The establishment B. C. 706. r ISAIAH. of the church. B. C. 706. A. M. 3298. 17 They that sanctify themselves, || tongues; and they shall come, and A. M. 3298. and purify themselves in the gar- see my glory. dens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD. 18¶For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and r Chap. lxv. 3.—6 Or, one after another. God should cause to be slain. This was awfully fulfilled in the destruction brought on the Jews by the Romans for crucifying the Messiah; no fewer than eleven hundred thousand, according to Josephus, || perishing in the siege of Jerusalem, and at least three hundred thousand more during the war; not to mention the vast numbers that perished in caves, woods, wildernesses, common sewers, of whom no account could be taken; and the great slaughter made of them afterward in the wars waged against them by Adrian, when fifty of their strongest fortresses were razed, and nine hundred and eighty-five of their noblest towns were sacked, and consumed by fire. See note on Deut. xxviii. 62. Verse 17. They that sanctify themselves, &c.— "Behold," says Vitringa, "the reason of the great severity above mentioned, namely, a base and abominable departure from God, represented under a certain kind of idolatry and detestable superstition, of all others the most odious and contrary to the institutions of the ancient religion." It is evident the passage is to be understood figuratively, like those in verse 3, and in chap. lxv. 3, 4, 11, on which see the 19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; • Luke ii. 34. || prohibited by the law as unclean, although in public they pretended to be true Jews, or strict observers of the law. Eating swine's flesh-Forbidden, Lev. xi. 7; Deut. xiv. 8. And the abomination-Other abominable meats forbidden to the Jews; and the mouse-The word which we translate mouse being nowhere found but Lev. xi. 29; 1 Sam. vi. 4, 5, 11, 18, and here, some think it is not that creature which we call a mouse, but rather signifies some serpent. Be this as it may, the sense evidently is, that God would not only destroy the open and gross idolaters and superstitious persons, but all those who made no conscience of yielding obedience to the law of God in such things as seemed to them of a trivial nature, and in which they easily might have yielded obedience. The Lord here assures them that they should all perish together. Observe, reader, in the day of final judgment, the idolatrous pagan or Papist, and the ungodly Protestant, shall fare alike. For no man can reasonably imagine that either baptism, or a profession of Christianity, can save a man from God's wrath without holiness, any more than circumcision, and the being reputed a member in the Jewish Church. notes. And purify themselves in the gardens reges 18-20. For I know their works and their thoughts-Of idolatry, superstition, and other wickedness. The word know not being in the Hebrew, some apply the ellipsis thus: I have observed their works, &c. Others consider the clause as a question, and read, Should I endure their works, &c.? No: it shall come, that I will gather, &c.—My threatened judgments shall come upon them, and I will gather all nations and tongues to see my glori There were several sorts of lustrations, or purifications, used among the heathen, from whence the Jews learned their idolatrous customs, some of which were performed by washings, for which purpose they had|| fountains in their sacred groves and gardens. Behind one tree-The word tree is not in the Hebrew. The words are 8, achar achad, which may signify, after the manner of achad. Or, as Bishop Lowth renders it, after the rites of achad; observing, "the Syrians worshipped a god called Adad, whom they|ous holiness and justice manifested in their punishheld to be the highest and greatest of the gods, and ment. Or the sense may be, Because I know and to be the same with Jupiter and the sun and the will no longer bear with their works, therefore it name Adad, says Macrobius, signifies one, as like- shall come to pass that I will cast them off, and then wise does the word achad, in Isaiah. Many learned I will gather all nations, &c.—That is, take the men, therefore, have supposed, and with some pro- Gentiles to be my people in their stead. This sense bability, that the prophet means the same pretended of the clause agrees well with what follows. And deity. But whatever the particular mode of idolatry they shall see my glory-My oracles, my holy instimight be, the general sense of the verse is perfectly tutions and ordinances, which hitherto have been clear." It is plainly a reproof of the wicked Jews locked up in the church of the Jews, and have been for the many idolatries and superstitions of which their glory, shall be published to the Gentiles, Psa. they were guilty, and which are here set forth in xcvii. 6; and chap. xl. 5. And I will set a sign figurative language, borrowed from the abominable among them-It is agreed by all, that this is a propractices to which many of the Jews were addicted phecy concerning the conversion of the Gentiles. in Isaiah's time; who privately, in enclosed gardens By a sign here some understand an ensign, as the which were not exposed to view, performed the word signifies Psa. lxxiv. 