attest the ancient splendour of Ammon, can now be made subservient, by means of a single act of reflection, to a far nobler purpose than the most magnificent edifices on earth can be, when they are contemplated as the monuments on which the historic and prophetic truth of Scripture is blended in one bright inscription." Keith on the Evidence of Prophecy. "The dreariness of its present aspect is quite indescribable; it looks like the abode of Death: the valley stinks with dead camels; one of them was rotting in the stream, and, though we saw none among the ruins, they were absolutely covered in every direction with their dung. That morning's ride would have convinced a sceptic: how runs the prophecy?—I will make Rabbal a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couchingplace for flocks; and ye shall know that I am the Lord!' "There are many ruins in the valley of Ammon, but in such utter decay that it is difficult to say what they have been. Such is the state of ancient Ammon, or, rather, of Philadelphia, for no buildings there can boast of a prior date to that of the change of name. Let me again cite the prophecy; how runs it? Ammon shall be a desolation! Rabbah of the Ammonites shall be a desolate heap! I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching-place for flocks; and ye shall know that I am the Lord!"" Lord Lindsay's Travels. -AMOS. they caused their children to pass through fire in his honour. They were excluded from the congregation of Israel to the tenth generation, because they did not come to the relief of the Israelites when attacked in the Wilderness by the Amalekites; and because they were involved in the transgression of Balaam. As their chief city bears awful marks of the fulfilment of prophecy, so also does the fate of the people. Justin Martyr, in the second century of the Christian era, says, that there were still many Ammonites remaining; but Origen, in the fourth, assures us that, in his day, they were known only under the general name of Arabians. In this manner was the prediction of Ezekiel (25. 10) accomplished, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations, "being given in possession" to "the men of the east." It is generally supposed that this occurred about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldæans, B. C. 583, when Nebuchadnezzar ravaged the whole country round Judæa, and burnt Rabbah, carrying its inhabitants captive to Babylon. Cyrus probably released them; for we see them afterwards in the lands of their former settlement. The country was still populous when the Romans became masters of Syria, and some of the ten allied cities, called Decapolis, stood within its boundaries. Robinson's Palestine; Horne's Introd. AMNON, the son of David and Ahinoam. Having conceived a criminal passion for his father's daughter Tamar, he violated her; and, two years after, when he was intoxicated at a feast made by Absalom, the brother of Tamar, the servants of the latter assassinated him. (2Sam. 13.) AMOK, a priest; one who returned from Babylon. (Nehem. 12. 7,20.) AMMONITES, a people descended from Ammon, the son of Lot, who dwelt on the east side of Judæa, beyond Jordan, in a region which ran from south to north, not far from Lake Asphaltitis, forming a portion of Arabia Petræa. The Ammonites destroyed its original inhabitants, a gigantic race, called Zamzummims, (Deut. 2. 19-21,) and seized upon their country. God forbade Moses to attack the Ammonites, (Deut. 2. 19,) because their land was not to be possessed by the children of Israel, it having been bestowed on the children of Lot for a possession; but most of the country belonging both to the Ammonites and the Moabites was conquered by the Amorites during the journeyings of the Israelites in the Wilderness. The Ammonites and Moabites afterwards joined together against the Israelites, and held them in bondage for seven years, until delivered by II. The governor of Samaria, who kept the proJephthah, who took twenty of their towns, and "sub-phet Micaiah in custody, by King Ahab's order. (1 Kings dued them before the children of Israel." (Judges 11.33.) In the reign of Saul, Nahash their king laid siege to the city of Jabesh, or Jabesh Gilead; but Saul defeated them and relieved the place. (1Sam. 11. 11.) David punished Hanan, the son and successor of Nahash, for a gross and wanton affront put on some ambassadors whom he sent; took Rabbah, their capital, and subjected them to his authority. They remained tributary to Solomon, but afterwards occupied the towns of Reuben and Gad, when abandoned by those tribes who were taken captive by Tiglath Pileser, King of Assyria. Before this period, when the Syrians were oppressing the kingdom of Israel, the Ammonites committed the most inhuman excesses in Gilead, putting to death pregnant women and little children, (Amos 1. 