there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely: and I will betroth thee unto me for ever: yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth: and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, "thou art "my people;" and they shall say "Thou art my God." Hos. ii. 14, 15. 18-23.

XXXII.

Contemplating the desolate State of the Israelites, and their Conversion to Christianity.

No. 32. The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Hos. iii. 4, 5.

Isa. lxv. 10. " I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of "Judah an inheritor of my mountains and mine elect shall "inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there: and Sharon shall "be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds "to lie down in, for my people that have sought me." 1 "Break," &c. See Is. ix. 3, 4. xi. 6.

XXXIII.

A prophetic Intimation of willingness in the Israelites to embrace Christianity, of the Arrival of a Time when they should come within the Covenant of Forgiveness, of God's Readiness to receive them, and of the Blessings he should bestow upon them.

m

No. 33. Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us: in " the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the "morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hos. vi. 1, 2, 3.

XXXIV.

A prophetic Intimation of God's Forgiveness of Israel, of his becoming their King, of his putting away their Iniquity, and conferring upon them the full Benefits of Christ's coming.

No. 34. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: but in me is thy help. I will be thy king, where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities?The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up: his sin is hid. -I will ransom P

them from the power of the grave: I will redeem P them

m

"The third day," &c. Dr. Lowth considers this as a prophecy of our Saviour's resurrection.

"The morning," and "the rain," contemplating the spiritual blessings of the Gospel by the temporal blessings light and rain produce. See ante No. XXI. Psalm lxxii. 4.

"Ephraim," i. e. "the ten tribes," those who formed the kingdom of Israel. See Isa. vii. 5. 8. 17.

"Ransom" and "redeem." So Isa. xxv. 8. " he will swal"low up death in victory."

r

from death: O death, I will be thy plagues: O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Hos. xiii. 9. 10. 12. 14.

XXXV.

A Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem, of the Cause of it, viz. the Sinfulness and Presumption of the People, of the Establishment of Christianity, its Prevalence and Nature.

8

No. 35. Truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Hear this I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusa

and to

"Thy plagues," &c. St. Paul refers to this passage that in Isa. xxv. 8. in his masterly discussion upon the resurrection of the dead. "So when this corruptible shall have put "on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immorta"lity, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory: O death, where is thy "sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death "'is sin and the strength of sin is the law: but thanks be to "God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus "Christ.' 1 Cor. xv. 54-57.

r 66

Repentance," &c. i. e. (probably) according to the expression, Ps. lxxxix. 34., “ my covenant will I not break, nor "alter the thing that is gone out of my lips;" and Ps. xc. 4. "The Lord sware, and will not repent," &c.

s Micah prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, from about 750 to 710 years before the birth of Christ, and he prophesied concerning Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel, as well as Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Judah: he lived in Isaiah's time, but some of Isaiah's prophecies are earlier than his.

lem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, "Is not the Lord among us? none evil "can come upon us." Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps; and the mountain" of the house as the high places of the forest. But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to "the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the "God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and "we will walk in his paths :" for "the law shall go forth "of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more: but they shall sit every man under his vine", and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it. Micah iii. 8. to the end; iv. 1-4.

"Yet," &c. So Is. lviii. 2.

"The mountain of the house," i. e. the hill on which the temple stood at Jerusalem, Mount Moriah. "The mountain of "the house of the Lord," i. e. God's spiritual temple, not built with hands, the Church of Christ.

X

"The high places," &c. " in a desolate, wild, uncultivated state."

y "The last days," i. e. Christian times. After the commencement of the last kingdom of the world--the kingdom the God of heaven should set up, the spiritual kingdom of Christ. See Dan. ii. 44. vii. 14. and Dr. Lowth.

2 "His vine," See ante Gen. xlix. 11. and Zech. iii. 10.

XXXVI.

A Prophecy as to the Place of Christ's Birth, as to the Rejection of the Israelites for a Time, and their future Restoration and Pre-eminence.

No. 36. Now gather thyself in troops, thou daughter of troops he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will

a

b

a There can be no doubt but that this is a prophecy as to the Messiah. When Herod demanded of the chief priests and scribes of the people where Christ (or the Christ, & XpiaTOS) should be born, and they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, they added this as the foundation of their answer: for thus it is written by the prophet: "And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah, art not "the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come

66

a governor, that shall rule my people Israel." Matt. ii. 4—6. And in John vii. 41, 42., when it is asked, "Shall Christ come "out of Galilee?" the question is supported by this observation, "Hath not the Scripture said, that Christ cometh out of the "seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem." See Kidder, part I. p. 22. Ib. part I. c. x. p. 131. Bishop Chandler's Defence, p. 150.

b Or "nevertheless," Dr. Lowth, Bishop Chandler.-Bishop Chandler gives an explanation of this part of the prophecy, which appears to make it very plain. "Notwithstanding (i. e. "though God shall send his ruler) he will let Israel remain in "captivity until Sion [she which travaileth] hath gone the full time "of her labour, and then her sorrows shall have a joyful issue, "then the remnant of his brethren shall return with the children "of Israel, and he (the Messiah) shall stand and feed in the "strength of the Lord, &c. &c. and he shall be the peace. But "if the Assyrian shall come into our land, and tread in our