his wife, previous to the birth of Sampson, it is equally clear that "the Man of God," "the Angel of JEHOVAH," was JEHOVAH Himself, in the character of the Personator, the Revealer, of the invisible Godhead.* He speaks and acts as JEHOVAH, and is addressed as such by those to whom He appeared. Sacrifice is offered to Him, and He accepts it by the usual significant ceremony of fire consuming it. Manoah expressly says to his wife that, in seeing the Angel, (for we read of no other appearance) they had seen GOD: and his wife reminds him, that Jehovah, whom they had seen, had "received a burnt offering and a meat-offering at their hand." The Angel, in reply to an inquiry from Manoah concerning his name, assumed that significant appellation which is ascribed by the evangelical

מלאך יהוה הוא appeared was

* - * might, without impropriety be rendered a Person of the Aleim; for the word us has no relation to kind or species. And the words of the historian prove that, at the conclusion of the interview, Manoah knew that He, the person who "the Angel of the Lord" (or, according to Bp. Horsley's version THE JEHOVAH ANGEL) "Himself." Manoah must have known before, as is plain from the narrative, that the person who appeared was an extraordinary person but the concluding facts of the interview furnished complete evidence that He was a Divine Person, or a Person of THE ALEIM. Judges xiii.

Is there not a mystery in the ascent of the angel in the fire of the altar?

אל !

§, rendered wonderfully in ver. 19. See Allix's Judgment. p. 109; and the LXX version of Isa. ix. 6, as quoted by him.

prophet to the child who was to be virgin-born, the Son who was to be given to man, who is also "the MIGHTY GOD." The Spirit of prophecy, while it ascribes to the incarnate Redeemer the name of THE WONDERFUL ONE, refers us back to all those mysterious appearances of his personal glory and mediatorial character, with which he had favoured the patriarchs, and carries us forward to the permanent manifestation of that glory in the person of JESUS the Christ.

The opinion I have advocated respecting the character of the wrestling Angel has the general voice of antiquity in its favour. It was held by most of the Christian Fathers; and "the ancient Jewish Rabbins," says Ainsworth, *" acknowledged this angel to be Christ."

Before I conclude my remarks on the history of Jacob, I shall, for a moment, request my friend's attention to a verse in Jacob's benediction on his sons, Gen. xlix. 18, which has perplexed all the commentators I have met with by the abruptness of its introduction, and its supposed want of connexion with the blessing on Dan which precedes it. Bp. Patrick, Mr. Scott, and others, have had recourse to a supposed exhaustion of the patriarch's strength as pro

*

"Our Doctors of blessed memorie (sayth R. D. Kimshi on Hos. xii. 14) have sayed, This angel was Michael; and of him he sayth, The angel that redeemed me from all evil. Michael is Christ the Archangel. Dan. x. 21. Jude 9. Rev. xii. 7.”

ducing a pause in his prophetic discourse, and an expression of his feelings by an address to God in relation to his weakness as betokening speedy dissolution. It is admitted, that this is a very natural solution of the difficulty, if no connexion exists between his exclamation and the context; and that devotional fervour often breaks out in unconnected sentences.

But is it certain that there is no discoverable connexion between the devout aspiration of the patriarch, and the prophetic benediction on Dan which he had just uttered? On the fulfilment of that benediction in the history of the tribe I shall offer but one remark, as I have nothing to add to what has been often said on the subject. But before I make that remark, I will venture to call your attention to the imagery by which the prophecy is conveyed. It is that of a serpent in the high way, an adder in the path, biting the heels of a horse, and occasioning the fall of its rider. The image resembles at least that which is recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, and which we have at large considered, if it were not borrowed from it. In the Divine enigma of the first promise it was predicted, that the serpent should bruise, or wound by its bite, the heel of the Seed of the woman, and that the Seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head. Might not this Divine imagery, with which Jacob was doubtless well acquainted by tradition from his

fathers, have suggested to the patriarch's mind his prediction concerning the character of the Danites; and might not the woman-born Seed in that imagery have occasioned the memorable ejaculation which followed the prediction? "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." (Comp. Luke ii. 30.) If the prophecy of the character ascribed to the tribe of Dan, have, as commentators have supposed, a special relation to Sampson; my suggestion will derive some confirmation from the typical character of that extaordinary Nazarite descendant of Dan.*

I have already referred you to a passage which occurs in Jacob's blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph; and as that passage shows both the satisfactory nature of the revelation which the patriarchs enjoyed, and the

* See Parkhurst on the root II, and the note annexed to it.-Bp. Patrick on Gen. xlix. 17, says, They that refer the foregoing words to Sampson, make an easy interpretation of this verse, which is that Jacob foreseeing his great achievements for the deliverance of his children, prays that God would, upon all occasions, vouchsafe to send such deliverers to them from their oppressors. And the Chaldee Paraphrasts make him look beyond such deliverers to Christ, the great Saviour of the world. For these are the words of Onkelos (in the Complutensian edition, for they are not to be found in Buxtorf's or Bomberg's) I do not wait for the salvation of Gideon the son of Joash which is a temporal salvation, or of Sampson, the son of Manouh, which is also a transitory salvation; but I expect the redemption of Christ the Son of David, &c.-Jonathan and the Jerusalem Targum say the same." See also Ainsworth on Gen. xlix. 17.

extent to which they understood it, I lengthen my letter a little for the purpose of making a few remarks on Jacob's confession of faith recorded in it. In Gen. xlviii. 16, we find him addressing the object of his worship, from whose hands he expected the blessing he implored for his grandsons, as "the Angel who had delivered him from all evil." As the Angel-Redeemer, to whom he offered his prayer, is unquestionably the same Angel with whom he had wrestled at Bethel; and as the wrestling Angel is to be identified with the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the Divinity of this Angel may be safely left to the unavoidable connexion which has been mentioned. But let us further remark the manner in which the Angel is introduced in the blessing on the sons of Joseph: THE ALEIM, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac did walk,-THE ALEIM which fed me all my life long unto this day, the ANGEL which redeemed me from all evil,-bless the lads. The word bless is in the singular number, and requires that the supplying ALEIM and the redeeming ANGEL be considered as essentially the same. The patriarchs were believers in the Divinity of their Saviour. They were strangers to the blasphemy and absurdity of attributing their salvation to a creature like themselves.

We may remark further, that the word which Jacob used to denote the character of his PATRON