Letter 6.

LETTER 6.

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?” Isaiah 9:6.

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,” Isaiah 11:1, &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,” Isaiah 12:1, &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,” Isaiah 40:3, 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,” Isaiah 40:10. and 44:6; 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,” Revelation 22:12, 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 11:3, 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,” Zechariah 13:7, and Matthew 26:31. 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, Isaiah 53:5, 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 34:22, &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 3:4.

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,” Genesis 49:10. 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,” Isaiah 11:10, &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 2:6-10. 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 24:7, &c.

But how could this King of glory be “a prophet like Moses, raised to the Jews from among their brethren?” Deuteronomy 18:18. 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,” Isaiah 7:4; Matthew 1:23, and 1 Timothy 3:16. 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,” Jeremiah 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 mystery, 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,” Jeremiah 31:22, 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,” Jeremiah 33:10. 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,” Galatians 2:20, and 1 Corinthians 1:30. 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 5:22, 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, Daniel 7:13. 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 different points of view. Thus he represents God our Saviour as Jehovah Shepherd, where he says: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I, will search out my sheep. As a shepherd seeketh out his scattered flock, so will I seek out my sheep, and will gather them from the countries where they have been scattered in the cloudy day: and I will feed them in a good pasture, upon the mountains of Israel; I will seek that which was lost, bring again that which was driven away, bind that which was broken, strengthen that which was sick, but I will destroy the fat and the strong [the stubborn and the proud.] Behold, saith the Lord God, I judge between the sheep and the goats,” Ezekiel 34:11-17.

Now, reverend sir, that this Jehovah Shepherd is Emmanuel, I prove to you both from the Old and the New Testament.

(1.) From the New, where our Lord, applying to himself these very words of God in Ezekiel, says: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory [in the glory of the Godhead into which he hath been assumed] he shall separate the sons of men one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:” and

(2.) from the Old Testament: for, in this very chapter of Ezekiel under consideration, we see God our shepherd pointing out to us the Divine obedient man, in whom he condescended to become visible, and whom he calls his servant, because Christ, as son of David, is as perfectly obedient to the Father, and to the Word, considered as David’s Lord, as in a good man the body is perfectly obedient to the dictates of the rational soul to which it is united. For in the complex person of our Lord, God and man is one Christ. “I will save my flock, saith Jehovah Shepherd, they shall no more be a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle.” But will he do it as invisible God, or by means of a Mediator, a man in whom he will become visible? Here the Lord answers by Ezekiel, who thus points out the humanity, as he had before asserted the divinity of our Lord: “And I will set up one Shepherd over them, even my servant David: he shall be their [visible] shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David, a [visible] prince among them, I the Lord have spoken it.” And the Lord that speaks here is the Logos, the Word of the Father, the Word of the Lord which came to the prophets, and manifested to them the will of the Father by the Holy Spirit: for so intimately one are the Father and the Son that the Son can do nothing of himself (as if he were divided from the Father) but what things soever the Father doth, these also the Son doth likewise, John 5:19, and Ezekiel 34:22, &c. The Jehovah Shepherd and Feeder, whom Ezekiel declared in the twenty-fourth chapter of his prophecy, is next extolled as Jehovah, Subduer, and Purifier.

Thus saith the Lord God to the house of Israel: “I will gather you out of all countries, and then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and cleanse you from all filthiness and all your idols. A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, [or to be my faithful and obedient subjects,] and ye shall be my [happy] people.” Now, reverend sir, that the Lord will thus subdue and purify Israel, in and by a Mediator, in whom he will become visible, and by whom he will operate all the wonders here promised, I prove both from the New and Old Testament.

(1.) From the New: John the Baptist, pointing out this Divine purifier, said, as he showed our Lord, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world; “I indeed baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost:” he shall pour out the Spirit promised by Ezekiel, John 1:29, 33. From the Old Testament: for we read in the next chapter of Ezekiel: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will gather the children of Israel on every side, and bring them into their own land, and I will make them one nation, and one King shall reign over them all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with idols, nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save and cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God, and David [here comes in our Lord considered as Son of man] my servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd, and [by his example and help] they shall walk in my judgments. And my servant David shall be their prince for ever, and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore,” Ezekiel 37:21-26. And St. John describes this glorious sanctuary, where he saith, “I saw no temple in the new Jerusalem, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb,” or Jehovah and the Divine Mediator, in whom he manifests himself, are “the temple of it,” Revelation 21:22.

