68th and 110th. Prophefying of our Lord's glorious kingdom, of which he began to take poffeffion, on the day of his Afcenfion, the Pfalmift fays, Clap your hands all ye people, fhout unto God, with the voice of triumph. The Lord moft high is terrible: he is King over all the earth. He fhall fubdue the people under us:-God is gone up with a fhout, the Lord with the found of a trumpet. Sing praifes unto our God: O fing praifes unto our King: For God is the King of all the earth. God reigneth over the heathen: God fitteth upon his holy feat: Pfalm xlvii. 1, 8. Is it not evident to those who candidly compare fcripture with fcripture, that this divine King, whom the Pfalmift fo often calls God, and who is gone up with a joyful noise, is the anointed King, of whom the Father faith, I have fet my King upon my holy Hill of Sion: Thou art my Son. Kifs the Son, ye Kings, left ye perish? Is he not the Almighty, of whom the Pfalmift fpeaks thus, This is God's Hill, in which it pleafeth him to dwell: The chariots of God are twenty thoufand, even thoufands of Angels, and the Lord is "among them, as in the holy place of Sinai. Thou art gone upon high, thou haft led captivity captive, and received gifts for men.--He is our God, even the God of whom cometh falvation-the Lord, by whom we efcape death-who shall wound the head of his enemies-who gave the word [on the day of Pentecoft] and great was the company of the Preachers, infomuch, that the armies of his enemies were fcattered, and they of his household divided the fpoil: Pfalm lxviii. 10, 21.

A Jew might be convinced, from the bare comparison of thofe Pfalms; but the conviction will adınit of no fhadow of doubt for those who receive the New Teftament, where St. Paul, after quoting thefe words of David, Thou [O God, who of thy goodness haft prepared gifts for the poor) haft

G 3

afcended

afcended up on high, and led captivity captive, &c. applies them to our Lord; and concludes thus, Now, that he (the Meffiah) afcended, what is it [but a demonftration] that he alfo defcended firft into the lower parts of the earth. He that defcended [as the child born unto us is the fame who (after his refurrection) afcended 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 whofe Julnefs the poor (humble believers) receive grace for grace, he gave them [befides his holy Spirit] Apoftles, Prophets, Evangelifts, Paftors and Teachers, that they might all come to the ftature of a perfect man, or to the measure of Christ, considered as the Son of man. Eph. iv. 8, 13.

The last Pfalm I fhall produce in vindication of the Lord's divinity is the 110th, where David, till confidering our Lord as that mighty God, who became the wonderful feed of the woman, and the Son given unto us, expreffes himself thus: The Lord [God the Father] faid unto my Lord [to the Son whom he had commanded the Church to worship, fee the 45th Pf. above quoted] Sit thou at my right hand, untii I make thine enemies thy footftool. Rule thou in the midst of them, with the rod of thy power (that rod of iron which will dafh them in pieces like a potters' veffel, Pfalm ii. 9) The Lord (who made the decree, Pfalm ii. 7 and at whofe right hand thou fitteft, as fharer in his fupreme dominion) hath fworn, and will not repent "Thou art a royal Prieft for ever, after the order of Melchifedeck.

The Father compares here his only begotten Son to Melchifedeck, for five reafons:(1) That Monarch was King of Salem, where ftood 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 fwallow

fwallow up all other kingdoms: fee Ifa. ii. 2, and Dan. ii. 44.—(2) Becaufe that Prince's name, fignifying both King of righteoufnefs, and King of peace, was the most proper name to give the Jews a true idea of the kingdom of righteousness, peace and goy, which the Meffiah, the Lord our righteoufness was to fet up.(3) Because facred Hiftory throws a myfterious veil upon the genealogy of Melchi fedeck, that he might be a proper type of that wonderful Prince of Peace, whm Ifaiak describes, when he asks, Who fhall declare his generation Who fhall fhew how he is David's Son, and David's Lord? A deep mystery this, of which the Apoftle gives us an idea, when, fpeaking of the King of Salem, he fays, Confider how great this Perfonage 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 fhare of the spoil, as unto his own King. This Prince of peace, without father, without mother, without defcent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, and abiding a Prieft continually; bleffed Abraham himfelf, in whom all the families of the earth were to be bleffed, and without contradiction, the lefs is bleffed of the greater, Heb. vii. 3, &c.4) Because, as Abraham, and his righteous fervants, ftrenthened by Melchifedeck's pious wifhes, fmote the ungodly kings, who had carried away righteous Lot, fo the Sons of Zion, (to ufe the language of Zechariah) fhall fmite the fons of Greece, when, under the influence, and by the bleffing of our Melchifedeck, they fhall do the ftrange, but neceffary work, defcribed in Pfalm cxlix, and in Rev. xix.-(6) Because, the joyful manner in which they were mer, refreshed and bleffed by. Melchifedeck, was an emblem of thofe times of refreshing, which, after the overthrow of all wicked Powers, will come

