Isaiah 46:12-13

I beg the Reader to ponder over these verses, and keep them in remembrance. Here is God's call to the unhumbled in Zion, the unawakened, unregenerate of his people, if I mistake not: and this is the first class the Lord speaks to in this sermon. In the successive Chapter s, he speaks to several other characters, among his people, on the same subject. But this is to the stout-hearted: to these he proposed Jesus and his salvation. And observe, that Jesus and his salvation is for Jehovah's glory, agreeably to all our Lord taught; John 17:12. If the Reader wishes to trace the beautiful connection of Jehovah's preaching on this as addressed to the several characters of his Church, before he comes to the passages themselves, he may find the subject carried on in a progressive manner, by consulting the scriptures in the way I have marked them. In these verses, the appeal is to the stout-hearted, the unconvinced, unawakened. In Isaiah 48:12, it is to the called. In Isaiah 51:1, it is to the followers after Jesus. In Isaiah 51:5, it is to those who believe in the Lord, but who, through the weakness of their faith, are fluctuating, and too apt to forget that Jehovah's salvation is forever, and his righteousness that which shall not be abolished. And in Isaiah 51:7, the appeal is to those who truly know, and as truly live up to their privileges, in having Christ formed in their heart the hope of glory. According to my view, I conceive that there is a beautiful gradation here pointed out in the divine life: and the Reader that is taught of God, will, I humbly believe, find much blessedness in the connection, and discover suitable directions, as here given by the Lord, for every state.