There are two sorts of words which connect Sentences: 1. Relatives; 2. Conjunctions.
Examples: 1. “Blessed is the man, who feareth the Lord.” 2. “Life is short, and art is long.” 1. and 2. “Blessed is the Man, who feareth the Lord, and keepeth his commandments.”
The Relatives who, which, that, having no variation of gender or number, cannot but agree with their Antecedents. Who is appropriated to persons; and so may be accounted Masculine and Feminine only: which is used of things only; and so may be accounted Neuter. But formerly they were both indifferently used of persons: “Our Father, which art in heaven.” That is used indifferently both of persons and things: but perhaps would be more properly confined to the latter. What includes both the Antecedent and the Relative: as, “This was what he wanted;” that is, “the thing which he wanted[69].”
The Relative is the Nominative Case to the Verb, when no other Nominative comes between it and the Verb: but when another Nominative comes between it and the Verb, the Relative is governed by some word in its own member of the Sentence: as, “The God who preserveth me; whose I am, and whom I serve[70].”
Every Relative must have an Antecedent to which it refers, either expressed, or understood: as, “Who steals my purse, steals trash:” that is, the man, who ⸺.
The Relative is of the same person with the Antecedent; and the Verb agrees with it accordingly: as, “Who is this, that cometh from Edom; this that is glorious in his apparel?⸺I that speak in righteousness.” Isaiah lxiii. 1. “O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims.” Ps. lxxx. 1.[71]
The Relative is often understood, or omitted: as, “The man I love;” that is, “whom I love[72].”
The accuracy and clearness of the Sentence depend very much upon the proper and determinate use of the Relative, so that it may readily present its Antecedent to the mind of the hearer or reader without any obscurity or ambiguity. The same may be observed of the Pronoun and the Noun, which by some are called also the Relative and the Antecedent[73].