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    may have some kind of foundation . But if we allow him any degree of uniformity of style , or connexion and consistency in his reasonings , it would seem that the terra angel nrnst retain in the second chapter the same meanins : which it has in the first , and not , as some commentators have supposed , be transferred suddenly , and without notice , to an entirely different subject . When we consider the evident object and design of the writer , I do not

    see how we can hesitate to admit that , in the first instance , it must refer to the old prophets and other inspired writers and teachers under the Mosaic covenant . That it continues to have the same meaning at the beginning of the second chapter is , if possible , still more evident . " For if the word spoken , & * ' ayyzKwv * through the intervention of messengers were steadfast , and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of punishment , how shall we escape , if we have neglected so great salvation ,

    which was begun to be spoken by the Lord ? " &c . Here there can be no question that the same parallel is continued between the old covenant and the new . For if the angels spoken of were , as is commonly supposed , beings of a superior order , occasionally employed in the intercourse between God and his human creatures , to what message , what words spoken by such angels can it be that the writer here refers ? Certainly not to the law of Moses , nor to any of the communications made under the old covenant . It

    is as though he had said , " If our fathers justly suffered severe punishments for neglecting the many warnings delivered to them by the prophets of the impending calamities denounced against the idolatrous and rebellious—if they were , in consequence , carried away to Babylon , how shall we escape if , disregarding the similar prophetic warnings of Christ , slighting his pretensions to the character of Messiah , and joining ourselves to our impenitent countrymen in their present mad undertakings against the Roman power , we neglect the great salvation which is held out to us ?"

    This is probably the meaning of the passage . Or it may have a spiritual signification ; the less and the greater salvation compared being , on the one hand , the moral instruction and imperfect light afforded by the law of Moses ; and , on the other , the pure and heavenly radiance , and the glorious discover ies of the gospel . Or it may even have been intended to embrace both these subjects ; referring generally to all the benefits , both temporal and spiritual , which his disciples either had received , or might expect from the

    divine mission of Jesus . But to return to the use of the term angel ; the writer goes on in the fifth verse , which is a continuation of the same argument , and is intended as a confirmation of the suggestion conveyed in the question he had just proposed , " For God hath not committed ( ayyeXon ; i . e . ) to messengers of this description , the succeeding and more excellent dispensation of which we speak . " He then introduces a quotation from the eighth Psalm , which he applies to Christ , in a way , as must surely be

    admitted by every critic of ordinary penetration , whose good sense is not clouded and perverted by theological prejudice , utterly inconsistent with its original design . The Psalmist is speaking of man , or the human species in general , and dwells in a fine and animated strain upon the dignity to which his Maker has exalted him , upon the noble faculties of the

    understanding , by the possession of which he is made higher than the beasts of the field and wiser than the fowls of the air . He adds , " thou hast made him a little lower than the angels , " meaning , in this connexion undoubtedly , certain intelligent beings of a superior order to mankind . But when the passage is cited by the writer to the Hebrews , the whole is taken entirely out of its connexion , and , if we may be allowed to say so , perverted

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    On the Meaning of the Term Angel . 597

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 597, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/13/