And as the Gentiles did vulgarly conceive the imagery of the brain for things really subsistent without them,and not dependent on the fancy;and out of them framed their opinions of demons,good and evil;which because they seemed to subsist really,they called substances;and because they could not feel them with their hands,incorporeal:so also the Jews upon the same ground,without anything in the Old Testament that constrained them thereunto,had generally an opinion (except the sect of the Sadducees)that those apparitions,which it pleased God sometimes to produce in the fancy of men,for His own service,and therefore called them His angels,were substances,not dependent on the fancy,but permanent creatures of God;whereof those which they thought were good to them,they esteemed the angels of God,and those they thought would hurt them,they called evil angels,or evil spirits;such as was the spirit of Python,and the spirits of madmen,of lunatics and epileptics:for they esteemed such as were troubled with such diseases,demoniacs.
But if we consider the places of the Old Testament where angels are mentioned,we shall find that in most of them,there can nothing else be understood by the word angel,but some image raised,supernaturally,in the fancy,to signify the presence of God in the execution of some supernatural work;and therefore in the rest,where their nature is not expressed,it may be understood in the same manner.
For we read that the same apparition is called not only an angel,but God,where that which is called the angel of the Lord,saith to Hagar,"I will multiply thy seed exceedingly";that is,speaketh in the person of God.Neither was this apparition a fancy figured,but a voice.By which it is manifest that angel signifieth there nothing but God Himself,that caused Hagar supernaturally to apprehend a voice from heaven;or rather,nothing else but a voice supernatural,testifying God's special presence there.Why therefore may not the angels that appeared to Lot,and are called men;and to whom,though they were two,Lot speaketh as but to one,and that one as God (for the words are,"Lot said unto them,Oh not so my Lord"),be understood of images of men,supernaturally formed in the fancy;as well as before by angel was understood a fancied voice?When the angel called to Abraham out of heaven,to stay his hand from slaying Isaac,there was no apparition,but a voice;which nevertheless was called properly enough a messenger or angel of God,because it declared God's will supernaturally,and saves the labour of supposing any permanent ghosts.The angels which Jacob saw on the ladder of heaven were a vision of his sleep;therefore only fancy and a dream;yet being supernatural,and signs of God's special presence,those apparitions are not improperly called angels.The same is to be understood where Jacob saith thus,"The angel of the Lord appeared to me in my sleep."For an apparition made to a man in his sleep is that which all men call a dream,whether such dream be natural or supernatural:and that which there Jacob calleth an angel was God Himself;for the same angel saith,"I am the God of Bethel."
Also the angel that went before the army of Israel to the Red Sea,and then came behind it,is the Lord Himself;and He appeared not in the form of a beautiful man,but in form,by day,of a "pillar of cloud,"and,by night,in form of a "pillar of fire";and yet this pillar was all the apparition and angel promised to Moses for the army's guide:for this cloudy pillar is said to have descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle,and to have talked with Moses.
There you see motion and speech,which are commonly attributed to angels,attributed to a cloud,because the cloud served as a sign of God's presence;and was no less an angel than if it had had the form of a man or child of never so great beauty;or wings,as usually they are painted,for the false instruction of common people.For it is not the shape,but their use,that makes them angels.But their use is to be significations of God's presence in supernatural operations;as when Moses had desired God to go along with the camp,as He had done always before the making of the golden calf,God did not answer,"I will go,"nor "I will send an angel in my stead";but thus,"My presence shall go with thee."