like a dove, and resting upon him; the same declaration of a voice from Heaven, which could come from none but God, are: such divine attentions as were never before bestowed on man. Let us next turn our view to that parable of our Saviour's, as recorded by St. Mark, where, in imitation of the prophet Isaiah, Christ represents the Jewish church or nation, under the resemblance of a vineyard; to the tenants of which God sends his servants the prophets, expecting to receive the due returns of that religion which he had planted among them. But his expectations were vain, his servants were rejected, despised, maltreated, and murdered. "Having, therefore, ONE Son, "his well-beloved," he last of all sent him, saying, "They will doubtless reverence my "Son, though they have not regarded my "servants." The Jews clearly perceived the drift of this parable, the prophecy of their their rejection and murder of the Son of God; of the destruction of their Church and Government; and of the calling in, and the conversion of the Gentiles; and of their admission to all those privileges, which God had so peculiarly, in former times, vouchsafed to the people of Israel. The Apostle seems to allude to this parable, when he says, "God, who, at sundry times, "and in divers manners, spake in times 66 past unto the fathers by the prophets, "hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed "heir of all things, by whom also he made "the worlds, who being the brightness * Dia with a genetive case, in six hundred places of the New Testament, signifies by whom. That our Saviour is the creator of the world, is evident from the 10th verse of the same chapter, also from the 1st of St. John's Gospel, verse 3, where, to strengthen the expression, it is said, "Without him was not any thing made that was "made." Vide also St. John 1. 10, and Ephes. iii. 9. ❝ of "of his glory, and the express image of "his person, and upholding all things by "the word of his power, when he had by "himself purged our sins, sat down on the ❝right hand of the Majesty on High, "being made so much better than the "Angels, as he hath by inheritance ob"tained a more excellent name than they; "for unto which of the Angels said he "at any time, Thou art my Son, this day "have I begotten thee:", And again, “I "will be to him a Father, and he shall "be to me a Son." And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, "Let all the Angels of "God worship him, (or as is elsewhere "said, bow the knee to him, that is adore ❝ him.)" And of the Angels he saith, "Who maketh his Angels spirits, and his "Ministers a flame of fire;" but to the Son he saith, "Thy Throne, O God, is ❝ for "for ever and ever,* thou hast loved “righteousness and hated iniquity, where"fore, O God, thy God hath anointed "thee with the oil of gladness above thy "fellows." Again, the Psalmist says of * Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever." This is a quotation from the 45th Psalm. The Latin Vulgate translates it "Solium tuum ô Deus." The Italic version, “ Il tuo Seggio, ô Dio;" but perhaps it might be said, this is copied from the Latin; that cannot be, because, in the next verse, where the Latin reads "ô deus," the Italian is "lo Dio." The French also is "Ton Trone ô "Dieu." The ó Theos of the Septuagint is an attic vocative case, and the only word used as a vocative case by them in the whole book of Psalms. To say that God is the Throne of Christ, is arrant nonsense; God is never called the Throne, Seat, Temple, or Habitation of any man. If we refer to Rev. iii. 21, we find Christ saying, "To him that over"cometh will I give to sit with me in my Throne, even as "I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his "Throne." Also, Sam. vii. 13, it is said, "God will "establish the Throne of his (David's) Son's kingdom. I "will be his Father, and he shall be my Son. Thy Throne "shall be established for ever." Besides, if the passage had been God is thy Throne, the O Theos would have come first; as, for instance, "God is our King," O Theos Basileus hemôn; "God is the Judge," O Theos kritees esti; "God is our Refuge," "O Theos hemôn katafugee;" &c. &c. him, "O my God, Thou in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, " and the Heavens are the works of thine "hands." The Jews of old, as well as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, applied this description to the Messiah, no doubt can therefore be formed, that he was the divine Logos who created the world. St. Paul also says, "That God spared not "his own Son, but that when the fulness of time was come, he sent forth this "Son, made of a woman, made under the law, and that he had put the spirit of "this Son into the hearts of the Galatian "Christians." "God was manifest in the "flesh," says the same Apostle. St. John, in his first epistle, calls Jesus Christ the "True God, and twice the Eternal Life " which was with the Father, and was "manifested to us ;" and in the next epistle "Grace be with you, mercy and he says, |