Gather your selues, euen gather you, O nation not worthy to be beloued,
* 1.1AN exhortation vnto earnest repentance and amendment of their former life, to the end they may escape al the former euils. For those whom God chideth, except the fault be in themselues, he meaneth to saue. August. Let men change their deedes, and I, sayth the Lord, will change my threatnings. And this exhortati∣on is often repeated in this chapter, to the end that those which re∣mayned obstinate and stubborne, might bee made vnexcuseable. And first of all it is repeated in this verse for the vehement affecti∣on or desire both of God, and also of the Prophet to saue the Iewes. And for this cause is the word (Gatherye) repeated. And the cause is added,* 1.2 why the Iewes ought now to think earnestly on this admo∣nition vnto repentance, for that they are in such a case, that as they now are, and after the maner that they now liue and behaue them∣selues, they doe vtterly displease God, and are not to be loued, that is to say, such as God cannot loue. Neither doth one or two of them liue thus wickedly: but the whole nation generally. By how much the mercy of God appeareth to be the greater, who is very carefull to saue those whom hee nowe might worthily destroy. Further, there is here expressed and set downe the first part of true repen∣tance, to wit, the examining of a man his owne selfe, and the rip∣ping vp of his former life, to condemne and amend the same. So Iohn the Baptist also beginneth with this part Mat. 3. v. 6, 7. where he sayth: And they were baptized of him in Iordan, confessing their sinnes, &c.