lmi!'\'.r''';i •!'':! r , ^1 l,'o, ijjJ (■ .,' S> « , i^ ^RV0FPRI/VC£^ ^i^OGICALSE^^^ BR 75 .B36 1828 v 3 ~^ Barrington, John Shute Barrington, 16 78-1734. The theological works of the first viscount Barrington THE THEOLOGICAL WORKS OF THE FIRST VISCOUNT BARRINGTON, INCLUDING THE MISCELLANEA SACRA, THE ESSAY ON THE DISPENSATIONS, AND HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. LARDNER, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED, A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR OF HIS SON, SHUTE BARRINGTON, THE LATE BISHOP OF DURIJAM, BY THE REV. GEO. TOWNSEND, M.A. PREBENDARY OF DURHAM, AND VICAR OF NORTHALLERTON. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON : C. AND J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH- YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1828. rniNTEn by a. j. valpv, riEC mon counx, fll/jt street. CONTENTS OF VOL. III. Dissertations illustrative of the Essay on the Dis- pensations. I. On the Temptation, the Fall, and the Sentence which God pronounced on the Serpent, the Woman, and the Man 1 II. Concerning God's visible Presence and Appearance, Face and Glory, as they occur in Scripture . 1 9 Exposition of 1 Peter iii. 1/ — 22 53 Exposition of several Portions of the Book of Genesis 6l Dissertation on Galatians iii. l6 gg Dissertation on Hebrews xii. 22 — 25. . . .Ill Letters between Lord Barrington and Dr. Lardner . 139 Texts of Scripture explained, paraphrased, or other- wise illustrated 357 Index 359 ' E TON IG&L DISSERTATIONS ILLUSTBATITB OF THE ESSAY ON THE DISPENSATIONS. DISSERTATION THE FIRST. ON THE TEMPTATION, THE FALL, AND THE SENTENCE WHICH GOD PRONOUNCED ON THE SERPENT, THE WOMAN, AND THE MAN; IN A LARGE PARAPHRASE ON THE THIRD CHAP- TER OF GENESIS. I CONSIDER the third chapter of Genesis to be the real history of the fall, and to be inserted by Moses as the history of the origin of moral and natural evil, between the history of the creation, in the first and second chapters, and the peopling the world, the rise of arts and sciences, and other the most early and remarkable occurrences, to the flood, in the fourth and following chapters. I can by no means consider it as a parable. The insertion of a parable in the middle of a history, without giving us any notice of its being a parable, would not have been by any VOL. III. A 2 The Mosaic account ofthefaU means worthy of so accurate an historian, as the writer of this history will, upon strict observa- tion, appear to be. Nor can the accounts, which the patrons of this opinion give us of it as a parable, induce a reasonable man to come to such conclusion. I do not see that they make any thing of it as a parable, though some of them have been men of the finest imagination. Nor can I suppose it to be a history of small account. On the contrary, I consider it to be of the great- est consequence towards understanding the true sense of Revelation : being an account of the origin of natural and moral evil, which is ev«r supposed, and very often expressly referred to, from one end of the Bible to the other. But though I interpret it as a history, yet it is written after the Eastern manner. That alone has made some interpret it as a parable. And, as I take it to be an history of so much conse- quence, I will endeavour, by a proper paraphrase, to represent the whole of it together in such a manner, as to remove, if possible, all the objec- tions which have been made to its being a real history. But the account must first be taken in that the sacred historian gives us of the circumstan- ces in which the man and the woman were placed when the temptation began. It is shortly this: Jehovah God had put the man in the garden which he had planted in Eden. By Jehovah God, to he literally interpreted, 3 Moses means the Logos.' He had made the ground of the garden to produce every tree which was pleasant to the sight, or good for food ; and, among other trees, the tree of Hfe in the midst of the garden; and by it also the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or the tree of death. He had told him, he might eat of all the other trees ; but that he must not so much as touch the tree of death, much less eat of it ; for that in the day he did eat thereof he should surely die. Moreover, He had ordered the man to dress, prune, and keep the garden, as an agreeable exercise and recreation. He had given him do- minion over the animals ; and, in token of their subjection. He had brought them to him, to receive names from him : but not for that end only, but also that He might let him see, by their coming in pairs, that a help-mate for him was yet wanting ; and yet that it could not be found among the creatures which he had sur- veyed. God had framed him an help-mate from one of his own ribs, and had brought her to