e
recognizes as messengers from heaven; and, secondly, the words of Jacob
when he gave his benediction to his grandsons.

With regard to the first instance, how very far the prostration of
Abraham was in itself from implying an act of religious worship, being
as it was the ordinary mode of paying respect to a fellow mortal, is
evident from the very words of Scripture. The Hebrew word, which we
translate by "bowed himself," and which the Vulgate unhappily renders
"adoravit" ("adored"), is, letter for letter, the same in the case of
Abraham saluting his three heavenly visitors, and in the case of Jacob
saluting his brother Esau. The parallelism of the two passages is very
striking.

GEN. xviii. 2. GEN. xxxiii. 1 and 3.

And he [Abraham] lift up his And Jacob lifted up his eyes,
eyes, and lo! three men stood and looked, and behold! Esau
by him; and when he saw them, came ... And he passed over, and
he ran to meet them from the _bowed himself to the ground_ seven
tent door; and _bowed himself_ times until he came near to his
_toward the ground_. brother. {39}

By rendering the Hebrew word[10], which means to "bow or bend oneself,"
by the word "adoravit," which is literally "to pray to," the Latin
Vulgate has laid the foundation for much unsound and misleading
criticism. But suppose the word had meant, what it does not mean, an act
of solemn religious worship; and let it be granted (as I am not only
ready to grant, but prepared to maintain) that Abraham paid religious
adoration at that time, what inference can fairly and honestly be drawn
from that circumstance in favour of the invocation of angels? The
ancient writers of the Christian Church, and those whom the Church of
Rome habitually holds in great respect, are full and clear in
maintaining that the person whom Abraham then addressed, was no created
being, neither angel nor seraph; but the Angel of the Covenant; the
Word, the eternal Son of God, Himself God[11]. Before the visible and
miraculous presence of the God of heaven, who for his own glory and in
carrying on the work of man's salvation, sometimes deigned so to reveal
Himself, the patriarchs of old bowed themselves to the earth. Can this,
with any shadow of {40} reason, be employed to sanction the invocation
of Michael and all the myriads of angels who fill the court of heaven?

[Footnote 10: Not only is the Hebrew word preci