EXERCITATION X.

1. Ends of the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah. Other ways of revelation. Of his oblation, by sacrifices. Of his divine Person, by visions. § 2. What meant in the Targums by " NIPID, the word of God. The expression first used, Gen. iii. 8. p, what or who. ὁ λόγος. λογος ενυποςατος. Apprehensions of the ancient Jews about the word of God. Of the philosophers. Application of the expression, λoyos T8 Oi8, to the Son, by John. Expressions of Philo. Of the Mahometans. Christ called the word of God. Intention of the Targumists vindicated. § 3. How the voice walked. Aben Ezra refuted, and R. Jona. The appearance of the second person unto our first parents. § 4. Gen. xviii. 1, 2, 3. God's appearance, b`n on). Suddenness of it. § 5. Who appeared. § 6. The occasion of it. § 7. Reflection of Aben Ezra on some Christian expositors, retorted. A Trinity of Persons not proved from this place. Distinct persons proved. No created angel representing the person of God called Jehovah. Gen. xix. 24. from the Lord. Exceptions of Aben Ezra and Jarchi removed. Appearance of the second person. § 8. Gen. xxxii. 24. 26-30. § 9. Occasion of this vision. § 10. The Person, in appearance a man; § 11. in office, an angel; § 12, 13. in nature, God. Gen. xlviii. 16. Hos. xii. 3-5. pax, what. Who it was that appeared. § 14. Exod. iii. 2—6. 14. God that appeared. § 15. Exod. xix. 20-22. Who gave the law. Not a created angel. The ministry of angels how used therein. § 16. Exod. xxiii. 20—23. § 17. Exod. xxxiii. 2, 3, 4. 13, 14. Different angels promised. The angel of God's presence, who. § 18, 19. Josh. v. 13—15. Captain of the Lord's host described. § 20. Sense of the ancient church concerning these appearances. § 21. Of the Jews. § 22. Opinion of Nachmanides. § 23. Tanchuma. Talmud. Fiction of the angel rejected by Moses, accepted by Joshua. Sense of it. § 24. Metatron, who. Derivation of the name.

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§ 1. We have seen how plentifully God instructed the church of old by his prophets, in the knowledge of the person, office, and work of the Messiah. And this he did partly, that nothing might be wanting unto the faith and consolation of believers, which was suitable and proportioned to that condition of light and grace, in which it was his good pleasure to keep them before his actual coming; and partly, that his righteous judgments, in the rejection and ruin of those who obstinately refused him, might from the means of their conviction be justified and rendered glorious. But these promises and predictions were not the only means whereby God chose to manifest and reveal him unto their faith.

There are two things concerning the Messiah, which are the pillars and foundation of the church. The one is, his divine nature; and the other is, his work of mediation in the atonement for sin, which he made by his suffering, or by the sacrifice of himself. For the declaration of these unto them, who, according to the promise, looked for his coming, there were, under the Old Testament, two especial means graciously designed of God. The latter of these ways, was that worship which he instituted, and the various sacrifices which he appointed to be observed in the church, as types and representations of that one perfect oblation which he was to offer in the fulness of time. The unfolding and particular application of this way of instruction, is the principal design and scope of the apostle in his Epistle unto the Hebrews. But as that must be insisted on at large in our exposition of that Epistle, I shall not anticipate what is to be spoken concerning it in these previous discourses, which are all intended in a subserviency thereunto. The other way which concerns his divine Person, was by those visions and appearances of the Son of God, as the Head of the church, which were granted unto the fathers under the Old Testament. And these, as they are directly suited unto our purpose, in our inquiry after the prognostics of the advent of the Messiah, so are they eminently useful for the conviction of the Jews.

in them we shall manifest, that a revelation was made of a distinct person in the Deity, who in a peculiar manner did manage all the concerns of the church after the entrance of sin. And here also, according unto our proposed method, we shall inquire what light concerning this truth hath been received by any of the Jewish masters; as also manifest to what confusions they are driven, when they seek to evade the evidence that is in the testimonies to this purpose.

