Babylon; with this difference, that the fifty-eighth chapter agrees to them, as established by various kingdoms and common-wealths, after the light of the Reformation: whereas this fifty-ninth, represents them fuch as they fhall be about that time when their intereft shall greatly sink, both by increasing vice, and by the attempts of their mighty enemies, immediately before the deliverance to be vouchsafed by God. For, as he juftly observes, the great and glorious things mentioned in the fixtieth chapter, as following the judgments on the enemy, have never yet had their accomplishment; nor can they with any propriety be applied to any past period of the church, Jewish or Chriftian. And what more and more perfuades me, that the attack, and the glorious repulse referred to in my text, are yet to come, is, that the conversion of the Jews ftands immediately connected with these events. For the prophet, having mentioned the enemy coming in like a flood, and the Spirit of the Lord lifting up a standard against him, immediately adds, And the Redeemer fhall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from tranfgreffion in Jacob.

That these words refpect the converfion of the Jews is abundantly evident from Rom. ii. 26. where they are quoted, in proof of that great event, for which Chriftians daily pray.-It is true, indeed, as Vitringa obferves, that the apostle, in Rom. xi. 26. has respect not to this paffage only, but to others; and especially to Pfal. xiv. 7.: and remarkable it is, that the subject of that Pfalm is the fame with that of this prophecy in Isaiah lix.; not only the things, but even fome phrases agree. For there an univerfal corruption is first described, during which

the church of God is reduced to a small number; and then the prayer is fubjoined, O that the falvation of Ifrael were come out of Zion!

Here also a great torrent of corruption is described, as carrying down all before it; and then, as in answer to the prayer, Pfalm xiv. 7. it is promised, that the Redeemer fhall come to Zion. The fourteenth Pfalm was written by David, at which time there could be no thoughts of the Babylonish captivity. But David in Spirit fpeaketh of that very long captivity of the Jewish nation in fpiritual blindnefs and bondage, under which they have lain upwards of these seventeen hundred years; and from which they at last shall be delivered. There it is. written, They are corrupt; they have done abominable works and here, their corruption and their works are described at large. There it is faid, The Lord looked to fee if there were any that did understand, and gone afide, there is none that Here it runs, The Lord faw, that there was no judgment. He faw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no interceffor. There, the workers of iniquity, are faid to eat up the people of the Lord: Here, he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.

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feek God: they are all doth good, no not one. and it difpleafed him,

The apoftle joins part of the fourteenth Pfalm, and of this fifty-ninth of Isaiah, in proving that both Jews and Gentiles are all under fin, Rom. iii. 10, 17.; and he joins Pfal. xiv. 7. and Ifa. lix. 20. in defcribing the deliverance from a long spiritual cap, tivity, Rom. xi. 26. As Jews and Gentiles will be deeply plunged in depravity, the Chriftian

churches being very low, and Jewish infidelity awfully increasing; fo the fame Redeemer will bring deliverance to both, by coming in his Spirit. Blindness is happened to Ifrael, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, fays the apostle, Rom. xi. 25, 26. and fo all Ifrael fhall be faved: as it is written, viz. in Ifa. lix. 20. There fall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and hall turn away ungodlinefs from Jacob. The only difficulty attending the apoftolic application of this paffage to the conversion of the Jews, is, that our prophet fays, The Redeemer fhall come To Zion; and the apoftle fays, He shall come OUT OF Zion. Our prophet fays, He fhall come unto them that turn from tranfgreffion in Jacob; the apostle fays, He fhall turn away ungodliness from Facob. It is well known, that the apoftle follows the feptuagint; varying from it, only in one prepofition. And it is as well known, that the New-Teftament writers, in quoting Old-Teftament fcriptures, do not tie themselves down to the ftrictness of a tranflation; but often throw light upon what they quote. Thus, the apostle fays nothing contrary to the prophetic paffage, only, like his office, he renders it more plain, and gives it a still more evangelic turn. He fays, that the Deliverer fhall come out of Zion, viz. out of the Zion above to the Zion below, the militant church. And he fhall not only come unto them that turn from tranfgreffion in Jacob; (as if their turning from it were like the caufe, or condition, to precede his coming;) but, that by his very coming, fo full of grace, he fhall turn away iniquities from Jacob. As he fhall come out of Zion, fo alfo to Zion: as to turn away iniquities

from Jacob, by converting grace; fo alfo to fuch as are thus turned, with his rich confolations, and even as with temporal honours in his hand.

Taking it then for certain, that the converfion of the Jews, shall follow the judgments mentioned in the verfe preceding our text, it must be equally certain, I think, that the awful attack, and the glorious repulse mentioned in it, belong to the fame time. To the islands, fays our prophet, the Redeemer will repay recompence. By which are meant, what Mofes calls the ifles of the Gentiles, Gen. x. 5. And it is well known that those nations, lying weftward from Judea, and feparated from it by the Mediterranean, were by the Hebrews called the ifles. To these ifles our prophet often directs his fpeech, as chap. xli. 1. and xlix. 1.; and of them he fays, That they shall wait for Meffiah's law, chap. xlii. 4. And Meffiah himself is introduced, chap. li. 5. faying, The ifles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust; i. e. the Gentiles fhall.-By the ifles, therefore, to which the roufed Redeemer fhall repay recompence, I would understand Europe: for, as fays the learned commentator, mentioned above, The fcene of this judgment fhould be, ⚫ where the church had fuffered the most grievous ftruggle and affliction; where fo many fins and abominations had been committéd; fo many funeral piles lighted; fo much innocent blood poured out, and drunk up: and where so many perfecutions had raged to suppress the more pure religion; and the doctrine of the gospel, restored 'to the church, by the remarkable goodness of God.' Vitringa in loc.

The European ifles being thus recompenfed, the prophet immediately adds, So fhall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun. Where it is very obferveable, that he inverts the ufual order, in mentioning the weft before the eaft. The Pfalmift fays, Pfalm cxiii. 3. From the rifing of the fun, unto the going down of the fame, the Lord's name is to be praised. The fame order he follows, in that lofty defcription of the divine omniprefence, Pfal. cxxxix. 10. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermoft parts of the fea, (i. e. if mounted as on the rays of the rifing fun, I-fhould fly to the weftern extremity of the Mediterranean fea, for that was the utmost boundary then known,) Even there thy hand fhall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Malachy introduces the Lord, faying, From the rifing of the fun, even unto the going down of the fame, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, chap. i. 11. The fame order is followed, in that saying of our Saviour, Matth. viii. 11. Many fhall come from the east and west, and shall fit down with Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. And the fame is kept by our prophet himself, chap. xliii. 5. and xlix. 12.

This order, indeed, was followed in the beginning of the New-Teftament economy, when out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerufalem, Ifa. ii. 3. The gofpel, like the rifing fun, travelled toward the west. But, fince the feat of this judgment, and the demonftration of the Redeemer's glory, fhall be in the weft, (the ifles), as we have juft now feen, the prophet, under the

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