other law was to be looked upon as mere vanity. So Coheleth Rabba in c. ii. and in c. xi.

It is not without some surprise that we read the application St. Matthew, ii. 15. has made of these words in Hosea xi. 1. Out of Egypt have I called my son; which seem only to be spoken of the children of Israel, and not of the Messias. And yet in the book Midrash Tehillim Rabba on Psalm ii. we may see the Jews referred to the Messias what is written of the people of Israel, Exod. iv. 22. Which is an argument that St. Matthew cited this passage from Hosea, according to the sense the Jews gave it with respect to the Messias: "The actions "of the Messias are related in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the books called Hagiographa [or "in the Psalms]: in the Law, Exod. iv. 22. Israel "is my first-born: in the Prophets, Isaiah lii, 13. "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently: in the "Psalms, as it is written, The Lord said to my "Lord, Psalm cx. 1."

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St. Matthew, viii. 17. refers the words of Isaiah, liii. 4. to the miraculous cures that Christ wrought; and he follows herein the ancient tradition of the Jews, which taught that the Messias, spoken of in this chapter of Isaiah, should pardon sins, and consequently heal their distempers, which were the effects and punishments of their sins. From hence it follows, that, according to their tradition, the Messias should be God, even as Jesus Christ did then suppose, when he healed the man sick of the palsy by his own power, Matt. ix. 6. and proves that he did not blaspheme in forgiving sins, which the Jews thought it belonged to none but to God to do.

St. Matthew, i. 23. applies the words of Isaiah, vii. 14. to Christ's being born of a virgin: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son, &c. This he did likewise according to the ancient idea

Adrian the emperor: for R. Akiba, who lived and died under that reign, makes the following reflection on this prophecy. He had considered that Isaiah, in the beginning of the following chapter, received an order from God to take to him two witnesses, viz. Uriah the priest, who lived in his time, and Zechary the son of Berachiah, who lived not (as he thought) till under the second temple. Upon which he saith, that God commanded the Prophet to do thus, to shew, that as what he had foretold concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz was true by the witness of Uriah, who saw it accomplished; so what he had foretold concerning the conception and delivery of a virgin must be accomplished under the second temple by the witness of Zechary, who lived then. See Gemara. tit. Maccoth. c. 3. fol. 24.

3. We see that Jesus Christ, John iv. 21, &c. alludes tacitly to the prophecy of Malachi, i. 11. concerning the sacrifices of the New Testament. This is a matter at present controverted between the Christians and the Jews. But Christ delivered the sense of the synagogue, as it is evident from the Targum on those words of Malachi, which applies them to the times of the Messias.

4. One would think it were only by way of similitude that Christ applied to himself the history of the brazen serpent, in saying, John iii. 14. Ás Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, sọ must the Son of man be lifted up. But there appears to be more in it than so. The ancient Jews looked upon the brazen serpent as a type of the Messias; so we find by their Targum on Numb. xxi. 8. which expounds this serpent which Moses lifted up, by the Word of the Lord, who is also called God, Wisd. xvi. 7. compared with chap. xv. 1. though Philo, whilst he hunts for allegories, gives another idea of it, De Agric. p. 157.

5. It may also seem to be only by way of allusion that Christ calls himself the bread that came down

from heaven; alluding to the manna which came down from heaven, as we read, Exod. xvi. But he that will look into the ancient Jewish writers shall find that herein also our Saviour followed the common Jewish idea: for Philo, who writ in Egypt before Jesus Christ began to preach, tells us positively that the Word or Aoyos was the manna. Lib. quod Deter. pot. insid. p. 137.