him ; from whence Adam either discovered the law of matrimony, or had it immediately revealed to him. Finally, He had clothed both the man and the woman with a garment or covering of dignity, betokening their being chil- dren of God, and heirs of the blessing, though they had been naked at the first. ' See the Dissertation, No. II. 4 Probable manner in which the After God had placed them in these blissful circumstances, the devil, or Satan, the head of the fallen angels, envying this happy pair this state of blessedness, resolved to try to tempt them to eat of the forbidden tree; on which sin, misery, and death at last, must ensue : whereby, instead of retaining the image of God, in which they had been created, they would become like their tempter, who had lost it, and was in every respect the reverse of it. This temptation the devil carried on in the following manner : Finding the woman alone, he takes the shape and tigure of a serpent. This he did, because the woman knew, from the name which Adam had given the serpent, that the serpent w^as a beast of the field, of greater subtlety and saga- city than any other ; and was therefore the fittest to raise the woman's attention to what should follow. He also took the shape of this animal for another reason ; namely, because the serpent was probably then of an erect figure, and made a glistering and shining appearance ; designing presently by that means to transform himself, as it were, into a flaming seraph, or an angel of light, and a messenger from heaven.' In this figure, we may suppose, after first playing some wily and artful tricks, like a serpent, before her, he at last plucked of the fruit of the tree of death, and ' Soe 2 Cor. xi. 3. Gal. i. 8. Serpent tempted our first Parents, 6 did eat of it ; and then, putting on a more sera- phic or angelical appearance, bespoke the wo- man after this manner : " You see how the fruit of this tree has exalted me ; so that from a beast of the field I am become a glorious se- raph, and endued not only with speech, but with the knowledge of the Divine will, which has not yet been fully opened to you by God himself. Can God possibly, do you think, have really intended, that you should not eat of the fruit of every tree of the garden, and of this in particular, which He Himself has made and planted there? What did He make and place it there for, then ?" To which the woman replied : ** God has kindly permitted us to eat of any of the other trees of the garden, besides that which grows in the midst of the garden; but that He has absolutely forbidden us to eat of, or even so much as to touch it, because its fruit is deadly, and will certainly kill us." To which the ser- pent replied : '* No ; you are greatly mistaken ; the fruit is not deadly, nor will it kill you, any more than it has me. Alas ! all that God meant, by saying it would destroy you, was, that it would change and transform you. But so far will it be from making you cease to be, that in the day you eat of it, it will open and enlighten your eyes, as it has mine ; and as it has raised me from a serpent to a seraph, endued with speech, and with knowledge of the Divine coun- 6 Paraphrase of the account of the fall. sels concerning you, so it shall likewise raise you from being mortals to be gods ; and, instead of bringing death on you, make you immortal, like the great Creator Himself; giving you the same kind of knowledge of good and evil that He has. You shall then know the way to pos- sess all the good yon enjoy indefeasibly and independently, as He does ; and you shall know how to avoid death, the threatened evil,- which would for ever put an end to all your bliss and felicity. Even disobedience itself will not then be able to bring it upon you. In fine, you will find this tree to have the like power to improve and raise your minds, as the tree of life has to preserve your bodies." The woman, upon this, looking wishfully upon the fruit, and being then strongly and wickedly prejudiced by the insinu- ations of the devil ; and observing that it was a tree bearing a fruit that looked to be good for food, as well as the rest of the trees of the gar- den, and of a most exquisite shape and hue ; and, above all, desirable for the attaining this impious knowledge, which the serpent had ab- surdly and maliciously flattered her with ; from seeing him so much improved, as it should seem, by it ; and being then, from this foolish lust of low and mean appetite, and of an high and presumptuous ambition, willing to believe him a glorious seraph, and a messenger from heaven, against her own strong reasoning before, Immediate effects of the fall. 7 she took of the fruit of the tree, and did eat ; and gave also to her husband (now) with her, adding many fond persuasive arts to that pur- pose, and he took of