from Jacob, by converting grace; so also to such as are thus turned, with his rich confolations, and even as with temporal honours in his hand.

Taking it then for certain, that the converfion of the Jews, fhall follow the judgments mentioned in the verfe preceding our text, it must be equally certain, I think, that the awful attack, and the glorious repulse mentioned in it, belong to the fame time. To the islands, fays our prophet, the Redeemer will repay recompence. By which are meant, what Mofes calls the ifles of the Gentiles, Gen. x. 5. And it is well known that those nations, lying weftward from Judea, and feparated from it by the Mediterranean, were by the Hebrews called the ifles. To these ifles our prophet often directs his fpeech, as chap. xli. 1. and xlix. 1.; and of them he says, That they shall wait for Meffiah's law, chap. xlii. 4. And Meffiah himself is introduced, chap. li. 5. faying, The ifles fhall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust; i. e. the Gentiles fhall.-By the ifles, therefore, to which the roufed Redeemer fhall repay recompence, I would understand Europe: for, as fays the learned commentator, mentioned above, The fcene of this judgment fhould be,

where the church had fuffered the moft grievous ftruggle and affliction; where fo many fins and abominations had been committed; fo many funeral piles lighted; fo much innocent blood poured out, and drunk up: and where so many perfecutions had raged to fupprefs the more pure religion; and the doctrine of the gospel, restored to the church, by the remarkable goodness of Vitringa in loc.

The European ifles being thus recompenfed, the prophet immediately adds, So fhall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun. Where it is very observeable, that he inverts the ufual order, in mentioning the weft before the eaft. The Pfalmift fays, Pfalm cxiii. 3. From the rifing of the fun, unto the going down of the fame, the Lord's name is to be praised. The fame order he follows, in that lofty defcription of the divine omniprefence, Pfal. cxxxix. 10. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermoft parts of the fea, (i. e. if mounted as on the rays of the rifing fun, I should fly to the western extremity of the Mediterranean fea, for that was the utmost boundary then known,) Even there thy hand fhall lead me, and thy right hand fhall hold me. Malachy introduces the Lord, faying, From the rifing of the fun, even unto the going down of the fame, my name fhall be great among the Gentiles, chap. i. 11. The fame order is followed, in that faying of our Saviour, Matth. viii. 11. Many fhall come from the eaft and weft, and shall fit down with Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. And the fame is kept by our prophet himself, chap. xliii. 5.

and xlix. 12.

This order, indeed, was followed in the beginning of the New-Teftament œconomy, when out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerufalem, Ifa. ii. 3. The gofpel, like the rifing fun, travelled toward the weft. But, fince the feat of this judgment, and the demonftration of the Redeemer's glory, fhall be in the weft, (the ifles), as we have juft now feen, the prophet, under the

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unerring direction of the Spirit, fays, that the name and the glory of the Lord, fhall be revered from the weft to the eaft. Here the Deliverer of his church, is represented as taking vengeance on the ifles, for all that they have done againft her. And, as in these European or western ifles, he will appear for her falvation; fo from thence fhall his renowned name be spread, and his glory reach as to the rifing of the fun. Having appeared in his awful judgments in the ifles, the weft, what more natural than that they should fear his name from thence? and that there the latter-day glory fhould begin to fhine? It is the opinion of an eminent divine *; that the gospel will never be totally taken from these western parts of the world. For, as he fays, It has borne up its head for many ages within the fcent of Rome, in those of Piedmont, not⚫ withstanding all endeavours to extinguifh it.' He mentions an obfervation of a Jewish writer, that though fome of the lamps in the temple went out in the night, yet the western lamp was always found burning. The lamps, according to him, were reprefentations of the gofpel; and therefore this might fignify the perpetuity of the gospel, in the western parts of the world, when we fee it is extinguished, or at leaft, burning very dim, in moft of the eastern parts.

Be that as it will, the prophet exprefly fays, They shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun. And it is obvious, that this extenfive fpread of true and

Charnock's works, Vol. II. p. 710.

undefiled religion, is mentioned as the confequence of the Redeemer's appearance in behalf of his church and caufe, well-nigh given up as loft. To the iflands he will repay recompence. So fhall they, taught by divine judgments, fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun.

But, if they shall thus fear the name of the Lord; how is it that the enemy fhall come in like a flood? If Meffiah fhall be had in honour over all the earth, whence fhall the deftructive enemy arise? One would think, that at fuch a happy period, there fhall be nothing to hurt or to deftroy. To this we would anfwer; that these words, When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard against him, may be confidered as a short summary of all that was said from the beginning of the chapter: for, from thence to the 15th verfe, we read of the enemy coming in like a flood, and overflowing all banks. From the 15th to the 19th, we read of the Lord going forth as a man of war, to take vengeance on the enemy, who had come in. We fee him going forth as to battle, armed with his breastplate, and his helmet; clothed with the garments of vengeance, and the cloke of zeal. And hence it might justly be said, in military style, The Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard.

By supplying the word thus, to the last member of the 19th verse, the whole matter is moft intelligible; So fhall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun: THUS, when the enemy fhall come in like a flood, the

Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard against him. Taking things in this view, the enemy mentioned in our text, is precifely the fame with the adverfaries and the enemies in the preceding verse. When the earth fhall be filled with violence; when the man of fin, that wicked one, fhall exalt himfelf higher and higher; when the ftate of the churches fhall be very low, and every thing portending the destruction of the Christian interest, then the Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard. Meffiah, on whom is the Spirit of the Lord, Shall fmite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips fhall he flay the wicked one, the word is, Ifa. xi. 4. And there fhall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

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The judicious will fee the beauty of the paffage confidered in this point of view, as including the deftruction of Antichrift, together with the converfion of the Jews, to which the words following my text do undoubtedly refer. I know the learned Vitringa, already mentioned, understands the enemy in my text of the Ottoman Turks, the Tartars, the Scythians, and others, who fhall be ftirred up by Satan, when let loofe to deceive the nations, after his thousand years imprisonment, Rev. XX. 8,9. Thus he, with fome of the Jewish Rabbies, whom he quotes, thinks that Gog and Magog, are meant by the enemy coming in like a flood. It is faid in that twentieth of the Revelation, That the devil fhall go out to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the fand of the fea. And they vent up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the