upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing" (Isai. x. 26, 27). Here are two great events of God's providence taken up and used as the emblems or symbols of another event; on the occurrence of which, and in the day of which, it is declared, "the bondage of Israel shall be destroyed for ever." One of these events is in like manner applied in the former part of this prophecy (ix. 4, 5). The destruction of Sennacherib added a third, which is ever referred to in the name "The Assyrian," by which the last oppressor and spoiler and (if he could) destroyer of the people is designated; and through the means of these three great actings of his providence God doth foreshew and foretel the last final catastrophe of his enemies. Now, in the destruction of Egypt there was this peculiarity, that, when God's people were looking for utter destruction, they received complete salvation, by means of the elements: and so it shall be in that great future deliverance," when they shall sing the song of Moses and the Lamb." (Rev. xv.) In the destruction of Midian at the rock of Oreb there was this peculiarity, that God made use of Jerubbaal and his three hundred chosen men; and they gained the battle with the swords of their enemies turned against themselves by the dazzling of the lamps and the sounding of the trumpets. And to this I think referreth that word (ix. 5), " For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." Furthermore, in the destruction of Sennacherib there was this peculiarity, that it was done by a messenger or angel of the Lord breathing destruction upon them in the night; and in the morning they were all dead corpses. These, and many other singular and miraculous displays of God's providence, are used in Scripture to forbode, and somewhat represent, the combination of all terrors, and the overflowing of all destructions, which shall concur together in God's final judgment upon the Gentile Assyrian; which is every where described in Scripture, especially in the Psalms. In Ps. ii. they are "broken as a potter's vessel," as the pitchers of Gideon's army. In Ps. xxi. they are made as a fiery oven, and the fire devours them. In Ps. xlv. Christ goes against them as a man of war; and then as a conquering Redeemer is married to his wife the Jewish nation. In Ps. xlvi. the Lord of hosts, having by desolations of war brought wars unto an end, enters into the city of his habitation; and his glorious reception there is described in Ps. xxiv. In Ps. lxxxiii. the confederacy of the nations against Israel is destroyed, as the stubble before the wind, as the wood before the fire; and to represent it, the de

struction of the Midianites by Gideon and of Sisera by Barak are introduced. In Ps. lxxxvi. the discomfiture of Sennacherib is used for the same end of exemplifying the last destruction of the kings and princes of the earth confederated against the Lord and his Anointed. And the same of a hundred more ;, for I am sure that in not fewer than that number is this great event referred to. Those scoffers, therefore, or rather idlers, who scoff because their ignorance is rebuked (for I acquit many, though not all of them, of malice prepense against prophecy and its interpreters), should be a little cautious before they rail against those who humbly seek to give a meaning to these manifold uses and applications of the events in past providence, whereby God representeth the great ultimate event of the deliverance of Israel from all her troubles. We affirm that they are so used in Scripture: as the discomfiture of the Midianites and the Egyptians is used here to enhearten Jerusalem, threatened by Sennacherib; so are all these gathered together and set forth in all Scripture, to keep hope alive in the hearts of that people, whose preservation on the earth as a people of hope is so essential a part of the mystery of Divine Providence. Do I, then, prevent the church from using them in a spiritual way, to comfort her own soul against its oppressors? Verily not. The Jew is but the letter of the Christian; the one the body, the other the spirit: but as the spirit cannot act of itself without the body, neither can the Christian have life perfect without knowing the purpose of God by the Jew. The Jew is as the pitcher, the Christian as the water which it holds: keep the pitcher unbroken, and you have the water; break the pitcher, and you lose both the pitcher and the water.

The expression "Because of the anointing," hath in it much meaning and information, with which I will conclude this interpretation; having abundant matter for a fourth paper upon this sublime, and I may say stupendous, prophecy. It is introduced as the reason for the whole deliverance of which we have been recounting the particulars; the reason for which "the burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed (corrupted, utterly wasted) "Because of the anointing." Now, I observe in this prophecy two parallel instances of a reason rendered for the same eternal redemption. The first, in viii. 9, 10: "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought: speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us (literally, "for" or " because of Immanuel "). The reason of the breaking up of all confederacies which shall be formed against Zion,

