How then are these modes of speech to be reconciled? Their apparent contrariety shows at least with what confidence the book of God appeals to our reason on the ground of the general evidence of its origin, exhibiting as it does such examples of literal self-conflict in particular passages. A work of imposture could not afford to be thus seemingly indifferent to appearances. In the case before us it must be confessed, that there is something of a problem to be solved by the interpreter of the sacred text, and yet he cannot be long in coming to the conclusion, that the object seen could not be God in his essence, but some symbol, sign, token, or medium, through which he was pleased, in a unique and peculiar manner, to manifest his presence. Such an object was the Shekinah, which appears to have been a concentrated glowing brightness, a preternatural splendor, enfolded by a dark cloud, except when occasionally some faint glimpses of the imprisoned radiance were disclosed. Probably no word is so well suited to express this overpowering effulgence as the term 'glory,' and this is, in fact, the very term employed in repeated instances for the purpose. Whether this visible object, however, was in philosophical strictness material or immaterial, we hold it to be impossible to determine. For aught that appears to the contrary, it may have been a substance homogeneous with the glorified bodies of Christ and his saints. Indeed, so far as we can judge from the specimen afforded at the scene of the transfiguration, this appears to us an entirely probable supposition. But however this may be, let it suffice that it was something which came within the cognizance of the senses. It was a supernatural something which could be seen, and was seen; and it was moreover something which God saw fit to constitute as the special indication of his presence. In this, however, we are not to conceive of the omnipresent Jehovah as foregoing the ordinary conditions of his being, or circumscribing his infinity within assignable limits. As he is every where present, and incapable of being otherwise, we cannot consider him, physically speaking-if the term may be allowed-as really any more present in the Shekinah than in any or every other point of the universe, which his inscrutable nature pervades. Yet nothing prevents us from supposing that he may have affixed to some sensible and miraculous phenomenon a special sig. nificancy as a medium of manifesting his will or agency to his creatures. Such a medium is usually in scriptural diction termed 'an Angel,' and this fact affords a clue to the solution of a multitude of passages where mention is made of the 'Angel of the Lord.' It is wholly unnecessary in many of these texts to suppose the presence of any created spiritual intelligence whatever. The visible phenomenon was the angel, and that only. This phraseology is peculiarly applicable to the Shekinah, which by way of eminence is again and again so denominated, as appears from the Note on Ex. 32. 34. Nothing is more common, moreover, in the ancient versions, than to meet with the phrase, 'Angel of Jehovah,' as equivalent to this visible representative of Jehovah. While therefore we are not so to think of the Shekinah as if God were really contained in it in any sense, in which we do not at the same time suppose him to be contained in every other object in the universe, and in every other portion of space, we are still to believe that he might, and that he did, in a sovereign manner, connect the manifestation of his peculiar presence with this sensible symbol. It can scarcely be necessary here to repeat, that whatever spiritual presence was associated with the visible phenomenon, it was not that which was seen or heard. 'The Father who hath sent me,' says the Savior, 'hath borne witness of me; ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.' Indeed, we have no reason to suppose that any spiritual being ever was or can be seen. Even in the intercourse of human beings with each other, the spirit is never seen; it is only made known by its external manifestations, of which the face is one of the most striking. Were it not so common, nothing would be more wonderful than that the inward emotions and affections of the soul, in all their variety, can be so legibly stamped upon that material organization which we behold in the eyes and other features of the human countenance. What a marvel-what a mystery-is a smile or a frown, as expressed in the movements and aspect of the face! What an index of the hidden workings of the sentient spirit! It is doubtless in direct allusion to this, that the Shekinah is repeatedly called the Face or Presence, or Angel of the Face, of Jehovah. It was a medium of expression to the thoughts and feelings and purposes of his mind precisely analogous to that which the human counte nance is to the human mind. But as we have already expanded this view of the subject in our Notes on Ex. 25. 30 ; 33. 