13,) and afterwards during the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes, they manifested their hatred to the Jews, and exercised great cruelties against those who dwelt near them. (1Macc. 5. 6-45.) We know little of their government and pursuits, except that they were ruled by kings, and were chiefly engaged in agriculture. Jeremiah styles them uncircumcised and it seems that they had by degrees abandoned the religion of their forefathers, and fallen into idolatry. Moloch was worshipped by them-an idol whose rites were particularly cruel and bloody-and I. AMON, king of Judah, son of Manasseh and Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. He began to reign A.M. 3362, at the age of twenty-two, and reigned but two years. (2Kings 21. 19,21.) IIe forsook Jehovah and worshipped idols. His servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house, B.C. 640. Calmet. 22. 26.) AMORITES, TON A people descended from Amor, the fourth son of Canaan, who gave his name to the country. (Gen, 10. 16.) They first peopled the mountains west of the Dead Sea, and had likewise establishments to the east of the same sea, between the brooks of Jabbok and Arnon, from whence they forced the Ammonites and Moabites. (Josh. 5. 1; Judges 11. 19-22.) Moses conquered their kings, Sihon and Og, in the year B.C. 1452. (Numb. 21.) The prophet Amos, in speaking of their gigantic stature and valour, compares them to cedars, and their strength to that of the oak. The name Amorite, is often taken in Scripture for Canaanites generally. The lands which the Amorites possessed on this side Jordan, were given to the tribe of Judah, and those which they had enjoyed beyond this river, were divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Calmet; Encyc. Brit. I. AMOS, the fourth of the lesser prophets, who in his youth, had been herdsman at Tekoa, a small town about four leagues southward of Jerusalem. The prophet was sent to the "kine of Bashan," that is, to the people of Samaria, or the kingdom of Israel, to call them to repentance; having returned to Tekoa, he continued to prophesy, and he complains of the violent AMOS AMULET. endeavours made to force him to silence. He boldly remonstrates against the prevailing sins of the Israelites -idolatry, oppression, wantonness, and obstinacy, and warns them that their sins will at last end in the ruin of Judah and Israel, which he illustrates by the visions of a plumb-line, and a basket of summer fruit. The Amos was called to the prophetic office in the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel," two years before the earthquake," (Amos 1. 1,) which, according to the Rabbins, and most of the modern commentators, happened in the twentyfourth or twenty-fifth year of Uzziah, or in the year of the world, 3219, when this prince usurped the priest's office, and attempted to offer incense to the Lord. first of the prophecies of Amos, in the order of time, are those of the 7th chapter. He there foretels the misfortunes which should befall the kingdom of Israel after the death of Rehoboam II. who was then living: he likewise predicts the death of Zechariah; the invasion of Israel by Pul and Tiglath Pileser, kings of Assyria; and the captivity of the ten tribes. The time and manner of the prophet's death are unknown. St. Jerome calls Amos, "rude in speech, but not in knowledge;" (Pref. Com. in Amos,) applying to him what St. Paul modestly professes of himself. (2Cor. 11. 6.) The matter, however, as Bishop Lowth remarks, is far otherwise:—"Let any person who has candour and perspicuity enough to judge, not from the man, but from his writings, open the volume of his predictions, and he will, I think, agree that our shepherd is not a whit behind the very chief of the prophets. (2Cor.11.5.) He will agree, that as, in sublimity and magnificence, he is almost equal to the greatest, so in splendour of diction, and elegance of expression, he is scarcely inferior to any. The same celestial Spirit, indeed, actuated Isaiah and David in the court, and Amos in the sheep-folds; constantly selecting such interpreters of the Divine will, as were best adapted to the occasion, and sometimes 'from the mouth of babes and sucklings perfecting praise,' constantly employing the natural eloquence of some, and occasionally