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Also, this supposition of an obscure intimation precludes the chief objection of the late J. D. Michaelis, that "if Elohim conveyed a knowledge of the Holy Trinity, it would imply that that doctrine was more generally and familiarly known under the Old Testament, than it is under the New." Michaelis Suppl. ad Lexica Hebr. vol. i. p. 88.

Note [E] p. 376.

Authors cited by Poole in his Synopsis, Calovius, Glassius in his Philol. Sacra, Lib. III. Tr. ii. Can. 13. Prebendary Lowth, Vitringa, &c. Some of the most rational and judicious of the Christian fathers have maintained this interpretation; and that, in the third century, the passage was held to be a prophecy of the Messiah, we have the evidence of Origen. "That the Saviour and the Holy Spirit were sent by the Father for the salvation of men, is manifest by the passage of Isaiah speaking in the person of the Saviour; And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit. It must, however, be observed that the expression is ambiguous; whether it should be understood, God sent, and the Holy Spirit also sent, the Saviour; or, as we take it, The Father sent both the Saviour and the Holy Spirit." Orig. Comment. in Matth. cap. xiii. ap. Opera, ed. Delarue, tom. iii. p. 595.

The Chaldee Targum applies only the last clause to the prophet: "Draw near to my Word [Memra,] hear this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that the nations were dispersed from the fear of me, there I brought near Abraham your father to my worship. The prophet said, And now the Lord God hath sent me and his Word [Memra.]" Calvin has adopted this forced and unnatural parenthesis.

CHAP. V.

RECAPITULATION OF THE PRECEDING CHARACTERS OF THE

MESSIAH.

By a careful and impartial analysis, we have endeavoured to obtain the separate result of each leading part of the prophetic testimony to the Person and Character of the then future Messiah. Those results must now be placed in a connected review.

*

A series of prophecies, reaching from the commencement to the close of the ancient dispensations, has exhibited to us a GREAT DELIVERER from evil, originally and repeatedly promised by God, and perpetually the object of the desire, expectation, and hope of the best and most enlightened men, and of those whom the Deity signalized by miraculous communications of his will. In the process of those declarations, this great Personage came to be designated by a preeminent appropriation of the term MESSIAH, to express his excellent qualities and important offices.

* Gen. iii. 15. xxii. 18, &c. &c.

+ Hag. ii. 7.

From those sources we have learned, that the Messiah was to be a real and proper human being; the descendant of Adam, Abraham, and David ;† in some peculiar sense, the offspring of the woman; the perfectly faithful and devoted servant of God;§ the messenger, supreme in rank above all others, of divine authority and grace ;|| a heavenly teacher, inspired with the fulness of divine gifts and qualifications;¶ the great and universal lawgiver, who should be the author and promulgator of a new, holy, and happy government over the moral principles, characters, and actions of men ;** a high priest, after a new and most exalted model;†† the adviser of the wisest counsels; the pacificator and reconciler of rebellious man to God, and of men among themselves; the kind and powerful Saviour from all moral and natural evil.|||

The divine oracles have also informed us that, in the execution of these benevolent purposes, he should undergo the severest sufferings from the malice of the original tempter, from the ingratitude

* Gen. iii. 15, &c. &c.

+ Gen. xxii. 18. 2 Sam. vii. 19, &c.

Gen. iii. 15. I have not insisted on Jer. xxxi. 22. not being completely satisfied that it refers to this fact, though I think such interpretation very far from being absurd or improbable. § Is. xlii. 1. lii. 13.

|| Sect. xxxi. on the title Angel of Jehovah.

¶ Is. xi. 2.

†† Ps. cx. 4.

** Deut. xviii. 18, 19. Is. ix. 7.

‡‡ Is. ix. 6.

2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. Job xix. 23-27.

§§ Ib.

Is. xl. 10. xlv. 21.

and disobedience of men, and from the especial circumstance of his devoting himself a voluntary sacrifice to procure the highest benefits to those of mankind who should concur in his plan of mercy and holiness.* *

They have assured us that, from his deep distresses, he should emerge to glory, victory, and triumph; that he should possess power, authority, and dominion, terrible to his determined adversaries, but full of blessing and happiness to his obedient followers; that he should gradually extend those benefits to all nations; and that his beneficent reign should be holy and spiritual in its nature, and in its duration everlasting.†

The testimony of heaven likewise describes him as entitled to the appellation of Wonderful; since he should be, in a sense peculiar to himself, the Son of God; as existing and acting during the patriarchal and the Jewish ages, and even from eternity;|| as the guardian and protector of his people; as the proper object of the various affections of piety, of devotional confidence for obtaining the most important blessings, and of religious homage from angels and men.**

* Gen. iii. 15. Ps. xxii. lxix. Is. liii. &c. &c.

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That testimony, finally, declares him to be the Eternal and Immutable Being,* the Creator,† God, the Mighty God, § Adonai, Elohim, T Jehovah.**

*Ps. cii. 25-29.

and Ps. xlv. 7. Is. xl. 11.

|| Is. ix. 6.

+ Ps. cii. 26.

||

¶ Is. vi. 1. Mal. iii. 1.

** 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. Is. vi. 5. viii. 13. xl. 3, 10. 25. Zech. xii. 10.

xlv. 21—

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