imputed to him) that shall flourish like the palmtree. It is the seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful, whom the Beloved of the Song, the Jesus of St Paul, takes hold of in all its branches, to the fullest extent of meaning that the apostle's words will bear. And here I cannot but take particular notice of that visible peculiarity of style with which this declaration of the Beloved is introduced, I said, I will go up-I will take hold, not to be met with again in all the Poem; but exactly similar to, and corresponding with, the Psalmist's language', Mine ears hast thou opened-then said I, Lo, I 'come.' If we shall be allowed to suppose that Solomon had seen this piece of his father's composition, which, if not certain, is at least very probable, it will be no great stretch to conclude, that he had copied this bold stroke of the Psalm into his Song, with the same view, and, under another figure, to the same purpose. And as he would see, that his father could not speak so of himself, in his natural person, which in this instance is universally allowed, it must be allowed also, that Solomon speaks not this of himself, or in his own natural person; consequently, not in the literal, but in an emblematical sense, of which I think St Paul has given us a satisfactory explication, at least till some able commentator shall produce a better.

VER.

1 Palm xl. 7.

VER. 8. Now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of

the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples.

VER. 9. And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my Beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

This fine description, in all its parts, we see by the connexion shall be, is the consequence of the taking hold, and gives in general a noble idea of the privileges and advantages which the church derives from that wonderfully important circumstance. The latter part of the eighth verse has been considered already, as may be seen in the passages where breasts, wine, and apples, have occurred. But what to make of this ninth verse is the question. It certainly has a meaning, and a lofty one too, tho' perhaps not reached by expositors, nor agreed in by translators. Attempts have been made, by changing some of the capital words, on the rash, but too common supposition, of an error having, as they phrase it, crept into the text, to force some kind of sense upon it. For my own part, I am not ashamed to acknowledge my not being able to give it what I would think a proper explanation; at the samę time that some of the leading words present something to my mind, which I cannot well express. Thus, the roof of thy mouth here, points to the same word used before', His mouth is most sweet,' 2 R2

and

Chap, v. 16.

6

and', 'his fruit sweet to my taste.' The Beloved now returns these praises to his fair one's mouth; and, by the long deduction that follows in this difficult verse, seems to enlarge upon the compliment he had paid her before, Sweet is thy voice,' and repeated3, Thy speech is comely.' That goeth down sweetly, is applicable enough to good wine, but not agreeable to the text-, eulk lemishrim, nogevoμev✪ AS EUĴutηta, LXX. vadens ad rectitu→ dines, Montanus; literally, going (no down in 'the word) to the upright. But the great difficulty in the way of a clear and unexceptionable interpretation, is the position of ", le Dudi, for my Beloved, which coming from the Beloved's own mouth, as the whole of the verse certainly doės, has puzzled expositors how to reconcile it either to grammar or propriety. Yet besides this, I find another word of doubtful character where it stands, the word, dubb, which we read causing to speak.' This is the only place where this root occurs in the verbal form. As a noun it is but rare, only in nine texts, in all of which it is rendered infamy, evil report, slander,' &c. The versions give little assistance here: Arias Montanus has it,

2 Chap. i. 4. The upright, mishrim, love thee. See what is said above upon that verse, where there is mention made of wine, and the mentioning it here may have a reference to the meaning there, so that th may afford a mutual illustration of each other.

loquifaciens labia dormientium,' from which we have taken our causing the lips of them that are asleep to speak. The LXX. by a strange turn võ χείλεσί μου και οδουσιν, • sufficient for my lips and 'teeth.' And Jerom, by one equally as strange, ' vi'num dignum dilecto meo ad potandum, labiisque ⚫et dentibus illius ad ruminandum-wine worthy "of Beloved for drinking, and for his teeth and lips to rúminate upon All seeming to take this only once occurring word in a good sense, which is rather arbitrary. Let me, after such différence, hazard a rendering on the basis of its common ac'ceptation in a bad sense The speech of the

my

church flowing in love to the upright, but of evil report, or slandered by the lips of the sleepers." It is well known what opinion Solomon, in his Proverbs, forms of the slothful or steepers, and what stress he lays upon the lips, for either a good or bad purpose. From all this together, there arises in my mind, a meaning which I have thus endeavoured to put into words, though I will not risk the attempt, in which others have failed, of solving every difficulty, or making out a satisfactory explanation of this mysterious passage.-Quod intelligo adoro, quod non intelligo admiror.

VER. 10.—I am my Beloved's, and his desire is towards me.

The church now, after such strong declarations of affection and praise, breaks forth into her former

extatic

extatic rapture of grateful exultation, I am my Beloved's, with this new addition of consolatory assurance, his desire is towards men by, oli tesh• ad me

uqtu, Heb. εn' εμε η επιστροφή αυτού, LXX. 'conversio ejus,' Jerom. This word is early made use of by Jehovah himself, on a most solemn occasion of mercy and judgement mingled together '— teshuqtaka,thy desire shall be to thy husband,' in a sense of matrimonial connexion, and applicable enough to the use of it before us, For though, both in that declaration to our old mother, and in the amazingly condescending expostulation with Cain, where this word is used', 'Unto thee shall 'be his desire,' there is certainly an intimation of subjection incompatible in the present case; it is to be observed, that such an intimation does not lie in, nor belong to, our present word, but is distinctly and separately expressed by the direction of 'rule' in the context. The word therefore is, in its early application, highly expressive of the church's faith and confidence in the Beloved's at tachment to her, and exactly agreeable to the figurative language of the prophets on that delightful theme 3. Indeed, on the hypothesis which some adopt,

1 Gen. iii. 16.

2 Gen. iv. 7.

3 I do not know, if it shall be thought material to take notice of the particular force of the preposition here, oli, which we read, 'to'wards me.' In the two passages from Genesis, the preposition is al, LXX. Here it is ol, over, above,' super, ETI, to,' ad, LXX. which gives a fuller idea than towards,' conformable to her own use of

προς,

6

it.