Ifrael fo manifefted the divine glory of the worker of it, as to give him just title to inherit Ifrael's praife; how much more does the glory of his true Godhead appear in the spiritual and eternal redemption wrought by him for the true Ifrael, the heavenly nation, and in "bringing many fons unto glo❝ry," and in all the glorious acts of his reign in his heavenly kingdom, and calls for the worship and adoration of an. gels and men? He receives this worship from the redeemed, and from all the angels of God, afcribing to him the infinite dignity and worth of his Godhead that appears to them in that glorious redemption which is by his blood, Rev. v.

9.-12.

For whatever they may think who know not the holiness, infinite justice, and terrible majesty of God, and the unfpeakable evil of fin, as it is against him, and that most desperate condition, and dreadful complication of innumerable evils, flowing from the guilt of fin, and the curfe of a broken law, out of which we are redeemed by the blood of Chrift; yet the felf condemned finner, that has fome true apprehenfion of these things, and fo fees the great vanity and folly of all attempts to make an amends to the majefty of God for the exceeding finfulness of his fin, or any way to relieve himfelf from his defperate condition, and weeps because he cannot find worth enough in any creature wherewith to prefent himself, and appear with confidence before the Moft High; fuch a finner cannot put confidence in the blood of Chrift, nor be relieved from his fears, fo as to come confidently before God by it, till he be perfuaded in very deed, that it is the blood of God, and that the blood of that man is the blood of no other but that glorious and divine perfon, who is worthy, with all the independent eternal worth that is in the only Godhead. Such a finner being perfuaded, by the Holy Ghoft, that dwells in the flain Lamb, to come unto the Father by this blood, will give divine worship and glory to the Lamb, without any fear of his honour. ing a perfon who is not the only true God, befides whom there is no god, and will count him worthy to reign in his glorious kingdom, on account of that his Godhead appearing in redeeming us by his blood. While men are utter frangers to these things, they may have fruitless philofophical notions about the Godhead of Jefus Chrift; but they will "hold the truth in unrighteoufnefs;" and may, by a fuitable temptation, be prevailed with to part with it at a

cheaper

cheaper rate than they that have come by it in fuch a way as this.

The kingdom of the Meffiah is founded in his redemption; as the prophets declare, If. liii. toward the close, Pfal. cx. 7. Pfal. xxii. &c. And his Godhead is fet forth as appearing in his kingdom, and calling for divine worship from all his fubjects. It is true, in his kingdom he hath condefcended to reign by commiffion from the Father, even as he gave himself for his church to redeem it at the Father's appointment, and he is in his kingdom the Father's reprefentative; for how otherwife fhould the Father and the divine glory in his perfon apappear unto us? But as he could not fully reprefent him in the church, his kingdom, if he were not an equal person to him, and truly distinct from him, in one and the fame Godhead; fo, by this very commiffion, the Father gives his glory into his hands, which yet he will not give to another god. So we find in that prophecy where he is appointed the Father's fervant, If. xlii. from the beginning, that work which he calls his glory, and for which he is praifed, even the bringing forth of judgment to the Gentiles, opening the blind eyes, and bringing the prisoners from the prifon, is given into the hand of this his fervant to be accomplished by him and then he declares, "I am the Lord, that is my name, and "my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise "to graven images." This fervant of his therefore must be the fame God with him, who will not give his glory unto another, and yet gives it to him.

Thus the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son, "that all men fhould honour the Son even as they ho26 nour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honour"eth not the Father which hath fent him," John v. 22. 23.

Whatever be the capacity wherein this glorious perfon acts, whatever condefcenfion he ufe for our fakes, as Mediator, we ought nevertheless to honour him; and religious worship is declared to be his due on account of his divine glory manifefting itself in his acting in that fame capacity to which he thus condefcends. And fince the only true God appropriates all religious worship, without any diftinction, to himself, and difcharges us to give any part or portion of it, or any fense of it, unto any other, on any account, or to hearken to any prophet, though working miracles, to induce us to give this worship to another, Deut. xiii. 1.— 1.—5. ; and fince we are called to give religious worship to this King,

the

the Meffiah, it is manifeft, that he is the only true God, "beside whom there is no God."

Upon the whole, we may fee in the prophecies, fome of which have been pointed at, that this glorious King, the Meffiah, is fet forth as the fruit of David's body, a real man of the feed of David; yet not a human, but a truly divine perfon, Jehovah, the Lord of Hofts, the Lord God, the almightly Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the bleffed object of the religious worship and adoration of angels and men. So he is the child born to us, the fon given to us, who is the mighty God; the fon conceived, and brought forth by a virgin, whose name is Immanuel, God with us; the feed of the woman, who is able to bruise the head of the ferpent; the feed of Abraham, in whom all the nations. of the earth may find eternal bleffednefs; and David's fon, who yet is his Lord, his God, and his everlasting King Jefus confeffes all this of himself, and acknowledges, that he is that fame glorious perfon, in whom the divine and human natures are thus marvelously united, by his owning, before Pilate, that he is " that promised King." And when he says, "To this end was I born, and for this caufe came I into "the world," he feems to point to that prophecy of the Meffiah, If. ix. 6. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a fon " is given, and the government shall be upon his fhoulder," c. Thus the eternal God reigns as King, the church's maker is her husband, and her Redeemer the Lord of Hofts, and her God is her glory.

