Clavis cantici, or, An exposition of the Song of Solomon

Vers. 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

From vers. 2. unto the ninth (which is the second part of the Chapter) the Bride speaks, and sets down a very complex piece of her condition, which we take up in these three. 1. Her condition is shortly set down. 2. The mutual carriage of the Bridegroom and Bride are recorded; wherein (as it were) grace and loving kindness in him, and unkindness in her, are wrestling together for a time. 3. The out-gate, and the way how she attained it, by several steps on his side, and hers, are particularly insisted on from vers. 4. with what followed thereupon.

From vers. 2. unto the ninth (which is the second part of the Chapter) the Bride speaks, and sets down a very complex piece of her condition, which we take up in these three. 1. Her condition is shortly set down. 2. The mutual carriage of the Bridegroom and Bride are recorded; wherein (as it were) grace and loving kindnesse in him, and unkindnesse in her, are wrestling together for a time. 3. The out-gate, and the way how she attained it, by several steps on his side, and hers, are particularly insisted on from vers. 4. with what followed thereupon.

Her case is in short, I sleep, but my heart waketh, or (as it is in the Original) I sleeping, my heart waking: It's made up of contraries, and seeming paradoxes; she is distinguished from her ⟨p. 254⟩heart, and the sleeping of the one is opposed to the waking of the other: Both this sleeping and waking are spiritually to be understood; The first signifies a ceasing from spiritual duties, or a suspension of the acting of spiritual life, by arising of some inward corruption, that dulls and binds up the spiritual senses, as in natural sleep the external senses are dulled and bound up: So