A34663:671
A brief exposition of the whole book of Canticles, or Song of Solomon lively…
A brief exposition of the whole book of Canticles, or Song of Solomon lively describing the estate of the church in all the ages thereof, both Jewish and Christian, to this day ... / written by that learned and godly divine, John Cotton ...
London: printed for Philip Nevil, 1642
Chapter 4: THE CANTICLES, OR SONG OF SONGS opened and explained.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Suitable to the virtues of these fruits and spices, persecution bred and stirred up in the faithful graces of like efficacy, to restrain heats of emulation, contention, ambition, to repress ulcers of malignity and dis-affection one to another, to heal the coldness, hypocrisy, and rottenness of their spirits; to stay distillations of cold raw matters, dropping from the head Bishops of Rome; as also to strengthen appetite to the word, to comfort the faint hearted, to knit the members together.
Sutable to the vertues of these fruits and spices, persecution bred and stirred up in the faithfull graces of like efficacy, to restraine heats of emulation, contention, ambition, to represse ulcers of malignity and dis-affection one to another, to heale the coldnesse, hypocrisie, and rottennesse of their spirits; to stay distillations of cold raw matters, dropping from the head Bishops of Rome; as also to strengthen appetite to the word, to comfort the faint hearted, to knit the members together.
A fountain of gardens, &c.]1 For the Church, pouring out her confessions and martyrdoms for the truth, propagated and watered many Churches; for, sanguis martyrum was semen Ecclesiae, 2a Well of ⟨p. 135⟩living waters. The Church was not then dried up, but plentifully stored with the graces of the spirit, Streams from Lebanon: The Churches were stored with such graces of the Spirit, as streamed and issued out from the mountains of Israel, the writings of the Prophets and Apostles.
A fountaine of gardens, &c.]1 For the Church, pouring out her confessions and martyrdomes for the truth, propagated and watered many Churches; for, sanguis martyrum was semen Ecclesiae,