Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

church." What manner of love is this? All human comparison must fail!

"O set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm." The reply of the bride contains a prayer, that that love and kindness, of which she has been the object, may be yet continued to her.— As he has condescended to bestow so much upon her to make her what she is, O, may he still account her worth his regards !-since he has been pleased to choose her for his own, let him not now discard her.

To set her as a seal upon the heart, and as a seal upon the arm, implies, that he should make her the object of his true affection, and of his constant recollection and peculiar care and acknowledgment. "Write it upon the table of thine heart," is a frequent phrase in Scripture; let it be indelibly fixed in your affection and memory. "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their hearts." So again, to place as a signet upon the arm, to wear as an ornament in which a person delights, on which he sets a particular value, and which he carries constantly about his person, is a beautiful emblem of that particular attention, and marked attachment, which those who love require to have constantly shown them. "But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has for

e Prov. ii. 3.-vii. 3.

gotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb! Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

The expressions and various allusions which are made use of in the sacred writings to denote the strength and unchangeable nature of the love of Christ towards his people, are truly astonishing!They are designed, as the Apostle assures us, "to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of the divine counsel,"-" that we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." But in no part of the Scriptures, perhaps, is language found more strong upon the subject, than in the reply of the bridegroom to the grateful and affectionate petition which we have just been considering.

"Yea, love is strong as Death; jealousy is stubborn as Hades. Its flares are flames of fire, even the burning fire of Jehovah. Many waters cannot quench this love; neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, he would utterly be despised."

As we have seen, in considering the literal meaning of these words, love is represented as a passion,

f Isa. xlix. 14, 15. 16.

powerful as Death, who conquers all things, whose force nothing can resist. It is, in its jealousy over its object, as stiff, unyielding, as obstinate, and hard to be entreated, as the inexorable Hades.You might as soon hope to prevail by force, or by entreaty, or by artful policy, to rescue a departed spirit from its prison, or to disquiet the saints in paradise, as to prevail upon a lover to give up, or to neglect, or to cease to watch over the object of his affections; nay, it burns with a flame eternal as the flames of hell, which shall consume the ungodly—the “fire that never shall be quenched."

66

Many waters cannot quench this love, the floods cannot drown it.”—The most costly offers to induce it to change its purpose, or to quit the beloved object, would be treated as most despicable.

The powers of love as a human passion are sufficiently known and celebrated, and the language here used, as far as it can be applied to the fleeting concerns of frail mortals, would not be considered as inappropriate. But, in respect of that love wherewith Christ loves his church, the language is all true and correct, without a figure. Who can describe the length and breadth, the depth and height, of this love of Christ? It is a love which passes all understanding! What has it done for its objects! With what pledges is its continuance se: cured! The incarnation, the passion, the cross of Jesus, will evince its strength. The immutable

promise, and the oath of God, who cannot lie, vouch its continuance, and that for ever!

[ocr errors]

66

Such indeed are the provisions and stipulations of that everlasting covenant, by the ratification of which the God of Grace is wont to dispel the fears of the believer, and to raise his hopes to heaven.— The" mercies are so sure," that a sense of his own unworthiness and imperfection, the consciousness of his weakness and frailty in the face of so many dangers, need not hinder his rejoicing boast. For he is allowed and instructed to reason, that if, when he was a sinner, Christ died for him, much more being now justified by his blood, shall he be saved from wrath through him. And that if, "when he was an enemy to God, he was reconciled to him by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, shall he be saved by his life"

The bride in the parable, assured of the unchangeable affection of her husband, becomes an intercessor for another; "We have a sister, she is small, and has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day that she shall be spoken for?"

Many have thought of the Gentile church as answering to this emblem: but with what propriety I cannot see. A Gentile church was not at this time in existence: when it did exist, and Gentile

8 Rom. v. 9, 10.

converts and Gentile societies could be contrasted with converts and societies gathered from among the Jews, this comparison of the two sisters most certainly did not apply, as characteristic of these two divisions of the church. I conceive, therefore, that we are to explain the emblem, more generally, respecting those who are weak in the faith, and who, though they must be acknowledged to be real Christians, are defective in knowledge and experience : are not come, to use the Apostle's expression, "to the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus."-There is evidence sufficient, we are supposing, to evince that they are regenerated by the Spirit of God; yet the flesh, with its principles, so far prevails, that they cannot be denominated “spiritual," but "carnal, babes in Christ."

Now such characters, and the full-grown, the enlightened, and established Christian, are always seen together in every church and Christian society; and it is, without doubt, the duty of the strong to pray for the weak: and, in fact, the spiritual welfare of their weaker brethren is an object of continual solicitude with the more spiritual believers-an object often, in their happy moments, made the particular matter of prayer before God.

Such then I conclude to be the meaning of this part of the allegory; and it might be expedient to add, such a representation at the close of these

« ZurückWeiter »