hat the primitive Christians had even more
sanguinary ideas of the vengeance of the Messiah upon the
wicked of the earth, than are even entertained by the Jews. Jesus
is there, described thus, "I saw Heaven opened, and behold a
white horse; and he that set upon him was called Faithful and
True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war, and out
of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the
nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth
the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God," v.
11, 15. Some idea of the slaughter meant by the writer of the
Revelations by "treading the wine press of the fierceness of the
wrath of Almighty God," may be understood from ch. xiv. 20,
where it is represented that the blood of men came out of this
wine press "by the space of a thousand and six hundred
furlongs!!"

I suppose that the reader is quite satisfied by what has been
adduced, that Mr. Everett's idea of the Messiah's being merely "a
spiritual saviour of the souls of men," is equally rejected by the Old
Testament and the New, and since Mr. Everett does not and
cannot pretend, that Jesus during the long space of 1800 years
has fulfilled the predictions relating to the Messiah in a literal
sense, which is the sense in which they must be fulfilled in order
to be made good, Mr. Everett is left without better proof of the
Messiahship of Jesus than bare opinion only, which attaineth not
to any certainty.

Mr. Everett supposes that a mere "Preacher of righteousness," is
capable of fulfilling all the predictions of the Messiah, which
represent him as putting an end to all wickedness and misery
throughout the World. How absurd!! there never was,[fn24] a
better or greater "Preacher of righteousness," than Jesus Christ
himself, and what did he effect among the people of his age? the
Gospels say, that they whipped him, and nailed him to a cross.
There has been since his time, for eighteen hundred years, I know
not how many millions of "preachers of righteousness," and what
have they effected? look at the history of the decline and fall of the
Roman Empire: look at the histories of mankind for the last 400
years. What scenes do they for the most part, present to the
shocked contemplation! are they not generally a complication of
folly, madness, and devilism, worthy of being recorded in triumph
by the evil one himself, in letters of blood and infernal fire?

What success have