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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." 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." 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?" 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 you s things to
come;" and "angel" in Greek is certainly equivalent to
"messenger" in Latin: but we read most evidently of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the prophet, that He is called "the Angel of Great
Counsel," while both the Holy Spirit and the Son of God is God
and Lord of the angels.
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