it from her, and did also eat. As soon as they had both eaten of it, so far were these vain and delusive hopes, that the serpent had given them, from being made good, that they presently found that they had forfeited all the blessedness which God had given to them. The first thing was that they were stript of the robe of dignity and felicity that God had covered them with, as the badge of the high relation they bore to Him, and of that inheri- tance of which they were possessed ; and that they were now as naked as they had been at the first : and though they foolishly endeavoured to supply the defect of this glorious covering, by a kind of garment or covering of fig-leaves, or fig- branches, yet they still found they had the same reason to be afraid of Him (notwithstanding that He had been their kind and indulgent Fa- ther, while they continued His obedient offspring) as they had had before they had made them- selves this new covering ; since they could not but still see that He was now become their justly incensed Judge ; and that the coverings they had made themselves could not possibly prevent His seeing that they were stript of the 8 The sentence pronounced upon Adam, glorious garment, that was to be theirs as long as they continued obedient to His commands. Jehovah God calls Adam before Him, who tells Him, ** That hearing His voice in the gar- den, and finding himself stript of the garment which God had given him, as a son of God, and consequently deprived of the relation he stood in to Him, he was afraid, and had hid himself.'* Whereupon Jehovah God said to him, '' Who told you that you was naked? I, indeed, told you, when I gave you that garment, that you should be immediately deprived of it, if ever you did eat of the forbidden tree. What then, have you eat of that forl)idden tree? It is' that then which has made you naked." Adam re- plies, ** The woman, whom Thou gavest me, gave me to eat." And the woman said, it was the serpent that beguiled her, and she did eat. Whereupon Jehovah God calls the serpent, or satan, the devil, in the shape of a serpent ; and first pronounces sentence upon him. This was according to the rules of strict justice (he being, with the utmost malice and wickedness, the original deceiver) ; and it was also accord- ing to rules of equity and mercy towards the man and the woman, in order to raise some hopes in them, from passing a sentence on the devil before He passed any on them, who had circumstances that might plead for the Divine The sentence pronounced upon the Serpent. 9 patience, and a farther space to repent. The sentence, that Moses relates God to have passed on the devil, is, as becomes a good historian, suited to the appearance which the devil made ; namely, that of a serpent ; as he calls angels men, when they appeared in the shape of men. And God said unto the devil, " O proud and wicked spirit, because thou hast thus wickedly and arrogantly tempted and deceived the woman,, by the means of the shape of the serpent, pre- tending as if thou thyself wast a being that could acquire a felicity independent of me, and impart the like to the woman, in direct contradiction to my commands ; cursed, therefore, shalt thou be above all cattle, and all the beasts of the field ; my power shall immediately deprive thee of that erect and bright figure, by the means of which thou hast made these arrogant and wicked pretensions, and lay thee at the foot of the woman whom thou hast deceived. On thy breast shalt thou go ; and instead of being able to pluck the fruit of any tree, thou thyself, whilst thou actuatest that form, shalt be able only to grovel in the dust, and eat what is mingled with it. And the very species, whose form thou hast taken, shall be cursed in like manner; for they also shall be reduced from a beautiful beast of the field to the state of a deformed and naean reptile, as a memorial of 10 Paraphrase of the sentence this thy arrogant and presumptuous malice, as a perpetual caution and warning to mankind against thee, aad as a farther security to them against thee for ever, by depriving thee of having so fit an instrument, as a serpent is in its pre- sent figure and form, to pursue thy temptations by, through putting on the appearance of an angel of light. So little reason will I leave the woman to believe thy arrogant and false pre- tences for the future ; and thereby will I facili- tate her returning to the obedience due to me, and prevent her listening again, so easily, to thy wicked and artful insinuations. Moreover, I will not only put enmity between the woman and thee, by shewing her all the baneful conse- quences of thy temptation, but between all thy imitators, the wicked viperous race of Cain (who will be a liar, and a murderer, like thee, and slay his righteous brother) ; and between Seth, the true successor of righteous Abel, and his descendants, who shall go by the name of The Children of God. And one from this righteous seed, namely, Jesus, shall bruise thy head, and destroy all this wicked design and contrivance of thine, by overcoming and destroying death itself, which thou hast brought on the human race; and thou shalt never be able to defeat this His kind and gracious intention towards mankind ; though, through my permission, thou pronounced upon the Serpent, 1 1 wilt be able to afflict Him, and bring Him to die, and even on a tree, as thou hast by a tree brought death on the world. But by His death I will destroy thee, who hast, through my per- mission, had the power thus to introduce death on the first pair, and on all their race." To the woman, whom the serpent had deceiv- ed, God said, '' Though thou mayst learn from the sentence that I have pronounced on thy tempter and enemy, that the fruit thou hast eaten shall not bring death immediately upon thee, but only operate like a slow poison in thy blood ; on which, however, death will infallibly ere long ensue : and though thou mayst learn from this sentence too, that I design to preserve thee, for some time, as the mother of a future race; yet a curse shall attend thy fruitful ness, instead of the blessing that I first pronounced upon thee ; for I will greatly multiply thy sorrow in breeding children, and in bringing them forth, beyond other creatures ; and instead of that indepen- dent state of happiness, which the serpent (whom thou now ocest groveling at thy feet, in virtue of my curse, notwithstanding his new boasted acquisition) has vainly flattered thee with, if thou wouldst eat the forbidden fruit ; and which thou, through the fondness which thy husband had for thee, hast prevailed on him to eat of, as thou hadst done thyself before; from hence- forth thy fond desire shall be to him, and 1 2 Sentence pronounced upon A dam . thereby be sball rule over tbee, and bave tbee in subjection ; for wbicb there could bave been no room, if thou badst preserved thy virtue and innocence." And to Adam he said : ** Since, from a foohsh fondness for thy wife, thou hast hearkened unto her voice, and bast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded tbee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, when I had made the ground of the garden to produce every tree for thee that is pleasant to the sight, or good for food,' there- fore, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In vexation and sorrow, for the frequent disap- pointments of thy care and toil about it, shalt thou eat the produce of it, all the days of thy life ; for it shall not any more yield unto thee, of itself, trees bearing fruit, but thorns and thistles ; and it shall only bring forth of its own accord the herb of the field, a part of thy food, common to thee and the beasts of the field, who are not able to provide food for themselves ; but bread, the other part of thy food, the great staff and necessary support of life, shall the ground not yield to thee, but in virtue of thy labour, and the sweat of thy brow, till thou return to it, out of which thou wast taken. For dust thou art ; and now, that I am go- ing to drive thee out of paradise, and from the tree of life, which alone would have preserved ' Gei). li. 9. On the name given to Eve, 13 such a moulderins: frame and constitution as thine to immortality, to dust thou shalt re- turn." Thus Jehovah God passed sentence severally upon the three parties in this trans- gression ; inflicting a punishment on each of them the most properly suited to their respective crimes. Upon this mild sentence, Adam perceiving, with great joy and thankfulness, that he and liis vi'ife were to be continued alive to people the world ; he, I say, who before had named her Woman,' now named her Eve ; as much as to say, '' the mother of all living." And though Jehovah God had thus justly expressed His resentment against them ; yet, as the man and the woman had lost their garment of glory and dignity ; and, as their fig-leaves or branches were not a proper covering for them, Jehovah God, as a farther mark of favour to them, shewed them how to make coats of the skins of beasts, which he had appointed them to offer in sacrifice to Him, for their apparel ; thereby, at the same time, holding forth to them this sad moral ; that by having indulged their appetites and passions, they had, from children of God, reduced them- selves, as it were, to a level with the beasts which perish : but withal encouraging them hereby to hope, that through faith in His mercy, * Gen. ii. 23. 14 Adam banished from Paradise. as the most powerful spring of repentance, they might not only escape death at present, but re- cover from it. And when Jehovah God had provided this clothing for a pair who had too little experience to know how to provide what was fit for themselves ; as He had given them a language, and directed them to food and matri- mony before ; then He, as the great Angel of God's presence and council, said to some other of the angels, His fellows,' '' Behold, the man has separated himself from us, the faithful sons and ministers of God, by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ; and now, lest after the hurt he has justly received thereby, he should put forth his hand to take also of the tree of life, and thereby be healed, and live for ever ; therefore I will send him out of this gar- den, where the ground brought forth trees and fruit spontaneously, to till with toil and hard labour that more barren unparadisaical ground, out of which he was taken. The tree of life he must not eat of; and since he must not, toil and labour will be the best means to preserve his life, as long as it will be fit that it should be continued to him :" So He drove out the man. And He placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims with a glory, or flame, that darted every way (called "a flaming sword," or ' Heb. i.9. Objections to the literal account. 15 the flame of a sword), to keep the entrance to the garden, and to the tree of life, against all men in this mortal state ; but thereby leaving them hopes, that since God did not destroy paradise and the tree of life, but only barred the entrance of them against mortal men before death, that if they became imitators of God, and should no longer be the children of the devil, God, as their gracious and forgiving Fa- ther, would adopt them to the inheritance of Eden again, and would after death put them into the possession of it; as He took Adam, and put him in it before he had disobeyed His just and reasonable commands ; and as He after- wards took Enoch, and put him there, without tasting death, when he had scarce attained half the age of man in that period of the world, on his walking with God, as Adam had done be- fore the fall. The great objections that have been made against the third chapter of Genesis being a literal history, are, that the skill of managing the temptation seems to be attributed to the subtlety of the serpent ; that a serpent should speak, reason, and design (which is thought to have too much of the marvellous for any thing but a parable) ; and that God should sentence a beast of the field with the man and the woman, two beings subject to moral government. I hope this paraphrastical account that I have now 16 On the subtlety of the Seiye^it. given of Moses's history of the fall, will obviate the first and second of these objections. For suppose the expression, *' Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field," to be elliptical, then supply it thus, and the objection will vanish : '' And therefore the devil made use of the shape and figure of a serpent, to awaken the woman's attention to him ; she having been informed by the name which Adam had given the serpent (Nachash), signifying his subtlety, that he was an animal of greater sa- gacity than any other beast of the field." And as to the last objection, I think the account I have given of the sentence will shew, that it is a sentence on the devil only ; and that the re- ducing the serpent from a beast to a reptile was only in mercy to mankind, in order to shew our first parents, how incapable the serpent was of giving them an independent happiness ; and to prevent a serpent being instrumental to the like mischievous designs of the devil for the future. And as to the middle objection, it appears by the paraphrase, that it is not the serpent that speaks, but the devil, called '' the serpent," from his putting on the appearance of that beast of the field. If this shall be still thought to have too much of the marvellous for a literal history, I must take the liberty to say, that, if we will receive nothing of the marvellous, we must not only renounce a great many parts of revelation, Object of a Revelation. 17 but all miracles, and all other attestations of the Spirit (how well soever attested), which are the great external evidence on which all revelation in fact is, and in reason must be, built ; whereas nothing of the marvellous, either considered as a part of revelation, or as the evidence of it, can be thought at all strange and improper, when it is duly considered. It is, indeed, what was to be expected : whereas, on the other hand, if there had been nothing of the marvellous in a revelation from God, that itself would have been the most astonishing thing that could have happened ; since God would then be supposed to have given us a revelation, without any thing to raise our attention, or to give it a proper attestation. In fine ; I believe, if the state of things be carefully considered, and we would but put ourselves, as precisely as may be, into the cir- cumstances of our first parents in Eden, we should soon see, that the account Moses gives us of the temptation and the fall, considered as a literal history, was as likely and as natural a way for the great enemy of God and mankind to have seduced the first man and woman by, as any we can now possibly devise. VOL. III. DISSERTATION THE SECOND. CONCERNING GOD'S VISIBLE PRESENCE AND APPEARANCE, FACE AND GLORY, AS THEY OCCUR IN SCRIPTURE, ESPECIALLY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. We read of '' God's Presence," Gen. iv. 16 ; and that it was visible is certain ; because Abel and Cain ''brought their offerings to it;" which signifies the presenting them to a Being that had a visible residence.' And that this Pre- ' *' Brought their offerings to it :" — which signifies the pre- senting them to a Being that had a visible residence. That this is the meaning of Cain and Abel's bringing their offering, besides what is said above, may farther appear from hence ; that the bringing an offering to God, in Moses's style, after the giving the law, is bringing an offering to the Glory of God, which visibly resided among men. For the offering was brought to the door of the tabernacle, or to the temple, where God dwelt. Nor do I believe, if it be well considered, that there are any instances, from the offering of Cain and Abel to the destruction of the first temple, of an offering's being made to God, but where the Being that represented him visibly resided ; except the extraordinary case of David, J Chron. xxi. 14—30, and of Elijah, 1 Kings xviii. Sec Mai. i. 8, where the same word, namely, offering, is used. 20 A Dissertation on sence of God was visible, does not only follow from the expression itself, which cannot well be supposed to have any other meaning, but from this Presence of God's visibly accepting Abel's offering, and rejecting Cain's. For God's accepting an offering, is sending a flame from Himself to devour it ; Lev. ix. 24. Judges xiii. 20—23. Psal. xx. 2, 3. 1 Kings xviii. 36—40. The same phrase, namely, '' God's Presence," is used by Moses, when he prays, that God, and not an angel, may continue with his people, and lead them to Canaan ; thereby to distinguish them from other nations, who were supposed to have angels for their governors or presidents. See Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, according to the LXX, Dan.x. 13.20, 21. *' If Thy Presence," says Moses, " go not with us, carry us not up hence/' Exod. xxxiii. 14 — 17. Finally, this Presence is called " God's face," in Gen. iv. 14. From whence too, as something that was visible, Cain says^ upon his sentence of banishment, that *Mie shall be hid." The Presence of God therefore with men is His visible and fixed re- sidence among them, in contradistinction to of presenting a thing to a governor. And indeed, how could they possibly have brought their offering, if they had not known where they were to bring it ? And how could they have known where they were to bring it, if they had not known where the Being resided, to whom they were to bring it I God^s visible presence. 21 His appearances, which were but occasional, and of a short continuance. In this sense we are to understand God's '* Presence or Face,'" 2 Kings xxiv. 20. Jer. vii. 15. lii. 3. Psal. li. 11. It signifies His visible residence in the temple, in all those places. The first period of this visible and fixed re- sidence was from the creation till a little after the flood (when He retired) ; ' and then again (after an interval of about a thousand years) from the giving of the law to the destruction of the first temple. His occasional appearances were to the builders of Babel, in wrath and displeasure ; and to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses at the bush, in kindness and favour ; so that the period of these occasional appearances was the interval between the two periods of His visible and fixed residence. * " The time of His fixed residence >Vas from the creation till a little after the flood, when He retired."— That God resided visibly in the world during this period seems to fol- low from hence ; that till the flood, or rather till just after Noah's coming out of the ark, Moses never introduces God as coming down from heaven, or as appearing, in order to introduce Him speaking to men. And yet, after that time, Moses always introduces God as coming down from heaven, or as appearing, when he would introduce Him as speaking to them. See Gen. xi. 5. xii. 7. xvii. 1. xviii. 21. xxvi. 2. XXXV. 7. 9* This plainly shews, that Moses considered God as visibly residing in the first period, and not in the second. 