The reason she gives of this earnestness in her supplications, is that which principally evinces her delight in him: "Love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the gTave," or " hard as hell." This is the intendment of what is so loftily set out by so many metaphors in this and the following verse : — " I am not able to bear the workings of my love to thee, unless I may always have society and fellowship with thee. There is no satisfying of my love without it. It is as the^ grave, that still says Give, give. Death is not satisfied without its prey; if it have not all, it hath nothing: let what will happen, if death hath not its whole desire, it hath nothing at all. Nor can it be withstood in its appointed season ; no ransom will be taken. So is my love ; if I have thee not wholly, I have nothing. Nor can all the world bribe it to a diversion ; it will he no more turned aside than death in its
' Prov. XXX. 16.
128 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
time. Also, I am not able to bear my jealous tliouglits: I fear thou dost not love me, that thou hast forsaken me; because I know I de- serve not to be beloved. These thoughts are hard as hell ; they give no rest to my soul : if I find not myself on thy heart and arm, I am as one that lies down in a bed of coals." This also argues a holy greediness of delight.
3. She farther manifests this by her solicitousness, trouble, and perplexity, in his loss and withdrawings. Men bewail the loss of that whose whole enjo\Tnent they delight in; we easily bear the absence of that whose jDresence is not delightful. This state of the spouse is discovered. Cant. iii. 1-3, " By^ night on my bed I sought him whom'' my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me : to whom I said. Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" It is night now with the soul, — a time of darkness and trouble, or affliction. When- ever Christ is absent, it is night with a believer. He is the* sun; if he go down upon them, if his beams be eclipsed, if in his light they see no light, it is all darkness with them. Here, whether the coming of the night of any trouble on her made her discover Christ's absence, or the absence of Christ made it night with her, is not ex- pressed. I rather think the latter; because, setting that aside, all thinofs seem to be well with her. The absence of Christ will indeed make it night, dark as darkness itself, in the midst of all other glow- ing consolations. But is the spouse contented with this dispensa- tion? She is upon her bed,— that is, of ease (the bed, indeed, some- times signifies tribulation. Rev. ii. 22 ; but in this book, everywhere, rest and contentment : here is not the least intimation of any tribu- lation but what is in the want of Christ) ; but in the greatest peace and opportunity of ease and rest, a believer finds none in the absence of Christ : though he be on his bed, having nothing to disquiet him, ho rests not, if Christ, his rest, be not there. She " sought him." Seeking of Christ by night, on the bed (that is, alone, in immediate inquest, and in the dark), hath two parts: — searching of our own souls for the cause of his absence; secondly, searching the promises for his presence.
(1.) The soul finding not Christ present in his wonted manner, warming, cherishing, reviving it with love, nigli to it, supping with it, always filhng its thoughts with himself, dropping myrrh and sweet
1 Isa. 1. 10.
' " Elegaiiter periplirasi utitur loco nonuiiis proprii, ut vim amoris sui exprimat."
Merc. " Ista repetitio asson-suin indicat et studiuni quo cum quaerebat, et mosro-
rem quo angebatur, quod occunere uon posset." — Idem.
3 Mai. iv. 2.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. ] 29
tastes of love into it ; but, on the contrary, that other thoughts crowd in and perplex the heart, and Christ is not nigh when inquu'ed after; it presently inquires into the cause of all this,^ calls itself to an ac- count what it hath done, how it hath behaved itself, that it is not with it as at other times, — that Christ hath withdrawn himself, and is not nigh to it in the wonted manner. Here it accomplisheth a diligent search ; it considers the love, tenderness, and kindness of the Lord Jesus, what delight he takes in abiding with his saints, so that his departure is not without cause and provocation. " How," saith it, "have I demeaned myself, that I have lost my Beloved? where have I been wandering after other lovers?" And when the miscar- riage is found out, it abounds in revenge and indignation.