Hebrews 1:4-14 Being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.… Casting even a fugitive look on material nature, a prodigious diversity is perceived among the creatures which God has called into existence. None of them resemble one another; all differ either in their essence, or form, or structure, or organisation, or capacities; and although the Supreme Author of everything that we see has marked all of them with that stomp of unity which causes us to recognise the Divine Architect, it seems nevertheless that, to reveal His inexhaustible wisdom, He has been pleased to scatter with profusion variety among the works of His hands. We have a striking illustration in the world of matter, which, in its present constitution, is destined one day to perish. Now, can we believe that God, who has shown Himself so productive and so rich in creative energy in the world of bodies, has not employed the same liberality in the world of spirits? That that God who has fashioned matter with so much intelligence and care, has not taken an equal pleasure in creating an innumerable multitude of spiritual intelligences? Can we admit that, in the midst of those creatures which He commands as master, man is feared the only one of his kind that has not above him creatures proportionally greater than himself, that he is himself greater than the nature of which he is chief priest? Therefore, when Scripture affirms that beyond the bounds of this world there exist spirits superior to man in light, in strength, in dignity, and that they are called thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, angels and archangels, seraphim and cherubim, celestial armies of the Most High, does it teach us anything so unreasonable, so difficult to receive and to comprehend? This is a first consideration; here is a second, which is closely connected with the first, and which flows immediately from it. Not only does the material creation present to us a great variety of objects, but it shows them to us in an uninterrupted series, and causes us to see them appointed, so to speak, according to the laws of one vast and magnificent hierarchy. From the stone to the plant, from the plant to the animal, from the animal to man, an immortal spirit, everything is in succession, everything is united, everything is tied by wonderful knots, by the most regular transitions. You have here the first extremity of a chain, of which all links are united one to the other, without leaving between them any interval. Having arrived at man, would you abruptly break that chain, so well knit together, and because your eyes of flesh do not see it prolong and extend itself in the invisible world up to the highest degrees of celestial hierarchies, would you pretend that it does not pass beyond this earth, and that the most beautiful works of God are shut up within the limits of the globe which we inhabit? Just as well might the insect which creeps under the herb, and has but some inches of horizon, deny the existence of all the beings which people the vast extent of the earth, because with its short view it cannot perceive them. Assuredly it would not be more insensate than the rash man who, under the pretext that he had never seen angels, affirms that there cannot be in other worlds than ours intelligences superior to his own. (Dr. Grandpierre.) Parallel Verses KJV: Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. |
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