Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/212

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AN INQUIRY INTO THE

saints and angels are sometimes mystically saluted, as the spiritual forces that encamp around the children of God, or as the fortifications and bulwarks of the city of God (in our humble judgment, a very appropriate as well as a very poetical phrase in their regard}, the "worship of the God Maozim" signifies the worship of God joined with that of mediatorial saints and angels.

But, unfortunately for Bishop Newton's interpretation, while it is obviously neither a literal nor a direct one, it militates quite as much against Scripture, as it does against Catholicism.

Does not Scripture inform us that God "has given His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways?"—(Psalm xc. 11.) Do we not read in the thirty-third Psalm, at the eighth verse, the following words, "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him; and shall deliver them"? And not to multiply quotations, is not the Bible from beginning to end literally filled with statements of a similar nature concerning these blessed spirits; statements that assuredly give full warrant to the Catholic Church to salute them, as she does, as the guardians and protectors of men, under the overruling Providence and Sovereignty of God? And if