of its restoration and peace through Jefus Christ, in his first eight chapters. In the ninth chapter, verfe 9, 10, &c. upon receiving the revelation of the first coming of Chrift to teach fallen man his duty and obedience to God, to fuffer as an atonement to the unchangeable and righteous juftice of his Father, and to redeem from eternal death all that fhould believe in, and practise his doctrines; he breaks out into this ecftatic rapture: "Rejoice greatly, "O daughter of Zion, O daughter of Jerufalem: "behold thy KING cometh unto thee; he is juft, "and having falvation; lowly, and riding upon an 66 afs, and a colt the foal of an afs." After dwelling upon these particular circumftances (the very circumftances of Chrift when he went into Jerusalem, to be wrongfully accufed, betrayed, unjustly condemned, barbaroufly infulted, and CRUCIFIED), he foretels, in the fame chapter, the rapid and wonderful progrefs of the Gospel of Chrift, under the miniftry of the apoftles in the four firft centuries, notwithstanding their shepherd was taken from them. In the tenth chapter he briefly intimates the fubfequent declenfion and apoftafy of the church, and yet affures the remnant of the merciful protection of God. In the eleventh chapter, foreseeing the declenfion of the church, after it had arrived at the zenith of power and glory in the fixth century, he yet more clearly foretels it, and points out the cause of it; namely, the plundered wealth, abominable corruption, debauchery, and depravity of the clergy, which continued from the fixth to the Reformation. His words are, "Open thy door, O Lebanon (the church), that the fire (the judgments of God) may devour thy cedars (thy rulers and great men): howl fir-tree (the interior flock of the church), for the cedar is fallen," (thy great men, the clergy, are become corrupt and fallen from righteousness.)

* Ver, I.

"There

"There is a voice of the howling" (the voice of falfe doctrines and wickedness) of the fhepherds (the clergy): For their glory (their lives and righteous conversations) are fpoiled," corrupted, and polluted. It was this corruption and depravity of the clergy, which enabled Satan to build up his temporary kingdoms of the Mohamedan and Papal apoftafies, the arts, frauds, perfecutions, darkness, fenfuality, and idolatries, of which had nearly deftroyed the true church of Chrift. In the twelfth chapter the prophet briefly alludes to the first coming of Chrift, and clearly foretels the confequent destruction of Jerufalem. In the thirteenth chapter he is yet more explicit refpecting the bleffed effects of the first coming of Chrift, fuch as, "In that day "there fhall be a fountain opened to the house of "David (the church of Chrift) for fin, and for "uncleanness." And it fhall come to pass in that day (the days of the Gofpel of Chrift) faith the Lord of hofis, that I will cut off the names of "the idols out of the land, and they fhall be no "more remembered;" (evidently meaning the conqueft of Chrift over the heathen world, by the fuppreffion of the powers of its idolatry in the fourth century.) "And I will also cause the prophets and "unclean fpirits to pafs out of the land +," (as evidently pointing out the future filence and abolition of the heathen fibyls, prophets, and oracles, at the fame time; and the fuppreffion of the unclean fpirits of conjuration and witchcraft, which had, before his coming, gencrally prevailed over a deluded world.) Having described these events, which were the well-known confequences of the first coming of Chrift, in the first five verfes; he then foretels the office of Chrift, which was that of a "fhepherd," to take care of his "cattle," meaning

* Ver. 3:

+ Ver. 1. ́

Ver. 2.

his flock, his church: "I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth*. He foretels the death of Chrift, or the "fmiting of "the fhepherd," with the manner of his death, and the very place where it fhould happen: the firft by thewounds in his hands," made by the nailing of them to the crofs; and the fecond, by "thofe "with which I was wounded in the houfe of my "friends" evidently pointing out the city of Jerufalem, where he had converted many people, who loved and followed him. He foretels the "fcat"tering of the fheep," or flock of Chrift; the divifion of the church, by the Pope and Mohamed, into two parts, or apoftafies; that thofe "two "parts fhould be cut off and die;" and that the third, or the remnant of the church, which shall have been worthy of the divine mercy, thall be "left in the land," be refined and tried, as filver and gold is refined and tried, and in the end be faved as the "people of God." They fhall call on the name of God, and he fhall fay, "It is my peo"ple; and they fhall fay, The Lord is my God."

