Wesley Corpus

And this will be more than probable to any man who shall consider the following particulars; That the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament are full of allegorical passages; which being known and confessed, it is needless to prove: That the doctrine of Christ, being the head, and husband, of God's church or people, was well known, at least to the prophets, and the wise and pious Israelites in the time of the Old Testament: That God compares himself to a bridegroom, and his church to a bride, Isa 62:5, and calls, and owns himself the husband of his people, Isa 54:5 Hos 2:16,19,20. In which places, by comparing these with many other texts of scripture, by God, or the Lord, is meant Christ, the second person in the Godhead, who then was to come down, and since did come from heaven to earth, for the consummation of that eternal design of marriage between God and his people: That the forty - fifth Psalm, which is a kind of abridgment of this book, although it alludes to the marriage between Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter, was written concerning the Messiah, as all interpreters, both Christian and Jewish agree. From these considerations, and many others which might be suggested, it is sufficiently manifest, that the scope of this book is to describe the mutual love, union and communion which is between Christ and his church, in the various conditions to which it is liable in this world.