Song of Solomon 6:9

My dove, my undefiled is [but] one; she [is] the [only] one of her mother, she [is] the choice [one] of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; [yea], the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

Ver. 9. My dove, mine undefiled is but one.] For though all the afore named may be called spouses, yet they all make but one. "He that hath the bride (not brides) is the bridegroom," saith the Baptist. And this is "a great mystery," saith Paul, "but I speak concerning Christ and the Church," not churches. Eph 5:32 Una ecclesia, quia ex una fide, per unum Spiritum nascitur, saith Epiphanius. "Beware therefore of the concision" Php 3:2 - that is, of those that make divisions, and cut the Church in minutula frustula, as Augustine saith of the Donatists, into little pieces, and sucking congregations, making separations. a Peter himself was blamed for this, Gal 2:11-12 and others branded for profligate professors. "These are they that separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit." Jdg 1:19 The primitive Christians were famous for their unity, animo animaque inter se miscebantur, saith Tertullian. The very heathens acknowledged that no people in the world did hold together, and love one another, so as Christians did. As the curtains of the tabernacles were joined by loops, so were they by love; and as the stones of the temple were so close cemented together, that they seemed to be all but one stone, so was it among them. Neither need we wonder, since Christ's dove is but one; neither is there any such oneness or entireness anywhere as among the saints. Other societies are but as the clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image: they may cleave together, but not incorporated one into another.

She is the only one of her mother,] i.e., Of the world, say some; of the flesh, say others: but they say best that expound it of Jerusalem, "that is above, the mother of us all." Gal 4:26 Epiphanius makes faith and religion the mother of the Church.

The daughters saw her, and blessed her,] i.e., Called and counted her blessed above all other people. "Happy art thou, O Israel! Who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?" &c. Deu 33:29 And yet at that time they seemed to be nothing so happy as the Moabites, Edomites, &c., as being in a very unsettled condition in the wilderness. So David, What one nation in the earth is like thy people, like Israel? 2Sa 7:23 Oh "blessed is the people whose God is the Lord." Psa 144:15 Est Ecclesiae Scoticanae privilegium rarum prae multis in quo eius nomen apud caeteros fuit celebre, &c. b It is the singular privilege of the Church of Scotland, and they are deservedly famous for it, that for this fourscore years and upwards they have kept a unity, together with purity of doctrine, without heresy, or so much as schism. This "the daughters" - other Christian reformed churches - "have seen and blessed her; yea, the queens and concubines, and they praised her."

a Christi tunica est unica.

b Sic in Elogio Proefator. De Confess. in Princip. Syntag. Confess., p. 6.