EZEKIEL. Our Lord's Divinity is not to fully declared by Ezekiel, as by Jeremiah; glorious hints of it may, nevertheless, be collected from his writings, if they are fearched for, with the light fupplied by the harmony of the Scriptures.

I need not inform you, Rev. Sir, that 'till the end come, the Father hath committed all authority and judgment to the Son, John v. 22; and that the Father will glorioufly reign on the earth in and by his Son, his other felf; or the express image of his glory; for you have read thefe words of a Prophet, Ifaw in the night vifions, and behold one like the Son of man, came with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days, and there was given him (as he is Son of man) dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should ferve Him: his dominion is an everlafting dominion, which shall not pass away: and his kingdom, that which shall not be deftroyed: [though he will, in a future period of time, give it up to the Father: and then, the Son fhall only reign in the Father,] Dan. vii. 13. But, it is proper to remind you, that Immanuel (being both the mighty God, and the child born to bruife the Serpent's head,) may be confidered fome times as God, or proper Son of God the Father, and fome times as Man, or proper son of a woman, and in either cafe he bears very different names. (1) As proper Son of God the Father, he is called Jehovah-the Lord of hofts-God our Redeemer, &c. (2) As Son of a Virgin, he is called a Branch of Jeffe, David, Son of David, Son of Man, and Servant of God, becaufe he is equally obedient to the commands of the Father, the will of the Logos, and the motions of the Holy Ghoft: And (3) when he is confidered in his complex nature, as being the proper Son of God, and the real Son of Mary, wonderfully united in the Perfon of the Meffiah,

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he is called Immanuel, God manifefted in the flesh, the Word made flesh, or Jehovah Shepherd.

This being premifed, you will understand me, Sir, if I oblerve, that Ezekiel declares the glory of the Meffiah confidered in these three different points of view. Thus he represents God our Saviour, a Jehovah Shepherd, where he fays, Thus faith the Lord God, Behold I, even I will fearch out my fheep. As a Shepherd feeketh out his fcattered flock, fo will I feek out my sheep, and will gather them from the countries where they have been fcattered in the cloudy day:-And I will feed them in a good pafture, upon the mountains of Ifrael; I will feek that which was loft, bring again that which was driven away, bind that which was broken, firengthen that which was fick but I will deftroy the fat and the ftrong (the stubborn and the proud) Behold, faith the Lord God, I judge between the sheep and the goats: Ezek. xxxiv. II, 17.

Now, Rev. Sir, that this Jehovah Shepherd is Immanuel, I prove to you, both from the Old and the New Teftament. (1) From the New, where our Lord, applying to himself these very words of God in Ezekiel, fays, When the Son of man shall come in his glory [in the glory of the Godhead into which he hath been afumed] he fhall feparate the fons of men one from another, as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: Matt. xxv. 31. And (2) from the Old Testament: For, in this very chapter of Ezekiel under confideration, we fee God our Shepherd, pointing out to us the divine obedient man, in whom he condefcended to become vifible, and whom he calls his Servant, becaufe Chrift, as Son of David, is as perfectly obedient to the Father, and to the Word, confidered as David's Lord, as in a good man the body is perfectly obedient to the dictates of the rational foul to which it is united. For in the complex perlon

perfon of our Lord, God and Man is one Christ. I will fave my flock, faith Jehovah Shepherd, they fhall no more be a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle. But will he do it as invifible God, or by means of a Mediator, a man, in whom he will become vifible? Here, the Lord answers by Ezekiel, who thus points out the Humanity, as he had before afferted the Divinity of our Loid: And I will fet up one Shepherd over them, even my Servant David: "He shali be their [visible] Shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my Servant David, a [vifible] Prince among them, I the Lord have fpoken it. And the Lord that speaks here, is the Logos, the Word of the Father, the Word of the Lord, which came to the Prophets, and manifefted to them the will of the Father by the Holy Spirit: For fo intimately One are the Father and the Son, that the Son can do nothing of himself (as if he were divided from the Father) but what things foever the Father doth, thefe alfo the Son doth likewife: John v. 19, and Ezekiel XXXIV. 22, &c.

