But there is another sphere of Biblical study which has exhibited as large an amount of credulity, even when no attempts have been made to pierce the secrets of the future :— -we mean the exegesis of the Canticles, or the Song of Solomon. The literary history of that small book of the Old Testament Scriptures, is, indeed, a curious one, from the amount of ingenuity it exhibits, employed to bring out hidden senses and spiritual mysteries from the highly-wrought language of that ancient pastoral. But it is also humiliating as well as curious; for to plough the sands of the sea-shore and there to cast in the seed, does not appear to us more profitless labour than much that has thus been expended. Well may a modern writer on this book, Mr. Ginsburg, conclude a lengthened review of what has been written upon it, in the following language.

"How mournful is the thought which irresistibly forces itself upon the mind in reviewing this imperfect sketch of what has befallen this poem! This book, we have seen, is made to describe the most contradictory things. It contains the wanderings of the Jews, how they will ultimately 'fill their stomachs with the flesh of the leviathan and the best of wines preserved in grapes,' and is the sanctum sanctorum of all Christian mysteries. It is denounced as a love song, and extolled as declaring the incarnation of Christ; it speaks of the meridian church in Africa, and the betrayal of the Saviour; it contains a treatise upon the doctrine of free grace against Pelagianism, and an Aristotelian disquisition upon the functions of the active and passive mind; it is an apocalyptic vision, a duplicate of the revelations of St. John, and records the scholastic mysticisms of the middle ages; it denounces Arianism, and describes the glories of the Virgin Mary; it treats of man's reconciliation unto God and peace by Jesus Christ, with joy in the Holy Ghost,' and teaches lewdness, and corrupts the morals; it records the conversation of Solomon and Wisdom, and describes the tomb of Christ in Egyptian hieroglyphics; it celebrates the nuptials of Solomon, and gives us a compendium of ecclesiastical history to the second advent of Christ; it records the restoration of a Jewish constitution by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the mysteries of marriage; it advocates monogamy and encourages polygamy ; it assists devotion and excites carnal passions. What a solemn lesson we have here never to depart from the simple meaning of the word of God!" -pp. 101, 102.

Let us enquire what is the treatment which combined piety and common sense would be likely to dictate in reference to the Song of Songs, if brought under our notice for the first time, as a part of the Holy Scriptures. We will suppose a man converted from heathenism, and placed in circumstances similar to our own for the acquisition of religious truth. Let him be a member of the Church of England, and as such apply himself to the investigation of the Bible with the amount of freedom which

that community allows and encourages, and, at the same time, with as much deference to antiquity. We will admit that an argument might be sustained, quite as well, if we stood at the point of view occupied by enlightened Nonconformists—such as Mr. Ginsburg, for instance, but we should then have to make exceptions, since many Dissenters in England, and whole classes of them, prejudge the case at once in regard to the Canticles, by preaching constantly upon it, and finding in all its parts every Gospel doctrine, if not every precept. Apart, then, from our own personal convictions and preferences, it will be more convenient to let our student occupy the ground of the Church of England.

Viewed from this position the Song of Songs takes its place in the Canon of the Old Testament as authoritatively and undoubtedly as any book in that collection. It is true that the Song of Songs is not quoted in the New Testament, but this is of little importance to canonicity, because the Scripture, or Scriptures, are recognized by our Lord and his apostles as a whole, and as having in that completeness a divine character; and as this book was certainly included in the Scriptures of the Jews, this settles the question. The Church, the witness and keeper of Holy Writ, both before and after the incarnation of our Lord, has borne a clear testimony on this subject, having never doubted respecting the Song of Solomon, or even placed it among the antilegomena. On this subject the weight of testimony is decisive with all but those who raise their own subjectivity above all moral evidence, and admit nothing to be divine which they cannot understand.

