forfeit these bleffings. The end for which they were given and are continued to us is, that we may be fruitful: it is the defign of all to make us holy and obedient. Let this then be our aim; for no lafting happiness can be expected till the filth of our land be purged away; and that will not be, without the fpirit of judgment and burning, which we fhould daily and earnestly implore. If we go on in fin, God may justly deprive us of our privileges, and take the gofpel away from us. And we must allow it to be just and reasonable that he fhould, for what could God have done more? Therefore let us not be high-minded, but fear. This parable is also applicable to particular perfons, and the advantages they enjoy. We have confcience, fcripture, ordinances, and minifters; if we are unfruitful, God will take away his grace; deny the dews of his bleffings; and what was our inexcufable fin, will be our just and dreadful punishment, we shall be quite barren and useless. Let us labour therefore to answer and repay the divine cultivation, to have our fruit unto holiness, and the end will be everlasting life.

CHA P. V. 8, to the end.

The prophet here threatens judgments upon the nation, principally referring to the captivity; and specifies the particular fins for which God would punish them.

8

E unto them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, who engross all trade, profi:s, and estates to themselves from a principle of insatiable avarice, and to the injury of their neighbours, till [there be] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of 9 the earth! In mine ears [faid] the LORD of hofts, Of a truth many houfes fhall be defolate, [even] great and 10 fair, without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard

fhall yield one bath, and the feed of an homer fhall yield an ephah, that is, but a tenth part; fo that they shall have 11 no comfort in their houfes and lands. Woe unto them that rife up early in the morning, [that] they may follow

ftrong

ftrong drink, that continue until night, [till] wine enflame them! who make a trade of drinking, and thus waste their time, their fubftance, and their health, and enflame 12 their lufts and paffions by it. And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feafts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither confider the operation of his hands; they delight in mirth and pleasure, but regard neither the merciful nor afflictive dif13 penfations of providence. Therefore my people are gone, that is, they shall go, into captivity, becaufe [they have] no knowledge: and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirft; this was the cafe at the fiege of Jerufalem, and the devastation of 14 their country by the Chaldeans. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, fhall defcend into it, like Korah and his company. A dreadful image, to reprefent the fuddenness 15 and terror of their deftruction. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man fhall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty fhall be humbled; as they were joined together in fin, so shall they be in punishment : 16 But the LORD of hosts fhall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteoufnefs; his power and holiness fhall be feen and magnified in the 17 righteous judgments brought upon the wicked. Then hall the lambs feed after their manner; the pious poor, who are left in the land, fhall be fupported and protected; and the wafte places of the fat ones fhall ftrangers eat; ftrangers fhall devour what the rich men got by covetousness 18 and oppreffion. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and fin as it were with a cart rope; who fet themselves seriously and refolutely about it, and en19 courage others in it: That fay, Let him make speed, [and] haften his work, that we may fee [it] and let the counsel of the Holy One of Ifrael draw nigh and come, that we may know [it!] who fay that the prophetic threatenings are all bugbears, and that God cannot or will 20 not do as they have faid. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and

*

light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! who confound the nature of virtue and vice, 21 contrary to their judgment and knowledge. Woe unto [them that are] wife in their own eyes, and prudent in their own fight, and fo defpife the prophet's inftructions ! 22 Woe unto [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of ftrength to mingle ftrong drink; who drink a great deal without being difordered, and boast of it as an 23 accomplishment: Which juftify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from 24 him, by condemning and punishing him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the ftubble, and the flame confumeth the chaff, [fo] their root fhall be as rottennefs, and their bloffom fhall go up as duft; they fhall be destroyed root and branch, like a tree rotten at the root: because they have caft away the law of the LORD of hofts, and de25 fpifed the word of the Holy One of Ifrael. Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcafes [were] torn, or, fhall be as dung, in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] ftretched out ftill, he will yet take further vengeance upon them.

