personage who appeared to Moses's successor was Jehovah God of Abraham. This is evident, 1. From his being called "Jehovah;" and, 2. From his requiring and accepting religious worship from Joshua. And that it was Jehovah the Son, is equally plain, 1. From his assuming the form of a servant; 2. From his styling himself the Captain of Jehovah's armies; for, according to the analogy of faith, the Son, Jehovah-Envoy, may be called the Captain of his Father's host, but the Father can never be sent on an expedition, as Captain of his Son's armies.

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That Jehovah-Envoy, so frequently styled "the Envoy of Jehovah," or, as we have it in our translation, "the Angel of the Lord," was known to the Jews as the mighty God," whose name is "Wonderful," appears from the following account:- "The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, and said, Jehovah is with thee; and Jehovah looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might," (the might which I impart unto thee,)" and thou shalt save Israel: have I not sent thee?" And when Gideon drew back, "Jehovah" (namely, the Angel-Jehovah)" said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man." Hence the Israelites, when they fell upon the Midianites, shouted, "The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon." When Jehovah-Envoy, who appeared only as a traveller, with a staff in his hand, disappeared, after giving a proof of his divinity, by showing he was God that answereth by fire, (see Judges vi. 21,) Gideon perceived the infinite dignity of the personage who had spoken to him; and, remembering that Jehovah had said to Moses, "No man shall see me (in my form of God) "and live," Exodus xxxiii. 20, and thinking he was to die immediately, cried out, "Alas! O Lord God, for because I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. And Jehovah," as he disappeared," said unto him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. And Gideon built an altar there unto Jehovah, and called it Jehovah-Shalom," that is, "the God of peace." From this account it is evident, 1. That the angel who appeared to Gideon is the very Angel

Jehovah who appeared to Abraham on mount Moriah, to Jacob in Bethel, and to Moses in Horeb; 2. That he is Jehovah who answers by fire, seeing he manifested his glory to Gideon as he did to Moses and Elijah, by a supernatural fire; 3. And that, as the analogy of faith does not permit us to believe that God the Father ever appeared as a man with a staff in his hand, it was without doubt Jehovah-Jesus, who, as the great Saviour of the Israelites, appointed saviours for the deliverance of his people, and Gideon among others, as afterwards, in the days of his flesh, as the great Apostle of our profession, he appointed twelve apostles to instruct mankind.

This doctrine is confirmed by the account we have of the manner in which Samson was raised to the office of a

temporal saviour of the Israelites. A personage who is called several times "the Angel of the Lord," or "the Envoy-Jehovah," appeared as a man to Manoah and his wife, to whom he promised the birth of Samson: Manoah, not knowing his dignity, asked him his name. "And the Angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret," or wonderful,-, the very word afterwards used by the prophet, who saith, "His name shall be called Wonderful," s55. Isaiah ix. 6. "So Manoah took a kid with a meat-offering, and offered it upon a rock unto Jehovah : and the Angel of the Lord," or Jehovah-Envoy, "did wonderfully; for," showing himself the God that appeared in the burning bush to Moses, and accepting the propitiatory sacrifice which Manoah and his wife offered, "he ascended in the flame of the altar as they looked on, and fell on their faces to the ground. Then Manoah knew that he was" JehovahEnvoy, or "the Angel of the Lord; and he said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife,” perceiving that it was Jehovah-Shalom, the God of Gideon, "the God of peace," who had appeared unto them," said to him, If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, he would never have received a burnt-offering at our hands." Judges xiii. 17-23.

The same reasons which prove, that the person who

appeared to Gideon is Jehovah-Jesus, prove also that the person who appeared to Manoah and his wife, whom they at first called a man, and before whom they trembled when they knew him to be God and Jehovah, is that very Emmanuel, that God manifested in the flesh, whom Christians worship as Jehovah-Shalom, coming to make peace and reconciliation.

