his Messiah, with another and final limitation of him. After the first general promise of a Redeemer, and the repetition of it to Noah, his descent, as we have seen,

* But before this, the prophecy of the man of God to Eli, I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart, and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever, 1 Sam. ii. 35, seems to have a reference to the Messiah, at least in its secondary sense. For in its first sense, it was fulfilled in Zadock, of the line of Eleazar the son of Aaron, who was made High-priest in the room of Abiathar, the last of the family of Eli, 1 Kings ii. 27, and 1 Chron. xxix. 22. But a secondary sense relating to Christ is very usual in prophecy, and consonant to its spirit; and the words seem to me too strong, to refer merely to the change of the priesthood, from one branch of the family of Aaron to another. However I do not venture to insist on this, since Poole, Grotius, and all the best commentators, take no notice of the passage in that view. Josephus supposes that Samuel spoke this prophecy, but he was then a child. Some think it was Phineas the son of Eleazer, and others that it was Elkanah; but Phineas was probably dead long before, and there is no reason to suppose that Elkanah was a prophet. It is of little consequence. He was a man of God, and his prophecy was fulfilled.

+ Unless there was a farther limitation to Solomon and his descendants. 2 Sam. vii. 13, &c.

was

And

was confined to the seed of Abraham, then of his children, to Isaac; then of the twin children of Isaac, to Jacob; and then, of the twelve sons of Jacob, to Judah. now it pleased God once more to confine this gracious promise, to the family of a man of the tribe of Judah, named Jesse, who dwelt at Bethlehem, (where afterwards Christ his descendant was born,) a small town belonging to that tribe, five or six miles south of Jerusalem. This town was sometimes called also Bethlehem Ephrata, which appears to have been its ancient name, and sometimes Bethlehem of Judah, to distinguish it from another Bethlehem, in the north-west of Palestine belonging to the tribe of Zebulon *.

When

* See Fuller's Pisgah, and Lightfoot; but concerning the reason of the adjunct Ephrata, this last learned and respectable author seems to be mistaken. He derives the term Ephrata from a woman named Ephrath, 1 Chron. ii, 19, &c, who married Caleb, great grandson of Judah the son of Jacob; whereas Bethlehem was called Ephrath when Rachel the wife of Jacob died, Gen. xxxv. 16-19, many years before she (Ephrath) was born. More probably this Ephrath took her name from the place, instead

of

When, in consequence of Saul's repeated misconduct, God had determined to transfer the kingdom of Israel to another family, he sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David, the youngest son of this Jesse of Bethlehem, to be king after him. And from this time the spirit of the Lord came upon David*, and he was endued with the gift of prophecy. But no revelation as yet pointed him out, as the person from whom the Messiah was to descend; nor was this done, till he was about forty years of age, and had been settled on the throne about ten years. He then proposed to Nathan the prophet, to build a Temple for the Ark of God, which had hitherto been kept only in a tent or tabernacle †. But

of giving name to it. Her great great grandson who lived in or near the time of David, was called Bethlehem, 1 Chron. ii. 51, and perhaps gave name to the place which before was called Ephrath, see Gen. xxxv. 16, &c, and Psalm cxxxii. 6. She seems certainly to have lived there, for the septuagint translation of Micah v. 2, is BEEμ oixos Te appaz Bethlehem the house of Ephrata.

* 1 Sam. xvi. 13.

The two books of Samuel, are generally supposed to

But this honor, God chose should be reserved for his son Solomon, to whom at the same time, he promised the succession to the kingdom. And he added farther, that this kingdom and his throne, should be established for ever * Now this promise is made in terms so strong, and several times repeated, as to give reason to suppose, that more is meant than mere temporal dominion: and that though in the

have been written, the first 24 chapters by Samuel himself, and the rest, by the prophets Gad and Nathan. But it seems to me, that Samuel could not write the three first chapters of the first book; for in them mention is made of the Temple. Eli sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord; 1 Sam. i. 9. And again ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, Chap. iii. 3. Now the tabernacle is, I believe, no where else called the temple; but as they were applied to the same purpose, the mistake might easily happen, if the passage was written after the temple was built. Samuel died above 40 years before the foundations of the temple were laid; but either Gad or Nathan, might live many years after the dedication of the temple, and therefore fall into that error. Patrick mentions the difficulty but without endeavouring to explain it.

2 Sam. vii. 12, &c.

first

first instance, only the succession to the throne, and the continuance of it in the family of Solomon, was promised to David, (and it actually continued in his line above 400 years) yet that it had a secondary reference to the kingdom of the Messiah, who was also to proceed from him; whose throne and kingdom, was in the literal sense to last for ever.

It seems rather surprizing, that many commentators, and some of them men of great note and learning, do not consider this passage as a prophecy of Christ; yet it is noted as such, in the margin of the Geneva Bible in 1599, and Patrick, Lightfoot, Wells, Granville Sharp, and even Grotius, speak of it in the same way. But above all, Bishop Chandler is very copious upon the subject, and shews the application of the prophecy, in a most clear and convincing manner. He considers it as the original foundation of the general expectation among the Jews, that Christ should proceed from David; which expectation is proved, from the rabbinical wri

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tings