and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs, and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, that dwelleth in mount Zion." Isaiah viii. 19.
This is the plain drift and design of the prophet, literally, obviously, and primarily understood; and thus he is understood by one of the most judicious of interpreters, the great Grotius. Indeed, to understand the prophet as having the conception of Mary, and the birth of her son Jesus from a virgin mother literally, and primarily in view, is a very great absurdity, and contrary to the very intent and design of the sign given by the prophet.
For the sign being given by Isaiah to convince Ahaz that he brought a message from God to him, to assure him that the two kings should not succeed in their attempt against him, how could a virgin's conception, and bearing a son seven hundred years afterwards, be a sign to Ahaz, that the prophet came to him, with the said message from God? And how useless was it to Ahaz, as well as absurd in itself for the prophet, to say, "Before the child, born seven hundred years hence, shall distinguish between good and evil, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings," which would be a banter, instead of a sign.
But a prophecy of the certain birth of a male child, by a particular female within a short time, seems a proper sign, as being not only what could not with certainty, be foretold, except by a person inspired, but considered as soon coming to pass, it, consequently, evidences itself to be a divine sign, and answers all the purposes of a sign. And such a sign is agreeable to God's conduct on like occasions; witness his conduct to Gideon and Hezekiah. Jud. vi.; 2 Kings xx.
This prophecy, therefore, not being fulfilled in Jesus, according to the literal and obvious sense of the words as they stand in Isaiah, it is supposed that this, like the other prophecies cited in the New Testament, is fulfilled in a secondary, or typical, or mystical sense; that is, the said prophecy, which was literally fulfilled by the birth of the son foretold by the prophet, was again fulfilled by the birth of Jesus, as being an event of the same kind, and intended to be secretly and mystically signified either by the prophet or by God, who directed the prophet's speech. If the reader desires further satisfaction that the literal and obvious sense of this prophecy relates to a son to be born in Isaiah's time, and not to Jesus, he is referred to the commentator Grotius, and to Huetius' Demonstrat. Evang. in loc., to the ancient fathers, and to the most respectable of the modern Christian. commentators, who all allow and show, that the words of Isaiah are not applicable to the birth of Jesus in their literal sense, but only in a mystical, or figurative, or allegorical sense.
Again, Matthew gives us another prophecy, which he says was fulfilled. He tells us, that Jesus was carried into Egypt; from whence he returned after the death of Herod, (Mat. ii.) "that it might be fulfilled, which was of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'out of Egypt have I called my son.'" Which, being word for word in Hosea, (ch. xi. 1) and no where else to be found in the Old Testament, are supposed to be taken from thence; where according to their obvious sense they are no prophecy at all! but relate and refer to a past action, viz., to the calling of the children of Israel out of Egypt, which will, I think, be denied by few. This passage, therefore, or as it is styled, prophecy, of Hosea, is said by learned men among Christians to be mystically, or allegorically, applied, in order to render Matthew's application of it, just; and they say all other methods of some learned men to solve the difficulty arising from Matthew's citation of this passage, have proved unsuccessful.