How fair is thy love, my sister, [my] spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
Ver. 10. How fair is thy love.] Heb., Loves, in the plural, noting not only their multitude, but excellence also, such as do far preponderate all carnal affections. These are said to be inexpressibly fair and lovely (noted by the exclamation and repetition here used, as if words were too weak to utter it), because (1.) It is undissembled - a man may paint fire, but he cannot paint heat; a man may dissemble actions in religion, but he cannot dissemble affections - (2.) It is rare, and in respect of common Christians it may be said, as in Ephesians 3:19, to "pass knowledge," since most have little of the life of it in their breasts, less of the light and lustre of it in their lives.
How much better is thy love than wine.] This same she had said of him in Song of Solomon 1:2. Now he returns it upon her, as is usual among lovers. He had confessed himself ravished with her love. Son 4:9 Now here he shows why he was so. He found her not lovely only, but loving; he had made her so, aud now takes singular delight and complacency in his own work, as once he did in his work of creation. He well perceived that he had not lost his love upon his Church, as David did upon his Absalom, as Paul did upon his Corinthians (of whom he complains, that the more he had loved, the less he was beloved), as Job upon his miserable comforters, whom he compares to the brooks of Tema, that in a moisture swell, in a drought fail. Job 6:15-17 But Christ finds no such fickleness or false heartedhess in his beloved - he had love for love; and as he had been a sweet friend to her, so was she to him. Her love was better than the best wine (which yet is both costly and comfortable), yea, than all the delights that this life can afford; so much is implied by "wine" here, and so he is pleased to esteem it. Unworthy she of so kind acceptance of that little she can do this way, if she do not her utmost; if she cry not out with her son David, "I will love thee dearly," or entirely, with mine utmost bowels - with the same tenderness of affections as is in mothers towards the fruit of their bodies, so the Hebrew word signifies. Psa 18:1 And again, "I love" (so he abruptly expresseth himself by a passionate pang of love), "because the Lord hath heard the voice of my supplications," &c. Psa 116:1 He saw, and we may all see, so much cause to love the Lord, as that he must needs be a monster, and not a man, that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. It was a miracle that those worthies in Daniel should be in the midst of a fiery furnace, and not burn. It is no less that men should be in the midst of mercies on all hands, and not love Christ. It would be as great a wonder men should fail here, as for a river to run backwards. "I have drawn them by the bands of love, by the cords of a man," Hos 11:4 that is, with reasons and motives of love befitting the nature of a man, of a rational creature. But most men, alas! (and those that profess to be the children of the Church too), move like the river Araris, backward or forward, who can tell? a This is to give Christ vinegar for wine; this is as lukewarm water to his nice and nauseating stomach. Rev 3:16 There is a prophecy reported in Telesphorus, that Antichrist shall never overcome Venice, nor Paris, nor London. But we have a more certain word, and let us take heed, lest for our lukewarmness Christ spew us out of his mouth. What hath been the opinion and fear of some not inconsiderable divines, that Antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the west, and suppress the whole Protestant Churches for a punishment of their loss of their first love, I pray Christ to avert.
And the smell of thine ointments, than all spice!] That is, Of thy sweet graces actuated and exercised. Psa 89:20 John 1:20 ; Joh 1:27 It was an aggravation of the fall of Saul, that he fell "as though he had not been anointed"; 2Sa 1:21 so for the saints to fall from their first love or from their own steadfastness. Such a dead fly will cause their once sweet ointments to send forth a stinking savour. Ecc 10:1 Corruptio optimi est pessima. The best things are the worst things I corrupt.
a Oculis in utram partem fluat iudicari non potest. - Caesar. de bello Gal., lib. i.