to illustrate the obscurity necessarily arising from the figurative language of the prophets. However this may be, Moses says, prophesying of Christ, Deut. xviii. 15. Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.' It will be answered, that he here predicts the human nature of Christ. I reply that in the following verse he plainly takes away from Christ that divine nature which it is wished to make co-essential with the Father-according to all that thou desiredst of Jehovah thy God in Horeb....saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God,' &c. In hearing Christ there-. fore, as Moses himself predicts and testifies, they were not to hear the God Jehovah, nor were they to consider Christ as Jehovah. The style of the prophetical book of Revelations, as respects this subject, must be regarded in the same light. Chap. i. 1, 8, 11. he sent and signified it by his angel.' Afterwards this angel (who is described nearly in the same words as the angel, Dan. x. 5, &c.) says, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come.' v. 13. 'like unto the Son of man.' v. 17. I am the first and the last.' ii. 7, &c. 'what the Spirit saith unto the churches.' xxii. 6. the Lord God sent his angel.' v. 8. before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.' v. 9. see thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant,' &c. Again, the same angel says, v. 12. ' behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me,' &c. and again, v. 13. I am Alpha and Omega,' &c. and v. 14. blessed are they that do his com 6 mandments; and v. 16. I Jesus have sent my angel,' &c. These passages so perplexed Beza,* that he was compelled to reconcile the imaginary difficulty by supposing that the order of a few verses in the last chapter had been confused and transposed by some Arian, (which he attributed to the circumstance of the book having been acknowledged as canonical by the Church at a comparatively late period, and therefore less carefully preserved,) whence he thought it necessary to restore them to what he considered their proper order. This supposition would have been unnecessary, had he remarked, what may be uniformly observed throughout the Old Testament, that angels are accustomed to assume the name and person, and the very words of God and Jehovah, as their own; and that occasionally an angel represents the person and the very words of God, without taking the name either of Jehovah or God, but only in the character of an angel, or even of a man, as Junius * Dicam quid mihi videatur, ita ut quod sentio relinquam ecclesiæ atque adeo piis omnibus dijudicandum. Existimo hunc librum, eo negligentius habitum, quod non statim ab omnibus pro apostolico scripto censeretur, fuisse ab Ariano quopiam depravatum, qui Christum Deum non esse, nec proinde adorandum, sic confirmare vellet: idque exortis jam Anomæis post ipsius Arii tempora, alioqui hunc locum minime prætermissuris. Transpositos igitur fuisse arbitror hos versiculos, nempe 12 et 13,' &c. According to the order subsequently proposed by Beza, the verses would stand thus—14, 15, 16, 13, 12, 17, &c. Eusebius classes the Apocalypse among the avriλsyóμsva, or disputed books, and it is omitted in the catalogues of canonical books formed by Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (A. D. 340), and by the council of Laodicea (A. D. 364), and in one or two other early catalogues of the Scriptures; but this omission was probably not owing to any suspicion concerning its authenticity or genuineness, but because its obscurity and mysteriousness were thought to render it less fit to be read publicly and generally. Horne's Introduction, &c. IV. 497. Bp. Tomline's Elements of Christian Theology, Vol. I. 500. himself acknowledges, Judges ii. 1, &c.* But according to divines the name of Jehovah signifies two things, either the nature of God, or the completion of his word and promises. If it signify the nature, and therefore the person of God, why should not he who is invested with his person and presence, be also invested with the name which represents them? If it signify the completion of his word and promises, why should not he, to whom words suitable to God alone are so frequently attributed, be permitted also to assume the name of Jehovah, whereby the completion of these words and promises is represented? Or if that name be so acceptable to God, that he has always chosen to consider it as sacred and peculiar to himself alone, why has he uniformly disused it in the New Testament, which contains the most important fulfilment of his prophecies; retaining only the name of the Lord, which had always been common to him with angels and men? If, lastly, any name whatever can be so pleasing to God, why has he exhibited himself to us in the gospel without any proper name at all? They urge, however, that Christ himself is sometimes called Jehovah in his own name and person; as in Isai. viii. 13, 14. sanctify Jehovah of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread: and he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,' &c. compared with 1 Pet. ii. 7. 6 the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,' &c. I answer, that it appears on a comparison of the thirteenth with the eleventh *Hominem, non angelum fuisse apparet, quod locus unde venerit exprimitur, neque disparuisse legitur, ut de aliis angelis narratur. Sic propheta angelus Dei vocatur Hagg. i. 3.' Junius in loc. verse, for Jehovah spake thus to me,' &c.-that these are not the words of Christ exhorting the Israelites to sanctify and fear himself, whom they had not yet known, but of the Father threatening, as in other places, that he would be for a stone of stumbling,' &c. to both the houses of Israel,' that is, to the Israelites, and especially to those of that age. But supposing the words to refer to Christ, it is not unusual among the prophets for God the Father to declare that he would work himself, what afterwards under the gospel he wrought by means of his Son. Hence Peter says the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling.' By whom made, except by the Father? And in the third chapter, a quotation of part of the same passage of Isaiah clearly proves that the Father was speaking of himself; v. 15. but sanctify the Lord God'-under which name no one will assert that Christ is intended. Again, they quote Zech. xi. 13. Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter; a goodly price that I was prized at of them.' That this relates to Christ I do not deny; only it must be remembered, that this is not his own name, but that the name of Jehovah is in him, Exod. xxiii. 21. as will presently appear more plainly. At the same time there is no reason why the words should not be understood of the Father speaking in his own name,* who would consider the offences which the Jews should commit * Milton attributes similar language to the Almighty, when he represents him as giving his great command concerning the Messiah in heaven: Him who disobeys, Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day Paradise Lost, V. 611. against his Son, as offences against himself; in the same sense as the Son declares that whatever is done to those who believed in him, is done to himself. Matt. xxv. 35, 40. I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat,' &c. inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' An instance of the same kind occurs Acts ix. 4, 5. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' The same answer must be given respecting Zech. xii. 10, especially on a comparison with Rev. i. 7. every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him:' for none have seen Jehovah at any time, much less have they seen him as a man; least of all have they pierced him. Secondly, they pierced him who " 'poured upon them the spirit of grace,' v. 10. Now it was the Father who poured the spirit of grace through the Son; Acts ii. 33. having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this.' Therefore it was the Father whom they pierced in the Son. Accordingly, John does not say, they shall look upon me,' but, they shall look upon him whom they pierced,' chap. xix. 37. So also in the verse of Zechariah alluded to a change of persons takes place they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son;' as if Jehovah were not properly alluding to himself, but spoke of another, that is, of the Son. The passage in Malachi iii. 1. admits of a similar interpretation: behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare, the way before me, and Jehovah, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in behold he shall come, 22 VOL. I. 6 |