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Secondly: It is maintained that the Jehovah angel animated the body of Christ.

It would be sufficient to reply, that no such being exists as the Jehovah-angel: but as the Arian hypothesis maintains that the great Angel, who was the medium of divine dispensations to the Je vs, is the spirit which became incarnate in Christ, it will be proper to state a few of the principal arguments.

The following texts, among others, have been alleged from the Old Testament: Isa. Ixiii. 8, 9, " He was their Saviour: the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and pity he redeemed them." But this alludes to the temporal deliverances of the Jews.-Hos. i. 7, "I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God," i. e. I myself will deliver them.—Ezek. xxxiv. 23, "I will set up one shepherd over them, even David." Compare Zech. xiii. 7, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my fellow, saith Jehovah," or, as Archbishop Newcome renders it, "against my friend, and against the man who is near to me."-Hos. iii. 5, "The children of Israel shall return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king." Compare Micah iv. 7, "Jehovah shall reign over them for ever." Hence it is concluded that David, i. e. Christ, the descendant of David, is Jehovah.

Such arguments admit of no reply. One can only wonder that learned men can impose upon themselves by such slender and miserable sophisms.

this argument, observes justly, that " if the person appearing in the Shechinah was indeed only an angel personating the Most High, it should seem that the whole worship of the Jewish church for two thousand years together, was offered to an object beside and against the intention of every worshipper, beside and against the chief fundamental doctrine and rule of worship in their revelation, and against the chief principles of all religion, according to the light of nature."

The

The arguments from the New Testament are more plausible. Most of them have been stated and examined elsewhere. I shall subjoin a few which do not so properly fall under any other head.

It is alleged that the glory of Christ in the New Testament is represented in terms similar to those which express the glory of the Shechinah, or symbol of the divine presence, which rested upon the mercy-seat. 1 Thess. i. 7, "The Lord will be revealed in flaming fire."-Rev. xxi. 23, "The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb was the light thereof." Compare Deut. iv. 24 ; ix. 3.—But no conclusion can be drawn from the obscure and figurative language of prophecy.

Malachi iii. 1. "Jehovah, whom ye seek, shall come suddenly to his temple." The prophecy, it is said, was fulfilled when Jesus visited the temple.-But this argu ment assumes the fact to be proved. Jesus visited the temple as the messenger of Jehovah, not as the imaginary Jehovah-angel.

Our Lord, weeping over Jerusalem, exclaims, Luke xiii. 34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have ga. thered thy children together, and ye would not!" This is explained of the superintendance of the Jehovah-angel. But it may be better understood of our Lord's frequent and earnest exhortations to repentance. Or perhaps, like other prophets, Jesus may here mean to speak in the name of God. So Matt. xxiii. 24, " Behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men."-Deut. xxxi. 23, Moses says to Joshua, "Be of good courage, thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land that I sware unto them, and I will be with thee."

The feebleness and inconclusiveness of such arguments as these need not to be insisted upon. Other texts, which are produced to prove that the Jehovah-angel animated the

body

body of Christ, have been examined already under their proper heads 6.

The currency which the opinion, that Christ was the Jehovah-angel, and the medium of the divine dispensations to the Israelite nation, has obtained among learned and inquisitive persons, is truly surprising, considering the precarious foundation upon which it rests. "It is the unanimous opinion of all antiquity," says Dr. Clarke on Trin. p. 121, "that this angel who said, Exod. iii. 6, ‘I am the God of thy Fathers,' was Christ.” But Acts iii. 13, the apostle Peter says, "The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our Fathers, has glorified his son Jesus ;" and Jesus could not be the God whose son he was. Mr. Lindsey therefore justly remarks, Seq. p. 332, "One may not scruple to say, with the authority of St. Peter and St. Luke, that all antiquity was certainly mistaken in the opinion ascribed to them by Dr. Clarke, so far as they entertained it."

