empower them to discharge them. When the Son of man fhall come in his own glory, and in that of his Father, and all his holy and powerful meffengers with him, we may be sure that these will amply adorn and dignify his exalted rank as the divinely appointed judge and recompenfer of all mankind.

CHAPTER III.

Arguments to shew that Intelligent Angels, or Messengers of God, are Human Beings, who have departed out of this Life.

SECTION I.

The terms ANGEL, and MAN, when applied to a Meffenger of GoD, are fometimes both used of the fame Perfon,

TWO of the fame perfons who in Gen. xviii. 2, 16, 22, are called men, it appears, by comparing ver. 22 with ch. xix. 1, are here called angels; and in the Latin tranflation of the Arabic, duo illi apoftoli. In xix. 8, 10, 12, they are again called men; though in the 12th verse the Samaritan reads angels. In ver. 15, they are stiled angels. In ver. 16, men, in the Hebrew and English; angels, in the Septuagint and Syriac.

Judges xiii. 3. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife. Ver. 6, fhe calls him a man of God; that is, a prophet, whofe countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Ver. 8. Manoah calls him the man of God. Ver. 10. His wife calls him the man. Ver. 11. Manoah came to the man, and faid unto him, Art thou the man that fpakeft unto the woman? And he faid, I am, N. Sept. εyw.

The appearances at the fepulchre of Jefus are by John, xx. 12, called two angels; by Luke, xxiv. 4, two men; by Matt. xxviii. 2, 5, an angel of the Lord; and by Mark, xvi. 5, a young man.

While the Apostles 'beheld Jefus going up toward heaven, two men stood by them in white apparel; who faid, &c. No other defcription is given of

them; Acts i. 10.

In many inftances living human beings are denominated angels, and angels of God. See Part I. ch. ii. fect. ii. fubd. 1, 2, 3.

SECTION II.

The external Form and Appearance, the Conversation and Actions, of some of the Angels or Messengers of the Most High, completely resembled those of Human Beings.

SOME angels of God not only had a human form, but they alfo walked, converfed, and even ate with thofe to whom they appeared. Gen. xviii. 1 to 8;

xix. 1 to 3. That angel of the three whom Abraham addreffes as Jehovah, and who fpake in the name of Jehovah, as well as the two others, did all these. Gideon (Judges vi. 11) was fo fully convinced that the person who appeared to him was a living man, who had never died, that he prefented part of a kid and unleavened cakes to him. Though after he miraculously produced fire from the rock to confume the flesh and cakes, and departed out of his fight, Gideon perceived that he was a ftill more extraordinary meffenger of the Moft High: ver. 19 to 22. Before as well as after the angel or meffenger who appeared to Manoah had told him he was a man, (Judges xiii. 6, 8, 11,) Manoah took him for a living prophet, and offered to prepare a kid for him, ver. 15; and even afked of him his name, ver. 17. It was not till he afcended in the flame from the altar, that he knew him to be fo extraordinary a divine meffenger as he thus proved himself to be; ver. 20, 21.

It is a common and a fair rule of interpretation, that doubtful expreffions fhould be explained by those which are plain and diftinct. The term angel, we have fhewn, determines nothing concerning the nature of any being to which it is applied. It defignates an office. When a perfon, therefore, whose form, appearance, converfation, and actions, are fuch as that he is understood by thofe to whom he appears to be a man, is called a man by them, and there is no fufficient evidence that he is a being of a different fpecies; does not all this prove that he is one of the human

race? When all these circumftances concur, and when it is evident that human faculties with divine aid are adequate to the discharge of the office to which this meffenger of God is appointed; what authority have we to say that such an angel or meffenger is of higher rank in the creation than man? and that he is miraculously brought from his own proper fociety and habitation in another part of the universe, to transact any affairs that concern only the creatures of the Moft High upon earth? Is not this going beyond what is written in fcripture? 1 Cor. iv. 6: adding to it, Prov. xxx. 5, 6: and intruding into that which we have not feen, Col. ii. 18. When the great Meffiah rofe from the dead, his beloved Apostle John, and Luke the Evangelift, record in their gospels, that he ate, walked, and converfed, with his difciples; as the moft decifive evidence they could give of the reality of his refurrection: Luke xxiv. 13 to 49; John xxi. 12 to 15. And to prove the refurrection of Jefus to Cornelius, a Roman officer, and the first Gentile convert to Christianity, Peter tells him, that the Apostles ate and drank with Christ after he rose from the dead; Acts x. 41. As these facts are folid proofs of the refurrection of the man Chrift Jefus, (1 Tim. ii. 5,) fo they are proofs alfo of the real appearance of other human beings after their decease.

SECTION III.

It is expressly recorded of some HUMAN BEINGS, that they did appear to Men, after their Departure from this Life, as Divine Messengers.

MATT. xxvii. 52, 53. The earth quaked, and the rocks were rent, and the fepulchres were opened, and many bodies of the faints who flept arofe, and they came out of the fepulchres after Jesus' refurrection, and entered into the holy city, and appeared to many. By faints here are meant converts to Chrift. See Acts ix. 13, 41; xxvi. 10; Rom. xv. 25, 26; 2 Cor. i. 1, &c. &c.

Rev. i. 1. Jefus fent his angel to his fervant John. xix. 10. During his vifion, John fell before the angel's feet, to do him homage. The angel faid, fee thou do it not. I am a fellow-fervant with thee, and with thy brethren who bear teftimony to Jefus: worship God. xxii. 8, 9. John, after he had heard the voices, and had feen the vifion, fell down again to pay homage before the feet of the angel. But the angel faid unto him, fee thou do it not. I am a fellow-fervant with thee, and with thy brethren the prophets, and with thofe who keep the words of this book: worship God. Ver. 16. Jefus fays, I Jefus have fent mine angel to teftify unto you these things in the churches.