is it concerning whom it is said "the Lord shall be thy everlasting light?" What other but the Son of God, Jesus Christ? For this name in the Hebrew text is what we call the tetragrammaton, which peculiarly and properly belongs to the Godhead alone, and which, for the purpose of distinction, we are accustomed to write in capital letters. And who is it that declares all these things through the mouth and by the tongue of the prophet? Who, but God the Holy Ghost speaking by the prophets, and, as it were, introducing the Person of God the Father speaking concerning the" everlasting light? that is, concerning his Son the Lord Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David and of the Virgin Mary? This" everlasting light," and so, this Lord, is certainly neither man only, nor an angel. And moreover, this prophecy of Isaiah agrees with the words of the New Testament. For Christ himself sometimes calls himself" the light." And John saith, chap. i. 4, "The life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." As, therefore, these words of the prophecy so exactly agree with the scripture of the New Testament, they undoubtedly cannot be understood otherwise than concerning Jesus Christ, who has himself prepared for us a kingdom, not subject to this sun and light, (for such a kingdom must of necessity perish,) but he shows forth himself unto us as the light, the sun and moon, the life, and the salvation of this eternal kingdom: as Isaiah hath said in the preceding 51st chap. ver. 6," Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished."

Here then tell me, I pray you,-How can that imagination of the Jews concerning the Messiah, (that he should be a mortal or corporal and earthly King, and should rule at Jerusalem in a political manner,) agree with this and the like declarations of the prophets?

For God here manifestly, and by a direct antithesis, opposes his Messiah and his kingdom to this our heaven and earth, and declares that this heaven "shall vanish away like smoke," (which certainly cannot take place without fire and burning, as it is spoken of 2 Pet. iii. 10,) that the earth" shall wax old like a garment," and that they that dwell therein shall die in like manner." But, saith he, my salvation which is now and ever near, and my righteousness which is gone forth, shall be for ever, and shall be an everlasting light; for this righteousness is the Lord thy God himself.'

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Here you see that Isaiah certainly understood the words of the prophet Nathan, who introduces God saying, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son-I will set him over my kingdom for ever: " and that he understood also these words of David, where he says, "Thou hast looked upon me as in the form of man, who, on high, is the Lord God," 2 Sam. vii, 19: where the meaning is the same as what I have now given, only the expression is more brief, "This is the law (or manner) of the man, the Lord God." For the reading of the common version in that passage, "Is this the law of man, O Lord God?" which is according to the interpretation of the Rabbins, signifies nothing at all!

BUT let us hear also the prophet Daniel, who exactly agrees with this prophetical passagė, chap. vii. 13, 14, where he says,

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"And I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Antient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

This passage is not obscure to us Christians. But let us see how it agrees also with the New Testa

ment.-Daniel saw a "son of man" in the "clouds : by which it is undoubtedly signified, that his kingdom would be, not earthly, perishable, or measurable by time, but heavenly and eternal. And therefore, the prophet says, that "the Antient of days," or God the Father, gave gave him power over all things, and that his power shall be "everlasting," and shall "not pass away." This eternity or "everlasting dominion can be given to no one that is a creature only, nor to an angelic nature, nor to a mere man; for it is properly divine, or a power and dominion belonging to God only.

For, what would God have above the creature, or what would he reserve as peculiar to himself, if he should put off his eternal power and eternal dominion, and give them to another? He would thus leave nothing to himself whatever, and he himself would be reduced to nothing, and some other would take his place to whom he had given over his eternal power! For it is certain that nothing whatever can consist apart from, or above, this eternal power: because, this itself comprehends all things in all nature, and allows of nothing to be apart from it, above it, or greater or equal to itself. Wherefore, it must of necessity follow, that this Person to whom eternal dominion is communicated, is the One only God, the Creator of all things.