making others eloquent." Bishop Lowth's Lectures. II. AMOS or AMOZ, the father of the prophet Isaiah, was said to be the son of King Joash, and brother to Amaziah. The Rabbins assert, that the father of Isaiah was also a prophet, according to a rule among them, that when the father of a prophet is called in Scripture by his name, it is an indication that he also had the gift of prophecy. (Clem. Alex. lib. 1. Stromat.) St. Augustin conjectured, (De Civit. Dei, lib. 18. c. 27,) that the prophet Amos was the father of Isaiah; but the names of these two persons are written differently. Besides, the father of Isaiah, as well as Isaiah himself, was of Jerusalem. III. AMOS, son of Naum, and father of Mattathias, in the genealogy of our Saviour. (Luke 3. 25.) AMPHIPOLIS, a city of Thrace, called in the time of the Byzantine empire, Chrysopoli. It was nearly surrounded by the river Strymon, whence its name. (Thucyd. iv. 102.) It was built by Cimon, the Athenian, about 470 years before the Christian era, and peopled with a colony of Athenians, to the number of 10,000. (Plin. iv. 17.) This city was a source of great annoyance to Philip, king of Macedonia, who drove the Athenians from it, and allowed the citizens to form a republic. Paul and Silas passed through this city after their deliverance from the prison at Philippi, on their way to Thessalonica. (Acts 17. 1.) The spot on which the ruins of Amphipolis are still to be traced, is called Jenikevi. Colonel Leake observes, "The position of 69 Amphipolis is one of the most important in Greece. It stands in a pass which traverses the mountains bordering the Strymonic Gulf, and it commands the only easy communication from the coast of that gulf, into the great Macedonian plains, which extend for sixty miles from beyond Meleniko to Philippi." There is a miserable place near it called Emboli by the Turks. Winer, Biblisches Realworterbuch; Horne's Intred. AMPING AITAN Coin of Amphipolis, with the Head of Apolic. AMPHORA, a liquid measure among the Greeks and Romans, is often taken in the Vulgate in an appellative sense, for a pitcher, or vessel, to hold wine or water. Thus the passage in Luke 22. 10, is rendered, “There shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water,"(kepaμiov) amphoram aquæ portans. At other times it is taken for a certain measure. The Roman amphora contained forty-eight sextaries, equal to about seven gallons one pint, English wine measure; and the Grecian or Attic amphora contained one-third more. Amphora was also a dry measure used by the Romans, and contained about three bushels. AMPLIAS, mentioned by St. Paul, as one whom he particularly loved. (Rom. 16. 8.) It is not known, with certainty, who Amplias was; but the Greeks say that he was ordained Bishop of Odypopolis, in Moesia, by St. Andrew; and was an apostolical person, at least one of the seventy-two disciples, and a martyr. His festival, in the Greek Kalendar, is observed Oct. 31. Calmet. I. AMRAM, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, married Jochebed, "his father's sister," by whom he had Aaron, Miriam, and Moses. He died in Egypt. (Exod. 6. 20.) Before the giving of the Law, it was permitted to marry a father's sister, but this was afterwards forbidden. (Levit. 18. 12.) II. A descendant. of Bani, one who, after the return from Babylon, separated from his wife, as he had married contrary to the law. (Ezra 10. 34.) AMRAPHEL, king of Shinar, confederated with Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and two other kings, to make war against the kings of Pentapolis, (viz.) Sodom, Gomorrah, and the three neighbouring cities, which they plundered; among the captives whom they carried off, was Lot, Abraham's nephew; but Abraham pursued them, retook Lot, and recovered the spoil. (Gen. 14.) AMULET, an appended remedy; a thing put about the neck for preventing or curing. That amulets were known, even in patriarchal times, is manifest from the instance of the ear-rings, which being instruments of superstition, Jacob obliged his people to deliver up to him, and which he buried under the oak near Shechem. (Gen. 35. 2-4.) Moses also, it it is now well understood, alluded to the previous use of talismans and amulets, when he commanded the Israelites to bind his words for a sign upon their hands, and that they should be as frontlets between their eyes. (Exod. 13. 