him that speaketh from heaven; whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake, not the earth only, but also heaven."

Here it is said that "the voice, which shook the earth," at the beginning of the law, was the voice of Christ, because we are warned against turning away "from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth." Christians could only turn. away from a voice which they heard, and that was the voice of Christ. So it is agreed that Christ gave the law. But, if I mistake not, the meaning of this passage has been misapprehended on all sides. The voice was

Law and the

the same in both cases, in giving the Gospel, according to this representation. The explanation of the whole paragraph is this. The writer is contrasting the Law and the Gospel, particularly as to their mildness or severity. He makes the circumstances of the giving of the Law symbolical of its character. It was given on Mount Sinai, amidst the most awful displays of God's power. Moses himself was terri

enveloped in blackness and

fied. The mountain was darkness and tempest. The Law was given with a voice like the sound of a trumpet, or accompanied with the sound of a trumpet. No one, not even a beast, was permitted to approach or to touch the mountain. As a counterpart to this, he describes the Gospel as given in a similar manner, not on earth, but in heaven. The Jews imagined things in heaven to correspond to those on earth, especially the heavenly Jerusalem, and the heavenly mount Sion, which was in

Jerusalem. On this heavenly mount Sion, and in this heavenly Jerusalem, he pictures the Gospel as having been given by God, in an audible, though milder voice.

The Jews imagined that there were present at the giving of the Law on Sinai, myriads of angels, as well as God, and Moses the mediator of the old covenant. At the giving of the Gospel, or the new covenant, not only is an innumerable company of angels present, but the great assembly of the saints, and of all holy men. God is there, as the Judge or Lawgiver, which were synonymous in the Oriental world, and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. I will give, in the words of the inimitable original, the description of the august assembly, at which the writer represents all Christians as being present. "But ye are come unto mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel." This is represented as taking place in heaven, in order to symbolize the superiority of the Gospel to the Law. Of course, God, in giving the Gospel, according to this representation, spoke from heaven, from mount Sion, in the heavenly Jerusalem. But he spake on earth when he gave the law on Sinai. Hence the propriety of what follows. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more

shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.”

The parts of the Old Testament, which are quoted to prove that the divine appearances to Abraham and Moses, were Christ, when examined, will be found, I believe, to give very little countenance to that idea. One of them is found in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis. Abraham sees what he supposes to be three men, who afterward turn out to be three angels. By some it has been said, that these three angels were the three Persons of the Trinity, and yet we are told, in the same breath, by the same persons, that God the Father never did assume a personal form. Abraham addresses first one of them alone, we are not told which, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away from thy servant." Then he addresses the three together: "Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree." It is said, that one of these angels, we are not told which, personated God, and spoke as God. But the Bible says no such thing. The words of the Bible are: "And Jehovah said unto Abraham, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?" It is inferred, or taken for granted, that one of the angels said this. But there is as much against this inference as for it, for we read: "And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord." By what species of logic it is proved, that these three men or three

angels were three Persons of the Trinity, or that one of them was Christ, I am utterly at a loss to imagine.

Another of these passages is found in the twentythird chapter of Exodus. It is in the midst of the giving of the Law. "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him. But if thou wilt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary to thine adversaries." By this angel, God is thought to mean Christ, the second Person of the Trinity. But I believe, it is only a mind predisposed by education to see a Trinity everywhere, that can find it here. Nothing can be plainer than the whole phraseology, to show, that by the angel he means no real person, but that it is only a figurative mode of speech for his own presence and power and personality. The angel is nothing in himself, except as an instrument of Jehovah. "My name is in him;" he acts by my authority, he does what I command. He is the mere "But if thou shalt indeed obey

organ of my speech.
his voice, and do all that
emy to thine enemies."
in all that is done by the angel.
was probably induced by the fact, that there was a vis-
ible token of the presence of God which accompanied
the Israelites through the desert. God himself is some-
times called an angel, in the Old Testament, because he

I speak, then I will be an en-
Jehovah is the ultimate agent
This mode of speech

manifested his presence by an angel, for the instruction and comfort and encouragement of the saints of old. Thus in blessing the two sons of Joseph, Jacob says: "The God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel, which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads."

"

In the first Epistle of Peter, a passage is found which is thought to give countenance to the idea that Christ was the medium of communication with the prophets of the Old Testament. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." But if we adhere strictly to the Trinitarian partition of the divine operations, inspiration is the peculiar and exclusive function of the third Person, the Holy Ghost. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The Spirit of Christ," then, cannot mean Christ as the second Person of the Trinity. It must mean the spirit of prophecy, having certain relations to Christ, either the same that was possessed by him, or that which predicted him. The latter sense suits the connection best, the spirit which predicted Christ. The meaning then of the passage will be this. "Searching what, or what manner of time the spirit which predicted Christ that was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." And this agrees best with the representation in the commencement of the Epistle we have been considering, that God