with men. This he did with Adam while innocent, and also after he sinned,-with Cain, who is said to go out from the presence of the Lord, after the dialogue betwixt God and him,-to Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and several other of the prophets. This could be no common angel, for he is always called JEHOVAH,— not the Father, nor the Spirit, for reasons given above: therefore it must have been Jesus Christ, who made these appearances in human form, yet called the LORD GOD, as a prelude of his appearance in real flesh in the fulness of time, whom the apostle says, was GOD manifested in the flesh. When he who appeared is promiscuously called GOD and ANGEL, it is plain that Jesus Christ is meant. In that instance of Jacob's blessing Joseph's sons, it was proved that God and angel are the same, and it is equally conspicuous that Jesus Christ is meant by both, from the terms which Jacob expresses himself in, which are only applicable to Jesus Christ in the common language of revelation. "The angel," or messenger, this is emphatically applied to Christ by Malachi." The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in." The angel that redeemed me," my kinsman redeemer. This is a name peculiar to Christ, of whom that institution of redemption by kinsmen among the Jews, was a shadow. Job, who lived in these ancient periods with Jacob, makes an excellent discovery of the same character of Christ.It know, saith he, that my Redeemer liveth, (1 know my kinsman redeemer) and that he shall stand upon the earth." (The omega shall rise from ↑ Job xix. 25. * Mal, iii, 1. the earth.) This is certainly applicable to none but Christ, whose day both Jacob and Job, (as well as Abraham) saw afar off, and was glad. It is further evident that Christ is meant in the text, from his character of a shepherd being so plainly expressed in it. This Christ himself challengeth as his office, in a peculiar manner." I am the good shepherd." The psalmist and prophets often speak of him under this name." The Lord. is my shepherd. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd." And Jacob calls him "the mighty of Jacob, the shepherd, the stone of Israel." Jacob, and his seed, are denominated the flock of Christ, "Thou leddest thy flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron," which privilege, Jacob on his deathbed very thankfully acknowledgeth his part of; "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk,-the God that fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel that redeemed me from all evil." It is hence evident, that Jesus Christ led and guided Abraham and his posterity in all their peregrinations, and it is he whom they worshipped as their God and King. God said to Moses, "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice; provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him" (in the midst of him.) This, with what remains of the paragraph, comes in so abruptly in this chapter, without connection with what goes before or follows it, that some are of opinion it properly belongs to the thirty-third chapter, where Moses is begging of God to let him know how the people should be guided into the land he * Exod. xxiit. 20, 21. had promised them. God tells him "his presence should go with them," and here he promises to send his angel to lead them, in whom his name is. Now, as his presence must mean himself, so the name of God is put for himself by the psalmist, "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee." And as his name was in the angel, it must intimate a real in-dwelling of Deity in him. There can no reason be given, why Christ might not have Deity' dwelling in him in his angelic character, as well as after he became flesh, when it is said, "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead (Deity) bodily." That is, in him who now had a real body. By the name of God, we are to understand that description he hath given of himself in revelation, whereby he is known to men; and this is only in Jesus Christ, whose character is the sum of revelation. The name of GOD is so in him, as he can be known only by him. This Christ affirms himself. "No man knoweth the Father, but he to whom the Son doth reveal him." Malachi says, "The name of the Lord should be great among the Gentiles; and that in every place incense and a pure offering should be offered up unto his name by the heathen." This must refer to the clearer and more general discoveries of Jesus Christ in the gospel, and the homage and worship given to him by the great number of Gentile converts to christi anity. When Christ prays the Father to "glorify his name," it seems to be of the same import as when he prays that he would "glorify his Son." In this sense may that part of the summary of prayer, which Christ dictated to his disciples, be understood. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, (thy Christ who is thy name, as by him thou art manifested to us) thy kingdom come;" which is under his administration as the King and Law-giver thereof. This angel who is called the presence of God, in whom his name is, Isaiah calls the Savior, and adds, "In all their afflictions he was afflicted, (or in all their straits they were not besieged) the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity, he redeemed them,--and carried them all the days of old." This is the same of whom Malachi speaks,-"The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; even the messenger (which is the meaning of the word angel) of the covenant whom ye delight in." This is none other than Jesus Christ, the same who is called the angel of God's presence, in whom his name is, who had the power and prerogative of GoD in pardoning or retaining the people's sins at his pleasure, and who claimed the titles, authority, and worship of Almighty God. I must confess, that the account we have from Eusebius gives room to think the ancients were of a different opinion concerning this angel, who is promised to lead Israel into Canaan: which is, that as Moses, by divine authority gave the title of anointed to Aaron, as a type of Christ, the great high priest, so upon Joshua's defeating the Amalekites, whose name before was Oshea, he added the first letter of Jehovah to his name, pointing him forth as an eminent type of Christ in his regal office as JEHOVAH the Savior, by his name Joshua, which is the same with Jesus a Savior: and also in his remarkable conquest of Israel's enemies, and bringing them into the promised land. And when our Lord was to assume flesh, he received this name Jesus by commission from heaven, in allusion to so eminent a type of him, as a Savior. Therefore they conclude, that the angel promised to lead Israel, is no other than Joshua or Jesus, (as he is oftener than once called in the new testament) the successor of Moses, whom the people were commanded to obey, because he bare the same name, that he himself was to be known by, when he should actually appear in flesh. And whereas it is said, "He will not pardon your transgressions," (or let your rebellion go unpunished) it points out Joshua having only the executive power of laws already made, committed to him; and that he would not have that access as a temporary mediator, which Moses had of coming into the presence of GOD, to save them from punishment when they had sinned. If this, rather than the other, be chosen as the sense, it makes the point I am proving equally strong: as by taking the angel in this sense, then Jesus Christ is the God that promises to send the angel, and favor the people with his presence, if they would obey him. A very little consideration will lead any one to see, that it was Jesus Christ who gave the law, and made that august and solemn appearance on Mount Sinai, claiming the divine authority of giving laws to Israel, under the sacred titles of JEHOVAH their GOD. In the epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle says," See* that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven; whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but heaven also." This shaking of the earth refers to the convulsions of Mount Sinai, at the giving of the law. It is Jesus the mediator of the new testament, whom he is here speaking of, as is most clear from the context, "whose voice, (says he) shook the earth," &c. The promise mentioned is also referred to him. "He (Jesus, for there is * Heb. xii. 25, 26. |