testimony, and his law, ministered by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, have been fully declared, this wonderful prophecy proceedeth to open the dawning of the light upon that long and wintry night. And the Prophet perceiveth it breaking upon the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, in recompence, as it were, for the darkness of conquest and captivity which first set in upon that side of the land in the time of Hoshea, king of Israel. And here I must follow the Vulgate and Joseph Mede, in translating the latter part of ver. 1, as I did in translating the former part; for in our version it is utterly unintelligible, and mars one of the most beautiful and perfect prophecies in Scripture, "In the first time the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were undervalued, but in the last time shall the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations, be honoured; the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." (Isa. ix. 2.) Whether this was wholly accomplished in his first coming, to which it is applied in the Gospel by Matthew, I leave every one to judge for himself; but to me it seems manifest that it was not, both because they profited little by the light then afforded to them, which can therefore hardly be said to have much exalted or recompensed them, but rather, as our Lord argues, aggravated their condemnation. But inasmuch as it points to the place where the great light was to burst forth, there can be no doubt that it is a very remarkable prophecy, though, in respect to the complete fulfilment, I have my suspicion that it remains yet to be shewn, against that time when the light of the Gentiles shall begin to become the glory of his people Israel, and "the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings." (Mal. iv. 2.) On this subject, however, I do no more than express my own conviction, while I feel assured that no one can doubt that of what immediately follows no part hath been fulfilled and now we must begin to be more minute.

:

"Thou hast multiplied the nation." That this is a characteristic feature of the restoration of the Jewish people at the future advent of Messiah, is manifest from almost all Scripture which hath reference thereto; as from Isa. xxvi. 15, “Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth." From Isa. xxvii. 6, " He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." From Isa. xlix. 19, 20, "For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the

other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me give place to me that I may dwell." Next comes the joy of Messiah and the nation, at the breaking of their bondage and the destruction of all their oppressors, "And to him (margin) increased the joy they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian." (Isa. ix. 3, 4.) Then comes the manner of this great overthrow of the enemies of Messiah and his people, so extraordinary and so extraordinarily typified in the destruction of the host of Midian, by the sound of the trumpets and by the fire of the It is lamps of Gideon, with his three hundred chosen men. needless to add, that fire is a constant instrument of this destruction in all the Scriptures. "For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." (Isa. ix. 5.) And to crown all, we have all these glorious events referred back to the birth of that child, with whose announcement the prophecy began; whereby the whole, from vii. 14 to ix. 7, is as it were clasped together, and presented to us as the achievements of this child, who was promised to king Ahaz in that desperate strait. "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." (Isa. ix. 6, 7.)

From these two last verses, which are worthy the elucidation of many volumes, I shall deduce the progression and fulness of Christ's regal office, which includeth and draweth up into itself both the prophetic and the priestly. The office of the Child is government, "the government shall be upon his shoulder." What government this was to be is explained after his name, "of the increase of his government and dominion there shall be no end;" that it shall include all bounds, at least all the bounds of the earth, and fill all time, that is, be eternal, according to what is foretold in Daniel vii. 13, 14, "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall

not be destroyed." But our prophecy is more particular than that famous prophecy of Daniel, adding the royal seat and metropolis of this universal and eternal empire: "Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." (Isa. ix. 7.) This is the last and also the main part of the prophecy, which, be it always remembered, was given as an assurance to the wavering heart of the house of David; and to that end doth declare and signify that this vast dominion was to acknowledge the throne of David, and him that sat thereon, to acknowledge the supremacy of the house of Jacob, and him that ruled over the same. Which ought to have been consolation and sustenance to the wicked king in his present strait and agitation, for it was more than had been ever declared by the mouth of prophet or of seer. And so important did the Lord esteem it, and for such instant use did he intend it, that he confirmed it by two great signs: the one, that Syria and Samaria should be divested of both their kings, before the elder of Isaiah's sons should know to refuse the evil and choose the good; the other, that the rulers of Damascus and the spoil of Syria should be carried away by the king of Assyria, before the younger of his sons could say, My father and my mother. A prophecy which was thus sealed with two of the greatest events of those days might well claim the belief of the wicked king, and retain the belief of all posterity. It appears, therefore, from this great prophecy of the incarnation, that the idea which was given of the Man-God, or Immanuel, was that of a deliverer and rightful inheritor of the land, the destroyer of all its oppressors, the remover of all its bondage, the multiplier of the nation, the increaser of its joy, the occupant of its throne, and the governor of its people for ever, yea, and the monarch of an universal and eternal dominion upon the earth. These predictions concerning the child are in this prophecy, and no others are in it. If it mean not this, it meaneth nothing. If a child was ever born of a virgin, it was for these ends he was born. And if he have not fulfilled these ends, then he is yet to fulfil them, nor would such a delay weaken but rather confirm the prophecy; for there is mentioned a mysterious waiting on his part, and rejection of him on their part, and a woful visitation of darkness in consequence thereof. And accordingly they are so found till this day, rejecting his aid in miserable woful darkness, nothing of all the glory having been accomplished, but the very reverse; because the season of his waiting is not yet expired. The prophecy therefore waits still for its great accomplishment in the Son of the Virgin, by the act and power of the Son of the Virgin. If any one say, No; Jesus of Nazareth shall never sit upon

