PRAYER.

Grant, Almighty God, since you have once deigned to insert us into the body of thy Son, that we may be such vine-branches as you have undertaken to cultivate: that by the power of thy Spirit we may be so watered as never to be deficient in spiritual rigor: and may we so bear fruit to the glory of thy name, that we may at length arrive at the fountain of our faith when we enjoy the celestial glory to which you have adopted us in the same, your only-begotten

Lecture Sixtieth.

Time did not permit us yesterday to explain the words at the close of this nineteenth chapter: this is a lamentation, and it shall be a lamentation. Some think this to be said of the Jews, that is, of all the, Israelites, since they should all be lamentable, because God would not cease to inflict his judgments upon them until he had utterly consumed them. But I had rather refer it to the prophecy, and this is the more correct sense. This lamentation: thus the Prophet designates this sad and mournful prophecy because it contains the last slaughter of the people. Secondly, he adds, it shall be for a lamentation, because it suggests material for wailing, since remarkable miseries are accustomed to be more celebrated. If anything usual occurs, men soon forget it; but if any slaughter happens worthy of notice and of remembrance it is everywhere spread abroad, nay, it supplies posterity with material for their poems. Hence the Prophet signifies not only that this prophecy was mournful, but that God's wrath would fly about in common conversation through so rare and memorable an example. I now come to the twentieth chapter.