Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAP. I.

ON THE TERM MESSIAH.

In the primitive ages of mankind, the poverty of rude language, and the difficulty of conveying information to distant places and future times, led to the invention of symbolical actions, as means of communicating and perpetuating the knowledge which was deemed valuable. Some of those actions were of divine institution; and it was not beneath the wise and provident care of heaven, to employ those which might be purely of human contrivance, as a vehicle for the transmission of truths the most interesting for mortals to know. One of these primeval symbols was the affusion of oil, to denote consecration to the immediate service or homage of the Deity. The earliest records in the world inform us, that, in commemoration of distinguished mercies from God, Jacob reared a rough stone for a pillar, and "poured oil upon the top of it, and called the name of that place Bethel," the HOUSE OF GOD.* To this action is made the first application of the word to anoint, which occurs in scripture. † It is afterwards

[blocks in formation]

applied to the consecration of persons; and denoted a ceremony of inauguration to the most important offices known among men,-the SACERDOTAL, the REGAL, and the PROPHETIC.

1. By the command of JEHOVAH, this ceremony was used in setting apart the HIGH PRIEST and his brethren, in the ecclesiastical constitution of the Israelites. "Thou shalt put [the sacred vestments] upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them; that they may minister unto me in the priest's office :-for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations." *

2. Saul, David, and their successors in the throne, were, by divine direction, designated to ROYALTY, by "the pouring of oil upon the head; because the Lord had anointed them to be captain over his inheritance." The "anointed of the Lord" was the common appellation of the Jewish kings; and it is in prophecy applied to Cyrus, the Persian monarch, on account of his being raised up, directed, and prospered in his enterprises, by a peculiar providence, and because the epithet would be understood by the Jews as an assurance that he was a sovereign under the divine sanction.

* Ex. xxviii. 41. xl. 15. † 1 Sam. x. 1.

Is. xlv. 1-5, 13.

[ocr errors]

3. Elijah was commanded to "anoint Elisha, to be PROPHET in his room :"* and that future Personage who was to announce "good tidings to the poor," is introduced as "anointed by JEHOVAH” to his gracious mission.†

Thus we have evidence, that this rite was practised under the Jewish dispensation; that a great and exclusive importance was attached to it, for it was employed only in the cases enumerated; and that it was observed upon the ground of DIVINE institution.

If a conjecture may be indulged on the reason of this symbol, perhaps we may not absurdly suppose that it was intended, by the fragrance and costliness of the preparation made use of, to signify both the high importance of the functions which were thus, above all others, distinguished, and the valuable and excellent qualifications which ought to adorn the persons designated to those offices. §

The annotator on the Improved Version asserts that "the Israelites are called Christs, or anointed,

[ocr errors][merged small]

Ex. xxx. 23-25. A compound of several highly odorous essential oils, in large proportions, with olive oil.

§ This conjecture seems to be countenanced by the comparison in Ps. cxxxiii. 2.

i. e. a chosen and favoured people, Psalm cv. 15. Hab. iii. 13."* But neither of these instances will bear out the allegation. The first evidently refers to Abraham and the other chief patriarchs, who were princes, priests, and prophets : † and, in the other passage, the singular "thine anointed," is put, by a common poetical enallage, for the chiefs of the Hebrew nation, as distinguished from the general mass of the people.

Such was the origin, and such the primary signification of the sacred appellative, anointed; which, in its Hebrew and Greek forms, Messiah and Christ, has been adopted into most other languages.

* Note on Heb. xi. 26. The apparent design of this gloss is to preclude the supposition that the piety of Moses had any respect to the hope of a Messiah.

+"Because, in the time of David, it was the custom to anoint priests and prophets, the poet, in order to intimate that the patriarchs were priests of the True God, and were therefore to be reverenced as consecrated persons, calls them anointed; and in the corresponding hemistich, prophets, as indeed Abraham is expressly denominated, Gen. xx. 7. Jarchi, Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, and other Rabbinical commentators, understand, by anointed, princes and chieftains: see Gen. xxiii. 6, and that they were called prophets, because they predicted future events.” Rosenmuller, jun. in Ps. cv. 15.

CHAP. II.

ON THE EARLY EXPECTATION OF THE MESSIAH.

THAT from the earliest times an expectation prevailed of a Great Personage to arise at some future period, and to be the Deliverer and Saviour of mankind from their moral and natural miseries, is well known to all who have studied primeval history, and is generally received by believers in revelation. This expected benefactor was the MESSIAH described in the Hebrew sacred books; who should unite in his own person the dignities of prophet, priest, and king, that he might confer SALVATION on our fallen world.

Those books, whether considered as the only credible monuments of the remotest ages, or as invested with the authoritative character of a superintending inspiration, are our best evidences of the existence and the grounds of such an expectation, and of the particular ideas which it included. In an ensuing chapter those passages will come under review which can be regarded with sufficient evidence as prophetically descriptive of the Messiah. It will be sufficient now to mention some

« AnteriorContinuar »