[267:1] Prideaux speaks of the angel of the synagogue, in relation to the rulers, as "next to them, or perchance one of them."—Part i. book vi. vol. i. p. 385.
[267:2] It appears never to have occurred to Tertullian that the angels of the Churches were bishops. He obviously considered the angel of the Church an invisible intelligence. Thus he says of Paul—"Lusit igitur et de suo spiritu, et de ecclesiae angelo, et de virtute Domini, si quod de consilio eorum pronunciaverat rescidit."—De Pudicitia, c. xiv. ad finem. See also Tertullian "De Baptismo," c. vi. Such, too, was the opinion of Origen.—"De Principiis," lib. i. c. 8, and "De Oratione," 11. The fact that, long after the hierarchy was formed, in two or three rare cases a bishop is called an angel, in reference to the angels of the Apocalypse, is nothing to the purpose. See Bingham, i. 79.
[268:1] Phil. iv. 14, 18.
[269:1] Phil. ii. 25.
[269:2] 2 Cor. viii. 23, [Greek: apostoloi ekklêsiôn]. In after-times it was deemed proper that those messengers should be of the clerical order.—See Cyprian, epist. xxiv., lxxv., and lxxix.
[269:3] Luke vii. 27, [Greek: ton angelon mou].
[269:4] James ii, 25, [Greek: tous angelous].
[269:5] John xxi. 7, 20.
[270:1] Thus Hippolytus speaks of a certain elder, named Hyacinthus, who was sent to the governor of Sardinia with a letter for the release of the Christians banished there. "Philosophumena," p. 288. The legate of the bishop of Rome is a species of memorial of the angel of the ancient Church.
[270:2] Rev. ii. 7, 11, 17, 29, iii. 6, 13, 22.