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that which is unfit for any service: it is only meet to be cast into the fire for fuel.

XVI. 3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.

Never brag of thy descent from Abraham: no; thou hast so utterly degenerated from the faith and obedience of that holy patriarch, that thou hast justly forfeited all thy claim of him: rather thy birth and thy nativity may and must be derived from those Canaanites, into whose corrupt manners thou art declined; and so art thou incorporated into their wicked corruptions, as if thy father were an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite, neither of them of the chosen and holy seed.

XVI. 4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

And in how miserable a condition I found thee, all the world knoweth; even utterly languishing under the Egyptian servitude: so as thy case was no less desperate than that of a new-born child, whose navel is not cut, and to whom the midwife performeth not those offices, which are necessary for the first entrance and entertainment in the world.

XVI. 5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

No eye pitied thee, or was inclined to shew thee any mercy, or do thee any favour at all; yea rather thou wert hated and despised by thy hosts and neighbours of Egypt; and wert left forlorn to the cruelty, and scorn, and intolerable oppression of those thy tyran. nical persecutors.

XVI. 6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. And when, looking down from heaven, I saw thee in this woeful and loathsome plight, given up by the world as lost, I then took compassion on thee, and even then, in thine utmost extremity, determined thy preservation, and said, Yet Israel shall live.

XVI. 7 And thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

I have so blessed thee, that thou not only enjoyest life, but, withall, art plentifully stored with those favours and benefits, which serve for pleasure and ornament; and thou art now grown to a great perfection of knowledge and profession, whereas before thou wert utterly destitute of all good things.

XVI. 8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, the time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, &c.

And now, when thou wert thus beautified by my graces and favours, I began to cast my affections upon thee, as that Church, whom I would espouse to myself; and, immediately, professed myself to be thy Spiritual Husband; contracting myself unto thee by a firm covenant, mutually passed betwixt us; and thou becamest my peculiar people.

XVI. 9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. Then I sanctified thee from thy natural corruptions, and cleansed thee from thy sins, and gave thee the anointing of my Spirit.

XVI. 10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered &c.

And decked thee with all those varieties of graces and virtues, which I plentifully communicated unto thee. So also verse 11, 12, and part of 13.

XVI. 13 Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. I did not only make outward provisions for thee, but I fed thee also spiritually with those heavenly delicates of my Sacraments; and thou wert become glorious and beautiful, in the eyes of the world; and now, of an obscure and despised handful, wert grown up into a kingdom.

XVI. 15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications оп every one that passed by; his it was.

And now, being thus favoured and graced by me, thou grewest proud of thine own worth, and forgattest me, and gavest thyself over to all uncleanness; and now, being sought to as some famous courtezan, thou hast yielded over thyself to the spiritual fornications of all the nations round about thee.

XVI. 16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

And thou hast abused my graces unto wantonness: those ornaments of wit, of strength, of wealth, which I had bestowed upon thee, thou hast turned to the countenancing and furtherance of gross idolatries. So also verse 17, and 18, and 19, &c.

XVI. 25 And hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

Thou hast communicated in idolatry, with every nation, that hath had any intercourse with thee.

XVI. 26. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyp tians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whore doms, to provoke me to anger.

Thou hast both renewed leagues, and interchanged idolatries, with the Egyptians, which are noted for monstrous in this impiety; and hast increased thy spiritual whoredoms above measure.

XVI. 28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; &c.

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The like wickedness hast thou also committed with the Assyrians, as if thy lust after idols were utterly unsatiable. So also ver. 29. XVI. 30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman! How hast thou even spent and exhausted thyself with this odious filthiness, saith the Lord; as some notorious and most infamous strumpet!

XVI. 37 And will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

I will put thee to shame and confusion, before the faces of those, which consorted with thee in thine idolatries.

XVI. 41 And I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

I will so judge thee, that thou shalt be disabled from any further commission of this spiritual whoredom; and shalt be stripped of any power to give the hire of fornication, to thy mercenary lovers.

XVI. 42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no

more angry.

So will I abundantly satisfy myself with that revenge, which I shall take of thee, as that my fury and jealousy shall be at an end, as having no further object to work upon.

