rescue them from the power of their enemies, he is faid to choose Ifrael, that in this manner he might demonftrate his adherence to his choice, and grant his people happy experience of its comfortable effects in their deliverance.Let us, brethren, give all diligence to make fure our calling and election, to be the peculiar people of God, by being holy in all manner of converfation, and zealous of good works, convinced that this is the only way whereby we can enjoy comfortable evidence, that God hath chofen us to falvation through our Lord Jefus Chrift *.

And fet them in their own land. This privilege was likewise expressly promised to Ifrael by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekielt. The multiplied and aggravated iniquities of Ifrael provoked the Almighty to scatter them among the nations, and to difperfe them among the countries, particularly of Affyria and Babylon. From this difperfion God promifes to collect them, that he might fet them in their own land, the land of Canaan, which was the glory and ornament of all lands, an exceeding pleasant and very fruitful country. It was remarkable for the excellence of its climate, and the fertility of its foil; and, on these and other accounts, it was called in fcripture, an exceeding good land, a glorious land, and a land of defire. It was fuppofed to be fituated in the midst of the earth; and though it is faid to have been only about two hundred miles in length, and fifty in breadth, in the days of David the king, there were in it thirteen hundred thoufand men, befide aged men, women, and children. This land is called their own land, in as much as God promised it to their fathers, and gave it to their children, for a poffeffion, and an inheritance. A very noble and rich donation it was, according to the defcription given of it by Mofes, the fervant of the Lord: It is a land (faith he) of hills and valleys, that drinketh water of the Ezek. xxxiv. 13.

*

& Theff. v. 9.

† Jer. xxiii. 8.

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rain of heaven: a land which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end thereof. Thele and other advantages which it poffeffed, rendered it a faint type of the reft which remaineth for the true Ifrael of God in heaven..

In this land God promises to fet them, and to establish them in the poffeffion of it, that they may dwell fafely, and none make them afraid; that he may feed them as his flock, and dwell among them. Their return from captivity, and restoration to their own land, is one of the most remarkable events mentioned in the Old Teftament, and is often spoken of as a rich display of the divine mercy and favour. In this light let us contemplate it, as the neceffary means of preferving the Jewish church in exiftence, until the fulnefs of time arrived wherein that oeconomy, was abolished.

And the Strangers shall be joined with them, and they fhall cleave to the house of Jacob. The perfons who are here intended, were the people from among the Gentiles, which were not of the pofterity of Ifrael, and had no right to the important privileges enjoyed by the house of Jacob. They were thofe whom the apostle Paul thus emphatically defcribes, as being aliens from the commonwealth of Ifrael, both with refpect to civil and facred advantages; and ftrangers from the covenants of promife, which God entered into with the Father of the faithful, and delivered to his pofterity at mount Sinai. Numbers of fuch ftrangers, at the period to which this prophecy looked forward, fhould join themselves to Ifrael, that they might participate with them in the inestimable prerogatives. which they enjoyed. From religious motives, and a fincere regard to the inftituted worship of the true God, they were voluntarily to become profelytes to the Jewish religion, and to be initiated into their

*Deut. xi. 10, 11, 12.

church

church by the rites appointed for that purpose. Hav. ing obliged themselves, in the most folemn manner, to pay a facred regard to the laws and ordinances of Ifrael, they were inviolably to adhere to them, as the girdle cleaves to the loins of him that weareth it. They would also cleave to the house of Jacob; difcovering, on every proper occafion, a strong attachment to them, and their interefts, by a careful obfervance of the divine inftitutions established among them, and by a steady regard to divine truths and precepts delivered for their inftruction and government.After the laudable example of those who are the fubjects of this prediction, let us cleave unto the Lord, and his people, with purpose of heart. Look diligently to yourselves, brethren, left there be in any of you a froward, a falfe, a deceitful, and evil heart of unbelief, which may prompt you to depart from the living God, and to abandon connection with his people,

2 And the people fhall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Ifrael fhall poffefs them in the land of the LORD, for fervants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whofe captives they were, and they fhall rule over their oppreffors.

