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Son_4:1 Behold, thou [art] fair, my love; behold, thou [art] fair; thou [hast] doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair [is] as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.
Ver. 1. Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair.] Thou art, thou art; and I am much taken with it, so that I cannot but set an Ecce admirantis Behold, wonder at it, upon it. I am so rapt and ravished; yea, I would that others also should behold it, and be enamoured with it. As the Church called upon her daughters of Zion, in the last verse of the former chapter, to go forth and see her Bridegroom in all his bravery, and to help to crown him; so here interchangeably, Christ calls upon all sorts to contemplate his beautiful bride in all the "comeliness that he hath put upon her," {Eze_16:14} and that crown of twelve stars that he hath set upon her head, {Rev_12:1} so that "in everything she is enriched by him, and cometh behind in no gift." {1Co_1:5; 1Co_1:7}
Thou hast doves’ eyes.] Particularly Christ commendeth her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, temples, neck, and breasts. He that would praise another, is careful to take in whatsoever of him may be thought praiseworthy. Christ only is able to give his Church her due commendation; because he only "knows all men, and needeth not that any should testify of man, for he knoweth what is in man." {Joh_2:24-25} All others that shall undertake such a business had need say, as Mr Bradford the martyr saith of that peerless King Edward VI; So many things are to be spoken in commendation of God’s graces in this child - who yet was but one of those many that make up the Church; but yet such a one, that as he was the chiefest, so I think the holiest and godliest in the realm of England, saith the same blessed Bradford - that as Sallust writes of Carthage, I had rather speak nothing than too little, in that too much is too little. {a} An exact face, saith Pliny, is seldom drawn but with great disadvantage; {b} how much more when a bungler hath it in hand? In which regard Alexander the Great forbade his portraiture to be painted by any other than Apelles, or to be carved by any other but Lysippus, men famous in those faculties. Behold here one that goes far beyond them both (the greatest artisan in the world), pencilling out to the life, and setting forth a complete character of his dearest spouse, whom he had "in his heart to die and to live with," {2Co_7:3} as the high priest had the twelve tribes, {Exo_28:29} and St Paul his Corinthians, though "the more he loved, the less he was beloved." {2Co_12:15} But to come to her particular praises - "Thou hast doves’ eyes," that is, fair, full, clear, chaste. {See Trapp on "Son_1:15"} Eyes the true Church hath, and those both opened and enlightened. {Act_26:18} She cries not up ignorance as the mother of devotion, neither doth she send forth blind guides, to require blind obedience, as the Popish Padres do with their novices; to put out the eyes of those poor misled and muzzled ignoramuses, and to lead them blindfold into the midst of their deadly enemies, as Elisha did the Syrians into Samaria. The Church here described hath (as Solomon’s wise man) her eyes in her head; yea, she hath two eyes, when the rest of the world hath but one (as the Chinese vainly brag of themselves), {c} a praise proper to the Church of Christ. She lifteth not up her eyes unto idols, {Eze_18:6} but to the Holy One of Israel, {Isa_17:7} her eyes are doves’ eyes. Every child of Christ’s Church hath a spiritual eyesight, an insight into the mystery of Christ, communication of Christ’s secrets, "the mind of Christ." {1Co_2:16} She hath no blind children; for, though born blind, yet Christ hath anointed them with his eye-salve, {Rev_3:18} and given both light and sight. But by "eyes" here we are chiefly to understand pastors and ministers, those "seers," as they were called of old, {1Sa_9:9} those "lights of the world," {Mat_5:14-16} "burning and shining lights," {Joh_5:35} as the Baptist was called, whose office is to be to God’s people "instead of eyes," {Num_10:31} and "to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God," &c. {Act_26:18} And these are to have doves’ eyes, seeking to present unto Christ every man chaste and pure in the simplicity of the gospel. {2Co_11:2-3}
Within thy locks.] Seemly tied up and covered, as the word imports, without pride or affectation; not laid out, as the manner is, of vain and unshamefaced women, but thick, fair, and modestly made up, to show the Church’s modesty and humility, which is the knot of every virtue, and ornament of every grace, as St Peter’s word, åãêïìâùóáóèå , holds it forth. {1Pe_5:5}
Their hair is as a flock of goats, &c.] They are fat and well liking; and so their hair lay smooth, slick, and shining. By the Church’s hair here may be meant the community of true Christians, that, being as the hair innumerable, do adhere to Christ as to their head, and have a promise that not one hair of that sacred head shall fall to the ground; and that if any son of Belial shall offer to shear or shave them, he shall answer it as dearly as the Ammonites did the like abuse done to David’s ambassadors. {2Sa_10:3-4}
{a} Serm. of Repent., 37.
{b} Pic ores pulchram absolutamque faciem raro nisi in peius effiingunt.
{c} Description of the World, Chap., Of China.