526 THE GLORY P CHRfST AS GOD-MAN. them in that place, nor would it answer any valuable purpose at that time sufficient for such a digression. That Christ himself was the speaker of the law at Mount Sinai may be further evinced out of Heb. xii. 25, 26. a° See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, that is Christ ; for if they escaped not that refused him that spake on earth, that is Moses, for he that despised Moses's law died without mercy, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh'from heaven, that is, Christ ;" for it was he who came personally clown from heaven, which Moses did not, and it was he who after his death spake by arm audible voice to St. Paul from heaven, and by his spirit to all the apostles. Christ therefore is he that speaketh from heavenA. Now it follows, verse 26. Whose voice then shook the earth, that is the voice of Christ, and not Moses, which shook Mount Sinai, which " quaked greatly when the Lord, or Jehovah, descended upon it in the fire ;" Exod. xix. 18.. And it is the same person who in Haggai ii. 6. bath now premis- ed, as the apostles cites him, saying, Yet once snore I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens ; and the prophets tell u's, this is the Lord of hosts. The person therefore who spake at Mount Sinai, was both Christ and the Lord of hosts. Thus we see that the author of the epistle to the Hebrews is so far from denying that Christ spake heretofore in giving the law, that he declares, it was his voice that shook the earth at Mount Sinai : and by this view ofthings it appears that we have no need to allow common angels to assume the name, title and words of the great God to themselves. And thus the argument 'Stands firm still, whereby we prove that this angel of the cove- nant Christ Jesus, is God himself, is intimately and personally united to godhead, and is one with God, because he assumes di- vine names and titles, and speaks the words which can belong only to God. It might . be added also, that it is expressed so often and so strongly by the sacred historian, that God spake the words of the law, that the Israelites heard God speaking to them out of the fire, and that it was the voice of God, that out of heaven God Made them to hear his voice, and that they might know that * A great and ingenious writer has very lately in his rr Essayon the various Dispensations of God," pages 155-141. asserted, that he who spoke on earth, Means not Moses, but Christ himself, in his pre-existent state under the charac ter of an angel ; and that he who now speaks from heaven is the same person, Sven Christ under the exalted and superior character ofa Soo; this is very agree- able to -the sentiments advanced under the answers to the second and third ob- jection ; and perhaps may be the very truth... But still it is Christ who is that Jehovah who spake in fire, and shook the earth at Mount Sinai, and who now speaks from heaven. This that learned author maintains against Mr. Pierce with great evidence, pages 136-144. and against another considerablewriter, pages ,1-156. - ..
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