Chapter XI: Section IV: Good And Evil Angels (1)

As ministers of divine providence there is a class of finite beings, greater in intelligence and power than man in his present state, some of whom positively serve God’s purpose by holiness and voluntary execution of his will, some negatively, by giving examples to the universe of defeated and punished rebellion, and by illustrating God’s distinguishing grace in man’s salvation.

The scholastic subtleties which encumbered this doctrine in the Middle Ages, and the exaggerated representations of the power of evil spirits which then prevailed, have led, by a natural reaction, to an undue depreciation of it in more recent times.

For scholastic discussions, see Thomas Aquinas, Summa (ed. Migne),
1:833-993. The scholastics debated the questions, how many angels
could stand at once on the point of a needle (relation of angels
to space); whether an angel could be in two places at the same
time; how great was the interval between the creation of angels
and their fall; whether the sin of the first angel caused the sin
of the rest; whether as many retained their integrity as fell;
whether our atmosphere is the place of punishment for fallen
angels; whether guardian-angels have charge of children from
baptism, from birth, or while the infant is yet in the womb of the
mother; even the excrements of angels were subjects of discussion,
for if there was “_angels’ food_” (_Ps. 78:25_), and if angels ate
(_Gen. 18:8_), it was argued that we must take the logical
consequences.

Dante makes the creation of angels simultaneous with that of the
universe at large. “The fall of the rebel angels he considers to
have taken place within twenty seconds of their creation, and to
have originated in the pride which made Lucifer unwilling to await
the time prefixed by his Maker for enlightening him with perfect
knowledge”—see Rossetti, Shadow of Dante, 14, 15. Milton, unlike
Dante, puts the creation of angels ages before the creation of
man. He tells us that Satan’s first name in heaven is now lost.
The sublime associations with which Milton surrounds the adversary
diminish our abhorrence of the evil one. Satan has been called the
hero of the Paradise Lost. Dante’s representation is much more
true to Scripture. But we must not go to the extreme of giving
ludicrous designations to the devil. This indicates and causes
scepticism as to his existence.

In mediæval times men’s minds were weighed down by the terror of
the spirit of evil. It was thought possible to sell one’s soul to
Satan, and such compacts were written with blood. Goethe
represents Mephistopheles as saying to Faust: “I to thy service
here agree to bind me, To run and never rest at call of thee; When
_over yonder_ thou shalt find me, Then thou shalt do as much for
me.” The cathedrals cultivated and perpetuated this superstition,
by the figures of malignant demons which grinned from the
gargoyles of their roofs and the capitals of their columns, and
popular preaching exalted Satan to the rank of a rival god—a god
more feared than was the true and living God. Satan was pictured
as having horns and hoofs—an image of the sensual and
bestial—which led Cuvier to remark that the adversary could not
devour, because horns and hoofs indicated not a carnivorous but a
ruminant quadruped.

But there is certainly a possibility that the ascending scale of
created intelligences does not reach its topmost point in man. As
the distance between man and the lowest forms of life is filled in
with numberless gradations of being, so it is possible that
between man and God there exist creatures of higher than human
intelligence. This possibility is turned to certainty by the
express declarations of Scripture. The doctrine is interwoven with
the later as well as with the earlier books of revelation.

Quenstedt (Theol., 1:629) regards the existence of angels as
antecedently probable, because there are no gaps in creation;
nature does not proceed _per saltum_. As we have (1) beings purely
corporeal, as stones; (2) beings partly corporeal and partly
spiritual, as men: so we should expect in creation (3) beings
wholly spiritual, as angels. Godet, in his Biblical Studies of the
O. T., 1-29, suggests another series of gradations. As we have (1)
vegetables—species without individuality; (2)
animals—individuality in bondage to species; and (3) men—species
overpowered by individuality: so we may expect (4)
angels—individuality without species.

If souls live after death, there is certainly a class of
disembodied spirits. It is not impossible that God may have
_created_ spirits without bodies. E. G. Robinson, Christian
Theology, 110—“The existence of lesser deities in all heathen
mythologies, and the disposition of man everywhere to believe in
beings superior to himself and inferior to the supreme God, is a
presumptive argument in favor of their existence.” Locke: “That
there should be more species of intelligent creatures above us
than there are of sensible and material below us, is probable to
me from hence, that in all the visible and corporeal world we see
no chasms and gaps.” Foster, Christian Life and Theology, 193—“A
man may certainly believe in the existence of angels upon the
testimony of one who claims to have come from the heavenly world,
if he can believe in the Ornithorhyncus upon the testimony of
travelers.” Tennyson, Two Voices: “This truth within thy mind
rehearse, That in a boundless universe Is boundless better,
boundless worse. Think you this world of hopes and fears Could
find no statelier than his peers In yonder hundred million
spheres?”

