Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, [that] the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
Ver. 16. Awake, O north wind; come, thou south, &c.] These winds she supposeth to be asleep, because they blew not. Rupertus calls the winds Mundi scopas, the world's besoms, because God makes use of them to sweep out his large house, and to purge the air. The Spirit of God first purgeth, and then watereth the faithful, whom the Church here calleth her garden, though, indeed it be Christ's, by reason of the nigh conjunction that is between him and her, Eph 5:30 so that they both make but one mystical Christ. 1Co 12:12 Now, we all know that to a complete garden are necessary (1.) That it be well enclosed; (2.) Well planted; (3.) Well watered; (4.) That it be amoena caeli aspiratione perflabilis, well situated for wind and air; (5.) That it be fruitful and profitable. The Church's garden hath every one of these good properties, as appears here; and for the fourth, Christ is all the diverse winds, both cold and hot, moist and dry, binding and opening, north and south, fit for every season. What wind soever blows it blows good to the Church, for Christ speaks to them, as David did to his captains, "Do this young man no hurt; handle him gently for my sake." The sun may not smite him by day, nor the moon by night. Psa 121:6 The nipping north of adversity, the cherishing south wind of prosperity, must both make for him.
That the spices thereof may flow out.] That I may be some way serviceable to God and profitable to men. She knew that in God's account to be idle is all one as to be evil, Mat 25:26 to be unthankful is to be wicked. Luk 6:35 Paulum sepultae distat inertiae, celata virtus, a could one poet say; and another,
“ Vile latens virtus: quid enim submersa tenebris
Proderit, obscuro veluti sub remige puppis,
Vel lyra quae reticet, vel qui non tenditur arcus? ” b
Christ had made his Church a garden of sweetest sweets. Her desire is therefore that her fruits being rightly ripened, her graces greatened and made mature by the benign breath of the Holy Ghost (compared here, as elsewhere, to the several winds), their sweetness may be dispread, and conveyed to the nostrils of such as have "their senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil." Heb 5:14 As for others, their heads are so stuffed with the stenches of the world, that great muck hill, and themselves so choked up with earth, as Core and his complices were, that they cannot resent or savour the things of the Spirit; but, as vultures, they hunt after carrion carcases, and as tigers they are enraged with the sweet smell of the Church's spices.
Let my beloved come and eat his pleasant fruits.] For "who plants a vineyard or orchard, and eats not of the fruit thereof?" 1Co 9:7 The garden is Christ's: the precious graces of his Spirit and all acts of grace, those pleasant fruits are all his. He alone is the true proprietary: "for of him, and through him, and to him are all things." Rom 11:36 Of him, as the efficient cause; through him, as the administering cause; and to him as the final cause. Well therefore may it follow, "to whom be glory for ever." Christ counts the fruits that we bear to be ours, because the judgment and resolution of will whereby we bear them is ours. This he doth to encourage us. But because the grace whereby we judge, will, and work aright, comes from Christ, ascribe we all to him, as the Church doth in the former verse; and presenting him with the best fruits, as they did Joseph, Gen 43:11 say as David, and after him Justinian, c τα σα εκ των σων σοι προσφερομεν, "Of thine own have we given thee." 1Ch 29:14
a Horat.
b Claudian. De Consul. Honor.
c Cedren. ad an. 32 Justin.