PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

THI HIS chapter contains the latter part of the prophecy concerning Babylon, which reprefents the important confequences that were to arife from the divine judgments to be inflicted upon that great city. The happy deliverance of the people of God from their captivity, is fet forth as the immediate confequence of this great revolution, ver. 1, 2, 3. This fubject introduces a defcription of the fall of Babylon, that for a long time had disturbed furrounding nations, which is compofed in the form of a triumphant fong, ver. 4.-28. In treating this fubject, the great God is introduced, declaring the fate of Babylon, the utter extirpation of the royal family, and the total defolation of the city-the deliverance of Judah, and the deftruction of their enemies-and confirming these irreversible decrees by the fanction of his oath. Dr. Lowth fays, that the former part of this prophecy is one of the most beautiful examples that can be given, of elegance, of compofition, variety of imagery, and fublimity of fentiment and diction, in the prophetic ftyle; and the latter part confifts of an ode, of fupreme and fingular excellence.

CHAP. XIV.

FOR the LORD will have mercy on Jacob,

and will yet choose Ifrael, and fet them in their own land: and the ftrangers fhall be joined with them, and they fhall cleave to the house of Jacob.

The joyful confequence of the fall of Babylon, was to be the deliverance of the people of Judah from the captivity in which they were detained.--The word

for,

for, with which this prediction is introduced, feems intended to fhew, that the judgment executed upon Babylon, was not only to be a display of the righteoufnefs of God, but a proof of his favour, and tender compaffion, toward his peculiar people. Viewing the matter in this light, the concluding words of the foregoing verfe may be confidered as at once giving affurance of the speedy accomplishment of the preceding prophecy, and the defirable approach of the deliverance of Ifrael from the hands of their enemies, which is here predicted. The overthrow of Babylon was to be haftened, to make way for the deliverance of the church.For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob. In these words, the prophet directs to the fource from whence the bleffings he proceeds to mention were to take their rife, viz. the mercy of Jehovah. Indeed this is the uniform doctrine laid down in the scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments, by the prophets and apoftles of the Lord. The following paffages are fpecimens of what is often repeated on this fubject: Jer. xxxiii. 26. Hofea i. 7. Rom. ix, 18. The expreffion, the Lord will havemercy, intimates, that, according to his fovereign will and good pleasure, he would extend his tender compaffion, accompanied with seasonable relief, to thofe who were in a miferable condition, though utterly unworthy of his favour. The divine benignity respects all the creatures of God, on whom it bestows innumerable benefits. Grace refpects men as unworthy of his kindneffes, and unable to make adequate returns for the bleflings they receive; whereas mercy is conferred upon those who are in danger and mifery, from which it refcues them, that they may enjoy happy deliverance. It confifts in a strong propenfity to afford affiftance to thofe who are in need: and, in this fenfe, mercy is always to be found with God, who communicates it in abundance, according to the circumftances of thofe to whom it is extended.—Senfible of our infinite need of this important VOL. II. F bleffing,

bleffing, let us often earnestly implore that God may grant us his mercy; and, having obtained our requeft, let us beware of injuring or abufing the divine mercy, by perfifting in our fins, and tranfgreffing his commandments.

That

And will yet choose Ifrael. This is the distinguishing, gracious privilege whereby God, according to the counsel of his will, fets apart for himself a peculiar people from among the nations of the earth, who are fuffered to walk in their own ways. Expreffions fimilar to this are often used by the infpired writers, when speaking of the precious benefits which God bestows upon his people. Thus faith the Lord of hofts, by the prophet Zechariah, The Lord fhall yet comfort Zion, and fhall yet choose Jerufalem *.' which is here affirmed of the people of Ifrael, must hold equally true of the individuals whereof that people confift. You who justly claim the privilege of choofing your friends, and of conferring your favours on whomfoever you please, whilst you injure not those whom you overlook, cannot confiftently refuse to acknowledge, that this prerogative eminently belongs to Jehovah, who repeatedly claims it in his holy oracles. To me, therefore, it hath been matter of furprise, that any who have read their Bibles with attention, fhould be averfe to own this fimple truth, which is frequently repeated in fcripture, though we are unable fufficiently to refolve all the difficulties that may be started respecting this article of divine revelation. The most high God was graciously pleased to choose the pofterity of the patriarch Jacob from among all other nations under heaven, as Mofes reminded them. In after-ages, however, he feemed, at certain periods, to have rejected them, when they provoked him to deliver them into the power of the Babylonians, and other nations. At the time therefore in which he would have mercy upon them, and

* Zech. i. 17.

+ Deut. vii. 6.

rescue

rescue them from the power of their enemies, he is faid to choose Ifrael, that in this manner he might demonstrate his adherence to his choice, and grant his people happy experience of its comfortable effects in their deliverance.Let us, brethren, give all diligence to make fure our calling and election, to be the peculiar people of God, by being holy in all manner of converfation, and zealous of good works, convinced that this is the only way whereby we can enjoy comfortable evidence, that God hath chofen us to falvation through our Lord Jefus Christ *.

And fet them in their own land. This privilege was likewife exprefsly promised to Ifrael by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel t. The multiplied and aggravated iniquities of Ifrael provoked the Almighty to scatter them among the nations, and to difperfe them among the countries, particularly of Affyria and Babylon. From this difperfion God promises to collect them, that he might set them in their own land, the land of Canaan, which was the glory and ornament of all lands, an exceeding pleafant and very fruitful country. It was remarkable for the excellence of its climate, and the fertility of its foil; and, on these and other accounts, it was called in fcripture, an exceeding good land, a glorious land, and a land of defire. It was fuppofed to be fituated in the midst of the earth; and though it is faid to have been only about two hundred miles in length, and fifty in breadth, in the days of David the king, there were in it thirteen hundred thousand men, befide aged men, women, and children.This land is called their own land, in as much as God promised it to their fathers, and gave it to their children, for a poffeffion, and an inheritance. A very noble and rich donation it was, according to the defcription given of it by Mofes, the fervant of the Lord: It is a land (faith he) of hills and valleys, that drinketh water of the

Ezek. xxxiv. 13.

rain of heaven: a land which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end thereof *.' Thefe and other advantages which it poffeffed, rendered it a faint type of the reft which remaineth for the true Ifrael of God in heaven.In this land God promifes to fet them, and to establish them in the poffeffion of it, that they may dwell safely, and none make them afraid; that he may feed them as his flock, and dwell among them. Their return from captivity, and restoration to their own land, is one of the most remarkable events mentioned in the Old Testament, and is often spoken of as a rich display of the divine mercy and favour. In this light let us contemplate it, as the neceffary means of preferving the Jewish church in exiftence, until the fulnefs of time arrived wherein that oeconomy was abolished.

And the frangers shall be joined with them, and they fball cleave to the house of Jacob. The perfons who are here intended, were the people from among the Gentiles, which were not of the pofterity of Ifrael, and had no right to the important privileges enjoyed by the houfe of Jacob. They were those whom the apostle Paul thus emphatically defcribes, as being aliens from the commonwealth of Ifrael, both with refpect to civil and facred advantages; and ftrangers. from the covenants of promife, which God entered. into with the Father of the faithful, and delivered to his pofterity at mount Sinai. Numbers of fuch ftrangers, at the period to which this prophecy looked forward, fhould join themselves to Ifrael, that they might participate with them in the ineftimable prerogatives which they enjoyed. From religious motives, and a fincere regard to the inftituted worship of the true God, they were voluntarily to become profelytes to the Jewish religion, and to be initiated into their

* Deut. xi. 10, 11, 12.

church