A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland
The Scriptures, indeed, do acknowledge the holy Angels as a sort of Potentates superior to Man, and as occasionally subservient to the Divine Providence in the Government of the World; but not as sublunary Prefects of various Faculties, Offices, Places, Stations, and Persons, residing upon their several Charges. A misunderstanding of Dan. 4. 17. “This Matter” (the Judgment upon Nebuchadnezzar) “is by the Decree of the Watchers, and the Demand” (or Ordinance) “by the Word of the holy Ones,” seems to have led many into various and gross Mistakes upon this Head. This Text seems to be rightly thus explain’d. This Matter is by more than human Appointment, it is nothing less than the Decree of the most High. For thus the Prophet, in his Interpretation of the Dream, interpreteth the Angels saying v. 24. This is the Decree of the most High, which is come upon my Lord the King. Therefore the Angels saying is a Mode of expressing the Decree of the most High. For the Decree of the Watchers, and the Word of the holy Ones, are not their own Decree and Word, but God’s, whose Agents they are. This remarkable Scripture is, therefore, no Foundation for that Jewish Notion of God’s consulting with his Sanhedrim above, or that the President-Angels of the Babylonian Monarchy decreed the Matter, at the Petition of the Tutelar-Angels of the several Provinces, who complain’d of Nebuchadnezzar’s Tyranny; or that the greater Angels made this Decree, at the Request of the inferior Angels. But here is a clear express Testimony for the Superintendence of the Holy Angels, in subordination to the divine Providence. So the Elect Angels are consider’d by the Apostle, as the Spectators of our Actions, along with God and Christ, 1 Tim. 5. 21. “I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus, and the elect Angels.” And, agreeably to the Name of Watchers in Daniel, we read, in the Revelations, of the “7 Lamps of Fire burning before the Throne of God, which are the 7 Spirits of God”; of “seven Angels, which are and stand before the Throne”; of “the 7 Horns, and the 7 Eyes of the Lamb, which are the 7 Spirits of God, sent forth into all the Earth”;47 so, in the Prophet Zechariah, (as Interpreters have observ’d,48) 7 Angels are represented by the Candlestick of 7 Lamps, which burn’d continually in the Temple; and those seven Angels (because appointed to exercise, both in Heaven and in this World, an inspection and superintendence over us and our Affairs) are styled “the 7 Eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro, through the whole Earth.” The Scripture, therefore, describeth the Court of Heaven conformably to the Persian Court,49 where there were 7 Princes, who saw the King’s Face, and sat first in the Kingdom, (to be Officers of the Presence, such as see the King’s Face, denoteth the principal Persons at Court, Jer. 52. 25.) who are sometimes styled the King’s seven Counsellors. And, because these 7 Angels in the Court of Heaven are plainly Analogical, or Correspondent, to the 7 Princes in the Persian Court; because we read of Angelical chief Princes;50 therefore some of the Holy Angels are consider’d as a sort of Heavenly Potentates, agreeably to the Style of the New-Testament.
For, in the New-Testament, some of the Holy Angels are usually intituled Authorities, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers,51 with Christ, who created them, at their head; between which the Difference is no greater than this, that the Apostle considers them, as the several general Names and Notions of the most Eminent created Potentates in the Universe. So the highest Rank of Potentates, in Satan’s Kingdom, are call’d Principalities and Powers.52 Wherefore it seems a great Mistake of many, to suppose, “That the Apostle maketh a distribution of the Holy Angels into four or five subordinate Ranks, Orders, and Classes, which are signify’d by so many Names,” whereas he means, only in general, “Whatever is high and eminent in Government.” Had the Apostle made a distribution of human, or angelical, Authority, into several subordinate ranks, he must have noted them by proper Names of Distinction, which these are evidently not, according to any Rules of Criticism, any Model of Government, or any Titles of Honour. There is, however, a Subordination of Angels, for we read of Michael, and his Angels, Apoc. 12. 7.
