I charge you, &c.— This is a rural form of adjuring: the bride intreats her virgin companions by those creatures in which they may be supposed to have taken frequent pleasure; but we must never forget that Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, is the supreme, yea, in a true sense, the sole object of her love. The word rendered love is emphatical, and signifies my amiable one. See Hasselquist, p. 192 and the New Translation.
Though I so largely enter, both in my preface, and in my reflections at the end of every chapter, into the spiritual meaning of this divine song—the only meaning for which it was dictated by the Holy Spirit, and recorded in the canon of Scripture—yet I cannot refrain from adding also a few spiritual remarks at the close of every eclogue. By the spouse is meant the CHURCH, who, possessed with the most passionate, love of the promised Redeemer, expresses in ch. i, Song of Solomon 2:2 her fervent desire for his appearance in the flesh; declaring, at the same time the excellence of his name and grace, and confessing her own unworthiness, as having been too long seduced by false teachers, and lost in gentile idolatry, Song of Solomon 2:5-6. Under the sense of this, she earnestly desires to know and learn the way of true religion, Song of Solomon 2:7 a desire pleasing to the Bridegroom, who exhorts her to enter into the holy assemblies of pious souls, and to bring her young converts to be instructed by such pastors as the great Shepherd will appoint in his church, Song of Solomon 2:8 where she may receive spiritual strength and beauty, Song of Solomon 2:9-10 where all her members, by their union in religion, may add splendor and glory to her, Song of Solomon 2:11 where her graces may diffuse their odours, and her heart rejoice in reciprocal affection, and all the acts and offices of fervent piety, Song of Solomon 2:12-17 and chap. Song of Solomon 2:1-7.; for the mutual expressions of esteem in these verses seem evidently calculated to set forth the superlative pleasures and heartfelt delights of communion between Christ and the sincere Christian; particularly as experienced in all the acts and offices of religion.