Song of Solomon 3

Plutarch reports of the Gauls, an ancient people of France, after they had tasted the sweet wine of Italy, they never rested till they had arrived at that country. He who is in love with God, never rests till he has gotten a part in him (Song of Solomon 3:2): "I sought him whom…

When he has been sick, the Word has revived him; (2 Corinthians 4:17) Our light affliction which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. When he has been deserted, the Word has dropped in the golden oil of joy into his heart; (Song of…

Seventhly, vain distracting thoughts rob us of the comfort of an ordinance. A gracious soul often meets with God in the sanctuary, and can say as (Song of Solomon 3:4) I found him whom my soul loves. He is like Jonathan, who having tasted the honey on the rod, his eyes were enli…

But upon the new creature is a spiritual glory: As if we should see a piece of clay turned into a sparkling diamond. Song of Solomon 3:6 — Who is this that comes out of the wilderness, like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense? That is the natural man coming out…

verse 11 Goe forth, O you daughters of Sion, and behold King Solomon with the crowne wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals: and in the day of the gladnesse of his heart. Cant. 3. ver. 1.By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth, I sought him, bu…

Sixth, it causes them to prize the light of God's countenance the more when they again obtain it, and to set a higher price upon it, and to endeavor by close walking with God as children of light to keep it — to prize it more than grain and oil. In Song of Solomon 3, at verse 2…

'I create the fruit of the lips, peace' — he does it by some promise or other. If the want of the sense of communion with God and absence from him disquiets a man, then the heart rests not until it has found its Beloved (Song of Solomon 3:1-5). If doubts that no grace is in the…

Here then we see, what is the Lord's dealing with his servants; He lets them alone for a long season in temptation and pitiful distress: and at the length, when it comes even to the extremity, and when the knife is (as it were) at the throat; then he shows himself, and brings co…

And it is not ordinances, and duties that will satisfy the soul, but Christ in them; this is an evidence of love. Canticles 3:1: I sought him whom my soul loves; that seeking shows love. You then that wait on, and attend to these and those ordinances, and duties of God's worship…

2. Desertion sets the soul a seeking after God. When Christ was stepped aside, the Spouse pursues after him, she seeks him in the streets of the City, Canticles 3.2. And a non inventus being returned, she makes a hue and cry after him, verse 3.

But also, thirdly, it is so in these two respects further: sinners coming to Him, resting on Him, and getting good of Him is His delight. First, in respect of the honor that is done to Him: when a sinner believes on Him, He counts it the putting of the crown on His head, as it i…

Better for us it is that Christ bear the key of the well of life, than children have it; and if the government of the higher and lower family be upon the shoulders of Christ, the leading of this or that single person to heaven is worthy Christ's care. 3. And consider, that Chris…

Love is an undivided thing; there are not two loves, or three loves in Christ, that which begins the good work, promotes it, even the same love which Christ has taken up to heaven with him, and there you find it before you, when you come there. 2. Some love-sickness goes before…

Christ shoots not at the rovers, to come short, or beside the mark; his arrows of love are sharp and conquering. The Spouse is out of her own element, and sick, and pained with love, when she lacks his presence, and cannot dissemble, nor hide it, nor command herself (Song of Sol…

He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. 2. Christ cannot shoot at the rovers and miss his mark: I should desire no more, but to be once in Christ's chariot paved with love (Song of Solomon 3). Were I once assured I am within the circle and compass of that love…

I mean if he desire him as his chiefest good, the having of any blessing does not so rejoice his heart, nor the want of it so afflict him, such a soul has Christ. Object. But the church in (Song of Solomon 3:1) she wanted Christ, and yet earnestly desired him, therefore a soul m…

Whether is your heart more set upon Christ, than the gifts of Christ; whether do you labor more for gifts, or for Christ himself. And if you find this, that in the truth of your hearts, you come not to the ordinances, but to find your beloved there, not out of unclean and wanton…

