muft, however then confefs, that he has not found "a GOOD REASON"

for his alteration, (as he expected) but that he is abfolutely obliged to RETAIN the DEFINITE article, which (as he allows) "evidently RESTRAINS "the interpretation of the verfe to

THE CHILD juft fpoken of, in the "fourteenth and fifteenth verses of "the fame prophecy.

Having now fo fully, and upon a lefs important fubject, I fhould think, fo prolixly refuted, all the arguments ever urged for the fuppofition, that the child, mentioned in the former clause of the fixteenth verfe, is a different child, from that predicted

predicted in the preceding verfes ; and having clearly fhown, that fuch a fuppofition intirely revolts against every principle of grammatical conftruction, and of common fense, I truft, I may now affume it as a poftulatum, which can not be dif puted, THAT THE SAME CHILD,

THE

EMMANUEL, WHO IS MEN

TIONED BY NAME, IN ONE, 1S MEANT IN ALL.

The conclufions, therefore, to be deduced from this poftulatum, are not only as evident, but as irrefragable too, as any demonftration

in Euclid.

Dd

Firft.

Firft. That as THE CHILD, was not one, which was born near the time of the delivery of the prediction; and as both the then kings of Syria and of Ifrael, were flain, about two years after the birth of this child was foretold,-the latter claufe of the verfe, cannot poffibly relate to THOSE KINGS forfaking any land, between the birth of this child, and his arriving at the ufual age of learning to refufe evil, and to choose good. Confequently, that as THIS,

IS THE UNIFORM

INTERPRE

ΤΑΤΙΟΝ of ALL PRECEDING

COMMENTATORS,-they are ALI, THEREFORE, INVOLVED IN ONE

COMMON ERROR.

Secondly.

Secondly. That, as the prediction in the fifteenth verfe, was, as we learn from the relations of the BIRTH of JESUS, by two Evangelifts, literally, and fully completed in him, and no one even pretends, that it LITERALLY, and FULLY

was ever

completed in any other;-it follows, -that the latter clause, must have reference to SOME LAND, which had once TWO KINGS, i. e. two kingdoms and governments, (for so the expreffion frequently means in Scripture, where Cæfar is fpoken of as a king, and Rome as a kingdom) of which, though one might remain 'till the birth of the Emmanuel, yet,

BOTH were AT AN END, BETWEEN Dd 2

the

the TIME of HIS BIRTH,

BIRTH, and AIS

ARRIVAL AT THE USUAL AGE OF

DISCRETION, or knowledge of good

and evil; and that if I can point

But, before I proceed to point out what was the PARTICULAR EVENT predicted, and confequently, how the prophecy was accomplished; I must take notice of an error in the tranflation, of the latter claufe in the fixteenth verfe, which, it is truly aftonishing, none of the other

commentators