“In Scripture the holy Angels are represented as the occasional Missionary Ministers of God’s governing Providence, and the Works there of are represented as done by their Ministry”; which their very Name denotes, and the many Instances of their being employ’d, in God’s Appearances, in making Revelations, and bringing Messages to Mankind; in guiding, succouring, and defending, the Just; in opposing the Enmity and Malice of evil Spirits; in dispensing Benefits to, and executing Judgments upon, the World, at the End of which they are to be the Reapers. But this their occasional Ministry, at the immediate and particular Command of God upon every Occasion, is far from vesting them with such a Magistracy in the Government of the World, as the Heathens ascrib’d to their Deities; the Church of Rome, to the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. Paul, &c. nor does infer a Guardian-Angel, as will appear from a View of the Texts quoted for that purpose.
So Act. 12. 15. where the Christians at Jerusalem say of Peter knocking at the Gate, “It is his Angel,” Dr. Hammond renders the Word Messenger, or one that came from him, or made use of his Name; because the Faithful cannot be suppos’d so ignorant as to think, that an Angel would not come in without knocking, or having the Door open’d.53 Others suppose, That it is St. Peter’s Guardian-Angel, in the usual Sense, which they meant. But 1. It does not appear, That the Jews then embrac’d that Notion; nor 2. Will it follow, That the Notion was true, if they did believe it. But 3. What need was there, that an Angel should be sent to deliver St. Peter out of Prison, or St. Paul from Shipwreck, or to strengthen our Lord in his Agony, if an Angel-Guardian were their inseparable Attendant? Beside, 4. If they did not believe it a Messenger, but an Angel, they might have suppos’d it an Angelical Appearance, in his Likeness, and Personating him, whom they might have styled his Angel, as Lightfoot supposes.54 To as little Purpose do they quote Matt. 18. 10. “Take heed” (saith Christ) “that ye despise not one of these little Ones; for I say unto you, that, in Heaven, their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father, which is in Heaven.” Our Saviour sheweth, That the Sin and Danger of despising his little Ones, is not little; because, tho’ they be little in the eye of the World, yet really they are of so great Quality and Value, that their Angels, (that is, not their Guardian-Angels, but the Spirits that Minister unto them, which is the Apostles Notion of Angels, Heb. 1. 13.) always behold the Face of his Father in Heaven. This Place also speaketh not of inferior Angels, but of the Angels of Presence, which correspond to those in Power next to the Prince, who have always the Privilege to see the King’s Face. But it cannot be thought, that every pious Person hath an Arch-Angel for his Guardian; therefore our Saviour speaketh not of such Guardian-Angels.
The Angel of the Name and Presence of God.
From Jacob’s Prayer, Gen. 48. 16. The Angel, which redeem’d me from all Evil, bless the Lads. And from Eccles. 5. 6. Neither say thou before the Angel, that it was an Error; wherefore should God be angry at thy Voice, and destroy the Work of thine Hands? Some infer a Guardian-Angel, but not justly. For the Angel, which the Preacher speaketh of, is the Angel of the Name and Presence of God; the Difference between whom and a mere Angel, is visible in the Israelites Case, who, before their Idolatry of the Calf, had an Angel to conduct them, of whom God saith, Exo. 23. 21. “My Name is in him.” But, after that Idolatry of theirs, God threateneth, That he “will send an Angel before them, but himself will not go up in the Midst of them.”55 As the Angel of the Name of God, so the Angel of his Presence, transcendeth a mere Angel; for Moses would not be satisfy’d with the Guardianship of a mere Angel, but petitioneth for the Continuance of God’s Presence,56 The Angel of his Presence,57 which is manifestly the same with the Angel of God’s Name. Such an Angel, because God’s Name is in him, is more than a mere Creature; and therefore great charge is given to the Israelites, to revere and obey him.58 By such an Angel God exhibited his own Presence, and a Declaration