It remains now to show that Ezekiel speaks also of our Lord as Jehovah quickener: nor need I go beyond the chapter last quoted, to find a reasonable proof of it; for, in the beginning of that chapter, “the Lord God” shows to the prophet the deplorable state of corruption and death in which were mankind in general, and the Jews, in particular, by the striking emblem of a valley full of dry bones, and “saith to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live, and know that I am the Lord, when I have brought you up out of your graves, and put my Spirit in you,” Ezekiel 27:1, 14. If you ask, Will not the Lord God do this himself immediately? I answer in the negative, for three reasons:

(1.) Even in the emblematic vision God did not raise the dry bones till the prophet, who was a type of our great Prophet, had prophesied to the Spirit, and called for the quickening breath to come from the four winds that the slain might live, ver. 9 and 10.

(2.) This mediating and quickening Prophet is immediately mentioned, and called David, the servant of God, and the Prince of the people for ever, ver. 24 and 25.

(3.) It could not be the son of Jesse, David, who had been dead some hundreds of years when Ezekiel prophesied.

(4.) It was then he whom Daniel calls Messiah the Prince, and whom the evangelists name Jesus, the son of David by the Virgin Mary. And

(5.) That our Lord, considered as Son of man, is the wonderful agent of Jehovah quickener, who dwells in him bodily, is evident from his own words: “I am come that they might have life, and come that they might have it more abundantly. I am the resurrection and the life: the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live: for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.” And this Son of God having joined himself to our nature, that he might raise us from our fall, is now, and for ever will be, that Messiah the Prince, whose sufferings and glory were foretold by Daniel, and by Ezekiel, and whom St. Paul calls a quickening Spirit, and “the Lord from heaven.” From these five reasons we may, I think, safely conclude, that Ezekiel hath foretold the glory of the Messiah, as the mighty God, and the child born to us. I have dwelt the longer on this proof of our Lord’s divinity from this prophets because even good Mr. Henry says that Ezekiel speaks less of Christ than almost any of the prophets. Should you say, sir, that the Jews, not having the proofs which I adduce from the New Testament, could not possibly, find out that the great Shepherd, who is to gather Israel, and the King of David, who shall reign over God’s people for ever, is more than man: I reply in the language of our Lord, Search the Old Testament, and you will find that it testifieth of our Lord’s Divine glory.

Do you believe, sir, that all the Jews put a veil upon their faces when they fathomed the depth of the second Psalm? Did none make such obvious remarks as these?

(1.) Jehovah hath a King, to whom he will give the heathen [all nations, and the utmost parts of the earth, all kingdoms.]

(2.) To take counsel against this anointed King, is to take counsel against Jehovah.

(3.) He that sitteth in the heavens shall vex, in his sore displeasure, those judges of the earth that will not serve him of whom he saith, “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.”

(4.) So little is the Father jealous of the Divine honours paid to his Son, that he says, even to kings, by the psalmist, “Kiss [adore] the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way” of salvation and eternal bliss.

(5.) This Son is not a Son by creation, as Adam was, nor by adoption, as godly men are, but he is a Son by nature and real communication of divinity; for the eternal Father says, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

(6.) The prophet being persuaded that adoration is due to this Son, says, “Kiss him, lest he be angry” at your ingratitude, injustice, and insolence.

(7.) The Father, “declaring his decree,” concerning the proud opposers of his Son’s dignity, says, “in his wrath, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

(8.) So terribly glorious is the majesty of this Divine Son, that his enemies shall be dashed in pieces “if his wrath be kindled, yea but a little.” But

(9.) What convinced the humble Jews that the Messiah would have Divine honours paid him by all the nations, was the conclusion of the Psalm, “Blessed are they that put their trust in him.” For they could not but reason thus, consistently with the Scriptures, on which they “meditated day and night:” this Son, anointed with so much solemnity, King of kings, and Lord of the universe, must be so intimately one with the Father, as to be one and the same Jehovah.

