witnesses in favor of the Christian sense of this text.

And, indeed,

it is hardly possible to make a tolerable sense of it upon the modern Jewish interpretation, which is, "Behold a young woman shall conceive and bear a son." Now let us remember, that the occasion of these words was this-God had offered to grant Ahaz any sign he should desire, to remove his fears concerning the confederate kings. Upon his refusing to ask a sign, God says, 'Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign;' and what is it? Why, according to the interpretation I am now considering, it is this, A young woman some time or other, no mortal can tell when, shall in the usual manner conceive and bear a son.' And what notable thing shall this son do? Why, he shall eat butter, and honey, as other children are wont to do, until he is grown big enough to know good from evil!' This interpretation is so low and flat, that if I thought it to be the meaning of the prophet, I should be tempted to call in question, not only his inspiration, but also his good sense.

Secondly, The Hebrew word which we translate virgin, seems to me incapable of being applied to any person, but a woman that had not known man; for the word properly signifies a hidden or concealed female, which evidently implies, as I understand it, one that had been hidden or concealed from the knowledge of man. The only places where this Hebrew word is used in Scripture are Gen. xxiv. 43. Exod. iv. 8. Ps. lxviii. 25. Prov. xxx. 19. Cant. iii. 1. Chap. vi. S. Isaiah vii. 14., which last is the text under consideration. I presume, Sir, if you examine these texts in the English translation, you will conclude they all speak of virgins. If, then, this Hebrew word is translated a virgin by the ancients, who lived before the birth of our Saviour, if it is everywhere so used in the Hebrew Bible, and if the etymology of the word requires us to understand it in this sense, we may most certainly conclude, that the text under consideration is a prophecy of the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ.

'But you will ask, How could the prediction of this future event be considered as a sign, that the Jews should not be destroyed by the confederate kings? I answer, the word which we translate sign, is used in Scripture, sometimes to signify the absolute and unconditional promises and threatenings of the Deity, in contradistinction to those promises and threatenings in which a condition is implied. A few words will make this point very plain and easy. In Jeremiah, eighteenth chapter, we are told, that when the Deity threatens to destroy a nation, if they repent of their evil deeds, he will not bring upon them the destruction with which he had threatened them; in like manner, when he promises to build up a people, if they become disobedient, he will not confer upon them the blessing which he had promised. Thus, we find Jonah declaring to the Ninevites, "Yet in forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed;" but upon their repentance we find the sentence was revoked.

Thus also God had promised to David, that his house and kingdom should be established before him forever; but when David had been guilty of adultery and murder, he judged he had forfeited his right to the divine promise. See Ps. li. 4. "Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest;" that is, having committed this heinous crime against God, he was ready to acknowledge, that God was just in promising that he would establish his house forever, and that he would be clear from injustice, though he should never perform his promise to him, but should judge him according to his deserts. Thus much concerning promises and threatenings that are conditional. There are others that are absolute and unconditional. These latter are called signs. In proof of this, we may observe, that when God told Moses, that he was about to send him to Pharaoh, to deliver the children of Israel from their bondage, Moses immediately feels his own imperfection, and inability to undertake such an arduous task, and says, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" To this the Deity replies, "Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." The Hebrew word translated token is the same with that which we render by the English word sign, in Isaiah vii. 14. Here we see that the Israelites' worshipping God upon mount Horeb, is made a sign, that God had sent Moses to deliver them from the Egyptian bondage; and yet this sign could not take place until the Israelites' deliverance from the Egyptians was completed. But it is called a sign, to assure Moses that the event should certainly take place, and that it should not fail through his insufficiency or misconduct; for God would be with him, and enable him to perform this arduous undertaking. In the same sense the word sign is used, 1 Sam. ii. 34. and also, 2 Kings, xix. 29. In like manner, the promise in the text, that a virgin should conceive and bear a son, is a sign, because it was an absolute and unconditional promise, which could not fail of its accomplishment, through the wickedness or misconduct of the Jewish nation. And it must afford great consolation to the pious Jews in the hour of distress; for it was to them a sign, or an infallible proof, that these confederate kings could not destroy them, because they must remain a distinct people until this glorious person should be born of a virgin.

Before I proceed any further, I would rectify an error or two in our English translation of the passage before us. For instance, I would read the fifteenth verse thus, "Butter and honey shall he eat, until he know to refuse the evil and choose the good." Mr. Pool informs us that divers learned men so interpret it, and among others, the ancient Chaldee paraphrase. The Seventy

translate it, Butter and honey shall he eat, before he know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.' Now we are informed that butter and honey were the common food given by the Jews to their young children, for their nourishment and support; so that the sense is, that this child, though conceived in a supernatural way, should be fed with the common food of other children, until he arrived at the age of discretion. The particle in the sixteenth verse, which our translators render for, is sometimes translated although, or yea; and instead of the child, I would read this child, which is an exact and literal translation of the Hebrew word; and then the text will read thus, yea before this child, or, although before this child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.' The child here spoken of, I apprehend, was the prophet's own child, which he then held in his arms, and which he was ordered to carry with him for a sign to Ahaz and the Jews, that the confederate kings should not destroy them.

