1

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(or actively pouring') forth. There is something. curious here for christians to take hold of. Thy name:' the church speaks to Christ the Messiah. Both these names, the first Greek, the other Hebrew, come from verbs that express the action of anointing, so signify the anointed one, and discover to us christians, who take our title from this ointment-name, a beautiful turn in this part of the verse, which ought not to be disguised or kept out of sight. There is an expression similar to this, in another composition of this royal poet- A good 'name is better than precious ointment'.' So we read it, but literally, the name is good from, be'cause of, good oil;' the same epithet that is used in the song, thy good ointments.' We have this speciality pointed out, where unity is said to be like precious ointment, good oil on the head.' And what the value of it was, we may learn from Isaiah3, when classing the precious ointment,' the good oil, among the curiosities which Hezekiah was reproved for exposing to heathen eyes. From all which put together, we shall be directed to the meaning of the NAME so emblematically magnified to us, and pointed out as the reason of the exclamation that follows, Therefore do the virgins love thee.' Who are these virgins? The pastoral fiction, so much laid hold of, will tell us, they are the bride's companions and attendants; but

with

I Eccles. vii. 1.

2 Ps. cxxxiii. 2.

3 Isaiah xxxix. 2.

with how much propriety or delicacy is the question; though attempts have been made to found this allotment on the parabolical allusion in St. Matth. xxv. 1. without remembering that, of the virgins introduced there, the one half were foolish, and were shut out. This spoils the whole of the application, and requires the aid of some other allusion. For whatever fancies the pastoral idea may allow, or even oblige us to hunt after, yet, if in what commentators call the mystical, and I insist on being the only sense, the woman here be the church, and if the church be catholic, it still remains to be asked, Who her attendant ministring virgins are? Let us, for trial's sake, turn to St Paul, through the whole of his first chapter to the Hebrews, and he will lead us to the idea of angels: 'The angels,' he says', 'are ministring spirits to 'the heirs of salvation.' Of these beings who, like the virgins here, are not of the church, some have not kept their first, their virgin state, but are foolish, have lost their communicated oil, and are shut out into darkness. Others continue wise, keep this oil in their lamps, love and worship their Agyn3, attend upon, minister to the church, gather the elect from the four winds 4, &c. These are virgins, they love the bridegroom for his oil, for his NAME, which, because of the hereditary oil in it, they know to be

more

2 St Jude 6.

4 St Matth. xxiv. 31.

'more excellent than theirs,' with their derived oil' Therefore do the virgins love thee.'

VER. 4.-Draw me, we will run after thee: the King hath brought me into his chambers; we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine'; the upright love thee.

The pastoral conceit makes strange work of this verse, by dividing it between the bride and her virgins, and putting the we' of it into their mouths as a compliment to her, for her many virtues, &c. However pretty this may appear in the common style of our poetry, I am afraid, in a spiritual view, there is harm in it; and cannot help suspecting something, in such a turn, too much like the voice of the serpent. The expressions are too strong to be spoken of the church. From the church to her beloved, they are just, they are in character, they are spiritual. And, though the person changes from singular to plural, draw me, brought me,' we will run,'' we will be glad,' this we know is not unusual either in sacred or prophane song. The church often uses this manner, and I have accounted for it already. There is nothing here but what comes properly from the church, and from her only; the singular me' expressing her collectively in a society; the plural 'we' expressing her diffusively in the individuals of which she is composed. In this light all is plain and easy; and

I Heb. i. 4.

and instead of the dark, obscure style, as we call it, of the Old Testament, runs in the clear perspicuous vein of New Testament explication. Draw 'me, we will run after thee.' No man cometh ' unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, 'draw him'.' And more pointedly-' And I, if I 'be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men un'to me. No running,' but by virtue of this antecedent' drawing. This is the constant lesson of scripture either expressed or understood, always intended by the prophets, and attended to by the faithful; so says the psalmist, in that noble hymn of devout joy, the 73d psalm, where our Bible translation has, I humbly think, put a different meaning on the psalmist's words in the last verse, which we read, it is good for me to draw near ' unto God;' and the Prayer Book, more paraphrastically, but to the same sense, to hold me fast by God. The words are nap, lite

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rally, appropinquatio Dei mihi bona,' as in Arius Montanus; or, more precisely, appropinqua ́re Deum ad me bonum-the drawing near of God to me is good;' more consonant to the general voice of scripture, and in exact conformity to the church's voice before us, which our portion of her has adopted in that most excellent collect, • Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings,' &c.

The King has brought me into his chambers.-This deserves particular consideration; hitherto it might

Y 2

have

I St John vi. 24.

2 St John xii. 32.

have been thought that the WOMAN had begun the intercourse, contrary to what I have been just now observing. But this acknowledgement removes that difficulty, and teaches us, that she can have no connexion with him, nor title in him, till she be entered into his house, and thereby become truly his church. And this, not by any forcible intrusion, or fond presumption on her part, but solely thro' the gracious act of his kingly power, giving her possession of his palace, and investing her with a right to all the various apartments and chambers of it. What this refers to, and is descriptive of, will readily appear to every christian who knows the privileges of that character, and reverences the instituted means of his being blest with them. It is upon brought by the king into his chambers,' that the thus constituted church can say with confidence, we will be glad and rejoice in thee.' Such a solemn phrase is this, and so frequently by all the Bible poets directed, as it were peculiarly, to the highest of all objects, that it is to be wondered how any christian expositor could allow himself to debase it by an inferior accommodation, or could have supposed, that an inspired writer would have had such unworthy accommodation in his eye.

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We will remember thy love more than wine.-99573 7. The verb zacar, to remember, and in the hiphil form, as here, to be remembered, to commemorate, to celebrate by remembrance, is, in the Old Testament, applied to sacred institutions. Zucrun

is