Whofoever confeffes Jefus to be Chrift, confeffes this fame great truth concerning his perfon and it is a vain thing to pretend to confefs that he is the Chrift, and yet deny his true Godhead, or not truly own him to be the Son of God; as it is to pretend to confefs him the Chrift, and yet deny him to be the fon of David. It is true, the word Meffiah, or Chrift, fignifying anointed, refpects his office; but we miftake that office, and cannot fee the glory of it, nor improve it unto its proper ends, fo as to find all falvation and all defire in it, if we do not fee him to be God in that office; and if we view him rightly by faith in his faving office, we will find all the perfons of the Godhead therein manifefted, and concerned in our falvation thereby. It is only in Jefus the Chrift, that we know the Father; for he "is "the image of the invifible God;" and it is only in him. that we find the Holy Ghoft, "that dwells in him." It has been an old observation, that we cannot think rightly of the Chrift, without thinking of the glorious perfon anointing, VOL. I.

D

and

and the Holy Ghoft, wherewith he was anointed, Pfal. xiv. 6. 7. Heb. i. 8. 9. And it may be observed, that fomething of the Godhead, including all the divine attributes, feems to be peculiarly reprefented to us in each of these persons, as they appear in and by the faving office of Chrift. The majefty of the Godhead in the perfon of the Father, who is therefore ftyled God; the infinite worth and dignity of the fame very Godhead, in the perfon of the Son; and the infinite fufficiency and power of that fame very Godhead in the perfon of the Holy Ghost.

Now, the faving office of Chrift is threefold. He is prophet, prieft, and king. And though these three offices be truly diftinct, and ought not to be confounded; yet we cannot rightly conceive of him as king, and of his kingdom, without the other two offices; as may appear afterward; and his anointing is much spoke of in the prophecies with respect unto his kingdom, Pfal. ii. Pfal. xlv. It is of this that we now speak, and this anointing of Christ the King has a manifest reference unto the anointing of David, and those kings that were but earthly signs of this heavenly King.

ACcording to the promise made to David, wherein we obferved, that the kingdom, in his earthly houfe, was fet up as a pledge, fign, and figure of that great kingdom of the Meffiah; when Jefus confeffes, that he is that promised King, he owns himself to be the antitype of those kings, and that he is unto his fubjects inftead of them, and that his kingdom is the thing we have now instead of that kingdom, which hath its end and iffue in this.

This feems pretty clear from Jacob's prophecy, and from the promise to David, as it has been explained; and that fame prophecy, to which we noticed a little before that our Lord here refers, fpeaks this to Chriftians very clearly, If. ix. 6. 7. "Unto us a child is born. Of the increase of his "government and peace there fhall be no end, upon the "throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it," &c. It is manifeft David's fons fucceeded him, and fat for several ages on his throne in the kingdom of Judah, Jer. xxii. 30.; and it is alfo manifeft, that the kingdom wherein Chrift rules, and the throne upon which he fits, is not that fame very throne and kingdom where David and his fucceffors fat and ruled, and can be no otherwife called that throne and king

dom,

dom, but as it is the thing typified thereby, according to God's promise, and the only thing that we have now instead of it, when the earthly shadows of heavenly things have their end and issue in the heavenly things themselves that are come in the place of them.

The kingdom wherein David and his fucceffors ruled was God's kingdom, or the church; the throne of that kingdom was the throne of the Lord; the people were God's flock; and David's fucceffors were paftors of that flock; their office, however they misbehaved in it, was to "feed the sheep "of his pafture," Jer. xxiii. 1. 2.

That flock of God brought up out of Egypt by a temporal and typical redemption, and made a peculiar people unto God, was no more but a typical flock of God, the antitype of which is that spiritual flock, gathered out of all nations as the Jews were brought back from Babylon, and gathered out of the places where they had been scattered and in cap. tivity; even the general affembly and church of the firftborn, whose names are written in heaven. And the pastors of that typical flock, of whofe wicked mifcarriages the Lord complains, were types of the true fhepherd, who is one for all, and is better unto the flock of God than them all, even the righteous branch that the Lord hath now raised up unto David. I confefs I cannot otherwife explain Jer. xxiii. 1-5. and apply the prophecy, as Christians will own it must be applied, unto the Meffiah and his kingdom; nor will it be easy other wife to explain the most part of the prophecies concern. ing Chrift and his kingdom, fpeaking almoft conftantly of the antitype by the types. And I queftion not but it was inadvertency to this that stood in the way, and does unto this day stand in the way of the Jews, their acknowledging Jesus to be the promised Meffiah, the King of Ifrael.

Chriflians generally acknowledge now, (though neither was that altogether fo clear to the Jews who first believed), that Chrift, our priest, is in that his office the antitype of the priests that were in the Old-Teftament church, and that their office has its end and iffue in his, which is now to us instead of it: and this feems to be plainly fignified in that prophecy, Jer. xxxiii. 18. "Neither fhall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to "kindle meat-offerings, and to do facrifice continually." And it is as plainly fignified in the foregoing verfes with which this is connected, that Chrift in his throne and kingdom is the antitype of David, and his fucceffors in his throne.

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