Were he a mere man, it would be gross idolatry to rely upon him for salvation; for, “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm; and whose heart departeth from the Lord,” Jeremiah 17:5, 7. But instead of denouncing such a curse on every one who trusteth in the Messiah, the prophet declares, by a positive command, that this wonderful Son is Jehovah: for the law and the prophets agree to say, “All flesh is grass, trust ye in the Lord Jehovah, for in him is everlasting strength,” Isaiah 26:4. From these nine observations, it is evident, that all the spiritual Jews, who had read the second Psalm, with humble attention, must be convinced that the Father had a Divine and everlasting Son, who deserved the name of mighty God and Father of eternity. Nor were they surprised at this doctrine; for

(1.)They had looked with reverential fear into the mystery dimly seen by Solomon, and by Isaiah, when they asked, “Who shall declare his generation? Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath established the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his Son’s name, if thou canst tell?” Isaiah 53:8, and Proverbs 30:4. Moses had intimated to them, in the first line of Genesis, that some diversity of subsistences existed in the unity of the Divine essence: he had positively declared, that man’s creation was the result of the deep counsel of these subsistences: and that, after the fall of man, they [to speak after the manner of men] again consulted about that sad event, Genesis 1:1, 26, and 3:22. And they had reason to think that the Divine subsistence, which their prophets sometimes called “the Word of the Lord,” and the Son, was that living and active “Wisdom by which God established the heavens and founded the earth,” and which speaks thus in the book of Proverbs: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old: I was set up from everlasting: when there were no depths, I was brought forth: when he prepared the heavens, I was there; I was with him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight; rejoicing always before him: and my delights were with the sons of men,” Proverbs 3:19, and 8:22, &c.

Permit me to lay before you another striking proof of the Messiah’s divinity, when he is considered in his form of God. “How beautiful,” saith Isaiah, (and St. Paul after him,) “how beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, publisheth salvation, and said unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15. But who is this King, this reigning God? The sacred penmen answer, with one accord, It is the wonderful child born to us, whose name shall be the “mighty God, and the Prince of Peace,” because “of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice for ever,” Isaiah 9:7. “Rejoice greatly, O Zion,” saith Zechariah, whose words are echoed by two apostles: “Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy King cometh unto thee, he is just, having salvation, lowly, and riding upon a colt, the foal of an ass. He shall speak peace to the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth,” Zechariah 9:9, 10, cited in Matthew 21:5, and John 12:15. When the prophet had thus described the coming of the Messiah, the King, in his state of humiliation, he immediately describes his glorious advent to destroy those who would not have him to reign over them. “When I have bent Judah for me, (saith this Divine King,) and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, the Lord [Messiah, the Prince, in his Divine majesty] shall be seen over them, and his arrows shall go forth as lightning: the Lord God [heading the sons of Zion] shall blow the trumpet [or give the war-like signal] and go with whirlwinds of the south [with the most impetuous power] and shall save them in that day, as the flock of his people. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty!” Zechariah 9:13-17.

Though this proof of our Lord’s divinity seems to me a demonstration, I shall, nevertheless, strengthen it still more by parallel testimonies of the other prophets.

It is not in the second Psalm only, that David declares the divinity of Christ. our anointed King. He is not afraid of tautology, when he dwells on so glorious a subject. What can be plainer than the forty-fifth Psalm, which an apostle justly applies to our Lord? Addressing the Messiah, emphatically styled the King, the psalmist says, under a prophetic view of him, both as the mighty God, and the child born unto us, “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously, and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thy arrows are very sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a righteous sceptre, therefore God, thy God [the Father] hath anointed thee [his only begotten Son] with the oil of gladness, above thy fellows,” above all kings on earth, and in heaven, Psalm 45:1-7, compared with Hebrews 1:8, 9. Thus you see, sir, that this “most mighty” King of Israel, and of the universe, is called God, as well as the Father who hath anointed him.

