no two worlds can be alike, and there are, doubtless, as many different grades of intelligent beings as there are worlds which they inhabit.

Neither is it probable that man is the highest in this class of creatures. On the contrary it is more likely that he is the lowest in the scale. A compound of spirit and matter, and of inatter in its gross sluggish form, he is allied to the earth on which he treads, and the connecting links between him and its rude matter are the brute, the plant, and the crystalization. While some of the individuals of the species exhibit intellectual powers of a high order, others are so little removed from the more sagacious of the irrational animals, that the transition from the one to the other is made by a single step. We may therefore conclude, that, if there be among the creatures of God other grades of intelligent beings, they are higher than

man.

All this reasoning is hypothetical; we assume in it, on probable grounds, what we cannot strictly demonstrate. From such premises the conclusion can be nothing more than probability. It is however a high degree of probability that is obtained in this case; and there being no argument of equal weight, nor, so far as I can see, of any considerable weight, on the opposite side, we approach so near to certainty, that we may take the fact as sufficiently proved.

The religious philosophy of every age, in the Gentile world, has taught the existence of a class of beings between the supreme Deity and man. In the theology of all idolatrous nations, as there was a plurality of divinities to whom their worship was addressed, so there was a subordination of rank among the objects of worship, and one supreme deity that presided over the rest; and among the inferior gods there were such as approached very near to man, while others scarcely differed from the one who was acknowledged as supreme. But besides these inferior beings, to whom the title gods was given, the Gentiles held the existence of a class of beings between the gods and men, consisting of different orders, who were the ministers of the gods, and mediators between them and men ; bearing to the gods the prayers and offerings of men; and to men the answers and the commands of the gods. The Hindoos have their Dejotas, the Persians, and others of the Magian sect, their Amschash pands, Izeds, Fervers, and Dews; the Greeks had their Daemons, and the Romans their Genii.

Hesiod, who lived about the time of Homer, divides intelligent natures into four classes, namely, gods, daemons, heroes, and men. For so doing he is commended by Plutarch. Plato taught that the whole space between the gods and men was occupied by daemons, which were, however, of different kinds. The Pythagoreans, the Stoics, the Peripatetics, and, indeed, every sect of philosophy among the Gentiles, except the Epicurean, held a similar doctrine.

In the Holy Scriptures we have frequent notice of spiritual intelligences, existing in another state of being, and constituting a celestial family, a hierarchy, over which Jehovah presides. The Scripture, however, does not treat this subject professedly, and as a doctrine of religion, but adverts to it incidentally as a fact, as it does to other facts, in its religious history and the course of its instructions. It speaks of no obligations to these spirits, and inculcates no duties toward them. A belief in the existence of such beings is therefore not an essential article of religion, any more than a belief that there are other worlds besides our own; it belongs not so much to religion as to philosophy; but such a belief serves to enlarge our idea of the works of God, and to illustrate the greatness of his power and wisdom; and in this way it exerts an important and salutary influence upon the heart.

The names or titles, by which the Scripture designates these celestial beings, are spirits, Greek пveúμaτa pneumata; angels, Greek ayyelo, angelloi; Hebrew mlakhim; and in the Old Testament and elohim, and bne elohim. The first of these terms has respect to their essence, and the second to their office. The last two denote their rank in the scale of being. Gesenius denies that elohim ever means angels; and he refers in this denial particularly to Ps. 8: 5, and Ps. 97: 7; but he observes, that the term is so translated in the ancient versions. In the epistle to the Hebrews, where these texts are referred to, the same translation is given, Heb. 1: 6. 2: 7.

Elohim is the plural of Eloah. According to Gesenius Eloah is a primitive, and the verb Alah is a derivative from it. The verb does not occur in the Hebrew Scriptures, but is used in the Arabic, in the sense of to reverence, to dread. Eloah is therefore that which inspires reverence, fear, dread; or which creates astonishment, alarm and awe; and Elohim, in its ordinary sense, denotes a plurality of such objects. When the plural is joined with a verb, or with other dependent words, in the

singular, it is called the plural of excellency, and has a singular meaning, with the secondary idea of greatness or superiority. In this form, it is usually applied to the true God; but sometimes also to an idol; as to Dagon the god of the Philistines, Judges 16: 23; to Ashtoret, the goddess of the Zidonians, to Chemosh the god of the Moabites, to Milcom the god of the Ammonites, 1 Kings 11: 33; and to Bael-zebub the god of Ekron, 2 Kings 1: 2, 3. With plural adjuncts it is usually translated as a plural; but in some instances the pluralis excellentiae occurs in this form, and is applied to the true God. See Genesis 20: 13, 31: 53. 2 Samuel 7: 23. Ps. 58: 12.

