vellous things."* If the miracles of a similar nature, which are here promised to be shewn in favor of Israel, do not refer to the Exodus in the latter days, or deliverance promised to him over and over again, out of his present captivity in the mystical Egypt, it will be hard to say to what fact resembling that in the days of old, they do allude. The sense I understand it in, as apparently the most natural and obvious, is this.-That God will again put the rod of his power, with which he then made Moses a God unto Pharoah,† a second time into the hand of a man; and by his agency, will give (in the sight of Israel) such signal evidences of his power and presence with his repentant people, as shall have a considerable analogy with that ancient and celebrated work of redemption.

The great terror of the people, the enemies of the jews, and which have hitherto successfully opposed the mighty purpose of God, (whose hand lifted up in behalf of that long + Exodus vii. I.

*Micah vii. 14:

forsaken and despised nation they would not believe,) is represented in the verses immediately following, and gives considerable confirmation to my idea of this prophecy. "The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the rem◄ nant of his heritage?" (Micah vii. 16.)*

There is a prophecy in Isaiah, which has a great analogy with this. Speaking of the great consumption, or destruction of the peo

* Whoever the opposers of the jews at this time may be, their opposition will be carried to a very daring height. Their astonishment and fear, (when at last convinced of a divine interposition,) is signified by a similitude very expressive, and which cannot have escaped the observation of most people. The bold curiosity of the earth worm, which darts out of his hole when the soil is stirred, as if in defiance of the ruffian hand that has

interrupted his repose; but on being touched, glides back again

ple of Israel, he concludes the dreadful tale in the accustomed manner, with an assurance of their surviving it, by the preservation of their stock and lineage. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people, that dwellest in Zion,”—(the church and covenant of God figuratively so called,)" be not afraid of the Assyrian ;† he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee AFTER THE MANNER OF EGYPT,"—(by an attempt forcibly to detain thee in servile subjection, and by an encrease of his former severities towards thee, yet fear not ;)—“ for yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." When these signs of the times begin to and there arises an augmented oppres sion, and a new persecution against the jews,

appear,

to his retreat, with as great a rapidity and trepidation. "His enemies shall lick the dust, (Ps. lxxii. 9,) is a phrase expressive of their entire subjection ;-and the last words, applying this prophecy to God's mercy in pardoning “THE REMNANT of his heritage," fixes the interpretation both as to the time, and the parties concerned in it.

+ The Assyrian Sennacherib, once the enemy of Israel, is figuratively introduced here for another tyrant, in later times.

we may then conjecture that God's great and lasting anger upon his people, (prophetically denominated "THE INDIGNATION,") is drawing towards its close, and their redemp tion is near at hand. For the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him," (the tyrant of that day,)" after the slaughter of Midian, at the rock Oreb.* And as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up, after the manner of Egypt." By a persecution raised against them on account of their religion, or for their attempting to assert their civil and religious liberty, in obedience to the call of God." And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed be cause of the anointing." (Isaiah x. 24.)‡

Psalm lxxxiii. 9.

The sea is an emblem of peoples and nations under his ty fanical despotism. (Rev. xiii. 1.-viii. 8.-xvi. 3.-xvii. 15.). "Because of the anointing."-The meaning here, accord ing to the present reading of the Hebrew is so very obscure, that Bishop Lowth considers the passage as in want of correc tion, and translates it after the reading of the septuagint, an to, wuw, vuw›, from off your shoulders; not being able, hé,

The allusion to Egypt, which occurs twice over in this prophecy, has no doubt a design to direct us to the appropriate application of it, when the characters and circumstances alluded to, shall have been brought forward by the hand of time, as they have now in a great degree been. The spiritual tyrant is to smite the

says, to make any good sense of the present reading; and, he adds, that "Archbishop Secker (like all others) appears to have been at a loss for a probable interpretation." But if the yoke that is here prophesied of, and which is to be broken from off the neck of Israel, be, as I apprehend, the yoke of antichrist and the Roman captivity, under which the jews still groan, this is the very tyrant which hath usurped the throne of Christ, "the anointed of the Lord,” as he is called, (Jer.-Lam. iv. 20. Dan, ix. 24. "to anoint the MOST HOLY." See Isaiah lxi. 1; Ps. ii. 2; Luke iv. 18; Acts x, 38.) and as the very name XPIETOE, unctus, or Christ, signifies. The yoke of antichrist is therefore to be destroyed, because of the anointing, or that the anointed and Holy One of Israel may succeed to his usurped throne, and reign over his ancients gloriously.

Bishop Lowth, indeed, applies this prophecy to Sennacherib, with whom it has probably nothing to do; being of a far more extensive reach, than to the time, and comparatively trivial events of that mighty despot's tyranny. This application seems to make rather than find the difficulty in it that is com plained of. It is not without reason that Isaiah is called "the evangelical prophet;" for he casts the vast range of his prophetic eye into the most remote darkness of the last times. The