(the s second or assimilated class) neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels of God (the good of the first or created class) in Heaven" (Matt. xxii. 30). And were it otherwise, were the difference between a created and assimilated angel ever so great, it must also pass our comprehension. We cannot look into God's house, where there are so "many mansions" (John xiv. 2), and observe what distinctions he is pleased to make among the servants in any respect that does not con

cern us.

2, The more permitted as well as important distinction for our use therefore is the characteristic yielding two other classes, namely, of good and evil angels, or of standing and fallen, that we may know those which are most likely to serve us. For every angel that deserves the trust and confidence of his Lord must be good in an absolute sense, that is in relation to the prospective, though not to the immediate objects of his mission; like the troubler of Saul (Sam. I. xvi. 14) for example, and the lying spirit by which another king was lulled on to a tragical end (Kings I. xxii. 19); and another, which was drawn by an angel of a king through the sins of his people first upon them, and next upon his own heart (Sam. II. xxiv. 1, &c.). For these several spirits or angels might all have been good for other objects, and for other purposes: as, for example and edification, if not for their immediate objects and theirs; and not one of them could be absolutely evil, or, as we should say, bad in principle, character, or constitution, as being members of the heavenly host. They are ministers of God for whatever purpose HE may find good; and not for whatever Saul, or Ahab, or Rehoboam,―any more than Pharaoh and his subjects; when, as it is said, "He cast upon them the furiousness of his wrath; anger, displeasure and trouble; and sent evil angels among them" (Ps. lxxviii. 50): that is evil relatively to them. And in the same relation it might be said, Not only among them, and also among their cattle,

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but into their houses, into their beds, into their bodies, into their very lives and souls (Exod. vii., &c.). Which evil angels, however, like those above mentioned, might all have been and were most likely good enough in themselves.

Moreover, a destroying angel, as it does not necessarily denote au evil being by nature, so neither one that is relatively evil to some man or men, but perhaps to some other angel or spirit for their sake, or on their account. For it may be his office to destroy the destroyer; as the Son of God is said to have been manifested for this purpose, namely, "that he might destroy the works of the devil" (John I. iii. 8); and as the saying of the prophet appears to be verified in him and his doctrine, "I will ransom them (who receive it) from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death (another, though not independent destroyer). O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction!" (Hos. xiii. 14). And also those angels, on the other hand, who are wicked by nature, ministers of the devil, and enemies of mankind, may be made relatively good and ministers of grace by the direction of an allwise and gracious Providence; like that which was regarded by St. Paul, for example, as a salutary check on the exultation that he might otherwise have indulged most improperly in himself, more than in God his Saviour-a blessed angel for him! "And lest I should be exalted above measure (said he) through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger (angel) of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure" (Cor. II. xii. 7).

But whatever may be the part of such degraded creatures as those evil angels, is not a question of so much consequence to us as the point before alluded to, that we may know how to choose our counsellors and inmates. And if an assortment of these be desired, one needs not look farther than the two preceding lists of good and evil cha

racteristics to make out such a one of either kind as one might happen to prefer. Characteristics are not persons indeed, but properties or acts; yet if good angels or spirits are ever to be met in a congenial person, or in some more substantial form than the spiritual, of which there are instances in the world, these characteristics may serve as an index to the same. For if we consider the matter more closely, we shall find that those properties which we call Passions, Qualities, &c. of the heart, as well as others which we regard as powers, affections, &c. of the corporeal union, are not so much influences or effects of spirits as spirits themselves; that the property and its spirit are one in fact; as pride and the spirit of pride, Lucifer by name, for example; or humility and the spirit of humility, which is nameless; or many evil properties and the spirit of many evil properties, whose name is Legion; or all evil properties, and the spirit of all evil properties, whose name is the Devil, Satan, Baal, Antichrist.

