V. 14.— Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Are they not all ministering spirits...— This form of expression may imply that the thing asserted was known and admitted by the Hebrews; yet our belief of it does not rest on this foundation, but on the authority of the Apostle. The question implies no doubt, on the subject of inquiry; it is a strong mode of asserting a proposition. The existence of angels was believed by the Jews, with the exception of the Sadducees. We have many instances in the Old Testament of angels being employed to convey messages to men, and in defending the people of God. Such is not now visibly the case: we have no reason to expect an extraordinary message to be conveyed to us by angels, or that they shall visibly come to our aid; but it is well that we should know that all the angels are employed by our Lord to minister to the heirs of salvation. It may be asked, of what use is this ministry? Had the Lord any need of such agents as instruments in taking care of his people? Certainly not; but can anything more clearly prove the dignity of the saints? They are despised among men, yet all the angels in heaven wait on them. Many of God’ s people may be engaged in the meanest offices among men, yet they have a retinue of angels to watch over them. Heirs of salvation.— The saints have their privileges, not by works of righteousness, but by inheritance. They are joint-heirs with Christ. Adam was the heir of the world, Genesis 1:28-29, but he lost his inheritance. The second Adam is appointed heir of all things, and the inheritance is secured by his love and power to all the children of promise. Those who are saved inherit glory, therefore salvation includes, not only deliverance from misery, but also the possession of glory. Here it signifies whatever the people of God shall enjoy throughout eternity. Shall be.— Hence it appears that the ministering of the angels belongs to the heirs of salvation from the earliest period of their existence. It is said of Jeremiah,—“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5. The Lord separated Paul from his mother’ s womb, and no doubt the angels were employed in ministering to him while breathing out slaughter and threatening against the disciples of Christ. Such is the introduction of this most instructive epistle. The Apostle begins by referring to the revelations which God had given by that succession of prophets who were raised up from the beginning. He had now spoken by His Son, whom He had constituted heir of all things. By Him and for Him all the worlds were made. He is the image of the invisible God, and has revealed Him to us, clearly exhibiting his glorious perfections. Having, by offering the body which had been prepared for Him, cast the sins of His people into the depths of the sea, so that they should be no more remembered, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, denoting His absolute and universal dominion. He is the Judge of the quick and the dead, to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. The name which He inherited, and which in its proper sense exclusively belongs to Him, was far more glorious than the name given to the angels. To none of them had God said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. He had described none of them as standing to Him in the relation of a Son. On the contrary, when He foretold the appearance of the first-begotten, the Lord and heir of all, He commanded all the angels of God to worship Him. The angels are described as executing His will with the rapidity of winds and the resistless power of the lightnings; but the Son is addressed as God sitting on his eternal throne, and as a King reigning in righteousness. He humbled himself, so that, although he was truly God, the Father stood to Him in the relation of His God; and, lest this should derogate from His innate dignity, He is described as the Creator of all things, who, amidst all their mutations, abideth ever the same. Once more, which of the angels was ever invited to sit at God’ s right hand until their enemies were made their footstool? So far from their being thus honored, they are all only ministering spirits, sent forth by their glorious Head to minister to the heirs of salvation.