9.) The amulets of the Jews were sometimes certain small roots hung about the neck; but more generally certain words in writing, -being, in the simpler form, extracts from the law supposed to be applicable to the case; but often mysterious names and characters disposed according to the rules of cabalistic art, frequently within the wellknown hexagonal figure called the shield of David or the seal of Solomon. This, with some other Jewish practices, appears to have arisen from the misapprehension, or gross perversion, of the passage in the law, Deut. 6. 7,8. Amulets were considered efficacious in the prevention or cure of diseases, and, indeed, the medical practice of the Jews consisted of little else. Lightfoot says, "There were hardly any people in the whole world, that more used or were more fond of amulets, charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of enchantments." Their only difficulties respected the use of them on the Sabbath day; and the decision was, according to the Mishna, that a man should not go abroad with his amulet on the Sabbath, unless it had been prescribed by an approved physician,"—that is, by one who was known to have cured at least three persons previously by the same 66 means. The forms of amulets were as much diversified as their objects, among the Orientals. Almost every different kind of gem had its virtue as an amulet, and besides these, amulets among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, often bore the form of an ornament, such as crowns of pearls, necklaces of shells, gems, coral, &c.; with the heads and figures of gods, heroes, lions, horses, dogs, rats, birds, fish, and various grotesque and obscure objects. Among the early Christians, amulets, against disease, were formed of materials having an imaginary connexion with the distemper; thus red against all morbid affections of a fiery or febrile character, crystal or glass against those that were watery or dropsical, and so of others. The images and figures of different materials are mentioned by Irenæus, and some of the mysterious words engraven on them, are described and explained by contemporary historians. (Irenæus Hæres, c. 24; Hieron. c. 3. 1.) They were called amulets from their supposed efficacy in allaying evil, quod malum amolitur. Some derive the word from amula, a small vessel of lustral water carried about by the Romans. A leathern Amulet found in a mummy, stained red. It is a term also used by Pliny. -ANANIAS. over the service of song in the house of the Lord. (1 Chron. 6. 46.) II. The ancestor of Adaiah, one of those chiefs who dwelt at Jerusalem. (Nehem. 11. 12.) ANAB, a city in a chain of mountains of the tribe of Judah, near which Joshua put to death some Amorites of gigantic stature. (Josh. 11. 21; 15. 50.) It lay south of Jerusalem; four miles east of Diospolis. ANAH, son of Zibeon the Hivite, and father of Aholibamah, the wife of Esau. (Gen. 36. 2,20,24.) While feeding asses in the desert he discovered springs of warm water, not mules, as the English translators, and several others, understand the Hebrew word. Professor Robinson remarks, "that five or six miles southeast of the Dead Sea, and consequently in the neighbourhood of Mount Seir, is a place celebrated among the Greeks and Romans for its warm baths." There is some difficulty in the representation in Gen. 36, v. 2, of Anah being the daughter of Zibeon, for afterwards in v. 24, Anah is spoken of as a son. Rosenmüller thinks that a son and daughter of the same name are given. Issachar. (Josh. 19. 19.) ANAIAH, one of the scribes who stood beside Ezra when he expounded the law. (Nehem. 8. 4.) He was also one of those that sealed the covenant. (Nehem. 10. 22.) .sons of Anak בני ענק,ANAKIM ענק,ANAK (Numb 13. 33; Deut. 9. 2.) The Anakim were an ancient gigantic people, who inhabited before the invasion of the Israelites the neighbourhood of Hebron and some of the adjacent regions (Josh. 11. 21), but were destroyed, with the exception of a few traces in the Philistine towns of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. The word appears to be originally an appellative; homines principes. Gesenius. According to Bochart, the Beneanak, or Anakim, retired to the territories of Tyre and Zidon, and gave them the general name of Phoenicia. ANAMIM □y (Gen. 10. 