Nor ought we to wonder, that after such a display of his divinity, the psalmist addresses the Jewish and the universal Church in a strain suitable to the Divine honours which he pays to the Messiah. Calling her “daughter,” and “queen, all glorious within,” whom St. John styles “the wife of the Lamb: forsake thy own people,” says he, [the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, among whom thou wast born, and by whom thou hast been corrupted:] “so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him.” Then, turning again to this King of kings, he concludes the psalm by saying, “The people shall praise thee for ever and ever,” Psalm 45:10, 17. Thus you see, sir, that a prophet, considering the Messiah’s glory, calls him the Lord and the God of the Church, whom he charges to worship him, and does solemnly what an apostle did afterward, when, worshipping Christ, he cried out in an ecstasy of joy, “My Lord, and my God!” But, what peculiarly deserves notice is, that when David is about to declare our Lord’s divinity, he begins by saying, “My heart is inditing a good matter;” calling that a “good matter” which you call idolatry, and the capital corruption of our Divine worship. While you consider how you can reconcile yourself with the royal prophet, I shall confront your paradox with three other Psalms, where he continues to indite the same glorious matter, the 47th, 68th, and 110th. Prophesying of our Lord’s glorious kingdom, of which he began to take possession on the day of his ascension, the psalmist says, “Clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph. The Lord most high is terrible: he is King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises unto our God; O sing praises unto our King: for God is the King of all the earth. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon his holy seat,” Psalm 47:1-8. Is it not evident to those who candidly compare scripture with scripture, that this Divine King, whom the psalmist so often calls God, and who is gone up with a joyful noise, is the anointed King, of whom the Father saith, “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion: thou art my Son. Kiss the Son, ye kings, lest ye perish?” Is he not the Almighty, of whom the psalmist speaks as follows: “This is God’s hill, in which it pleaseth him to dwell: the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, and the Lord is among them, as in the holy place of Sinai. Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive and received gifts for men. He is our God, even the God of whom cometh salvation—the Lord, by whom we escape death; who shall wound the head of his enemies: who gave the word, [on the day of pentecost,] and great was the company of the preachers,” insomuch that the armies of his enemies were scattered, and they of his household divided the spoil? Psalm 68:11-21.

A Jew might be convinced from the bare comparison of those psalms, but he conviction will admit of no shadow of doubt for those who receive the New Testament, where St. Paul, after quoting these words of David: “Thou [O God, who ‘of thy goodness hast prepared gifts for the poor] hast ascended up on high, and led captivity captive,” &c, applies them to our Lord, and concludes thus: “Now, that he [the Messiah] ascended, what is it [but a demonstration] that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended [as the child born unto us] is the same who [after his resurrection] ascended up far above all heavens, that [as the mighty God] he might fill all things.” And to prove that he was this gracious God, “out of whose fulness the poor [humble believers] receive grace for grace, he gave them [beside his Holy Spirit] apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers,” that they might all come to the stature of a perfect man, or “to the measure of Christ,” considered as the Son of man, Ephesians 4:8, 13.

The last Psalm I shall produce in vindication of our Lord’s divinity, is the 110th, where David, still considering him as that mighty God who became the wonderful seed of the woman, and the Son given unto us, expresses himself thus: “The Lord [God the Father] said unto my Lord, [to the Son whom he had commanded the Church to worship, see the 45th Psalm above quoted,] Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Rule thou in the midst of them,” with the rod of thy power, that rod of iron which will dash them in pieces “like a potter’s vessel,” Psalm 2:9. “The Lord [who made the decree, Psalm 2:7, and at whose right hand thou sittest, as sharer in his supreme dominion] hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.”

The Father compares here his only begotten Son to Melchisedec for five reasons.

(1.) That monarch was king of Salem, where stood Mount Sion, a well-known type of that mountain which is to command all other mountains, or (to speak without metaphor) of that kingdom which is to swallow up all other kingdoms: see Isaiah 2:2, and Daniel 2:44.

(2.) Because that prince’s name, signifying both King of righteousness, and King of peace, was the most proper name to give the Jews a true idea of the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, which the Messiah, “the Lord our righteousness,” was to set up.

(3.) Because sacred history throws a mysterious veil upon the genealogy of Melchisedec, that he might be a proper type of that “wonderful Prince of Peace,” whom Isaiah describes, when he asks, “Who shall declare his generation?” Who shall show how he is David’s Son, and David’s Lord? A deep mystery this, of which the apostle gives us an idea, when, speaking of the king of Salem, he says, Consider how great this personage was [the word man is not in the original] unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the portion of the high priest, and the capital share of the spoil, as unto his own king. This prince of peace, “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, and abiding a priest continually,” blessed Abraham himself, in whom all the families of the earth wore to be blessed; and, without contradiction, the less is blessed of the greater, Hebrews 7:3, &c.

(4.) Because as Abraham and his righteous servants, strengthened by Melchisedec’s pious wishes, smote the ungodly kings, who had carried away righteous Lot, so the sons of Zion, (to use the words of Zechariah,) shall smite the sons of Greece when under the influence, and by the blessing of our Melchisedec, they shall do the strange, but necessary work, described in Psalm 149, and in Revelation 19.