The doctrine of angels affords a barrier against the false
conception of this world as including the whole spiritual
universe. Earth is only part of a larger organism. As Christianity
has united Jew and Gentile, so hereafter will it blend our own and
other orders of creation: _Col. 2:10_—“_who is the head of all
principality and power_”—Christ is the head of angels as well as
of men; _Eph. 1:10_—“_to sum up all things in Christ, the things
in the heavens, and the things upon the earth._” On Christ and
Angels, see Robertson Smith in The Expositor, second series, vols.
1, 2, 3. On the general subject of angels, see also Whately, Good
and Evil Angels; Twesten, transl. in Bib. Sac., 1:768, and 2:108;
Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2:282-337, and 3:251-354; Birks,
Difficulties of Belief, 78 sq.; Scott, Existence of Evil Spirits;
Herzog, Encyclopädie, arts.: Engel, Teufel; Jewett,
Diabolology,—the Person and Kingdom of Satan; Alexander, Demonic
Possession.

I. Scripture Statements and Imitations.

1. As to the nature and attributes of angels.

(_a_) They are created beings.

_Ps. 148:2-5_—“_Praise ye him, all his angels.... For he
commanded, and they were created_”; _Col. 1:16_—“_for in him were
all things created ... whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers_”; _cf._ _1 Pet. 3:32_—“_angels and
authorities and powers._” God alone is uncreated and eternal. This
is implied in _1 Tim. 6:16_—“_who only hath immortality._”

(_b_) They are incorporeal beings.

In _Heb. 1:14_, where a single word is used to designate angels,
they are described as “_spirits_”—“_are they not all ministering
spirits?_” Men, with their twofold nature, material as well as
immaterial, could not well be designated as “_spirits_.” That
their being characteristically “_spirits_” forbids us to regard
angels as having a bodily organism, seems implied in _Eph.
6:12_—“_for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but
against ... the spiritual hosts_ [or “_things_”] _of wickedness in
the heavenly places_”; cf. _Eph. 1:3_; _2:6_. In _Gen. 6:2_,
“_sons of God_” =, not angels, but descendants of Seth and
worshipers of the true God (see Murphy, Com., _in loco_). In _Ps.
78:25_ (A. V.), “_angels’ food_” = manna coming from heaven where
angels dwell; better, however, read with Rev. Vers.: “_bread of
the mighty_”—probably meaning angels, though the word “_mighty_”
is nowhere else applied to them; possibly = “bread of princes or
nobles,” _i. e._, the finest, most delicate bread. _Mat
22:30_—“_neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as
angels in heaven_”—and _Luke 20:36_—“_neither can they die any
more: for they are equal unto the angels_”—imply only that angels
are without distinctions of sex. Saints are to be like angels, not
as being incorporeal, but as not having the same sexual relations
which they have here.

There are no “souls of angels,” as there are “_souls of men_”
(_Rev. 18:13_), and we may infer that angels have no bodies for
souls to inhabit; see under Essential Elements of Human Nature.
Nevius, Demon-Possession, 258, attributes to evil spirits an
instinct or longing for a body to possess, even though it be the
body of an inferior animal: “So in Scripture we have spirits
represented as wandering about to seek rest in bodies, and asking
permission to enter into swine” (_Mat. 12:43; 8:31_). Angels
therefore, since they have no bodies, know nothing of growth, age,
or death. Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 133—“It is precisely
because the angels are only spirits, but not souls, that they
cannot possess the same rich existence as man, whose soul is the
point of union in which spirit and nature meet.”

(_c_) They are personal—that is, intelligent and voluntary—agents.

_2 Sam. 14:20_—“_wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of
God_”; _Luke 4:34_—“_I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of
God_”; _2 Tim. 2:26_—“_snare of the devil ... taken captive by him
unto his will_”; _Rev. 22:9_—“_See thou do it not_” = exercise of
will; _Rev. 12:12_—“_The devil is gone down unto you, having great
wrath_” = set purpose of evil.

(_d_) They are possessed of superhuman intelligence and power, yet an intelligence and power that has its fixed limits.

_Mat. 24:36_—“_of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the
angels of heaven_” = their knowledge, though superhuman, is yet
finite. _1 Pet. 1:12_—“_which things angels desire to look into_”;
_Ps. 103:20_—“_angels ... mighty in strength_”; _2 Thess.
1:7_—“_the angels of his power_”; _2 Pet. 2:11_—“_angels, though
greater_ [than men] _in might and power_”; _Rev. 20:2, 10_—“_laid
hold on the dragon ... and bound him ... cast into the lake of
fire._” Compare _Ps. 72:18_—“_God ... Who only doeth wondrous
things_” = only God can perform miracles. Angels are imperfect
compared with God (_Job 4:18; 15:15; 25:5_).

Power, rather than beauty or intelligence, is their striking
characteristic. They are “_principalities and powers_” (_Col.
1:16_). They terrify those who behold them (_Mat. 28:4_). The
rolling away of the stone from the sepulchre took strength. A
wheel of granite, eight feet in diameter and one foot thick,
rolling in a groove, would weigh more than four tons. Mason, Faith
of the Gospel, 86—“The spiritual might and burning indignation in
the face of Stephen reminded the guilty Sanhedrin of an angelic
vision.” Even in their tenderest ministrations they strengthen
(_Luke 22:43_; _cf._ _Dan. 10:19_). In _1 Tim. 6:15_—“_King of
kings and Lord of lords_”—the words “_kings_” and “_lords_”
(βασιλευόντων and κυριευόντων) may refer to angels. In the case of
evil spirits especially, power seems the chief thing in mind, _e.
g._, “_the prince of this world_,” “_the strong man armed_,” “_the
power of darkness_,” “_rulers of the darkness of this world_,”
“_the great dragon,_” “_all the power of the enemy_,” “_all these
things will I give thee_,” “_deliver us from the evil one_.”

