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without perceiving the destructive hook so artfully concealed in it.

This gentleman and I will not differ concerning the creature nature or soul of CHRIST pre-existing, and frequently appearing in human shape; the question is, whether he that appeared, and assumed the names, titles, &c. peculiar to the true GOD, was really so himself; or only personated and spoke the language of another person, who only is GOD, and had sent him, dwelt in him, and supported him in his work? The former is what I think the scriptures plainly prove,--the latter is what he labors to vindicate through the whole of his book.

It would be vain, in dealing with this author, to prove that it was JESUS CHRIST who appeared, this he readily grants; and as needless to prove that he had supreme DEITY dwelling in him, this he also grants; and thereby distinguishes himself from Arians: but the thing to prove is, that he who appeared was himself the MOST HIGH GOD; which this author peremptorily denies. Among a multitude of texts, and many arguments founded on texts, that might be collected for this purpose, I shall only mention a very few.

It is abundantly evident that he who appeared is commonly called GOD, the LORD, the LORD God, JEHOVAH, the ALMIGHTY, the God of Abraham, &c. Whoever reads a few chapters in Genesis must plainly see this. In Acts vii. 2. the martyr Stephen says, "The GOD OF GLORY appeared to our father Abraham;"-in Gen. xii. 7. it is said, "The LORD appeared unto Abraham, and said, unto thy seed will I give this land: and there he built an altar unto the LORD (JEHOVAH) WHO APPEARED unto him." One would think Stephen and Moses were pretty good evidence in this cause; the one says,

Here

the GOD OF GLORY appeared,-the other that it was JEHOVAH that appeared; and he who appeared spoke in the first person, i. e. himself. A plain English scholar would easily conclude from such language who it was that appeared. But let us hear other two witnesses. Gen. xv. 1. we have an account of another appearance, when he said, “Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward: and Abraham said, LORD GOD, what wilt thou give me," &c. At verse 7th he says, I AM JEHOVAH, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees," at verse 18th Moses says, "In that day JEHOVAH made a covenant with Abraham." Abraham calls him that appeared, LORD GOD.— He calls himself JEHOVAH, Abraham's "shield and exceeding great reward."-And Moses calls him JEHOVAH. Surely this is proof sufficient, and such as prejudice itself dares not question.-In Gen. xvi. 13. Hagar calls the angel of the LORD, (the ANGEl JeHOVAH) who appeared to her, JEHOVAH and God.— She called the name of JEHOVAH that spake to her, "Thou GOD seest me."-In Gen. xvii. i. JEHOVAH appears again to Abraham, and calls himself the ALMIGHTY GOD; and in that narrative he is six times called GOD.-In Gen. xviii. we have another appearance to Abraham, where he plainly distinguishes one whom he calls JEHOVAH, from the two that were with him. And when the other two went to Sodom, they say, JEHOVAH hath sent us to destroy it: but he that tarried with Abraham is addressed as the MOST HIGH GOD-speaks as such of himself, and is called JEHOVAH Several times in the narration by both Abraham and Moses. Gen. xxii. 11. In the account of Abraham offering his son, he is called the angel of the LORD, (the ANGEL JEHOVAH) and assumes the characters of Deity to himself in the plainest terms;-" And Abraham called the name of the place JEHOVAH JIREH," as a

monument of the character of him who had spoken to, and blessed him there.

In the appearances to Isaac, Gen. xxvi.-he is called JEHOVAH, and calls himself the GoD of . Abraham. When he appeared to Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 13.—he says, "I AM JEHOVAH, the God of Abraham, and the GoD of Isaac; and Jacob said, surely JEHOVAH is in this place." Gen. xxxi. 13. -He calls himself the GOD of Bethel.-Gen. xxxii. 24. The man who wrestled with Jacob, caHs himself GOD.-And Jacob said, I have seen God. -Hosea tells us who it was that wrestled with Jacob, chap. xii. 3.-" By his strength he had power with GOD, yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed, he wept, and made supplication unto him, he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; even the LORD OF HOSTS, JEHOVAH is his memorial." We have another appearance, Gen. xxxv. 9. where he calls himself GOD ALMIGHTY.In another, Gen. xlvi. 3. he says, "I AM GOD, the GOD of thy father. And in Gen. xlviii. where Jacob is telling his sons who it was that appeared to him, he says, "GOD ALMIGHTY who appeared to me at Luz."

