the saints of God; these latter being illuminated by Christ, as the moon and stars shine by a light borrowed from the sun. At other times they refer us to the earth, and the different seasons of the year; to the winds and the waters, and to all the various productions of the ground, from gold down to miry clay; from the lofty cedar to the lowly hyssop; from the vine blessed with a profitable increase, down to worthless thorns and briars nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. Other images are borrowed from the body of man, with all its members, honourable or dishonourable, from the head to the foot; its strength or weakness, its health or sickness, its life or death; through all of which, and innumerable other things that are objects of sense, the divine spirit publishes and explains, to such as have an ear, the things of the invisible world,

But of all the sacred symbols, none are so delightful to the understanding as those taken from the more beautiful appearances of nature; where the eye of the mind receives its instruction through those objects with which the eye of the body is best pleased,

II. Of this sort is that description of the Spring in the of Solomon-For lo! the

song

winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come; and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

First there is that pleasing reflection, that we have escaped the bitterness of the winter with its cold and storms, and its dreary uncomfortable prospects. It is no small advantage to the Spring, that it succeeds the winter, and finds us ready to receive it, earnestly wishing for, and expecting a warmer and brighter season. And when it comes, with what transport do we look back upon the retiring winter; rejoicing that it is past, and that the rain is over and gone; that instead of piercing cold and stormy impetuous rain, we have got a warm sun, with soft refreshing showers and dews? By the influences of which, the flowers, whose roots and seeds lay buried in the earth during the winter season, now spring up and adorn the surface of it. The birds, perceiving that the cold which had silenced them is now past, immediately upon this change in nature resume their singing,

a Cant. chap. ii. 10, &c.

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and

and fill every wood and grove with their various notes. Among the rest, and different from them all, there is heard in the land the soft and gentle voice of the turtle-dove, come abroad from the clefts of the rock, where she had retired and sheltered herself from the inclemency of the winter. The trees also, whose branches were stripped and left naked by the frost, now put on a fresh covering of blossoms, leaves, and fruit. The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine, which in the Eastern countries, where this picture of the spring was drawn, is much forwarder than with us, bears its tender grapes, giving a pleasant smell.

III. Things being thus altered, the spouse, by whom we suppose the Messiah to be signified to us throughout this sacred Song, calls to his best-beloved, his fair-one without spot or wrinkle, even to the christian church; bidding her remain no longer within, but rise up to her state of conversion, and come away to enjoy with him the beauties of the spring; not the spring of nature, but of grace. For as there is another sun besides that which gives light to the body, even Christ, the Sun of righteousness and the light of life; so is there another winter, other rain, other flowers,

trees,

trees, and fruits. In short, every article in this description was figuratively accomplished, when the Gospel first arose, with its salutary effects upon the souls of men. Every circumstance here offered in commendation of the Spring, was verified in a proper sense by the christian religion, when it first appeared in the world.

IV. And, 1st, what is said in the beginning-For lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. As the Spring hath the winter going before it, so the gospel, that dispensation of mercy, was preceded by a rough and gloomy season; during which the whole world, as divided into Jews and Gentiles, were in the same state with the earth and its products, till the Spring appeareth. The poor heathen was in his wintry state of nature, dead in trespasses and sins; bound up in the earth by a sharp and severe frost, and as unable to help himself, as a lily to bear its flowers in the middle of December. While Adam remained innocent, he flourished under the favour of God in the Garden of Paradise; but when sin entered into the world, an inclement season followed it. Man's root that had been warmed with sunshine, was nipped with frost, and there came a winter of spiritual death upon

him and all his posterity. In this state lay the Gentile, when the Spring of the gospel found him, and furnished him with the necessary means of being renewed again unto life. Then his winter was past; and that unprofitable state of nature which no mortal is able to abide, was changed for the blessed influences of grace and righteousness. Plants, which in time past had never been able to vegetate, lifted up their heads, and put forth their fruits, when he sent out his word and melted them.

V. If we turn now to the Jew, we shall find that to him also the gospel was as necessary as the spring. For though he was not under the dominion of nature, he was dead under that of the law: though he lay not under the depth of winter, yet a heavy and violent rain, such as the Hebrew in this place expresses, was still upon him; for he was not under grace but under the law; which, when void of Christ, the end of it for righteousness, was the very strength of sin, and brought down from heaven the wrath of God. this wrath violent rain is a well known emblem; whence Zophar, in the Book of Job, shewing the portion of the sinner, saysWhen he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast

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