SECTION I. . 515 Zech. iii, 1: " And be, that is, one of he angels whom he spakeof, chapter ií. 4. spewed me Joshua the high-priest stand- ing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right -hand to resist him. Verse 2. And the Lord, Jehovah, said to Satan, the Lord Jehovah, rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord, Jehovah, that hath chose Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Ver. 3. Now Joshua wasclothed with filthygarments, and stood beforethe angel. Verse 4. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, 'rake away the filthy garments from him : and unto Joshua he said, Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment, &c.": Whether here was an appearance of Jeho- vah, or whether our Saviour appeared here only as a man or an angel, does not seem plainly determined by the words. Having thus given a brief abridgment or historical narra- -five of the several appearances of God to men in the Old Testa- ment, I proceed to make these fewobservations or remarks upon them, or rather to set forth in one short view the occasional ob- servations which I made as I past along. I. It is evident that the great and blessed God appeared several times of old in the form of a bright cloud or flame of fire, and from this cloud or fire proceeded a voice assuming the most glorious and awful names of God, viz. the Lord Je- hovah, the God of Abraham, I am that I am, &c. Whence all that saw and heard it must naturally infer that the great God dwelt in a most eminent manner and resided in that brightcloud of fire. II. Sometimes this great and blessed God appeared in the form of a man or an angel. And indeed when the apparition is 'called an angel, iu several places it was the real form of a man, because at first when the spectator saw it, he took it to be a man 'indeed : So Abraham saw three men, so Jacob wrestled with a Man, so Joshua and Gideon and Manoah and his wife thought at first, that they saw and spoke with a man, who afterwards `appeared tobe an angel of the Lord. But it is evident.that the true God resided or dwelt in this man or this angel, because 'sometimes he calls himself God, and assumes the highest names and characters of godhead and sometimes the spectator calls him Lord or Jehovah, and God; and. sometimes the sacred his- torian calls him Jehovah and God : And there are some in- stances wherein all these concur ; as Gen. xxviii. and Gen. xxxii. compared with Hosï xi. and Ex. iii. Now if these things are a proof that the.true God resided in the bright cloud or the fire, when he spoke from thence, it is at least as gooda proofthat the -same great Godresided in the angel, to whom the same things are attributed. xk2
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