that the
history of David the son of Jesse, contained in the Bible, (which,
as all the world knows, is an oriental book abounding in figurative
expressions) was not to be understood literally, but that it was
very possible that this supposed monarch of Israel, who is
represented as having "saved it from its enemies on every side,"
was after all, probably only a spiritual saviour of the souls of the
Israelites, by having distinguished himself as a prophet, a
preacher of righteousness, and a composer of Psalms!! [fn22]

As Mr. Everett says, I "cheerfully leave this part of the controversy,
with the answer to this question which every rational inquirer will
give;" p. 63.

Mr. Everett, however, in maintaining that the Messiah, was to be
merely a preacher of righteousness, a founder of a new religion,
and a. spiritual saviour of the souls of men, not only opposes dicta
of the prophets of the Old Testament, but is expressly
contradicted by the doctrine of the New, which maintains the same
ideas of the Messiah that the prophets teach and the Jews
believe; and this with the indulgence of the reader's patience I will
plainly show.

The angel is recorded, Luke, ch. i. 31, to have told Mary,
concerning Jesus whom the author of that Gospel supposes to
have been the Messiah, that "the Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Now this
is precisely the doctrine, concerning the Messiah, believed by the
Jews from that time to the present; for we see that Luke
represents that the Messiah was not to be merely a spiritual
saviour of the souls of men, but was actually to set upon the
throne of David, and reign over the house of Jacob for ever; which
is precisely what the prophets teach and the Jews believe.

Again, in the same ch. 68, the writer of that Gospel represents
Zecharias, when filled with the Holy Ghost, as predicting
concerning Jesus as follows. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a
horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David: as he
spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since
the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and
from the hand of all that hate us: to perform the mercy promised to
our Fathers, and to remember his holy covenant: the oath which
he swore to our father Abraham, that he would gra