13,) a people of Egyptian origin. Bochart was of opinion that these Anamim dwelt in the countries around the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and in the Nasamonitis. The Septuagint in Genesis has Ενεμετιειμ, οι Αινεμετιειμ, but in the Chronicles Αναμιειμ. From these it is conjectured were descended the Amians and Garamantes, or foreign and wandering Anams. I. AMZI, an ancestor of Ethan, one of those set | priest, A.D. 47. He was sent as a prisoner to Rome by ANANIAS Quadratus, governor of Syria, and Jonathan was appointed in his place; but being discharged by Claudius, in consequence of the protection of Agrippa, he returned to Jerusalem, where, as Jonathan had been murdered through the treachery of Felix, the successor of Quadratus, Ananias appears to have performed the functions of the high priest, as Sagan or substitute, until Ismael, the son of Phabæus, was appointed to that office by Agrippa. Before this Ananias St. Paul was brought; and the Apostle's prediction that God "would smite him," (Acts 23. 3,) was subsequently accomplished, when he was murdered in the palace by a body of mutineers, at the head of whom was his own son. II. A Jew of Jerusalem, the husband of Sapphira, who, on being convicted of falsehood by St. Peter, fell dead at the feet of the apostle. (Acts 5. 1-5.) III. A Christian of Damascus, who restored the sight of St. Paul, after his vision. (Acts 9. 10-18; 22. 12, 13.) ANANUS. See ANNAS. ANATH, the father of Shamgar, judge of Israel. (Judges 3. 31.) ANATHEMA, a Greek word which denotes an excommunication attended with curses, and is of two kinds, judiciary and abjuratory. By the judiciary anathema, the offender is not merely excommunicated, but is totally separated from all intercourse with the faithful, and is delivered over soul and body to Satan. The abjuratory anathema is prescribed to converts who are obliged to anathematize their former heresy. In the New Testament, and in the censures of the primitive Church, we meet with an extraordinary form of censure, "anathema maranatha," which signifies "the Lord is come," and the denunciation "Let him be, anathema maranatha,” may be interpreted, "Let him be accursed at the coming of our Lord." This was the most dreadful imprecation among the Jews; and has been thus paraphrased, "May he be devoted to the greatest of evils, and to the utmost severity of the Divine judgment: may the Lord come quickly to take vengeance upon him." 1. Excommunication in the slightest degree was separation from the Synagogue, and the suspension of intercourse with all Jews whatever. This separation continued for thirty days. Buxtorf, Lex Chald.; Talm. Rabb. 2. The second degree was denominated the curse. It was pronounced with imprecations in the presence of ten men, and so thoroughly excluded the guilty person from all communion whatever with his countrymen, that they were not allowed to sell him any thing, not even the necessaries of life. Buxtorf, Lex. Chald.; Talm. Rabb.; comp. John 16. 1,2; 1Cor. 5. 2-9. 3. The third degree of excommunication, which was more severe in its consequences than either of the preceding, was denominated Shem-atha, or Maran-atha. It was a solemn and absolute exclusion from all intercourse and communion with any other individuals of the nation; the criminal was left in the hands and to the justice of God. שם את be the same with שמתא Whether the word the Name (i.e. God) comes, and with our Lord cometh, is a question on which there is a difference of opinion. The latter is a Syro-Chaldaic phrase, and occurs nowhere else in the Bible, nor in any of the Rabbinical writers. It is very probable that in the time of Christ, the second degree of excommunication was not distinguished from the third, and that both were expressed by the phraseology which is used in 1Cor. 5. 5, and 1Tim. 1. 20, viz.: “unto deliver to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." ANATHOTH, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, supposed to have been so named from Anathoth, the son of Becher, and grandson of Benjamin. (1Chron. 6. 69.) According to Eusebius and Jerome, it was situated about three miles north of Jerusalem; Josephus says it was twenty furlongs distant. It is memorable as being the birth-place of the prophet Jeremiah. It was one of those towns allotted to the priests, (1 Chron. 6. 60,) and was also a city of refuge; Abiathar, the deposed highpriest, was confined at Anathoth by the order of Solomon. It was severely harassed by the Assyrians under Sennacherib, and only one hundred and twenty-eight of the men of Anathoth returned from Babylon. (Nehem. 7. 27; Ezra 2. 23.) It was a mean village in the time of Jerome, and is now a mass of ruins. Horne's Introd. ANDREW, the apostle, the son of Jonas, and brother of the apostle Peter, was an inhabitant of Bethsaida, a town situated on the shore of the lake of Gennesareth; and was by occupation a fisherman. He was first a disciple of John the Baptist by whom he was directed to our Saviour, and carried the joyful tidings to his brother Simon, and conducted him to the Messiah. The two brothers, however, did not remain long with Jesus at this time, but returned to their own home, and continued their former occupation, till, about a year afterwards, our Lord passing through Galilee, found them fishing upon the sea of Tiberias, where he gave them a miraculous draught of fishes, and thus made them fully sensible of his Divine power. Availing himself of the conviction, which that event had produced in their minds, our Lord told them that he was to make them "fishers of men," by employing them in preaching and propagating the Gospel; and they immediately left their nets and followed him. When the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost had descended upon the apostles to qualify them for the duties of their sacred mission, Scythia and the neighhouring countries were assigned to the apostle Andrew. In his way he travelled through Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia, and along the banks of the Euxine sea, instructing the inhabitants in the Christian faith. (Euseb. lib. iii. c. 1.) He afterwards travelled over Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia, preaching and propagating the Gospel, and confirming, by various miracles, the truth of the doctrines which he taught. posed that he founded a Christian church in Constantinople; and that he ordained the person named by St. Paul, (Rom. 16. 9,) the beloved Stachys, the first bishop of that place. It is sup At length he came to Patræ, a city of Achaia, where he gave his last and greatest testimony to the truth of the Gospel. Ageas, the proconsul, enraged at his boldly persisting to preach the doctrine of a crucified Saviour, commanded him to join in offering sacrifices to the heathen gods; and upon the apostle's refusal, he ordered that he should be severely scourged, and then sentenced to death on the cross. That death he cheerfully endured; his cross was shaped like the letter X, which from that circumstance commonly bears the name of St. Andrew's cross. To make his death the more painful and lingering, he was fastened to the cross, not with | angel; the first order being that of Michael; the second, nails but with cords. Having hung two days, praising of Gabriel; the third, of Uriel; and the fourth, of God for his martyrdom and exhorting the spectators to Raphael. a faith in those doctrines for which he suffered, he is said to have expired on the 30th of November, but in what year is uncertain. The Emperor Constantine caused his body to be removed to Constantinople, and to be interred with much solemnity in a church which he had built in honour of the Apostles. Epiphanius mentions the Acts of St. Andrew, a spurious book, which was used by the Encratites and Origenians. Lipsius de Cruce; Cave's Lives of the Apostles; Horne's Introd. ANDRONICUS, a Jewish Christian, a kinsman and fellow-prisoner of St. Paul, who says that he was of note or in reputation among the apostles; by which expression we are not to understand that he was one of the number of the apostles, but that he was one of those early converts who were highly esteemed before the dispersion occasioned by the death of Stephen. (Rom. 16. 7.) I. ANEM. See ENGANNIM. 3. Though the Jews in general believed the existence of angels, there was a sect among them who denied the existence of all spirits whatever, God only excepted. (Acts 23. 8.) Before the Babylonish captivity, the Hebrews seem not to have known the names of any angel; the Talmudists say they brought the names of angels from Babylon. Tobit, who is thought to have resided in Nineveh some time before the captivity, mentions the angel Raphael, (Tobit 3. 17; 11. 2,7,) and Daniel, who lived at Babylon some time after Tobit, has taught us the names of Michael and Gabriel. (Dan. 8. 16; 9. 21; 10. 21.) In 2Esd. 4. 1, the angel Uriel is mentioned. In the New Testament we find only Gabriel and Michael. (Luke 1. 19; Rev. 12. 7.) 4. The notion which we ordinarily attach to the word Angel is that of a created spirit, of greater purity, understanding and power, than belong to human nature, subjected to the Supreme Governor of the Universe, and ministering to his Providence, by his appointment in the government of the world; yet invisible and impercept II. A Levitical city in the tribe of Issachar. (Josh. ible to our senses, unless assuming a corporeal form, for 19. 21; 21. 29.) I. ANER. Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, were three Canaanite chieftains, who joined their forces with those of Abraham in pursuit of Chedorlaomer, Amraphel, and their allies, who had pillaged Sodom, and carried off Lot, Abraham's nephew. (Gen. 14. 