But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, But ye are come unto mount Sion - In order to enter fully into the apostle's meaning, we must observe,
1. That the Church, which is called here the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and mount Sion, is represented under the notion of a City.
2. That the great assembly of believers in Christ is here opposed to the congregation of the Israelites assembled at Mount Sinai.
3. That the innumerable company of angels is here opposed to, those angels by whom the law was ushered in, Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19.
4. That the Gospel first-born, whose names are written in heaven, are here opposed to the enrolled first-born among the Israelites, Exodus 24:5, Exodus 19:22.
5. That the mediator of the new covenant, the Lord Jesus, is here opposed to Moses, the mediator of the old.
6. And that the blood of sprinkling, of Christ, our High Priest, refers to the act of Moses, Exodus 24:8 : "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words."
1. The description in these verses does not refer to a heavenly state; for the terrible nature of the Mosaic dispensation is never opposed to heaven or life eternal, but to the economy of the New Testament.
2. In heaven there is no need of a mediator, or sprinkling of blood; but these are mentioned in the state which the apostle describes.
The heavenly Jerusalem - This phrase means the Church of the New Testament, as Schoettgen has amply proved in his dissertation on this subject.
To an innumerable company of angels - Μυριασιν αγγελων· To myriads, tens of thousands, of angels. These are represented as the attendants upon God, when he manifests himself in any external manner to mankind. When he gave the law at Mount Sinai, it is intimated that myriads of these holy beings attended him. "The chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place;" Psalms 68:17. And when he shall come to judge the world, he will be attended with a similar company. "Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;" Daniel 7:10. In both these cases, as in several others, these seem to be, speaking after the manner of men, the body guard of the Almighty. Though angels make a part of the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, yet they belong also to the Church below. Christ has in some sort incorporated them with his followers, for "they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation," and they are all ever considered as making a part of God's subjects.