§ 2. There is frequent mention in the Targumist of

, the word of the Lord. And it first occurs in them, on the first appearance of a divine Person, after the sin and fall of Adam, Gen. iii. 8. The words of the original text are,

and they heard the * וישמעו את קול יהוה אלהים מתהלך בגן

voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. The participle

n, walking, may be as well referred unto p, the voice, as unto, the Lord God: vocem Domini Dei ambulantem. And although p most commonly signify λoyov πeoPogixov, or verbum prolatum, the outward voice, and sound thereof, yet when applied unto God, it frequently denotes, λoyov evdiabetov, his Almighty power, whereby he effecteth whatever he pleaseth. So Psal. xxix. 3-9. those things are ascribed p, to this voice of the Lord, which elsewhere are assigned, τω λόγω της δυνα μews auty, Heb. i. 3. to the word of his power, which the Syriac renders by the power of his word, intending the same thing.

Now all these mighty works of creation or providence, which are assigned to this voice of the Lord, or to λoyw Tas duvausas, to the word of his power, or to his powerful word, are immediately wrought per λογον εσιώδη Οι ενυπόστατον, by the essential word of God, John i. 3. Col. i. 16. who was with God in the beginning, or at the creation of all things, John i. 1, 2. as his eternal wisdom, Prov. viii. 22-25. and power. This expression therefore of p, may also denote To Moyor TOU BOU, xar' oxy, the Word of God, that is God, the essential Word of God, the Person of the Son. For here our first parents heard this Word walking in the garden, before they heard the outward sound of any voice or words whatever. For God spake not unto them until after this, ver. 9. “The Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him."

And this change of the appearance of God some of the Jews take notice of; so the author of Tseror Hammor, Sect. Bereshith,

קודם החטא היו רואים כביד ח' מדבר עמם ועכשיו שחטאו ,Before they sinned לא ראוהו אלא שמעו קולו מתהלך בגן

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they saw the glory of the blessed God speaking with him, but after their sin they only heard his voice walking.' God dealt now otherwise with them than he did before. And the Chaldee paraphrast observing that some especial presence of God is ex

ושמעו ית קל מימרא דיי pressed in the words, renders them And they heard the voice of the Word * אלהים מתהלך בגנתא

of the Lord God walking in the garden.' So all the Targums, and that of Jerusalem, begins the next verse accordingly,

And the word of the Lord ) וקרא מימרא דיי אלהים לאדם

God called unto Adam.' And this expression they afterwards make use of in places innumerable, and that in such a way as plainly to denote a distinct Person in the Deity. That this also was their intention in it, is manifest, because about the time of the writing of the first of those Targums, which gave normam loquendi, the rule of speaking unto them that followed, it was usual amongst them to express their conceptions of the Son of God, by the name of • Moyos rov Csov, or the word of God, the

מימרא דיי same with

So doth Philo express their sense, de Confusione Linguarum, καν μηδεπω μεντοι τυγχάνη τις αξιοχρέως ως ύιος Θεου προσαγορευεσθαι, στο δαζε κοσμείσθαι κατα τον πρωτογονον αυτ8 λογον, τον αγγελον πρεσβύτατον ὡς αρχαγγελον πολυώνυμον ὑπάρχοντα, και γαρ αρχή, και ονομα Θεού, και λύο γος, και ὁ κατ' εικονα ανθρωπος, και όρων ισραηλ προσαγορευεται. If any be not yet worthy to be called the Son of God, yet endeavour thou to be conformed unto his first begotten Word, the most ancient angel, the archangel with many names; for he is called the Beginning, the name of God, and the Word, the man according to the image of God, the Seer of Israel.' How suitably these things are spoken unto the mysteries revealed in the

