Thy lips, O [my] spouse, drop [as] the honeycomb: honey and milk [are] under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments [is] like the smell of Lebanon.
Ver. 11. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as an honeycomb.] Heb., Drop the honeycomb. So Christ calls the doctrines and prayers of the Church, her thanksgivings, confessions, conferences, &c., which are things most pleasing to Christ, and do much comfort and edify the faithful. That golden mouthed preacher did so please the people, that it was grown to a proverb, Better the sun shine not, than Chrysostom preach not. Bilney the martyr, a little before he was burned, entreated much on that text, Isa 43:2 "Fear not; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee"; so that some of his friends present took such sweet fruit thereby, saith Mr Foxe, a that they caused the whole sentence to be fair written in tables, and some in their books; the comfort whereof in several of them was never taken away from them to their dying day. The same author saith b of Bishop Ridley, martyr, that he usually preached every Sunday and holiday, to whose sermons the people resorted, swarming about him like bees, and coveting the sweet juice of his heavenly doctrine. How pleasant and profitable to Latimer was the private conference he had with Bilney! and the like benefit had Ridley by Bradford, Luther by Staupicius, Galeacius by Peter Martyr, Junius by a countryman of his not far from Florence. Oο και απο γλωττης μελιτος γλυκιων ρεεν αυδη. c
Honey and milk are under thy tongue.] The language of Canaan is thy proper dialect; for Canaan was a land that flowed with milk and honey - with things both pleasant and profitable. Yea, I doubt not, saith an interpreter, but that under these terms the Holy Ghost meaneth fit food, as well for strong men as for weak ones in the Church. Milk most properly belongs to children; 1Co 3:2 Heb 5:12-13 and honey to them of more strength, as examples of the word and reason itself teacheth sufficiently, in Jonathan, 1Sa 14:27 and John Baptist. Mat 3:4 By these comparisons also may well be understood the good housekeeping that is in Christ's Church. Honey and milk she hath ever at hand. And why hath he put these provisions under her tongue, but that she should look to lip feeding? Pro 10:22 Let our words be "always with grace." Col 4:6 Mel in ore, verba lactis, this becomes the Church's children. Fel in corde, fraus in factis, is for those brats of fathomless perdition, that have adders' poison under their lips, Psa 140:3 that being "in the gall of bitterness and bond of perdition," show themselves by their words and actions to be the sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and of the whore, whose lips also drop the honeycomb, but her end is bitter as wormwood. Pro 5:3-4 Isa 57:3
And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.] Which was passing pleasant, by reason of the odoriferous and sweet smelling trees that grew there. Now what are these garments but the Church's inward graces, say some; outward behaviour, say others, which is most gracious, amiable, and sweet, as far above all worldly grace as the smell of Lebanon is above the savour of common woods.
a Acts and Mon., 923.
b Ibid., 1559.
c Homer.