Elohim is applied to the true God, Gen. 1: 1, etc., and in very many places. It is applied to idols with the same frequency, but usually with plural adjuncts. Ps. 96: 5, et passim. Rulers, and especially kings, are called elohim, Ps. 45: 6, 7. 82: 1, 6. 138: 1. Exodus 22: 28. In 1 Samuel 28: 13, an apparition is so called: "And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascend out of the earth;" Hebrew, "I saw elohim etc." In Ps. 8: 5, celestial spirits are called elohim: and in Judges 13: 21, 22, the pluralis excellentiae of this term is used in speaking of a single angel of the Lord; as in 1 Samuel 28: 13, of a single apparition.

It appears from this usage that the title elohim is a common appellation, given to a class of beings who are the objects of fear, of reverence, and of dread to men. Its application to kings and rulers is a tropical use of it: in its ordinary acceptation it designates invisible beings, superior to man, existing in another state of being. Such is Jehovah; such are angels; such the gods of the Gentiles were believed to be; and such, in the opinion of the Gentiles, were the departed souls of eminent men. Such the witch at Endor considered the ghost of Samuel, which, to her astonishment, appeared at her bidding. This title did not distinguish the true God from other elohim; not always even when used as a plural of excellency. For the purpose of distinction he is called the living God, elohim chajim, and elohim chai, in opposition to the gods of the Gentiles, which were either inanimate objects, as the stars, the elments, etc.; or dead men, the souls of deceased ancestors: and from all other elobim he is distinguished by the title Lord God; in the Hebrew text, Jehovah Elohim. So Moses taught the Israelites, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." Hebrew," Jehovah our elohim is one Jehovah ;" that is, Jehovah, the object of our VOL. XII. No. 32. 46

reverence, is an only being, Deut. 6: 4. In the ninety-sixth Psalm, the inspired author says, "For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods." Hebrew, "For Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all elohim :" which implies that all elohim are objects of fear, but none of them in the same degree, nor with the same propriety and justice, as Jehovah. The distinctive titles and Elohim chajim, and Elohim chai, living God, and Jehovah Elohim, Jehovah our Elohim, etc., are of frequent occurrence in the Old Testament.

The tropical use of elohim, as a title of kings and other rulers, was founded in the profound and superstitious veneration with which the people regarded the ruling powers. Rulers in ancient times were always of the nobility, whom the common people were accustomed from their childhood to consider a superior order of men, possessing a portion of divinity, and naturally and necessarily above them; and kings, abounding in riches, invested with absolute power, and glittering in splendor, were considered so near the gods, that they were esteemed worthy of honors that differed but little from religious adoration. The title elohim, which was often given to them in common with the objects of worship, designated them as beings that inspired veneration and awe similar to that which was inspired by the gods themselves. So the ancient Greeks derived both the authority of their kings, and their ability to administer the government; their bodily strength, stature, and beauty; their courage, enterprise, and wisdom, from Jupiter, and dignified them with the titles of theoeides cocidns, isotheos iooos, godlike, and diogenes dioyevns, heaven-born, born of Jupiter. See Creutzer's Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Voelker. Vol. 3. B. 3. Cap. 1.

The customary use of the plural elohim, and the extensive application of it, seems to have had its origin in the polytheism of the people who spoke the language. The Hebrew was not exclusively the language of the Israelites; neither was it even originally theirs. It was one of the dialects of a common language which was spoken by the nations that inhabited the countries of western Asia, between Persia and the Mediterranean, and between Armenia and the Indian ocean. The other dialects were the Chaldean, the Syriac, and the Arabic. Hebrew was the dialect of the Canaanites, including the Phenicians. All these nations were polytheists. Abraham was a native of Ur in

Chaldea, and was seventy-five years of age when he went into the land of Canaan. In his time these several dialects might differ but little; but if there was any difference, he spoke the Chaldean, and not the Canaanitish. During their long residence in Canaan his descendants acquired the language of this country, and, of course, learned it as it was. They did not originate its usages, but adopted them as they found them already settled. It was the language of polytheists. So, indeed, were all the dialects. In the time of Moses, when the first of the sacred books were written, all these countries were immersed in the grossest idolatry. They had not only their Eloah, but their Elohim; and these were found in every thing in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, which was adapted to excite fear, dread, or hope, or could create astonishment or admiration. A polytheistic language was now used to express monotheistic ideas.

I will now examine the texts in which the term elohim, or bne elohim, designates celestial spirits, distinct from Jehovah, and superior to man.

Ps. 8: 3-8, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea." "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels," is in the Hebrew text, "For thou hast made him a little lower than the elohim." By elohim the ancient as well as the modern translators understood those spirits whom we call angels. So also the author of the epistle to the Hebrews understood the word. The connection, moreover, demands this interpretation. We have in the text God, the Creator, distinguished from all his works; who is addressed, in the first verse, as Jehovah our Lord, whose name is excellent in all the earth, whose glory is above the grandeur of the starry heavens, and in comparison with whom man is as nothing. We have next the noblest of his creatures in the visible world, man, whom he has crowned with glory and honor, and has placed over the works