coming approaches: He who is at first only called the feed of the woman, being afterwards foretold as the feed of the patriarchs, every one of whom had more fons than one; and the prediction being reftricted by Jacob to the tribe of Judah, is at last restricted to the house of Jesse, and the family of David, while there is never the least hint of his descending of any of the subsequent kings of Ifrael or Judah. And as this his descent from David is fometimes more directly asserted, and sometimes infinuated, in passages where he is said to fit on the throne of David, and especially in feveral passages, where he is called by the name of David, If. lv. 3. Ezek. xxxiv. Hof. iii. 5.; so these more direct assertions ferve to explain those intimations or infinuations. To all which, it is proper to add what was observed formerly on If. xi. 1. & liii. 2. as intimating, that he would descend of that family when in a low condition, and reduced, as it were, to its primitive obfcurity.

VI. The prophecies which contain any particulars of the Meffiah's life and actions having mostly been mentioned formerly, and the Christian interpretation of them supported with fufficient proofs, it is sufficient here to observe, that these prophecies describe him by the spotless innocence of his life, his low station, his public employment or ministry, the places where he was in a special manner to exercise it, his steadiness and diligence in it, the precise time of the beginning and end of it, and also that they foretell his miracles. As the spotless innocence and holiness of his life is neceffarily included in the prophetic doctrine of his person, and of the fingular measures of the divine Spirit that he was to be endued with; so it is more particularly afserted in the passages which appropriate to him the titles of, The Most Holy, The Righteous Servant of God, His Elect in whom his foul delights; and which affirm, that he would do no vialence

lence, neither should guile be found in his mouth, Dan. ix. If. liii. 9. xlii. 1. His low station is implied in the passages which tell us, that he should be a servant of rulers, If. xlix. 7.; that he should grow up as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, &c. If. liii. 2. His public employment, or ministry, is described in the passages which treat more directly of his prophetic office, and which speak of him as a light to the people, who should open the eyes of the blind, bringing them by a way they knew not; and as the messenger of the covenant, who should confirm the covenant with many, If. xlii. xlix. Mal. iii. 1. Dan. ix. 27. These, and other passages, not only show, that he was to be employed in public teaching, but give fome account of the chief subject matter of it; shewing, that it was to be, not a mere speculative knowledge of God, but the knowledge by which many should be justified; glad tidings concerning God's righteousness, covenant, and salvation, which they who would hearken to in sincerity, should find their account in it for ever, God making with them an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David, If. liii. xlii. lvi. 1. lv. 3. As to the place where his public ministry should be exercised, besides more general prophecies, shewing, that Judea was to be the place of his birth and refidence, and that he would spend his labours among the Jews, If. xlix. 4. his teaching in the temple is implied in the predictions about his coming to it, Mal. iii. 1. And the evangelist's application of If. ix. 4. about the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, Matt. iv. 15. is confirmed by the expreffions in that text itself, of the fingular greatness of the shining light that it mentions, and by the remarkable prediction about the Meffiah's highest characters within a few verses in the following context. It was proved before, from the 9th of Daniel, that the Meffiah's public appearance, and his confirming the covenant with many,

i

which implies his instructing multitudes, should begin after the fixty-ninth week, and in the seventieth week, from the edict there mentioned, and that it should end in three years and an half. As to the manner and fuccess of his ministry, it is foretold, that though it should be public, it should be without oftentation, in a quiet and peaceable manner, with indefatigable diligence, labouring and spending his strength; with unshaken steadiness, notwithstanding opposition, so that he would not fail nor be discouraged, If. xlii. 2. 3. 4. xlix. 4.; with fingular condescension and tenderness, particularly towards afflicted penitents, feeding his flock like a fhepherd, gathering the lambs with his arms, carrying them in his bosom, leading gently them that are with young, preaching good tidings to the meek, binding up the broken-hearted, &c. comforting them that mourn in Zion, not breaking the bruised reed, nor quenching the smoking flax. And though the unfuccefsfulness of his doctrine, as to a great part of the Jews, is implied in various predictions, confidered in part already, and more fully afterwards; yet the success of it, as to a goodly number, is implied in the predictions, which show the fuccess of his forerunner preparing the way before him, and tell, that he himself would restore the preferved of Ifrael, and confirm the covenant with many: which expreffions, when understood in the most literal sense, imply, that he would not be without difciples, even many disciples, If. xl. lx. lxi. xlii. xlix. Dan. ix.

