approbation by our Saviour, Mark ix. 29. 32. See likewise Neh. ix. 6. Nor is it pretended that this doctrine was ever received by the Hebrew nation. In support of this extraordinary position it is alleged,

I. That one Jehovah is represented as the object of the senses,-He walked in the garden, and his voice was heard by Adam, Gen. iii. 8;-he descended to see the tower of Babel, chap. xi. 5;-the God of Israel was seen by the seventy elders, Exod. xxiv. 9;-He talked with Moses from the mercy-seat, chap. xxvi. 21, 22,and exhibited his glory to Moses in the mount, chap. xxxiii. 18; xxxiv. 5. But the supreme Jehovah could never be the object of sense: he can neither be seen or heard.

Answer. If the supposed subordinate Jehovah is a pure spirit, he could no more be the object of the senses than the Supreme :-but if the subordinate Jehovah could manifest his presence by sensible symbols, so likewise might the Supreme.

II. The existence of two Jehovahs is expressly mentioned in some passages of Scripture, and in others it is evidently implied.

1. It is expressly mentioned, Gen. xix. 24, “Jehovah rained fire and brimstone from Jehovah out of heaven."-Hos. i. 7, "Jehovah saith, I will save them by Jehovah their God."

Answer. This is nothing more than an idiom of the Hebrew language, in which the noun is repeated for the pronoun. The same argument would prove the existence of two Solomons. 1 Kings viii. 1, "Then Solomon assembled the elders to king Solomon ;"-and of two Rehoboams 1 Kings xii. 21, "Rehoboam assembled the people to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam." See also Dan. ix. 17. 1 Tim. i. 18.

Zech.

Zech. ii. 9. "Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will shake my hand over thee, &c. and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me.' 99 See ver. 11.

Answer. The prophet here makes an abrupt transition from the person of Jehovah to his own: q. d. You shall know that I am a true prophet 2. See Acts i. 4.

2. As a proof that where two Jehovahs are not expressed, they are sometimes plainly alluded to, appeal is made,

.

1.) To the word Elohim, which is commonly translated God,' which in the original is in a plural form, and is thought by some to imply a plurality of persons in the divine essence3.

Answer. This is a trifling argument. In all languages it is a common anomaly for words of a plural form to have a singular signification. The word Elohim is almost uniformly used in apposition with singular verbs. It is not limited, like Jehovah, to express the Supreme Being alone: and though in a plural form, it commonly expresses one object only. It stands for one angel, Judges xiii. 22;— for one golden calf, Exod. xxxii. 31;-for one idol, Judges xvi. 17;—for Moses, Exod. iv. 16; vii. 1;—and for Samuel, 1 Sam. xxviii. 13.

2.) The plural number is sometimes used when God is introduced as speaking. Gen. i. 26, " God said, Let us

2 "The fulfilling of these words, saith the prophet, shall be an undeniable evidence of the truth of my mission." Mr. Lowth in loc.— This is a text upon which great stress is laid to prove the existence of two Jehovahs, one the sender, the other the sent.

3 The word Elohim is commonly derived from a word which signifies power. But the Hutchinsonians, a sect which rose in the last century, and which was of considerable use in reviving attention to the Hebrew language, derive this word from juravit : they read it Aleim, and translate it the covenanters,' q. juratores: and they suppose an allusion to the three persons entering into covenant for the redemption of man. Such reasoning needs no refutation.

make man in our image." Gen. xi. 7, "Let us go down and confound their language."

Answer. This is nothing more than the author's dramatic way of writing. We are not to suppose that God actually said to the waters, "Bring forth abundantly," or to the birds and fishes, "Be fruitful and multiply." Perhaps the expression "Let there be" may denote energy; -and "Let us make" may denote forethought; and upon this occasion such language might be employed by the writer to intimate that man is the noblest work of God, the most distinguished production of divine power and wisdom in this world. Dr. Geddes says that the Jews understood these words to have been addressed to the surrounding angels: but there is no need to have recourse to this supposition.

In Eccles. xii. 1, The Received Text reads "Remember thy Creators:" and from this plural form a plurality of persons has been inferred. But Dr. Kennicott has shown that the best manuscripts have the singular number.

III. It is alleged that the word angel' is often used in connexion with the subordinate, but not with the Supreme Jehovah.

