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And in the next we have express mention of his perfumed garments.

• Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume all thy garments.'

But the description of the spouse is so strikingly similar to that of Solomon's, that I think there can be little doubt that they are equally allegorical, and of the like import.

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Kings daughters are among thy honourable women:

Upon thy right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir, 'Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear: Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house: 'So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.

The king's daughter is all glorious within,

Her clothing is of wrought gold,

She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle

• work :

The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought ' unto thee:

With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought:
They shall enter into the king's palace.'

Several passages interspersed with the above, demonstrate that this can refer to no mortal love; but must be allegorically explained. The Chaldee paraphrast expressly applies the psalm to King Messiah, and so doth the apostle Paul: and the analogy between this and the Song of Solomon strongly pleads for the like spiritual interpretation of that song.

ISAIAH employs imagery of the same kind in the like manner. To Zion he says,

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'No more shall it be said unto thee, Thou forsaken!

Neither to thy land shall it be said any more, Thou desolate ! But thou shalt be called The object of my delight;

And thy land The wedded matron:

For JEHOVAH shall delight in thee;

And thy land shall be joined in marriage.

For as a young man weddeth a virgin,
So shall thy restorer wed thee:

And as a bridegroom rejoiceth in his bride,
So shall thy God rejoice in thee'.'

JEREMIAH and EZEKIEL both employ the same imagery; the latter with peculiar boldness, and in a manner more exposed to the fastidiousness of European criticism. I shall give a few verses that may serve to illustrate the imagery of Solomon.

< I clothed thee with embroidered work, And shod thee with badger's skin;

I girded thee about with fine linen, • And covered thee with silk.

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I decked thee also with ornaments,

And I put bracelets upon thine hands,
And a chain upon thy neck.

And I put a jewel on thy forehead,

And earings in thine ears,

And a splendid crown upon thine head.

Then wast they decked with gold and silver;

And thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk,

And of embroidered work.

And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty:

• For it was perfect, through my comeliness which I put upon

'thee,

Saith thy God, JEHOVAH'.'

The same kind of imagery occurs in the New Testament, though less ornamented and poctical. JESUS CHRIST calls himself the bridegroom, and his disciples, children of the

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Bishop Lowth's Isa. chap. lxii. 4, 5. See also ch. liv.

2 Ezek. xvi. 10-14. See Bp. Newcome's version, and compare Lowth's notes in Isa. iii. 21.

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bridechamber. John the Baptist speaks of him in the same character, and calls himself the 'friend of the bridegroom '.' St. Paul, we have seen, employs the like figures. In the book of Revelation, the new Jerusalem is described as a bride adorned for her husband, and expressly called 'The bride, the lamb's wife.'

These, and the like passages, are sufficient to shew that the metaphorical language of Solomon, may and probably ought to be interpreted in the same manner. The following considerations carry the matter farther.

It is generally admitted that the sacred canon was compiled and closed by Ezra.—Ezra was a prophet-now if Solomon's Song had been a mere nuptial poem, or a carnal love-song, how are we to account for its admission into the sacred canon, and uninterrupted continuance there? For, though there have been formerly controversies among the Jews about the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, yet there never was any concerning this3. It deserves also to be considered, that this book was universally admitted in all the translations and ancient versions of the scriptures; and allegorically explained by the most ancient commentators. The ancient book of Zohar asserts that Solomon composed it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Chaldee Paraphrase has this title, 'The songs and hymns which Solomon, the

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1

Matt. ix. 14, 15.

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John iii. 29.

3 Gill's Expos. p. 2. All the scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.' Misnah, Tract Y adaim, quoted in Gill's Expos. p. 2.

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prophet, the king of Israel, uttered in the spirit of prophecy before the Lord.' And R. Aben Ezra, in the preface to his commentary, says, God forbid that the Song of Songs should be written or understood of things obscene; but it is entirely parabolical, and • had it not been of very great excellency, it had not been written in the catalogue of the holy scriptures'.'

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Agreeably to these sentiments, many of the rabbins, and of the fathers, wrote allegorical expositions of this book; and though it must be confessed their applications were various, and often fanciful to the extreme, they all (with a very few exceptions) united in the general principle, that the book was allegorical. And Jews, as well as Christians, are of the same opinion to the present day. So Mr. DAVID LEVI,This poem is an entire allegoryand describes the conjugal union of God with the Jewish church.-This is the solemn compact so frequently celebrated by almost all the Jewish writers under the same image"."

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To confirm this idea, I would add lastly, that this method of explication is perfectly congenial to the eastern taste. Sir JOHN CHARDIN says of the Persians, that the most serious of their poets treat of the sublimest mysteries of theology under the most licentious language, in the way of allegory, as Afez in 'his Kasels 3."

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The Kasels (or Ghazels) of Afez (or Hafez) are, literally taken, Anacreontics; but Feridoun, and other Turkish commentators, understand ⚫ the terms of love and wine as expressing the transports of a soul devoutly attached to heaven. The eastern writers, and in particulat the Gentoos, adopt many mystical expressions of this nature, and talk of being inebriated with divine love, &c. It has been, indeed, suspected, that the eastern poets, who indulged themselves in licentious compositions, endeavoured to throw a veil of mystery over them, to conceal their shame: this might sometimes be the case; but the austere and exemplary life of Hafez pleads strongly in his favour1.

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But I cannot do justice to this subject without subjoining the following interesting extract from Sir W. JONES's very curious and learned essay on the mystical poetry of the 'Persians and Hindus;' which is so complete as to supersede all farther enquiries on the subject.

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"A figurative mode of expressing the fervour ' of devotion, or the ardent love of created spirits toward their beneficient Creator, has prevailed from time immemorial in Asia; particularly among the Persian theists, both ancient Hushangis and modern Sufis, who seem to have borrowed it from the Indian philosophers of the Vedanta school; and their 'doctrines are also believed to be the source

1 Richardson's Specimen of Pets. Poetry. Note, p. 15. * Asiatic Researches, p. 353 & seq. or Works, vol. I, P. 445.

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