But, to conclude that because Christ, according to his human nature, was a prophet like unto Moses, he must be a mere man as Moses, is illogical.

Dying Jacob, to express the toil, strength, and patience of Issachar's tribe, says, "Issachar is [like] a strong ass, couching down between two burthens," But must we infer from thence, that Isaachar had long ears, and really carried two panniers as an ass? It is by such injudicious pressing of comparisons, that monstrous doctrines are obtruded upon Christians, and that while some turn Socinians, others become even Materialists.

But although the Scriptures show that there is proper ground for a comparison between Christ and Moses, they take care to keep us from the rock against which you split; for they not only tell us that Christ is "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows," but that he is the "chiefest among ten thousand" prophets, priests, and kings; because their divers offices all join in his Divine person. When the Israelites were in the desert, God was their king, Moses their prophet, Aaron their priest, and Joshua their general; but Christ sustains alone all their parts.

I have shown (in letter ii) that under the law, the Logos, or God, manifest sometimes in flames of fire, and sometimes in a human form, was the King of Israel, and Moses was his prime minister: a leading truth this, which Nathanael acknowledged, when discovering our Lord's glory, he cried out, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel," John i, 49. As if he had said, Thou art he, whose patience our fathers tried in the desert, and whom they rejected in the days of Samuel, as appears by that prophet's expostulation, "Ye said to me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your King," 1 Sam. xii, 12. But under the Gospel, when the Logos is continually manifested in the flesh, he sustains both characters; and, in that sense, may be compared to those great monarchs, who, like Frederic, the late king of Prussia, are their own prime ministers.

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Hence it is that, although as a prophet, or a minister, Christ is like Moses, yet as Logos, and King of Israel, he is infinitely superior to the Jewish lawgiver. Consider Jesus Christ," says the apostle, "He was counted worthy of more glory than Moses," on two capital accounts: (1.) Moses was faithful as a "servant in the house of him who had appointed him; but Christ was faithful as a son, over his own house." (2.) "Moses was worthy of glory," inasmuch as he was a fundamental stone in the house of God; but "Christ is worthy of more glory, inasmuch as he who built the house hath more honour than the house," or any part of it; "for every house is built by some man; but he who hath built [the Jewish Church and] all things, is God," Heb. iii, 1, 4. These words, with which I shall conclude this letter, are both a full answer to the objection I consider, and a full proof of our Lord's divinity. I remain, dear sir, &c.

LETTER V.

All the prophets bear witness to the Messiah as the bruiser of the serpent, and the prosperous King reigning in righteousness over the subject nations: in other words, they foretell the days of vengeance, and the days of refreshing which shall succeed them, under his administration.

To open the prophecies relative to the Messiah's glory, we must have a Divine key. I have already shown that Moses gave it us, when he described the Redeemer as the destroyer of the serpent, and as the Shiloh, the prosperous King, who, after having "laid his hands on the neck of his enemies as a lion," shall sway the sceptre of his mercy over the submissive nations, or (to use the prophet's laconic style) "unto whom shall the gathering of the people be," Gen. xlix, 10.

The Messiah's achievements, in this two-fold point of view, were typified by the exploits of David and Solomon, the two first of his royal ancestors. David is long poor, despised by his brethren, and unknown to Israel. When he is anointed king of Israel, he is hated and pursued by a jealous and bloody prince; but he kills the giant who defied the armies of the living God, routs the Philistines, and after having acted the part of the lion of the tribe of Judah, and given the Israelites victory on all sides, he leaves the crown to peaceful Solomon, "unto whom is the gathering of the people," and who "builds the magnificent temple of the Lord," and heaps upon Israel the blessings of a peaceful and prosperous reign.

St. Peter, in his second sermon, preaches the Messiah according to these two displays of his redeeming power. "It shall come to pass (says he) that whosoever will not hear that [royal] Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Repent ye, therefore, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, who was before preached unto you [under the names of Wonderful, mighty God, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, &c,] whom the heaven must receive, until the times of the restitution of all things, which God, since the world began, hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. For all the prophets from Samuel, [who appointed David, the first royal type of the Messiah,] as many as have spoken have foretold these days" of vengeance, in which the Messiah will bruise the serpent and his brood, and these days of refreshing, when the Lord Jesus, having destroyed "those who would not have him reign over them," will give rest to his faithful subjects in all his dominions, which "shall extend unto the ends of the earth." For, adds St. Peter, "God said unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed," Acts iii, 19-25.