The Jehovah Shepherd and Feeder, whom Ezekiel declared in the 34th chapter of his Prophecy, is next extolled as Jehovah Subduer, and Purifier.

Thus faith the Lord God to the House of Ifrael, I will gather you out of all countries, and then will I fprinkle clean water upon you, and cleanfe you from all filthiness and all your idols. A new heart will I give you, and a new fpirit will I put within you, and caufe you to walk in my Statutes [or to be my faithful and obedient fubje&ts,] and ye fhall be my happy people.

Now, Rev. Sir, that the Lord will thus fubdue and purify ifrael, in and by a Mediator, in whom he will become vifible, and by whom he will operate all the wonders here promiled, I prove both from the New and Old Teftament. (1) From

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the New-John the Baptift, pointing out this divine Purifier said, as he fhewed our Lord, Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the fin of the world; I indeed baptize you with water, but he fhall baptize you with the Holy Ghoft: He fhall pour out the Spirit promifed by Ezekiel. John i. 29, 33.(2) From the Old Teftament:For we read in the next Chapter of Ezekiel, Thus, faith the Lord God, Behold I will gather the children of Ifrael on every fide, and bring them into their own land, and I will make them one nation, and one King fhall reign over them all. Neither shall they defile themfelves any more with idols, nor with any of their tranfgreffions, but I will fave and cleanfe them; So fhall they be my people, and I will be their God, and David [here comes in our Lord confidered as Son of man] and David my Servant fhall be King over them, and they all fhall have one Shepherd, and [by his example and help] they fhall walk in my judgments. And my Servant David, fhall be their Prince for ever,-and I will fet my Sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore: Ezek. xxxvii. 21, 26. And, St. John defcribes this glorious Sanctuary, where he faith, I faw no Temple in the new Jerufalem, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, [or Jehovah and the livine Mediator, in whom he manifefts himfelf] are the temple of it: Rev. xxi, 22.

It remains now to fhow that Ezekiel speaks alfo of our Lord, as Jehovah Quickener; nor need I go beyond the chapter laft quoted, to find a reafonable proof of it, for in the beginning of that chapter, the Lord God fhews to the Prophet, the deplo rable ftate of corruption and death, in which were mankind in general, and the Jews in particular, by the ftriking emblem of a valley full of dry bones, and faith to thefe bones, Behold, I will caufe breath to enter into you, and ye shall live, and know that I am the Lord, when I have brought you up out

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Fyour graves, and put my fpirit in you: Ezekiel xxxvii. 1, 14. If you afk, Will not the Lord God do this himself immedia ely? I anfwer in the negative, for three reafons: (1) Even in the emblematic vifion, God did not raile the dry bones till the Prophet, who was a type of our great Prophet, had prophefied to the Spirit, and called for the quickening breath to come from the four winds, that the flain might live: ver. 9 and 10.— (2) This mediating and quickening Prophet, is immediately mentioned, and called DAVID, the Servant of God, and the Prince of the people for ever ver. 24 and 25.-(3) It could not be the Son of Jeffe, David, who had been dead fome hundied years when Ezekiel prophefied.-(4) It was then He, whom Daniel calls Methiah the Prince, and whom the Evangelifts name Jefus, the Son of David, by the Virgin Mary.-And (5) that our Lord, confidered as Son of man, is the wonderful Agent of Jehovah quickener, who dwells in him bodily, is evident from his own words: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the refurrection, and the life: The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live: For as the Father raifeth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even fo the Son quickeneth whom he will. And this Son of God having joined himself to our nature, that he might raife us from our fall, is now, and for ever will be that Meffiah the Prince, whofe fufferings and glory were foretold by Daniel, and by Ezekiel, and whom St. Paul calls a quickening Spirit, and the Lord from Heaven. From these five reafons, we may, I think, fafely conclude, that Ezekiel hath foretold the glory of the Meffiah, as the mighty God, and the Child born to us. I have dwelt the longer on this proof. of our Lord's Divinity from this Prophet, becaufe

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