In that day sing ye unto her, My Church is as a vineyard of the most rich and precious wine.

XXVII. 4. Fury is not in me: who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

Howsoever I am provoked, yet I am patient, and give not way to a just fury: oh that I had to do rather with thorns and briars, than with my vineyard: I would soon make an end with them, and burn them at once.

XXVII. 5. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

But, for my own Israel, if, as he doth, he know my omnipotence, and how easily I can revenge myself, and thereupon be desirous to humble himself and make peace with me; let him make peace with me: I am ready to accept it.

XXVII. 6. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

And, though the Lord might justly pull up the house of Jacob by the roots, that it might never sprout again, yet he, remembering his mercy, shall only so lop the posterity of Israel, that they shall blossom and bud forth again, and fill the world with their increase.

XXVII. 7. Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

Hath not God put a difference betwixt his correcting of them, and his punishing their enemies? or hath he destroyed them in the same manner, that he hath destroyed those whom he intends utterly to root out?

XXVII. 8. In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

When this house of Jacob then shooteth forth, thou wilt not deal in rigour with it: if it bear not as it should, thou wilt not cut it up by the roots and if thy cold and pinching wind blow upon this herb, so that it withers the leaf; yet thou wilt so call in those bitter blasts, that they shall not utterly nip that plant of thine, and bereave it of life.

XXVII. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged: and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

It is only God's intention, that, by these afflictions, the iniquity of his people may be purged away: this is all the fruit he expects of his fatherly chastisemennts, to take away their sins; and, namely, their idolatry; which they shall so detest, that they shall make all the stones of their idolatrous altars, as chalkstones,

beaten to powder; and shall cut down and deface the groves and images, which had formerly deluded and bewitched them.

XXVII. 10. Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

Yet, though God will at last shew this mercy, for all this, in the mean time, Jerusalem shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: the beasts shall feed and lodge there, as in a waste ground; and the grass and bushes shall grow so rank there, that the beasts shall only crop the tops thereof.

XXVII. 11. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women came, and set them on fire for it is a people of no understanding.

And when the boughs so browsed on shall wither, they shall be broken down: the very women shall burn them: this must be done; for it is an ignorant and disobedient people; so as, for the time, God will be very severe against them.

XXVII. 12. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that, since the house of Jacob is now as a little corn, left in a chaff-heap, the Lord in his threshing floor shall beat off all the dross from that grain of his; and shall call them home, both from the channel of Euphrates, and from the streams of Nilus, out of Assyria and Egypt; and ye shall be gathered, though not all at once, yet one by one, O ye children of Israel. So verse 13.

XXVIII. 1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

Woe to the ten tribes of Israel, which are both puffed up with pride, and grown to a shameful excess of surfeiting and drunkenness; whose garlands upon their heads, withering in the banquets while they are worn, are a just resemblance of their fading glory and beauty, who are the intemperate lands of those rich and plentiful valleys of Israel!

XXVIII. 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail, &c.

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong Assyrian in store, which shall come upon them like a tempest of hail, &c.

XXVIII. 3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:

Those proud garlands of the drunken Israelites shall be cast to the ground, and trampled under feet:

XXVIII. 4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of

the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty foot before

the summer.

The rich crop, which crowneth the fat and fertile valleys of Israel, shall be suddenly destroyed; yea, shall be snatched up, before it can have leisure to ripen.

XXVIII. 5. In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people. But, as for the tribe of Judah, in that day shall the Lord of Hosts be, as a crown of glory to it, and as a flourishing and beautiful garland to this residue of his people:

XXVIII. 6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

He shall give true judgment and discerning to the judge; and true valour and courage to the soldier, that beats back the enemy, and assails him in his own gate.

XXVIII. 7. But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

But yet even they also, for a great part of them, have given themselves unto drunkenness, and have been miscarried through wine; not the baser sort only, but even the priest and the prophet, which should have been examples of holiness and sobriety, &c. So as they have failed, not only in their other carriages and actions, but in those very visions, which they have received from God, and in those sentences of judgment, which they should have given from God.

