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Son_3:2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
Ver. 2. I will rise now, and go about the city, &c.] The holy city Jerusalem, whither "the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel." {Psa_122:4} There was the likeliest place to find Christ; there his parents found him once, after three days’ search, {Luk_2:46} sitting in the temple; there he dwelt among men; there he gave gifts unto men, and therehence he went forth abroad the whole world, "conquering, and to conquer." {Rev_6:2} Here, therefore, the spouse seeks him among the people of God, and in his word and ordinances. She knew well that he fed his flock among those lilies, used to go down into that his garden of spices {Son_6:1-2} to take a turn amidst those golden candlesticks, {Rev_1:13} to take a view of his wedding guests, {Mat_22:11} yea, to eat and drink in their presence, and to teach in their streets. {Luk_13:26} Abroad she gets, therefore, and that presently.
I will rise now.] Saith she, lest I lose mine opportunity; for if so, I may seek it with tears, and go without it with sorrow. Men may purpose, promise, and expect a time of healing and curing, when they shall be deceived, and find a time of trouble. {Jer_14:17} "Many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able," {Luk_13:24} yea, "they shall go with their flocks, and with their herds, to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them." {Hos_5:6} They came too late, belike; they sought not the Lord while he was to be found ( vel sero, vel certe non serlo qucerebant); they called not upon him while he was near; they stayed till he was out of call; {Pro_1:28} till he was resolved to return either no answer at all, or such a sad answer as the Jews had from him, because they stood out their day of grace: "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come." {Joh_7:34} And again, "I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins." {Joh_8:21} Oh, dreadful sentence! The Church herself here, though never so dear to Christ, seems to some to be guilty of sloth and slackness in seeking after Christ, and doing it in her bed (as loath at first to disease herself), or in holding him while she had him, if, while she was sleeping, he slipped away from her side. The wise virgins also were napping and nodding, {Mat_25:1-46} and holy Augustine {a} confesseth that he could not answer that clear text, whereby he was called out of his sinful course. "Awake, thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead," &c., but only by that wish of the sluggard, Modo et ecce modo, Sinite paululum, &c. A little more sleeps, a little more slumbers, &c.; little, and yet sleeps, in the plural. Thus, Modo et modo non habent modum, et Sinite paululum ibit in Iongum, as that father hath it. Somewhat it was, surely, that makes the Church resolve, as here, "I will rise now," or "Let me rise now"; I will stir up the gift of God that is in me; I will stir up myself to take better hold of Christ. Here is a tacit taxing herself for some former slackness, after her former enjoyments and familiar intercourse with Christ. We are too ready, after we have run well, to lie down and take cold, which may cause a consumption; to please ourselves in unlawful liberties, when we have pleased the Lord in lawful duties. Hezekiah, after his notable service, both of prayer and thanksgiving, fondly over-shoots himself to the Babylonish ambassadors. Jonah, after his embassage, faithfully discharged, to the Ninevites, breaks forth into anger against the Lord. Peter, being commended by Christ for the profession of his faith, fell presently so far wide, that he heard, "Get thee behind me, Satan." {Mat_16:1-28}
I sought him, but I found him not.] For trial and exercise of her faith and constance. "Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know the Lord." {Hos_6:3} So then shall we find, if we follow on to seek Christ, fetching him out of his hidingplace, as the woman of Canaan did. For he would have hid himself, saith the text, but he could not, for a certain woman, &c. {Mar_7:24-25} And as she set him out, so she followed him close, refusing to be either said nay, or sit down with silence or sad answers. The like did Jacob. {Gen_32:1-32} He wrestled with might and slight. He would have a blessing whether God would or no, as we may say with reverence. "Let me go," saith God. No, thou shalt not, saith Jacob. "Let me alone, that I may destroy this people." No, by no means, saith Moses. In seeking of Christ, faith is not only importunate, but even impudent, {Luk_11:8} {b} and threatens heaven, as Nazianzen said of his sister Gorgonia. If he have lost his mercy, she will find it for him. {Isa_63:15} If he look strange and stern, she will both know him, and claim him amidst all his austerities. Isa_63:16, "Art not thou our father?" If he be gone never so far, she will "follow hard after him," {Psa_63:8} so David’s phrase is; even as hard as her old legs will carry, as Father Latimer said; with "Return, for thy servant’s sake. We are thine." {Isa_63:17; Isa_63:19} O Lord, saith the Church in Habakkuk, "Art not thou from everlasting, my God, and mine Holy One?" It was a bold question, but God assents to it in a gracious answer, ere he went further. We shall not die, say they abruptly. {Hab_1:12} Nay, "after two days" - for so long, it may be, he will hold us off, to try how we will hold out seeking - "he will revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." {Hos_6:2} Or if we should die in this waiting condition, and in a spiritual desertion, yet we could not miss heaven, because he hath said, "Blessed are all they that wait for him." {Isa_30:18}
{a} Confess., lib. viii. cap. 5.
{b} áíáéäåéáí propter improbitatem.