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with she was tainted, by the power of his Spirit, and the sharpness of his chastisements.

IV. 5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

There shall be no corner of his Church, wherein the grace of God shall not marvellously appear; and wherein he will not manifest himself, and his merciful presence and protection, as he did to his ancient people of Israel, by a cloud and smoke by day, and by the shining of a flaming fire by night.

IV. 6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

And whereas the Church shall be still subject to the scorching heats and tempestuous storms of persecution, God shall erect a safe tabernacle for her, to shade her from the heat, and shelter her from those violent tempests.

V. 1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

I will sing a song to Christ, the dear Bridegroom of his Church, concerning his vineyard of Israel. My God and Saviour had planted his Church of Israel, in a very fruitful soil; with the greatest advantage of place, even in the highest eminence, where he might be likely to receive the most generous fruit of obedience.

V. 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

He fenced it about, with his gracious protection and good laws: he removed out of it all the apparent impediments of growth and fruitfulness: he furnished it with choice persons, and those persons with excellent graces: he gave to it proofs of his vigilant care over it, and means to express and make use of that sweet fruit, which it should yield: and now, he made account that it should return unto him the pleasant clusters of holy obedience; and behold, it runs forth into miserable disorder, and yields nothing but the sour and distasteful fruits of sin and wickedness. V. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

And now, O my people, I dare appeal to yourselves, and make you judges of this case betwixt you and me; say whether you can choose but condemn yourselves.

V. 9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. Thus hath God pleased to reveal his will unto me, saying, Whereas these oppressors affect to join house to house, certainly,

I will cause their houses to be desolate; and, as they dispeopled towns and houses, their houses, though great and fair, shall be without inhabitants.

V. 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

Yea, so will I curse that ground with barrenness, which they have wrung from the poor owners, as that ten acres of vineyard shall yield but six gallons of wine; and so much ground, as seven bushels is able to sow, shall yield but three parts back again to the

owner.

V. 14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Neither shall the wrath of God stay here, and take up with their captivity and famine; but he hath prepared further judgment for these merciless oppressors, for he shall cause the insatiable gulf of hell to devour them, and to swallow up all their pomp and jollity.

V. 17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

But, though the Lord will take this just vengeance on his rebellious enemies, yet will he be ever gracious to his own flock; and shall cause the lambs thereof to feed comfortably, in their wonted pastures; and those places, which the insolent enemies had wasted, shall be again possessed by his people, whom their long captivity hath made strangers to their own land.

V. 18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope :

Woe be to them, that are so set upon wickedness, as that they use all possible persuasions and provocations to draw themselves to a lawless commission of sin, and continuance in it;

V. 19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

That make light of the threatened judgments, and, in a scornful distrust, dare say, Why doth not God hasten these menaced plagues? fain would we see the performance of these terrible threats: let not God say, but do: let that, which God professeth to have determined against us, be speedily effected.

V. 20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil. Woe be unto them, that colour wickedness with fair pretences, and cry down goodness with slanderous calumniations, &c.

V. 22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink.

Woe be to them, that improve their strength to excess, glorying that they are able to pour in and to bear much wine; and affect to be thought and approved strong and mighty drinkers.

V. 24 So their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust.

So they shall be utterly destroyed; and shall be as a tree, whose root is rotten, and whose blossom flies away like dust, &c.

V. 25 And the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away,

but his hand is stretched out still.

The neighbour hills did tremble with the noise and fury of that siege; and their carcasses lay torn and mangled in the midst of the streets; yet all this cannot be warning enough to this stubborn people, to turn from their sins, &c.

V. 26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth.

He will raise up war against them, even from nations that dwell afar off; and will stir up and provoke enemies against them from the furthest parts of the earth, &c.

V. 27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep.

They shall come with such fierceness and spirit to this war, that they shall not be sensible of any weariness: they shall march nimbly and boldly, no one shall give himself to slumber in the way, &c.

V. 28 Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

There shall be both terror and vigour in their horses, prepared for this war; and their chariot wheels shall come rattling furiously on, like some dreadful tempest, and fly swftly like a whirlwind.

