vealed.-O Zion, that bringeft good tidings, or, as the Bishop of London reads it, O thou that bringeft good tidings to Zion, O thou that publifheft the gospel, lift up thy voice with ftrength, lift it up be not afraid: Say to the cities of Judah. BEHOLD YOUR GOD! Behold the Lord God will come with a ftrong hand, his reward is uitk him, and his work before him: Ifai., xl. 3, 10. This pompous description of the Meffiah is again and again applied to our Lord in the New Teftament. If Ifaiah fays to the Cities of Judah, Behold your God, John the Baptift crieth to them, Behold the Lamb of God! If the Lord God fays (by his Prophet) Behold the Lord will come, his reward is with him, &c. Thus faith the Lord, the King of Ifrael, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the Firft, and the Laft, and befides me, there is no God, Ifai. xl. 10. and xliv. 6. Our Lord applying to himself thefe lofty expreffions of Isaiah, faith, Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work fhall be": I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Firft and the Laft. Rev. xxii. 12, 13.

And if the Jews had not the New Testament, they had a number of Prophecies which confirmed and explained each other. Thus, fuppofe pious Jews would know who that God was, for whom they were to make the highways ftraight, and the rough places plain, Ifai. xl. 3. they needed only read on to the eleventh verfe, where we find this additional description of Him, He fhall feed his flock like a Shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bofom, and fhall gently lead thofe that are big with young. And if they had not the Gofpel of St. John, where our Lord fays, I am the good Shepherd, they had the Prophecy of Zechariah, where this divine Shepherd is thus de fcribed, Awake, O Sword, against my Shepherd,

against

against the man who is my Fellow, faith the Lord of Hofts: Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be fcattered: Zech. xiii. 7. and Matth. xxvi. 31. And they faw in Ifaiah how it pleafed the Lord to bruife this Shepherd, when he made his foul an offering for fin, how he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, and bruised for our iniquities, how all we like fheep have gone aftray, and how the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Ifai. liii. 5, 6, 10. They had the Prophecy of Ezekiel, where this great Shepherd is thus described: I will fave my flock, I will fet up one Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my fervant David, he fhall feed them, and he shall be their Shepherd, I the Lord have spoken it. And they fhall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beafts of the land devour them, but they fhall dwell fafely, and none fhall make them afraid: Ezek. xxxiv. 22, &c. They had this prediction of Hofea. The children of Ifrael fhall abide many days without a King, and without a Prince, and without a facrifice, and without an ephod: afterwards they fhall return, and feek the Lord their God, and David their King, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Hofea iii. 4.

From these confentaneous prophecies the fpiritual Jews faw that the Meffiah their king, would appear both as the wonderful child promifed to David, and as the mighty God called fometimes the Lord of hofts, and fometimes the Fellow of the Lord of hofts, according to the defcription, which St. John gave afterwards of him: In the beginning He was with God, and He was God, and we have feen 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 fome of these shining defcriptions of the Meffiah, as often as they fearched

F 2

the

the Oracles of God, the Holy Ghoft having taken care to multiply them, that the unbelieving in all ages might be without excufe.

Mofes faith, The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, until Shiloh come unto Him fhall the gåthering of the people be. Gen. xlix. 10. Now the fpiritual Jews wanting to know who this Shiloh fhould be, did not fail to read over the other Prophets fent to enlarge upon this promife recorded by Mofes, and they found this parallel defcription of the days of the Meffiah, In that day there fhall be a Root of Jeffe, which shall ftand for an enfign of the people to it shall the Gentiles feek: And the LORD [Jehovah hall fet his hand the fecond time, [a plain account of the restoration of the Jews!] to recover the remnant of his people?, and He fhall fet up an enfign for the nations, and fhall affemble the outcasts of Ifrael from the four corners of the earth. Ifai. xi. 10, &c..

