soul as both the matter and price of suretiship (for all these are comprised in the emphasis of the Hebrew language) to approach unto me, that he may expiate sin? These words also point out what that suretiship or undertaking was, which David and Hezekiah sought for; namely, a declaration of will to approach unto God, in order to procure the expiation of sins.

VII. In fine, we may refer to this point, what is to be found, Zech. vi. 13. The counsel of peace shall be between them both; namely, between the man, whose name is the Branch, and Jehovah: for no other pair occur here. It will not be foreign to our purpose, to throw some light on this place by a short analysis and paraphrase. In this and the preceding verse, there is a remarkable prophecy concerning the Messiah, whose person, offices, and glory, the prophet truly describes in a short, but lively manner, subjoining at last the cause of all these; why the Messiah shewed himself as such a person, executed such offices, and obtained such a glory; namely, that counsel which was between him and the Father, the fruit of which, with respect to us, is peace. Of the person of the Messiah he says, that he is ISH, the man, that is, true man; compare Hos. ii. 15. and indeed, the most eminent among men; not ADAM or ANISH, which words denote wretched man but ISH JEMINECHA the man of the right hand of God. Because Christ is not here considered as in the abasement of his misery, but in the excellence of his glory. His name is the Branch, because sprung from God,† a new root of a new offspring, or of the sons of God according to promise and regeneration, the second Adam. And indeed a branch, which shall blossom from under himself. Aben Ezra, MILO, from himself, which shall not be produced or propagated by any sowing, or planting of man's hand, but shall spring from a virgin, by the peculiar power of the Deity. His office is to build the temple of the Lord, that is, the church of the elect, which is the house of God, * Psal. lxxx. 17. † Is. iv. a. Zech, vi. 12. 1 Tim. iii. 15. VOL. I. C c

which Christ KATESKEUASE, framed,* and built;t laying the foundation in his cross, and givng his blood for cementing it. But because in the same breath it is twice said, He shall build the temple of the Lord, it may suggest to our minds, whether, besides the building of the church, which is the mystical body of Christ, the resurrection of Christ's own natural body may not be intended, which is called the building of the temple.‡ This being done, he will receive majesty, a name above every name, and sit on the throne of God, to execute his kingly and priestly office in glory. For a king to sit on a throne, is nothing strange, but for a priest, very much so; being contrary to the custom of the ancient priests in the Old Testament, who stood daily, often offering the same sacrifices; because their labour was ineffectual to remove the guilt of sin. But Christ having once offered up the one sacrifice of himself, and by it obtained eternal redemption, sat down for ever at the right hand of the Father, never to rise to offer a second time. He now does what his session gives him a right to do, to make intercession for his people; as was ingeniously observed by J. Altingius.** But whence do all these things proceed, and what is the origin of such important matters ? The counsel of peace, which is between the man whose name is the Branch, and between Jehovah, whose temple he shall build, and on whose throne he shall sit.†† And what else can this counsel be, but the mutual will of the Father and the Son, which, we said, is the nature of the covenant? It is called a counsel, both on account of the free and liberal good pleasure of both, and of the display of the greatest wisdom manifested therein. And a counsel of peace, not between God and Christ, between whom there was no enmity; but of peace to be procured to sinful man with God, and to sinners with themselves.

Heb. iii. 4. † Matth. xvi. Heb. i. 3. and ix. 12, 14.

6. § 49.

18. John ii. 19, 21. § Heb. x. 11. Rom. viii. 34. ** Hept. iii. dissert. tt Rev. iii. 21.

VIII. Two things here may seem to be objected to, which we are briefly to answer, 1. That by those two we are not to understand the Father and the Son, but the Jews and the Gentiles. 2. That here it is not the counsel, which is the original and cause of all these things, and which ought to have been expressed in the preterperfect or present tense; but the counsel, which is the fruit of Christ's intercession, of which the prophet speaks in the future tense. To the first I answer, That this exposition is asserted, but not proved. There is no distinct mention made of Jews and Gentiles in the preceding verses of this chapter. And it is not lawful for us to cram any thing into the text. What others alledge concerning a priest and king, or the office of priest and king, or about the Jews of Jerusalem and Babylon, is quite forced. "Our explication," says the very learned de Dieu, who here is of the same.opinion with us," appears simple and plain." Neither is

