524 THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS GOD -HAt. pillars, &c. which are all modes of expression according to ap- pearance, and not according to the reality of - things. So when the angel, who is called God, wrestled with Jacob, it is said a' man wrestled with him, becausehe appeared as .a man ; Gen. iii. 24. So-three men came- to Abraham ; Gen. xviii. 2. because they appeared as men, thoughone of them afterward evidently was known to be God, and the other two were angels. And so Christnever appearing to the patriarchs and - prophets, and in- structing them under the character of the Son of God in the Old Testament ; and being much unknown to the world under that name, it was no wonder that the apostle should repre- sent God as beginning to speak to us by his Son under the New Testament :* This method of solving the difficulty will bave an happy influence also to remove the following. objection. Objection III. Though this angel spake oftentimes in , the name of God under the Old Testament, Though he assumed the glorious titles of God, and -spoke words which must properly belong to God, yet it does not follow, that this angel was the true God, or that there was any suchpersonal union between the divine nature and this angel, because there are other instances wherein the titles and names of God are assumed, and words proper to God are spoken, wherein it is very evident from scrip- ture that God was not the speaker. Consider what the scripture declares concerning the giving of the law at mount Sinai : It is expressly said; Exod. xx. l., 2. -And God,apake all these words, saying, I am, the Lord thy God, 8fc. Yet St. Stephen tells them ; Acts vii..53. They received the law -by the dispo- sition of angels. And St. Paul, Gal. iii. 19. says, the-law was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator. And,lieb. ii. 2, 3. it is expressly called, The word spoken by angels, and.dis- tinguished from theword spoken by Christ. : If the word spoken by angels was stedlaste and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect .so great salvation, which first began to be spoken by the Lord ? Now if the words . at the giving of the law .were spoken either by the person of the. Father, or by the person of the Son of God, then the apostle's argument is lost, since it -is built upon this supposition, that the gospel is published by a person superior to him, or themwho published the law. But the apostle's argument iscertainly strong, and thence it will follow, thatthe angel who spoke the law was neither God himself, nor Jesus Christ, and yet he assumes divine language, I am the Lord thy God, &c. at The Arians themselves in their scheme seem to be as much puzzled with this difficulty, how to suppose that Christ as an angel gave the law, and yet that God spake not by bis Sou till under the gospel : And some of them-are forced to -accept of thiesoryof solution.. See aModest Plea, part I." So that they bays no reason to object it against us.
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