of her former children, which fhe is faid to have loft, If. xlix. 20. 21.

Whereas, in the prophetic ftyle, the Gentile world is called a wilderness, with regard to its fpiritual defolation under Heathenifm, and in oppofition to the vineyard or fruitful field of the church; it is remarkable, that in fome prophecies it is foretold at the fame time, that the wilderness or foreft fhould become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a foreft; as particularly in If. xxxii. 15. which fpeaks of the time of the pouring down of the Spirit from on high; and If. xxix. 17. which will be proved afterwards to contain feveral predictions of the enlightening of the Gentiles. And both thefe predictions have a remarkable conformity to If. xliii. 19. 20. &c. where the creatures inhabiting the wilderness are reprefented as honouring God, and as a people whom he has formed for himfelf, to fhew forth his praife; while Ifrael is reprefented as weary of him, y 22. and their teachers as tranfgreffing against him, y 28. and provoking him to reject them.

III. But befides what is faid in If. xliii. about the Jewish teachers, there are other remarkable predictions, which fpeak of the time of the enlightening of the Gentiles as a time of inexcufable wilful blindnefs among the Jewish teachers or rulers, or both. Thus in If. xlii. where the Gentiles are mentioned as waiting for God's law, delivered by the Meffiah, . 4. Ifrael is fpoken of as difobedient to that law,

24; and particularly God's profeffed fervants and messengers, titles that characterise the Jewish teachers by their office, notwithstanding their maladininistration, are reprefented as having a divine revelation propofed to them, and rejecting it; y 19. "Who is blind, but my fervant? &c.-Seeing

many things, but thou obferveft not; opening "the ears, but he heareth not." And in If. lvi. which fpeaks of the time when God's houfe fhould

be

be a houfe of prayer for all people, Ifrael's watchmen and fhepherds are reprefented as "blind, ignorant, and dumb; fleeping, lying down, and loving to flumber," y 10. 11.; and the fequel charges them with an unfatiable, unbounded love of temporal advantages, which, it is evident from the nature of the thing, behoved to be a chief. caufe of mens looking only for a temporal Meffiah.

IV. What is faid in If. lvi. about the Jewish watchmen and thepherds as loving to flumber, implying, that their flumber would be voluntary and wilful, gives light to what is foretold about their deep fleep, If. xxix. 10. 11. &c. where the prophet fpeaks of a time when the prophetic books fhould be in the hands of the Jews as an open book in the hands of one who cannot read, or a fealed book in the hands of one who can read if the book were not fealed. That the blindnefs here foretold fhould relate, not merely to fome lefs confiderable part, but to the chief fubject and fcope of the prophecies, is evident from various expreffions in this context; as particularly from y 11." And the vifion of all is "become unto you as the words of a book that is "fealed;" and y 14. "The wifdom of their wife

men fhall fail, and the understanding of their "prudent men fhall be hid." That this prediction, and the chapter which contains it, do not relate to the time of the Babylonifh invafion and captivity, or at least not to that time only, but to the time of the enlightening of the Gentiles, is evident from feveral predictions in the latter part of the chapter, evidently relating to that fubject, y. 17. 18. 24.; and feveral characters of the prophetic ftyle ufual in fpeaking of that time, y 19. 20. 23. At the time of the Babylonifh invafion and captivity the prophecies of Jeremiah were far from being like a sealed book for though they were not believed by many, yet they were fufficiently understood; and it was on that account that that prophet's enemies were fo

enraged

enraged against him: befides that at that time the Jews had feveral enlightened prophets and feers, fuch as Jeremiah himfelf in Judea, and Ezekiel and Daniel at Babylon; whereas the time mentioned in this 29th of Ifaiah is a time when fuch advantages were wanting. From all which it appears, that though the defcription of the fiege of Jerufalem, which takes up the first eight verfes of this chapter, fhould be fuppofed to be of itself applicable either to the fiege of that place by the Babylonians, or by the Romans; the latter part of the chapter reftricts the defcription to the laft of thefe fieges, to which feveral things in the defcription itself have plainly a greater conformity: and whereas idolatry was one of the chief and most immediate procuring caufes of the Babylonish captivity, the defolation defcribed in this chapter is imputed to various o ther provocations; but idolatry is not once mentioned.