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"Certain it is," says Moses Stuart," " that the Canticles were a part of the Canon sanctioned by Christ and the apostles. Nothing, as matter of fact in ancient criticism, is more certain. It is of no use to deny this, or to make efforts to avoid it." Dr. Davidson is still more explicit on the same side. "The divine authority of the Song of Solomon is unaffected by the fact of Solomon or another being the writer. Whether the royal son of David composed it, or an unknown author, is of no consequence, provided it formed one of the canonical books of the Old Testament, and was always there from the completion of the Canon. Doubtless it was so. It was not added after the Canon was closed, either surreptitiously or openly; on the contrary, it was received with the rest of the Hagiographa, and always acknowledged as one of that collection. There is not the shadow

b Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon. London, 1849. p. 330.

c Horne's Introduction. London, 1856. Vol. ii., p. 808.

Lorimer's edition,

of evidence in favour of its having been intruded into the collection of the Old Testament writings at any time subsequent to that in which the Canon was completed, either in the period antecedent to the coming of Christ, or at any time after." And the evidence is so succinctly given by Mr. Ginsburg, that we will quote the whole of what he advances.

"This book possesses all the external marks which entitle other writings to a place in the list of sacred books. The evidence for its canonicity is as conclusive as that which is commonly adduced to prove the canonicity of any other portion of the Old Testament. In the Mishna Yadim (sect. iii. 5), we find the following testimony respecting it from R. Akiba, one of the most celebrated Rabbins, who lived at the end of the first century, and was president at the academy of Bani-Brac: No Israelite has ever disputed the canonicity of the Song of Songs. No day in the whole history of the world is of so much worth as the one in which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is most holy. Another Rabbi (Simeon b. Azzai), in the same place, says, I received it from the mouth of the seventy-two elders, at the time when R. Eliezer b. Azzaria was appointed elder, that the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes are canonical. We have here positive evidence that this book existed in the Canon in the apostolic age; and that it was comprised in the sacred books, which our Lord calls ràs ypapàs, the Scriptures, Matt. xxii. 29. It has, therefore, been transmitted to us both by the Jewish and Christian churches as canonical. It was translated into Greek, between the years 90 and 130, by Aquila, who was anxious to furnish his Jewish brethren with a faithful version of the sacred books; and also by Symmachus and Theodotion, before the end of the second century. It is contained in the catalogue given in the Talmud; and in the catalogue of Melito, Bishop of Sardis (fl. 170, A.D.), which he brought from Palestine, whither this learned and pious prelate expressly travelled to obtain information respecting the number of the sacred books. Those who in modern days have questioned the canonicity of this book have done so, not from external evidence, but from misapprehension of its design."pp. 2-4.

Passing from the canonicity, and consequent authority of the Canticles, as received by the Church of England, we come to the use made of the book for instruction in public divine service. In a Church based on Scripture as interpreted by early antiquity or Catholic consent, it is remarkable that nowhere is the Song of Songs quoted, or referred to, or ordered to be read; but the significance of this omission is at once seen when other omissions are taken into account. Thus, the Apocalypse is read

d Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., iv., 26.

"In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church." Article VI. Of the sufficiency of Holy Scriptures for salvation.

only six times, and five of those are Saints' days, the sixth being Trinity Sunday; so that only once in the year is that part of Scripture brought before the people on Sunday, unless one of those Saints' days should fall upon it. The same principle of selection applies to other portions of Scripture, the rule being to omit those which are obscure and less adapted for general edification. The compilers of the English Service, in this respect, only followed what was Catholic, for some books, and the Canticles and the Revelation among them, have always been treated with a cautious reserve. "Even in ancient times," says Stuart, "the Jews had some difficulty with the contents of Canticles; Origen (Prol. ad Cant.) and Jerome (Præf. ad Ezech.) inform us that the Jews of their time withheld this book, and also the beginning and ending of Ezekiel, and the first part of Genesis, from persons under thirty years of age, lest they should abuse

them."

