So minious Title of blind Guides; a The Scribes and Pharifees had fomewhat to urge in excufe for their Conduct, because they wanted to keep themfelves at the Head of the Church at all Events; but what the Author of the Essay as a Clergyman could have in view, I am at a great lofs to guefs; as be, upon Reafonings fo very weak, as well as fo very wrong, boldly attempts to overturn the Conftitution of the Church of Ireland, and confequently of the Church of England, and to eftablifh fomewhat in its Room built upon fuch Maxims, as, did they univerfally prevail, muft needs end in Anarchy and Confufion, and every evil Work. A On the Scripture Expreffions, The Angel of the Lord, &c. T HE Defign of this little Tract is, first to fhew the true Senfe and Meaning of the Scripture Expreffions, the Angel of the Lord, and the Angel of Jefus Chrift; and fecondly, to animadvert upon the Errors advanced by the Author of a late Treatife, entitled, an Essay on Spirit, in confequence of the wrong Senfe in which he hath understood these, and fome other Paffages of Scripture. The Word Angel, is well known to fignify in the original Senfe of it a Messenger or Minifter, or in other Words, a Person employed B ployed in doing Meffages or Offices, by way of keeping up an Intercourse or Correspondence between Man and Man. Hence it is, that Angels in Scripture, have, in general, been understood to mean a Rank of spiritual created Beings, of a Nature fuperior to Man, and inferior to the Deity: Beings, which we are given to understand, are of two different Kinds, tho' at their first Creation but of one only; viz. of fuch as are Minifters unto thofe, from among Mankind, who` are Heirs of Salvation; and of fuch, who, having left their first Eftate, work in the Minds of the Difobedient, and are referved in Chains under Darkness, unto the Judgment of the great Day: Diftinguished otherwife by Angels of Light, and Angels of Darkness; Angels of God, and Angels of the Devil. This being, as it is prefamed, an unexceptionable Definition of the Word Angel, I shall now attempt to give the true Sense and Meaning of the Expreffon the Angel of the Lord; and in order thereunto, I shall refer to those Texts of Scripture where it is made ufe of. Now the two first Expreffions of this Kind, which we meet with in the Bible, relate to Hagar and Ifmael, and ftand recorded in the xvith and xxift Chapters of Genefis; where we are given to understand, that the Angel of the Lord, gen. 1. or of Jehovah there fpoken of, was none other than the Lord, or Jehovah himself, that spake to her, as appears from Verse 13, of the first mentioned Chapter. The next Paffage in which we meet with this Expreffion, is Gen. xxii, in the Rela Gen tion which is given of Abraham's offering up his Son Ifaac; where the Angel of the Lord is faid to have called out of Heaven, and put a stop to the Execution of that unnatural Sacrifice. And again, upon that Patriarch's having offered up the Ram, which he found caught by the Horns in a Thicket, he is faid to have called a fecond Time out of Heaven, and to have pronounced a Bleffing upon him, because he had not spared his Son. Here also we are given to underftand, from Abraham's having called the Name of the Place in which. this Affair was tranfacted, Jehovab-jireh, that it was the Lord, or Jehovah himself, that had an Intercourfe with him: For thefe Words may be more fitly rendered, in the Mount will the Lord be feen, or the Lord will fee or provide, than is done in the prefent Translation of the Bible, where it ftands, in the Mount of the Lord it shall be feen; because there is no mention made in the Context, of any thing that should be feen there; whereas, on the other hand, the whole History gives us plainly to underftand, that Jehovah appeared at that time to Abraham by his Angel, and provided a Ram for him to offer up in Sacrifice instead of his Son; and that from either one or both of these Occafions, the Mount had that Name given it. The next Paffage in which we find this un.31. Expreffion is Gen. xxxi. 11, &c. where Jacob fays that the Angel of God faid unto him in a Dream, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedft the Pillar; where thou vowedft a Vow unto me, &c.- Now if we 2.25.10 confult Chap. xxviii. 10, &c. we fhall find that it was Jehovah himself, the Lord God of Abraham, and of Ifaac, that had a Converfation with him at that Time. 1.3.2. The next Paffage in which we meet with this Expreffion is Exod. iii. 2. where it is faid that the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Mofes in a Flame of Fire, out of the midst of a Bush, which was not confumed therewith. Now this Angel alfo is expreffly faid |