Now there are three parts of this last prophecy of David : —
The first of them concerns the subject of all prophecy and pro- mises that he had preached about and declared; and that is Christ himself, in the 3d and 4th verses; the second of them concerns himself, as he was a type of Christ, verse 5 ; and the third part con- cerns Satan and the enemies of the church, in opposition unto the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
The first part of his prophecy concerns Christ himself, verses 3, 4, " The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." So we have rendered the words; but if you look into the Bible, that " must be" is put into the text by the misunderstanding of them by interpreters. 1 This sermon was preached June 27, 1669.
410 THE EVERLASTING COVENANT,
The words are, PV!!¥ D"!^? 'B^0 ; — "The ruler in or over men is the Just One;" which is Christ himself, who alone is this Tg'ID, — this " ruler." The word may be two ways interpreted (for to interpret it of a man that ruleth over men, the word will no way bear it, nor the prophecy) ; — the Q1^5 must be, either, "He that rules in the human nature is the Just One ;" or, " He that rules over the human nature" (in all saints), " he is just," saith he ; " and he rules in" or by " the fear of God." As, in Isa. xi. 3, it is prophesied of him, " He shall be of quick understand- ing in the fear of the Lord;" so here it is prophesied of him, that he shall rule in or by the fear of God ; — that is the sceptre he shall have in the hearts of men, — that is the law he shall put upon the souls of his subjects: he shall rule them neither by outward violence nor force, nor any thing of that nature; but he shall rule them by the fear of God. Verse 4 declares, by sundry comparisons, what he shall be : Why, saith he, " He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds ; as the tender grass spring- ing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." You know how often these things are applied unto Christ. He is called in Malachi, " The Sun of righteousness that ariseth," chap. iv. 2 ; he is called " The Day-spring from on high," Luke i. 78 ; and he is called " The bright and morning Star," Rev. xxii. 1 6. He is both a sun, and morn- ing star, and day-spring. He shall be as the morning, that brings light, comfort, joy, refreshment to the church. " He shall be as a morning without clouds;" — there is no darkness in the kingdom of Christ. And " he shall be as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain;" — the same with that in Isaiah, " He shall spring up as the tender branch out of the earth." You know the reason of the allusion': when the grass hath been long dried, and there comes a great rain upon it, and clear shining upon that rain, how will the grass spring up ! There was to be a great drought upon the church; but Christ comes, and he was as the rain, and as the sun shining upon the rain; then there was a springing up with great glory, and unto great fruitfulness.1
1 It is a duty to apprize the reader, that the passage from which the text of Owen is selected has occasioned much embarrassment to critics. On the strength of a patient collation of old manuscripts, Kennicott has proposed important changes on the present rendering in our authorized version. The changes principally re- late to the insertion of " Jehovah " in verse 4, the omission of the negative in the first clause of verse 5, and the connection of the last words of the same verse with the first words of the verse that follows. Michaelis affirms, " that, in the latter chapters of the Second Boole of Samuel, the manuscripts have come down to ns more disfigured with mistakes than in any other part of the Old Testament." The alterations proposed in the present instance serve to evince the prophetic cha- racter of the passage, as descriptive of the Messiah, and to strengthen the evi- dence of his divinity. The reader must he referred to the discussion of this pas- sage by a master in Israel, Dr Pye Smith, in his profound and exhaustive work on " The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah," etc. "We add his proposed version
THE BELIEVERS SUPPORT UNDER DISTRESS. 411
I will at present overlook the 5th verse, to which I am to return; and only show that the 6th and 7th verses do contain a prophecy of the enemies of the church ; as this does of Christ. " Belial shall be thrust away as thorns." We render it, " The sons of Belial;" but it is only Belial; — " Belial, all of it, the whole name of Belial." Some- times the word is taken for wicked men, and sometimes for the prince of wicked men; as here for the devil and all his agents. And he fol- lows on his allusion, that " they cannot be taken with hands;" Satan and his seed are so full of thorns and prickles against the church, that you can never seize them by the hand to bring them to any order. And the next verse gives caution how well we must be fenced if we touch them. This is the design of the prophecy.