The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. Behold, thy godly servants, which not only bear fruit themselves, but are powerful in the provocation of others, present their best services unto thee; and even at our doors (not far to seek, not hard to procure) is offer made unto thee, of all variety of fruit, whether from thy young converts, or thy more settled professors: and all these I spend not lavishly; but, in my loving care, duly reserve them for thee, and for the solemn day of our full marriage. THE JEWISH CHURCH. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Hear me now, O ye of the house of my dear and faithful servant David; whose sin is therefore aggravated by the holiness of your forefathers: Is it a small thing for you, to reject and contemn me, that am a man like yourselves, but ye will, with your hypocrisy and disobedience, provoke and abuse my God also, whose message I bear? Are ye not ashamed and afraid, under a pretence of piety to refuse the gracious offer and command of God that sent me? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Therefore, the Lord shall, without your will or assent, give you a sign; which shall be no other, than that ancient engagement of his to his Church. Behold, in the fulness of time a virgin shall miraculously conceive, and bear a son; and she shall, by the appointment of God himself, call his name, God with us. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. He shall have a true human body; and shall be sustained with that ordinary nourishment, wherewith children are wont to be fed: and shall grow up in experimental knowledge, as well as in stature; and shall thus enable himself, like us, to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. But, because you may plead that it will be long ere this promise be effected, behold, before this child of mine, Shear-jashub, shall come to the age of discretion, this land of Israel and of Syria, shall be forsaken of both these kings, Rezin and Pekah; for they shall both, ere long, be swept away by an untimely death. From the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. It was a heavy day to you, when the ten tribes departed away from Judah; but this judgment, which I will bring upon you, shall be rather worse than that, even the sword of the king of Assyria. That the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ISAIAN, CHAP. VII. VIII. The Lord shall call for and excite mighty enemies against thee, out from the further coasts of the river of Nilus, and out of Assyria; even Ethiopians, Edomites, and other puissant nations, which shall come, as thick as swarms of flies or bees. In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. In that day, the Lord shall, by the hand of the Assyrians and their associates, make utter strip and waste of Judah, by the cruelty of those hired forces, which they shall bring up; even as if a man should be hired, with his razor to shave off all the hair of the head and the whole body, even to the very stumps, so as there shall be no mention where it grew. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep. And it shall come to pass in those days, that a man, which had formerly wont to keep whole flocks and droves, shall now be glad to take up with one young cow and two sheep; And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give that he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. And, though this proportion be very small, yet it shall be answerable to the persons, which shall be left alive to spend it; who shall be so few, that this poor stock of cattle shall be able to feed them: a small quantity of butter and honey shall be enough to sustain that small remainder of men. With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. So desolate shall the country be, that where before were towns inhabited and fields tilled, there shall be now solitary deserts, the dens of wild beasts; so as the hunters shall come thither with arrows and bows, to pursue their game: And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. And men shall be glad to betake themselves into waste wildernesses for their hiding places: and there shall be glad to plant themselves, and employ their husbandry upon the desert mountains: which they shall dig with their mattocks, instead of ploughing; insomuch as there shall be no place for briers and thorns to grow in those desolate hills, but they shall be improved to the use of their oxen and lesser cattle. O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. Oh that I might see thee, my Saviour, clothed in flesh? Oh that thou, which art my everlasting Husband, mightest also be my Brother, in partaking the same human nature with me; that so, I, finding thee below upon earth, might familiarly entertain thee, and converse with thee without reproach of the world, yea, might be exalted in thy glory! Take thee a great roll, and write in it with man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Take thee a large roll, and write therein with large text letters, that word of threatened judgment, which thou shalt take for the name of thy son; even, Maher-shalal-hash-baz: those four words compounded in one shall be enough to fill thy scroll, and the hearts of the people, with an expectation of the destruction menaced. I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my promegranate. Then would I, though I be now pent up in the limits of Judea, bring thee forth into the light and knowledge of the Universal Church, whose daughter I am: and, then and there, thou shouldest teach me how perfectly to serve and worship thee, and I shall gladly entertain thee with a royal feast of the best graces that are in my holiest servants; which I know thou wilt account better cheer, than all the spiced cups and promegranate wines in the world. And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, &c. And I took unto me faithful witnesses, both of this act that I did, in fastening this roll upon the doors of the temple, and of the name given to my said son, in his circumcision; even Uriah the priest, &c. His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. Then shall I attain to a nearer communion with him; and both his hands shall be employed to sustain and relieve me: yea, he shall comfort my head and my heart, my judgment and affections, with the lively heat of his gracious embraccements. And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahar-shalal-hash-baz. For I have conversed with my wife the prophetess, and she had conceived and born a son; and the Lord had appointed me to call his name, Make speed to the spoil, Hasten to the prey; in a sign and denunciation of that judgment, which the Assyrians shall bring upon Jerusalem. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please. I charge you, O all ye that profess any friendship to me, I charge you deeply, as ye will avoid my uttermost censures, take heed how ye vex and disquiet my merciful Saviour, and grieve his Spirit; and do not dare, by the least provocation of him, to interrupt his peace. CHRIST. For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria. For, ere the child shall come to the age of speech and discretion, to distinguish his parents from strangers, the general of the king of Assyria shall spoil the countries of Israel and Syria; whereof the chief cities are Damascus and Samaria. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth; there she brought thee forth that bare thee. Who is this, that from the comfortless deserts of ignorance, of infidelity, of tribulations, ascendeth thus up into the glorious light and liberty of my chosen; relying herself wholly upon her Saviour, and solacing herself in him? Is it not my Church? It is she, whom I have loved and acknowledged of old: for even under the tree of offence, the forbidden fruit which thou tastedst to thy destruction, I raised thee up again from death; even there, thy first mother conceived thee, while by faith she laid hold on that blessed promise of the Gospel, whereby she and her believing seed were restored. THE JEWISH CHURCH. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. And so have thou me still, O my Saviour, in a perpetual and dear remembrance: keep me sure in thy heart, yea in thine arms, as that which thou holdest most precious; and let me never be removed from thy love, the least shew and danger whereof I cannot endure: for this my spiritual love is exceeding powerful, and can no more be resisted than death itself; and the jealous zeal, which I have for thee and thy glory, consumes me even like the grave, and burns me up like unto the coals of some most vehement and extreme fire: Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son. Forasmuch as this people have not rested themselves upon the gracious promises of God's protection, but, being disheartened with their own paucity and weakness, have sought to other helps, and depended upon Rezin and Pekah, the kings of Syria and Israel. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Yea, more than any fire; for any flame yet may be quenched with water, but all the water of afflictions and terrors, yea whole streams of persecutions, cannot quench this love; and for all tempting offers of wealth, of pleasures and honour, how easily are they all contemned for the love of my Saviour! We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? We have a sister, as thou knowest, O Saviour, ordained through thy mercy to the same grace with me, the uncalled Church of the Gentiles; small, as yet, of growth through the rareness of her converts, and destitute of the help of any outward ministry whereby she might either bear or nourish children unto thee: when she grows unto her maturity, and the mystery of calling her universally to thee shall be revealed to the world and herself, what course will it please thee to take with her? CHRIST. And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. The power of the king of Assyria shall spread itself over the whole land of Judah, to destroy it; even over that holy land, which is consecrated to thy name, O thou Saviour of thy Church, God and Man; which yet, because it so nearly pertaineth unto thee, shall at last find the benefit of thy protection. If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. If she shall continue firm and constant, in the expectation of her promises, and the profession of that truth which shall be revealed, we will beautify and strengthen her with further grace, and make her a pure and costly palace, fit to entertain my Spirit; and if she will give free passage and good entrance to my word and grace, we will make her sure and safe from corruption, and reserve her to immortality. THE JEWISH CHURCH. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Go to then, O ye enemies of God's people; band yourselves together; join your hearts, and heads, and hands in one; yet ye shall, in spite of all your power, be crushed and broken in pieces, &c. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. Behold, that condition, which thou requirest in the Church of the Gentiles, thou findest in me: I am thus firm and constant in my expectation, in my profession; and that want, thou findest in her, of ability to nourish her children by the breast of thy word, is not in me; who have abundance both of nourishment and defence: upon which my confession and plea, I found grace and peace in the eyes of my Saviour, and received from him assurance of his everlasting love to me. CHRIST. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My Church is my Vine, and I am the Owner and Husbandman: our thrift and profit thereof far exceedeth the good bus- VOL. III. X bandry of Solomon: he hath a rich vineyard indeed in a most fruitful soil, but he lets it forth to the hands of others, as not being able to keep and dress it himself; and therefore he is fain to be content with the greatest part of the increase, not expecting the whole: For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, ISRAEL, CHAP. VIII. and instruct me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, For the Lord did not only speak to me, but with his mighty hand guided and directed me, that I should not yield myself to a conformity with the sins of this people, and give way to their infidelity and obstinacy, saying, My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. But my Vino is ever before me: I am with it to the end of the world: I reserve it in mine own hands, and dress it with mine own labour; and therefore, if thou, O Solomon, canst receive from thine to the proportion of a thousand, thy workmen and farmers will look for the fifth part to come unto their share, whereas the gain of my vineyard ariseth wholly and only unto myself. Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Say ye not, out of your distrust, Let us make a confederacy with the Assyrians, without whose aid we cannot stand against our enemies; neither be ye dejected with this cowardly fear of them, that rise up against you. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it. Since therefore, such is my care of thee, and joy in thee, O my Church, which consistest of the particular assemblies of men professing my Name, see thou be diligent in declaring my will, and giving holy counsels to all thy fellow-members: speak forth my praise in the great congregations, which all attend willingly upon thee, and let me hear the voice of thy constant and faithful confession of me before the world. THE CHURCH. Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. Give ye glory to God, in the confidence and praise of his Almighty power, whereby he subdueth all things: let your holy and awful fear be only bent upon him, who can deliver, or destroy you, at pleasure. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains 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. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He shall be a rock of sure defence, to those that fear him; but a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to those, that distrust and disobey him, even of both the houses of Judah and Ephraim; and for a snare, to those, that are godless and rebellious, even in Jerusalem itself.