And moreover, Daniel in this passage expressively sets forth the articles concerning the Three Persons_in the Godhead, and the human nature of the Son. For he who gives, and he who receives, must, of necessity, be distinct persons. That is, it is the Person of the Father that gives the "everlasting dominion" to the Son and it is the Person of the Son that holds it as received from the Father: and that from all eternity, without any beginning or end of time: otherwise, it could not be truly said to be "everlasting dominion." And to these is added the Third Person of the Holy Ghost, who speaks by the prophet Daniel. For no one could know such great and deep things as these, unless they were revealed unto him from above by the Holy Ghost, and by the voice and ministry of the prophets;

as we have often observed already;-that it was the Holy Ghost that spoke by the prophets in the scriptures. Moreover, the prophet plainly calls this Son of God to whom this "everlasting dominion" is given, a

son of man;" that is, truly man and the Son of David. You see, therefore, how diligently the prophets considered and set forth this article the "everlasting kingdom" spoken of in this PROMISE that was made to David by the prophet.

BUT here, that human reason becomes offended, and that fastidious wisdom which in many things would teach God himself, begins to answer and to dispute in opposition thus.- How can it be that God should give to any other that eternal power, which so properly belongs to himself that it cannot be separated from the divine essence itself, and without which he can be no longer God? For when this is thus given to another, what will he retain to himself? And moreover, (say they,) in the passage of Isaiah before cited, chap. xlii. 8, God declares that he "will not give his glory to another, nor his praise to graven images." And certainly he cannot give such a power to any man; for man did not exist from eternity, but began in time, and was born mortal.'-But this even we Christians also believe and confess concerning Jesus the Son of David, and the Virgin. Thus you hear that very exalted wisdom prate which is supposed to have come down from heaven! of which kind, is the wisdom of the Jews, the Mahometans, and the Turks; and, add to these if you will, of the Scythians, who are now called Tartars, who are all men of that boundless wisdom, that they can as it were measure and exactly ascertain by the span of their reason the incomprehensible immensity of the Godhead, and wisely prove that God could not beget a Son because he has no wife! O shame, shame! And be thou ashamed, O Satan, and ye Jews and Mahometans, his satellites, and all ye that are of this reprobate school of Satan, who, leaving and casting away the Word of God, listen to and follow foolish, blind, and miserable human reason as your guide in things so great and so deeply

mysterious, which the capacity of no creature can embrace with all its powers, nor any one but God himself, and us who hear the Word of God, as far as the Holy Ghost shall reveal it unto us by the prophets.

? We Christians, however, who are illuminated with the light of the New Testament, can easily, plainly, rightly, and readily answer to such objections as these. We clearly maintain, that there are in our Lord and Saviour two natures in the one Person of the Son of God. And yet, there are not two, nor is the LoGos the Son of God one, and the Son of the Virgin another, (as Nestorius impiously dreams ;) but the same is one Christ, the Son of God and of the Virgin. And he received that eternal power, that is, the divinity itself, from before his nativity; not in time, but in eternity. And the eternal Father delivered this to him wholly and perfect from eternity; so that he himself has it everlastingly. And yet, not so that the Father deprived himself of it. But, that same power which properly and wholly belongs to the Father, and which he himself has held wholly from eternity, and still holds eternally; — that same power I say, he also communicated to the Son, and yet that same power is equally and peculiarly belonging to each Person! Rightly, therefore, and truly is it said, Isaiah xlii. 8, "My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." For the Son of God is not another God, nor an idol, but, together with the Father, the only One eternal God!

Thus Christ himself saith, John xvi. 15, "All things that the Father hath are mine."-He here declares that the Father has all things, and that he did not cease to retain all things after he had given them to the Son, but has all things still. And yet he does not say that he has all things alone, or that the Father has all things alone, so as that the Son should not have the same things also. But, says he, The Father hath all things; and yet, all things that the Father hath are mine.' Here this very particular is clearly declared,that the eternal Father and the Son have each the same Divinity and that, from the Father and the Son