gospel, shall elsewhere be declared. Here I only observe how he calls that angel which appeared unto the fathers, and that sometimes in human shape, the Word, the FIRST BEGOTTEN WORD. And he expresseth himself again to the same purpose, και γαρ ει μηπω ἱκανοι Θεὸ παιδὶς νομίζεσθαι, γεγοναμεν αλλα τοι της αιδώς εικονός αυτό, λογό του ἱερωτατου, Θεου γαρ είκων λόγος ὁ πρεσβυτατος. “ For if we are not yet meet to be called the sons of God, let us be so of his eternal image, the most sacred word, for that most ancient Word is the image of God.' How these things answer the discourses of our apostle about Jesus Christ, Col. i. 15-18. Heb. i. 3. is easily discerned. And this conception of theirs, was so far approved by the Holy Ghost, as suitable unto the mind of God, that John, in the beginning of his Gospel, declaring the eternal Deity of Christ, doth it under this name of Moyes, the Word, that is, 77, the Word of God: the "Word that was with God, and that was God," John i. 1. For he there alludeth to the story of the first creation, in which God is described as making all things by his word; for he said of every thing, Let it be, and it was made. And in a similar way the Psalmist expresseth it," He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast," Psal. xxxiii. 9. On the same subject David speaks, yet more fully, in the 6th verse of the same Psalm, declaring that" by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth;" in answer whereunto, John teacheth, that all things were made by this Word of God whereof he speaks, ch. i. 3. And Peter also expresseth the same sentiment, 2 Peter iii. 5. In the Chaldee, creation is also assigned unto this Word, where mention is not made of it in the original; as Isa. xlv. 12. and ch. xlviii. 13.

In the words cited above, John might also have respect unto that ascription of the work of the redemption of the church to this Word of the Lord, which was admitted in the church of the Jews. That place, amongst others, is express to this purpose, Hos. i. 7. where the words of the prophet, "I will save them by the Lord their God," are rendered by the Targumist,

bp, I will save (or redeem) them by the Word of the Lord their God,'-the Word, the Redeemer. And it is not unworthy of consideration, that the wisest and most contemplative of the philosophers of old, had many notions about the λoyos adios, the eternal Word, which was unto them δυναμις της όλης κτίσεως ποιητικη, the formative or creative power of the universe; to which purpose many sayings have been observed, and might be reported out of Plato, with his followers, Amelius, Chalcidius, Proclus, Plotinus, and others, whose expressions are imitated by our own writers, as Justin Martyr, Clemens, Athenagoras, Tatianus, and many more. And among

the Mahometans themselves, this is the name that in their Af coran they give unto Jesus,, the Word of God. So prevalent hath this notion of the Son of God been in the world. And as those words, Ezek. i. 24. "I heard the voice of their wings, p, as the voice of the Almighty," are

as the voice * כקלא מין קדם שדי,rendered by the Targumist

from the face of the Almighty,' what this is shall be after wards shewn. Some copies of the LXX. render them by Qwv wind Tov Xoyou, the voice of the WORD, that is of God, who was repre sented in that vision, as shall be manifested.

Some would put another sense on that expression of the Targumists, as though it intended nothing but God himself; and instances of the use of it in that sense have been observed. As Eccles. viii. 17. “If a wise man say () in his word," that is, say in himself.-Gen. vi. 6. It repented the Lord (b) in his word." Also Ruth iii. 8. is urged to give countenance unto this suspicion; "as did Paltiel, the son of

,בין מימרי ובין מיכל בת שאול Laisli, who placed his sword

between his word and Michal, the daughter of Saul, the wife of David." But, 1. The former places use not the word 7772, which is peculiar unto the sense contended for. 2. The Targums on the Hagiographa, are a late postalmudical endeavour, made in imitation of those of Onkelos and Ben Uzziel, when the Jews had lost both all sense of their old traditions, and the use of the Chaldee language, any farther than what they learned from those former paraphrases. Nothing therefore can hence be concluded as to the intention of the Targumists in these words. And they can have no other sense in that of Psalm cx. 1.8, The Lord said in (or to) his word,' for "to my Lord," as in the original.

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§ 3. The Jews discern that, walking, relates in this

,הוה אלהים the voice, and not unto ,קול place immediately to

קול השופר הולך וחזק

the Lord God, and therefore endeavour to render a reason of that kind of expression. So Aben Ezra on the place giveth instances, where a voice or sound in its progress is said to walk. As Exod. xix. 19. pm 7p, "The voice of the trumpet went and waxed strong;" and Jer. xlvi. 22. ɔɔ mbip, "The voice thereof shall go like a serpent." But these examples correspond not with that under consideration. For although

may express sometimes the progression or increase of a voice, yet it doth not so, but where it is intimated to be begun before; but here was nothing spoken by God, until after that Adam had heard this word of God walking. And therefore R. Jona, cited by Aben Ezra, would apply 2, walking, into Adam, He heard the voice of God, as he was himself icalking in the garden,' the absurdity of which fiction the words of the text and context sufficiently evince. For not on,

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