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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 restricted by Jacob to the tribe of Judah, is at laft restricted to the house of Jeffe, and the family of David, while there is never the least hint of his defcending of any of the fubfequent kings of Ifrael or Judah. And as this his defcent from David is fometimes more directly afferted, and fometimes infinuated, in paffages where he is faid to fit on the throne of David, and efpecially in feveral paffages, where he is called by the name of David, If. lv. 3. Ezek. xxxiv. Hof. iii. 5.; fo thefe more direct affertions ferve to explain thofe intimations or infinuations. To all which, it is proper to add what was obferved formerly on If. xi. 1. & liii. 2. as intimating, that he would defcend 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 Chriftian interpretation of them fupported with fufficient proofs, it is fufficient here to obferve, that these prophecies describe him by the fpotlefs innocence of his life, his low station, his public employment or miniftry, the places where he was in a special manner to exercise it, his fteadiness and diligence in it, the precife time of the beginning and end of it, and also that they foretell his miracles. As the fpotlefs innocence and holiness of his life is neceffarily included in the prophetic doctrine of his perfon, and of the fingular measures of the divine Spirit that he was to be endued with; fo it is more particularly afferted in the paffages which appropriate to him the titles of, The Moft Holy, The Righteous Servant of God, His Elect in whom his foul delights; and which affirm, that he would do no vio

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lence, neither should guile be found in his mouth, Dan. ix. If. liii. 9. xlii. 1. His low ftation is implied in the paffages which tell us, that he fhould be a fervant of rulers, If. xlix. 7.; that he fhould 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 defcribed in the paffages which treat more directly of his prophetic office, and which speak of him as a light to the people, who fhould open the eyes of the blind, bringing them by a way they knew not; and as the meffenger of the covenant, who fhould confirm the covenant with many, If. xlii. xlix. Mal. iii. 1. Dan. ix. 27. These, and other paffages, not only fhow, that he was to be employed in public teaching, but give fome account of the chief fubject matter of it; fhewing, that it was to be, not a mere fpeculative knowledge of God, but the knowledge by which many fhould be justified; glad tidings concerning God's righteoufnefs, covenant, and falvation, which they who would hearken to in fincerity, should find their account in it for ever, God making with them an everlasting covenant, the fure mercies of David, If. liii. xlii. lvi. 1. lv. 3. As to the place where his public ministry should be exercifed, befides more general prophecies, fhewing, that Judea was to be the place of his birth and refidence, and that he would fpend 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 evangelift's application of lf. ix. 4. about the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, Matt. iv. 15. is confirmed by the expreffions in that text itself, of the fingular greatnefs of the fhining light that it mentions, and by the remarkable prediction about the Meffiah's highest characters within a few verfes 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,

which implies his inftructing multitudes, fhould 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 fuccefs of his ministry, it is foretold, that though it should be public, it fhould be without oftentation, in a quiet and peaceable manner, with indefatigable diligence, labouring and fpending his ftrength; with unfhaken steadiness, notwithstanding oppofition, fo that he would not fail nor be difcouraged, If. xlii. 2. 3. 4. xlix. 4.; with fingular condefcenfion and tendernefs, particularly towards afflicted penitents, feeding his flock like a fhepherd, gathering the lambs with his arms, carrying them in his bofom, 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 bruifed reed, nor quenching the fmoking 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 fuccefs of it, as to a goodly number, is implied in the predictions, which fhow the fuccefs 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 difciples, 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 feveral fingular characters of the time of the Meffiah'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 adverfaries;

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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 fpiritual bleffings fhould abound in the wilderness. As the words of the prediction in view fignify, 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 refufed with any good grace, in this cafe, by those who pretend to adhere to it fo tenaciously in all other cafes and though it is not exprefsly affirmed, that the cures foretold fhould be wrought in a miraculous way; yet it is evidently implied; seeing the performing fuch 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 fpiritual bleffings there mentioned; fuch as the coming of the Lord, and the publishing of a doctrine that would enlighten and fanctify the nations of the Gentiles, making them fee 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 fignify bodily cures, must be taken in a figurative meaning; because, after mentioning the finging of the dumb, and the leaping of the lame, it is added, as the reason of this, "For in the wilderness fhall waters break out, and "streams in the defert :" fo that the prophet seems only to speak of uncommon degrees of joy, arifing from the bleffings to be bestowed in the defert. But, in anfwer to this, 1. Though the finging and leaping mentioned in the prediction, taken feparately,

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 unftopping the ears of the deaf. 2. It does not give an ambiguous, but only a comprehensive meaning to this complex prediction, to fuppofe that it includes both miraculous cures, and uncommon gladnefs, both on account of thefe bodily cures themselves, and of the superior spiritual bleffings to which they were fubfervient; particularly of the glad tidings contained in the doctrine which they confirmed, and the happy fuccefs of it. God's watering the desert, or his publishing and confirming a doctrine which, after its firft fpreading from Judea, was to water the defert, through the bleffing of the divine Spirit, may justly be confidered, both as the reason why fuch miracles fhould be wrought, and why those on whom they fhould be wrought fhould feel fuch uncommon complicated joy. 3. If the caufal 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 tranflation of that particle, to make it carry it against fo many arguments for the literal meaning. 4. It makes the consistency of the caufal particle as we tranflate it, with the literal fense 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 fpiritual bleffings to which thefe cures were fubfervient, 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 fpeaking of

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