4, which is a miliheathen lustrations, sacrificed in the heathen man-tary sign, to gather people together, to which, as is ner, and to their gods, and eat meats which were promised chap. xi. 12, the Gentiles shall seek. A. M. 3298. and they shall declare my glory || offering in a clean vessel into the A. M. 3298. among the Gentiles. house of the LORD. B. C. 706. 20 And they shall bring all your brethren " for an offering unto the LORD, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an t Mal. i. 11.- u Rom. xv. 16.- -7 Or, coaches. -x Exodus xix. 6; Chapter lxi. 6; 1 Peter ii. 9; Revelation i. 6. B. C. 706. were planted among the Gentiles, they had ministers appointed them who were, of themselves, elders in every church, Acts xiv. 23; Titus i. 5; which made the ministry to spread the more easily, and to be the more familiar, and, if not the more venerable, yet the more acceptable. God saith, I will take, not all them, though they are all, in a spiritual sense, made to our God kings and priests, but of them, that is, some of them. It is God's work to choose ministers, by qualifying them for, and inclining them to, the service, as well as to make ministers, by giving them their commission. I will take them-That is, I will admit them, though Gentiles, and will accept of them and their ministrations. This is a great honour and advantage to the Gentile Church, as it was to the Jewish Church, that God raised up of their sons for prophets, and their young men for Nazarites, Amos ii. 11. The preaching of the word seems to be intended, accompanied with miracles called signs, or followed by some distinguishing providence, whereby they should be preserved from the common destruction. And I will send those that escape of them unto the nations--Those few Jews who, being converted to the Christian faith, escaped the national impenitence and unbelief, and the common destruction of the nation; and many of them, the apostles in particular, shall be employed in all parts of the world, for|| the conversion of others, Matt. xxviii. 19; Acts xiii. 46. Tarshish, Pul, Lud, and the other places here mentioned, are intended to signify the different quarters of the world into which the gospel would be sent. And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles-The glorious riches of my grace in Christ. And they shall bring all your brethren, &c. || -The apostles and gospel ministers thus sent abroad shall bring the converts of the Gentiles, who are your Verses 22, 23. For as the new heavens, &c.-The brethren in Christ, (Gal. iii. 28,) Abraham's spiritual new state of the church to be raised up under the seed; for an offering unto the Lord-Who will have Messiah; shall remain before me— e-Unalterable. As no more offerings of bullocks, or rams, or lambs, but the gospel dispensation is to be continued till the end will have men and women, reasonable oblations, of time, and not to be succeeded by any other; as it Rom. xii. 1. He will particularly have the offering shall therefore remain, because it is before me, under up of the Gentiles, which shall be acceptable, being my eye, my care, and special protection; so shall sanctified by the Holy Ghost, Rom. xv. 16. Upon || your seed and your name remain—A seed of minishorses and in chariots, &c.—That is, by every me-ters, a seed of Christians. As one generation of both thod of conveyance then in use. To my holy mount-passeth, away, another generation shall come, and ain, Jerusalem―That is, to the Christian Church, thus the name of Christ, with that of Christians, typified by Jerusalem. As the children of Israel || bring an offering in a clean vessel-These converted Gentiles shall be a holy people, and therefore acceptable to God. Verse 21. I will also take of them for priests and for Levites-God will find among the converted Gentiles those who, though they are not of the tribe of Levi, yet shall do the true work of the priests and Levites. They shall minister in holy things, preside in the religious assemblies, teach the people, and bless in the name of the Lord. They shall be stewards of the mysteries of God, as the priests and Levites were under the law; angels or messengers of the churches, pastors overseeing and feeding their several flocks, elders, presbyters, or bishops, giving themselves to the word of God and prayer, (Acts vi. 2-4,) and wholly occupied in these holy duties. The apostles were all Jews, and so were the seventy disciples; the great apostle of the Gentiles was himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews. But when churches || shall continue on earth while the earth remains, and his throne as the days of heaven! The gates of hell, though they fight against the church, shall not prevail against it, nor wear out the saints of the Most High: for there shall be a daily succession of true believers for the upholding of it; for, if believers could fail from the earth, the church, made up of them only, as the true members of it, must fail also. And from one new-moon to another, &c.