SECTION I. 513 cession of Christ pleading for them, and by his dominion over all things which God gave him at his ascension into heaven. Amos vii. 7, 8. "Behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb -line with a plumb-line in hand, and the Lord Jehovah said unto me, Amos, what seest thou ? And I said, a plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people, Israel,. and I will not again pass by them any, more." Here God appears evidently in a human figure to the prophet Amos, and the same human form seems to appear again to Amos, chapter ix. 1. " I saw the Lord, Jehovah, standing upon the altar, and he said, smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake. Verse 2. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them ; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down :" And to make it appear that Jehovah is the peculiar name of the great God; he repeats, verse 6, what he had before said in chapter v. verse 8. He that calleth the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord or Jehovah is his name. Inmany of the writings of the prophets it is said, The Word of the Lord came unto them; very frequently to Ezekiel, and sometimes to Jeremiah and others ; when there is no evidence of any personal appearances to them as that time; though it is not improbable but at some of those seasons our blessed Saviour, who is called the 2 mA,, or the word of God, might appear to them in à human form, and dictate a divine message. And some think those words of our Saviour ; John x. 35. If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, may have a reference to Christ'sown appearance to the prophets, as this glorious person called the word. I do not remember any places which seem to favour this sentiment so much as' these three, viz. 1. Gen. xv. 1. The word of` tire' Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great re- ward. 2. Gen. xxxii. 24, 28. There wrestled a man with Jacob till the breaking of . the day; and he said, thy name shall be called no snore Jacob, but Israel. Concerning which appearance, it is recorded ; 1 Kings xviii. 3L The word of the Lord came to Jacob, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And 3. Io the beginning of the book of Jonah, chapter i. verses 1, 2, 3. 4' Now. the Word of the .Lord came unto Jonah the son of Annual,' saying, Arise, go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it; But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and he found a ship and went down into it to go unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Now if Jonahhad only an inward inspiration and no vision, how could he imagne that he could flee from this inspiration by changing. his VOL. eS, K
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