PART II.

On the Nature of Intelligent Angels.

CHAPTER I.

Difficulties attending the prevailing Opinion concerning the Nature of intelligent Angels, or Messengers, of God to Mankind.

THE general fuppofition, that the intelligent. angels in human forms, who are mentioned in fcripture as having been fent by God to mankind, are beings of a fpiritual nature, of a more exalted rank than the human race, and that they come from other parts of the univerfe, is liable to many ftrong objections.

I. This hypothefis involves the contradiction that Spiritual beings are objects of fenfible perception. If it be answered, that they affume material bodies, or visible forms, in order to execute their commiffions to men; this takes for granted that their natures are purely fpiritual, without proof. For the fcrip

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tures do not inform us that this is the cafe. Heb. i. 14, is applied to prophets, as we have shewn, Part. I. ch. ii. fect. ii. fubd. 2.

II. This fuppofition does not accord with the moft rational ideas that we can form of the divine government of the univerfe. In what we fee of the works of God, every clafs of beings has its own appropriate sphere of action. Those who have faculties fuperior to mankind, and inhabit different regions of the univerfe, may yet, for aught we know, not excel the human race in fome of their powers. Brute animals, whofe mental capacities are inferior to those of men, have yet more ftrength and fwiftnefs. Birds can fly in air, and fishes can live in water, which human creatures are incapable of doing.

Nor do the fuperior power and wifdom of higher orders of beings imply that they can come out of their own worlds, or leave their proper departments, to interfere with the concerns of creatures upon our globe, or in any other fyftem. Even the fea hath bounds which it cannot pass; Pfa. civ. 9; Job. xxvi. 8, 10; xxxviii. 8 to 11; Jer. v. 22. Birds that foar above the clouds, and traverfe the

regions of the

The rational

atmosphere, cannot go beyond it. inhabitants of the earth, who can discover worlds, and fyftems of worlds, at immenfe distances, and can investigate the laws by which they move in the wide regions of space, are yet unable to go beyond the limits of their own habitation, or to visit the nearest planet. Nor does any thing we obferve lead us to

conclude, that beings of a fuperior rank fhould be appointed to leave their proper worlds in order to come to us, for the purpose of accomplishing the fchemes of the divine government. See Farmer on Miracles, ch. ii. fect. i. fubd. 2.

III. The idea that beings of a more exalted rank than men, whose usual refidence is in other regions of the creation, ever come into our world, is discountenanced by the general tenor and Spirit of the Chriftian Scriptures.

It is commonly imagined, that fuperior beings, whether good or evil, have a natural power of coming to this globe, to benefit or injure mankind. But this hypothefis contradicts the doctrine of reafon and scripture concerning the fole government of God over the earth, and its inhabitants. It also totally destroys all proof of occafional divine interpofition by miracles. For, upon fuch a fuppofition, the voluntary interference of created beings of a higher rank than the human fpecies, could not be diftinguished from the immediate agency of the Moft High, to whom all the fcripture miracles are referred as their caufe, and as decifive proofs of his fpecial and extraordinary agency in these particular inftances.

Further; the Old and New Teftament, fo far from teaching us that spiritual beings of a higher rank than the human race are fent, even with extraordinary divine commiffions, to this globe, fpeak only about God, and his creature man, as being concerned or employed in human affairs. They instruct us in the

nature and perfections of the Supreme Being; his creation, prefervation, and government of all things; the revelations of his will to mankind; the relations in which he ftands to them, and which they bear to God and to each other, and the correfpondent duties. They contain nothing about the creation, the particular nature, or the fpheres of action, of fuperior existences.

Were we under peculiar obligations to fuperior fpirits on account of their being divine meffengers to us, certain duties would be due from us to them, correspondent to their rank and office. To prophets in general, and to the great Meffiah, fuch obligations are prefcribed. The Chriftian fcriptures, which profefs to be the laft and completeft communication of the divine will to men, would acquaint us with any duties which we owe to other creatures of a higher order, if any were due. But none fuch are spoken of in them. When Manoah, Judges xiii. 16, 17, defired to know the name of the angel or meffenger that appeared to him, in order to do him honour, the request was not granted. And when the Apoftle John would have paid obeifance to the angel or meffenger of Jefus, he forbade him:

Rev. xxii. 8, 9, 16.

IV. The common hypothefis, that the messengers of God to men are fuperior beings, is not fupported by the language of Scripture.

In the first part of this Inquiry, I do not know that any inftance is omitted in which the word occurs in the Old Teftament, and ayyɛλos in the

New Teftament: yet the ten inftances that are mentioned, under the first section of the second chapter, are all in which these words are decifively applied to beings of a rank fuperior to mankind. Nor is it faid, or even intimated, that any fuch being was ever fent by God as his messenger to the human race. It may be noticed alfo, that in only three of these ten inftances is ayyeλos used with Pf. cxlviii. 2; 1 Cor. xiii. 1; This circumstance is mentioned, to fhew that no stress was laid upon the use of the article, even when the term ayyɛλos was applied to fuperior beings.

the article, namely, Col. ii. 18.

V. There is a deficiency of two circumstances that are effential to a fatisfactory proof of the fact, that a fpiritual being of a more elevated rank than man, and refiding in another part of the univerfe, has ever left his proper fociety and habitation to come upon this earth, and has been invefted with a vifible material form for this purpofe. Such a fact would be a most ftupendous miracle. The reality of it, therefore, cannot be fairly deduced by inferences from any doubtful expreffions. In order to atteft a miracle, two things are neceffary. ft. It must be ftated, plainly and unequivocally, that the fact did take place. But it is no where in fcripture diftinctly related that any superior spiritual being has ever been fent by the Moft High into our world to execute his commands, or to communicate his will to mankind. 2dly. A miracle must be accredited by ftronger proof, in order to produce rational belief in it, than a common fact