The preceding considerations apply chiefly to the existence and nature of angels. Some of their attributes may be collected from other passages of Scripture. That they are of superhuman intelli gence is implied in Mark xiii. 32 : But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven.' That their power is great, maybe gathered from such expression as `mighty angels' (2 Thess. i. 7); angels, powerful in strength' (Ps. ciii. 20) • angels who are greater in power and might' (z Pet. ii. r 1). The moral perfection of angels is shewn by such phrases as holy angels' (Luke ix. 26) ; the elect angels' (I Tim. v. 21). Their felicity is beyond question in itself, but is evinced by the passage (Luke xx. 36) in which the blessed in the future world are said to be io-d-y-yao/, real viol To° 060'0, 'like unto the angels, and sons of God.' The ministry of angels, or that they are employed by God as the instruments of His will, is very clearly taught in the Scriptures. The very name, as already explained, chews that God employs their agency in the dispensations of His Providence. And it is further evident from certain actions which are ascribed wholly to them (Matt. xiii. 41, 49; xxiv. 31; Luke xvi. 22) ; and from the Scriptural narra tives of other events, in the accomplishment of which they acted a visible part (Luke i. I I, 26; ii. 9, sq. ; Acts v. 19, 20; x. 3, 19; Xii. Z ; xxvii. 23), that their agency is employed principally in the guidance of the destinies of man. In those cases also in which the agency is concealed from our view, we may admit the probability of its existence : because we are told that God sends them forth 'to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation' (Heb. i. 14 ; also Ps. xxxiv. 7 ; xci. I I ; Matt. xviii. so). But the angels, when employed for our welfare, do not act independently, but as the instruments of God, and by His command (Ps. ciii. zo ; civ. 4; Heb. i. 13, 14); not unto them, there
fore, are our confidence and adoration due, but only unto Him (Rev. xix. so; xxii. 9) whom the angels themselves reverently worship.
Guardian was a favourite opinion of the Christian fathers that every individual is under the care of a particular angel, who is as signed to him as a guardian. They spoke also of two angels, the one good, the other evil, whom they conceived to be attendant on each individual: the good angel prompting to all good, and averting ill ; and the evil angel prompting to all ill, and averting good (Hermas, ii. 6). The Jews (except the Sadducees) entertained this belief, as do the Moslems. The heathen held it in a modified form —the Greeks having their tutelary dawion [Hesiod Op. et Dies 120-125; Plutarch De Def. Oran 10; Comp. Miinter De Rel. Babylon. p. 13], and the Romans their genius. There is, however, nothing to support this notion in the Bible. The passages (Ps. xxxiv. 7; Matt. xviii. 10) usually referred to in support of it, have assuredly no such meaning. The former, divested of its poetical shape, simply denotes that God employs the ministry of angels to deliver his people from affliction and danger; and the celebrated passage in Matthew cannot well mean anything more than that the infant children of believers, or, if preferable, the least among the disciples of Christ, whom the ministers of the church might be disposed to neglect from their apparent insignificance, are in such estimation else where, that the angels do not think it below their dignity to minister to them [SATAN] (Storr and Flatt's Lehrbuch der Ch. Dogmatik, § xlviii. E. T. p. 137; Dr. L. Mayer, Scriptural Idea of Angels, in Am. Bib. Repository, xii. 356-388; Moses Stuart's Sketches of Angelology in Robinson's Bibliotheca Sacra, No. I. ; Twesten in the Amer. Bib. Sac. i. .p. 768 ; Merheim, Hirt. Angelor. Spec. ; Schulthess, Engelwelt, etc.)