V. 30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. What speak I of the roaring of a lion? yea, these Chaldeans, which I will bring upon them, shall come roaring in, like a mighty sea in a tempest; with such terror, that all shall be filled with confusion; the earth shall be darkened with sorrow; and the heavens shall yield no glimpse of comfort to the distressed.

VI. 1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

In the year that king Uzziah died, I had a vision from God; wherein it pleased the Lord, to represent unto me a clear sign of the majestical presence of the Son of God, sitting on high upon a glorious throne, and the train of his shining robe filled the temple:

VI. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

Who, as he was glorious in himself, so in his attendants; for, over the throne stood the angels of heaven: each one had six wings; with two whereof he covered his face, as not being able to behold the brightness of that divine majesty; with two he covered his feet, as favouring the weakness of human eyes, that cannot behold the least splendour of those celestial creatures;

with two he did swiftly move, and fly to execute the charge of God.

VI. 4 And the posts of the door moved at voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

So strong and dreadful was that voice of theirs, that the very posts of the doors and the pillars of the temple were moved therewith; and, as it had wont to be when God would signify his presence in that sanctuary, the whole house was filled with smoke.

VI. 5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

Then said I, as one terrified with that sight, Woe is me! there is no way but death with me: I have delivered messages from this holy God, but I am not nor have been so sanctified, as that I might be safely fit for this great service.

VI. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

Then one of those bright angels flew unto me, having a live coal in his hand, signifying the purging and purifying efficacy of the Spirit, which he had taken, not from an ordinary and common hearth, but from the altar of God; the true type of Christ, the Saviour.

VI. 7 Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Lo, this coal touching thy lips, is a certain sign and representation of that powerful operation of the Spirit of God, whereby thy sin is purged away, and thou enabled to this great function.

VI. 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said 1, Here am I; send me. Then the Lord represented a voice to my ear, saying, after the manner of men, Whom shall I send to this people? and who is willing to deliver this message from us? Then, when as once my lips had been thus touched and sanctified, I did gladly put myself forward, and said, Here I am, send me.

VI. 9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Be not discouraged: I shall send thee to an obstinate people, whose perverseness I do so well know, that I would have thee tell them beforehand, what I expect from them; viz. that they will hear indeed, but not care to understand; they will see, but not regard to perceive.

VI. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Yea, more than so, through the occasion of thy prophecy and holy ministry amongst them, their hearts shall be hardened and made obstinate, and their cars dulled and deafened; that, in my just judgment, they may be given up to a spiritual insensibleness,

as a due punishment of their careless neglects of my ordinances, and that thereupon may follow their deserved condemnation.

VI. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant.

Then said I, in a meet compassion of my people, But alas, Lord, how long shall this judgment lie upon thine Israel? And he said, Until the cities be utterly wasted, and left, &c.

VI. 13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

But yet, there shall be a tenth part of Israel, that shall return after it hath been dispersed and consumed, and be a seed, for the rest; even as it is with a tree, which, having cast her leaves, yet hides the sap within the stock or bulk, which buds forth again in due season; so shall the remainder of the holy seed, which, for the time seemed to lie dead, sprout forth into an abundant increase.

VII. 2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. It was told to some of the family of Ahaz, the king of Judah, saying, The king of Assyria is confederate with Israel, to make a second war upon Judah. And the heart of Ahaz, and his subjects were moved, and shaken with fear, as the trees of the wood are moved with a strong wind.

VII. 4 Fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

Fear not these two kings of Assyria and Israel; for they are but as two short ends of firebrands, not burning but smoking, which may threaten, but can work no combustion amongst you; I mean Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.

VII. 6 And let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal.

Let us, instead of Ahaz, set up a king in Jerusalem, one of the most renowned peers of Syria.

VII. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, &c.

Damascus is the head city of Syria, and Rezin is the head or king of Damascus: so let him still be, and content himself with his own territories; but as for Ephraim, which joins with Syria against thee, ere threescore years be expired, it shall be wasted and dispeopled.

VII. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

In the mean time, as Samaria is the head city of Israel, so let Pekah the son of Remaliah content himself to be the head or king of Sa

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