(5.) Because the joyful manner in which they were met, refreshed, and blessed by Melchisedec, was an emblem of those times of refreshing, which, after the overthrow of all wicked powers, will come from the presence of the Lord, when all the prisoners of hope, turning to the strong hold, shall be more than conquerors, through him that loved us; shall reap the fruit of the victory described in Zechariah 9:12, 17, and in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; and shall enjoy the blessing pointed out in Isaiah 65:13, 25; Daniel 7:27; 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 20:1. This being premised, I return to the psalm where “Jehovah our righteousness” is pointed out to us, under the glorious emblem of Melchisedec. David, foretelling the victories of the Messiah, and the destruction of his enemies, says: “The Lord at thy [the Father’s] right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath: he shall act the part of a judge among the heathen; he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.” But the heel of the woman’s seed shall be bruised, the Prince of Peace shall suffer in his human nature, which is represented by the inferior part of his person: “The floods shall overflow him” for three days and three nights, as they did Jonah, “the waters shall come in, even unto his soul,” he shall drink of the cup of affliction, or as David expresses it, “he shall drink of the brook by the way, therefore shall he lift up his head:” his Divine nature shall make him emerge from a sea of sorrow; having saved himself, he will save his people; and as “he bowed his head,” saying, “It is finished,” when he had finished his atoning work, as our great high priest; so shall he triumphantly “lift up his head” and reign. Then will the Church, with all the nations in her bosom, sing the psalm where David describes the works, and foretells the glory of’ Emmanuel: “The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, [or as Zechariah expresses it, “The Lord God blew the trumpet,” Zechariah 9:14,] and the earth melted away: come, behold the works of the Lord, [of Emmanuel, our Melchisedec, executing judgment among the heathen, and striking through kings in the day of his wrath,” Psalm 110:4,] see what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, cutteth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire.” Emmanuel, Messiah, the mighty God, and Prince of Peace, lifting up his head, as an almighty Conqueror, and vouchsafing to enter into the universal song of triumph, says: “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth.” And ravished with admiration, the Church, joining in a grand chores, bursts into this joyful exclamation, “The Lord of hosts is with us, Emmanuel reigns, and the God of Jacob is our refuge,” Psalm 46:1, 11.

Some persons, who mistake an unrighteous weakness of mind, and an effeminate softness of temper for mildness and charity, will be ready to think these terrible descriptions of our Saviour’s judicial work inconsistent with the gentleness of our Lord; but St. John speaks of the righteous wrath of the Lamb, and when he represents the Messiah as the bruiser of the serpent’s head, he does not scruple to call him “the Lion of the tribe of Judah;” alluding to Jacob’s prophecy, which foretold that Judah, from whose tribe Shiloh was to spring, would be like the lion, whom none should rouse without imminent danger.

As for St. Paul, he was so far from thinking this judicial work of our Lord incompatible with his character, that, speaking of the great tribulation of the wicked, and of the righteous judgment which shall make way for the Messiah’s glorious kingdom, he says, “It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble the righteous, and to give rest [even in this world] to those who are troubled by the wicked.” And he observes, that this rest, these times of refreshing from the Lord, will take place “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, [the wicked heathen,] and on them who obey not the Gospel, [wicked Christians,] who shall be punished with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come, [in that day of tribulation,] to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.”

This work of the mighty God, before the setting of his glorious empire, as King of Salem, and Prince of Peace, is thus farther described by a prophet’ “The Lord [Jehovah our Saviour] shall go forth and fight against those [ungodly] nations: and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem, on the east.” Then shall be fulfilled the saying of the two angels, on the day of our Lord’s ascension, “This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner [in a visible, human, and glorious form] as ye have seen him go into heaven.” And, it is remarkable, that this prophecy was delivered on that very mount of Olives, whence our Lord gloriously ascended, and where, according to Zechariah, he will alight at his return from heaven. See Acts 1:12, and Zechariah 14:4.

The prophet, continuing his description of those times of refreshing, consequent on the return of our Melchisedec, observes, that many wonderful interpositions, of a judicial and kind providence, will be displayed for the preservation of the righteous, and for the destruction or conversion of the wicked; and then sums up his prediction, by saying, “In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Holiness unto the Lord shall be written upon the very bells of the horses;” and their drivers, who are now stupid, and profane to a proverb, will be among the saints of the Most High. In a word, “the living waters,” the streams of truth, righteousness, peace, and bliss, which gladden the city of God, the city of the great king, “shall go out from Jerusalem,” and gladden the whole world; for the Lord [that very Jehovah mentioned just before, whose feet shall stand on the mount of Olives] shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one,” Zechariah 14:3, 8, 9, 20, 21.

