This notion is referred to, in the Apocryphal History of Susannah, verse 69.  “The Angel of the Lord waiteth with his sword that he may cut thee in two.”

Thus we see, that the term Satan is in the Old Testament applied to any Angel of the Lord sent upon an errand of punishment.  And the term itself is so far from being reproachful (for David is said, 1 Samuel xxix. 4, to have been “a Satan to the Philistines,”) that I am not sure, that if I had by me a Hebrew concordance, but I could point out places, where God himself is represented as saying, that he would be an adversary or a Satan to bad men and wicked nations.  And though there is in the Old Testament a particular angel styled, by way of eminence, “The Satan,” it is so far from being evident that he is an evil being, that I would undertake to give good reasons to prove that this distinguished angel is the real prototype, from whence the impostor Mahomet took the idea of his “Azrael,” the “Angel of Death;” who, in the Koran, is certainly represented as being as much the faithful servant of God, as any of the Angelic Hosts.

In fine, the doctrine of the Old Testament upon this matter may be thus expressed:—­“These be spirits created for vengeance, which in their fury lay on sore strokes; in the time of destruction, they pour out their force, sad appease the wrath of him that made them.  They shall rejoice in his (God’s) commandment, and they shall be ready upon earth, when need is:  and when their time is come, they shall not transgress his word.”  Ecclesiasticus xxxix. 28.

CHAPTER XIV.

A consideration of the “Gift of tongues,” And
other miraculous gifts ascribed O the primitive
Christians; and whether recorded miracles are
infallible proofs of the divine authority of
doctrines said to have been confirmed by them.

Paul, in his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, speaks to them as possessing several spiritual gifts, conferred on them by his ministration; such as the gift of prophecy, discerning of spirits, and speaking in unknown tongues.  He gives them directions about the proper use of their gifts, and speaks to them as absolutely possessing those gifts, with the utmost confidence.  Dr. Paley, in his Defence of Christianity, lays great stress upon the manner in which Paul addresses the Corinthians upon these miraculous powers; and he considers it as an absolute proof of the truth of Christianity—­ because, he says, it is not conceivable that Paul could have had the boldness and presumption to speak to these men concerning the use and abuse of these gifts, if they really had them not.