any time." But it is often said in the Old Testament that the patriarchs, the prophets, and the people saw God; and there is an ease, a familiarity of intercourse in many of the scenes which are recorded, inconsistent with the awful majesty of him who covereth himself with thick clouds. The God of Israel, whom the people saw, is often called an angel, i. e. a person sent; therefore he cannot be God the Father, for it is impossible that the Father should be sent by any one. But he is also called Jehovah. The highest titles, the most exalted actions, and the most entire reverence are appropriated to him. Therefore he cannot be a being of an inferior order. And the only method in which we can reconcile the seeming discordance is, by supposing that he is the Son of God, who, as we learn from John, "was in the beginning with God, and was God," who being at a particular time "made flesh," and so manifested in the human nature, may be conceived, without irreverence, to have manifested himself at former times in different ways. This supposition, suggested by the language of the Old Testament, seems to be confirmed by the words of our Lord, John vi. 46, "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father," and of his apostle, John i. 18, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." The meaning of this passage extends to the former declarations of God under the Old Testament. For it is remarkable, that it is not the preterperfect tense which is used in the original, but the aorist, which intimates that he, "who is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared him" also in times past. He who alone was qualified to declare God, who certainly did declare him by the Gospel, and who is styled by the apostle, "the image of the invisible God," as the person in whom the glory of the Godhead appeared to man, seems to be pointed out as the angel who was called by the name of God in ancient times.

These general principles receive a striking illustration when we attend to the detail of the appearances recorded in the Old Testament, because we find upon examination that all the divine appearances made in a succession of ages, are referred to one person, who is often called in the same passage, both Angel and Jehovah, and that several incidental expressions in the New Testament mark out Christ to be this person.

SECTION I.

ALL APPEARANCES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT REFERRED TO ONE PERSON, CALLED

ANGEL AND GOD.

In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, it is said that "the Lord," which, when written in capital letters, is always the translation of Jehovah, that "Jehovah appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre," and the manner of the appearance is very particularly related. "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and three men stood by him." He received them hospitably, according to the manners of the times.

In the course of the interview, one of the three speaks with the authority of God, promises such blessings as God only can bestow, and is called by the historian Jehovah. Two of the men departed and "went toward Sodom, but Abraham," it is said, "stood yet before the Lord." He inquires of him respectfully about the fate of Sodom; he reasons with him as the Judge of all the earth, who has it in his power to save and to destroy; and we may judge of the impressions which he now has of the nature of the man, whom a little before he had received in his tent, when he says to him, "Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes." It is the same Lord, whom Abraham saw in this manner, that appeared to him at other times, and, after his death, to his son Isaac; for a reference is made in the future appearances to the promise that had been made at this time. To Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, the Lord appeared upon different occasions, under the name of the God of Abraham and Isaac, i. e. the God who had blessed them; he repeats to Jacob what he had said to them, that his posterity should possess the land of Canaan, and become a great nation, and that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. xxviii. 13, 14. Jacob, after one appearance, said, "I have seen God face to face," xxxii. 30; after another, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and he called the name of the place Bethel," i. e. the house of God, xxviii. 16-19. He raised a pillar; he vowed a vow to the God whom he had seen, and at his return he paid the vow. Yet this God, to whom he gave these divine honours, and of whom he spoke at some times as Jehovah the God of Abraham and Isaac, at other times he calls an angel. "The angel of God," he says, "spake unto me in a dream, saying, I am the God of Bethel," xxxi. 11-13; and upon his death-bed he gives in the same sentence the name of God and angel to this person, xlviii. 15. "He blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." The prophet Hosea refers in one place to the earnestness with which Jacob begged a blessing from the Lord who appeared to him, which is called in Genesis his wrestling with a man and prevailing. So says Hosea, xii. 2-5. "By his strength he had power with God, yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial." The same person is called in this passage God, the angel, and the Lord God of hosts.

In Exodus iii. we read, that when Moses came to Horeb, "the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Moses turned about to see this sight, "And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I am come down to deliver them, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people." You will

observe in this passage an interchange of the names angel and God, a reference to the former appearances which the patriarchs had seen, and a connexion established between this appearance and the subsequent manifestations to the children of Israel; so that the person whom Abraham saw in the plains of Mamre, and who brought Israel out of Egypt, is declared to be the same. Moses asks the name by which he should call the God who had thus come down to deliver the children of Israel. "And God said, I am that I am : thou shalt say to the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." This very particular mode of expression is intended to be the interpretation of Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God, implying his necessary, eternal, and unchangeable existence. Other beings may be, or may not be. There was a time when they were not: the will of him who called them into existence may annihilate them; and even while they continue to exist, there may be such alterations upon the manner of their being, as to make them appear totally different from what they once were. But God always was, and always will be, that which he now is: and the name which distinguishes him from every other being, and is truly expressive of his character, is this, y su ov.

