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directed Noah to build his ark, made him enter into it, fhut him in, faved him and his family from the flood, and then speaking unto him, faid, Go forth out of the ark, &c-Whether we advert to the friendly manner in which he appeared to, and converfed with Abraham, in his various ftations and journies; or, whether we attend to the familiarity with which, accompanied by two of his Angels, he came to that Patriarch in a human fhape, condefcended to eat with that Friend of God, as he ate with Simon, and was worthipped and invoked by him, as THE JUDGE OF ALL the earth, who claimed the abfolute right of (paring Lot, and deftroying Sodom, as he had Ipared Noah, and destroyed the whole world by water, and who actually deftroyed that wicked city by raining, as Jehovah, fire from Jehovah upon it, when the two angels who accompanied him, had made Lot, and his daughters efcape out of that accurkd town: Whether, I fay, we confider these or any other of the Lord's appearances, He is reprefented as Jehovah, coming to do bere hand the work of the Meffiah.

As fupreme Prophet, he leads Arakan, Ifaac, and Jacob, opens the eyes of Ar, rattructs Mofes and all the Prophets, Bazaleed all the ingeious artifts. As fupreme High Prieft, he directs Abraham and Aaron, how to offer up proper facrifices. As Lord of Hofs, or Captain of the Lord's hefts, he overthrows five kings before Abraham Pharaoh, before Mofes; the Kings of Canaan before Joshua, and the Philistines before David. As Angel of the Covenast, he engthens, wrestles with, and belles he visits, direct and animates Gideon: Fears a human shape to promife a fon to dorchas, and to Mgnysh: And, as he faid to the Jews, for: Abraham was I am; fo, fpeaking to Mayes, from the burning, unconfumed

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unconsumed bush, which was an emblem of his eternal Power and Glory, he shews that, with his Father, he is the Firft and the Laft, and declares their common name, I am that I am.

Thefe manifeftations of Jehovah's glory had circumftances characteristic of the Son's Perfon, as appears by the accounts handed down to us in the facred writings. When Mofes, Aaron, and feventy two of the Elders of Ifrael went up, and SAW THE GOD OF ISRAEL, it is faid, there was under his FEET, as it were a paved work of a fapphire flone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness ; And that upon thefe Nobles he laid not his hand. He appeared therefore as a man, fince he had feet and hands, which it cannot be fhewn the Father ever did.

Accordingly the Apostle, fpeaking of the preference, which Mofes's faith gave to the God of Ifrael, over the idols and riches of the Egyptians, fays that Mofes efteemed the reproach of CHRIST greater riches than the treafures in Egypt, Heb. xi. 26; the Ifraelites being then as much reproached by the Egyptians for worfhipping the God of Ifrael, as we are by you, Sir, for worshipping the Logos. And St. Paul, alluding to thefe words of Mofes, The children of Ifrael TEMPTED JEHOVAH, faying, IS JEHOVAH among us or not? Exod. xvii. 7, fays to the Corinthians, Let us not tempt CHRIST, as fome of them, (the children of Ifrael) alfo tempted, [him] and were deftroyed of ferpents: 1 Cor. x. 9. Which fhews the Apoftle believed, that Jehovah Leader of Ifrael through the wilderness, was the very Logos, who fuftained openly the office of Meffiah, when he was at length manifefted in human flesh.

And as the Scriptures fhew, that these transient manifeftations of Jehovah, are in general to be understood of Chrift in his divine nature, or in

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his form of God, [fee Phil. ii. 6.] your own Reafon, Sir, prejudiced as it is, must fee the priety of this doctrine. For, if there be, in union with the Father's Godhead, a Word, a Son, whofe goings out are from everlafting, who was in the beginning with God [the Father] and was God, in fo much that he can fay, as the only begotten Son of the Father, I and my Father are one, in a fense which can be true only with respect to him who is the proper Son, and the exprefs image of the Father [fee Rom. viii. 32, in the original, and Heb. i. 3.If there is, I fay, fuch a Being, whom St. John calls the Logos, and whom the Father names his well beloved Son; and if the Scriptures testify, that the Father fent this Son to redeem mankind, and to blefs all nations; is it not mors reafonable to believe, that the Father occafionally fent him first to redeem the Ifraelites from their Egyptian captivity, and to blefs that favoured people, than to believe that the Father, who never perfonally appeared, no not for the redemption of all mankind, appeared nevertheless fome times as a man, and fome times as an Angel for the redemption of the children of Ifrael from from their house of bondage?

