DTSOOURS$ IIÍ. 623 done with this design, that the Lord might dwell among them; that is, that the heathens might become the people, the kingdom, the habitation and sanctuary of God, as the nation of the Jews had been before ; that Christ who is God-man, and who was king of the saints or the holy nation of Israel, might become king of all nations. Now what a glorious scene of things opens itself to us by this interpretation of a few scriptures ? How naturally and how easily do all things coincide and lead us to this amazing prospect of the victory of Christ over the devil ? How illustrious does he appear in this dispossession of evil angels of their dominions on earth, at least so far as to make them become his slaves, and act peculiarly by his permission ? Howmagnificent doesthis doctrine represent the ascension and exaltation of our blessed Saviour? And how gloriously does the God-man Christ-Jesus, who in ancient ages was the king of Israel, aggrandize and extend his present title and dominion as King of nations, and Lord of all, since his death and ascension to heaven ? 7. This opinion of the pre- existent soul of Christ is made use of by Dr. Knight, in his " Primitive Christianity vindicated against Mr. Whiston," page 85. to explain those reproofs given to Job by Eliphaz ; Job xv. 7. Art thou the first man that was born ? Wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of God ? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? Let us consider each of these four sentences distinctly. °; Art thou the first man that was born ? Mn mpxa, eogg.rms rywnOn; ; Wast thou born the first of men ?" as it is in the sep- tuagint. Art thou that primitive Spirit, " the first-born of the creation ?" Col. i. 15. Wast thou made before the hills? Adam was formedalter the hills, but this first man the Messiah, speak- ing of himself in the person of wisdom, says, Before the hills was I born, or brought forth ; Prov. viii. 25. which in the Hebrew are thevery words of Job applied to the first man with only a change of the second to the first person': The first man then and the divine wisdom, or Messiah, are all one, that is, by the personal union of this first man to the divine word or wisdom. Hast thou heard the secret of God ? The septuagint add to it, Did God use thee as a counsellor ? But the Messiah by way of eminence is called the counsellor ; Isa. ix. O. in the septuagint, the angel of the great counsellor ; and perhaps it is he to whom God said, Let us make man; Gen. i. 36. And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? Does all divine wisdom dwell in thee? It is only in the Messiah in the person of Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; Col. ii. 3. From these interrogatories put to Job, Dr. Knight infers, that the ancients had a notion of such a wonderful being, such a glo- rious and first-created human spirit. As for myself, I dare not
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