Volume II
The Song of Solomon
With John Brown’s marginal references, notes and reflections · Vol. II, p. 1127
Could not be a nuptial hymn composed in honour of any of his wives; for it was not composed till after the tower of Lebanon was built, ch. 7. 4; and so not till about twenty years after his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter. Many of the emblems used in it—as to be made a keeper of the vineyard, to have a head like Carmel, a nose like the tower of Lebanon, eyes like fish-pools, teeth like a flock of sheep, and to be terrible as an army with banners, &c.—if applied to a fine lady, are absurd to the last degree: but if the whole be understood of the union and fellowship between Christ and his people, it will appear most exalted, instructive, and animating. The name of God is not found in it, more than in Esther; nor could the continued allegory of the book well admit of it. But the agreement of its matter and language with other passages of Scripture—as Is. 54. 5; 62. 4, 5; Ho. 2. 19, 20; Mat. 25. 1-10; 9. 15; 3. 9; Ro. 7. 4; 2 Co. 11. 2; Ep. 5. 32; Re. 19. 7; 21. 2, 9; and especially with Ps. xlv.; its majestic style; its efficacy on the consciences of men for promoting their spiritual comfort and holiness; the sincerity of the bride in acknowledging her faults; and in fine, the general reception of it by the Jewish and Christian churches; sufficiently prove it inspired of God. To such as read it with a carnal and wanton mind, it will be the savour of death unto death: but to such as, acquainted with fellowship with Christ, peruse it with a spiritual and heavenly frame, it will prove a savour of life unto life, a counterpart of their gracious experience. It is a dialogue; in which the speakers are Jesus Christ, the blessed Bridegroom of souls; the church, which is his body and bride, and every particular saint in it; and the daughters of Jerusalem or Zion, who are either nominal professors of the true religion, or at best young and weak converts. The scope of it is to represent Christ and his people's mutual esteem of, desire after, and delight in one another. And as the bride denotes either the church in general, or a particular believer, the members, &c., attributed to her must have different significations assigned them, according as the one or the other is understood. [The title of this book, 'The Song of Songs,' is generally understood to assert its eminence amongst or superiority over all other songs. Some eminent Hebraists, however, are disposed to translate the title 'The Series of Songs;' and this seems more consonant to the modesty of the sacred writer, who would be very unlikely to assume any special eminence, also to that equality which divine inspiration implies amongst the books of Scripture, as well as to the structure of the book itself, which changes so rapidly its speakers, time, place, and objects. The ancient Jews, without exception, considered it a book divinely inspired, and inserted it in their sacred writings. By our Lord it was consequently author-
ized, when he exhorted the Jews to 'search the Scriptures;' and by Paul, when he affirmed that 'all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.' With the full conviction of its divine origin, it was newly translated into Greek, in the second century, by three eminent Christian divines; and in the third, it was inserted by Origen in his Hexapla, who also wrote some discourses explanatory of its sacred meaning. Notwithstanding this concurrence, its divine authority is said to have been questioned in the fifth century by Theodore of Mopsuestia; and occasionally, down to the present day, various objections against its inspiration have been started by Christian divines. Now, without questioning either the objects or the principles of these objectors, it is not a little to be lamented that their learning has been so misapplied. For if the reception of the book by the Jewish church, and its approbation by our Lord and his apostles, be not, to a Christian, sufficient evidence of its divine authority, any higher evidence it must be impossible to obtain; and if this evidence is to be rejected in the case of one book, there is no ground for its sufficiency in the case of any other. The objections to the divine authority of this book have arisen, as in the case of Ecclesiastes, from assuming an unauthorized principle of interpretation, and pronouncing the book a mere marriage song, and consequently unfitted for religious instruction. But again, whereas in Ecclesiastes, a book confessedly didactic, the ordinary and natural application of words has been rejected—in the Song of Solomon, a book confessedly written in similitudes or parables, the emblematic application of words has been rejected. The Christian disciple will, however, make light of these cavils, and calmly repose upon the authentication of the book derived from Christ and his apostles. And while so reposing, he will find a treasury filled to overflowing with the unsearchable riches of Christ. He will be led into a banqueting-house of boundless hospitality; he will mingle with a company of purity and love; he will traverse gardens of loveliest flowers and sweetest odours; he will repose beneath trees with coolest shade and ripest fruits; thence will he climb the Lebanon heights of contemplation, and gaze upon the lovely land that lies beneath his feet, the land of his inheritance and his home, where Christ is the King, saints the subjects, and love the law; where the subjects themselves are kings and priests unto God, clad in the robes of the Lamb's immaculate righteousness, and crowned with the diadem of his unfading glory. Some eminent interpreters have considered this book as a sacred drama extending through seven days, and have divided it into scenes, each of a day's continuance. Others have concluded it to be a succession of idyls, or little poems, with no connection of time, place, or person: but merely possessing some common object as their only principle of union. In the following notes these principles of interpretation will be diffidently—on account of their authors—but firmly rejected, from their want of any but conjectural authority. The principles of interpretation adopted will be (1) The grammatical, including the singularity, or plurality, or sexes of the speakers. (2) Change of place. (3) Change of time. (4) Change of objects. (5) Change of sentiment or action. (6) The parallel—comparing spiritual with spiritual, explaining what here is unknown by what is elsewhere acknowledged. By following these natural principles, the book will be found a succession of beautiful, impressive, and instructive emblems of natural pictures, representing spiritual originals—an outward form of what is earthly, fabricated for little children, but with an inward spirit of what is only intended for perfect men. C.]