Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, [whether] the tender grape appear, [and] the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
Ver. 12. Let us get up early to the vineyards.] Heb., Let us morning it. Manicemas (that is, Gellius' a word), Let us be up early and at it. Here she promiseth not to be found henceforth unready, drowsy, sluggish, but night and day to watch and attend that hour, and to inquire and learn out all the signs and tokens when she may come to be perfectly knit to Christ. But it is worthy of our observation that she would neither go any way nor do anything without Christ's company, for she had lately felt the grief of being without him, though but "for a small moment," as the prophet hath it. She had felt herself that while in the suburbs of hell as it were. She therefore holds him as fast as the restored cripple did Peter and John; Act 3:11 she cleaves as close to him as Ruth did to Naomi; or Elisha did to his master Elijah, when now be knew he should be taken from his head. 2Ki 2:2 She seems here to speak to Christ as once Barak did to Deborah, "If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, I will not go." Jdg 4:8 And whereas she seemeth, as the forwarder of the two, to excite and exhort Christ to "get up early to visit the vines," &c., we may not imagine any unwillingness in him to the performance of his office as "shepherd and bishop of our souls," 1Pe 2:25 or any need on his part to be quickened and counselled by her, as Manoah was by his wife, or Aquila by Priscilla, whence she is set before him, Rom 16:3 for "who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" Isa 40:13 But the Church requesteth these things of Christ for her own encouragement and further benefit; that having his continual presence and fellowship, she may the more cheerfully and successfully go on with her duty. So when we press God with arguments in prayer, it is not so much to persuade him to help us, "for the Father himself loveth you," Joh 16:27 saith Christ, and needs no arguments, σποι δοντα και αυτον οτσυνειν, b to incite or entice him to show us mercy, as to persuade our own hearts to more faith, love, humility, &c., that we may be in a capacity to receive that mercy that of his own accord he hath for us, and even waits to confer upon us. Isa 30:18 Look how a man that would make a bladder capacious to hold sweet spices, blows it and rubs it, and blows it, and rubs it many times over to make it hold the more: so it is here. And as when a man that is in a ship plucks a rock, it seems as if he plucked the rock nearer the ship, whenas in very deed the ship is plucked nearer the rock: so when God's people think they draw God to them with their arguments, in truth they draw themselves nearer to God, who sometimes ascribeth that to us which is his own work, that we may abound more and more. Certum est nos facere quod facimus, sed ille facit ut faciamus. c True it is that we do what we do, but it is he that giveth us to do what we do in his service. The bowls of the candlestick had no oil but that which dropped from the olive branches.
Whether the tender grape appear.] Heb., Open, and so prove itself to be a grape, which in the bud can hardly be discerned. True grace may be doubted about as long as it is small and feeble. Weak things are oft so obscured with their contraries that it remaineth uncertain whether they be or no. He that cried out, and that with tears, "I believe, Lord, help mine unbelief" Mar 9:24 - that is, my weak faith - could not well tell whether he had any faith at all or not. Add growth to grace, and it will be out of question. Meanwhile that is a sweet promise, "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy buds." Isa 44:3 And again, "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all." Isa 65:8
And the pomegranates bud forth.] See Trapp on " Son 4:13 "
There will I give thee my loves,] i.e., The fruition of my graces, and fruits of thy faith, thanks, good works, &c. And this is that which Christ requireth of us all - viz., that we bestow all our loves upon him, even the liveliest and warmest of our affections. Love him we must truly, that there be no halting, and totally, that there he no halving. Hold him we must "better, dearer to us than ten sons," &c., and communicate all our loves to him as best worthy. What he gives us back again we may bestow upon others; we may love other things, but no otherwise than as they convey love to us from Christ, and may be means of drawing our affections unto Christ. We must love all things else as they have a beam of Christ in them, and may lead us to him; accounting that we rightly love ourselves no further than we love the Lord Jesus Christ with a love of complacence.
a A. Gel. lib. iii., cap. 29.
b Homer.
c Augustine.