LETTER V.

All the Prophets bear witnefs to the Meffiah as the bruifer of the Serpent and the profperous king reigning in righteoufnefs over the fubject nations: In other words they foretel the days of vengeance and the days of refreshing which shall fucceed them, under his adminiftration.

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O open the Prophecies relative to the Meffiah's glory, we must have a divine key. I have already fhewn, that Mofes gave it us, when he defcribed the Redeemer as the Destroyer of the Serpent, and as the Shiloh, the profperous King, who after having laid his hand on the neck of kis enemies as a Lion, fhall fway the Sceptre of his mercy over the fubmiffive nations, or to use the Prophet's laconic ftyle] unto whom fhall the gather-. ing of the people be: Gen. xlix.. 10.

The Meffiah's achievements, in this two-fold point of view, were typified by the exploits of David and Solomon, the two firft of his royal anceftors. David is long poor, defpifed by his brethren, and unknown to Ifrael. When he is anointed King of Ifrael, he is hated and purfued by a jealous and bloody Prince: But he kills the Giant, who defied the armies of the living God, routs the Philifines, and after having acted the part of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and given the Ifraelites victory on all fides, he leaves the crown to peaceful Solomon, unto whom is the gathering of the people, and who builds the magnificent temple of the Lord, and heaps upon Ifrael the bleffings of a peaceful and profperous reign.

St. Peter, in his fecond fermon, preaches the Meffiah according to thefe two difplays of his. redeeming power. It fhall come to pafs (fays he)

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hat whofoever will not hear that (royal) Prophet, fhall be deftroyed from among the people. Repent ye therefore, that your fins may be blotted out, when the TIMES OF REFRESHING fhall come from the prefence of the Lord, and he fhall fend Jefus Chrift who was before preached unto you (under the names of Wonderful, mighty God, Prince of peace, Immanuel, &c.) whom the heaven must receive, until the times of the reftitution of all things, which God, fince the world began, hath fpoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets. For all the Prophets from Samuel (who anointed David the firft royal type of the Meffiah) as many as have spoken, have foretold thefe days (of vengeance, in which the Meffiah will bruise the Serpent and his brood, and thefe days of refrefhing, when the Lord Jefus, having deftroyed thofe who would not have him reign over them, will give reft to his faithful fubjects in all his dominions, which fhall extend unto the ends of the earth. For adds St. Peter,) God faid unto Abraham, And in thy Seed fhall all the kindreds of the earth be bleffed: Afts iii. 19, 25.

As inattention and unbelief have caft a veil over this glorious part of the gofpel, permit me, Sir, to remove a corner of this veil, and to fhew how the Prophets have all spoken of the glorious days of the Meffiah, and of the day of vengeance, which fhall precede them. My dwelling on this point will not be a needlefs digreffion, but the very ground on which I fhall reft, one of my ftrongest proofs of your error, and of Christ's Divinity. I now begin with Samuel, whom St. Peter particularly mentions.

Before I had found the key of fcripture-knowledge, I own to you, Sir, that I wondered how that Apoftle could fay to the Jews, that Samuel had prophefied of Chrift. I found no fuch prophecy in the books of Samuel. But now I fee that

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St. Peter had in view the most glorious typical predictions concerning Chrift, as our King, Prophet, and Prieft.

