CHAP.

VIII.

2dly. We see that they acknowledge the creation of the world by the Word of God and by the Holy Ghost, as David, Psalm xxxiii. 6. So the Book of Wisdom, ix. 1. O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy Word, or more properly by thy Word, as it is explained in the second verse; and ver. 4. he asketh wisdom in these words, Give me Wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne; and ver. 17. Thy counsel who hath known, except thou give Wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above? where he distinguisheth the Aoyos, or Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, from God, to whom he directs his prayer. And so the Book of Judith, xvi. 13, 14. I will sing unto the Lord a new song: O Lord, thou art great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and invincible. Let all creatures serve thee: for thou spakest, and they were made, thou didst send forth thy Spirit, and it created them, and there is none that can resist thy voice.

3dly. They speak of the emanation of the Word from God: those are the words of the Book of Wisdom, vii. 25. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. That description of Wisdom deserves to be considered, as we have it in the same place, ver. 22-26. For Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me: for in her is an understanding spirit, holy, one only, manifold, subtil, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not subject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, which cannot be letted, ready to do good, kind to man, stedfast, sure, free from care, having all power, overseeing all things, and going through all understanding, pure, and most subtil, spirits. For Wisdom is more moving than any motion: she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness.-For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness.

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And indeed St. Paul, Heb. i. 3. hath borrowed from CHAP. thence what we read touching the Son, that he is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of his person. So the Book of Ecclesiasticus saith, chap. xxiv. 3. That it is come out of the mouth of the most High.

4thly. There are several names in Scripture which serve to express the second Person, the Son, the Word, the Wisdom, the Angel of the Lord, but who is the Lord indeed. Now those authors use all these names to express a second Person.

For they acknowledge a Father; and a Son, by a natural consequence: thus the author of Ecclesiasticus, li. 10. I called upon the Lord the Father of my Lord, in the same way as David speaks of the Messias, Psalm ii. and cx. and as Solomon in his Proverbs, viii. 25. as of a son in the bosom of his father, and xxx. 4. What is his son's name, if thou canst tell ?

They speak of the Aoyos as the Creator of all things; so the author of Wisdom, ix. 1. O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy Word; or more properly by thy Word. And so they call that Wisdom the worker of all things, Wisd. vii. 22.

They speak of the Wisdom in the same words as Solomon doth, Prov. iii. and chap. viii. 22, where he expresseth the true notion of eternity. And indeed they attribute to her, to have been eternal, Ecclus. xxiv. 18.

They refer constantly to God himself, that is, to the Aéyos of God, as we shall hereafter shew at large, what is attributed to the Angel of the Lord in many places of the books of Moses, as to have delivered the Israelites from the Red sea, so Wisd. xix. 9. They went at large like horses, and leaped like lambs, praising thee, O Lord, who hadst delivered them. Again, to have had his throne in a cloudy pillar, Ecclus. xxiv. 4. To have been caused by the

CHAP. Creator of all things to rest and to have his dwellVIII. ing in Jacob, and to have his inheritance in Is

rael, ibid. ver. 8. and so to have given his memorial to his children, which is the law commanded for an heritage into the congregation of Jews, ibid. 23.

So they attribute to him to have spoken with Moses, Ecclus. xlv. 5. He made him to hear his voice, and brought him into the dark cloud, and gave him commandments before his face, even the law of life and knowledge, that he might teach Jacob his covenants, and Israel his judgments.

Again, to have come down from heaven to fight against the Egyptians, Wisd. xviii. 15, 16, 17. Thine almighty Word leaped down from heaven, out of thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war into the midst of a land of destruction. And brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and standing up filled all things with death, and it touched the heaven, but it stood upon the earth.

So they maintain that the angel who appeared to Joshua, chap. v. was the Lord himself; so the author of Ecclesiasticus, chap. xlvi. 5, 6. He called upon the most high Lord, when the enemies pressed upon him on every side; and the great Lord heard him. And with hailstones of mighty power he made the battle to fall violently upon the nations, and in the descent of Beth-horon] he destroyed them that resisted, that the nations might know all their strength, because he fought in the sight of the Lord, and he followed the Mighty One. They refer the miracles wrought by Elias to the Aoyos, as you see in Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 3, 4, 5. By the Word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and also three times brought down fire. O Elias, how wast thou honoured in thy wondrous deeds! and who may glory like unto thee! Who didst raise up a dead man from death, and his soul from the place of the dead by the Word of the most High.

As there is nothing more common in the Old

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Testament than to call the Aoyos the Angel of the CHAP. Lord, because the Father sent him to do all things under the former dispensations, so one can see that there is nothing more ordinary in the apocryphal books, than to speak of an angel in particular, to whom are attributed all the things which could not be performed but by God.

Three things prove clearly that they did not conceive that angel to be a created angel, but an Angel who is God.

1st. Because they have this maxim, according to the constant divinity of the Jews, grounded upon Scripture, Deut. xxxii. 9. that God did take Israel for his portion among all the nations of the world, as if he had left the other nations to the conduct of angels; so Esther xiii. 15.

2dly. Because they refer to the Aoyos some histories of the Old Testament, which the Jews till this day refer to an uncreated Angel, or to the Aoyos, or Shekina, or Memra da Jehovah, as I shall prove afterwards. We see it Wisd. xvi. 12. For it was neither herb, nor mollifying plaister, that restored them to health; but thy Word, O Lord, which healeth all things. So Wisd. xviii. 15, 16. Thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war into the midst of a land of destruction, and brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and standing up filled all things with death; and it touched the heaven, but it stood upon the earth. I thought fit to repeat this place here, to make Mr. N. ashamed, who hath exposed those ideas, and laughed at them, which I believe he would not have done, if he had but considered two things; the one is, that this Aóyos who is spoken of, is that very man of war mentioned in Moses's canticle, Exod. xii. 3. and in Judith ix. 7. the other is, that St. Paul hath followed the notions of the Book of Wisdom, speaking of a sharp sword, which is to be understood, not of the Gospel, but of

CHAP. the Aoyos, Heb. x. 12. But Mr. N. was in the right VIII. to ridicule such an authority, which destroys to the

ground the principles of the Unitarians; for nothing can be more clear, than that this author acknowledges a plurality in God; that the Aoyos must be a Person, and a Person equal to the Father, being set upon the royal throne.

3dly. Because they bring such appearances of that Angel, which shew they conceived him as the God who ruled Israel, and who had taken their temple for the place of his abode. And, on the contrary, they speak of God, whom they considered as dwelling in the temple, in the same words which are used in Scripture, when it is spoken of the name of God, Exod. xxiii. 21. and 1 Šam. viii. 16. of the angel of the covenant, Malachi iii. 1. and such expressions. So you see in the first Book of Esdras, chap. ii. 5, 7. If therefore there be any of you that are of his people, let the Lord, even his Lord, be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem that is in Judæa, and build the house of the Lord of Israel: for he is the Lord that dwelleth in Jerusalem. And chap. iv. 58. Now when this young man was gone forth, he lifted up his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of heaven. And Judith, chap. v. 18. and ix. 8. and 2 Macc. i. 25. The only giver of all things, the only just, almighty and everlasting, thou that deliveredst Israel from all trouble, and didst choose the fathers, and sanctify them. And chap. ii. 17. We hope also, that the God that delivered all his people, and gave them all an heritage, and the kingdom, and the priesthood, and the sanctuary. And chap. xiv. 35. Thou, O Lord of all things, who hast need of nothing, wast pleased that the temple of thine habitation should be among us.

I can add, 4thly, that they distinguish exactly the Angel of God from the prophets, though they are called by the same name of angels or messen