hve years after the prediction of the total ruin of the kingdom of Ifrael by the prophet Amos, the prophecy was fulfilled by Salnianaffar, chap. vii. 11. according to the language of our prophet, within three score and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people, Ifa. vii. 8. Thus was this prophecy accomplished, before this child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land, for which thou art afraid, shall be forsaken of both her kings.

God determined that the prophet's fecond child hould also be a fign of the truth of the fame promise. He affured Ifaiah, that before the child, who should fhortly be born, could learn to articulate the first founds which children were

taught to pronounce; "before the child fhould have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damafcus, and the spoil of Samaria," that is, of the kingdom of Ifrael, fhould be taken away by the king of Affyria," chap. viii. 4. This is the fame promife confirmed by a fecond fign. God ufually giveth more than one, when he confirmeth any very interefting prediction, as we fee in the hiftory of Pharaoh, and the patriarch Jofeph, Gen. xli. 1, &c.

But, as all the mercies that were bestowed on the Jews from the time of Abraham, were grounded on the covenant, which God had made with that patriarch, their common father and head; or rather, as, fince the fall, men could expect no favor of God but in virtue of the mediator of the church; it is generally to be observed in the prophecies, that when God gave them a promise, he directed their attention to this grand object. Either the idea of the covenant, or the idea of the mediator, was a feal, which God put to his promifes, and a bar against the unbelief and diftruft of his people. Every thing might be expected from a God, whofe goodnefs was fo infi

nite, as to prepare fuch a noble victim for the falvation of mankind. He, who would confine Satan in everlasting chains, and vanquish fin and death, was fully able to deliver his people from the incurfions of Rezin, and Pekah, the fon of Remaliah. To remove the prefent fears of the Jews, God remind, them of the wonders of his love, which he had promised to display in favor of his church, in ages to come and commands his prophet to fay to them, "Ye trembling leaves of the wood, fhaken with every wind, peace be to you! Ye timorous Jews, ceafe your fears! let not the greatness of this temporal deliverance, which I now promife you, excite your doubts! God hath favors incomparably greater in store for you, they shall be your guarantees for thofe, which ye are afraid to expect. Ye are in convenant with God. Ye have a right to expect those displays of his love in your favor which are leaft credible. Remember the blessed seed, which he promifed to your ancestors, Gen. xxii. "Behold! a virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon, and fhall call his name Immanuel," Ifa. vii. 14. The spirit of prophecy, that animates me, enables me to penetrate through all the ages that Separate the prefent moment from that in which the promise fhall be fulfilled. I fee the divine child, my "faith is the fubftance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not feen," Heb. xi. 1. and grounded on the word of that God, who changeth not, Mal. ii. 6. who " is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man, that he fhould repent," Numb. ii. 19. I dare fpeak of a miracle, which will be wrought eight hundred years hence, as if it had been wrought to-day, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a fon is given, and the government fhall be upon his fhoulder and his name fhall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlafting Father, The Prince of Peace."

18.

This, my brethren, is the prophet's fcope in the three chapters which we have analyzed, and par ticularly in the text. But, if any one of you receive our expofition without any farther difcuffion, he will discover more docility than we require, and he would betray his credulity without proving his conviction. How often doth a commentator substitute his own opinions for thofe of his author, and by forging, if I may be allowed to speak fo, a new text, elude the difficulties of that which he ought to explain? Let us act more ingenuously. There are two difficulties, which attend our comment; one is a particular, the other is a general difficulty.

The particular difficulty is this. We have fuppofed, that the myfterious child, fpoken of in our text, is the fame, of whom the prophet speaks, when he says, "A virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon, and fhall call his name Immanuel :" and that this child is different from that, whom Isaiah gave for a fign of the prefent temporal deliver ance, and of whom it is faid, "before the child shall know to refufe the evil, and choose the good, the land, that thou abhorreft, fhall be forfaken of both her kings." This fuppofition does not seems to agree with the text; read the following ver. fes, which are taken from the feventh chapter. "Behold! a virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon, and shall call his name Immanuel: Butter and honey fhall he eat, that he may know to refase the evil, and choose the good. But before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choofe the good, the land, that thou abhorreft, fhall be forfaken of both her kings," ver. 14, 15, 16. Do not the last words, "before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good,” feem to belong to the words which immediately precede them, "Behold! a virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon?" Immanuel, then, who was to be born of a virgin, could not be the Messiah;

the

the prophet muft mean the child, of whom he faid, before he know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, Judea fhall be delivered from the ty federate kings. w podziw

wo con

How indiffoluble foever this objections may appear, it is only an apparent difficulty, and it lies lefs in the nature of the thing, than in the arrangement of the terms. Reprefent to yourfelves the prophet executing the order, which God had given him, as the third verse of the feventh chapter relates. "Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy fon, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool."Imagine Ifaiah, in the prefence of the Jews, holding his, fon Shearjafhub in his armis, and addreffing them in this manner. The token, that God gives you, of your prefent deliverance, that he is fill your God, and that ye are ftill his covenant people, is the renewal of the promise to you, which be made to your ancestors concerning the Meffiab: to convince you of the truth of what I affert, I dif charge my commiffion, "Behold! a virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon, and hall call his name Immanuel," that is, God with us. He fhall be brought up like the children of men, "butter and honey shall he eat, until he know to refuse the evil, and choose the good," that is, until he arrive at 'years of maturity. In virtue of this promife, which will not be ratified till some ages have expired, behold what I promise you now; before the child, not before the child, whom, I faid juft now, a virgin should bear: but before the child in my arms, (the phrafe may be rendered before this child) before Shearjashub, whom I now lift up, "shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land, for which ye are in trouble, fhall be forfaken of both her kings."! You fee, my brethren, the child, whom, the prophet faid, a virgin should conceive, could not be Shearjafhub, who was actually prefent in his father's

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father's arms. The difficulty, therefore, is only apparent, and, as I obferved before, it lay in the arrangement of the terms, and not in the nature of the thing. This is our answer to what I called a particular difficulty.

A general objection anay be made against the manner in which we have explained the fe chapters, and in which, in general, we explain other prophecies. Allow me to state this objection in all its force, and, if I may ufe the expreffion, in all its enormity, in order to fhew you, in the end, all its levity and folly.

The odious objection is this. An unbeliever would fay, the three chapters of Ifaiah, of which you have given an arbitrary analysis, are equivo cal and obfcure, like the greatest part of those compilations, which compofe the book of the vifionary flights of this prophet, and like all the writings, that are called predictions, prophecies, revelations. Obfcurity is the grand chara&er of them, even in the opinion of those who have given fublime and curious explanations of them. They are capable of feveral fenfes. Who hath Who h received authority to develope thofe ambiguous writings, to determine the true meaning, among the many different ideas, which they excite in the reader, and to each of which the terms are alike applicable During feventeen centuries, chrif tians have racked their invention to put a fenfe on the writings of the prophets advantageous to christianity, and the greatest geniuses have ene deavored to interpret them in favor of the chrif, tian religion. Men, who have been famous for their erudition and knowledge, have taken the most laborious pains to methodize thefe writings one generation of great men hath fucceeded an other in the undertaking; is it aftonishing that fome degree of fuccefs hath attended their labors, and that by dint of indefatigable industry, they bave rendered thofe prophecies venerable, which

would