regards both the coming of the harbinger of the Messiah and of the Messiah himself. But we look for another and plenary, which shall realize the terms of the prophecy in their literality and fulness, which otherwise must be regarded as in the highest degree figurative and hyperbolical. Thus,-Expositors who would regard the whole as terminating in the first coming of Christ are under the necessity, in the absence of any literal verification of the words, of treating "the wilderness" in which "the way of the Lord" should be "prepared" as 'emblematical (says one) of the moral waste which the Jewish Church presented at the time': 'the Jewish people sunk in sin and error', says another 2 and another the rude state of the Jewish Church at the time, the true wilderness meant by the Prophet' &c. The "exalting" or filling up of the "valleys", and "making low" or levelling of "the mountains and hills", being mere ornamental circumstances of the imagery-metaphors borrowed from the Oriental custom of sending persons as pioneers before a Monarch to cut through rocks and forests, and fill up hollows, and remove every impediment out of his way'. Though some-seeing the utter incongruity of such imagery with the humble appearing of Christ—take this in a spiritual sense to express the exalting of the lowly and humbling of the proud by the preaching of the Gospel ; and "the crooked made straight", either sinners led into the paths of righteousness; or, with others, Bp. Lowth.

1

Henderson.

2

" Hengstenberg.

the making plain and clear mysteries till then dark and intricate. An admissible sense if not adopted to the exclusion of an ulterior and more literal fulfilment.

But the last considered prophecy of this Book, ch. xi., has told us that at the Second Advent of their Messiah He will be manifested restoring "the remnant of His people" from the various countries of their dispersion-" assembling the outcasts of Israel and gathering together the outcasts of Judah from the four corners of the earth": in connection with which return is specially to be noted the mention of "a highway" made for them in the desert "like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (ver. 15, 16). The same which is the subject of the proclamation, so strikingly parallel to that before us, which we find in chapter lxii. ver. 10-12:

"Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people;

Cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones;

Lift up a standard for the peoples.1

Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world,

Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy Salvation. cometh ;

Behold His reward is with Him, and His work before Him2. And they shall call them 'The holy people: The redeemed of the LORD':

And thou shalt be called, 'Sought out, A city not forsaken'."

1 The word which is singular in the first line is plural here: there denoting the people Israel; now the Gentile nations. See next line, and comp. ch. xi. 12; and xviii. 3 with 7.

2

"Or, "the recompense of His work," as ch. xl. 10.

Where "the highway of the people" is also "the way of the Lord" and "highway for our God-prepared and made straight in the desert"-of the former proclamation; Who appears again as the Saviour of His people, at once" going before" them and "their rereward", as of old in the pillar of cloud and of fire when leading them through the wilderness, the same wilderness, to their promised rest.

And again, chap. li. 9,

"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of THE LORD;
Awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.
Art Thou not it that hath cut Rahab, (i. e. Egypt)
And wounded the dragon?

Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the
great deep;

That hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?"—

thus rehearsing the wonders of the Exodus from Egypt, and pleading them as a reason for a renewal of like interposition on their next restoration predicted in the next verse, the Lord's answer to this prayer :

"Therefore the redeemed of THE LORD shall return,

And come with singing unto Zion;

And everlasting joy shall be upon their head:

They shall obtain gladness and joy;

And sorrow and mourning shall flee away:"

the "Comfort" of chapter xl. 1, as He adds

"I, even I, am He that COMFORTETH you

1 See also the passages quoted in Lect. VI. of the First Series

of these Lectures, pp. 128, 129.

When also shall be fulfilled, and as literally,

2. The sequel in the prophecy before us, verse 5:—

"And the Glory of THE LORD shall be revealed,

And all flesh shall see it together:

For the mouth of THE LORD hath spoken it."

This likewise has had its primary fulfilment at that coming of the Messiah prepared by the mission of the Baptist.

"The Glory of the Lord" was then "revealed." But it was the Glory of Grace: as saith the Evangelist "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." "Grace", giving that salvation which was celebrated on its announcement by the anthem of the herald angels-" Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace" and "Truth," giving the knowledge of "The True God" in opposition to the various forms of idolatry by which He had been and is still dishonoured. "The Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ", as the Apostle designates the same revelation; which "excelleth" (he says) even the manifestation of the Divine glory at the giving of the Law by so much as "the ministration of justification" and "life" exceeds-is more glorious to Godthan "the ministration of condemnation" and "of death": (2 Cor. iv. 6 with iii. 7—10).

And notable it is that, accordingly, the Baptist, in quoting this prophecy of Isaiah as applicable to

his mission and the first coming of Christ, substitutes the word "salvation” for “glory” :—“ And all flesh shall see the salvation of God". Not a misquotation; nor yet a various reading of the Original; but an interpretation of it not unfrequent in the New Testament: both readings true, and one implied in the other-"salvation" the "glory” as then revealed; reserving another manifestation commensurate with that term and the terms of the prophecy, when "all flesh shall see it together”. Not (as some explain) the call of the Gentiles to participation in the blessings of the Gospel which, as before observed, is the call only of " an election" or church" but "all mankind" which is the uniform meaning of "all flesh". And "shall see it together": not an embodying or enshrining of " the glory of the Lord" to be discerned only by faith, through the veil-the thick veil of the Saviour's humiliation as when He was on earth; or through the cloud which intercepts the view of Him where He is now," on the right hand of the Majesty on high" but the manifestation of it to sight; and the sight of "all": so that "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess Him LORD to the glory of God the Father". That manifestation which is the theme of the address to "Zion", on the occasion of the Redeemer's return to her, ch. lx. 1-3 :

1. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come;

And THE GLORY OF THE LORD is risen upon thee.

'So the Septuagint Version had previously paraphrased it.