smell of her breath was sweet, her vitals being sound and pure, and sweet, being made so by the food she eat, viz. apples, the food she from time to time desires to be refreshed with, it being the fruit that he yields, who is as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, whose fruit was sweet to her taste. Person's breath commonly smells of the food which they eat; thus the breath of the spouse is represented as smelling like apples.

[497] Cant. vii. 9. "And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." By the roof of the mouth is here probably meant his discourse, which is like excellent wine that goes sweetly down, and so refreshes and enlivens other saints whom here Christ calls his beloved, that it causes those of them that are asleep, and in the dullest frame, to speak; it enlivens their hearts and tongues in divine things.

[8] Cant. viii. 1. "O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised." Which wish of the church is now accomplished, by Christ's incarnation; the Son of God, who is infinitely higher than we, is come down unt our nature, and has familiarized himself to us.

[242] Isai. vii. 17. "The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria." This seems not to be spoken of the king or Israel mentioned in the foregoing verse, but of Ahaz the king or Judah, to whom the prophet was then speaking. It could not be meant of Pekah, the king of Israel, because it speaks of bringing the king of Assyria in his father's house, but the family of Pekah was not cut off by the king of Assyria, but by Hoshea the son of Elah, who conspired against him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. 2 Kings xv. 30. God by the prophet had offered great encouragement to Ahaz under his present distress and fear of Pekah and Rezin, and gave him a glorious sign, which he would not give heed to, as appears by ver. 12. His confidence was not in God for help, but in the king of Assyria, whom he had hired by the treasures of both church and state, and by basely promising to be his servant. 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8. Seeing he would not believe God's promises, nor take encouragement from his signs, therefore he should not be established; and though God would do great things for his people by the Immanuel that should be born in his family, yet he should have no benefit of it; and though it was true as the prophet had told him, that he should not be

hurt by the kingdom of Syria, and kingdom of Ephraim, that was now plotting his ruin; yet seeing he would not believe he should not be the better for it, for there should come a greater calamity upon him, than ever the kingdom of Judah suffered from the kingdom of Israel, and indeed greater than ever they suffered since the kingdoms were divided from them, and became unfriendly to them; and that from the king of Assyria himself, whom he trusted so much in for help, against the kingdom of Israel. The calamity came upon him in his lifetime in a measure, as it is said in this verse [upon THEE ;] for when the king of Assyria came up, he distressed him, and strengthened him not. 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21; and afterwards it came upon his father's house, and on his people.

[293] Isai. viii. 7, 8. "Now, therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks; and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow, and go over." The river Euphrates was the ancient boundary that God had set to the possession of the children of Israel, and to the dominion of their princes. This is from time to time mentioned as their eastern limits in the book of Moses, and over all on this side the river. The kings of Judah and Israel had formerly reigned, and their territories were overrun by the people that dwelt about that river, it is well represented as though the river Euphrates, their ancient boundary, broke its banks, and not only encroached upon them to the straitening their limits, but even overflowed all their possessions. They have no more their own by God's grant, than is left them on this side the river Euphrates; and therefore, when those waters came to overflow all, they have none left. See Note on Isai. xxviii. 17.

[243] Isai. ix. 9, 10, &c. "And all the people shall know, even Ephraim, and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in their pride and stoutness of heart, the bricks are hewn down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." They disregarded those awful and repeated judgments God had lately exercised upon them, whereby he had already greatly diminished their numbers and their wealth, and the extent of their dominions, when Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the land, and took a thousand talents of silver out of the land, as 2 Kings xv. 19, and when afterwards Tiglath-pileser, in the days of Pekah, he that was now king, came and destroyed so great a part of the land beyond Jordan, and in the northern parts, as 2 Kings xv. 19, and 1 Chron. v.

26. They were insensible and unhumbled under these awful rebukes of heaven, as ver. 13, "For the people turneth not him that smiteth them." But when the hand of heaven was so evidently against them to diminish them, yet they were full of contrivances, and big with expectations of conquests, and enlarging their dominions, as appears in Pekah's conspiring with Rezin, king of Syria, to go and conquer the kingdom of Judah, of which in the two foregoing chapters. Thus even in the midst of God's awful judgments they were full of haughty, ambitious designs, and big with expectations of aggrandizing them, and making themselves bigger than they were before; though they had lost their westernand northern countries, yet they hoped to obtain the kingdom of Judah that should more than make up their loss, and so said, Though the bricks are fallen down, we will build with hewn stone, &c.

[246] Isai. x. 26. "And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock Oreb." The prophet is speaking here of the destruction of Sennacherib's army, and of himself afterwards. There was a remarkable agreement between this destruction of his army, and that of the vast army of the Midianites, which was without the children of Israel's striking a blow. Judges vii. 20, &c. And as Oreb, one of their princes was taken afterwards, and slain after the battle was over, as he was returning to his own land; so Sennacherib, after he had fled, was slain in the temple of his god, Nisroch. Isai. xxxvii. 38. So was that prayer against the enemies of the church, Ps. lxxxiii. 11, "Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb," now fulfilled in Sennacherib.

