An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of…

Israel was a Vine full of clusters, refreshing God himself, as you heard in the ninth Chapter, that he was to the Lord as Grapes in the Wilderness, as a Vine that did bring forth Grapes in the Wilderness, that was so sweet to a weary and thirsty traveller. Israel was once such a one, yea, but now he is come to be an empty Vine, though he grows in the Vineyard of God, and not in the Wilderness.

Israel was a Vine full of clusters, refreshing God himself, as you heard in the ninth Chapter, that he was to the Lord as Grapes in the Wilderness, as a Vine that did bring forth Grapes in the Wilderness, that was so sweet to a weary and thirsty traveller. Israel was once such a one, yea, but now he is come to be an empty Vine, though he grows in the Vinyard of God, and not in the Wilderness.

Empty] and no marvel,¹ for as you have heard in the latter end of the former Chapter, he would not hearken to the Lord, he would not hear the Word of the Lord, the Lord threatens to cast him away, because he hearkened not to him,² from whence Luther hath this Note, The Word is like a fruitful rain, there can no true fruit be without the Word, those that will not hearken to the Word, no marvel though they be empty, it is the Word that makes fruitful, it is that that is as the fruitful rain: Those that leave and forsake the Word, observe them how fruitless they are, what empty spirits they have;³ many that heretofore were forward in hearing the Word, and loved it, the Word was delightful to them, Oh! then they were fruitful; but since they have been taken off from the Word, converse with them now and you shall find their spirits empty, and their lives empty;⁴ and there's no men in the world so empty as those that would worship God in another way than the Word appoints, men that would think to worship God after their own fancies, and ways, Oh! how empty are they in all their Worship they tender up to God?