996 THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS GOD -MAN. called no more Jacob but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed ; and Jacob called the name of that place, PENIEL, for 1 have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved*." Now ifwe compare this history with Hosea xii 3, 4, 5. we shall find that this person who wrestled with Jacob, and is here called a man, and also God, is by the prophet called God, and an angel, and the Lord God of hosts, even Jehovah. The words are these, By his strength he had power with God, yea, he hadpower over the angel, andprevailed ; he wept, andmade supplication unto hirn, hefound him in Bethel, and there he spake with us ; even the LordGod of hosts, Jehovah is memorial. Gen. xxxv. 9. " And God appeared unto Jacob again when lie came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply, &c. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him Bethel." Gen. xlvi. 2. " God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, I am God, the God of thy father, fear not to go clown into Egypt." In Gen. xlviii. 3. Jacob rehearsed the former appearance of God to him ; " God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me." And verse 15. he blesses Joseph thus, " 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," that is, the Sons of Joseph. And in this recog- nition of the former appearances, and favours of God, Jacob seems to make the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, to be the same person with the angel that redeemed him from all evil. After this I find no more such appearances of God unto men, till that glorious apparition to Moses in the burning bush. Exod. iii. 2, 3. " And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked and behold the bash burned with fire, and the bush was not con- sumed. Verse 3. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. Verse 4. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses, And he said, here am I. Verse 5. And he said, Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where- on thou standest is holy ground. Verse 8. Moreover he said, I am the Gad of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of W We find here it was a very ancient opinion that "no man could bear the sight of God and live t" What is the true meaning of it, see in the following re- flections on the appearance of the glory of God to Moses at the giving tattle law,. Exod. xix. and xx. and in the bole of the rock, Exod. axx.ii. 9.
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