14, 15, we forbear to enlarge upon it here. We would rather call the attention of the reader to the fact, that inasmuch as the sensuous and seen Shekinah was the adopted symbol of the divine Presence, the free and bold diction of the Scriptures denominates it, in multitudes of instances, by the very titles which are appropriated to Jehovah himself. This will have been very apparent in the quotations already made, and similar instances will be found of almost perpetual occurrence in the Notes of this and the succeeding volume. Consequently there is no ground for the opinion, advanced by some commentators, that the spiritual being who acted in conjunction with the Shekinah, was some inferior created being, representing Jehovah, and therefore using his name and claiming his authority. The Scriptures afford not the least shadow of evidence in support of such an hypothesis. The character and titles of the supreme God are appropriated to the person concerned in these appearances in such a way that no form of speech, no principles of interpretation, will allow of their being applied to him who merely represents or personates him. The whole worship of the church is uniformly throughout the Old Testament properly and immediately directed to the person appearing, or acting in these appearances, without any intimation of a representative. So that if the person appearing in the Shekinah be a representative only, he is not only a representative speaking in the name of another, and with his authority, but he must be his representa tive in receiving religious worship also; for to him was all the worship of the church directed as its immediate object. The whole scope of the language respecting the worship of the Israelitish church plainly recognises the fact, that it was addressed to Jehovah who dwelt between the Cherubim in the Most Holy place. How then can it be imagined that in a true revelation any other being than the one only God should be proposed as the object of prayer? It is well known to have been the first and fundamental article of the Jewish creed, that there is only one true God, and him only were they to worship and serve. 'If, therefore,' says Lowman, 'we consider another spirit or an angel to be the only person appearing, the whole worship of the church will then be given to that person or spirit directly and immediately, and not to the one God of Israel, and the Most High. And in this sense, as I apprehend, the whole religious service of the church must have been an express contradiction to the chief and principal doctrine of the Jewish religion, and indeed of all true religion natural as well as revealed. The worshippers of God, under the Jewish dispensation, seem very sensible of this truth, and often express how highly they were concerned never to dissent from it, or to worship any other than the one true God, on any pretence whatever. And yet throughout the whole of this dispensation all their prayers and their whole worship were addressed to the Shekinah, or to the person who appeared in it, though they never once give the least intimation, on any occasion, that the person appearing was properly an angel, and not the Most High. So that if the person appearing in the Shekinah was only an angel, or any other being than the Supreme God himself, it would seem that the whole worship of the church, for two thousand years together, was offered to one object, besides, and against the intention of every worshipper, and against the chief fundamental doctrines and rule of their religion.' We are brought, therefore, so far as we can see, irresistibly to the conclusion, that it was the Great Jehovah, the one living and true God, who appeared in the Shekinah, and who through that me. dium manifested his presence and communicated his will to the chosen people. A point of equal interest and importance now invites our attention, viz., to determine the relation borne by the Shekinah to Christ. The opinion has long since become a doctrine in the Christian church, that the theophanies recorded in the Old Testament were in some sense to be referred to the Son of God, an ticipating in this way his future manifestation in human flesh as the great Me. diator between God and man. Still it must be confessed that a very considerable degree of vagueness has marked the views which have been entertained on this subject. It seems not to have been distinctly apprehended in what character precisely the Messiah is to be regarded in those manifestations. Was it the human or the divine nature which went to the constitution of his glorious per son, that was made sensibly present on those occasions? If the former, how is this to be reconciled with the fact, that his human nature did not exist till he was born at Bethlehem of the virgin? If the latter, then we are forced to the conclusion, that Christ's godhead was Jehovah's godhead; that his divinity was absolutely identical with that of the Supreme God, whom we have already shown to have been exclusively concerned in these remarkable appearances. This, we have no question, is indeed the fact, and on this ground we are satisfied that an irrefragable argument may be built in proof of the real and es. sential deity of the Savior of men; but it is our purpose to come at this conclusion through the avenue opened before us by the usus loquendi of the Scriptures and the Jewish church relative to the Shekinah. No one at all conversant with the Chaldee paraphrases can have failed to notice, that besides 'Shekinah,' the title which they very frequently give to the appearances of the divine being spoken of in the Hebrew records is mëmra da-Yehovah, which as the Greek language prevailed and acquired a fixed predominance, was translated 'The Logos, or Word of the Lord.' The She kinah, as we have seen, was a sensible medium of the manifestation of the divine presence and the declaration of the divine will. An audible voice very frequently accompanied its visible apparition, and as it was in fact the standing organ of communication between Jehovah and his covenant people through all the periods of the ancient economy, nothing would be more natural than that it should come to be designated by the phrase 'Word of the Lord,' or by way of eminence, 'The