The damnable nature of fin. Chap. lix, lx. the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath fpoken it. CHAP. LIX. I The damnable nature of fin. 9 Calamity is for fin. 16 Salvation is only of God. 20 The covenant of the Redeemer. EHOLD, the Lord's hand is not The covenant of the Redeemer. 13 In tranfgreffing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, fpeaking oppreffion and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falfehood. 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice ftandeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the ftreet, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD faw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. 16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no Bhortened, that and is not man and wondered that the brought ther his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: salvation unto him; and his righteoufness, 2 But your iniquities have feparated between you and your God, and your fins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. 5.4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they truft in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. 5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. 6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. 7 Their feet run to evil, and they make hafte to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wafting and deftruction are in their paths. 8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whofoever goeth therein shall not know peace. 9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth juftice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obfcurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; que are in defolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn fore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for falvation, but it is far off from us. 12 For our tranfgreffions are multiplied before thee, and our fins testify against us: for our tranfgreffions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; it fuftained him. 17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of falvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. 18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adverfaries, recompence to his enemies; to the iflands he will repay recompence. 19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the weft, and his glory from the rifing of the fun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. 20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from tranf. greffion in Jacob, faith the LORD. 21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, faith the LORD; My fpirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shali not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy feed, nor out of the mouth of thy feed's feed, faith the LORD, from hence, forth and for ever. CHAP. LX. 1 The glory of the church in the abundant access of the Gentiles ; 15 and the great bleffings after a short offliction. A RISE, thine; for the light is come; and the glory of the LORD is rifen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and grofs darkness the people: but the LORD ihall arife upon thee, and his glory shall be feen upon thee. 3 And the Gentiles mall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rifing. 4 Lift up thine eyes round about, and fee: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy fons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nurfed at thy fide. 1 5 Then thou shalt fee, and flow togeQq2 ther, The glorious access of the Gentiles. ISAIAH. ther, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea thall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. 6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incenfe; and they shall thew forth the praises of the LORD. 7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minifter unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. 8 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? The office of Christ. thy land, wasting nor deftruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praife. 19 The fun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 20 Thy fun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shalt be ended. 21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. 22 A little one shall become a thou9 Surely the ifles thall wait for me, and fand, and a small one a strong nation: I the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy the LORD will hasten it in his time. fons from far, their filver and their gold CHAP. LXI. with them, unto the name of the LORD I The office of Christ. 4 The forwardness, thy God, and to the Holy One of Ifrael, because he hath glorified thee. and blessings of the faithful. T THE Spirit of the Lord God is upon 10 And the fons of strangers shall me; because the LORD hath anointbuild up their walls, and their kings thalted me to preach good tidings unto the minifter unto thee: for in my wrath I meek; he hath fent me to bind up the smote thee, but in my favour have I had brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the mercy on thee. II Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. 12 For the nation and kingdom that will not ferve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. 13 The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my fanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. captives, and the opening of the prifon to them that are bound; 2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praife for the fpirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteoufnefs, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. 4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former defolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the defolations of many generations. 14 The fons alfo of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow them5 And strangers shall stand and feed selves down at the foles of thy feet; and your flocks, and the fons of the alien they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, shall be your plowmen and your vineThe Zion of the Holy One of Ifrael. dreffers. 15 Whereas thou haft been forsaken and hated, fo that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. 16 Thou shalt also fuck the milk of the Gentiles, and shaltsuck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. 17 For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring filver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. 18 Violence shall no more be heard in 6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Minifters of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boaft yourselves. 7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confufion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall poffefs the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. 8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 And their feed shall be known among The office of ministers. Chap. Ixii, Ixiii. Christ sherweth who he is. among the Gentiles, and their offspring II Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed among the people: all that fee them shall acknowledge them, that they are the feed which the LORD hath bleffed. 10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my foul fhall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of falvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteoufness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden caufeth the things that are fown in it to fpring forth; fo the Lord God will cause righteoufnefs and praife to fpring forth before all the nations. CHAP. LXII. I The prophet's fervent defire to confirm the church in God's promises. 6 The ministers' office in preaching the gospel. F OK Zion's fake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerufalem's fake I will not reft, until the righteoufness thereof go forte as brightness, and the falvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 2 And the Gentiles shall fee thy righteoufnefs, and all kings thy glory: and thou fnalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. 3. Thou shalt alfo be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. 4 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Defolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy fons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. 