26

And he will lift up an enfign to the nations from far, to the Chaldeans, and will hifs unto them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they shall come with speed fwiftly; he will collect them with the utmost eafe, as fhep27 herds gather their sheep by whistling: None fhall be weary nor stumble among them; none fhall flumber nor fleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their fhoes be broken; he will strengthen them for their work, and nothing fhall hinder them in their march: 28 Whose arrows [are] fharp, and all their bows bent, completely armed for deftruction; their horfes' hoofs fhall be counted like flint, they shall not be broken by the roughness of the road, and their wheels like a whirlwind, which intimates the fwiftness of their march, and the violence 29 of the attack: Their roaring [fhall be] like a lion, they fhall roar like young lions: yea, they fhall roar, and

lay

lay hold of the prey, and fhall carry [it] away fafe, and none fhall deliver [it,] neither the jews themselves, nor 30 the Egyptians, whom they depended upon. And in that day they fhall roar against them like the roaring of the fea and if [one] look unto the land, behold darkness [and] forrow: and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof; every thing about them fhall be terrible, black, and difmal.

FR
Fis

REFLECTION S.

ROM this chapter we are taught, that a finful ftate is a woeful state, and fhould particularly attend to the awful woes denounced against fome tranfgreffors.

1. Against those who are guilty of insatiable covetousnefs: a vice particularly prevalent in corporate towns, encouraged by their monopolies, and pleaded for in defence of their rights. It appears in being greedy of gain, oppofing and undermining others of the fame bufinefs, ftriving to get all trade to themselves, and artfully depriving others of the means of supporting their families. It is juft in God to disappoint fuch greedy perfons, and to blaft their endeavours; at leaft, he will punish them hereafter for their avarice and cruelty.

2. Let the votaries of riot and mirth attend to their doom, as here pronounced by the Almighty. Let drunkards hear and tremble; and know, that God will punish them who tarry long at the wine, tho' they can go home fober: the mifpence of their fubftance and time, the enflaming of their lufts and paffions by ftrong drink, are fins with which he is highly displeased. Yea, let those who are given to pleasure, and fpend that time in mirth, gaming, and gay affemblies, which ought to be devoted to reading and prayer, confidering the works of God, and taking care of their families, remember, that there is a woe against them, tho' they should not drink to excess. But,

3. The moft wicked and dangerous finners are those who confound the difference between good and evil. The difference is as great as between light and darkness; yea, as plain and evident to the mind, as the difference between

light and darkness is to the eye, or that between sweet and bitter to the taste. These are they who argue against the principles and practice of religion, and mifreprefent the ways of God, glofs over the practices of fin, and labour to weaken the restraints of piety, and justify that which is evil. As in this they act contrary to the light of nature and the convictions of confcience, their guilt is highly aggravated.

4. We fee upon the whole the ground of God's controverfy with nations: it is for thefe and fuch like fins abounding in them, and particularly that which is at the bottom of all, v. 24, refufing to fubmit to his reproofs and receive his inftructions; and defpifing the counsel of his messengers and the commands of his law. These predictions were intended as warnings to Ifrael, and they are written for our admonition; that, if we defire the profperity of our country, and the falvation of our own fouls, we may live foberly, righteously, and godly in the prefent world.

CHAP. VI.

Here is a new commiffion given to the prophet, to promote his reverence for God, his activity and perfeverance in his work, and to encourage him amidst the unsuccessfulness of his miniftry. I N the year that king Uzziah died I faw alfo, in a ar to dream, or a vifion when awake, the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, the Shekinah, or glory of the Lord, which was Chrift, (John xii. 41.) and 2 his train, or skirts, filled the temple. Above it, or befide it, stood the feraphims; an allufion to the cherubim attending the ark; they are called feraphims, or burnings, to exprefs their holy nature and fervent zeal: each one had fix wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. This is very expreffive of their reverence of God, and their 3 activity in executing his commands. And one cried unto another, alternately expreffing their transports of zeal and joy, and faid, Holy, holy, holy, [is] the LORD of hofts; he is fupremely and unchangeably holy in all his dif penfations