materials: not rotten hypocrites or painted professors; but sound and savory believers.

I may add, once more, that we are too apt to rest in present attainments and present enjoyments in religion, without endeavouring to make a progress. We are, like PETER, for building tabernacles, and saying, 'It is good for us to be here,' when it is better for us to go forward in our journey. For whatever pleasures, or happiness, we may find in our present attainments and privileges, the Lord hath better and richer blessings in reserve for us. We may say with DAVID, 'the lines have fallen to us,' (that is, our lot hath been marked out) in pleasant places,' or with Solomon, verdant is our carpet;' but what are present enjoyments to what God is capable of bestowing? What are temporal and transitory blessings to those which are eternal? And what are the tents and tabernacles in which he dwells on earth to his palace in the heavens ?

I am a rose of Sharon;
A lily of the vallies.

Bridegroom. As a lily among thorns,

Spouse.

So is my consort among the daughters.

As the citron-tree among the trees of the wood,
So is my beloved among the sons.

In his shade I delighted and sat down,

And his fruit was sweet unto my taste.

If I mistake not, the chapters should not have been separated here, because the scene and conversation are continued. The spouse, perhaps,

with the most beautiful productions of the royal garden in her view, ventures to compare herself, not with them, but with the more humble na. tives of the fields' and vallies, Here I conceive may be an allusion to her conversation with the virgins in the former chapter; and the thought might be naturally suggested by the assemblage of beauty collected at the royal nuptials.

I am a

rose,' says she, says she, and am now transplanted into 'the royal garden; but I am not a native of this "soil. I was not educated in a palace; though I

was born there. My mother's sons were angry with me, they made me a keeper of the vineyards, and I became an inhabitant of the fields : ⚫ there I should have bloomed and died, unnoticed and unadmired, had not providence opened a way for my removal hither.'

That these are the words of the spouse, ra

1 Sharon was a fertile plain, famous for its pastures, as appears from 1 Chron. xxvii. 29. A part, at least, of this diftrict, in which a town of the fame name was fituated (1 Chron. v. 16) is faid in the Mishnah (title Sota) to have been of a peculiarly dry and fandy foil, which is the best adapted for the growth of rofes; and it is probable that they were here cultivated for their use in perfumes, which form an important article of commerce in the east. The LXX read a rose of the field,' which gives the same general idea, though not so accurate.

2

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6 By a lily of the vallies' we are not to understand the humble flower generally so called with us, the lilium convallium; but the nobler flower which ornaments our gardens, and which in Palestine grows wild in the fields, and especially in the vallies, among the corn. See the lilies of the 'field, how they grow :-yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.' Matt. vi. 28, 29.

ther than of the bridegroom, I infer, not so much from the words, rose and lily,' being of feminine termination; but chiefly from the current of the dialogue, in which they seem naturally to belong to the spouse, and the preceding and following verses to the beloved. And this I find is 'the general opinion of the Jew'ish doctors,' as well as of some very respectable Christian interpreters'.

Among the Greeks the rose was called the plant of love, and considered as sacred to Venus and they suppose, if Jupiter were to set a king over the flowers, it would be this. The easterns, both in ancient and modern times, are no less fond of images derived from the same source. The great MOGUL, in a letter to our king James I. compliments him by comparing him to this flower: and most of the eastern poets celebrate its charms. The original word here used for the rose is supposed in its derivation to signify the shadowing plant; and we read of rosetrees of great extent and prodigious size; but I rather incline to the opinion, that it strictly means the rose-bud, or shadowed rose, that is, shaded with the calyx2.

1 Viz. Ainsworth, Brightman, Lyra, Vatablus, Cocceius,. Michaelis, Dr. Percy, Mr. Harmer, &c.

2 See Parkhurst in nhran, who observes that Aquila renders this word in the only two places in which it occurs, καλύκωσις and καλυξ, which properly signify a rose half blown. And it is worthy of remark, that this appears to be a very favourite image with the eastern poets. So the Persian author of Bahur Danush, translated by Mr. Scott, represents

PLINY reckons the lily the next plant in excellency to the rose, and the gay ANACREON compares Venus to this flower. In the east, as with us, it is the emblem of purity and moral excellence. So the Persian poet SADI compares an amiable youth to the white lily in a 'bed of narcissuses;' because he surpassed all 'the young shepherds in piety, goodness, and. vigilance.'

These hints are sufficient to point out the general design of the emblems; let us now apply them to their proper object in the alle-, gory.

1. The church compares herself to the rose and the lily, as the genuine emblems of love and virtue, innocence and purity; for such are the characters of the church, and, through grace, of the individuals who compose it. This is not, however, their character by nature; for they are wild plants till they are transplanted, and cul

the rose-bud in love with the nightingale under several points of view: 1. As reserved and coy: 'I said, Why is the rose-bud so reserved? And I heard that it wished to 'conceal its treasures.' Vol. III. p. 210.

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2. As uneasy under the restraints of a single life, and desirous of admitting the addresses of the nightingale Say ye to the rose-bud, be not uneasy at thy confinement; for thou wilt soon be released by the breath of dawn, and 'the wavings of the zephyrs.' Vol. II. p. 152.

3. As at length bursting with passion to receive the caresses of its favourite bird. The rose exposed itself from every opening; rending the vesture of its bud into a thousand fragments.' Vol. I. p. 53.

tivated by grace, which can convert weeds and wild flowers into beautiful and pleasant plants.

2. The church expresses herself with modesty'. She is a rose, but it is a rose of the field; a lily, but only a lily of the vallies. Not the elegant productions of a royal garden, but the spontaneous growth of the field and valley. Again, the rose to which she compares herself is not the full blown flower, but the bud with its beauties shaded and concealed; the finest emblem in nature of modesty and unassuming excellence.

The lily was a favourite emblem with the Hebrews, and much employed in their carving, embroidery, and other ornamental works; and this I think not without some mystery. The lily was, I suppose, sacred to the light and so to Christ the true immortal light, the sun of righteousness; and this perhaps accounts best for the so frequent use of lily-work in the temple, and in the dresses of the high-priest.

In another respect the church is compared to to this flower, remarkable for growth as well as beauty, and singularly fruitful: Israel shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon3."

1 So Bp. Percy ; but Mr. Harmer interprets it, I conceive very unnaturally, as the language of jealousy and complaint, p. 63.

2 See Parkhurst in ww. The lotos, which resembles this flower in its distinctive character as a six-leaved flower, was certainly a sacred emblem in Egypt and other parts of

the east.

3 Hos. xiv. 5.