ing a more glorious and an everlasting kingdom under the Messiah, to be born of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David; the Prophet connects these two events together, and hardly ever treats of the former without throwing in some intimations of the latter; and sometimes is so fully possessed with the glories of the future more remote kingdom, that he seems to leave the more immediate subject of his commission almost out of the question.

Indeed this evangelical sense of the prophecy is so apparent, and stands forth in so strong a light, that some interpreters cannot see that it has any other; and will not allow the prophecy to have any relation at all to the return from the captivity of Babylon. It may be useful, therefore, to examine more attentively the train of the Prophet's ideas, and to consider carefully the images under which he displays his subject. He hears a crier giving orders by solemn proclamation to prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; to remove all obstructions before JEHOVAH marching through the desert; through the wild, uninhabited, unpassable country. The deliverance of God's people from the Babylonish captivity is considered by him as parallel to the former deliverance of them from the Egyptian bondage. God was then represented as their king, leading them in person through the vast deserts which lay in their way to the promised land of Canaan. It is not merely for JEHOVAH himself that in both cases the way was to be prepared, and all obstructions to be removed; but for JEHOVAHI marching in person at the head of his people. Let us first see how this idea is pursued by the sacred poets who treat of the Exodus, which is a favourite subject with them, and affords great choice of examples:

"When Israel came out of Egypt;

The house of Jacob, from the barbarous people;

Judah was his sanctuary,

Israel his dominion."

Psal. cxiv. 1, 2,

"Make a highway for him that rideth through the deserts:

O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people;

When thou marchedst through the wilderness,
The heavens dropped—”

Psal. lxviii. 4. 7.

Let us now see how Isaiah treats the subject of the return

of the people from Babylon: they were to march through the wilderness with JEHOVAH at their head, who was to lead them, to smooth the way before them, and to supply them with water in the thirsty desert; with perpetual allusion to the Exodus:

"Come ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the land of the Chaldeans with the voice of joy :

Publish ye this, and make it heard; utter it forth even to the end of the earth:

Say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob:

They thirsted not in the deserts, through which he made

them go;

Waters from the rock he caused to flow for them;

Yea he clave the rock, and forth gushed the waters."

Chap. xlviii. 20, 21.

And the things of ancient times regard not:"

(That is, the deliverance from Egypt);

"Behold, I make a new thing;

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Even now shall it spring forth: will ye not regard it?

Yea I will make in the wilderness a way;

In the desert, streams of water."

Chap. xliii. 18, 19.

'But he that trusteth in me shall inherit the land,

And shall possess my holy mountain.

Then will I say, Cast up, cast up the causeway; make clear

the way;

Remove every obstruction from the road of my people."

How beautiful appear on the mountains

Chap. lvii. 13, 14.

The feet of the joyful messenger, of him that announceth peace;

Of the joyful messenger of good tidings, of him that announceth salvation ;

Of him that sayeth to Sion, Thy God reigneth!

All thy watchmen lift up their voice, they shout together;

For face to face shall they see, when JEHOVAH returneth to
Sion.

Verily not in haste shall ye go forth;

And not by flight shall ye march along;

For JEHOVAH shall march in your front;

And the God of Israel shall bring up your rear."

Chap. lii. 7, 8. 12.

Babylon was separated from Judea by an immense tract of country, which was one continued desert; that large part of Arabia called very properly Deserta. It is mentioned

in history as a remarkable occurrence, that Nebuchadnezzar, having received the news of the death of his father, in order to make the utmost expedition in his journey to Babylon from Egypt and Phoenicia, set out with a few attendants, and passed through this desert. Berosus, apud Joseph. Antiq. x. 11. This was the nearest way homewards for the Jews; and whether they actually returned by this way or not, the first thing that would occur on the proposal or thought of their return, would be the difficulty of this almost impracticable passage. Accordingly the proclamation for the preparation of the way is the most natural idea, and the most obvious circumstance, by which the Prophet could have opened his subject.

These things considered, I have not the least doubt that the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon is the first, though not the principal, thing in the Prophet's view. The redemption from Babylon is clearly foretold; and at the same time is employed as an image to shadow out a redemption of an infinitely higher and more important nature. I should not have thought it necessary to employ so many words in endeavouring to establish what is called the literal sense of this prophecy, which I think cannot be rightly understood without it, had I not observed, that many interpreters of the first authority, in particular the very learned Vitringa, have excluded it entirely.

