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that bringeth the princes to nothing: he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity *.

2. Now all this is to encourage poor worm Jacob, that God was able to gather them from the lands wither they are driven. It is certainly of great ufe to believe the ability of the Almighty; as ftaggering weakens and relaxes the whole, and lays a foundation for the moft obftinate unbelief. How often does the good Shepherd remind the Jews that he was the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and from the houfe of bondage. Likewife the Jewish Church, in great distress, reminds God of the fame, and thus pleads,---Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not he which hath dried up the fea, the waters of the great deep? That hath made the depths of the fea a way for the ranfomed to pass over? Now He that hath done these things can do every thing. He that can speak all things from nothing, all things into nothing, certainly can bring his poor wanderers back again. Is any thing too hard for Him? No-it cannot be.

3. He likewife can do this, viz. fave his poor difperfed people confiftent with his justice, truth, and purity for we are very fure that he can do nothing contrary to these. But all these fweetly harmonize in the great facrifice---of an incarnate God, offered, for Jew

*Ifa. xl. 22, 23.

Ibid li. 9, 10.

Jew and Gentile, upon the Crofs. There is the centre of union between an offended Deity and a loft world; and if he was given to be a light unto the Gentiles, he will be the glory of his people Ifrael.

II. But if the Lord is able to do this, is he willing? Let him answer for himself. If he hath not said it, we have no right to expect it; but if he has spoken it, he will make it good.. When Solomon was dedicating the Temple, he prays, If they (to wit the Jews) fin against thee, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, fo that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near ; yet if they shall bethink themselves, in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent and make fupplication unto thee, in the land of them that carried them captives, faying, We have finned, and have done perverfely, we have committed wickedness; and fo return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their foul, in the land of their enemies which led them away captive, and pray unto thee towards the land which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chofen, and the house which I have built for thy name: then hear thou their prayer and their fupplications in heaven thy dwellingplace, and maintain their caufe, and forgive thy people. that have finned against thee, and all their tranfgreffions wherein they have tranfgreffed against thee, and give them compassion before them that have carried them captive, that they may have compaffion upon them: For

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they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughteft forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron *.-Such was Solomon's prayer, and we find it was accepted; † and, confequently, the anfwer will be granted in due time. And, it is very probable, Solomon might have that promise in view (Deut. xxx. 4.) when he made that folemn prayer, and therefore pleaded it in faith.

2. BUT I do not reft this important matter upon Solomon's prayer; I have a cloud of witneffes, very pertinent, and strong and clear. Whatever the Pfalmist might have in view, I make no doubt but the eternal Spirit had this great event in view, when, in the name of the Jewish Church, he exclaims, in the moft pathetic language,---We have waited for thy Loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy Temple. O God, according to thy name, fo is thy praife unto the end of the world: thy right hand is full of righteoufnefs. Let Mount Zion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy righteous judgements. Walk about Zion, go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, confider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide, even unto death t. The last verfe is a key to the whole paffage.

3. BUT let us proceed to the evangelic Prophet: I expect he will detain us for fome time, and a sweet companion

* 1 Kings víii. 46——-51. † Ibid ix. 3. ‡ Pf. xlviii. 8.-~~340

companion he is. After giving us a lovely description of the rod which growes from the ftem of Jeffe, and the verdant branch which fhall fpring from his root, and the charming effects of his millennial kingdom, he adds, And it fhalle ome to pass in that day, that the Lord fhall fet his hand again the fecond time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Affyria, and from Egypt and from Pathros, and from Cufb, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the fea. And he shall set up an enfign for the nations and shall affemble the outcafts of Ifrael, and shall gather together the difperfed of Judahɔ from the four corners of the earth. And there fhall be a high way for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Affyria, like as it was unto Ifrael in the day that he came out of the land of Egypt*. The twelfth chapter is then a fong of praise, to the great fhepherd of Ifrael, who had gathered them from all countries in the dark and cloudy day: For then they can chearfully fay, Sing unto the Lord for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and fhout thou inhabitress ↑ of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Ifrael, which is in the midst of thee.

4. THAT all this joy and triumph cannot barely refer to the liberation from the captivity of Babylon, if it refers to it at all, is very clear to me; because

Ifa. xi. 11 to end. The Hebrew word

it

is in the feminine

gender to fhew that it is the church, yea the Jewish church, after her

captivities are over, which is spoken of.

+ Ifa. xii. 56.

it is after the root of Jeffe is lift up as an enfign to the Gentiles, and not before; nor even the Jews brought from fo many quarters of the world as is fpoken of at that time; alfo the happy change, in the qualities and difpofitions of the most favage and fierce animals, is a circumftance which will take place at the general ingathering of the chosen race. These are, to me, sufficient proofs that these two charming chapters refer to the glorious reign of Emanuel here in his millennial kingdom.

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5. BUT the prophet goes on, The Lord of Hofts shall make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, &c. he then adds, He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people · shall he take away from off the earth for the Lord hath Spoken it. Then comes in the triumphant language of the believing Jews, And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, he will fave us; this is the Lord we have waited for him, we will rejoice and be glad in his falvation.* In that day, the day when the vail fhall be taken from the Jews, fball this fong be fung in the land of Judah, we have a strong city, falvation will he appoint for walls and bulworks.. Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. In reference. to the very fame things, and time, is that animating. exhortation:

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