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Of Mala

whereunto he retir'd) in applying to him the proverbial faying, upon that Occafion, out of Egypt, i. e. out of manifest Danger, have I called my Son.

How ufual a thing it is for Perfons, eki iv. 5. who refemble others in Qualities, Offices, or Actions, to be defcrib'd by the Names of those, whom they refemble; no one can be ignorant, who is the leaft acquainted, either with Scripture Phrase, or the common Forms of Speech. The Meffias is promis'd by the* Name of David, because he was to be a King: Zadok, the High-Prieft, and his Sons, are recorded by † the Name of Aaron, and his Sons, by reafon of their Office: And among us 'tis no uncommon thing, to call the rich Man a Cræfus, the wife Man a Solomon, and the great Warriour a Cæfar, an Alexander, or the like: And where then, I pray, can the Mifapplication be, in our Saviour's calling the Baptift by the Name of Elias, when, in the Severity of his Life, his Zeal for God's Glory, his boldly rebuking Vice, his fuffering Perfecution, and doing every thing, he could, to reftore the true Spirit of Religion, he fo nearly refembled the Tifbbite?

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The Refemblance of a contrary Na- of Isaiah ture, between the Jews of old, and vi. 9. thofe of our Saviour's time, occafion'd him to recite the Words of the Prophet, by bearing ye shall hear, but fall not understand, &c. and where, I ask again, is the Incongruity of this? Is any thing more cuftomary, both in Words and Writings, than to apply an ancient Character to a prefent Sett of Men, if fo be their Conduct deferves it? But what if this ancient Character be not given to the Jews of Ifaiah's time only, but to their Pofterity likewife? The Words of the Prophet are thefe; * Go and tell this People, hear ye indeed, and understand not; and fee ye indeed, and perceive not; make the Heart of this People fat, and make their Ears heavy, &c. then faid I, Lord, how long? viz. How long shall this Blindness laft? And he faid, until the Cities be wafted without Inhabitants, and the Houfes without Men, and the Land be utterly defolate, and the Lord bath removed Men far away, and there be a great forfaking in the midst of the Land; i. e. until fome fweeping Deftruction and Captivity fhall come upon them. And who will affirm, that the Captivity here threatened was not what

*Ifaiah vi. 9, &c.

And of

Ifaiah vii. 14. vin

dicated.

what Titus brought upon the Jews, a little more than 30 Years after our Saviour's Death? In this Light, our Saviour applies the Prophet's Words with great Propriety to the Jews of his time. They were then fuch a perverse hypocritical People, as they were in Isaiah's Days. Ifaiah foretels that they should continue fo, till God's final Judgment fhould over-take them: Our Saviour charges his Generation no farther, then the Prophet did his. He told the Duration of their fpiritual Blindness; our Saviour remarks it of the Age he liv'd in; and, within any part of that Period, as well as in the Beginning of it, it might be pronounc'd with Truth, This People's Heart is waxed grofs, and therein is the Prophecy of Isaiah concerning them fulfill'd.

There is another Paffage indeed in the Prophet Ifaiah, which St. Matthew applies to the Birth of Jefus, and yet, according to the Context, it feems, at firft fight, to have a more immediate Reference to another Event. The History, from whence this Paffage is taken, is this. In the Days of Ahaz, King of Judah (and probably in the fecond or third Year of his Reign) Rezim, King of Syria, and Pekah, King of Ifrael, united their Forces to come a

gainst

gainst Jerufalem, which put the King and his People in fuch Confternation, that their Hearts were moved (according to the Prophet's Expreffion) as the Trees of the Wood are moved with the Wind. Hereupon Isaiah is commanded by God to go and meet Ahaz, and affure him, that the Defign formed against him by the two Confederate Kings should not profper. But, finding no Credence with the King, the Prophet undertakes to perform whatever Miracle he fhould ask, in Confirmation of the Truth of what he had promised; which Abaz ftill refufing out of a fpecious pretence of not being willing to tempt God, the Prophet turns from him, and, addreffing himself to the Nobles of the Royal Blood, Hear ye now, O House of David, fays he, the Lord himself fhall give you a Sign; behold a Virgin fhall conceive, and bear a Son, and Jhall call his Name Immanuel. Now, fuppofing Ifaiah himself could poffibly (at the time when he fpake these Words) understand them of a Son of his own, or of any Son to be born of a young Woman afterwards, who at the time then prefent was a Virgin; and that his being ftiled Immanuel,

e

meant

• Ifa. vii. 2. • Clarke's Evidence of Natural and Revealed Religion.

meant nothing more, than, that before. the Child was grown up, Judah fhould be delivered from the then threatened, Incurfions of Ifrael and Syria; yet, if afterwards any Perfon, comparing the folemn Introduction of the Words, with. the Promises repeated to the Houfe of David in other Paffages of the Prophets, and with the Character of that illuftrious Perfon, who was to defcend from that Houfe, fhould, in his own Days, find a Son really Born of a Virgin, attefted to by numerous Miracles, and, by God's Command, named Jesus (which is fynonimous to Immanuel, a potent Saviour, or God with us) could any Perfon, I fay, poffibly entertain the leaft doubt, whether God, who fent Isaiah to repeat the forecited Words to the Houfe of David, did not intend thereby to describe, if not wholly and folely, at leaft chiefly and ultimately this latter Saviour?

For, not to infift upon the original Word, [Alma,] which (as f learned Men' have obferved) fignifies almost always a Virgin untainted by Man, and which the Greek Tranflators before Chrift (who were not interested in the Controverfy, and yet knew the Signification of Hebrew Words much better, than any Moderns

Vid. Kidder's Demo. Part 2.

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