porary throughout his ministry with Isaiah in the same state; and he also clearly asserts the day of the Lord, and the Redeemer's everlasting kingdom: when we (saith the prophet to his people,) will walk in the name of the Lord our God FOR EVER AND EVER. In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion, from henceforth, EVEN FOR EVER*. Thou (saith he, in the close of his book, alluding doubtless to the promise through which life æternal was,) Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. In indignation at the incorrigible disobedience of the people, Amos proclaims, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel; while he plainly teaches, that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish; though they dig into HELL, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb to heaven, thence will I bring them down; though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. Hosea is still stronger in asserting these doctrines beyond all dispute; Come (saith he, in the vith ch.) and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He Micah, vii. 7, 8 & 9, evidently also alludes

*C. iv. 5, &c. to life æternal.

hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He REVIVE us: in the third day He will raise us up. The particular object of this prophecy is well known; but it also conveys a direct promise of a revival and resurrection to the Lord's faithful people:-there is also a singular seeming connection with the type of Jonah, which had occurred many years before, and to which the prophet may have here alluded. Again is the promise reiterated in the xiiith ch. in the most clear and decisive terms; I will RANSOM them (saith the Lord of his faithful,) FROM the power of the GRAVE; I will REDEEM them FROM DEATH. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction! Was this an earthly or a perishing REDEMPTION which Hosea preached to the Israelites?

Of all the prophets, however, Isaiah has left in his writings the most full, and decided evidence, of a future life; and when the length of his ministry, which endured through nearly sixty years, and his repute, both with king Hezekiah and his nation, is considered, it is literally impossible that any should have been ignorant in his age that there was a state of future rewards and punishments. The allusions are so numerous that half of them can scarcely be brought forward. One single passage would be sufficient to show that Isaiah, insisting upon no other law but that of Moses, preached life æternal:-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 therein shall die in like manner: BUT my SALVATION shall be FOR EVER, and my righteousness SHALL NOT BE ABOLISHED. What salvation does the prophet here mean? Israel, saith he, in a previous chapter, Israel shall be saved IN the Lord with AN EVERLASTING SALVATION; YE, (saith he to his faithful cotemporaries) YE shall not be ashamed nor confounded, WORLD WITHOUT END! The righteous, he again proclaims, 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. Does the prophet here allude only to the peace of death? The mountains, declared he previously, shall depart, and the hills shall be removed, BUT my kindness shall not depart, NEITHER shall the covenant of MY PEACE be REMOVED, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee! Can any thing be more conclusive, or more consolatary than this assurance? Yes-the redeemed of the Lord, redeemed even from death, shall return unto Zion; but no earthly no perishing Zion this:-EVERLASTING joy

* li. 6.

+ xlv. 17.

1 lvii. 1.

§ Ch. xxvi. 3, 4. Thou wilt keep him in perfect PEACE whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord FOR EVER; for in the Lord Jehovah is EVERLASTING strength.

liv. 10.

shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away! Incline your ear, and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the SURE mercies of David! The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage, and it shall fall, and not rise again :-But He will SWALLOW UP DEATH IN VICTORY; and the Lord will wipe away tears from off all faces*; for THY DEAD men shall LIVE, together with my dead body shall they arise! Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, THE EARTH SHALL CAST OUT THE DEADT. Behold, I create NEW HEAVENS and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you, (saith the Lord to his faithful,) be you glad and rejoice for ever, IN that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

Thus did Isaiah ratify and confirm the law of Moses; thus did he comfort the Lord's people; but was there no warning to the wicked? Yes; their peculiar destiny was not less plainly preached, I cannot say revealed §, nor in language less persuasive in all its dark terrors. The Lord God of

Hosts did call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine; let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die*. Such was in the prophet's time; such was in the rich man of the gospel's time; such is in our day also the invariable answer to all the calls unto repentance. The cry of mercy has never been silent:-Let the wicked FORSAKE his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him "return" unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will ABUNDANTLY pardont. Moses, the Prophets, and the Gospel, proclaim this; yet in the words of Isaiah, Who hath believed our report? I will shake the heavens, saith the Lord; and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of his fierce angert. Come near ye nations to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that therein is; the WORLD, and ALL things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon ALL nations. And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as the falling fig from the fig-tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold it shall come down upon Idumea, AND upon the people of my curse to judgment. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone; and the land thereof * Ch. xxii. 12. + Ch.lv. 7. ↑ Ch. xiii. 13.