BY REV. EBENEZER ERSKINE.
I.
OUR blessed Lord Jesus, who is represented under the notion of a Bridegroom in this book, from the 4th verse of the preceding chapter, breaks out in the commendation of His spouse and bride, venting the love of His heart toward her in many warm and pathetic expressions; and His discourse is continued to the 10th verse of this chapter; where we find Him running out in the commendation of His Church in several particulars. He commends her from her spiritual birth and pedigree, calling her, a prince’s daughter, verse 1. The saints of God are royally descended; by their second birth they are sprung of the Ancient of Days; born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Again, He commends her from the beauty of holiness shining in her walk and conversation: How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! Holiness is the attire of the bride of Christ; she is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. But time will not allow me to explain the several particulars of her commendation. The words of my text are an abrupt sentence; wherein He expresseth the wonderful complacency which He took in her society, and the overpowering influence that her faith, and His faithfulness, His love and her loveliness, had to make Him stay and abide in her company. The King is held in the galleries. In which words we may notice these particulars.
I. Christ’s character and office; He is a Person of royal dignity, no less than a King, and the King by way of eminency.
* This is a sermon by the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine preached from the text—Song of Solomon, vii. 5. It was copied out and sent us by a young girl in Skye who evidently found in it what she would like to impart to others. We are grateful to our young helper and encouraged to know that there are some among the young of the Free Presbyterian Church, who find the nourishing food which the godly fathers and mothers of bygone days fed upon with delight, to be still palatable.—Editor.
The Church of God owns no other King but Christ; for it is He whom God the Father has set to rule upon the holy hill of Zion; and it is a manifest invasion of Christ’s prerogative, for pope, prelate or potentate, to usurp a sovereignty and headship over the Church of Christ, an indignity which He will not suffer to pass without suitable resentment. He here owns Himself to be the King of Zion and will maintain the dignity of His crown against all that dare invade it.
II. In the words we have the place of converse between Christ and His blessed spouse and bride; it is in the galleries. It is the same word in the original which we have, (Cant. i. 17). The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters, or galleries, of fir. Where, by galleries in both places, according to the judicious Durham, we are to understand the ordinances of the gospel, in which Christ and His people do tryst and keep company, one with another. Why gospel-ordinances are thus designed, I may shew more particularly afterwards.
III. We have the sweet constraint that this Royal Bridegroom was under to tarry in the galleries with His spouse; He here owns that He was held, or bound, as the word signifies, in the galleries. Her faith and love laid Him under a voluntary arrest to tarry with her; like the disciples going to Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 29), she constrained Him to abide with her. An expression much like this we have (Cant. iii).
IV. After a weary night of desertion and much tedious inquiry, she at length meets with her Beloved, and thereupon she cries out, I held Him, and would not let Him go.
Observe, that Christ, the blessed King of Zion, condescends sometimes to be held and detained by His people in the galleries of gospel ordinances. The King is held in the galleries.
I. I will give some account of this Royal King.
II. Of the galleries of the King.
III. Of this holding of the King in the galleries.
IV. Apply.
I. The first thing proposed is, to give some account of this Royal King. But, alas! who can declare His generation? All I shall do is only, first, to prove that He is a King, secondly, that He is the King by way of eminency and excellency. First, that He is a King, appears from these particulars. (1) From the Father’s designation and ordination. From all eternity the Father designed and ordained this dignity for Him as our Mediator, for I do not now speak of His natural and essential but of His dispensatory or mediatory kingdom: I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psal. ii. 6, and Psal.lxxix. 27), I will make Him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. (2) It appears from the prophecies that went of Him before His actual manifestation in our nature. It was prophesied, that the sceptre of Judah should terminate in Him (Gen. xlix. 10); that He should succeed David, and sit upon his throne (Luke i. 32, 33), compared with Psal. cxxxii. 11. The Lord shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end: (Isaiah ix. 6), and the government shall be upon His shoulder. (3) It appears from the types and shadows that prefigured Him. He was typified by Melchizedek, who is called the King of righteousness and the King of peace. He was typified by David and frequently called by the name of David in the Psalms and Prophets; (Hosea iii. 5). The children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their King. He was typified by Solomon, and by his name He is commonly called in this book of the Song. (4) It appears from the princely titles that are given Him in Scripture. He is called the Prince of peace, the King of righteousness, and the King of kings, and Lord of lords; and it is God the Father’s will that everyone should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. (5) It appears from the princely prerogatives and royalties that are assigned Him by His Father. He has anointed Him to be King with an incomparable oil, even with the oil of gladness: I have found David my servant;