Methinks, Rev. sir, I hear you triumph, and say at these last words of the prophet: “We, Unitarians, shall then win the day at last, and the worship of God in trinity will be abolished for ever.” Not so, sir; Zechariah, and the Holy Ghost who inspired him, do not contradict themselves. Read again the whole chapter, and you will see that Jehovah who will be King over all the earth, is Jehovah manifested in the flesh, whose “feet shall stand in the mount of Olives;” so that whoever is excluded from the dominion, it cannot be the Son, who is so described as to leave no doubt that he is to be “King over all the earth.” Thus your unscriptural unity, which rejects the Son’s divinity, is completely overthrown by Zechariah. The truth which he wants to inculcate is, that when Christianity shall have removed all Atheism and all idolatry, the one Divine essence will be known and worshipped every where. And if you please to call the Father Jehovah invisible to his creatures, the Son Jehovah visible, and the Holy Ghost Jehovah sensible to his rational creatures, we will not contend with you. Grant us that in the Supreme Being there is an ineffable and adorable trinity, and we will readily grant you that this trinity is such as by no means breaks the ineffable unity which we adore as well as you, though we do not, with the Jewish zealots, take up stones to throw at the Son, under pretence of asserting the Father’s glory: such a defence of the Divine unity appearing unto us as unnatural as it is unscriptural.

Take a proof that Zechariah by no means wants to exclude our Lord from divinity, though he stands up for the Divine unity: a prophet says: “The children of Israel [after their rejection of the Shiloh] shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice; 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 3:5. Now this David the king, who shall reign in the latter days over the converted Jews and Gentiles, is the same King who is described in the 2d, 45th, 46th, 110th Psalms, &c, as the Lord God of David, and of the whole world: and that Zechariah calls him Lord, as he does the Father, I prove by this Divine promise: “I will save the house of Joseph, and they shall be as though I had not cast them off; for I am the Lord their God. I will gather them, for I have redeemed them; and I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord,” Zechariah 10:5, 12. From these words I conclude that Zechariah, far from overturning that unity of God, which is consistent with the divinity of the Father and the Son, teaches us that these two Divine subsistences jointly bear the name of Jehovah, in the one Divine essence. And if you ask who this Lord is, that says I will strengthen them in or by the Lord, that they may walk in his name, I answer, that the consistent tenor of the Scriptures proves that it is the same mighty God, who, when he appeared as the Son given unto us, said to the eleven apostles, “Without me ye can do nothing;” and who strengthened St. Paul by saying to him, “My grace is sufficient for thee;” and whom the apostle had in view when he wrote, “Son Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Of all the gracious means which the Lord will use to overcome those of his enemies whom he shall not find completely obdurate, one will be attended with the greatest success; and as it is recorded both in the Old and New Testament, and affords us a strong proof of our Melchisedec’s divinity, I shall describe it here.

Speaking of our Lord who punishes faithless Jerusalem, and makes her triumph when she repents and returns, Zechariah says: “Thus saith the Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him, In that day I will make Jerusalem a burthensome stone for all people, and Judah shall be like a torch of fire in a sheaf, they shall devour all the people round about, and Jerusalem shall be rebuilt and inhabited again in her own place. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem: and I will pour upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, [in the person of Messiah, the Prince, in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily,] and they shall mourn for him [the Prince of Peace pierced] as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born, [pierced in his sight.] In that day [of Shiloh’s return, when he shall overcome unbelieving Jews, and faithless Christians, in the same manner in which he overcame the unbelief of Thomas] there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon,” from which the Israelites brought back to Jerusalem their good King Josiah, wounded to death by the Egyptians, Zechariah 12:1-11. Behold, says St. John, confirming this prophecy, “He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,” Revelation 1:7. If you ask St. John of whom he speaks, he immediately mentions the “mighty God of” Isaiah. As for Zechariah, he hath already told us that he means Jehovah, who “formed the spirit of man within him,” the creating Logos, by whom all things were made, and who, by assuming our nature, became Emmanuel, that he might make atonement, and give himself a ransom for his sinful brethren.