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 fhall 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 "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 "feek the Lord their God, and David their "king; and fhall fear the Lord and his good"nefs 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 shout, 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 paftures" of his ordinances, to "lead them befide the ftill wa"ters" of his grace, to "reftore their fouls" by communion with him, and to carry them forward in the way of righteousness to life everlafting. "I will fet up one Shepherd over "them, and he fhall feed them, even my fer"vant David; he fhall feed them, and he shall "be their Shepherd. And I the Lord will be "their God, and my fervant David a prince "among them; Ithe Lord have spoken it ;" Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. "And he fhall ftand and "feed in the ftrength of the Lord, in the mar jefty of the name of the Lord his God; and CC they fhall abide, (return): for now fhall he "be great unto the ends of the earth;" Micah v. 4.

That

(1) The whole paffage, of which these words make a part, afford a striking demonstration that the person 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 answer to Herod's query, Where ought Christ to be born? And the prophecy was fulfilled by the fpecial direction of Divine Providence: Mary, the mother of Jefus, had her ordinary refidence in Nazareth; but, in confequence of an edict of inrolment, iffued by Auguftus,

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 wil derness ;-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 exiftence 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 ;" verse 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 didsft "not bear ;—more are the children of the defolate, than "the children of the married wife, faith the Lord;"

of the covenant.-Now God pleaded with their fathers as a nation, and admitted them into covenant as a nation at Sinai.-So it shall be in their converfion. The fame truth is afferted,

Ifa. xxvi. 19. "Thy dead men fhall live,-for "thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth "fhall caft out the dead." This circumstance is implied in the words of Zechariah, chap. iii. 9. "I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ""

SEC

Ifa. liv. 1. And this is the period fixed for the converfion of the Jews by the Apostle Paul," until the fulness "of the Gentiles be brought in; and then all Ifrael shall "be faved;" Rom. xi. 25, 26. So here "then the rem"nant of his brethren fhall return unto (together with) "the children of Ifrael;" that is, the remnant of his brethren. The tribe or kingdom of Judah shall return to God in the way of faith and repentance, together with the ten tribes, the kingdom of Ifrael. As another mark of the time when he fhould prove a Mediator to Ifrael, and reconcile them to God, it is faid, “When the Af"fyrian fhall come into our land, and when he shall "tread in our palaces;" Micah. v. 5. that is, when the blafphemous king shall enter Judea, and fet up his refidence in Jerufalem, he is called the Affyrian: Ifa. x. 5.

(1) Joshua, the High-Priest, typifies the Jewish nation at the period immediately preceding their conver

on

SECTION V.

The Jews are trained by God in the Defert forty Years from the Date of their converfion.

AFTER the Jews are converted, they remain forty years in the wilderness of Affyria before they

fion. His filthy garments reprefent their fins, particularly their blafphemy and infidelity. Satan's accufation fhews the virulence of their enemies, as well as their own deferts. The interference of the angel, called alfo the Lord (Jehovah), fignifies the seasonable interpofition of the Mediator, to prevent their destruction. And the proteft of the angel to Jofhua, is that pleading of the Me ́diator with the Jews, at the time he admits them into the bond of the covenant. The time of thefe proceedings is noted, Zech. iii. 8, 9. Joshua and his fellows are faid to be men wondered at; that is, perfons mentioned as figns and types of other men, and of other times; namely, of that period when God fhall bring forth his fervant, the Branch that fhall grow out of the roots of Jeffe; Ifa. xi. 1. Yet, not the time in which he shall first fpring from the root of Jeffe, but the time when God fhall bring him forth; that is, manifeft him to Ifrael. To illuftrate this circumftance more clearly, is the defign of the following verfe: "For behold, the ftone that I have

"laid