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it to an inferior angel. I beg the attention of my readers to five particular circumstances in this instance. 1st, That the angel whom the Lord sent, as intimated in verse the 6th, was intended to shew his servants in general things that would shortly happen; and the angel sent by Jesus, as found in verse 16th, was to testify to John and other disciples the things relating to the churches. 2dly, Jesus declares in verse 16th, and in the subsequent verses, that he is the offspring of David, and that it is God that has the power of punishing any one who either takes away from or adds any thing to his revelation. 3dly, That the passage in Revelation xxii. 13, is not parallel to that contained in the prophecy of Isaiah xliv. 6, since the phrase "Besides me there is no God," which is found in the latter, and upon which the whole controversy turns, is not contained in the former. 4thly, That when the angel rejected the worship of John addressed to himself, he ordered him to worship God, without mentioning the name either jointly or separately of the Lamb, by which Jesus is distinguished throughout the Revelation :-"Worship God," ver. 9. 5thly, In the very next verse, after the speaker, whether Jesus or an angel, describes himself as Alpha and Omega, he uses the expression, "Blessed are they that do his commandments," clearly indicating the existence of another being to whose commandments obedience is required.

It is worth noticing here, that the terms," Alpha and Omega, beginning and end," are in a finite sense justly applicable to Jesus as the first of all created existences, and the last of those who will be required to resign the authority with which he is invested by the Father. See Colossians i. 15, "The first-born of every creature;" 1 Corinthians xv. 28, “Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him.”

Isaiah xl. 10: "Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold,

his reward is with him, and his work before him"-is compared with Revelation xxii. 12, "I come quickly; and my reward is with me." From the circumstance of the common application of the phrase, "his reward is with him," to God and to Jesus, they infer the deity of the latter; in answer to which I beg to refer my readers to the foregoing paragraphs illustrating verse 11th, which immediately precedes the verse in question of the Revelation, and also to John v. 30, 22, "As I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who hath sent me. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;" and to Matthew xvi. 27, “ For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Do not these passages point out evidently, that the power of exercising judgment and of distributing rewards has been given to Jesus by the Almighty, and that Jesus possesses this authority in behalf of the Father of the universe?

Ephesians iv. 8: "When he (Christ) ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men”— compared with Psalm lxviii. 18, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." The Jews are of opinion that David in this verse spoke of Moses, who, when he ascended to Mount Sinai, received gifts (i. e. the divine commandments) for men, even for the rebellious Israelites; in this case the Apostle Paul in his epistle, must have applied the verse in an accommodated sense to Jesus. The verse in the Psalm may be directly applied to Jesus, who, on his ascension, received gifts of pardon even for those who had rebelled against him. Mr. Brown, a celebrated Trinitarian Commentator, and several others, consider the 18th verse in this Psalm, and

verse 8th in this chapter of Ephesians, as immediately applicable to Jesus as the Messiah. But another writer, Mr. Jones, with a view to establish the deity of Christ by a comparison of Ephesians iv. 8, with Psalm lxviii. 18, omits carefully the latter part of the verse, ("Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them,") which is altogether inapplicable to God, and quotes only the first part of the verse, (thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive;") and thence draws this conclusion— "The Scripture here (in the Epistle referred to) expressly affirms the person who ascends, &c., to be the Lord God." From a view of the whole verse, the sense must, according to this mode of reasoning, be as follows"The person who ascended on high, and who received gifts for men, that the Lord God might dwell among them, is the Lord God;" an interpretation, which as implying that the Lord God ascended and received gifts from a Being of course superior to himself, in order that he might dwell among men, is equally absurd and unscriptural.

Zechariah xii. 10, as found in the English version: "In that day they shall look upon me whom they have pierced"-compared with John xix. 37; "They shall look on him whom they pierced;" from which comparison he has thus concluded-"As it stands in the Prophet, the Lord Jehovah was to be pierced; so that unless the man Christ who hung upon the cross was also the Lord Jehovah, the Evangelist is found to be a false witness, in applying to him a prophecy that could not possibly be fulfilled in him." In order to shew the source of Mr. Jones's error, I beg to lay before my readers the verse in Hebrew, and a translation thereof from the Arabic Bible, as well as a correct translation into English.

ושפכתי על בית דויד ועל יושב ירושלם רוח חן ותחנונים אשר דקרו וספדו עליו כמספד על היחיד והביטו אלי את והמר עליו כהמר על הבכור

داود و علي سكان اروشلیم روح علي بيت داود و علي واصب علي بيت اجل انهم رفضوا الراقة و ينظرون الي و النعمة وينوحون عليهم مناحة مثل علي وحيد و بتوجعون

وجعا مثل علي بكر

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look toward me on account of him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his own son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." This translation is strongly confirmed by the Septuagint, whose words I subjoin with a literal rendering

Καὶ ἐπιβλέψονται πρὸς με, ἀνθ' ὧν κατωρχήσαντο.

"And they shall look towards me, on account of those whom they pierced."

In the Prophet the Lord speaks of Israel at the approach of their restoration, when they will look up to God for mercy on account of their cruelty to the Messiah, whom they pierced, and for whom they will mourn and lament. Hence the prophecy in question has been fulfilled in Jesus, without representing the Lord (Jehovah) as the object pierced; and consequently no false testimony is chargeable upon John the Evangelist, who, by changing the object of the verse from "me" found in the Hebrew and Septuagint, into "him," we may suppose had in view the general import rather than the particular expressions of the prophecy, pointing out that they looked to the Messiah also, whom they had pierced. Without referring to the Hebrew phrase, which shews beyond doubt the inaccuracy of the English translation of the verse, common sense is, I presume, sufficient to shew, that since in the last two clauses in the verse under consideration, the Lord God speaks of the Messiah in the third person(" for him they [i. e. the Israelites] will

mourn and lament,") he must be supposed to have spoken of the same third person as pierced by them unjustly, and thus to have pointed out the cause of their lamentation. If Jehovah had been pierced, he would have been mentioned throughout in the first person, also as the object of lamentation and bitterness.

1 Peter ii. 6, "Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. 8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed"-compared with Isaiah xxviii. 16, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste;" and Isaiah viii. 13, "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."

These passages shew, that the Lord God placed the Messiah as a corner-stone for the temple, and that whoever stumbles at that stone so exalted by the Almighty, stumbles at or disobeys him who has thus placed it. But Mr. Jones omits the words found in 1 Peter ii. 6, and Isaiah xxviii. 16, "I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, precious," &c., which shew the created nature of the Messiah, and after quoting a part of vers. 7 and 8 of 1 Peter, ch. ii. ("The stone which the builder disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence,") and only verse 13th and part of the 14th of ch. viii. of Isaiah, he

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