"they were much cast down [15") in their "own eyes." Neh. vi. 16. This furnishes a most noble climax to the sentence: representing first, the sharpness of CHRIST's arrows; next, the havoc they spread; and lastly, the general dismay and consternation produced thereby in the heart of all THE KING's enemies; even of those who were not engaged in the battle.—And the whole accords perfectly with the representations of Holy Writ-In another sublime vision of the Apocalypse, CHRIST triumphant is thus represented, Rev. vi. 2.

"And I saw, and lo a white horse; and "his rider having a bow: and there was "given to him a crown: and he went forth

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conquering and in order to conquer"—thus marking his present and future conquests: and the latter are thus magnificently described, after the opening of the sixth Seal; Rev. vi. 12.

"And lo, there was a great earthquake; "and the sun became black as hair sackcloth, "and the moon as blood; and the stars of "heaven fell to the ground, as a fig-tree "casteth its early figs, when shaken by ą

"great wind: And the heaven departed, as a "scroll rolled up, and every mountain and "island were removed out of their places:"

And the effects of these tremendous judg

ments, on the heart of all beholders, is thus awfully represented in the sublimest imagery: vi. 15.

"And the Kings of the earth, and the "nobles, and the rich, and the captains, and "the mighty, and every servant, and every freeman, hid themselves in the caves, and "in the rocks of the mountains: And they

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say to the mountains and to the rocks: "Fall upon us! and hide us from the face of "HIM THAT SITTETH ON THE THRONE, "and from the wrath of THE LAMB; for "the great day of his wrath is come, and "who shall be able to stand!"

6-7. "Thy Throne, O GOD, [is] for ever and ever ; "A Sceptre of Equity is the Sceptre of thy "kingdom;

"Thou didst love righteousness and hate wicked66 ness,

Therefore GOD, THY GOD, hath anointed thee "With oil of gladness above thy fellows."

Various and discordant have been the

guesses, and abortive the attempts of the

open

open and the concealed enemies, or the wellmeaning but injudicious friends of CHRISTIANITY, to overthrow, undermine or unsettle the unequivocal and decisive evidence of this most important passage, to the proper divinity of JESUS CHRIST: And although I have already endeavoured to vindicate it from misrepresentation, in the foregoing Dissertations, yet it may not be useless or unnecessary to enumerate the several glosses, ancient and modern, that have been put thereon;

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1. Aben Ezra, to elude its force, supposes an ellipsis of the word throne, understood: Thy throne is [the throne] of GOD, for "ever"-as " Solomon sate on the throne of “the LORD, as King, instead of David his "Father," 1 Chron. xxix. 23. But a greater than Solomon is here meant ; and the ellipsis is far fetched, and rejected by the Chaldee Paraphrast, and all the versions without exception.

2. R. Gaon, supposes an ellipsis of “Da“vid,” and of “will establish”—thus, “Thy "throne, [O David,] GOD [will establish] "for ever." But to suppose David, the writer

writer of the Hymn, to apostrophize himself thus, is absurd and impious.

3. He also supposes, that the term God, may be used in an inferior sense, as "Moses "was made a God to Pharaoh," Exod. vii. 1

And this notion seems to have been adopted by the BRITISH CRITIC, as stated before.

4. A Leader in the Unitarian School, Wakefield, renders- GOD.is thy throne for "ever and ever." But to convert GOD himself into a throne for the Son to sit is ،، a perversion of rhetoric and reason, “ little short of blasphemy.”

on,

5. The surrmise, ، Gon [saith] thy throne "is to the age of the age," Orth. Church. Mag. vol. i. 331, cannot stand, for this additional reason; that although ayet, "saith" might perhaps be understood, as marking a citation in the Introduction to the Hebrews:

it cannot possibly be understood or introduced without violence to the context, in the forty-fifth Psalm, in which ELOHIM, God, is part of the original text; and is taken vocatively, by the Chaldee paraphrast and all the versions; as i ɛ05, was proved to

be,

be, in the Septuagint version of Ps. xxii. 1, compared with Matt. xxvii. 46.

6. As a last subterfuge, some would fain expunge ÆLOHIM entirely from the text, (see Slichtingius on Rom. ix. 5,) contrary to all ancient versions, editions, and MSS.

Rejecting all these " imaginations," as idle and mischievous, we are fully authorized to understand the passage in the usual construction, as descriptive of the divinity of CHRIST; of the duration of his kingdom, and of his transcendent exaltation, in consequence of his superior worth and excellence, above his fellows, or the angels; (so understood in the Introduction of the Hebrews, i. 7-9)—far above every principality, and jurisdiction, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the future: Ephes. i. 21. "Angels and jurisdictions and powers

16

having been subjected unto Him," 1 Pet. iii. 22. "to whom all authority was given in "Heaven and in earth," at his resurrection. Matt. xxviii. 18.

The following sublime description of his

Throne,