26. And he will erect a standard for nations far off,

And will bring them by his call' from the end of the earth:

And, lo! in haste suddenly they come!

27. No one is faint, none stumbleth among them;

No one slumbereth, and no one sleepeth.

The girdle of His loins is not loosed,
Nor the latchet of his shoes unbound.

28. His arrows are sharpened,

And all his bows are bent.

The hoofs of his horses are counted as flint,
And his wheels are like a whirlwind.

29. His growling is like that of a lion,
He growleth like the young lion:

Ay, he roareth, and seizeth the prey;

And he beareth it off, and none delivereth:

30. And he shall roar against it in that day,

Like the roaring sea, and shall gush forth on the land:

And behold compressed darkness,

And the light is darkened by its influx.'

vit aqua;'
drops as dew, and also to throw
down' as a building; but the Arab.

signifies to distil in

,'aquæ ubertim affluentes.”— Bishop Stock renders the last line, "and the light is darkened in the sky above it;" or we may render, "and the light is darkened by her ruins;"" the heavens, and the luminaries, are so totally invisible, that it seems as if the light were choked up in its first emanations;" -" and the light is confined in its defluxions."-HORSLEY.

148 REMARKS ON THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF ISAIAH,

An awful symbol of the appearing of the Redeemer in the character of an avenger; "Behold the Lord cometh with his holy myriads," &c. &c. *

SECTION III.

Remarks on the Sixth Chapter of Isaiah.

I MUST not pass over, in this review, the vision recorded by the prophet in the sixth chapter:

66

"In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord; he sat on a high and elevated throne, and his glory' filled the temple. Seraphs had their station' above him: each had six wings: with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he flew: and one called to another, and said; Holy, Holy, Holy, Jehovah Sabaoth! the whole earth' shall be' filled with his glory:" and the pillars of the vestibule were shaken at the sound of their calling; and the house was filled with a cloud and I said, “Ah me! I am undone, because I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell amidst a people of polluted lips; for mine eyes have seen THE KING, Jehovah Sabaoth."

cxlix.

Jude, 14. Compare 1 Sam. ii. 8; Psalm lxviii. 17; cx. 3; and

REMARKS ON THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 149

I call the reader's attention to this vision, because we are unequivocally told in the New Testament*, that Isaiah beheld, on this occasion, "the glory of Christ." The appearance of the symbol or similitude of the glory of the Messiah must, however, relate to the period of the second advent. It is then the "Son of Man cometh in his glory." The seraphs, we observe, anticipate, in their song of congratulation, the time when the whole earth should be so filled with his glory, as then the temple in the vision seemed to be. The prophet, too, is sensible that he has seen THE KING, THE VERY KING;† doubtless, that very King of Israel, who had been so often foretold in the Psalms, and in other ancient oracles; and who was, indeed, "the hope of Israel." The seraphs, in this vision, seem to occupy the place of the "holy myriads" of the former prophecies; which leads to the supposition, that they are intended to be symbolical of the same happy beings, - the redeemed from among men, hereafter to attend, as glorified spirits, the King Messiah; and to fly on his high behests, in the government of that "world to come," which is "not put in subjection to angels," but to glorified man. Future visions will illus trate this.

The immediate object of the prophecy that follows, is to show the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews. It is several times quoted and applied to that event, by our

has remarked, that the English word our, will sometimes best express the double emphasis, -. Perhaps this verse might be ren

dered, "Ah me, that I have been silent!"—" surely I am a man of polluted lips," &c.

* John, xii. 41.

את-המלך +

Heb. ii.

Lord and his apostles. The event of this "hardness of heart" is, as usual, described to be the destruction of the people and of their country," until the land is wasted to a desert." The nation, however, in this state, is compared to a tree, that is cut down indeed, but which has a living stock in the soil, which still retains the vegetable life, and will shoot up again-" the holy seed is the stock thereof" --the elect, that are to spring from the loins of Jacob, are not yet exhausted: therefore the people are preserved; they have not yet fulfilled their Creator's purpose. No family, in these circumstances, can become extinct.

SECTION IV.

Remarks on the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Chapters.

THE oracle delivered in the seventh chapter, the immediate object of which is to show the approaching desolation of the ten tribes and of Syria, then in league against Jerusalem, is remarkable as being chosen for the occasion, to reveal to the disconsolate inhabitants of Jerusalem, not only that they are safe at present, but that a remarkable feature in their future history should be, the return of a remnant of the tribe of Judah, while the rest of Israel is in a state of dispersion: and that, in connexion with this, a wonderful sign or prodigy should be vouchsafed by the Divine Power:

14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel! *

* Chap. vii.

This, then, ascertained the future birth of the Messiah to be by the miraculous conception of a virgin that virgin to be of course, according to former prophecies, of the house of David. It was inoreover foretold, that in that very country, now the terror of the Jews of Jerusalem,reduced at the time foreboded into a wild and comparatively depopulated state, this child should be fed with the kind of food which such a country would supply, while he was growing up to years of maturity:

15. Butter and honey shall he eat while he is distinguishing, To refuse the evil, and to choose the good;

For while the child hath yet to distinguish,
To refuse the evil, and to choose the good;
This land shall be pastured at large,

Where thou art despised in the presence of her two kings.

This was fulfilled by the long abode of Jesus and his mother at Nazareth, and in the neighbouring country; all which, at the time of the prophet, probably was in the joint possession of the kings of Samaria and Damascus. But this I merely notice by the way, as the wonders of the second advent are the subject we are to pursue. The connexion of prophecy, however, demands that we should take notice also of the eighth chapter.

It foretells the immediate approach of this destruction of Damascus and Samaria; and that the instrument of it, the king of Assyria, like an overwhelming torrent, would threaten the extinction of the whole remnant: as it is mysteriously said, "and his wings are spread the full breadth of thy land, O Immanuel."-But because of Immanuel all his efforts would be in vain; a remnant must remain.