present rendering is supported by its use in Lev. xxiv. 12; Dan. ix. 24, and xii. 11; perhaps also in Gen. ii. 22; and is confirmed by Bochart, (Hieroz. Part I. lib. 2. cap. 51,) who has largely shown that milk, especially of goats, mixed with honey, was used by oriental nations as the food of infants. Not to know good and evil, whether in a natural or moral point of view, is a well known periphrasis for the period of infancy.-Ver. 16. "The land," &c. The translators of our received version, and others also, appear to have been misled in the rendering of this phrase by the Septuagint, which retains the Hebrew idiom, and has been distorted by the improper insertion of a comma after the verb. The above rendering is literally exact, (compare Numb. xxii. 3.) and is of importance, as furnishing a clue to the correct understanding of the whole prophecy. A general illustration of this shall now be attempted.

A detail of the difficulties which have occurred to learned men respecting the application of the prediction before us, and of the various conclusions at which they have arrived, would be needless to biblical scholars, and useless to others. So early as the days of Justin Martyr, (Dial. cum Trypho,) it was claimed by the Christians as a prophecy fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ. Nor can this be surprising to any person acquainted with the New Testament, since the Evangelist Matthew (chap. i. ver. 22, 23.) so emphatically gives it this application. Many profound scholars, however, though cordial friends to evangelical truth, have been driven by the apparent difficulties to a conclusion, that Matthew cites the passage in a way of accommodation only, meaning that, in the miraculous conception and birth of Christ, an event occurred, to which the lan

guage of the prophet would remarkably apply. That the penmen of the New Testament do

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occasionally thus employ pressions of the Old Testament, is generally allowed; but that they ever introduce their accommodations with such emphatic formularies as are here employed by the Evangelist, has never yet satisfactorily appeared. In the course of the next chapter of the Gospel are three references'to the OldTestament thus introduced, respectively: "that the word might be verified," ver. 15; "then was verified what was spoken," ver. 17; and "thus was verified what was spoken," ver. 23. Whatever may be thought of any of these forms of expres sion, they all fall very short of that with which the sacred penman introduces his quotation from the passage before us. Having related the miraculous conception, and the explanation given to Joseph by a celestial messenger, the Evangelist adds: 66 τετο δε ολον γεγονεν να πληρωθη; all this took place that the word might be verified;" thus recurring to the important event, bringing it in a summary before our minds, and expressly pronouncing that it occurred in accomplishment of a remarkable prediction. Had the inspired penman intended to assure us, that he quoted the prediction of Isaiah in its literal application, it is not easy to conceive in what terms he could have done it more effectually. But such a method of introducing an accommodated passage remains unparalleled, notwithstanding the researches of the learned, and would be so obviously adapted to mislead, as to render questionable the inspiration of this evangelical record.

Under this conviction, other expositors have supposed (for their opinion is only supposition), that in fulfilment of Isaiah's prediction, some young marriageable female, perhaps present on the occasion,

would, either in due course of nature, or miraculously, become pregnant about that time, and after the usual term of gestation bring forth a son, as a proof of God's protecting care, and a pledge that the preceding announcement of the prophet would, at the appointed time be fulfilled; and, moreover, that this birth would be typical of a far more remote event, the birth of Messiah. But, 1. If such an event took place in the ordinary course of nature, how could it prove so clear an indication of especial divine interference, as should convince the idolatrous Ahaz that Jehovah was God, able and willing to effect the prophetic announcements? If not adapted for this end, what end was it to accomplish? And further, how could the birth of an infant, in the ordinary course of nature, be typical of the miraculous birth of Christ, or of any of the peculiarities of his birth whatsoever? 2. If such an event took place in a miraculous way, it seems strange that no record, no intimation of its accomplishment should remain; though that record must have been highly honourable to the divine faithfulness, and even necessary to the full confidence of subsequent generations, in its typical and far more momentous application. That no such event had ever occurred, till the conception of Jesus Christ, is precisely the ground which Justin takes in reasoning from this passage against Trypho. 3. Even if such a miraculous conception did occur, it would not have been a sign adapted to win the confidence of Ahaz. The danger was imminent; the combined forces were approaching his capital; and so far as their present designs against Jerusalem were concerned, would be over before the pledge could be received. At all events, the sign or pledge must have come subsequently to the deliverance pledged,

and thus have had less influence on his mind than the mere predictions previously given. 4. Ahaz had already determinately rejected any miraculous interference, of Jehovah, and in effect declared, that let God say what he would, and do what he would, he had resolved to be uninfluenced. The prediction, therefore, respecting Immanuel, could not be intended for him, that is, to be fulfilled during his days. And 5, The close of the prophecy sets the accomplishment at a considerable distance. It had been already foretold, that in about sixty-five years, Israel and Syria would be made desolate; but, verse 16, we are informed, that even that event should occur before, perhaps long before, Immanuel ceased to be nourished as an infant.

