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 liii. 8; Prov. xxx. 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. Gen. i. 1, 26; iii. 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, ast one brought up with him and I was daily his delight;

rejoicing always before him and my delights were with the sons of men.' Prov. iii. 19; viii. 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 saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" Isaiah lii. 7; Rom. x. 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 ix. 6, 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." Zech. ix. 9, 10; cited in Matt. xxi. 5, and John xii. 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, 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 warlike 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!" Zech. ix. 13-17.

"and

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 psalm xlv., 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 xlv. 6, 7, compared with Heb. i. 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 xlv. 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 afterwards, 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.

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Whilst you consider how you can reconcile yourself with the royal prophet, I shall confront your paradox, with three other psalms, xlvii., lxviii., and cx., where he continues to indite the same glorious matter. 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 xlvii. 1, 8. Is it not evident

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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 lxviii. 11—21.

A Jew might be convinced from the bare comparison of those psalms; but the 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," besides 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 .Ephes.iv. 8—13.

The last psalm I shall produce in vindication of our Lord's divinity is cx., 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 Psalm xlv., 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 ii. 9. "The Lord"who made the decree," Psalm ii. 7, and 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 Melchizedek."

at whose right

The Father compares here his only-begotten Son to Melchizedek 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 ii. 2; Daniel ii. 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 Melchizedek, 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 "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 were to be blessed; "and, without contradiction, the less is blessed of

says,