The Usefulness and Excellency of Christ, Section 1
SECT. 1.
That Christ is like a Rose in Sharon field, Cant. 2. 1.
[I am the Rose of Sharon.]
I Have beene long enamored with this most fragrant and precious Scripture, beholding in it a more then ordinary beauty and shining eminencie, & now my love breaketh out by this my choice, because I was not able to keepe it in any longer, and I doe wish from the very bottome of my heart, that you also, my dearely beloved, may affect the same: True it is, that carnall love cannot endure a corrivall, and fellow-lover, but the love wherewith I love this text is of another nature, spirituall, and not carnall, and therefore as Moses said once upon an other occasion, when Eldad and Medad prophesied in the Campe, & Iosua envied at them for Moses sake, would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets, Numb. 11, 27, 28, 29. so say I, would to God that all this people may not onelyonly love this text with me, but also may chuse and love him who is enclosed in it, even Christ Iesus himselfe, who as hee shineth with unconceivable spendor above the brightnesse of the sunne it selfe in heaven above, so likewise doth he even spread and dart forth some rayes of his glorious beauty heere below in the most delicious garden of my text, where his most amiable person is most aptly assimilated to a rose faire and ruddy, by this most sweet expression, I am the rose of Sharon.
This whole song, whereof these words are but a little peece, is transcendental and mysticall, composed by Salomon the wisest King (so honored and titled by the spirit of God) and most aNec vacat mysferio quod liber hic ternus ponitur in operibus Solomonis, &c. Greg. in proleg. super. cantaptly placed after the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, for whereas in the Proverbs there is set forth and pressed the morall life of man, and in Ecclesiastes the life naturall, subject to vanity, the consideration whereof may aptly moove a man to the life morall: here in this love-song is expressed the life contemplative, for the which Ecclesiastes unvailing and representing to the life, the vanity of the life naturall, and by that meanes weaning and divorcing mans affection from terrestrialls, maketh way in a mysterie; for as much as none is fit for contemplation, untill his mind be taken off from earthlinesse and convinced of that nothingnesse, which is in all things created under the sunne. The matter of contemplation therin contained is Connubiall, touching the mysticall union and communion between Christ the Celestial bridegroome and the Church his spouse, set forth in a bOrigen. hom. 3. in Cant.dramaticall stile so sublime and elegant, as that the whole treatise might well be stiled The cl'ocatur enim ideò Canticum, quia est omnibus canticis sublimius. Gregor.song of songs which is Salomons, who was a King of Kings, as being more excellent then all Kings, and most able to compile a canticle more high and lofty then all other ordinary canticles, by reason of his most excellent wisedom. The occasion of the words, which (being The occasion of these words.the first peece of the first mēber of the former part of this bipartite Chapter, containing a mutuall commendation, in the 1, 2, 3 verses) I have singled out from among the rest, you may observe in the precedent chapter, verse 16. where the spouse of Christ having obtained her beloveds presence, 12, 13, 14. uttereth these words. Also our bed is greene, dConscientia bonis referta operibus. Bern.bestrawed as it were with flowers of grace; for answere whereunto, eAd hoc respicere puto quod sponsa de spa…sis lectulum floribus commendat. &c. Bern. ser. 47. super. Cant. in Loc.as S. Bernard aptly conceives, Christ heere takes her off from all selfe conceitednesse, saying I am the Rose of Sharon, as if he should say: But thinke not, O my sister, and deare spouse, that such flowers of grace grow in natures garden, arrogating them unto thy selfe. No, but know that all that shining beauty and ravishing excellency, wherewith thou sayest and seest that thy bed, or heart is crowned, is of mee, I am the Rose of Sharon; in which words, two things are mainely considerable, 1. Their nature. 2. Their parts. For the first, you see that for their Nature they are comparative, for Christ compareth himselfe to a Rose, and therefore wee will terme it a comparison, and such a one, as Logicians call contracted, as being most breife, without any large deduction after the manner of plenarie resemblances so called.
2. And it consists of two parts, or termes, as they terme the parts of a comparison. The first terme is a person, which is here compared. Secondly, a thing, unto which the person is resembled.
1. The person compared is implyed in the pronowne I, that is, I Christ, and not the Church as most fOrigen. hom. 3. in Cant Theodor. in …os. Bern. in Loc. Tremell. in loc. Thomson in loc.interpreters new and old doe herein unanimously agree, and that rightly, for modesty will not suffer a meere man to call himselfe thus, the Rose of Sharon. True it is, that the spouse is called a lillie, as Christ in this same verse, but she doth not call her selfe so: for Christ himselfe puts that stile upon her. Not I, is a more fitter speech for a sinfull man in a matter of praise and commendation, Gal. 2. 20. and therefore let Christ, who is God and man, and whose name is I am, bee the I heere.
2. The thing unto which Christ compareth himselfe, is a Rose of Sharon] where first two things are to bee understood. Secondly, two things are expressed. For the 1. the two to be understood are. 1. Am. 2. like.
1. Am, which being omitted in the originall, must necessarily bee understood, because Christ not onelyonly was, and will be, but also in very deede is such a rose, for the originall is indefinite, see Revel. 1. 8. I am Alpha and Omegà, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come.
