impoffibility, i. e. that Two DIF FERENT CHILDREN ARE MEN TIONED,—yet, to what end or purpofe, was fuch a prediction given? The Prophet, had before declared, that the confederated kings fhould not fubdue Judea, nor take Jerufalem.-Nay, he had even before predicted, the fpeedy extinction of thofe kings, by defcribing them as fire-brands, nearly extinguifhed, and which then retained more smoke than fire. He had likewife affured the houfe of David, that in fixty-five years, the government of Ephraim, as a feparate people, fhould expire; nor should that of Judah continue, if they would perfift in their dif belief, belief, which was, as it were, rebellion against God. To what end, then, did he again repeat only the SAME prediction, which was not before believed, without giving any more a fign of it's truth, than upon the former occafion? Thirdly. This interpretation, is liable to all the objections, which I have before fo fully ftated, and by which I have fo intirely deftroyed all the other interpretations, that I fhall not now repeat them. But, as there is another objection, which I have not before mentioned, which equally affects this, as well as fome of the other hypotheses, I fhall here ftate ftate it. It is this.-That they who adopt the fuppofition of A CHILD'S, whether ANY CHILD'S, or Shearjafhub's, or Maher-fhalal-hash-baz's not knowing to refufe evil, or choofe a SIGN of the latter good, as event ;—whether they confidered this likewife, as denoting the death of the KINGS of ISRAEL and of SYRIA; -or whether only in general, that the land of Judea fhall be delivered from thofe kings, (according to a new interpretation, I juft now fuppofed might be started, though it never was)—or whether, according to Bishop Lowth, (though he gives us no argument, in juftification of his vaft deviation from the common tranflation, tranflation, and the fenfe of the Septuagint) "that the land fhall become defolate, by thofe two kings, by whom thou art diftreffed."All thefe, I fay, adopt a common, ordinary, probable event, as a SIGN of another event of the fame kind, of which it cannot POSSIBLY be a SIGN, because the one, was to PRECEDE the other, but both were to be CONTEMPORARY. And confequently, therefore, the prediction of that, which is termed the SIGN, is NO ASSURANCE, or CONFIRMATION of the other. NOT Fourthly. I have before proved, that there is the GREATEST DE GREE GREE of PROBABILITY, that this prediction was not made, 'till AFTER the KINGS of SYRIA and of ISRAEL, HAD RETURNED FROM JUDEA— and therefore, THIS COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE, THE EVENT HERE PREDICTED. H Having now, fully prepared the way for the true interpretation of this much agitated, and moft important prophecy, by the REFUTATION of the PRINCIPLES, upon which, the attempts of ALL FORMER COMMENTATORS were built,—and more particularly, of that PRIME and FUNDAMENTAL one, that it had REFERENCE to the KINGS OF ISRAEL -- and |