are made for this song, which is not amatory, but a song about the marriage of the Divine Bridegroom with the Church.
2. Let him kiss me, &c. This is the language of the spouse offering a petition to the Father of the Bridegroom; for she has known both the promises made to Abraham and the prophecies of Jacob; as well as the prophecies of Moses, respecting her beloved, and the description of his beauty and power as given in the Psalms; "Thou art more beautiful than the sons of men," &c.; she has learned that her beloved, who is adorned with beauty and grace, is both God and the eternal Son; "For thy throne, Oh God, is for ever and ever," &c. Having recognised the beauty, strength, riches, dominion, and power of the bridegroom which he displays above all things, world without end, she draws nigh to him to embrace him and to kiss him in Spirit. Let none whose spirit is low, and who only tastes that which is earthly, be misled by the expression "kisses." Let him remember that we ourselves embrace and kiss the limbs of the beloved at the mysterious time (the Lord's Supper), and that which we see with our eyes, store up in our hearts, and, as it were, feel ourselves in conjugal embraces; so that it is with us as if we were with him, embracing and kissing him, after, as the Scriptures say, "love has driven away fear." Therefore it is that the Bride wishes to be kissed by the Bridegroom himself.
390-444. Cyril of Alexandria, who was born towards the close
of the fourth century, and died in 444, went so far as to explain
"the palanquin," to mean the cross; its "silver legs," the thirty
pieces of silver which brought Christ to the cross; the "purple
cushion," the purple garment in which the Saviour was mocked;
"the nuptial crown," the crown of thorns put on Christ's head,
&c. &c.
650. The influence of the Chaldee mode of interpretation seems now to become more apparent in the Christian Church. Aponius, who is quoted by the venerable Bede, and must therefore have lived in the seventh century, regards the Song of Songs as describing what the Logos has done for the Church from the beginning of the world, and what he will do to the end of it; thus, like the Chaldee, he takes the book as a historico-prophetical description of the dealings of God with his people, only that the Chaldee takes the Jews as the object of the description, but Aponius substitutes the Gentile Church.
673-735. Bede, called the venerable, who was born at Wearmouth, in Durham, in 673, and died in 735, wrote seven books on the Song of Songs, one being merely a copy from
