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upon his name; and they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day when I make up my jewels. Then shall ye turn and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." And he speaks more clearly still in the next (the last) chapter. He first describes the days of vengeance. "Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble: the day cometh that shall burn them up, and leave them neither root nor branch." He then foretells the days of refreshing which shall succeed. "But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts."

Now, sir, he before whose face Jehovah's messenger, John the Baptist, was sent, and before whom he cried, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight;" he who suddenly comes to his temple, and, appearing in it as the Desire of all nations, gives it a glory, such as even Solomon's temple had not, though beside the splendour and magnificence of the wonderful fabric, overlaid with silver and gold, it had five signs of the Divine presence, as the Jews themselves have acknowledged, which were wanting in this second temple, viz. the Urim and Thummim, by which the high priest was miraculously instructed in the will of God; the "ark of the covenant," containing the two tables of the law written with the finger of God; the "fire upon the altar," which came down from heaven; the "shekinah," or visible display of the Divine glory, and the "Spirit of prophecy." He, who is like refiner's fire and fuller's soap, and who sits upon the souls of men, as a refiner and purifier of silver, purifying them from all pollution of flesh and spirit: he who comes near, by his spiritual presence, as a swift witness against sinners of every description, while as the "Sun of righteousness" he rises upon those that fear the name of the Lord, with healing in his wings, so that they go forth and grow up as calves of the stall he surely must be more than a mere man. Leaving you to reflect, sir, on the contrariety of your doctrine, to that of the prophets, I remain, &c.

LETTER VI.

The testimony borne by the prophets to the Godhead of Christ. REV. SIR,-How could you assert that none of the prophets gave the Jews any other idea of the Messiah, than that of a man like themselves, when Isaiah had given him names which are above every name, that at the names of our Saviour every knee should bow, and every believing Jew should confess that the Messiah is Lord God omnipotent? Had you forgotten this prophetic exultation: "Unto us the child is born, unto us the son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace?" Isa. ix, 6.

Your assertion is so much the more astonishing, as Isaiah in other places speaks of the Messiah in terms as magnificent. Take two or

three instances. That prophet describes the Messiah's humanity as a branch growing out of the roots of Jesse, as a holy Prince which shall judge with righteousness, reprove with equity, smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, slay the wicked with the breath of his lips, and so perfectly restore peace in the earth, that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all his holy mountain, or happy dominions, where even the Gentiles shall enjoy a glorious rest: "for the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off, and Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor shall Judah vex Ephraim; and the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea," Isa. xi, 1, &c. After this description of the Messiah, the Son of God manifested as Son of David and Jesse, to destroy the works of the devil, and to reign with his ancients gloriously, the prophet, in the name of the Church, sings, beforehand, a song of thanksgiving to God our Saviour, for these mighty achievements. In that day (says he) thou shalt say, The work of redemption is finished: "Behold, God is my salvation, the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. Cry out, and shout, thou inhabitant of Sion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee," Isa. xii, 1, &c. It was impossible for a spiritual Jew to read this description of the Messiah's peaceful kingdom, without seeing that this root of Jesse, this Holy One of Israel, so great in the midst of Zion, was the same wonderful person whom the prophet had just before called the "Son given," and the "mighty God." And our Lord gave the Jews an assurance of it, when he cried, on the great day of the feast, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." And this he did when they had just been singing (as they did at that feast) those words of Isaiah: " You shall draw with joy water out of the wells of salvation ;" plainly intimating to them, as he had done to the woman of Samaria, that he was the Divine spring of our joy, the Holy One of Israel in the midst of us, and the Jehovah become our salvation, and sung by Isaiah.

The same prophet, personating John the Baptist, and foretelling the coming of the Messiah, says: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, [the way of Jehovah ;] make straight in the desert a high way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, [or, as the bishop of London reads it, O thou that bringest good tidings to Zion, O thou that publishest the Gospel,] lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, his reward is with him, and his work before him," Isa. xl, 3, 10. This pompous description of the Messiah is again and again applied to our Lord in the New Testament. If Isaiah says to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God," John the Baptist crieth to them, "Behold the Lamb of God!" If the Lord God says, (by his prophet,) "Behold, the Lord will come, his reward is with him, &c: thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the First and the Last, and beside me there is no God,” Isa. xl, 10, and xliv, 6; our Lord applying to himself these lofty expressions of Isaiah, saith,

"Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," Rev. xxii, 12, 18.

And if the Jews had not the New Testament, they had a number of prophecies which confirmed and explained each other. Thus, suppose pious Jews would know who that God was, for whom they were to make the highway straight, and the rough places plain, Isaiah xi, 3, they needed only read on to the eleventh verse, where we find this additional description of him: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are big with young." And if they had not the Gospel of St. John, where our Lord says, "I am the good Shepherd," they had the prophecy of Zechariah, where this Divine Shepherd is thus described: "Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, against the man who is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered," Zech. xiii, 7, and Matt. xxvi, 31. And they saw in Isaiah how it pleased the Lord to bruise this Shepherd, when he made his soul an offering for sin; how he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; how all we like sheep have gone astray, and how the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isa. liii, 5, 6, 10. They had the prophecy of Ezekiel, where this great Shepherd is thus described: "I will save my flock, I will set one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd: I the Lord have spoken it. And they shall no more be prey to the heathen, neither shall the beasts of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid," Ezekiel xxxiv, 22, &c. They had this prediction of Hosea : "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an ephod: afterward they shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the latter days," Hosea iii, 4.

