The same person is called in this passage God, the angel, and the Lord God of hosts.

In Exodus iii. we read, that when Moses came to Horeb," the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." Moses turned about to see this sight," And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I am come down to deliver them, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people." You will observe in this passage an interchange of the names angel and God, a reference to the former appearances which the patriarchs had seen, and a connexion established between this appearance and the subsequent manifestations to the children of Israel; so that the person whom Abraham saw in the plains of Mamre, and who brought Israel out of Egypt, is declared to be the same. Moses asks the name by which he should call the God who had thus come down to deliver the children of Israel. "And God said, I am that I am thou shalt say to the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." This very particular mode of expression is intended to be the interpretation of Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God, implying his necessary, eternal, and unchangeable existence. Other beings may be, or may not be. There was a time when they were not; the will of him who called them into existence may annihilate them; and even while they continue to exist, there may be such alterations upon the manner of their being, as to make them appear totally different from what they once were. But God always was, and always will be, that which he now is; and the name which distinguishes him from every other being, and is truly expressive of his character, is this, εγω ειμι ὁ ων

It is very remarkable that in the same passage in which the person who appeared to Moses assumed this significant phrase as his name, he is called by the historian, the

angel of the Lord; and Stephen, Acts vii. 30, 35, in relating this history before the Jewish Sanhedrim, shows the sense of his countrymen upon this point, by repeating twice the word angel. "There appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire." And again, "This Moses did God send to be a ruler and deliverer by the hands of the angel which appeared to him in the bush." Stephen says most accurately that Moses was sent to be a ruler and deliverer by the hands of this angel; for it was the same angel who appeared to him in the bush; that put a rod in his hand wherewith to do wonders before Pharaoh; that brought forth the people with an out-stretched arm, and led them through the wilderness. Accordingly, Exod. xiii. 21, we read, "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire." In the next chapter, xiv. 19, we read, "The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them." The same Jehovah who led them out of Egypt gave them the law from Mount Sinai; for we read, Exod. xx. 1, 2, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Our attention is thus carried back by the preface of the law to that appearance which Moses had seen; and accordingly Stephen says, Acts vii. 38, "Moses was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sina." An angel then spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, yet this angel in giving the law takes to himself the name of Jehovah. The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me:" and Moses, when he recites in Deuteronomy the manner of giving the law, says expressly that God had given it; iv. 33, 36, 39, "Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard, and live? Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. Know, therefore, this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else."

All the interpositions recorded in the Pentateuch, by which the enemies of the children of Israel were put to flight, and the people were safely conducted to the land of

Canaan, are referred to the same person, who is often called the angel of the Lord that went before them. Moses, who begins the blessing which he pronounced upon the children of Israel before his death with these words, Deut. xxxiii. "The Lord came from Mount Sinai," seems to intend to connect the first appearance, which this Lord made to him in Horeb, with every subsequent manifestation of divine favour, when, in speaking of Joseph, he calls the blessing of God for which he prays, "the good will of him that dwelt in the bush." During a succession of ages all the affairs of the Jewish nation were administered with the attention and tenderness which might be expected from a tutelary deity, or guardian angel, to whom that province was specially committed; and the prophet Isaiah has expressed that protection amidst danger, that support and relief in all their distresses, which the people had experienced from his guardianship, in these beautiful words, Isaiah lxiii. 7, 9: "I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them and carried them all the days of old." Yet we are guarded in other places against degrading the God of Israel to a level with the inferior deities to whom the nations offered their worship. "Where are their gods," says the Lord by Moses, Deut. xxxii. 36—40, "their rock in whom they trusted? See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say I live for ever." And Isaiah xliv. 6: "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God." This is the language in which the God of Israel speaks of himself, and in which he is addressed by the people through all the books of the Old Testament; and in the long addresses, several of which are recorded, the high characters which distinguish the true God are conjoined with the manifestations in former times, of which I have been giving the history, in such a manner as to show that both are applied to the same person. One of the most striking examples is the solemn thanksgiving and

prayer offered, Nehemiah, ch. ix. by all the congregation of Israel, who returned from the Babylonish captivity, in consequence of the edict of Cyrus the Great. "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the sea, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Thou art the Lord, the God who didst choose Abraham,—and madest a covenant with him,—and didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,-and didst divide the sea before them,—and leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire. Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven-yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness," &c. There is no interruption, no change of person in the progress of this prayer, so that we must suppose a delusion to run through the whole of the Old Testament, unless the Creator of heaven and earth be the same person whom Jacob, and Moses, and Isaiah, and Stephen, call the Angel of the Lord.

In order to connect all the intimations which the Old Testament gives concerning the God of Israel, you must carry this along with you, that the person who appeared to Moses, and who gave the law from Mount Sinai, commanded the people to make him a sanctuary, that he might dwell amongst them. The command was given to Moses at the time when he went up into the midst of the cloud that abode upon Mount Sinai, and when the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the Mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. At this time Moses received from God the pattern of the ark of the tabernacle, and of the mercy-seat on the top of the ark, having cherubims which covered the mercy-seat with their wings, and looked towards one another. "Thou shalt put," said God, "the mercy-seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims, of all things which I will give thee in commandment to the children of Israel,” Exod. xxv. 21. As soon as the tabernacle was reared, and the ark with these appurtenances was brought into it, "a cloud covered

the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." This cloud was the guide of the children of Israel in their journeyings. When the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, they went on; when it was not taken up, they rested; and you may judge how intimately they connected the appearance of the ark with the presence of God, from the words recorded, Numb. x. 35, 36, as used by Moses in the name of the congregation. The ark of the Lord, it is said, went before them. "And when it set forward, Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel." Wheresoever the ark was, the God of Israel was conceived to be. In that place he met with his people. There they consulted him in all their exigencies; and the glory which filled the tabernacle, called the Shechinah, was the visible symbol of the presence of the God of Israel. When Solomon built a temple, he introduced into it the ark and the tabernacle. And the joy which he felt in accomplishing that work arose from his having found a fixed habitation for that sacred pledge of the divine favour which had often been exposed to danger, which had for some time been in the possession of the enemy, but which every devout Israelite regarded as the glory and security of his nation. In Psalm cxxxii., which appears to have been composed to celebrate the introduction of the ark into the temple, you find these words: "Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou, and the ark of thy strength. The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell." In the solemn prayer of Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, 1 Kings vi. it is declared to be a house built for the Lord God of Israel, who had made a covenant with their fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. As soon as the ark was brought into its place in the temple, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. To this place all the prayers and services of the people in succeeding generations were directed. The Lord was known by this name, Jehovah the God of Israel, who dwelleth between the cherubims. And hence arises the significancy of that prayer of the good king Jehoshaphat, when he stood in the house of the