(_e_) They are an order of intelligences distinct from man and older than man.

Angels are distinct from man. _1 Cor. 6:3_—“_we shall judge
angels_”; _Heb. 1:14_—“_Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit
salvation?_” They are not glorified human spirits; see _Heb.
2:16_—“_for verily not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth
help to __ the seed of Abraham_”; also _12:22, 23_, where “_the
innumerable hosts of angels_” are distinguished from “_the church
of the firstborn_” and “_the spirits of just men made perfect_.”
In _Rev. 22:9_—“_I am a fellow-servant with
thee_”—“_fellow-servant_” intimates likeness to men, not in
nature, but in service and subordination to God, the proper object
of worship. Sunday School Times, Mch. 15, 1902:146—“Angels are
spoken of as greater in power and might than man, but that could
be said of many a lower animal, or even of whirlwind and fire.
Angels are never spoken of as a superior order of spiritual
beings. We are to ‘_judge angels_’ (_1 Cor. 6:3_), and inferiors
are not to judge superiors.”

Angels are an order of intelligences older than man. The Fathers
made the creation of angels simultaneous with the original calling
into being of the elements, perhaps basing their opinion on the
apocryphal Ecclesiasticus, 18:1—“he that liveth eternally created
all things together.” In _Job 38:7_, the Hebrews parallelism makes
“_morning stars_”—“_sons of God,_” so that angels are spoken of as
present at certain stages of God’s creative work. The mention of
“_the serpent_” in _Gen. 3:1_ implies the fall of Satan before the
fall of man. We may infer that the creation of angels took place
before the creation of man—the lower before the higher. In _Gen.
2:1_, “_all the host of them,_” which God had created, may be
intended to include angels. Man was the crowning work of creation,
created after angels were created. Mason, Faith of the Gospel,
81—“Angels were perhaps created before the material heavens and
earth—a spiritual substratum in which the material things were
planted, a preparatory creation to receive what was to follow. In
the vision of Jacob they ascend first and descend after; their
natural place is in the world below.”

The constant representation of angels as personal beings in Scripture cannot be explained as a personification of abstract good and evil, in accommodation to Jewish superstitions, without wresting many narrative passages from their obvious sense; implying on the part of Christ either dissimulation or ignorance as to an important point of doctrine; and surrendering belief in the inspiration of the Old Testament from which these Jewish views of angelic beings were derived.

Jesus accommodated himself to the popular belief in respect at
least to “_Abraham’s bosom_” (_Luke 16:22_), and he confessed
ignorance with regard to the time of the end (_Mark 13:32_); see
Rush Rhees, Life of Jesus of Nazareth, 245-248. But in the former
case his hearers probably understood him to speak figuratively and
rhetorically, while in the latter case there was no teaching of
the false but only limitation of knowledge with regard to the
true. Our Lord did not hesitate to contradict Pharisaic belief in
the efficacy of ceremonies, and Sadducean denial of resurrection
and future life. The doctrine of angels had even stronger hold
upon the popular mind than had these errors of the Pharisees and
Sadducees. That Jesus did not correct or deny the general belief,
but rather himself expressed and confirmed it, implies that the
belief was rational and Scriptural. For one of the best statements
of the argument for the existence of evil spirits, see Broadus,
Com. on _Mat. 8:28_.

_Eph. 3:10_—“_to the intent that now unto the principalities and
the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the
church the manifold wisdom of God_”—excludes the hypothesis that
angels are simply abstract conceptions of good or evil. We speak
of “moon-struck” people (lunatics), only when we know that nobody
supposes us to believe in the power of the moon to cause madness.
But Christ’s contemporaries _did_ suppose him to believe in
angelic spirits, good and evil. If this belief was an error, it
was by no means a harmless one, and the benevolence as well as the
veracity of Christ would have led him to correct it. So too, if
Paul had known that there were no such beings as angels, he could
not honestly have contented himself with forbidding the Colossians
to worship them (_Col 2:18_) but would have denied their
existence, as he denied the existence of heathen gods (_1 Cor.
8:4_).

Theodore Parker said it was very evident that Jesus Christ
believed in a personal devil. Harnack, Wesen des Christenthums,
35—“There can be no doubt that Jesus shared with his
contemporaries the representation of two kingdoms, the kingdom of
God and the kingdom of the devil.” Wendt, Teaching of Jesus,
1:164—Jesus “makes it appear as if Satan was the immediate
tempter. I am far from thinking that he does so in a merely
figurative way. Beyond all doubt Jesus accepted the contemporary
ideas as to the real existence of Satan, and accordingly, in the
particular cases of disease referred to, he supposes a real
Satanic temptation.” Maurice, Theological Essays, 32, 34—“The
acknowledgment of an evil spirit is characteristic of
Christianity.” H. B. Smith, System, 261—“It would appear that the
power of Satan in the world reached its culminating point at the
time of Christ, and has been less ever since.”

The same remark applies to the view which regards Satan as but a collective term for all evil beings, human or superhuman. The Scripture representations of the progressive rage of the great adversary, from his first assault on human virtue in Genesis to his final overthrow in Revelation, join with the testimony of Christ just mentioned, to forbid any other conclusion than this, that there is a personal being of great power, who carries on organized opposition to the divine government.

Crane, The Religion of To-morrow, 299 sq.—“We well say ‘personal
devil,’ for there is no devil but personality.” We cannot deny the
personality of Satan except upon principles which would compel us
to deny the existence of good angels, the personality of the Holy
Spirit, and the personality of God the Father,—we may add, even
the personality of the human soul. Says Nigel Penruddock in Lord
Beaconsfield’s “Endymion”: “Give me a single argument against his
[Satan’s] personality, which is not applicable to the personality
of the Deity.” One of the most ingenious devices of Satan is that
of persuading men that he has no existence. Next to this is the
device of substituting for belief in a personal devil the belief
in a merely impersonal spirit of evil. Such a substitution we find
in Pfleiderer, Philosophy of Religion, 1:311—“The idea of the
devil was a welcome expedient for the need of advanced religious
reflection, to put God out of relation to the evil and badness of
the world.” Pfleiderer tells us that the early optimism of the
Hebrews, like that of the Greeks, gave place in later times to
pessimism and despair. But the Hebrews still had hope of
deliverance by the Messiah and an apocalyptic reign of good.

For the view that Satan is merely a collective term for all evil
beings, see Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 131-137.
Bushnell, holding moral evil to be a necessary “condition
privative” of all finite beings as such, believes that “good
angels have all been passed through and helped up out of a fall,
as the redeemed of mankind will be.” “_Elect angels_” (_1 Tim.
5:21_) then would mean those saved _after_ falling, not those
saved _from_ falling; and “_Satan_” would be, not the name of a
particular person, but the all or total of all bad minds and
powers. _Per contra_, see Smith’s Bible Dictionary, arts.: Angels,
Demons, Demoniacs, Satan; Trench, Studies in the Gospels, 16-26.
For a comparison of Satan in the Book of Job, with Milton’s Satan
in “Paradise Lost,” and Goethe’s Mephistopheles in “Faust,” see
Masson, The Three Devils. We may add to this list Dante’s Satan
(or Dis) in the “Divine Comedy,” Byron’s Lucifer in “Cain,” and
Mrs. Browning’s Lucifer in her “Drama of Exile”; see Gregory,
Christian Ethics, 219.

2. As to their number and organization.

(_a_) They are of great multitude.

_Deut. 33:2_—“_Jehovah ... came from the ten thousands of holy
ones_”; _Ps. 68:17_—“_The chariots of God are twenty thousand,
even thousands upon thousands_”; _Dan. 7:10_—“_thousands of
thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood before him_”; _Rev. 5:11_—“_I heard a voice of many angels
... and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand,
and thousands of thousands._” Anselm thought that the number of
lost angels was filled up by the number of elect men. Savage, Life
after Death, 61—The Pharisees held very exaggerated notions of the
number of angelic spirits. They “said that a man, if he threw a
stone over his shoulder or cast away a broken piece of pottery,
asked pardon of any spirit that he might possibly have hit in so
doing.” So in W. H. H. Murray’s time it was said to be dangerous
in the Adirondack to fire a gun,—you might hit a man.

(_b_) They constitute a company, as distinguished from a race.

_Mat. 22:30_—“_they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but
are as angels in heaven_”; _Luke 20:36_—“_neither can they die any
more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are sons of God._”
We are called “_sons of men_,” but angels are never called “_sons
of angels_,” but only “_sons of God_.” They are not developed from
one original stock, and no such common nature binds them together
as binds together the race of man. They have no common character
and history. Each was created separately, and each apostate angel
fell by himself. Humanity fell all at once in its first father.
Cut down a tree, and you cut down its branches. But angels were so
many separate trees. Some lapsed into sin, but some remained holy.
See Godet, Bib. Studies O. T., 1-29. This may be one reason why
salvation was provided for fallen man, but not for fallen angels.
Christ could join himself to humanity by taking the common nature
of all. There was no common nature of angels which he could take.
See _Heb. 2:16_—“_not to angels doth he give help._” The angels
are “_sons of God_,” as having no earthly parentage and no
parentage at all except the divine. _Eph. 3:14, 15_—“_the Father,
of whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named,_”—not
“_every family_,” as in R. V., for there are no families among the
angels. The marginal rendering “_fatherhood_” is better than
“_family_,”—all the πατριαί are named from the πατήρ. Dodge,
Christian Theology, 172—“The bond between angels is simply a
mental and moral one. They can gain nothing by inheritance,
nothing through domestic and family life, nothing through a
society held together by a bond of blood.... Belonging to two
worlds and not simply to one, the human soul has in it the springs
of a deeper and wider experience than angels can have.... God
comes nearer to man than to his angels.” Newman Smyth, Through
Science to Faith, 191—“In the resurrection life of man, the
species has died; man the individual lives on. Sex shall be no
more needed for the sake of life; they shall no more marry, but
men and women, the children of marriage, shall be as the angels.
Through the death of the human species shall be gained, as the
consummation of all, the immortality of the individuals.”

(_c_) They are of various ranks and endowments.

_Col. 1:16_—“_thrones or dominions or principalities or powers_”;
_1 Thess. 4:16_—“_the voice of the archangel_”; _Jude 9_—“_Michael
the archangel._” Michael (= who is like God?) is the only one
expressly called an archangel in Scripture, although Gabriel (=
God’s hero) has been called an archangel by Milton. In Scripture,
Michael seems the messenger of law and judgment; Gabriel, the
messenger of mercy and promise. The fact that Scripture has but
one archangel is proof that its doctrine of angels was not, as has
sometimes been charged, derived from Babylonian and Persian
sources; for there we find seven archangels instead of one. There,
moreover, we find the evil spirit enthroned as a god, while in
Scripture he is represented as a trembling slave.

Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, 1:51—“The devout and trustful
consciousness of the immediate nearness of God, which is expressed
in so many beautiful utterances of the Psalmist, appears to be
supplanted in later Judaism by a belief in angels, which is
closely analogous to the superstitious belief in the saints on the
part of the Romish church. It is very significant that the Jews in
the time of Jesus could no longer conceive of the promulgation of
the law on Sinai, which was to them the foundation of their whole
religion, as an immediate revelation of Jehovah to Moses, except
as instituted through the mediation of angels (_Acts 7:38, 53_;
_Gal. 3:19_; _Heb. 2:2_; Josephus, Ant. 15:5, 3).”

(_d_) They have an organization.

_1 Sam. 1:11_—“_Jehovah of hosts_”; _1 K. 22:19_—“_Jehovah sitting
on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his
right hand and on his left_”; _Mat. 26:53_—“_twelve legions of
angels_”—suggests the organization of the Roman army;
_25:41_—“_the devil and his angels_”; _Eph. 2:2_—“_the prince of
the powers in the air_”; _Rev. 2:13_—“_Satan’s throne_” (not
“_seat_”); _16:10_—“_throne of the beast_”—“a hellish parody of
the heavenly kingdom” (Trench). The phrase “_host of heaven_,” in
_Deut. 4:19_; _17:3_; _Acts 7:42_, probably = the stars; but in
_Gen. 32:2_, “_God’s host_” = angels, for when Jacob saw the
angels he said “_this is God’s host_.” In general the phrases
“_God of hosts_”, “_Lord of hosts_” seem to mean “God of angels”,
“Lord of angels”: compare _2 Chron. 18:18_; _Luke 2:13_; _Rev.
19:14_—“_the armies which are in heaven._” Yet in _Neh. 9:6_ and
_Ps. 33:6_ the word “_host_” seems to include both angels and
stars.

Satan is “the ape of God.” He has a throne. He is “_the prince of
the world_” (_John 14:30; 16:11_), “_the prince of the powers of
the air_” (_Eph. 2:2_). There is a cosmos and order of evil, as
well as a cosmos and order of good, though Christ is stronger than
the strong man armed (_Luke 11:21_) and rules even over Satan. On
Satan in the Old Testament, see art. by T. W. Chambers, in Presb.
and Ref. Rev., Jan. 1892:22-34. The first mention of Satan is in
the account of the Fall in _Gen. 3:1-15_; the second in _Lev.
16:8_, where one of the two goats on the day of atonement is said
to be “_for Azazel_,” or Satan; the third where Satan moved David
to number Israel (_1 Chron. 21:1_); the fourth in the book of _Job
1:6-12_; the fifth in _Zech. 3:1-3_, where Satan stands as the
adversary of Joshua the high priest, but Jehovah addresses Satan
and rebukes him. Cheyne, Com. on Isaiah, vol. 1, p. 11, thinks
that the stars were first called the hosts of God, with the notion
that they were animated creatures. In later times the belief in
angels threw into the background the belief in the stars as
animated beings; the angels however were connected very closely
with the stars. Marlowe, in his Tamburlaine, says: “The moon, the
planets, and the meteors light, These angels in their crystal
armor fight A doubtful battle.”

With regard to the “cherubim” of Genesis, Exodus, and Ezekiel,—with which the “seraphim” of Isaiah and the “living creatures” of the book of Revelation are to be identified,—the most probable interpretation is that which regards them, not as actual beings of higher rank than man, but as symbolic appearances, intended to represent redeemed humanity, endowed with all the creature perfections lost by the Fall, and made to be the dwelling-place of God.

Some have held that the cherubim are symbols of the divine
attributes, or of God’s government over nature; see Smith’s Bib.
Dict., art.: Cherub; Alford, Com. on _Rev. 4:6-8_, and Hulsean
Lectures, 1841: vol. 1, Lect. 2; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1:278. But
whatever of truth belongs to this view may be included in the
doctrine stated above. The cherubim are indeed symbols of nature
pervaded by the divine energy and subordinated to the divine
purposes, but they are symbols of nature only because they are
symbols of man in his twofold capacity of _image of God_ and
_priest of nature_. Man, as having a body, is a part of nature; as
having a soul, he emerges from nature and gives to nature a voice.
Through man, nature, otherwise blind and dead, is able to
appreciate and to express the Creator’s glory.

