847.]
and patience of hope" evidenced in your conduct, you may from thence assuredly infer "your election of God"^;" since those are indisputably the fruits of his grace ; and his grace has been communicated according to his purpose, which " he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began'."]
3. To regulate the conduct of those whose views are scriptural and just —
[" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom™;" and to get this in a more uniform and abiding exercise, is to be the one object of our lives. It is the beginning and " the conclusion of the whole matter." O that this were better understood amongst us ! An old writer observes, that religion consists not in iVotions, but i^ibtions : and the observation, though quaint, is true. The difference is not always visible at first sight : and the one is often mistaken for the other ; but, if separated, they are as wide asunder as heaven and hell. Let it never be forgotten, that holiness of heart and life is that which constitutes our meetness for heaven ; and that it is only by growth in that, that we can ever honour God on earth, or secure the enjoyment of him in a better world.]
k 1 Thess. i. 3, 4. '2 Tim. i. 9. Jer. xxxi. 3.
m Ps. cxi. 10.
THE church's love TO CHRIST.
Cant. i. 3, 4. Thy name is as ointment poured forth ; therefore do the virgins love thee. Draio me : we will run after thee.
THIS divine song was admitted into the sacred canon soon after the Babylonish captivity (most pro- bably by Ezra,) and has been admitted both by Jews and Christians from that time as constituting; an im- portant part of the inspired volume. It is called the Song of Songs, because of its peculiar excellence, there being no other to be compared with it, as delineating and describing the love which subsists between Christ and his Church. There are indeed similar images used in other parts of holy writ, and particularly in the 45th Psalm ; but there is a richness and variety in this, by which it is pre-eminently dis- tinguished. True it is, that the representations con- tained in it render it unfit for the carnal eye, which would be more likely to be injured by it, through the influence of a polluted imagination, than to derive from it the good which to a spiritually enlightened mind it is calculated to convey. Many of the expres- sions, which, at the time they were written, were clear and intelligible, are, for want of a more intimate knowledge of the various circumstances which would elucidate them, inexplicable to us : but the general purport of the whole is evident enough : it is a kind of allegory written in the form of a pastoral poem, in which different persons are introduced, and bear a part, relieving, as it were, occasionally, the dialogue betwixt Christ and his Church ; the one under the character of a Bridee^room; and the other, of a Bride,
848. J THE. church's love TO CHRIST. 421
espoused to him in this world, and waiting for the consummation of her nuptials in the world to come.
The abruptness with which the poem opens is very remarkable. The spouse, having her mind full of her Beloved, breaks forth without any mention of his name, " Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." She is ready to think that the minds of all must of necessity be occupied with his excellencies, and must therefore of necessity know to whom she refers. She then commends " his love, as better," and more ex- hilarating, " than wine, because of the savour of his good ointments'';" and assigns this as the reason of her love tozvards him, and Jier ardent desire after him.
These are the two points for our consideration at this time :