Ezekiel 9:2

I beseech the Reader, to pay the greatest attention to what is here said, and may God the Holy Ghost, be his Instructor. I should conceive, that by what is related of six persons, and one particularly distinguished among the rest, is meant seven in number; six angels, and one person yet more, eminent. And who could this be but the glory-man Christ Jesus? They were for destruction: but his office is mercy. The writer's ink-horn by his side, seems to define his character. Surely Jesus marked down the names of all his redeemed, when first he received them from the Father in the book of life. He did not die peradventure, and at an uncertainty, for an undetermined number; for he saith himself, that the power he had given him over all flesh, as mediator, (and no power could be given to him but as mediator, for all power was his as God, originally and underived, in common with the Father and the Holy Ghost, for all eternity), was for this express purpose, that he should give eternal life to as many as were given him. John 17:2. And therefore, as this was secret, known only to the Persons of the Godhead, angels not being privy to the solemn transactions, yea, not in being, when done; it was proper that the great Mediator, and Redeemer, should be present, when the angels came to destroy; and to mark his own, as a security from their destroying weapons. And I cannot but think, that the figure of a writer's ink-horn by his side, (alluding perhaps to the custom among men, who when they write abroad, fasten the ink-horn for convenience to their side) hath no unapt resemblance to the pierced side of Jesus on the cross, from whence issued blood and water. For as all the redeemed of the Lord are washed in his blood, so the mark by which they are known is the same. I do not presume to say, that this conjecture is right: but I confess to me it appears highly probable, and I love to discover Jesus everywhere, and in everything of mercy: for sure I am there can be no mercy but in him, and where he is. Who should write the names of his people in the Lamb's book of life, but the Lamb? Revelation 20:15. Who shall mark the flock, but the owner of the flock? John 10:14. And who shall finally count them over, and see that none is wanting, but He who first numbered them? and of whom it is said, that in all the cities of the mountains, and of the vale, the flocks shall again pass under the hand of him that telleth them. Jeremiah 33:13. Precious Jesus! bring my soul under thy divine markings, and the sprinkling of thy blood, that when the destroying angels go forth, to execute their awful commission, like the houses of Israel, in the midst of the Egypt of this world, I may be found secured in thee, the Lord my passover. Exodus 12:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7. I only detain the Reader with a short observation more, on this wonderful verse, just to remark, that the destroying angels, taking their stand beside the brazen altar, might perhaps be intended to intimate, that when the Lord's judgments really begin, they begin at the house of God. And therefore, what the Holy Ghost by the Apostle hath said, may well impress our minds. For the time is come (saith he) that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them, that obey not the gospel of God. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Solemn scripture! 1 Peter 4:17.