type of that sum for which the Messiah was betrayed, Jehovah immediately afterwards calls the thirty pieces of silver, the goodly price that I was priced at of them. But that was the price for which Christ was delivered up to the chief priests. Therefore Christ is Jehovah. X. The canon of the Hebrew Scripture closes with the prophet Malachi. This inspired writer both foretells the manifestation of Christ, and perfectly concurs with Zechariah and various others who have been noticed in ascribing to him divinity. 1. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." It is here predicted, that an inferior messenger shall prepare the way before a mysterious character, who is denominated the Angel or Messenger of the covenant, and who in suddenly coming to the temple at Jerusalem claims it as HIS OWN temple. Now the temple at Jerusalem was the temple of Jehovah. Therefore the Messenger of the covenant, who claims it as HIS OWN temple, must be Jehovah himself. With such a conclusion agrees the express language of Isaiah. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of JEHOVAH, make straight in the desert a high-way for OUR And the glory of JEHOVAH shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." In this passage, the harbinger-voice is evidently the same as the inferior messenger foretold by by Malachi; for they each prepare a way for him, who is the lord of the temple at Jerusalem. Hence, as the inferior messenger prepares the way for the Messenger of the covenant, and as the harbingervoice similarly prepares the way for Jehovah the national God of Israel; it will plainly follow, that the Messenger of the covenant and Jehovah the national God of Israel are one and the same person. But we learn from all the Gospels, that the inferior messenger or the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness is John the Baptist: and John himself declares, that the person, for whom he came to prepare a way, was Christ.' Yet we have already seen, that the person, for whom the inferior messenger or the harbinger-voice was to prepare a way, is the Messenger of the covenant or Jehovah the national God of Israel. Therefore Christ must inevitably be identified with that Jehovah, who is the national God of Israel, who is styled by Malachi the Messenger of the covenant, and who in other parts of the Hebrew Scripture is denominated the Angel or Messenger of Jehovah. 2. Malachi, though living only in the twilight previous to the rising of the Sun of righteousness, yet, with the piercing eye of faith, beheld the first dawn of the bright luminary of the spiritual day. that fear my name shall the Sun of Unto you 'Matt. iii. 1-3. Mark i. 2, 3. Luke iii. 2-6. John i 23, 26, 27, 29–34. righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up, as calves of the stall. 3. He likewise foretells, that the inferior messenger, whom he had already described as preparing the way for the Messenger of the covenant, should, in point of character and appearance, be a new Elijah; resembling him in the austerity of his manners and in his sedulous frequenting of the wilderness. Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah : and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a The Jews, probably in consequence of their having learned the pagan doctrine of the Metempsychosis during the Babylonian captivity,' seem to have imagined, that the soul of the prophet Elijah, animating a new body, should be the precursor of the Messiah. Hence, when the question was in this sense put to John the Baptist, whether he were the predicted Elijah, he readily answered, that he was not. But, in making such a reply, he by no means contradicted the declaration of our Lord, that he was that Elijah, to whom the prophet Ma 'Malachi iv. 2. 2 Malachi iv. 5, 6. 3 A belief in this doctrine is necessarily implied on the part of the disciples in John ix. 1, 2. 4 lachi alludes, and whom the scribes rightly expected to come before the Messiah: for, though he was not Elijah literally, as the Jews vainly imagined would be the case with the predicted herald; yet he was Elijah mystically or figuratively, just as Christ himself is mystically or figuratively promised under the name of David. This last prophecy perfectly accords with those, which have been recently considered, in ascribing essential divinity to that being, of whom the mystie Elijah was to be the precursor. The figurative prophet is to be sent before the coming of the great and wonderful day of JEHOVAH. But John the Baptist was sent before the coming of the day of Christ. Therefore Christ is himself very Jehovah ; though, in his official capacity, he is likewise described, as being the Messenger and the righteous servant of Jehovah, Matt. xvii, 10-13. See Jerem. xxx, 9. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. xxxvii. 24, 25. Hosea iii. 5. CHAP. III. PROPHECIES, WHICH DECLARE THAT THE LAW WAS TO BE SUPERSEDED BY THE GOSPEL. WE now come to those prophecies, which more immediately connect the Law and the Gospel; and, as many passages occur in the ancient Scriptures which speak of the inefficacy of legal ceremonies, they likewise shall be noticed, though they may not be, strictly speaking, prophetic. 1. Since Moses was the instrument, by which God revealed the Law, it is but reasonable to expect, that he should make some mention of the great Prophet, who was destined to succeed him, and whose office it would be to establish a more spiritual religion, not founded upon rites and ceremonies but upon the inward purity of the heart. Such, accordingly, we find to be the case. And the Lord said, I will raise up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And t shall come to pass, that, whosoever will not |