with my holy oil have I anointed Him (Psal. lxxxix. 20). He has installed Him in the government with the solemnity of an open proclamation from Heaven, by the voice which came from the excellent glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” He has put a sceptre of righteousness, and a rod of iron, in His hand, whereby He is enabled to defend His subjects, destroy His enemies, and break them in pieces as a potter’s vessel. He has given Him ambassadors to negotiate the affairs of His kingdom: He gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. He has given Him vast territories, even the Heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for His possession. His dominion reaches from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. It extends not only to the outward, but likewise to the inward man. He has a legislative authority; He can make and explain, and abrogate laws at His pleasure. And when His laws are broken, He has the power of acquitting or condemning committed to Him. For the Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Thus you see He is a King. Secondly, as He is a King, so He is the King by way of eminency and excellency. And this will be abundantly clear, if we consider, (1) That He is the King eternal (I Tim. i. 17), the everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity (Isaiah ix. 6). Other kings are but of yesterday, mere upstarts and like a gourd, their glory withers in a night. But here is a King that is from everlasting to everlasting, the True Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. Mic. v. 2, This ruler in Israel, “His goings forth were from old, from everlasting.” And His throne is so firmly established that it shall stand through all periods of time, yea, through the endless years of eternity: Psal. xiv. 6—”Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” (2) He is called the King immortal (I Tim. i. 17). In the last chapter of the same epistle, “He only hath immortality.” The potentates of the
earth are but kings of clay; they and their thrones have their foundations in the dust, and unto dust shall they return. Death, the king of terrors, has raised its trophies of victory over the most renowned potentates: they, who made the world to tremble with their sword, have been at last vanquished by death. But here is a King that never dies. It is true, death did once, by His own consent, obtain a seeming victory over Him; but, in that victory, death itself was plagued, and the grave destroyed (Hos. xiii. 14). Yea, it was not possible that He should be held in the bonds of death: no, He vanquished death in His own territories, and returned carrying the spoil of His enemy along with Him, making open proclamation of the victory which He had gained, to all His friends for their encouragement. Rev. i. 18—”I am He, that was dead; and, behold! I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (3) He is the King invisible. Some eastern princes were seldom seen by their subjects, to beget the greater reverence and estimation among their subjects. But this was only an affectation of grandeur. Christ, the King of Zion, is indeed visible to the eye of faith by the saints militant, and visible to the eye of sense by the saints triumphant; however, the thousand thousandth part of His divine glory can never be seen or searched out by any created understanding; for He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see (I Tim. vi. 16). He is an unseen and unknown Christ by the greatest part of the world, as to His worth and excellency. And as to His corporeal presence, He is invisible by us, in this state of mortality; for the Heaven must contain Him, until the times of restitution of all things; and then indeed every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him. (4) He is the only blessed and happy King. I Tim. vi. 15—”the blessed and only potentate.” The crowns of other princes have their prickles, which make them uneasy to sit upon their heads; and the toil and trouble of government is sometimes so great, that the very beggar on the dunghill is happier in some respects than the
king upon the throne. But Zion’s King is in every respect happy and blessed. He is the darling of Heaven and earth, the delight of His Father, and the desire of all nations. His crown does not totter, His subjects do not rebel; He is happy in them, and they in Him. Men shall be blessed in Him; and all nations shall call Him blessed. (5) He is the absolute and universal King. His kingdom is universal in respect of all persons; the highest potentate, as well as the meanest beggar, are the subjects of His empire. This is His royal name, written on His vesture, and on His thigh, the King of kings, and Lord of lords (Rev. xix. 16). Whenever He will, He casts the mighty out of their seats, and advances them of low degree; sets the beggar on the throne, and causeth the king to sit on the dunghill; He cuts off the spirit of princes, and is terrible to the kings of the earth. Again, His government is universal in respect of all places. We read of several potentates who have grasped at the universal monarchy: but never any of them attained it, though indeed they extended their dominions far and wide. But here is a King, whose empire reaches to Heaven, earth and hell. Again, it is universal in respect of all times: He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end. I might tell you, further, to illustrate the eminency of this King, that He is the King of Glory, the almighty King, the King of saints, the King of Nations. But from what has been said, we may see that He is a King of incomparable excellency, and what an honour it is to be with Him, and to hold Him in the galleries.
(To be continued).
Short Gleanings.
SIDE WINDS.
I have heard that a full wind behind the ship drives her not so fast forward as a side wind, that seems almost as much against her as with her; and the reason, they say, is because a
full wind fills but some of her sails, which keep it from the rest, that they are empty; when a side winds fills all her sails, and sets her speedily forward. Whichever way we go in this world our affections are our sails; and according as they are spread and filled, so we pass on swifter, or slower, whither we are steering. Now, if the Lord should give us a full wind and continued gale of mercies, it would fill but some of our sails — some of our affections — joy, delight, and the like. But when he comes with a side-wind, — a dispensation that seems almost as much against us as for us, — then he fills our sails, takes up all our affections, making His works wide and broad enough to entertain every one, —then we are carried fully and freely towards the haven where we would be.—Owen.
THE OLD MAN.
Some persons seem to have a religious “old man;” but of mine I must freely confess that it is as dead as Lazarus in the tomb, as earthy as the clods of the valley, as sensual as the beasts that perish, as untamable as the wild ass, as undisciplined as the unicorn (Job. xxxix. 5-12), as hard as Pharaoh, and as unbelieving as the lord on whose hand the King of Israel leaned (II. Kings vii. 2), nor do I expect him ever to get any better. He hates vital religion, abhors wisdom, loathes instruction, cannot endure chastisement, rebels against discipline, and cannot bear check, headpiece, bit, rein, or martingale.—J. C. Philpot.