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17 and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the LORD will fmite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will difcover their fecret parts; they shall be reduced to rags that cannot cover their nakedness, or be led captive naked, according to the 18 cruel ufage of eastern countries. In that day the LORD will take away the bravery of [their] tinkling ornaments [about their feet,] and [their] cauls, and [their] 19 round tires like the moon, The chains, and the brace20 lets, and the mufflers, The bonnets, and the orna

ments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, 21 22 and the ear rings, The rings, and nofe jewels, The

changeable fuits of apparel, and the mantles, and the 23 wimples, and the crifping pins, The glaffes, and the 24 fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. And it fhall come to pass, [that] instead of sweet smell there fhall be ftink; and inftead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well fet hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of fackcloth; [and] burning instead of beauty; they fhall be fun burnt in confequence of being made flaves.

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Thy men fhall fall by the fword, and thy mighty in 26 the war. And her gates fhall lament and mourn, becaufe there are no passengers to go thro' them: and the [being] defolate shall fit upon the ground, as mourners used to do.

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CHAP. IV. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, faying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach; notwithstanding the natural referve of the fex, they fhall folicit to be married, and be content to maintain themfelves. This must have been peculiarly grating to ladies of fo much delicacy, luxury, and pride.

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This refers to the ornaments worn about their ancles, which are ftill used by the eastern ladies; and it is reckoned a mark of polite and delicate education to know how to make a noise with them, by ftriking one foot against the other.

See Bp. Lowth's Ifaiah for a more just and beautiful tranflation of thefe particulars.

I.

REFLECTION S.

OBSERVon from htice, how much all our

national comforts and bleffings depend upon God. Bread and water, the lives of princes, ftatefmen, judges, officers, and all their skill, courage, wisdom, and eloquence; he can eafily take away any, or all of thefe, by death, or captivity; or difable them from being of any further fervice to the publick. He can deftroy union among the people, and give them up to faction or fedition. Let this teach us not to be confident of the continuance of any of our publick bleffings. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; bleffed be the name of the Lord.

2. National judgments are different in their confequences upon different perfons, according as their characters are. It shall be well with the righteous, at all adventures. God commands his prophets to tell them fo; they have abundant comfort amidst all their fears and alarms. They have the joyful testimony of confcience, and the hope of a glorious reward hereafter. But it shall be ill with the wicked;" judgments peculiarly heavy fhall fall upon them: or, however profperous they may be here, the reward of their hands fball hereafter be given them. They need nothing elfe to make them thoroughly miferable than to be left to the confequences of their own folly.

3. We are here taught, that cruelty to, the poor is peculiarly difpleafing to God, and that he will feverely avenge it. There are many oppreffive landlords, creditors, and mafters, who abuse thofe that are under their power. Many who enrich themselves by the fpoils of their neighbours; who tyrannize over workmen, and refuse them a juft allowance for their labour; but God will stand up and plead for fuch as are thus oppreffed: and haughty oppreffive people will do well to confider in time what they will do when God rifes up, and when he judges what they will answer.

4. Let the daughters of Britain learn how odious pride, luxury, and extravagance of drefs are to God, and how they increase the guilt of a nation. It is very likely that the

phters of Zion thought Ifaiah a very rude and unpolite.

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man in reproving them for their drefs; but he had good authority for fo doing, the Lord faith. And his being so particular is a plain intimation how nice and curious they were about their drefs, how much time and money they spent upon it, which might have been better employed; how much they delighted in finery, fo that it engroffed their thoughts and converfation. Minifters therefore, having fo good an authority, fhould caution young women against this vice; which shows a proud, weak mind, generally defeats the very end propofed by it, offends God, and contributes to national judgments. They fhould be as clean and neat as poffible; but not nice and curious. They fhould not wafte their precious moments in following every fantastic fashion, left their delicacy be followed by fervitude, poverty, nakednefs, and difgrace. Thofe will be worfe able to bear any one of thefe, who have been devoted to the follies of drefs, expected much waiting on, and have been averse to any thing like labour: hear the words of the apostle, Peter iii. 3, 4. Whofe adorning let it not be that of plaiting the hair, but a meek and quiet spirit, which in the fight of God is of great price.

