Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 49:8

8. Thus saith the LORD , in an acceptable time have I heard thee , and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee , and give thee for a covenant of the people , to establish the earth , to cause to inherit the desolate heritages .

God the Father unto Christ.

Heb. In a time of good will, in that time when I shall have, and in a special manner manifest my good will to the Sons of men, in the day of my Grace, and of mans Salvation, as this Phrase is explained in the next clause, in the time of the Gospel, which is in the time of Gods good Will towards men, as the Host of Heaven declared at the Birth of Christ, Luk. 2. 14. In the dayes of thy flesh, when thou didst offer up Prayers and Suplications with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save thee from death, as we read, Heb. 5. 7. which text is a good comment upon this place.

Though not so as to deliver thee from death and from the sence of my wrath, yet so as to keep thee from sinking under these burdens, and so as thou shouldest not be holden under the Pains or Power of Death, Act. 2. 24▪ and so as to Crown thee with Glory and Hono[illegible: 1+ letters]r, and a blessed success of all thy labours and sufferings.

Upon earth till thy work be finished, and unto that eternal Kingdom and Glory which is prepared for thee.

To be the Mediator and Surety of that Covenant which is made between me and them; as Christ is called, Heb. 7. 22. and 8. 6. to renew and confirm the Covenant, which the Messiah is said to do, Dan. 9. 27. by his own blood, by which God and men are reconciled and united one to the other. And therefore he may well be called the Covenant by a known Metonymy, which is very usual in such cases, as upon the same account Circumcision, the sign of the Covenant, is called Gods Covenant, Gen. 17. 10. and the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover, Exod. 12. 11. and the Sacramental Cup is called the New Testament, Luk. 22. 20. and the Communion of the Blood of Christ, 1 Cor. 10. 16.

Indefinitely of all my People, not onely Iews, but also the Gentiles, as may be gathered from the context, and by comparing this place with Isa. 42. 6. Where the same Phrase is used. From both which places it is most manifest, that the Messiah is designed, and not Isaiah, to whom this and divers other Phrases here used cannot be ascribed without great force.

To compose and settle the Earth and the Inhabitants thereof by making peace between God and men, and between Iews and Gentiles, and by establishing Truth and Righteousness and Holiness upon Earth, and by subduing those Lusts and Passions, which are the great disturbers of Humane Society: which was the design of God in sending, and of Christ in coming into the World.

That desolate Places may be repaired and repossessed. That Christ may possess the Heathen, according to Psal. 2. 8. who were in a spiritual sence in a most desolate and forlorn condition.

h In the time of grace and of the Gospel, which I have appointed for the working out of mans Salvation by thee.

Marginal references: 2 Cor. 6. 2.; Or, raise u[illegible: 1+ letters].