Shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteoufnefs remain in the fruitful field, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and affurance for ever; chap. xxxii. When God's Spirit fhould be poured out upon all flesh, and all that should call on the name of the Lord fhould be faved, Joel ii. 27. When people should flow to the house of the Lord, and be taught of his ways, and walk in his paths, Micah iv. 1, 2. this ftrain the prophetick defcriptions generally run; and I think 'tis fo far from being true, that the main thing predicted, in the Meffiah's time, was a temporal deliverance and external worldly grandeur; that to me there is nothing more evident, than that the prophecies refer mostly to a falvation of quite another nature.

In

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Jewish Interpretation of the Old Testament Scripture.

A

S the Old Testament fcriptures do plainly contain predictions of future events; fo 'tis obfervable that the Jews, in our Saviour's time, were fo well apprised of this reference of the prophecies to some distant season, that they unanimously applied many of them to the Messiah, and the time of his coming. There is nothing more certain, than that they were in continual expectation of the Meffiah's appearance, at the time when Jefus Chrift was in the world which expectation was owing to what they found spoken R 3

and

and intimated in the prophecies of the Old Testament; and because they imagined the time fixed for his appearance was at hand. Thus they gathered from several paffages, that Meffiah was to be the fon of David Mat. xxii. 42. that he was to be born in Bethlehem, Mat. ii. 5. to which purpose they applied Micah v. 2. that he was to be David's Lord, as Chrift obferves Mat. xxii. 45. for which he cited Pfal. cx.1. that he was to be a very great prophet, Joh. iv. 25. that he was to be the king of Ifrael, Joh. i. 49. that he was to abide for ever, Joh. xii. 34. Befides these inftances, and more that might. be brought from the New Testament, we alfo find that the Chaldee paraphrafts, Jonathan and Onkelos, refer many paffages of the Old Teftamant, to the Messiah. Thus, that prophecy, Gen. iii. 15. was to be accomplished in the days of King Meffiah, according to Jonathan and the Hierufalem Targum. And thus alfo they interpret Gen. xlix. 10, 11, 12. There shall not be wanting kings and governours of the house of Judah, and Scribes from bis feed to teach the law

until king Meffiah shall come, of whom they expound the whole remaining part of the prophecy, tho' evidently relating to Judah. And in this expofition Onkelos agrees with them. The Pfalms 2, 21, 45, 61, 72, 81, 132, are in part, or whole, applied by the Chaldee Paraphraft to the fame person. Thus alfo in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micab, and Zechariah, there are many paffages applied by Jonathan, to the like purpose: which fhews that in his Judgment, and according to the then opinion of the Jews, the Meffiah was concerned in thofe prophecies, and that their accomplishment was to be in him.

Of these prophecies it may not be improper to obferve; that fome of them are the very fame which the New Teftament writers apply to our Lord Jefus. Thus Pfal. 2. and 45. are applied by the author to the Hebrews, chap. i. 5, 8, 9. The prophecy of Ifaiah, which Matthew refers to Chrift, Mat. i. 22, R 4

23.

xi. 1-6. xiv. 29.

5. xlii. 1. xliii. 10. lii. 13. Xxx. 9. xxxiii. 15.

xxiii. 5.

Micah iv.

8. v.

2.

Zechar.

23. is also in part applied to the Meffiab, by Jonathan. See Jonath. Paraph. on Ifaiah ix. 6. Compare alfo Mat xii. 18. with the fame paraphrafe on Isaiah xlii. 1, 2, 3. John xii. 38. with Ifai. liii, 1. Mat. ii. 5, 6. with Mic. v. ii. And as for those others which are to be found in the New Testament, they are not fo far diftant from the plain fense of the prophecies, as they lye in the Old Teftament, as many of those paffages are, which Jonathan applies to the Meffiah. See his paraphrafes on Pfal. xxi. 1 ------ 8. lxi, 7, 8. lxxii. 1. Ifai. xi. 1--6. xiv. 29. xvi. 1--5. xxviii. 5. Jer. xxx. 9. Mic. iv. 8. Zech. iii. 8. iv. 7. From which places I am apt to think, that there was no remarkable prophecy, but the Jews apprehended it some way or other, to belong to their Meffiab.

I would ask our author, upon what scheme he will account for the application of these prophecies of the Old Testa. ment, by the Jews, to the perfon and times of the Meffiah, unless he allows that they really have a distant view; and that in the apprehenfion of the Jews they belonged to him? He is pleased indeed