nt unto us, that
we being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him
without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days
of our life."

Here we see again that in Luke's opinion the Messiah was not to
be merely "a spiritual saviour of the souls of men," but that he was
to "save Israel from their enemies and from the hand of all that
hated them," and this too is precisely what the prophets teach and
the Jews believe.

Again, from the first ch. of Acts 6. it is evident, that the primitive
Christians did not believe that the Messiah was to be merely a
spiritual saviour of the souls of men, but that he would perform for
Israel what was promised by the prophets. For the Apostles are
represented there as asking Jesus, previous to his ascension,
saying "Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?"

The way the writers of the New Testament, get over the objection
to the Messiahship of Jesus, founded on the nonfulfillment by him
of the splended visions of the prophets relative to the restoration
of the dispersion, the punishment of their oppressors, and the
diffusion of universal happiness to the tribes and of the world,
(which they represent as the consequence of the coming of the
Messiah) is, not by maintaining that the Messiah was to be merely
"a spiritual Saviour of the souls of men," but by affirming that
Jesus would shortly come again into the world to fulfill them. "The
Lord Jesus," says the writer of the second Epistle to the
Thessalonians ch. i. 7, "shall be revealed from Heaven with his
mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that
know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of our Lord, and from the glory of his power: when he
shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired of all
them that believe."[fn23]

Again, in the xii. ch. of the Revelations, Jesus is apparently
spoken of as destined "to rule all nations with a rod of iron." And in
the ii. ch. Jesus is represented as saying, that "he that overcometh
and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over
the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the
vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I
received of my Father," v: 26, and lastly, not to be tedious, there is
a passage in the xix. ch. of Revelations, which proves decisively
against Mr. Everett, t