fortune, when the Sun of Israel should again arife, and the glory of the Lord should again be diffused upon them.

As far as the prophecy admitted of application to temporal and national themes, it must be referred, as indeed it was understood by the Jews of a later age, to the deliverance of that people from the Babylonian yoke; a revolution marked with the moft welcome viciffitude of fortune, from flavery to freedom, from mifery to happiness, from exile to their country. This great event was accomplished by the ministry of Cyrus, the illuftrious Founder of the Perfian Empire, whom the fame Ifaiah had foretold by name fome ages before his birth, with every circumftance, that could give dignity and fplendour to a fpecial Agent of the will of Heaven. God himself pronounces him his Shepherd, and his Anointed Prince, whom he would raise in righteousness, and hold by the right hand, to fulfil his pleasure, and to execute his counfels, to release his captives, to restore his exiles, to reeftablish the commonwealth of Ifracl, and to rebuild the City and Temple of the Lord. Under his aufpicious rod of empire good tidings were published to the

Ifa. xliv. 28. xlv. 1, &c.

meek,

meek, and healing was administered to the broken-hearted, and deliverance was granted to the captives, and the prison was opened for the bound, and the gracious year of acceptance with the Lord, the year of general restitution and release, proclaimed.

was upon

But great as this deliverance under Cyrus was, the Prophet had a nobler and more important theme in view. The Jews themfelves, though the veil of carnal prejudice their eyes, were disposed to understand thefe prophetic words as defcriptive of fuperior bleffings, yet in ftore for God's peculiar people, under the banners of a Perfon to be born among themfelves, of that Meffiah or Anointed Prince, to whom from earliest to latest times their prophecies continually and invariably point. To this divine Perfonage they folicitoufly bent their hopes; and from his tutelary care, as they understood their Prophets, they expected every kind of national profperity and glory, the independence of Judah, the restoration of the fcattered tribes, a conqueft of their enemies, and a preeminence of dominion over all the world.

When Jefus Chrift appeared, he by no means answered the defcription, which they had fancied to themfelves, of the promised Meffiah;

Meffiah; nor indeed to external view did he justify the expectations, which they had fondly cherished of a temporal Prince. But invested as he was by the power of the Spirit, which approved him mighty both in word and deed, he could not but engage attention from every disposition and character of men. While he

travelled through the land of Galilee, a fame of him went abroad through all the region round and he taught in their fynagogues, being glorified of all d.

In the circuit that he made in Galilee, he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as his cuftom was, he went into the fynagogue on the fabbath-day. And he ftood up for to read, agreeably to the ufage of the public fervice among the Jews, of rehearfing a portion of the Law or the Prophets, accompanied with an expofition or paraphrafe. And there was delivered unto him the book of the Prophet Ifaiah: when by a special direction of providence the book was opened on this memorable text. When therefore he began to read, he would naturally engage the serious notice of the whole affembly. Whatever prejudice they might entertain against him, (for this prejudice was

d Luke iv. 14, 15.

the

the greatest in his own country, and among his own kindred,) they would be curious to hear, what a Teacher, fo distinguished by the voice of fame, could fay upon fo interesting a theme. During the paufe, that ensued after he had clofed the book, the eyes of all in the fynagogue were fastened on him.

And he began to fay unto them, "This day is this fcripture fulfilled in your ears." Instead of applying it to any temporal or any national deliverance, whether past or to come, he brought it home to the spiritual and univerfal deliverance of the world. The Spirit of the Lord, which had been upon Ifaiah, was now diffufed in more than double portion on the holy Jefus. He was anointed in a more divine manner; he had tidings of fuperior good to preach; and he had a far more important redemption to accomplish. And therefore, without detracting any thing from the high character of Isaiah, we may truly fay, Behold a greater than Ifaiah is here.

The Jews had been accustomed to receive the Scriptures in a literal and temporal sense. An Interpreter from heaven was now risen among them, who undrew the veil of fhadows from the Law and the Prophets, and explained them in their full and true defign, as representing spiritual themes, as delineating

F

better

better things to come. The Covenant of

the Law, when rightly understood, was emblematic and predictive of the Covenant of Grace. The ceremonial fervice of the Law was a type or picture of the fpiritual service of the Gospel. In like manner the whole Civil History of the Hebrews, in the feveral changes which they fo oft experienced, from the discipline of adverse to the recompence of profperous fortune, from poverty to plenty, from warfare to peace, from flavery to freedom, from pilgrimage to a fettled habitation, from exile to their proper country, may be regarded as a prophetic parable of the Spiritual History of that holy Nation, that peculiar People, which constitutes the Kingdom of the Meffiah in its two different states, of discipline and trial upon earth, of recompence and happiness in heaven. Of this complexion is the paffage now before us. In its literal and more immediate fense it may fignify the temporal deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish yoke, and their restoration by Cyrus to their patrimonial home. But in its final and most important aim it represents the spiritual deliverance of all mankind by Jefus Christ, the true Shepherd and Anointed of the Lord, from the bondage of fin and death, and their final establishment in the fpiritual