[It was announced to Adam immediately after his falla. To Abraham it had been promised with an oathb. To David, from whose loins the Messiah was to spring, it had been con- firmed by an everlasting covenant0.
In a more particular manner it had been foretold that Christ should "visit and redeem" his people. The state of the Israelites in Egypt, and their redemption from thence, had been foreordained from the beginning, in order to typify this great event. Abraham was warned of the afflictions which his posterity should endure there, and of the wonderful deliverance which at a remote period they should experience d. Joseph in his dying hour assured his brethren, that God would "visit them," and bring them thence e. And Moses was in due time sent upon this errand, and commissioned to inform his wretched countrymen, that God was come at last to visit and deliver themf. Now in the text, there is, as in the sequel will more fully appear, a reference, not to the event merely, but to the very terms in which that event was predicted : from which circumstance, the typical application of that history to the incarnation of Christ, is clearly warranted and confirmed.]
For the accomplishment of this great event, this holy man blessed and adored his God —
[The prospect of this event had excited a lively joy in the breast of Abraham, at the distance of two thousand yearsg: and all who, in the intermediate space, had successively be- lieved the promises, had lived and died in the pleasing expec- tation, that the happiness denied to them should be granted to their posterity'1. When the time for the Messiah's advent drew nigh, the expectation of him became more general1, more joyful, more assured. Many there were who " looked for redemption in Jerusalem k," and "waited for Jesus as the Consolation of Israel1." What wonder then that, on the sight of his forerunner, Zacharias burst forth in these triumphant strains? What wonder that, in the confidence of faith, he spake of the Saviour as already arrived, yea, and the work of redemption as already effected by him, though there were yet several months to elapse before he would be born into the world ? It was surely the fittest use of his newly-recovered speech ; and had he forborne to use it thus, " the very stones would have cried out against him."]
a Gen. iii. 15. b Gen. xxii. 16—18.
c Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4, 34 — 36. and cxxxii. 11, 17, 18.
d Gen. xv. 13, 14. with Acts vii. 6, 7. e Gen. 1. 24, 25.
f Exod. iii. 16, 17. s John viii. 56. h Heb. xi. 13.
1 John iv. 25. k Luke ii. 38. ' Luke ii. 25.