[Footnote 8:  A small section indeed of their countrymen in our Saviour’s time denied the reality of a future state, and the existence of angels and spirits; but the sect was of then recent origin, and the overwhelming majority believed as their fathers had believed.]

When David, who had, as we know [1 Chron. xxi. 16.], visible demonstration afforded him of the existence and ministration of the angels, called upon them to unite with his own soul, and with all the works of creation through all places of God’s dominion, in praising their merciful, glorious, and powerful Creator, he thus conveys to us the exalted ideas with which he had been filled of their nature, their excellence, and their ministration.  “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his {36} kingdom ruleth over all:  Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.  Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure.” [Ps. ciii. 19-21.] David knew moreover that one of the offices, in the execution of which the angels do God’s pleasure, is that of succouring and defending us on earth.  For example, in one of the psalms used by the Church of Rome at complin, and with the rest repeated in the Church of England, and prophetic of the Redeemer, David, to whom this psalm is probably to be ascribed, declares of the man who had made the Most High his refuge and strength, “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling; for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” [Ps. xci. 10-12.] And again, with exquisitely beautiful imagery, he represents those same blessed servants of heaven as an army, as a host of God’s spiritual soldiers keeping watch and ward over the poorest of the children of men, who would take refuge in his mercy:  “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them[9].”  And yet David, the prophet of the Lord, never addresses to these beings, high and glorious though they are, one single invocation:  he neither asks them to assist him, nor to pray for him, nor to pray with him in his behalf.

[Footnote 9:  Ps. xxxiv. 7. (Vulg. xxxiii. 8.) “Immittet angelus Domini in circuitu timentium eum, et eripiet eos.”  In the Vulgate the beauty of the figure is lost; which, however, Roman Catholic writers restore in their comments.  Basil makes a beautiful use of the metaphor.  See De Sacy in loc.] {37}

Isaiah was admitted by the Holy Spirit to witness in the fulness of its glory the court and the throne of heaven; and he heard the voices of the seraphim proclaiming their Maker’s praise; he experienced also personally the effect of their ministration, when one of them said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy