I have already alluded to the established belief, that every individual man, nay, every created being, hath a guardian angel deputed to watch over him:—‘Woe unto us, if, by our negligence or our self-will, we offend him on whose vigilance we depend for help and salvation! But the prince of guardian spirits, the guardian angel of all humanity, is Raphael; and in this character, according to the early Christians, he appeared to the shepherds by night ‘with good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people.’ It is, however, from the beautiful Hebrew romance of Tobit that his attributes are gathered: he is the protector of the young and innocent, and he watches over the pilgrim and the wayfarer. The character imputed to him in the Jewish traditions has been retained and amplified by Milton: Raphael is the angel sent by God to warn Adam:—
..... The affable archangel
Raphael; the sociable spirit that deign’d
To travel with Tobias, and secured
His marriage with the seven times wedded maid.
And the character of the angel is preserved throughout: his sympathy with the human race, his benignity, his eloquence, his mild and social converse. So when Adam blesses him:—
. . . .Since to part,
Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger,
Sent from whose sovereign goodness I adore!
Gentle to me and affable hath been