The following analysis is gathered from Harmer's singularly confused work. Chapter I. describes Solomon and his attendants meeting the Egyptian bride and her companions; ii. 1-iii. 5, describes the complaining language of the Jewish queen; iii. 6-v. 1, resumes the account of Solomon's journey with the Egyptian bride up to Jerusalem, and describes the consummation of the marriage; v. 2-vi. 3, relates Solomon's conversation with his Jewish wife; vi. 4-9, Solomon's conversation with the Egyptian wife in the garden; vi. 10-viii. 7, begins with Solomon's astonishment at his being surprised by his Jewish wife whilst in the garden with the Egyptian wife, and the ensuing conversation between them; viii. 8, describes the imaginative hope of the Jewish wife that Solomon's marriage with the Egyptian would not be consummated, and that she would, therefore, not be treated as a wife; viii. 9, gives Solomon's reply, that the Egyptian princess should be treated with the highest honours; viii. 10-12, contains a smart reply of the Egyptian princess to the Jewish queen, in which she at the same time also notices the addition her marriage had made to the King's possessions; viii. 13, states Solomon's appeal to the Jewish queen in the presence of all to give her final thoughts respecting her future conduct; viii. 14, gives her resolution to keep her distance; but at the same time there appears no thought of renouncing her relation to Solomon on her part, as "there was not on his." "Such actually," concludes Harmer, "is the state of things with respect to the Messiah, and the two churches of Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish Church persists in not receiving the Gentiles as fellow-heirs, but they renounce not their relation to the Messiah, nor has he utterly excluded them from hope. The state of distance has long continued, but as they still remain a distinct body of people, waiting for great events that are to happen, so the New Testament leads us to expect their reconciliation."
1770. Different to these strange outlines of Harmer were the effects which Lowth's remarks upon this Song produced in
