Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Vers. 19. The earth is utterly broken down: the earth is clean dissolved: the earth is moved exceedingly. 20. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunken man, and shall be removed as a tent, and the iniquity thereof shall be ⟨p. 237⟩heavy upon it; so that it shall fall, and rise no more.

Vers. 19. The earth is vtterlie broken downe: the earth is cleane dissolued: the earth is moued exceedinglie. 20. The earth shall reele to and fro like a drunken man, and shall be remoued as a tent, and the iniquitie thereof shall be ⟨p. 237⟩heauie vpon it; so that it shall fall, and rise no more.

HE amplifies these punishments by divers phrases of speech. Now in the 20 verse he will show the cause of this calamity; to wit, that men have pulled it upon their own §2heads by their sins: in all the rest of the words he shows, that the mischief is desperate and incurable. We have said before, that the Prophet utters one and the same thing in divers manners of speech, to the end he might awaken and wound the hearts of the people, which naturally were too secure. For there is a carelessness in our flesh, which begets a contempt of God;¹ and of this, every one of us hath too woeful experience, both in himself and in others. That the Prophet then might rouse up those that were drowsy and rocked asleep in their sins, he garnisheth his words, (not as one affecting eloquence, to procure credit unto himself) but to gain attention of his hearers, & to cause the same to sink the deeper into their hearts. §1Thence proceeds all these allusions wherewith §2these verses are replenished: thence