Therefore as new-born babes desire the sincere 'milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.' 2. The consolations of God are neither few nor small. 'As a son is comforted of his mother, so shall thy God comfort thee.' Behold the helpless babe! what can support him like the bosom of his mother? Look at him afflicted with disease! What can comfort him like his mother's milk? And so kind, so tender, so comforting, so nourishing, are the consolations of the gospel! How appropriate to every case of human misery! How healing and consolatory to every mortal woe! Chap. VIII. Ver. 11-14. Spouse, (to the Virgin) Solomon hath a vineyard at Baal-hamon: Each shall bring for the fruit thereof a thou- To the bridegroom, My own vineyard is before me; A thousand to thee O Solomon ! And two hundred to the keepers of its fruits, Bridegroom. O thou who inhabitest the gardens, Spouse. Cause me to hear it! Haste thee, my beloved, And be thou like an antelope, or a young heart, I can trace no connexion between the preceding paragraph and this, but on a supposition that the former has some reference to the dowry • of the bride's sister, as above hinted. Then there is a propriety in mentioning the dowry of the spouse, namely, the city of Gezer, Gaza, or Gazara, and the surrounding country, which wast well situated for vineyards, as remarked in our preliminary dissertations'. For though the dowries were more usually given by the husband, it appears in certain instances, of which this is one, they were received from other quarters.-This spot she compares to Baal-hamon, where Solomon had a vineyard farmed out to keepers', each of whom, it should seem, paid in a net revenue of a thousand silverlings. By the expression my own vineyard is be'fore me,' commentators understand that the 1 Pag. 64. 2 These silverlings, or picces of silver, are supposed to be shekels, value about 2s. 4d. each. Supposing (as tradition does) the vineyard to have been divided among ten farmers, the whole annual revenue must have been about 1,2001. sterling. But as the original (ww) is equivocal, it may be rendered either distributively, each, (' quisque,' Pagninus) or emphatically the man' (LXX. ammp) i. e. as the editor of Calmet explains it the tenant') the principal or head man. I have preferred the former, because I find it was common to divide these grounds into plantations of a thousand vines, each worth a thousand silverlings; (Is. vii. 23.) and because I conceive one of these would have been too inconsiderable for a royal vineyard. The situation of Baal-hamon is very doubtful: Mr. HARMER places it at Balbec; but most commentators, (I believe without authority) near Jerusalem. The name seems to imply an heathen origin, and some are confident an Egyptian one; though others think it simply implies the populousness of the city--Baal-hamon literally meaning the Lord of a multitude,' spouse paid a personal attention to her vine-yard, (as having been formerly a keeper of the vineyards) and delighted in residing there, which the bridegroom appears to allude to, when he calls her an inhabitant of the gardens,' and expresses a desire for her constant presence: this desire is re-echoed by the chorus in the person of the spouse, and concludes the poem. In what manner, and how far, this part of the song must be allegorized, is indeed a question of some difficulty. The Jewish doctors say, particularly MAIMONIDES, 'Wherever you meet with the name So'lomon in the book of Canticles, it is holy, [i. e. 'belongs to the Messiah] except in that place "a "thousand to thee, O Solomon !" which is the text before us. Their idea seems to be, that a comparison is here intended between some vineyard literally understood, and the spiritual vineyard, the church of God.-Bp. PATRICK draws the parallel between the vineyard of Solomon in Baal-hamon, and that of the spouse, to the disadvantage of the former; as if she had said, If Solomon makes so great a profit of a vineyard which he intrusts to keepers, how much more gain shall from mine, under my immediate inspec I reap tion ? But the difficulty is, how shall these vineyards be distinguished in the allegory? Is not the vineyard of the church, the vineyard also of the Lord See chap. i. 6. of hosts? To avoid this, Dr. GILL, who admits them to be the same, supposes these words, 'My ' own vineyard is before me,' to be the language of the mystic Solomon; though he is obliged to refer the latter part of the verse, Thou; O Solo'mon, must have a thousand' to the spouse. But this division appears to me forced and unnatural, and therefore unjustifiable. If we must consider these vineyards as distinct, we must, I suppose, with some of the old divines, explain them of the Jewish and Gentile churches; but I confess I see no necessity for this. Parables and allegories must be taken up only in their outlines: to be minute is to be ridiculous. The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel,' and this may be considered in different points of view. It may be compared to Solomon's vineyard in Baal-hamon, as being let out to keepers; namely, the Jewish princes, magistrates, and prophets: but when the church speaks of herself under this image, she promises diligence and watchfulness, with a due regard and reward to the attention of her ministers. The language of the beloved in addressing his spouse, O thou who inhabitest the gardens,' evidently refers to her taste, repeatedly hinted at, for rural occupations and retirement, on which we have before remarked: and the concluding verses, which are nearly a repetition of the chorus in the former parts of the Song, express an ardent wish for the accomplishment of the objects here prefigured in the incarnation of the Son of God. The only idea therefore on which I shall insist, is the allegory of a vineyard, as descriptive of the church, which is beautifully drawn by the prophet ISAIAH': this I shall quote in the elegant version of Bp. Low TH. 'Let me now sing a song to my beloved, On a high and fruitful hill. And he fenced it round, and he cleared it from the stones, And he planted it with the vine of Sorek; And he built a tower in the midst of it, And he expected, that it should bring forth grapes; The prophet goes on to amplify the allegory, by shewing what pains had been taken with this vineyard, the ill returns which had been made, and the judgments to be expected; and then concludes with the following application: Verily the vineyard of JEHOVAH, God of hosts, is the house of Israel; And the men of Judah the plant of his delight.' As a comment upon this, I might refer to the parable of the labourers in the vineyard', which is too long for transcribing in this place, and too easy to need explanation. I would therefore finish the whole with an echo to the concluding chorus- Make haste, 1 Chap. v. 1, &c. See also chap. xxvii. 2, &c. Y y |