There feems to be a remarkable conformity between what is faid in If. xxix. about the fealed book, and what is faid about fealing the law and testimony in If. viii. 16. in which chapter the Jews are represented as not fpeaking according to the law and the teftimony, becaufe there is no light in them, y 20. And though the enlightening of the Gentiles is not fo exprefsly mentioned in this context, yet it is neceffarily implied in y 14. where it is faid, that at the fame time that the Lord would be for a stone of ftumbling to both houfes of Ifrael, he would be a fanctuary to fome other people, who being diftinét from both houfes of Ifrael, can be no. other than the Gentiles. What the prophet fays about the stone of ftumbling is the more remarkable, because it is affirmed not only of one, but of both the houses of Ifrael, and of the inhabitants of Jerufalem in particular.

Several other predictions relating to the unbelief of the Jews, are contained in paffages which fpeak

of

of a time when the fons of the Jewish church fhould be obliged to acknowledge, that for their tranfgreffions their mother was put away, If. 1. 2.; and when the covenant between God and that people fhould be broken, which is mixed with a prediction formerly explained, relating to the Meifiah's fufferings, Zech. xi. io. And whereas the 6th of Ifaiah contains one of the fullest defcriptions of a future blindness and defolation of the Jews; though perhaps it does not speak fo clearly as fome other prophecies of the time when this was to happen; yet y 3. which speaks of "the whole earth as full of the glory of the Lord," feems to point at the time when the Gentile world, which is by much the greatest part of the earth, fhould be filled with the knowledge of that glory.

The predictions of the unbelief of the Jews contain a confiderable number of facts and circumftances relating to the extent of it, and the chief abettors of it, as well as its caufes and effects. As to the extent of it, though it is foretold, that too great a number would be chargeable with it, it is not reprefented as fo univerfal but that the Meffiah's forerunner would have confiderable fuccefs in preparing the way before him, and that the Mefliah himfelf would confirm the covenant with many, reftoring the preferved of Ifrael: and feveral predictions plainly fuppofe, that there fhould be a true church of God, and of the Meffiah, in Judea, to which the enlightened Gentiles would have due regord, as their mother-church, If. xlix. ii. 2. 3. Zech. vi. 23. As it is foretold, that the chief promoters of Jewith unbelief would be the Jewith teachers and rulers, who are called God's meffengers, and Ifrael's fhepherds, and watchmen; fo they are defcribe t by their hypocrify, their fuperitition, If. xxix. ; their neglect of God's law and teftimony, If. viii.; their fenfuality, their covetoufnefs, I. lvi.; their fpiritual pride, If. Ixv. 5. and intemperate falfe zeal, If. Ixvi. 5. all which things would incline them to

X

reject

reject a Meffiah that would appear in a ftate of so great humiliation, "feeing no beauty in him why

they thould defire him." Transferring to human invention, and confequently to human tradition, the regard due to divine revelation, and practical preference of temporal advantages, expected by a temporal Meffiah, to the fpiritual bleffings of God's covenant; which evils, which were in fact among the chief caufes why the Jews rejected Chrift, are mentioned by the prophets among the chief fins that would occafion that people's rejecting the Meffiah; particularly in If. xxix. and If. lvi. where that people are defcribed as "teaching the fear of God by "the precept of men; and as greedy perfons that "could never have enough." It is foretold, that they would reject and defpife the Meffiah himfelf; that they would look on him as one fmitten and afflicted of God on his own account; that they would put him to death, and maltreat him at his death, in the manner defcribed from the prophecies in the former chapter; and that they would caft out of their fociety his difciples, on pretence of zeal for the glory of God, If. lxv. 5. It is the more probable that this laft particular, relating to the Meffiah's difciples, is the thing meant in If. lxv. 5. becaufe, after fpeaking of men who fhould be ejected by their Jewith brethren, the converfion of the Gentiles is not only the chief thing mentioned in the following fentences, but it is mentioned as an appearance of God for the joy of thefe ejected Jews; and is propofed in promites for their encouragement. Which way of propofing the promifes of the calling of the Gentiles, is an intimation, that the perfons in view were thofe who were to be employed as inftruments in fulfilling thefe promifes; befides that thofe perfons being here characterifed by their trembling at God's word, this is the character given, in the foregoing context, of thofe to whom God expreflès greater regard than to 'the Jewish temple, and who

are