The doctrine of the cherubim embraces the following points: 1. The
cherubim are not personal beings, but are artificial, temporary,
symbolic figures. 2. While they are not themselves personal
existences, they are symbols of personal existence—symbols not of
divine or angelic perfections but of human nature (_Ex.
1:5_—“_they had the likeness of a man_”; _Rev. 5:9_—A. V.—“_thou
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood_”—so read א, B, and
Tregelles; the Eng. and Am. Rev. Vers., however, follow A and
Tischendorf, and omit the word “_us_”). 3. They are emblems of
human nature, not in its present stage of development, but
possessed of all its original perfections; for this reason the
most perfect animal forms—the kinglike courage of the lion, the
patient service of the ox, the soaring insight of the eagle—are
combined with that of man (_Ez. 1_ and _10_; _Rev. 4:6-8_). 4.
These cherubic forms represent, not merely material or earthly
perfections, but human nature spiritualized and sanctified. They
are “_living creatures_” and their life is a holy life of
obedience to the divine will (_Ez. 1:12_—“_whither the spirit was
to go, they went_”). 5. They symbolize a human nature exalted to
be the dwelling-place of God. Hence the inner curtains of the
tabernacle were inwoven with cherubic figures, and God’s glory was
manifested on the mercy-seat between the cherubim (_Ex. 37:6-9_).
While the flaming sword at the gates of Eden was the symbol of
justice, the cherubim were symbols of mercy—keeping the “_way of
the tree of life_” for man, until by sacrifice and renewal
Paradise should be regained (_Gen. 3:24_).

In corroboration of this general view, note that angels and
cherubim never go together; and that in the closing visions of the
book of Revelation these symbolic forms are seen no longer. When
redeemed humanity has entered heaven, the figures which typified
that humanity, having served their purpose, finally disappear. For
fuller elaboration, see A. H. Strong, The Nature and Purpose of
the Cherubim, in Philosophy and Religion, 391-399; Fairbairn,
Typology, 1:185-208; Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 1:87; Bib. Sac.,
1876:32-51; Bib. Com., 1:49-52—“The winged lions, eagles, and
bulls, that guard the entrances of the palace of Nineveh, are
worshipers rather than divinities.” It has lately been shown that
the winged bull of Assyria was called “Kerub” almost as far back
as the time of Moses. The word appears in its Hebrew form 500
years before the Jews had any contact with the Persian dominion.
The Jews did not derive it from any Aryan race. It belonged to
their own language.

The variable form of the cherubim seems to prove that they are
symbolic appearances rather than real beings. A parallel may be
found in classical literature. In Horace, Carmina, 3:11, 15,
Cerberus has three heads; in 2:13, 34, he has a hundred. Bréal,
Semantics suggests that the three heads may be dog-heads, while
the hundred heads may be snake-heads. But Cerberus is also
represented in Greece as having only one head. Cerberus must
therefore be a symbol rather than an actually existing creature.
H. W. Congdon of Wyoming, N. Y., held, however, that the cherubim
are symbols of God’s life in the universe as a whole. _Ez.
28:14-19_—“_the anointed cherub that covereth_”—the power of the
King of Tyre was so all-pervading throughout his dominion, his
sovereignty so absolute, and his decrees so instantly obeyed, that
his rule resembled the divine government over the world. Mr.
Congdon regarded the cherubim as a proof of monism. See
Margoliouth, The Lord’s Prayer, 159-180. On animal characteristics
in man, see Hopkins, Scriptural Idea of Man, 105.

3. As to their moral character.

(_a_) They were all created holy.

_Gen. 1:31_—“_God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it
was very good_”; _Jude 6_—“_angels that kept not their own
beginning_”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy
character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.

(_b_) They had a probation.

This we infer from _1 Tim. 5:21_—“_the elect angels_”; _cf._ _1
Pet. 1:1, 2_—“_elect ... unto obedience._” If certain angels, like
certain men, are “_elect ... unto obedience_,” it would seem to
follow that there was a period of probation, during which their
obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see
Ellicott on _1 Tim. 5:21_. Mason, Faith of the Gospel,
106-108—“_Gen. 3:14_—‘_Because thou hast done this, cursed art
thou_’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan’s
day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was
driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a
living out of man, to possess man’s body or soul, to tempt from
the good.”

(_c_) Some preserved their integrity.

_Ps. 89:7_—“_the council of the holy ones_”—a designation of
angels; _Mark 8:38_—“_the holy angels._” Shakespeare, Macbeth,
4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”

(_d_) Some fell from their state of innocence.

_John 8:44_—“_He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him_”; _2 Pet.
2:4_—“_angels when they sinned_”; _Jude 6_—“_angels who kept not
their own beginning, but left their proper habitation._”
Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away
ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image
of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man
that hangs on princes’ favors!... When he falls, he falls like
Lucifer, Never to hope again.”

(_e_) The good are confirmed in good.

_Mat. 6:10_—“_Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth_”;
_18:10_—“_in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my
Father who is in heaven_”; _2 Cor. 11:14_—“_an angel of light._”

(_f_) The evil are confirmed in evil.