Haggai confirms this prophecy where he writes, Thus faith the Lord of hofts, I will yet once more Shake the fea and the dry land; I will shake all na tions, and the defire of all nations fhall come, and ♫ will fill this Houfe, [the temple of Jerufalem] with glory, faith the Lord of hofts. The glory of this latter houfe, [built by Zerubbabel fhall be greater than of the former built by Solomon, faith the Lord of hoft And in this place will I give peace, faith the Lord of hofts. Hagai, ii. 6, 10. If a Jew enquired who this defire of nations, this Shiloh, should be, who was to come and fill the fecond temple with his glory, David gratifies this pious with where he faith, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory fhall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord frong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord of hofts, he is the King of glory. Palms xxiv. &c.

But

But how could this King of glory be a Prophet like Mofes, raifed to the Jews from among their brethren? Deut. xviii. 18. Mofes and Ifaiah folve this difficulty, the former, where he faith, The feed of the woman fhall be ftrong enough to bruife the ferpent's head; and the latter, where he declares, The Lord himfelf fhall give you a fign: Behold, a virgin fhall conceive, and bear a Son, and fhall call his name IMMANUEL, [which, being interpreted, is GOD WITH US, GOD manifefted in the flesh.] Ifai. vii. 4. Matth. i. 23. and 1 Tim. iii. 16.

Read, dear Sir, the Scriptures without the vell of your system, and you will fee that the Meffiah, the wonderful Person whom you fo conftantly endeavour to degrade, was to be a mediating Prophet, like Mofes, an atoning Prief like Aaron, a pacific King like Solomon, a royal Prophet like David, a kingly Prieft like Melchifedeck, the everlafting 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 fupreme title of Jehovah, Lord of hofts.

JEREMIAH gives us as noble a view of the Meffiah, Behold (fays he) the days come, faith the Lord, that I will raife unto DAVID @ RIGHTEOUS Branch: a KING fhall reign and profper, and fhall execute juftice in the earth. In his days Judah fhall be faved, and Ifrael fhall dwell fafely and this is his name, whereby he shall be called, THE LORD [Jehovah] our righteoufnefs: Jerem, xxiii. 5 Pious Jews could not but fee that the righteous King of David's family, who was promifed by Jeremiah, was the fame as the Prince of peace hit ting upon David's throne, who would extend his peaceful government to the end of ages, according to Ifaiah's Prophecy, and both Prophets agree to call this wonderful King, Jehovah, the mighty God.

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If

If Ifaiah fpeaking of him, and prophesying our Lord's incarnation, faith, A Virgin fhall bear a Son, Jeremiah, alluding to the fame myftery, fays, The Lord createth a new thing in the earth, A Roman fhall compass a man. Behold the days come faith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with Ifrael:- will put my laws in their hearts, they fhall all know me, I will forgive their iniquity. Jer. xxxi. 22, 34. And that these pardons fhall come by believing in the righteous Branch raifed unto David, who fhall be called THE LORD our righteoufnefs, appears from the description which the fame Prophet gives us of the Church made all glorious, by partaking of that fan&tifying spirit, which makes believers look at Chrift's glorious righteoufnefs, till they are changed into the fame image, from glory to glory. In thofe days. (faith he) Judah fhall be faved, and Jerufalem shall dwell fafely, and this is the name whereby she fhall be called, The Lord our righteoufnefs: Jer. xxxiii. 16. if he had faid, Every one who fhall come to Mount Zion, and the New Jerufalem, fhall be fo grafted into the righteous Branch raised unto David, and fo filled with the fap of that divine tree of life, that they fhall in fome degree be transformed into it, and be called by the fame name, as a wife is called by the name of her hufband. And, methinks, I fee this glorious prophecy accomplished, when I find believers fo Chriftened, fo completely united to Christ, as to be righteous as He is righteous; of this ftamp was certainly he who faid, I will know nothing but Chrift, and him crucified,—I live not, it is Chrift who liveth in me, and the life which I now live, I live by believing in the Son of God, who is made unto me wifdom, righteoufnefs, fanctification and redemption: Gal. ii, 20, & i Cor. i. 30.

As

EZEKIEL