SECTION

IV.

143.

THE fourth piece of Criticism, (however strange and uncommon it may appear,) máy now, after what has been said in the preceding Observations, be, without fcruple, submitted to the confideration of the candid and inquisitive.

In the beginning of St. Mark's Gospel we read, concerning John the Baptist.

Chap. i. ver. 2.

Ὡς γέγραπῖαι ἐν τοῖς προφήταις· Ἰδὲ, ἐγὼ ἀποςέλλω τὸν ἄγδελόν με πρὸ προσώπε σε, ὃς καζασκευάσει τὴν ὁδὸν σε ἔμπροσθέν σε.

Which we tranflate,

As it is written in the Prophets, Behold I Send my Meffenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

But

144.

But why not translate it fairly, and fully, without any evafion ?

Behold I fend my ANGEL before thy face, who shall lay a foundation for thy way before thee.

Angels have descended from Heaven upon Earth, and have appeared visibly, on many occafions; as our Lord himself also had done, even before his great advent in the flesh; instances of which the learned are fufficiently acquainted with: who well know that He appeared unto Abraham, and also to Joshua, and was actually worshipped by both of them *.

As then our Lord himself (although so high above all) condescended moreover, at last, to be born in the flesh; where is the impropriety, or heterodoxy, of venturing to acknowledge, that an angel also might condescend, in imitation of his Great Master, to such humiliation, in order to be the harbinger and forerunner of his Lord?

here referred to, in words which, if we will take them simply, as we find them, are very plain.

Malachi, ch. iii. ver. I.

Ἰδὲ ἐγὼ ἐξαποςέλλω τὸν ἄγδελόν με, καὶ ἐπιβλέψεται ὁδὸν πρὸ προσώπε με, καὶ ἐξαίφνης ἥξει εἰς τὸν ναὸν αὑτῶ Κύριος, ὃν ὑμεῖς ζητεῖτε, καὶ ὁ ἄγδελος τῆς διαθήκης, ὃν ὑμεῖς θελεῖε· ἰδὲ ἔρχεθαι, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ. ··

Behold I fend forth MY ANGEL, and be 145. Shall inspect [or prepare] the way before me. And fuddenly the Lord whom ye feek shall come to his temple; and the Angel of the covenant, whom ye wish for. Behold he cometh, faith the Lord Who hath dominion over all.

And there seems to have been no other reason for translating the word ΑΓΓΕΛΟΣ, in this verse, and in the citation of it in the Gospel, as meaning a messenger, and nothing more, than merely to avoid a conclufion, which perhaps we shall discover to be a real truth;

truth; however beretical it might have been thought a few hundred years ago.

Such translation of the word, as has been hitherto commonly adopted, is at least contrary to the more usual mode of translating this word in other parts of Scripture; and there is certainly nothing inconsistent either with reason or revelation in translating of it otherwife.

But the matter does not rest on mere furmise, or on the preferring at pleasure one mode of tranflation to another. Our Lord seems to have taken pains to make the whole clear and intelligible to us; if we will have ears to hear.

In St. Matthew's Gospel we have first the fame words as in St. Mark.

Matthew, ch. xi. ver. 10.

Οὗτος γάρ ἐςι, περὶ ὁ γέγραπιαι· Ἰδὲ, ἐγὼ ἀποςέλλω τὸν ἄγΓελόν με πρὸ προσ ώπε σε, ὃς καλασκευάσει τὴν ὁδὸν σε ἔμπροσθέν σε.

For this is He of whom it is written, Behold I send my Angel before thy face, who shall lay a foundation for thy way before thee.

And afterwards, according to that Evange- 146. list, our Lord added,

14. Καὶ εἰ θέλεξε δέξασθαι,· αὐτός

ἐσιν Ἠλίας ὁ μέλλων ἔρχεσθαι.

15. Ὁ ἔχων ῶτα ἀκέειν, ἀκεέτω.

14. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias who is FOR to come.

15. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

Which words feem to have been fubjoined, on purpose to lead us to the right explanation of this aftonishing fact. For Ὁ μέλλων ἔρχε θαι, signifies most accurately, who is YET for to come : i. e. yet to come, exactly agreeable to the expectation formed of him, in confequence of another most remarkable passage in the Prophecy of Malachi; in which he is declared even to be the very Thesbite; and which must, notwithstanding that, relate to the last times of all, and to our Lord's Second Coming; but in which, nevertheless, (in the latter part of the prediction,) the very peculiar VOL. I.

..