SECTION IL 525 Answer. It was not only the sense of all the ancient writers, the most primitive fathers of the christian church, but it is allow- ed by most of the Arians . themselves who make this objection, that Christ himself was present at Sinai and was employed in giving the law; Ps. lxviii. 17. The Lord is among .the as in Sinai, even he who. ascended on high and led captivity captive ; Eph. iv. 8. Now the law may still be said to be given, declar- ed or published by angels who attended by thousands as minis- tering Spirits on the Lord. Christ, and yet the words might be spoken by Christ himself, thegreat God man, or God-angel, or the angel in whom God dwelt, at the head of them : for he ap- peared there, not as the Son of God, for he was then utterly un- known under that filial name or character, but he appeared in his angelic character as the great, the peculiar, the extraordinary angel or messenger of the covenant, the angel of God's presence, the angel who. spake to Moses in Mount Sinai ; Acts vii. 38. and spake to the people also, as the angel in whom God dwelt, or, whichis much the same, as the great God dwelling in the angel. Now, in .the New Testament when this glorious person ap. peared amongst men as the Son of God, when he was discovered to be so in his body by his extraordinary conception ; Luke i. 35. when he was further made the Son of God by his being begotten from the .dead,as St. Paulexplains David ; Acts xiii. 33. Col. i. 18. and declared with power to be the Son ofGod by his resurrec- tionfrom the dead. Rom. i. 4. when he was preached by the apostles as the only-begotten Son of God, both in his incarnate and in his pre-existent state John i. 14, 18. he sustains hereby a superior character to that of an angel, a servant, or mere mes- senger. of God, even that of God's own Son : and if the word spoken by angels, or by, Christ himself in his angelic state and character, attended by ministering angels, if this word be sted- tast, and if all transgressions against it were severely punished, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which began to be spoken by the Lord ? that is, by the same angel in his character of Lordship, since he appeared to be God's own Son, and the heir and Lord of-all, not as an angel or messen- ger, but as sovereign Lord of his church. The very same person may have much greater authority and influence when he sustains a new and superior character. Perhaps you will say then, 'Whydid notthe apostle repro- pentit thus ? IfC.hrist was that angel, why does he so apparent- ly distinguish him from the angels who spoke the law ? I answer, Because though the apostle ,night know he was the same person, yet the bulk of the people.towhom he wrote might not know it, nor understand thesedistinctcharacters.of the same person, and it would take up too much time and pains to prove that notion to
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