These three Hymns are a fort of triumphant Songs, like thofe of Mofes, Deborah, and fome recorded in the Revelations. I fay they are joyful Songs by way of Triumph over their proftrate Enemies, and grateful Acknowledgment to God their Deliverer, for the Recovery of their Freedom. They refer chiefly to the Jews, as appears from the whole Tenor of them; yet they belong alfo to all those whom God shall fnatch from Evil and Mifery, and give them Liberty, Health, and Glory.

We must farther enquire what Times the Prophet here refers to? Now the very Subject itself will fhew this; for what other Redemption, Freedom, or Glory can be equal to that which the Prophet points out, befides that moft illuftrious and future one at the second coming of Chrift. Then Christ will be glorified before his Saints or Elders, as the Apostle fpeaks. (2 Thef. i. 6, 7.) And the Prophet feems to define the very time, and delineate it as it were with a Diamond,when he fays in his Song (If. xxv. 8.) He will fwallow up Death in Victory, and the Lord God will wipe away Tears from all Faces, and the Rebuke of his People fhall he take away from off all the Earth; for the Lord hath spoken it. See, concerning what time the Apostles have interpreted thefe Places of the Prophets (1 Cor. XV. 54. Rev. xxi. 4.) and there will be no more Controverfy about this Matter. But let us go on with the Prophet about the Reftauration of the Ifraelites.

In the xxviith Chapter, after the Deftruction of Leviathan (whoever he was whether Satan or any other Enemy of God) and the Punishment and Purification of Ifracl, we find that the Jews were to be gathered together again. (v. 14, 15.) And it fhall come to pass in that Day that the Lord fhall beat off from the Channel of the River unto the Stream of Egypt, and ye fhall be gathered one by one, O je Children of Ifrael!

Ifrael! And it shall come to pass in that Day, that the great Trumpet fhall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perifh in the Land of Affyria, and the outcafts in the Land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy Mount at Ferufalem.

If you apply this to the ten Tribes they are not as yet brought back. Nor is there here any mention made of the Babylonians as in other Places, and the Sound of the great Trumpet, and the awaking of the Dead, or those who were as dead, which the Prophet defcribes in the preceding Chapter, have fomewhat a deeper Sound in my Ears, than the Return of a few Jews from Babylon. But let us pro

ceed.

The Writings of the Prophets are so interwoven with various Arguments, and their Style is fo interrupted with fudden Tranfitions, that it is not eafy to follow the fame Thread thro' every particular Chapter, and certainly to diftinguish what precisely belongs to any Subject. Threatnings, or Punishments are mingled with Confolations. Now one Captivity is referred to, and presently the Prophet has another in his Eye. The Prophecies have a regard to the ten Tribes, or the Remains, to the Ifraelites,or the Gentiles, to prefent or future Times; and in a Word, to Jews or Chriftians, and fometimes too under the fame Names and Titles. and fuch like Things often make Interpreters uncertain, and cause great Difference among them. When there is mention made of the old Covenant given to the Patriarchs, we do not hefitate fo much in giving the meaning of it. Thus in the twenty ninth Chapter of this Prophecy, after Ifaiah had reproved them for their Sins, and thewed them their deserved Punishment, he adds, (v. 22, 23, 24.) Therefore thus faith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the House of Facok, Facob shall not now be ashamed, neither

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neither fhall his Face now wax pale. But when he feeth his Children, the Work of mine Hands in the midst of him, they shall fanctify my Name, and shall fear the God of Ifrael. They also that erred in Spirit fhall come to Understanding, and they that murmured fhall learn

Doctrine.

Redemption is here promised to the Children of Ifrael, and the Prophet pursues the fame Subject more at large in the following Chapter, and takes Notice. that abundant Plenty fhould accompany this Deliverance. Nor will any intermediate Affliction hinder; God will in the End be gracious to Ifrael. (c. xxx. 18, 19, 20.) 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 the Lord is a God of Judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. For the People fhail dwell at Sion in 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 answer thee. And tho' the Lord give you the Bread of Adverfity, and the Water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a Corner any more; but thine Eyes fhall fee thy Teachers.