From these consentaneous prophecies the spiritual Jews saw, that the Messiah, their king, would appear both as the wonderful child promised to David, and as "the mighty God," called sometimes "the Lord of hosts," and sometimes "the fellow of the Lord of hosts," according to the description which St. John gave afterward of him: " In the beginning he was with God, and he was God; and we have seen his glory, which is the glory of the only begotten of the Father, [made flesh, and dwelling among us,] full of grace and truth."

The Jews met some of these shining descriptions of the Messiah, as often as they searched the oracles of God; the Holy Ghost having taken care to multiply them, that the unbelieving in all ages might be without excuse.

Moses saith: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come unto him shall the gathering of the people be," Gen. xlix, 10. Now the spiritual Jews, wanting to know who this Shiloh should be, did not fail to read over the other prophets sent to enlarge upon this promise recorded by Moses, and they found this parallel description of the days of the Messiah: "In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek: and the

Lord [Jehovah] shall set his hand the second time, [a plain account of the restoration of the Jews!] to recover the remnant of his people, and he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel from the four corners of the earth," Isa. xi, 10, &c.

Haggai confirms this prophecy, where he writes: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I will yet once more shake the sea and the dry land; I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house [the temple of Jerusalem] with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house [built by Zerubbabel] shall be greater than of the former, [built by Solomon,] saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts," Haggai ii, 6-10. If a Jew inquired who this "desire of nations," this Shiloh, should be, who was to come and fill the second temple with his glory, David gratifies this pious wish, where he says, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory," Psalm xxiv, 7, &c.

But how could this King of glory be "a prophet like Moses, raised to the Jews from among their brethren?" Deut. xviii, 18. Moses and Isaiah solve this difficulty; the former, where he saith, "The seed of the woman shall [be strong enough to] bruise the serpent's head;" and the latter, where he declares, "The Lord himself shall give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel," which, being interpreted, is "God with us, God manifested in the flesh," Isa. vii, 4; Matt. i, 23, and 1 Tim. iii, 16.

Read, dear sir, the Scriptures without the veil of your system, and you will see that the Messiah, the wonderful person whom you so constantly endeavour to degrade, was to be a mediating prophet, like Moses; an atoning priest, like Aaron; a pacific king, like Solomon; a royal prophet, like David; a kingly priest, like Melchisedec; the everlasting Father, as the Logos, by whom all things were created; and the mighty God, as the proper Son of him, with whom he shares, in the unity of the Divine Spirit, the supreme title of Jehovah, Lord of hosts.

Jeremiah gives us as noble a view of the Messiah: "Behold (says he) the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch; a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord [Jehovah] our righteousness," Jer. xxiii, 5. Pious Jews could not but see that the "righteous King" of David's family, who was promised by Jeremiah, was the same as the "Prince of Peace" sitting upon "David's throne," who would extend his peaceful government to the end of ages, according to Isaiah's prophecy; and both prophets agree to call this wonderful King "Jehovah, the mighty God."

If Isaiah, speaking of him, and predicting our Lord's incarnation, saith, "A virgin shall bear a son ;" Jeremiah, alluding to the same mys. tery, says, "The Lord createth a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with Israel: I will put my laws in their hearts, they shall all know me: I will forgive their iniquity," Jer. xxxi, 22, 31.

And that these pardons shall come by believing in the righteous " branch raised unto David," who shall be called "the Lord our righteousness," appears from the description which the same prophet gives us of the Church made all glorious, by partaking of that sanctifying Spirit, which makes believers look at Christ's glorious righteousness, till they are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. "In those days (saith he) Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness," Jer. xxxiii, 10. As if he had said, Every one who shall come to Zion, and the New Jerusalem, shall be so grafted in the righteous branch raised unto David, and so filled with the sap of that Divine tree of life, that they shall in some degree be transformed into it, and be called by the same name, as a wife is called by the name of her husband. And, methinks, I see this glorious prophecy accomplished, when I find believers so christened, so completely united to Christ, as to be righteous as he is righteous. Of this stamp was certainly he who said, I "will know nothing but Christ, and him crucified; I live not, it is Christ who liveth in me; and the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who is made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," Gal. ii, 20, and 1 Cor. i, 30.

Ezekiel. Our Lord's divinity is not so fully declared by Ezekiel as by Jeremiah glorious hints of it may, nevertheless, be collected from his writings, if they are searched for, with the light supplied by the harmony of the Scriptures.

I need not inform you, reverend sir, that till the end come, the Father hath committed all authority and judgment to the Son, John v, 22, and that the Father will gloriously reign on the earth in and by his Son, his other self: or the express image of his glory; for you have read these words of a prophet: "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days, and there was given him [as he is Son of man] dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away: and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed:" though he will, in a future period of time, "give it up to the Father," and then the Son shall only reign in the Father, Dan. vii, 13. But it is proper to remind you that Emmanuel (being both "the mighty God," and "the child born" to bruise "the serpent's head,") may be considered sometimes as God, or proper Son of God the Father, and sometimes as man, or proper son of a woman; and in either case he bears very different names. (1.) As proper Son of God the Father, he is called "Jehovah, Lord of hosts, God our Redeemer," &c. (2.) As son of a virgin, he is called a branch of Jesse, David, son of David, son of man, and servant of God," because he is equally obedient to the commands of the Father, the will of the Logos, and the motions of the Holy Ghost: and, (3.) when he is considered in his complex nature, as being the proper Son of God, and the real son of Mary, wonderfully united in the person of the Messiah, he is called "Emmanuel, God manifested in the flesh, the Word made flesh, or Jehovah Shepherd."

This being premised, you will understand me, sir, if I observe, that Ezekiel declares the glory of the Messiah considered in these three dif

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