Isaiah 27:13

REFLECTIONS

READER! while Jehovah is thus singing to his Church, and commanding his people to sing unto her also, a vineyard of red wine: let you and I join the holy song, and beginning in Him, who is the chief musician, and the whole cause of our song, and who alone can string our hearts, and tune them to his praise; let us consider the blessedness of this vineyard of the Lord, and how he hath formed it for himself, and for the showing forth of his glory. Did not God the Father form this vineyard? And did not Jesus, his dear and ever-blessed Son, purchase it from his Father, at infinite cost and pains, even with his blood? And did not God the Holy Ghost gather the stones out of the hearts of his people and form them as trees of his own right hand planting? And do not all the sacred persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless this vineyard, and with their sweet and gracious droppings of dew and rain, and all the blessed influences of heaven, visit it, and watch it, and water it every moment? And if so, who but would sing the song of salvation to this vineyard, so favoured, so blessed, and so kept, by sovereign and almighty grace! Oh! Lord! grant that there may be no blasted fruit, no withered branches in thy church and vineyard; but let the gracious cultivation flourish and bring forth fruit to the praise of thy name! And, Oh! precious Jesus! do thou come into thy garden, and eat of thy pleasant fruit! Oh! suffer not the wild boar out of the wood to root it up, nor the wild beast of the field to devour it. But do thou enable all of thine to take hold of thy strength, and in thy righteousness to be eternally secured. Be thou, Lord, the security of thy vineyard, and both the glory and the defense thereof: for then we shall be indeed strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; and unceasingly sing of the Lord's redemption of his vineyard, the Church, upon earth, and the everlasting glories of Jesus and his Church in heaven Amen.