And finding your hearts unsatisfied is an evident sign of life, for you came to an ordinance, and desired to find Christ there, and there he was not. What then (Song of Solomon 3:1-3)? To the bed of the ordinances, the church goes to seek and to find Christ; by night I sought hi…

And private or secret duties are notable ways of communion with God. Indeed sometimes a soul may miss of Christ in public ordinances, and find him in secret; so some interpret that place in (Song of Solomon 3:24). The soul had sought her beloved in the bed of temple worship and…

There must be joint prayers and separated prayers together and apart: let not Christians be content to find Christ in a corner for themselves, but let them do what they can that others also may enjoy him. This was the frame of the church or believing soul (Song of Solomon 3:4):…

Yet for this damnable oblation many stand: and the reason is; because they are bewitched, and enchanted with pretended shows of Fathers, councils, antiquity, succession, etc. Lastly, here we learn, what is the duty of all believers; namely, to behold Christ crucified (Song of So…

So Psalm 73. 25. and 143. 6. and 130. 6. Song of Solomon 3. 1, 2. and 6. 8. Such a holy Desire and Thirst of Soul is mentioned, as one of those great Things which renders or denotes a Man truly blessed, in the Beginning of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5. 6.

Let us see the frame under consideration exemplified in another. We have an instance in the Spouse, Song of Solomon 3:1, 2, 3. She had lost the presence of Christ; and so was in the very state and condition before described, verse 1.

This faith puts the soul on all: So it did the Spouse in the parallel to that in hand. Song of Solomon 3:2, 3, 4. Now what supportment may be hence obtained is easily apprehended; supportment not from them, or by them, but in them, as the means of entercourse between God and the…

So, says he, do we wait for mercy; not in a slothful neglect of duties, but in a constant readiness to observe the will of God in all his commands. An instance hereof we have in the Spouse, when she was in the condition here described, Song of Solomon 3:1, 2. She wanted the pres…

The second thing commended, is the beams of the house; the house is of a larger extent than the bed: it signifies the Church, wherein Christ dwells with his Bride; the beams of it, are the ordinances, Word, sacraments, promises of the covenant, etc. whereby the house is both com…

Beside this, I say, this direction must take place in all times, whenever the Church has such a trial to wrestle with, otherwise it were not suitable to Christ's scope, nor commensurable with her need: Now for many hundreds of years the Church wanted Magistrates, to put this dir…

That this verse points at her going about the public ordinances, the scope makes clear, that being the next ordinary means used for inquiring after an absent Christ, when private diligence has had little success. The matter of the words, as was cleared in Song of Solomon 3:3, do…

4. Christ's familiar presence, both gives believers the occasion, and also the fitness and disposition, for giving him this honorable attendance; she speaks here, as if one would say to another whom they respected, If you were in our quarters, I would wait on you, and think it a…

Their solitude in the night serves them to think on, contrive, and delight in all that iniquity which they intend by day to practise, according to their power. And on the other side, the work of a gracious soul in such seasons is to be seeking after Christ (Canticles 3:1), to be…

Love makes room in the heart for more grace, he that loves much, because much is forgiven him, shall have more given in: indeed that expression in (2 Corinthians 5:14) seems to denote the contracting nature of love, the love of God constrains us [illegible] — straitens, keeps us…

They sought Heaven by their own merits; whereas we are to seek the kingdom in Christ's strength, and in his name. 3. They did seek lazily; as the spouse sought Christ on her bed, and found him not (Song of Solomon 3:1). So many seek Christ in a supine manner; they seek, but they…

OBSERVATION. AMong all earthly joyes, these four sorts are noted in Scripture, as the most excellent and remarkable, (1) Nuptial joyes, the day of Espousals is the day of the gladness of a mans heart, Cant. 3. 11. (2) The joy of children. Though now it seem but a common mercy to…

But could we in conscience, and in reference to God, while we are yet in the state of unrenewed nature attend our callings, we might lie neerer to the Son of righteousness and his influences of grace: a sluggard spirituall may fear spiritual and judicial want of grace. Ass. 2. T…