_Mat. 13:19_—“_the evil one_”; _1 John 5:18, 19_—“_the evil one
toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one_”;
_cf._ _John 8:44_—“_Ye are of your father the devil ... When he
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the
father thereof_”; _Mat. 6:13_—“_deliver us from the evil one._”

From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures
pass through a period of probation; that probation does not
necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless
development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate
that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and
wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are
drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they
are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See _1 Pet.
1:12_—“_which things angels desire to look into_”; _Eph.
3:10_—“_that now unto the principalities and the powers in the
heavenly places might be made known through the church the
manifold wisdom of God_”; _Col. 1:20_—“_through him to reconcile
all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or
things in the heavens_”; _Eph. 1:10_—“_to sum up all things in
Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the
earth_”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the
divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are
in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord
throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence,
and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world
in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and
mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God’s Glory in the Heavens,
327-330.

It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a
breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins,
Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at last and preserved, as
Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the
church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of
perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the
great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his
government, there may be seen to be coming in from other
departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms,
great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of
the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre
around which the universe revolves.”

4. As to their employments.

A. The employments of good angels.

(_a_) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.

_Ps. 29:1, 2_—“_Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty,
Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the
glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array_”—Perowne:
“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the
worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.” _Ps.
89:7_—“_a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,_” _i.
e._, angels—Perowne: “Angels are called an assembly or
congregation, as the church above, which like the church below
worships and praises God.” _Mat. 18:10_—“_in heaven their angels
do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven._” In
apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as
dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering
humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in
proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive
from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.

(_b_) They rejoice in God’s works.

_Job 38:7_—“_all the sons of God shouted for joy_”; _Luke
15:10_—“_there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner that repenteth_”; _cf._ _2 Tim. 2:25_—“_if peradventure
God may give them repentance._” Dante represents the angels that
are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing
toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the
youngest.

(_c_) They execute God’s will,—by working in nature;

_Ps. 103:20_—“_Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening
unto the voice of his word_”; _104:4_ marg.—“_Who maketh his
angels winds_; _His ministers a flaming fire_,” _i. e._,
lightnings. See Alford on _Heb. 1:7_—“The order of the Hebrew
words here [in _Ps. 104:4_] is not the same as in the former
verses (see especially _v. 3_), where we have: ‘_Who maketh the
clouds his chariot_.’ For this transposition, those who insist
that the passage means ‘he maketh winds his messengers’ can give
no reason.”

Farrar on _Heb. 1:7_—“_He maketh his angels winds_”; “The Rabbis
often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form
he pleases, whether man (_Gen. 18:2_) or woman (_Zech 5:9_—‘_two
women, and the wind was in their wings_’), or wind or flame (_Ex.
3:2_—‘_angel ... in a flame of fire_’; _2 K. 6:17_). But that
untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the
angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be
clothed, as they are at God’s will, in the fleeting robes of
material phenomena.” John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an
angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen
thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.
_Rev. 14:18_—an angel ‘_that hath power over fire_’; _John
5:4_—intermittent spring under charge of an angel; _Mat.
28:2_—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of
Christ’s resurrection; _Luke 13:11_—control of diseases is
ascribed to angels.”

(_d_) by guiding the affairs of nations;

_Dan. 10:12, 13, 21_—“_I come for thy words’ sake. But the prince
of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the
chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince_”;
_11:1_—“_And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I
stood up to confirm and strengthen him_”; _12:1_—“_at that time
shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the
children of thy people._” Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests
the question whether “the spirit of the age” or “the national
character” in any particular case may not be due to the unseen
“principalities” under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes,
in _Eph. 2:2_, “_the prince of the powers of the air, ... the
spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience._” May not
good angels be entrusted with influence over nations’ affairs to
counteract the evil and help the good?

(_e_) by watching over the interests of particular churches;

_1 Cor. 11:10_—“_for this cause ought the women to have a sign of
authority_ [_i. e._, a veil] _on her head, because of the
angels_”—who watch over the church and have care for its order.
Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man’s covering
is woman’s power. Ministration _is_ her power and it allies her
with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine
strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the
multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will
restore woman to her original and equal dignity.” _Col.
2:18_—“_Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility
and worshiping of the angels_”—a false worship which would be very
natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the
saints. _1 Tim. 5:21_—“_I charge thee in the sight of God, and
Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these
things_”—the public duties of the Christian minister.

Alford regards “_the angels of the seven churches_” (_Rev. 1:20_)
as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the
churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used
elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2)
that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually,
but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of
the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard
“_the angels of the seven churches_” as meaning simply the pastors
of the seven churches. The word “_angel_” means simply
“messenger,” and may be used of human as well as of superhuman
beings—see _Hag. 1:13_—“_Haggai, Jehovah’s messenger_”—literally,
“_the angel of Jehovah_.” The use of the word in this figurative
sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the
book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb.
and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that “angel” was a term designating
officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on
Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the
Irvingite church, accordingly, “angels” constitute an official
class.

