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<p>The happy and glorious state of the church is here further foretold, referring principally and ultimately to the Christian church and the spiritual peace of that, but under the type of that little gleam of outward peace which the Jews sometimes enjoyed after their return out of captivity. This is here spoken of,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. As compared with what it had been. <i>This</i> made her peace and honour the more pleasant, that her condition had been much otherwise.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">1. She had been despised, but now she should be honoured, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.15,Isa.60.16" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.15,Isa.60.16"><span class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.15">Isa. 60:15</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.16">16</span></a>. Jerusalem had been forsaken and hated, abandoned by her friends, abhorred by her enemies; no man went through that desolate city, but declined it as a rueful spectacle; it was an <i>astonishment and a hissing</i>. But now it shall be made an eternal excellency, being reformed from idolatry and having recovered the tokens of God’s favour, and it shall be <i>the joy</i> of good people for <i>many generations</i>. Yet considering how short Jerusalem’s excellency was, and how short it came of the vast compass of this promise, we must look for the full accomplishment of it in the perpetual excellencies of the gospel church, far exceeding those of the Old-Testament church, and the glorious privileges and advantages of the Christian religion, which are indeed the joy of many generations. Two things are here spoken of as her excellency and joy, in opposition to her having been forsaken and hated:—(1.) She shall find herself countenanced by her neighbours. The nations, and their kings, that are brought to embrace Christianity, shall lay themselves out for the good of the church, and maintain its interests with the tenderness and affection that the nurse shows to the child at her breasts (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.16" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.16">Isa. 60:16</a>): “<i>Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles</i>, not suck their blood (that is not the spirit of the gospel); thou <i>shalt suck the breast of kings</i>, who shall be to thee as nursing fathers.” (2.) She shall find herself countenanced by her God: <i>“Thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer</i>, shalt know it by experience; for such a salvation, such a redemption, shall be wrought out for thee as plainly discovers itself to be the work of the Lord, the work of a mighty one, for it is a great salvation, of the <i>Mighty One of Jacob</i>, for it secures the welfare of all those that are Israelites indeed.” They before knew the Lord to be their God; now they know him to be their Saviour, their Redeemer. Their Holy One now appears their Mighty One.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">2. She had been impoverished, but now she shall be enriched, and every thing shall be changed for the better with her, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.17" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.17">Isa. 60:17</a>. When those who were raised out of the dust are set among princes, instead of brass money in their purses they have bold, and instead of iron vessels in their houses they have silver ones, and other improvements agreeable: so much shall the spiritual glory of the New-Testament church exceed the external pomp and splendour of the Jewish economy, which had no glory in comparison with that which quite excels it, <a class="bibleref" title="2Cor.3.10" href="/passage/?search=2Cor.3.10">2 Cor. 3:10</a>. When we had baptism in the room of circumcision, the Lord’s supper in the room of the passover, and a gospel ministry in the room of a Levitical priesthood, we had gold instead of brass. Sin turned gold into brass when Rehoboam made brazen shields instead of the golden ones he had pawned; but God’s favour, when that returns, will turn brass again into gold.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">3. She had been oppressed by her own princes, which was sadly complained of, not only as her sin, but as her misery (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.59.14" href="/passage/?search=Isa.59.14">Isa. 59:14</a>); but now all the grievances of that kind shall be redressed (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.17" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.17">Isa. 60:17</a>): “<i>I will make thy officers peace</i>; men of peace shall be made officers, and shall be indeed justices, not patrons of injustice, and justices of peace, not instruments of trouble and vexation. They shall <i>be peace</i>, that is, they shall sincerely seek thy welfare and by their means thou shalt enjoy good.” They shall be <i>peace</i>, for they shall be righteousness; and <i>then</i> the peace is as a river, when the righteousness is as the waves of the sea. Even <i>exactors</i>, whose business it is to demand the public tribute, though they be exact, must not be exacting, but must be just to the subject as well as to the prince, and, according to the instructions John Baptist gave to the publicans must <i>exact no more than is appointed them</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.3.13" href="/passage/?search=Luke.3.13">Luke 3:13</a>.