with loofe reins, may make any thing even of the lan guage of infpiration. The ingenious Bishop of Avranches imagined that he alone had discovered the true meaning of Ifa. viii, 1. when he understood the command given to the prophet, to write concerning Mabershalalbashbax, as respect ing that parental act, over which the Holy Scripture, in its manner of expreffion, often draws the modeft veil of metaphor *:

-Dr P. cannot produce a fingle instance of the word rendered goings forth †, being used to denote the work of God in promifing or predicting future events. But its root is often ufed to fignify a natural birth, or a literal origin. Thus, of Calluhim it is faid, Out of whom came Philiflims Gen. x. 14. Naked, fays Job, came I out of my mother's womb, Job i. 21. In this fenfe it is ufed, 2 Kin. xx. 18. Of thy fons that fhall iffue from thee; &c. H. When metaphorically used to denote the proceffion of words, the going forth is attributed to the words themselves; and not to the perfon fpeaking, or of whom they are spoken, as must be the cafe here, according to our author's view §.

But we need go no farther than the claufe immediately preceding, where the root is ufed to exprefs a real nativity; Out of thee fhall be come forth. It is unnatural to fuppose that the fame word, radically viewed, is used in its ordinary fenfe in the first claufe, and in another, in which it no where else occurs, in the fecond. Befides, by this interpretation, the antithefis evidently ftated between a temporal and an eternal egrefs, is loft.

Dr P. mentions the fenfe given to these words, in the Chaldee paraphrafe, as favourable to his view. But he has no claim to the benefit of it, in a fingle inftance; when he

* Demonftrat. Evangel. Prop. 7. fect. 15:

יצא. t

מוצאות. 4

Sce alfo 2 Sam. vii. 12. 1 Chron. ii. 53. Ifa. xi. 1, &c.

§ See Pfal. lxxxix. 34. Jer. xvii. 16. xliv. 17.

he pays fo little regard to its general teftimony with respect to the Memra. However, though he is willing to wrest a weapon out of the hand of an adverfary, it is to his own hurt. For the words of the paraphrafe will not bear his tranflation. They do not fignify, Whofe name was foretold of old; but, Whofe name is Spoken from eternity, from the days of the hidden age*. In this double expreffion respecting eternity, the Paraphraft indeed retains the very words of the original, only expreffing them in the Chaldee

manner.

Dr P.'s view labours under various infurmountable difficulties. The egrefs of a promife is not only a very different thing from that of a person; but a promise made "from the beginning of the world" can never be the fame with a perfon going forth from eternity. The beginning of the world has always been confidered by Christians as the beginning of time. But though before this there was nothing fave eternity, time and eternity are two things as different as the mind of man can conceive. Both the words here used denote eternity. That rendered from of old +, is indeed sometimes used to denote a remote æra within the compass of time. But it often fignifies eternity in the most proper fenfe. It is the attribute of God himself, Deut. xxxiii. 27. The Eternal God is thy refuge. It expreffes his existence without beginning: He that abideth of old, Pfal. lv. 19. It is the word used by Habakkuk, chap. i. 12. Art thou not from everlasting? We find it in the language of Wifdom, the eternity of which is acknowledged by our opponents, though they refuse its perfonality: The Lord possessed me-BEFORE bis works of old. The priority claimed is evidently that of eternal exiftence. For it immediately follows; I was fet up from everlafting, Prov. viii. 22, 23. In conformity to this, the language of Micah may be renZ 4 dered,

שמיה אמיר מלקדמין מיומי עלמא: * קדמ. +

dered, Whofe goings forth have been, from the beginning.— not “ of the world" indeed, but that beginning ascribed to Wisdom, of the fame date with eternity, as the terms are fynonymous; I was fet up from EVERLASTING, from the BEGINNING, or ever the earth was. The other word * rendered from everlafting, is derived from a verb which fignifies to bide, as especially denoting duration of a hidden and unknown kind. Though used, in various places, in a limited sense, it most frequently fignifies abfolute eternity. It is the strongest expreffion employed in scripture to denote the eternity of God himself, Pfal. xc. 2. If we can ever be certain that it is used in this fenfe, we must be so, when it is joined, as in the paffage under confideration, with another word of the fame meaning. Thus it occurs in the place already quoted, Prov. viii. 22, 23. with refpect to the fenfe of which, as denoting eternity, there is no difpute. There it is connected with. Because days are here joined with eternity, it is no prefumption that we are to understand the language of time. For the fame mode of fpeech is ufed by Wisdom, in the place referred to; I was day by day his delight.