2. Like] I am like a rose: for wee must not thinke that Christ properly is a rose, fading and corruptible. No but onelyonly respectively or comparatively, wherfore I said that this speech is a comparison contracted, or tacite, because the note of similitude is omitted.
Secondly, the two things expressed come next to be viewed, namely,
1. The quid or substance, unto which Christ is resembled:
2. The quale, or qualitie of that substance.
First the substance is a Rose, or a flower; for the gforeignoriginall signifieth both, and therefore Saint Hierom and the rest of the Latine Fathers, & some hLuther in Bibl. Germ. So Tremelius likewise renders the word. Egosum rosa.moderne translators doe so translate it, I am the flower, which not withstanding I must tell you, that I for my part like your English translation farre better, as beeing farre more significant & emphaticall then the other, yea comprizing and enclosing the other too; for every rose is a flower, whereas every flower is not a rose.
2. For qualitie, this rose is said to bee a rose of Sharon or the field or plaine, or of a field called Sharon, for the iforeignoriginall beares all these significations.
1. Of the field or plaine] whereby kOrigen in loc.Origen understands the Jewes, whom God by his Prophets did husband, like a field, but others more aptly affirme that for some other very pregnant considerations, which shall bee hereafter declared, mention is made of the field. 2 of Sharon a speciall field or region lHierom.situated betweene the Taborine mount and the lake of Tyberias, and extending it selfe from Cesarea to Joppa, mentioned 1 Chron. 27. 29. Esay 33. 9. a field in which the mThomson in Loc.fairest and most fragrant roses were wont to grow, unto which Christ is pleased to resemble himselfe, for such reasons as are to bee given hereafter.
Doct. Hence then springs up this faire and cordiall flower, out of the most delicious garden of my text, I meane this Doctrine.
Christ Jesus our Saviour is most like unto a goodly nVnderstand a red double rose, as being most faire and usefull, & so more significant then a common field rose, for such double roses and the fairest indeede did grow in that field as Authors write.rose in Sharon field.
For the prosecution of which point I will first produce sundry grounds and reasons of it.
2. Propound and resolve some necessary Queries.
3. Presse home divers profitable uses.
Prose∣cution. 1 For the first, I affirme that Christ is Branch 1 1. Most like unto a Rose, partly by reason.
Reason 1 I. Of those secret vertues which are in him, like unto those of a Rose, as is to be shewed hereafter.
Reason 2 II. By reason of his blood-shed, which makes him as red as a Rose, see Esay 63. 2. wherefore art thou red in thine apparell, and Rev. 19. 13. And hee was cloathed with a vesture dipt in bloud.
Reason 3 III. By reason of his fragrancie, Psal. 45. 8.
Branch 2 2. Hee is not onelyonly like a rose, but like a rose in the field.
Reason 1 I. Because he suffered in the oHeb. 13. 13.field, without the gate, that he might be the patterne of sufferours usually dying in the field, even as hee is the glory of triumphers.
2. Because hee is an open Saviour bringing common salvation, Jude 3.
3. Christ compares himselfe to a rose of the field as pBernard in Loc.one saith, to call forth his spouse out of her bed of ease into the field to fight.
Branch 3 3. He is like a rose in Sharon field.
Reason 1 1. By reason of his excellencie in generall, for there the most excellent roses did grow, see Cant. 1. 10.
2. By reason of his surpassing pleasantnesse in speciall, Cant. 5. 16.
3. Because hee is sprung up out of the most fervent qRom. 5. 8.love of God, as the roses of Sharon spring out of the hottest soyle.
Prose∣cution. 2 If you aske mee Quaere 1 whether God the Father and God the Holy Ghost may not also be said to be like a rose in Sharon field.
Answer. I answer, first in some sence theymay be so resembled, as namely; they be alike faire & fragrant with Christ; for these three are one saith Saint Iohn, 1 Joh. 5. 7. rDoctor Boys in Loc.One in Essence, and one in Attributes, and therefore as the one is all faire, so the other two persons must needes be so too.
2. But in a stricter sence, as Christ is like a Rose in regard of his bloudshed, so he is the Rose of Sharon singulariter Tho. Aqu. 3. p. q. 16. a 1. See also Lombard 1. 3. dist. 1.& propriè, that is, singularly and properly: for onelyonly Christ who is the second person in the Trinitie called the word incarnate shed his bloud, and in that respect is as red as a Rose, Reve. 19. 13.
Quaere 2 2. If you demand whether a true beleever may not also bee said to bee like such a Rose?
I answer, that derivedly and respectively hee is a Rose likewise, and may bee called so, as beeing all faire, Cant. 4. 7. but not such a Rose as Christ, who primarily, peculiarly, originally, and transcendently is onelyonly such a Rose of Sharon, yea the Rose indeede, as being infinitely fairer then the sonnes of men, Psal. 45. 2. And having troden the winepresse of Gods wrath alone, as it is written Esay 63. 3. I have troden the winepresse alone, and of the people there was none with me; the originall is more emphaticall, for therein Christ speakes of more then one people, in the plurall that not one man among all people did helpe him, least men should construe his words against his meaning, as if hee did onelyonly speake of the Jewish people, which did crucifie him, and therefore were rather agents against him then patients with him, so that Psellus and Lyra understanding the Church by this Rose of Sharon must needs be mistaken.