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| The Appearance in the Bush.
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Chapter 13.—The Appearance in the Bush.
23. But when Moses was sent to lead
the children of Israel out of Egypt, it is written that the Lord
appeared to him thus: “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the
back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to
Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of
fire, out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses
said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush
is not burnt. 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.”288
He is here also first called the
Angel of the Lord, and then God. Was an angel, then, the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Therefore He
may be rightly understood to be the Saviour Himself, of whom the
apostle says, “Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.”289
He,
therefore, “who is over all, God blessed for ever,” is not
unreasonably here understood also to be Himself the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But why is He previously
called the Angel of the Lord, when He appeared in a flame of fire
out of the bush? Was it because it was one of many angels, who by
an economy [or arrangement] bare the person of his Lord? or was
something of the creature assumed by Him in order to bring about a
visible appearance for the business in hand, and that words might
thence be audibly uttered, whereby the presence of the Lord might
be shown, in such way as was fitting, to the corporeal senses of
man, by means of the creature made subject? For if he was one of
the angels, who could easily affirm whether it was the person of
the Son which was imposed upon him to announce, or that of the Holy
Spirit, or that of God the Father, or altogether of the Trinity
itself, who is the one and only God, in order that he might say,
“I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob?” For we cannot say that the Son of God is the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and that the
Father is not; nor will any one dare to deny that either the Holy
Spirit, or the Trinity itself, whom we believe and understand to be
the one God, is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob. For he who is not God, is not the God of those
fathers. Furthermore, if not only the Father is God, as all, even
heretics, admit; but also the Son, which, whether they will or not,
they are compelled to acknowledge, since the apostle says, “Who
is over all, God blessed for ever;” and the Holy Spirit, since
the same apostle says, “Therefore glorify God in your body;”
when he had said above, “Know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?”290
and these
three are one God, as catholic soundness believes: it is not
sufficiently apparent which person of the Trinity that angel bare,
if he was one of the rest of the angels, and whether any person,
and not rather that of the Trinity itself. But if the creature was
assumed for the purpose of the business in hand, whereby both to
appear to human eyes, and to sound in human ears, and to be called
the Angel of the Lord, and the Lord, and God; then cannot God here
be understood to be the Father, but either the Son or the Holy
Spirit. Although I cannot call to mind that the Holy Spirit is
anywhere else called an angel, which yet may be understood from His
work; for it is said of Him, “And He will show you291
things to
come;”292
and
“angel” in Greek is certainly equivalent to “messenger”293
in Latin:
but we read most evidently of the Lord Jesus Christ in the prophet,
that He is called “the Angel of Great Counsel,”294
while both
the Holy Spirit and the Son of God is God and Lord of the
angels.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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