Some remarkable passages have been selected by the elder Buxtorf and Witsius from the obscure Rabbinical writers of the middle ages, concerning the Metatron, a name probably derived from the Latin, Metator, and afterwards used in the sense of Mediator. The Targum of Jonathan gave this appellation to Enoch, after his translation. In subsequent times, it was differently understood; and the doctrine arose of an inferior Metatron, Enoch, and a superior, who is called in the Zohar "the very Shechina himself,-the crown of the ten [sephiroth] perfections,—the pillar of mediation-in whom the Holy and Blessed God appears in his Shechinah :-he is called Shaddai [Almighty]— the clothing [i. e. sensible form] of the Shaddai ;the servant of Jehovah, the elder of his house, the chief of his creatures, exercising dominion over all things, since they are committed to him."15 Here we find the very term applied to Jesus Christ in Col. i. 18, compared with Rev. iii. 18. Rabbi Levi seems to have applied it to the personified Wisdom, in the book of Proverbs. Rabbi Solomon uses it for the

interpretation of Exod. xxiii. 21. My name is in him :" and he writes; "Our Rabbis say, He is the Metatron, whose name is as the name of his Teacher, namely the All-sufficient God." Upon the same passage, Rabbi Bechai says; "He is named Metatron, because in this name are comprised the two significations of Lord and Messenger :-and, because he keeps the world, he is called the Keeper of Israel. It hence appears that he is the Lord of all beneath him, and that the whole host of things above and things below are in his power and under his hand. He is also the

15 Cited in Hengstenberg's Christologie, vol. i. pp. 241-243.

Messenger of all both above him and below him; because [God] hath made him to have dominion over all, and hath set him Lord of his house and all his possessions."

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The Cabbalists also said, that "the Metatron was the preceptor of Moses." Upon Exod. xxxiii. 14, “ My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee "rest;" Rabbi Moses ben Nachman writes thus; "Observe attentively what these words signify. Moses and the Israelites had always desired that Chief Angel; but, who he was they could not fully understand; for they neither learned it from others, nor adequately attained it by the gift of prophecy. But, as interpreters generally admit, the presence of God signifies God himself. My presence shall go with thee; that is, the Angel of the covenant whom ye delight in; he in whom my presence shall be seen; of whom it is said, In the accepted time I will hear thee. My name is in him; and I will give thee rest ; that is, I will cause him to be gentle and benign to thee, and to lead thee, not by severe law, but with kindness and clemency.'

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The Zohar says, "The Holy and Blessed God has assigned to the Metatron many names. Sometimes he is called Metator, because he is placed over the rain,” [from a childish paronomasia with matar, which signifies rain ;] again, the Stator, for he stops" [i. e. arrests the progess of] "the sins of Israel; he that shutteth, for he closes the doors of prayer ; he that openeth, since he opens the doors of prayer; the decider, since he determines doctrines and positions

16 Buxtorfi Lexic. Talmud. et Rabbin. col. 1192. Bâle, 1639. Witsii Miscellanea Sacra, vol. ii. p. 126. Herborn, 1712.

in the school and so he has many names, from his many kinds of offices."" Of such a low style of thinking and expression, the Rabbinical writings are full; but under this disguise, we can perceive the great truths of the Messiah's mediation, his expiation of sin, his authority, and his teachings. Other passages represent the Metatron and the Shechinah as the same.

There is obviously internal evidence that these hints and comments, similar to which many others from the same description of writers might be adduced, are shattered and faded relics of the knowledge, opinions, and conjectures of the latter ages of the Jewish

state.

17 Schöttgen's Jesus der Wahre Messias, pp. 12, 25. Leipzig, 1748. Comp. Is. xxii. 22; and Rev. iii. 7.

SECTION VI.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FROM THIS INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF OPINION AMONG THE JEWS AT THE PERIOD REFERRED TO.

WE may now put together the notices which we have been able to collect, on the state of general opinion among the Jews at and near the era of the origin of Christianity, on the question, Of what kind would be the person and character of their expected Messiah? The particulars, as they have been collected at the close of each of the preceding heads of inquiry, need not to be repeated. Each review has appeared to show that those articles of current, or of extensive, belief, were sublime, imperfectly understood, and in some respects inconsistent.

I. They were sublime. This is manifest from the relics of doctrine and worship which we have found in various ways, attributing to the Messiah preexistence, dominion, dignity above all the objects of creation, and other properties peculiar to the Deity.

II. They were imperfectly understood. This could not but be the case from the nature of the subject, from the reference of the expectation to a future and unknown time, and from the necessary obscurity belonging to unfulfilled prophecy, the great source from which these sentiments were drawn.

III. They were, in various respects, inconsistent. Not only did one theory oppose another, but each

appears to have laboured under difficulties and contradictions within itself. Such inconsistency we find both in Philo and in the Rabbinical books: and it is readily accounted for, from the mixture of traditionary opinions and diversified hypotheses with the stream of knowledge derived from the Old Testament prophecies. The subject was in itself obscure; and, under all the circumstances, it was not to be expected that the serious and inquisitive Jews of this period could avoid running into conjectures and incoherent notions. It was not yet the day-light of the Sun of righteousness it was a darkling sky, intersected with beams of light.

It is probable that this imperfection and inconsistency were still further promoted by the fond nationalism which, we have before observed, had acquired a general acceptance among the Jews at the time of which we are speaking. As piety decayed, and as the conquests of the Macedonians and the Romans spread before the eyes of the Jewish people the glare of military glory and the pomp of dominion, they became more and more secular in their views and expectations. Their hopes of a Messiah became closely united with their national pride and their wishes for a universal ascendency. The figurative representations of the Messiah's reign, given by the holy prophets, were eagerly taken in a literal signification, and were associated with still grosser ideas of ambition and voluptuousness. Thus the bulk of the nation rapidly lost sight of the spiritual and holy objects with which the language of prophecy surrounds its descriptions of the Messiah; and sunk into the habit of regarding him as a politician and a hero,