A Son, even the proper Son of God, may, with the greatest propriety, be fent by his Father, to do works worthy of Omnipotence, fuch as the redemption of a world, or the deliverance of a favourite people; But to fuppofe the Father perfonally to appear as a partial Saviour in a cloud, or in a flame, on a mountain, or in a temple, to fuppofe him to fhew himself fome times as an Angel, and fometimes as a Man, is contrary both to the analogy of faith, and to the dictates of reason.

Befides,

Befides, the Scriptures inform us, that by faith Mofes endured as feeing Him, who is invifible,becaufe He dwells in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath feen, nor can fee: Heb. xi. 27, and 1 Tim. vi. 16: And they declare, that if the the Father is vifible, it is in his Son, John xiv. 9. From thefe rational and fcriptural premifes, I conclude, that Jehovah, who appeared to Mofes, and to the feventy two elders, and who faid to the People of Ifrael, Fam the Lord thy God, who brought thee" out of the houfe of bondage, is that exprefs Image of the Father, that Prince of Life, who faid, He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father: I and the Father

are one.

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The Reviewers have proved to you, Sir, that this was the opinion of Juftin. one of the most ancient and refpectable Fathers, who had the honour of fealing the truth of the Gofpel with his blood, 130 years after our Lord. And Bp. Bull confirms the proofs brought against you, where he writes, That the Son of God was he, who appeared to Mofes in the Bufh, and faid, I am the exiftent Being, Juftin, in his Dialogue with Trypho eagerly contends. The cafe is this. That De fcription of God, in Mofes, I am, equally agrees to the Father and the Son, as to one God; always faving the Diftinction of Perfons: Which is excellently explained by Juftin, after this manner: God the Father is [o wv] the Exiftenty as always existing of himself; God the Son is [o ov] the Exiftent, as exifting with the Father, and eternally begotten of him." [Bull by Grabe, vol, i, p. 347. Meaning

← To prove

*Monthly Review for January 1781, p. 61. (fay thefe Gentlemen) beyond the poffibility of difpute or evafion, that by the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, Justin meant Chrift, we refer the reader to his celebrated Apology to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, (p. 93, 94) in which this expreffion is not only applied to Chrit, but even vindicated as his own appropriate and diftinct character."

Meaning to resume the important subject the first opportunity, I now release you, and subscribe myfelf,

Your fincere friend,

And obedient fervant, in the
Word made flesh,

JOHN FLETCHER.

LETTER III

The Subject of the former Letter continued.

REV. SIR,

HOULD you deny that JEHOVAH, who ap peared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, accompanied by two angels, was the Logos, we prove our affertion thus. The Scriptures no where fpeak of any transient incarnation of the Father it is therefore unfcriptural to fuppofe, that the Perfon who did eat of the butter, milk, and cakes which Abraham did fet before him, and who kindly enquired after Sarah, was THE FATHER, Nevertheless that he was God is evident, for he is called eight times JEHOVAH in the context. And therefore, the analogy of faith requires us to believe that it was Jehovah the Son, who already condefcended to quit his form of God, and to appear in the form of a fervant, that he might receive finners and eat with them: Compare Gen. xviii. 8. with Luke xv. 2. and John xxi. 12.

The fame reafons prove that the divine Perfon, who flood above the myfterious ladder which Jacob law in Bethel, was Jehovah the Son. Behold, Laith the Hiftorian, JEHOVAH food above it, and

faid

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