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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 the 45th Psalm, 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. 1, 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 is Divinity, the Psalmist addresses the Jewish and the universal church, in a strain suitable to the divine onours, which he pays to the Messiah. Calling her Daughter,' and 'Queen, all glorious within,' whom John styles the wife of the Lamb: Forsake thy wn people,' says he, [the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, among whom thou wast born, and by hom thou hast been corrupted:] So shall the King Treatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and wortip thou him.' Then, turning again to this King of ags, he concludes the Psalm, by saying, "The people all praise thee for ever and ever.' (Psalm xlv. 10,17.) hus, you see, Sir, that a Prophet, considering the VOL. VII.

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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 ecstacy 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 confrout your paradox, with three other Psalms, where he continues to indite the same glorious matter, the 47th, 68th, and 110th. 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; 0 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 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

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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, aud 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. (Eph. iv. 8, 13.)

The last Psalm I shall produce in vindication of our Lord's Divinity is the 110th, 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 the 45th Psalm 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 at whose right 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 Melchisedec.'

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The Father compares here his only begotten Son to Melchisedec 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 Isa. ii. 2, and Dan. 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 Melchisedec, 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 shew 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 says, 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 the greater. (Heb. vii. 3, &c.) -(4.) Because as Abraham and his righteous servants, strengthened by Melchisedec's pious wishes, smote the ungodly kings, who had carried away righteous Lot, so the sons of Zion, (to use the words of Zechariah) shall smite the sons of Greece when under the influence, and by the blessing of our Melchisedec, they shall do the strange, but necessary work, described in Psalm cxlix, and in Rev. xix.-(5.) Because, the joyful manner in which they were met, refreshed, and blessed by Melchisedec, was an emblem of those times

of refreshing, which, after the overthrow of all wicked powers, will come from the presence of the Lord, when all the prisoners of hope, turning to the strong hold, shall be more than conquerors, through him that loved us; shall reap the fruit of the victory described in Zech.ix. 12, 17, and in 2 Thess. i. 5-10; and shall enjoy the blessing pointed out in Isa. lxv. 13, 25; Dan. vii. 27; 2 Pet. iii. 13; and Rev. xx. 1.

This being premised, I return to the Psalm where 'Jehovah our Righteousness,' is pointed out to us, under the glorious emblem of Melchisedec. David, foretelling the victories of the Messiah, and the destruction of his enemies, says, 'The Lord, at thy [the Father's] right hand, shall strike though kings in the day of his wrath: He shall act the part of a judge among the Heathen; he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.' But the heel of the woman's seed shall be bruised, the Prince of Peace shall suffer in his human

1 nature, which is represented by the inferior part of

his person: The floods shall overflow him' for three days, and three nights, as they did Jonah, the waters shall come in, even unto his soul,' he shall drink of the cup of affliction, or as David expresses it, he shall drink of the brook by the way, therefore shall he lift up his head:' His divine nature shall make him emerge from a sea of sorrow; having saved himself, he will save his people; and as he bowed his head,' saying, 'It is finished,' when he had finished his atoning work, as our great High Priest; so shall he triumphantly 'lift up his head,' and reign. Then will the church, with all the nations in her bosom, sing the Psalın, where David describes the works, and foretels the glory of Emmanuel: The Heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice [or as Zechariah expresses it, 'The Lord God blew the trumpet,' (chap. ix. 14,)] and the earth melted away :-Come, behold the works of the Lord, [of Emmanuel, our Melchisedec, executing judgment among the Heathen,

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