3 66 SECT.IV." OF RIGHTEOUSNESS arife, with healing in his wings; and ye fhall go "forth, and grow up as the firfstlings "of bullocks: and ye fhall tread down "the wicked, for they fhall be ashes "under the foles of your feet, in the day that I fhall do this, faith the Lord when the law hath done it's office, and prophet;" not the perfonal Elijah, a Ezek. xxxvii. 23. a bear bear his name, but was to be, in cer- SECT.IV. tain refpects, like David, conquering the enemies, and fitting upon the throne of Ifrael. So the forerunner of Meffiah was not to be Elijah defcended from heaven, nor was he, at his manifeftation, to be called by that name, but was to be like him in his office and character. Such a messenger, faith God, “I "will fend, before the coming of the 66 great and dreadful day of the Lord,” that is, the day that should" burn like "an oven," the day of Jerufalem's deftruction, mentioned in the firft verfe. "And he fhall turn the heart of the "fathers to the children, and the heart "of the children to the fathers, left I "come and smite the earth," or "the "land, with a curfe." In the citation of this paffage by the angel, one part of it is paraphrased "hearts of the fathers to the children, "and the difobedient to the wisdom of the juft." The meaning of the whole feems to be, either, that men of every age and every difpofition should be united in truth and charity; or, as some a Luke i. 17. I 66 111 "To turn the learned SECT.IV.learned expofitors understand the paffage, that St. John fhould bring many of the Jews to have the fame heart and mind which their fathers and progenitors had, who feared God, and believed his promises; that fo their fathers might, as it were, rejoice in them, and own them again for their children; in other words, that he fhould convert them to the faith of that Chrift whom their fathers hoped in, and looked for; as it was faid by the angel, "Many of the children " of Ifrael fhall he turn to the Lord "their God";" left, all continuing obftinate in their unbelief, till the day when a rejected Saviour should vifit an apoftate people, the curfe fhould be univerfal. a BESIDES these notices afforded us by Malachi, there is a prophecy on the same subject in the x1th chapter of Ifaiah, to which St. John referred the priests and levites, when they preffed him, faying, "Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that fent "us? What fayeft thou of thyfelf? "He said, I am the voice of one crying a Luke i. 16. "in the wilderness, make ftraight the SECT.IV. 66 way of the Lord, as faid the prophet' a "Efaias "." But let us take a view of the whole context, as far as it concerns our prefent purpose. . I. "Comfort ye, comfort ture manifeftation of Chrift's s reprefented to the prophet ith the concomitant figns and ces of it. He hears the voice ecting his fervants to comfort by proclaiming certain glad ich had been communicated Thefe glad tidings were the the Gofpel. The perfons to first came were Zacharias, Virgin, Simeon, and Anna, ofed facred fongs upon the nd fpake of Meffiah's advent ch as looked for redemption "in Jerufalem "." The fame tidings were afterwards published by the Baptift, then by Christ himself and his a John i. 23. Luke ii. 38. I 2 apostles, SECT.IV. apoftles, and have been ever fince 2. "SPEAK ye comfortably to Jeru falem,, and cry unto her, that "her warfare is accomplished, "that her iniquity is pardoned: "for fhe hath received of the "Lord's hand double for all her "fins." GOOD news fhould be related with a fuitable aspect and accent. The manner should correfpond with the matter. Speak ye comfortably," or, as it is in the Hebrew phrafeology, "to the heart "of Jerufalem;" let your words be as cordials, to revive and chear her in the midst of her forrows and fufferings. The topics of confolation, to be infifted on, are three. First, "Her warfare," or "appointed service, is accomplished;" the days of her continuance under the yoke of bondage are expired; the fulnefs of time is come, for her paffing from that state into the glorious liberty of M |