which trails so exuberantly among the hedges of the south-west of England. In Sophocles' elegant and most verdurous description of the consecrated grove at Colonos, the word shews its full beauty :

Χώρος δ' ὅδε ἱερὸς, ὡς σαφ' εἰκάσαι, ΒΡΥΩΝ

Δάφνης, ἐλαίας, ἀμπέλου· πυκνόωτεροι δ'

Εσω κατ ̓ αὐτὸν ἐυστομους αἠδόνες.

(Ed. Col. 16-18.)

(This place is sacred; as clearly shewn by its luxuriantly-shooting laurels, olivetrees, and vines, and by the numerous* sweet-warbling + nightingales within).

From the same source come the names given to the green blades of grass, and to flowers, together with bloom and blossom. Primarily, these words refer to the beautiful flowing forth of the verdure and flowers from the bosom of the earth. Thence, they apply, by correspondence, to the flowing forth of the purer and more graceful, the holier and more refined thoughts, feelings, and affections, because of these spiritual essences, plants are the physical counterparts. Hence, the wording of the unspeakably beautiful prophecy in Isaiah xxxv.-' The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing.' The desert here referred to is the comfortless and barren heart of the unregenerate man; while the flowers and their abundance denote the blessed and fertile condition to which it opens beneath the genial and reviving influence of the love of God. To this section of the family belong also the words 'plant,' literally that which is shot forth,' prata the meadows,' and frondes 'leaves.' The beautiful expressiveness of the last is admirably illustrated by Virgil, when describing the leafy month of June':—

'Nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos;
Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc formosissimus annus'

'Now every field springs, now every tree is budding forth,

(Ecl. iii. 56-57.)

Now the woods flow with green foliage, now is the loveliest of the year.'

With this may be compared that beautiful passage in Ossian, 'So hears a tree, in the vale, the voice of Spring around: it pours its green leaves to the sun, and shakes its lovely head.'-Temora, Book iii.

106

THE SUPPOSED EXISTENCE OF ANGELS PRIOR TO THE CREATION OF MAN.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-It is a common belief that angels were created as such before man, and that certain angels fell, and introduced evil into the universe. I am aware that this belief rests rather upon Milton's "Paradise Lost,” than upon any solid ground in Scripture. Still the two passages in Peter ii. 4, and in Jude 6, which speak of "the angels that sinned, and that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day,”—these two passages require, as they appear to be the principal Scripture supports of the doctrine of the existence of angels prior to the creation of man, to be fully explained in reference to this subject. I am aware of the explanation which Mr. Noble gives of these passages in his 66 Appeal," &c., which is, to a great extent, satisfactory; but if some corroborative testimony besides that of the learned Semler and the book of Enoch could be added, in order to shew that these passages do not, in reality, refer to angels as created prior to man, it would be very useful in confirming the true idea that all angels and spirits, whether in heaven or in hell, are from the human race.

[The inquiry of our correspondent is important, as it is of great interest to spiritual intelligence, and consequently to the spiritual life, to have Scriptural and true ideas upon this subject. In order to supply still further corroborative evidence that these two passages in Peter and Jude have no reference to the common notion of the fall of angels, and that they, in consequence, give no countenance and support to the supposed existence of angels prior to the creation of man, we will adduce some striking proofs from the most esteemed interpreters of Scripture during the four first centuries of Christianity, when, it is supposed both by the Roman Catholics and by many amongst the Protestants, that Scripture was better understood than in after times. We are enabled to do this from the learned work of Dr. Tafel, entitled " A Comparative Statement and Critique of the Doctrines of Roman Catholics and Protestants, and of the Difference between them and the Doctrines of the New Church," &c.*

We will first shew that the term angel, ayyeλλos, which signifies one

Vergleichende Darstellung und Beurtheilung der Lehrgegensätze, &c.

sent, or a messenger, is by no means in Scripture confined to angels as inhabitants of heaven. This term immediately corresponds to the Hebrew, which signifies the same as the Greek term ayyedλos, from which our word angel is derived, and denotes one sent, or a messenger. Thus in the Scriptures men are often called angels; in Numbers xx. 14, it is said that "Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom," &c. ; now the term messengers, is rendered in the Greek version of the Septuagint by ayyedλovs, angels. See also Mal. iii. 1; Matt. xi. 10' Mark i. 2; Luke i. 17, vii. 27, where John the Baptist is called an angel. The disciples of John who were sent to inquire of Jesus are also called angels (Luke vii. 24). The messengers whom Jesus sent before him into a village of the Samaritans are called angels. (See Luke ix. 52.) From these and from other passages which might be adduced, it abundantly appears from the Greek text, that the term angels is by no means confined to the inhabitants of the spiritual world, but that it is also applied to men, as well as to spirits who have been men.

Now the evident intention both of Peter and Jude, in the passage under consideration, is to shew that "false teachers would come, yea, had come, among the Christians, who would privily bring in damnable heresies," &c.; and their object clearly was to shew that judgment and destruction would come over the Christian communities, if these " false teachers and damnable heresies" should prevail in leading them into "pernicious ways," &c.—that judgment and destruction would certainly overtake them in like manner as judgment and destruction had overwhelmed all former Churches, beginning with the first, or the Church of Adam, whose members, when they had fallen, are called by Peter and Jude the "angels that sinned, and that kept not their first estate," &c. Judgment and destruction are also represented as overwhelming, on account of the same evils, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who, "in like manner as those,"* (says Jude 7) namely, as the angels which kept not their first estate," "gave themselves over to fornication, and went after strange flesh." Here the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are represented as going after strange flesh," even in like manner as the angels that sinned. Now it is quite evident that angels in heaven

66

66

* The term TOUTOɩs in verse 7 is, strange to say, omitted in the common version, although there is no ancient manuscript which authorizes this omission; wherefore, after the clause "in like manner," the omission "as those," must be inserted in order faithfully to express the sacred text. Now, the only antecedent to as those" is angels in the previous verse. When this fact is properly considered, our argument will be found indisputable. The Syriac version and Luther's have as those."EDITOR.

