Israel, in truth; and they shall sing, as it is written in Isai. xxvi. 13, 14: “O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish." In the next verse of our text there is an allusion to the name of the Child, "The mighty God" (Hebrew, El-gebbor), which we have interpreted in No. II., pp. 170, 171; and to which we have nothing to add, save that he who is the "Lord of hosts, mighty to save," shall gather the remnant in this his powerful, warlike character, and achieve to himself the great name of God the Heroic One, by the subversion of the Assyrian and all oppressors together. Wherefore it is written of the great Redeemer of Zion, that he is "a man of war" (Isai. lix. 16-21).

The next remark which we have to make, is concerning the use made of vers. 22, 23, by Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans (ix. 27, 28). The passage in the Prophet consists of two parts, which ought, 1 think, to have been more distinctly separated from each other. The first part, "For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall return," seems to me the reiteration of what had been said immediately before; with the assurance, that, however numerous they were, a remnant, and only a remnant, should return, or be saved," as Paul, quoting the LXX., hath it. The part which follows this in ver. 22, and the whole of ver. 23, concerneth the work of judgment; and ought, I think, to have been separated from the former, which concerneth the work of mercy. It is a difficult passage, and there is a considerable shade of difference between the form in which it stands in the Old Testament and in the New; but the one and the same idea in both seems to be this, That the consumption, whether of the numbers of the Assyrian or of the Jews (for of both a remnant is left)—that the great waste of the life and glory of man which was decreed should be an overflowing act of righteous judgment in all the earth. This is the idea caught at by the Apostle, for the purpose of his argument, which is, to shew that the rejection of such a multitude of Israel, and the salvation of a few, was a thing contained in all the Prophets, and therefore not to be wondered at when it began to be accomplished in his time. Some one may ask hereupon, And was this prophecy fulfilled in the Apostle's time? I answer, It then began to come into fulfilment; or, rather, it received a fresh accession, so to speak, of accomplishment, to that which had begun in the time of Sennacherib upon Israel, and of Nebuchadnezzar upon Judah: and, in the deeper sense, of salvation, not from a temporal, but a spiritual oppressor, it began to receive the beginning of its accomplishment at that very

time in which Paul lived: and therefore Paul quotes this, and several other passages of the Old Testament, in the ixth, xth, and xith chapters of Romans, not to declare that these predictions were then accomplished, but accomplishing; that the great purpose of rejecting and consuming his people was proceeding, and in the midst of it was likewise proceeding the purpose of saving a remnant; and that the difference between the election according to grace, and Israel according to the flesh, was thus made manifest, and all boastings, save in the free grace of God, were taken away. In Sennacherib's time there was a great consumption by his hand unto the very gates of Jerusalem; and then a remnant escaped, even of those who took refuge in the strong tower of the daughter of Zion. In the time of our Lord, when a higher redemption and salvation were proclaimed to Israel, a remnant did again receive it-the election according to grace and the rest were blinded, and were consumed in righteousness. Anon, when redemption in this higher kind shall be completed, and the number of the elect accomplished, and God shall prepare the throne of David, a remnant shall return; for even then a great consumption is determined in the midst of the land. I say, that even against the day of visible manifestation, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, there is decreed against them a very great consumption, in righteous indignation for the iniquities and idolatries which shall be found amongst them at that time. As witness what is declared by the Prophet Zechariah, xiii. 8, 9: "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off, and die, but the third part shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God."

Having thus delivered the complete and all-inclusive oracle of the Assyrian's destruction, and the certain deliverance of as many of Judah and Israel as should trust in the mighty God, the strain assumeth the style of exhortation and encouragement through the next four verses, 24-28: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts." This name, "Lord God of hosts," doth, I fear, seldom carry home to our minds its true force,"Lord God of armies." It is a name especially warlike, and presents the Lord as having the command of armies, with which he subdueth his enemies under him. Now, in the book of Revelation (which is, as it were, a Mosaic work of pieces from all the Prophets, and indeed from all the Scriptures, so arranged as to cast light and illustration upon one another), Christ is not represented as coming forth with hosts until the last head of the beast, and the false prophet, and the kings of the earth, with

their armies, come to make war against him (Rev. xix. 14). Then he appeareth as the Lord of hosts, when the last enemy of his church and usurper of his inheritance is to be overthrown. This is that final destruction of the Assyrian, to which all precedent ones do point the faith of the church forward. And at this time it is, I believe, that the kings from the East, or Ten Tribes, whose way is now being prepared by the drying up of the Euphrates, or Turkish power (Rev. xvi. 12), shall, under the guidance and conduct (whether personally, as the Son of Man, or by the sign of the Son of Man apparent in the heavens, I say not) of the Lord of hosts, do his righteous purposes against the apostate nations of Christendom. But, while this is the completion of the events foreshewn in the prophecy before us, the first application of them was doubtless to Sennacherib; who, as hath been said, is the historical personage in whose doings and sufferings God gave presentiment and prefiguration to Israel of all which should afterwards come to pass. Therefore with encouragement the Prophet cheereth them up, saying, "O my people, that dwelleth in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite them with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against them, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." This, again, is written not in the language of the particular instance, but of the universal rule; not merely to include the first deliverance out of the Assyrian's hand, but the ultimate deliverance of all. For it is said, that "after the manner of Egypt he should lift up his staff against them." The manner of Egypt was captivity and bondage and oppression and misery; which Sennacherib did not accomplish, but which upon "my people that dwelleth in Zion" hath been accomplished since to the uttermost. Moreover, that anger which four times over in this prophecy was laid upon Israel for a continuance, and is as yet nothing abated, is declared to have an end in the destruction of the Assyrian. And though it be called "a little while," we are not to be staggered by this; for it is the constant language of prophecy so to speak of the time of trouble when compared with the age of blessedness which is to come (Hag. ii. 6; John xvi. 16-end; Rev. i. 2, 3, &c.) And surely God is the only judge of the comparative duration of the time of darkness and the time of light to the earth; and if He call the one "a little time," and the other "for ever," who may contradict or gainsay him? This view of the universality of the language, and, if it have any special respect, of its application to the ultimate and not the primary deliverance, is confirmed by the style of the two following verses: "And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Horeb and as his rod was

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,