-In the gospel church there shall be as constant and settled a course of worship, (though of another nature,) as ever was in the Jewish Church. This is described in expressions suited to the Old Testament dispensation, to show that, though the ceremonial law should be abolished, and the temple service at an end, yet God should be still as regularly, statedly, and acceptedly worshipped as ever. Heretofore the Jews were only obliged to appear three times in a year at the place of God's public worship, but, saith the prophet, in the gospel church people shall worship from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another—|| They shall be perpetually employed in serving and glorifying him, although in different ways. Their state shall be one continued festival. And whereas, under the former dispensation, the Jews only were bound to attend God's worship at the great feasts, and of them only the males; now, under the new dispensation, all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, women as well as men, shall come and worship || before God-That is, shall worship in his presence, though not in his temple at Jerusalem, but in religious assemblies dispersed all over the world, which shall be to them as the tabernacle of meeting was to the Jews: God will in them record his name; and, though but two or three come together, he will be in the midst of them, will meet and bless them. Verse 24. And they shall go forth-Namely, those who had joined themselves to the communion of the church spoken of in the preceding verses; and look upon the carcasses of the men that have sinned against me Meaning chiefly the unbelieving Jews who rejected Christ and his gospel, including, however, all impenitent sinners, and especially all the enemies and persecutors of God's truth and people. By looking upon their carcasses is meant beholding the dreadful vengeance taken on them. This is here represent by in allusion to the frightful spectacle of over its enemies. B. C. 706. C 24 And they shall go forth, and look A. M. 3299. upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their © worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. a Psa. lxv. 2.- b Verse 16.-e Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. Abraham at table, in the kingdom of heaven; (see Matt. viii. 11; John xiii. 23;) for we could not possibly have any conception of it, but by analogy from worldly objects: in like manner he expressed the place of torment under the image of Gehenna; and the punishment of the wicked by the worm, which there preyed on the carcasses, and the fire, which consumed the wretched victims. Marking, however, in the strongest manner, the difference between Gehenna and the invisible place of torment: namely, that in the former, the suffering is transient; the worm itself, that preys on the body, dies: whereas, in the figurative Gehenna, the instruments of punishment shall be everlasting, and the suffering without end; for there the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. "These emblematical images, expressing heaven and hell, were in use among the Jews before our Saviour's time; and, in using them, he complied with their notions. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, says the Jew to our Saviour, Luke xiv. 15. And, in regard to Gehenna, the Chaldee paraphrast renders everlasting, or continual burnings, by the Gehenna of everlasting fire. And before this time the son of Sirach (vii. 17) had said, The vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms. So likewise the author of the book of Judith: Wo to the nation rising up against my kindred: the Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment, putting fire and worms in their flesh chap. xvi. 17, manifestly referring to the same emblem." W described by an allusion to the frightful spectacle of a field of battle covered with the carcasses of the slain, which lie rotting upon the ground, full of worms, crawling about them, and feeding on them. It seems the Lord, by his prophet, first intends to set forth the dreadful temporal calamities that should come upon And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh— the Jews, in the destruction of their city and nation Hebrew 1877, an execration, as Dr. Waterland renby the Romans; in which destruction, as has been ders it. Christ the Lord," says Vitringa, “in intimated in the note on verse 16, not less than passing his judicial sentence on false Christians and between two and three millions, first and last, were wicked persons, will say, Go, ye cursed, or execrated, cut off by the sword, famine, and pestilence. But into eternal fire. That evil will be added to their when it is added, for their worm shall not die, nei state of pain, and a condemning conscience. Sepather shall their fire be quenched, it is certain the rated from the blessed and glorious communion of punishment of the wicked in the world to come is God and the saints, cast into the deepest state of chiefly intended. These words, it is well known, misery, they will be exposed to the reproach, ignoare applied by our Saviour, (Mark ix. 44,) to express miny, contempt, and execration of angels and saints," the everlasting punishment of the wicked in Gehen- (say rather of devils and condemned spirits,) “sufna, or hell, so called, in allusion to the valley offering the punishment of their pride, arrogance, Hinnom, the place where the idolatrous Jews cele- || tyranny, cruelty, injustice, crimes, hatred of the brated that horrible rite of making their children truth, persecutions, by which things in this life, pass through the fire, that is, of burning them in sa- fighting against God, and afflicting his saints, they crifice to Moloch; concerning which place see note knowingly and willingly provoked his displeasure. chap. xxx. 33. "Our Saviour," says Bishop Lowth, These are the ends of the two opposite kinds of men, expressed the state of the blessed by sensible the pious and the ungodly, in which, after various images; such as paradise, Abraham's bosom, or, preparatory judgments of God, the fates of all ages, which