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Isaiah 55

1 An exhortation to come to Christ 8 God’s counsels are not as man’s 12 The joy of the faithful.
1.Ho, every one that athirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye that have bno silver, come bie and eat: come, I say, bie cwine and milk without silver and without money.
2.Wherefore do ye lay out silver and not for bread? dand your labour without being satisfied? hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delite in efatness.
3.Encline your ears, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shal live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the fsure mercies of David.
4.Behold, I gave ghim for a witness to the people, for a prince and a master unto the people.
5.Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, hand a nation that knewe not thee, shal run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, & the holie one of Israél . for he hath glorified thee.
6.Seek ye the Lord while he may ibe found: call ye upon him while he is near.
7.Let the wicked kforsake his ways, and the unrighteous his own imaginations, and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for he is very ready to forgive.
8.For my lthoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9.For as the heavens are hier then the earth, so are my ways hier then your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.
10.Surely as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thether, but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud that it maie give seed to the sower, and bread unto him that eateth,
11.So shal my mword be, that goeth out of my mouth, it shal not return unto me voyde, but it shal accomplish that which I wil, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12.Therefore ye shal go out with joy, and be led forth with peace the nmountains and the hills shal break forth before you into joy, and all the trees of the field shal clap their hands.
13.For thorns there shal grow fyrre trees: for nettles shal grow the myrrh tree, and it shal be to the Lord ofor a name, and for an everlasting psign that shal not be taken away.

Notes

1-a.
Christ by proposing his graces and gifts to his Church exempts the hypocrites which are full with their imagined works, and the Epicures, which are full with their worldly lusts and so thirst not after these waters.
1-b.
Signifying, that God’s benefits can not be bought for money.
1-c.
By waters, wine, milk and bread, he means all things necessary to the spiritual life, as these are necessary to this corporal life.
2-d.
He reproves their ingratitude, which refuse those things that God offers willingly, and in the meantime spare neither cost nor labour to obtain those which are nothing profitable.
2-e.
You shall be fed abundantly.
3-f.
The same covenant, which through my mercy, I ratified and confirmed to David that it should be eternal, 2 Sam. 7.13, Acts 13.34.
4-g.
Meaning, Christ, of whom David was a figure.
5-h.
To wit, the Gentiles, which before you did not receive to be your people.
6-i.
When he offers himself by the preaching of his word.
7-k.
Hereby he shows that repentance must be joined with faith and how we can not call upon God aright, except the fruits of our faith appear.
8-l.
Although you are not reconciled one to another and judge me by your- selves, yet I am most ease to be reconciled, yea I offer my mercies to you.
11-m.
If these small things have their effect, as daily experience shows, much more shall my promise which I have made and confirmed, bring to pass the thing which I have spoken for your deliverance.
12-n.
Read Ch. 44.23, 49.13.
13-o.
To set forth his glory.
13-p.
Of God’s deliverance, and that he will never forsake his Church.