Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Sunday Morning, Feb. 25, 1849, BY THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

"Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching His vineyard."-Isaiah v. 1.

You are all aware that there are plaintive songs, mournful songs, and funeral songs, as well as songs expressive of joy, rapture, and delight; and you will not be able to read far on in this song, where the prophet says, "Now will I sing," without being constrained to say, "Surely he must have been in company with his brother, who is called the mourning prophet, when he wrote his Lamentations;" for nothing else is spoken of in the fifth chapter, than the apostacy, the barrenness, the departures, and the consequent punishment, of the very people whom God had chosen as His vineyard in a typical sense, and amongst whom He had His chosen and spiritual vineyard to be everlastingly saved. You cannot go beyond the second verse without remarking this feature of the song, and how soon it takes a turn. "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also built a wine-press therein, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." This points out to our view the literal state of the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and marking what a special distinction God has fixed on that family in their deliverance from Pharaoh, and their being brought out of Egypt, in their Church-union and organization, by His own hands, and in the establishment amongst them of His own truth, and testimony, and sacrifices, all pointing to the precious Christ of God who is the living vine; and, then, stating the Published in Weekly Numbers, 1d., and Monthly Parts, price 5d.

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solemn fact, that after all that was done for them as His peculiar people, when "He looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes"-may we not say that their's was indeed a most awful rebellion? Can we find anything blacker in history than the depravity of the children of Israel particularly in love with idolatry? Yes, indeed we can, and that is only by transferring our thoughts from the land of Canaan to this long-favoured island in which our lot has been cast. In dear old England there is more national guilt now, than that which dispersed the Jews, and destroyed the temple, and unchurched all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Oh, how am I overwhelmed when I think of what God has done for England, and look at the fact that He had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill; that it has been fenced by the Divine protection and under His own immediate providence ; that the choicest vine, even the vine of which every Christian is a branch and twig, has been planted here in the proclamation of the gospel; when I view the matter of fact that His Church organization has been like a wine-press, affording the choicest of wine for the refreshing of the souls of thousands of His people, and then turn round and look at the fact that dear old England is bringing forth wild grapes, even grapes of Sodom, impregnated with the sulphur of the Dead Sea, and more likely to give forth an odious and disgusting effluvium before God than an acceptable incense.

But look on a little further, "Now, oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard "-let us put the word England instead-"what could have been done more for England that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes." Yet, this is a song to be sung! "And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." Oh, my God, pour not out this vengeance upon dear old England! I could not help making these remarks in our exordium, because the application of these words seems so unavoidable to both instances. And surely the prophet must have made up his mind to join in the chorus of the Psalmist, when he says, "I will sing of mercy and of judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing." If mercy is to be sung, then we view the Lord's special care of His own people in trying times, a remnant according to the election of grace that shall escape and be preserved in the hollow of His hand. If we view the judgments, they must be poured out upon the apostacies of the present day, and God will be glorified in them all.

From the language of my text I propose presenting three ideas to your notice. First, the appellative address, "my well-beloved," to whom I will sing. Second, the subject of the song, it is "touching His vineyard." And third, the knowledge that is requisite for the singers; because if people have not, in the common acceptation of the term, a little knowledge of music, they will make a miserable jarring if they attempt to sing.

I. Let us then, first of all, dwell upon this appellative address, "My well-beloved." Can you call Jesus so? Can you address Him

