Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

understand the meaning of the sacred writers; for we shall have only to consider, in each prophecy, what has not been fully accomplished by the events and consequences of the first advent. This, of course, we must note as belonging to the second. For, being fully persuaded that the Scripture cannot be broken, but that " every jot and every tittle" of God's revealed word will be fulfilled, we shall not seek to explain away as figures of rhetoric, or as beautiful fictions of Eastern poetry, what appears too great in the prediction to apply to the event that has been considered as its fulfilment; but shall assuredly gather, that the prediction properly belongs to something greater to come: and where the type, if such it be, has fallen short in judgment or in the gift of grace, that this defect the antitype will, to the full amount, supply.

SECTION II.

The Prophecy of Enoch.

RESTORED to its chronological order, the prophecy of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, as preserved in the epistle of St. Jude, comes next to be considered:

"Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his saints," or" with his holy myriads, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among men, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed; and all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

This unquestionably has no relation to the first advent. That was an errand of mercy, and not of judgment. The preserver of the prophecy is our expounder, that the

particular objects of this judgment are " the mockers in the last time." The reader is requested carefully to bear in mind the contents and circumstances of this very ancient prophecy, since we shall often have occasion, as we proceed, to refer to it. It clearly ascertains that, in the most ancient times, the church possessed a prediction that the Lord would come with his holy ones, to execute judgment upon an apostate race of men that should be on the earth in the last days. It is certain, from the same exposition, that the sending of the flood upon the world of the ungodly, in the days of Noah, fulfilled not this prediction. Taught by this, we should be very careful, in our consideration of subsequent Scriptures, how we apply to any remarkable visitation of Providence the awful and tremendous prognostication, "The Lord cometh." Not the destruction of a world, with whatever agencies of angelic powers effected, had fulfilled Enoch's prediction of the Lord's coming, with his holy myriads, to execute judgment !

SECTION III.

Job's Faith in the Redeemer.

CONSIDERING the high antiquity of the book of Job as established beyond all exception,* it is from the testimony of this patriarch we next gather the expectations of the first fathers of mankind respecting the coming of their future Redeemer; and that coming, it will appear,

* See Mr. Good and Dr. Magee. The date of Job's trial, according to Dr. Hales, is 2337 before Christ, and 184 before Abraham.

from the consequences anticipated, must refer to the second advent.

The passage to which I allude is Job, xix. 23, &c. Some of my readers will not be aware of the difficulty in the translation of this passage; but by those who are apprized of this circumstance, I shall be excused in the following attempt. The afflicted sufferer, driven almost to despair by the cruel insinuations and calumnies of his friends, as if elevating on a sudden his hopes, the hopes evidently of a dying man, exclaims:

:

O! that my words were now written down!
O! that they were engraved on a tablet!

With a pen of iron on lead!

Were carved on a rock for ever!'

That I know my Redeemer liveth:2

3

That hereafter he shall stand upon the earth:

[blocks in formation]

y is put for "the earth," on which the Redeemer stands up, or over which he will appear: or whether, taking in its more usual sense, 66 dust," we should consider it a parallel term to w, denoting the state of the dead: the former in reference to the dissolved body, the latter in reference to the departed spirit. Compare. Isa. xxvi. 19. Dan. xii. 2. Job, vii. 21. and also Hosea, xiii. 14. and Rev. xx. 14. In this case we should render, "He shall arise against death."

Schultens translates, "Hanc meam carnem inde vindicaturus, carcere mortis spoliato."

And after I awake' shall this also be brought to pass,2 That I shall see Eloah,' of my flesh.'

Inasmuch as I shall behold him mine,

'I take as the infinitive, with its suffix "To excitari meum:" a construction very frequent in the Hebrew language.

2 Dividing the letters thus

[ocr errors]

p. If, however, we consider as used impersonally, nearly the same meaning may be adduced from the usual division of the words. "When I arise from the sleep of death,' shall this great event be brought to pass;' or "shall come," or "be brought round." Thus p is applied, cap. i. 5. We also find л used for a revolution of time; as Exod. xxxiv. 22. 1 Sam. i. 20. The Syriac p often marks the commencing and proceeding of an action.

Parkhurst renders the line, "And hereafter my skin shall encompass this body." The Vulgate, "And I shall be encompassed with my skin." Mr. Good has a new and very ingenious conjecture: "Most versions regard p as an Arabic term."-лn is an Arabic term, too, signifying disease. “And after the disease has destroyed my skin."

3, Eloah, the singular of , Elohim. The word is used both in the singular and plural of the supreme Being. Not, indeed,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

And mine eyes shall see him, and not 'as' a stranger, 1
The desires of my heart3 are fulfilled.

2

1

From these expressions of the apparently dying patriarch, we may, I think, safely deduce, that Job expected an incarnation of the object of his worship and religious trust, who was to appear in the character of his REDEEMER. A Redeemer, we must recollect, is properly the protecting or representative kinsman; one who prosecuted in behalf of his injured relative, in right of blood.* Job had lamented above the failure of all his brethren and kinsfolk; yet he knows he has a Redeemer, one who, though not then visible, was in existence; and would, at some future period, appear as his avenger-his avenger from the power of the grave. He could, therefore, be no mortal kinsman; yet a kinsman he was to be. Job would arise to (6 see God of his flesh"-his God become his kinsman and his brother. And He, of whom these things are spoken, is called, in other Scriptures, "the first-born among many brethren." It is said of him, "He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified,

is used, Gen. xlviii. 5. in the particular sense required in this interpretation, for the possession in the relation of kindred.

is properly a foreigner, stranger, or visitor; as is illustrated by the Arab. jj,, to visit: the word is frequently used of a stranger in regard of blood, as Deut. xxv. 5.

2

mb, literally the reins; but figuratively, the secret and fervent desires of the mind. See PARKHURST.

3 Or pr may be translated, "at my appointed time-in the decree concerning me" 66 My desires, in the time appointed me, shall be fulfilled."

See Essay on the term Redeemer, published at the end of the Canticles, by the author of the present Work.

« ElőzőTovább »