The Chaldee Paraphraft understands this to refer to the divine Illumination, and the majestic Vision of God.

The Prophet Ifaiah thus begins his thirty fecond Chapter, Behold a King fhall reign in Righteousness, and Princes fall rule in Judgment, &c. Altho' this may in fome measure refer to Hezekiah in a typical Senfe, yet there is in the Idea of this Kingdom, as afterwards defcribed, fomewhat too fublime and glorious to be adapted to his Times. It will be a Kingdom of perpetual Peace, Juftice, Plenty and Safety (v. 15, 17, 18.) And befides thefe good things, there will be divine Knowledge or Illumination. (v. 3,4.) And the Effufion of the Holy Spirit is promifed (v. 51.)

(v. 15.) at that appointed time. Now no Man will deny that thefe Bleffings primarily and fully belong to the Kingdom of the Meffiah. And fince all thefe Promises, as well of external as internal Bleffings, were made to the Ifraelites, and did not befal them at the first coming of the Meffiah, therefore, I think, they are to be expected at his fecond Ape pearance.

Nor do thofe Calamities and Defolations, which we find the Prophets frequently denouncing, hinder the Accomplishment of thefe Promises.

The State of the Ifraelites was always of a mixed Nature, and fharply feafoned with Calamities. It is the Part of a careful Father to fee that his dear Children receive both Chaftifements, and Favours, in their proper turns (Prov. iii. 11, 12. Heb. xii. 6, 7, 8.) that fo they may the better be engaged to their Duty, between Hope and Fear. Moreover when they fuffered the Punishment, they were thereby more affured of the Rewards which were to follow, provided they returned to their Duty.

In the thirty fourth Chapter we have a Repréfentation of the dreadful Slaughter of the Idumeans? under which Name fome fuppofe the Romans to be pointed out, and others that it comprehends the Enemies of God in general. For my Part I cannot eafily perfuade my felf that thefe Names of Edom, Idumed, and the like, fo frequently mentioned in the Prophetical Writings, are ftrictly to be confined to particular Heathen Nations, and that we are to look for no farther Signification in them. For can we reasonably fuppofe that the Prophet would thunder out fuch numerous Threatnings, as well thofe of a greater, as of a leffer kind, against a small Nation? Now in this very Chapter Ifaiah mingles Heaven and Earth, and talks in as tragical a Strain as if he were reprefenting the Deftruction of the whole World.

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World. Confult the Place, and judge for your felf. So great an Armament, Apparatus and Triumph feems to me rather to fignify the last Battle with Gog and Magog, which is to precede the entire Reftauration of the Jews. But of this we are to treat afterwards.

Befides if this Prophecy is to be understood literally, what Deftruction of the Idumean Nation is here to be understood? When the Idumeans were conquered by Hircanus, they received Circumcifion, and obferved all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, and from that time were reckoned among them. But to pursue the Subject. Thefe Enemies of God and Ifrael, whoever they were, being utterly destroyed, there fucceeds a moft joyful and flou rifhing Eftate (either of the whole World or the Ifraelites) which is largely explained in the following Chapter (xxxv.) the Defart which the Prophet had before spoken of, being then turned into a Paradife. Here all things are as delightful, as before they were terrible. A new State of Things arifes, which is adorned with every Bleffing, of Honour, Beauty, Peace, and Health, and irradiated with the divine Glory like the new Jerufalem. I here fpeak the plain Truth, without any thing of Flourish or Hyperbole; confult the former Part of the Chapter, and then it follows, (v. 9, 10) No Lion shall be there, nor any ravenous Beast shall go up, it shall not te found there; but the redeemed fhall walk there; namely thofe whom God has fet apart for himself. (Rev. xxi. 4. & iv. 15, 16.) And the Ranfomed of the Lord fhall return and come to Sion with Songs, and everlafting Foy upon their Heads: they shall obtain Foy and Gladness, and Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away. Expofitors generally agree that thefe Bleffings refer to the Kingdom of the Meffiah. To be fure they are not agreeable to Hezekiah's Reign, as Gro