:

reigned in Jerufalem on earth, 1 Chron. xxviii. 4.-7. 2 Kings viii. 19. 1 Kings xi. 36. 2 Chron. xxi. 7.; and then, chiefly, to the Meffiah, for whose fake the promise respecting David's temporal house was given. In the first respect, this promife was fome way conditional; in the fecond, it was abfolute in the firft refpect it was but temporal, reaching the full end of it, and having its iffue, in the Meffiah; but as it refpected him it was eternal: "Thine house and thy kingdom fhall be established for ever before thee; thy "throne shall be established for ever. I will fettle him in "mine house, and in my kingdom for ever, and his throne "fhall be established for evermore."

And it is evident, that the promise of establishing David's temporal house and his fons upon that throne, had a reference to that which is eternal, and that feed of David eminently fo called, even him who was to be fettled in God's house and kingdom for evermore. That promise fpake of him through these, and David's temporal house and kingdom, with his fucceffors on that throne, are fet up in this promife as a pledge and a prefiguration of the Meffiah in his throne and kingdom, which was the great thing intended in the promife. Thus God forefhewed this great event by things as well as words. And there is no reason why God may not fet up fome things as pledges, and figns, and prefigurations or types of great events, and then plainly declare, that these events were intended in these signs and prefigurations of them.

David himself took up this promife as intending the Mefsiah, and his eternal kingdom, through his temporal kingdom. For when he was a-dying, and could not have much fatiffaction in the promife as it was temporal, he ventures his departing foul with fatisfaction on the eternal part of it; wherein he fays, "He has all his falvation, and all his defire, "whatever fhould become of his temporal houfe." It will not be amifs here to confider those dying words of David, which we have recorded, 2 Sam. xxiii. from the beginning to the 8th verfe. There is a translation of the first verse, which I fufpect is not alien from the sense of the text. to this purpose: "David, the man who was raised up to be "inftead of the Meffiah of the God of Jacob in the fweet "pfalms of ifrael."

It is

But whatever be in that, by the defignations given unto him, and the intimation, that these are his laft words, it appears, that we are called to take special notice of what fol

lows,

lows, as a thing most remarkable, and worthy of all attention; and the more, if we confider the folemn preface he himself puts to these his laft words: for he plainly fays, that they are not his own words, but the words of God; and infinu. ates, that he is about to speak of that which was the scope of what he had delivered as an infpired prophet. Yea, it is more than probable, that he delivers his dying words in the name of the glorious perfons of the Godhead, as the word of all the three: "The Spirit of the Lord fpake by me, "and his word was in my tongue. The God of Ifrael faid, "the Rock of Ifrael fpake to me." He is to speak of that great bufinefs wherein these three divine perfons are all gloriously manifefted; and he mentions" the Rock of Ifrael," the Son, in the last place, because what follows immediately is of him. For it cannot be imagined, that all this folemnity was defigned to no other purpose, but to usher in a defcription of the duty of ordinary rulers in the kingdoms of this earth, and of the happiness of their fubjects under their right adminiftration. And therefore thofe interpreters have done beft, who have taken it for a prophecy of the Meffiah; reckoning, that whatever be faid here with refpect to the government of the house of David, it chiefly points to the Meffiah's kingdom. The words are variously rendered *; but however they be tranflated, the kingdom of the Meffiah is their scope. And there is no reason that I know of, why they may not be rendered thus :: "To me fpake the Rock of If"rael, the ruler over men, juft, the ruler of the fear of "God;" or, "The Rock of Ifrael that is to rule in or over men, juft, that shall rule the fear of God."

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* Our translation is thus: "The Rock of Ifrael fpake to me, "He that ruleth over men must be just," &c.; taking it, as it would seem, for a description of the duty of rulers: yet, even according to this rendering, it may be a defcription of him that fhould rule in the church. Junius and Tremellius have it thus: Mihi locuta eft Rupes Ifraelis, Qui dominatur hominibus iftis, juftus eflo, dominans in timore Dei: and for explication of hominibus iftis, fay, Ifraelitis. On our margin it is thus: "Be thou ruler over "men." (6 And fome render the foregoing words thus: The "Rock of Ifrael fpake of me," i. e. David, who was a type of the Meffiah. The Dutch tranflation has it thus: "The Rock "of Ifrael fpake to me, There fhall be a ruler," &c. And the notes fay this ruler is the Meffiah. The Vulgate verfion runs thus: Locutus eft fortis Ifrael dominator bominum, juftus dominator in timore Dei. And that of Arias Montanus is, Mihi locutus Petra Ifrael dominans in homine, juftus dominator timoris Dei.

VOL. I.

B

Thus

Thus it is a prophecy of David's Lord, the Rock of Ifrael himself, his ruling in the church and kingdom of God. Of this ruler, it is faid, that he is or fhall be juft; which may be explained by the words of Jeremiah, chap. xxiii. 5. 6. " I "will raise unto David a righteous branch; and a king shall "reign and profper, and shall execute judgment and justice "in the earth.-And this is his name whereby he shall be "called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Thus he is the true Melchifedek, and a priest on his throne, Pfal. cx. 4. Zech. vi. 13. Next, it is faid, "That he ruleth "the fear of God;" the worship and fervice of God, or the whole of religion. To this purpose speaks the prophet Ifaiah, chap. xi. 1. 2. 3. and the Apoftle, Heb. xii. 28.; where he fays, "Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom that "cannot be moved, let us have grace to ferve God accepta"bly with reverence and godly fear." Such is his government, and the nature of his kingdom, and so it is distinguished from all the kingdoms of this world.