Word.' Words, either written or spoken, are the established vehicle for conveying the thoughts and feelings of one human being to another. The Shekinah, in like manner, by addressing the senses communicated the designs and will of God to men. The two media answered the same purpose and discharged the same office. How natural, therefore, and how proper, to call the Shekinah 'the Word of the Lord'? Accordingly the evidence is superabundant, that this appellation, in reference to the Shekinah, was perfectly familiar to the Jews at and before the time of our Savior; and as used by their writers would convey an idea entirely equivalent to that couched under the ordinary terms for the divine appearances above alluded to. Out of hundreds of instances, which might be adduced to this effect, we present the following in tabellated form; premising that in the right hand column, under the title Chaldee,' we give indiscriminately the renderings of Onkelos or Jonathan, as they may happen to be more or less pertinent to our purpose. HEBREW. Gen. 3. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden. Ch. 28. 20, 21. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and keep me, &c., then shall the Lord be my God. Ch. 35. 9. And God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Padanaram; and blessed him. Ex. 16. 8. Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Ch. 19. 17. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. Ch. 30. 6. Where I will meet with thee. Lev. 26. 11, 12. And I will set my tabernacle among you; and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and be your God. Num. 11. 20. Because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you. Ch. 14. 9. Only rebel not ye against the Lord. Ch. 23. 4. And God met Balaam. CHALDEE. of the Lord walking in the garden. And Jacob vowed a vow to the Word, saying, If the Word of the Lord will be my help, &c., then shall the Lord be my God. And the Word of the Lord appeared to Jacob the second time, when he was coming from Padan-Aram; and blessed him. Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Word of the Lord. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with the Word of the Lord. Where I will appoint for thee my Word. And I will set my tabernacle among you; and my Word shall not reject you. And I will cause my Shekinah to dwell among you, and be to you a God. Because ye have contemptuously re. Shekinah dwelleth among you. jected the Word of the Lord, whose But rebel not ye against the Word of the Lord. And the Word from before the Lord met Balaam. HEBREW. Deut. 1. 30. The Lord your God CHALDEE. which goeth before yon, he shall fight is thy leader, shall fight for you. The Word of the Lord thy God, who for you. Ch. 1. 32, 33. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you the way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. Ch. 13. 18. When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God. And in this thing ye did not believe in the Word of the Lord your God, who went as a leader before you, &c. If thou shalt be obedient to the Word of the Lord thy God. With this array of testimonies before us, it is impossible to question that the term 'Logos' or 'Word' is repeatedly employed as equivalent to the Shekinah. But Jesus Christ is called by John the 'Logos' or 'Word.' 'In the beginning was the Word,' &c. And have we not now obtained an adequate solution to this title as applied to him, without going out of the bounds of the established Jewish usus loquendi? It is not indeed to be doubted, that the Platonising fathers of the church made a very early prey of this word and wrought it into the tissue of their mystic philosophy, as a personification of the divine Reason or Wisdom-a circumstance which has led commentators to see in John's use of the term some profound allusion to the dreams and dogmas of the Gnostic heresy. But this, we conceive, is nothing else than reading inspired truth through heathen glasses. The meaning of any word or phrase, says Mr. Upham (Let. on the Logos, p. 89), is 'always to be sought, and can only be discovered, in the sources from which its use originated. 'Logos' is a Jewish expression. To the Jews must we go to ascertain its import. Inquirers and writers on this subject have, in general, failed to establish the true interpretation, by directing all their researches to the heathen systems in which the (term) Logos is used, instead of descending beyond them to the Hebrew Theology, from which they borrowed it.' With the clue before us, we are enabled without difficulty to explain this title as appropriated to Christ. He was 'The Word' in the most emphatic and preeminent sense. He was the great organ of communication between heaven and earth. He was the divine Declarer of his Father's purposes of grace and redemption to lost men. Indeed, there can be no doubt, that all previous divine communications and appear. ances were prospective, preparative, and preintimative in their scope, pointing to him who was subsequently to come forth from the bosom of the Godhead and tabernacle or shekinize in our nature as the incarnate 'Word.' Accordngly we are told by the apostle, Heb. 1. 1, that 'God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in those last days, spoken unto us by his Son.' He was appointed to discharge between God and man in a preeminent manner the same office which words lischarge between man and man. He was to be the proclaimer of his mercy, the revealer of his character, and at the same time, the representative, the likeness, the image of his attributes. In a word, he was to be 'God manifest |