(101) And over all the righteous and holy He will appoint guardians from amongst the holy angels To guard them as the apple of an eye, Until He makes an end of all wickedness and all sin, And though the righteous sleep a long sleep, they have nought to fear.

(41) For no angel hinders and no power is able to hinder; for He appoints a judge for them all and He judges them all before Him.

(4) Let me also recall this to your Hierarchical judgment--that both to Pharaoh, from the Angel who presided over the Egyptians, and to the Babylonian Prince, from his own Angel, the watchful and ruling care of the Providence and Lordship over all, was interpreted in visions; and for those nations, the worshippers of the true God were appointed leaders, for the interpretation of things shaped by Angelic visions revealed from God through Angels to holy men akin to the Angels, Daniel and Joseph. For there is one Prince and Providence over all. And never must we think that the Godhead is leader of Jews by lot, and that Angels, independently, or as of equal rank, or in opposition, or that certain other gods, preside over the other nations. But that particular phrase of the Divine Word must be accepted according to the following sacred intention; not as though God had divided government amongst men, with other gods, or Angels, and had been elected by lot to the government and leadership of Israel, but in this sense--whilst the one Providence of Highest over all, assigned all mankind, savingly, to the directing conduct of their own Angels, yet Israel, almost alone in comparison with all, turned himself to the Light-gift, and recognition of the true Lord-Hence the Word of God, as shewing that Israel elected himself for the worship of the true God, says this, "He became Lord's portion;" and as indicating that he was assigned equally with the other nations, to one of the holy Angels, for the recognition, through him, of the Head of all, said "That Michael became leader of the (Jewish) people," demonstrating distinctly that there is one Providence of the whole, superessentially established above all the powers, unseen and seen, and that all the Angels who preside over each nation, elevate, as far as possible, those who follow them with a willing mind, to It as their proper Head. Next: Caput X. Sacred Texts | Christianity « Previous: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... Index Next: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... » Sacred Texts | Christianity

(121) Thou must not understand this, as if these royal Angels were to rule in the Deity, that is, in the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits of God, which are without or distinct from the Creatures; no, but each over his Creatures, or the Creatures of his own Dominion.

(39) For they were all in Subjection under him, and he ruled in all his Angels, for he was created out of the Pith or Kernel of that Salitter, out of which his Angels were all created, and he was the Heart and Lord of all his Angels.

(68) For there is no Difference between the Spirits of God and the Angels, but only this, that the Angels are Creatures, and their corporeal Being has a Beginning; but their Power, out of which they are created, is God himself, and is from Eternity, and abides in Eternity.

(68) And it came to pass when he stood before the Lord of Spirits, Michael said thus to Raphael: 'I will not take their part under the eye of the Lord; for the Lord of Spirits has been angry with them because they do as if they were the Lord. Therefore all that is hidden shall come upon them for ever and ever; for neither angel nor man shall have his portion (in it), but alone they have received their judgement for ever and ever.'

(61) And He will summon all the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, the Cherubic, Seraphin and Ophannin, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities, and the Elect One, and the other powers on the earth (and) over the water.

(7) And as the Son of God is generated in the Midst or Center of the seven Spirits of God, and is the Life and Heart of the seven Spirits of God, so there was one Angelical King created in the Midst or Center of his Circumference, Sphere, Extent or Or Province. Region out of Nature, also out of Nature's Heaven, out of the Power of all the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits, and that now was the Heart in one Host, and had in him the Quality, Might, Power, and Strength of his whole Host, and was the fairest among them, or of them all.

(66) And the Lord of Spirits gave commandment to the angels who were going forth, that they should not cause the waters to rise but should hold them in check; for those angels were over the powers of the waters.

(123) so also are the three angelical Kings, Lords over their Angels, even to the Heart and deepest Ground, though they cannot corporeally or bodily vary or change themselves, as God himself can who has created them; yet they rule them (viz. the Angels) corporeally, and are bound or united to them, as Body and Soul are bound one to another.

