of qualities or exercise of powers, is by employing the abstract terms of such qualities or powers, instead of the concrete. Thus, instead of saying that the Supreme Being is intelligent, benignant, and actively kind, the sublime simplicity of scripture says, God is LIGHT; God is LOVE; God is GOODNESS.* Now, the observable fact to which we have adverted is, that this style of expression is more frequently and copiously used in application to the Saviour of mankind, than in reference to any other manifestation of God. Christ is our Light, Life, Hope, Truth, Peace, Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption.† This is one of those circumstances in the manner and spirit of the inspired writers which cannot fail to arrest the notice of an attentive mind, a sound judgment, and an unprejudiced heart; and the careful observance of which, in their very numerous and diversified forms, combine in producing a general effect which appears to me perfectly irreconcileable with any scheme that denies the proper Deity of Christ. These sacred writers seem never to have felt the need of cautions or restrictions, when they were pouring out the fulness of their minds in the most unmeasured greatness of expression, on the glory of their Redeemer.

1 Joh. i. 5. iv. 16. Ps. cxliv. 2. the word should perhaps be rendered, ↑ Joh. i. 9. xiv. 6. 1 Tim. i. 1. 1 Cor. i. 30.

But in this last passage, my Benefactor.

Col. i 27 Eh..

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE

ΤΟ

SECT. XXV.

Note [A] p. 306.

Or

xxiii. L. 7. p he shall call him, or rather he shall announce, or proclaim, him: understanding, with the Rabbis Kimchi and Ben Melech, for the nominative case, Israel or the church. it may be the third person plural, they shall call, put indefinitively (as ferunt, olovrai, λéyovat, &c. occurring also in the Biblical idiom, as in Deut. xxix. 24. Luke xvi. 9.) which is the opinion of Abrabenel and the elder Buxtorf, and the word is so pointed in Bomberg's Bible, Venice, 1525. Professor Eichhorn considers it as a sort of impersonal, like the German, man hat genennet, or the French on dit.

The difference in xxxiii. L. 6. is observable. The clause, as there given, may be read in three different ways:

1. That adopted above, which is the closest, and is sanctioned by Rabbi Alscheth, Vatablus, Sebastian Schmidt, C. B. Michaelis (the father of the late John David M.) and Dathé. It is thus rendered in the Jewish Spanish Version (Fernandez, Amst. 5486), in Cassiodore del Reyna's, and in the Dutch.

2. Understanding how after m, by deriving it from the parallel passage; and so reading "and this is his name which he [or indefinitely as above] shall proclaim to her."

3. "This is the name with which she shall be called:" Our common version, the Geneva French, and Diodati's Italian. But, though the construction with is consistent with this sense,

the insertion of the noun supposed to be understood with Л can be derived only from ch. xxiii. and therefore would be now his name, not now her name. So that this reading seems to be untenable.

But it is more than probable that the original words have sustained some alteration, and that the true reading is as found by Kennicott in several MSS. and by de Rossi in one, exactly the same as in the preceding passage, ch. xxiii. 6. This is supported by the Syriac, the best of all the ancient versions.

xxiii. 5, 6. "Behold! the days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David the Messiah of the righteous, and he shall reign sovereign and shall be prosperous, and he shall execute the judgment of truth and righteousness in the land. In his days, they of the house of Judah shall be delivered, and Israel shall dwell in safe confidence; and this is his name by which he [Israel, or indefinitely,] shall call to him, Righteousnesses shall for us be performed, from the presence of the Lord, in his days." xxxiii. 15, 16. “In those days and in that time, I will raise up to David the Messiah of righteousness; and he shall execute the judgment of truth and righteousness in the land. In those days they of the house of Judah shall be delivered, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safe confidence; and this is her name by which he shall call to her, Righteousnesses—"&c. Targum of Jonathan.

The Septuagint is greatly corrupted in both places. The latter clause of xxiii. 6. is thus:- "and this, his name which the Lord will call him, Josedek :" a manifest error from Jehovah tzidkenu, first contracted, and then taken for a proper name. The addition, 'ε TO πрopýraι, is palpably an interpolation.-In ch. xxxiii. the whole portion v. 14-26, is wanting in the Aldine, Vatican, and Alexandrine copies. It occurs, however, in three manuscripts, collated for Walton's Polyglott and Grabe's Lxx. in which the latter clause of v. 16. stands thus:

Καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα ὃ κληθήσεται, Κύριος δικαιοσύνη ἡμῶν. "And this the name which shall be announced, the Lord our righteousness."

Καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα ὃ καλέσει αυτὴν, Κύριος δίκαιος σὺν ἡμῖν. "And this the name which he shall call her, The righteous Lord with us."

SECT. XXVI.

SON OF MAN, UNITED WITH THE ETERNAL GOD, AND
EXERCISING UNIVERSAL EMPIRE.

Dan. vii. 9, 10, 13, 14.

“I looked, until the thrones were cast down; and [then] the ANCIENT OF DAYS sat [in judgment]. His robe was white as snow, and the hair of his head as pure wool: his throne, flames of fire; and his wheels, glowing fire. A flowing stream of fire issued from his presence. Thousand thousands were his attendants; and ten thousand ten thousands stood in his presence. The session of judgment began, and the books were opened.— I looked in visions of the night, and, behold! with the clouds of heaven came [one] like a soN OF MAN; he approached to the ANCIENT OF DAYS, and was brought near into his presence. And to him was given dominion and glory and empire; and all peoples, nations, and languages shall serve him. His dominion is an eternal dominion which shall not pass away, and his empire that which shall not be destroyed."

THE Connection of this prediction, the terms in which it is conveyed, the all but unanimous consent of Jewish † and Christian interpreters, and the habitual application by Jesus of its distinguishing epithet to himself, unite to assure us of its direct reference to the Messiah.

*See Note [A] at the end of this Section. + See Note [B] at the end of this Section.

It is generally understood as a representation of the Messiah approaching in his official character to the Eternal Father, and entering upon the exercise of his mediatorial empire. It thus contains a testimony to the human nature of Christ, and a confirmation of the doctrine so frequently repeated in the Old and New Testaments, of his glorious exaltation and universal reign. Unquestionable, however, as is the assertion of the Messiah's real humanity; it is, by no means, an assertion of a mere and exclusive human nature. So far from that, the magnificent descriptions which it gives, are calculated to excite a strong doubt, whether SUCH POWERS and SUCH AN EXERCISE of them are, by any possibility, compatible with the nature and capacities of any being merely human. It is replied that the dominion of the Messiah's doctrine is the whole that is intended; the universal prevalence and the perpetual duration of his religion. The justness of this assertion will be hereafter examined, when we shall have to review the numerous declarations of scripture concerning the reign of the Messiah, and to ascertain what personal agency those declarations may import.

But, of a leading part of the passage before us, I would, with all deference, submit to the reader's candid consideration, another interpretation, founded on two grounds, which it will be proper first to state.

1. The description given of the ETERNAL BEING