If we look from the authoritative standards of the Church of England to the literature of the divines of the period of the Reformation, we do not find a harmony existing between the two in reference to the Song of Solomon; on the contrary, we find it quoted and alluded to, and explained to an extent far greater than is usual since their day, and which is in singular contrast with its exclusion from public use in the Church. First, let us look at the semi-authoritative rules and headings affixed to the editions of the Bible in English. The earliest copy on which we can now lay our hands is "imprinted at London by the Deputies of Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queene's Most Excellent Majestie, 1599;" and the heading of the Canticles is as follows. "An excellent Song which was Salomon's. The Argument. In this Song, Salomon by most sweet and comfortable allegories and parables describes the perfite love of Jesus Christ, the true Salomon and King of peace, and the faithfull soule or his Church, which he hath sanctified and appointed to be his spouse, holy, chaste, and without reprehension. So that here is declared the singular love of the bridegrome toward the bride, and his great and excellent benefits wherewith he doeth enrich her of his pure bountie and grace without any of her deservings. Also the earnest affection of the Church which is inflamed with the love of Christ, desiring to be more joynd to him in love, and not to be forsaken for any spot or blemish that is in her." In the margin are notes explaining the text, in the same strain; e. g.,on chap. i. 3, "The faithfull confesse that they cannot come to Christ except they be drawen;" and ver. 7, "Christ speaketh to

f Critical History, etc., p. 316.

his Church, bidding them that are ignorant to goe to the pastour to learn;" chap. v. 1, "The garden signifieth the kingdome of Christ, where hee prepareth the banket for his elect;" and chap. vi. 10, "He went doune into the Synagogue to see what fruits came of the Law and the Prophets."

Secondly, one or two examples of the literature of Solomon's Song, produced between the Reformation period and the great Rebellion, will suffice to shew that the book was by no means neglected either by the pulpit or the press. Bishop Hall published "an open and plain paraphrase upon the Song of Songs which is Solomon's." G. Gyffard, "fifteen sermons upon the Song of Solomon;" London, 1598. Dr. R. Sibbs, "Bowels opened; or a discovery of the near and dear love, union, and communion, betwixt Christ and the Church, and consequently betwixt him and every believing soul, in divers sermons on Canticles 4, 5, and 6. London, 1641." Rev. John Cotton, once a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but afterwards a Nonconformist:-"A brief exposition of the whole book of Canticles, lively describing the estate of the Church in all the ages thereof, both Jewish and Christian, and modestly pointing at the gloriousness of the restored state thereof. London, 1642."

The Church of England divines, therefore, were sufficiently diffuse, at that period, in their wanderings among the mysteries of the Canticles; but their expositions derive no sanction from the Prayer-book, the Articles, or the Homilies, for in the two books of the latter we can find no quotation from the Song of Songs among the numerous texts of the margin of the Oxford edition of 1832. At the present day it is very rarely that a sermon is preached from the Canticles, though some devotional

An exception is now before us in a volume entitled, "Sermons on the Canticles, preached in a religious House, by a Clergyman of the Church of England." London : Painter.

We believe the "religious House" is a somewhat anomalous place at East Grinstead, and that the priest is the Rev. J. M. Neile. We will give two short extracts, merely adding that, as addresses to single women, we doubt much the prudence of their being delivered.

"And see how this loving Bride continues: 'Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His Mouth; for Thy love is better than wine.' Ah! and in that very manner of speaking she reads us a lesson. She begins with Him, she directly gets to Thy. It is impossible to speak much or to think often of that dear Lord, without speaking to Him too. And she shews, by the comparison of wine, what were those kisses of His Mouth of which she was even now speaking; how she meant the wine that maketh glad the spirit of man, and the bread that strengtheneth man's heart; how she meant the Corn of the mighty, and the wine that blossoms into virgins (Zech. ix. 17)," etc. "While the King sitteth at His table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.' Now see what preceded and what follows the earnestness of her prayer. 'We will make thee'-He says Whom her soul loveth-borders of gold with studs of silver.' It is His promise of that everlasting garment which they shall wear who