[503] Isai. xi. 10. "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious:" or as the original is, "His rest shall be glory." There is an evident allusion in these words to the things which came to pass pertaining to the affair of God's redeeming the children of Israel out of Egypt, and leading them through the wilderness, and bringing them into Canaan. This is very manifest by the words immediately following, and by all the succeeding context to the end of the chapter. This is a prophecy of a second work, greater work of salvation, wherein not only the Jews, but the Gentiles, and all nations, shall partake. When God redeemed his people out of Egypt to lead them to Canaan, which was God's rest, they were gathered together under ensigns, they were the standards or ensigns of the four quarters of the army. That of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan, and then the ensign for the whole army placed in the

middle of the congregation, was the tabernacle and ark where was Moses, the captain and leader of the whole host, with his rod which was used from time to time as the banner or ensign of the congregation, as it was especially at the time when it was held up over Israel while they were fighting with Amalek, and obtained a signal victory under that ensign, on which occasion Moses built an altar and called it Jehovah-Nissi, The Lord my Banner, or Ensign, (the word is the same in the original as here in this place, in Isaiah,) and both the rod and altar were types of Christ, who is Jehovah, who then was the ensign of his church, and would more especially and gloriously be exhibited as such in the days of the gospel, as is here foretold in Isaiah; and then it was a rod that was held up as an ensign of the people; so here, in this xi. of Isaiah, Christ is spoken of as a rod, as in the first verse; "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots;" so in this x. verse. "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an Ensign;" i. e. plainly, a Rod or plant from a root of Jesse, (though something further may be aimed at in using the phrase, Root of Jesse.)

As the rod of Moses was occasionally used as an ensign of the people, so more constantly the Tabernacle and Ark. These were placed in the midst of the congregation, and the whole was to pitch in exact order round about it, at due distance from it, all having equal respect to it. And the ark is represented as going before the people in their marches; Numb. x. 33; because that, however it was in the middle of the army, yet they had respect to it as their Guide, their Banner, that all whose motions they were to attend; and when they went through the Jordan into Canaan, their Rest, the ark was remarkably made use of as the ensign of the people; it was to be carried before them at such a distance that it might be well seen by all the leaders of the people, and they were to take heed to its motions, with the greatest care and exactness, and to follow where that went. Josh. iii. 3, 4.

But more especially was the Pillar of cloud and fire, the ensign of that congregation in their marches from Egypt to Canaan, their Rest. A banner or ensign was lifted up on high that it might be seen by the whole company. The ark and tabernacle could not be seen by the whole congregation, but the pillar of cloud and fire which abode on the tabernacle, and departed not from it, were lifted up to open sight, and displayed to the view of every individual person. That was the banner the people were listed under, that they were always to cleave to most strictly, and diligently to observe, steadfastly to follow, and never to depart from, and were to be directed by it in every step they took. When that moved, they were to move; when that rested, they must rest : See Numb. ix. 15, to the end. This pillar of cloud and fire was the

special symbol of Christ's presence, and in that standing as an ensign, Christ stood as an ensign of the people. And it is moreover manifest that that pillar of cloud and fire was a remarkable type of Christ incarnate, or the Son of God in the human nature, concerning whom it is here prophesied that he should stand as an Ensign of the people.

When it is said, "his rest shall be glory," there is doubtless an allusion to Canaan, the promised Rest to which the ark and pillar of cloud and fire led the children of Israel, and the thing ultimately intended is heaven. It is said, Numb. x. 33, that the ark of the covenant of the Lord (over which was the pillar of cloud, as in the following verse) went before the people to search out a resting-place for them. That was the use of these ensigns under which that people were gathered together. They were to lead them to their Rest. The rest spoken of in the text under consideration, is called Christ's rest, which is agreeable to the style used concerning the rest to which God was leading the congregation in the wilderness; Ps. xcv. 11; "To whom he swear in his wrath that they should never enter into my Rest."

Here the rest to which Jesus Christ, God man, should bring the Gentiles, as well as Jews, after his incarnation, is spoken of as another rest, a different rest from that which God brought the Jews to of old, agreeably to the observation of the apostle, Heb. iv. 8, 9, 10, "For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day: there remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." Here it is remarkable, that take these words of the apostle with the foregoing context, he seems to signify that what is called God's rest, or Christ's rest in the promises of the Old Testament, is so called, not only because it was a rest of God's providing and promising, but because it was his, personally. So here the rest which remains for the people of God, which Christ gives his people, is spoken of as Christ's own rest and happiness that he has entered into: and so the land of Canaan of old was represented as God's own dwelling-place, his inheritance, &c. his mountain in the field, &c. And therefore, when God brought the people out of Egypt to Canaan, he is represented as having brought them to himself. But especially was that particular part of Canaan which God chose to place his name there, represented as God's or Christ's rest, namely, Jerusalem, mount Zion, and the temple. Ps. cxxxii. 8. "Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength." Ver. 13, 14. "The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest