a spiritual, intelligent substance, the first in rank and dignity
among created beings. The word angel, ἀγγέλος, is not properly a
denomination of nature but of office; denoting as much as _nuncius_,
messenger, a person employed to carry one’s orders, or declare his will.
Thus it is St. Paul represents angels, Heb. i, 14, where he calls them
“ministering spirits;” and yet custom has prevailed so much, that angel
is now commonly taken for the denomination of a particular order of
spiritual beings, of great understanding and power, superior to the
souls or spirits of men. Some of these are spoken of in Scripture in
such a manner as plainly to signify that they are real beings, of a
spiritual nature, of high power, perfection, dignity, and happiness.
Others of them are distinguished as not having kept their first station,
Jude 6. These are represented as evil spirits, enemies of God, and
intent on mischief. The devil as the head of them, and they as his
angels, are represented as the rulers of the darkness of this world, or
spiritual wickednesses, or wicked spirits, τὰ ϖνευματικὰ τῆς ϖονηρίας ἐν
τοῖς ἐπȣρανίοις, Eph. vi, 12; which may not be unfitly rendered, “the
spiritual managers of opposition to the kingdom of God.”
The existence of angels is supposed in all religions, though it is
incapable of being proved _a priori_. Indeed, the ancient Sadducees are
represented as denying all spirits; and yet the Samaritans, and
Caraites, who are reputed Sadducees, openly allowed them: witness
Abusaid, the author of an Arabic version of the Pentateuch; and Aaron, a
Caraite Jew, in his comment on the Pentateuch; both extant in manuscript
in the king of France’s library. In the Alcoran we find frequent mention
of angels. The Mussulmen believe them of different orders or degrees,
and to be destined for different employments both in heaven and on
earth. They attribute exceedingly great power to the angel Gabriel, as
that he is able to descend in the space of an hour from heaven to earth;
to overturn a mountain with a single feather of his wing, &c. The angel
Asrael, they suppose, is appointed to take the souls of such as die; and
another angel, named Esraphil, they tell us, stands with a trumpet ready
in his mouth to proclaim the day of judgment.
The Heathen philosophers and poets were also agreed as to the existence
of intelligent beings, superior to man; as is shown by St. Cyprian in
his treatise of the vanity of idols; from the testimonies of Plato,
Socrates, Trismegistus, &c. They were acknowledged under different
appellations; the Greeks calling them dæmons, and the Romans genii, or
lares. Epicurus seems to have been the only one among the old
philosophers who absolutely rejected them.
Authors are not so unanimous about the nature as about the existence of
angels. Clemens Alexandrinus believed they had bodies; which was also
the opinion of Origen, Cæsarius, Tertullian, and several others.
Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nicene, St. Cyril, St. Chrysostom,
&c, held them to be mere spirits. It has been the more current opinion,
especially in later times, that they are substances entirely spiritual,
who can, at any time, assume bodies, and appear in human or other
shapes. Ecclesiastical writers make a hierarchy of nine orders of
angels. Others have distributed angels into nine orders, according to
the names by which they are called in Scripture, and reduced these
orders into three hierarchies; to the first of which belong seraphim,
cherubim, and thrones; to the second, dominions, virtues, and powers;
and to the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. The Jews
reckon four orders or companies of angels, each headed by an archangel;
the first order being that of Michael; the second, of Gabriel; the
third, of Uriel; and the fourth, of Raphael. Following the Scripture
account, we shall find mention made of different orders of these
superior beings; for such a distinction of orders seems intimated in the
names given to different classes. Thus we have _thrones_, _dominions_,
_principalities_, or princedoms, _powers_, _authorities_, _living ones_,
_cherubim_, and _seraphim_. That some of these titles may indicate the
same class of angels is probable; but that they all should be but
different appellations of one common and equal order is improbable. We
learn also from Scripture, that they dwell in the immediate presence of
God; that they “excel in strength;” that they are immortal; and that
they are the agents through which God very often accomplishes his
special purposes of judgment and mercy. Nothing is more frequent in
Scripture than the missions and appearances of good and bad angels, whom
God employed to declare his will; to correct, teach, reprove, and
comfort. God gave the law to Moses, and appeared to the old patriarchs,
by the mediation of angels, who represented him, and spoke in his name,
Acts vii, 30, 35; Gal. iii, 19; Heb. xiii, 2.
Though the Jews, in general, believed the existence of angels, there was
a sect among them, namely, the Sadducees, who denied the existence of
all spirits whatever, God only excepted, Acts xxiii, 8. Before the
Babylonish captivity, the Hebrews seem not to have known the names of
any angel. The Talmudists say they brought the names of angels from
Babylon. Tobit, who is thought to have resided in Nineveh some time
before the captivity, mentions the angel Raphael, Tob. iii, 17; xi, 2,
7; and Daniel, who lived at Babylon some time after Tobit, has taught us
the names of Michael and Gabriel, Dan. viii, 16; ix, 21; x, 21. In the
New Testament, we find only the two latter mentioned by name.
There are various opinions as to the time when the angels were created.
Some think this took place when our heavens and the earth were made. For
this opinion, however, there is no just foundation in the Mosaic
account. Others think that angels existed long before the formation of
our solar system; and Scripture seems to favour this opinion, Job
xxxviii, 4, 7, where God says, “Where wast thou when I laid the
foundations of the earth?--and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Though it be a universal opinion that angels are of a spiritual and
incorporeal nature, yet some of the fathers, misled by a passage in Gen.
vi, 2, where it is said, “The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that
they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose,”
imagined them to be corporeal, and capable of sensual pleasures. But,
without noticing all the wild reveries which have been propagated by
bold or ignorant persons, let it suffice to observe, that by “the sons
of God” we are evidently to understand the descendants of Seth, who, for
the great piety wherein they continued for some time, were so called;
and that “the daughters of men” were the progeny of wicked Cain.
As to the doctrine of tutelary or guarding angels, presiding over the
affairs of empires, nations, provinces, and particular persons, though
received by the later Jews, it appears to be wholly Pagan in its origin,
and to have no countenance in the Scriptures. The passages in Daniel
brought to favour this notion are capable of a much better explanation;
and when our Lord declares that the “_angels_” of little children “do
always behold the face of God,” he either speaks of children as being
the objects of the general ministry of angels, or, still more probably,
by _angels_ he there means the disembodied spirits of children; for that
the Jews called disembodied spirits by the name of angels, appears from
Acts xii, 15.
On this question of guardian angels, Bishop Horsley observes: “That the
holy angels are often employed by God in his government of this
sublunary world, is indeed to be clearly proved by holy writ. That they
have power over the matter of the universe, analogous to the powers over
it which men possess, greater in extent, but still limited, is a thing
which might reasonably be supposed, if it were not declared. But it
seems to be confirmed by many passages of holy writ; from which it seems
also evident that they are occasionally, for certain specific purposes,
commissioned to exercise those powers to a prescribed extent. That the
evil angels possessed before their fall the like powers, which they are
still occasionally permitted to exercise for the punishment of wicked
nations, seems also evident. That they have a power over the human
sensory, which they are occasionally permitted to exercise, and by means
of which they may inflict diseases, suggest evil thoughts, and be the
instruments of temptation, must also be admitted. But all this amounts
not to any thing of a discretional authority placed in the hands of
tutelar angels, or to an authority to advise the Lord God with respect
to the measures of his government. Confidently I deny that a single text
is to be found in holy writ, which, rightly understood, gives the least
countenance to the abominable doctrine of such a participation of the
holy angels in God’s government of the world. In what manner then, it
may be asked, are the holy angels made at all subservient to the
purposes of God’s government? This question is answered by St. Paul in
his Epistle to the Hebrews, in the last verse of the first chapter; and
this is the only passage in the whole Bible in which we have any thing
explicit upon the office and employment of angels: ‘Are they not all,’
saith he, ‘ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that
shall be heirs of salvation?’ They are all, however high in rank and
order, nothing more than ‘ministering spirits,’ or, literally, ‘serving
spirits;’ not invested with authority of their own, but ‘sent forth,’
occasionally sent forth, to do such service as may be required of them,
‘for them that shall be heirs of salvation.’”
The exact number of angels is no where mentioned in Scripture; but it is
always represented as very great. Daniel, vii, 10, says of the Ancient
of Days, “A fiery stream came from before him; thousand thousands
ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before
him.” Jesus Christ says, that his heavenly Father could have given him
more than twelve legions of angels, that is, more than seventy-two
thousand, Matt. xxvi, 53; and the Psalmist declares, that the chariots
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, lxviii, 17, These
are all intended not to express any exact number, but indefinitely a
very large one.
Though all the angels were created alike good, yet Jude informs us,
verse 6, that some of them “kept not their first estate, but left their
own habitation,” and these God hath “reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.” Speculations on the
cause and occasion of their fall are all vain and trifling. Milton is to
be read on this subject, as on others, not as a divine, but as a poet.
All we know, is, that they are not in their first “estate,” or in their
original place; that this was their own fault, for “they left their own
habitation;” that they are in chains, yet with liberty to tempt; and
that they are reserved to the general judgment.
Dr. Prideaux observes, that the minister of the synagogue, who
officiated in offering the public prayers, being the mouth of the
congregation, delegated by them, as their representative, messenger, or
angel, to address God in prayer for them, was in Hebrew called
_sheliack-zibbor_, that is, the _angel of the church_; and that from
hence the chief ministers of the seven churches of Asia are in the
Revelation, by a name borrowed from the synagogue, called angels of
those churches.
among created beings. The word angel, ἀγγέλος, is not properly a
denomination of nature but of office; denoting as much as _nuncius_,
messenger, a person employed to carry one’s orders, or declare his will.
