unbiassed minds we follow the plain and natural construction of the passage, it appears an inevitable conclusion that this Messiah is characterised as the GOD of Israel, the Lord JEHOVAH. To rebut this conclusion, it is asserted that "John was the forerunner of the Lord their God, by being the forerunner of Jesus, the great messenger of God to mankind." It must be confessed, that this interpretation is not destitute of apparent reasons. But, after weighing the arguments on each side, I acknowledge that the evidence in favour of the other interpretation seems to me to preponderate. 5 The question ought to be, which sense agrees most exactly with the language and the scope of the original prophecy. The language is abundantly plain and unambiguous. No terms could more clearly convey, that the Being whose "coming" is announced with such a magnificence of joy, is JEHOVAH, in his own special presence, and not by a mere representa "Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the MOST HIGH; for "thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways." Luke i. 76. "Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the "Lord their God; and he shall go before HIM in the spirit and power of Elijah," v. 16. 4 Calm Inq. p. 217, on Luke i. 16, 17. To the same effect Enjedin, pp. 123-126, and the general train of Socinian writers. Chiefly resting on the principle of these texts: "I am come in my Father's name." John v. 43. "My doctrine is not mine, "but his that sent me," ch. vii. 16; and many others to the same effect. But it should be observed, that the inferiority and delegation proper to the mediatorial office of Christ, is a distinct consideration from the question of his possessing, or not, a superior and divine nature; and that the office, so of course implying the inferiority of subjection and servitude, is often represented, in the New Testament, as a matter of condescension and assumption, on the part of Christ. tive. If the scope of the place be considered, it will appear no slight incongruity that, after all the solemnity and splendour of the personage thus introduced, he should turn out to be not the Sovereign promised, but only the fellow-servant of the herald. The beautiful imagery employed, while it represents, in consonance with many other places of the prophets, Jehovah, the God of his peculiar people, as their Deliverer, Guide, and Provider, bringing them back from captivity and misery, and enriching them with the blessings of his special presence, in their recovered country and metropolis and temple; displays also the same Person as coming for a purpose of infinitely greater beneficence, in the capacity of a spiritual Saviour, making manifest "the glory of the Lord” in a manner unknown before, obtaining eternal redemption, the Author of everlasting salvation. THAT GLORY shone forth, in the first and temporal deliverance, in a series of great providential occurrences, yet without any thing properly miraculous: but, in the eventual application of the predictions, it was beheld, not only in providential events, but in stupendous miracles, wrought in a manner which no prophet had ever pretended to, and in manifestations of the Divinity which the sacred writings represent as of a kind absolutely peculiar and unique, spiritual, heavenly, and infinite; and those distinguishing qualities in the manifestation are described as the effects of something unrivalled in the person of their Author. "No one hath ever seen God: the only-begotten Son, "who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared "him. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld 66 "his glory, the glory truly of the Only-begotten "from the Father. He that hath seen me, hath seen "the Father." These appear to me to be the necessary transitions and connexions of sentiment involved in the passage under consideration. It is proper, further, to remark the correspondence of a discourse of our Lord with this language of the prophecy; a correspondence which, if it had not been designed and proper, would have subjected the speaker to the charge of uttering highly incautious and dangerous expressions. The office and duty of rulers, in presiding over and caring for their subjects, are, indeed, represented by pastoral metaphors. Moses and David in the sacred writings, and other chieftains in the oldest records of Gentile language and manners,' are called the shepherds of their people. But it is to the distinguishing and exalted manner in which this appellation and its attributes are given to Christ, that the attention of the serious inquirer is invited. "I am the GOOD SHEPHERD and I know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father "knoweth me, even so know I the Father; and I lay "down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I "HAVE, which are not of this fold: them also I MUST "BRING, and they shall hear my voice.-I GIVE "unto them eternal life." This language would ill 66 6 Is. lxiii. 11. Ps. lxxviii. 71. 7 Agamemnon, Menelaus, Hector, Laertes, and many others in the Iliad and Odyssey. John x. 14-16, 28. It may be objected, that our Lord follows up this style of sovereignty with expressions of subordination and dependence: "This commandment have I received of my Father; "-my Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." But, in become a mere dependent being." It fairly answers to "the Lord Jehovah coming in his strength." It implies an actual dominion over the minds, the moral principles, and the everlasting state of mankind. It is the style of a CHIEF SHEPHERD, in whose hand it is to confer the "unfading crown of glory" on his faithful servants." 10 reply to this, and to the same objection under other forms, we readily say that we without hesitation admit the Christ to be the servant and messenger of the Father, and therefore officially subordinate and dependent; but that the previous requisite of CAPACITY and QUALIFICATION for executing the mediatorial office, is nothing less than the possession of DIVINE dignity and power. Let it not be forgotten, that the Redeemer subjoined to the declaration of his mediatorial appointment, this great assertion, "I and my Father are "ONE." A oneness of design will not reach the evident requisites of the connexion; which are to call efficaciously, to preserve infallibly, and to save eternally, all the church of God. It is manifestly a unity of power, and how that could exist without a UNITY of ESSENCE let the truly serious and impartial reflect. "The Proprietor of the sheep, not a hireling: the true Messiah. Isa. xl. Ezek. xxxiv." [Ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I your God; saith the Lord Jehovah.]—Rosenm. sen. in Joann. x. 11. 10 1 Pet. v. 4. SECTION XXIV. BELOVED SERVANT OF GOD. Isa. xlii. 1-4. 1. "Behold my servant! I will support him. 3. "A bruised reed he will not crush, "And faintly smoking flax he will not extinguish. THE Messiah is here described as distinguished above all the other servants and prophets of God; the object of the most perfect divine complacency; qualified, by the richest participation of heavenly gifts, for communicating the true religion to the world; modest, lowly, and unassuming; supporting and soothing the weak and afflicted: indefatigably persevering in his arduous work of evangelizing the earth; and finally successful in it; a Conqueror and a Sovereign, but one who subdues and reigns by love. 'Ver. 4. "Coasts,-islands,-the remote shores and countries of the west, which were obscurely known to the Hebrews by the navigation of the Phoenicians."-Gesen. Handwörterb. In Exod. xxvii. 15," the Indian Archipelago is meant."-Id. in Lex. in in its most proper and strict meaning denotes doctrine, instruction communicated the notion of law, an injunction with a penalty annexed, was secondary. |