"of Judah, we have a strong city, salva"tion will God appoint for walls and bul"warks. Thy dead men shall live; with 66 my dead body shall they arise: awake "and sing ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the "earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and "shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself 66 as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For behold, the "Lord cometh out of his place, to punish "the inhabitants of the earth for their ini monly known and understood, otherwise it will not answer "the purpose for which it is assumed. ' Here I find the Bishop of Killalla makes no material change in Lowth's translation; but the learned Prelate in the next chapter notices a circumstance very apposite to my present argument. Ch. xxvii. 66 "In that day, "Shall Jehovah punish with his grievous sword, "His great and strong sword, "Leviathan the mailed serpent, "Even Leviathan the writhing serpent; "And he shall slay the monster that is in the sea." On this the Bishop remarks, " that whatever present adversary is designed here, by the name of Leviathan, whe"ther the king of Egypt or Babylon; it'seems highly pro"bable that a future spiritual enemy is in contemplation, " even the old serpent, whose final destiny is related, Rev. 66 quity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." In the thirty-third chapter how awfully does the Prophet describe the judgments of God "Hear, ye that are far off, what I Fo "have done, and ye that are near, acknow ledge my might. The sinners in Zion are "afraid; fearfulness hath surprized the hypo ፡፡ ༣* crites; who among us shall dwell with "the devouring fire;* who amongst us shall "dwell with everlasting burnings? He that "walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, "he that despiseth the gain of oppression, "that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions "of rocks, bread shall be given him, his "waters Lowth translates the fourteenth verse, "Who among us "can abide this consuming fire, who among us can abide "these continued burnings? Verse eleven to twenty-two, Lowth remarks, is a description of the dreadful apprehensions of the wicked, in those times of distress and imminent danger, finely contrasted with the confidence and security of the righteous, and their trust in the promises of God, that he will be their never failing strength and protector. 36 waters shall be sure." And in verse xxii. the ground of this confidence is emphatically described. For the Lord is our "judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord "is our king, he will save us." In the fifty-first chapter the Prophet illustrates the abolition of the Jewish economy and the introduction of the new, by images which bespeak a mind familiarized to the contemplation of that grand catastrophe which shall close the existence of this sublunary world."Lift up your eyes to the heavens, "and look upon the earth beneath; for the "heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and "the earth shall wax old like a garment, "and they that dwell thereon shall die in 66 like manner; but my salvation shall be "for ever, and my righteousness shall not "be abolished." "Hearken unto me, ye "that know righteousness, the people in "whose heart is my Law. Fear ye not "the reproach of men; neither be ye afraid "of their revilings; for the moth shall eat "them up like a garment, and the worm "shall eat them like wool; but my righte ❝ousness "ousness shall be for ever, and my * "tion from generation to generation." salva I close the extracts from this truly evangelic Prophet, with the fifty-seventh chapter, in which he describes in terms the most clear and impressive, that strict retribution, by which divine justice will correct all the inequalities of the present life, and render to every man according to his works. "The righte ous perisheth, and no man layeth it to "heart, and merciful men are taken away, "none considering that the righteous is "taken away from the evil to come. He "shall enter into peace, they shall rest in "their beds, each one walking in his up“rightness. * Lowth's translation is here much more accurate and expressive. "But my righteousness shall endure for ever, " and my salvation to the age of ages." Lowth is more accurate, and equally expressive of the sentiment which this passage appears to me to impress. "The righteous man is taken away because of the evil; He shall go in peace, he shall rest in his bed, "Even the perfect man, he that walketh in the strait path." Bishop Stock remarks, that in verse xix, the words, peace to the distant and to the near, saith Jehovah," means "to the Gentiles as well as Jews. In this universal peace the "wicked shall have no share." I would add, this universal peace, excluding all the wicked, can scarcely be conceived strictly true but of that world "wherein shall dwell righte 166 66 66 rightness. For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a con"trite and humble spirit; to revive the spirit "of the humble, and to revive the heart "of the contrite ones. But the wicked are "like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 66 Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor Prophets, occupied as they chiefly are, in denouncing the temporal judgments immediately to be inflicted on the Jews, first by the dispersion of the ten tribes, and afterwards by the Babylonish captivity, recur to the remote ideas of a future state less frequently than the great evangelic Prophet, who constantly extends his view to the glories and the effects of the Messiah's reign. Yet they frequently speak of Jehovah as recompencing all the inhabitants of the earth, whether nations or individuals, according to their deeds, and of the great and terrible day of the Lord, and of men's delivering their souls from death; in terms which are properly applicable |