Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_600.lzh/4_657.TXT

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and unmoved in their ministry; unshaken by all they
meet witn, from without and from within: they are
sharp to rebuke such who are unsound in tlte faith, or
corrupt in their morals, and to penetrate into Gospel
truths; to cut and rightly divide the word of truth,
and break the bread of life to others, and so chew and
prepare spiritual food for souls; not raw and crude,
,,or hard and difficult of digestion, but plain and easy
to be understood. And they are like to a flock of
sheep, even shorn; on which no wool is left, sticking
out here and there; which is another good property
,,t' teeth, that are of equal size and bighess, do not
stand out, nor rise up one above another; and are as
if they had been cut and planed, and made alike {y}, as
some render the word: which may denote the equa-
lity of Gospel ministers in power and authority; one
having no superiority over another; all having the
same mission and commission, employed in the same
work, preaching the same Gospel; and though their
gifts are different, yet there is a harmony and agree-
ment in the doctrines they preach. Which came up
from the washing; white and clean, which is another
property of good teeth; as the teeth of sheep be, and.
they themselves are, when just come up out of the
washing-pit: this may signify the washing of regene-
ration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which are ne-
cessary to ministers of the word, in order to peeach
it; and more especially the purity of their liven and
conversations, in which they should be examples to
the flock. Whereof every one bear twins, and none is
barren among them; the tigures are just and beautiful;
it is common with sheep to bear twins, or more, in
the eastern countries, as the philosopher observes {z};
frequent mention is made of goats bearing twins {a}:
these may answer to the two rows of teeth, and the
word for teeth is in the dual number; and when these
are white and clean, and equal, are well set, and nat
one wanting, none rotten, nor shed, nor fallen out,
look very beautiful. This may express the fruitfulness
and success of Gospel ministers, in bringing many
souls to Christ; and was particularly true of the apos-
tles, and first min;,s, ters of the Gospel, who were in-
strun, ental in the conversion of many; and who bore
twins to Chr:,st, Jews and Gentiles; and none were
without their usefulness. Likewise all this may be un-
derstood of believers in general, and of meditation and
faith in them; by meditation they feed upon Christ,
his Gospel, doctrines, and promises; they chew the
end, and ruminate on the word of God; and are equal,
alike partaken of the same grace, and blessings of it;
and are sanctified, and, in. some measure, cleansed,
from the pollution of their minds and actions; ascend
heavenwards in their thoughts, desires, and affections;
and are not barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of
Christ and his Gospel; and generally, through medi-
tation, bring forth the twins of prayer and praise: by
faith also they feed on Christ and his grace; and which
is alike, precious faith in all, as to nature and quality;
is pure, sincere, and unfeigned; is always fruitful, and
bears the twins of love to Christ, and of love to his
saints; and is not barrett, but attended with the fruits
of righteousness.
Vet. 3. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, &c.]
To a thread for thinness, to scarlet for colour; thin
red lips being beautiful, as well as white teeth; so the
beautiful Aspasia had red lips {b}, and teeth whiter than
snow; hence we read of red and purple lips {c}. Now
as lips are the instruments of speech, the words of
the church, and of all true believers, may be designed;
what is said by them in their prayers, which are filled,
not with great swelling words of vanity, exalting
themselves, and magnifying their works, like the Pha-
risee; but with humble confessions of sin, and ac-
knowledgments of their unworthiness of mercy; and
they are constant, like one continued thread, they go
on praying all their days: and the scarlet colonr may
denote the fervency of them, whereby they become
available with God; and the acceptableness of them
to God, through the mediation of Christ, whose
b19od, and not any worthiness of theirs, is pleaded in
them: their words of praise also may be signified
'hereby; which are not filled with big swollen enco-
returns of themselves, and of what they have done; but
with expressions of the goodness and grace of God to
them; and with thankfulness for all mercies, both
temporal and spiritual, bestowed upon them; and
these are hearty and sincere, coming from a heart in-
flamed with the love of God, which make such lips
look like scarlet; and that being in great esteem may
intimate the acceptableness of them to God, through
the blood and sacrifice of Christ. To which may be
added, that the doctrines of the Gospel, delivered by
the ministers of the church, who are her lips, may be
taken into the sense of this clause; which are like a
thread, spun out of the Scriptures, and are harmonious
and all of a piece, consistent and closely connected;
the subject and matter of which are the blood, suffer-
ings, and death of Christ, and the blessings that come
thereby; and which also, like scarlet, are valuable
and precious. And thy speech is comely; which ex-
plains the preceding clause; and shews, that by her
lips her speech is meant, which is comely, that is,
graceful and amiable; as it is when believers speak of
Christ, of his person, offices, and grace; and for him,
in vindication of his truths and ordinances; when they
speak to him, in prayer or in praise; and when, in
common conv.ersat,on, their speech is with grace.
Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy
locks; not like a piece of the tree, but of the fruit,
when the shell of it bursts of itself, through the abun-
dance of liquor in it; such the Israelites found at one
of their stations, and therefore .called it Rimmon-
parez, the pomegranate of rupture, or the burstened
pomegranate; and in the tribe of Zebulun was a city
called Remmon-methoar, the beautiful pomegranate.
Josh. xix. 13. now the rind being broken a, it appears
full of grains or kernels, of a white colour, interspersed
with a reddish purple juice, like blood, as Pausanias


{y} \^twbwuq\^ caesae vel dedolatae, Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 45.
col. 483. aequarum, Junius & Tremellius; statura aequalium, Coocceius.
{z} Aristot. de Animal. Hist. l. 6. c. 19.
{a} Theocrit. Idyll. 1. v. 25. & 3. v. 34. & 5. v. 54. & 8. v. 44.
{b} AElian. Vat. Hist. l. 12. c. 1.
{c} \~ceilea purra\~, Theocrit. Idyll. 15. Purpureis labellis, Ovid. Amor.
l. 3. Eleg. 13.
{d} \^xlpk\^ \~wv lepuron\~, Sept. sicut fragmen, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus,
Junius & Tremellius; pars vel frustum, Michaelis.