In the two last letters I have endeavoured to show, both from scripture and reason, that the Israelites might reasonably expect a divine Messiah; and that it is most unreasonable and unscriptural to suppose, that, whereas the Son appeared on mount Calvary for the redemption of all mankind from the tyranny of sin, death, and satan, God the Father appeared on mount Horeb merely to redeem one single nation from the tyranny of Pharaoh. Coming now to the point, I shall confront your first fundamental proposition with the prophecies of the old testament. Speaking of the Messiah as a mere man, and repeating in your Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit, what I have already quoted from the beginning of your History of the Corruptions of Christianity, you write, " Nor can it be said, that any of the ancient prophecies give us the least hint of any thing farther." Page 311.

*

In direct opposition to this doctrine, I shall show, that all the prophetic books of the old testament contain strong hints or express declarations of the Messiah's divinity and I enter upon this task the more willingly, as I hope to present you with some new observations on this important subject.

The oldest book is Genesis: Moses, the writer of it, is the first prophet of the Jews, the oldest people in the

* Had it pleased the Lord to spare Mr. Fletcher, he had purposed to do this.

world. And in that book we find the three original promises relative to the Messiah. The first was made immediately after the fall, in these words: "I will put enmity between thee," O serpent," and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis iii. 15. As if the Lord had said to the tempter, By the instrumentality of a serpent thou hast triumphed over the woman, and by her over the man; but the day is not lost: a long and dreadful war shall be waged between thee and my church, the spiritual mother of all living souls, the mystical woman of whom Eve is a type. And another Eve shall one day bear a son, the second and better Adam, whom I call "the Seed of the woman," because he shall be miraculously formed of the substance of a woman without the interposition of a man, as Eve was miraculously formed of the substance of Adam without the interposition of a woman. Armed with divine power, he shall enter the field against thee and thy forces. By the help of the wicked, who are thy seed, thou shalt indeed "bruise his heel," wound to death the inferior part of his wonderful person, the body which he shall assume from his mother, and by which he shall be allied to the earth. But his deadly wound shall be fatal to thee; for, showing himself the Prince of life, even with his bruised heel, "he shall bruise thy head," he shall destroy thee and thy seed. Then shall the woman and her seed possess the gates of their enemies; then shall the curse brought upon the earth by the first Adam be turned into a blessing by the second; and the world, redeemed, instead of being full of cruel habitations, shall become like this forfeited garden. That this is a just exposition of this first. prophecy appears both from what is already come to pass, and from other predictions descriptive of the events foretold to the mystical serpent.

And do not say, sir, that this paraphrase makes too much of Christ; for, if "the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil,” 1 John iii. 8, is it not evident, that none can turn thorns and thistles into paradisiacal shrubs, anguish into bliss, death into life, and the

general curse into a universal blessing, but he who said at first, "Let there be light, and there was light," and who, when he first acted the part of a righteous Judge, thundered these words in the ears of guilty man ?—" Cursed is the ground for thy sake, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." For, supposing the sun, by withholding his quickening beams, had caused a general winter and a universal night, is it not plain, that the only remedy adequate to the greatness of such an evil would be the return of the solar light?

The second original promise respecting the Messiah was made to Abraham when he dwelt in Haran, and confirmed upon mount Moriah, on an occasion which reflects a great light on the sufferings, character, and work of the Messiah: 66 By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord," who can swear by no higher being than himself, "because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee. Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Genesis xxii. 16, &c. St. Paul, alluding to this promise, saith, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ. For to Abraham and his seed were the promises" of a universal blessing "made. He" (God)" saith not, And to seeds, as if this blessing were to be the desert "of many" of Abraham's children; "but as of one," one of them, "And to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. iii. 13-16.

Being enlightened by this and other parallel scriptures, we clearly see, that the sense of this promise is as follows:-0 thou father of the faithful, Heaven is pleased with thy steady obedience; thou hast exemplified the holy purpose of God the Father, who will not spare his Son, his only-begotten Son, but will deliver him up as a divine sacrifice for a guilty world; and Isaac hath shadowed out the meek obedience of the Son of God, that VOL. VII.