In the fourteenth verfe of the fame chapter, they likewife found TwO KINGS mentioned, though unaccompanied with any declaration, that THEY were also the kings of Syria and of Ifrael. But looking into the beginning of the next chapter, there they faw a prediction,-that, before the Prophet's child, not then born, fhould be able to call, my father and my mother, the power of the KINGS OF SYRIA, and the fpoils of the KING of SAMARIA, or ISRAEL, fhould be taken away by the king of Affyria.

All the commentators, therefore, whether Christian, or Jewish, seem

to

to have concluded it, to be intuitively evident, that the KINGS before mentioned, without any particular circumftances to IDENTIFY them, (only on account of the mention of a child in both places) must be the SAME, with thofe, which in the preceding and fubfequent paffages, are PARTICULARLY defcribed. They having, then, once embraced this fuppofition, all the other fuppofitions, -of the Prophet's continuation of the one and the fame addrefs,-and the notion of the one prophecy being only a declaration,-and the other a confirmation of it by a fign,and the opinion of other commentators, that the latter prophecy, con

fifted of two feparate and distinct

parts, really arose;

and not, as

fome might imagine, that THESE gave birth to the other.

But furely, had the commentators more maturely confidered the dignity of the prophecy, and the accustomed manner of the Prophet, they would rather have deduced an inference directly the reverfe. For, upon their fuppofition, they made the Prophet predict the fame event twice, almoft at the fame inftant of time. An event, too, neither very fingular in it's nature, nor yet very important in it's confequences. For, the TWO KINGS might both be flain,

and

and their riches and fpoils carried to Affyria, without any fecurity to the country of Judea. Nay, between the delivery of thefe two prophecies, which are thus fuppofed to relate to the SAME event, the Prophet had predicted, that the evils, which would befal Judea, would arife from the KING of ASSYRIA, NOT from the KINGS of SYRIA and of ISRAEL.

But, why fhould I wafle your time, by advancing arguments, to prove the IMPROBABILITY of these learned authors' fuppofition, when DEMONSTRATIONS are fo obvious, of

it's

it's total irreconcileableness with all the Prophet's context, both preceding, and fubfequent.

Let us, then, once more give our attention to the prophecy it

felf.

13.

"And he faid, Do you not find it a hard thing to contend with (or, to ftruggle againft) men? How then can you contend with (or fruggle againft) God?"

14.

"The Lord himself, therefore,

"will give you a fign.-Lo! the virgin