Thus it is St. Paul represents angels, Heb. i, 14, where he calls them
“ministering spirits;” and yet custom has prevailed so much, that angel
is now commonly taken for the denomination of a particular order of
spiritual beings, of great understanding and power, superior to the
souls or spirits of men. Some of these are spoken of in Scripture in
such a manner as plainly to signify that they are real beings, of a
spiritual nature, of high power, perfection, dignity, and happiness.
Others of them are distinguished as not having kept their first station,
Jude 6. These are represented as evil spirits, enemies of God, and
intent on mischief. The devil as the head of them, and they as his
angels, are represented as the rulers of the darkness of this world, or
spiritual wickednesses, or wicked spirits, τὰ ϖνευματικὰ τῆς ϖονηρίας ἐν
τοῖς ἐπȣρανίοις, Eph. vi, 12; which may not be unfitly rendered, “the
spiritual managers of opposition to the kingdom of God.”
The existence of angels is supposed in all religions, though it is
incapable of being proved _a priori_. Indeed, the ancient Sadducees are
represented as denying all spirits; and yet the Samaritans, and
Caraites, who are reputed Sadducees, openly allowed them: witness
Abusaid, the author of an Arabic version of the Pentateuch; and Aaron, a
Caraite Jew, in his comment on the Pentateuch; both extant in manuscript
in the king of France’s library. In the Alcoran we find frequent mention
of angels. The Mussulmen believe them of different orders or degrees,
and to be destined for different employments both in heaven and on
earth. They attribute exceedingly great power to the angel Gabriel, as
that he is able to descend in the space of an hour from heaven to earth;
to overturn a mountain with a single feather of his wing, &c. The angel
Asrael, they suppose, is appointed to take the souls of such as die; and
another angel, named Esraphil, they tell us, stands with a trumpet ready
in his mouth to proclaim the day of judgment.
The Heathen philosophers and poets were also agreed as to the existence
of intelligent beings, superior to man; as is shown by St. Cyprian in
his treatise of the vanity of idols; from the testimonies of Plato,
Socrates, Trismegistus, &c. They were acknowledged under different
appellations; the Greeks calling them dæmons, and the Romans genii, or
lares. Epicurus seems to have been the only one among the old
philosophers who absolutely rejected them.
Authors are not so unanimous about the nature as about the existence of
angels. Clemens Alexandrinus believed they had bodies; which was also
the opinion of Origen, Cæsarius, Tertullian, and several others.
Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nicene, St. Cyril, St. Chrysostom,
&c, held them to be mere spirits. It has been the more current opinion,
especially in later times, that they are substances entirely spiritual,
who can, at any time, assume bodies, and appear in human or other
shapes. Ecclesiastical writers make a hierarchy of nine orders of
angels. Others have distributed angels into nine orders, according to
the names by which they are called in Scripture, and reduced these
orders into three hierarchies; to the first of which belong seraphim,
cherubim, and thrones; to the second, dominions, virtues, and powers;
and to the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. The Jews
reckon four orders or companies of angels, each headed by an archangel;
the first order being that of Michael; the second, of Gabriel; the
third, of Uriel; and the fourth, of Raphael. Following the Scripture
account, we shall find mention made of different orders of these
superior beings; for such a distinction of orders seems intimated in the
names given to different classes. Thus we have _thrones_, _dominions_,
_principalities_, or princedoms, _powers_, _authorities_, _living ones_,
_cherubim_, and _seraphim_. That some of these titles may indicate the
same class of angels is probable; but that they all should be but
different appellations of one common and equal order is improbable. We
learn also from Scripture, that they dwell in the immediate presence of
God; that they “excel in strength;” that they are immortal; and that
they are the agents through which God very often accomplishes his
special purposes of judgment and mercy. Nothing is more frequent in
Scripture than the missions and appearances of good and bad angels, whom
God employed to declare his will; to correct, teach, reprove, and
comfort. God gave the law to Moses, and appeared to the old patriarchs,
by the mediation of angels, who represented him, and spoke in his name,
Acts vii, 30, 35; Gal. iii, 19; Heb. xiii, 2.
Though the Jews, in general, believed the existence of angels, there was
a sect among them, namely, the Sadducees, who denied the existence of
all spirits whatever, God only excepted, Acts xxiii, 8. Before the
Babylonish captivity, the Hebrews seem not to have known the names of
any angel. The Talmudists say they brought the names of angels from
Babylon. Tobit, who is thought to have resided in Nineveh some time
before the captivity, mentions the angel Raphael, Tob. iii, 17; xi, 2,
7; and Daniel, who lived at Babylon some time after Tobit, has taught us
the names of Michael and Gabriel, Dan. viii, 16; ix, 21; x, 21. In the
New Testament, we find only the two latter mentioned by name.