XXVIII. 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

To what purpose do we cast away instruction upon an incorrigible people? It is all one, as if God should direct his precepts and counsels to a child new weaned from the breast; so uncapable are they of wholesome doctrine.

XXVIII. 10. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.

To them, as unto new weaned children, there must be both leisure and assiduity in teaching, one precept upon another, one rule after another: first, they must be taught to know their letters; then, to spell them: by little at once, must they be taught all that is put into them.

XXVIII. 11. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

So is God forced to deal with this people: he is fain to frame himself to speak unto them, as unto children, in a stammer

ing and imperfect language, such as they can be able to pro

nounce.

XXVIII. 12. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

For in his own language they would not hear him: when God said, Lo where you may find true rest, and peace to your own hearts, and ability to comfort others; yet they would not understand him.

XXVIII. 13. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

But since the word of the Lord, which was delivered to them, one precept upon another, one rule after another, by a little at once, with all assiduity and leisure, prevailed not with them to their instruction, it shall be of force to obdure them, and an occasion of their fall and further judgment.

XXVIII. 15. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

Because ye have vainly promised safety and impunity to yourselves, notwithstanding all the judgments threatened against your sins; and have taken the more liberty to your lewdness hereupon, as if ye were at a fee with death and hell; and had said, When the fierce judgments of God shall come upon others, we shall escape well enough, for the very lies we have made shall secure us, and our falsehood shall hide us from vengeance:

XXVIII. 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord, What I have said, I will perform; and, behold, for this purpose, I have appointed my son, the true Messiah, to be the foundation, to be the sure and precious corner stone of the everlasting fabric of my Church, in whom all my promises and judgments shall be fulfilled: he, that believes, shall rest himself contented, with this all-sufficient means of his comfort and salvation; and shall not either hasten to look out for other helps, nor be ashamed of trusting to this.

XXVIII. 17. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies. And upon this foundation, and this corner stone, will I raise the structure of my Church; which shall be built up in judgment and righteousness, with wisdom and integrity: as for those wicked hypocrites, that lurk under the false name and pretence thereof, the just judgments of God shall sweep them away.

XXVIII. 18. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

And as for that false security, wherewith ye fond hypocrites pleased yourselves, as vainly boasting of a covenant made betwixt you and death and hell, so as these judgments should not either come near or not hurt you, ye shall find that it shall not hold; but that contrarily, when the vengeance of God shall seize upon you, ye shall be utterly overwhelmed with it.

XXVIII. 19. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be vexation only to understand the report.

After the time that the judgment is once begun, it shall continue without intermission, morning and evening, night and day; and it shall be no small part of affliction, but to hear and understand the report of those calamities.

XXVIII. 20. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

These wicked ones shall have small ease, during the continuance of their lewdness: they shall be as a man, that lies upon a bed too short and strait for him; or that, in a cold night, is allowed a narrow coverlid only, that will not reach to wrap him over so deficient and unsatisfying shall be all the comforts of the wicked.

XXVIII. 21. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

For the Lord will rise up, and shew his power against these wicked men, as he did against the Philistines, in Baal Perazim; as he did against the Amorites, in the valley of Gibeon; that he may glorify himself, by doing some strange and marvellous execution upon them.

XXVIII. 22. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

Do not therefore mock at these fearful denunciations of God's wrath, lest your stubborn struggling against the just proceedings of God entangle you so much more, and make your bands more close and pinching; for, certainly, God hath revealed to me his certain determination, to bring a fearful vastation upon the whole earth, which hath so grievously corrupted her ways. XXVIII. 24. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?

Do ye not know, that God hath his seasons and opportunities, for all his proceedings with men? He is not always taken up with one act. Doth the plowman spend his time altogether in