For we read, (_Gen._ xvi.) that the same apparition is called, not only an _angel_, but _God_; where that which (verse 7) is called the _angel_ of the Lord, in the tenth verse, saith to Agar, _I will multiply thy seed exceedingly_; that is, speaketh in the person of God. Neither was this apparition a fancy figured, but a voice. By which it is manifest, that _angel_ signifieth there, nothing but _God_ himself, that caused Agar supernaturally to apprehend a voice from heaven; or rather, nothing else but a voice supernatural, testifying God’s special presence there. Why therefore may not the angels that appeared to Lot, and are called (_Gen._ xix. 12) _men_; and to whom, though they were two, Lot speaketh (verse 18) as but to one, and that one, as God, (for the words are, _Lot said unto them, Oh not so my Lord_), be understood of images of men, supernaturally formed in the fancy; as well as before by angel was understood a fancied voice? When the angel called to Abraham out of heaven, to stay his hand (_Gen._ xxii. 11) from slaying Isaac, there was no apparition, but a voice; which nevertheless was called properly enough a messenger or _angel_ of God, because it declared God’s will supernaturally, and saves the labour of supposing any permanent ghosts. The angels which Jacob saw on the ladder of Heaven, (_Gen._ xxviii. 12) were a vision of his sleep; therefore only fancy, and a dream; yet being supernatural, and signs of God’s special presence, those apparitions are not improperly called _angels_. The same is to be understood, (_Gen._ xxxi. 11) where Jacob saith thus, _The Angel of the Lord appeared to me in my sleep_. For an apparition made to a man in his sleep, is that which all men call a dream, whether such dream be natural, or supernatural: and that which there Jacob calleth an _angel_, was God himself; for the same angel saith, verse 13, _I am the God of Bethel_. Also (_Exod._ xiv. 19) the angel that went before the army of Israel to the Red Sea, and then came behind it, is, (verse 24) the Lord himself; and he appeared, not in the form of a beautiful man, but in form, (_Exod._ xiii. 21) by day, of a _pillar of cloud_, and, by night, in form of a _pillar of fire_; and yet this pillar was all the apparition and _angel_ promised to Moses, (_Exod._ xxxiii. 2) for the army’s guide: for this cloudy pillar (_Exod._ xxxiii. 9) is said to have descended, and stood at the door of the Tabernacle, and to have talked with Moses.