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

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 1 Thess. 5. 6. and Rom. 13. 11. Let us not sleep, but watch and be sober. This is a further degree of spiritual distemper, beyond what was Chap. 3. 1, 2. where she was on bed, and yet seeking, but here she sleeps and lies still, as we see, vers. 3. It imports, 1. An interruption of liveliness and actual exercising of grace. 2. An indisposition and laziness in the frame of the spirit, added to that. 3. A sort of acquiescing and resting securely in that indisposition, with a loathness to stir and be interrupted, such as useth to be in the bodily sleep, and such as appears to be here from the following verse: It's sleepiness, or to be given to sleep, such as the sluggard is subject unto, who sleepeth excessively, and out of due time. This I that sleepeth, is the believer, but considered in so far as unregenerate; as, Rom. 7. 18. I know, that in me (that is, in my flesh) there dwelleth no good thing: For, as the believer hath two different natures, which have opposite actings; so are they considered as two different persons. Hence in that, Rom. 7. 1, yet not I, &c. by which Paul as renewed, is distinguished from himself as unrenewed. By waking, is understood, some liveliness and sensibleness, or at least life, in opposition to the former deadness and dullness, as, Rom. 13. 11. It's high time to awake: And, 1 Thess. 5. 6. Let us watch, and be sober; which is opposite to that spiritual drowsiness, wherein we are scarce at our selves. My heart, looks to the renewed part, which is often called the Spirit, that lusteth against the flesh, as,