I have proved that the King of Ifrael, who brought his people out of Egypt, was Chrift in his pre-exiftent nature. Mofes was the prime minifter of this great King; Jofhuah, the general of his armies; the Tabernacle, his Palace; the mercy feat, his throne; the ark,his roval ftandard: the Priefts his officers; the Levites, his guard; and the Shekinah, the vifible difplay of his prefence. In the days of Samuel, whom he had chofen for his Prophet, Minifter, and Reprefentative, the Jews, tired of their invisible King, faid to Samuel, Make us a King, to judge us (perionally and visibly) like all the nations. And Jehovah faid unto Samuel, Hearken to the People: They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected ME, that I fhould not reign over them. As they have done fince the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, fo do they alfo unto thee. 1 Sam. viii. 5. And when Samuel expoftulated with them, he faid your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the fight of the Lord, in afking you a King, when Jehovah your God was your King, and to back this reproof Jehovah fent fuch thunder and rain for a whole day in wheat-harvest, as made the rebellious Jews afraid of instant deftruction, 1 Sam. xii. 12. 19. From this important paffage we learn three things. (1) The King of Ifrael, who was rejected by the Jews in Samuel's days, is truly Jehovak, that very Lord of glory, whom the Jews rejected a fecond time, when, appearing in the form of a fervant, he came to his own, and his own received him not, but crucified him with this remarkable title, Jefus the King of the Jews the very title given him, both by the Wife-men, when they enquired after him that was born King of the Jews, and by the Ifraelite withD z

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out guile, when feeing the Form of God shining in Chrift through the form of a fervant, he confeffed that Chrift was the Son of God, the King of Ifrael: John i. 49.-(2) We fee the ground of that good confeffion, which our Lord made before Pontius Pilate, when he declared himself both the Son of God, and the King of the Jews. Nor do I fee how this confeffion could be true, if Christ, in his form of God, was not that very Jehovah Envoy, who fpake to Mofes in Horeb, and who, by indefectible right, was the King of the Jews and of the whole earth, even after his unruly fubjects had rejected him. And that this was the true question in debate, is evident from thefe taunting words of the unbelieving Jews: If he be THE KING OF ISRAEL, let him now come down from the crofs, and we will believe Him: Matthew xxvii. 42. (3) If this is the truth for which our Lord (as faithful Witnefs and divine Martyr) thought it proper to lay down his life, does it not follow, that the doctrine of Chrift's Divinity, or of his abfolute right, as Lord of glory, to be the King of the Jews and of the whole earth, is the capital Doctrine of the old, as well as of the new Teftament ?

But, methinks you rife with indignation against this Inference. What becomes of the Glory of the Father, if the Son was the King of Ifrael in Samuel's time, and is ftill the King of the whole earth? But you need not fear that our Doctrine gives a wrong touch to the ark of the Father's monarchy for as the Son, the Lord of glory, is the oftenfive King of the Church and of the whole earth, in and by whom the Father now governs the world: So there will come a time when the Father of Glory will himself be the oftenfive King, governing all the nations of men, whom the Son hath redeemed and brought into fubjection, immediately in his own proper person, without the Mediating

Mediating Miniftry of the Son, the Son however ftill reigning in and with the Father. For fays an Apostle, the Son muft reign till he hath put death, and all enemies under his feet. And when the kingdoms of this world fhall have been made worthy of the Father's peculiar acceptance; when Immanuel fhall have put down all thofe earthly and infernal powers deftructive of the perfect order, and compleat happiness of the univerfe, then fhall come the end of the Son's mediatorial Kingdom; then fhall the Son of God deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, in whom nevertheless the Son and the Spirit will ftill have the dominion belonging to their divine rank: And thus, while the man Chrift, ftill united to the Word, fhall be the first fubject of him, who put all things under him, GoD, (namely the Father, including the Word, and the Holy Ghoft) will be all in all for ever. 1 Cor. xv. 24, &c. But I return to Samuel.

Although, in his time, the Jews incurred already the horrible guilt of rejecting the Lord of Glory from being their oftenfive King, they did not, they could not put an end to his fupreme authority. The Theocracy, though impugned, was not deftroyed. Jehovah, King of the Jews ftilk exercised his Prerogative, in appointing worshipful Types of that divine Prophet, who was to declare and do the will of God better than Samuel, and of that divine Priest and King, on whom he would transfer the Shekinah, the divine Glory, which refted in the Tabernacle, when Jehovah filled it with adorable difplays of his prefence. Hence he continued Samuel as his Prophet, and by his means foretold, both by words and typical actions, the removal of all ungodly Priefts, the deftruction of all wicked Kings, and the appearance of Chrift, the Man after his own heart, who fhould do all his pleasure, and of whole divine anointing

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