But though this is the case with many, yet some have been more highly favored, and shone with peculiar lustre in the Church of God. All the Prophets testified of the adorable Redeemer, but Isaiah shines like a star of the first magnitude. His name signifies the Salvation of God; and he was a type of the great Prophet of the Church of God. It is said, but without any probable ground, he was the cousin of King Uzziah, in the latter end of whose reign he began his predictions. His qualifications were great, and his writings truly sublime, yet his success was but small. A minister of small talents may be more successful in his public work than a man of greater, but this is according to the sovereign good-will and pleasure of God.—After this great Prophet had borne his testimony for God and truth about forty-five years, he died a martyr, perhaps sawn asunder with a wooden saw, under the reign of Manassah. He clearly foretels the incarnation of our Lord; and probably he was the first to whom it was revealed that the Messiah should be born of a virgin. His mind was led to trace him through a life of sorrows, while he foretels his most intimate acquaintance would be _grief_—acquainted with grief, but his reward would be glorious. His name should be great in all the world, and everlasting honours paid him, as God-man Mediator.—This was the joy set before him, for which he endured the Cross, and thought light of the shame—the Father hath therefore highly exalted him, and given him a name above every other, that at his name every knee should bow, if not in this world to the sceptre of his grace and mercy, they shall to his iron rod in hell.