Isaiah 44:5

One shall say, I [am] the LORD'S; and another shall call [himself] by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe [with] his hand unto the LORD, and surname [himself] by the name of Israel.

Ver. 5. One shall say, I am the Lord's.] When God seemeth to cry out, Who is on my side? who? then the true Christian, by a bold and wise profession of the truth, answereth as here. After the way that they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, said that great apostle. We are Christians, said those primitive professors; and some of them wrote apologies for their religion to the persecuting emperors, as did Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Arnobius, Tertullian, Minutius Felix, and others. The recent famous reformers Zuinglius, Luther, Musculus, &c., had been Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans; but relinquished those superstitious titles and gave up their names to Christ and his truth. I knew a nobleman, saith Mr Burroughs, a who, when he came into jeering company of great ones, would begin and own himself one of those they call Puritans - a nickname then put upon the godly party, and so odious to the profaner sort, that the same author elsewhere telleth us of a scholar in Queen's College, who professed he had rather suffer the torments of hell, than endure the contempt and scorn of the Puritans.

Subscribe with his hand.] Or, Write on his hand, I am the Lord's.

And surname himself.] So Christian is my name, said an ancient, and Catholic my surname.

a On Hosea.