(who have not flesh and bones as men have, Luke xxiv. 39) cannot pos sibly go after "strange flesh" as the inhabitants of Sodom did; and, therefore, the angels mentioned by these apostles as having sinned, could not have been angels in heaven, but men upon earth, for these, and not the former, could "go after strange flesh and commit fornication." These passages, therefore, properly considered, by no means teach the common notion that "angels in heaven sinned, and kept not their first estate and habitation;" but that the men of the most ancient church, described in the history of Adam and Eve, "kept not their first or holy state, and left their habitation” in Eden. One reason, we apprehend, why a great misapprehension has arisen upon this subject, is not only from the conception so generally implanted in the mind respecting the fall of angels from heaven, but from the idea which is commonly entertained when angels are mentioned in Scripture. For in this idea angels (except when the angels of the devil and of the dragon are expressly stated) are always considered as denoting the inhabitants of heaven. That this, however, is not the case, but that the term angels is also frequently applied to denote men upon earth, we have already abundantly proved. In confirmation of this fact, see also James ii. 25, Greek text.

Now, on comparing Peter and Jude together on this subject, so great is the similarity of their statements, that it is evident that they both had access to the same source of information, which was (as proved by Mr. Noble, from the learned Semler) the Book of Enoch.* That this ancient book, however, did not, when it speaks of the angels that sinned, mean angels in heaven, but the men of the most ancient church, or of the Adamic dispensation, was the current belief of the fathers of the four first centuries of Christianity-this we shall now proceed to shew.

It was admitted by Augustin, Chrysostom, Cyrillus, Theodoret, and others, that the account given in the Book of Enoch, and in the Epistles of Peter and Jude, of the angels that sinned, &c., relates exclusively to Gen. vi. 1-4: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old men of renown."-The expression, sons of God," is rendered in some of the manuscripts of that ancient Greek

* See Noble's Appeal, &c. p. 290.

version called the Septuagint by "angels of God;" and as the apostles, in their epistles, quote this version, we see how it has arisen that Peter and Jude, when describing the judgment and destruction which came over the fallen men of the Adamic dispensation, allude to them as the angels that sinned, &c. We also see that "the fornication and the going after strange flesh," which, as we have seen, constituted the sin of the angels, mentioned by Jude, evidently refers to what is said in the passage above, "that the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men,' of whom giants and mighty men were born, denoting the direful persuasions of self love, and the consequent perversion of all truths which then existed in the fallen church of Adam.

Now Augustin, a writer of great authority in the primitive church of Christianity, says :—

* *

*

"I do not believe that when the apostle Peter speaks of the "angels that sinned whom God did not spare," he means the holy angels of God, who could by no means at that time fall; but that he speaks of those men who first, as apostates, fell away from God. For the same Holy Scripture abundantly shews that men of God are called angels; for, of John [the Baptist] it is written-Behold! I send my angel before thy face. And the prophet Malachi is called an angel. (ii. 7.) Giants could have been born, before the sons of God, who are also called [in the Septuagint] the angels of God, came in unto the daughters of men; namely, of the sons of Seth (Gen. v. 4) and the daughters of Cain." [Here Augustin quotes the passage above, Gen. vi. 1-4.] He then proceeds :-"For the persons [sons of God] here mentioned were not, as some suppose, the holy angels of God, as men are not; and it is not to be doubted that they were men; and this, Scripture itself, without any ambiguity, declares to be the fact. * The Septuagint version calls them, indeed, both the angels of God and the sons of God; that is, not all the manuscripts have angels of God, but some have the sons of God. But Aquila,* an interpreter, whom the Jews prefer to other Greek translators, has rendered it neither by angels of God nor by sons of God, but sons of the gods, according to what is said in Psalm lxxxii. 6-"I have said, ye are gods, and all of you children of the Most High." Let us, however, omit the fables of those Scriptures which are called apocryphal, * although we cannot deny that Enoch has written some divine things, since the apostle Jude, in his canonical epistle, refers to him.+

* *

*

* The Greek version of Aquila was completed about the beginning of the second century. He died in 128.

+ As these declarations of Augustin are of great importance in shewing what we consider to be the true meaning of the statement of Peter and Jude respecting the angels that sinned, &c., we have considered it advisable to adduce the original :

'Augustin. de civ. Dei xv, 23. ed. Bened. t. 7. p. 308. s. Dei tamen Angelos sanctos nullo modo illo tempore sic labi potuisse crediderim: nec de his dixisse Apostolum Petrum, Si enim Deus angelis peccantibus non pepercit, sed potius de illis qui primum apostantes a Deo ceciderunt. Angelos autem fuisse etiam Dei homines nuncupatos, eadem Scriptura sancta locupletissima testis est. Johanne scriptum est, Ecce mitto angelum meum ante faciem tuam.

...

Nam et de

Et Malachias