(_f_) by assisting and protecting individual believers;

_1 K. 19:5_—“_an angel touched him_ [Elijah], _and said unto him,
Arise and eat_”; _Ps. 91:11_—“_he will give his angels charge over
thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in
their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone_”; _Dan.
6:22_—“_My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’
mouths, and they have not hurt me_”; _Mat. 4:11_—“_angels came and
ministered unto him_”—Jesus was the type of all believers;
_18:10_—“_despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto
you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my
Father_”; compare _verse 6_—“_one of these little ones that
believe on me_”; see Meyer, Com. _in loco_, who regards these
passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels. _Luke
16:22_—“_the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels
into Abraham’s bosom_”; _Heb. 1:14_—“_Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall
inherit salvation?_” Compare _Acts 12:15_—“_And they said, It is
his angel_”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com. _in
loco_: the utterance “expresses a popular belief prevalent among
the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.” Shakespeare,
Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about
him.” _Per contra_, see Broadus, Com. on _Mat. 18:10_—“It is
simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which
are ‘_their angels_’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to
show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”

(_g_) by punishing God’s enemies.

_2 K. 19:35_—“_it came to pass that night, that the angel of
Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an
hundred fourscore and five thousand_”; _Acts 12:23_—“_And
immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not
God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost._”

A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:

First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God’s regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He “maketh his angels winds” and “a flaming fire,” not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God’s entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).

The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic
Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that “Millions of spiritual
creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we
sleep.” Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest
why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not
at present seen by men. Paul’s admonition against the “_worshiping
of the angels_” (_Col. 2:18_) seems to suggest the reason. If men
have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these
latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the
danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and
constant contact with angels; see _Rev. 22:8, 9_—“_I fell down to
worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.
And he saith unto me, See thou do it not._”

The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us
sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do
not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of
the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work
most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good
angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the
divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil
spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict
with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as
Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels.
Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness
and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said: “Folks are
better than angels.” It is vain to sing: “I want to be an angel.”
We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says: “I am
the tadpole of an archangel.” John Smith is not an angel, and he
never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because
Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man
(_Heb. 2:16_).

As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the
invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge’s dream
of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the
essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.
_Job 38:7_—“_When the morning stars sang together, And all the
sons of God shouted for joy_”; _Deut. 33:2_—“_Jehovah came from
Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his
right hand was a fiery law for them_”; _Gal. 3:19_—“_it_ [the law]
_was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator_”; _Heb.
2:2_—“_the word spoken through angels_”; _Acts 7:53_—“_who
received the law as it was ordained by angels_”; _Luke
2:13_—“_suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the
heavenly host_”; _Mat. 4:11_—“_Then the devil leaveth him; and
behold, angels came and ministered unto him_”; _Luke 22:43_—“_And
there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him_”;
_Mat. 28:2_—“_an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came
and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it_”; _Acts 1:10_—“_And
while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel_”; _Mat.
25:31_—“_when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the
angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory._”

Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.

Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited
possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight
physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book
of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change
the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power
over us. Fisher, Nature and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts
of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a
strange thraldom under another.” If other men can so powerfully
influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not
subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.

Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on
hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that,
in them at least, “a plurality of persons exists.... We have
established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by
side with the principal personality, there is a secondary
personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears,
reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422.
Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two
minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and
unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from
the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred
to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic
spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion
from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of
hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and
more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly
believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a
corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being
there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God
there may be not only three infinite personalities but also
multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger
of God, 124-133.

B. The employments of evil angels.

(_a_) They oppose God and strive to defeat his will. This is indicated in the names applied to their chief. The word “Satan” means “adversary”—primarily to God, secondarily to men; the term “devil” signifies “slanderer”—of God to men, and of men to God. It is indicated also in the description of the “man of sin” as “he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God.”

_Job 1:6_—Satan appears among “_the sons of God_”; _Zech.
3:1_—“_Joshua the high priest ... and Satan standing at his right
hand to be his adversary_”; _Mat. 13:39_—“_the enemy that sowed
them is the devil_”; _1 Pet. 5:8_—“_your adversary the devil._”
Satan slanders God to men, in _Gen. 3:1, 4_—“_Yea, hath God
said?... Ye shall not surely die_”; men to God, in _Job 1:9,
11_—“_Doth Job fear God for naught?... put forth thy hand now, and
touch all that he hath, and he will renounce thee to thy face_”;
_2:4, 5_—“_Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give
for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and
his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face_”; _Rev.
12:10_—“_the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth
them before our God night and day._”

Notice how, over against the evil spirit who thus accuses God to
man and man to God, stands the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who
pleads God’s cause with man and man’s cause with God: _John
16:8_—“_he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment_”; _Rom. 8:26_—“_the
Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as
we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered._” Hence Balaam can say: _Num.
23:21_, “_He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he
seen perverseness in Israel_”; and the Lord can say to Satan as he
resists Joshua: “_Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, Jehovah that
hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee_” (_Zech. 3:2_). “Thus he puts
himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse
them” (C. H. M.). For the description of the “_man of sin_,” see
_2 Thess. 2:3, 4_—“_he that opposeth_”; _cf._ _verse 9_—“_whose
coming is according to the working of Satan._”