31. That, then, which in the second place is objected by the Jews against our application of this place and prophecy to Jesus Christ is, that the birth of the child here promised was to be a sign to Ahaz and the house of David of their deliverance from the two kings who then waged war against them. And this, they say, the birth of the Messiah so many hundred years after could give them no pledge or assurance of. And,—(1.) We do not say that this was given them as a peculiar sign or token of their present deliverance. Ahaz himself had before refused such a sign. But God only shows the reason in general why he would not utterly cast them off, although they wearied him, but would yet deliver them as at other times; and this was because of that great work which he had to accomplish among them, which was to be signal, marvellous, and ~yniraculous. And this he calls nix, “a sign,” in its absolute, not re- lative sense, as denoting a work wonderful, such as sometimes he wrought to evidence his great power thereby. In this sense ninix, “sions,” are joined unto one, “prodigies,” Deut. vi. 22, Jer. xxxii, 20, Neh. ix. 10, where the works so called were great and marvellous; not signs formally of any thing, unless it were of the wonderful power of God whereby they were wrought. So the mi- racles of our Saviour and the apostles, in the New Testament, are called onweia, “signs,” for the same and no other cause. And the word is thus absolutely used very often in the Old Testament.
394 JESUS OF NAZARETH [EXERC XVIL
(2.) Besides, that which is secondly alleged, that a thing that shall come to pass many ages after cannot be made asign of that which was to be done many ages before, is not universally true. The thing itself in its existence, it is true, cannot be so made a sign, but it may in the promise and prediction of it. And many instances we have of things promised for signs, which were not to ewist in themselves until after the accomplishment of the things whereof they were signs, as Exod. ii, 12; 1 Sam. i. 34; Isa. xxxvii. 30; 1 Kings xxii. 25; God intending by them the confirmation of their faith who should live in the time of their actual accomplishment.
(3.) This sign had the truth and force of a promise, although it was not immediately to be put in execution; and that is the rea- son that the words here used are one of them, 1, “ conceive,” in the preterperfect tense, the other, N72‘, in benoni, or participle of the present tense, to intimate the certainty of the event, as is usual in the prophetical dialect. Their assurance, then, from this sign con- sisted herein, that God informs them that, as surely as he would accomplish the great promise of bringing forth the Messiah, and would put forth his marvellous power therein, that he should be conceived and born of a virgin, so certain should be their present deliverance, which they so desired.
32. It is further insisted on by them, that the deliverance pro- mised was to be wrought before the child spoken of should know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, or should come to years of discretion, verse 16; and what was this unto him that was to be born some hundreds of years after? Ans. (1.) That the 33 men- tioned verse 16 is the same with the /2 promised verse 14, doth not appear. The prophet, by the command of God, when he went unto the king with his message, took with him Shear-jashub his son, verse 3. This certainly was for some especial end in the word or message that he had to deliver, the child being then but an infant, and of no use in the whole matter, unless to be made an instance of something that was to be done. It is therefore probable that he was the "92, the young child, designed verse 16, before whose grow- ing up to discretion those kings of Damascus and Samaria were to be destroyed. Or, (2.) The expression may denote the time of any child’s being born, and coming to the maturity of understanding, and so, consequently, the promised child. ‘ In as short a space of time as this promised child, when he shall be born, shall come to know to refuse the evil and choose the good, shall this deliverance be wrought.’
33. Their remaining cavils are of little importance. The child intended chap. viii., was to be the son of the prophet and prophetess, and so not this child that was to be born of a virgin. Besides, he is plainly promised as a sign of other things than those treated of in
SECT. 32-25.] THE ONLY TRUE AND PROMISED MESSIAH. 895
this chapter, yea, of things quite contrary unto them. Again, this child, they tell us, was to be called Immanuel, whereas the son of Mary was called 8%, or, as they maliciously write it, %%. But this name is given to signify what he should be and do, and not what he should be commonly called. He was to be God and man in one person, to reconcile God and man,—to be every way Immanuel. And this kind of expression in the Scripture, when a thing is said to be “called” that which it is, the name denoting the being, nature, and quality of it, is so frequent that there is nothing peculiar in it as here used. See Isa. i. 26, viii. 3, ix. 6; Jer. xxiii. 6; Zech. viii. 3. The like also may be said to that which they except in the last place, namely, that they know not that Jesus of Nazareth was brought up with butter and honey, which is foretold concerning this child; for the expression signifies no more but that the child should be educated [2.¢., nourished | with the common food of the country, such as children were in those places and times nourished withal, it being the especial blessing of that land that it flowed with milk and honey. And thus have we asserted and vindicated the third characteristical note of the true Messiah. He was to be born of a virgin; which none but only our Lord Jesus ever was from the foundation of the world.