The Church.

14. "O my wellbeloved, flee away, and be like unto the roe or to the young hart upon the mountain of spices."]-I will most gladly do what thou commandest, O my Saviour; but that I may perform it accordingly, be thou, which art according to thy bodily presence in the highest heavens, ever present with me by the Spirit, and hasten thy glorious coming to my full redemption.

ISAIAH.

I. 2. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me."]-Since that men are deaf unto my words, I will turn me and my speech to the very heavens and earth, and call them to witness against those which should be my people hear therefore, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for it is not I that speak, but the Lord himself complaineth of the unthankfulness of Israel, &c.

3. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib."] -What a wonder and shame it is, that they which should be more than men are indeed worse than beasts; for behold, the very ox and the ass, which are the dullest of all creatures, yet they take thankful notice of their owner, and of the crib wherein they are fed, &c.

5. "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint."]I have already tried your reformation by many chastisements, yea, judgments, yet ye will not amend; to what purpose should I correct you further, since I see you do still grow worse and worse? those parts of you that should be best, and are most eminent and of greatest use, are extremely out of order.

6. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."]—Even from the highest to the lowest, from the meanest drudge unto the greatest of your princes, ye are all miserably disordered and sinful; and are accordingly plagued, so as none of you are free from some grievous judgment; and such are your sins and your judgments, that they have made themselves incapable of remedy or mitigation.

8. "And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard."]-The country round about being wasted, Jerusalem itself is left standing alone desolate as a cottage in a vineyard, &c., and hath no more recourse unto it, and traffick in it, than if it were already besieged, as ere long it shall be.

9. "Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."]—If God had not been gracious unto us, contrary to our deservings, and restrained the fury of our enemies, and mercifully reserved this small remnant unto us, we had been utterly destroyed and laid waste, like to Sodom and Gomorrah.

10. "Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom."]-Since ye have made yourselves then as sinful as those infamous cities that were destroyed with fire from heaven, let me give you the names of those whom ye have imitated: hear therefore the word of the Lord, O ye rulers of Sodom, &c.

II.

11. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams," &c.]-To what purpose is the formality of these your outward sacrifices; as if the multitude of your oblations, or the very act done, could please me without due affections?

14. "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them."]-Those your solemn feasts which I have instituted, and do therefore well approve in themselves, yet as they are celebrated by you, I loathe and abhor them, &c.

21. "How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment."-Jerusalem was once my faithful spouse, an holy city: how is it that she is now turned strumpet, and become desperately lewd and debauched? &c.

22. "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water."] -Those good graces that thou didst once profess to have are now utterly corrupted and depraved; thine obedience, which was once sincere and pure, is now adulterated with abominable wickedness.

25. "And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin."]-Yet in my judgment I will remember mercy: I will not utterly destroy thee, as I might, but I will turn my hand upon thee for thy restoration; and whereas I might burn thee quite up, yet I will only purge

-And all those high towers and strong forts, wherein vain men have wont to put their trust, shall be cast to the ground:

16. “And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures."]—And all that rich traffick which you were wont to have with Cilicia and the countries round about shall be cut off: and those pleasant and costly tapestries and pictures which you had wont to bring home shall fail and disappoint you:

20. "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats."]-And those idolaters, which had wont to pride themselves in the glory of their false worship, shall now be ashamed of their fopperies; and in a just indignation shall hide up their puppets in blind corners from the view of men.

22. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"]-I see, it is your vain selfconfidence that hath deceived you; if ye therefore regard your own safety and peace, cast off this false trust upon so poor and impotent a thing as man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for what can he avail you, or how can he give you any protection from the wrath of the Almighty?

III. 1. "For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water."]-That whereby the life of man is supported and sustained, even bread, and whatsoever necessary food, will I take away from Jerusalem;

2. "The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient."]-And whatsoever else you are wont to put confidence in, the mighty and strong warrior, the awful judge, the holy and learned prophet, the pru dent counsellor, the ancient and experienced senator.

6. "When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand."]-Whereas men usually are wont to affect preeminence and authority among their neighbours, ye shall be driven to that strait, that ye shall be fain to force honour upon your brethren, where ye see but means to subsist and live; and a man shall take hold of his brother, and importune and constrain him, saying, Thou hast clothing; be thou our ruler; and let the reparation of this miserable ruin, if it be possible, be thy work.

7. "In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer;

for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people."]-In that day he shall resist the motion and disclaim the government with an oath, saying, It is not for me to meddle with the command of you, or to undertake the repairing of your ruins, for I have neither bread nor clothing.

9. "And they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not."]They do impudently make open profession of their sin, even as Sodom did, without all fear or shame, &c.

12. "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."]-As for my people, they have brought themselves to that pass, as that even very children trample upon them by proud oppressions, and they lie down willingly under them; and every effeminate usurper domineereth over them at pleasure, and, which is worse, those spiritual guides, which should lead them in the way of life, mislead them unto utter perdition.

15. "What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts."]What mean ye, O ye governors, which should be the only refuge and protection of my people, to offer this cruel violence unto them? how dare ye thus unmercifully oppress the poor?

16. "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks:"]-Neither only are the men thus vicious, but the women also are given over to a proud newfangleness, even the dames of Jerusalem go in an haughty fashion, &c.

17. "Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts."]-As all the parts of their body are tainted with their disguise, so the Lord will in his justice punish them in all parts, from the crown of the head to the sole of their feet, and will lay open this their loathsome and deformed nakedness to the eyes of the world.

24. "And burning instead of beauty."]-Instead of beauty, which they had wont so curiously to preserve that they would not so much as look forth into the heat of the sun, shall be a vehement burning and scorching of the skin.

IV. 1. “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach."]-Upon that slaughter and vastation there shall be so

few men left, as that seven women shall lay hold and hang upon one man with importunate suit to yield but to their protection and cohabitation, saying, It shall cost thee nothing, we have food and raiment of our own, only do thou bear the name of our husband, and take from us the reproach of our widowhood and sterility.

2. "In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel."]-In that day, the day of the blessed restoration of the Church, shall the Messias, as the Branch of the Lord, sprout out gloriously and happily out of the seemingly dead stock of Judah, and excellent and pleasant fruits of his appearance shall glad the hearts of those that are the faithful remainders of Israel.

3. "And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem."]—And it shall come to pass, that those who pertain to the true Church of Christ shall be holy; even every one that shall be a lively member of the mystical body of Christ;

4. "When the LORD shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning."]—When the Lord shall by his severe judgments have washed and wiped away the blemishes and grievous sins of his Church, and shall have delivered his Jerusalem from all the pollutions wherewith she was tainted, by the power of his Spirit and the sharpness of his chastisements.

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.

6. "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime 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.