The presence of a spirit therefore, in its proper sense, is not so rare a phenomenon as false opinion would make it. For what happy countryman has not felt the spirit of a grove and the spirit of a fair country in his heart, nerves and veins, with that of many a fair stream? Or what illfated neighbour could be long insensible to the spirit of a noxious fen creeping through every member of his body and every constituent as potently as the spirit of Jordan into the leper Naaman (Kings II. v. 14); or that of Bethesda's font into those who were fortunate enough to be baptized therein, as it is said, on the troubling of the pool; that is, at the auspicious moment of its ebullition? (John v. 2). Why even the ancient heathens once felt, or thought they felt no doubt, the presence of their Naiads, Dryads and Hamadryads; could fancy more than aqueous properties in the dews of Castalia, and in the streams of Achelous and Cephisus; and talked of such properties as spirits before the connexion was lost sight of. Then were the real spirits consigned to fiction first, and through that,

to superstition and ridicule; but not without a redolent successor for the spirit of the fen in Malaria, Mephitis or Azote, as it is variously named; being any thing in a man's nostrils, but the breath of life. While for the spirit of the fair stream or grove, or any other pleasant spirit, the man of modern science does not appear to have found as yet any successor—unless it be in the madness of infidelity, or the gloom of atheism.

Yet supposing the intermediate orders of beings between God and mankind to be endowed with all the spiritual and intellectual properties of men, or else productive of them, and supposing such intermediate orders also to excel like men, some in one property or its production, and some in another; or supposing the abstract spirit above mentioned to be the same with power or essence as aforesaid, and Spirits the same with Powers or Essences,-it will appear, that there may be as many spirits in the Kingdom as there are properties in relation either to God or man; as in relation to God, the becoming Spirit of gratitude and devotion, spirits, alas! better known by name than by enjoyment; and in relation to man, the genuine spirit of charity, also most rare, unfortunately. Wherefore the distinction of tutelary and troubling angels or demons, with other distinctions relating to their good or evil offices, as positive and relative, constant and occasional with the like, may be considered rather accidental than essential, as depending on the direction and circumstances, not on the character and essence of the Subject; so may likewise some others just worth mentioning, but not a particular consideration; as

-3, Three classes of angels distinguished by the department in which they serve or cooperate; whether of nature, grace or providence with

-4, Two that are very complex-distinguished by their movements or latitude into stationary, fixed, or local,-and ambulatory, wandering or uncertain; as, for example, among the former, most eminently, three fabulous deities

severally presiding, one in earth and Heaven, one in hell, and one in the sea; being all of one family, and one as false as another; also a president for each of the four chief winds at least; with many locomaterial deities, of inferior note,-whether aqueous, sylvan or marine, and guardians or troublers of their respective stations,—which men were formerly apt to imagine, and are still in some parts; also angels of nations, as the Prince of Persia for that empire (Dan. x. 13, &c.), and Michael for Israel (Ib. xii. 1), to wit; also angels of churches, as of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos and others (Rev. ii, iii). While among the wandering classes we have many a proud, malignant or unclean spirit; of which examples may be given under the head of Objectives.

But of all these classes in chief, and that which only concerns us at present is the GOOD, as only mediate. And whereas it appears from a part of what has been premised, that good angels may be commissioned for justice and judgment, as well as for mercy and grace; as the heavenly Messiah says of himself, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind" (John ix. 39); it may hereupon be thought, why those angels which delight only in good should be doomed as it were, to become messengers of evil? also where may be the use or necessity of this service, or of both good and evil angels in the service of the Deity, when, as it would appear from the foregoing observations, either the good angels might fulfil the part of the evil as well as their own, without any disparagement, or the evil be made to fulfil the part of the good without a similar meed of enjoyment?

One would not pretend to say, Why it is thus: but one might to say, Why it may be ; namely, because such good angels will delight themselves in any service that is enjoined them by God, whatever may be its immediate effect, from a regard to the ultimate object when known to be good; or even if such object were beyond an angelic perception,