Isaiah 5

'Tis with a sinner as with a sick patient, his palate is distempered, the sweetest things taste bitter to him. The Word, which is sweeter than the honeycomb, tastes bitter to him (Isaiah 5:20); they put sweet for bitter. Thus, a disease, and nothing can cure this disease but the…

If this sin of drunkenness be not reformed, I pray God the sword be not made drunk with blood. And whereas some will go to shift off this sin from themselves that they are no drunkards, because they have not drunk away their reason and senses; they are not so far gone in drink t…

Ever since Adam did eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and his eyes were opened, we lost our eyesight. Besides ignorance in the mind, there is error and mistake, we do not judge rightly of things, we put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20). Besides this, there is muc…

When we give our testimony for a person that is criminal and guilty, we justify him as if he were innocent. Which justify the wicked for reward (Isaiah 5:23). He that goes to make a wicked man just, makes himself unjust.

Indeed, he derides God's threatenings. Isaiah 5:19: Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it. We have heard much what God intends to do, and of judgment [reconstructed: approaching], we would fain see it.

Fourth, in short, that pleasure men talk of in sin, is their disease; some take pleasure in eating chalk, or coals, this is from their disease. So when men talk of pleasure in eating the forbidden fruit, it is from the sickness and disease of their souls; they put bitter for swe…

And as man is not able to satisfy, so till satisfaction be made, the Law cannot, will not give him an acquittance; if once it lays the debtor in prison, there is no hope of a jail delivery till the last mite be paid (Luke 12, ult.). 3. The justice of God; by virtue whereof he ne…

What natural, or carnal affections may be excited by them, as men may inflame themselves with idols (Isaiah 57:5), or what outward, outside devotion they may direct to or excite, is uncertain; but that they are no means of stirring up the grace of God in the hearts of believers,…

Q. And why did God give this great advancement to Christ? A. Because the Son did voluntarily humble himself to the greatest degree of obedience and humiliation; therefore the Father gave to him this exaltation and advancement, as a reward and recompense of that his humiliation (…

Therefore those that do truly believe cannot but persevere. Object. I. Isaiah 5:3. O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard: what could I have done any more to my vineyard that I have not done to it?

But what can befall such men? But that that Isaiah prophesies to them, (Isaiah 5:8) Woe be unto them that join house to house, and land to land, till there be no place for the poor to dwell in. Thirdly, in that Abraham lived thus, as ready ever to depart into any other country,…

He had before treated directly only of unfruitful and apostatizing professors, whom here he represents by unprofitable ground, and God's dealing with them as men do with such ground when they have tilled it in vain. For the Church is a vine or vineyard, and God is the husbandman…

In his dealing with them, he will leave no color of calling his goodness and faithfulness into question, but will as it were refer the righteousness of his proceedings to all, even to themselves. So he does as to his dealing with the Church of the Jews when it was grown utterly…

These children are inserted and implanted into the Church, the Body of Christ, in their own persons (as was but now granted, when it was said, The persons of these infants do receive the adjunct of church-membership, and that their persons are brought under the Covenant) and hav…

You must be planted with a right seed; a wild vine will yield but wild grapes: the trees of righteousness are of the Lord's own planting (Isaiah 61:3), and when you are grafted into the Noble Vine, Christ Jesus, then are you loaden with clusters, like the Vine of Eshcol, (John 1…

He views the creatures as they came into being and pronounced them good, he takes a review of them afterward in their whole frame, and the subordination of them to one another, and the ends he had destined them to, and then pronounces them very good; the merciful providences of…

Ninthly, they are as stubble, and as stubble fully dry, ready for the fire, in Nahum 1:10. Tenthly, they are as rottenness, and their root is rottenness (Isaiah 5:24). And then, they are as scum, in Ezekiel 24:12.

Apostates have proved to be the most desperate enemies to the truths of God of any in the world; take heed therefore of the strangeness of your hearts from the truths of God lest you afterwards prove to be an enemy to God; it's an evil thing to account the Law of God a strange t…

We had never so many rank Christians as we have at this day that grow out in luxurious branches, and they think they have over-topt all, because they can talk more than others do, when as there are some poor Christians that grow low to the ground, and when they get a little comf…

Israel is an empty Vine. The Church is often in Scripture compared to a Vine, in Psalms 80:8. "You have brought a Vine out of Egypt: you have cast out the Heathen and planted it." And in that known place Isaiah 5:1. "Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved, touch…

As you shall see a man or woman when their passion is raised they will run and snatch away such a thing from another. Take heed of being violent in the ways of sin, you will cast the cords away, you will cast away the truths, as you had it before in Isaiah 5. So you cast away th…

Thus it is with many professors at the time when God expects fruit, now they are sapless, now they are corrupt fruit, they are dried up by the root, and what are they fitted for but for the fire? And then God has his time to dry up the root of nations, in Isaiah 5:24. Now we mig…

Oppression and injustice in places where God expects righteousness and equity, is a sad omen, a forerunner of great evil to places. It's God's complaint in Isaiah 5. Just before he threatened the utter spoiling of his vineyard, he gives this reason, I (says he) looked that it sh…

The Lord has smote us with a dreadful stroke and still he continues smiting of us. That Scripture in Isaiah 5:25 is made good upon us this day, The anger of the Lord is kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has smitten them, (mark what…

Waters in Scripture language very often signify provision and supplies, both temporal and spiritual; as in Proverbs 9:17, Isaiah 33:16, 43:20, 55:1, and 58:11, Jeremiah 2:13 and 18, 17:8 and 13, and in other places innumerable. The temporal supplies of a people are very often in…

So then justification is not to be considered, as God's creating, and infusing of gracious habits in us; but the declaring of us to be free, and acquitted from the guilt of sin, upon the account of Christ's satisfying for our debt. This we will find to be very clear, if we consi…

For clearing of this a little more, consider that this resting may be looked on, either passively, or actively; passively, in respect of the believer's acquiescing in Christ, and assuring himself that all shall be well; this is not that act of faith that is called for to justifi…

And (Revelation 22:17), "Whoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely" — it is not only, to say so with reverence, those whom He wills, but it is, whoever will; and so if you want to come, grace puts the offer into your hand, as it were, to carve on; to let us…

But we differ little in our aims from beasts, when the intention rises no higher than this side of clay and time (Psalm 49:11). That our houses may continue (Isaiah 5:8). That we may be placed, alone on the earth.

