not, then, only a temporal deliverance, à restoration of Israel to the glories of their kingdom and temple at Jerusalem, which the prophet announced; but that deliverance from sin and death, that everlasting salvation, which should be for all the ends of the earth. The view of the Jewish church and people being thus carried forward to the times of the Gospel, they are prepared for the call of the prophet to rejoice in the Advent of their glorious Messiah.

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"O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain-O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strengthlift it up, be not afraid! say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God."

According to this translation, which is that inserted in the text of our bibles-Zion and Jerusalem are made to publish the good tidings. Whereas, the connection, the force, and the sublimity of the whole scene, is better preserved, if Zion and Jerusalem, disconsolate in their state of captivity, are represented as receiving these good tidings, of the coming of their glorious Deliverer. And, accordingly, the translation, which is inserted in the margin of some editions of the Bible, and which is of equal authority with that in the text of the Bible, is to be preferred. And this is that which follows

"O thou, that tellest good tidings to Zion, get

thee up into the high mountain.

O thou, that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength-lift it up. Be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God;" your God in the person of your Messiah-thy king, O Zion, who cometh unto thee, just, and having salvation.

The messenger, introduced by the holy prophet, may be considered as addressing the spiritual Zion, the Christian church directs our view to the glorious Messiah.

Behold your God.

I. Behold him as a divine personage.

II. Behold him incarnate, in a state of humiliation and suffering.

III. Behold him in the exalted offices which he sustains towards you.

In the Messiah-Behold your God.

I. Behold him in his divine character.

There can be no doubt that this prophecy ap plies to the Gospel dispensation, and predicts the Advent of the Messiah. Here, then, we find asserted the divinity of Christ. The prophet had announced the herald of the Messiah, as crying in the wilderness," Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” and the message was announced to Zion, "Behold your God." John the Baptist was the prophetic herald who was to prepare the way of the Lordand John the Baptist was the herald of Christ's

Advent-and Jesus Christ was therefore the Lord. And to him the language of the inspired messenger of good tidings applies, "Behold your God."

In similar language, the prophet Zechariah had proclaimed to Zion, that in the person of the Messiah, the Lord himself would come and dwell with her. 66 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord "."

Numerous, indeed, are the passages in the prophetical books, which, as applied by the inspired writers of the New Testament, incontestibly prove, that the second person of the glorious Trinity, the Eternal Son, as the "angel of the covenant" conducted the Jewish dispensation, and was finally to appear in the person of man, to be the spiritual head and redeemer of his church and people. Wrapt in vision, Isaiah trembled when he saw the glory of the King, the Lord of Hosts, sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and received a message of woe to his guilty countrymen. These things, according to the evangelist St. John', said Esaias, when he "saw the glory of Christ, and spake of him." The prophet says he saw the glory of the Lord; the evangelist says the prophet saw the glory of Christ. Christ then was that King, the Lord of Hosts, whose glory the prophet saw filling the temple.

f

d Zec. ii. 10.

Is. vi.

John xii. 41.

The same prophet declared, "the Lord shall be for a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel"." The apostle Peter applies this passage to Jesus Christ, and thus proves that he was the Lord Jehovah. "Unto you, therefore, which believe (says the Apostle,) he (Christ) is precious; but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed is made the head of the corner; and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence"." The Lord, the prophet says, should be for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. Christ, the apostle declares, was this stone of stumbling, this rock of offence. Christ, therefore, is the Lord.

By the mouth of his prophet, Jehovah says, "I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear'." Mark the application of this, by the apostle, to Jesus Christ. "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ; for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God"— Christ, to whom every knee bows, and every tongue confesses, is then the Lord.

We need not be astonished, at the glorious

Is. viii. 14.

h

2 Pet. ii. 8. Rom. xiv. 11.

¡ Is. xlv. 23.

preparations which preceded the advent of Jesus Christ, or that the promise of his coming, originally revealed by God himself to the parents of our race, was renewed to the patriarchs, and was the glorious antitype to which pointed all the types of the law; and that prophets and holy men, who made him the subject of their inspired songs, so ardently desired to see his day. We do not wonder that all the works of the world were so disposed as to advance the glories of the Messiah's kingdom; and that an inspired herald was sent to prepare his way. For he was infinitely worthy of all these honours. The inspired precursors of his approach called to the cities of Judah

Christians, to you now the Church, sanctioned by these inspired examples, addresses the same language.

In Jesus Christ, whose advent you celebrate, behold, not the most perfect of your fellow mortals; not even one of those holy prophets whom Jehovah permitted to converse with him face to face; not even the most exalted of those angelic hosts who worship around the throne of the eternal-but your God-him, who was in an incomprehensible manner from the beginning with the Father; and therefore, being united with the Father, co-equal in honour, in power, and in glory-him in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead," "the alpha

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* Col. ii. 9.

E