388 JESUS OF NAZARETH [EXERC. XVII.
with expectation of his coming, and the salvation that it should be accompanied withal; and partly to give them assurance that they should not be consumed or utterly perish under their calamity, be- cause the great work of God by them, in bringing forth the Mes- siah, was not yet accomplished. So to this purpose the fourth chapter of this prophecy. And on this account it was, namely, of the tem- poral concernment of that people in the coming of the Messiah, that the promise of him was oftentimes mixed and interwoven with the mention of other things that were of present use and advantage unto them; so that it was not easy sometimes to distinguish the things that are properly spoken with reference unto him from those other things which respected what was present, seeing both sorts of them are together spoken of, and that to the same end and purpose.
25. Upon these principles, we may easily discover the true sense and importance of this prophetical prediction. Upon the infidelity of Ahaz, and the generality of the house of David with him, refusing a sign of deliverance tendered unto them, God tells them by his prophet that they had not only wearied his messengers by their un- belief and hypocrisy, but that they were ready to weary himself also, verse 13. He was even almost wearied with their manifold provocations during that typical state and condition wherein he kept them. However, for the present he had promised them deliverance ; and although they had refused to ask a sign of him according unto his command, yet he would preserve them from their present fears of utter ruin, and in due time accomplish his great and wonderful intendment, and that in a miraculous manner, by causing a virgin to concewe and bring forth that son, on whose account they should be preserved. This is the ground of the promise of the Messiah in this place, even to give them assurance that they should be preserved from utter destruction, because they were to continue to enjoy their church and state until his coming; as also, to comfort and support them during their distresses with the hope and expectation of him; for with the thoughts of his coming do the Jews to this day relieve their spirits under their calamities, though they have had no re- newed promise of him for near two thousand years. But how may it appear that it was the Messiah who should be thus born of a virgin? This the prophet assures them, by telling them, in his name, what he shall be, and be called accordingly: “He shall be called Immanuel,” or “God with us.” He shall be so both in respect of his person and office; for he shall be God and man, and he shall recon- cile God and man, taking away the enmity and distance that was caused by sin. And this was such a description of the Messiah as by which he was sufficiently known under the old testament, yea, from the foundation of the world, as hath been before declared. And the prophet further assures them that this Immanuel shall be born
el ee
SECT. 25, 26.] THE ONLY TRUE AND PROMISED MESSIAH. 389
truly a man, and dwell amongst them, being brought up with the common food of the country, until he came, as other men, unto the years of discretion: “ Butter and honey shall he eat, until he know to choose the good and refuse the evil.” And this was enough for the consolation of believers, as also for the security of the people from the desolation feared. But yet, because all this discourse was occasioned by the war raised against Judah by the kings of Israel and Damascus, unto the promise of their deliverance God is pleased to add a threatening of judgment and destruction unto their adver- saries; and because he would limit a certain season for the execution of his judgment upon them, as he had declared the safety and pre- servation of Judah to depend on the birth of Immanuel of a virgin, in the appointed season, so as to their enemies [he declares] that they should be éut off and destroyed before the time that any child not yet born could come to the years of discretion, “to refuse the evil and choose the good,” verse 16. Now, that this is the true importance and meaning of the prophecy will evidently appear, in our vindication of it from the exceptions of the Jews (before laid down) against its application by Matthew unto the nativity of Jesus Christ.
26. First, They except that it is not a virgin that is here intended by ney, which they say signifies any young woman, and some- times an adulteress. This being the foundation of all their other objections, and on the determination whereof the whole controversy from this place dependeth, I shall fully clear the truth of what we assert; for, (1.) The Jews themselves will not deny but that if the conception of a virgin be intended, it must refer unto some other, and not to any in those days. 1/¥, the word here used, is from Dey “to hide,” or Dy, in Niphal, “ hidden, kept close, reserved.” Hence is that name of virgins, partly in general from their being unknown by man, and partly from the universal custom of the east, wherein those virgins who were of any esteem or account were kept hid and reserved from all public or common conversation. Hence by the Grecians, also, they are called xardxrcoro, “shut up,” or recluses ; and their first appearance in public they termed dvaxadun- spi, the season of bringing them out from the retirements wherein they were hid. The original signification of the word, then, de- notes precisely a virgin, and cannot be wrested to a person living in the state of wedlock, much less unto a prostitute harlot, as the Jews pretend. (2.) The constant use of the word directs us to the same signification. It is seven times used in the Old Testament, and in’ every one of them doth still denote a virgin or virgins, either in a proper or metaphorical sense. ‘The first time it 1s used is Gen. xxiv. 43, where Rebekah is said to be mpey , “avirgin,” Verse 16, she is said to be MOND, “a maid,” and MYT Ne ON, “a man had