been attended with some difficulty, had not St. Luke explained it, ch. i. 17. where the angel declares, that he (John the Baptift) shall go before bim in the spirit and power of ELIAS: from whence it appears that the Elias whom our Saviour afferts to be already come, was not Elias who lived in the days of the kings of Ifrael, but one who was to come in the spirit and power of that prophet; and that our Lord did not mean that John was the ancient Elias, but only a figurative one, seems probable from the words, and if ye will receive it; i. e. if you rightly comprehend my meaning, and take it not too literally. When therefore John denies himself to be Elias, his meaning is, that he was not the ancient Elias risen from the dead, (as the Jews seemed to fuppose him, and which opinion some of them afTerwards entertained concerning our Saviour) and not to deny that he was the person who was to come in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, &c. prophecied of Mal. iv. 6. and there called Elijah the Prophet; upon which account probably it is, that our Saviour here gives him the title of Elias. From all which it appears that John Baptist was the Elias that was to come, and that he was already come, our Lord positively, afferts. But how then are we to understand the immediately preceding words of our Saviour, Elias truly SHALL come and restore all things? Can the fame coming be both past and future? No surely. How then is this difficulty to be cleared up? Why very eafily. Our Lord here speaks of two different comings of Elias. That this is no feigned hypothesis in order to get rid of a difficulty, but agreeable to all the ancient prophecies, will appear by confidering them more attentively. The messenger who was to prepare the way, &c. and whom Christ himself declares to be John the Baptift, Matt. xi. 10 *, was immediately to precede the fudden coming of the Lord, when he was to be like a refiner's fire, &c. fo that it was a question who should be able to abide the day of his coming. Now that this could not be the first coming of Christ which is here spoken of is plain, for that was neither sudden, nor unexpected, there being at that time among the Jews a general expectation of him. Neither was that his coming, with any fuch terror as is here described, but, on the contrary, with fuch meekness as is foretold by Ifaiah xlii. 3. A bruised reed shall be not break : and the smoaking flax shall be not quench. But this description answers exactly to the account we have in scripture of the second * This character is also what John takes to himself in his answer to the Jews, John i. 23. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ftraight the way of the Lord, as faid the Prophet ESAIAS; which prophecy is in the 3d verse of the 40th chapter of Isaiah, and relates to that preparation He is to make for the second coming of the Lord, of which this chapter is evidently a description; and of the future happy state of Jerufalem, as appears from the first and fecond verses. 1 coming of Christ, which is to be not only fudden and unexpected, but also full of terror, and to be a day of destruction to ungodly men, as might be proved by very numerous passages of scripture. It is said, Mal. iv. 5. Behold I will fend you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; which day is by some supposed to be the time of the deftruction of Jerufalem. But whoever will observe the verse following, which describes the effects of Elijab's coming, will be soon convinced that this dreadful day was not that of the destruction of Jerufalem; for it is faid, He (Elijah) shall turn the beart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, least I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now it does not appear that any such great reformation, or turning of the hearts of the children to their fathers, &c. was effected by St. John the Baptift, as to hinder the land from being smitten with a curse soon after. Befides, this dreadful day of the Lord is plainly the fame mentioned in the first verse of the chapter: Behold the day cometh which shall burn like an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, &c. and it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 3. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, faith the Lord of Hosts; which words are not applicable to the destruction of Jerufalem, which neither destroyed all the proud, nor all that did wickedly; neither neither were they trodden down by the people of God, nor were as ashes under their feet. Since then these prophecies do not appear to have been fulfilled as yet, with regard to many of the most material circumstances, by Elias, whom our Lord declares to be already come, it follows, that there is a second coming of. Elias yet future, according to our Saviour's prediction : Elias SHALL truly first come and restore all things *; which prediction could not possibly relate to the • * These words our Saviour spake when John Baptift was now beheaded, and yet spake as of a thing future, • (ἀποκαζασήσει πάντα) Elias shall come, and shall restore all things. How can this be spoken of John Baptift, unless ⚫ he be to come again? Besides, I cannot see how this re• ftoring of all things can be verified of the ministry of John • Baptift at the first coming of Christ, which continued but a very short time, and did no such thing as these words feem ⚫ to imply; for the restoring of all things belongs not to the ، first, but to the second coming of Christ, if we will believe • St. Peter in his first sermon in the temple after Chrift's • ascension, Attis iii. 19, &c. where he thus speaks unto • the Jews: Repent (faith he) and be converted, for the blotting • out of your fins, that the times of refreshing may come from the • presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, which • before was preached unto you; whom the heavens must receive • until the times of the reftitution of all things, which God hath • Spoken by the mouths of all his holy Prophets fince the world • began. The word is the fame ἀποκαλαςάσεως παντων. If • the time of restoring all things be not till the second coming • of Christ, how could John Baptist restore all things at his first? If the Master came not to restore all things till then, • surely his harbinger, who is to prepare his way for restor• ing all things, is not to be looked for till then.' - Mede, Book I. Difc. 25. coming of Elias that was then past, because John Baptist was so far from restoring all things, that the all things here meant, i. e. all things relating to the Jewish state, were a little while after wholly destroyed. If any one thinks that the restoring of all things has no relation to the Jewish state, I defire him to point out any other sense in which John did restore all things. The prophecies therefore which I have quoted from Malachi concerning the messenger, or Elias, there promised, principally relate to the second coming of Elias, which is to precede the fecond coming of Christ, and the restoration of Ifrael, which latter is here meant by restoring all things *. At this time it is that he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord+. ، Thus * Accordingly the son of Sirach, Eccluf. xliii. 10. says of Elias, that he was ordained to turn the heart of the father unto the fon, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. † For the phrafe of turning (or, as I had rather translate ' it, restoring, as the LXX, αποκαλαςησει) the heart of the ' fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fa'thers; the meaning is, that this Elias should bring the re• fractory and unbelieving pofterity of the Jewish nation to • have the fame heart and mind that their holy fathers and • progenitors had, who feared God and believed his promises, that so the fathers might as it were rejoice in them, and own them for their children; that is, he should con' vert them to the faith of that Christ whom their fathers ⚫ hoped in and looked for, lest continuing obstinate in their ⚫ unbelief till the great day of Christ's second coming, they ⚫ might perish among the rest of the enemies of his kingdom. • For |