EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE TO THE ESSAYS. "THESE Essays principally regard the essential Divinity of the GREAT REDEEMER, and the proof of it is taken from the names and titles which are ascribed to him in the Bible, and more especially in the Old Testament. This method is used partly to show that the ancient believers were apprized of his Divine nature, and partly to demonstrate (contrary to a strange and ignorant opinion which has circulated in these days) that the declarations of this Divine Nature in Christ are as positively expressed in the one Testament as in the other; both members of the Sacred Volume forming one Revelation of the truth of God, in prophecy and fulfilment, and mutually attesting and confirming the whole. Indeed, as a valuable writer justly observes, "The New Testament can never be understood and explained but by the Old." If the names, therefore, which God hath ascribed to his Divine Nature, in order to raise proper ideas of himself and his grace to men, and which consequently are peculiar to the Divine Nature; if these are by Him or by his inspiration applied to the Messiah, they are not and cannot be falsely applied. If the titles then are truly his, the sense of those titles must as truly belong to him; and consequently he will stand declared to be JEHOVAH with respect to his own proper subsistence, and God and Man in one Christ, with respect to his office in the redemption of sinners. The title "Hora Solitariæ is prefixed to these papers, because they were the retired employment only of such parts of the author's time as were disengaged from the duties of a public station, and the subject on which they treat was his great consolation under the loss of an affectionate and valuable friend. The Divinity and allsufficiency of the Great Redeemer, he found by a little experience, to be a source of peace when none could be found in aught beside; and he will rejoice even in a more perfect state of being, if the solitary hours appointed him on earth shall be made useful to others, or if those who walk and love to walk in a retired path (which, alas! is too little trod by Christians in this evil world) shall find satisfaction in these considerations, which afforded a true and solid pleasure to him. Experience will, however, testify this great truth, that the grace of an Almighty Saviour alone can triumph over all exterior circumstances, and when human expectations and human aids are at their lowest ebb, can roll in a tide of joy which shall never roll back again throughout eternity." "We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks."-Isaiah xxvi. 1. "Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks.”—Psalm xlviii. 12, 13. "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."- Psalm xviii. 2. "And they that know thy NAME will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”—Psalm ix. 10. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance."-Psalm xxxiii. 12. 66 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength."-Isaiah xxvi. 4. THOUGHTS FOR THE PRESENT HOUR. JEHOVA H. Ps. LXVIII. 4. "O sing unto the Lord, and sing praises unto his name: magnify him that rideth upon the heavens, as it were upon an horse, praise him in his name JAH, and rejoice before him." WE learn from the book of Numbers,* that the commencement of this sublime and beautiful Psalm was made use of by Moses, whenever the ark was lifted up and set forward before the armies of Israel in their progress towards the promised land of Canaan. "Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, let them also that hate him flee before him." So, in like manner, the Church would celebrate now the praises of her Redeemer, rising from *Numbers x. 35. B |
