Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

vi. 20. The difcourfe in 1 Tim. v. 21, is about human beings. The Apostle folemnly charges Timothy, in the prefence of God, and of Christ, and of his chofen ambaffadors, to regulate the Christian church according to the directions which he, who was one of thofe ambaffadors, gave him.

Rev. i. 1. The revelation of Jefus Chrift, which God gave him, that he might fhew to his fervants things which must shortly come to pass; and he fent and fignified it by his meffenger to his fervant John. This angel was a human being; fee xxii. 9.

i. 20. The feven stars are ministers of the feven congregations. ii. 1. To the minister of the congregation at Ephefus. Ver. 8. To the minifter of the congregation at Smyrna. Ver. 12. To the minister of the congregation at Pergamus. Ver. 18. To the minister of the congregation at Thyatira. iii. 1. To the minister of the congregation at Sardis. Ver. 7. To the minister of the congregation at Philadelphia. Ver. 14. To the minister of the congregation at Laodicea.

"The public minister of the fynagogue, who prayed publicly, and took care about the reading of the law, and fometimes preached, if there were not fome other to discharge this office, was called

, the angel of the church, or congregation.” Lightfoot on Matt. iv. 23. So a Jewish prieft is called an angel of Jehovah of hosts, Mal. ii. 7. For the rendering of exxλnoia, congregation, fee King's

Enquiry into the Conftitution, &c. of the Primitive Church. Ch. I. fect. ii.

Rev. xxii. 8. I John fell down to do obeifance before the feet of the messenger who fhewed me thefe things. Civil homage. See Gen. xlii. 6; xxiii. 12; Ruth ii. 10; 1 Sam. xxv. 23; 2 Sam. xiv. 22, 235 1 Kings i. 23.

xxii. 16. I Jefus have fent my messenger to testify unto you these things in the congregations.

Matt. xiii.

Subd. 4.

39.

In the future Life.

The harvest is the end of the world,

(or age,) and the reapers are the messengers.

41. In the end of the world, (or age,) the Son of man will fend forth his meffengers, &c.

49. In the end of the world, (or age,) the messengers will come forth, and will feparate the wicked from among the righteous, &c.

xvi. 27. The Son of man fhall come in the glory of his Father, with his messengers; and then will he render to every man according to his deeds.

xxv. 31. When the Son of man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy messengers with him, &c.

Mark viii. 38; Luke ix. 26. Whofoever shall be afhamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man fhall be ashamed, when he fhall come (Luke, in his own glory, and) in the glory of his Father, and of (Mark with, pela,) the holy messengers.

Luke xii. 8, 9. Whofoever fhall confess me before men, him fhall the Son of man confefs before

1

the messengers of God. But he that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the messengers of God. Comp. ix. 26, and Matt. X. 32, 33.

2 Theff. i. 7. The Lord Jefus fhall be manifested from heaven with his mighty mesengers in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev. iii. 5. He that overcometh, I will confess his name before my Father, and before his messengers. See above on Luke xii. 8, 9.

Rev. xiv. 10. If any one worship the beast, &c. he fhall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the prefence of the holy messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb,

CHAPTER III.

The Meaning of the Words Apxαyyeλos, 7, , in Scripture.

SECT. I.

ARCHANGEL.

I THESS. iv. 16. The Lord himfelf will come down from heaven with a fhout, with a voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God; and the dead in Chrift will rife first.

[ocr errors]

A fhout, a voice of an archangel, and a trumpet of God, are fynonymous phrafes, fignifying a great found, according to the mode of expreffion among the Jews, who attributed every thing extraordinary to an angel of God, or to God himself. The word archangel, to exprefs a fuperior rank among angelic beings, they derived from the Babylonians. These terms, expreffive of the most exalted ranks of being, archangel and God, denote that wonderful and extraordinary power by which all the dead will be raised to life again at the laft day. Comp. Pf. xxix.

Ezek. i. 24; X. 5.

3, &c.;

Job xxxvii. 2 to 5. Sounding a trumpet alfo denotes a declaration of divine communications, appointments, and judgments. Rev. viii. 2, 6, 8, 10, 12; ix. 1, 13; x. 7; xi. 15; iv. 1. Representing the whole human race as being fummoned together by the found of a trumpet, is an allufion to the mode in which the people were collected at the delivery of the law on Mount Sinai; Exod. xix. 13, 16, 19; and in which the Jews used to affemble the people upon various particular occafions: fee Numb. x. 2; Levit. xxiii. 24; Hofea v. 8; Amos iii. 6. This allufion the prophets frequently make; Pf. xlvii. 5; Ifa. xxvii. 13; Jer. iv. 5; li. 27; Joel ii. 1, 11. Our Lord employs it in his prediction concerning the destruction of Jerufalem, Matt. xxiv. 31; and the Apostle Paul in his account of the general refurrection given to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. xv. 52.

II.

Jude 9. Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, &c. This being taken from an apocryphal book carries no authority with it. See Newcome's and Whitby's notes.

SECT. II.

272, CHERUB.

1. "Genus eft et univerfale nomen ad omnem figuram. A. Ezra; fic omnium animalium figuræ, Ezek. x. hac voce indigitantur." Caftel's Lex. Hept. See alfo Leigh's Critica Sacra; Bythner's Lyra Prophetica, No. 766; and Pagnin's Thefaurus.

Schultens, on Prov. xxx. 20, fays, cherubim properly fignifies, "imagines fictas et formæ indeterminatæ, nunquam in rerum natura vivas fic vifas, uno verbo, hyeroglyphicas."

This latter fenfe of the word we fhall find generally applies to the manner in which it is used in scripture.

The first time the word cherubim occurs, is Gen. iii. 24. He (i. e. Jehovah, God) placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming fword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

8. One of the fignifications of 1 is even, to wit. 27. When is prefixed to a noun, it is often

« EelmineJätka »