it new, since Jerome tells us, that this verse was understood of the Father and the Son. To the second I reply, That there is nothing that can oblige us to assent to it; since the words, by our analysis and explanation, yield a very just and profitable sense; and this covenant could not be expressed by a more significant term, than that of a mutual counsel between the Father and the Son. What is added with respect to the difference of tenses, seems to be of small moment : for that the tenses in Hebrew are often put one for the other, and the future for the present, none can be ignorant of, but they who are indifferently skilled in that language. See Psalm xvii. 3. TZERAPHTANI BAL TIMIZA, Thou hast tried me, and thou dost, or didst find nothing; literally, thou shalt find. Such changes of tenses often occur in the same psalm. Besides, something is then said to be done in scripture, when it is declared to be solemnly done; of which instances are to be met with every where. See Acts ii. 36. We will therefore properly explain the words thus, The counsel of peace is between both. Or if you entirely insit

on the future tense, the meaning will be this: At the exaltation of Christ, and the peace advanced by him from heaven, there will be a manifest execution of this counsel. But there is no occasion to come to this. For if we interpret this counsel, of that agreement, which subsisted between the Father and Christ, Godman, when, assuming human nature, he began to do the office of Surety; the prophet might and ought to speak of it in the future tense. And he does so in an elegant order, ascending from the effects to the cause, in this manner: Christ, God-man, shall build the spiritual temple of the Lord; for a glorious reward of which office he shall receive majesty, and shall sit on the throne of the Lord. Nór ought this to seem strange: for Christ, clothing himself with human flesh, will, by a certain compact on which our peace rests, promise to the Father, that he will do so; and the Father on the other hand, will promise him, that he will thus reward that service. In this manner every thing runs smoothly. See what shall be said more largely, chap. iii. § 2.-4.

IX. It is also a proof of this, that Christ, often in the psalms and elsewhere, calls God the Father his God; see among other places, Psalm xxii. 3. and xlv, 8. Is. xlix. 4. 5. and John xx. 17. Which is the form or manner of the covenant. In this sense Jacob promised, that the Lord should be his God; that is, that he would so frame his whole life, as become one in covenant with God. The Israelites also, when they solemnly renewed the covenant, Josh. xxiv. 18, said, We will serve the Lord, for he is our God, In like manner God promises in the covenant, that he will be the God of his covenant people; that is, display the riches of his all-sufficiency for their salvation. This is my covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, I will be their God. Deut. xxiv. 17. Thou hast vouched the Lord (thou hast made the Lord say) this day to be (that he will be) thy God. The very meaning of the word * Gen. xxviii. 21. + Jer. xxxi. 33.

[which we render God] implies this: for ELOAн, derived from ALAH, he swore, or adjured, denotes him, whose prerogative it is to bind us, by oath, to love and faithful obedience to him, and to whom we ought, by oath, to give all obedience; and who on his part engages that he will be all-sufficient to his faithful servants for salvation. He therefore professes Eloah to be his God, does at the same time, by virtue of the covenant of God, call himself the servant of God; for NGÆBÆD, servant, is the correlate of ELOAH, or, ELOHIM as Psalms, lxxxvi. 2. HOSHANG NGABDECHA ATTAH ELOHAI, Preserve thy servant, O thou my God. And in this manner the Father calls Christ, in many places, his servant, Isa. xlix. 5. 6. Besides such a one professes, that he entirely depends on the promise and testimony of that covenant: in which things the whole nature and design of the covenant consists. Since therefore Christ calls God the Father his God, and on the other hand, the Father calls Christ his servant, both of them do, by that name, indicate a compact concerning obedience and reward

X. But let us now proceed more particularly, and discuss all the parts of this covenant, that it may not only appear that there subsist some covenant between Christ and the Father, but what that covenant is, and of what nature. The contracting parties are, on the one hand, the Father, whom Christ calls my Lord ;* on the other the Son, whom the Father calls his servant. The law of the covenant is proposed by the Father This commandment have I received of my Father; and, The Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment. To that law a promise is added by the Father ;|| When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin (when his soul shall make itself an offering for sin) he shall see his seed &c. and¶ It is a light thing, that thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, &c. On performing that law, the Son acquires a * Psal. xvi. 2. † Is. liii. 11. John x. 18. § John xii. 49. Is. liii. 10-12. ¶ 1s. xlix, 6-8.