angel with thee, and profper thy way. And David, the man after God's own heart, does more than once declare his confident belief of the watchful care and miniftry of angels about good men : Pfal. xxxiv. 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. And Pfal. xci. 11. 12. fpeaking of the good man, who putteth his truft and confidence in God, he tells him for his comfort and fecurity, that the holy angels have a particular charge of him, to preferve him from all the mischiefs and dangers to which he is expofed: He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways: they shall bear thee up in their hands, left thou dash thy foot against a stone.

So that, according to the perfuafion of thofe two excellent perfons, and of greatest renown for piety in all the Old Teftament, very much of the fafety and the fuccefs of good men, even in their temporal concernments, is to be afcribed to the vigilant care and protection of good angels. And though this be feldom vifible and fenfible to us, yet we have great reafon, upon fo great teftimonies, to affent to the truth of it. And there is no rea fon, I think, to doubt, but that God's care extends now to Chriftians, as well as it did to the Jews; and that the angels have as much kindnefs for us as they had for the Jews and there is no reason to think, that the angels are now either dead or idle.

Our Saviour tells us, that they cannot die; and our reafon tells us, that a pure fpirit is an active principle: and the fcripture reprefents angels as all flame and wings. Evil fpirits are believed by Chriftians to be as active now to all purposes of harm and mischief as ever; and why fhould any man imagine, that good spirits are not as intent and busy to do good? The Apostle, I am fure, tells us in the text, that the angels in common, all of them, do employ their fervice about us, and wait to do good offices to us: Are they not all (fays he) miniftring Spirits, Jent forth to minifter for them who fhall be heirs of falvation?

And our Saviour, Matth. xviii. 10. feems to approve and confirm the tradition of the Jews, concerning particular guardian angels belonging to every one that believed in him; that is, to every Chriftian: Take heed (fays he) Bb 2

that

that ye defpife not one of these little ones; for I fay unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. And this feems likewife to have been a received opinion among the first Chriftians for we find, Acts xii. 15. that when Peter was miraculously releafed out of prifon by an angel, and came to the houfe where the Chriftians were affembled to pray for him, and one told them, that Peter was at the door, they faid, it was his angel, thinking that he himfelf was faft in prifon. For which faying there could be no reafon, had there not been a current opinion among them of guardian angels.

And because the providence of God is more peculiarly concerned in conducting men to eternal happiness, it is very credible, that God fhould more efpecially ordain the miniftry of angels about good men, for the furtherance of their falvation. And fo the Apostle tells us in the text, Are they not all miniftring Spirits, fent forth to minifter for them who shall be heirs of falvation? Nay, our Saviour, in that remarkable place I mentioned before, Matth. xviii. 10. feems to intimate, that angels of a higher rank and quality are affigned guardians and guides to thofe that believed on him: But 1 fay unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven: An allufion to the manner of earthly Kings; upon whom not all the fervants, but the chief of the Nobility, do more immediately attend, and ftand continually in their prefence for to behold the face of the King, and to ftand in his prefence, are phrafes ufed in fcripture to fignify immediate attendance upon his perfon. So that by this manner of expreffion our Saviour doth most significantly intimate in what efteem good men are with God, whofe care and protection he commits to the chief of the angels, to those who are nearest to him, and in highest favour and honour with him; as if he had faid, Their angels are not of the ordinary rank, but such as are admitted to a more immediate attendance upon the great King and Governor of the world.

And no doubt it is for no mean end, that fuch high and glorious fpirits are employed about us. It is chieйy for the furtherance of our falvation: for the purchasing

whereof,

whereof, the Son of God himfelf, whom all the angels of heaven worship, came down from heaven, and appeared and fuffered in our nature, that we may one day be made like to the angels, and dwell where they are, and may continually behold the face of our Father which is in heaven, as they do. And, in order to this end, it is very probable, that good angels are ready to do good offices, juft contrary to thofe of evil fpirits; that is, to employ their best diligence and endeavour for the falvation of men; and that they are very fedulous and officious to restrain and pull them back from fin, and to excite and folicit them to that which is good; and, in a word, to do all they can to help forward the repentance and converfion of finners. And this may reasonably be collected from that paffage of our Saviour, Luke xv. 1o.; where he tells us, that there is joy in the prefence of the angels of God, over one finner that repenteth. And if they be fo glad of the repentance of a finner, we may eafily imagine how forward they are to further and promote fo good a work. And when finners are brought to repentance, we have no reafon to doubt, but that the angels are as ready to affift their progrefs in goodness.