6

For establishing the point before us, it is necessary to remember, that the writers both of the Old and New Testament frequently use typical, and symbolical, and hieroglyphical representations of things.. Thus in Jeremiah i. 11, 12: Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond* tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen; for I will hasten my word to perform it!' Ezekiel xi. 13. And it came to pass when I prophesied that Pelatiah (i. e. the delivered of the Lord) the son of Benaiah died;-then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?' Because he saw a person die at the time of his prophesying, whose name signified the delivered of the Lord, he took it to be a sign, that the Lord would make a full end of the remnant of Israel, even of those whom he had formerly delivered from destruction. In John ix. 7, the Evangelist observes, that Christ said to the blind man, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is, (says the apostle,) by interpretation Sent; that is, Christ ordered the blind man to wash in a pool, whose signification was sent, as a sign that Christ was the person sent of God for the salvation of man. See also, Heb. vii. 1-3, where the apostle considers Melchizedec as a proper type of Jesus Christ, because Melchizedec signifies King of righteousness, and Salem signifies peace; and being a priest that was not descended either on the father's or mother's side of persons that were in the priest's office, neither having the beginning of his days, nor the end of his life anywhere recorded, he became a fit person to represent the everlasting and unchangeable priesthood of Christ. In Isaiah xi. 1, Christ is called nazer, a branch; therefore, in order to fulfil this prophecy,

* The Hebrew word signifies a hastening tree.

Matthew tells us, chap. ii. 23, that he dwelt at Nazareth, that is, the place of branches. In Zech. vi. 11, the prophet is ordered to make crowns of silver and gold, and to place them upon the head of Joshua the high priest. Now Joshua signifies Saviour, and is the same name that in the New Testament is called Jesus. He is then ordered, in verse 12, to speak to him, and say, 'Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the Branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit, and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne.' The crowns signify that the Messiah should be both king and priest. They are placed upon the head of Joshua for two reasons; first, because, being high priest, he was a proper representative of the Messiah; and secondly, his name (being Joshua, or Jesus) was made by this action a sign that the Messiah, when he came, should be called Jesus. Therefore the meaning of verse 12, is, as if he had said, Behold this man, Jesus, the true Messiah, whom I have formerly named the Branch. Under the law of Moses, the priest was to bear the iniquities of the people; hence, when God would represent to his people that he was about to take away their iniquities, the prophet Zechariah sees in a vision the high priest, Joshua, clothed with filthy garments, and the Lord ordering him that stood before him to take away from Joshua his filthy garments; and then the Lord says to him, (Zech. iii. 4.) Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.' This was said to him, as a typical person, who bore the sins of the people; and it signifies that God had removed their iniquities from them. And then, to inform them that the Messiah should, when he came, take away the iniquities of his people in consequence of his priestly office, he says to him, in verse 8, Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men of signs or typical men; for behold I will bring forth my servant, the Branch ;'—that is, you priests, who now bear the iniquities of the people, are types of the Messiah, the branch, who shall, when he comes, bear the iniquities of his people. In like manner Ezekiel was a sign to the Jews of what was to befall them. See Ezek. xxiv. 15-24. And to come to the point before us, the prophet Isaiah, chap. viii. 18, says, 'Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders, that is, types, in Israel, from the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion.' We have an account of one of these typical children in the third verse of this eighth chapter, whom the Lord ordered the prophet to call Maher-shalal-hash-baz; that is, In making speed to the spoil, he hasteneth the prey; and we are told in the fourth verse, why this child was so named, viz: because

before the child have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.' Another of these typical children is mentioned, chap. vii. 3. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear-jashub thy son. Now the meaning of Shear-jashub is, The remnant shall return. The reason of this child's being thus named, we shall find in Isaiah x. 21, The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God.' Here Shear-jashub represents the remnant of Jacob, that should return to the mighty God. Undoubtedly, then, this name was given to Isaiah's son, as a type, to signify that a remnant of Jacob should be saved. When, therefore, the prophet, in the text just now cited, was ordered to take this son along with him in his visit to Ahaz, it was that he might be a sign to the people, that a remnant should be saved, and consequently, that these confedeate kings should not be suffered to destroy the kingdom of Judah.

I trust I have said enough to show you the propriety of such a sign, and that Isaiah and his children were ordained of God to be signs to the people. Now upon this view of the matter, we shall find three things that might afford comfort to the Jews, and from whence they might be assured that they should not be cut off by the confederate kings; the first was, the promise that a virgin should conceive and bear a son. This proved that they must remain a people until the promise was accomplished. The second was, this child of the prophet, which was ordained of God to be a sign to them, that the people should not be utterly destroyed, because a remnant should be preserved. And the third ground was, the express declaration of the prophet, pointing to the child in his arms and saying, 'Yea, before this child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.'

1 apprehend I have now sufficiently cleared this passage of Scripture from all the difficulties that attend it. For, as I take it, I have proved that the Hebrew word in verse fourteenth does signify a virgin, and that it cannot be applied to any other description of person. I have shown in what sense this prediction was a sign to the Jews, viz: as it assured them that they should not be cut off by their enemies, nor cease from being a nation, until the prediction should be accomplished. I have shown, why I take the child mentioned in verse 16 to be Isaiah's son, and not the son of the virgin, mentioned in verse 14, viz: because Isaiah and his children were ordained of God to be signs and types to the Jews. When, therefore, the prophet was ordered to carry his son with him to Ahaz, it was ordering him to carry a typical person, whom the Jews were to look upon as a sign of what was to happen to them. Upon the whole, I look upon this prophecy as a glorious