of nature beautiful; there shall be trees both to shelter and refresh them; intimating that there should be a glorious al20 teration in their circumftances. That they may fee, and know, and confider, and underftand together, that they may help one another to understand the divine difpenfations, and that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Ifrael hath created it; that God alone hath 21 done it, and no other. Produce your caufe, faith the LORD; bring forth your ftrong [reasons,], faith the King of Jacob; challenging idolaters and their gods to de22 clare and do what he had done. Let them bring [them] forth, and show us what fhall happen: let them fhow the former things, what they [be,] that we may confider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come; let them foretel future events, and inform us what prophecies they have delivered that have been 23 accomplished. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye [are] gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together, that we may be ftruck with astonish24 ment at fuch skill, and be led to worship you. Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination [is he that] choofeth you; that is, he that wor25 Shippeth you. I have raifed up [one] from the north, and he shall come: from the rifing of the fun fhall he call upon my name, or proclaim my name:' and he fhall come upon princes as [upon] morter, and as the pot26 ter treadeth clay. Who hath declared from the beginning, as I do, two hundred years before the event, that Cyrus fhall conquer fome nations and deliver others, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may fay, [He is] righteous, in declaring truth and fulfilling his promifes, and thus hath fupported his claim to divinity: yea, [there is] none that fhoweth, yea, [there is] none that declareth, 27 yea, [there. is] none that heareth your words. The firft [fhall fay] to Zion, Behold, behold them; I am the first who have faid unto Zion, Behold thy deliverers, in Cyrus and his army: and I will give to Jerufalem one

that

Cyrus by his father was from Perfia, which lay eaft of BabyJon, and from Media by his mother, which lay north.

that bringeth good tidings, which none of their gods can 28 give. For I beheld, and [there was] no man; even

among them, and [there was] no counfellor, that, when 29 I afked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they [are] all vanity; their works [are] nothing: their molten images [are] wind and confufion; they are ignorant and impotent gods, that can neither do any thing, nor foretel what fhall be done.

1.

WE

REFLECTION S.

E fee that the caufe of God and religion will bear a fair trial, and need not fear it. This chapter is a challenge to idolaters to produce proofs of the divinity of the gods they worshipped, or difprove that of JEHOVAH. The fervants of God may give the fame challenge to the enemies of revelation, either to fhow it to be falfe, or produce any other religion of equal evidence and usefulness; and good men may challenge the workers of iniquity to produce their ftrongest reafons in favour of vice, affured that they will carry their own confutation with them. Let us never be afraid to have our religious principles and practices fairly examined; for if they are true and right, they will gain honour by the trial. Let us be ready to give to every one that afketh, a reason of the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear.

2. Let us learn to ftir up one another to oppofe prevailing vices, and to engage the favour of God. We fee how the nations joined to oppofe the growing reputation and fuccefs of Cyrus, and encouraged one another to make new gods to take their part; and fhall we not, with equal zeal, oppose the kingdom of fatan, and the progrefs of his arts of mifchief and deftruction? Shall we not encourage each other to act vigorously for the defence and honour of God and religion, and ftir up one another to pray that God would fupport and advance his own caufe? Let us learn wisdom from these idolaters; appear on the Lord's fide, and ftrengthen one another's hands in God.

3. Amidst all the difficulties and troubles of life, let us take encouragement from God's promises; especially that

in

in v. 10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not difmayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee. We affuredly know, that it has afforded fupport and comfort to many fouls, in the most afflicted circumstances, and even in dying moments. What beautiful and tender language is it! the language of an indulgent parent teaching a little child to go. Whoever forfakes us, God will be with us; whatever difficulties furround us, he will ftrengthen us; whatever enemies attack us, he will help us; when faint, trembling, and ready to fink, he will uphold us with the right hand of his righteousness. Tho' we are weak as worms, and, like them, defpifed, yet our redeemer, the Holy One of Ifrael, will help us. Let us wait on the Lord then, be of good courage, and he fball ftrengthen our hearts.