It is very remarkable that in the same passage in which the person who appeared to Moses assumed this significant phrase as his name, he is called by the historian, the angel of the Lord; and Stephen, Acts vii. 30, 35, in relating this history before the Jewish Sanhedrim, shows the sense of his countrymen upon this point, by repeating twice the word angel. "There appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire." And again, "This Moses did God send to be a ruler and deliverer by the hands of the angel which appeared to him in the bush." Stephen says most accurately that Moses was sent to be a ruler and deliverer by the hands of this angel; for it was the same angel who appeared to him in the bush; that put a rod in his hand wherewith to do wonders before Pharaoh; that brought forth the people with an out-stretched arm, and led them through the wilderness. Accordingly, Exod. xiii. 21, we read "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire." In the next chapter, xiv. 19, we read, "The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them." The same Jehovah who led them out of Egypt gave them the law from Mount Sinai; for we read, Exod. xx. 1, 2, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Our attention is thus carried back by the preface of the law to that appearance which Moses had seen; and accordingly Stephen says, Acts vii. 38, "Moses was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai." An angel then spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, yet this angel in giving the law takes to himself the name of Jehovah. The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me:" and Moses when he recites in Deuteronomy the manner of giving the law, says expressiy, that God had given it; iv. 33, 36, 39, "Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard, and live? Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. Know, therefore,

this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else."

All the interpositions recorded in the Pentateuch, by which the enemies of the children of Israel were put to flight, and the people were safely conducted to the land of Canaan, are referred to the same person, who is often called the angel of the Lord that went before them. Moses, who begins the blessing which he pronounced upon the children of Israel before his death with these words, Deut. xxxiii. "The Lord came from Mount Sinai," seems to intend to connect the first appearance, which this Lord made to him in Horeb, with every subsequent manifestation of divine favour, when, in speaking of Joseph, he calls the blessing of God for which he prays, "the good will of him that dwelt in the bush." During a succession of ages all the affairs of the Jewish nation were administered with the attention and tenderness which might be expected from a tutelary deity, or guardian angel, to whom that province was specially committed; and the prophet Isaiah has expressed that protection amidst danger, that support and relief in all their distresses, which the people had experienced from his guardianship, in these beautiful words, Isaiah lxiii. 7, 9: "I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them and carried them all the days of old." Yet we are guarded in other places against degrading the God of Israel to a level with the inferior deities to whom the nations offered their worship. "Where are their Gods," says the Lord by Moses, Deut. xxxii. 36-40, "their rock in whom they trusted? See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say I live for ever." And Isaiah xliv. 6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God." This is the language in which the God of Israel speaks of himself, and in which he is addressed by the people through all the books of the Old Testament; and in the long addresses, several of which are recorded, the high characters which distinguish the true God are conjoined with the manifestations in former times, of which I have been giving the history, in such a manner as to show that both are applied to the same Person. One of the most striking examples is the solemn thanksgiving and prayer offered, Nehemiah, ch. ix. by all the congregation of Israel, who returned from the Babylonish captivity, in consequence of the edict of Cyrus the Great. "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the sea, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Thou art the Lord, the God who didst choose Abraham,-and madest a covenant with him, and didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,-and didst divide the sea before them,-and leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire. Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven,-yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness," &c. There

is no interruption, no change of person in the progress of this prayer, so that we must suppose a delusion to run through the whole of the Old Testament, unless the Creator of heaven and earth be the same Person whom Jacob, and Moses, and Isaiah, and Stephen call the Angel of the Lord.

In order to connect all the intimations which the Old Testament gives concerning the God of Israel, you must carry this along with you, that the person who appeared to Moses, and who gave the law from Mount Sinai, commanded the people to make him a sanctuary, that he might dwell amongst them. The command was given to Moses at the time when he went up into the midst of the cloud that abode upon Mount Sinai, and when the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the Mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. At this time Moses received from God the pattern of the ark of the tabernacle, and of the mercy-seat on the top of the ark, having cherubims which covered the mercy-seat with their wings, and looked towards one another. "Thou shalt put," said God, "the mercy-seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims, of all things which I will give thee in commandment to the children of Israel." Exod. xxv. 21. As soon as the tabernacle was reared, and the ark with these appurtenances was brought into it," a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." This cloud was the guide of the children of Israel in their journeyings. When the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, they went on; when it was not taken up, they rested; and you may judge how intimately they connected the appearance of the ark with the presence of God, from the words recorded, Numb. x. 35, 36, as used by Moses in the name of the congregation. The ark of the Lord, it is said, went before them. "And when it set forward, Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee, flee before thee. when it rested, he said, " Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel." Wheresoever the ark was, the God of Israel was conceived to be. In that place, he met with his people. There they consulted him in all their exigencies; and the glory which filled the tabernacle, called the Schechinah, was the visible symbol of the presence of the God of Israel. When Solomon built a temple, he introduced into it the ark and the tabernacle. And the joy which he felt in accomplishing that work, arose from his having found a fixed habitation for that sacred pledge of the divine favour which had often been exposed to danger, which had for some time been in the possession of the enemy, but which every devout Israelite regarded as the glory and the security of his nation. In Psalm cxxxii. which appears to have been composed to celebrate the introduction of the ark into the temple, you find these words: "Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou, and the ark of thy strength. The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell." In the solemn prayer of Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, 1 Kings vi. it is declared to be a house built for the Lord God of Israel, who had made a covenant with their fathers, when he