To Auftin himself de civ. dei. Lib. 21. c. 17. To Jerome, at the end of his comment on Ifaiah, who fpeaks with a different tone from bishop Lowth in his new tranflation of that truly evangelical prophet, though the fpirit of prophefy, and the liberty of it was much funk, and restrained in his day by the dread of councils armed with the beast of fecular

power. To Facundus Epifc. Hermienfis. Lib. 4. c. 4. p. 62. Edit. Paris. 1679. Where he calls the teachers (who were reproached with the name of merciful doctors) moft holy and glorious minifters of the church; anathematizing, fays this noble Beraan, under pretence of Origen, all the great faints who were before him, as well as all who have been after him, for concurring in the doctrine of the reftitution of all things. Among modern writers, Jeremiah White, formerly chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, fhone a great light amidst the darkness, rage and perfecution of Calvin's fyftem, and compre hends the best and most perfect teftimony to the blood of the everlasting covenant, and the everlafting gospel in his book now rare, entitled the reftitution of all things.

In Verse 26, "Blefs ye God the Lord from the fountain of Ifrael. Elohim Adonaj."

Every expofition that has occurred to my view, appears unintelligible. For, if we tranflate with Ainfworth, a moft literal and judicious interpreter, blefs ye who are of the fountain of Ifrael; we must.

find

2

find the head of it in Jacob, whofe name was divinely changed to Ifrael, and the explication annexed, now Ifrael is my fon, my firft-born. Exod. iv. 22. if Gods the Lords, (as the Hebrew speaks of them) flow from Jacob, the father of Ifrael, the Elohim Adonaj must be found among the heads or fountains of the twelve tribes. This character will meet us in Jofeph, Benjamin and Judah. Jofeph who bears the greatest bleffings and prerogatives over the eleven brethren, reprefented by eleven flars, with the fun and moon, his father and mother making obeisance before him. Gen. xxxvii. 9. His name was written on the breast plate Thufeph according to the letters, engraved on beryl, of a skiecolour, or ætherial blue, as Ainfworth cites from Maimonides on Exod. xxviii. 17. And it is written in this manner in Pfal. Ixxxviii. 5. This he ordained in Fhofeph, bearing the two first letters, Jah, in the name Jehovah for a great mystery, which will foon be known to the transcendent joy of Jews and Gentiles. Now it is exprefly faid, that a ftar out of Jacob fhall come, and a fcepter fhall rife out of Ifrael. Numb. xxiv. 17. These characters point to the flar at our Lord's nativity, and to tie fcepter of his kingdom given above his fellows in Pfal. xlv. 5, 6. These Chaberim are brethren, of the fame family or fountain. To this prophely the apostle looks back in Rom. xi. 26. There fhall come out of Sion the redeemer, and fhall turn away ungodli

nefs

nefs from Jacob, who must be Jhofeph, whom every eye fhall fee, and they that pierced him. Rev.

i. 7.

As Judah ftands the feventh from the first number in Abraham, Fhofeph is found in the fourteenth descent, with the double fevens on his head; and all the doublings conftitute the order of higher perfections in the Hebrew tongue, which contains the riches of the wifdom and goodnefs of the most high God, JEHOVAH. If the fenfe of Vitringa and the feptuagint be adopted, we must interpret the Lord from the fountain of Ifrael, juft as God is called the fountain of living waters in Jeremiah ii. 13-xvii. 13. Pfal. xxxvi. 10. We must then find the first fource of the twelve wells at Elim. Exod. xv. 27: and the feventy palm-trees at that camp growing near thofe waters which feed and nourish their roots, and their leaves always green and flourishing, and affording a pleasant shadow. Cant. vii. 7. Pfal. xcii. 13. The bearing of branches from these trees is not only a fymbol of victory, but it points to the feast of tabernacles in the feventh month, when the feventy bullocks were slain, and the blood of fourteen lambs fprinkled every day on them to change thefe rebellious heads of nations into a new name and nature. Rev. vii. 9. In this place occurs one of the most beautiful figures prophefying the final victory of Jefus Chrift and his elders over fin and death for the whole world. The Jerufalem Targum cited by Ain,worth faw the

twelve tribes and the feventy elders, alluded to. Gen. xlix. 28. Numb. xi. 16. and also the seventy fouls of Ifrael and Jacob that went down into the typical Egypt. Gen. xlvi. 27. The mystery was revealed in the election of the twelve apostles, and in the miffion of the seventy disciples into Samaria, which flood in the land of the three fathers of Ifrael for a figure of all nations under the fin of idolatry and unbelief. Luke ix. 1: examine the paffages in the prophets for the mystic character of Samaria. Ifa. vii. 9. Ezek. xvi. 46.—xxiii: 4. Hof. viii. 5, 6.-xiii. 16. Amos vi. 1. 8. 14. and then compare our Lord's journeys through this lot of the Gentiles in Luke xvii. 11. John iv. 4, 9, 39. But, it is not meant, (as Hulfus justly reprehends commentators) to explain a figure by another figure, but by the spirit and truth to it. By waters we must understand living waters from Abraham and Ifaac's wells flowing down into Jacob who diftributes to his Ifrael; and they difpenfe them to the Seventy elders, the angels and prefidents of the nations fo much celebrated among the fpiritual writers among the Jews. Gen. xxvi. 15, 18. The multitude which no man could number, muft be found in the feaft of tabernacles, when the waters of life fhall be poured out of buckets, and his feed shall be in many waters; and his king shall be higher than Agag, (king of the Amalekites) and his kingdom fhall be exalted. He fhall eat up the nations, his

diftreffers,

diftreffers, fhall break their bones, and pierce through with his arrows, in that fublime prophecy of Bakaam recorded in Numb. xxiv. 7, 8. Concerning Jacob and his tabernacles. The feed of the myftic Ifrael is now among many waters or peoples born of water of death, corruptible feed. Rev. xvii. 15. Ifa. Ivii. 19. And the eating up of the nations, his firaitners was figuratively described in every feast of tabernacles, by the flaughter of the feventy bullocks at the altar of perpetual fire, where these wild and mad bulls, felf-willers and felf-deftroyers, were devoured by that fire, called Ariel, the lion of God, who broke their bones, and ground them to duft, and pierced them with the fword and arrows of the victorious flame, in which the lamb fat, executing judgment of righteoufnefs or justification, by taking away the fin, and covering the conquered victim with his garment of light, when judgment ceased in the abolition of the image of the beaft. This judgment by fire, and the fpirit of burning came forth into truth, at the descent of the holy fpirit at Pentecofte, in the baptifm to the elders at that feast, whose duty as kings and priests will be to baptize all nations in Babylon, the great city, in the day appointed, now drawing near. Without water and blood and fpirit, the new earth can never form a body of glory, a cloud of heaven, and dwelling for God: thefe precious powers from above were revealed, and proclaimed, when the fide of