Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

what nature or kind foever that Spirit is fuppofed to be. In this fenfe it can be no proof, that God did not manifeft his prefence by fome vifible fymbols, that no man hath feen, or can fee his proper Spiritual Nature; for in that fenfe, no man hath feen, or can fee any spiritual Nature at all.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

It is further remarkable in this argument, that though the Scriptures teach us, that no man hath feen God at any time, yet they do alfo obferve; that the people did hear the voice of Jehovah, the voice of the living God, of Jehovah their God, fo • that they bad feen, that God doth talk with man, and He liveth. Thefe expreffions refer to that eminent appearance of the Schechinah, when Jehovah gave his law on Mount Sinal, in the account of which, how many expreffions have we to the fame purpofe? Thus Jehovah commanded the people to fanctify themselves, and to be ready the third day, on this account; for on the third day, Jehovah will come down in the fight of all the people. And Mofes brought forth the people out of the camp, to meet with God. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a fmoke, because Jehovah defcended upon it, in Fire. •And Jehovah came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the • Mount, and Jehovah called Mofes up to the top of the Mount. It is further faid, That Mofes and Aaron, Nadab and Abibu, and feventy of the Elders of Ifrael, faw the God of Ifrael.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The bare expreffion then, that no man hath Jeen God at any time, can no ways infer; that becaufe God, who is invifible in his nature, has never been, and never can be, a proper object of bodily fenfe, therefore He has never manifefted a peculiar prefence in and by fome vifible fymbols; fuch, for instance, as the Schechinah. For the fame Scrip< tures do exprefsly teach us, that there is a true, and a proper fenfe, in which Jehovah came down in the fight of many people, and that They had feen, that Jehovah had talked with them from Heaven.

[ocr errors]

179

This is an obfervation, I think, of great confequence in the prefent queftion. For in what fenfe foever the Scriptures fpeak of God, as invifible, they teach us to look upon the fymbols of the Schechinah, as a proper manifeftation of fome peculiar prefence of Jehovah: For God, the living • God, Jehovah, the God of Ifrael, is faid to defcend, to appear, to fhew his glory, to fpeak to all the people, to be feen of them, and to be heard by them.'

[ocr errors]

But then our Author obferves, page 23, That the appearance of the Schechinah is afcribed to Angels, and is often called the Angel of Jehovah. Upon which he makes the following ingenious remark.

• It.

133

It is the concurrent opinion of the Hebrew and Samaritan fchools, that the word Angel does not only mean a Spirit, but fometimes alfo, all forts of powers, or inftruments, which God fhall be pleafed to ufe and to act by. So that the elements of the world, Fire and Air, Winds and Storms, in particular vifions, in the language of the Scriptures, are called Angels of the Lord, which do his will. To make this obfervation more evident, we fhall find, that the Scriptures. themfelves call a Dream, a Vifion, a Voice from Heaven, a Plague, a burning Wind, Angels of God. And whatfofoever God is pleafed to do by them, is faid to be done by an Angel of the Lord. For what declares God's will, or performs his pleasure, is his Angel.

[ocr errors]

In particular, the Schechinah, or material Symbol of Glory, and the Oracle from thence, may in this fenfe be called the Angel of the Lord, and it is actually fo called in Scripture. Thus the Schechinah, which Mofes faw in the Fire, in the Bufh, and the Voice of the Oracle, which he heard from thence, are called the Angel of the Lord. And the Schechinah, which conducted the Ifraelites in a pillar of cloud, and Fire, is alfo called the Angel of Jehovah.

So that the Appearance and Voice of Jehovah in the midft of the Fire, and the Angel which fpake to Mofes, on Mount Sinai, are equivalent Expreffions. And thus

in the language of the Chaldee Paraphrafe, the Sche-. chinah of Jehovah, the Mimra de Adonai, are both of them equivalent to the Voice of Jehovah, or the Voice of the Angel of the Prefence, or the Divine Majefty, and Glory.

