O Jerusalem, thou shalt be built again; thou shalt have again minstrelsy and mirth within thy walls: O my Church, thou shalt be happily restored, and filled with true spiritual joy.

XXXI. 5. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant and shall eat them as

things.

common

Those fruitful hills of Samaria, which have lain long waste, shall be stored with excellent vines; and those, that plant them, shall eat the grapes plentifully, and make no spare of them.

XXXI. 6. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, unto the LORD our God.

Yea, not only those of Judah, but even those of the ten tribes of Israel, which have been long dispersed and neglected, shall be gathered together to Jerusalem; and be encouraged by their spiritual watchmen, to join together in submission to the true Church.

XXXI. 8. Behold I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together.

Behold, I will bring them back again from Babylon, and fetch them up from all coasts, and will make them a type of my Evangelical Church; into which I will call all sorts of persons, even those, that are most full, and most conscious of their own infirmities.

XXXI. 9. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

I will lead them aright by the guidance of my word, in the safe and happy ways of life, holily and inoffensively; for I am a father to my faithful ones.

XXXI. 12. Therefore shall they come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

Therefore they shall come, and sing in the great congregation and most eminent assemblies; and shall meet cheerfully together, to enjoy the holy things of God, his word and sacraments: and their soul shall be refreshed, as a new watered garden in a drought; and they shall have no more cause of dejection and hopeless sorrow.

XXXI. 15. Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

Methinks I hear a voice in the high place or mountain, (whence it may sound furthest ;) a voice of mourning and la

mentation; Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, seems to mourn for her children, those of Ephraim and the other tribes, long since desolated; and will not admit of any comfort, because they are scattered and vanished, without all hope of restoration

or return.

XXXI. 16. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the

enemy.

Thus saith the Lord to mourning Rachel; Refrain thy weeping for those sons of thy womb, the distressed Israelites; for that desolated region shall flourish again: thou shalt receive comfort after thy sorrow, and those children of thine shall return from the land of their captivity.

XXXI. 17. And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

In that end, which God hath prefixed to thy sorrows and sufferings, there is hope, yea assurance, that thy children shall come again to their native country.

XXXI. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.

I have heard those of the ten tribes bemoaning themselves, after their captivity, thus; Thou hast afflicted me, O Lord, and I am humbled: I was as a wild young bullock, unaccustomed to the yoke; but now, thou hast caused me to stoop unto it.

XXXI. 19. Surely after that I was turned, I repented.

Surely after that thou hadst wrought upon me, and shewed me my sin, I repented.

XXXI. 20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

Would any man think, that Israel, thus afflicted, and, as it were neglected, were my dear son? that he were a child, wherein I take pleasure and delight? Yet he is so; and, howsoever I have dealt severely with him, both in my words and actions, yet I do in mercy still remember him, and the bowels of my compassion yearn towards him.

XXXI. 21. Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, &c.

Thou shalt return to thine own land, O my people; and therefore set thee up waymarks, as thou goest: heap up stones, for the direction of thy passage, through the wilderness; and set thy thoughts to remember all the turnings of the way, and address thyself towards thy return.

XXXI. 22. How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding

daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

How long wilt thou waver and stagger in thy belief, O thou rebellious Israel? for the Lord, which hath undertaken this deliverance, shall do a strange and marvellous thing in the earth : though the strength of the enemy be great and terrible, and the weakness of my people is noted and despicable, so as they are but as women, in comparison of their manly adversaries; yet these weak effeminate Jews, shall prevail against those stout and manly Chaldeans.

XXXI. 23. When I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

When I shall have brought them back from their captivity, and planted them again in their land of Judah, they shall, with joyful acclamations, acknowledge the goodness of God, and pray for a continuance and increase of mercy; saying, the Lord go on to bless and prosper thee, O Jerusalem, which now, from thy ruins and desolation, art raised up to be a habitation of justice; and bless thy temple, wherein holiness shall reinhabit.

XXXI. 26. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was

sweet unto me.