6 These texts are Matt. iii. 1-3. 4, 9. Heb. i. 2. Rom. x. 13. Heb. i. 8, 9.

John i. 1-14; xii. 41. 1 Cor. x. Heb. xi. 26. 1 Pet. iii. 18-20.

SECTION

SECTION X.

THE PRESENT EXALTATION OF CHRIST, AND THE HIGH OFFICES WHICH HE NOW SUSTAINS, OR, TO WHICH HE IS TO BE APPOINTED HEREAFTER, ARE SAID TO BE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE SUPPOSITION OF HIS PROPER AND SIMPLE HUMANITY.

First; CHRIST is said to be advanced to universal dominion, and is represented as at all times present to assist and protect those who submit to his authority.

I. His Government is universal.

1. Matt. xxviii. 18, "All power," 81, dominion, or authority, "is given to me in heaven and upon earth." This doctrine is variously explained.

1.) The Trinitarians say, that universal dominion is given to the Son in his mediatorial capacity, as the reward of his obedience and sufferings 1.

2.) The Arians maintain that Christ, the Logos, is reinstated in the government of the universe, or, of this system, or world, or of angels and men, and is appointed to be head and governor of the church. But if the Logos was from the beginning the Maker and Lord of all things, it is difficult to conceive how a mere restoration to honours which he originally possessed, and voluntarily re

1 "Meminerimus vero, quod Christus jure suo semper apud Patrem habuit hoc, illi in carne nostra datum esse, vel, ut clarius loquar, in persona mediatoris." Calvin in loc.--So that it appears after all, that nothing was given to Christ which he did not already possess. See also Beza, Whitby, and Guyse in loc.

linquished

linquished for a time, can with propriety be represented as the reward of his mediatorial undertaking 2.

3.) Some say that Christ, who, previously to his incarnation, had been only the tutelar angel of Judea, is now advanced to a dominion over other guardian angels, who were before of equal rank with himself, and is appointed governor of the world and of the church 3.

4.) The Polish Socinians held that Jesus, though a mere human being, as a reward for his transcendant merit, and his obedience to death, is exalted to the throne of universal government, is made the ruler of angels and archangels, and is become the proper object of religious homage4.

* Clarke on Trin. p. 268. "Our Lord's dominion is indeed vastly extensive, even coextended with the rational creation: But as it is de rived, it is neither universal nor supreme, as the Father's is." Dr. D. Scott on the Trin. p. 107.

This singular and extravagant hypothesis is supported by Mr. Peirce on Heb. i. 9; also by Mr. Henry Taylor in Ben. Mord. Lett. ii. p. 303.

"Per mortem et resurrectionem suam, omnem potestatem in cœlo et in terra, i. e. illimitatum regnum atque imperium super omnes creaturas in cœlo et in terra existentes....quapropter etiam ipsi, summo jure debetur cultus non modo adorationis, sed etiam invocationis in rebus omnibus, quæ ad nostrum sive temporale sive sempiternum bonum spectant. Wolzogenius.-Christus ad dextram Dei in cœlis collocatus, etiam ab angelis adorandus est....Omnem in cœlo et in terra potestatem accepit; et omnia, Deo solo excepto, ejus pedibus sunt subjecta." Catach. Eccles. Polon. sect. iv.-Well may Dr. Price say, (Serm. p. 146,) that "there is nothing in Athanasianism itself more extravagant than this doctrine of Socinus and his followers," and that "it not only renders the Scriptures unintelligible, but Christianity itself incredible. Consider whether such an elevation of a mere man is credible, or even possible? Can it be believed that a mere man could be advanced at once so high as to be above angels, and to be qualified to rule and judge this world? Does not this contradict all we see or can conceive of the order of God's works? Do not all beings rise gradually, one acquisition laying the foundation of another, and preparing for higher acquisitions? What would you think were you told, that a child just born, instead of growing like all other human creatures, had started at once to complete manhood, and the government of an empire? This is nothing to the fact I am considering."

5.) This

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