is Immanuel's work; who, having kept the law, hath purchased redemption for the land; and by his death hath purchased redemption for the people of the land (Morn. Watch, pp. 156,157). He hath died, as the high priest prophesied, that the Jewish "nation perish not:" and every promise made to Abraham, and to Abraham's seed, hath received from him the great Amen : it is sealed and ratified, and in his hand it is for bequest, when the time comes to gather them. Therefore no weapon formed against Zion shall prosper, because it is formed against Zion's King; and all these confederacies against the Jewish people shall be like chaff before the wind, and a rolling thing before the whirlwind. The other instance of the like reason being rendered for the abolition of Zion's bondage, is in ix. 4: "Thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a Child is born," &c. Here the reason for the breaking of all yokes from Israel's shoulder standeth in the birth to them of a wonderful, wise, mighty, warlike, and princely Child, to sit upon the throne of David, and thence to wield over the earth an everlasting and righteous government. In his might, in the dignity to which the Lord of hosts hath destined him, in the power with which he shall invest him, in the royal supremacy with which he shall anoint him, standeth the redemption of Israel: this Messiah is their hope of liberation, their only hope, their sure and certain hope. Again, in the passage before us, x. 26, 27, when the corruption and consumption and falling to pieces of every fetter with which Israel hath been bound, and the breaking of every staff to which his shoulder hath been yoked, and of every rod with which his back hath been smitten, are set forth as all involved in the Assyrian's destruction, the reason assigned is "Because of the anointing." Now, what anointing should this be, which is a sufficient reason for the overthrow of the Assyrian, but the anointing of the King in right and dignity of whom the nation standeth? And who is the King of the Jews that hath been spoken of? King Immanuel. Whose is the land? "Thy land, O Immanuel." King Immanuel, the Child of wonder and of counsel, who sits upon the throne of David," to order it in righteousness and judgment from henceforth and for ever," He is the only anointed King. This is the only anointing contained, or even alluded to, in the prophecy; and in virtue of this anointing, in honour of it, in power of it, is Israel as a race and a kingdom delivered out of the hands and avenged for the cruelty of her enemies. Such a beautiful harmony is there in the reason, three times rendered, for the redemption of Israel.

Now the question is, What is the precise thing imported by this

anointing? I answer, It is the same thing imported by the birth of the Child, and by the name Immanuel: for these three things are all varieties of the same reason; and his name is Immanuel in virtue of his being born of a virgin. "A virgin shall conceive," "For unto us a Child is born," " For the anointing," are three expressions of one and the same thing; which thing is the reason wherefore the land becometh his, and the throne of David becometh his, and the necks of the enemies of his people become his. And what was the power by which the virgin conceived a Son? The power of God, put forth in act of the Holy Ghost. Therefore he was called "Son of God;" therefore he was born King of the Jesus; therefore he was a Holy Child, needing no redemption and able to redeem others: all because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost in his conception; because he was generated by power of the Holy Ghost. That this fatherhood of God, this life of the Holy Ghost in his manhood, is the true anointing referred to in the text, will clearly appear from examining the first chapter of Luke, which is by far the best NewTestament commentary upon this passage of Old-Testament prophecy. The announcement made to the virgin (Luke i. 32, 33), "He shall be great (El-gebbor), and shall be called the Son of the Highest (Immanuel, God with us); and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David (Isai. ix. 7); and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Isai. ix. 7)-the annunciation being made in terms of this prophecy, we shall find that the illustrations thereof, and the additions thereto, put by the Holy Spirit into the mouth of the virgin and of Zacharias, are but further expositions of this same prophecy. In Mary's act of magnifying God she sings, "He hath shewed strength with his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts: He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree: He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away: He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever." What moveth the virgin Mary to utter all these things over the unborn child? Because of the anointing." The Christ was constituted in her womb; the King was anointed in her womb: and all these great advantages to the lowly tribes of Israel, all those disadvantages to their proud and haughty enemies, the Holy Ghost taught her to be already sealed and certain. Her song must have a national interpretation, as well as a spiritual one, because it speaks expressly of the promise to the nation. It is to the national that I am at present called upon to attend ; and these prerogatives of her nation are all deduced from the conception of the Christ: and, therefore, in the conception lies the anointing of our text, in the virgin's being with child,

even before the birth; for as yet the child was not born. But Zacharias riseth into a still fuller note of national glory: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." All these goodly and glorious prospects Zacharias seeth to be in being, now that the child is conceived. These words of his are the sum and substance of the prophecy we have been examining,redemption, deliverance from all their enemies, peace and blessedness upon Israel for ever;-and he traceth it all to the anointing of the virgin's substance with the Holy Ghost, in the generation of Christ. In like manner, all the miracles and words. of Christ during the days of his flesh are traced to the same anointing of the Holy Ghost, Acts x. 38: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." This seems to refer chiefly to that outward act of anointing, which he received in the visible form of the Dove after the baptism of John: and that, doubtless, was not a mere manifestation that he was the Son of God, whom by power of the Holy Ghost he had begotten of the virgin; but it was also an impartation from the Father of a new measure, to fit him for the prophetical office, whereon he did then enter. But however this may be, it is certain that Peter traces all his mighty power and goodness, all which distinguished him from another man, to the anointing. And in confirmation hereof, Jesus himself, the first sermon he preached, took that text, Isa. lx. 1, and applied it to himself, tracing every thing to the anointing (Luke iv. 17-20). And his holiness is traced to his anointing, Acts iv. 27: "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate," &c. And his presenting his body holy upon the cross, is traced to the same anointing, Heb. ix. 14: and the work of Pentecost, to the same gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts ii. and, in short, every thing which distinguishes him from a man of like passions from ourselves-which he was in all things; but he is more, He is the Holy One of God; He is the Redeemer of Israel; He is the Saviour of the world; He is to destroy all the enemies of God and of his people; He is the Head and Life of his church; He is to come the Redeemer of the world :--all this,

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