י 1 trumpet I take to be the fame with the feventh trumpet, Rev. xi. 15. at the founding of which, the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ. X. Is A. XXX. 18. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for JEHOVAH is a God of judgment; bleffed 19 are all they that wait for him. For the people fhall dwell in Zion at Jerufalem: thou fhalt weep no more; he will be very gracious unto thee, at the voice of thy cry; when he fhall hear it, he will 26 answer thee.Moreover, the light of the moon fhall be as the light of the fun, and the light of the fun fhall be sevenfold, as the light of feven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the ftroke of their wound. XI. Is A. xxxiii. 20. Look upon Zion, the city of our folemnities: thine eyes fhall fee Jerufalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the ftakes thereof fhall ever be removed, neither fhall any of the cords thereof be broken. Zion, in these texts, cannot fignify (as some would have it) the Chriftian church; because what is here faid of its peaceable state, has never yet come to pass. Neither can thefe Prophecies be applied to Jerufalem reftored after the Babylenish captivity, because of the words thou shalt weep weep no more; and, not one of the stakes thereof (i. ĉi of that tabernacle) shall ever be removed. XII. Is A. XXXV. 10. And the ranfomed. of the Lord fhall return and come to Zion with fongs, and everlafting joy upon their heads: they fhall obtain joy and gladness, and forrow and fighing fhall flee away. This whole chapter is generally applied to the times of the gospel immediately fucceeding the first coming of our Lord. But from the last verse here quoted, and alfo from the 4th, wherein it ís said, Be Strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, &c. it appears to me to relate to the restoration of Ifrael, and the times of the gofpel cotemporary with it; when (as it is faid in ver. 5.) the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, i. e. the Jews fhall be enabled to difcern the true Meffiah, and they shall both hearken to, and obey his doctrine. XIII. Is A. xliii. 5. Fear not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy feed from the eaft, and gather thee from 6 the weft. I will fay to the north, Give up, and to the fouth, Keep not back: bring my fons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. XIV. ISA. xlix. 14. But Zion faid, JEHOVAH hath 15 forfaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her fucking child, that the fhould not have compaffion on the son of her womb? Yea, 16 they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Be hold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my 17 hands, thy walls are continually before me. Thy children fhall make haste; thy destroyers, and they 18 that made thee wafte, fhall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold, all these gather themselves together and come to thee: as I live, faith the Lord, thou fhalt furely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them 19 on thee as a bride doth. For thy wafte and defolate places, and the land of thy deftruction, shall even now be too narrow by reafon of the inhabitants, and they that fwallowed thee up fhall be far away. 20 The children which thou fhalt have after thou haft loft the other, fhall fay again in thine ears, The place is too ftrait for me: give place to me, that I 21 may dwell. Then fhalt thou fay in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have loft my children, and am defolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone, thefe, where had they been ? * 22 Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and fet up my standard to the people and they shall bring thy fons in their arms, and thy daughters fhall be carried upon their fhoul23 ders. And kings fhall be thy nurfing fathers, and their queens thy nurfing mothers: they fhall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the duft of thy feet, and thou shalt know that I am THE LORD: for they shall not be ashamed 24 that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the * Or, From whence come these? mighty? 25 mighty? or the lawful captive delivered? But thus faith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty fhall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible fhall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will fave thy children. 26 And I will feed them that opprefs thee, with their own flesh, and they fhall be drunken with their own blood, as with fweet wine: and all flefh fhall. know that I JEHOVAH am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Whoever reads the words of this Prophecy with the leaft attention, muft (I think) be convinced, that they can relate to nothing else but the future Reftoration of Ifrael. For they are not appli-cable either to the return from Babylon, or to the Chriftian church Not to the former, because they were never fo ftraitned for room, as is here foretold in ver. 19, 20. Nor did kings and queens ever bow down to them, and lick up the dust of their feet, according to ver. 23. but, on the contrary, rather tyrannized over them. Nor can they be applied to the Chriftian church; because this allegorical Zion has, as yet, had none of its wafte and defolate places * rendered too narrow by reason of the inhabitants; nor can fhe be faid to be a captive, removing to and fro, or to be left alone. The first seven verfes of this chapter do (I grant) fpeak of the Chriftian church, as well as of the Ifraelites, particularly in the 6th verfeIt is a light thing that thou shouldeft be my fervant to raise *Or the land of its deftruction. C 3 ир up the tribes of Jacob, and to reflore the preferved of Ifrael: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayet be my falvation unto the end of the earth, &c. But the reft of the chapter, or at least from ver. 13. to the end, relate evidently to the Restoration of the Ifraelites to their own land. XV. Is A. li. 3. For the Lord fhall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her wafte places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her defert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladnefs fhall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. -Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord fhall return, and come with finging unto Zion, and everlasting joy fhall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and forrow and mourning 17 fhall flee away.Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerufalem, which haft drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. -These two things are come unto thee: Who fhall be forry for thee? Defolation, and deftruction, and the famine, and the fword: By whom fhall I 21 comfort thee? Therefore hear now this, thou 22 afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine. Thus faith thy Lord JEHOVAH, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury, thou shalt no more 23 drink it again. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee: which have faid to thy foul, Bow down, that we may go over and thou haft laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over. 19 Chap |