As inattention and unbelief have cast a veil over this glorious part of the Gospel, permit me, sir, to remove a corner of this veil, and to show how the prophets have all spoken of the glorious days of the Messiah, and of the days of vengeance, which shall precede them. My dwelling on this point will not be a needless digression, but the very ground on which I shall rest one of my strongest proofs of your error, and of Christ's divinity. I now begin with Samuel, whom St. Peter parti. cularly mentions.

Before I had found the key of Scripture knowledge, I own to you, sir, that I wondered how that apostle could say to the Jews, that Samuel had prophesied of Christ. I found no such prophecy in the books of Samuel. But now I see that St. Peter had in view the most glorious typical predictions concerning Christ, as our king, prophet, and priest. I have proved that the "King of Israel," who brought his people out of Egypt, was Christ in his pre-existent nature. Moses was the prime minister of this great King; Joshua, the general of his armies; the tabernacle his palace; the mercy seat his throne; the ark his royal standard; the priests his officers; the Levites his guards; and the shekinah the visible display of his presence, In the days of Samuel, whom he had chosen for his prophet, minister, and representative, the Jews, tired of their invisible King, said to Samuel, "Make us a king, to judge us, [personally and visibly,] like all the na'ions. And Jehovah said unto Samuel, Hearken to the people: they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. As they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, so do they also unto thee," 1 Sam. viii, 5. And when Samuel expostulated with them, he said, Your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king, when Jehovah "your God was your King." And to back this reproof, Jehovah sent such "thunder and rain for a whole day in wheat harvest," as made the rebellious Jews afraid of instant destruction, 1 Sam. xii, 12, 19. From this important passage, we learn three things. (1.) The King of Israel, who was rejected by the Jews in Samuel's days, is truly Jehovah, that very "Lord of glory," whom the Jews rejected a second time, when, appearing" in the form of a servant, he came to his own, and his own received him not," but crucified him with this remarkable title, "Jesus, the King of the Jews," the very title given him, both by the wise men, when they inquired after him "that was born King of the Jews," and by the "Israelite without guile," when, seeing the form of God shining in Christ through the form of a servant, he confessed that Christ was the Son of God, "the King of Israel," John i, 49. (2.) We see the ground of that " good confession, which our Lord made before Pontius Pilate," when he declared himself both "the Son of God," and "the King of the Jews." Nor do I see how this confession could be true, if Christ, in his form of God, was not that very Jehovah envoy, who spake to Moses in Horeb, and who, by indefectible right, was the King of the Jews, and of the whole earth, even after his unruly subjects had rejected him. And that this was the true question in debate is evident from these taunting words of the unbelieving Jews: "If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him," Matt. xxvii, 42. (3.) If this is the truth for which our Lord (as faithful witness and Divine martyr) thought it proper to lay down his life, does it not follow, that the doctrine of Christ's divinity, or of his absolute right, as "Lord of glory," to be the "King of the Jews," and "of the whole earth," is the capital doctrine of the Old as well as of the New Testament?

But, methinks you rise with indignation against this inference. What becomes of the glory of the Father, if the Son was the King of Israel in Samuel's time, and is still the King of the whole earth? But you

need not fear that our doctrine gives a wrong touch to the ark of the Father's monarchy; for as the "Son, the Lord of glory," is the osten. sive King of the Church and of the whole earth, in and by whom the Father now governs the world: so there will come a time when the "Father of glory" will himself be the ostensive King, governing all the nations of men, whom the Son hath redeemed and brought into subjection, immediately in his own proper person, without the mediating minis try of the Son, the Son, however, still reigning in and wi h the Father. For, says an apostle, the Son "must reign till he hath put death," and "all enemies under his feet." And when the kingdoms of this world shall have been made worthy of the Father's peculiar acceptance; when Emmanuel "shall have put down all those earthly and infernal powers destructive of the perfect order and complete happiness of the universe, "then shall come the end" of the Son's mediatorial kingdom; then shall the Son of God "deliver up the kingdom to God the Father," in whom nevertheless the Son and the Spirit will still have the dominion belonging to their Divine rank: and thus, while the man Christ, still united to the Word, shall be the first "subject of him who put all things under him," God (namely the Father, including the Word, and the Holy Ghost) will be all in all for ever, 1 Cor. xv, 24, &c. But I return to

Samuel.