This obfervation, which is not a bare conjecture of Criticism, but which is founded on many concurrent and direct evidences, will, I conceive, take away the force of the objec<tion before mentioned. For it appears, that the Schechinah, tion be and the Oracle themfelves, may, in a very proper sense, be filed the Angel of the Lord; though the true God himself the only Spirit, or intelligent Agent, who acted upon them, and manifefted himself by them: as much, as if they were acted upon by fome other Spirit, whom God fent to reprefent him in the vifible appearance of the Schechinah, and by the audible Voice of the Oracle. The Fire, and the Voice, were as properly Angels, in the language of Scripture, as any intelligent Beings, or Spirits.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

was

them,

Hence it fhould feem to follow, that not Meffiah, but that the one and only God acknowleged by the Jews, fpake himself

Ff 3

• to

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

to his people; and that the Appearances, the Voice, and material Organs made ufe of, are called the Angel of Jehovah.. But then our Author fays, It deferves particular obfervation, that of all the reprefentations of Chrift in the Jewish Difpenfation, there is no one reprefents him more directly, more fully, and in more important points, than the Schechinah. So that almost all the accounts we have of his perfon, as the Word made Flesh, and of the manner of his appearance among us, in the world, are in defcriptions alluding to the Schechinah, and in expreffions borrowed from it with this only difference, that now the Word is made Flefp, God dwells and tabernacles among men, in a much more proper, and eminent fenfe, than he ever dwelt or tabernacled in the Schechinah, or the Glory between the Cherubim in the most Holy Place, So that all former appearances of the Schechinah are to be confidered as reprefentations of God with us, of the Word made Flesh, and of the manner in which the Fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the Christ. ← Thefe really and fully anfwer all that the Schechinah prefigured, and was a reprefentation of.",

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Mr. Lowman then returns to the Fathers, and observes from Dr. Bull, that they confidered a proper order of action, whereby fome actions were to be afcribed more immediately to the Father, and other actions to the Son. Thus they afferted, that the appearances were to be afcribed to the Son, and not to the Father, becaufe they were properly preludes of the Son's incarnation, and because the Father being first in the order or ceconomy, was to fend, and not to be fent. According to this order the Father is faid to do all things by and through the Son, and therefore to have appeared to the Fathers by him.-We have an inftance of this in the natural order of our own powers of understanding or intelligence, of reafon or wifdom, of will or action.-We may, in like manner, when we confider the infinite Mind, as Father, Word, and Spirit, conceive likewife a diftinct order

• in their actions.'

By their actions, he means, the actions of one mind; and, therefore, the Father, Word, and Spirit, will be no other than different Modes of the fame Mind, as intelligence, and reafon, and will, are in man. This order and oeconomy is no other than an ideal order or œconon:y, and has its diverfity not in the mind, but the manner of action: it is the fame power exerted different ways. And in this fenfe it may be faid, the fame God or Being who, as Father, creates, redeems through the mediation of Chrift, and fanctifies by his

power.

power. Whether this is the Author's meaning or not, let our Readers determine; we think it is what he ought to have faid," in confequence of his notion of the Scripture doctrine of the Schechinah, mixt with what the Fathers have afferted concerning OEconomy*obbies

We now proceed to review what he has fet forth in his fecond Tract, the Effay on the Schechinah.

And first, We obferve, that this word is very improperly Spelt with e; the English language well expreffes the found by fh, which foreigners cannot, without inferting c, and it is not right to imitate them in their defects. And as k is nearer to Caph or Kappa than the ambiguous ch, we shall, for the future, write Shekinah.

