History of Presbyterianism the form of a man, possessing the appearance of a man. All that you are, this being was, and much more; yea, it was God that wrestled with Jacob; and he seems to have assumed the form of man for this very purpose—to wrestle. That he was God is evident, for Jacob asks a blessing from him, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." Yea, he expressly calls him God in verse thirtieth—"I have seen God face to face." Thus it seems to have been the Son of God in the form of a man who wrestled with Jacob. In Hosea xii:4 it is said of Jacob, "He had power over the angel and pre¬ vailed." The being with whom he wrestled is called God , an angel and a man. Now he could not, as we have seen, have been a mere man, for Jacob sought a blessing from him. He could not have been God the Father, for it is written, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him." It was therefore the Son —God and man in one person—whom Jacob saw and with whom he wrestled. Besides, in all the appearances of Deity in the Old Testament it was not the Father or the Spirit that appeared, but the Son, the second per¬ son of the Trinity. He appeared to Moses in the bush—to Joshua, as the captain of the Lord's hosts, with drawn sword in his hand, and he was with the church in her long and weary march through the wilderness. "Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and 262