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19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24 Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. 27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. 23 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners. shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

CHAP. II.

THE word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judal and Jerusalem. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

V. 4. The highly poetical and beautiful image used here to describe a well-established peace, has also been employed by the Roman poets:Sweet peace has transformed me: I

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O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the

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LORD. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. 7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. 10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: 18 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish. 19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 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; 21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

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V. 22. Is it but a puff of breath that holds man in life? Then build not too much hope and confidence on any man. Build not too high upon so feeble a foundation. There are two things that should deter us from dependence upon any man, viz., his falseness and his frailty. Grace in a great measure may cure the first, but not the last. The best of men must die, as well as the worst. 'Tis a vanity therefore to rely upon any man. It was the saying of a philosopher, when he heard how merchants lost great estates at sea in a moment, I love not that happiness which hangs upon a rope.' But all the

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happiness of many men hangs upon a far weaker thing than a rope, even the perishing breath of a creature.Flavel.

'Cease ye from man,' &c.-I might paraphrase on this exclamation of the prophet by observing, that we are required to cease from making any such estimate of the creature as may be derogatory to the glory of the Creator. In the ministration of sacred things, the persons employed are entitled to our regard, because they are the instruments of conveying spiritual blessings to us. But if, forgetful of their station and our own, we proportion

our regard to their exterior gifts and qualifications, we contribute, by our unjust partiality, to the diminution of

that dependence which is exclusively the right of Deity.-Anon.

CHAP. III.

FOR, Judah the stay and the staff, the whole

OR, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from

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stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. + And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. 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: '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. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

V.9. The shew of their countenance,' &c.What means, alas! That blood which flushes guilty in your face? Dryden.

When Robert Hall was once engaged in conversation with a friend, an acute, but bitter-spirited political writer was mentioned, and Mr. Hall was asked if he had ever noticed the singularly conical formation of that writer's head? Yes, Sir,' he replied, 'it is a remarkable head in its structure, very remarkable; but what a face, Sir! Did you ever see another such a face? It is the rendezvous of all the vices, Sir.'-Memoirs.

Suppose I could have the faces that are now present gathered and brought to me, and could hold them up, one by one, and should ask, 'Whose image and superscription is stamped on this face?' 'Care marked this face,' would be the (frequent) answer. 'Who

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marked this one?' 'Fretfulness.' 'And this?' 'Selfishness.' 'This?' Suffering stamped this.' 'What this?' Lust, lust!' 'And this?' 'Self-will.' 'And who stamped this face?' I should ask of one-a rare and a sweet one. 'This! why, where did you get it? Whose face is this?how beautiful! It is marked by the sweet peace of a contented spirit.' I never saw more than a dozen of these in my life.-H. W. Beecher.

It is said of the negro, that how black soever his countenance is when he is in a state of health, he is no sooner attacked with sickness, than he gradually becomes pale and whitish, according to the nature and inveteracy of his disease; and also that when dead, his countenance again returns to its original blackness.-Univ. Hist.

The blush is nature's alarm at the approach of sin, and her testimony to the dignity of virtue.-Fuller.

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Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. be ill with him for the reward of

The Natural Government of God, under which we now live, is plainly moral; in which rewards and punishments are the consequences of actions, considered as virtuous and vicious. Not that every man is here rewarded or punished in exact proportion to his desert; for the essential tendencies of virtue and vice to produce happiness and the contrary, are often hindered

11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall his hands shall be given him. from taking effect, by accidental causes. However, there are plainly the rudiments and beginnings of a righteous administration to be discerned in the Constitution of Nature; from whence we are led to expect, that these accidental hinderances will one day be removed, and the rule of distributive Justice obtain completely in a more perfect state.-Bp. Butler.

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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. 18 The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts. 16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: 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. 18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, 19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, 20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, 21 The rings, and nose jewels, 22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, 23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. 24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. 25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

V. 16-26. Death will soon strip the poor body of all its ornaments, and bereave it of all its comeliness: then, indeed, there will be stink instead of a perfume; and all that taste and elegance, which have been for a moment admired, will be changed for the

cold grave, for putrefaction, and for the consuming worm. And what will such ornaments and distinctions avail at the Resurrection and the day of Judgment; when every one, without respect of rank or sex, must give an. account of the things done in the body,.

whether good or evil? May every reader henceforth renounce such childish vanities, and seek that beauty and

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that adorning, which will endure brighten, and purify for ever!-Scott.

CHAP. IV.

ND 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. 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. 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: 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.

By the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning.'-It is said that among the Chinese they adopt very severe and painful remedies in cases of healing; and for almost every disorder apply fire and caustics.-Univ. Hist.

The Spirit of God is here called the "Spirit of judgment and burning,' really consuming and destroying our lusts. He takes away the stony heart by an almighty efficiency, and continually weakens and destroys the habit of sin. He is the fire which burns up the very root of lust.-Dr. Owen.

The severest judgments will not of themselves humble or change the hearts of sinners, which often grow more hardened under them, even to desperation. The imagined fire of purgatory, therefore, or the real torments of hell, possess no purifying efficacy; and the sinner under the anguish of his sufferings will continually increase in wickedness, and accumulate wrath to all eternity. For nothing, except the atoning blood of Christ, can expiate the guilt; nothing, except the sanctifying Spirit of God,

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can purge away the pollution of sin; and all other expedients are satanical delusions, to keep men from this one 'fountain' which God hath 'opened for sin and uncleanness.'-Scott.

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We scarcely know how the Church of Christ could have existed, or what she would have become, without the purifying and ennobling fires of persecution to burn upon her. The most precious of her literary and religious treasures have come out of this furnace. 'Virtue,' said Lord Bacon, 'is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are either burned crushed.' This is the power of adversity with noble natures, or, with the grace of God, even in a poor nature But self-denial is a sort of self-burning, that makes a purer fire, and more surely separates the dross from a man's being, than temptation and affliction. Indeed, self-denial is the great end in this world, of which temptation and affliction are the means; a man being then the most free and powerful, when most completely dead to self, and absorbed in God the Saviour.-Dr. Cheever.

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. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day