From this general view of the fate of the church, from its foundation to the fecond coming of Chrift, the prophet paffes to a defcription of the coming itself, and to his reign upon earth. Reader, it is too long for infertion here; let me, therefore, entreat thee to perufe it in the text: contemplate it for thyfelf, with that attention and reverence which the importance and awfulness of the fubject demand; and may the God of wifdom and mercy give thee an understanding heart! It certainly contains a defcription of that which we all ought to know: a defcription of the almighty power of the God of Heaven; of the dreadful ftate, the confufion, the

* Ver. 5.

++ Ver. 6, 7.

Ver, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

tumult,

tumult, the uproar, the fearful difmay, and utter deftruction of the unbeliever and ungodly in the last day; and of the bleffed and never-ending felicity of those who believe in the revealed word of God, and fear him*. I fhall extract one paffage more, and which relates to my present subject, the fecond coming of Christ. Behold," fays the prophet, "the day of "the Lord cometh. And the Lord my God fhall

come, and all the faints with him. And it fhall "be, in that day, that living waters fhall go out " from Jerufalem: and the Lord fhall be KING over "all the earth. In that day there fhall be ONE "LORD, and his name ONE!"

Nor is Malachi, the laft of the Hebrew prophets, whofe name imports angelical mildness of difpofition, lefs clear and explicit, in predicting those great events. For he reprimands the wicked "priefts that defpife the name of God," for their wantonnefs and pollutions: he threatens them with the converfion of the Gentiles to the word of God; he reminds them of the "covenant of life and peace "made with Levi," and of the treachery and abo mination committed in Ifrael and Jerufalem;" and foretels the judgments of God, which afterwards fell upon "Judah," or the Jewish nation. He next, in due order of time, as the events were to come to pass, proceeds to the first coming of Chrift, the beloved Son of God, to promulgate the new covenant, the everlafting covenant" made with "Abraham and his feed," and to offer terms of reftoration to the peace of God, and of falvation to a fallen world. He takes up this fubject from the beginning, and even announces the coming of John the Baptift, to "prepare the way" for this coming of

* Ver. 20, 21.

↑ Chap. i. 6, per totum.

Chrift.

Chrift. But hear the prophet's own words, and judge: Behold, I will fend my meffenger, and he "thall prepare the way before me; and the Lord,

whom ye feek, fhall fuddenly come to his temple, even the meffenger of the covenant, whom ye σε delight in; behold he fhall come, faith the "Lord of Hofis. But who shall abide the day of

gene

his coming? and who fhall ftand when he appear"eth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like ful"ler's foap," &c. The remainder of the chapter is prophetic of the wicked state in which the rality of the world will continue, to the very day of the fecond coming of Chrift; and of the inceffant expoftulations, and unwearied and earneft invitations of God to the wicked and ungodly part of mankind, to embrace the terms of his covenant through "Jefus Chrift," and to turn from the evil of their ways. "Return unto me, and I will return "unto you, faith the Lord of Hofts." But their anfwer is to be the answer of petulance, contempt, and wickedness. "Wherein fhall we return?" From this wicked state of the world, in which it is to continue until, Chrift, fhall come to reform and reign in the hearts of men; he proceeds to defcribe the dreadful events of that awful day. "For be"hold," fays he, "the day cometh that shall burn "as an OVEN and all the proud, yea, and all that "do WICKEDLY, fhall be stubble; and the day that "cometh fhall burn them up, faith the Lord of Hofts,

that it fhall leave them neither root nor branch. "But unto you that fear my name, fhall the sun of "RIGHTEOUSNESS arife, with healing in his wings;

* Messenger. See Ifaiah alfo, xl. 3. who briefly foretels the fame event. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, 86 Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make strait in the defert a "highway for our God."

+ Chap. iii. 1, 2, 3, 4.

‡ Ver. i. 7.

" and