ing so cogent against them, they are very faint in that endeavor. For, if it was so indeed, that Jesus was not born of a Virgin, as it is recorded, and his disciples professed, why did they not charge them with an untruth? But though they insist not much upon the denial of the truth of the record; yet, to relieve themselves, they contend, that the words of the prophet are not applicable to the birth of our Lord Jesus, which the evangelist reports them prophetically to express.

We have formerly evinced, that the foundation and end of the Judaical church and state, and of the preservation of the Davidical family, was solely the bringing forth of the promised Messiah. And this the event hath fully demonstrated in their utter rejection after the accomplishment of that end. And on account of the temporal concernment of that people in the coming of the Messiah, the promise of him was oftentimes mixed, and interwoven with the mention of other things, that were of present use and advantage to them; so that it was not easy sometimes to distinguish the things that are properly spoken with reference to him, from those other things which respected what was present; seeing both of them are together spoken of to the same general end and purpose. Upon these principles we may easily discover the true sense and import of this prophetical prediction.

$10. Upon the infidelity of Ahaz, and the generality of the house of David with him, refusing a sign of deliverance tendered to them, God tells them by his prophets, that they had not only wearied his messengers by their unbelief and hypocrisy, but that they were ready to weary himself also, ver. 13, with their manifold provocations, during that typical state and condition wherein he kept them. However, for the

present, he had promised them deliverance; and although they refused to ask a sign of him, according to his command, yet he would preserve them from their present fears, and utter ruin, and in his due time accomplish his great and wonderful intendment, miracu lously by causing a Virgin to conceive and bring forth that Son, on whose account they should be preserved from utter destruction, as a church and state, until his coming. But how may it appear that it was the Messiah who should be thus born of a Virgin? This the prophet assures them, by telling them what he shall be, and accordingly be called: "He shall be called "Immanuel," or God with us, both in respect of his person and office; for he shall be God and man, and he shall reconcile God and man, taking away the enmity and distance caused by sin; a description of the Messiah, whereby he might be sufficiently known. And the prophet farther assures them, that this Immanuel shall be born truly a man, and dwell amongst them, being brought up with the common food of the country, until he came, as other men, to the years of discretion: "Butter and honey shall he eat, until he "know to choose the good, and refuse the evil." And this was enough for the consolation of believers, as also for the security of the people from the desolation feared.

But yet, because all this prophetical declaration was occasioned by the war raised against Judah by the kings of Israel and Damascus, God is pleased to add to the promise of their deliverance, a threatening of judgment and destruction to their adversaries; and because he would limit a certain season for the execution of his judgment upon them (as he had declared the safety and preservation of Judah to depend on the birth of Immanuel of a virgin, in the appointed sea

son) he declares that their enemies should be cut off before the time that any child not yet born could come to the years of discretion, to choose the good, or refuse the evil, ver. 16. Now, that this is the true import and meaning of the prophecy, will evidently appear in our vindication of it from the exceptions of the Jews against its application by Matthew to the nativity of Jesus Christ.

§11. First, they except that it is not a virgin that is here intended by the original word, (y) which they say signifies any young woman. The whole controversy from this place depending on the determination of this point; I shall therefore fully clear the truth of what we assert; and the Jews themselves will not deny, but that if the conception of a virgin be intended, it must refer to some other than any in those days.

1. The word (y) here used, is from the root (y) to hide, or (y) in niphal, hidden, reserved. Hence the name of virgins; partly, from their being unknown by man, and partly, from the universal custom of the East, wherein those virgins who were of any account, were kept reserved from all public or common conversation. Hence, by the Grecians also, they are called, (nalanλɛıçı) shut up, or recluses, and their first appearance in public they termed (avanaλurlupia) "the season of bringing them out from their re"tirements." The original signification of the word then denotes a virgin precisely.

2. The constant use of the word directs us to the same signification. It is seven times used in the Old Testament, and in every one of them doth still denote a virgin, or virgins, either in a proper, or metaphorical sense. Only one place is controverted by the Jews, Prov. xxx, 19; "And the way of a man with a "maid." But it is used here peculiarly with the pre

fix, (ny) whence it is recorded by the Seventy in the abstract, (EV VEO) "the way of a man in his youth;" which sense Jerom follows, ("viam viri in adolesen"tia;") and it may thus seem to be differenced from the same word in all other places. But in reality, the

(דרך גבר בעלמה) ;meaning of the wise man is evident

"the way that a man taketh to corrupt a virgin," which is secret, full of snares and evils. And when by subtle wicked ways the seducer prevaileth against her chastity, she afterwards (as experience but too often teaches) becomes a common prostitute. And this I take to be the genuine meaning of the place; though it is not altogether improbable, that the wise man proceedeth, ver. 20, to another instance of things secret; since the particle () often signifies as much as, so also.

3. It is plainly some marvellous thing that is here spoken of. It is called, (*) a signal prodigy, and is given by God himself, as something greater and more marvellous than any thing that Ahaz could have asked, either in heaven above, or in earth beneath, had he made his choice according to the tender made unto him. "The Lord God himself shall give you a "sign." The emphasis used in giving the promise, denotes the greatness and marvellousness of the thing promised. The Jews cannot assign either virgin or son, that is here intended; whence it appeareth, that none can possibly in this promise be intended, but he whose birth was a miraculous sign, as being born of a virgin, and who being born, was God with us.

§12. The Jews object, in the second place, that the birth of the child here promised was to be a sign to Ahaz, and the house of David, of their deliverance from the two kings who then waged war against them. But we do not say, that this was given them as a pe

culiar sign of their present deliverance; for Ahaz himself had before refused such a sign. God therefore assigns a reason in general, why he would not utterly cast them off, although they wearied him, but would yet deliver them, as at other times, viz. because of that great work which he had to accomplish among them, which was to be signal, marvellous, and truly miraculous. And many instances we have of things promised for signs, which were not actually to exist until after the accomplishment of the things whereof they were a sign, as Exod. iii, 12; 1 Sam. x, 3, 4; Isa. xxxvii, 30; 1 Kings xxii, 25. Besides, this sign hath the truth and force of a promise, although it was not immediately to be put in execution. Their assurance, therefore, consisted in this; that on God's declaration, as surely as he would accomplish the great promise of bringing forth the Messiah, and that he should be born of a virgin, so certain should be their present deliverance, which they so desired.

§13. It is farther urged, that the deliverance promised was to be brought about before the child spoken of should know to refuse the evil, and choose the good; or should come to years of discretion, ver. 16, and what was this to him, that was to be born some hundreds of years after? but it doth not appear, that (a) the child mentioned ver. 16, is the same with the () son promised, ver 14. The prophet, by the command of God, when he went unto the king with his message, took with him Shear-jashul, his son, ver. 3. This certainly was for some special end in the message he had to deliver, the child being then but an infant, and of no use in the whole matter, unless to be made an instance of something that was to be done. It is, therefore, probable, that he was (y) the young child designed, ver. 16, before whose growing up to