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

What effect this disappointment had upon her part, follows, my soul failed when he spake: This effect is sad and heavy, the sense of her sin, and the apprehension of her grieving of him, kindled by love to him, pierceth and stoundeth her so to the heart, that it becomes almost lifeless: So the word is used, Gen. 42. 28. of Jacobs sons, when they found the money in their sacks mouths, they were sore afraid, and their hearts failed them, or, went out of them; It's a surprising unexpected heaviness, and that in a high degree, holding forth, how deeply believers will be affected, when disappointed of the expected presence of Christ, and that by their own guilt: The cause or occasion of this failing of heart, is in these words, when he spake, which look to the time past, though the effect was present; and they may be two ways understood, 1. As being a remembering how it was with her while he spake (for now he speaks not) she now observes, and calls to mind, that when he called and she shifted, yet even then her heart was affected with his word, and this smites her now, that she should have so long smothered so much kindness, and have brought all this upon her self; It's like that of the Disciples, Luk. 24. 32. who after Christ was gone, say one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and opened up to us the Scriptures; though before they little heeded it, yet afterward ⟨p. 281⟩they observe, and when they recollect themselves, it becomes more distinct than it was in the time. 2. It may be looked on as being the present effect of the words formerly spoken, which although they did not so sensibly affect her when he spoke them, yet now being brought to her remembrance (as, Joh. 14. 26.) they pierce her, that she should have slighted and neglected them, as, Matth. 26. when Peter is admonished, the word for the time affects not, but afterward, vers. 75. when he remembers it (as challenges brings back words formerly spoken) he went out and wept bitterly; So her resentment of what she formerly slighted is now bitter. Obs. 1. The time of Christ's absence is a time when by-gone challenges, or challenges for by-past offences, use to recur. 2.