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6.8 KiB
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<p>These words are Christ’s answer to the church’s prayer in the close of the foregoing chapter, <i>Let my beloved come into his garden</i>; here he has come, and lets her know it. See how ready God is to hear prayer, how ready Christ is to accept the invitations that his people give him, though we are backward to hear his calls and accept his invitations. He is free in condescending to us, while we are shy of ascending to him. Observe how the return answered the request, and outdid it. 1. She called him <i>her beloved</i> (and really he was so), and invited him because she loved him; in return to this, he called her his <i>sister and spouse</i>, as several times before, <a class="bibleref" title="Song.4.1-Song.4.16" href="/passage/?search=Song.4.1-Song.4.16">Song 4:1-16</a> Those that make Christ their best beloved shall be owned by him in the nearest and dearest relations. 2. She called the garden <i>his</i>, and the pleasant fruits of it <i>his</i>, and he acknowledges them to be so: It is <i>my garden</i>, it is <i>my spice</i>. When God was displeased with Israel he turned them off to Moses (They are <i>thy people</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Exod.32.7" href="/passage/?search=Exod.32.7">Exod. 32:7</a>); and he called the appointed feasts of the Lord <i>their appointed feasts</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.1.14" href="/passage/?search=Isa.1.14">Isa. 1:14</a>); but now that they are in his favour he owns them for his garden. “Though of small account, yet it is mine.” Those that are in sincerity give up themselves and all they have and can do to Jesus Christ, he will do them the honour to stamp them, and what they have and do for him, with his own mark, and say, <i>It is mine</i>. 3. She invited him to <i>come into his garden</i>, and he says, <i>I have come</i>. <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.58.9" href="/passage/?search=Isa.58.9">Isa. 58:9</a>; <i>Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am</i>. When Solomon prayed that God would come and take possession of the house he had built for him, he did come; <i>his glory filled the house</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.7.2" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.7.2">2 Chron. 7:2</a>), and (<a class="bibleref" title="Song.5.16" href="/passage/?search=Song.5.16">Song 5:16</a>) he let him know that he had chosen and sanctified this house, that his <i>name might be there for ever</i>. Those that throw open the door of their souls to Jesus Christ shall find him ready to come in to them; and in every place where he records his name he will meet his people, and bless them, <a class="bibleref" title="Exod.20.24" href="/passage/?search=Exod.20.24">Exod. 20:24</a>. 4. She desired him to <i>eat his pleasant fruits</i>, to accept of the sacrifices offered in his temple, which were as the fruits of his garden, and he does so, but finds they are not gathered and ready for eating, therefore he does himself gather them. As the fruits are his, so is the preparation of them; he finds his heart unready for his entertainment, but does himself draw out into exercise those gracious habits which he had planted there. What little good there is in us would be shed and lost if he did not gather it, and preserve it to himself. 5. She only desired him to <i>eat the fruits</i> of the garden, but he brought along with him something more, <i>honey</i>, and <i>wine</i>, and <i>milk</i>, which yield substantial nourishment, and which were the products of Canaan, Immanuel’s land. Christ delights himself greatly in that which he has both conferred upon his people and wrought in them. Or we may suppose this to have been prepared by the spouse herself, as Esther prepared for the king her husband <i>a banquet of wine</i>; it is but plain fare, and what is natural, honey and milk, but, being kindly designed, it is kindly accepted; imperfections are overlooked; the honey-comb is eaten with the honey, and the weakness of the flesh passed by and pardoned, because the <i>spirit is willing</i>. When Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection he did eat with them a piece of a honey-comb (<a
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