4. There is a formal holy violence offered to him, the Angel Christ wrestles with Jacob, which is a sort of fighting and opposing his strength to Jacob's strength, and he opposeth trying and tempting reason to Jacob, Let me go, for its dawning; and Jacob opposeth his violence on…

If they bind me with ropes, I shall be weak as another man. Hence it implies languishing pain, through want of the feeling and enjoying of Christ's presence (Cant. 2:5; Cant. 3:1, 2, 3; Cant. 3:6, 8). 2. It implies sickness and weakening of the person, as in Amnon's love to his…

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and withal an acknowledgment of his sovereignty, we are the clay and you our potter. When the Lord withdraws, seek again and again, be sick after him (Cant. 3:1, 2, 3; Cant. 7:6, 7, 8; John 20:1,…

Shall we thus requite Christ for his free grace. 6. Though there be no merit in diligent seeking and hearing the preached Gospel, it is good to lie near the fountain for all that; as motion begets and augments vital heat and activity to move, frequent seeking brings home influen…

1. Rain and sweet showers poured upon the dry ground, make the growing the more easy and connatural; and when a strong habit of the love of Christ, stronger than death and the grave, which many waters cannot quench, was fixed and rooted in the heart of the Martyrs, the acts of s…

4. Take a right view of heaven, how it lies in length and breadth, and a right impression of the fire that is never quenched, and the habitual knowledge of the Lord's name, wants not influences for trusting in God (Psalm 9:10). Knowledge where to find God in Christ, has actings…

15. The Spouse's desire of his company (v. 17): Turn my Beloved, and be you like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of Bether: a desire of being with him for ever in glory, as (Revelation 22:17, 20). 16. The Spouse's careful seeking of Christ, and spiritual restlessness ti…

Then the heart-working of Christ will leave histories behind it; as what is much of Solomon's Song, but a narration of the daughters and virgins one to another of Christ's actings upon the soul, or a chronicle of Christ's love, and the Spouse's sin. 1. Of Christ's dispensation i…

Backdrawing in spiritual works proclaims much carnality; but who had the anointing above measure, was all will, and all heart, and all spirit to obey and suffer (John 10:17, 18; Psalm 40:8, 9). 2. The leading and drawing of the spirit, when it brings forth running, and is strong…

Another instance of the glory of Christ which we are to behold here by faith, and hope that we shall do so by sight hereafter, consists in the mysterious communication of himself and all the benefits of his mediation, to the souls of them that do believe, to their present happin…

This hiding of the face of God, is the hiding of the shining of his glory in the face of Christ Jesus, and therefore of the glory of Christ himself, for it is the glory of Christ to be the representative of the glory of God. The Spouse in the Canticles is often at a loss herein,…

A meek and quiet spirit is such an ornament, which has not that gaiety that is agreeable to the humor of a carnal world, but that real worth which recommends it to the favor of God. It is one of those graces which are compared to the powders of the merchant (Song of Solomon 3:6)…

God is in them, and lets out himself unto them; now the quintessence of all good put together, is in every beam of Gods face, and therefore when God shall let out himself, and be thus the portion of a soul, it must needs be a great deal of delight. Seventhly, ways of godliness a…

Of the way and manner whereby the saints hold communion with the Lord Christ, as to personal grace: the conjugal relation between Christ and the saints (Song of Solomon 2:16; Isaiah 54:5, etc.; Song of Solomon 3:11) opened. The way of communion in conjugal relation (Hosea 3:3; S…

Of communion with Christ in a conjugal relation in respect of consequential affections. His delight in his saints is first considered — Isaiah 62:5, Song of Solomon 3:11, Proverbs 8:21. As an instance of Christ's delight in believers: he reveals his whole heart to them, John 15:…

He knows what it is to enjoy the favor of Christ, to have a sense of his love, to be accepted in his approaches to him — and perhaps has sometimes been at some loss in this, and knows therefore what it is to be in the dark, distanced from him. See the conduct of the spouse in su…