Although, in his time, the Jews incurred already the horrible guilt of rejecting the Lord of glory from being their ostensive king, they did not, they could not put an end to his supreme authority. The theocracy, though impugned, was not destroyed. Jehovah, King of the Jews, still exercised his prerogative, in appointing worshipful types of that Divine Prophet, who was to declare and do the will of God better than Samuel, and of that Divine Priest and King, on whom he would transfer the shekinah, the Divine glory, which rested in the tabernacle, when Jehovah filled it with adorable displays of his presence. Hence he continued Samuel as his prophet, and by his means foretold, both by words and typical actions, the removol of all ungodly priests, the destruction of all wicked kings, and the appearance of Christ, the man after his own heart, who should do all his pleasure, and of whose Divine anointing, that of Aaron, David, and Elisha, was but a faint shadow.*

As Job speaks of the Messiah, when he says, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," Job xix, 25; so his afflictions were a type of the tribulation of the righteous, and his happy end was an emblem of the prosperity of the Church, in the day when our Lord shall "stand on the mount of Olives," and "gather his saints," that they may "see the vengeance, and wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly," Psalm lviii, 10.

David, in the beginning of the 22d Psalm, describes the amazing sorrows of the Messiah, and the manner in which his heel was bruised, when "his hands and his feet were pierced" by the seed of the serpent. And at the end of that Psalm, he declares that the gathering of the people shall be unto Shiloh: that "the ends of the world shall remember

*Here there seems to be a chasm in the work. Mr. Fletcher undoubtedly meant to have drawn more proofs or illustrations of his doctrine from the histo rical books before he came to the poetical and prophetical.

themselves, and turn unto the Lord" in his Son, "and all the kindreds of the earth shall worship before him," for (after the day of vengeance) "the kingdom shall be the Lord's, and he shall be the Governor among the nations. Then shall the meek inherit the earth, then shall they eat, worship, and be satisfied;" enjoying without alloy the days of refreshing, which the Lord's presence will bring to those who shall have been faithful unto the end, whether they shall be of those dead saints, who shall have a part in the first resurrection, which shall take place in the beginning of the days of refreshing; or whether they shall be among the saints, who then shall be found alive.

Isaiah is full of this doctrine: take one or two instances out of a hundred. You know, sir, that in the language of the prophets, as Jacob and the house of Joseph signify the godly, so Edom and the house of Esau stand for the wicked, the enemies of God's holy Church. Isaiah had a prophetic view of the Messiah, performing his strange work, his work of judgment, and "travelling in the greatness of his strength," as Lion of the tribe of Judah, when he says, Isaiah lxiii, 1–6, “Who is he that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, (Rev. xix, 12,) travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, (answers Shiloh,) mighty to save and I will tread [all the Edomites] in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and my garments shall be sprinkled with their blood, for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. In mine anger I will tread down the people, [who obstinately trample my blood and my followers under foot,] I will make them drunk in my fury, and will bring their strength down to the ground.” The prophet, struck with awe, breaks out into a song of praise to the Lord for his "great goodness toward the house of Israel," the righteous to whom the Lord condescends to give rest from those who turned the earth into cruel habitations, and who made the very houses of God dens of thieves, murderers, and hypocrites, verses 7, 8. This song of thanksgiving and praise was echoed back by St. John, when he had a prophetic view of the Messiah "coming in righteousness to judge and make war" on all the antichristian powers, Rev. xix, 1–11.

Isaiah speaks next of the days of refreshing which shall follow those days of vengeance, which shall have such an effect upon the nations that they shall flock into the Church as pursued doves to their windows. "The Lord (says he to the righteous) shall appear to your joy; and those who cast you out for my name's sake shall be ashamed. A voice of noise from the city! A voice from the temple! A voice of the Lord who rendereth recompense to his enemies!" Now for the effect of these voices mixed with the sound of the Gospel trumpet: "Before she [the New Jerusalem] travailed, she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered. Shall the earth be made to bring forth in a day, or shall a nation be born at once? Yes, saith the Lord. Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? saith thy God. [It is done!] Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, ye that love her: be glad with her, ye that mourned for her. Come, that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles, [converted,] like a flow