There are various opinions as to the time when the angels were created.
Some think this took place when our heavens and the earth were made. For
this opinion, however, there is no just foundation in the Mosaic
account. Others think that angels existed long before the formation of
our solar system; and Scripture seems to favour this opinion, Job
xxxviii, 4, 7, where God says, “Where wast thou when I laid the
foundations of the earth?--and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Though it be a universal opinion that angels are of a spiritual and
incorporeal nature, yet some of the fathers, misled by a passage in Gen.
vi, 2, where it is said, “The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that
they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose,”
imagined them to be corporeal, and capable of sensual pleasures. But,
without noticing all the wild reveries which have been propagated by
bold or ignorant persons, let it suffice to observe, that by “the sons
of God” we are evidently to understand the descendants of Seth, who, for
the great piety wherein they continued for some time, were so called;
and that “the daughters of men” were the progeny of wicked Cain.
As to the doctrine of tutelary or guarding angels, presiding over the
affairs of empires, nations, provinces, and particular persons, though
received by the later Jews, it appears to be wholly Pagan in its origin,
and to have no countenance in the Scriptures. The passages in Daniel
brought to favour this notion are capable of a much better explanation;
and when our Lord declares that the “_angels_” of little children “do
always behold the face of God,” he either speaks of children as being
the objects of the general ministry of angels, or, still more probably,
by _angels_ he there means the disembodied spirits of children; for that
the Jews called disembodied spirits by the name of angels, appears from
Acts xii, 15.
On this question of guardian angels, Bishop Horsley observes: “That the
holy angels are often employed by God in his government of this
sublunary world, is indeed to be clearly proved by holy writ. That they
have power over the matter of the universe, analogous to the powers over
it which men possess, greater in extent, but still limited, is a thing
which might reasonably be supposed, if it were not declared. But it
seems to be confirmed by many passages of holy writ; from which it seems
also evident that they are occasionally, for certain specific purposes,
commissioned to exercise those powers to a prescribed extent. That the
evil angels possessed before their fall the like powers, which they are
still occasionally permitted to exercise for the punishment of wicked
nations, seems also evident. That they have a power over the human
sensory, which they are occasionally permitted to exercise, and by means
of which they may inflict diseases, suggest evil thoughts, and be the
instruments of temptation, must also be admitted. But all this amounts
not to any thing of a discretional authority placed in the hands of
tutelar angels, or to an authority to advise the Lord God with respect
to the measures of his government. Confidently I deny that a single text
is to be found in holy writ, which, rightly understood, gives the least
countenance to the abominable doctrine of such a participation of the
holy angels in God’s government of the world. In what manner then, it
may be asked, are the holy angels made at all subservient to the
purposes of God’s government? This question is answered by St. Paul in
his Epistle to the Hebrews, in the last verse of the first chapter; and
this is the only passage in the whole Bible in which we have any thing
explicit upon the office and employment of angels: ‘Are they not all,’
saith he, ‘ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that
shall be heirs of salvation?’ They are all, however high in rank and
order, nothing more than ‘ministering spirits,’ or, literally, ‘serving
spirits;’ not invested with authority of their own, but ‘sent forth,’
occasionally sent forth, to do such service as may be required of them,
‘for them that shall be heirs of salvation.’”
The exact number of angels is no where mentioned in Scripture; but it is
always represented as very great. Daniel, vii, 10, says of the Ancient
of Days, “A fiery stream came from before him; thousand thousands
ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before
him.” Jesus Christ says, that his heavenly Father could have given him
more than twelve legions of angels, that is, more than seventy-two
thousand, Matt. xxvi, 53; and the Psalmist declares, that the chariots
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, lxviii, 17, These
are all intended not to express any exact number, but indefinitely a
very large one.
Though all the angels were created alike good, yet Jude informs us,
verse 6, that some of them “kept not their first estate, but left their
own habitation,” and these God hath “reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.” Speculations on the
cause and occasion of their fall are all vain and trifling. Milton is to
be read on this subject, as on others, not as a divine, but as a poet.
All we know, is, that they are not in their first “estate,” or in their
original place; that this was their own fault, for “they left their own
habitation;” that they are in chains, yet with liberty to tempt; and
that they are reserved to the general judgment.
Dr. Prideaux observes, that the minister of the synagogue, who
officiated in offering the public prayers, being the mouth of the
congregation, delegated by them, as their representative, messenger, or
angel, to address God in prayer for them, was in Hebrew called
_sheliack-zibbor_, that is, the _angel of the church_; and that from
hence the chief ministers of the seven churches of Asia are in the
Revelation, by a name borrowed from the synagogue, called angels of
those churches.