_ _ na and Prophets, who _—_ thus wicked in Ahaz Ns = —_ robably continued ſo in the Beginning of Hexzekiah his _ Teremiab does put this out of all doubt, ch. 26. 18. ſaying, that prone rake theſe Words to all Judah, As for the time, it was in all Sn before the thirteenth Year of Hez kiab, ſay ſome ; I ra- _ oaths them of that Age to comply with Zezeti2h in the Re- ns of. Magiſtrates, Priefts and Prophets : they thought that Zz07 <hould be their Safety, however they tinned ; God by his Prophet aſ- ſires them the quite contrary, thelr Sins Should be the Danger and De- @rudtion of Zion. f Becauſe your Sins are ſo great and many z God would have ſpare! Sodom for the fake of righteous Men, theſe may DC $afety toaCityz but God will not ſpare the Wicked for any Place's ke, nor Shall a Temple be more Security to a wicked People, than : ven was to finning Angels. Tho theſe flagitious Men cried out 2 inſt Micah, and ſynch like Men as a publick Danger, Truth iz, the 7njuſtice, Idolatry and Inhumanity of publick Perſons were the great Danger: g Either by the Enemy and Conqueror, thereby forbidding jtto be plowed without his Leave, or by ſuch as remained after the Body of the People were carried captive. b One of the goodlieft Ci- ties of the World, proud in its lofty and beautiful Buildings, the City of the great King. 2 Shall all lie in Rubbish, its ſtately Buildings $hall he demolished, and Jie buried in their own Ruines, & Holy Mountain, on which the Temple, one of the Wonders of the World, did ftand, heautified with rareft Buildings. 7 Shall lie ſo long wafte, as to be run orer with Wood as a Foreſt, and bea Lodg of wild Beafts,
CHAP. IV.
4 promiſe;of the future glory, enlargement and peaceful condition of the Church under the Meſſsab, 1 7. Their final deliverance from, and vidtory over all their Enemies, 8 — 13,
1 NUT * in the laſt days b it ſhall come to paſs,
that the Mountain of the Houſe of the LORD c ſhall be eſtabliſhed in the top of the Monntains d, and it ſhall be exalted above the Hills f, and people g ſhall flow
untoit þ. a This Particle which ushers in the following Promiſe, doth alſo bid us look to ſemewhat before ſpoken, of a very different Complexion 3 that was News of a total and a long continued Deſolation, but this is of a happy Reſtitution, which doth reter both to a temporal Delive- rance out of Babylon's Captivity, and to a ſpiritual Deliverance out of Ignorance, Superftition, and all other Ways of falſe Worship. This latter is the principal, the former is typical, and ſo shall we confi- der them, 6 Or, the latter Pays, at the expiring of the ſeventy Years Captivity, (near 200 Years from Mzicab's time) as Type of the Days of the Meſſiab's Kingdom, which are moft uſually called thelaft Days, c The City Jeruſalem ; or, more particularly, the Mountain on which the Temple did ftantl, called the Houſe of the Lord, the Hie- roglyphick of the Church gf Chriſt in Goſpel-times. 4 Literally, and in the Type fulfille4 when the fecond Temple was built by the Jens returned out of Captivity. Spiritually, and in the Antitype ac- compliched, when Chrift did eftablish his Church by the Preaching of the Goſpel, and laid the Foundations of it, ſo that the Gates of Hell hould never prevail againft it, and made it this Promiſe. f As the Mountain or Hill on which the Temple ſtood, was by this ho- noured above. other Mountains and Hills, ſo shall it, after Deſolation and Reproach of 70 Years, be honoured with the Temple rebuilt up- onit for God's true Worship, whereas on. other Hills the Heathens worſhip Idols. So the Goipel-Church and the way of Worship to God ſhall excel all Modes of Religion. g The Gentiles as Antitype, thoſe who came up with 1ſrael out of Babylon ſaid to be Servants and Maids, Ezra, 2. 65. above 7337, many, if not all of them proſelyted to the Fewiſh Religion, and a Type as well as Firft-fruit of the Gen- tiles to be converted in the times of the Meſſiah. This Number we are ſure of; as for, that Foſephus reports of 4074 of a mixed Multi- tude, we look on with no more Credit given, than to his Report of four Millions fix hundred and twenty eight thouſand of Fudab and Benjamin, lib. 11. cap. 4+ of Anriq. h Come in freely, continually, and in Multitudes, which in the Type was fulfilled, partly at the Return out of Babylon, and partly in after-Days when Darius Hyſtaſpu favou- red the Jews, and encouraged them, as Foſephus reports, Anti, lib, 11. cap. 4. conſonant with Exra. 6. from ver. 3, t012, and we have Reaſon to believe that God ſo diſpoſed Darius's Mind to favour them, that it might occation ſome to embrace the Fewiſh Religion. But all this Type was eminently fulfilled in. the Converſion of thoſe Multi- tudes we read of brought in to Chriſt by the Preaching of the Goſpel the Apoſtolical Times.
2 And many Nations# ſhall come and ſay, Come k, and let us go up to the Mountain of the LORD I, and to the Houſe of the God of Jacob m, and he will teach vs of his Ways n, and we will walk in his paths 0: for the Law ſhall go forth of Zion p, and the word of the LORD from Jeruſalem 9.
7 This was in part, and as Type fulfilled when ſo many proſelyted and Circumciſed Servants of ſeveral Nations amaſſed in the Babyloniſh Kingdom, left their native Country, and in love to their Fewiſh Ma-
ers, and more to the God of the Jews and his Law, came up with them to Jeruſalem and the Temple z afterwards, when the wonderfu] eliverance of the Jews, and the advancement of their Countryman Mordecai in the Perſian Court, brought the People and their Religion to Requeſt and Credit, many turned Jews, through the 127 Pro- Vinces, Eft, $. 17. were circumciſed, became Proſelytes of Righteouſ-
nels, And in the times ſucceeding through the Reigns of five Kings,
T 30 Years, the Jewiſh Affairs and Religion continued in a tolera- G good Condition. | In Alexander's time, and under the Maccabees, Alo this Prophecy was partly fulfilled when /ſhmaelites, Moabites, Am- monites and 1dumeans ſubmitted to the Maccabees z and by Hyrcanus 's Command, and with their own Conſent, the /dumeans were cir- Unciſed ; as Foſephus, 1ib, 13. cap. 17, Antiq, This, notwithſtanding the Words, had a fuller Accompliſhment, and ftil} shall have onder Vel, It,