David proceeds, in the next verfe, to describe, by fimilitudes, the government and kingdom of this ruler of the fear of God, which is as light out of darkness, increasing from fmall beginnings unto much greatnefs and glory, moft benign and comfortable, and very beautiful and glorious," as the "light of the morning," &c. And then, in 5. he profeffes his full fatisfaction in the faith and hope of this, whatever should become of his temporal houfe, and the earthly kingdom in his family.

"Although my houfe" (my temporal house, and the king. dom in it, which alfo was spoke of in the promise) "be not "fo with God," (as this kingdom of which I have been fpeaking fhall be; and though it do not answer to the defcription I have given of God's ruler in the church, or do not behave fuitably before God, as a type of that ruler and kingdom, and fo do not abide with God); " yet he hath

made with me an everlasting covenant," (he hath promised to me, that of the fruit of my body he will raise up that glorious King, the Meffiah, to fit on my throne, and that he will establish his kingdom before me for ever; this is the everlasting part of his covenant made with me, establishing an eternal relation betwixt him and me), "ordered in "all things," (to answer all the ends of God's glory, and all the neceffities of the church), " and fure," (depending on no condition that fhould any way make it void, as the promife refpecting my temporal house and kingdom; and fo it

can

can by no means fail): " for this is all my falvation, and "all my defire," (I feek no other falvation, no other happinefs, but what is contained in this promife; and now, when leaving all time's things, and having no more place in the earthly Ifrael, I have full fatisfaction in the expectation of this heavenly and eternal kingdom, which fhall be established before me, Heb xi. 13. 14. 16.), "although he make it not "to grow" (though my typical houfe fhall be diminished, till it be cut off; though the fceptre depart from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet, yet it is enough to me that Shiloh will come: though the tree of my royal family should be cut down to the ground; yet out of the roots shall spring that branch of righteoufnefs: and in this am I fatisfied, though this fhould be the final end of my temporal houfe, that it may never more flourish).

In the two following verfes, which conclude those last words of David, he defcribes the enemies of this glorious King and his kingdom, their power, wicked enmity, and ftubbornness, and their fearful end; fhewing alfo, that the wicked fhall have no abode in this kingdom of the Meffiah : "But the fons of Belial fhall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands," &c. Thefe are the laft words of David; from which we may be fatisfied, that the promife made to him did not only refpect the temporal kingdom in his house, but, through that, refer unto the eternal kingdom of the Meffiah, the Rock of Ifrael: for now, when he is leaving the world, he lets go the temporal part of the promise, and expects eternal falvation and happiness by that eternal part of it, that was the chief thing to which every other thing in it had a reference; and, in comparifon of which, the railing of David and his house to rule in that earthly kingdom, was indeed but a fmall thing; as he fays, 2 Sam. vii. 19. "And this was yet a fmall thing in thy fight, O Lord God; but thou haft also spoken of thy "fervant's house for a great while to come; and is this the manner of man, O Lord God?"

And this is that promise made to David, of Meffiah the King, so much infifted on in the Pfalms, and all the writings of the prophets that followed after David, which raised the expectations of the Jews, and of the accomplishment of which they were still the more defirous after they faw David's temporal house brought low? But they wofully miftook it, imagining it to be a promise of a glorious earthly prince, and a iplendid worldly kingdom. Unto this purpose they made

ufe of those figures taken from David's temporal kingdom, and fuch other figures as the prophets made use of to set forth beforehand the fpiritual and eternal things of the kingdom of Chrift; and under the influence of this fatal mistake, they rejected Jefus, and delivered him up to Pilate.

JElus

[Efus being questioned, denies not, but confeffes, that he is that fame King promised to the Jews; and by this we may know, from the prophecies, who he is.

For, 1. It behoved the Meffiah, according to the prophets, to be of the fruit of David's body, a true man of the feed of David. The Jews knew well, from the prophecies, that the Christ was to be David's fon; as appears from their answer to our Lord's question, "What think ye of Chrift? whose son "is he?" for they "fay unto him, The fon of David," Matth. xxii. 41. 42.; and they that believed Jesus to be the Meffiah, defigned him The Son of David.

The prophecies pointed him out as thus to be of David when David's family fhould be diminished and brought very low; they reprefented him as a branch springing out of the

root of Jeffe," If. xi. 1.: so that when he should come, he fhould be " as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry "ground, having nothing of that form or comelinefs" that his defpifers were locking after, If. liii. 2.

The New Teftament teftifies of Jefus, that he is of the fruit of David's loins according to the flesh, and of the feed of David according to the fieth; and thus explains the prophecies, declaring their accomplishment in him, Acts ii. 30. Rom. i. 3. This phrafe," according to the flesh," feems to have more than one import, when applied to Jefus Chrift. For, 1. It plainly points out his human nature as diftinguish. ed from his divine. 2. It alfo denotes human nature in its mortal ftate, with the miferies and infirmities of that state: for he took part with us in flesh and blood, that he might die, and was tempted in all things like us, yet without fin. 3. It further imports his being a Jew; for he was a minifter of the circumcifion to confirm the promises "made unto the fathers." In this fenfe the Apoftle fays, 2 Cor. v. 16. '' Though we have known Chrift after the "flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." Thus flesh is oppofed to fpirit, Gal. iii. 3. "Having begun in the fpirit, are ye now made perfect by the flein?

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1 Tim. iii. 16." God was manifefted in the flefl, juftified in the fpirit."