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they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them.

They come to thee with reverence and respect, as the manner of my people is; and they sit before thee to hear thy words, in an awful and attentive fashion; but they will perform nothing of that, which is commanded them.

XXXIII. 32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an in

strument.

They seem to take much pleasure and contentment in thy sermons; even no less, than a man would do in the hearing of an excellent song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and plays sweetly on an instrument.

XXXIII. 33 And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.

And when these judgments shall come to pass, which I have premonished, then they shall know and find, too late, that they have had a true prophet of God among them, whom they unworthily disrespected.

XXXIV. 2 Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Woe to those rulers, and to those teachers and spiritual guides of Israel, that feed and pamper themselves; whereas their duty and office is, and should be, to feed the souls of my people, and to govern and rule them aright.

XXXIV. 3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

Ye take of the best commodities of the people under your charge, neither is that grudged unto you; and make use of their personal employments, as occasion is offered: but ye do not perform your duty to them again: ye do not teach and govern them, as ye ought. XXXIV. 4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost.

Those particular offices, which pertain to your charge, as comforting the weak, healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, reclaiming and reducing those those that have erred, ye have not accordingly done; but rather have tyrannously and cruelly exercised an imperious authority over them.

The same allegory holds verse 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

XXXIV. 11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

Behold, since my shepherds are careless, I myself will make diligent search for my sheep, that are scattered and lost; and I will find them, wheresoever they are strayed. So verse 12.

XXXIV. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, &c.

And I will fetch them from those several lands whereinto they were driven by their miserable captivity, and will bring them back into their own country, and will feed them carefully and plentifully in my church. So verses 14, 15, 16.

XXXIV. 17 Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

Behold, I judge between one man and another, between the lambs and kids, between the rams and goats: as I do now put a difference, between those of my own flock and the world; so, hereafter I will exquisitely sever them, the one to my right hand, the other to my left.

XXXIV. 18 Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures?

Seemeth it a small thing unto you, to have taken away from my people that wholesome doctrine, which I prepared for their spiritual nourishment; but ye must also foully corrupt that, which yet remaineth of my law?

XXXIV. 19 And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; &c.

As for my people, they are fain to take up with that doctrine, which ye have depraved by your unjust and sinful glosses and traditions.

XXXIV. 20 Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.

Behold, I will judge between the proud justiciaries, who are puffed up with a conceit of their own worthiness, and the poor dejected souls, that are mean in their own eyes.

XXXIV. 21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad.

Because ye have insolently despised and scornfully intreated the weak-hearted; and, instead of easing their afflicted consciences, have been ready to gall and burden them more, till ye have made them utterly weary of their stations in my Church.

XXXIV. 23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

And I will bring my Church, both Jews and Gentiles, under the government of that one King and Prophet of my chosen; even the Messiah, the true Heir and Successor of David; and he shall both teach and rule them. So also verse 24.

XXXIV. 25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

And I will make with them a covenant of everlasting peace, betwixt me and them; and will keep from them those spiritual dangers and annoyances, that may be hurtful unto them; and they shall be safe and secure, even in the places, that would seem to threaten the greatest peril.

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XXXIV. 26 And I will make them and the places round about hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his

season.

And I will exceedingly bless and prosper them, and all that sincerely profess a holy relation to my Church; and will water them plentifully with heavenly doctrine.

XXXIV. 29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.

And I will make them a glorious plant, being fast rooted in that promised Messiah, and being incorporated in him; and they shall no more be consumed with a spiritual famine, nor be trampled upon by the enemies of my Church.

XXXV. 3 Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee.

Behold, I am against you, O ye children of Esau, that inhabit mount Seir.

XXXV. 5 In the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end.

In time of their calamity, which fell upon them, when the measure of their iniquity was full.

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XXXV. io Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there.

Because thou hast said, These two nations of Israel and Judah and their countries, wasted by the Assyrian and Babylonian, shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas, however this land is abused, yet it is the Lord's peculiar; and therefore out of thy reach, and free from any challenge of thine.

XXXVI. 3 And ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people.

And your name is scornfully taken up in the lips of your busy and insulting enemies, and ye are made a byword and reproach of the people.

XXXVI. 7 I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.

I have sworn by myself, Surely the heathen, that are round about you, shall be put to that shame and confusion, wherein they have rejoiced to see you and to insult over you.

XXXVI. 13 Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations.

Because they say unto you, Thou, O land, art fatal to thine inhabitants, and hast consumed them in divers successions, and hast made away with the nations that dwell in thee.

XXXVI. 17 Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

Their continual practice was as foul and odious to me, as can be expressed by any legal uncleanness.

XXXVI. 20 They profaned my holy name, when they said to

them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

They caused my holy name to be scorned and evil spoken of, in that it was said of these so wicked and lewd persons, Lo, these are the select people of the Lord, and those that were inhabitants of his holy land.

XXXVI. 23 When I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. When I shall glorify myself, by working your deliverance, and your apparent reformation, before their eyes.

XXXVI. 26 And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

I will take away your perverse and rebellious disposition; and I will give you a tenderness of heart, and an aptness to be wrought upon by the motions of my Spirit.

XXXVI. 37 I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

I will so do this, that yet I will be sought and sued to by the house of Israel, for this blessing upon them; and then I will give such an increase to the men, as I am wont to give to their fruitful flocks.

XXXVI. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. As Jerusalem, in her holy feasts, is filled with whole flocks and herds of those cattle, that are brought up thither for sacrifice; so shall all the waste cities of Israel be filled with flocks of men.

XXXVII. 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.

The powerful motion of God's Spirit was with and upon me; and carried me, in vision, into the midst of a valley full of the bones of the slain.

XXXVII. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

Son of man, thinkest thou it possible, that these bones should live, and be restored to that estate of this present life, which they were lately in? And I answered, O Lord God, this is more than flesh and blood can conceive; human reason cannot think so; but thou knowest what thou hast to do, and to thee nothing is impossible.

XXXVII. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I pro phesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

So I spake to those bones, as I was commanded; and while I was in speaking, the vision represented to me a noise that filled the valley, and a motion of those bones, and a meeting together of them, bone to bone.

XXXVII. 8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh

came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

And the vision shewed me the sinews and flesh coming upon them, and the skin covering them; but as yet no life was inspired

into them.

XXXVII. 9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Come from the four quarters, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

In a representation of that powerful Spirit of God which gives life unto man, I was bidden, in vision, to call to the winds from all the coasts of heaven, to breathe upon these new-reformed bodies, that they might live. So verse 10.

XXXVII. 11 Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

Son of man, these bones are a perfect resemblance of the whole house of Israel: Behold, they say, We are not only dead, but our carcases are dissolved, our bones dried, all our hopes and possibilities of life and recovery utterly cut off.

XXXVII. 12 Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

Behold, O my people, I will so restore you, as if I opened the very graves, and infused a new life into you; even so will I recover you to your former state in the land of Israel.

XXXVII. 16,17 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

Yea, there shall not only be a life, but a conjunction of Israel and Judah: for the signification whereof, take thee two sticks; and in the one of them write, For Judah, and the Benjamites his companions in the other write, For Joseph, and his son Ephraim, and the rest of the Ten Tribes of Israel their companions: and, when thou hast so done, join one of the sticks to another; and they shall be so pieced together, in thy hand, as if they were but one stick.

XXXVII. 19 Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

Behold, I will take the Ten Tribes of Israel, which are comprised under the name of Joseph and Ephraim and their fellows, and will put them together with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and will make them one nation, and they shall be one in my hand. XXXVII. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon

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