Yet obvious and plain as I think this literal sense is, we have nevertheless the irrefragable authority of John the Baptist, and of our blessed Saviour himself, as recorded by all the Evangelists, for explaining this exordium of the prophecy of the opening of the gospel by the preaching of John, and of the introducing of the kingdom of Messiah; who was to effect a much greater deliverance of the people of God, Gentiles as well as Jews, from the captivity of sin and the dominion of death. And this we shall find to be the case in many subsequent parts also of this prophecy, where passages manifestly relating to the deliverance of the Jewish nation, effected by Cyrus, are with good reason, and upon undoubted authority, to be understood of the redemption wrought for mankind by Christ.

If the literal sense of this prophecy, as above explained, cannot be questioned, much less surely can the spiritual; which, I think, is allowed on all hands, even by Grotius himself. If both are to be admitted, here is a plain example

of the mystical allegory, or double sense, as it is commonly called, of prophecy; which the sacred writers of the New Testament clearly suppose, and according to which they frequently frame their interpretation of passages of the Old Testament. Of the foundation and properties of this sort of allegory, see De S. Poes. Hebr. Prælect. xi.

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2. Blessings double to the punishment] It does not seem reconcileable to our notions of the divine justice, which always punishes less than our iniquities deserve, to suppose that God had punished the sins of the Jews in double proportion and it is more agreeable to the tenor of this consolatory message, to understand it as a promise of ample recompense for the effects of past displeasure, on the reconciliation of God to his returning people. To express this sense of the passage, which the words of the original will very well bear, it was necessary to add a word or two in the version to supply the elliptical expression of the Hebrew. Compare chap. Ixi. 7. Job xlii. 10. Zech. ix. 12. NO signifies punishment for sin, Lam. iii. 39. Zech. xiv.

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3. A voice crieth: In the wilderness-] The idea is taken from the practice of eastern monarchs, who, whenever they entered upon an expedition, or took a journey, especially through desert and unpractised countries, sent harbingers before them to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments. The officers appointed to superintend such preparations the Latins call Stratores. "Ipse (Johannes Baptista) se stratorem vocat Messiæ, cujus esset alta et elata voce homines in desertis locis habitantes ad itinera et vias Regi mox venturo sternendas et reficiendas hortari:" Mosheim, Instituta Majora, p. 96.

Diodorus's account of Semiramis's marches into Media and Persia, will give us a clear notion of the preparation of the way for a royal expedition: "In her march to Ecbatane she came to the Zarcean mountain; which extending many furlongs, and being full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, could not be passed without taking a great compass about. Being therefore desirous of leaving an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as of shortening the way, she ordered the precipices to be digged down, and the hollows to be filled up; and at a great expense she made a shorter and more expeditious road, which to this day is called from

her the Road of Semiramis. Afterward she went into Persia, and all the other countries of Asia subject to her dominion; and wherever she went, she ordered the mountains and precipices to be levelled, raised causeways in the plain country, and at a great expense made the ways passable:" Diod. Sic. lib. ii.

The writer of the apocryphal book called Baruch expresses the same subject by the same images; either taking them from this place of Isaiah, or from the common notions of his countrymen: "For God hath appointed, that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and vallies filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God;" chap. v. 7.

The Jewish church, to which John was sent to announce the coming of Messiah, was at that time in a barren and desert condition, unfit without reformation for the reception of her king. It was in this desert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, in true piety and good works unfruitful, that John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching repentance. I have distinguished the parts of the sentence according to the punctuation of the Masoretes, which agrees best both with the literal and the spiritual sense; which the construction and parallelism of the distich in the Hebrew plainly favours; and of which the Greek of the LXX and of the Evangelists is equally susceptible.

John was born in the desert of Judea, and passed his whole life in it, till the time of his being manifested to Israel. He preached in the same desert: it was a mountainous country; however, not entirely and properly a desert, for, though less cultivated than other parts of Judea, yet it was not uninhabited: Joshua (chap. xv. 61, 62.) reckons six cities in it. We are so prepossessed with the idea of John's living and preaching in the desert, that we are apt to consider this particular sense of his preaching as a very important and essential part of his history: whereas I apprehend this circumstance to be no otherwise important, than as giving us a strong idea of the rough character of the man, which was answerable to the place of his education; and as affording a proper emblem of the rude state of the Jewish church at that time; which was the true wilderness meant by the Prophet, in which John was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.