his name fhew that God is with us; which is very mean in comparison with the more complete and myftical fenfe revealed %, that the fign or miracle fhould be fuch a one, as that a virgin fhould continue fo, and yet bear a fon, who fhould manifeft himfelf to be the fan of God, being made fiefh, and dwelling with us, and to be our great deliverer, of which the deliverances of the Jews were types and prefages. So alfo that of David ", of piercing his hands and feet, parting his garments, and cafting lots upon his vefture; and of his being given gall and vinegar to drink; both which paffages appear to be understood of the perfon of David in a figurative fenfe, by way of fimilitude only, as importing a severe and unkind ufage of him, and were never literally true of David, as far as appears in his history, but being to be literally fulfilled in Christ, the particulars are fo expreffed in the prophecy.

Remark IV. The ftate of the gofpel, and the benefits thereof, are myftically fet out in the prophets, by expreffions fuitable to their own times, and agreeing with, and proper to the Old Teftament difpenfation; as by phrafes taken from the religious worship under the law, and fuch things as the Jews reckoned most excellent and glorious. Thus, because their facrifices and oblations, and the worshipping at Jerufalem, was the most excellent religious worship which the Jews could apprehend; therefore, when the prophet Ifaiah foretold the converting of the Egyp tians to Christ, he faid, There fhall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, and they shall do facrifice

i Pfalm

8 Mat. i. 23.. b Pfalm xxii. 16, 18. ixix. 21. * Glaffii. Philolog. Sacr. lib. I. tract. iv. fect i. can. 5.

1

facrifice and oblations 1. So alfo he foretold the Gentiles owning and worshipping Chrift, by the nations going up to Jerufalem at the folemn feafts ", and calling the Chriftian worship, offering incenfe and a pure offering. And this is often the manner of the prophets under the Old Teftament, to fet forth the days of the Meffiah, the converfion of the Jews, the Chriftian worship, and the fpiritual kingdom of Christ under the gospel; and alfo God's fpiritual gifts and bleffings on the Chriftian church, by the expreffions proper to the times in which they lived, importing literally the restoration of Jerufalem, the temple and facrifices, the kingdom of David, &c. in order to recommend them more powerfully to the people. To the fame purpofe, the exaltation and enlargement of the Chrif tian church is expreffed after the fame man

ner ".

St. Peter affifts us thus to understand the prophets, when he applies these words Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a precious corner-ftone, to the fpiritual building of the Chriftian church, and Chrift the head thereof P. After the fame manner St. Peter again acquaints us, that they are the fpiritual gifts of the Holy Ghoft under the New Teftament, and the gospel difpenfation, which were foretold by Joel in terms fuitable to the state of the Old Teftament, and fignifying literally the old prophetical dreams and vifions. By the way, this remark difcovers to us the grofs mistake of the Jews, who obferving many proVOL. I. phetical

1 Chap. xix. 19, 21. lxvi. 20, 23.

S f

m

r

Chap. Ix. 1-8. and chap. See also Ezek. xx. 33, 34, 40, 41. Micah iv. Jerem. xxxiii. 17, 18. Hof. iii. 5. PI Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6.

12. and Mal. i. 11. n

Mal. iii. 4.

Acts ii. 16, 17.

o Ifa. xxviii. 16.
Chap. ii, 28.

phetical prefages relating to the coming of the Meffiah, to run in the old ftrain of the law, they presently conclude, that the Meffiah muft not innovate any thing concerning their way of worfhip, and fo expound fuch-like texts above-mentioned in a literal fenfe, which were only expreffed in that manner, the better to help the understanding, and comply with the capacity of those they fpake to.

S

This myftical way of expreffing things was much used by the ancients, especially of the eaftern country; and particularly the Jews were accustomed to it, and accordingly were wont to interpret the fcripture, (till the modern Jews, in their difputes with Christians, found it necessary to reject the opinion of their ancestors, left the Chriftians fhould make any advantage of the argument against them, in proof of Chrift being the Meffiah,) and therefore fuch a ftile of the prophets was most suitable to the Jews: For inftance,

The wolf fhall dwell with the lamb; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth fhall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; which the Jewish rabbies understood to fet forth the peace, and happiness, and love, and truth, in the days of the Meffiah's kingdom, that is, what the nature and defign of his doctrine would tend to; and where it fhould prevail, and what it would proportionably effect. Again, there is great reason that men fhould not perfectly understand long before hand all the particulars of fome of the prophecies; because if they had, that would have been a means of hindering the very things to be brought about, which

Maimon. R.

* Clemens Alexandr. Strom. lib. 5. Dav. Kimchi apud Grot. de Veritat. Relig. Chriftianæ. lib. v. fect. 18. u Ifa. xi. 6, 9

which were foretold, unless God fhould deprive the perfons intended to effect them of the freedom of their will, or overturn the ufual course of the world. For inftance; if the particular perfon of the Virgin Mary, and the precife night of Christ's birth in Bethlehem, and all other circumftances of that great tranfaction, had been so exprefly revealed, that none could have mistaken it, the Bethlehemites would not have denied the holy virgin their houfes to be delivered in; and fo that humble manner of Chrift's coming into the world, his being laid in a manger, would have been prevented; nor would the rulers have given thirty pieces of filver to Judas, or bought a potter's field, if that prophecy of Zachariah had been plain concerning Chrift; much less, had they clearly dif cerned the prophecies concerning his death, would they ever have fulfilled them in condemning him. It was fufficient, that the general defigns of the prophets fhould be manifeft, and the particulars referved for a further discovery in the accomplishment.

And though fome of the prophecies concerning Christ might not be, even in general, understood by the people to whom they were spoken, which yet is more than we know, yet they are of great ufse to discover the providence of God, and for the confirmation of our faith, when we compare the event with the prophecies, and finding them fulfilled, do therein plainly fee the work was God's, and the effect of his wifdom and power: As God himself declared his intention in foretelling fome things, among others, to be this; I have, even from the beginning, declared it to thee, before it came Sf 2

W

to

to pass; I fhewed it thee, left thou shouldft fay, Mine idol hath done them, &c. The fulfilling of the prophecies concerning Chrift, (as alfo of those which foretold the captivity of Ifrael and Judah, and the like,) clearly fhew that there is a Divine Providence, and that it is God who governs the world, fince by his prophets he fo long foretold and threatened what did afterwards come to pafs, according as himself had defigned to effect. For which purpofe, no doubt, many fuch prophecies were recorded, which are to be expounded only by the event, (at least by thofe who lived fome confiderable time after they were uttered) *. So alfo fome of the prophecies in the Revelations: As it was the accomplishment of that prophecy concerning Christ, Behold thy king cometh riding on an afs, which made the difciples understand it, when they remembered that these things were written of him, and that the people had done thefe things unto him.

Here we may further obferve, that the expreffion of the last days, fometimes used by the pro. phets, fignifies the days or difpenfation of the Meffiah, and the times of the gofpel, (upon the abolition of the Jewifh difpenfation) and that not only in the firft ages thereof, but from the first appearance of Chrift, or Mefliah, to the end of the world; which time is termed the last day, or the last time, because there is no new age or difpenfation to fucceed unto it, as the two former times fucceeded each other, being the one from the crea tion to Mofes, the other from Mofes to Chrift. So what in Joel is faid to come to pass afterwards, the apostle

ix. 9.

Such as Gen. xlix. Deut. xxxiii. Dan. xi.

y Zach.

2 * John xii. 16. "According to the notion of the ancient Jews, as in the Chaldee Paraphr. Targum's, &c. apud Kidder's Demonßration, part III. chap. ix.