Section 506
II. To consider what it is she calls for to relieve her at this time
1st, She desires to be "stayed with flagons." 2. To be "comforted with apples."
1 st, Her request is, that some person or other would stay her with flagons. The word translated flagons is differently rendered by interpreters; some render it flowers, as Jerom and the Vulgate Latin; and so she may be considered as having reference to sweet flowers bound up in nosegays, the odor of which is very refreshing and reviving; or, "make me to lie down in flowers," so Symmachus; according to Plato[3552] love delights to be in odoriferous places; where there are sweet-smelling flowers, there is its habitation, and there it abides. Now the church being in love, says, stay me, revive, or support me with flowers; perhaps chiefly regarding Christ, who is the only strength and support of believers, who only can keep them both from failing and fainting; for having heard him speak of himself under the names of those delightful flowers, the rose and lily, in verse 1. she is desirous that she might be stayed by, and supported with them": the Septuagint render the words thus, "strengthen me with ointments;"[3553] by which may be meant the graces of Christ, which are called so in chapter 1:3 ointments were used at feasts, and are of a cheering, reviving, and strengthening nature; and may very well express the grace of Christ, by which souls are cheered, revived, established, strengthened and settled: our translators have rendered it flagons, and that very well; for according to the best Jewish writers[3554] it signifies vessels in which either wine or fine flower are put; and perhaps may be comprehensive of all the entertainments of a banquet, which are proper to satisfy, delight, and exhilarate; and wine being a principal one, may chiefly intend flagons of that (see 1 Chronicles 16:3; 5:10); flagons are, by a metonymy, put for wine contained in them, as the cup is (Luke 22:20), for the church was desirous of those that were full and not empty; such as were full of the wine of Christ's love, which is as reviving, cheating, and refreshing as the best wine; and which greatly strengthens and supports the animal spirits.[3555] In what sense Christ's love may be compared to wine, and is preferable to it, has been shewn on chapter 1:2, and by flagons of it may be meant the doctrines of grace, in which Christ's love is displayed; or the ordinances of the gospel, by which it is communicated to the saints; and may also intimate, that though the love and grace of Christ are given forth in measure to them, yet that they are large measures, which believers are desirous of receiving; those who have most grace, would have still more; and those who have the greatest sense of Christ's love, would have a larger experience of it, and are not content without it; they are like "the two daughters of the horse-leech, crying, give, give:" and it may be also, that the church may have in view the glories and joys of another world; where she should have her fill of love, drink freely and plentifully of this wine new with Christ in his Father's kingdom, and continue in the uninterrupted enjoyment of his presence. Now it ought to be observed, that she is desirous of more of that which had brought her into this condition: Christ's love had wounded her, and that only could heal her; what had brought her into this sick and fainting condition, could only bring her out of it; this wounds and heals, kills and makes alive, and is the only reviving cordial.
2dly, She desires that she might be "comforted with apples;" as in the former request, she had a regard to the banqueting-house, where she now was; so in this to the apple-tree, whose delicious fruit she had lately tasted, Apples are of a cooling and comforting nature,[3556] and are good against a syncope and palpitation of the heart, and the smell of them is very reviving: Solinus[3557] tells us of a certain people who eat no food, but odore vivunt pomorum sylvestrium, live by the smell of apples that grow in woods; and that when they go long journeys, carry them with them, ut olfactu alantur, that by the smell of them they may be nourished and sustained. The words may be rendered, "strew me with apples";[3558] strew them about me, and strew them under me: the apple was an emblem of love, as before observed; to send or throw an apple to another, was a sign of love[3559] and must be still more so, to strew them about in quantities. By these apples may be meant, either the blessings of grace procured by the blood of Christ, which remove the fierceness of divine wrath, and being powerfully applied by the Spirit of God, do abundantly comfort and refresh the soul: or else the doctrines of the gospel, when fitly spoken, and fitly applied, are like "apples of gold in pictures of silver;" how comfortable and reviving are the doctrines of justification, pardon, perseverance! etc. the church had found them so by good experience, and therefore desires them. The Targum, by flagons, understands the words of the law; and by apples, the interpretations of them; which, it says, are sweet to the taste as the apples of the garden of Eden: but it is much better to understand then, as we have done, of the doctrines of the gospel, which have often been experienced to have relieved persons in a fainting condition, such as the church was now in; and who knowing the virtue and efficacy thereof, calls for them. And,