Song of Solomon 8

Bullinger and Gregory the Great understand by that marriage supper of the Lamb, the stately magnificent festival the saints shall have in Heaven; they shall feed on the tree of life (Revelation 22). They shall have the heavenly nectar and ambrosia, the spiced wine, and juice of…

And this love is: 1. Exuberant, not a few drops but a stream. 2. It is superlative, we give God the best of our love, the cream of it (Song of Solomon 8:2). I would cause you to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

2. Recumbency: the soul casts itself upon Jesus Christ: [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉]; faith rests on Christ's person. Faith believes the promise, but that which faith rests upon in the promise, is the person of Christ: therefore the spouse is said to lean upon her beloved (Song o…

But our love to God must be above father and mother (Matthew 10:37). We may give the creature the milk of our love, God must have the cream: The spouse keeps the juice of her pomegranate for Christ (Song of Solomon 8:2). 6. Our love to God must be constant, like the fire the ves…

When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel. Image worship enrages God (Proverbs 6:34). Jealousy is the rage of a man: It makes God divorce a people (Exodus 32:7). Your people, lo-ammi (Hosea 2:2). Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife (Song of…

We love our Father in heaven above all other things; above estate or relations, as oil runs above the water (Psalm 73:25). A child of God seeing a supereminency of goodness, and a constellation of all beauties in God, he is carried out in love to him in the highest measure: As G…

Now Christ takes the soul up into the mount, and gives it transfiguring sights of glory. Now Christ leads his spouse into the wine-cellar, and displays the banner of his love; now he gives her his spiced wine, and the juice of the pomegranate (Song of Solomon 8:2). The Lord does…

How can we but love him, who has given his life a ransom for us? Love is the spiced wine and juice of the pomegranate which we must give Christ (Song of Solomon 8:2). Our love to this superior and blessed Jesus, must exceed our love to other things; as the oil runs above the wat…

(Numbers 28:7): In the holy place should you cause the strong wine to be poured to the Lord for a drink offering. The Jews might not offer to the Lord wine that was small, or mixed, but the strong wine, to imply that we must offer to God the best, the strongest of our affections…

And one grain of it will have more force to purge out sin, to constrain and strengthen to obedience, than a pound of terrors. And say that though you have indeed a stubborn and self-loving heart, yet he can make his loving-kindness overcome it, for it is stronger than death (Son…

He engraves them upon the Palms of his hands, Isaiah 49.16. He sets them as a Seal upon his Breast, Canticles 8.16. He will give Kingdoms for their Ransom, Isaiah 43.3.

And they have faith which works by love (Galatians 5:6). And that Christian man who loves God, whatever shall befall, yea though it were a thousand deaths, yet his heart can never be severed from the Lord and from his Savior Christ: as the spouse speaks to Christ of her own love…

2. Love quickens desire (2 Peter 3:12), Looking for and hastening the coming of the Lord. See (Canticles 8:14; Revelation 22:20). An harlot would have her husband defer his coming, but a chaste spouse thinks he can never come soon enough, they that go a-whoring after the world,…

Consider these two things. 1. God has a peculiar love to this very relation, and often mentions it with delight, as if he loved to hear the sound of it in his own lips: (Song of Solomon 8:12) My vineyard which is mine, is before me. Me, My, Mine.

The people of God are called a peculiar people, 1 Pet. 2. 9. The World lies in Common, and is as so much waste ground; but the Church is Gods Vineyard and Enclosure, therefore he will hedge it in with protection: Cant. 8. 1. My Vineyard which is mine is before me. The Saints are…

God he is to have all our fruit. You shall observe in Canticles 8 that Solomon let out his vineyard, and mark, in letting out his vineyard, he must have a thousand pieces of silver, and the husbandmen must have two hundred. If God does afford to us some wages for what we do, let…

An empty spirit is fit for the Devil to come to possess (Matthew 12:24); he found his place empty, and then he comes in: where the Devil sees an empty spirit, there's a fit place for him to come. It is an evil thing for you to grow upon God's ground and to cumber it, to cumber a…

2. We may clear and confirm it from these similitudes, by which the offer of this gospel is, as it were, brought to the doors of people, and there are several similitudes made use of to this purpose; I shall name but four. 1. It's set down under the expression of wooing, as (2 C…

4. This sorrowing must accuse the free, holy, and innocent love of Christ, as if his love were proud, nice, humorous, high, passionate; whereas infinite freedom, infinite majesty, and loveliness and meekness of tenderest love, do all three concur admirably in Jesus Christ. Love…

4. Love draws strongly and irresistibly: Christ never wooed a soul with his free love, but he wins the love and heart. Death and the grave and hell are conquering things for strength, and have subdued huge multitudes, since the creation; but the love of Christ is stronger and mo…

4. And by faith I live not, Christ lives in me, and I am crucified and mortified; that is, by faith I know that I did live the life of God, and was crucified to the world; whereas I was dead in sins, before I believed. 5. And because believing is somewhat more than a naked act o…

Grave-deep, or rather hell-deep, touching his grave linens, what became of them when he rose from the dead, and the chestnut color of his hair, and the wood of his Cross, and the three nails that wedged him to the tree, and the adoring of anything that touched his body, either w…

Or how without money? It is true, should a man offer his house full of treasure for Christ, it would be despised (Song of Solomon 8:7), and when Simon Magus offered to buy the gifts of the Holy Ghost for money, it was rejected with a curse (Acts 9:8-10), and if the gift of the H…

2. A fervent love arising out of the sense of our obligations to God, that we do with all readiness of mind set ourselves to do his will, levelling and directing our actions to his glory. Love is strong as death, and many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown i…

