probably his difcretion too. As he durft not offend God, in doing a thing fo much beneath the dignity and perfection of his nature, fo he could not but think, that the devil would have been too hard for him at railing; a thing to which as the angels have no difpofition, fo I believe that they have no talent, no faculty at it. The cool confideration whereof fhould make all men, efpecially those who call themselves divines, and efpecially in controverfies about religion, afhamed and afraid of this manner of difputing; fince Michael the archangel, even when he difputed with the devil, durft not bring against him a railing accufation.

But to proceed: This we are fure of, that the angels fhall be the great ministers and inftruments of the refurrection of our bodies, and the reunion of them to our fouls. For fo our bleffed Saviour has told us, Matth. xxiv. 30. 31. that when the Son of man fhall come in the clouds. of heaven, with power and great glory, he shall fend his angels to gather the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Thus I have as briefly as I could, and fo far as the fcripture hath gone before us, to give us light in this matter, endeavoured to fhew the feveral ways wherein good angels do minifter in behalf of them who fhall be heirs of falvation. All that now remains, is, to draw fome inferences from this discourse; and fo I fhall conclude.

1. What hath been faid upon this argument, and fo abundantly proved from fcripture, may ferve to establish us in the belief of the truth, and to awaken us to a due confideration of it. That the angels are invifible to us, and that we are feldom fenfible of their prefence, and the good offices they do us, is no fufficient reafon against the truth and reality of the thing, if by other arguments we are convinced of it. For by the fame reafon we may almost as well call in question the existence of God, and of our own fouls; neither of which do fall under the notice of our fenfes; and yet by other arguments we are fufficiently convinced of them both. So in this cafe, the general confent and tradition of mankind, concerning the existence of angels, and their miniftry about us, efpecially being confirmed to us by clear and exprefs teftimony of holy fcripture, ought to be abundant evidence

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to us, when we confider that fo general a confent must have a proportionable caufe: which can be no other but a general tradition, grounded at first upon revelation, and derived down to all fucceeding ages, from the first fpring and original of mankind; and fince confirmed by manifold revelations of God, both in the Old and New Teftament.

But yet I am fenfible, that all this is no conviction to the perverfe and contentious. Men will not believe even the evidence of fense itself, when they are strongly prepoffeffed and prejudiced to the contrary: for do we not fee great numbers of men, even fo many as have the face to call themselves the catholick church, that can make a fhift, when they have a mind, either to believe or difbelieve things contrary to the plaineft evidence of their fenses? All that I fhall fay farther about this matter, is, that this doctrine of angels is not a peculiar doctrine either of the Jewish or Christian religion, but the general doctrine of all religions that ever were; and therefore cannot be objected against by any but the Atheists.

And yet, after all, I know not whence it comes to pass, that this great truth, which is fo comfortable to mankind, is fo very little confidered by us. Perhaps the corruption of fo great a part of the Christian church, in the point of the worship of angels, may have run us fo far into the other extreme, as scarcely to acknowledge any benefit we receive by them. But furely we may believe they do us good, without any obligation to pray to them; and may own them as the minifters of God's providence, without making them the objects of our worship.

I confefs it feems to me a very odd thing, that the power of the devil, and his influence, upon men, and the particular vigilancy and activity of evil fpirits to tempt us to fin, fhould be fo readily owned and fo fenfibly talked of among Chriftians; and yet the affistance of good angels fhould be fo little taken notice of, and confidered by us. The fcripture fpeaks plainly of both, and the reafons for believing both are equal: for God forbid but that good angels fhould be as officious and forward to do us good, as the devil and his angels are malicious and bufy to do us mifchief. And indeed it would be very hard with mankind, if we had not as much reason to

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hope for the affiftance and protection of good fpirits, as we have caufe to fear the malice and fury of the bad. Good angels are certainly as powerful, and have as ftrong a propenfion and inclination to do good, as the devil has to do harm; and the number of good angels is probably much greater than of evil fpirits. The biggeft numbers that are ufed in fcripture, are applied to good angels: Dan. vii. 10. it is faid of the angels about God's throne, that thousand thousands miniftered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand ftood before him; and Rev. v. 11. the number of them is faid to be ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. And the Apoftle to the Hebrews, chap. xii. 22. calls them an innumerable company of angels.

