SECT. 34-37. | MESSIAH VINDICATED. 207
who took all the cities of Judah, one or two only excepted, verse 13. And in what sense shall he be called “The Prince of Peace?” The rabbins, after their wonted manner to fetch any thing out of a word, whether it be aught to their purpose or no, answer, that it was because of that saying, Isa. xxxix. 8, “ For there shall be peace and truth in my days.” But this being spoken with respect unto the very latter part of his reign, and that only with reference unto the Babylonian captivity, which was afterwards to ensue, is a sorry foundation to entitle him unto this illustrious name, “ The Captain, Prince, or Lord of Peace ;’ which bespeaks one that had all peace (and that in the Scripture language is all that is good or prosperous, both temporal and spiritual, in reference unto God and man) in his power and disposal. And yet this is the utmost that any of them pretend to give countenance unto this appellation.
36. Abarbanel, who heaps together the interpretations, conjectures, and traditions, of most that went before him, seems to agree with Kimchi in that of “the government being upon his shoulder,” because his father Ahaz sent 173), “a present” unto the king of Assyria, but he did not; whereas it is expressly said that he paid him tribute of “three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold;” for the raising whereof he emptied his own treasures, and the treasures of the house of God, yea, and cut off the gold from the doors and pillars of the temple, 2 Kings xviii. 14-16: yet he men- tions that other fancy of Rashi about the study of the law, and so leaves it. But in this of the name ascribed unto him he would take another course: for finding Hezekiah, in their Talmud. Tract. Sanhed. Perek Chelek, called by his masters, now mony dya, “ He who had eight names,’—as Sennacherib is also childishly there said to have had,—he would in the first place ascribe all these names unto Hezekiah, giving withal such reasons of them as I dare not be so importune on the reader’s patience as to transcribe; and himself, after he had ascribed this opinion to Jonathan the Targu- mist and Rashi, embraceth the other of Kimchi, before confuted, and yet knows not how to abide by that either.
37. Thirdly, How can it be said of Hezekiah, that “ of the in- crease of his government there should be no end,” seeing he lived but four and fifty years, and reigned but twenty-nine, and his own son Manasseh, who succeeded him, was carried captive into Babylon? But as unto this question, and that which follows, about his “ sitting upon the throne of David for ever,” after they have puzzled them- selves with the great mystery of ‘‘Mem clausum” in 72)2?, they would have us to suppose that these words concerned only the life of Hezekiah, though it be not possible that any other word should be used more significantly expressing perpetuity,
“ Of the increase of his government” /? 18, “no end,”—it shall
208 PROMISES OF THE [EXERC. IX.
be endless; and he shall rule phy-yn nny, “from hence,” or “ now, and unto for ever,” for evermore.
And thus, by the vindication of this place from the rabbinical ex- ceptions, we have not only obtained our principal mtention about the promise of a Deliverer, but also showed who and what manner of person he was to be,—even a child that was to be born, who should also be the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, whose rule and dominion was to endure for ever.
38. Isa. x. 27, “The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” Targum: xnwn DIP jd sony f72n;—“ And the people shall be broken before the Messiah.” And, it may be, some respect may be had in these words unto the promised Seed, upon whose account the yoke of the oppressors of the church shall be broken; but the words are variously interpreted, and I shall not contend.
39. Isa. xi. 1, “ And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots” Targum: YIN) N32 VID Nw wT MID Nodp pien;—“ And a King shall come forth from the sons of Jesse, and Messiah shall be anointed from the sons of his sons,”—his posterity.
Verse 6, “ The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.” Targum: mp2 synxa xnby sp’ ssw xn'wnt;—“<In the days of the Messiah of Israel peace shall be multiplied in the earth, and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.” That this chapter contains a prophecy of the Messiah and his kingdom, and that immediately and directly, all the Jews confess. Hence is that part of their usual song in the evening of the Sabbath :—
“aip “bya shy say SmaNpm ssa wad “aman ow ya hy by moa wwer ds masp “Shake thyself from dust, arise, My people, clothed in glorious guise ; For from Bethlehem Jesse’s Son Brings to my soul redemption.”
They call him the “Son of Jesse” from this place; which makes it somewhat observable that some Christians, as Grotius, should apply it unto Hezekiah, Judaizing in their interpretations beyond the Jews. Only the Jews are not well agreed in what sense these words, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,” etce., are to be understood. Some would have it that the nature of the brute beasts shall be changed in the days of the Messiah: but this is rejected by the wisest of them, as Maimonides, Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and others; and these interpret the words 975 by» allegorically, applying them unto that universal peace which shall be in the world in the days of the Messiah. But the peace