they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Such, I conceive, is what is here intimated by the praises bestowed upon the imaginary fair by the daughters, the queens, and the concubines.

And if the person and earthly grandeur of Solomon, mean and base as they must necessarily have been in comparison, are nevertheless chosen as typical allusions to the coming of Christ in his kingdom, it need not surprise us, that the multitude of females which, according to the circumstances of regal state in those days, formed the establishment of this monarch's palace, should be made emblematical of those superior beings which surround the Redeemer's glory in heaven, and shall be seen ascending and descending upon the Son of man when he shall sit upon the throne of his kingdom.-It is the royal magnificence of Solomon, not his moral worth, which we are to place before us when we consider him as a type of the King of Glory.

It is observed by St. Paul, respecting these an. gelic beings, whom we suppose to be represented in this part of the parable, when the plan of their Creator, concerning his blood-bought church, was beginning to be more clearly unfolded by the preaching of the Gospel-" to the intent that now, unto

4 John, xvii.

the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known" or "made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

No wonder then, that, at the consummation of the redeemed, when they shall all have been made like unto the Son of God, they should be presented in heaven in the midst of admiring angels. Nay, the same Apostle assures us, that the earnest expectation of the whole creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God-when the heirs of God, the joint heirs with Christ, shall be glorified together with him".

The visions of the Revelation often disclose something of this glorious scene: St. John in one place describes it in language very similar to that employed in the allegory before us: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet; and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.""And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice,

and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."

t Rev. xix. 5, 6, 7, 8.

IDYL THE TENTH.

From the eleventh Verse of the sixth Chapter to the ninth of the seventh.

THE bride retiring into her garden, and tending there her pleasant cares, finds herself on a sudden unexpectedly surrounded by a company of singers, or a chorus of women, "with tabrets and dances," who immediately make her the object of their panegyric:-they celebrate her beauties, and anticipate in their song the felicity of her nuptials. Such appears to be the outline of this idyl; though difficulties not easily to be explained occur in the interpretation.

I WENT down to the retired garden*,
To see the fruits of the valley,

To see whether the vines were grown,
Whether the pomegranates had blossomed.

-, on the authority of the Septuagint and Vulgate, has been rendered Garden of nuts. Castell, Tremellius, and Parkhurst interpret it by Pruned garden.

"hortus reclinationis," &c.

,אבי הנחל b

Schultens, from the Arabic

"Virores rivi, h. frutices et arbores ad rivum plantatæ et virentes."-Simon.

-I was not aware!

My heart made me like the chariots of Aminadib!!

THE CHORUS.

"Return, return, Salome,

“Return, return, that we may behold thee"."

BRIDE.

Why would ye behold Salome,

As the object of' a procession of bands?

These two lines must be acknowledged to be very obscure; only so far I think seems apparent, that her retirement is suddenly interrupted by a number of persons, whose appearance at first alarms her. My heart made me like the chariots of Aminadib," whatever be the allusion, probably describes the flutterings of her heart through fear, taken as she was by surprise, 'and driven to flight.

*

a This is the address, it should seem, of the people who had broken in upon her retirement: who these were, we shall see in a following note. She had, we may suppose, turned away to conceal herself. Bishop Lowth observes, that "n is the same name as , with the feminine termination (which may be expressed in Greek Σολομων Σολομιτις), though the latter Jews have strangely disguised and obscured it by a vicious pronunciation; for Solomon and Solomitis have evidently the same relation to each other, as the Latin names Caius and Caia.”—Lect. xxxi. Both in Josephus and in the New Testament we have preserved the pronunciation of a woman's name among the Hebrews, evidently derived from the same root as Solomon-Salome: this therefore I have ventured to adopt." sequente objecti, cum studio et voluptate videre-delectare re."-Simons.

The meaning of this passage has perhaps been generally overlooked. nn nn, I have translated " as the object of a procession of bands.", from п, to pitch, as travellers their tents, signifies a camp, or any band or company of persons, marshalled in some degree of order. It is used for the bands into which Jacob divided his people and flocks; and also for the hosts of angels which he saw. (Gen. xxxii.) It appears also to have