prophecy; and for the history of its accomplishment by Sennacherib, you have it in the xxxvith and xxxviith chapters. But the second part of the figure (for holy Scripture spurneth the trammels of rhetoric, and considereth it no deadly sin against taste to mix figures) is taken from the wings of a mighty army, even "the king of Assyria and all his glory," who did spread over the whole land, and failed only in their attempt upon Jerusalem, before which Sennacherib's host is discomfited without hand.

But wherefore is the land called Immanuel's land? "Shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel." Of Immanuel we have as yet heard only this, that it is the name of the virgin's Son. Though we have seen reason to believe, in our former interpretation, that this Son of David is the stability of David's house, and the breaker of all that come up against the integrity of David's line; but, behold, we have him now the possessor, the proprietor, the defender, the bulwark, of the land. And why should it be so? Was not that land given unto the children of Israel by covenant, which is written in the xxth, xxist, xxiid, and xxiiid chapters of Exodus? Yes, when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel; " for the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance" (Deut. xxxii. 8). Abraham had the promise of this land, but not in right of himself; in right of the "Seed; not of seeds, as of many, but as of one: and to thy Seed, which is Christ" (Gal. iii. 16). The reason that Abraham could not in his own right have it, circumcised or uncircumcised, was shewn by God, when he exhibited the old testament, contained in those chapters of Exodus; whereby it appeareth, that upon no less condition than that of perfect obedience to the Ten Commandments, and other statutes and ordinances there set down, could that land be possessed, or enjoyed in full right, by any person : by which condition of perfect obedience the claim of right was taken away from every Jew, and he was forced to hold only in right of that Seed of the woman, who, by yielding perfect obedience to the law, did fulfil the part of the covenant required of the seed of Abraham, required of the man; and so God cometh bound to fulfil his part of the covenant, and give him that land for a perpetual possession. When, therefore, Immanuel, made of a woman, made under the law, had offered himself spotless and faultless, the land became his, as sure as God had spoken it; and because all the ordinances under the Old Testament were for the remembrance of sin done against that old covenant confirmed at Sinai, and for purgation of the same (being a provision against the necessary breaches of the covenant which God foresaw, and a standing ordinance for preserving its

dignity and respectability in the midst of violations), therefore, when Christ had satisfied the conditions of the covenant, and become proprietor of the land, it was his to do with it what he pleased. And because it hath pleased him to give it without a condition against the day of Israel's redemption, and in the mean while to wait his Father's good time, he is to be held the sole proprietor of that land in fee simple; and the Jews, with whom he shall confirm the new covenant, shall receive it of him in everlasting possession: and till then, every one-be he Turk, or be he Papist, or be he Jew, or be he Christian-who says that one stick, that one stone upon it, is his, is a liar. It is Immanuel's land; and those who dwell in it would do well to regard themselves as locum-tenentes; or rather, indulged with a residence there, until the time come that his waiting shall be concluded, (ver. 17)" and the Lord shall no more hide his face from the house of Jacob." This claim, which I have set out of the grounds, our Prophet puts in, when, in one word, he calls it Immanuel's land.

Yet, notwithstanding, our Prophet goes on dimly to foretell associations of peoples from far countries, who, heedless and reckless of Immanuel's rights and of God's endeavour to secure them by the mouth of every prophet, shall come mustering up, and be broken upon that troublous stone, and be consumed like sheaves upon that hearth of fire. And most mightily and pompously floweth on the river of our Prophet's discourse. Champion-like, having claimed the land for Immanuel, he lifteth up his voice to all lands, both far and near, and calleth them to the controversy: "Associate yourselves, O ye people (peoples), and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces: take counsel together, and it shall come to nought: speak the word, and it shall not stand for Immanuel (God with us)." This is not local, nor is it temporary language; neither is it under conditions of historical succession; but it is language universal, expressive of all combinations against Immanuel and Immanuel's land and Immanuel's people, and expressive likewise of the utter confusion and hideous ruin with which they shall all be overwhelmed. It is like the

confederation mentioned in the iid Psalm, as if it were but one; and it is but one, for it is ever, and hath ever been, and will ever be, till Christ come again. How wide were it of the truth to interpret these universal declarations as if they respected only the first, under Sennacherib, or the last under the Gog of Ezekiel! whereas, in truth, they express all combinations, from the one to the other, which have been made against the Jewish people and their land. This is the true literal interpretation of such passages, whether they occur in a prophet

of God or in a poet amongst men: and those are not fit to interpret either poetry or prophecy, nay, nor even propositions of science, who will interpret in the way of instances, instead of interpreting in the way of universals. I believe, therefore, we shall soon see the Turk broken, who now usurps it over Immanuel's land; and after him, the infidel head of Rome, and the ten Latin kings, who shall perish in some endeavour to establish themselves in the glorious holy mountain; and then also shall Gog, the head of the Greek confederacy, likewise perish: "for Jerusalem shall be a troublous stone amongst all nations, and the land of Judah as a hearth of fire amongst the wood."

