A garden inclosed [is] my sister, [my] spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Ver. 12. A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse.] Fair and sweet he had before affirmed her; now, because
“ Lis est cum forma magna pudicitae. ”
The quarrel is with her great form of modesty. Fair women have many that wish them and lie in wait for them. Eι μεν καλην, εξεις κοινην, said he to his friend, dissuading him from marriage. a If she be fair, she will lightly be common. Christ therefore here commends her for her purity and chastity, and shows that she was so hedged and defenced by discipline and government, that none could come at her to hazard her virginity, no more than they could enter into a well walled garden. She openeth the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in; Isa 26:2 those which subscribe with their hands unto the Lord; Isa 44:5 that when he shall say, Who is on my side? who? do heartily avouch him for their God; Deu 24:18 that fly to her as a cloud, and flock to her as a flight of doves. Isa 60:8 As for the unclean, or anything that defileth, she hath her porters on purpose to keep them out; 2Ch 23:19 Rev 21:27 no dirty dog shall trample on her golden pavement. Isaiah 5:2 ; Isaiah 35:8,10 ; Isaiah 62:8 1Co 5:11-13 It was not permitted to a dog to enter into the Acropolis or tower at Athens, for his heat in venery and for his ill favour, saith Plutarch. b Goats likewise, saith Varro, come not there, lest they should hurt the olive. Irish air will sooner brook a toad or snake to live therein than the true Church, if she may freely exercise her power, scandalous and heretical persons. Papists teach that the Catholic Church consisteth of good and bad; and that a man may be a true member thereof, though he have no inward virtues. c We confess that in all particular congregations there are hypocrites, as appears in the parable of the tares, of the net, &c. But yet we deny that the holy Catholic Church mentioned in the creed hath a mixture of good and bad, since she is the chaste spouse of Jesus Christ, who owneth no wicked man or hypocrite in her; for how should he love such, unless it be with a common, not with a conjugal, love, so as he loved that tame young man, Mar 10:21 whom he pitied as a self-deceiver, like as we pity moderate and devout Papists. In Christ's garden, as there is no ground but what is specially good, set apart for the purpose, fit for him to sit and walk in for his recreation - my well beloved hath his orchard in a very fruitful hill, Isa 5:1 in a cornucopia country - so it is furnished and filled with the choicest fruits and flowers, plants of renown, and pleasant trees, yielding fruit according to their kind. And though all cannot bear cinnamon and balsam, yet as in Spain there is said to be nihil infructuosum, nihil sterile, nothing barren or unfruitful, so all that "are planted in the house of the Lord, do flourish in the courts of our God; they do still bring forth fruit in old age, they are fat and flourishing"; Psa 92:13-14 they are both actuosi and fructuosi, "neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2Pe 1:8 And indeed how can it be otherwise with God's garden, whenas he "himself keeps it, and watereth it every moment; lest any hurt it, he keepeth it night and day." Isa 27:3 God fenceth it with his omnipotent arm, keepeth it from the wild boar and other devoratory evils, as Tertullian phraseth it, better than the garden of Eden was kept with the flaming sword. And whereas the Church may seem to lie open to all incursions, this verse shows that it hath a well within it and a wall without it. Yea, himself is a "wall of fire round about Jerusalem," Zec 2:5 in allusion to the custom of those Eastern countries where, by reason of the great number of wild beasts, shepherds and travellers guard themselves by making great fires round about their night lodgings to keep off their approach.
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.] A preciously purling current of grace, "a spring of water whose waters fail not," Isa 58:11 and whereof "whosoever drinketh shall never thirst" Joh 4:14 For which end it is carefully shut up, nay, sealed, that the "stranger meddle not with his joy," and that the envious man stop not up this wellspring with earth, as the Philistines served Isaac; or cast bags of poison into it, as the spiteful Jews did once in this kingdom, and were therefore banished hence for ever. It was wittily said of Polydor Virgil, Regnum Angliae, regnum Dei, the kingdom of England is the kingdom of God. He meant because God seemed to take special care of it, as having walled it about with the ocean, and watered it with the upper and nether springs, like that land which Caleb gave his daughter. Hence it was called Albion, quasi Olbion, the happy country, whose valleys are like Eden, saith our English chronicler, d whose hills are as Lebanon, whose springs are as Pisgah, whose rivers are as Jordan, whose walls are the ocean, and whose defence is the Lord Jehovah. Foreign writers have termed our country "the granary of the western world," "the fortunate island," "the paradise of pleasure, and garden of God." All this may much more fitly be applied to the Catholic Church. If Judea were called the "glorious land" because of God's presence there, Dan 11:16 and an "island," though part of the continent, because surrounded with God's powerful protection, Isa 20:6 and the commonwealth of Israel Yεοκρατεια by Josephus, a God-like polity, what shall we think of that "Jerusalem above, that is the mother of us all"; of those sealed saints; Rev 7:3-4 this "sealed fountain," sealed up as to keep it filth free, that no camels stir up the mud, nor great he-goats foul it with their feet, Eze 34:18 so to denote an excellence - as in Isaiah 28:25, hordeum signatum is put for excellent barley - and a propriety, "who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts," 2Co 1:22 like as the merchant sets his seal upon his goods, and marks them for his own?
a Aul. Gell.
b δια του ακολαστου, και δυσωδους. - Plut. Eλλην .
c Bellar., lib. iii. cap. 2, De Eccles. Militan.
d Speed.