applicable to Jesus as the first of all created existences, and the last of those who will be required to resign the authority with which he is invested by the Father. See Colossians i. 15, "The first-born of every creature;" 1 Corinthians xv. 28, " Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him."

Isaiah xl. 10, "Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him"-is compared with Revelation xxii. 12, " I come quickly; and my reward is with me." From the circumstance of the common application of the phrase, "his reward is with him," to God and to Jesus, they infer the deity of the latter; in answer to which I beg to refer my readers to the foregoing paragraphs illustrating verse 11th, which immediately precedes the verse in question of the Revelation, and also to John v. 30, 22, " As I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who hath sent me. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;" and to Matthew xvi. 27, " For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Do not these passages point out evidently, that the power of exercising judgment and of distributing rewards has been given to Jesus by the Almighty, and that Jesus possesses this authority in behalf of the Father of the universe?

Ephesians iv. 8, "When he (Christ) ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men"compared with Psalm lxviii. 18, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." The Jews are of opinion

that David in this verse spoke of Moses, who when he ascended to Mount Sinai, received gifts (i. e. the divine commandments) for men, even for the rebellious Israelites; in this case the Apostle Paul in his epistle, must have applied the verse in an accommodated sense to Jesus. The verse in the Psalm may be directly applied to Jesus, who, on his ascension, received gifts of pardon even for those who had rebelled against him. Mr. Brown, a celebrated Trinitarian Commentator, and several others, consider the 18th verse in this Psalm, and verse 8th in this chapter of Ephesians, as immediately applicable to Jesug as the Messiah. But another writer, Mr. Jones, with a view to establish the deity of Christ by a comparison of Ephesians iv. 8, with Psalm lxviii. 18, omits carefully the latter part of the verse, ("Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them,") which is altogether inapplicable to God, and quotes only the first part of the verse, (" thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive;") and thence draws this conclusion-" The Scripture here (in the Epistle referred to) expressly affirms the person who ascends, &c. to be the Lord God." From a view of the whole verse, the sense must, according to this mode of reasoning, be as follows-" The person who ascended on high, and who received gifts for men, that the Lord God might dwell among them, is the Lord God;" an interpretation, which as implying that the Lord God ascended and received gifts from a Being of course superior to himself, in order that he might dwell among men, is equally absurd and unscriptural.

Zechariah xii. 10, as found in the English Version, “In that day they shall look upon me whom they have pierced"-compared with John xix. 37, "They shall look

on him whom they pierced;" from which comparison he has thus concluded-" As it stands in the Prophet, the Lord Jehovah was to be pierced; so that unless the man Christ who hung upon the cross was also the Lord Jehovah, the Evangelist is found to be a false witness, in applying to him a prophecy that could not possibly be fulfilled in him." In order to shew the source of Mr. Jones's error, I beg to lay before my readers the verse in Hebrew, and a translation thereof from the Arabic Bible, as well as a correct translation into English.

ושפכתי על בית דויד ועל יושב ירושלם רוח חן ותחנונים על היחיד אשר דקרו וספדו עליו כמספר והביטו אלי את והמר עליו כהמר על הבכור

النعمة

واصب علي بيت دارد و علي سكان اروشلیم ورح اجل انهم رفضوا الي من و الرافة و ينظرون الي و يتوجعون وينوحون عليهم مناحة مثل علي وحيد وجعا مثل علي بكر

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look toward me on account of him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his own son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." This translation is strongly confirmed by the Septuagint, whose words I subjoin with a literal rendering

Καὶ ἐπιβλέψονται πρὸς με, ἀνθ' ὧν κατωρχήσαντο.

"And they shall look towards me, on account of those whom they pierced."

In the Prophet the Lord speaks of Israel at the approach of their restoration, when they will look up to God for

mercy on account of their cruelty to the Messiah, whom they pierced, and for whom they will mourn and lament. Hence the prophecy in question has been fulfilled in Jesus, without representing the Lord (Jehovah) as the object pierced; and consequently no false testimony is chargeable upon John the Evangelist, who, by changing the object of the verse from "me" found in the Hebrew and Septuagint into "him," we may suppose had in view the general import rather than the particular expressions of the prophecy, pointing out that they looked to the Messiah also, whom they had pierced. Without referring to the Hebrew phrase, which shews beyond doubt the inaccuracy of the English translation of the verse, common sense is, I presume, sufficient to shew, that since in the last two clauses in the verse under consideration the Lord God speaks of the Messiah in the third person-(" for him they (i. e. the Israelites) will mourn and lament,") he must be supposed to have spoken of the same third person as pierced by them unjustly, and thus to have pointed out the cause of their lamentation. If Jehovah had been pierced, he would have been mentioned throughout in the first person, also as the object of lamentation and bitterness.

1 Peter ii. 6, "Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7, Unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed"compared with Isaiah xxviii. 16, "Therefore thus saith

the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste;" and Isaiah viii. 13, "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14, And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." These passages shew, that the Lord God placed the Messiah as a corner-stone for the temple, and that whoever stumbles at that stone so exalted by the Almighty, stumbles at or disobeys him who has thus placed it. But Mr. Jones omits the words found in 1 Peter ii. 6, and Isaiah xxviii. 16, "I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, precious," &c. which shew the created nature of the Messiah, and after quoting a part of vers. 7 and 8 of 1 Peter, ch. ii. ("The stone which the builder disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence,") and only verse 13th and part of the 14th of ch. viii. of Isaiah, he has thus concludes:" This stone of stumbling and rock of offence, as it appears from the latter text, (the text in Peter,) is no other than Christ, the same stone which the builders rejected. Therefore Christ is the Lord of hosts himself." -Here the Apostle Peter, in conformity with the Prophet, represents God as the founder of the corner-stone, and Jesus as the same corner-stone, which, though it be disallowed by the Jews, yet is made by the same founder, the head of the corner; but the Jews from their disobedience stumbled directly at the stone so exalted, rendering it a stone of stumbling and rock of offence; and hereby they stumbled secondarily at the founder of this stone, and offended the Lord God; who, though he was the rock of