Ver. 11: "For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people. This, being introduced in the same way as the former section, beginning at ver. 5, I shall still consider as spoken to the Prophet personally, though we know, from the use of ver. 18 in the id of the Hebrews, that Christ is there the speaker; and if so, there seems no good reason for believing that he is not the first person also of ver. 11. But for the present we shall take it to be the prophet to whom God spake with a strong hand; and we shall follow out that supposition, till we receive the advertisement of the Holy Spirit to look for a Greater than he. We are therefore to believe that this which follows was spoken to the prophet with great emphasis and force, or, as he expresses it, "with strength of hand," it was a point upon which the Lord was strongly resolved, and upon which the prophet needed to be strongly exhorted. And now, what was it that the Lord was at such pains to impress upon his servant? That he should "not walk in the way of this people;" that he should stand apart and aloof from the way in which they were resolved to walk, in order that he might be for a sign to every one that would give heed to it. And in what respect he was to separate himself, and what account he was to render for the same, is given in the 12th verse this was to be his speech. From the people who said "A confederacy," he was to stand apart, yea, and to gainsay them. This time, we know, the heart of the house of David, and the heart of his people, were moved by the confederacy of Ephraim and Damascus, as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind: and, instead of seeking to the Lord of hosts; to the waters of Shiloah, which go softly; they sought unto the waters of the river, which are strong and many, and cried out for a confederacy with the king of Assyria: and a confederacy with the king of Assyria they did strike, which brought with it the bitter waters of oppression and the abominations of idolatry. In this state of panic, and of phrensy brought on by panic, it required the strong hand of the Lord, and his powerful admonition, to set the prophet into opposition to the strong tide of

the desire both of the king and the people. He was commanded to cry, "No confederacy;" and to put heart in the people, saying, "Neither fear ye their fear, neither be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread: and he shall be for a sanctuary." He would give to them a city of refuge, and a house of salvation, and a rock of defence, into which they might flee, and be safe from all fears whatsoever. The same counsel did Jeremiah bear unto the people of his time; and, I may say, the same counsel did our Lord bear, and the Apostle Peter, to the church in their time; and the same counsel have we now borne to the church of Great Britain in these months just passed over our head. When God leads his church into temptation, Satan is always at hand to offer her help in the most specious and approvable form. A confederacy is the universal cry of the wise and prudent according to this world; but of the people of God, the cry ought ever to be, 'No confederacy: have faith in your God.' Which is ever sure to be rejected, for the reason added by the prophet: "He shall be for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." Such a crisis as then occurred to Jerusalem, and as lately occurred to us, is sent by God for the very purpose of proving a trial and discrimination between those who have faith in him and those who have not; proving to the one for a sanctuary, and to the other for a gin and a snare. Worldly wisdom, and all human probabilities, are ever in favour of a confederacy: safety, nay, necessity, seems to dictate it. The crisis is prepared of God, for the very end of deciding between those who have faith in him more than in all resources and probabilities, and those whose faith doth not surmount the same.

Such is the simple and plain application of the passage to the circumstance of the Prophet, and of the people to whom he prophesied; and how truly it was fulfilled in the experience of the people is well known from the history. Ahaz the king, and the people, like our king and the representatives of the people and the nobles, gave in to the outcry for a confederacy; and a confederacy they did make with the king of Assyria; who helped them out of that strait indeed, but brought them into others. For, first, Ahaz copied all his idolatries, and subverted the order of God's worship in the temple, to please the king of Assyria (2 Kings xvi. 17, 18). Next, the king of Assyria, having found his way to the land of Israel, returned at the time set by the Lord in the former prophecy, and cut them off from being a people; and thus did that confederacy prove an offence to one of the house of Israel, and soon Judah also

was to feel the rod of the Assyrian. In the days of Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them: whereupon Hezekiah bribed him, with the tribute of three hundred and thirty talents, to spare him that time: but he soon returned again, and possessed himself of all the land, save Jerusalem; when Hezekiah, making the Lord his refuge and his sanctuary, did receive that miraculous deliverance to which his father Ahaz would not look. The same desire of a confederacy was the ruin of Judah in the time of Jeremiah, when they sought protection from the Assyrians in a league with Egypt; always preferring the visible help to the faith of the Help which is unseen, by which the church has been brought into a gin and a snare.

And such, in a few words, is the interpretation of these five verses, regarded as a part of the context, and explained with a view to that condition of things in which the church then stood; and with this interpretation, we doubt not, the minds of most would have rested satisfied; and if any had taken upon himself to say that the whole passage referred to Christ, we make no doubt he would have been regarded as a vague interpreter, and even reproached for a vague speculator; but the Holy Ghost is our witness throughout all the New Testament that Christ is the chief subject of the prophecy. strong and steady light is cast upon the passage in the First of Peter, chaps. ii. and iii.: in the former of which, at the 8th verse, the stone of stumbling and rock of offence are applied to Christ, as indeed they are in other passages of Scripture, to which we have already referred. Here, then, we can be at no loss to know what the Holy Ghost refers to, when he says, "And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel; a gin and a snare to the people of Jerusalem;" for certain it is that Immanuel is here spoken of: and if so, then I think also he is the person spoken of in the 15th verse; for the connexion between the two will hardly bear interruption. If the Virgin's Son hath already been called "God with us," we need not wonder that he should also be called "Jehovah of hosts." Now, besides this, in 1 Peter iii. 14, 15, we have another steady light cast upon these words, "Neither fear ye their fear, nor be ye afraid: sanctify the Lord of hosts yourself: let him be your fear, and let him be your dread;" which the Apostle applies to the Jews who had received Christ, and were therefore suffering persecution at the hand of their brethren. These two interpretations, therefore, of the Holy Ghost, being put together, do present to us Immanuel becoming " a sign to be spoken against," "set for the rising and the falling of many in Israel:" and this is confirmed by the interpretation given of the 14th and 15th verses by the