The benefits to be derived by the people of Ifrael, from the accomplishment of the foregoing predictions, are here mentioned.- -They shall take them; namely, the ftrangers who were joined to them, and who steadily adhered to the profeffion of friendship which they had made:-And bring them to their place, which God gave them for inheritance, that they might fhare in the important advantages which they themselves poffeffed. They were to be admitted members of the commonwealth of Ifrael, to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, the giving of the law, and the fervice of

God,

God, and the promises.And the house of Ifrael fhall poffefs them. The houfe of Ifrael may denote, as in other paffages of the prophetic writings, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with thofe of the other ten tribes, who were mingled with them. There were many belonging to the ten tribes, who, perceiving that Jeroboam intended to establish idolatry among them, separated from their brethren, and joined the houfe of Judah. Hence we read, that those who set their hearts to feek the Lord, came to Jerufalem, to 'facrifice; and strengthened the kingdom of Judah *.” And afterward, in the days of Afa, many fell to him out of Ephraim, Manaffeh, and Simeon t.' Under the reign of Hezekiah, divers of Afher, Manasseh, and Zebulon, humbled themfelves, and came to Jerufalem . From these and other places of the Old Teftament history, we learn, that the houfe of Ifrael comprehended, not only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but likewise all those who joined them from among their brethren. This houfe was to poffefs the ftrangers who cleaved to them in the land of the Lord. -They were to enjoy confiderable benefit from the kind fervices, and various offices, of humanity, benevolence, and affection, which they would perform toward Ifrael, whom they fhould confider, not only as their friends, but as their inftructers. This advantage they were to enjoy in the land of the Lord; in the land of Canaan, which juftly merited this description, on account of its fuperior excellence to all other lands, and because it was the object of his peculiar care and kind regard.

And they fhall take them captives, whofe captives they were, and they fhall rule over their oppreffors. The import of this prediction is eafy to be understood: it plainly intimates, that fome of thofe various nations, who had made captives of the people of Ifrael, were, in their turn, to be made captives by them;-that

* 2 Chron. xi. 16, 17. † 2 Chron. xv. 9. 2 Chron. xxx. II,

when

when God would turn again their captivity, they should exercise authority over those who had crushed them by violence ;-that their condition was to be entirely reversed from what it once was, in fo much. that they were not only to be delivered from a ftate of captivity to their enemies, and fubjection to their tyranny, but to be invested with power to retaliate the injuries which they had sustained from those who afflicted them. The righteous Governor of the world, in the course of his providence, often recompenfes men according to their doings. The Tyrians, who exulted at the destruction of Jerufalem, were hiffed at by the merchants among the people, in the day of their calamity*. Upon the Edomites, who dealt cruelly with the house of Judah, God laid his vengeance, by the hand of his people Ifrael +. After the houfe of Jacob returned from captivity at Babylon, they waxed strong, became terrible, and confumed like fire the Edomites, who had despised and infulted them. A fimilar change in their circumstances is here foretold by our prophet, in respect to other nations who had oppreffed them, which was remarkably verified in the refpectable condition to which they were advanced, and the confiderable influence that they attained, at the period wherein this prophecy was fulfilled.- -Such difpenfations inculcate upon us diligent attention to the maxim of Jesus Christ,` who hath faid, With what measure ye mete, it shall ' be measured to you again .' The law of retaliation was the first which was published after the fall of man: Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be fhed .' It was engroffed in the law of Mofes, where it is thus written: Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' It is tranfcribed and illuftrated in the whole of the divine procedure toward individuals and focieties. They have moved me to jealoufy,

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* Compare Ezekiel xxvi. 2. with chap. xxvii. 36. Prophecies of Obadiah. Matth. vii. 2.

† See Gen. vi. 9.