SECTION II: 523 'Yet when he assumed flesh and blood actually into a personal union with himself, when he made this flesh a part of.his person, and became a complete man by a miraculous conception, then he was more completely the Son of God both in soul and body, and then as the Son of God he spake immediately by himself, . by his own complete person, that is, soul and body ; to man, kind ; or God spake to mankind by the very person of his Son, which was never done in the same manner under the Old Testament. Nor is this any strange exposition, for time ancient fathers are wont to speak to the same purpose Justin Martyr speaks thus in his Apology, " The Word foretold things to come by the prophets heretofore, but when he was made like unto us; lie taught us these things by-himself." So Clemens Alexandrius says,. '° The Lord was truly the instructor of the ancient people by Moses, but he is the guide of his new people by himself face to face." See Bishop Bull's Defence of the Nicene Faith, sec- tion i. chapter i. II. But I give yet a further answer to this objection in the following manner, viz. Though the angel by whom God spake to the prophets and to the patriarchs was really Jesus Christ or the Son of God, yet he did not appear at that time under his filial character as God's Own Son, but he appeared in his an- gelic character, or as a heavenly messenger, which was suited to the preexistent state of the soul of Christ; whereas under the New Testament God speaks to us by his Son Jesus Christ un- der the special and known character of his own Son, as being now revealed to have been the only begotten Son of God in his pre-existent state ; John i. 14, 18. and as having a more con- spicuous or sensible character of his divine sonship added to him:, by his being born of a virgin without an earthly father by the im- mediate influence of the Spirit of God ; Luke i. 35. and was named the Son of God on this account ; and had also a further claim to this honourable title Son of -God, when he was raised from the dead, as St. Paul explains that expression of the Psal- mist, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ; Ps. ii. 6. 'compared with Acts xiii. 33. and is therefore called by the same apostle, the first-born from the dead : Col. i. 15.. It is plain therefore, that though Christ was the Son of God in his pre -existent state, yet he appeared and acted rather under the character of an angel of old, and not under the character of a on till the days of the gospel. It is the frequent custom of scripture to -speak of things ea they appear to men, and not always just as they are in them- selves, for this is most suited to the bulk ofmankind. Therefore the scripture speaks of the sun's rising and going down; and its rejoicing to run a race, and of the heavens being fixed upon
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