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trumpet I take to be the fame with the seventh 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.

Χ.

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; blessed 19 are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerufalem: thou shalt weep no more; he will be very gracious unto thee, at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will 26 answer thee. Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the fun, and the light of the fun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

ΧΙ.

Isa. xxxiii. 20. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerufalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

Zion, in these texts, cannot signify (as some would have it) the Christian church; because what is here said of its peaceable state, has never yet come to pass. Neither can these Prophecies be applied to Jerufalem restored after the Babylonish captivity, because of the words thou shalt

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ISA. XXXV. 10. And the ranfomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with fongs, and everlafting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and forrow and fighing shall 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 also from the 4th, wherein it is 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 gospel cotemporary with it; when (as it is said in ver. 5.) the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, i. e. the Jews shall 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 east, and gather thee from 6 the west. I will say 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 hatr 15 forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman

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a woman forget her fucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, 16 they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my 17 hands, thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers, and they 18 that made thee waste, shall 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 shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them 19 on thee as a bride doth. For thy waste and defolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. 20 The children which thou shalt have after thou hast loft the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me, that I 21 may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have loft my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone, these, where had they been? *

22 Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy fons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoul23 ders. And kings shall be thy nurfing fathers, and their queens thy nursing 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 25 mighty? or the lawful captive delivered? But thus faith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that

* Or, From whence come these?

mighty?

contendeth with thee, and I will fave thy children.

26 And I will feed them that oppress thee, with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I JEHOVAH am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Whoever reads the words of this Prophecy with the least attention, must (I think) be convinced, that they can relate to nothing else but the future Restoration of Ifrael. For they are not appli-cable either to the return from Babylon, or to the Christian church Not to the former, because they were never so straitned 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 waste and defolate places * rendered too narrow by reason of the inhabitants; nor can she be faid to be a captive, removing to and fro, or to be left alone. The first seven verses of this chapter do (I grant) speak of the Christian church, as well as of the Ifraelites, particularly in the 6th verse-It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preferved of Ifrael: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth, &c. But the rest of the chapter, or at least from ver. 13. to the end, relate evidently to the Restoration of the Ifraelites to their own land.

* Or the land of its destruction.

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XV.

Is A. li. 3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her defert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and forrow and mourning 17 shall 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. 19-These two things are come unto thee: Who shall be forry for thee? Desolation, and destruction,

and the famine, and the sword: By whom shall 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 hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over.

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