Many generations of hirelings have ended their day's task, and have now their wages, many shadows are gone down, many actors have closed their game, as it may be, and some have fulfilled their course with joy, and are now within the curtain, since the creation. 7. It is a poor n…

Just as Paul complains of the Jews (Acts 13:46), since you have put it away from you, lo, we turn to the Gentiles, we purge and cast out the motions of God's spirit, and cannot endure that any Ordinance should bring us nearer to Christ. (Acts 7:51) You have always resisted the H…

For that which is the end of God's laws, must also be the end of all good laws in all commonwealths and kingdoms, namely, to shut up the people into the unity of one faith. The Church of the Jews, is called a fountain sealed, a garden enclosed (Song of Songs 4:12), a vineyard he…

The fourth and last point, contains the remedies of this euill, which are the rather to be considered, because it is a great sinne, one of those seuen which the Lord does most of all detest, Prou. 6. 17. a dangerous sinne, hauing a heauie woe attending upon it, Woe to them that…

For how can they have the Spirit of God, which have not the Word of God? And therefore they do nothing else but call light darkness and darkness light, as it is said (Isaiah 5). This Word of God is the Gospel, whereby we are through Christ redeemed from sin, death, and Hell: he…

Be not wise in your own Conceits. And brings Men under that Woe, Isaiah 5:21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own Eyes, and prudent in their own Sight.

Hence two things do ensue: (1.) That the use of those means to Men in the state of Sin, if they are not complyed withal, is sufficient on the grounds before laid down, to leave them by whom they are rejected inexcusable; so Isa. 5. 3, 4, 5. Prov. 29. 1. 2 Chron. 36. 14, 15.

If God plant, and fence, and water you by Providence, sure he looks you should bring forth fruit. Isaiah 5. 1, 2, 3, 4. O that in return for all the benefits of Providence, you would say to God, as grateful Elisha said to the Shunamite, behold you hast been careful for us with a…

To be of an heedless inobservant temper is very displeasing to God; and so much appears by that Scripture, Isaiah 26:11 Lord when your hand is lifted up they will not see. Nay, it is a sin, which God threatens and denounces woe against in his Word, Psalm 28. 4, 5. and Isaiah 5.…

It is an elegant metaphor frequent in Scripture, showing that as when a field is well hedged, or a town well walled and entrenched, then it is safe. So when God is said to make a hedge or a wall about a man or about a nation, the safety of that man or nation is assured by it (Is…

For clearing the first; Consider, that the visible Church is often compared in Scripture to a Vineyard (Matthew 21:33). And the particular professors, especially believers, are as the vine-trees that grow in it; So (Isaiah 5:7), The Vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, c…

3. They are furnished with many excellent graces, fruits of the Spirit, which are planted in them as flowers in a garden (Galatians 5:21). Next, this garden is enclosed: it is a special property of gardens to be so; to be enclosed is by a wall or hedge to be fenced from the tram…

4. It's not a commendable shamefastness, but must needs be a very sinful modesty, that keeps one from duty: It was indeed more shameful to lie still, than to rise. Her second ground is of the same nature, I have washed my feet: washing the feet, fitted and prepared for rest; men…

For explaining of the first, we are first to remember, that by Solomon, we are to understand Christ; for, as ever hitherto, so here, the Allegory is continued, to express and set forth Christ in his way with his Church, under that name. Next, the Vineyard here is [reconstructed:…

2. If the same allegories in other places of Scripture, will bear solid doctrines concerning Christ, his covenant, faith, etc. even such as are in plain Scriptures; then must this Song do the like, seeing it is the word of God, tending to the same scope with these. But it is cle…

What could the Lord have done more to his vineyard than he has done? Therefore then when he looked for grapes, brought it forth only leaves, or wild grapes? (Luke 13; Isaiah 5:4-6) And is it then to be wondered at, if the Lord pluck down the hedge thereof, that it might be eaten…

The Scripture compares the church to a vineyard, and particular souls to vine-trees that must bring forth grapes: and indeed a vine is good for nothing if it be not fruitful: not so much as to make a pin of, to hang a vessel upon. Now let us consider, if God have not done as muc…

And do you call this a pleasure? Surely you put bitter for sweet (Isaiah 5:20). The pleasures of sin gratify only the sensitive part of man, not the rational.

The meaning is, I will send a more fearful judgment, than that of the famine of bread; for this particle [not] is not exclusive, but excessive — implying, that a famine of bread is nothing, or but a light judgment, compared with the famine of the word. Parallel to which is that…

Surely it should be said of every soul that grows here, as the historian says of Spain, that there is nihil infructuosum, nihil sterile; nothing barren or unfruitful in it. God's vineyard is planted in a very fruitful hill (Isaiah 5:1). And surely they that are planted in the ho…

It is as good husbandry to keep what we have, as to acquire more than we had. "My well-beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill and he fenced it" (Isaiah 5:1-2). No inheritance is better defended and secured than the Lord's inheritance (Psalm 125:2): "As the mountains are…