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Show The Pre.fm. was atfo himfdf of the feed .of Davrd, .ccording to tfu fltfh, ·whole name is Pe.ce the true KiHg ofljracl. He here makerh ufe of Sol•. monas his Jr;flnrment, and by him dtfcourfeth with us. The 7nrt make the matter of this Book, but an lujlorical di{cour[e of Godt merciet to, and deliveranct of,tbcir Nation •nd Chr<rcb; and Interpret this whole Book of God, and the 7errifh Church. There are fame, ( and thofe very reverend ·Interpreters,) make this Book Prophetic;.ll ; "amongfl thefe, to fome of the Ancients, A qui. 11iu, Aljled, Brigbtman,and our reverend Cotton have joined them• felvts, with divers others. Thefe make it to contain a Prophefy of what fhould befall the Chuich,from Solom01tt tir11e to the md o[th; world: but although there may be a Verfe or two in the Book, which may fcem to crav~ a Prophetical lnterpretatton, asChap.S. v. 8 !?· yet I c:~._nnot agree to them, who make it entirely a Prophefy: and indee(l,the many Jlraintd,harjh and gro~<ndle{i Applications offome paffagf' in ir, by thofe who would make it all a Prophefy, do make me lhy of agreeing with them. I do therefore agree with thofe Divines who make rhc matter Qf it Dotlrinal where the flolyGho(l by Splqmons pen fets out the nearVnion ofth; Church, and of a bt/i,viHg So11l with Cbrift, and thtir mutual [Iller• w~rfes of commtmion rqcb withptqcr. Only thofe Divines who arc in this agree~, (aJllppgfi which are the far greater number of Divines both gnci~pt and modern,) make fome quellion whether tnis be .expre(fed '[ypically,or on ely Mtt"J'horically. There ar< fame who .will yield rtm this Song of Love is a -difcourfe betwixt f"n,pr.irtci1>ali- Solomo, and Pf,&raohs P•!•gbter, but confidered as Types of Chri{i and his Church; fo as to exprcfs the Communion and Intercourfes of l,.ove bt•tween Chrill and his Church,or particular Believers in it, of which mind is Ej/itll. But I do more incline to them who make this Song AUegoricol, but not Typical. It is obferved that SotomOifJ ma~riage was twe~ty years before the compofure of this So~g; ports there any thtng but a meer conjecture to ground thetr fancy upon, who would make it prinmily a maniage.Song lf''"'"'•l'·t.ltlul b~tween Solomolt and anY. Wife ofhis. And although indeed th~ drlference of Ages and Countries, makes us no fitting judges of the fitnefs of Metaphors; yet one would think it were a firange <:qmpl~ffifllt toa ·Lady, to tell her, her bead waslikt Mo11n1 Car- - ';"fl, C.:h;lp. 7· 5· and her eyes like Fi./h·pools,and her Nofe like the rower of/.-ebanon, and her Ieeth like a flock,. o[Sheep,Cant. 6. 10• J;lefi<les, as Mt.rc!r notes out of llbenrxu, There arc many ex- I?Jeilions prcffions which ifintendcd to a woman, had been very unhandfame for one of us, much more Solomon, to have left upon record. Upon thefe groumfs, though I grant the phrafe of this Book to be very Metaphorical and AUrgori,.l; yet I cannot allow it to be Typical: Nor that there is any thing of an Hiflory in it, either of Gods dealings with the lfraelitu, as the Caldee Paraphraft would have it, nor of any pa!fages betwixt Solomon and any !f<!!een ofhis; but that it is a Marriage-Song, btt..,ixt Chrill and hu Church, or Chri(f 6HM the b<lieving Se t~ I, admirably cxprel!ing his love to his people, and his peoples motions toward him, under various circumllances; and all this under the figurative expreilions of a Bridegroom and Bridt each to other. That this Song is to be underllood not of any carnal Love, according to the impure conceits ofTIJeodorur, Mopfueft~, C•/lali•, and Groliru, and fame few Adabaptifts, but concerning Divine and Spiritual Love, is univerfally agreed by the 7el!tJijh Interpreters; and arnongfl tlie Ancients by Hierom, At<guftine, Origen, Theedoret, B•fil, Cypriad, Greg.Jry Nyffw, Gregory Magnus, and the bell of later Interpreters, whether Popijh or PretcftantJ; fo as though it be the Smg of Solomon, yet a greater than Solomon is here, another S•· lemon, as Nylfen calls him. Solomon (as his Father David in the P[almJ,) often doth here fpeak in the perfon of Chrifl; the great Bridegroom of his Church. And this makerh it probable; that thefe were fome of SolomonJ la/1 words, wrote after the recovery of his Soul from his Apollacy; after he had feen tbe vanity of the Creature, which he largely defcribeth in Ecclefiaj/es, and had recovered a near Communion with God:Of this mind was Cyril the t/d,,Hierom and Batlrianus, and atfo Bernard and Delrio, wherein he feemeth a little to differ from thofc of his Religion, who generally think other wife, and are obliged ro do fo by their hard opinion of Solomons dying in his Apojtacy. Al{ted thinkerh that both this Book, and that ofEcclejiaftes, were wrote not long before his deatb, to leave the world ·a tellimony of his Repentance·, and recovered Communion with God. I am a war< of rhe litrle difpllte amongft Interpreters, of the otder of rhefe three Books of Solomon, Proverbs, the Book of Ecclejia/les, and tbir Song, which was wmte firrt ,or tall; but it is nor of that moment, that I need concern my felfin it. The obtaining of this wit! conclude the matter of this Book not only holy, bllt1as the7<ws were wont ro exprefs it, t:::l!~i' 1:/.,i' moll, |