SECT. XXV.

JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jerem. xxiii. 5, 6.

1. Behold! the days are coming, saith Jehovah, When I will raise unto David a righteous progeny; And he shall reign sovereign and shall act wisely,

And he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land: 5. In his days Judah shall be saved,

And Israel shall rest in security;

And this is his name, which they shall call him,

JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

A passage parallel, or nearly so: ch. xxxiii. 15, 16.

1. In those days, and in that time,

I will raise unto David a righteous progeny,

And he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah shall be saved,

5. And Jerusalem shall rest in security: And this is he who shall call to her, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.*

THE Connection and manifest scope of these two passages point their reference to the Messiah : and in this reference they have been understood

* See Note [A] at the end of this Section.

by the general consent of Jewish and Christian

interpreters. Unless it be denied that such a reference is the intention of the passages, it will remain that the Messiah is explicitly called by the incommunicable name of the self-existent One,JEHOVAH. To avoid this conclusion, different

methods are resorted to.

Abrabenel† maintains that the title in question is the nominative of the verb, so that the sentence should be construed;-" And this [viz. righteous branch] is his name, which Jehovah our righteousness shall call him." Grotius adopts this interpretation. +

Faustus Socinus makes, not the Messiah, but Israel or Judah to be the object to which the name is given, in the first instance; and Jerusalem, in the second.§

The Rabbis Kimchi, Salomon, and Moses Gerundensis adopt a solution in which they are followed by the generality of Arian and Socinian commentators: that the title is indeed given to the Messiah, but not as a personal appellative. These writers understand it as a descriptive name,

* See very ample collections of these authorities in Dassovii Diss. Rabbin. Philol. and Frischmuthi Diss. de Nom. Mess. (in the Sylloge Dissertationum Eleg. vol. i. Amst. 1701.)

+ Comm. in Proph. quæst. 4. ap. Frischm. c. i. § 23.

Annot. in loc.

§ Resp. ad Vujek, c. vi. § 2.

declaring the blessings which Jehovah would confer under the reign and by the instrumentality of the Messiah. Of such descriptive names examples are frequent an altar was called by Jacob, ElElohe-Israel, God, the God of Israel; another by Moses, Jehovah-nissi, Jehovah my banner; and the name of the predicted city in Ezekiel is Jehovahshammah, Jehovah is there.*

To the first and second of these opinions, it may be justly replied that they are unnatural constructions, contrived and forced upon the words for the mere purpose of evasion.

But the third is entitled to more respectful consideration. The fact is unquestionable that the gratitude or hope of individuals, in the ancient scriptural times, was often expressed by the imposition of significant appellations on persons or other objects, in the composition of which divine names and titles were frequently employed: these are, therefore, nothing but short sentences declarative of some blessing possessed or expected. When such names were given, the nature of the subject indubitably suggested the sense intended. It was impossible for a structure of earth or stones, or a merely human being, ever to be mistaken for the Deity; though the one might be honoured with the epithet, equivalent to the inscriptions of later times, JEHOVAH IS MY BANNER; or the other, as in the instance of * Gen. xxxiii. 20. Ex. xvii. 15. Ezek. xlviii. 35.

Elijah, with the distinguished title, JAH (the abbreviation of JEHOVAH) IS MY GOD. Such names could never be regarded as any other than the memorials of piety, because the KNOWN nature of the subject precludes misapprehension.

If, then, the person of the Messiah were indubitably ascertained to be only human, this appellation would be merely a descriptive proposition, and would be properly read with the supplement of the substantive verb, JEHOVAH is our righteousness: but, if, from other evidence, it were satisfactorily determined that the person of the Messiah includes a divine subsistence, the title would be applicable in its direct and strict signification, as a clear description of his person and of his official grace,-JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

So should we argue if the two suppositions were in equipoise to each other. But they are not so. Independently of all the evidence which we possess of a divine nature in the person of the Messiah, and which, being admitted on its own grounds, receives a corroboration from the passage before us; there is a consideration which especially belongs to the very phrase of this passage. What is " righteousness," in the scriptural sense? Is it not a standing clear and unimpeached, in relation to a given standard of rectitude? As applied to an accountable subject of God's moral government, does it not import that state of freedom from just accusation, and

compliance with just requirements, upon which the Righteous Judge can look with entire satisfaction? Now this RIGHTEOUSNESS is the capital blessing of the gospel; and the mode of obtaining it is the great distinction, the unique glory, of the Christian covenant. Hence Archbishop Newcome, and following him the Improved Version, generally renders that word, in the doctrinal parts of the New Testament, by the terms justification and method of justification. THIS righteousness, this justification, is constantly and most definitely attributed to Jesus Christ. Every other righteousness is disowned and rejected in comparison of His." "He is the end" (scope, object, or design)" of the law, for righteousness."† In the most emphatic sense, HE is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of his people.

Here, then, in the harmony and unison of revelation, in the correspondence between the prophecies which foretold the gospel and the doctrines which were its completion, we find a fact of weight enough to turn the scale, and determine the reference to the Person of the Divine Messiah, that "this is his name which they shall call him, the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

A general remark, connected with this particular instance, is worthy of observation. The most exalted method, within the compass of language, of attributing to any being the perfect possession * Phil. iii. 8, 9. + Rom. x. 4. 1 Cor. i. 30.