The Patriarchs

He is the instrument, the willing instrument, of destroying the flesh; but that destruction ends in the saving of the spirit. 1 Cor. v. 5. He receives, gladly receives, one that is judicially delivered over to him; but all that ends in such an one learning not to blaspheme. 1 Tim. i. 20. He sends forth his messengers as thorns in the flesh, delighting to do so, as being bent on mischief, having been "a murderer from the beginning;" but this still works good, for the servant of Christ is thereby kept from undue exaltation. 2 Cor. xii. 7.

These are illustrious exhibitions of the devil being always defeated. Because they show this-that he lends himself directly to his own overthrow. His own weapon is turned against himself. The one whom he assails is, by the very assault, given strength or virtue against him.

Happy assurance! our great adversary is never victorious! It is the pricks he kicks against.

33

Affection begets confidence. Rebecca committed herself to Eliezer, never asking her father or brother for an escort. So the more singly we love Jesus, the more confidently will our souls trust Him and His supplies for us alone, without confidence in the flesh or anything else.

34

"Till she please," it ought to be, as the "love" is the female in this book. Ch. ii. 7; iii. 5; vii. 4.

35

It is commonly interpreted as though Paul, in Gal. ii. 20, were expressing his devotedness to his Master. But this is not so. This robs the verse of its exquisite glory. He is rather speaking of the joy of his soul in the knowledge of what a devoted and glorious Lover he had.

36

Another once observed to me, that in the Canticles, the Beloved expresses directly to herself the beauties He discerns in her; the betrothed one never does this, but recites His beauties in the ears of others; and further observed, that there was great moral propriety in this, something quite according to the dictate of a delicate affection.

37

The saints of the present age, being heavenly in their calling, should be heavenly also in the spirit of their mind, and consciously, in all their tastes and desires, only as strangers, and not at home, in the earth; a people, as another once said, not as looking up from earth to heaven, but as looking down from heaven to earth.

38

Another once observed, that the moment of highest rapture in heaven is not when the saints wear their crowns, but when they cast them down before the throne. Rev. iv. 10.