One rabbi says: The angel Metatron is the king of angels.'* Another says: 'He is called by the name of Metatron, because that name has two 'significations which express his condition, namely, that he is a lord and a messenger.-He is Lord ' over all that is under him; for all the upper and 'lower lords are subject to his power: and he is 'the messenger of him who is above him, who is more exalted than himself, who has given him 'dominion over all that he possesses.'-Another says: 'Metatron distributes among all the princes, or angels of the nations, their necessaries.-He gathers all the songs that are made in the universe, 'because he is set over the songs of sinners, to bring them into the innermost.-He ascends up 'to the throne of glory above nine hundred firma'ments, to carry up the prayers of the Israelites.'I He is alleged to have been the conductor of Israel through the wilderness, who is frequently styled an angel, and of whom God says: "My "name is in him."-In reference to that mission

* Zohar, f. 137. c. 4. cit. in Stehelin, vol. ii. p. 92. + Bechai in Leg. ibid. vol. ii. p. 92.

Jalkut Reubeni, f. 27. c. 2. 4. f. 28. c. 1. ibid. vol. ii. p. 93, 94. § Sanhedrin, perek iv. cit. in Oxlee on the Trinity, vol. i. p. 127, 128. The explanation given of this by the Cab

balists, is, that Metatron is by gematria the same as Shaddai, or Almighty, according to the annexed calculation. It is scarcely worth while to remark, that this numeration is inconsistent with their own rule, for that Nun, being a final letter, must here be equivalent to 700, and consequently that the supposed agreement does not exist. But if the statement were correct, the

מ 40

300

4 T

95

10

9

200

314

6 1

50

314

principle which represents the name Metatron as divine, would equally

Moses Gerundensis says: Our fathers affirm that ' he is the Metatron; a name signifying the director ' of the road.' The same rabbi says, in another place: The reason why the term angel is applied 'to him, is on account of his government of the ' world. Thus it is written, And the Lord caused us to go forth out of Egypt, whilst it is equally 'written, And he sent his angel, and caused us to go forth out of Egypt.-The same is he of whom "it is said; "But God shall suddenly come to his temple, the Lord whom ye seek, and the angel of 'the covenant in whom ye delight, for certain shall come." Mal. iii. 1.'*-Another rabbi says: 'There ' is a man that is an angel, and this is the Metatron. 'And there is a man in the image of God, who is

an emanation from him; and this is Jehovah, of 'whom can be affirmed neither creation, nor for'mation, nor fabrication, but only emanation.'†— From the original dignity and high prerogatives asserted in these and other passages, of which it would be easy to multiply quotations, it has been argued, that the term angel, when applied to this personage, is not employed in its ordinary meaning, but merely expresses a delegation to some illus

evince it to be diabolical. As (T) Shaddai, Almighty, is one of the names of God, so (TW) Shed, Destroyer, is one of the appellations of demons: and these two words, according to the Cabbalistic temura, must be regarded as the same. (See p. 74-76.) What shall we say to a principle of interpretation, which represents names divine, angelic, and diabolical, as mutually convertible?

* Comm. on Exod. xxiii. 20. iii. 2. cit. in Oxlee on the Trinity, &c. vol. i. p. 139-142.

+ Tykune Zohar, Tyk. 67. p. 101. cit. in Oxlee on the Trinity, &c. vol. i. p. 132, 133.

trious office; and that the rabbies must have. regarded the Metatron as a divine and eternal subsistency, in essence and quality corresponding with what Christians understand by the second personality of the Godhead.* Nor can it be denied, that, without the supposition of this or some very similar notion, much of what they have said is altogether unintelligible. But, whatever vestiges. of ancient revelation may have been preserved in some accounts of the Metatron, the truth requires it to be stated, that the doctors of the synagogue have betrayed, on this point, the same confusion and inconsistency which characterizes their speculations on so many other subjects. One authority says: Behold, out of the bodies of Enoch and Elijah are made angelical forms; for out of Enoch is made Metatron, and out of the body of Elijah is made Sandalphon.'+-Of the language of Moses respecting "Enoch," that he "walked "with God, and was not, for God took him," an eminent rabbi gives the following exposition: 'Rabbi Ismael writes thus; I have said unto Metatron, Why art thou with the name of thy • Creator called with seventy names; and why art thou greater than all the princes, and more ex'alted than all the angels; more excellent in size, authority, and glory than all the powerful; more acceptable than all the servants, and more ho'noured than all the host? Then answered he

6

6

6

* Vid. The Christian Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation considered and maintained on the Principles of Judaism. By the Rev. John Oxlee. Vol. i. chap. viii.

+ Emek Hammelech, f. 178. c. 3. cit. in Stehelin, vol. ii. p. 57.

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me, and said; Because I am Enoch, the son of 'the Sacred. What did the holy and blessed God,

' when the generation of the flood had sinned and 'done unrighteous works, saying unto God, With'draw from us? He took me away from among 'them to be a witness against them to all those 'that should come into the world: and after the holy and blessed God had taken me away, to serve before the throne of glory and the wheels of 'the chariot, and to do my office to the divine majesty, my flesh was presently changed into a flame, my sinews into fire, my bones into juniper 'coals, and the light of my eyes into flashes of lightning, my eyeballs into fiery torches, and all my limbs into burning fiery wings, and the trunk of my body into burning fire; from my right 'hand were seen fiery flames, and from my left ' hand burning fiery torches.'*—According to the statement of another rabbi, whose language delicacy forbids me to recite,-while Enoch, alias Metatron, was in the course of his ascension to the celestial regions, the various orders of angels 'smelled the scent of him five thousand three hun'dred and eighty miles off,' and were somewhat displeased at the introduction or intrusion of a being of human race, into their superior world, till God pacified them by explaining the cause of his translation. To complete the ludicrous contrast of meanness with magnificence, it is also affirmed that Metatron was a cobler, and was

* Menachem Recanatens. in Legem, f. 26. c. 3. ibid. vol. ii. p. 94, 95.

M

C very intent on every stitch, and he spake of God: 'The name of the glory of his kingdom be blessed ' for ever.'*

Having occupied so many pages with the reveries of the rabbies concerning angels, I shall not detain the reader long with their equally wild and inconsistent accounts concerning demons.

Various are the notions that have been promulgated respecting the origin of these evil beings. Sometimes they are represented as having been, first, inhabitants of heaven; and having afterwards fallen from that state of holiness and glory, according to some, soon after the creation of Adam;+ according to others, in the days of Noah. many of the rabbies declare them to have proceeded from the hands of the Creator with all their present evil propensities. Sometimes, they are said to have been made on the same day that witnessed the formation of hell to receive them; which is asserted to have been the second of the

But

days of creation.§ Some have affirmed that they were made at the close of the sixth day, and that the Creator intended to provide them with bodies, but that immediately on the creation of their spirits,

* Jalkut Reubeni, f. 26. c. 2. f. 28. c. 2. ibid. p. 95, 96. + Menachem Recanatens. in Legem, f. 24. c. 1. Jalkut Reubeni, n. 3. Jalkut Shimoni, f. 8. c. 4. ibid. vol. i. p. 193. 196.

R. Eliezer, Perakim. c. 1. p. 8. &c. 27. apud Bartoloc. vol. i. p. 297. 317. R. Menass. Ben Israel, Nishmath Chajim, f. 116. c. 1. cit. in Stehelin, vol. ii. p. 115.

§ Menass. de Creat. Problem. 23. apud Hoornbeck contra Jud. L. iv. c. 1. p. 308. Menass. Nishmath Chajim, f. 32. c. 2. cit. in Stehelin,

vol. ii. p. 34.