalm xl. 8. 2 Ver. 12: 4 St Luke ii. 52. chariots of ed's own expression') to employ his salvation,' to the utmost extent of the prophet's bold metaphor, for the benefit of his people, whose wills his powerful grace has inclined to the obedience of the gospel; and even, as it were, to assign them over to his willing people,' to be reckoned, in a manner, their property. • Work out, TY EQUTWY σwingia, vestrum ipsorum salutem, your own sal'vation :' For it is God that worketh in you, ' both to will and to do.' 6 εαυτων VER. 13. Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite ? as it were the company of two armies. This seems to be a sudden unconnected start, as we might call it, of poetic rapture; and there are many such, which have their meaning within themselves, independent, in a great measure, on the context. It is needless to be enquiring who was the speaker here, or whither the fair one was going when she was thus addressed. Return, O Shulamite, n, a beautiful inflection from Solomon, given to the church, under the feminine termination as a woman, the name of Solomon, like ' christian' from Christ. To him that overcometh 'will I give a new name written" I will write upon him my new name3. And happy were it for the 1 St Luke xxii. 15. 2 Rev. ii. 17. 3 Chap. iii. 12. the church, both in her collective and individual capacity, if she carefully and constantly remembered her being the Shulamite, the favourite of her Solomon, and were thereby induced to act up to the full import of that name, in compli ance with, and as the effect of, the precious legacy which he bequeathed to her, when he said', 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.' mahanim. Return that we may see thee. So the church may be seen, consequently must be a visible church. And some particulars are visible too about her. As it were a company of two armies,, kemehalt This rendering of ours, two armies, would seem to point to the trite distinction of church militant and triumphant.' But two is not in the text, and added only on the fancy of a dual number in Hebrew, as there is in Greek. Thus in Genesis, where we first meet with the word mahanim, we read it mahanaim, and on the margin have translated it two hosts, or camps;' though there might be found in the same chapter the numeral word for two added, shani mahanuth, two bands.' It was on a most solemn occasion, that old Jacob called a famous place by this name The angels of God met him: And, when he saw them, he said, This is God's host, and he called the name of that place Mahanim'—not camps or hosts, hosts, neuter, but encampers,' active; in allusion to which, the Psalmist tells us', The angel of the Lord, n, haneh, encampeth round about them that fear him.' But this is not the first time that Jacob was blessed with such a vision: For long before this, when by his mother's direction he fled to Haran, for fear of his brother Esau, we read3, that' at a certain place by the way, he 'saw in his sleep a ladder set upon the earth, and 'the top of it reached unto heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending upon it: To which, I think, we may fairly presume that our Saviour looked back, when he said to Philip and Nathanael, Hereafter ye shall see the 'heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.' Here we have the same wonderful sight described in the same words, and consequently with the same view, pointing out the Son of Man as the ladder of communication between heaven and earth. It was at this time, and under the impression of this mysterious exhibition, with all the gracious circumstances attending it, that Jacob, on his awaking out of sleep, vowed that famous vow 5 which has been so frequently and fervently recommended to general imitation, though one should think, not upon quite solid ground, either from the construction or Psalm xxxiv. 8. 3 Gen. xxviii. 12. 2 Gen. xxvii. 43. nature 5 Gen. xxviii. 20, 21, 22, nature of it. If God will be with me, and will 'keep me in this way that I go, and will give 'me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that 'I come again to my Father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.' Here we stop, and take this to be the matter of the vow, upon the conditions mentioned, which, by the alternative if, upon their failing, annulled the obligation of the VOW. Is this consistent with Jacob's piety, or a pattern for us to follow, to be bargaining, as it were, with Jehovah? Indeed with such as think themselves of high enough rank to covenant with their Maker, such freedom of language might pass: But the humble christian will boggle at it, and be more inclined to adopt Joshua's unconditional resolution', 'As for me, and my house, we will serve 'Jehovah.' Besides this semblance of impropriety, it appears that, in these patriarchal times, vowing always implied a promise to give something to Jehovah; as is plain from all the accounts we have of the practice, as well as from the frequent calls upon the people to pay their vows; and is in fact the case in the present instance, tho' the too soon inserting the then, which there is no ground for in the original, keeps it out of sight. If God will be with me and if Jehovah will be my God, »nbxb, li La leim, for Aleim, God to me, (Jacob knew well what that connexion meant), then this stone shall ⚫ be God's house; and of all that thou givest me, I |