Subordinate Gods in the Universe
Angels, Spirits, Tutelary Deities, Souls and Elementary Spirits - Opinions of the Ancients - The Jewish Cabbala - Classical Authorities
When the Spiritual in human history first dominated the mind, is as impossible to ascertain as who was the first man.
A celebrated materialistic writer of the eighteenth century says: "The idea of subordinate Gods becomes a necessary sequence to the acknowledgment of deific existence at all, and it would be as useless to search for the country or time when Gods, Spirits and Angels were first believed in, as to attempt ascertaining the locality and period where and when religious worship began." This is essentially true, though an adversary writes it.
The origin of man's belief in Deity must be supplemented by his acceptance of intermediate spiritual existences, for the Soul which is the witness of the one, proclaims the other, and the chief difference between the opinions on these points is, that whilst the deepest and most incommunicable emotions of the Soul rest on its Author and Finisher, Deity, the senses may bear witness to the presence and operation of subordinate Spiritual existences in the phenomena that attend their ministrations.