with this appellation? Can you look Him in the face, as He sits upon His throne, and say, "He is to me the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely?" Your "well-beloved." Try it. There is more importance attached to this address than at first sight might strike us, because an ardent affection to Jesus is the sacred indispensable criterion of real godliness. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed with a curse at the coming of the Lord." Jesus looking upon some professors in His day, said, "I know you, you have not the love of God in you." And speaking concerning His own disciples, to put their affection to the test, He said, "If any man love me, let him come after me—yea, take up his cross daily and follow me." Moreover, if this is to be done, it is to be done at the expense of forsaking father, mother, wife, children, house, lands, and his own life. If I put it on this ground, or rather present it to you-for Christ Himself has put it upon that ground-what say you to addressing Him as your well-beloved? There is a fervour expressed in these three words that, probably, we should find a difficulty in obtaining one sentence in all our vocabulary to surpass, "my well-beloved." I think, however, that there is one expression which a little surpasses it, and that is my best-beloved; but even this is almost synonymous with the words of my text. Mark, it is a sacred, a supernatural, a sincere, a superlative affection to Jesus. Now just try it. Examine the matter. Sacred and supernatural—an affection, an ardent love towards Jesus that renders His very name sufficient to awe every power and faculty of the soul-a sacred supernatural affection which constrains, I had almost said involuntarily, to quit its grasp or touch of every other object and fasten all its energy upon Him. A sacred affection that draws its truest happiness, its solid peace, its sacred delight, its supreme dignity from a knowledge of Him, and a holy enjoyment of His lovetokens in personal experience. "Well-beloved." Let the worldling love the world. Let the Pharisee love his rags. Let the hypocrite love his deception. Let the statesman love his policy. Let the warrior love his blood-shedding employments. My soul would forsake all these, mount superior to them, set her whole affection upon Him who fills the middle throne, gaze with believing delight upon His Person, and go forth in the most ardent aspirings of sacred supernatural affection after Him whom God the Father has called His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased.

Moreover, this affection to Jesus, and to be able to call Him my well-beloved, must be superlative. A man may, and ought, to love his wife and children, his fellow Christians, and those around him who are dear to him. But all put together, and loved as much as it is possible to love them, must all be left in the background when Jesus is the object of our affection. Oh, how I long to feel my heart ravished with this love! How I long for the moment when He shall endear Himself unto me yet more sweetly and more closely. I want to lose sight of everything, to be embosomed in Jesus, and filled with love Divine from out of His fulness. Oh, the blessedness of rising thus, I was going to say in the very scale of existence! Oh, the blessedness of rising above mere externals and paltry round-about pretensions, superstition, rites, and ceremonies, that are called Christianity in the present day! Oh, the blessedness of making use of the means God has given us to make use of, His precious word, and His ministers and ordinances, as stepping stones to bring us higher and higher, nearer

and nearer, to Jesus; that we might lean upon His bosom, recline upon His breast, "cleave to Him with purpose of heart," and say, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, for His love is better than wine." Oh, for more love to Jesus! Let it be observed here that the apostle Peter has set this down as an indispensable mark of the believer, "To you, therefore, who believe, He is precious." Now we are not accustomed to use that term "precious" very generally. We may say of a relative, a parent, or child, that he is very dear to us, that we would spend anything upon him, give anything to him, and that we very much love him, but we are not commonly accustomed to speak of him as precious. To you, however, who believe, Jesus Christ is precious; more precious than mines of gold; more precious than rubies, or pearls, or diamonds, or the choicest things that the earth can produce, rich and varied as are its products. In fact, so precious is Jesus-oh, that He were so to all our hearts-that everything besides loses its claim to the word "precious" when Jesus demands it. "To you, therefore, who believe, He is precious." Nay, I may go a step further, and say that in contrast with our Jesus all else beside is paltry, vain, and worthless. How the sacred singer must have been delighted and won by the loveliness of Jesus! Just as His spouse in the Canticles, when she says of Him, "He is the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely.'

