their power and strength, and make use of their best
weapons and military skill, and see what would be
the consequence of all this; feeble worms set in op-
position to the mighty God; thorns and briers he can
easily go through, and burn up quickly: or else they
are seriously addressed, and exhorted to meet the Lord
in the way of his judgments, by humiliation, repent,
ance, and reformation; not knowing but that after all
he may be gracious and merciful to them, and turn
away the fierceness of his anger from them; see ch.
v. 15. but I rather think the words are a promise or
intimation of doing something to Israel in a Way of
special grace and kindness, notwithstanding their con-
duct and behaviour, and the ineffectualness both of
judgments and providential mercies; for the words
may be rendered, as the same particle should be in
Hos. ii. 15, notwithstanding, or nevertheless, thus will I
do unto thee "; what I have from all eternity purposed
and resolved to do, and what I have promised again
and again, by the mouth of all the holy prophets, from
the beginning of the world, I would do; namely, send
my Son to be thy Saviour and Redeemer: and because
l will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, '0
Israel; the Messiah that was then to come was God,
and so equal to the work of redemption and salvation
he was to do; and the God of spiritual and mystical
Israel, even all the elect, Jews and Gentiles, to be re-
deemed by him; was to be their Immanuel, God in
their nature, and therefore to be met with the utmost
joy and pleasure; see Zech. ix. 9. for this meeting
him is not to be understood in a hostile way, and as
spoken ironically to the enemies of Christ to oppose
him, encounter with him, and mark the' issue of it,
who in time would cause them to be brought before
him and slain, as some interpret the words; but in a
friendly manner, as he was met by those that were
waiting for his coming, such as Sirecon and others;
and by those John the Baptist called upon to prepare
the way of the Lord; andas he was by his own dis-
ciples, who embraced him by'faith, received him with
joy, and left all arid followed him; and as all such are
prepared to meet him who are made truly sensible of
sin, and of their Own righteousness as insufficient
to justify from it, and have seen the glory, fulness,
and suitablehess of his salvation. Christ is to be met
with in his house and ordinances; and men are pre-
pared for it when the desires of their hearts are to-
wards him, and their graces are exercised on him;
which preparation is from himself: he'll be met at his
second coming by his spiritual Israel; and they will
be prepared for it who believe it, love it, and long for'
it; have their loins girt, and their lights burning, and
they waiting for their Lord's coming; see Matt. xxv.
1--10. Luke xii. 35, 56. and so at the hour of death,
which is the day of the Lord; a preparation and readi-
ness for which lies not in external humiliation, out-
ward reformation, a moral righteousness, or a bare
profession of religion, and submission to ordinances;
but in regeneration, in faith in Christ, and spiritual
knowledge of him; in a being washed in his blood,
and clothed with his righteousness; for which readS-
ness all truly sensible sinners will be concerned, .and
which is all from the grace ofGod; see Matt. xxiv.
43, 44. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions,
read it, prepare to call upon thy God; and the Targufn
paraphrases it, "to receive the doctrine of the law of
"thy. God ;. rather the doctrine of the Gospel;but
the former sense is best; for the confirmation of which
it .may be observed, that when God is said to do a thing
to any, it is usually in a way of grace; and that when
preparation is made to meet a divine Person, it is al-
ways meant of the Son of God; and that it is a com-
mon thing in prophecy, that when the Lord is threat-
ening men with his judgments, to throw in a promise
or prophecy of the Messiah, for the comfort of his
people.
Vet. 13. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, -&c.]
These words are a description of the glorious Person,
thy God and SaySour, to be met; he is the Creator of
all things, that formed the mountains, and so was be-
fore them, as in Prov. viii. 25, 26. and able to sur-
mount and remove all mountains of difficulties that
lay in his way of working out salvation for his people:
and createth the wind; or spirit; not the Holy Spirit,
which is increated; but either angels, whom he makes
spirits; or the spirit and soul of man he is theCreator
of; or rather the natural wind is meant, which is his
creature, he holds in his fists, restrains and commands,
at his pleasure, Matt. viii. 26, 27: and declareth unto
man what is his thought; not what is man's thought,
though he knows what is in man without any informa-
tion, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart, and can reveal them to men, and convince
them that he knows them, Mattú ix. 4. but rather the
thought of God, the meditation of his heart, concern-
ing the salvation of men; his thoughts of peace, which
are the deep things of God, and which Christ, lying in
the bosom of his Father, was privy to, and has de-
clared, John i, 18. The Septuagint and Arabic ver-
sions, reading the words wrong, render them, declaring
to men his Christ; which, .though true of God, is not
the sense of this clause. The Targum is, "what are
"his works {x} ?. his works of creation, providence, re-
demption, and grace: that maketh the morning dark-
ness; or darkness morning, or the morning out of dark-
hess*; being the day-spring from on high, the morning
star, the sun of righteousness, that, rising, made the
Gospel day, after a long night of Jewish and Gentile
darkness; and who made the same dispensation a
morning to one, and darkness to another, John ix. 39.
The Septuagint version is, making the morning and the
cloud; the Vulgate Latin version, making the morning
cloud; his coming was as the morning, Hos. vi. 3: and
treadeth upon the high places of the earth; the land of
Israel, which is Immanuel's !and, is said by the Jews
to be higher than other lands; jerusalem higher than
any part of Judea, and the mountain the temple was
built on higher than Jerusalem: here Christ trod in the
days of his flesh, and from the mount of Olives
ascended to heaven, after he had trampled upon and
spoiled principalities and powers, spiritual wicked-
nesses in high places, and when he led captivity cap-

{w} \^Nkl\^ "nihilominus, tamen". Vid. Noldium, p. 507.
{x} So Kimchi and R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 45. 2.
{y} \^hpye rxv hvwe\^ "faciens obscuritatem auroram", Drusius.