Far above all principality and power
Good angels and bad angels, and civil magistrates, who also may
be intended by the following words:
and might and dominion;
good angels may be so called, because of their employment under
God in the affairs of Providence, and the government of this
world; and Christ is not only above them, as he is God, being
their Creator, who has made them, and on whom they depend, and is
the Lord whom they serve, and is the object of their worship and
adoration, and as he is Mediator, to whom they minister, and so
is above them in nature, name, and office; but also as he is man,
in union with the Son of God; and chiefly he here is said to be
above them on account of place, being at the right hand of God,
where they are not, ( Hebrews 1:13
) . And evil angels may be so called, because of the government
which subsists among themselves, and the power and influence they
have over mankind; Christ was above them when here on earth, as
appears by his resisting the temptations of Satan, and defeating
him in them; by his dispossessing devils from the bodies of men;
by his spoiling and destroying them and their works at his death;
and by his leading them captive, and triumphing over them at his
ascension; and by delivering souls out of his hands at
conversion, through his power attending the ministration of his
Gospel; and his being above them will still be more manifest, in
the binding of Satan a thousand years, and in the final
condemnation of him, and of all his angels under him: civil
magistrates are sometimes called by these names, and Christ is
above them; they receive their governments from him, they rule by
him, and are accountable to him, and are set up and put down at
his pleasure; all these senses may be taken in; but the first
seems chiefly designed: it is added,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in
that which is to come;
persons of authority and dignity, of fame and renown, whether in
earth or heaven; as emperors, kings, princes, nobles, generals of
armies &c. in this world, and cherubim, seraphim in the other
world: this phrase denotes both the extensiveness of Christ's
kingdom, and the eternity of it; as reaching to both worlds, and
being over everything in them, and as lasting to the end of this,
and unto that which is to come.