(75) Here the Spirit shows, that where every Angel is constituted, stated, or settled, there that Place in the heavenly Nature, wherein, and out of which he is become a Creature, is his own Seat, which he possesses by Right of Nature, as long as he abides in God's Love. [Laws, Customs, Statutes, Ordinances, Politits.]

(44) But the seven Spirits, which are in an Angel, which generate the Light and Understanding, they are bound and united with the whole God, that they should not qualify any other Way, either higher or more vehemently, than God himself; but that there should be one and the same Manner and Way between them both.

(120) After that, he created the Princely-angels, according to the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits, answerable to their Quality, viz. GABRIEL, as an Angel Prince of the Tone, Sound, or of swift or speedy Messages; as also RAPHAEL, and others beside in the Kingdom of MICHAEL.

(125) Now as all Angels are bound to the King, so is the King also bound to God his Creator as Body and Soul; the Body, signifies God; and the Soul the angelical King, which is in the Body of God, and is become a Creature in the Body of God, and abides eternally in the Body of God, as the Soul does in its Nest, and therefore also has God so highly glorified him, as his own Property, or as the Soul is glorified in the Body.

(75) For the signs and the times and the years and the days the angel Uriel showed to me, whom the Lord of glory hath set for ever over all the luminaries of the heaven, in the heaven and in the world, that they should rule on the face of the heaven and be seen on the earth, and be leaders for the day and the night, i.e. the sun, moon, and stars, and all the ministering creatures which make their revolution in all the chariots of the heaven.

(3) But if any one should say, "How then were the people of the Hebrews alone conducted to the supremely Divine illuminations?" we must answer, that we ought not to throw the blame of the other nations wandering after those which are no gods upon the direct guidance of the Angels, but that they themselves, by their own declension, fell away from the direct leading towards the Divine Being, through self-conceit and self-will, and through their irrational veneration for things which appeared to them worthy of God. Even the Hebrew people are said to have suffered the same thing; for He says, "Thou I hast cast away knowledge of God, and hast gone after thine own heart." For neither have we a life governed by necessity, nor on account of the free will of those who are objects of providential care, are the Divine rays of the providential illumination blunted; but the inaptitude of the mental visions makes the overflowing light-gift of the paternal goodness, either altogether unparticipated or inpenetrable to their resistance, or makes the participations of the one fontal ray, diverse, small, or great, obscure, or brilliant, although that ray is one and simple, and always the same and ever overflowing; for even if, over the other nations (from whom we also have emerged to that boundless and bounteous sea of Divine Light, which is readily-expanded for the ready reception of all), certain not alien gods were wont to preside; yet there is one Head of all, and to this, the Angels, who religiously direct each nation, conduct those who follow them. Let us consider Melchizedek as being a Hierarch, most dear to God; (not of gods which are not, but of the truly most high God); for the godly-wise did not call Melchizedek simply dear to God, but also Priest, in order that they may clearly shew to the wise, that not only was he himself turned to the true God, but further that he was guide to others, as Hierarch of the elevation to the true and only Godhead.

(52) The Spirit shows plainly and clearly, that before the Creation of Angels, the Divine Being, with its Rising and Qualifying, was from Eternity, and remained so in the Creation of Angels, as it is also at this Day, and will so continue in and to Eternity. And

(59) The Person or Body of a King of Angels is generated out of all the Qualities, and out of all the Powers of his whole Kingdom, through the moving boiling Spirit of God, and therefore such a one is their King, in that his Power reaches into all the Angels of his whole Kingdom, and he is the Head and General or Leader, the most beautiful and most powerful Cherubim or Throne Angel. And such a one was Lord Lucifer also before his Fall. ["And this also is more fundamentally described in our Second and Third Book; viz. in the Three Principles of the Divine Being; and in the Threefold Life of Man."] Of the Ground or Foundation, and Mystery.