VII. Whereas the prediction in If. xxxv. 4. 5. is applied in the gospel to the Meffiah's miracles, there are various good arguments for that application in the text and context. The context contains several fingular characters of the time of the Mefsiah's coming; as, the time of the coming of God to the world in a fingular manner; the time of righteous vengeance against his incorrigible adversaries;

the

t

the time of fingular joy and confolation to his people; the time of fingular light and joy in the wilderness, or Gentile world, when they would rejoice abundantly in beholding the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God; and the time when the waters and streams of spiritual blessings should abound in the wilderness. As the words of the prediction in view fsignify, in the most literal meaning, the healing of the various bodily diseases mentioned; it is an acknowledged rule of interpretation, that the literal meaning ought not to be departed from without neceffity; which rule cannot be refused with any good grace, in this cafe, by those who pretend to adhere to it so tenaciously in all other cafes: and though it is not expressly affirmed, that the cures foretold should be wrought in a miraculous way; yet it is evidently implied; seeing the performing such things in a natural way, which would only imply an improvement of the useful art of medicine, would be quite foreign to the scope and fubject of the context, as having no connection with the spiritual blessings there mentioned; fuch as the coming of the Lord, and the publishing of a doctrine that would enlighten and sanctify the nations of the Gentiles, making them see the glory and excellency of the Lord, and making them walk in the way of the redeemed of the Lord, even in the way of holiness, If. xxxv. 2. 8. 9.

It may perhaps be objected, That the expreffions which in their literal meaning signify bodily cures, must be taken in a figurative meaning; because, after mentioning the singing of the dumb, and the leaping of the lame, it is added, as the reason of this, "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and "streams in the defert:" so that the prophet seems only to speak of uncommon degrees of joy, arifing from the bleffings to be bestowed in the defert. But, in answer to this, 1. Though the finging and leaping mentioned in the prediction, taken separately, rately, might be capable of fuch a meaning as to denote only uncommon joy; this cannot be faid of the other expreffions in the prophet's lift of diseases and cures, as the opening the eyes of the blind, and the unstopping the ears of the deaf. 2. It does not give an ambiguous, but only a comprehenfive meaning to this complex prediction, to suppose that it includes both miraculous cures, and uncommon gladness, both on account of these bodily cures themselves, and of the superior spiritual blessings to which they were subservient; particularly of the glad tidings contained in the doctrine which they confirmed, and the happy fuccess of it. God's watering the defert, or his publishing and confirming a doctrine which, after its first spreading from Judea, was to water the defert, through the blessing of the divine Spirit, may justly be confidered, both as the reason why such miracles should be wrought, and why those on whom they should be wrought should feel such uncommon complicated joy. 3. If the causal particle For in y 6. did interfere, as it does not, with the literal meaning of the prediction; confidering the different import of fuch particles in the Hebrew, it would be a laying too much stress on our translation of that particle, to make it carry it against so many arguments for the literal meaning. 4. It makes the consistency of the caufal particle as we translate it, with the literal sense of the prediction, and the connection of the whole context more evident, if we observe, that the expreffions,

6. about the waters and streams in the defert, imply the pouring down of the divine Spirit, as was proved before; and that both the miraculous bodily cures mentioned $ 5. & 6. and the spiritual bleffings to which these cures were subservient, mentioned in the context, were the effects of the fame divine Spirit, and were parts of one complex design.

If it be objected, That the context speaking of

the