of the fons of God; fhe will now be SECT.IV. relieved from duty, and difmiffed from the station on which the hath fo long watched, in expectation of the promised redemption; fhe will be "delivered out "of the hands of her enemies, to ferve "God without fear." Secondly, " Her iniquity is pardoned;" the expiation is about to be made, which all her facrifices and luftrations prefigured, which all her prophets foretold; the bleffed perfon is born, in whom God is well pleased, both granting and accepting repentance unto "falvation by the re"miffion of fins," that men may be justified from all things from which 66 they could not be juftified BY the "law of Mofes," although men were juftified UNDER that difpenfation, through faith in him that was then to come, according to the Gospel preached before unto Abraham. Thirdly, " She "hath received of the Lord's hand "double for all her fins ;" fhe hath received greater benefits than fhe had deserved punishments; mercy hath rejoiced against judgment; where fin abounded, grace hath fuperabounded. 3. THE SECT.IV. 3. "THE Voice of him that crieth "in the wilderness, prepare ye "the way of the Lord, make ftraight in the defart a high way for our God." ISAIAH, while reciting the divine injunctions to those whofe office it should be to "comfort Jerufalem," feemeth to break off fuddenly, as one interrupted in his difcourfe by the found of a voice. And as if he had liftened, and perceived it to be the found of that voice which so many prophets and kings had defired to hear, and had not heard it, viz. the voice proclaiming the actual incarnation of Meffiah, he breaks forth in tranf port, "The voice of him that crieth "in the wilderness!" Hark! a glad voice the lonely defart chears; Prepare the way! a God, a God ap pears. The voice which thus founded in the prophet's ears, fo long before it was really heard upon the earth, was that of of the Baptift, who, at the proper fea- SECT.IV. 4. "EVERY valley fhall be exalted, THESE are the words of the prophet himself, unfolding the counfels of God concerning the manner in which Meffiah's kingdom fhould be established in the world, and the alterations which muft neceffarily take place, in order to that end. Every valley fhall be ex"alted;" to the poor in fpirit, the lowly and contrite fouls, the Gospel shall be preached, and they fhall be exalted. in faith and hope ---“ and every moun"tain and hill made low;" on the contrary, pride of every kind, and in every fhape, whether exalting itself in judaical pharifaism, or in gentile philofophy, against the knowlege of God, shall be made SECT.IV. made low, and fubdued to the obedience of Chrift: " and the crooked shall be "made straight;" truth and rectitude shall fucceed to error and depravity "and the rough places plain;" every thing that offendeth fhall be removed, and all difficulties and inequalities fmoothed, till unanimity and uniformity prevail. Thus shall the way be prepared for the King of Righteousness to vifit his people, to dwell in them, and to walk among them. 5. "AND the glory of the Lord shall "be revealed, and all flesh shall "fee it together; for the mouth "of the Lord hath spoken it." IMMEDIATELY after the proclamation and preparation made by the Baptist, the Divinity was revealed in human nature, God was manifested in the flesh, feen and converfed with by all ranks and degrees of men, high and low, rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles, Pharifees and Saducees, publicans and finners. The accomplishment of this part of Ifaiah's prophecy is exactly related by St. St. John the Evangelift, in the follow-SECT.IV. ing terms; "The word was made flesh, "and dwelt among us, and we beheld "his GLORY, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth THUS we have feen under what character the Baptist is held forth to us in the predictions of the prophets concerning him, as one who fhould go before Meffiah in the fpirit and power of Elias, to proclaim and prepare the way for the advent of God incarnate. How perfectly, during the courfe of his miniftry, he filled up this character, will appear in the fubfequent fections. |