SECTION II. 519 the sound of a trumpet ; Ps. xlvii. 5. when the ark where God dwelt was carried up toZion : and upon this occasion David ad- dresses. God ; Ps. lxviii. 18. " Thou hast ascended on high, when the ark was carried up to the hill which God desired to dwell in," verse 16. What more than this can be said concern ing the angel? Or what greater reasons can be given why this angel should be called God rather than the cloud or fire, which, also might be called God in a figurative sense, because they.were symbols of the divine presence ? Answer. In order toset this matter in a true light; we may consider the following things: 1.. Whatsoever be our conception of the distinct personalities in the divine nature, yet the godhead has been generally allowed to be one, and the same in all the three persons. If therefore Christ be God, he is the saine one God as the Father, that is, he has the saine, and not another godhead. 2. Whensoever this great God is said to appear in scrip- ture, it is generally attributed to Jesus Christ, or the second person in the sacred Three. This is agreed both by Arians and Athanasians : and there is this reason for it; that God under the personality of the Father may .always maintain the character of the invisible God. The ancientsof all parties were united in this sentiment. 3. God frequently manifested himself or appeared to men under the Old Testament in and by a corporeal resemblance as inhabiting in a cloúd, or light, or fire, and sometimes he mani- fested himself also to men as residing in or inhabiting a man or an angel under the Old Testament ; for so he appeared to Abra- ham, to Jacob, &c. Whatsoever created being God resided in, this was called the shekinah or habitation of God. If it was a bright light or fire, it was a corporeal shekinah. If it was a man or an angel, it might be called an intellectual shekinah, and most probably in an human form 4. Whatsoever habitation' God assumed, that habitation itself, whether corporeal or intellectual, is not called God merely upon the account that God resided there, unless you include also * The Hebrew word shekinah signifies a habitation or dwelling; and it was the namewhich the ancient Jews gave to that bright cloud' or fire wherein God dwelt upon the ark between the cherubims, and in which he oftea appeared to the patriarchs and to Moses. They also gave the same name of shekinah to the glo- rious Spirit in and by which God acted or manifested himself to men, whether in avisible or invisible manner; that is, whether he came with a cloud of light, or with a voice, or only by silent and secret influences; for they call this shekinah by the names of Memra, Logos, or the Word of God; and they not only sup- pose this shekinah to take possession of the tabernacle and the temple, and to re- side there in the form of light, bat it was a saying amongst them, that " where two or three are met together to read or study the law, the shekinah is with them," though in an invisible manner; which is parallel to the words of Christ; Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there sea l in the midst of them; Ma',. *VW. 23. See Dissertation iv. oa the Logos, section iii..
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