is the same thing, a place to recline next to as well as our own fates, will be terminated, and in Conclusion of the CHAPTER LXVI. prophecy of Isaiah. which this divine book of the great Prophet Isaiah || also closes his observations thereon. "Influenced also terminates. May our lot be with the saints, by which hope, and prostrate before his throne, I rewith those who reverence God and love the truth;|| with the humble, the meek, the merciful, and those that persevere in good works to the end of life, through the grace of our great Lord, Saviour, and Judge, Jesus Christ, who will distribute these bless- || ings according to the will of his Father." This eminent divine concludes his very learned || commentary on this incomparable prophecy with the following devout prayer and thanksgiving, with which the author of this work, adopting his words, 3 turn, with the most profound humility, my sincerest THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIA H. ARGUMENT. JEREMIAH was of the sacerdotal race, being the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests, who dwelt at Anathoth, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, situate, according to Jerome, about three miles north of Jerusalem. He was appointed to the prophetic office from his mother's womb, and was called to the exercise of it when very young; namely, in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, the year of the world 3375, and six hundred and twenty-nine years before Christ. He continued to prophesy more than forty years; namely, till after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, which happened in the year of the world 3416, and he died, as is generally believed, in Egypt, two years afterward; into which country, after the desolation of Judea, he followed the remnant of the Jews. In the course of his ministry he met with great difficulties and opposition from his countrymen of all degrees, whose persecution and ill usage sometimes wrought so far upon his mind, as to draw from him some expressions, in the bitterness of his soul, which many have thought it difficult to reconcile with the sacredness of his prophetic office; but which, when duly weighed, may be found to demand our pity rather than censure. He was certainly a man of unblemished piety, and conscientious integrity; a warm lover of his country, whose miseries he pathetically deplores; and so affectionately attached to his countrymen, notwithstanding their injurious treatment of him, that he chose rather to abide with them, and undergo all hardships in their company, than separately to enjoy a state of ease and plenty, which the favour of the king of Babylon would have secured to him. The time and manner of his death are very uncertain. The current tradition indeed among the Jews and Christians is, that he was stoned to death by the Jews of Tahpanhes, offended by his warm and continual remonstrances against their idolatrous practices: but this account, though not improbable, considering the temper and disposition of the parties concerned, is not, however, absolutely to be relied on. If true, their wickedness did not long pass without its reward; for, in a few years after, those Jews were miserably destroyed by the Babylonian armies, which invaded Egypt, according to the prophet's prediction, chap. xliv. 27, 28. Jeremiah being ordained, as we find, chap. i. 5, to prophesy, not only to the Jews, but also to other nations; to go to all to whom God should send him, and to speak whatsoever he commanded him; he accordingly not only uttered prophecies against God's chosen people, but also against the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumeans, the Syrians, and other nations, and, in a more particular manner, against the Babylonians. The prophecies against these foreign nations are placed by themselves, beginning at the 46th chapter. The foregoing chapters relate to the Jews, being reproofs of their wickedness, exhortations to repentance, and denunciations of God's judgments, if they continued obstinate; and, in particular, an express denunciation, that they should come under subjection to the Chaldeans, and be carried captives to Babylon; but with a promise annexed, that after the expiration of just seventy years, they should be released from their captivity, and come back again to their own country. There are likewise some prophecies concerning particular persons, as against Pashur, Shallum, Jehoiakim, Coniah, Hananiah, and Zedekiah; and also some concerning the coming of Christ, the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true God; and of the new covenant which God would make with Israel. With the prophecies is interspersed the history of some affairs, particularly of the treatment Jeremiah met with from the Jews; and of the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. As to the style and genius of this prophet's writing, the character given thereof by an acknowledged critic, a character to which every reader of discernment will heartily subscribe, is as follows: "Jeremiah is by no means wanting, either in elegance or sublimity, although, generally speaking, inferior to Isaiah in both. Jerome has objected to him a certain rusticity in his diction, of which I must confess I do not discover the smallest trace. His thoughts, indeed, are somewhat less elevated, and he is commonly more large and diffuse in his sentences; but the reason of this may be, that he is mostly taken up with the |