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Page 16
But since one would esteem it almost incredible, that the apostles
could persuade men to believe Jesus to be this Messiah, unless they
had at least some proof to offer to their conviction, let us next
consider, and examine, the proofs adduced by the apostles and
their followers, from the Old Testament for that purpose.
Of the strength or weakness of the proofs for Christianity out of the
Old Testament, we are well qualified to judge, as we have the Old
and New Testament in our hands; the first containing what are
offered as proofs of Christianity, and the latter the application of
those proofs, and we should seem to have nothing more to do, but
to compare the Old and New Testament together.
But these proofs taken out of the Old Testament, and urged in the
New, being sometimes not to be found in the Old, nor urged in the
New, according to the literal and obvious sense, which they appear
to bear in their supposed places in the Old, and, therefore, not
proofs according to the rules of interpretation established by
reason, and acted upon in interpreting every other ancient book--
almost all Christian commentators on the Bible, and advocates for
the religion of the New Testament, both ancient and modern, have
judged them to be applied in a secondary, or typical, or mystical,
or allegorical, or enigmatical sense; that is, in a sense different
from the obvious and literal sense which they bear in the Old
Testament.
Thus, for example, Matthew, after having given an account of the
conception of Mary, and the birth of Jesus, says (ch. i.,) �All this
was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.� But the words
as they stand in Isaiah ch. vii. 14, from whence they are taken, do,
in their obvious and literal sense, relate to a young woman in the
days of Ahaz, King of Judah, as will appear, considering the
context.
When Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah, King of Israel, were
confederates in arms together, against Ahaz, King of Judah, Isaiah
the prophet was sent by God, first to comfort Ahaz and the nation,
and then to assure them by a sign, that his enemies should in a little
time be confounded.--But Ahaz refusing a sign at the prophet�s
hand, the prophet said (see the chapter,) �The Lord shall give you
a sign. Behold a virgin, or �young woman� (for the Hebrew word
means both as was truly and justly asserted by the Jews in the
primitive ages against the Christians, and is now acknowledged,
and established beyond dispute by the best Hebrew scholars of
this age,) shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to
refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall
know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land which thou
abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.� And this sign is
accordingly given Ahaz by the prophet, who, ch. viii. v. 2, 18, took
two witnesses and went to the said young woman, who in due time
conceived, and bare a son, after whose birth the projects of Rezin
and Pekah were, it appears, soon confounded, according to the
prophecy and sign given by the prophet.
And the prophet himself, puts it beyond dispute, that this is the
proper interpretation of the prophecy, by express words, as well as
by his whole narration; for he says, �Behold I, and the children
whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs, and for wonders in
Israel from the Lord of Hosts, that dwelleth in mount Zion.� Isaiah
viii. 19.
This is the plain drift and design of the prophet, literally,
obviously, and primarily understood; and thus he is understood by
one of the most judicious of interpreters, the great Grotius. Indeed,
to understand the prophet as having the conception of Mary, and
the birth of her son Jesus from a virgin mother literally, and
primarily in view, is a very great absurdity, and contrary to the
very intent and design of the sign given by the prophet.
For the sign being given by Isaiah to convince Ahaz that he
brought a message from God to him, to assure him that the two
kings should not succeed in their attempt against him, how could a
virgin�s conception, and bearing a son seven hundred years
afterwards, be a sign to Ahaz, that the prophet came to him, with
the said message from God? And how useless was it to Ahaz, as
well as absurd in itself for the prophet, to say, �Before the child,
born seven hundred years hence, shall distinguish between good
and evil, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both
her kings,� which would be a banter, instead of a sign.
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