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">4. She had been insulted by her neighbours, invaded, spoiled, and plundered; but now it shall be so no more (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.18" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.18">Isa. 60:18</a>): “<i>Violence shall no more be heard in thy land</i>; neither the threats and triumphs of those that do violence nor the outcries and complaints of those that suffer violence shall again be heard, but every man shall peaceably enjoy his own. There shall be no <i>wasting nor destruction</i>, either of persons of possessions, any where <i>within thy borders</i>; but <i>thy walls shall be called salvation</i> (they shall be safe, and means of safety to thee) <i>and thy gates shall be praise</i>, praise to thee (every one shall commend thee for the good condition they are kept in), and praise to thy God, <i>who strengthens the bars of thy gates</i>,” <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.147.13" href="/passage/?search=Ps.147.13">Ps. 147:13</a>. When God’s salvation is upon the walls it is fit that his praises should be in the gates, the places of concourse.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. As completed in what it shall be. It should seem that in the close of this chapter we are directed to look further yet, as far forward as to the glory and happiness of heaven, under the type and figure of the flourishing state of the church on earth, which yet was never such as to come any thing near to what is here foretold; and several of the images and expressions here made use of we find in the description of the <i>new Jerusalem</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Rev.21.23,Rev.22.5" href="/passage/?search=Rev.21.23,Rev.22.5"><span class="bibleref" title="Rev.21.23">Rev. 21:23</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Rev.22.5">22:5</span></a>. As the prophets sometimes insensibly pass from the blessings of the Jewish church to the spiritual blessings of the Christian church, which are eternal, so sometimes they rise from the church militant to the church triumphant, where, and where only, all the promised peace, and joy, and honour will be in perfection. 1. God shall be all in all in the happiness here promised; so he is always to true believers (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.19" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.19">Isa. 60:19</a>): <i>The sun and the moon shall be no more thy light</i>. God’s people, when they enjoy his favour, and walk in the light of his countenance, make little account of sun and moon, and the other lights of this world, but could walk comfortably in the light of the Lord though they should withdraw their shining. In heaven there shall be no occasion for sun or moon, for it is the inheritance of the saints in light, such light as will swallow up the light of the sun as easily as the sun does that of a candle. “Idolaters worshipped the sun and moon (which some have thought the most ancient and plausible idolatry); but these <i>shall be no more thy light</i>, shall no more be idolized, but the Lord shall be to thee a constant light, both day and night, in the night of adversity as well as in the day of prosperity.” Those that make God their only light shall have him their all-sufficient light, their <i>sun and shield. Thy God shall be thy glory</i>. Note, God is the glory of those whose God he is and will be so to eternity. It is their glory that they have him for their God, and they glory in it; it is to them instead of beauty. God’s people are, upon <i>this</i> account, an honourable people, that they have an interest in God as their sin covenant. 2. The happiness here promised shall know no change, period, or allay (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.60.20" href="/passage/?search=Isa.60.20">Isa. 60:20</a>): “<i>Thy sun shall no more go down</i>, but it shall be eternal day, eternal sunshine, with thee; that shall not be thy sun which is sometimes eclipsed, often clouded, and, though it shine ever so bright, ever so warm, will certainly set and leave thee in the dark, in the cold, in a few hours; but <i>he</i> shall be a sun, a fountain of light to thee, who is himself the <i>Father of all lights</i>, with whom there is <i>no variableness</i>, nor <i>shadow of turning</i>,” <a class="bibleref" title="Jas.1.17" href="/passage/?search=Jas.1.17">Jas. 1:17</a>. We read of the sun’s standing still once, and not hasting to go down for the space of a day, and it was a glorious day, never was the like; but what was that to the day that shall never have a night? Or, if it had, it should be a light night; for <i>neither shall thy moon withdraw itself</i>; it shall never wane, shall never change, but be always at the full. The comforts and joys that are in heaven, the glories provided for the soul, as the light of the sun, and those prepared for the glorified body too, as the light of the moon, shall never know the least cessation or interruption; how should they when <i>the Lord shall</i> himself <i>be thy everlasting light</i>—a light which never wastes nor can ever be extinguished? <i>And the days of thy mourning shall be ended</i>, so as never to return; for <i>all tears shall be wiped away</i>, and the fountains of them, sin and affliction, dried up, so that <i>sorrow and s
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