St. Paul, Heb. i. 5. cites God's words to David concerning one that should come out of his loins, 2 Sam. vii. 14. I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son, as if they had a respect to the Messias. How could he do thus, when on the one hand he calleth Jesus Christ holy, undefiled, harmless, separate from sinners; and on the other hand, in that promise to David, God takes it for granted that that son of his might be a sinner, and thereupon threatens in the very next words, 2 Sam. vii. 14. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men; which suits well with Solomon, but not at all with the Messias? The reason is, St. Paul followed the sense of this place which was commonly received among the Jews, who, as they refer to the Messias the Psalms lxxii. cx. and cxxxii. where the same ideas occur, so they must have also referred to the Messias whatever is great in this prophecy; and to others, whatever therein denotes human infirmities. And indeed it was not very hard to give to that oracle a further prospect, viz. to the Messias; 1st, Because Solomon was made king during the life of his father; whereas the Son whom God speaks of was to be born after David's death. 2dly, Because it is spoken of a seed not born from David, but from David's children. 3dly, Because the mercy of God was to make the kingdom of David last for ever; whereas the kingdom of Solomon was divided soon after his death, and but two parts of twelve were left to Rehoboam his son.

St. Paul, Gal. iv. 29. alludes to the history in Gen.

xxi. 9. as a type of the persecutions which the Jews should exercise on the Christians. Whereon does he build this? First having proved it his way, that the Christian Church was typified in Isaac the son of the free-woman, and Israel according to the flesh by Ishmael the son of the bond-woman; and having thus brought unbelieving Israel into Ishmael's place, he proceeds upon the old Jewish notion recited in Baal-Hatturim, that Ishmael should pierce Isaac with an arrow, which they illustrate by Gen. xvi. 12. instead whereof the text saith only, that he laughed at, or mocked Isaac.

We see St. Paul, Rom. x. 6. applies to the Gospel those words of Deut. xxx. 11-14, which seem to be spoken of the Law given by Moses to the Jews. But then the old synagogue applied these words of Moses to the times of the Messias, as is clear from Jonathan's Targum on the place; which is enough to justify the use St. Paul makes of the words.

We read in the song of Zacharias, Luke i. 69. that these words are referred to the Messias, He hath exalted the horn of his Anointed. The very same words are pronounced by Hannah the mother of Samuel, 1 Sam. ii. 10. where the Targum refers them in like manner as the sense of the synagogue.

The same Targum understands of the Messias that passage 2 Sam. xxiii. 3; and the LXX. have the like idea with the Targum, which is a farther confirmation of the tradition of the synagogue.

It is certain this notion of the Messias was very common among the Jews; otherwise they would not have thrust it into their Targums on places where naturally it ought not to come in.. For instance. It is said, 1 Kings iv. 33. that Solomon discoursed of all the trees, from the cedar of Libanus even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. Now the remark of the Targum hereupon is this; And he prophesied touching the kings of the house

of David, which should rule in this present world, as also in the world to come of the Messias.

6. We see our Lord Jesus Christ was careful to instruct the Pharisees of the two different characters of the coming of the Messias, Luke xvii. 20. Of which the one was to be obscure, and followed with the death of the Messias; the other was to be glorious, and acknowledged by the whole world. Christ instructed them in this the rather, to remove their mistakes through which they confounded his two comings though in truth they were both of them confessed by the Jews for some time after Christ's ascension into heaven.

7. We see that Christ himself, Matt. xxi. 16. and also his Apostle St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 27. Eph. i. 21. Heb. ii. 6,7,8. apply the words of Psalm viii. to the Messias. How could they do it, were it not before the sense of the synagogue? Now that such was the sense of the synagogue, we see till this day, when we read what they say in their Rabboth upon the Song of Songs, iv. 1. and upon Ecclesiastes ix. 1. that the children were to make acclamations at the coming in of the Messias, the second Redeemer, according to those words of Psalm viii. 3. Ex ore infantium, &c.

Lastly, we see St. Paul, Rom. x. 18. does refer the words of Psalm xix. 4. to the preaching of the Apostles, and saith, Their sound went over all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. What would an unbelieving Jew have said to this, that Paul should apply the Psalmist's words in this manner? But the Apostle was secure against this or any other objection from the Jews, if he used the words in the sense of their synagogue. And that he did So, there is little reason to doubt. The encomiums which David gave to the law of Moses, they would most readily apply to the law of the Messias: and they expected he should have his Apostles to carry his law throughout the world. To this ex