Page:Who is God in China.djvu/202

 " addresses them (Plato Tim. sec. 16) thus:—""  "Nam ministros regni sui Deus genuit," says Seneca (in Lact. lib. c. v. vii.), and Manu (Sanhita, i. 22)—

"The Supreme Ruler created a host of gods, endowed with principles of action and with living souls; as well as a number of subtle genii, and also the perpetual sacrifice." That "plebs cœli," "" those "ministri regni dei," are in Holy Scripture, the, Gen. vi. 2; Job i. 26, etc. (rendered in Chaldee by, "legions of Angels"), and the , "" St. Luke ii. 13. They are mentioned in Carm. Samarit. c. iii. 8, as, "copiæ divinæ" (frequently alluded to by the Sabæans in Lib. Adami, as "genius," from  "to excel," (Psalm ciii. 20,—"Angels that excel in strength"); as, e.g., lib. i. p. 174, —"Thou Genius, harbinger of life, thyself ready, and making others ready also," etc.); and the "Potestates,", Carm. iv. 8. They are the "—in one sense " (Pyth. Aur. c. 2), on which Hierocles remarks:—"