78 No need of any mediators but Chrift. Ch.2.

ufe 7.

Verse 14. *Ioh. 16.

26,27.

Ufe 8.

builds under the ftaires, where Chrift fees her, but not publickly.

Seventhly, fee here the Church needs not Angels and Saints to mediate for her, her owne voyce is sweet and countenance comely in Gods eftimation: * At that day yee fhall aske in my name, and I fay not to you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you because yee have loved me. Chrift tels us, hee fhall have no great need to pray for us, for God himselfe loveth us, to heare our voyce, and to fee us ; let us then not be afraid to put forth our voyces : labour then for fuch a spirit as to grieve for our finnes, and to rejoyce in Gods mercies; for God is pleafed with that: hee is a true citizen of Sion, that when hee abounds in Gods mercies, yet hee weepes for his fins; and when he weepes for his finnes, yet hee is thankefull for Gods mercies.

Againe, obferve, the Church fhall alwayes be troubled with fome enemies, Verfe 16. Take us the foxes that spoile the vines: There fhall be ever fome Sanballat, or Tobiah, or fome other to be nibbling at the Church of God: wonder not at this,

for

Ch.2. The Churches enemies fhall be rained. 79 for this will be fo, but obferve touching thefe enemies of the Church,

First, they fhall deale fubtilly and craftily with her.

Secondly, they may disturb and hinder her peace and proceedings, but

Thirdly, they fhall in the end be reftrained, as in Revel. 19.20. And the beast was taken, and with him the falfe Prophet that wrought miracles before him,&c. These both were caft alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Therefore let fuch foxes know the time will come when Christ will either take them, and chaine them, and bind them up, as he did Sanballat, Tobiah, Shether-boznai*: or elfe * Ezra 6. hang them up, as hee did Haman and his fonnes. Let men then take heed that they doe not push at the Church

for

God will either chaine them up, or hang them out of the way.

6,7.

Lastly, here wee may fee, when the Ufe 9. enemies of the Church are restrained or destroyed, and corruptions weeded out of it, the Church then enjoyeth fweet, and fafe, and full fellowship with the Lord Jefus, and hee with her: Hee gives her pledges of his favour, and fhe gives

him

80 Corruptions removed,Chrift is enjoyed. Ch.2. him pledges of pure worshipping him; He feeds them with his ordinances, they him with their facrifices. And they that would procure Christ this, let them provide for weeding out of their finnes; as ufury, wicked marriages, profanations of Gods Sabbaths, &c. Such Churches fhall be fweet, and much fweet folace fhall they enjoy one with another, Christ with them, and they with him.

THE

Ch.3.

THE

CANTICLES,

OR.

SONG OF SONGS

opened and explained.

THE TEX T.

CHAP. 3.

Broule loveth, I fought him, but I found him night on my bed I fought him whom my

not.

2 I willrife now, and goe about the city in the Streetes, and in the broad wayes, I will feeke him whom my foule loveth: I fought him but I found

him not.

3 The watch-men that go about the city found me, to whom I faid, Saw ye him whom my foule loveth?

4 It was but a little that I paffed from them but I found him whom my foule loveth: I held him and would not let him goe, untill I had brought him into my mothers houfe, and into the chamber of her that conceived me."

G

81

84...

Verse 1.

Dan. 8. 9.-12.

When night with the Church. Ch.3. The comfortable iffue of her feeking Chrift is fet forth,

First, By her finding of him, verfe 4. Secondly, By her holding of him, ver.4. Thirdly, By her bringing of him into her mothers houfe, verfe 4.

Fourthly, By her charge to the daughters of ferufalem, to walk circumfpectly, that this eftate be not interrupted,verfe 5.

By night: that is,in time of darknesse, and publicke calamity; when Antiochus Epiphanes, the little horne waxed exceeding great, wafted the pleafant land, caft fome of the hoft and starres of heaven to the ground; when hee tooke away the daily facrifice, and trode downe the Sanctuary, and caft downe the truth to the ground; when he robbed the Temple, murthered the people, fpoiled the City, made lawes for profaning the Sabbath, for offering Swines flefh, for neg lecting Circumcifion, when he fet up the Statues of Jupiter Olympias, the abomination of defolation in the holy place, when he burnt the bookes of the Law, and made it death to have a Teftament; when he brake downe the Altar and fet up another, when hee put women to death