Here I might detain you for a few seconds to try and glance at― and the subject is so lofty, that we can do no more than try and glance at-His original loveliness, His official loveliness, and His overwhelmloveliness; for He is described by the apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, as "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His Person; the Lord that angels adore, and all the glorious inhabitants of the celestial world, the Creator of all things, who is over all, God blessed for ever." If I contemplate His true, eternal, essential, self-existent Godhead, it is lovely to think of-that that precious, glorious Person, who became my Brother, my Daysman, my Surety, my Substitute, and my Advocate, had all the attributes of Deity essentially His own; had all the perfections of the Godhead eternally in His very nature; and all exercised and employed in a mediatorial capacity. And this leads me to try and glance at His loveliness as it is represented officially in His precious word. This, I am sorry to say, is very much lost sight of by multitudes even of real Christians. A great pity that it should be so; but so it is. If you want to own Jesus as your well-beloved, look at Him in His official capacity. See Him as a King in Zion, and His very sceptre, righteousness and love, which He sways in the hearts of all His people. All His edicts are compassion, tenderness, and love; all His commands really advantageous and profitable to His people; and, instead of forbidding them the use of His word, He commands them to "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me."

If I view Him as a Priest-nay, I must use the definite article-if I view Him as the Priest, the only official Priest, He is "altogether lovely." And that man deserves to be despised who dares assume the character of an official priest, since Christ has been proclaimed a Priest upon His throne, and that "after the order of Melchizedec." But when I glance at His priesthood, and observe that He is at once the Priest-the High Priest, the Altar, and the Sacrifice; yea, that all

the offerings that ever went up in the clouds of incense before the throne of God pointed to Him, and are concentrated in His Person, how lovely does He appear! When I look at Him as a Priest, and mark the multitude of instances where He has given absolution, and never charged a single penny for it; when I look at Him as High Priest, and bear in mind the cleansing of the priest under the law as typical of Him and the work in which He is engaged, I find Him to be a laver to wash me from my sin and uncleanness in His own precious blood. And was there ever such a lovely priest? When I want access to God, and know not how to tell my own tale, and I make a miserable chattering like the crane and the swallow, as Hezekiah describes it, my High Priest lives, and intercedes, and advocates my cause on high. "Jesus Christ the righteous." And however hateful other priests are, our High Priest is the "chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely" in that official capacity. Then, if I view Him in the light of a Prophet, oh, how great the loveliness of my Jesus! my well-beloved! Every prediction He ever uttered verily true and certainly fulfilled! All the instruction He gave tended to make His pupils "wise unto salvation." All His children are "taught of the Lord," and then "great is their peace." If I view His authority as a Prophet, it extends over all worlds and angels: men and devils must bow to it. Oh, the loveliness of my precious Christ! Has He really the superlative affection of your hearts, beloved? I find a difficulty in getting away from this part of my subject, because I have been panting in secret, for years, to have Him more endeared to my heart, and because I am ashamed and confounded before Him, that

"My love's so faint, so cold to Him,

And His to me so great."

Let us take one more view of this well-beloved Christ. And here I would observe that relative intimacy seems to be expressed in the address itself: "My well-beloved." Here is a claim. Here is

affinity. Here is relationship. Many an instance may be found in which endeared friends, Christ's ministers, precious truths, gospel doctrines and ordinances, and so on, may be spoken of as well-beloved -and sometimes we put the "my to it, and say, "my beloved." Now I should just mention two or three things here which are of vast importance in regard to this familiarity. I am charged, by not a few of the enemies of God's truth, with being too familiar with God, and that charge has been handed through the length and the breadth of the land amongst those who never saw or heard me in their lives, but who, of course, are always ready to believe falsehoods concerning me. Now, instead of being too familiar, my complaint is that I am not half familiar enough. And, therefore, I cry out, in the language of one of our hymns,

"Oh! draw me nearer, nearer still, in fellowship with Thee,
Until I stand on Zion's hill, and all thy glory see."

Those who claim Him as their well-beloved are much with Him. And does not conscience smite you here? You must be quite aware that this will hold good even in creature affection among mortals. The more I love a man the more I like to be in his company. The more affection I entertain for a fellow-mortal, supposing that it is for spirituality's sake, for truth's sake, and for Christ's sake, the more I like his company. I travel with him when I can travel. I dine with him. I dwell with him, and I sit with him, because he is so beloved by me,