22 A Dissertation on The place of His visible and fixed residence seems to have been at the entrance of Eden, from the fall to the flood (for which I have given my reasons, in the preceding Essay); in the ark during the iiood ; * and in the tabernacle and the first temple, after the long interval just now mentioned. ** God's face" is His becoming visible, as a brightness covered with a cloud, in a human shape, or in the similitude of a man ; and parti- * ** In the ark during the flood." — That He resided in the ark during the flood, appears by His saying to Noah, "Come thou, &c. into the ark," Gen. vii. 1, and chap. viii. l6; and, *• Go thou out of the ark :" neither of which could have been said, if this Being had not been in the ark. And that He was in the ark during the flood, may be farther inferred from Noah's sacrificing to Him (as representing God), as soon as he came out of the ark ; since, as we have just ob- served, no sacrifices were ever ofl*ered to God, but when He had a certain visible residence ; and not when He occasionally appeared : as is plain by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's not sacrificing, unless in the case of the ram ofl'ered instead of Isaac. But that was pointed out to be done by a particular providence, speaking as plainly as if God had expressly commanded it. Gen. xxii. 13, 14, and which must conse- quently be considered as an extraordinary and an excepted case; as must also the case of Elijah, 1 Kings xviii. ip — 41. See the Third Corollary to this Dissertation. From God's being in the ark, we may understand the meaning of that diflficult and hitherto mistaken place, 1 Pet. iii. 18 — 22, the full meaning of which text may be seen in Dissertation No. HI. God's visible presence. it cularly with the similitude of an human face : and then it is said, that " God, or Jehovah, was present, or appeared ;" and He is then said to be " a Man," Gen. xviii. 2. xxxii. 24—31. '* God's glory" is His becoming visible, as a great bright- ness covered with a cloud, without any human shape, or any other shape or similitude at all. This I take to be the general meaning of these phrases in Scripture, namely, of '* God's pre- sence and appearance. His face and glory," particularly in the Old Testament, where they more generally occur. But it is necessary to be more particular, and to prove this more fully from the history of the Bible. However, it will be fit to premise beforehand, that as the Supreme Being is immense, it is impossible that, properly speaking, He should ever be more present or more absent from us at one time than another. It is in Him that " we all live, move, and exist." As the Supreme Being is immense, He is also incorporeal, un- changeable, and invisible ; and therefore cannot have any face or other bodily parts at any time ; or be any thing but what He always is ; or any thing, at all times, but that Being, " whom no man hath seen, or can see," 1 Tim. vi. 16. See John i. 18. V. 37. 1 John iv. 12. By God's presence, therefore, and appearance, by His face and glory, we must understand the Being, who was afterwards permanently incarnate, 24 A Dissertation on who appeared as a brightness in a cloud, either in the similitude of a man, or without any similitude at all, to represent and personate the Supreme Being, under the character of the Father of His family, or of the King of His people; and always speaking in the name of the Supreme Being, or as the Supreme Being ; as, " Behold, I have given thee," &c. Gen. i. 29 ; or, *' I am Jehovah thy God," Exod. xx. 12 : while all other Divine messengers, as prophets, angels, or the Word Himself in flesh, speak as from the Supreme Being ; as, " Thus saith the Lord;" or, "This is the will of God." This Being, thus personating God the Father, is to be understood by the term God, whenever He is said to be visible : and was so understood by the Israelites.' More particularly, I take this Being, * That the Israelites did not think this visible Being to be God the Father, may be justly concluded from this, that the light of nature would teach them, that the invisible God could not be visible ; that the incorporeal God could not have a body ; that He that is immense could not be confined to a place ; nor He that is unchangeable vary His posture, shape, or appearance. It may also be concluded from hence, that the Being, who is called " God's Presence," Exod. xxxiii. 14, 15, is called " God's Angel," Exod. xxiii. 23; "the Angel in whom God had put His name," Exod, xxiii. 21 ; ** the Angel," Acts vii. 35. 38 ; and, " the Angel of God's presence," Isa. Ixiii. 9. These different appellations of the same Being shew plainly, that the Israelites did not take this Being that visibly appeared, to be God the Father, God's visible preseme, 25 that thus personated and represented the first, to have been the second Being, Iv /xo^