II. Sam. xiv. 20 — " For my lord the king is as an angel of

G-od,that he can hear both good and evil." Amongst the Jews the chief person in the Synagogue was called the angel of the congregation. It was requisite for him to have a perfect beard, to be a born Jew, and to exceed all others in wisdom, ability, and holiness, in expounding o1 the Scriptures. So also is the angel of the New Testament the oldest teacher, the head of the congregation (Eevelations, ii. 1, 8, 12, 18, etc.) Christ is the great ambassador and chief messenger (Heb. iii. 1) ; the uncreated angel, who also went before the Israelites in the pillar of fire (Exod. xxiii. 30) ; who took upon himself the ofiice of saving mankind. In the Scriptures he is everywhere to be understood where divine names, works, properties, and honours are attributed to an angel. Christ is the angel of the covenant, and already was so understood in the Old Testament ; the angel of light, who appeared in the flesh in order to announce to men the covenant of Grod, "the angel amongst thousands," — Job. "And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in," — Malachi, iii. 1.
The angels appeared in difierent forms and with symbolical signs, and their sublime images are described in the Reve- lations of St. John. For instance, in the 13th chapter, — " And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was uponhis head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." And, again, in the 16th chapter : the angel with the seven vials pouring out the wrath of God. In the 20th chapter : the angel who had the keys of the bottomless pit in his hand, to bind the dragon, the old serpent. By an evil angel is understood a wicked man, a false prophet ; for instance, Alexander the copper- smith,— I. Tim, iv. 14. The angel of the bottomless pit, of darkness, the messenger of the devil, or Satan himself. Eut
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general as was tlie belief in good and bad angels amongst the Jews, there were not wanting sceptics at the appearance of Christ, — as the Sadducees, who methodically denied the existence of spirits and devils, which, however, did not prevent the reception of good and bad angels into the universal belief of the church. For now they were the publishers of the will of Grod, his servants and messengers, the executors of his com- mands and judgments, the administrators of various ordi- nances, even in the phenomena of nature. For example, an angel agitated the waters in the pool of Bethesda, — John,