of God to David concerning him were such as cannot have been all fulfilled literally in Solomon, but must in part have their fulfilment spiritually in Christ. See 1 Chron. 17. 11-14. Next, the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh, at a time when he was most devoutly serving God, is best accounted for by supposing, that it was done under God's own direction to typify the calling of the Gentiles. Further, the forty fifth psalm, called in the title "A Song of loves," is applied to Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews. See Heb. 1. 8. But it is highly probable that this psalm applies in the first instance to Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter. And to pass from probable conjecture to certain truth, we know that in the New Testament marriage is spoken of as a mystical representation of the union and love, subsisting between Christ and his Church. See Eph. 5. 23, 24. 31, 32. If therefore we find in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, a song, or sacred poem, expressing all the ardour of conjugal affection, though it be not said that it relates to Christ and to the Church, yet when we remember Christ's account of all these Scriptures, that they testify of Him, see John 5. 39, and when we call to mind the language of the New Testament as to the spiritual meaning of the marriage bond, we can have little room left to doubt, that the bridegroom here spoken of is Christ, and the bride his spouse the Church.

Indeed it is not only in one passage of the New Testament that this figurative sense of marriage is to be met with. Our Lord, in answer to the disciples of John, speaks of Himself as "the bridegroom." Matt. 9. 15. So also does John the Baptist, in comparing himself with Christ. See John 3. 28. And we find this figure again in the parable of the "ten virgins." Matt. 25. 1. And in the book of Revelation the Church is compared to "a bride adorned for her husband;" and is soon afterwards expressly called, "the bride, the Lamb's wife." Rev. 21. 2, 9. Nor can we wonder that God should graciously vouchsafe to use this striking image, in the revelation of his dealings with mankind through Christ. We know that He has no passions like to ours. Yet when He would signify his abhorrence of iniquity, we find Him speaking of Himself as influenced by grief, anger, hatred, and revenge. How much more, when we remember that "God is love," 1 John 4. 8, how much more may we expect Him to reveal his tender regard for those whom He has redeemed in Christ Jesus, under the image of a bridegroom's affection for his bride. Let us listen, therefore, reverently to the glowing language here set forth as interchanged between husband and wife, in a time and country far distant from our own. And let us constantly interpret it as signifying to us: Thus has Christ loved his spouse the Church; thus ought we to love our Lord.

PART VI. O. T.

U u

The Bridegroom continueth to converse with the Bride.
himself through the lattice.

1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am

sick of love.

6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth

embrace me.

7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing

10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

LECTURE 1088.

The invitation of Christ to his Church.

Poetry is one of the human means, which it has pleased the Holy Spirit to make use of, in the revelation of the divine will And poetry often implies a certain degree of fiction, representing things somewhat otherwise than they really are, not in order to deceive, but with a view to set forth truth in a more pleasing and impressive manner. Thus in this sacred poem we find Solomon spoken of as a shepherd; the bride enquiring of him where he makes his flock to rest at noon, and he in like manner bids her feed her kids beside the shepherds' tents; see Ch. 1. 7, 8; not as if this were really their employment, but because it is an occupation at once simple, natural, and peaceable, and one which

yields to those engaged in it many opportunities for happy meditation, and for the exercise of pure and sincere affection.

We are to imagine therefore a scene of pastoral felicity; the parties a king and a king's daughter, represented as engaged in pastoral pursuits, newly married, and holding such affectionate conversation with each other as would become persons in their station and circumstances. We are to remember further, that all this is to be conceived as having been done and said in a time so remote, and in a country so distant from our own, that the customs and notions and manner of conversation would be sure

to be very different from ours. We are to add that the poem is written in a language which has not been commonly spoken even by the Jews themselves for above two thousand years, and which in many respects is as unlike our own as possible. And we shall then not be surprised to find, that many of the figures of speech sound strange to our ears, and that many of the images and sentiments appear hard to reconcile with our notions of what is pleasing and becoming.

And yet under all these disadvantages we cannot fail to find much to admire, and much which if we study for the sake of being edified may tend to our edification. Let us take for instance the description of reviving spring: "the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell." Here is a picture on which the mind delights to dwell, a striking picture of that season, in which God's creative work seems as it were repeated from year to year. But how much more delightful is the thought, that it is Christ who in these words invites his church to enjoy a perpetual spring; and that all the glories of renewed nature are but a figure of that more glorious renewal, which by the grace of God is perpetually going on in the hearts and souls of his true disciples! Oh who that so interprets this animating description, and conceives himself to be here invited to awake, and to arise, and to come to Christ by faith, with love, who can have the heart to refuse the invitation ?

The Bridegroom and Bride separate, and meet again.

1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

3 The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

6 Who is this that cometh out

of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.

8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. 10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

LECTURE 1089.

The glory of the heavenly Bridegroom.

At the commencement of this chapter there appears to be an account of a temporary separation between the Bridegroom and the Bride, between Christ and his Church. We know that such estrangement often happens between those who are most near to each other here. The marriage union, though well adapted to soften our evil tempers, is by no means sure to heal them. And it may happen to either party, to have to seek for the other when estranged, by making kind advances, and hearty confessions, and declarations of undiminished affection. Nor do such advances often fail of success. They who have become so much to one another, as to be termed in Scripture "one flesh," Gen. 2. 24, have more ties of intimate communion than either party would wish to rend asunder, when the matter is calmly considered. And the tide of feeling, being once turned in the right direction, is apt to flow, after the check thus felt for a time, more vehemently than before.

In the conjugal union, when estrangement takes place, the

When Christ hides

fault is as often on one side as on the other. away his face from his Church, we may be sure either that the Bride has provoked this chastisement, or that He does it to prove her faithfulness and love. It is not for us of this generation to tax our fathers with their sins, or to pronounce judgment on those who went before us, as having by their transgressions provoked the Lord to look coldly on his Church. Yet we cannot but feel, upon a review of past ages and their history, that He who has promised to be with his Church always, even unto the end of the world, has not shewn his presence in respect to the piety of his people, or in respect to the spreading abroad of his Gospel, as largely as might have been expected, had not the Church greatly erred, and grievously transgressed. At the same time, we may perhaps justly hope, that his seeming absence has been in part designed to exercise and prove our faith and love to Him; in whom, although we see Him not, we ought continually to rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Let us at all events plead earnestly in prayer, that He may make the light of his countenance to shine upon us. Let the description here given us of the Bridegroom's glory, make us long to have Christ abide amongst us, in power and great majesty. We cannot indeed behold his glory, as long as we continue in the flesh. But it makes all the difference as to his being with us, whether we believe and rejoice in his presence. Present He is every where, and every where powerful, every where glorious; whether men acknowledge it or not. But how great is the advantage of those amongst mankind, by whom his presence is acknowledged, and his divine majesty reverenced! They feel that there is ever nigh them One able and willing to protect them, One who helps them, guards them, loves them. He supplies all their wants. And they thankfully look to Him as supplying them. In affliction He yields them consolation. In prosperity He affords them joy. In sickness He gives them that which is better than health of body, profit to the soul. As their Example, He shews them how they ought in every thing to fulfil that, which He has taught them as their Prophet, and commanded as their King. As their great High Priest, He has made atonement for their sins, by his death on earth, and He is ever making intercession in their behalf in heaven. And when they regard Him as their Judge, however terrible his coming may be unto his enemies, they who are his faithful servants look upon his chariot as "paved with love," and can join sincerely with St. John in saying, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 22. 22.