The chapter commences with a general notice of occurrences which gave occasion to the following prophecy. Rezin and Pekah, with the combined forces of Syria and Israel, overran the kingdom of Judah, and laid siege to its capital, but defeated in their attempt, retired to pursue meaner conquests. This general notice may be advantageously compared with 2 Kings xvi. 5—10.

The details of the narration commence with the second verse. We are carried back to the period when those combined armies were approaching, and are informed of the extreme and general agitation which pervaded Jerusalem. Such is plainly represented as the state of things in that capital, when this prophecy was delivered. The hostile kings are rapidly advancing to seize Jerusalem by surprise. No preparations for resistance have been made. Amidst the general alarm, Abaz, with his courtiers, goes forth to a reservoir in the suburbs, whence the city is supplied with water, purposing, if possible, to secure so essential a resource from the possession of

the enemy. While the inhabitants of the city in general, agitated and distressed, are providing securities for their valuables, and refuges for their families, Isaiah, directed by divine revelation, and confident of divine protection, presents himself to the public, composed and at leisure. To evince his assurance that all this disquietude is unnecessary, instead of seeking a timely retreat for his family, he is seen leading to the suburbs his son Shear-jashub. He approaches the king, an outrageous defier of Jehovah, and flagrant devotee to idolatrous worship; for he has a message from God unto him. The long despised, yet as long suffering Jehovah, will once more prove the heart of this rebellious descendant of David, with such an overture of mercy as shall, at least, illustrate his own grace, and exhibit in its odious colours the deceitfulness and hardening influence of sin.

Unsolicited, and undesired, the blessed God proffers, in this moment of danger and alarm, assurances of his protection; inviting Abaz to confidence in his promises, and predicting that, far from accomplishing their designs against Jerusalem, Rezin and Pekah would shortly be overtaken by most disastrous calamities; and that within sixty-five years their countries should be laid desolate.

While delivering this gracious message, the prophet perceives unequivocal symptoms of displeasure and incredulity, and therefore admonishes his reluctant audience on the importance of receiving, with due respect and credence, the message of Jehovah, as the only effectual means of restoring them to composure and security, (verse 9.) Conscious at this moment of a new impulse of the prophetic spirit, urging him to seek still farther, on behalf of Jehovah, the attention and confidence of Ahaz, he proN. S. No. 25.

ceeds :-" If you believe not that my message is from the God of Israel, or distrust his power and readiness to fulfil it, demand such a proof of omnipotent interference as will satisfy you on these points. Jehovah even condescends to submit to you the choice of the greatest difficulties. Name what mi racle he shall perform, either in the world beneath or above, that will convince you he is the true God, and will fulfil the message you have heard." In vain, however, is this new instance of divine condescension. Ahaz, with contemptuous obduracy, will have nothing to do with Jehovah; he has already formed his own plans for escaping impending danger, if he has not already sent off his subsidy to the King of Assyria. (2 Kings xvi. 7, 8.) At all events he will not make trial of Jehovah.

Filled with holy indignation at such outrageous perverseness, such daring scorn of the gracious advances which he was commissioned to make, Isaiah, undaunted, rises into very solemn and affecting expostulation:-" Is it thus, Õ degenerate offspring of believing and pious David, that you requite the Lord? His prophets have counselled, encouraged, reproved you, till their patience is exhausted, and they despair of effecting your reformation. Will not this suffice you?

Are you determined to venture the dread experiment, to exhaust the patience of my God? Since you thus obstinately refuse to prove the claims of Jehovah to your faith and obedience, I appeal to you no more in his name. Yet be it known to you, that he will proceed with the accomplishment of his gracious purposes to the house of David, and Israel his people, in defiance of the rebellion and malignity of his creatures."

Then conscious of the full tide of prophetic influence rising in his soul, enabling him to realize, as present, events otherwise hid from

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mortals in the futurity of remote ages, he exclaims: "Behold, a virgin eminently distinguished by divine favour, conceiveth and beareth a son, and calleth his name IMMANUEL, for he shall be recognized as uniting in his person the attributes of God, with the essential properties of man, that he may manifest the loving kindness of God, and reconcile to him the apostate race of Adam. Yet though miraculously conceived, he shall be born, and live, and be nourished, like other human creatures. But this is an event far remote. Your eyes, O Ahaz, shall never behold it. Nearly sixty-five years shall elapse, as I have already declared, before Israel and Syria shall be made desolate; those lands, whose approaching kings cause all this dismay and alarm. Yet even their desolation is nearer, far nearer, than the incarnation of God. Your descendants, however, when Israel and Syria are overthrown, according to Jehovah's declaration, will learn to trust him, and look forward with greater confidence to the birth of Immanuel." H*.

