REDEMPTION. 321
A Prophet of thy nation like to me.' Like me, he saith ; what manner of Man is that ? Was 't aught as whom ye late Messias deem'd ? Or whom the prophet after sagely sang ? Assault with dangers from his earliest youth, By Pharao that, by Herod this beset? And as through Egypt he was brought from death, So hath not Osee said of this your Christ, 1 From out of Egypt I have call'd my Son' Whither he fled, when Rama heard the voice Of Rachel, mourning for the tender babes, Aloud, with tears lamenting, comfortless.
" But Juda doth a temp'ral king demand, A conqueror, with might and power arm'd ; Nor else will brook the sound of Shiloh come. Herein, alas ! doth Juda greatly err, Who heav'nly sees not, wedded to the earth. In this a stone of stumbling Christ becomes, Offense to Israel, snare to Juda's house, And to Jerusalem destruction sure ; His life, his poverty, his death, the rock, On which they split, in hopeless ruin lie, And utter perish in their unbelief. Where is it writ, a temporal king shall reign ? A spiritual every part doth trace.
- Tis true, he must from David's loins descend
' The Root of Isai, Flower of his stem, The Bud of Justice shall from David spring,' Is clearly writ, direct in legal line. But if of David, not less son of God 1 Thou art my Son, this day I thee begot/ God hath himself declared, e'en as the first.
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