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 could with equal facility be made to describe the history of the Jewish nation and that of the Virgin Mary, awakened the suspicion of Hugo Grotius, the celebrated statesman, philosopher, and divine. He, therefore, adhered to the literal sense of the book, which, according to him, celebrates the marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter, but at the same time also admitted that the spiritually represent, ''first, the love of God to the Israelites, and then the love of Christ to the Church''. It will be remembered that Origen was already of opinion that this Song primarily celebrates the marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter, though with him the literal meaning was of no importance, and that Theodoret mentions some who viewed the Song in no other light than this.

1603-1699. It was to be expected that John Cocceius, the founder of the theological school bearing his name, whose doctrine was, that the whole history of the Old Testament is a mirror, accurately reflecting the transactions and events that were to happen under the New Testament dispensation to the end of the world, would find in this Song something in accordance with his views. Enlarging upon Aponius' and De Lyra's mode of interpretation, and, like Brightman, still more approaching the Chaldee, in a manner peculiar to himself Cocceius ''regards this book as a prophetical narrative of the transactions and events that are to happen in the Church'', and divides the whole into seven distinct periods, similar to the seven trumpets and seven seals in the Revelation of St. John.inter Salomonem et filiam regis Aegypti, interloquentibus etiam choris duobus tum juvenum tum virginum, qui in proximis thalamo locis exsubabant. Nuptiarum arcana sub honestis verborum involueris hic latent: quae etiam causa est, cur Hebraei veteres hunc librum legi noluerint nisi a jam conjugio proximis. Creditur autem Salomon, quo magis perennaret hoc scriptum, ea arte id composuisse, ut sine multa distorsione [GR:a)llêgori/ai] in eo inveniri possent; quae Dei amorem adversus populum Israelitiam exprimerent; quod et sensit et ostendit Chaldaeus hic paraphrastes, nec aliter accepit Maimonides. Ille autem amor typus cum fuerit amoris Christi erga ecclesiam, Christiani ingenia sua ad applicanda ad cum rem hujus carminis verba exercuerunt laudabili studio. Nam et Apostoli Christi cum ecclesia conjunctionem matrimonio comparaverant. Eph. v. 32; 2 Cor. ii. 2; Apoc. vii. 8. Annot. in Vet. Test.]