תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

clouds of heaven, to receive the kingdom promised to him. But where is the Messiah during the period that intervenes between these two advents?

6

Psalm cx. The Lord said unto my Lord,

sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine 'enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send

the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou "in the midst of thine enemies.' • The Lord

[ocr errors]

16

hath sworn, and will not repent, thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech.

The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He 'shall judge among the heathen; he shall fill the 'places with the dead bodies; he shall wound "the head over many countries.

[ocr errors]

The person here addressed by Jehovah, and whom David calls his Lord, ('Jehovah said "unto my Lord, ') can only be the Messiah; for to no other person, or character, can such language belong. The Messiah is here represented as being exalted at the right hand of God, till his enemies be made his footstool.'

This exaltation is therefore in the heavenly world; for to that world only can belong the phrase at the right hand of God. This exaltation of the Messiah cannot be his first state as man; for that we have seen was the condition of an infant born at Bethlehem, and hanging upon the breast of his mother. Neither is this exaltation of the Messiah at the right hand of God, his last condition; for then his enemies will have been made his footstool: he will then have received dominion, glory, and a kingdom,

6

6

[ocr errors]

6

'that all people, nations, and languages, should

serve him his dominion is an everlasting do

minion, which shall not pass away; and his,

kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.'

Therefore, since this exaltation of the MAN, the Messiah, is neither his first state nor his last state, it follows, that it must be an intermediate state, during which he himself is highly exalted; but he has yet enemies who are not made his footstool; or, in other words, his cause and kingdom are, if not in a depressed, yet at least in a militant state, fighting with many, and powerful,

and malicious enemies.

During this period

we also learn, that the Messiah sustains the office of a priest, made after the order of Melchisedech, to whom Abraham himself paid tithes. Now, as every priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this man, the Messiah, have somewhat also to offer, of which I shall treat in another part of this work.

The concluding part of this prophetical Psalm will be accomplished at the second advent of the Messiah, when the Roman empire is destroyed, as in Isaiah xxxiv. and lxiii.

From this prophetical Psalm we may conclude, that the scheme of David Levi, with respect to the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom in the world immediately after his first advent, is altogether contrary to the Scriptures; and that all the prophecies which describe the triumphant progress of his cause and kingdom, must relate, ultimately, not to the period when he first comes into the world, in the form of an infant; and not even to the period

F

when he is exalted at the right hand of God, until his enemies be made his footstool; but to that time when he comes with the clouds of heaven, to receive the kingdom, and when his enemies are made his footstool.

I shall now resume the consideration of the objection so confidently advanced against the divine mission of Jesus in David Levi's work. (Vol. I. page 130.) The passage is as follows: -"I am confident they (the Christians) cannot

66

66

produce one single clear unequivocal pro

phecy from the Old Testament, which foretells “a two-fold coming of one and the same person "as the Messiah; and that, too, at the distance "of such a number of years as have already

66

elapsed from the supposed period of his being "on earth; whence it is manifest, that the "whole scheme of the Millenium is a mere chi

66

mera, an ignis fatuus, notwithstanding all the "noise and pother that has been made about " it."

In answer to this objection, I would again re-call to the mind of the reader an observation

already made in a former page; viz. that the eighteen centuries which have elapsed from the coming of Jesus, bear no more proportion to the duration of the kingdom of the Messiah, than a grain of sand does to the matter of the terrestrial globe. This, I think, removes the weight of David Levi's objection, so far as it rests upon the length of time which has elapsed since the first coming of Jesus. Further, the principle of this objection made by David Levi, seems to be this, that we have a right to prescribe to the Almighty Governor of the universe, precisely what degree and kind of evidence he is bound to afford us of the divine mission of the Messiah. Christians have never maintained, nor did the author of their religion himself assert, that the evidence of his divine mission, from the prophecies of the Old Testament, is of so strong and so obvious a nature as to preclude the necessity of the most diligent use of our reasoning faculties, in searching for that evidence. Christ himself said to the Jews, Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye

[ocr errors]
« הקודםהמשך »