There is something so very attractive and poetical, as well as soothing
to our helpless finite nature, in all the superstitions connected with
the popular notion of Angels, that we cannot wonder at their prevalence
in the early ages of the world. Those nations who acknowledged one
Almighty Creator, and repudiated with horror the idea of a plurality
of Gods, were the most willing to accept, the most enthusiastic in
accepting, these objects of an intermediate homage; and gladly placed
between their humanity and the awful supremacy of an unseen God, the
ministering spirits who were the agents of his will, the witnesses of
his glory, the partakers of his bliss, and who in their preternatural
attributes of love and knowledge filled up that vast space in the
created universe which intervened between mortal man and the infinite,
omnipotent LORD OF ALL.
The belief in these superior beings, dating from immemorial antiquity,
interwoven as it should seem with our very nature, and authorised by a
variety of passages in Scripture, has descended to our time. Although
the bodily forms assigned to them are allowed to be impossible, and
merely allegorical, although their supposed functions as rulers of
the stars and elements have long been set aside by a knowledge of the
natural laws, still the coexistence of many orders of beings superior
in nature to ourselves, benignly interested in our welfare, and
contending for us against the powers of evil, remains an article of
faith. Perhaps the belief itself, and the feeling it excites in the
tender and contemplative mind, were never more beautifully expressed
than by our own Spenser:—
And is there care in heaven? And is there love
In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,
That may compassion of their evils move?
There is!—else much more wretched were the case
Of men than beasts! But O th’ exceeding grace
Of highest God that loves his creatures so,
And all his works with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels he sends to and fro
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe
How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
And come to succour us that succour want?
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends, to aid us militant?
They for its fight, they watch, and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant,
And all for love, and nothing for reward!
Oh why should heavenly God to men have such regard!
It is this feeling, expressed or unexpressed, lurking at the very core
of all hearts, which renders the usual representations of angels, spite
of all incongruities of form, so pleasing to the fancy: we overlook
the anatomical solecisms, and become mindful only of that emblematical
significance which through its humanity connects it with us, and
through its supernatural appendages connects _us_ with heaven.
But it is necessary to give a brief summary of the scriptural and
theological authorities, relative to the nature and functions of
angels, before we can judge of the manner in which these ideas have
been attended to and carried out in the artistic similitudes. Thus
angels are represented in the Old Testament—
1. As beings of a higher nature than men, and gifted with superior
intelligence and righteousness.[14]
2. As a host of attendants surrounding the throne of God, and as a kind
of celestial court or council.[15]
3. As messengers of his will conveyed from heaven to earth: or as sent
to guide, to correct, to instruct, to reprove, to console.