CHAP. IV. 2, to the end. CHAP. V. 1—8, After the prophecy of the calamities of Ifrael, Ifaiah proceeds to foretel the glory of the Meffiah's kingdom.

N that day fhall the branch of the LORD, the Meffiah,

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be beautiful and glorious in the fight of God and all good men, and the fruit of the earth [thall be] excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Ifrael, who fball efcape the deftruction before mentioned, and be convert3 ed by the gospel. And it fhall come to pafs, [that he that is] left in Zion, and [he that] remaineth in Jerufalem, fhall be called holy, that is, the first converts to christianity Shall be eminently fo, [even] every one that is written among the living in Jerufalem, or, in the Lamb's book of 4 life; an allufion to the jewish registers of families: When the LORD fhall have washed away the filth of the daugh

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ters of Zion, and fhall have purged the blood of Jerufalem, their murders and oppreffions, efpecially flaying the prophets and the Meffiah, from the midst thereof, by the fpirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning; by his 5 holy spirit producing purity and zeal among them. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her affemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory [fhall be] a defence; when he shall have thus purged them, he will manifeft his power in protelling their families and places of worship. Here is nothing faid about the temple, but an allusion to the pillar of cloud, whereby God intimates that he would preferve and protect 6 them in a glorious manner. And there fhall be a tabernacle for a fhadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from ftorm and from rain; an allufion to the tents which travellers carried with them in the eaft, which they used when they paffed over the deferts; and it intimates that God would be their defence in all extremities.-The prophet then defcribes the ingratitude and unfruitfulness of the jews, as a reafon why God fent his judgments upon them. He begins with representing in a beautiful parable, God's tender care of his people, and their unworthy returns to his goodness,

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CHAP. V. Now will I fing to my well beloved, that is, to Chrift, to whom the care of the jewish church was committed, and which is often reprefented as a vineyard, a fong of my beloved touching his vineyard: My well 2 beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the ftones thereof, and planted it with the choiceft vine, and built a tower in the midft of it for the fafe and convenient refidence of the keeper, (probably referring to the temple,) and alfo made a wineprefs therein, removed all the hindrances, and gave all the means of fruitfulness: and he looked that it fhould bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes, 3 or poisonous berries. And now, O inhabitants of Jerufalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard; tho' your felves are parties, the cafe is 4 fo plain, that I leave it to your judgment. What could

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have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? hath any thing been wanting on my part? wherefore, when I looked that it fhould bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? how can this dif 5 appointment be accounted for? And now go to, or rather, ·come now, and I will tell you what I will do to my yard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it fhall be eaten up; [and] break down the wall thereof, and it fhall be trodden down; I will quite withdraw my protection, and give Ifrael up as a prey to their enemies; their 6 ftate and church shall be quite ruined: And I will lay it wafte: it fhall not be pruned, nor digged; but there fhall come up briars and thorns: I will alfo command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it; they shall lofe all their outward blessings and spiritual privileges. Then 7 comes the explanation of the parable: For the vineyard of the LORD of hofts [is] the house of Ifrael, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; a country in which he took delight, and did more for its inhabitants than for any other people: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppreffion; for righteousness, but behold a cry; of the oppreffed, to men for help, and to God for vengeance.

I.

REFLECTION S.

E have great caufe to be thankful for our na

Wtional bleffings. No nation upon earth has more

reafon to apply these things to themselves than we have. God hath taken care of us as his vineyard, hath given us all defirable bleffings, temporal and spiritual. Chrift, the branch, hath as it were fprung up among us, and we enjoy the glorious fruits of it in the gofpel of peace. We have the protection of heaven on our dwelling places; and, what deferves our especial thankfulness, on our folemn affemblies; upon every thing that is the glory of our land the Lord hath created a defence. Let us seriously reflect how valuable these bleffings are, and how few enjoy them, that we may be infpired with fentiments of gratitude to God. Nevertheless,

2. We fhould be very cautious and watchful, left we forfeit

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