Upon these sweet and comfortable visions, wherein the Lord revealed to me his good pleasure concerning his Church, I awaked; and was exceedingly cheered up and delighted with the remembrance thereof.

XXXI. 27. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

I will cause my Church, which now seems to lie waste and barren, to yield so plentiful an increase of converts to me, as the rich ground doth of the seed which is sown in the furrows of it; and will also multiply unto it all outward helps, for the maintenance and strength thereof.

XXXI. 29. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

In those days, after I shall have humbled my people and restored and comforted them again, they shall give me the praise of my justice and mercy; and shall not be ready to murmur against my proceedings as too severe and unjust, so as they have been apt to do, in saying, The fathers have offended, and the children are punished:

XXXI. 30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

But shall willingly acknowledge, that every man of them hath smarted for his own iniquity; and hath had sins enough of his own, to warrant God's proceedings against him.

XXXI. 31. Behold the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, &c.

Behold, the days of the Messiah are coming, wherein I will make a new covenant with my Church.

XXXI. 32. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.

Not according to the form of that Legal covenant, which I made with their fathers.

XXXI. 33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

But this shall be my covenant of grace with them, under the Gospel, which shall bring with it the power of regeneration, and salvation by Christ: in those days of mine Evangelical Church, I will work mightily in the hearts of my people, and will bring them, by the inoperation of my Spirit, to the obedience of my law; which, being formerly written in tables of stone, shall now be engraven so in the hearts of men, that they shall, out of love and willing obedience, frame themselves thereunto.

XXXI. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,

saith the LORD.

And there shall be so clear a light of my Gospel shining forth unto men, as that they shall not so much need the help of others' instruction, in the grounds and principles of religion; but shall be enlightened from God, with a competent measure of knowledge, even from the meanest and weakest novice in Christianity, unto the greatest proficient therein.

XXXI. 35. And the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night.

Hath ordained a due, constant, and regular motion of the moon and stars, for a light by night.

XXXI. 36. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

If that course, which I have set in nature, for the motions of the heavens, may be altered, then may it be possible for my Church to fail upon earth.

XXXI. 37. If heaven, &c. then I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

There can be nothing more impossible, than that I should utterly cast off my people, notwithstanding their ill deservings of me, so as that not a remnant of them should be pre

served.

XXXI. 38, 39, 40. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD, from the tower of Hanancel unto the gate of the corner: &c. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron,

unto the corner of the horsegate towards the east, shall be holy unto the LORD.

The days shall come, saith the Lord, that this city of Jerusalem, which yet stands in her full glory, shall, after the raising and destruction of it, be fully built up again, in all the whole compass of it, from the one end to the other; and, which is thereby typified, my Evangelical Church shall be built upon the ruins of the Jewish, in a complete form, and be wholly consecrated to the Lord.

XXXII. 5. There shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD. There shall he be, until the time that I shall put an end to his captivity by death.

XXXII. 8. Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth: it is true indeed, that the enemy is now in possession of it, so as no man may or dare look forth towards it; yet, out of an assurance that it shall in due time be freed and redelivered, do thou give me money for it, beforehand; since thou art the next of kin, and the purchase pertains unto thee by the law.

XXXII. 9. And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

And accordingly, I bought the field of Hanameel, my cousingerman, that was at Anathoth, and paid him the money for it. XXXII. 14. And this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.

Lay up these evidences sure, in an earthen vessel, where they may be kept from rotting, for a long time; as those, whereof I shall have most certain use hereafter: for this land shall be in due time repossessed.

XXXII. 18. And recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them.

Thou punishest the sins of the fathers, in those children, wherein they do still live; who being as it were parts of their parents, it cannot be but their parents must justly, in temporal things, suffer in them.

XXXII. 24. Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it.

Behold those mounts, which are cast up for the siege of Jerusalem.

XXXII. 33. And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face.

They have utterly neglected me, and wilfully refused to give ear and respect to that, which I delivered unto them.