It hath been a general, and, I think, not ill-grounded opinion, both of the Jews and Heathens, that good angels are more especially prefent with us, and obfervant of us, and affiftant to us, in the performance of all acts of religion; that they are particularly prefent at our prayers; and therefore the jews fpeak of a particular angel for this purpofe, whom they call the angel of pray er; that they obferve our vows, and our breach or performance of them. So Solomon feems to intimate, Ecclef. v. 4. 6. When thou voweft a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleafure in fools: pay that which thou haft vowed. Suffer not thy mouth to caufe thy flesh to fin; (that is, do not intangle thy life with a rafh vow, which the frailty of human nature may make thee afterwards to break); neither fay thou before the angel, that it was an error; that is, do not in the prefence of the angel who attends upon thee, and obferves thee, betray thine own error and rafhnefs. This I take to be the meaning of this difficult paffage, Let not thy mouth

Bb 3

caufe

caufe thy flesh to fin; neither fay thou before the angel, that it was an error.

But the angels are yet more particularly present in the places and at the times of God's publick worship. The placing of the cherubims in the holy of holies feems to fignify the prefence of the angels in our most religious addreffes to God. And Plutarch fays, that "the angels are the overfeers of divine service.' And therefore we ought to behave ourselves with all modefty, reverence, and decency in the worship of God, out of regard to the angels who are there prefent, and obferve our carriage and behaviour. And to this the Apostle plainly hath refpect in that place, which by interpreters hath been thought fo difficult, 1 Cor. xi. 10. where he fays, that for this caufe (in the affembly of Chriftians for the worship of God) the woman ought to have a veil upon her head, (in token of fubjection to her hufband), because of the angels; that is, to be decently and modeftly attired in the church, because of the prefence of the holy angels; before whom we should compofe ourselves to the greatest external gravity and reverence, which the angels behold and obferve, but cannot penetrate into the inward devotion of our minds, which God only can do: and therefore with regard to him who fees our hearts, we fhould more particularly compose our minds to the greatest fincerity and seriousness in our devotion. Which I would to God we would all duly confider all the while we are exercifed in the worship of God, who chiefly regards our hearts. But we ought likewife to be very careful of our external behaviour, with a particular regard to the angels, who are prefent there, to fee and obferve the outward decency and reverence of our carriage and deportment; of which we are very careful in the prefence even of an earthly prince, when he either fpeaks to us, or we make any addrefs to him. And furely much more ought we to be fo, when we are in the immediate prefence of God, and of his holy angels, every one of whom is a much greater prince, and of greater power, than any of the princes of this world. But how little is this confidered, (I speak to our fhame), and by how few among us?

And as angels are helpful to good men, in working

out

out their falvation throughout the course of their lives; fo at the hour of death they stand by them, to comfort them and affift them in that needful and dismal time, in that last and great conflict of frail mortality with death and the powers of darkness, to receive their expiring fpirits into their charge, and to conduct them fafely into the manfions of the bleffed. And to this purpose alfo the Jews had a tradition, that the angels wait upon good men at their death, to convey their fouls into paradife : which is very much countenanced by our Saviour in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke xvi. 22. where it is faid, that when Lazarus died, he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bofom.

Nay, that the angels have fome charge and care of the bodies of good men after death, may not improbably be gathered from that paffage in St. Jude, y 9. where Michael the archangel is faid to have contended with the. devil, about the body of Mofes. What the ground of this controverfy betwixt them was, may be moft probably explained, by a paffage, Deut. xxxiv. 6. where it is faid, that God took particular care, probably by an angel, concerning the burying of Mofes in a certain valley; and it is added, But no man knoweth of his fepulchre unto this day. The devil, it feems, had a fair profpect of laying a foundation for idolatry, in the worship of Mofes after his death, if he could have gotten the difpofal of his body, to have buried it in fome known and publick place. And no doubt it would have gratified him not a little, to have made him, who was fo declared an enemy to idolatry all his life, an occafion of it after his death. But this God thought fit to prevent, in pity to the people of Ifrael, whom he faw upon all occafions fo prone to idolatry; and for that reafon committed it to the charge of Michael the archangel, to bury his body fecretly and this was the thing which Michael the archangel contended with the devil about.

But before I pafs from this, I cannot but take notice of one memorable circumstance in this conteft, mentioned likewife by St. Jude, in these words: Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he difputed about the body of Mofes, durft not bring against him a railing accufation. His duty reftrained him from it, and.

probably