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slain, to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory and blessing! and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard he saying, blessing, and nonor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the lamb for ever and ever!* And the four living creatures said amen! and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever'+-After this "he beheld and lo a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb."

The angelic host esteemed it their highest honor to attend him, in his first advent in the flesh, to this our world; and did joyfully recount the glad tidings to the wandering shepherds of Bethlehem.

They also, with wonder and amazement, attended his temptation in the wilderness; and comforted him in his agonies in the garden of Gethsemane. They devoutly attended his resurrection, and with hosanna's ascended with him to glory. Indeed, legions of angels were always ready to obey his commands,

* This is exactly the description given of the throne of God y Daniel.

† Rev. v. 11. to end.

Ibid vii. 9 and 10.

even while sojourning in the flesh. It was daily their anxious solicitude to look into the mysteries of his incarnation and sufferings.

It was, then, in his flesh as mediator-as the substitute and propitiation for the sins of men, that he received all the obloquy and abuse. It was in the flesh he suffered and died.

In the flesh, therefore, as our mediator and great high-priest-the captain of our salvation; and in this same rebellious world, and from this same guilty race, must he receive the glory, honor, power, majesty, praise and dominion, that are so justly due to him, for all that he has done and suffered for the sons and daughters of Adam.

Hence we find the earliest dawn of grace and hope to our guilty and despairing first parents, was ushered in, though obscurely, with the blessed promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, while he should only bruise his heel. The next encouragement given to them, and which has been preserved on record by the apostle Jude, in his 14th and 15th verses, is more encouraging:-" And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold! the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

After this, a strong figure of the deliverance of mankind by the great captain of our salvation, was given to the world, in the preservation of Noah and his family, with a portion of every species of living creatures, in the ark, during the universal deluge.

Soon after, we find the promise more explicitly made to Abraham, who had been obedient to the call of God, and left his father's house and his country (which was sunk in idolatry, having forsaken the worship of the one only living and true God) to go whither soever God should lead him. To him the plan of salvation by the mediator, was further opened, by showing him the Messiah, his humiliation or state of suffering, and his coming in glory. Thus Abraham saw his day, and was glad, for it was then that God did promise that he would assuredly give to Abraham, as the reward of his faith and obedience, the whole land of Canaan, in which he then sojourned (a type of the heavenly inheritance,) but of which he held not the least possession; and though at that time a private individual, without power, influence or authority-in a strange land; yet in him, God did promise, that all the nations of the earth should be blessed; still directing the eye of his faith, to the glorious and triumphant state of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, was to proceed from his loins.

"Thus he who was promised to Adam immediately on the fall, under the more obscure description of the seed of the woman, who should bruise the head

of the serpent, was now announced to the world, as the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. And henceforward we have prediction upon prediction-ordinance upon ordinance-promise upon promise-event upon event, leading to, rising above, improving and enlarging upon each other, like the gradual light of the ascending sun, from the early dawn to the perfect day. We perceive types, shadows, ceremonies, and sacrifices, disappearing little by little; patriarchs, priests, prophets, lawgivers and kings, retiring one after another, and giving place to the Lord our judge, our lawgiver, our king to save us, as the twinkling fires of the night hide their diminished heads, and as the vapors disperse, before the glorious orb of day.*

There are particular and express referrences to the Messiah, as well to his incarnation, sufferings, death and resurrection, as to his second coming in glory, in almost every book of the Old Testament, particularly in the numerous types and shadows of the law given to Moses in the Holy Mount, till we come to the Psalms; and sir Isaac Newton, who, though so great a philosopher, thought the study of the scriptures among his highest honors, says, "That there is scarce a prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Christ, that doth not, in something or other, relate to his second coming."+

• 2d. Vol. Sacred Biography, 17.

† On Daniel fol. 132.

THE PSALMS.

WE shall now begin a more particular examination into the revelation of this mysterious truth, from the Psalms inclusive, to the end of the apocalypse of St. John.

In that book of divine poetry, called the Psalms, David and the other authors of them, under the inspiration of the holy spirit, speak indefinitely of the Messiah's coming into this our world, not particularly distinguishing between his first and second coming. They describe not only his state of humiliation in the flesh, but in the most exalted language, the victorious reign of the Messiah, which in its nature and extent, as there foretold, when compared with what we now know of his first coming, can only be true as it refers to his second coming in glory.

It is expressly foretold therein, " that the Heathen are to be given to him as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as a possession-He is to break them with a rod (or sword) of iron, and to dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel-He is to judge the world in righteousness, and to minister judgment to the people in uprightness.-His throne, as then established, is to be forever and ever; and the sceptre of his kingdom a righteous sceptre-A fire is to burn before him, and it is to be very tempestuous round about him. All the earth is to worship him, and sing

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