nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward. Your Country is desolate, your Cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged City.

Come now let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the Land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the King of Assyria. The spoil of Samaria shall be taken away, before the King of Assyria.

CHAPTER 97.

ISAIAH, ON THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH.

COMFORT ye, comfort ye my People, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.

The voice of him that crieth in the Wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the

desert, a highway for our God. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Behold a virgin shall conceive and bare a son, and shall call his name Immanuel; (which being interpreted is, God with us.) Unto us a child is born, unto us a ́son is given; and the Government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end, 'upon the Throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, to order it, and to establish it, with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the Earth.

Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; for behold darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and Kings to the brightness of thy rising. 35. A

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He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;

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the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep are gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,. so opened he not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. He was numbered with the trangressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Read, consider, and remember these sublime passages: Then read the History of our Saviour's life in the Gospels; and adore with gratitude the author of our salvation.

CHAPTER 98.

ISAIAH, OF THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON BY CYRUS, AND THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

THE burden of Babylon; behold I will stir up the Medes against them; their bows shall dash the young men to pieces, and their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon the glory of Kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

1. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian, pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert

shall be there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and Satyrs shall dance there. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own' land, and they shall rule over their oppressors.

How hath the oppressor ceased! the Golden City ceased! How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations! for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will make Babylon a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts.

Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, and he that formed thee, I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the Heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the Earth by myself. That saith of CYRUS, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built; and to the Temple, thy foundation shall be laid.

Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue Nations before him; I will break in pieces the Gates of Brass, and cut in sunder the Bars of Iron. And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast not knowu me. That they may know from the rising of the Sun, and from the West that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God,

and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from the East, the man that executeth my counsel from a far Country, yea I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

Thus did Isaiah prophecy of the destruction of that wicked City of Babylon, the largest and most magnificient City that ever was. It is supposed to have been founded about a hundred years after the flood, by Nimrod the hunter, whom we read of in Genesis, but it was Nebuchadnezzar who enlarged, and made it so fine a City. It was a regular square City, each of the four sides being eleven miles, inclosed by a wall two hundred feet high and fifty feet broad, and having one hundred Gates of Brass. In it, was the Temple of Belus, whose base was a quarter of a mile square and eight stories high, a most magnificent Palace built by Nebuchadnezzar, and the beautiful hanging Gardens raised upon Arches.

Two hundred years after, was Babylon utterly destroyed by Cyrus, the first King of Persia, whom Isaiah thus pointed out by express name. Cyrus destroyed the outer walls, Xerxes destroyed the Temples, till it became a hunting place for the Kings of Persia, and its ruins have been so entirely demolished, that nothing is now left to point out where it stood.

CHAPTER 99.

THE PROPHET JONAH.

THE word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great City of the Assyrians, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before