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times to Adam, to Abraham, to Moses, to the elders of Israel, to the patriarchs and prophets, and to other good men, who would not tell his name to Jacob and to Manoah, when they asked him who he was, who is called both God and the angel of God, that this person was the Word of God, the Son of God, who was in the form of God, who was the visible image of the invisible God, representing the majesty of his Father, and acting in his name.

The angel who appeared to Manoah 9 said to him, "Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret, or wonderful? If we compare this with Isaiah ix. 6. it is there said of the Messiah, His name shall be called Wonderful.' If we compare it with Rev. xix. 12. it is there said of Christ, 'He had a name written which none knew but he himself."

Concerning this angel Isaiah' thus speaks, celebrating God's loving-kindness to the children of Israel in antient times: The angel of God's presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them and carried them all the days of old.'

These great things are here ascribed to the angel of God's presence, or, of his face; which if we compare with the history of those transactions, as related by Moses, we find that God almighty manifested himself to Moses by an angel. "The angel of the Lord appeared to him in the bush, and said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;' and afterwards, 'I am that I am, I am the Lord Jehovah.' We find that this angel went before his people in a cloud and afterwards, representing the person of almighty God, and speaking in his name, he says, Behold, I send my angel before thee-beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke

.

Vitringa on Isai. lxiii. 9, 10. p. 249. and on Zech. i. 11, 12. p. 131. concerning the angel who intercedes with God for the Jews.

Some think that where the angel of the Lord is mentioned, no other is meant than one of those ministering spirits, who sometimes represented the person of God, acted in his stead, and spake in his name; and then, say they, whatever honour and adoration might be seemingly paid to him, was really paid to God, to whom it was designed, and whom the angel personated. See Le Clerc in Indice ad Pentat. Angelus, and the commentators on Heb. ii. 2. and 5. and Clemens Alex. Strom. v. 1. p. 648. edit. Ox.

9 Judg. xiii. 18. See Vitringa on Isai. ix. 5, 6. lxiii. 9. Where see Vitringa.

him not: for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him.'

Concerning this angel Jacob thus speaks, when he blesses the children of Joseph: The God who fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads!' And Moses prays that the posterity of Joseph may enjoy the favour of him,' of the angel, 'who dwelt in the bush.'

Concerning this angel Zechariah thus speaks, xii. 8. "In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.' The sentence rises in such a manner, that it cannot be supposed to sink at last; whence it is reasonable to conclude that the same person is here called God, and the angel of the Lord.

Lastly, concerning the same angel Malachi says, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the angel,' or messenger, of the covenant.'

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This mighty angel, the saviour, redeemer, intercessor and protector, seems to be no common or created angel, but that angel in whom the name of God was, and by whom God speaks to mankind, and who on that account is called the Word of God, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, by whom all things were created, and who afterwards became man and dwelt with

us.

The Jews had many prejudices against the person of Christ; they had as many, or rather more, against his doctrine.

The religion of the gospel is spiritual: the religion of the Jews, as they made it, was carnal. The gospel places morality above rites and ceremonies: the Jews preferred, in their practice at least, the ritual law to the moral.

The gospel represents the law of ceremonies as a temporary institution, which drew towards its end after the coming of John the Baptist: the Jews thought that the whole law was everlasting, and of perpetual obligation. They believed that they could perform as much of it as would be sufficient to secure the favour of God; they there

fore rejected new doctrines and means of salvation, as false, or useless and unnecessary.

Of all their mistakes and prejudices, their too great zeal for the law seems to have been the most excusable: it arose partly from a high veneration for commandments, which were undoubtedly of divine appointment, and a good man might have fallen into it. Therefore the apostles used great lenity and condescension towards the Jews in this particular, and suffered them to observe the ritual law along with the gospel, which they did for a considerable time, till, Jerusalem being destroyed, no small part of the ceremonial law became impracticable, and by slow degrees the whole fell into disuses.

The Jews accounted Moses to have been the greatest of all the prophets: the gospel taught them that John the Baptist was a prophet greater than all who had been before him, yet in every respect infinitely inferior to Christ, and not equal to the least of Christ's disciples in dignity of office.

The Jews not only avoided, as much as they could, all intercourse with the Gentiles, which indeed their own law required of them in many cases, but had them generally in abomination, not for their vices, but because they observed not the law of Moses: the gospel commanded them to love all men, though they were not Jews either by birth or by religion, and not to shun them as unfit for conversation, unless they were scandalous by impiety or immorality.

The gospel condemned, not only evil actions, but evil inclinations and thoughts: the Jews, if we may judge of them by the sentiments of some of their own writers, were of opinion that there was no harm in bad designs, unless they were put in execution.

Josephus says, that Antiochus Epiphanes, as he was dying, confessed that he suffered for the injuries which he had done to the Jews. Then he adds, I wonder how Polybius could say that Antiochus perished because he

Sulpitius Severus, 1. ii.

Eusebius, E. H. iv. 6.

Origen contr.

Cels. ii, p. 56.

had purposed to plunder the temple of Diana in Persia; for to intend the thing only, and not to perform it, is not worthy of punishment t.

The story of Glaucus is remarkable; who being esteemed a man of singular probity, and having a large sum of money deposited in his hands, and an opportunity of keeping it from the owners, if he would forswear himself, consulted the oracle at Delphi what he should do. 'When" he had proposed his question, the priestess of Apollo answered

thus :

If present profit claim thy chief regard,

Be bold, and swear, and take the obvious prize :
Just dealing cannot save thee from the grave.
But the oath's guardian hath a nameless son,
Who swift and strong, tho' without hand or foot,
Pursues, o'ertakes, and seizes, and destroys
The whole devoted race; whilst honest men
Leave lasting blessings to their children's children.