What then should be the reason that men fhould be fo apt to own the fnares and temptations which the devil lays before us in all our ways, but take fo little notice of the attendance and good offices done to us by good fpirits? I can imagine but these two reafons, and I am forry I can find no better; that we are more mindful of injuries than of benefits; and are glad to take in others for the excufe of our faults, but are loth any fhould come in for a share in the good that is done by us. And yet methinks it should be a very comfortable confideration to us against the enmity and cunning of the devil and his angels, that the holy angels of God are as intent and induftrious to do us good, and to help forward our falvation, as evil fpirits can be to work our ruin, and deftroy us.

2. We fhould with great thankfulness acknowledge the great goodness of God to us, who takes fuch care of us, as to appoint his angels, and to give them particular commiffion and charge concerning us, to protect and affift us in all our ways, and especially to promote the great concernment of our eternal happinefs; and that not only fome particular and inferior fpirits, but the chief ministers of this great King of the world, thofe that ftand in his prefence, and behold his face, and not a few of thefe, but the whole order of them, are employed about us. So the Apostle feems to fay, by the question which he puts in the text, Are they not all miniftring Spirits, fent forth to minifter? that is, all at one time or o

ther.

ther. And though they be principally appointed to minifter to us in order to our falvation, yet we have no reafon to doubt, but God employs them many times for our temporal fafety, and makes ufe of them more efpecially in those great revolutions in which his cause and religion are more immediately concerned.

In fuch a cafe, it is not at all incredible, that God fhould give his angels a particular charge concerning those that fight his battles, to pitch about their camps, and fecretly to affift them against their enemies; and to ward off and put by many dangerous blows and thrusts which are made at them; and wonderfully to preferve them, when the inftruments of death fly about them, and do execution on every fide of them. To what can we afcribe fuch and fo many remarkable deliverances of a perfon upon whom so much depends, but either to the immediate hand of God, or to the miniftry of angels? And where God is provided fo abundantly with fuch powerful beings and minifters of his will, though they may be invisible to us, yet there is great reafon to believe, that he very feldom works without them.

And now, what an aftonishing regard is this which the great God is pleased to have for the fons of men, that he should make the whole creation ferviceable to us; not only the visible creation, for the fupport of our bodies, and the diverfion of our minds; but even the nobleft of all his creatures, the great and glorious inhabitants of the invifible world, mightily furpaffing us mortal men, in the fimplicity and purity of their nature, in the quickness and largenefs of their understandings, and in their power and vigour of acting: I fay, that God fhould give these excellent and glorious beings the charge over us, and fend them forth to minifter to us, for the fafeguard of our perfons, for the fuccefs of our affairs, and for the fecurity and furtherance of our eternal falvation! Lord, what is man, that thou art thus mindful of him, that when thou madeft him lower than the angels, thou shouldst yet make the angels to minifter unto him!

3. If the angels have the particular charge of good men, we fhould take heed how we defpife, or be any way injurious to them: for how defpicable foever they may appear to us, they are certainly very dear to God;

fince he deems them fo confiderable, as to employ his chief minifters about them, and to commit the charge of them to those who, by their office, do more immediately attend upon himself. This is our Saviour's own argument, Matth. xviii. 10. Take heed that ye defpife not one of thefe little ones: for I fay unto you, their angels do continually behold the face of your Father which is in heaven. With how much contempt foever we may look upon a poor good man, he hath friends and patrons of a higher fort, than any of the princes of this world.

4. If God appointed angels to be ministring spirits in our behalf, we may thence very reasonably conclude, that God did not intend that we fhould worship them. This feems to be a clear confequence, if the reasoning of the angel in the Revelation be good; where he forbids St. John to worship him, because he was his fellowfervant. Yea, the confequence feems to be yet stronger from the text, that if they be not only fellow-fervants, but do in fome fort minister unto us, then we are not to worship them.

And yet this practice is openly avowed in the church of Rome, though it be reproved fo very feverely by the Apoftle as an apostasy from Christianity, Col. ii. 18. 19. Let no man (fays he) deceive you, in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels; not holding the head; as if it were a renouncing of Chrift, out of a pretended humility, to make use of other mediators befides him to the Father and notwithstanding alfo that the angel in the Revelation does fo vehemently forbid it, begun, by no means, upon no terms, to do it; and he forbids it for fuch a reafon as makes it for ever unlawful, namely, that we ought not to worship those who serve and worship God together with us: Do it not, (fays the angel): I am thy fellow-fervant: worship thou God. In which words, he plainly directs us to the fole and proper object of our worship.

Bellarmine, the great champion of the Popish caufe, never ufed more grofs and apparent fhuffling, than in anfwer to this text. He fays firft," Why are we repro"ved for doing what St. John did?" To which the anfwer is very eafy, Because St. John himself was reproved by an angel for doing what he did. And now that his question