REFLECTIONS ON EGYPT.

"Sic transit gloria mundi.” No one, we should think, of any sensibility, can turn an eye to this strange land, without the liveliest interest and deepest veneration. If we regard it only in reference to its antiquity, what deep feelings of interest is it calculated to excite. We naturally love to travel back upon the ages that are past, and trace the history of our species; we love to snatch from oblivion the memory of those who are gone before us; and, indeed, what is the past to us at all, except as we can trace, amidst its gloom and obscurity, the footsteps of kindred men? What is it to us, but a blank-a void, except as we can people it with the phantoms

of the departed. If we revert to a period beyond the records of man, what hold has it upon our regard; the whole eternity that is past is nothing to us, except as connected with events that can affect us. In turning to the history of Egypt, we turn to the history of some of the patriarchs of our race. Some parts of it are, indeed, obscure and doubtful, and much fabulous, but this does not, perhaps, lessen the interest we feel, for we look into the twilight of history in the same manner as we look into the twilight of evening, with an intenser gaze, and more fixed eyes, in order that we may discern, amid the indistinctness before us, what is reality and what is phantom, what is truth, and what is the creation of our own fancy.

But the antiquity of Egypt is linked with associations of no ordinary nature. We turn to it as the cradle of human genius, the birth-place of the arts and sciences; there the mind of man first put forth its strength; there sprang up many of those inventions which embellish or solace life, and many, too, of those splendid vanities which beguile, which delude, and which curse our race; there arose all the pomp and pageantry of systematic warfare, and military greatness ; there man first turned a curious and inquisitive mind to the works of Deity, and mused with a halfphilosophic and half-superstitious eye upon the revolutions of the heavenly orbs, as they pursued their way so uninterruptedly and so calmly amidst the perplexities and the changes of man; and there, too, alas for human degeneracy! as his genius and intellect expanded, as the arts and sciences arose, he sunk deeper in moral ignorance, nay, his very knowledge subserved the purposes of superstition, (much of his astronomy, for instance, gave birth to the absurdest mythological fables,) until, what a Greek one said of

Athens, might have been said with still greater justice of Egypt, "that there were more gods than men." Yes, there that intellect, with the honours of which he there for the first time became properly acquainted, was prostituted to idolatry and superstition, to an extent never witnessed before, and never witnessed since. Here then is a comment, a touching comment, upon all the depth of our fall! Here is seen genius expanding in its strength, civilization, art, science, and yet moral ignorance as great as intellectual improvement.

The Egyptians were certainly a wonderful people; they were the only people who have ever been able to give imperishability to their works; while the structures of other lands lie crumbling in dust, while desolation and evanescence are written upon the productions of all other ancient nations, nay, while antiquaries dispute about the very site of some of the most renowned cities upon earth, the rise and destruction of which were long antedated by the pyramids of Egypt, the works of the aucient Egyptians still remain, to attest their indefatigable industry, their skill and ingenuity; they still remain as the memorials of their power, defying all the changes and the storms of time, all the incursions of conquerors, who have at intervals swept over this devoted land, since that long-past day when it was itself a conqueror. Nay, they stamped even death with immortality, and gave perpetuity to that frail body, which is generally doomed to oblivion and dissolution.

But while we admire the genius and the ingenuity which they exhibited, and the indefatigable toil which they must have used to accomplish their vast undertaking, which, from the time which must necessarily have been consumed in their completion, must often

have been bequeathed by one generation to another; we naturally inquire, what is the design of all? surely, where all the skill, and all the labour, and all the resources of man were lavished so profusely, something worthy of all this must have been the result. Alas! this is the most mortifying consideration of all; since it is evident, that the only monuments which human pride and human power have made enduring, are those which serve to commemorate our mortality; yes, the pyramids only celebrate our decay-only serve for the tomb of human vanity. Alas! Egypt, thou art then as other nations, notwithstanding the enduring monuments of thy greatness. Thou art as forcible an illustration of the vanity of all things human as the rest! The grandeur of thy kingdom, as well as that of so many others, has vanished; the thunder of thy wars, and the fame of thy regal conquerors are no more;-where is Sesostris, who, if history speaks truth, subjected to thy narrow dominions half the world? Where is the renowned Memphis, where is the mighty Thebes? all these things have passed away; and nothing is left of thee but thy pyramids and thy mummies, which speak louder than complete desolation and decay. For what can speak more emphatically to the pride of man, than royalty thus prostrate, grandeur thus humbled, than thy monarchs enclosed in thy dusky pyramids, the perpetual mementos of human vanity and nothingness? H. R.

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CONGREGATIONAL READING OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

THE Editors are requested to favour the following remarks and inquiries with insertion in their increasingly valuable and important periodical. The topic is manifestly of high consequence, and