ANGEL, an order of spiritual beings superior in dignity, intelligence, and power, to man. The word avv(Aac in Greek, from which angel is derived, signifies no more than a messenger, and the corresponding term in Hebrew, has precisely the same meaning. The name, therefore,by which we denote this class of beings, has no reference to their nature or qualifications ; but merely to their office, which is supposed to be that of maintain ing an intercourse between God and his creatures, and bearing through the universe the mandates of the Su preme Being. In the book of Daniel, these superior intelligences are, on account of their vigilance, called watchers, (c. iv. v. 13.) And in the apocryphal frag ment ascribed to Enoch, they are termed egregori, which in the Greek language has a similar import.
The notion which we usually attach to the word angel, is that of a created spirit, of greater purity, understand ing and power than belong to human nature, subjected to the supreme Governor of the universe, and minister ing to his Providence, by his appointment, in the go vernment of the world ; and more especially, attending to the affairs of mankind ; yet invisible and impercepti ble to our senses, unless assuming a corporeal form, for the manifestation of some particular act of power. That beings of such a nature exist, has been an article of faith in almost every religion of the world, and it is a belief extremely consistent with the natural dictates of reason. In the works of creation with which we arc acquainted, we find a regular gradation pervading the whole, from the rudest specimen of brute matter up to man, the lord and ruler of the lower world. Minerals, vegetables, and annuals, rise regularly in dignity one above the other : the lowest species of one of these kingdoms of nature, ascends but little above the highest in that im menutely beneath it ; and no where do we find sudden transitions or gaps in the scale of existence. It can scarcely, therefore, be believed, that the interval between man and the Supreme Being, which presents so wide a chasm, is totally unpeopled. It is more natural to sup pose that the interval is filed up by numerous orders of intelligent creatures, to whom the blessing of existence has been imparted by the Creator, and who are in a va riety of way s subservient to the accomplishment of the purposes of his Providence.
The doLt•ine of the immortality of the soul, tends to corroborate the belief in the existence of spiritual es sences, superior in purity and dignity to man. Where this doctrine, however, has not been admitted, the belief in angels has prevailed. Frequent mention is made of the appearance of angels in the books of Moses, yet we find nothing in these books to countenance a belief in the immortality of the soul. Angels, therefore, are not the spirits of holy men, advanced to happier and more perfect condition, but a superior order of intellectual beings, originally created of a higher rank and greater excellence than belong to humanity.
Many controversies have been maintained by theolo gical writers, concerning the attributes of these celestial beings, the time of their creation, Ste. Moses makes no mention of the creation of angels, so that it cannot pro perly be referred to any of the six days, on which, ac cording to this sacred historian, the heavens and the earth, and all things which they contain, were formed. There may indeed be no absurdity in supposing, with the generality of writers, that the creation of angels was included in the work of the first day, when the heavens were framed, in which is their peculiar habita tion. It is observed by the learned Gill, that "though angels have no bodies, and so are not in place circum scriptively; yet, as they are creatures, they must have an ubi, a somewhere,, in which they are definitely ; so that they are here, and not there, and much less every where :" " Now where," asks he, " was there an ubi, a somewhere for them to exist in, before the heavens and the earth were made ? It is most reasonable, therefore, to conclude, that as God prepared an habitation for all the living creatures before he made them; as the sea for the fishes, the expanse, or air, for the fowls, and the earth for men and beasts ; so he made the heavens first, and then the angels to dwell in them." (Bod. Div.