drawn, as not requiring any additional confirmation of their truth and binding obligations. "To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah viii. 10. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Luke xvi. 31. During the patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetical dispensations, Jehovah was pleased to manifest his will, and foreshow his gracious purposes, and foretell his threatened judgments by instructive dreams, informing visions, audible voices, and the apparition of angelic messengers, to awaken the attention, excite the obedience, and confirm the faith of those who put their trust in Him, in relation to the procedures of his providence, and the promises of Almighty grace, during the dawning periods of Christianity, prefigured in the types and shadows of the Aaronic priesthood, until their complete accomplishment in the meridian glory of the present and final economy of divine purpose in the Revelation of Christ Jesus, the Great Antitype, who hath brought life and immortality to light by the gospel; and, therefore, we conclude, that with the age of miracles, the supernatural interposition of the visible appearance of angels is withdrawn, as unnecessary, and contrary to the wisdom of God, in the superfluous exhibition of miraculous operation and confirmatory evidence, beyond the necessities of human reason and the requisite apprehensions of an acquiescent faith.* No less futile is the suggestion, that the doctrine of angelic ministration is of too speculative a character to pro * God sends not angels now to propose new articles of faith, or to give new laws to men, he having fully furnished the rule of our religion by Jesus Christ. And as for interpretations of Scripture, none must be received that agree not with the context and the analogy of faith.-Pneumatologia. duce sufficiently edifying results. The eternal love of God and the blessings of free grace,-the inscrutable decree of the sovereignty of a special and divine election,—justification by faith, together with our adoption as the children of God-the mediation and intercession of Christ, the joys of heaven, and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghostas the essential doctrines of an orthodox Christianity, are not a whit less speculative, as regards the tendency of their practical effects, and especially designed to promote a life of holiness, and a preparation for the worship and employments of the heavenly state. By such a process of intangible objections, it is evident that we should be deprived of the very vitalities and principles of an evangelical faith, rendering our hopes nothing better than a fleeting shadow, instead of an invaluable substance,—a lifeless skeleton, instead of an animated body. Various have been the opinions of expositors as to the time when the angels commenced their ministrations on this earth; some supposing, that they are exercised as soon as we are quickened into existence, in the womb, founded on the following passages.-Psalm cxxxix. 14-16; Luke i. 41. Others, at the time of birth, of baptism or regeneration. Every supposable case of danger to which infancy and childhood are liable, angels are supposed to watch and provide a suitable protection. The imprudences of mothers, the carelessness of nurses, the generally unguarded and hazardous circumstances to which the young from the earliest dawn of existence are exposed, receive the especial notice and provision of these celestial and benevolent intelligences, as their guardian angels.* * Plato was of opinion that children are no sooner born, but they have angels to attend them, which first produce and then conjoin the soul to the body, and after they are grown to maturity, teach and govern them. The ancient philosophers, as well as some modern commentators, believe that every individual has appointed unto him a guardian angel that attends upon his welfare through all the different stages of this mortal life; whilst in the Scriptures we find mention of several instances in which angels were sent by divine commission to instruct and protect the favorites of God's special regard, or to act as the executioners of the divine displeasure against all ungodliness of men, or to make known his purposes respecting the dispensations of his mercy to mankind. It was through the inftrumentality of an angel that the prediction was given to Hagar respecting the future character and prosperity of Ishmael. The angel Gabriel informed Daniel of a variety of events which would befall the Jewish nation; and also visited with divine messages and announcements, Zacharias, and the Virgin Mary. They were angels that were entertained by the hospitable and venerable patriarch, and who communicated to Abraham the will and gracious purposes of Jehovah respecting the birth of Isaac, and the wonderful events which were to happen to the nations who were to spring from him. Throughout the extraordinary and eventful periods of his pilgrimage, angels constantly appeared to the patriarch Jacob, and conveyed to him counsel, and ministered to his behalf, and that of his family. Angels rescued Lot and his daughters from the destruction of Sodom. An angel of the Lord attended the Israelites during their journeyings in the wilderness; and the moral law was received by the disposition of angels on Mount Sinai. Joshua, the successor of Moses, was encouraged by the appearance of an angel in the martial character of the captain of the host of the Lord, whilst he was meditating an attack on the city of Jericho (Joshua v. 13, 14); but |