It is urged that Exod. xxiii. 20-23, Jehovah having promised to send an angel to keep the Israelite nation in the way, and to bring them to the promised land, adds, "Beware of him, and obey his voice, for MY NAME IS IN HIM." Here it is said that the name of Jehovah is expressly given to the conducting angel.

An angel is pro

But this remark is very erroneous. perly nothing more than a messenger, and the angel here alluded to was probably Joshua, who acted in the name, that is, by the authority, of God.

Exod. xxxiii. 3. Jehovah says to Moses, "I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite,

&c.

&c. for I will not go up in the midst of thee, lest I consume thee by the way."-But, whatever be the meaning of this threatening, which cannot be understood in a literal sense, as though God were afraid of trusting himself with so rebellious a people, lest his indignation should unawares gain the ascendancy over his wisdom, at the intercession of Moses it was revoked. Ver. 14, " My presence shall go with thee," &c.

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To assert that the angel of Jehovah is a phrase only used of the subordinate Jehovah, is assuming the very point in dispute. Any sensible symbol of the divine presence is called an angel, and this symbol is called indifferently the angel of Jehovah," or, "Jehovah himself." See Sect. VI. p. 123.-Gen. xvi. 7, " The angel of Jehovah found her:" but ver. 13, it appears that this angel was Jehovah himself. This fact is still more evident from Exod. iii. 2-15, "The angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush :-and when Jehovah saw -God called to him out of the midst of the bush :-I am the God of thy Fathers, the God of Abraham, &c.-Moses said, They will say to me, What is his name?-And God said to Moses, I Am that I Am. Thus shall ye say; Jehovah, the God of your Fathers, hath sent me : this is my name for ever."

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What room is there here for the supposition of a Jehovah subordinate to the Supreme? The person who speaks is God himself: and it is plain that the words 'Jehovah,' 'I Am,' ' God,'' God of your Fathers,'' God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' are all names for one and the same divine person also, that the phrase angel of Jehovah' means either the visible symbol of the divine presence, or Jehovah himself. Gen. xvii. 1; xxxi. 11, 12; xxxii. 24; and Exod. xii. 21, which have been appealed to in support of the strange doctrine of two Jehovahs, admit of a similar explanation.

IV. The

IV. The Chaldee paraphrasts of the Old Testament, Onkelos and Jonathan, are said to acknowledge a distinction between the two Jehovahs, by giving the title 'Mimra,' i. e. Word, to the Jehovah-angel 4.

Gen. xxviii. 20, "Jacob vowed, If God will be with me, then shall Jehovah be my God." Onkelos renders it, If the Word of the Lord be with me, then shall the Word of the Lord be my God.-Deut. iv. 24, "Jehovah, thy God, is a consuming fire." Onkelos: Jehovah, thy

God, his Word is, &c.

Gen. i. 27," Jehovah created man," &c. Jonathan renders it, The Word of Jehovah created man.-Chap. iii. 9, "God called to Adam." In the Targum: The Word of God called, &c.-Chap. xviii. 1, "Jehovah, God, appeared to Abram." In the Targum; The Word of Jehovah appeared, &c. See Gen. iii. 22; xix. 24.

Answer. This argument is evidently founded upon a palpable mistake. In the Chaldee idiom the term Mimra, Word,' is substituted for the reciprocal pronoun self; so that the Word of Jehovah' means nothing more than 'Jehovah himself.' Thus Numb. xv. 32, "A certain man said in his word," i. e. within himself, "I will go forth and gather sticks." 2 Sam. iii. 15, 16, "Phaltiel put a sword between his word,” i. e. himself, " and Michal, the daughter of Saul." Eccl. i. 12, "Solomon said in his word," i. e. in himself, "Vanity of vanities is this whole world 5." Secondly:

* The Chaldee versions of the Old Testament are called Targums, a word which in that language signifies a translation. Of these Targums, the two principal are those of Onkelos, which is a close and faithful translation of the Pentateuch, written, as Dr. Prideaux thinks, near the time of Christ, and that of Jonathan, which is a paraphrastic version of the Prophets of considerably later date. Another Targum on the Law, is ascribed by the Jews to the same Jonathan, who was contemporary with Gamaliel; but by internal evidence it appears to have been written some centuries afterwards, and is a work of little repute. Prideaux, Conn. vol. ii. p. 531.

Mr. Lowman, in his Three Tracts, at the end of a chapter upon