word. It was the same shekinah or glory which appeared on Mount Sinai, and uttered with a distinct and audible voice the ten words, or the ten commandments; as is in part asserted by Moses himself: "And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them *." "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place +." "Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it ." "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator §." "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him ||." And Josephus observes, with the same conviction and to the same effect," that we had learned the most excellent of our doctrines, and the most sacred of our laws, from God, by means of angels T." That it was not indeed the supreme and * Deut. xxxiii. 2. § Gal. iii. 19. + Psal. lxviii. 17. Acts vii. 53. Ο ήμων δε τα καλλιστα των δογματων και τα ὁσιοτατα των εν glorious Godhead himself that sounded the trumpet, and uttered the words, may be easily imagined. Such acts being wholly ministerial, and for the most part devolving on persons of inferior and even humble office and station. And the case of Elijah on the same mountain, and nearly at the same place, seems to furnish cogent and invincible reasons why it should be so. "Behold the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." Whereby seems to be signified the great inferiority of the voice of thunder and of terror; in the law which was spoken by angels, compared with the still small voice of grace and of mercy in the Gospel, which was spoken by the Son of God himself. The angel that appeared to Manoah in Judges xiii. told him that if he offered sacrifice," he must offer it to the Lord," and therefore not to himself; and "it came to pass when the flame went up towards heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar" which seems to evince and to establish both positions together, viz. that it was an τοις νόμοις δι' αγγέλων παρα του θεου μαθόντων. Antiquit. lib. xv. cap. 8. angel that had appeared to him, and also that angels are clothed with some kind of bodies, viz. of æther, of light, or of fire *. And it was the same glory or glorious beings which carried up Elijah in a chariot of fire to heaven; and which appeared also to Elisha's servant, when he saw, "and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire." Angels are hence called Seraphim, that is, flamers or burners, and are God's hosts and his glory, as is remarked by Philo, "I consider the hosts which attend thee to be thy glory." They are only secondaries, borrowing all their lustre and glory from their primary." And " emanations," "effluxes" from the Fountain of light and perfection §. This Shekinah or glory of the Lord, consisting of his hosts or angels, it was, which was seen by the shepherds at the birth of Christ; and which appeared also at his baptism, when "God the Holy Ghost descended upon him in a bodily shape like a dove," that is, in the Shekinah, consisting of a bright and shining cloud or pillar of 66 * The reader will find this point ably and amply discussed and confirmed in Cudworth's Intellectual System, book i. chap. 5. And St. Matthew, describing the angel that appeared at the resurrection of our Lord, asserts that "his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow." † δοξην δε σην ειναι νομιζω τας σε δορυφορουσας δυναμεις. † δευτεραι ελλαμψεις πρωτης λαμπρότητος. Gregor. Nazi anzen. § απαυγασματα, απορροίαι, Ee : fire in the form of a dove; as the sign of divine influence and authority, and the symbol of love and of peace. And in the same or a similar way at his transfiguration: "And was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." At his ascension, in like manner, the Shekinah, or the cloud of glory, that is, the multitude of the heavenly hosts "received him out of sight." And, finally, on the day of Pentecost the Shekinah or glory of the Lord was manifested "as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." The infinite Spirit being incomprehensible, and the same every where, and only known to angels or to men, so far as he pleases to reveal himself; has, for the most part, employed finite spirits to be the instruments of his power and the ministers of his will. According to the proverb among the Jews, "God does nothing without communicating it to the family above." They are therefore called in Daniel iv. 17. "watchers ;" where also their deputed rule, and their commissioned and subordinate superintendence of the affairs of this world, * Matt. xvii. 2. 5. 66 "This are distinctly recognised and established. matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men*." They are indeed alike subject to, and dependent on, the supreme Creator and Lord of heaven and earth; that is, the holy and undivided Trinity, as we are. But they rank above us, and surpass us far in wisdom and goodness, in excellence of nature, and greatness of strength. They are," to use the words of Gregory Nazianzen, "intellectual powers or minds, pure and unadulterated natures, incapable of being tempted to evil, or nearly so, always encircling in choirs the first Cause; reflecting from him the purest lustre, and resplendent with it in proportion to their various natures and ranks; so far conformed to and stamped with the image of the first Fair, as to be themselves other suns, and to be capable of illuminating others, with the influences and communications of the first Light; ministers of the divine will, mighty both by natural and by acquired strength; readily pervading all things, and present with all persons in all places, by promptitude of service and by agility of nature; having assigned to them distinct depart * Dan. iv. 17. |