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

The first general in this 10. vers. sets out Christ positively, and comparatively: Do you ask (saith she) what my Beloved is? he is a non-such, an incomparable Beloved, he is white and ruddy, O so lovely as he is in himself! and being compared with all others, he hath the preeminence by far, as being the chiefest among ten thousands, By white and ruddy, we are to conceive Christ's qualifications, according to the strain of the Allegory, there being no bodily qualification set out here, Christ at that time not being incarnate, yet even then was he white and ruddy: The due and just mixture of these colours maketh a man lovely, and evidenceth a good complexion of body; so by them in Christ is understood a concurrence of all fit qualifications and excellencies, that may make him lovely to the soul, when by faith looked upon, and taken up; there is sweet beauty and comeliness, or a comely, beautiful sweetness that lustres and shines in him, through the excellent qualifications wherewith he is furnished, as the Husband of his Church, that ravisheth spiritual affections far beyond the greatest beauty that can be in the fairest face; for, indeed he is fairer than the sons of men, There is nothing that may make a Mediator ⟨p. 299⟩lovely but it is here. Again, as if that did not fully set out his amiableness, she adds, He is the chiefest among ten thousand: This is a definite great number for an indefinite; In sum it's this, there are many beloveds indeed in the world, but compare them all with Christ, they are nothing to him, without all controversy he is the chiefest, 1 Cor. 8. 5, 6. For, though there be gods many, and lords many (to the world) yet to us there is but one God, and one Lord Jesus; in all the world there is but one Christ. The word used here is, He is the standard-bearer, or it may be rendered passively, He is standarted above ten thousand; all tending to the same scope: Love ky•hes it's rhetoric in seeking words to prefer Christ, as having indignation that his precedency and preeminence (who is above all things, Col. 1. 17.) should so much as once be questioned: It's like, that in these times the most comely persons were chosen to carry the standard, a piece of dignity being thereby put upon them;