24.) Calmet. II. Aner, a Levitical city of the tribe of Manasseh. (1Chron. 6. 70.) It is said by Eusebius to be the same place as Taanach. ANGEL, a spiritual intelligent substance, the first in rank and dignity among created beings. The word Angel is Greek, and signifies a messenger. The Hebrew 7852 (from 785 in Arabic and Ethiopic, to send, signifies the same thing. The angels are in Daniel (4. 13, &c.) called "watchers," from their vigilance; for the same reason they are in the remains of the Prophecy of Enoch named Egregori, which word imports the same in the Greek. The term angel, therefore, in the proper signification of the word, does not import the nature of any being, 'but only an office; in which sense Angels are called the ministers of God and ministering spirits. That there are such beings invisible and imperceptible to our senses, endued with understanding and power superior to those of human nature, created by God and subject to Him, ministering to his Divine providence in the government of the world, are truths fully attested by Scripture. Nay, the existence of such invisible beings was generally acknowledged by the heathen, though under different appellations; the Greeks called them demons, and the Romans genii or lares. Epicurus seems to have been the only one among the ancient philosophers, who absolutely rejected them. 2. The Fathers who believed angels had bodies, were Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Cæsarius, Tertullian, and several others. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nyssen, St. Cyril, and St. Chrysostom, held them to be spirits only. Ecclesiastical writers make an hierarchy of nine orders of angels; others have distributed angels into nine orders, according to the names by which they are called in Scripture, and reduced these orders into three hierarchies; to the first of which belong Seraphim, Cherubim, and thrones; to the second, dominions, virtues, and powers; and to the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. The Jews reckon four orders or companies of angels, each headed by an arch the manifestation of some particular act of power. That beings of such a nature exist, has been an article of faith in almost every religion of the world, and it is a belief extremely consistent with the natural dictates of reason. In the works of creation with which we are acquainted, we find a regular gradation pervading the whole, from the rudest specimen of brute matter up to man, the lord and ruler of the lower world. Minerals, vegetables, and animals, rise regularly in dignity one above the other; the lowest species of these kingdoms of nature, ascends but little above the highest in that immediately beneath it; and nowhere do we find wide transitions or gaps in the scale of existence. It can scarcely therefore be believed that the interval between man and the Supreme Being, which presents so wide a chasm, is totally unpeopled. It is more natural to suppose that the interval is filled up by numerous orders of intelligent creatures, to whom the blessing of existence has been imparted by the Creator, and who are in a variety of ways subservient to the accomplishment of the purposes of his Providence. 5. The doctrine of an evil as well as a good genius, influencing the fate of every member of the human race, seems to have been borrowed from the Persian school, and did not prevail among the earlier Greeks and Romans. We hear only of the evil genius of Brutus, which appeared to him before the battle of Philippi. The words of Our Saviour (Matt. 18. 10,) are supposed to give countenance to the belief in guardian angels. "Take heed," says he to his disciples, "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." This seems to imply, that children at least are under the protection of these divine beings; and, with this limitation, the doctrine may be considered as by no means inconsistent with the dictates of reason. 6. On the question of guardian angels, Bishop Horsley observes, “That the holy angels are often employed by God in his government of this sublunary world is indeed to be clearly proved by Holy Writ. That they have power over the matter of the universe analogous to the power over it which men possess, greater in extent but still limited, is a thing which might be reasonably supposed, if it were not declared. But it seems to be confirmed by many passages of Holy Writ. That the evil angels possessed before their fall the like powers, |