Seals anciently had engraven on them two Things, namely The Image and the Name of the Person whose Seal it was. Therefore when Christ says to his Spouse, Canticles 8. [...]. Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart, as a Seal upon thine [...]; it is as much as to say, Let my Name and I…

This is one end of Christ's taking upon him man's nature, that his people might be under advantages for a more familiar converse with him than the infinite distance of the divine nature would allow of. And on this account the church longed for Christ's incarnation: 'O that you w…

Yes, all kings were to bow down to him, and all nations to serve him (Psalm 72:11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17). These poor Gentiles were the little sister of the Judaical Church which were to be provided for in the love of her Spouse, the Messiah (Canticles 8:8, 9). For in the last…

We find that phrase often, A man of God, the Hebrews say, to call one a man of God, is as much as to say, he is an extraordinary man, a man of an excellent spirit, a Prophet, a holy man: In that Psalm where the Church is shadowed under the similitude of a Vine, It is said, She d…

We are ready to suppose that we have all the reasons in the world; every one supposs he has those that are more cogent than any other has, to question the promises of grace, pardon, and forgiveness; and therefore the questioning of them is not their sin, but their duty. But pret…

Answer: By this Song, all, at least most part of believers, are made to sing many things, beyond their own attainments possibly. Indeed, Song of Solomon 8, that phrase, My vineyard which is mine, is before me, is of that same extent, with that, Psalm 18:20. Yet will not any thin…

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…

Verse 3. Your two breasts are like two young Roes that are twins. The two breasts (which is the fifth part here commended) are spoken to in this third verse: They were spoken of (Song of Solomon 4:5) with the same commendation, and we conceive the same thing hinted there, is aim…

Thirdly, jealousy as it is searching and inquisitive, so it is an angry and revengeful passion: and therefore Solomon calls it, "The rage of a man; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance" (Proverbs 6:34). And (Song of Solomon 8:6), "Jealousy is cruel as the grave; t…

But upon payment of this sum to justice, the elect (who only are intended in this purchase) pass over into God's right and property, and now are neither Satan's (Acts 26:18) nor their own (1 Corinthians 6:19), but the Lord's peculiar (1 Peter 2:6). And to show how much they are…

When shall I see him? Come, even so come; there is much paining impatience in that prayer for the marriage day in such as long for his appearance (Canticles 8:14), Make haste my beloved, and be you like to a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of spices. So as the song began…

Unbelievers are men who cannot be persuaded; the Gospel leaves as little impression on the heart as a ship on the Sea, or an Eagle in the Air, where the light of faith leaves not a spiritual capacity for receiving the impressions of the Spirit of grace, and where unbelief reigns…

The proposition is false. The Lord by casting an ague of love-sickness in the soul, moves the free-will of the Spouse, and of the Martyrs to die for Christ, rather than deny him, because love of itself considered as separated from the Lord's physical motions on the soul, works u…

Nor can the word, if [illegible] could [illegible] and an earth of the gold of [illegible] of Christ, and the strong influence thereof. So true is that (Canticles 8:7): Many waters cannot quench love. That is a strong fire which all the waters in the sea cannot quench.

Carelessness, in the enjoyment of Christ pretended, is a manifest evidence of a false heart. 2. The spouse manifests her delight in him, by her utmost impatience of his absence, with desires still of nearer communion with him (Song of Songs 8:6). Set me as a seal upon your heart…

But though it go mourning never so long, it will have nothing but Christ to lean upon. When the soul is in the wilderness, in the saddest condition, there it will stay until Christ comes to take it up (Song of Solomon 8:5). This is what he who has communion with Christ does: he…

Make haste, my beloved. Song of Songs 8:14. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.

I cannot look upon my own hands, but I must remember you: and your walls are continually before me. This is that the spouse seeks for: set me as a seal upon your arm (Song of Solomon 8). Now a little more particularly to consider the expressions and their scope here: how is it m…

There are two mystical Scriptures, which do express all the intercourse which passes between God and the Church in the world, and they are both closed up with a desire of Christ's coming. The Canticles is one, which declares the communion and intercourse which is between Christ…

4. Let us get love to Christ. Love is an holy transport, it fires the affections, steels the Courage, carries a Christian above the love of life, and the fear of death, Song of Solomon 8:7. Many waters cannot quench Love: Love made Christ suffer for us.

God knows our frame, that we are imbecil and weak; our flesh is not as brass, Job 6 12. And the Lord will not try us above our strength, he will not lay a Giants burden upon a Childs back. God will not stretch the strings of his Viol too hard, lest they break: if God strike with…

2. Love to God is necessary to confirm and strengthen this resolution in us; for that overcomes all terrors: (Romans 8:37) Indeed, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. And (Song of Solomon 8:6-7) Love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel a…

Oh how should this make us to take heed that we don't abuse any part of our time, I shall never have this time again! When once our time has taken wing, what is said of love in (Canticles 8:7), that may be said of time, If a man would give all the substance of his house for it,…

2. Love. When God smiles upon us, it is not much to love him; but when he seems to put us away in anger, now to love him, and be as the lime, the more water is thrown upon it, the hotter it burns, this is love indeed. That love surely is strong as death which the waters of deser…

Jacob's love to Rachel, made him almost hazard his life for her. Many waters cannot quench love (Song of Solomon 8:7), no not the waters of persecution; love is strong as death (Song of Solomon 8:6). Death makes its way through the greatest oppositions; so love will make its way…

He who is best will be served with the best; when we give him the soul in a duty, now we give him the flower and the cream. A soul inflamed in service is the cup of spiced wine and the juice of the pomegranate which the spouse makes Christ drink (Song of Solomon 8:2). Without th…