New Testament Scriptures included Matthew 25; John 17; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 2
Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:32; 1 John 1:3 and Revelation 3:20.^10
Western Catholics and Protestants alike turned to the Song of Songs as a
favorite text for spiritual marriage.^11 This has been true at least since Origen in the
third century. While this would surprise no one reading the monastic or medieval
writers it may seem totally out of character among the Puritans. Nonetheless, Puritan
preachers including John Collinges, John Cotton, Richard Sibbes, Thomas Brightman,
John Robotham, and James Durham produced numerous commentaries and lengthy
sermon series on the Song of Songs. Others, such as Edward Taylor would later
employ the Song of Songs for his Saturday evening communion preparatory
meditations.^12 Further, many writers drew heavily upon this text to illustrate or
comment on spiritual marriage. This was true of Isaac Ambrose. It places him in the
good company of John Owen, whose Communion with God and Samuel Rutherford
whose Letters are all highly dependent upon the bridal imagery of the Song of Songs.
Perhaps not unsurprisingly some critics have reacted strongly to the intensely erotic
(^10) For Mt 25 see Shepard, (^) Parable of Ten Virgins (^) ; for John 17 see Burgess, CXLV
Expository Sermons and Flavel, Method of Grace, 33-49 on Jn 17:23; for 1 Cor 6:17
see Hooker, Pearse, Best MatchSoules Exaltation; for Eph 5:32 see Preston, , 1-53 and Lye, True Believers UnionChurchs Marriage; for 1 Jn 1:3 see ; for 2 Cor11:2 see
Owen, 11 Communion with God; and for Rev 3:20 see Flavel, England’s Duty, 4:4-268.
Matter, Voice of My Beloved, 123; Hambrick-Stowe, Practice of Piety, 28-9; and
Coffey, “Letters by Samuel Ruthe 12 rford,” 104.
The literature on Taylor’s usage of the Song of Songs is vast. See for example
Hambrick-Stowe, Early New England Meditative Poetry, 38-62, 129-264 and Hessel-
Robinson, “Edward Taylor’s Preparatory Meditations.”