There is yet another solution of this difficulty added of late by a learned person (Pococke Miscellan. Not. cap. ii.), who makes it pro- bable, at least, that the word “Y¥ is of the number of those that are used in a directly contrary sense: as wtp, to “ sanctify” and “ pro- fane ;” 773, to “bless” and “ curse ;’ was, “a living soul” and “a dead carcase.” And he proves by notable instances that it signifies, as sometimes éAdyioros, “least,” so sometimes obdaméig ehdyioros, “ great, illustrious, and excellent.”
The remaining differences are inconsiderable. The pronoun D, “to me,” is omitted by the evangelist, and the reason of it is evi- dent; for in the prophet God himself speaks in his own person, in the gospel the words are only historically recited. Deena >win, “Ruler in Israel,” is paraphrased by the evangelist, ‘Hyotmevos, borsg wosmouve? rdy Aadv wov roy Iopuna,— The leader that shall feed my people Israel.” Asserting his rule, he adds the manner of it,—he shall do it by feed- ing them; according as his rule is declared in the next words in the prophet, Micah v. 4, “He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lorp,” which words the evangelist had respect unto. And this much have we spoken by the way, for the vindication of the recital of this testimony, whose application in general unto the matter in hand is every way unquestionable, and so yields us a second charac- teristical note of the person of the Messiah.
20 The manner of the birth of the Messiah, namely, that he should be “born of a virgin,” is a third characteristical note given of him. The first promise doth sufficiently intimate that he was not to be brought into the world according to the ordinary course of mankind, by natural generation, seeing he was diaxpirimeic, and in
SECT. 20, 21.] THE ONLY TRUE AND PROMISED MESSIAH. 385
a peculiar manner designed to be the “seed of the woman ;”’ that is, to be born of a woman, without conjunction of man. To make this sign yet the more evident, God gives it forth directly in a word of pro- mise: Isa. vii. 10-16, “ Moreover, the Lorp spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lorp thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lorp. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.” This is the promise and prophecy, the accomplishment whereof in our Lord Jesus we have recorded, Matt. i. 22, 23, “ All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.” Now, this being a thing utterly above the course of nature,—which never fell out from the foundation of the world unto that day, nor ever shall do so to the end of it, seeing the miraculous power of God shall no more in the like kind be exerted,—it is an in- fallible evidence and demonstrative note of the true Messiah. He, and he alone, was to be born of a virgin; so alone was Jesus of Naza- reth: and therefore he alone is the true Messiah.
21. The Jews, being greatly pressed with this prophecy and the accomplishment of it, do try all means to escape by breaking through one of them; and we might expect that they would principally at- tempt the story of the evangelist, but circumstances on that side are so cogent against them that they are very faint in that endeavour. For if it was so indeed, that Jesus was not born of a virgin, as is recorded, and as both himself and his disciples professed, why did they not charge him with untruth herein in the days of his flesh? Why did they not call his mother into question, especially considering that she being espoused unto an husband, they might, upon convic- tion, have put her unto a public and shameful death? None of this being done or once undertaken by their forefathers, no less full of envy and malice against the person and doctrine of Jesus than them- selves, and much better furnished and provided for such an under- taking, might any colour be given unto it, than they are, they insist not much upon the denial of the truth of the record. But to relieve themselves, they by all means contend that the words of the prophet are no way applicable unto the birth of our Lord Jesus, which the evangelist reports them prophetically to express; and to this end they multiply exceptions against our interpretation of the prophecy.
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386 JESUS OF NAZARETH [EXERC, XVII.
22. First, They deny that here is any thing spoken of the concep- tion or bearing of a son by a virgin; for the word here used, say they (72), signifieth any young woman, married or unmarried, yea, sometimes an adulteress, as Prov. xxx. 19, so that the whole founda- tion of our interpretation is infirm; and the 727¥ here intended was, they say, no other but either the wife of the prophet, or the wife of Ahaz the king, or some young woman in the court then newly mar- ried or to be married to the king, or some other person.