286 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. gard to men ,also ; as Jonathan Ben Uzziel, on Num. xv. 324 A certain.. man said with' his word, I will go forth, and ga- ther sticks on the sabbath day ; where he said with his word, signifies he resolved in his mind, or with himself. Job vii. S. Thy eyes are upon my memra, that is, upon me. So my breath . is in my memra ; Job. xxvii: 3. that is, my breath is in me. There isa league between my memra and thee; 2 Citron. xvi. 3.. that is, between me: and thee. See Fleming's "Christology," vol. 1. page 437. and Lightfoot's " horm hebraicm, et talmudi- cm, in John i. 1." where they bring other undeniable instances, to prove the memra sometimes is nothing else but a Chaldeism, . denoting one's self: So the word of God sometimes denotes ,Clod himself. H. The " memra," or the word of God, in these Jewish writings is used to signify any thing in or of God, whereby he transacts his divine affairs : It implies solne one or more of his. attributes, or his powers, his knowledge, Isis wisdom, his pur- pose, his command, his efficacy, his providence or his influence; and where the Hebrew text metaphorically ascribes human affections, and human members to God, the targums use the word " uterus," and thus it signifies his head, his face, his. mind, his tongue, his mouth, his eye, his hand, or his feet: Iu general it means that divine power and wisdom, or, in one word, that sufficiency of God which he exerts in managing human affairs, ór in revealing himself to the children of men. One targum saith, "God created the world byhis word ;" where the other targum saith, "by his wisdom ;" Gen. i. 1. So the Lord gave Noah warningby his word; the Lord judged theold world by his ,word; and said, " I will destroy them by my word. ". Anti a great variety of such expressions may be found in Dr. Allix's Judgment of the Ancient Jewish Church, and Mr. Fleming's Christology, in the places before cited. Here-let it be noted, that it is the custom of the Jewish writers,' even the penmen of the bible, as well as other authors, to represent powers, attributes, virtues, agencies; &c. in a per- sonal manner, and to describe them as distinct persons. Upon this account, in some places where the " memra may be sup- posed'to signify the divine sufficiency, or some particular distinc- tion of power or property in the godhead, it is represented in a. personalmanner by these Jewish commentators. Whether they had a distinct idea of the Logos, or word; as a second personal agent in the divine nature, according to the complete ideas of the athauasian. explication, is a matter too doubtful to be 'asserted with any great assurance. III. The term " memra" is used by these targumists, for, that angel who appeared to the patriarchs and to Hoses, and as- sumed the name of God and Jehovah. It is the word of the
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