4. Let us learn the vanity of idols, and keep ourselves from idolatry. See what ignorant, impotent things all gods are, but JEHOVAH. Let us reverence him who revealeth fecrets, foretelleth things to come, does good and permits evil, and gives us in his works, providence, and word, a thousand proofs that he is the true God, and the everlasting King. Let us therefore, dearly beloved, flee from idolatry; worship the Lord our God with a veneration and affection fuited to his greatness, power, and knowledge; and make him our hope and our confidence; for he is the rewarder of all them that diligently feek him.

CHA P. XLII.

This chapter refers to the appearance of Chrift, the publication of his gofpel, and his judgment brought upon the jews for their unbelief. The prophet makes a natural tranfition from the deliverance of the jews out of captivity, to the greater deliverance by the Meffiah, by which all their idols fhould be destroyed; and he here feems to drop the veil, and bring the Meffiah into full view, without type or allegory. St. Matthew expressly tells us, chap. xii. 18-21. that the beginning of this chapter was fulfilled in Chrift: they are the words of the Father Speaking to him.

I BEHOLD

I

EHOLD

B make my peculiar care: mine elect, [in whom] my

my fervant, whom I uphold, protect, and

foul delighteth; I have put my fpirit upon him: he fhall bring forth judgment to the gentiles; he shall make known to them my will and law, which hitherto had been 2 appropriated to the jews. He fhall not cry, nor lift up, nor caufe his voice to be heard in the street, as vainglorious and contentious perfons do; he fball not come in a pompous, tumultuous manner, but inftruct others and vindi3 cate himself with meekness. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the fmoaking flax shall he not quench; a proverbial expreffion for a gentle temper and conduct; more is implied than expreffed; he will bear with, encourage, and help the weakest: he fhall bring forth judgment unto 4 truth; he fball make truth and righteousness victorious. He shall not fail nor be difcouraged, till he have fet judgment in the earth: and the ifles fhall wait for his law; he and his apostles fhall go on refolutely and cheerfully, till his religion fhall be established, and the gentiles fhall receive it as heartily as if they had waited for it.

5 Thus faith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein, and who therefore can certainly fulfil all his 6 promifes: I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, that is, for the mediator of my covenant to the people, and for a light of the gentiles; to enlighten their minds, fanctify their hearts, and 7 lead them to everlasting life; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prifoners from the prifon, [and] them that fit in darkness out of the prifon houfe; to deliver 8 the captives of fin and fatan. I [am] the LORD: that [is] my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images; I will not fuffer idolatry any longer to prevail, but abolish it by the gospel. 9 Behold, the former things are come to pafs, and new things do I declare; the former prophecies are fulfilled, and therefore these fhall be fo: before they spring forth I tell

you

10

you of them, that they may be believed and expected. Then follows a poetical addrefs to all the inhabitants of the world, the most rude and barbarous not excepted, to rejoice, and praise God for the gospel.

Sing unto the LORD a new fong, [and] his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the fea, and all that is therein; the ifles, and the inhabitants 11 thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up [their voice,] the villages [that] Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock fing, let them 12 fhout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the iflands.

13

The LORD fhall go forth as a mighty man, he fhall ftir up jealousy like a man of war; he was filent while idolatry prevailed in the world, and winked at thofe times of ignorance; but now he fhall cry, yea, roar like a lion, or as foldiers do when beginning a battle; and he fhall entirely 14 prevail against his enemies. I have long time holden my peace; I have been ftill, [and] refrained myself: [now] will I cry like a travailing woman; I will deftroy and devour at once, like wild beasts, which come roaring 15 upon their prey and fwallow it up at once. I will make

;

wafte mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs: and I will make the rivers iflands, and I will dry up the 16 pools." And I will bring the blind by a way [that] they knew not; I will lead them in paths [that] they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things ftraight; I will remove the ignorance, errors, and prejudices of men. These things will I do 17 unto them, and not forfake them. They fhall be turned back, they fhall be greatly afhamed, that truft in graven images, that fay to the molten images, Ye [are] our gods; idolaters fhall be disappointed and afhamed upon the spread of the gospel.

18

Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may fee; an address to the gentiles to receive the gospel, and not reject

the

As fpiritual bleffings are defcribed by the oppofite images, this intimates his great wrath, and the vengeance that fhall be brought upon the enemies of his gofpel.