6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerufalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not filence, 7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerufalem a praife in the earth. 8 The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his ftrength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the fons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured: 9 But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holinefs 10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; caft up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy falvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. 12 And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forfaken. CHAP. LXIII. Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his ftrength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to fave. 2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought falvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. 6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. 7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Ifrael, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindneffes. 8 For he faid, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: fo he was their Saviour. 9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his prefence faved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. 11 Then he remembered the days of old, Mofes, and his people, faying, Where is he that brought them up out of the fea with the shepherd of his flock? Q93 where where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? 12 That led them by the right hand of Mofes with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? 13 That led them through the deep, as an horfe in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? 14 As a beaft goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to reft: fo didft thou lead thy people, to make thyfelf a glorious name. 15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the founding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? 16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Ifrael acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlafting. 17 O LORD, why haft thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? return for thy fervants' fake, the tribes of thine inheritance. 18 The people of thy holiness have pof seffed it but a little while: our adverfaries have trodden down thy fanctuary. 19 We are thine: thou never bareft rule over them; they were not called by thy name. CHAP. LXIV. I The church prayeth for the illustration of God's power, 9 and complaineth of affliction. that thou wouldeft rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy prefence, 2 As quhen the melting fire burneth, the fire caufeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adverfaries, that the nations may tremble at thy prefence! 3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou cameft down, the mountains flowed down at thy prefence. 4 For fince the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye feen, O God, befide thee, awhat he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.. 5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have finned: in those is continuance, and we shall be faved. 6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteoufneffes are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and The Gentiles called. our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou haft hid thy face from us, and haft confumed us, because of our iniquities. 8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; weare the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. 9 Be not wroth very fore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, fee, we befeech thee, we are all thy people. 10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerufalem a defolation. 11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. 12 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very fore? CHAP. LXV. I The Gentiles called, and the Jews rejected. 17 The bleffed state of the new Jerufalem. Am fought of them that afked not for me; I am found of them that fought me not: I faid, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I have fpread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; 3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that facrificeth in gardens, and burneth incenfe upon altars of brick; 4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat fwine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their veffels; 5 Which fay, Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. These are a fmoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep filence, but will recompenfe, even recompenfe into their bofom, 7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, together, faith the LORD, which have burned incenfe upon the mountains, and blafphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bofom. 8 Thus faith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the clufter, and one faith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: fo will I do for my fervants' fakes, that I may not destroy them all. 9 And I will bring forth a feed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my The new Jerufalem. Chap. Ixvi. my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. To And Sharon fhall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have fought me. II But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number. 12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the laughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I fpake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. 13 Therefore thus faith the Lord God, Behold, my fervants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my fervants small drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my fervants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: 14 Behold, my fervants shall fing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for forrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chofen: for the Lord GOD thall flay thee, and call his fervants by another name: 16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes. 17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerufalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 And I will rejoice in Jerufalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the finner being an hundred years old shall be accurfed. 21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 22 They fhall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. God's benefits to the church. 23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the feed of the bleffed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. 24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed to. gether, and the lion shall eat ftraw like the bullock: and duft shall be the ferpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor deftroy in all my holy mountain, faith the LORD. CHAP. LXVI. I God will be ferved in humble fincerity. S The humble comforted. 15 God's judgements against the wicked. HUS faith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footftool where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my reft? 2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, faith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. 3 He that killeth an ox is as if he flew a man; he that facrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incenfe, as if he bleffed an idol. Yea, they have chofen their own ways, and their foul delighteth in their abominations. 4 I alfo will choose their delufions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did anfwer; when I fpake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chofe that in which I delighted not. 5 Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that caft you out for my name's fake, faid, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. 6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies. 7 Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, the was delivered of a man child. 8 Who hath heard fuch a thing? who hath feen fuch things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shalt a nation be born at once? for as foon as Zion travailed, the brought forth her children. 9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not caufe to bring forth? faith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? faith thy God, Cq4 to Rejoice |