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80 Corruptions removed,Chrift is enjoyed. Chap.2.

him pledges of pure worshipping him: he feeds them with his ordinances, they him with their facrifices. And they that would procure Chrift this, let them provide for weeding out of their finnes; as, ufury, wicked marriages, profanations of Gods Sabbaths, &c. Such Churches shall be sweet, and much sweet solace fhall they enjoy one with another, Christ with them,and they with him.

THE

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BY night on my bed I fought him whom my foute

Loveth; I fought him, but I found him not.

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

bim not.

3 The watch-men that goe about the city found mee, 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 boufe, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

81

82

The Song of fongs.

Ch.3.

5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Ferufalem, by the Roes, and by the Hindes of the field, that ye ftir not up, nor awake my love till be pleafe.

6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderneffe like pillars of fmoake, perfumed with myrrh, and frankincenfe, with all the powders of the merchant? 7 Behold his bed, which is Solomons: threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Ifrael. 8 They all hold fwords, being expert in warre: Every man bath his fword upon his thigh, because of feare in the night.

9 King Solomon made himselfe a charet of the wood of Lebanon.

10 Hee made the pillars thereof of filver, the bottome thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the middeft thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerufalem.

11 Goe forth, O ye daughters of Sion, and bebold King Solomon with the crowne wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his efpoufals: and in the day of the gladneffe of his heart.

THE

Ch.3.The Church in darknes under the Maccabees. 83

THE EXPLANATION.

my

bed 1

Cant. 3. verfe 1. By night on fought him whom my foule loveth, I fought him, but I found him not,&c.

THis Chapter fetteth forth the estate
of the Church from after the dayes
of Nehemiah, to the time of Chrifts fo-
journing here on earth, in a two-fold
period:

Firft, under the Maccabees, ver. 1.6.
Secondly, in Fohn Baptiff's time, verfe

6. 11.

The state of the Church in the Macca Verfe 1. bees time was, partly, full of calamities, as a time of darkneffe, By night I fought him, and partly fweetned with fome more comfortable iffue.

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This calamity is fet forth,

First, by resemblance to night, By night I fought him.

Secondly, by the absence of Chrift, whom she fought in vaine. Firft, In her bed, verfe r.

Secondly, In the streets of the city, verse 2.

Thirdly, Amongst the watchmen, ver.3.

F 2

The

Verse 2.

84

Ver.e 1.

Dan. 8.

9. 12.

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

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

Fourthly, By her charge to the daughters of Ferufalem, to walke circumfpectly,that this eftate be not interrupted,ver.5.

By night.] That is,in time of darkneffe, and publicke calamity; when Antiochus Epiphanes, the little horne waxed exceeding great, wafted the pleafant land, caft fome of the host 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 hee robbed the Temple, murthered the people, fpoiled the City,made lawes for profaning the Sabbath, for offering Swines flesh, for neglecting Circumcifion, when he fet up the Statues of Jupiter Olympius, the abomination of defolation in the holy place, when hee burnt the Bookes of the Law, and made it death to have a Testament; when he brake downe the Altar and fet up another, when hee put women to

death

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