Glaucus hearing this entreated the god to forgive him what he had said. The priestess replied; To tempt the god, and to commit the action, is all one. Glaucus how

ever sent to recall his Milesian guests, and delivered them the money. At present there remains no house or progeny of Glaucus, but it is rooted out from Sparta.'

• Ωστε θαυμάζειν Πολύβιον τὸν Μεγαλοπολίτην, ὃς, ἀγαθὸς ὢν ἀνὴρ, ἀποθανεῖν λέγει τὸν Αντίοχον, βουληθέντα τὸ τῆς ἐν Πέρσαις ̓Αρτέμιδος ἱερὸν συλῆσαι τὸ γὰρ μηκέτι ποιῆσαι τὸ ἔργον βουλευσάμενον, οὐκ ἔστι τιμωρίας ἄξιον. Ant. xii. 9.

See Selden de Synedr. ii. 13. § 7. Hammond on Rom. vii. 7. Grævius on Cicero de Offic. i. 4. and Grotius on Exod. xx. 17. who observes that the wiser pagans had much better notions.

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« Ἐπειρωτῶντα δὲ αὐτὸν τὸ χρηστήριον εἰ ὅρκῳ τὰ χρήματα ληίσεται, ἡ Πυθίη μετέρχεται τοῖσδε τοῖσὶ ἔπεσι·

Γλαῦκ Επικυδείδη, τὸ μὲν αὐτίκα κέρδιον οὕτω,

Ορκῳ νικῆσαι, καὶ χρήματα ληίσσασθαι

Ομνυ· ἐπεὶ θάνατός γε καὶ ἔυορκον μένει ἄνδρα.
Αλλ' ὅρκου παῖς ἐστὶν ἀνώνυμος, οὐδ ̓ ἔπι χεῖρες,

Ουδε πόδες· κραιπνὸς δὲ μετέρχεται, εἰσήκε πᾶσαν
Συμμάρψας ὀλέσῃ γενεὴν, καὶ οἶκον ἅπαντα·
̓Ανδρὸς δ' ευόρκου γενεὴ μετόπισθεν αμείνων.

Ταῦτα ἀκούσας ὁ Γλαῦκος συγγνώμην τὸν Θεὸν παραιτέετο αυτῷ ἴσχειν τῶν ῥηθέντων· ἡ δὲ Πυθίη ἔφη, Τὸ πειρηθῆναι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸ ποιήσαι, ἴσον δύναται. Γλαῦκος μὲν δὴ μεταπεμψάμενος τοὺς Μιλησίους ξείνους, ἀποδιδοῖ σφι τὰ χρήματα. Γλαύκου νῦν οὔτε τι ἀπογονόν ἐστι οὐδὲν, οὔτ ̓

VOL. I.

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Compare the words of the oracle, concerning the son of the deity who presides over oaths, with Zechar. v. i. I looked, and behold, a flying roll. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name; and shall remain in the midst of his house; and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof x.'

The gospel required purity of heart: the Jews had slight notions of this duty, and placed purity in bodily and ritual purifications.

The gospel promised eternal happiness to those who would lead religious lives, and to impenitent sinners denounced the most dreadful punishments: the Jews thought that no Israelite should be deprived of future happiness, whatsoever his faults had been, unless he were guilty of apostasy, idolatry, and a few other crimes which they specified".

The school of Elias used to say, that whosoever learned

ἑστίη οὐδεμίη νομιζομένη εἶναι Γλαύκου· ἐκτέτριπταί τε πρόῤῥιζος εκ Σπάρτης. Herodot. vi. p. 359. ed. Gron. See the same story related by Juvenal, xiii. 199. Cicero de Offic. iii. 8. seems to allude to it.

* The likeness between these two places is observed by Grotius. The last verse of the oracle is to be found in Hesiod Epy. 285: and the sense, though not the words, of the foregoing lines, 282, &c.

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Ὃς δέ κε μαρτυρίησιν ἑκὼν ἐπίορκον ομόσσας
Ψεύσεται, ἐν δὲ δίκην βλάψας, νήκεστον ἀάσθη,
Τοῦ δὲ τ ̓ ἀμαυροτέρη γενεὴ μετόπισθε λέλειπται·
Ανδρὸς δ' ευόρκου γενεὴ μετόπισθεν ἀμείνων.

Maimonides indeed, and some others, learned to talk in a better manner on this subject, and more conformably to christian morality. See Huet. Alnet. Quæst. p. 343.

But though evil intentions are faults, yet, as to human laws, Ulpian's determination seems, generally speaking, to be just: Cogitationis pœnam nemo patitur.' Digest. 1. xlviii. tit. xix. 18. where see the notes.

ν Ὑπολαμβάνοντες ὅτι πάντως τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς σπορᾶς τῆς κατὰ σάρκα τοῦ ̓Αβραάμι οὖσι, καν ἁμαρτωλοὶ ὦσι καὶ απιστοι καὶ ἀπειθεῖς πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, ἡ βασίλεια ἡ αἰώνιος δοθήσεται. Existimantes eis omnino qui ex satu, secundum carnem, Abrahami sunt, quamvis peccatoribus, et infidelibus, et erga Deum immorigeris, regnum æternum datum iri, Justin. M. Dial. 433. ed. Thirl.

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