XVI. 43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, &c.

Because thou hast not remembered, both the favours that I did thee and the covenants that thou madest with me in thy youth, but hast provoked me in all these things, I will bring thy deserved judgments upon thee, and will make thee sure enough from adding this lewdness to thine other abominations.

XVI. 44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this pro verb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. Thy notorious sins shall be the ordinary by-word, and table-talk of the world, who shall say, As is the mother Canaan, so is the daughter Judah.

XVI. 45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that loatheth her hus band and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

Thou art just thy mother's daughter, like her in wickedness and sin as she, so thou, hast cast off thy God, and hatest all those that pertain unto him; and the whole family of you is all of one and the same strain: thy sister is of no other disposition: your mother, in respect of your manners and condition, was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

XVI. 46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daugh ters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwel leth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

And thine elder sister is Samaria, or the Ten Tribes of Israel; she, and those her daughter cities, that lie to the north: and thy

younger sister, that dwells to the southward, is Sodom, and the cities appertaining to her.

XVI. 47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: &c.

Yet thou hast not contented thyself to do after the example of their abominations: but &c.

XVI. 49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness &c.

Behold, these were the most eminent sins of thy sister Sodom, even pride, excess of diet, extreme idleness and security; and want of respect and mercy to the poor and needy, &c.

XVI. 51 And hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.

Thou hast made thy sisters' wickednesses to appear small, in comparison of thine.

XVI. 52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they.

Thou, which hast passed thy sentence upon the foul sins of Sodom and Samaria, now make account to undergo the shame and judgment, which thy own greater and more abominable sins have deserved.

XVI. 53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them.

And if the captivity of Sodom, and that of Samaria, and the towns round about them both, shall be ever reversed, then look that thine also, O Judah, shall be so; but, as there is no possibility in their return, so there is none in thine.

XVI. 56, 57 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride, Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.

Thou never thoughtest of the judgment, which I brought upon thy sister Sodom, in raining fire and brimstone upon their heads, while thou wert transported with thy security and pride, before that God, by his inflicted judgments, brought forth thy wickedness to the notice of the world; and before he made thee a reproach to the Syrians, and their neighbouring nations, and to the Philistines, and the people adjoining; all which have despitefully insulted upon thee.

XVI. 61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy

covenant.

Then shalt thou bethink thyself, and recal to remembrance those wicked ways wherein thou hast walked, and be ashamed: when thou shalt also adjoin unto thee the Gentiles, as partners of

thy happy conversion; whom thou shalt be a means to bring home into my Church, but not by virtue of any covenant of thine, but of my own, which is the New Covenant that I shall make with my chosen under the Gospel.

XVI. 63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame.

That thou mayest remember thy old wickednesses, and be soundly humbled under the sense of them, and not have a word to say for thyself, because of the shame of thy former vileness.

XVII. 3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is a great eagle: his long wings and many feathers are his several dominions; whose divers colours are the rites and various forms of government, in those sundry nations: he came into Judea, where Lebanon is renowned and conspicuous; and took away king Jechoniah, the highest branch of the cedars there:

XVII. 4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.

He cropped off the top of his young twigs, all their prime nobility and able soldiery, and carried them into captivity, and set them in Babylon.

XVII. 5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow

tree.

He took also of the seed royal, even Zedekiah, and planted him in the fruitful land of Judea, where he had store of means to have lived and flourished.

XVII. 6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, &c.

And he grew up, and prospered exceedingly, and became a great and wealthy prince, howsoever tributary to Babylon: both his family and his power were greatly enlarged.

XVII. 7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.

There was also another great king, of ample dominions and mighty power, even the king of Egypt: and, behold, Zedekiah thus set up by Nebuchadnezzar, yet did unthankfully incline unto and rely upon that king of Egypt, to be supported by him in his revolt. XVII. 8 It was planted in a goodly soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, &c.

He was, if he could have kept him so, well planted in his own soil, which was rich and plentiful.

XVII. 9 Say thou, Thus saith the Lord God; Shall it prosper?

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