from

from the prefence of the Lord, when all the Prifoners of hope, turning to the ftrong hold, fhall be more than conquerors, through him that loved us; fhall reap the fruft of the victory de fcribed in Zech. ix. 12, 17, and in 2 Thef. i. 5— 10; and fhall enjoy the bleffing pointed out in Ifa. lxv. 13, 25. Dan. vii. 27. 2 Pet. iii. 13, and Rev. xx. 1.

This being premifed, I return to the Pfalm where Jehovah, our righteoufnefs, is pointed out to us, under the glorious emblem of Melchifedeck. David foretelling the victories of the Meffiah, and the deftruction of his enemies, fays, The Lord, at thy (the Father's) right hand, fhall strike through Kings, in the days of his wrath, he shall act the part of a Judge among the heathen, he fhall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the Heads over many countries. But the heel of the woman's feed fhall be bruifed, the Prince of peace fhall fuffer in his human nature, which is represented by the inferior part of his perfon: The floods fhall overflow him for three days and three nights, as they did Jonah, the waters fhall come in, even unto his foul, he fhall drink of the cup of affliction, or as David expreffes it, he fhall drink of the brook by the way, therefore fhall he lift up his head: his divine nature fhall make him emerge from a fea of forrow, having saved himself, he will fave his people; and as he bowed his head, faying, It is finifhed, when he had finished his atoning work, as our great high Prieft, fo fhall he triumphantly lift up his head, and reign. Then will the Church, with all the nations in her bofom, fing the Pfalm, where David defcribes the works, and foretells the glory of Immanuel: The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice (or as Zachariah expreffes it, The Lord God blew the trumpet, Chap.ix.14) and the Earth melted away :-Come, behold the works

of

of the Lord, [of Immanuel, our Melchifedeck, executing judgment among the heathen, and ftriking through Kings in the days of his wrath, Pf. cx. 4. See what defolations he hath made in the earth.Le maketh uars to cease, unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, cutteth the fpear in funder, and burneth the chariots in the fire. Immanuel, Meffiah, the mighty God, and the Prince of peace, lifting up his head, as an almighty Conqueror, and vouchfäfing to enter into the univerfal fong of triumph, fays, Be ftill, and know that I am God: 1 will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. And ravished with admiration, the Church, joining in a grand Chorus, bursts into this joyful exclamation, The Lord of Hofts is with s, Immanuel reigns, and the God of Jacob is our refuge Pfalm xlvi. 1, 11.

Some perfons, who mistake an unrighteous weakness of mind, and an effeminate foftness of temper for mildnefs and charity, will be ready to think these terrible defcriptions of our Saviour's judicial work, inconfiftent with the gentlenefs of our Lord, but St. John fpeaks of the righteous wrath of the Lamb, and when he reprefents the Meffiah, as the Bruiser of the Ser pent's head, he does not fcruple to call him the Lion of the tribe of Judah; alluding to Jacob's prophecy, that Judah, from whofe tribe Shiloh was to fpring, would be like the Lion, whom none Thould roufe without imminent danger.

As for St. Paul, he was so far from thinking this judicial work of our Lord incompatible with his character, that fpeaking of the great tribulation of the wicked, and of the righteous judg ment which thall make way for the Meffiah's glorious Kingdom, he fays, It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble the righteous, and to give reft (even-in this world)