know not.

Ezekiel, Adonai Elohim,' or Elohim Adonai,' they Even our translators have, in this passage, and in many others, been forced to render 'JEHOVAH' by the word GOD,' contrary to their common practice, The Septuagint, however, have retained their usual vocable, and have rendered Ezekiel's words nugi, augi, Lord, Lord"."

Now that this word Adoni,' although, from its formation, found applicable to others, is yet particularly applicable to Christ, in his compound character, as the UVETOV TI' (to use Origen's words), we have two unquestionable authorities. First, we find the evangelist St John, referring us to the language of Isaiah, and then applying that language to Jesus of Nazareth, in the following pointed manner: "These things, said Esaias, when he saw his glo66 ry, and spake of him." On turning, however, to the passage in Isaiah, to which St John refers, we find it commencing thus: " In the year wherein “Uzziah died, I saw Adoni (not Jehovah) sitting

upon a throne," &c. Nay, throughout the whole of what Isaiah saw, on that occasion, though JEHOVAH' is once and again noticed as being present,

yet

1 See Ezekiel ii. 4. I must here notice another peculiarity in this prophet. In the many addresses from "Adoni-Jehovah" to him, Ezekiel always styles himself "Son of Man" The very title which, in the New Testament, Christ assigns to himself. I have been long in vestigating this peculiarity of expression, but have never been able, in any satisfactory manner, to account for it.

2 St John xii. 38-41. compared with Isaiah vi. 1.

yet it is invariably Adoni,' who is represented as the LOGOS,' or chief speaker. Thus the prophet affirms, "I heard the voice of Adoni, saying, Whom "shall I send, and who will go for us?" It was Adoni also who sent the prophet, and it was Adoni to whom the prophet addressed himself “and I said, Adoni, how long?" It is clear, therefore, that the Adoni' of Isaiah is the Christ' of St John; and whether the title be justly ascribed or not, St John is responsible.

But we have higher authority, even than St. John's, for the title being ascribed in the scriptures of the Old Testament to Christ,' and which puts his identity with JEHOVAH' beyond all dispute. We have our Lord himself personally claiming to himself the 'Adoni' of the CXth Psalm. "What "think ye of Christ? whose Son is he?" asks Jesus of the Pharisees. "They say unto him, The "Son of David. He saith unto them, How then "doth David in Spirit, (or being inspired), call "him Lord, (Adoni, in the original), saying

-Je-נאם יהוה לאדני) the Lord said unto my

Lord »

"hovah said unto Adoni), sit thou 3, &c. Here the evident distinction not merely in sound but in sense, between the titles JEHOVAH' and ADONI,' when added to the arguments already produced, from

Ꮓ

This important speciality the LXX have miserably obscured; but the attentive christian will know what use to make of it.

2 Verse 9. compare St Matt. xxiii. 34.

3 See St Matt. xxii. 41-45. and Ps. cx. I.

from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, must evince to the biblical student this great, but mysterious truth, that ADONI' personally, and JEHOVAH' conjunctly, belong to, and are predicated of, Christ our Saviour.

I have acknowledged that the title Adoni' is not in itself a title descriptive of Deity, or peculiar to Deity. Yet it is a title both applicable and highly significant in the application, to some situation, position, or relation, in which Deity, Jehovah, stands, or may stand to man. To open up this hidden wisdom, St Peter supplies us with the necessary key. He first quotes the very passage of the CXth Psalm, on which we have been commenting; and then draws from it the following conclusion

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know as"suredly, that God (Jehovah by the reference) hath "made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord (Adon) and Christ'." How similar is this language to what the Psalmist makes use of, in speaking of the patriarch Joseph, an acknowledged type of the Messiah-"The king made him “Lord (—Adon) of his house." It can never be said, that this making,' or, in other words, appointment of Pharaoh, had any relation to Joseph's præ-existent state. It was a temporary cession of, and appointment of Joseph to, the regal dignity of Egypt; and it was such an appointment, as, with due

6

due allowances for the inevitable defectiveness of parallel, between the type and the original, may be, with great force of truth, brought forward to explain St Peter's meaning, in the passage above cited'.

Should it happen, that the Apostles' language, (in terming the crucified Jesus a MADE LORD,') shall be perverted to the purpose of supporting the debasing doctrines, which I feel myself in duty bound to oppose; and to which doctrines, in the eye of the ordinary observer, it may seem to afford some countenance, I shall certainly, before concluding the task which I have assigned to myself, effectually deprive my adversaries of this handle, by shewing the fallacy of every such attempt. In the mean time, I shall only farther observe, with respect to the merits of the title Adon, that to prevent any confusion, which might arise to him, who delights in the law of the Lord, and 'meditates thereon,' from the circumstance of the titles Adon' and Jehovah,' being both translated LORD, the printers of all the best editions of the English bible have, in some measure, made a distinction,

z 2

"I have set my King," saith Jehovah (in IId Psalm), " upon my "holy hill of Sion," &c. I shall give him the heathen for his inheri66 tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." Thus it was, that Christ was "made Lord of God's house, and ruler of all his "substance." Again, it was said of Joseph, that when "Pharaoh set "bim over all the land of Egypt," &c. (Gen. xli. 41, 42, 43.)" they "cried before him, Bow the knee."—At the name of Jesus, that name "which is above every name, every knee should bow," &c. is the declaration of St Paul-Philip. ii. 9. 10.

tinction, by printing the word LORD' in capital letters, when it stands for the title JEHOVAH,' but when for ADONI,' by printing it in the same character with the text. Thus the English reader may learn to discriminate, and every reader ought to discriminate, if the above remarks be worthy of regard.

אלה

אלוה

I come now to the other word, which I have informed you is applied restrictively, if not exclusively to Christ,' and which is translated GOD,' as well as the word “_Aleim "—it is the word "Alue "a word, about whose construction and import, there has been warm disputation among scriptural critics. It is acknowledged to belong to the root-Ale; and, but for the Hebrew points, those modern shifts of rabbinical infidelity, the word would at first sight discover itself to be the singular participle passive of the verb -by that established sign of the passive -voice, the, or vau, in the third order. Whatever therefore shall be found to be the radical, inherent meaning of the active plural — Aleim,' (of which plural noun, this passive-Alue,' cannot, without doing violence to grammar, and without bordering on blasphemy, be made the singu lar, any more than amatus' can be made the singular of amantes;') then the word' must retain, and must express, in a passive form, something of the meaning of its root, Ale,' and of its cognate Aleim.' But as

,Alue_ אלוה

-Ale' is incon

testably