On the Scripture Expreffionis,

The Angel of the Lord, &c.

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HE Design 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 secondly, to animadvert upon the Errors advanced by the Author of a late Treatife, entitled, an Effay on Spirit, in confequence of the wrong Senfe in which he hath understood these, and some 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 Perfon employed

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ployed in doing Meffages or Offices, by way of keeping up an Intercourfe or Correfpondence 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 reserved 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 Expreffion the Angel of the Lord; and in order thereunto, I shall refer to thofe 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 xxist Chapters of Genefis; where we are given to understand, that the Angel of the Lord, gen. 10 or of Jehovah there spoken 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 Genza 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 fpared his Son. Here also we are given to understand, from Abraham's having called the Name of the Place in which. this Affair was transacted, Jehovah-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 B 2 the