But although the proof arifing from the words themselves were lefs ftriking, there would be fufficient ... from the context, that the perfon defcribed had an existenc prior to his nativity in Bethlehem. In the next words, he is pointed out as the Judge and Ruler of God's people at the very time that this prophecy was delivered. For a judicial act is ascribed to him: He will give them up, ver. 3. The pronoun relates to him only, who is before denomiated the Judge of Ifrael, who was to be fmitten with a rod upon the cheek, ver. 1. and the Ruler in Ifrael, ver. 2; and who is mentioned, in the following part of this verfe, in relation

to

Siy olam. This would feem to be the origin of the Latin căm;

efpecially as this resembles the Hebrew word in denoting, both the past, and the future.

to his brethren. They were to be given up to adverfity, till fhe who travailed brought forth, that is, till the Meffiah fhould come forth out of Bethlehem-Ephratah. The futurity of this great event is mentioned as the very reason of the continuance of their calamity: Therefore will be give them up till, &c. For God, would have his church to look forward to the incarnation of a Divine Perfon as the foundation of her hope; and to learn by experience what she had so long refused to learn by precept, that all her temporal deliverances, amidst deserved wrath, were only for the fake of Immanuel, had an immediate respect to his coming, and prefigured that spiritual falvation which he alone could give.

Thus, it was revealed to the Jewish church, that he who was then her Fudge should, as a Kinsman-Redeemer, join the remnant of his brethren, even of the Gentile nations, to the children of Ifrael, ver. 4. that he should appear to them as a Divine Shepherd, who should ftand and feed them in the Strength of the Lord, and in the majesty of the Name of the Lord his God, ver. 5. as poffeffed of the effential dignity of the divine nature; and that it was this illuftrious Perfon, whofe goings forth had been from of old, from everlasting, who should give them reconciliation with God, and deliverance from all adverfity. For it is added, ver. 6. And this Shall be the peace, when the Affyrians fhall come into our land.

In what sense we are to understand this character, appears from the teftimony of God the Father: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed, Matt. iii. 17. Our author will not pretend that Christ is called the Son of God, because of his miraculous conception. With as little propriety can it be said, that he receives this name because of the perfection of his obedience. For though his life was hitherto blameless, he was only entering on his proper trial,

paffing

paffing from a life of retirement to his public ministry, engaging in various conflicts with temptation, and expofing himfelf to the malice of the world. It had not yet appeared how he would conduct himself in fuch trying cir cumftances. It is, therefore, entirely prepofterous to fuppole that he should receive this diftinguishing character, before be had proved his title to it. According to this view, it ought to have been, This will be my beloved Son, &c. The very for mation of the language implies that he is a Son, abftractly from the idea of the Father's love. Literally it is, This is that my Son, that Beloved. If we confider the firft expreffion as merely fignifying God's peculiar love to him, exclufive of the idea of a proper fonship, we charge the Divine Speaker with an unmeaning tautology.

It has been feen, that this character is not equivalent to that of the Chrift; and the fame will more fully appear in the course of this inquiry.

When this teftimony was repeated at the transfiguration, it was with this important addition; Hear ye bim, Matt. xvii. 5. It cannot be fuppofed as the defign of the Divine Speaker, that Jefus fhould only have the fame honour that his people had given to former meffengers. For the Son is here opposed to all who had gone before him; who are reprefented in their different characters, by the two illuftrious perfons present. These words are, indeed, the Father's reply to the foolish propofal of the bewildered disciples, of making three tabernacles, and thus giving the fame honour to Mofes and Elias, as to Jefus. But they are commanded to hear him, as greater than Mofes, the inftrumental giver of the law, and as greater than Elias, who was called the reftorer of it. Nor is the argument, enforcing this command, taken from the fuperiority of his doctrine and difpenfation; but fro. the fuperior dignity of the Person, as being the Son of God effentially confidered. The very

word