[ocr errors]

In our Author's Introduction to this fecond Tract or Essay, he explains, more largely than he had done in his former Tract, the general meaning of the Shekinah, and the Scripture fenfe of the word Angel. But as we have already given his sense of these words, we fhall not enlarge upon them here. In page 84, he confiders the Divine Appearance to our first parents in Paradise, Gen. iii. 8. They heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themfelves from the prefence of the Lord God.-From

*The reafonings of our Author, in this firft Tract, will, from the following remarks, appear to be rather fpecious, and plaufible, than folid, and conclufive. It was ufual, in the eastern countries, for such as delivered messages from others, to speak after the fame manner as thofe very perfons would have done, in whofe names they came, and those who returned anfwers by meffengers, fpake as if thofe very perfons were prefent, by whom the meffengers. were fent. Thus, in Matthew viii. 5-13. the centurion is reprefented as perfonally addreffing his petition to Jefus, to heal his fick fervant; and our Saviour's anfwer is directed to him as if he had been perfonally prefent: whereas, from Luke vii. 1-8. it is evident, that the centurion was not perfonally prefent; but prefer-` ed his request, and received the anfwers from Jefus, by the inter- ` mediate agency of the meffengers he employed on that occafion. See alfo Judges, chap. vi. 11-18, 21, 22, 23. where, in the history of the angelic appearance to Gideon, the fame obfervation is clearly illuftrated.

[ocr errors]

"

It may alfo throw fome further light on this fubject, to take notice, that the angel by whofe miniftry Jefus Chrift fignified [onMave to his fervant John, that revelation which himself had received from God the Father, Rev. i. 1. this very angel, whom Chrift employed as his Minifter, affumes chara&ers appropriate and peculiar to God, and to Jefus Chrift. See Rev. i. 8, 11. xxi. 57. xxi. 6, 8, 13, 16.

[blocks in formation]

:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Ezek. i. 24, and Jer. xi. 16, compared with Exod. ix. 28, he infers, that the voice was as mighty thunderings.There is no mention of fplendor in this paffage, but the appearance is defcribed as a voice or found approaching nearer and nearer to the Prefence of Our firft parents, under the denomination of -the Lord. In the further account of this appearance, we have Jehovah Elohim reprefented as converfing with our firft parents, calling firft to Adam, and replying to his answer; then fpeaking to the woman, and replying to her answer; fpe king afterwards to the Serpent, and denouncing a punishment fuitable to the evil he had done; then pronouncing the punishment of the woman, afterwards of the man; giving a promife, that the Seed of the Woman fhould bruise the Serpent's head; and finally directing our first parents how to cloath themfelves. As here was an appearance of Jehovah Elohim, here was alfo a fenfible appearance, and fuch as that by it our first parents knew it was the presence of the Lord. Though there is no exprefs mention of the form of • the Shekinah, whether by a vifible fhining Light, or otherwife, yet there was an articulate Sound, and diftinct Voice or Oracle. This is all along not only fpoken of as the Voice or Oracle of the Lord God, but in the difcourfe, or words of the Oracle there is an exact conformity to the character of Jehovah Elohim, as having given the command not to eat of the forbidden Tree, and as punishing the tranfgreffion, and as giving the profpect and hope of favour and bleffing from Jehovah, whom they had fo juftly and fo highly difpleafed, by their offence, in eating the forbidden fruit. The next inftance confidered is, the appearance to Abraham, Gen. xvii. Concerning which he observes,

6

Fift, That the perfon appearing was Jehovah, as in the fo mer appearance to our firft parents.

01

Secondly, That in this appearance he takes to himself the character of Almighty God; fpeaks all along, as the Perfon who had the fupreme authority, and government of this world, and difpofal of the several bleffings of Providence; f as the Perfon who had a right and authority to direct the whole religion of Abraham, and to whom all Abraham's religion was to be directed; who entered into Covenant with Abraham and his Seed, and who promifed to be a God unto them, and that he would make him a Father of many Nations, and give to him, and his Seed after him, the land of Canaan for an everlafting poffeffion; who gives thereupon a command for the ufe of the rite of Circumci fion, as a Seal of the Covenant that was entered into, be

[ocr errors]

tween

« AnteriorContinuar »