589 THE GLORY OP CHhIST As GOD -SCAN. really distinct fromGod, and yet such a one in whomGod or Jehovah had a peculiar indwelling, or with whom the divine na- ture had a personal union. When the angel of the Lord visited Abraham, and talked with hilb, when the man wrestled with Jacob till break of day, when the angel conversed with Moses and with Joshua, and yet calls himself, or is by the holy writers called Jehovah, the Almighty, the Lord, the God of Abraham, &c. the most natural and obvious idea which they could have of the person appearing to them, was the idea of some glorious be- ing or spirit that belonged to the world, and in whom the great God had a peculiar dwelling, and by whom the great God pro- nounced those words, or conversed with them. That text ; Exod. xxiii. 20, 21. very naturally leads us to this sense ; God says to Moses, " Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, 85.e. obey his voice, provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. Here is an angel or messenger sent by God the Father ; that is certainly an inferior character, yet he is to be obeyed with reverence, for he can punish, or pardon sins, this is a divine- prerogative ; and bow does this angel come by it ? It is not as he is an angel, or in bis angelic nature, but it is because God's name is in him, that is, his divine power, his godhead is in him ; this is given as the reason of this high prerogative : God is united to this glorious spirit or this human soul of Christ : Now it is plain that Christ is called an angel in other places. He iè the messenger or angel of the covenant, he is the angel of God's presence, Si) he is called Mal. iii. 1. and Is. lxüi. 9. Let us argue a little further on these appearances of Christ to the patriarchs : Does it not seem more congruous that a human soul should animate that human body which eat and drank with Abraham under a, tree, and should actuate those hu- man limbs, when a man wrestled with Jacob ? Is it not beneath the grandeur, decency and dignity of the supreme Majesty of heaven, to supply the place of such a human soul for the purposes pr actions of animal nature ? And that the great and eternal God himself in an immediate manner should converse in so hu- mane and familiar a way as this angel did with several of the pa- triarchs ? That the glorious and almighty Godhead should itself animate a human body to visit Abraham, and tarry with him some hours under a tree, while his wife made cakes, and dressed the flesh of a calf for God to eat ? That the eternal . God ani- mating a body should eat of the calf which was dressed with milk and butter; Gen. xvii. 1, 2, &c? That the Almighty and ever - blessed God himself should immediately wrestle with Jacob in human limbs, which he assumed, and that a good part of the night should be spent data wrestling until break of day ; Gen. xxxii. 21, t&c ? That the eternal godhead itself should talk so
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=