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viz. Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man; his whole duty and in14 tereft, for this weighty reafon, with which I conclude; For God fhall bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil; tho' here all things come alike to all, our intentions as well as actions fhall then be rewarded or punished, according to their respective natures.

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REFLECTION S.

ET young people be entreated to attend to Solomon's advice; often to think of him who gave them their being, to confider what duties they owe him, to make a fenfe of him familiar to their minds, and to live in his fear and love; for this will foften the infirmities of age, or reconcile them to an early death.

2. This beautiful description of the infirmities of old age may be ferviceable to all; particularly to old perfons, to whom it ought to be familiar, and who fhould feel the force of every part of the defcription. Old age was the fame in Solomon's days as in ours; its infirmities nothing but what are common to men, and therefore should be patiently borne. Let us pity the aged, endeavour to make their burdens as light as poffible, and not increase them by con tempt or neglect.

3. If all that Solomon has faid of the vanity of the world does not convince us, great will be our folly and guilt; we shall ere long know the truth of it by bitter experience, and be ashamed of not believing him fooner. He has plainly proved the fact, and shown that it always was and will be fact. His conclufions are the refult of divine inIpiration, as well as clofe obfervation of men and things. We are not put off with trite remarks, and what comes next to hand; but have the strongeft arguments methodically ranged, and all the arts of eloquence ufed to enforce his admonitions. Therefore let us believe that all is vanity, and act confiftently with such a belief. Efpecially, 4. Let us hear the conclufion of the whole matter. cannot be too often repeated: to ftand in awe of God, VOL, V.

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worfhip him religioufly, and obferve all his commandments, is the whole of man. This knowledge is plain. To compofe and read many books is needlefs. If the fcriptures will not make us wife, no other books will. member that this ought to be the principal care of all, young and old, rich and poor; for there is a day coming when every work and fecret thing fhall be brought into judgment. And let us remember that we are then to give an account of what attention we have paid to this book, and what advantage we have gained by this illustration of it.

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The SONG of SOLOMON.†

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CHAPTER I.

HE fong of fongs, which [is] Solomon's.
Let him kifs me with the kiffes of his mouth:

for thy love [is] better than wine. Because of the favour of thy good ointments thy name [is as] ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love 4 thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more 5 than wine: the upright love thee. I [am] black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerufalem, as the tents of 6 Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I [am] black, because the fun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; [but] 7 mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my foul loveth, where thou feedeft, where thou makeft [thy flock] to reft at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth afide by the flocks of thy companions?

8 If thou know not, O thou faireft among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed 9 thy kids befide the fhepherds' tents. I have compared

thee, O my love, to a company of horfes in Pharaoh's 10 chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows [of jewels,] 11 thy neck with chains [of gold.] We will make thee borders of gold with ftuds of filver. 12 While the king [fitteth] at his table, my spikenard 13 fendeth forth the fmell thereof. A bundle of myrrh

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[is]

There is neither expofition nor improvement of the chapters of this Book in Mr. Orton's Manufcripts. Whatever might have been his opinion of the authenticity of that Book, or the propriety of admitting it into the facred Canon, this I am well fatished of, that he thought it improper to be read or expounded either in publick or in families. EDIT.

[is] my well-beloved unto me; he fhall lie all night 14 betwixt my breafts. My beloved [is] unto me, [as]

a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi. 15 Behold, thou [art] fair, my love; behold, thou [art] 16 fair; thou [haft] doves' eyes. Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: alfo our bed [is] green. 17 The beams of our houfe [are] cedar, [and] our rafters of fir.

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CHA P. II.

the rofe of

the

valleys. As the lily among thorns, fo [is] my 3 love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, fo [is] my beloved among the fons. I fat down under his fhadow with great delight, 4 and his fruit [was] fweet to my tafte. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] 5 love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: 6 for I [am] fick of love. His left hand [is] under my 7 head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerufalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye ftir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.

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The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leap9 ing upon the mountains, fkipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart: behold, he ftandeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the win10 dows, fhewing himself through the lattice. My belov

ed fpake, and faid unto me, Rife up, my love, my 11 fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, 12 the rain is over [and] gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the finging [of birds] is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines [with] the tender grape give a [good] smell. Arife, my love, my fair one, and come away.

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14. O my dove [that art] in the clefts of the rock, in the fecret [places] of the ftairs, let me fee thy coun

tenance

tenance, let me hear thy voice; for fweet [is] thy 15 voice, and thy countenance [is] comely. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that fpoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes.

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My beloved, [is] mine, and I [am] his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

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CHA P. III.

Y night on my bed I fought him whom my foul loveth I fought him, but I found him not. 2 I will rife now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will feek him whom my foul 3 loveth: I fought him, but I found him not. The

watchmen that go about the city, found me: [to whom 4 I faid,] Saw ye him whom my foul loveth? [It was] but a little that I paffed from them, but I found him whom my foul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's houfe, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. 5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerufalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye ftir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.

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Who [is] this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of fmoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankin7 cenfe, with all powders of the merchant? Behold his bed, which [is] Solomon's; threefcore valiant men 8 [are] about it, of the valiant of Ifrael. They all hold fwords, [being] expert in war: every man [hath] his fword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of 10 Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof [of] filver, the bottom thereof [of] gold, the covering of it [of] purple, the midst thereof being paved [with] love, for II the daughters of Jerufalem. Go forth, O'ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith

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