That these superior beings are very numerous is evident from the following expressions, Dan. vii. so, thousands of thousands,' and ten thousand times ten thousand ;' Matt. xxvi. 53, more than twelve legions of angels • Luke ii. 13, `multitude of the heavenly host ;' Heb. xii. 22, 23, myriads of angels.' It is probable, from the nature of the case, that among so great a multitude there may be different grades and classes, and even natures— ascending from man towards God, and forming a chain of being to fill up the vast space between the Creator and man—the lowest of his intellectual creatures. This may be inferred from the analo gies which pervade the chain of being on the earths whereon we live, which is as much the divine crea tion as the world of spirits. Accordingly the Scrip ture describes angels as existing in a society com posed of members of unequal dignity, power, and excellence, and as having chiefs and rulers. It is admitted that this idea is not clearly expressed in the books composed before the Babylonish cap tivity; but it is developed in those written during the exile and afterwards, especially in the writings of Daniel and Zechariah. In Zech. i. rt., an angel of the highest order, one who stands before God, appears in contrast with angels of an inferior class, whom he employs as his messengers and agents (comp. 7). In Dan. 13, the appellation 1I', and in xii. r, n-Dri -0 are given to Michael. The Grecian Jews rendered this appel lation by the term c'zpxa.'77eXos, Archangel, which occurs in the New Testament (Jude 9 ; I Thess. iv. r6), where we are taught that Christ will ap pear to judge the world b rcpcopi cipxaryaov. This word denotes, as the very analogy of the language teaches, a• chief of the angels, one superior to the other angels, like apxupois, dpxurrpcirrros, etpxco-upequryos. The opinion, therefore, that there were various orders of angels, was not peculiar to the Jews ; but was held by Christians in the time of the apostles, and is mentioned by the apostles themselves. The distinct divisions of the angels, according to their rank in the heavenly hierarchy, which we find in the writings of the later Jews, were either almost or wholly unknown in the apos tolical period. The appellations apxal, aovalac, Suvactecs, Opbm, xvpidrnrcs, are, indeed, applied in Eph. i. 2i, Col. i. 16, and elsewhere, to the angels ; not, however, to them exclusively, or with the intention of denoting their particular classes ; but to them in common with all beings possessed of might and power, visible as well as invisible, on earth as well as in heaven.
In the Scriptures angels appear with bodies, and in the human form ; and no intimation is anywhere given that these bodies are not real, or that they are only assumed for the time and then laid aside. It was manifest indeed to the ancients that the matter of these bodies was not like that of their own, inasmuch as angels could make themselves visible and vanish again from their sight. But this ex perience would suggest no doubt of the reality of their bodies : it would only intimate that they were not composed of gross matter. After his resurrec tion, Jesus often appeared to his disciples, and vanished again before them ; yet they never doubted that they saw the same body which had been cruci fied, although they must have perceived that it had undergone an important change. The fact that angels always appeared in the human form, does not, indeed, prove that they really have this form ; but that the ancient Jews believed so. That
which is not pure spirit must have some form or other : and angels may have the human form ; but other forms are possible. The question as to the food of angels has been very much discussed. If they do eat, we can know nothing of their actual food ; for the manna is manifestly called 'angels' food' (Ps. lxxviii. 25 ; Wisd. xvi. zo), merely by way of expressing its excellence. The only real question, therefore, is whether they feed at all or not. We sometimes find angels, in their terrene manifestations, eating and drinking (Gen. xviii. 8; xix. 3) ; but in Judg. xiii. 15, 16, the angel who appeared to Manoah declined, in a very pointed manner, to accept his hospitality. The manner in which the Jews obviated the apparent discrepancy, and the sense in which they understood such pas sages, appear from the apocryphal book of Tobit (xii. 19), where the angel is made to say : It seems to you, indeed, as though I did eat Ind drink with you ; but I use invisible food whicl no man can see.' This intimates that they were sup posed to simulate when they appeared to partake of man's food ; but that yet they had food of their own, proper to their natures. Milton, who was deeply read in the `angelical' literature, derides these questions : ` So down they sat And to their viands fell : nor seemingly The angel, nor in mist (the common gloss Of theologians), but with keen dispatch Of real hunger, and concoctive heat To transubstantiate : what redounds Transpires through spirits with ease.' Par. Lost, v. The same angel had previously satisfied the curio sity of Adam on the subject, by stating that Whatever was created, needs To be sustained and fed.' If this dictum were capable of proof, except from the analogy of known natures, it would settle the question. But if angels do not need it ; if their spiritual bodies are inherently incapable of waste or death, it seems not likely that they gratui tously perform an act designed, in all its known relations, to promote growth, to repair waste, and to sustain existence.
The passage already referred to in Matt. xxii. 30, teaches by implication that there is no distinc tion of sex among the angels. The Scripture never makes mention of female angels. The Gen tiles had their male and female divinities, who were the parents of other gods. But in the Scriptures the angels are all males : and they appear to be so represented, not to mark any distinction of sex, but because the masculine is the more honourable gender. Angels are never described with marks of age, but sometimes with those of youth (Mark xvi. 5). The constant absence of the features of age indicates the continual vigour and freshness of immortality. The angels never die (Luke xx. 36). But no being besides God himself has essential immortality (i Tim. vi. 16) : every other being therefore is mortal in itself; and can be immortal only by the will of God. Angels, consequently, are not eternal, but had a beginning. As Moses gives no account of the creation of angels in his description of the origin of the world, although the circumstance would have been too important for omission had it then taken place, there is no doubt that they were called into being before, probably very long before the acts of creation which it was the object of Moses to relate.