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

The Bride is not long in returning her answer, but being glad to have the opportunity to further their edification, instantly she replies, vers. 2. My beloved is gone down, &c. as being well acquaint with the place, where he useth and haunts: If ye would find him (saith she) his withdrawings are not far off, but as a man ⟨p. 342⟩retires sometimes to his garden, and is not in his chamber, so Christ when withdrawn from sense (which is the Chamber, chap. 1. 4.) he is to be found in the assemblies of his people, in his Church and Ordinances, which are (as it were) his garden, there ye would seek him: This is the sum of vers. 2. and then, vers. 3. having instructed them by this notable digression, she returns to quiet her self (when all outward means fail) in the faith of her interest in him.

The Bride is not long in returning her answer, but being glad to have the opportunity to further their edification, instantly she replyes, vers. 2. My beloved is gone down, &c. as being well acquaint with the place, where he useth and haunts: If ye would find him (saith she) his withdrawings are not far off, but as a man ⟨p. 342⟩retiers sometimes to his garden, and is not in his chamber, so Christ when withdrawn from sense (which is the Chamber, chap. 1. 4.) he is to be found in the assemblies of his people, in his Church and Ordininces, which are (as it were) his garden, there ye would seek him: This is the sum of vers. 2. and then, vers. 3. having instructed them by this notable digression, she returns to quiet her self (when all outward means fail) in the faith of her interest in him.

If it were asked, how the daughters could ask the Bride, where Christ was, or how she now can tell them, when she her self is seeking, and knoweth not (as she seemed to profess, chap. 5, 6, 7, 8.) where to find him? Ans. 1. Believers will often give more distinct advice to others, in their difficulties, than they can take to themselves in •heir own exercises; because light and reason guides them unbiasedly, in reference to others, and sense, inclination and affection sway too much in their own cases. 2. Believers may complain they know not how to find him, not so much from defect of light as of life, when either in their own practice, or in their success in duties, they are not answerable to what they aim at; exercised souls are ready to aggrege their own infirmities; and what is indeed in them, is to their own account as not in them, till the Lord shine upon it and quicken it, and so bring it out and make it appear.