DISCOURSE M. 817 even the very name of man is given to that glorious Beingwhich visited the patriarchs of old : He 'assumed a human shape, and appeared as a man ; and even the soul itself might be so called by as synecdoche," which puts a part fór the whole. And yet this glorious appearance is alsocalled God, and the Lord or Jehovah. It was a man that wrestled with Jacob ; Gen. xxxi. 24. and yet he is acknowledged and adored as God. That extraordinary man, who is called the man of God, when he appeared to Ma- noah ; Judges xiii. is supposed to be the Messiah : His counte- nance is described like an angel of God, and his name is called, " secret or wonderful," verse 6, 10.* so in Ezekiel's vision, chapter i. 26. upon the likeness ofthe throne was the appearance of a man above: And in the prophecy of Daniel we meet with several of his appearances in the form of a man. Chapter iii.. 25. " The fourth man walking in the midst of the burning fiery furnace was like the Sonof God." So chapter viii. verse 15; 16. There stood before me as the appearance of a man, and this man bid Gabriel make Daniel understand the vision : And chap. x. 5..B certain man clothed with linen, whose loins were girded with gold, is described very nearly in the same form and dress as Christ appeared in to St. John ; Rev. i. 13. and vii. 13. One like the Son of man came to him that sat on the throne, &c. which is parallel to Rev. i. 7. It is possible that most times when the angel, who is also called -God, favoured the patri- archs with a visit, he appeared in the form of a man, thus the great " Theanthropos," or God-man, put on a human shape frequently as a preludium, figure and prophecy of his own incarnation. Nor can it be objected here that a human soul is not a man ; for surely it may be called a man as well as Christ may becalled an angel; as he is often in scripture; and better than the pure divinenature may be called a man ; which yet is the sense of those who will not allow Christ's human soul to be here meant. The soul is the chief part of the man, and St. Paul calls his own soul by this name, viz. a man. See 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. I knew a man, that is, his soul, whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell. 4. Another instance of the justness and beauty of scriptural language we find in Zech. xiii. 7. where the man Christ is called the neighbour of God, or the man who is near to him, as it may be rendered ; Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my, fellow or neighbour, saith the Lord of hosts. The word 'my which we render my fellow does never si'gnify any sort of equality, but conjunction, nearness or neighbourhood * It is the same word 25.0 wonderful, which is attributed to Christ as oneof his nanies, in foal. ix. 6; which the angel here assumes when Manoai, asks bis name.
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