David's throne, nor rule over the house of Jacob; then I say, Jesus of Nazareth is not the person here prophesied of, but some other. If they say, Yea, but he is the Immanuel born of the Virgin, who now is spiritually filling the spiritual throne of David, and spiritually reigning over the spiritual house of Jacob, and spiritually holding universal spiritual empire; then all I have to say is, I do not know what the spiritual throne of David means. It is the throne of a believer's heart. Where learned you to call a believer's heart the throne of David? It is the throne of the Majesty on high. How dare you blaspheme, and call the throne of God the throne of David? And what use was there to tell Ahaz, in his present straits, that a Son should be born and a Child given, who should reign in the hearts of men, and be exalted to the throne of God? And what signs of such an event were those two which were granted? Besides, these spiritualists know not where they lead themselves. If they will have all the substance of Immanuel's work to be invisible and spiritual, then I will have his birth also to be spiritual and invisible upon the earth. If they will annihilate the greater part to please themselves, I will annihilate the lesser part to vex them and then what have they left of all this bright and glorious prophecy but the shadow of a dream. But forsaking such quibbles, I desire to pursue my exposition of this prophecy by a short meditation of the manifold name which is given to this Child.

:

This name of the Child, which was to be born of the Virgin and given unto the Jewish nation, is "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; not five names, but one name comprehensive of the being and office of Immanuel; of which the first characteristic, the Wonderful, referreth to the miraculous nature of all his works and ways. Beginning with his conception, and ending with the accomplishment and presentation of the mediatorial kingdom; yea, and going back to the announcements which were made of him from the days of old, what do we find but that it is all out of, above, and against the course of nature, and intended to deliver man from the present thraldom of the natural life into the freedom of the life spiritual and divine? In the ancient times, when he delivered the church from Egyptian bondage, they sung him "Wonderful in his praises." When he appeared to Manoah, he did wonderfully, and prayed them not to ask his name, for it was wonderful; and so was his conception, and his birth, and his life, and his resurrection, and his ascension, and his gift of the Spirit from his present unseen abode; which yet are all but a prelude and faint signification of that wonderfulness .with which he shall shew himself the second time unto the world, and avenge his elect, and deliver his own people with a

mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and plant them in their own land, and rule the world in peace and righteousness, The wonders of this second appearance shall so utterly transcend all that hath been seen heretofore of the working of this wonderful one, that it is said by Jeremiah, "Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jer. xxiii. 7, 8.) The law of the natural man and of the natural course of things being opposed to the law of the Spirit of God, and that being wonderful or miraculous which opposeth the former, and establisheth the latter, every act of Christ in his progress to the redemption of the world must necessarily be supernatural, and that of all others the most so which consisteth in the casting out of Satan from his usurped dominion, and the restoring of the earth to the government of righteousness. This I judge to be the import of Wonderful, the first letter or syllable, if I may so speak, in the

Lord's name.

For the second, Counsellor, I regard it as expressing, and being the fittest word to express, his prophetic office in all its amplitude, whether as exercised before his coming in his servants the prophets, or by himself in the days of his flesh, or by the Holy Spirit since his ascension into glory. And its second place in the great name teacheth that his wonderful and mighty workings are all accompanied with, and done on purpose to sustain, righteous and holy counsels; that he is the Saviour of the earth by that which he shall teach them. It pointeth, moreover, to the ordinance of preaching by which it hath pleased God to save them that believe. The power of this word, however, is not yet completely told, but hath, I make no doubt, a chief reference to that future coming in power and glory, that reign and righteousness of which it is thus written in the prophet; "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." (Isa. xi. 1, 2.) And not only shall these attributes of the Prophet shine resplendent in him on that day, but also in all his people, concerning whom it is prophesied, "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi. 34.) And to the