Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

"In the days of the Messiah of Israel peace shall be "multiplied in the earth, and the wolf shall dwell with "the lamb." That this chapter contains a prophecy of the Messiah and his kingdom, and that immediately and directly, all the Jews confess; hence is that part of their usual song in the evening of the Sabbath.* . Chap. xvi, 1; Targ. "They shall bring their tribute "unto the Messiah of Israel." So also ver. 5, "Then "shall the throne of the Messiah of Israel be prepared "in goodness." Chap. xxviii, 5; Targ. "The Messiah "of the Lord of Hosts." Chap. xliii, 1; Targ. "Behold "my servant the Messiah." And Kimchi on this place, "Behold my servant," adds, "That is, the king "Messiah." And Abarbinel confutes both R. Saadias and Aben Ezra with sharpness who were otherwise minded. Chap. xliii, 10; Targ. "My servant Messiah, "in whom I rest." Chap. lii, 13; Targ. "Behold my "servant the Messiah shall prosper."

$22. Once more; Jer. xxiii, 5; Targ. "And I will "raise up to David, Messiah the righteous." This is he who in the next verse is called "Jehovah our right"eousness." The Jews generally agree that it is the Messiah who is here intended. For the preservation of the name of this righteous branch (79) “Je"hovah our righteousness," we may bless God for the original; for the old translations are either mistaken,

התנערי מעפר קומי

לבשי בגדי תפארתך עמי על יד בן ישי בית להמי קרבה אל נשפי גאלה

*

Which, with a little variation, may be thus rendered

Shake thyself from dust, arise,
People cloth'd in glorious guise,
For from Bethl'hem Jesse's son
Brings my soul redemption won.

[ocr errors]

.

corrupt, or perverted.* Chap. xxx, 21; Targ. "Their "king shall be anointed from amongst them; and their "Messiah shall be revealed unto them." Chap. xxiii; 13-15; Targ. "And the people shall be yet gather"ed by the Messiah;" and a prophecy of him it is no doubt, as the 15th verse makes it evident, where all the Jews acknowledge him to be intended by the branch of righteousness, which shall spring up to David. Hos. iii, 5; Targ. "And shall obey the Messiah, "the son of David, their king." Chap. xiv, 8; Targ. "They shall sit under the shadow of the Messiah." Micah iv, 8; Targ. "And thou Messiah of Israel, who "art hid because of the sins of the congregation of Zion, "to thee the kingdom shall come." This gloss, I confess, draws upon the lees of Talmudical rabbinism; for they fancy that their Messiah was long since born, even at the appointed time, but is kept hid, they know not where, because of the sins of Israel. Chap. v, 2; Targ. "Out of thee shall the Messiah come forth be"fore me to exercise rule over Israel." Zech. iii, 8; Targ. "Behold I bring forth my servant the Messiah, "who shall be revealed."

$23. I have not insisted on these places, as if they were all the testimonies to the same purpose that might be taken out of the prophets, seeing they are a very small portion of the predictions concerning the person, grace, and kingdom of the Messiah, and not all those which are eminent in that kind; but because that they are such as wherein we have either the con

*The Jews endeavor to evade the testimony, by producing. instances of the application of this name to other things; as the altar built by Moses, the arch, and the city of Jerusalem. But it is one thing to have the name of God called on a place or thing to bring the occasion of it to remembrance, but another to say, that this is the name of such a person, "Jehovah our right-, "eousness."

sent of all the Jews with us in their application, or we have the suffrage of the more ancient and authentic masters to reprove the perverseness of the modern rabbins.

And this is he whom we inquire after. One who was promised from the foundation of the world to relieve mankind from under the state of sin and misery whereunto they were cast by their apostasy from God. This is he who from the first promise of him, or intimation of relief by him, was the hope, desire, comfort, and expectation of all that aimed at reconciliation and peace with God. Upon whom all their religion, faith, and worship, was founded, and in whom it centered. He, for whose sake, or for the bringing of whom into the world, Abraham and the Hebrews his posterity were separated to be a peculiar people distinct from all the nations of the earth; in the faith of whom, the whole church from the days of Adam, that of the Jews especially, celebrated its mystical worship, endured persecution and martyrdom, waiting and praying continually for his appearance. He whom all the prophets preached and promised; describing before-hand his sufferings, with the glory that was to ensue. He of whose coming a catholic tradition was spread over the world, which the old serpent, with all his subtilty, was never able to obliterate.

[blocks in formation]

EXERCITATION II.

APPEARANCES OF THE SON OF GOD UNDER THE OLD TESTA-
MENT.

$1. Ends of the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah. Other ways of revealing him. §2. What meant in the Targums by the word of God. §3-8. Various appearances of the Son of God to the patriarchs. §9. Apprehensions of the Jewish masters on this subject.

§1. We have seen how plentifully God instructed the church of old by his prophets, in the knowledge of the person, office, and work of the Messiah; which he did, partly, that nothing might be wanting to the faith and consolation of believers, and partly that his righteous judgments in the rejection and ruin of those who obstinately refused him, might be justified and rendered glorious. Nor were these promises and predictions alone the means whereby God would manifest him to their faith. For,

There are two things concerning the Messiah, which are the pillars and foundation of the church; his Divine nature; and his work of mediation in the atonement for sin which he was to make by the sacrifice of himself. For the declaration of these, to them who according to the promise looked for his coming, there were two special means graciously designed of God. The one, which referred to his atonement, was his instituted worship, and the various sacrifices which he appointed to be observed in the church, as types and representations of that one perfect oblation which hẹ

1

was to offer in the fulness of time. The other way, which concerns his Divine person, was by these visions and appearances of the Son of God as the head of the church, granted to the fathers. In our inquiry after the prognostics of the Messiah's advent, we shall manifest, that a revelation was made of a distinct person in the Deity, who in a peculiar manner managed all the concernments of the church after the entrance of sin.

§2. There is frequent mention in the Targumists of (7) “the word of the Lord;" and it first occurs in them on the first appearance of a Divine person, after the sin and fall of man, Gen. iii, 8. The text is; “And they heard the voice ( the word) of the Lord "God, (D) walking in the garden." The participle "walking," may be as well referred to the "voice," as to the Lord God; (vocem domini Dei ambulantem.) And although the word (p) which we render “voice,” most commonly signifies (λoyov πроQоpinov, verbum prolatum,) the outward voice, and sound thereof, yet, when applied to God, it frequently denotes his (Ao801 evdıæslov) internal word, his almighty power, whereby he effecteth whatever he pleaseth. This expression therefore may also denote (τον λογον τε Θεε, κατ' εξοχήν) "the word of God," i. e. God himself, his essential word, the person of the Son; for our first parents heard this "Word walking in the garden," before they heard the outward sound of any voice whatever, Gen. iii, 9. The Chaldee paraphrast observing that some special presence of God is expressed in the words, renders them, "And they heard the voice of the Word of the "Lord God walking in the garden." So all the Targums; and that of Jerusalem begins the next verse accordingly: "And (2) the word of the Lord God "called to Adam." And the expression they afterwards make use of in places innumerable, and in such

« ForrigeFortsett »