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Son_8:12 My vineyard, which [is] mine, [is] before me: thou, O Solomon, [must have] a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
Ver. 12. My vineyard, which is mine, &c.] And therefore most dear unto me, for ownness makes love. Patriam quisque amat: non quia pulchram, sed quia suam. {a} Every man loves his own things best. The Church is Christ’s own by a manifold right, by donation, conquest, purchase - not with silver and gold, but with the dearest and warmest blood in all his heart. {1Pe_1:18} No wonder therefore though she be always before him; though he look carefully to her that cost him so dear, that he trust not others with her, as Solomon was forced to do; but whomsoever he employs about her - "for we are labourers together with God," saith the apostle; "ye are God’s husbandry" {1Co_3:9} - himself is ever one. Ipse adest et praeset, he is present and president. "Feed my sheep," said he to Peter, but do it for me, as the Syriac translator, respecting the sense, adds there. {Joh_21:15} "Take not unto thee the instruments of a foolish shepherd," {Zec_11:11} that is, forcipes et mulctram, as an ancient saith, like those that are more intent, attonsioni gregis quam attentioni, fisco quam Christo. Peter must not do any of this, much less must he "lord it over God’s inheritance," as his pretended successors do, with whose carcases therefore Christ shall shortly dung his vineyard, and water the roots of his vines with their blood. He must look to lip feeding, and, when himself is converted, "strengthen his brethren"; neither must he intervert or take to himself any part of the fruits, as Solomon’s farmers did. He may not seek his own things, but the things of Jesus Christ. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water," but, since it is "God that gives the increase," let God reap all the glory; they shall also "reap in due season, if they faint not," if they grow not "weary of well doing." {Gal_6:9} {See Trapp on "Son_8:11"}
{a} Seneca.