Who [is] this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
Ver. 6. Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness?] "Who is this?" say the angels, those friends of the bridegroom, as some will have it, admiring the Church's high expressions, and continual ascensions in her affection to Christ. But I rather think it is the voice of the bridegroom himself, ravished with the beauty and sweetness of his spouse, and wondering at his own comeliness put upon her; as well he may, for quantum mutatur ab illa. a Such a change he hath wrought in her, as never was known in any. Eze 16:6-14 Moses married an Ethiopian woman, and could not change her hue. David married a scornful dame, a mocking Michal, and could not mend her conditions. Job's wife continued to be, as it is said of Helena, after the Trojan troubles caused by her, η παλαι γυνη, the same woman still - no changeling she: but the Church and all her genuine children are strangely altered and metamorphosed - as the apostle's word is Romans 12:2 , μεταμορφουσθε - and this change is not moral, formal, merely mental, temporal, partial, but spiritual, real, universal, both in respect of subject and object; for it is an entire change of the whole man, from the whole service of Satan to the living and true God, in sincere obedience to the whole law, the whole course of his life throughout. A change so conspicuous and so stupendous, that not only strangers take notice of it, ξενιζονται, strange at it, 1Pe 4:4 and marvel much at the matter, saying, Who is this? Mat 21:10 What is come to the man of late, that now it is, Ego non sum? But Christ himself stands wondering at his own work, as he did once in Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed" Joh 1:47 - an Ishmaelite by nature, but an Israelite by grace, as Gether, 1 Chronicles 7:17 2Sa 17:3 and as before that in Araunah, that famous Jebusite. 2Sa 24:18 Zec 9:7
That cometh out of the wilderness,] scil., Of this world, fitly called a wilderness, for the paucity of good people in it - the wilderness of Judea, where John preached was so called, because but thinly inhabited - and plenty of bears and boars, lions and leopards, and other wild creatures, whereunto wicked men for their savageness are commonly compared in Scripture. This ascending of the Church out of the world, as Israel did out of Egypt, and their orderly marching through the wilderness into the promised inheritance is worthily called a wonderful separation. Exo 33:16 And as that angel that appeared to Manoah, by ascending up in the flame of the altar, is said to do wondrously, Jdg 13:19-20 so do the saints by their daily devotions, as so many pillars of smoke, elationibus fumi, aspiring to eternity, and coming up, as Cornelius's prayers and alms did, "for a memorial before God." Act 10:4 And albeit their best performances are as smoke, black and sooty in regard to infirmities and imperfections, yet they have a principle in them to carry them upward; they have also the high priest of the New Testament, not to present them only, but to perfume and scent them, as it is here, with myrrh and frankincense, and sweetest powders of the spice merchant - that is, with the merit and mediation of his own most precious passion, Heb 9:24 those sweet odours poured as out of vials into the prayers of saints, Revelation 5:8 ; Rev 8:4 and so making both them and their services acceptable to his Father. And as he promised, Joh 12:32 that "being lifted up" himself by the cross to the kingdom, he would "draw all his to him"; so we see it fulfilled in the saints, those heavenly eagles, soaring out of sight - lowly in their speeches, lofty in their actions, but especially in their affections carried above all earthly objects, Col 3:2 and not content till they are gotten home to heaven; their commoration is here, their conversation above. These heavenly stars, though seen sometimes in a puddle, though they reflect there, yet they have their situation in heaven. These birds of paradise, though they may touch happily upon earth, yet they are mostly upon the wing, and those outward comforts and creatures are to them but scalae et alae, "wings, and wind in their wings," Zec 5:9 to carry them upward. Let shallow men wonder at worldly things, as the disciples did at the huge and fair stones of the temple; Mat 24:1-3 let them be nailed fast to the earth, as Sisera was by Jael; let them ever bow downward, as that woman in the gospel that had a spirit of infirmity; let them grovel and go upon their bellies and feed upon earth, as the serpent. Gen 3:14 The saints are of another alloy; their "civil conversation (πολιτευμα) is in heaven," Php 3:20 their political bent, aim, and fetch is for heaven; they are immortalitatis candidati, as the ancients called Enoch and Elias; they do paradisum mente deambulare, as Jerome bids the young hermit take a turn ever and anon in paradise, and after some serious thoughts of that blessed place they break out as Monica, Augustine's mother did, into a Quid hic facio? What make I here? why hasten I not home to mine own country? They send up many pious ejaculations, many holy sallies, and as it were egressions of soul, many a humble, joyful, and thankful heart to God. Mittunt preces et lachrymas cordis legatos, as he saith, pillars of prayers, volleys of hearty wishes they send up continually, laying up treasure in heaven, and thinking long of the time or ere they get thither.
a Virg.