But not to multiply citations on this head, let any impartial person read attentively the third chapter of Exodus, and see whether the person appearing to Moses does not assume to himself the names, tilles, powers, and prerogatives of JEHOVAH in the plainest, most explicit, and unreserved manner. Moses is said to be afraid to look upon GoD, which name, together with JEHOVAH, the GOD of Abraham, &c. he gets often in the narrative-and he calls himself I AM THAT I AM, in the most solemn manner. Such is the explicit terms in which he designs himself as the MOST HIGH GOD, that I very much question if the invention of angels, or the

power of language could express and affirm the proper Deity of him that spoke in clearer and stronger terms.

1 Cor. x. 9. The apostle says, it was CHRIST who was tempted in the wilderness.-David says, "they tempted and provoked the MOST HIGH GOD, Psa. Ixxviii. 56.-Moses says, it was JEHOVAH they tempted, Exod. xvii.—And JEHOVAH says, it was himself they tempted, Numb. xiv. 22. Heb. iii. 8, 9. From such clear premises the conclusion is manifest to every unprejudiced reader.

The same sentiment is clear from many other passages, which contain an account of various appearances and expressions of GOD to Moses at Mount Sinai, in the tabernacle, &c. And I think no impartial reader can well shun the force of such evidence in these and many other instances. In Numb. xxii. 25. it is said, "GoD came to Balaam -Balaam said to GoD-Balaam said JEHOVAH refuseth to give me leave-Peradventure JEHOVAH will come to me-God met Balaam-JEHOVAH put a word in Balaam's mouth-JEHOVAH met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth-The Spirit of GoD came upon him-and he took up his parable, and said, The man who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the ALMIGHTY," &c. Yet, it is said, the angel of the LORD met Balaam. Let the reader consult the narrative with this view, and I can freely leave it to him, whether he who appeared and spoke, be not JEHOVAH.

In Judges ii. 1. and vi. 11. we have two appearances where he who appeared is called angel, and yet by the sacred writer he is called GOD, and JEHOVAH, who himself challenges the names, characters, and works, proper only to GOD. The angel says it was himself that sware unto their fathers.

Gen. xxii. 15. "And the angel of the LORD called, to Abraham, and said, By MYSELF have I SWORN, saith JEHOVAH." But the Holy Ghost says, Heb. vi. 13. "When God made a promise to Abraham, because he could SWEAR by no GREATER, he SWARE by HIMSELF."

The same we find in several other accounts of appearances in scripture, which would be too tedious to enumerate in this place. But from the whole it is plain, that he who appeared calls himself GOD, JEHOVAH, &c. is frequently so called by the persons to whom he appeared; and is always called so by the sacred writers of those divine histories.

If the attentive reader will consider the passages that have been cited, and many similar ones in the old testament impartially, and consider himself as it were in the place of those to whom the appearances were made, then let him think whether he would not have been fully convinced, that he who spoke was the MOST HIGH GOD.-And though he might believe that an angel appeared, whether such express, strong, and solemn assumptions of Deity, would not make him believe, that the ETERNAL GOD and the ANGEL, at least for that season, and for that purpose, were not one agent, one speaker, one complex person? Whether Moses, for instance, could have any other idea of the appearance of the BLESSED GOD, acting and speaking in what was visible to him? Consider whether the mere idea of a creature, sent as a deputy to speak in the name of GoD, could answer the divine characters assumed by the speaker, and the sacred and sublime assertions of the writer, and he to whom the appearance was made? There is not the least notice that he who appeared was the messenger of an absent GOD, or that he was sent from God to

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