"that bringeth good tidings of good, that pub"lisheth falvation; that faith to Zion, Thy God "reigneth!" Ifa. lii. 7. That person in whom they formerly "faw no beauty," that they should defire him, they now fee to be moft beautiful in his perfon; as "being the bright"nefs of his Father's glory, and the exprefs r image of his perfon;" yea, "The mighty "God,

(1) That the primary and only meaning of this paffage, is to reprefent the fentiments of the Jews concerning the Saviour, upon their converfion, is evident, lf, From the connection. This chapter, to verfe 13. is a continuation of the fubject treated of in the preceding, which we have feen refers to their restoration in the latter days. 2d, It is faid, verfe 6. They fhall know my name; intimating their converfion from a state of ignorance and infidelity. 3d, Seeing an open vifion, verfe 8.; and the gofpel, in confequence of their converfion, propagated to all the ends of the earth, verfe 10.; are circumstances that accompany their last restoration, but by no means applicable to the return from Babylon. 4th, The Apostle Paul applies the text to the firft preachers of the gofpel, Rom. x. 15. Now the preachers of the gofpel are beautiful, on account of the message they carry. We preach not ourselves, but Jefus the Lord. The prophet therefore, in mentioning an individual, muft understand the Saviour here reprefented as the Meffenger; because he perfonally carries to the Jews the message concerning himself, by which they are convinced and converted.

"God, The everlasting Father." As drawing the vail of humanity over the glory of the Deity, that his terrors fhould not make thei afraid, conformably to the request of their fathers; Exod. xx. 19. They fee him beautiful in those circumftances in which he reveals himfelf to them, on the mountains of Affyria, when they are furrounded with outward calamities, and alarmed with inward terrors of eternal deftruction. They fee his feet once nailed to the crofs, his ignominious death fo offenfive to their pride, most beautiful. It is by it "they receive "the atonement." They fee him in his death and sufferings a more glorious conqueror than their fathers expected; that he hath vanquished the hoft of darkness, overcome death, and emancipated millions from the miseries of hell, to fing glad hallelujahs in heaven.

They fee his doctrine, though once rejected by them, most beautiful, as fhewing the way of reconciliation betwixt an offended God and guilty finners,-breathing peace to the guilty confcience ;-revealing the greatest good and the trueft happiness of men ;-that happiness which is fuitable to the dignity of their fpiritual nature, and will prove lafting as the ages of eternity. In a word, they fee him beautiful in the declaration he now makes, That he who was the God of their fathers, and the Ruler of

the universe, is the Head of the church, and will admit them to be members of that fociety. On this view, "Thy watchmen fhall lift up "the voice; with the voice together shall they

fing;" Ifaiah lii. 8. "The Redeemer fhall "(thus) come to Zion, (the congregation of

Ifrael) and turn away ungodliness from (the "defcendants of) Jacob;" Rom. xi. 26. These are the days in which the Lord "will raise un"to David a righteous Branch, and a King "fhall reign and profper, and shall execute judgment and juftice in the earth. In his days

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Judah fhall be faved, and Ifrael fhall dwell "fafely; and this is his name whereby he shall "be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS;" Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. "The children of Ifrael fhall 5,6. "feek the Lord their God, and David their "king; and fhall fear the Lord and his good. "ness in the latter days;" Hofea iii. 5. Yea, they shall serve the Lord their God, and Da "vid their King, whom (God) will raise up "unto them;" Jer. xxx. 9. " .. They fhall fing "unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent

things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out "and fhout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great " is the holy One of Ifrael in the midst of thee;" Ifa. xii. 5, 6. They fhall fubmit to him not only as their Prince to govern them, but likewise as the great Shepherd of their fouls, to

"make

"them

« them lie down in the green pastures" of his ordinances, to "lead them beside the still wa"ters" of his grace, to "reftore their fouls" by communion with him, and to carry them forward in the way of righteoufness to life everlafting. "I will fet up one Shepherd over "them, and he shall feed them, even my fer"vant David; he fhall feed them, and he fhall "be their Shepherd. And I the Lord will be "their God, and my fervant David a prince "among them; I the Lord have spoken it;" Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. "And he shall ftand and "feed in the ftrength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and "they shall abide, (return): for now shall he "be great unto the ends of the earth;" Micah v. 4.

That

(1) The whole paffage, of which thefe words make a part, afford a ftriking demonstration that the perfon here reprefented as a Shepherd and Ruler, can be no other than Jefus of Nazareth. Bethlehem is reprefented as the place of his nativity, verfe 2. The Scribes, in our Saviour's time, applied the paffage to the Meffiah; for they quote it in anfwer to Herod's query, Where ought Chrift to be born? And the prophecy was fulfilled by the special direction of Divine Providence: Mary, the mother of Jefus, had her ordinary refidence in Nazareth; but, in confequence of an edict of inrolment, issued by Augustus,

fhe

That the Jews fhall be converted together at the fame inftant of time, is implied in these expreffions: "And the breath fpirit) came unto "them, and they lived, and ftood up upon their "feet, an exceeding great army." This circumftance is likewife confirmed by parallel paffages. It is an obvious inference from the detail of events, Ezek. xx. 33-37. They are faid to be gathered together ;-brought into the wildernefs;-pleaded with, as God formerly pleaded with their fathers ;-brought into the bond

of

fhe was obliged to go to Bethlehem, because she was of the house and lineage of David. There Jefus was born. The prophecy, at the fame time, points to an existence he had before his birth, an existence from all eternity. "His goings forth have been from of old, from everlast"ing." Intimating the union of the divine and human nature in his perfon. The prophecy next fhews that the Jews would not fubmit to him as their Shepherd and Ruler, upon his first appearance. "Therefore, will he "give them up;" verfe 3. ; that is, he fhall reject them, that they fhall not be in the number of his fubjects. And how long? "Until the time that fhe which tra-. vaileth, hath brought forth;" that is, until the time that the Gentile church, formerly barren, fhould prove the mother of a numerous offspring to God; according to the prophecy of Ifaiah, "Sing, O barren, thou that didft "not bear ;-more are the children of the defolate, than "the children of the married wife, faith the Lord;"

Ifa.